Timed Perfectly

Via Boing Boing:

Joshua Allen of The Morning News contemplates the length of a perfect pop song.

What else is at 2:42? “Don’t Do Me Like That” by Tom Petty. “Divine Hammer” by the Breeders. “Helplessly Hoping” by Crosby, Stills & Nash. “Get Up” by R.E.M. “California Dreamin’” by the Mamas & the Papas. “This Charming Man” by the Smiths.

You need more proof? Jerk. Let’s look at Sgt. Pepper. “Lovely Rita” is two minutes, 42 seconds. It delivers that psychedelic vibe and a coda but then gets the hell out of your life.

Compare that to “With a Little Help From My Friends.” It’s a mere two seconds longer but feels like it drags on for hours. Maybe it’s Ringo, maybe it’s the tedious melody—or maybe it’s the two goddamn seconds.

Then over here we have “Good Morning Good Morning,” rightfully discarded by the masses as a throwaway. Why? Two minutes, 41 seconds. Hey, Beatles, maybe next time think about tacking on an extra second to give a song the grandeur and majesty it deserves.

MP3: The Mamas and the Papas - California Dreamin' (YSI)
MP3: Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers - Don't Do Me Like That (YSI)
MP3: The Beatles - Lovely Rita (YSI)

Just an interesting topic. I actually could not even find a 2:42 minute version of California Dreaming. They all ended at 2:41.515. Maybe he was rounding it up!

Speaking of pop music, Weezer is still on the hunt for the perfect pop song. The 6th studio album (the "red" album) comes this summer. The first single, Pork and Beans, is out next week and KROQ leaked it early! The boys seems to have grown up a bit. Well maybe not judging by the lyrics but they could honestly give a rat's ass... Fashion note, last night at the Spoon show, I saw the return of cardigan sweaters, was that a perfectly timed marketing scheme to bring the Buddy Holly days before the album's release??

They say I need some Rogaine to put in my hair
Work it out at the gym to fit my underwear
Oakley makes the shades that transform a tool
You’d hate for the kids to think that you lost your cool

I’mma do the things that I wanna do
I ain’t got a thing to prove to you
I’ll eat my candy with the pork and beans
Excuse my manners if I make a scene
I ain’t gonna wear the clothes that you like
I’m finally dandy with the me inside
One look in the mirror and I’m tickled pink
I don’t give a hoot about what you think

Everyone likes to dance to a happy song (Hey, hey)
With a catchy chorus and beat so they can sing along (Hey, hey)
Timbaland knows the way to reach the top of the charts
Maybe if I work with him I can perfect the art

I’mma do the things that I wanna do
I ain’t got a thing to prove to you
I’ll eat my candy with the pork and beans
Excuse my manners if I make a scene
I ain’t gonna wear the clothes that you like
I’m finally dandy with the me inside
One look in the mirror and I’m tickled pink
I don’t give a hoot about what you think

No I don’t care,
I don’t care

I’mma do the things that I wanna do
I ain’t got a thing to prove to you
I’ll eat my candy with the pork and beans
Excuse my manners if I make a scene
I ain’t gonna wear the clothes that you like
I’m finally dandy with the me inside
One look in the mirror and I’m tickled pink
I don’t give a hoot about what you think

MP3: Pork and Beans (KROQ Radio Rip)

This Guy Needs A Better Promotions Team

I'm a little late on this track. About 148 years late. I think this guy's label needs to beef up its promotions.

This is the earliest known recording of voice made by Parisian inventor Edouard-Leon Scott de Martinville (I want a cool long French name). The recording itself is not much. It is a recording of someone singing an excerpt from the French folk song "Au Clair de la Lune". I can barely tell it is human. A historian quote in the MSNBC article appropriately describes it "like a ghost singing to you".

Ca-reepy. But amazing none the less. The article describes how it was done.

The recording was made 17 years before Edison invented the phonograph. Scott has experiments going back a few years but this was the first recording with recognizable results. The picture above is the device he created to record the sound, a phonautograph. It takes "photos" of sounds. It was originally never intended for playback, it was just to create a visible interpretation of sound.

MP3: Au Clair de la Lune--French folk song

Seriously you can't get more off the radar than this.

Jamaicans Beat the World To It

Here is an interesting article from Wired discussing Jamaica's influence on remixes, mash-ups, and music sharing. And a related interview with DJ Spooky (also through Wired) titled How a Tiny Caribbean Island Birthed the Mashup.

It is all centered around Trojan Records 40th anniversary (and the recent compilations mentioned here before by contemporary artists).

Even after 40 years, the Trojan philosophy of "reuse and remix" remains oddly in sync with today's culture of the copy.

"Everyone borrows from everyone," says Miller. "That's what digital culture is all about. Information, the cliché goes, wants to be free.

"I guess that Jamaican culture got there a little before everyone else."