Latest / Barber Cuts: Beats and Bars / What's Going On - Marvin Gaye

Transcript

What's Going On - Marvin Gaye · Barber Cuts: Beats and Bars

0:15
Welcome to Barbara Cuts, Beats and Bars.
0:17
We're a father and daughter music podcast that slices into
0:19
some of the greatest albums, one cut at a time.
0:22
With no industry ties or formal training, just a shared love of
0:25
music, we explore albums across genres, rating favorites and
0:29
skips while digging into what makes each one iconic.
0:33
I bring the beats. And I bring the bars and
0:36
together we deliver real talk and fresh takes from both sides
0:39
of the sound. Hey, I'm Riley.
0:41
And I'm Todd and welcome to this week's episode of Barber Cuts.
0:45
And this week we're talking about a soul classic.
0:49
What's going on by Marvin Gaye from 1971.
0:55
Not just really a soul classic, as we will learn, an all time
1:00
classic apparently. So we will see what we think of
1:03
it as we go. So let's kick it off.
1:07
Rally What are your least favorite from the album?
1:12
All right, so my least favorite are back-to-back.
1:18
It's right on and Holy Holy Holy Holy is just a lot slower than
1:25
the others and that's OK. It just felt off in this mix of
1:32
songs. I liked the song.
1:35
I think I would like it if it was separate from this album,
1:38
but with the rest of this album, it just kind of fell short
1:42
compared to the other ones. And then right on.
1:48
I really hope you as a beat person know what I'm talking
1:50
about. Do you know the part where it
1:52
sounds like he's twisting a gear or something and it repeats
1:55
throughout the entire song? Yeah, that got on my nerves.
2:01
I don't like that sound. That sound bothers me.
2:04
I don't like how it sounds anytime so like the construct
2:08
clock, clock clock, it like was happening throughout the song
2:12
was like, Oh my gosh, it was like nails on a chalkboard to
2:14
me. And so I couldn't even really
2:16
appreciate the song for what it was because I happened to not
2:19
like how that particular noise sounds.
2:22
So very unfair. Least favorite, but it was my
2:25
least favorite nonetheless. Sometimes.
2:27
It is what it is. So my, one of my least favorites
2:33
was right on. And you know, wasn't wasn't
2:38
necessarily a fan of I guess how it started it it, it seemed like
2:43
maybe the seemed like he was standing far away from the
2:47
microphone and started walking closer as the song went on.
2:52
And again, maybe obviously meant to be that way, but just caught
2:57
me off guard. And then overall, you know, it,
3:02
it seemed like it was 2 songs. And you know, since again, this
3:09
is we'll, we'll talk about this later and maybe more in depth,
3:13
but this album is a concept album and really just one long
3:18
song, you know, as it just flows in and out.
3:22
And so, you know, and I didn't know that going in, but very
3:26
quickly figure that out. And I honestly thought that I
3:31
listen to two songs and but it wasn't so just, you know, for
3:39
for those reasons. Again, it's it's some of these
3:42
are split in hairs and my least favorite and unfortunately,
3:45
because like the lyrics send out a good message.
3:49
So unfortunate, but Save the Children the the spoken word and
3:56
then singing the same words as the spoken word just threw me
4:02
off. Much like you talking about the
4:04
the noise from right on got you that got me.
4:08
And I'm like, that's, that's just weird to me.
4:12
And again, personal so, but those are my 2 least favorites.
4:18
So Riley, what were your favorite too?
4:23
So my second top favorite was Save the Children and I really
4:31
like the circuit word and music. I like the call and response
4:35
feel of it. I I think it fit the lyrics of
4:41
the song well. Like if he were to do that on
4:44
any song, it would have had to be that one because it's it's
4:47
kind of asking this question and calling out to people.
4:54
I understand. Like that's not many people's
4:56
like trope. I just happen to like it or be
4:59
OK with it enough. And I liked the lyrics.
5:03
Just I think what's special, and we can get in this later too,
5:07
but what's really special about Marvin Gaye and why he's like a
5:13
household name for many reasons, but one of them is his lyrics
5:18
are very timeless yet of the times.
5:23
Yes. And so a lot of the songs that I
5:27
was listening to that both of my top favorites were like, these
5:32
are things I hear today. And it's kind of this nice
5:35
reminder that like, it's this nice reminder, but also sad that
5:41
it's not a new thing. What we're experiencing like
5:45
this, this pain and this hurt, is not like apocalyptic.
5:48
And we're all gonna die like it's been happening, you know,
5:51
since before you were born. Before I've been born like it.
5:54
It's happened forever. Yes, and let the record reflect.
5:58
This album is from before I was born.
6:03
Yay. We got, we got, we got one.
6:07
But the he was also so like ahead of his time.
6:11
I know the 70s was like a big time for like awareness and
6:16
acting on certain things, but for him to start talking about
6:20
like, I mean, the lyrics that I I'm thinking of are The Who
6:25
really cares? Who's willing to try to save a
6:27
world, save our sweet world, to save the world that's destined
6:30
to die. And like that I I nerd alert
6:34
took him religion and ethics and nature class.
6:39
And that's like the biggest environmental question is like,
6:45
should we save the world? Should we work to make the world
6:48
a better place for our kids? Or should we care if it's going
6:50
to die anyway? Like what's what's the point to
6:53
do anything about it if it's just going to die anyway?
6:55
Do we have the right to impact that at all?
7:00
And so like that is such a big. You're supposed to save your
7:04
philosophical question for the end, like we did last week with
7:08
Do Hills have Edges? So now this is 2 weeks where
7:12
we've got a very. Well, Marvin Gaye is a very
7:16
philosophical singer. Like his lyrics are just very
7:20
philosophical. So like, that's just for him to
7:24
have this whole song about like, who's going to step up and do
7:27
this and just like save people? But it's got anyway and really
7:35
interesting to me as someone who had like literally just spent a
7:38
whole semester studying that question and asking that
7:41
question. My other favorite song was
7:46
what's happening, brother, which I just said very white, but I I
7:52
gave him my best. It's another case of like the
7:58
same things are happening. It's can't find no work, can't
8:01
find no job. My money is tighter than it's
8:02
ever been. I just don't understand what's
8:04
going on across this land talking.
8:08
It talks about like anger and war and like like home, like it.
8:14
It just covers all of the things that are big topics now and I
8:21
found like especially like the job and money, like those are
8:24
big things now, maybe more for me just because I'm having to
8:28
think about all of that and all my friends are but like that's
8:33
something I've heard. And then also in that song, it's
8:38
a tell me what's out. I want to know what's in what's
8:42
the deal? And then it kind of talks about
8:44
how he's just a little behind. And it almost feels like the
8:48
you're always going to be behind the times.
8:51
Like it was in the media. Something that's in a minute ago
8:55
can be out in the next minute. Like you're never going to fully
8:58
catch up to what's happening in the world.
9:02
It's you just don't have enough time in the day to have a life
9:05
and also do that. And I also really liked that
9:10
song past just the lyrics kind of like how it it is like it
9:15
sounds like he's talking to a friend.
9:19
It sounds like he's trying to have a conversation that's
9:23
friendly and amicable. It doesn't sound like it kind of
9:27
feels like you're part of that conversation, not just listening
9:31
to a song. And that's really interesting.
9:35
What about you? So my 2 favorites, you know, I I
9:40
really like Mercy MercyMe and that's one of his more popular
9:45
ones. And again in the end though, I
9:48
went with Inner City Blues. I hadn't, at least that I
9:54
remember really heard it before listening through this, but
9:59
really seemed to be a good finishing song for this album
10:04
because there were lyrics in this one about many of the other
10:10
songs throughout. And so that was that was really
10:15
neat to see. You know, and, and you might
10:20
agree or very wholeheartedly disagree with some of the
10:25
political statements he was making at the time or even now,
10:28
but the lyric from this song, it makes me want to holler and
10:34
throw up both my hands. That's something we can, you
10:38
know, all relate to and in one way or the other because we all
10:42
get frustrated about something. And so the nature of, OK, I may
10:47
not disagree with the guy or I may disagree with the guy.
10:50
Whatever way you fall when you can find commonality and lyrics,
10:57
like that's the powerful nature of what music and songs can do,
11:02
you know. And so so I really like that one
11:06
And my favorite was, you know, I'm I'm going to be a Homer and
11:11
just say what's going on? Like that's a really good song
11:17
and found myself going back to it.
11:19
Like I that's one of the ones that I'd, you know, heard
11:22
before, knew it going in, But and I'm going to copy some of
11:29
the things you did. It opens with a party going on
11:34
with voices that almost helps establish that conversational
11:38
nature of the album that you just mentioned in what's
11:41
happening, brother. So it like kick starts right at
11:44
the beginning, like you're at a party about to just sit down and
11:48
talk with friends and family and about what's going on.
11:53
And it's literally the name of the album, the first song.
11:57
And it seems like the entire album is them trying to figure
12:01
that out of what's going on. But the saxophone intro was a,
12:07
you know, brief solo like that. That's that's nice.
12:12
And it's almost like a call to the party to quiet down and
12:16
listen to the message, Like, here's what we're about to say,
12:19
which was neat to me. Overall, it's it's catchy.
12:23
It's silky smooth, bluesy, soulful jazz like all mixed in
12:28
there, you know? And then there's a lyric in
12:32
there that's just holds true then holds true now for Only
12:37
Love can conquer hate. Like such a good line and so
12:42
true. And then I also liked the
12:48
scatting the in the middle of the song toward the end.
12:52
It just kind of fit with what everything was going on.
12:56
And like, again, he's just chilling and hanging out with
13:00
friends and having a conversation and like, hey,
13:04
watch this, you know? So those were my favorite too.
13:14
So why? And we've started hitting on it,
13:19
but we can delve in a little bit deeper.
13:22
Why is this album on our list, do you think?
13:27
I'll let you go first 'cause you started some of it already.
13:31
Yeah, I think, I think the nature of like kind of like what
13:37
you said, no matter which side you fall on, on a lot of the
13:41
stuff he sings about, like there's a common ground in his
13:45
songs. There's like a a hopeful
13:50
frustration, like a mix of that. There's just trying to figure
13:54
out what's going on. And as I mentioned earlier, it's
13:59
very like of the times, like of like the the time that he was
14:04
writing, this was a very progressive time.
14:08
They were trying to figure out a lot about science, about the
14:11
world, about politics, about all of that.
14:14
Yet the way he writes it, it's it's very timeless.
14:18
He writes about it just general enough for it to still apply to
14:24
today and to whatever time you listen to it.
14:27
I mean, we live in a society that like no matter how much
14:32
money is in the world, we're will relate to, the money is
14:36
tighter than it's ever been before.
14:37
Like that's just the nature of how we feel towards that.
14:41
And like his his broad philosophies like love conquers
14:48
hate and like who's going to save the world if it's destined
14:52
to die? And like his Christian values or
14:56
like the God type values with the Goddess love where he like
15:01
starts saying like God Bible, stuff like that.
15:03
Like it's, it's very, I don't know, it's very, it's a lot more
15:11
I, I don't know how to word this.
15:12
It's a lot more like education, like filled with education than
15:18
a lot of other songs. Like it's very philosophical,
15:22
very ethical, ask a lot of questions about that and seems
15:26
to like constantly be looking for those answers and pulling
15:29
some back together. And like with the conversation
15:33
type, it feels like they're like what's going on and listing like
15:36
all these things that are happening.
15:37
And then someone's responding with like, well, the Bible says
15:40
this and this philosophy says this.
15:42
And it's like answering that question and then it adds in a
15:45
new question and like, OK, where do we go from here then?
15:48
Yeah. And it just brings you on this
15:51
journey with them in a way that's very neat.
15:55
And he's inviting that conversation at the very end of
15:58
what's going on, which is the first song when he says, like,
16:01
come on and talk to me so you can see what's going on.
16:05
Like, I want to have a conversation, you know?
16:09
And it may not have been this way in real life, but in the
16:13
song, the persona is almost like we, we can have a chat.
16:17
We may not agree, but let's let's have a talk because
16:22
there's some things that are going on in my life and in this
16:25
persona that he created for this album that you may not realize
16:30
or understand. Yeah, and he, I mean, that's the
16:33
whole purpose of the song. What's happening, brother, is
16:38
like asking him, like, what's been going on with you?
16:42
What are your takes on this like with the what's going on?
16:45
It's like this open question. And then very specifically it
16:48
kind of talks about like, like, what have you been doing?
16:52
What's going on with you? What do you feel about like all
16:55
of this? And so he kind of puts it back
16:56
into someone's specific court. Yeah, so the whole the whole
17:00
concept album is, you know, and we have covered Pink Floyd Dark
17:07
Side of the Moon. That's a concept album kind of
17:10
goes through the ironically, the concept album that most people
17:15
would say is the best concept album also about Pink Floyd as
17:19
the Wall. But this is a concept album in
17:23
that sense in that it's told from the perspective of a
17:26
Vietnam War veteran that's returning home and then deals
17:31
with all these issues that he finds.
17:33
And so you can you can see first couple lines of the what's
17:37
happening, brother, I'm just getting back.
17:39
And you know, if you knew I would war as hell.
17:42
When will it end? Like we see that persona taking
17:46
place. But then you see all these other
17:48
songs war, you know, hatred, suffering, poverty, drug abuse,
17:53
environment, you know, and one of the things that's neat about
17:57
this album that does make it great and where they ever
18:01
listen. The first reported concept album
18:04
from the soul genre. So he's he's breaking ground in
18:09
in that sense. And you know not only does does
18:12
it hit on all these social issues we talked about is also
18:16
deeply personal to gay. And so the what's going on the
18:22
title track came first and began as a reaction to police
18:27
brutality. So somebody from, you know, need
18:31
to go into all the names or what not.
18:32
But but somebody from The Four Tops super popular group saw TV
18:36
coverage of of police, you know, using clubs and violence to
18:41
break up a protest in Berkeley. The rest of The Four Tops didn't
18:45
want to record it. So gay took it on.
18:47
But during that time, he was in a dark point in his life,
18:51
depression. His marriage was failing at IRS
18:55
troubles. His duet partner was, you know,
19:00
had a brain tumor in and died, had cocaine problems and at one
19:05
point even attempted suicide. But this single released by
19:12
itself with no album and blew up like January of 71, just blew
19:19
up, became Motown's fastest selling single at the time.
19:22
So they were like, OK, we need an album because we don't have
19:26
an album to go with the song. So they're like, hey, do
19:30
whatever you want to with the album as long as you finish it
19:33
by the end of March. And which was equated to about
19:37
30 days, started on March 1st, was done by March 10th.
19:41
So yeah, what many people consider to be one of the
19:46
greatest albums of all time basically took about 10 days.
19:50
But I, I. Crazy.
19:53
I think that that's, I don't think that that's I think that's
19:58
very cool, but I don't think that's unique to the best albums
20:01
of all times. Like when?
20:02
You. I get it, Yeah.
20:03
And and I think that's that's so true to like the art of it all
20:11
is the the Best Song that I've heard.
20:13
The best albums that I've heard were all written and like crazy
20:17
amount of times because it's just so built up in them that it
20:21
it they're not forcing anything and that's why it's so
20:23
beautiful. It's because nothing feels
20:25
forced. It all flows and like that's
20:31
it's not played with like when albums are are like years in the
20:35
process, they get played with and then like hearts get messed
20:39
up or missed or not focused on enough.
20:41
And so I think that that. Becomes post production heavy
20:45
like all these various things that, you know, artists often
20:48
times go back well, I wish the producer or or bixer engineer,
20:53
whatever wouldn't have done this one thing, you know, whatever it
20:56
may be, the these time constrained ones like you don't
20:59
have the time to experiment on all those things.
21:01
So it's like that first gut response and and that, like you
21:05
said for for gay and and this album, a lot of this was pent up
21:12
stuff that, you know, is what made it personal, which is
21:16
really also what made it so good.
21:19
Yeah, and I think like there's a there's a skill to being
21:25
personal without being too personal.
21:28
Like like we talked about last week, like last week's album,
21:32
Original Pirate Material by the Streets was like so personal
21:36
that only like a few thousand to like 10s of thousands of people
21:42
can really understand what he's talking about.
21:45
I guess it's very personal and you get a little less personal
21:50
with things like I'm trying to think of ones that we've talked
21:53
about. It's like 10 Pearl Jam.
21:56
There are songs in there. That nobody can.
21:58
Necessarily that nobody can necessarily relate to, but it
22:01
sounds nice. Same with some songs on Funeral
22:07
to me is like some of these songs on Marvin Gaye.
22:10
They seem deeply personal and to flow like directly from what
22:14
they're feeling. But they make it just general
22:17
enough of like war is bad, like money is tight, things are
22:21
crappy or with funeral sake. It's like, I love this girl and
22:25
she left me and I don't know who I am.
22:27
Like there are these overarching things that make it so relatable
22:32
for every person who listens to it.
22:35
And that's what's so timeless about this album in particular,
22:40
is it sounds good, and it does that.
22:43
Yeah. And so just piggybacking on the
22:47
IT sounds good. Some of the accolades that that
22:50
have that have happened with it. So the single hit #2 on the
22:54
Billboard Hot 100, so just a a pop chart, not not soul.
23:00
And then it also hit #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 soul singles
23:06
and stayed there for five weeks. So then Mercy MercyMe, another
23:10
song on the album, and Inner City Blues, another song on the
23:14
album, also reached the top ten of that same soul chart as they
23:18
were released. And that made Gay the first male
23:22
solo artist to place three top 10 singles on any Hot 100 chart
23:29
from one album. So yeah, three top ten from the
23:34
same album, which is crazy. The album itself inducted
23:39
another Grammy Hall of Fame in 1998.
23:41
And again, we've already talked about it.
23:44
Album is ranked on Rolling Stones 500 greatest albums of
23:47
all time. They've done, you know, several
23:50
releases over the years. In number six, it was 20000,
23:53
Sorry. In number six in 2003, it was #6
23:58
in 20/20 it was #1 and they changed who voted.
24:03
It was more musicians instead of music critics.
24:06
Their latest one that they've got is from 2023 and it's still
24:10
#1 and you're voting. Population includes artists,
24:14
producers, music critics and music industry figures from
24:18
think radio programmers to label heads.
24:21
So best album of all time is what that population of people
24:26
consider this to be like. Yeah, I.
24:29
Mean, think of the albums, even some of the ones that we talked
24:32
about, like that's, that's crazy.
24:35
Yeah. And I think, and I don't mean
24:38
this as like a less than or like making that feat any less than
24:42
because obviously it still has an impact today, but it I think
24:47
it really benefited from the times that it was released.
24:52
Yeah, I can see that. Because soul, soul music was
24:56
being introduced to like it was, it's it's population that was
25:02
listening to soul music was widely expanding during like the
25:05
60s and 70s and you were seeing more people kind of feeling what
25:11
gay was feeling on all sides of politics.
25:15
Like it was a pretty dividing and unifying time, all things
25:19
considered. Like I, I also think about if
25:23
this album was released today, I don't think it would have been
25:26
given. I don't think people would have
25:28
taken it the way that they needed to.
25:31
I think the space that America and the world was in in like the
25:37
60s. And I keep saying 60s because it
25:40
was released early 70s. So like usually the 60s is
25:44
what's impacting the song. Whenever it's early 70s.
25:49
Everything that was happening there was like directly what
25:53
this song was written about. So it skyrocketed because of
25:56
that. Everyone was feeling that soul
25:58
was like this new, exciting or not new, but exciting genre that
26:02
was being brought. Its scope was broadening and all
26:06
of that. And like that really benefited
26:09
it or behooved it to like go to the hypes that it did.
26:13
And I'm, I'm so happy that it did.
26:16
And it's, we've been able to like still listen to it and love
26:21
it and learn from it. But I I just, I just always
26:26
think about like, OK, if this album was released like today
26:30
and a lot of the best albums of all time will not fare well
26:34
today. And that's just the nature of
26:36
how wide music is. I can find, like I, I can find
26:41
an artist, as we talked about last week, that has 20 something
26:44
monthly listeners and listen to them and like them.
26:47
There's so many more albums that you'll never get to listen to
26:50
today. Yes.
26:51
And on the flip side of that, to say it the same thing but in a
26:55
different way, is there's so much music you can listen to
27:00
today. Yeah.
27:03
With all the streaming, like music delivery has changed, you
27:08
know, and, and your artist may say, oh, it's changed for the
27:11
worse. And that may be true for them,
27:15
but for the consumer, it's changed for the better because
27:19
I, I, I, I have so much more access to music that I never did
27:24
before and it's always at my fingertips.
27:28
Any any other thoughts about the songs?
27:31
The one thing that I was gonna say is something else that like
27:35
it sounds nice going off of that is this is very similar to Isles
27:43
Davis Kind of Blue, which we haven't talked about yet on
27:45
here, but you and I have talked about it.
27:49
I could have this album playing low throughout the entire house
27:53
all the time and be so happy because it sounds nice and like
28:00
it's one that you can tune in and out of.
28:03
I highly recommend tuning in at least a few times.
28:06
You'll learn a lot. However, it it sounds so nice on
28:10
top of that that if I just had it on low and was just kind of
28:14
like listening it, it's it's nice enough that I could do
28:17
that. Yeah, yeah, I agree.
28:20
I bet, I bet Mama Pod was having a good, good week this week.
28:27
It's, you know, it's always, it's always nice to get, you
28:30
know, at least for me, you know, part, part of my personalities.
28:33
I'd love to learn new things. And that's essentially what what
28:38
this album does. If you, if you listen to the
28:41
music and, and listen to the lyrics all combined together,
28:44
you get a, you get a window into somebody else's life and
28:49
somebody else's situation that, you know, let's admit it, I
28:53
can't, I can't do that. I mean, I know my life, but I, I
28:57
can't pick in into any other race, ethnicity, socioeconomic.
29:03
I can't poke into any of those because you know, I'm, I'm not
29:08
there to live it. And you, you almost feel like
29:11
because of the lyrics and the easy listening that that he gave
29:16
you that opportunity to poke in on on somebody else's situation,
29:20
which is again, very difficult to do.
29:24
But I think he did it, did it well.
29:26
Anything else before we hop into ratings?
29:31
So I will say my last like philosophical thing is, if you
29:38
like, if you like this album from like a philosophical
29:44
standpoint, I recommend reading any of Dubois.
29:52
DUBOIS, he had he. Talked about shaking my head
29:58
for. He has a philosophical concept
30:04
or like an ethical theory of double consciousness and that
30:07
the possibility of double consciousness.
30:09
And he is writing from a very unique perspective from I think
30:14
1800s or early 1900s. He was a black man, but from a
30:20
wealthy family. And so he grew up tireless, rich
30:26
white people, but as a black man.
30:30
And so he has this whole book about this idea of him living a
30:33
double life. He wasn't fully there or fully
30:36
here, but he had to be somewhere in between and it Marvin Gaye is
30:43
very fully just like I'm this is my life.
30:46
But what you were just talking about, it's like I can kind of
30:49
see a window into that life is kind of his, what he's talking
30:52
about, double consciousness. Very interesting topic, but if
30:55
you're into philosophy, he's liked this album and what it
30:59
gave you. I recommend reading Dubois.
31:02
OK. Ratings.
31:05
So ratings what you got, Riley? So from a personal standpoint, I
31:12
would give it an 8. I I really liked it.
31:16
Like I said, I could have it on in the house all the time, but I
31:18
don't know if I could like listen to it all the time.
31:21
But I keep saying this, I I don't, it's not meant to be
31:25
listening to all the time. The lyrics are not meant to just
31:28
have in the background. Like it's not the point.
31:31
The point of this album is to appreciate it, and that's not me
31:35
saying like the albums that I'm like, oh, I could listen to this
31:37
all the time is me appreciating it less.
31:40
It just means it's a different type of music.
31:42
It's meant for different things. This.
31:44
This album, This album was meant to make a statement.
31:48
Right. So you don't always have to
31:50
listen to it for the statement to still exist.
31:53
Right. And then from a technical
31:56
standpoint, I mean, it's going to be hard to argue anything
32:00
less than a 10. And I mean, that's what I'm
32:02
giving it from everything we've said, from all of the ratings,
32:09
from every accolade that it's been given.
32:14
I mean, I, I challenge someone to try to argue that it's less
32:17
than a 10 or 9.9. You know, if you're under the
32:23
nothing is ever perfect. Like I mean, it'd be really hard
32:27
to give anything less. Yeah, yeah, I agree.
32:30
My objective rating was a 10 just because of what the album
32:36
was and still is. And I guess that's, you know,
32:43
some of the albums maybe that that we have a little bit lower,
32:47
you know, this one is stood the test of time from 71 to now.
32:53
You know, some of those others may have fallen a little bit
32:55
shorter and in different places, but this this one has has not,
33:01
you know, personal rating just a notch below your So my personal
33:07
rating is a 7.5 and it and again, not it, it's strange,
33:14
like I enjoyed it while I listen to it, but again, it wouldn't be
33:19
something that I just listen to and and that's.
33:24
Why I gave it to? Me, yeah.
33:25
I mean, it's, it's, it's not necessarily my genre, but yet
33:29
I've heard it can listen to it, you know, so it's not that I
33:34
dislike, you know, the soul, R&B, jazz, you'll love it.
33:40
I enjoyed that. So but so 7.5 and 10 for me.
33:48
So song of the week, what is your song of the week?
33:56
If it's like last week, your song of the Week, 2 songs of the
33:59
week, album of the week, bands of the week, you just throw them
34:03
all in there. No, it's not like last week.
34:09
No, this week is one of my favorite songs and one of Mama
34:16
Pod's favorite songs. It's.
34:18
Where were you by Ghost Ship? OK.
34:23
Great song. It's a great song if you love
34:26
the message. It's a great song if you don't.
34:28
I mean, I love the message. It gives me chills.
34:32
It makes mom and pod cry. It's a good song.
34:37
It builds throughout the entire song and draw like it just
34:41
gives. It brings you on like this
34:44
emotional journey with it, and it's just a really beautiful
34:47
song. You like it too, but I do.
34:49
For for for context, just tell people like what the theme of
34:54
the song is. Oh, it follows the book of Job
34:58
or it's kind of the last few chapters of the book of Job.
35:02
And in the book of Job, Job pretty much had the worst life.
35:08
You, you, you could have. He lost his family, he lost his
35:13
wealth, he lost his health, he lost everything.
35:16
And the book of Job is same like struggling with that and talking
35:19
with friends and talking with God about like why all of this
35:23
is frustrating. And then the last few chapters
35:27
is God responding to Job's concerns.
35:31
And that's kind of where the song falls as the where were you
35:37
is God being like, where were you?
35:39
As I did all these things. And you can hear that lyrics,
35:41
but it's based off the book of Job.
35:43
Also my favorite book of the Bible.
35:45
Yeah, so really good. I know that one.
35:48
So I do like that one. So my song of the week is
35:52
actually thanks to the Instagram post.
35:59
So it was awfully strange to be sitting here.
36:03
And again, we just started this and all of a sudden your phone
36:08
comes up and says, Hey, Blues Traveler just mentioned you were
36:13
like, that's like, what? That's got to be fake.
36:17
And no, it was not. So that was pretty cool.
36:21
And, you know, Blues Traveler was still is, But, you know, in
36:25
college, I, I went and saw them quite a few many times.
36:32
You know, one of my favorite shows was 94 at Lafayette's down
36:37
in Oxford. You know, again, it's on the
36:41
ticket stub picture there. And Sheryl Crow was supposed to
36:45
open, but she didn't. So Blue Shiver played super long
36:47
set. You know anything about them?
36:50
He had just come off of an injury and so he was sitting for
36:56
a lot of the show. But I remember this song and
37:02
it's one of my favorite songs. It's alone and I'm going to
37:06
throw in the song right after it.
37:09
It's on their first album, Alone, and then just let it roll
37:13
straight into Sweet Talk and Hippie.
37:16
So about 14 minutes of total music.
37:21
And the opening of Alone is the soft guitar and some of the
37:28
saddest opening lyrics for a song.
37:31
And you can hear them so clearly, but it says the lyrics
37:35
are I said I love you. She began to cry.
37:39
She said she needed a friend. I said I'll try soon.
37:43
We'd say nothing. Somehow I never wondered why.
37:46
You see, she left me. She left me.
37:49
I'm alone. Like, Oh my goodness.
37:53
Going back to what you were talking about with the Arcade
37:56
Fire and being left by somebody that it's just so sad but yet so
38:03
relatable for everybody. Song builds in a nice way.
38:08
The lyrics stay sad, has a nice electric guitar solo in it, Also
38:14
has a bass solo in it, but you don't hear all all that often.
38:18
And then also an acoustic guitar solo right after the bass solo.
38:25
Yeah, the the song gets soft again has another great lyric to
38:31
me at the end that says hope can always go up, tears can only
38:35
come down. Like that's really good.
38:39
Then it builds back up and has a harmonica solo in it at the end.
38:43
So 4 solos of different musical instruments, you know, and then
38:48
it goes straight in a sweet talking hippie.
38:50
And, you know, I listen to both of them usually when I listen to
38:54
it. But if you like harmonica and
38:57
the way it sounds, definitely listen to Sweet Talking Hippie
39:01
because so much of the song is just John Popper, the lead
39:05
vocalist and harmonicist. Not sure what the right word is
39:10
there, just wailing on the harmonic and so good so.
39:14
Yeah, but yeah. Blues Traveler alone and then
39:18
bonus sweet talking hippie. Yeah, well again, go follow
39:23
Blues Traveler and listen to Blues Traveler.
39:25
We're their biggest fans now. They liked, commented and
39:29
reposted. Shout out Blues Traveler.
39:33
But I can attest that I have heard the story of the Sheryl
39:37
Crow not showing up to open story concert whatever millions
39:43
of times. So he loves that show.
39:45
That's one. Of his product, I I don't know
39:48
how often he does it, if it was every show or if it was, you
39:52
know, if he still does it because they may be playing
39:54
bigger arenas. Was, yeah, that was a smaller,
39:57
small venue. And you know, he wears like a
40:01
fishing jacket, but it's got all these pockets in it.
40:05
And each one's got different harmonicas could based on the, I
40:09
guess the keys and whatnot. Again, shows you how much I know
40:12
about the musical side of it. But at the end, he just started
40:16
opening his pockets and just started tossing the harmonicas
40:19
out in the audience. I unfortunately did not get one
40:23
of those, but I was like, that's pretty cool.
40:26
That is pretty cool. So shout out Blue Chandler.
40:31
Yeah. All right.
40:32
Are you ready for this next album?
40:37
So I'm moving. I'm moving this week.
40:40
You're helping me move, in case you forgot.
40:43
Yeah. Yeah.
40:45
So we're about to have a banging time because our album of the
40:48
week is Never Mind by Nirvana. Yeah.
40:53
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Talk about a good album for
40:57
moving. That is a good album for moving.
40:59
And this is, you know, Pearl Jam just moved around.
41:06
It's on our on our poster. I just moved it around because
41:10
it was my birthday pic that this one just happened to be next.
41:13
So this is actually nice for me because these are not the I mean
41:19
like, like anybody needs to know.
41:21
Like these are two of my most favorite albums.
41:24
Yeah, so and. Then never mind.
41:27
Go give, never mind to listen. All the kids my age, they're
41:31
wearing the little Nirvana smiley faces but never actually
41:34
listen. I'm kidding.
41:36
Go listen. To listen to it their songs,
41:40
other than Smells Like Teen Spirit on the album, not sure.
41:44
Not sure if everybody's wearing that.
41:46
Yes, there is one that I'm. Wearing really good songs on
41:50
there other than Smells like Teen Spirit.
41:53
Yes, I there is one that I'm warning everyone I'm going to
41:57
have to fight for my life on it. I'm not going to say which way
42:00
I'm going to have to, but there there is one that I'm about to
42:03
have to fight for my life. Cliffhanger, Cliffhanger.
42:08
So tune back in next week, next week.
42:10
But yeah, follow us on socials at Barbara Cuts Odd all the
42:17
socials Instagram Twitter face X not Twitter, Facebook and then
42:26
comment like all of them, including on Spotify.
42:31
Give us a comment. Like to follow Spotify playlist
42:35
where we're adding our favorites in and so shortly after.
42:40
I will be adding. We'll be adding adding these
42:43
songs in, SO as that list grows, you'll get quite the eclectic
42:49
mix of music. So always never know what you
42:53
may get on the next song if you shuffle it.
42:56
So until next time, I am Todd and.
43:00
I'm Riley and this is another episode of Firework.