Today's letter M is dedicated to the late, great Kirsty MacColl. I fell in love with the song "In These Shoes?" from her last album. Sadly, Kirsty died in a December 2000 boating accident. I am still trying to learn more about her and her glorious music.
Kirsty was the child of a Scottish folk singer, sort of a Celtic Pete Seeger. You can hear the Scottish rhythm's in her music, along with some leftist sentiments, but even more you hear a joyful lust for life, a wry sense of humor, a voice that can be haunting and wistful, sad or sultry. She loved Latin inspired music (try the exuberant Tropical Brainstorm) as well as traditional rock and pop. The wonderful Electric Landlady moves deftly from rap, to Latin, to ballad, to punk, to environmental protest songs.
But words cannot describe her music. She was an artist, like Joni Mitchell or Janis Joplin, that can't be compared to someone else.
Take a listen and see.
Kirsty's favorite albums as listed in 1994 were
1. THE BEACH BOYS ... Pet Sounds
2. IGGY POP ...Lust For Life
3. THE SMITHS ... Strangeways, Here We Come
4. XTC ... Black Sea
5. STEELY DAN ... Pretzel Logic
6. THE COCTEAU TWINS ... Heaven Or Las Vegas
7. KID CREOLE & THE COCONUTS ... Tropical Gangsters
8. BOB MARLEY ... Live
9. DAVID BOWIE ... Station To Station
10.FRANK BLACK ... Teenager Of The Year
2 comments:
How cool to see Kristy McColl on your blog!!! When I worked In RI, my co-worker and dear friend Amy introduced me to Tropical Brainstorm. She hounded me and hounded me until I listened to it and I was glad I did. It's a great album and Kristy has such a unique voice.
The highlight of your entry for me though was Kristy's favorite albums. Her taste is surprisingly similar to mine ("Strangeways..", "Heaven or Las Vegas", and "Pet Sounds" are all favorites of mine)...I had no idea! I'm also an XTC fan but haven't really listenend to Black Sea...so I'll put that on my list to check out. I'm a Pixies girl too, so a Frank Black choice is always nice as well.
Pete loves "Station to Station" and I'll acknowledge that it is a David Bowie musical masterpiece. I'll forgive both Bowie and Pete for "The Man Who Fell to Earth" and the hours of my life that were lost watching it...never to be seen again. Seriously, I think the best thing to come out of that movie was the cover for "station to station." But enough about that...cool blog Uncle Mike!!! I'll be back to read more.
Erin,
I thought of you when I saw Cocteau Twins on the list. I also like "Pet Sounds" and Marsha and I have always been big Steely Dan fans.
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