Back in place/ and I'm all up in your face...
Apologies for the extended absence - I think you can tell who on this list is in graduate school. Job interviews, teaching, and dissertation writing (or staring at the computer screen for 5 hours and producing one paragraph) have consumed much of my time, plus the fact that we just reverted to dial-up internet (yes, it still exists) and uploading images becomes painful and slow....
So, in typical Aaron Cowan fashion, it's time to scoot in here at the last minute and catch up. In the words of Homer Simpson, "Put on a pot of coffee. Then drink it, and start making hamburgers! I'm pulling an all-nighter!"
I probably don't really like this album more than Who's Next, The Joshua Tree or any number of others already on this list, but I've pretty much resigned myself to the fact that, below the top 5 or so, this list is pretty arbitrary and random. The first track, "Annie Waits" lets you know what this album is all about right off the bat - great piano pop and handclaps. Of course, now that I'm a dad I get all weepy over "Still Fighting It." This album also wins the "Most Proper Names Used in Song Titles" award for its fun twisted biographical vignettes...plus, the title track mocks corporate white rap-metal, which, despite its now-dated references, is still funny. Good times.
Favorite tracks: Annie Waits, Still Fighting It, Not the Same
God this album is so good. What else to say? Besides the aptly-described "art wank" of Revolution 9, I defy you to find one track on here you wouldn't want to hear at any given moment of any given day. The definitive proof that art and listenability are not mutually exclusive.
Favorite Tracks: See above
Thanks to my parents for raising me to love the music that would produce this music. And thanks to Forbes for telling me about it.
Favorite Tracks: Lion's Mane, Beard Stealing Bread, Upward Over the Mountain
One of the aforementioned albums my parents raised me to love. There aren't many artists that can release an album in a entirely new fake voice and pull it off, but Dylan inhabits the metaphysical stratosphere upon which other musicians fear to tread. The giant finger to all who still held on to the belief that Dylan was the spokesman for his generation, as he revealed himself to be the "song and dance man" he'd always insisted he was. Throw this on some night this spring when you're having dinner and see if it doesn't convince you, despite the preponderance of evidence to the contrary, that life is good.
Favorite tracks: Girl from the North Country (with Johnny Cash), Peggy Day, Tonight I'll Be Staying Here With You
More later - horrible, horrible essays on WEB DuBois' The Souls of Black Folk await the wrath of my pen. The red ink will flow like rivers.....
6 comments:
Welcome back me brother! A sweet four spot indeed. You're very welcome for the 'ole Sam Beam tip. And a very nice Dylan pick. I got Skyline on vinyl a few years ago and it's a hard one to press stop on.
PS, does the follwing sound familiar? "Web Duboise was a black man who write amazing things for the blacks. And about their souls." Ah, the genius of undergrads...
Could the Beardian slip evidenced in the use of "Beard Stealing Bread" here instead of "Bird Stealing Bread" be the greatest typo ever?!?!
ha!
the true question is whether said subconscious typo refers to Sam Beam's lovely chin-locks or is instead a desperate cry for a new Charles-Beardian interpretation of my own musical history, in which it is revealed that my musical preferences were motivated by a desire for capital accumulation (ie, "stealing bread") rather than an ideology of individual liberty and philosophical opposition to the tyranny of corporate-rock monarchy....get to writin'
hmmm...bc--you're not talking about zack washington, are you? sounds like something he'd come up with.
and if you don't remember, he did call me his "vanilla chocolate." and i'm pretty sure he wanted to rape me.
Daniel, we all did...what?!?!?
yeah...he definitely had his eyes on me. talked about giving it to me quite frequently. fortunately, i'm pretty sure he was just trying to make waves. i mean, not that he ever did that, but it's my opinion nonetheless.
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