Listening to all this music over the last month, I kept on thinking how much this was like listening to "Free Form" on KRCC.
The other day I was surprised, as I rarely can identify anything on that show. I heard a song that sounded familiar. I thought to myself, "I know that song." It was "Nobody's Gonna Love You" by Band of Horses, download No. 8.
On to the new stuff, the last seven free Starbucks "Song of the Day" selections.
No. 31 was "Consider Me Gone" by Hilary McRae. A wonderful, strong voice although a little masculine (Hilary is a woman). I liked the Chicago-style horns in the background. A really upbeat, pop song.
John Mayer singing "Dreaming With a Broken Heart" was No. 32. Definite blues influence here on a rock song. By the way, Mayer has a "Back To You" Fund, in which his non-profit organization focuses on funding health care, education, the arts and talent development. He also sponsors "Another Kind of Green," an effort to reverse the effects of global warming. He is leading by example as well, converting his tour bus to bio-diesel and looking at alternatives to plastics.
"I Got It (What You Need)" by Galactic & Lyrics Born, an interesting fusion of alternative rock, rap, electronics and lot more, was No. 33. It was more like what I have been listening to with my daughter. There were a lot of fascinating percussions.
Bebel Gilberto is a bossa nova performer. She has the complete rights to that genre, being the daughter of Joao Gilberto, the "father of bossa nova." I thought the name looked familiar. Astrud Gilberto, Joao's first wife, performed "The Girl from Ipanema." Here Bebel sings "Um Segundo" and even though she is not biologically related to Astrud (they were divorced and Joao remarried to Bebel's mother), her style is a lot the same. A thumbs up to download 34.
I hadn't heard anything from Suzanne Vega since her song about an abused child, "Luka." That has been some time, but she has been recording all along. Download 35 is "Frank and Ava." Although this is a new release, the style is a little older. Again this deals with domestic violence, singing about getting drunk and being violent, with the repeated refrain "It's not enough to be in love." I think I feel about the same ambivalence about this song as I did "Luka."
Australian pop singer Sia performing "Day Too Soon" was Song of the Day 36. Good voice, good pop song (does she get this from her godfather, Men at Work's Colin Hay?). This song is a preview of her album "Some People Have REAL Problems," due out in January.
The final song is by Paul McCartney. Yes, I not only remember the Beatles, but I also still have some of their 45's (those funny little black disks that won't fit in your CD player). "Only Mama Knows" starts out with violins so syrupy I didn't know what to expect. Just as I was ready to think, "Poor Paul ..." the rock music kicked in, more in keeping with the Beatles or Wings. And it ends just the way it started, which is OK. Paul, by the way, shares a similar "disability" with several other very prodigious 20th Century songwriters, including George M. Cohan ("Yankee Doodle Dandy" and "Over There") and Irving Berlin ("Annie Get Your Gun"). None of them could write down music. They would construct the music in their heads, perform it and have someone else write it down (Sir Paul may have corrected that by now). Berlin could only play in the key of G Major, so to transpose his songs to another key, he had a special piano built with a gear shift that shifted the piano strings up or down according to the singer's range. Not sure what McCartney did, but he has been doing it right for about half a century now. And now that he's 64 ... .
I am sorry to see the program come to an end, but Starbuck's still offers the free Song of the Week through iTunes. While not a daily offering, it is still a way to hear songs you might normally not hear.