Last Song Syndrome: Iggy Pop and Kate Pierson - "Candy" (1991)

from the player of Renzie Baluyut

I remembered first hearing "Candy" over the radio back in my second year of college. Punk god Iggy Pop finally had a Top 40 hit- which actually sounded alright. But what made it better was that he had a B-52 singing along with him: Kate Pierson.

The B-52's were the trademark party band of the 1980's, with Kate being one of the lead singers, alongside Fred Schneider and Cindy Wilson. So having heard a more sensitive side of Kate Pierson on this particular collaboration was a serendipitous treat.

The song wasn't commercially available in the Philippines, so a fan like me really had no choice but to tune in and wait for "Candy" to be played every 4 hours or so.

Just over the weekend, I put together a 90's easy listening mix and pulled out some tracks I haven't quite heard in a while. So here we go, ladies and gentlemen. Enjoy!

Iggy Pop and Kate Pierson
"Candy" (1991)

Its a rainy afternoon in 1990
The big city... geez, it's been 20 years-
Candy- you were so fine...

Beautiful beautiful
Girl from the north
You burned my heart with a flickering torch
I had a dream that no one else could see
You gave me love for free

Candy, candy, candy I can't let you go
All my life you're haunting me, I loved you so
Candy, candy, candy I can't let you go
Life is crazy
Candy baby

Yeah, well it hurt me real bad when you left
Hey, I'm glad you got out, but...
But I miss you

I've had a hole in my heart for so long
I've learned to fake it and just smile along
Down on the street
Those men are all the same
I need a love
Not games
Not games

Candy, candy, candy I can't let you go
All my life you're haunting me
I loved you so
Candy, candy , candy I can't let you go
Life is crazy
I know, baby
Candy baby

Woh oh oh
Candy, candy, candy I can't let you go
All my life you're haunting me
I loved you so

Candy candy candy
Life is crazy
Candy baby

Candy baby,
Candy, candy

Special thanks to male70s for posting the vid up on YouTube. Check out Iggy Pop's wikipedia entry here, and his official website here. As for Kate Pierson, you can read up on her here, and check her out on the B-52's official website.

Can't get that song out of your head? Then check out more of Renzie's Last Song Syndrome Project, the only blog service dedicated to getting that persistent tune out of your system- by giving you lots more of it!

Cheers, everyone!

Last Song Syndrome: Care - "Whatever Possessed You" (1983)

Now I stand corrected. You know, all this time as a New Wave enthusiast and a radio professional in the Philippines, I've always referred to the duo of Ian Broudie and Paul Simpson as "The Care", when in fact it's really just "Care".

So Care it is. Not a great deal of listeners even know about Care. But if you're into the whole 80's Alternative/New Wave scene, then you've probably heard of them.

Their more famous songs? "Whatever Possessed You" would definitely be their defining sound with that awesome trademark guitar intro. Of course there's "Flaming Sword", "My Boyish Days" and "Chandeliers".

Formed in 1983, Care never released an album, only singles really- until 1997 (way after the band broke up) with the "Diamonds and Emeralds" compilation CD. And yes, I remember grabbing my own copy from CD Warehouse.

Here's a classic New Wave track I was able to catch on YouTube, courtesy of parkhill62. Check out this old video of "Whatever Possessed You". Enjoy!

Care
"Whatever Possessed You" (1984)

Goodbye my love
Heaven has been wronged
Now our young bent arms don't seem quite so strong
November and all the frost bites
Deep as the snow flowers plowed
This bed is colder than blood or bone

Never knock on my door- whatever possessed you, oh
Somewhere there's an emptiness
Hold me, tie me, I wouldn't dream of it

Beware my love
This tongue is a dying flame
My lies may fall like an acid rain
Maybe the sleet was in silently above the roads
You loving angel, you're skin and bones

Never knock on my door- whatever possessed you, oh
Somewhere there's an emptiness
Hold me, tie me, I wouldn't dream of it

November and all the frost bites... deeper than the snow flowers plowed
This bed is colder than blood or bone

Never knock on my door- whatever possessed you, oh
Somewhere there's an emptiness
Hold me, tie me, I wouldn't dream of it

Check out Care's very own entry on Wikipedia, and the respective official websites of Ian Broudie and Paul Simpson.

Can't get that song out of your head? Then check out more of Renzie's Last Song Syndrome Project, the only blog service dedicated to getting that persistent tune out of your system- by giving you lots more of it!

Cheers, everyone!

Chicks In Music: Shirley Manson of Garbage

by Renzie Baluyut

Shirley Manson, where the heck have you been all this time?

You probably remember Shirley Manson best as frontwoman for 90's rock group (one of the best 90's acts, in my opinion) Garbage. That's her below with Steve Marker, Duke Erikson and Butch Vig, taken on the set of the video for "Only Happy When It Rains" in 1995.

I'm a huge Garbage fan myself. Since the band exploded into the music scene in the mid-90's, they've come out with five albums: their self-titled debut in '95, Version 2.0 in '98, beautifulgarbage in 2001, Bleed Like Me in 2005 and finally a compilation Absolute Garbage just last year.

Here's one of my absolute favorite Garbage songs: Steve, Duke and Butch were all music producers and had already been working on some songs, but wanted a female vocalist. They caught Shirley Manson performing for Angelfish (her pre-Garbage band), and asked her to come audition.

She did, but hadn't quite nailed it the first time. She auditioned once again though, after Angelfish disbanded. And the vocals for that very same audition made it to the final cut of "Stupid Girl".

So here's Shirley Manson and the dudes of Garbage with the song that made the band famous virtually overnight. Enjoy!

Garbage "Stupid Girl" (1995)

"Stupid Girl" made use of a drum sample from one of The Clash's more radio-friendly tunes that made a hit in 1984 , "Train in Vain". The entire video was shot in just four hours in a warehouse they got for the production. Inspired by the opening sequence of the 1995 movie Se7en, Director Samuel Bayer cut the footage into pieces, soaked it in his bath, then deliberately added thumbprints and abrasions onto them before putting it back together by hand.

In May 2008, Shirley Manson joined the cast of The Sarah Connor Chronicles as a regular, and having seen the first three episodes of the second season, well, let's just say that you know there's definitely a Terminator-on-Terminator smackdown sometime in the near future.

Right now though, we know Shirley's working on a solo album, though no word yet when her album is going to be released.

What I'm Listening To From Shirley Manson Now

The second season of Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles premiered on TV some two weeks ago, picking up from where the first season left off. Without spoiling anything, you have Cameron (the Terminator character played by geek favorite Summer Glau) restoring herself and making her way to the Connor household in the opening scene, to the unmistakable sound of Shirley Manson's vocals- her version of The Grateful Dead's "Samson & Delilah"

A lot of the old Garbage songs are still on my mp3 player, most of which are from the first two albums, including "Milk", "Only Happy When It Rains", "The Trick is to Keep Breathing", "When I Grow Up" and "I Think I'm Paranoid".

Right now though, I'm revisiting "Vow" and "Queer", two songs Garbage released right before they became famous.

Check out Shirley Manson here on her entry on Wikipedia, or you could go ahead and check out the official Garbage website here.

Cheers, everyone.

Chicks In Music is a regular feature on My Thoughts In Stereo. We pay tribute to the hottest ladies in the music industry- with updates, trivia, video clips and links to their websites and social media. Checking out your favorite females in rock, pop and R&B online has never been so gratifying- Chicks in Music!

Renzie's 100 Songs: 80's New Wave Trip

by Renzie Baluyut

So here I was tagging some photos for uploading, and I decided to bring me up a nice little 80's New Wave playlist. It was a lot of photos, and therefore, I needed quite a bit of New Wave to get things going.

New Wave music does have a great deal of significance to me. It was that time in high school when I decided to listen to something other than the usual Debbie Gibson, Rick Astley and Fra Lippo Lippi (who?). Pop radio was getting increasingly annoying at the time. So me and a few friends decided to, well, soak up on something else.

Years later, when I joined a radio station, I realized that New Wave as a music genre comes in all kinds of music styles. Then your American New Wave doesn't necessarily translate to what was considered New Wave in Europe, and for some strange reason, here in the Philippines, you have people lumping in overplayed pop songs with the New Wave genre.

The lines get blurry, but now I've differentiated 80's music into 3 sub-genres: 80's pop music (which has your usual FM radio fare), 80's rock music (which has your music from The Outfield, U2, Aerosmith, etc.), and then your 80's alternative, in which New Wave falls in (along with 80's Coffeehouse, but that's another post completely).

So anyway, here's a list of a hundred 80's New Wave songs you might want to cue up in your player as well. Enjoy!

1. 10,000 Maniacs - The Peace Train
2. 3 o'Clock - On Paper
3. The Adventures - Broken Land
4. The Alarm - Rain in the Summertime
5. Marc Almond - Say Hello Wave Goodbye
6. Alphaville - Forever Young
7. Altered Images - Happy Birthday
8. Aztec Camera - How Men Are
9. The B-52's - Legal Tender
10. B-Movie - Switch On, Switch Off
11. Bananarama - He Was Really Sayin' Something
12. Berlin - Like Flames
13. The Bible - Graceland
14. Big Audio Dynamite - E=MC2
15. Big Country - In a Big Country
16. Blue Nile - Stay
17. Blue Zoo - Love Moves In Strange Ways
18. The Bolshoi - Please
19. Book of Love - Book of Love
20. Edie Brickell & the New Bohemians - What I Am
21. Bronski Beat - Smalltown Boy
22. The Care - Whatever Possessed You
23. The Chameleons - Tears
24. China Crisis - Some People I Know To Lead Fantastic Lives
25. The Church - No Explanation
26. The Clash - Rock The Casbah
27. Lloyd Cole & the Commotions - Rich
28. The Colourfield - Thinking of You
29. Concrete Blonde - Joey
30. The Cure - Love Song
31. Depeche Mode - But Not Tonight
32. The Dream Academy - Life In a Northern Town
33. Echo & The Bunnymen - Bring on the Dancing Horses
34. Erasure - Chains of Love
35. Fiction Factory - Feels Like Heaven
36. Figures on a Beach - No Stars
37. The Fixx - Red Skies
38. Flesh for Lulu - Postcards from Paradise
39. A Flock of Seagulls - Transfer Affection
40. Friends Again - State of Art
41. Fun Boy Three - Our Lips are Sealed
42. Gang of Four - Damaged Goods
43. General Public - Tenderness
44. H2O - Blue Diamonds
45. Heaven 17 - Let Me Go
46. Howard Jones - Life in One Day
47. The Housemartins - Build
48. Icehouse - No Promises
49. Icicle Works - Birds Fly (Whisper To A Scream)
50. Billy Idol - Catch My Fall
51. Information Society - What's On Your Mind?
52. INXS - I Send a Message
53. Joy Division - Love Will Tear Us Apart
54. King - Love and Pride
55. The Lotus Eaters - Palm of my Hand
56. Love & Rockets - So Alive
57. Men Without Hats - The Safety Dance
58. Midnight Oil - The Dead Heart
59. The Mighty Lemon Drops - Inside Out
60. Missing Persons - Words
61. Modern English - Ink and Paper
62. Nena - 99 Luftballons
63. New Order - The Perfect Kiss
64. Gary Numan - Cars
65. Orchestral Maneouvres in the Dark - Forever Live and Die
66. Oingo Boingo - We Close Our Eyes
67. The Pale Fountains - Thank You
68. Positive Noise - When Lightning Strikes
69. The Primitives - Crash
70. The Proclaimers - I'm Gonna Be (500 Miles)
71. The Psychedelic Furs - Love My Way
72. The Railway Children - A Gentle Sound
73. REM - It's The End of the world (And I Feel Fine)
74. Real Life - Catch Me I'm Fallin'
75. Red Rockers - China
76. Seona Dancing - More To Lose
77. Shriekback - Nemesis
78. Siouxsie and the Banshees - Cities in Dust
79. Simple Minds - Alive and Kicking
80. The Sisters of Mercy - Walk Away
81. The Smiths - Ask
82. The Sound - Total Recall
83. So - Are You Sure?
84. Soft Cell - Kitchen Sink Drama
85. Strawberry Switchblade - Who Knows What Love Is?
86. The Style Council - My Everchanging Moods
87. The Sundays - Here's Where The Story Ends
88. Tears for Fears - The Way You Are
89. The The - This is the Day
90. The Thompson Twins - Hold Me Now
91. Tuesday Blue - Love Me Simple
92. Ultravox - All Stood Still
93. Midge Ure - Dear God
94. Suzanne Vega - Left of Center
95. The Violent Femmes - Blister in the Sun
96. White China - Smiles & Jokes
97. The Wild Swans - The Worst Year of My Life
98. X'mal Deutschland - Matador
99. XTC - Making Plans for Nigel
100. Vitamin Z - Burning Flame

Pictures on this blog entry courtesy of Wikipedia.

Wanna know what Renzie is listening to right now? Welcome to "Renzie's 100 Songs"- a special feature on "My Thoughts In Stereo" featuring a hundred songs currently playing on Renzie's digital music player- a little over 7 hours worth of great tuneage to set the mood for whatever it is you need to get done.

Share your list by emailing Renzie, or by posting a list of your own via a comment.

Cheers, everyone!

Last Song Syndrome: Paul Simon - "You Can Call Me Al" (1985)

Now here's some more happy music for you. Was listening to this song on my way to this fantastic beachfront property in Nasugbu, Batangas.

Anyway, I remembered having a challenge figuring out the words and lyrics to "You Can Call Me Al", way back in 1985- I was just about 11 or 12 back then, mind you :) But it's always been a fun song, with an equally fun video featuring Chevy Chase lip-syncing as Paul Simon.

Naturally, I had to post it here on this blog. Good times. Enjoy!


Paul Simon
"You Can Call Me Al" (1985)

A man walks down the street
He says, "Why am I soft in the middle now?
Why am I soft in the middle?
The rest of my life is so hard
I need a photo-opportunity
I want a shot at redemption
Don't want to end up a cartoon in a cartoon graveyard.
Bonedigger, bonedigger
Dogs in the moonlight
Far away my well-lit door
Mr. Beerbelly, Beerbelly
Get these mutts away from me
You know I don't find this stuff amusing anymore."

If you'll be my bodyguard
I can be your long lost pal
I can call you Betty
And Betty when you call me
You can call me Al

A man walks down the street
He says, "Why am I short of attention?
Got a short little span of attention
And -woh- my nights are so long
Where's my wife and family?
What if I die here?
Who'll be my role-model,
Now that my role-model is
Gone, gone?"
He ducked back down the alley
With some roly-poly little bat-faced girl
All along, along
There were incidents and accidents
There were hints and allegations

If you'll be my bodyguard
I can be your long lost pal
I can call you Betty
And Betty when you call me
You can call me Al
Call me Al

A man walks down the street
It's a street in a strange world
Maybe it's the Third World
Maybe it's his first time around
He doesn't speak the language
He holds no currency
He is a foreign man
He is surrounded by the sound, the sound
Cattle in the marketplace
Scatterlings and orphanages
He looks around, around
He sees angels in the architecture
Spinning in infinity
He says Amen! and Hallelujah!

If you'll be my bodyguard
I can be your long lost pal
I can call you Betty
And Betty when you call me
You can call me Al
Call me Al

Video of Paul Simon's "You Can Call Me Al" courtesy of curedude77 on YouTube. Check out Paul Simon's Wikipedia entry here.

Can't get that song out of your head? Then check out more of Renzie's Last Song Syndrome Project, the only blog service dedicated to getting that persistent tune out of your system- by giving you lots more of it!

Cheers, everyone!

Last Song Syndrome: Paramore - "CrushCrushCrush" (2007)

Man, I just gotta get this song outta my system. Been singing the chorus all day.

By far, my favorite Paramore song so far- "CrushCrushCrush" is the third single off the band's second album Riot! that came out last year.

My sister and I hit a karaoke place a few weeks back- I remember choosing this song, but to our disappointment (well, mostly mine) it didn't have any lyrics to go with it (just the regular music video, really). So I thought I'd get me my Paramore fix by putting up a Last Song Syndrome post right here.

Enjoy!

Paramore
"CrushCrushCrush" (2007)

I got a lot to say to you
Yeah, I got a lot to say
I noticed your eyes are always glued to me
Keeping them here
And it makes no sense at all

They taped over your mouth
Scribbled out the truth with their lies
Your little spies
They taped over your mouth
Scribbled out the truth with their lies
Your little spies

Crush
Crush
Crush
Crush, crush
(Two, three, four! )

Nothing compares to a quiet evening alone
Just the one, two, of us who's counting on
That never happens
I guess I'm dreaming again
Let's be more than, this

If you want to play it like a game
Well, come on, come on, let's play
Cause I'd rather waste my life pretending
Than have to forget you for one whole minute

They taped over your mouth
Scribbled out the truth with their lies
Your little spies
They taped over your mouth
Scribbled out the truth with their lies
Your little spies

Crush
Crush
Crush
Crush, crush
(Two, three, four! )

Nothing compares to a quiet evening alone
Just the one, two of us who's counting on
That never happens
I guess I'm dreaming again
Let's be more than this now

Rock and roll, baby
Don't you know that we're all alone now?
I need something to sing about
Rock and roll, hey (hey)
Don't you know, baby, we're all alone now?
I need something to sing about
Rock and roll, hey (hey)
Don't you know, baby, we're all alone now?
Give me something to sing about

Nothing compares to a quiet evening alone
Just the one, two of us who's counting on
That never happens
I guess I'm dreaming again
Let's be more than

No

Nothing compares to a quiet evening alone
Just the one, two of us who's counting on
That never happens
I guess I'm dreaming again
Let's be more than
More than this
Oh

Video posted on YouTube by McrAndGreenDayRok . Check out more of Paramore on their official website, or on their Wikipedia entry right here.

Can't get that song out of your head? Then check out more of Renzie's Last Song Syndrome Project, the only blog service dedicated to getting that persistent tune out of your system- by giving you lots more of it!

Cheers, everyone!