SOMETHING IN THE WAY

NIRVANA

SONGWRITER: KURT COBAIN

COUNTRY: U. S. A.

ALBUM: NEVERMIND

LABEL: DGC RECORDS

GENRE: ROCK

YEAR: 1991

 

         Nirvana was an American rock band formed in Aberdeen, Washington in 1987. Founded by lead singer and guitarist Kurt Cobain and bassist Krist Novoselic, the band went through a succession of drummers, most notably Chad Channing, before recruiting Dave Grohl in 1990. Nirvana's success popularized alternative rock, and they were often referenced as the figurehead band of Generation X. Their music maintains a popular following and continues to influence modern rock and roll culture.

           In the late 1980s, Nirvana established itself as part of the Seattle grunge scene, releasing its first album, Bleach, for the independent record label Sub Pop in 1989. They developed a sound that relied on dynamic contrasts, often between quiet verses and loud, heavy choruses. After signing to major label DGC Records in 1991, Nirvana found unexpected mainstream success with "Smells Like Teen Spirit", the first single from their landmark second album Nevermind(1991). A cultural phenomenon of the 1990s, Nevermind was certified Diamond by the RIAA and is credited for ending the dominance of hair metal.

        Characterized by their punk aesthetic, Nirvana's fusion of pop melodies with noise, combined with their themes of abjection and social alienation, brought them global popularity. Following extensive tours and the 1992 compilation álbum Incesticide and EP Hormoaning, the band released their highly anticipated third studio album, In Utero(1993). The album topped both the US and UK album charts, and was acclaimed by critics. Nirvana disbanded following Cobain's suicide in April 1994. Various posthumous releases have been overseen by Novoselic, Grohl, and Cobain's widow Courtney Love. The posthumous live álbum MTV Unplugged in New York(1994) won Best Alternative Music Performance at the 1996 Grammy Awards.

             Nirvana is one of the best-selling bands of all time, having sold more than 75million records worldwide. During their three years as a mainstream act, Nirvana received an American Music Award, Brit Award and Grammy Award, as well as seven MTV Video Music Awards and two NME Awards. They achieved five number-one hits on the Billboard Alternative Songs chart and four number-one albums on the Billboard 200. In 2004, Rolling Stone named Nirvana among the 100 greatest artists of all time. They were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in their first year of eligibility in 2014.

Nevermind is the second studio album by American rock band Nirvana, released on September 24, 1991, by DGC Records. It was Nirvana's first release on a major label and the first to feature drummer Dave Grohl. Produced by Butch Vig, Nevermind features a more polished, radio-friendly sound than the band's prior work. Recording took place at Sound City Studios in Van Nuys, California, and Smart Studios in Madison, Wisconsin in May and June 1991, with mastering being completed in August of that year at The Mastering Lab in Hollywood, California.

          According to frontman Kurt Cobain, the sound of Nevermind was influenced by bands such as the Pixies, R.E.M., the Smithereens, and the Melvins. While Nevermind is considered a cornerstone of the grunge genre, the album is noted for its musical diversity, which includes acoustic ballads ("Polly"; "Something in the Way") and punk-inspired hard rock ("Territorial Pissings"; "Stay Away").

         Nevermind became an unexpected critical and commercial success. In January 1992, it reached number one on the US Billboard 200; during this time it was selling approximately 300,000 copies a week. The lead single "Smells Like Teen Spirit" peaked at number six on the US Billboard Hot 100, and its video was heavily rotated on MTV. Three other successful singles were produced: "Come as You Are", "Lithium", and "In Bloom". Nevermind was voted the best album of the year in Pazz & Jop critics' poll, while "Smells Like Teen Spirit" also topped the single of the year and video of the year polls.

         Nevermind is often credited with initiating a resurgence of interest in punk culture among teenagers and young adults of Generation X. The album is also widely credited with bringing grunge and alternative rock to a mainstream audience while ending the dominance of hair metal. It has sold more than 30 million copies worldwide, making it one of the best-selling albums of all time. In March 1999, Nevermind was certified diamond by the RIAA. Among the most acclaimed and influential albums in the history of music, it was added to the National Recording Registry in 2004 as "culturally, historically, or aesthetically important".

Underneath the bridge

Tarp has sprung a leak

And the animals I've trapped

Have all become my pets

And I'm living off of grass

And the drippings from my ceiling

It's okay to eat fish

Cause they don't have any feelings

 

Something in the way

Mmm-mmm

Something in the way, yeah

Mmm-mmm

Something in the way

Mmm-mmm

Something in the way, yeah

Mmm-mmm

Something in the way

Mmm-mmm

Something in the way, yeah

Mmm-mmm

 

Underneath the bridge

Tarp has sprung a leak

And the animals I've trapped

Have all become my pets

And I'm living off of grass

And the drippings from the ceiling

It's okay to eat fish

Cause they don't have any feelings

 

Something in the way

Mmm-mmm

Something in the way, yeah

Mmm-mmm

Something in the way

Mmm-mmm

Something in the way, yeah

Mmm-mmm

Something in the way

Mmm-mmm

Something in the way, yeah

Mmm-mmm

Something in the way

Mmm-mmm

Something in the way, yeah

Mmm-mmm.

DANCING IN THE STREET

DAVID BOWIE & MICK JAGGER

SONGWRITER: IVY HUNTER; MARVIN GAYE & WILLIAM STEVENS

COUNTRY: U. K.

ALBUM: THE SINGLES COLLECTION

LABEL: EMI MUSIQUE

GENRE: ROCK

YEAR: 1993

 

      David Robert Jones(8 January 1947– 10 January 2016), known professionally as David Bowie(/ˈboʊi/BOH-ee), was an English singer-songwriter and actor. A leading figure in the music industry, Bowie is regarded as one of the most influential musicians of the 20th century. He was acclaimed by critics and musicians, particularly for his innovative work during the 1970s. His career was marked by reinvention and visual presentation, and his music and stagecraft had a significant impact on popular music.

           Bowie developed an interest in music as a child. He studied art, music and design before embarking on a professional career as a musician in 1963. "Space Oddity", released in 1969, was his first top-five entry on the UK Singles Chart. After a period of experimentation, he re-emerged in 1972 during the glam rock era with his flamboyant and androgynous alter ego Ziggy Stardust. The character was spearheaded by the success of Bowie's single "Starman" and álbum The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars, which won him widespread popularity. In 1975, Bowie's style shifted towards a sound he characterised as "plastic soul", initially alienating many of his UK fans but garnering him his first major US crossover success with the number-one single "Fame" and the Album Young Americans. In 1976, Bowie starred in the cult film The Man Who Fell to Earth and released Station to Station. In 1977, he again changed direction with the electronic-inflected album Low, the first of three collaborations with Brian Eno that came to be known as the "Berlin Trilogy". "Heroes" (1977) and Lodger(1979) followed; each album reached the UK top five and received lasting critical praise.

          After uneven commercial success in the late 1970s, Bowie had three number-one hits: the 1980 single "Ashes to Ashes", its album Scary Monsters (and Super Creeps), and "Under Pressure" (a 1981 collaboration with Queen). He reached his peak commercial success in 1983 with Let's Dance: its title track topped both the UK and US charts. Throughout the 1990s and 2000s, Bowie continued to experiment with musical styles, including industrial and jungle. He also continued acting: his roles included Major Jack Celliers in Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence(1983), Jareth the Goblin King in Labyrinth(1986), Pontius Pilate in The Last Temptation of Christ(1988), and Nikola Tesla in The Prestige(2006), among other film and television appearances and cameos. He stopped touring after 2004 and his last live performance was at a charity event in 2006. In 2013, Bowie returned from a decade-long recording hiatus with The Next Day. He remained musically active until his death from liver cancer at his home in New York City. He died two days after both his 69th birthday and the release of his final album, Blackstar(2016).

             During his lifetime, his record sales, estimated at over 100 million records worldwide, made him one of the best-selling music artists of all time. In the UK, he was awarded ten platinum, eleven gold and eight silver album certifications, and released 11 number-one albums. In the US, he received five platinum and nine gold certifications. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1996. Rolling Stone named him among the greatest artists in history and – after his death – the "greatest rock star ever".

             The Singles Collection is a compilation album by English musician David Bowie, released in 1993 in the UK and (with some changes) as The Singles 1969 to 1993 in the United States. The Australian release had the same track listing as the UK version, but the two discs were released as separate albums, The Singles Collection 1(with a cover identical to the UK release) and The Singles Collection 2(with the same cover but recoloured green).

            Despite the album name, some of the tracks were never released as singles by Bowie.

        The first 40,000 copies of the original 1993 American CD release included a third disc containing a single track, "Peace on Earth/Little Drummer Boy", a duet by Bowie and Bing Crosby taken from Bing's 1977 Christmas television special.

Okay

Tokyo, South America, Australia, France, Germany, UK, Africa

 

Calling out around the world

Are you ready for a brand new beat?

Summer's here and the time is right

For dancing in the street

 

They're dancing in Chicago (dancing in the street)

Down in New Orleans (dancing in the street)

In New York City (dancing in the street)

 

All we need is music, sweet music ( sweet sweet music)

There'll be music everywhere (everywhere)

They'll be swinging, swaying, records playing

Dancing in the street, oh

 

It doesn't matter what you wear

Just as long as you are there

So come on, every guy, grab a girl

Everywhere, around the world

 

They'll be dancing, dancing in the street

(Dancing in the street)

It's an invitation across the nation, a chance for folks to meet

They'll be laughing and singing and music swinging

Dancing in the street

 

Philadelphia, PA (dancing in the street)

Baltimore and DC now (dancing in the street)

Don't forget the Motor City (dancing in the street)

On the streets of Brazil (dancing in the street)

Back in the USSR (dancing in the street)

Don't matter where you are (dancing in the street)

 

All we need is music, sweet music (sweet sweet music)

There'll be music everywhere (everywhere)

They'll be swinging, swaying, records playing

Dancing in the street, oh

 

It doesn't matter what you wear

Just as long as you are there

So come on every guy, grab a girl

Everywhere, around the world

 

They'll be dancing, dancing in the street

(Dancing in the street)

Way down in L.A., everyday

Dancing in the street (dancing in the street)

Crossin' China, too, me and you

Dancing in the street (dancing in the street)

 

Don't you know they'll be dancing

Dancing in the street (dancing in the street)

Don't you know they'll be d-d-d-d-dancing

Dancing in the street (dancing in the street).

THESE DAYS

JACKSON BROWNE

SONGWRITER: JACKSON BROWNE

COUNTRY: U. S. A.

ALBUM: TOGHETHER AGAIN(LIVE AT JABBERWOCKY, SYRACUSE NY 27 MAR 1971)

LABEL: ROXVOX

GENRE: FOLK

YEAR: 1971

 

            Clyde Jackson Browne(born October 9, 1948) is an American singer-songwriter and musician who has sold over 18 million albums in the United States.

              Emerging as a precocious teenage songwriter in mid-1960s Los Angeles, he had his first successes writing songs for others, writing "These Days" as a 16-year-old; the song became a minor hit for the German singer and Andy Warhol protégé Nico in 1967. He also wrote several songs for fellow Southern California bands Nitty Gritty Dirt Band(with whom he was briefly a member in 1966) and the Eagles, the latter of whom had their first Billboard Top 40 hit in 1972 with the Browne co-written song "Take It Easy".

              Encouraged by his successes writing songs for others, Browne released his self-titled debut album in 1972, which spawned two Top 40 hits of his own, "Doctor, My Eyes" and "Rock Me on the Water". For his debut album, as well as for the next several albums and concert tours, Browne started working closely with The Section, a prolific session band that also worked with a number of other prominent singer-songwriters of the era. His second album, For Everyman, was released in 1973, and while it lacked an enduring single, has been retrospectively assessed as some of his best work, appearing highly on several "Best Album of All Time" lists. His third album, Late for the Sky, was his most successful to that point, peaking at number 14 on the Billboard 200 album chart, and earning Browne his first Grammy nomination for Album of the Year. His fourth album, The Pretender, continued the pattern of each album topping the previous by peaking at number 5 on the album chart, and spawned the hit singles "Here Come Those Tears Again" and "The Pretender".

             It would be the 1977 album Running on Empty, however, that would be his signature work, peaking at number 3 on the album chart, and remaining there for over a year. Both a live album and a concept album, the songs on the album explore the themes of life as a touring musician, and the album was recorded both on stage, and in places touring musicians spend time when not playing, such as hotel rooms, backstage, and in one case on a moving tour bus. The album produced two Top 40 singles, "Running on Empty" and "The Load-Out/Stay", and many of the other tracks became popular radio hits on the AOR format.

           Successful albums continued through the 1980s, including the 1980 album Hold Out, his only number 1 album, the non-album single "Somebody's Baby", which was used in the film Fast Times at Ridgemont High, and 1983's Lawyers in Love, which included the hit single "Tender Is the Night". In 1986, he released Lives in the Balance, which had several radio hits and included the introspective "In the Shape of a Heart", which was inspired by the suicide of his first wife a decade prior. His string of hit albums came to an end at that point, as his next several albums failed to produce a gold or platinum RIAA rating.

              He released two compilation albums, The Next Voice You Hear: The Best of Jackson Browne in 1997, and The Very Best of Jackson Browne, released in conjunction with his Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction in 2004. His most recent studio album is 2021's Downhill from Everywhere, the follow-up to 2014's Standing in the Breach, which included the first fully realized version of his song "The Birds of St. Marks", a song he had written at age 18. In 2015, Rolling Stone ranked him as 37th in its list of the "100 Greatest Songwriters of All Time".

          "These Days" is a song written by Jackson Browne and recorded by numerous artists. Browne wrote the song at age 16; its lyrics deal with loss and regret. It was first recorded by Nico in 1967 for her album Chelsea Girl, and Nico's arrangement was recorded by several other artists. Tom Rush recorded the tune with a string arrangement for his album Tom Rush in 1970. Gregg Allman recorded a new arrangement of the song for his 1973 LP Laid Back, and Browne released his own version, based on Allman's arrangement, on For Everyman, also in 1973. "These Days" has since been recorded by many other artists, and remains one of Browne's most enduring compositions.

         According to Randall Roberts at the Los Angeles Times, the song has "quietly become a classic" over the years. Pitchfork Media's 2006 ranking of "The 200 Greatest Songs of the 1960s" placed the Nico version of "These Days" at number 31

Well I've been out walking

I don't do that much talking these days, these days

These days I seem to think a lot

About the things that I forgot to do

And all the times I had the chance to

 

And I had a lover

It's so hard to risk another of these days, these days

Now if I seem to be afraid

To live the life that I have made in song

Well it's just that I've been losing for so long

 

Well I'll keep on moving, moving on

Things are bound to be improving these days, one of these days

These days I sit on corner stones

And count the time in quarter tones to ten, my friend

Don't confront me with my failures,

I had not forgotten them.

JUST ONE LOOK

LINDA RONSTADT

SONGWRITERS: DORIS PAYNE & GREGORY CARROLL

COUNTRY: U. S. A.

ALBUM: LIVING IN THE U.S.A.

LABEL: ASYLUM RECORDS

GENRE: ROCK

YEAR: 1978

 

       Linda Maria Ronstadt(born July 15, 1946) is a retired American singer who performed and recorded in diverse genres including rock, country, light opera, and Latin. She has earned 11 Grammy Awards, three American Music Awards, two Academy of Country Music awards, an Emmy Award, and an ALMA Award. Many of her albums have been certified gold, platinum or multiplatinum in the United States and internationally. She has also earned nominations for a Tony Award and a Golden Globe award. She was awarded the Latin Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award by the Latin Recording Academy in 2011 and also awarded the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award by the Recording Academy in 2016. She was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in April 2014. On July 28, 2014, she was awarded the National Medal of Arts and Humanities. In 2019, she received a star jointly with Dolly Parton and Emmylou Harris on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for their work as the group Trio. Ronstadt was among five honorees who received the 2019 Kennedy Center Honors for lifetime artistic achievements.

          Ronstadt has released 24 studio albums and 15 compilation or greatest hits albums. She charted 38 US Billboard Hot 100 singles. Twenty-one of those singles reached the top 40, ten reached the top 10, and one reached number one ("You're No Good"). Ronstadt also charted in UK as two of her duets, "Somewhere Out There" with James Ingram and "Don't Know Much" with Aaron Neville, peaked at numbers 8 and 2 respectively and the single "Blue Bayou" reached number 35 on the UK Singles charts.

       Ronstadt has collaborated with artists in diverse genres, including: Dolly Parton, Emmylou Harris, Bette Midler, Billy Eckstine, Frank Zappa, Carla Bley (Escalator Over the Hill), Rosemary Clooney, Flaco Jiménez, Philip Glass, Warren Zevon, Gram Parsons, Neil Young, Paul Simon, Earl Scruggs, Johnny Cash, and Nelson Riddle. She has lent her voice to over 120 albums and has sold more than 100 million records, making her one of the world's best-selling artists of all time. Christopher Loudon, of Jazz Times, wrote in 2004 that Ronstadt is "blessed with arguably the most sterling set of pipes of her generation."

           Ronstadt reduced her activity after 2000 when she felt her singing voice deteriorating, releasing her last full-length album in 2004 and performing her last live concert in 2009. She announced her retirement in 2011 and revealed shortly afterwards that she is no longer able to sing as a result of a degenerative condition later determined to be progressive supranuclear palsy. Since then, Ronstadt has continued to make public appearances, going on a number of public speaking tours in the 2010s. She published an autobiography, Simple Dreams: A Musical Memoir, in September 2013. A documentary based on her memoirs, Linda Ronstadt: The Sound of My Voice, was released in 2019.

         Living in the USA is the ninth studio album by American singer Linda Ronstadt, released in 1978. The album was Ronstadt's third and final Nº 1 on the Billboard 200 album chart.

Just one look and I fell so hard

In love, with you, oh oh

I found out how good it feels

To have, your love, oh oh

 

Say you will, will be mine

Forever, and always, oh oh

Just one look and I knew

That you were my only one, oh oh

 

I thought I was dreaming

But I was wrong, oh yeah yeah

Ah but I'm gonna keep on scheming

Till I make you, make you my own

 

So you see, I really care

Without you I'm nothing, oh oh

Just one look and I know

I'll get you someday, oh oh

 

Just one look

That's all it took, hah, just one look

That's all it took, woah, just one look

That's all it woah, baby

(That's all it took, just one look)

You know I love you baby

(That's all it took, just one look)

I'll build my world around you

(That's all it took, just one look)

(That's all it took, just one look)

Come on baby

(That's all it took).