"Y'all Don't Wanna" Capone-N-Noriega Heavy Hits Mixed By DJ Enuff
"Y Control" Yeah Yeah Yeahs Fever To Tell
"Y Tu Que Has Hecho?" Buena Vista Social Club Buena Vista Social Club
"Y.M.C.A." The Village People Ultimate Disco 30th Anniversary Collection
"Ya Ya" Art Blakey Orgy In Rhythm, Vol. 1-2
"Yadnus" !!! Live at KEXP, Vol. 4
"Yakety Yak" The Coasters Atlantic Rhythm & Blues 1947-74
"Yalira" The Very Best Warm Heart Of Africa
"Yamore" Salif Keita Moffou
"Yank Me (Doodle)" The Barracudas The Complete Stax/Volt Singles, 1959-68
Once again I apologize for the long absence. I broke my right arm being either stupid or awesome depending on who you ask. (while there is not a one-to-one relationship, there seems to be a correlation between finding my injury more "awesome" than "stupid" and the presence of a y-chromosome in one's genetic makeup). I have been down for about two months, but have reached a point resembling full mobility, at least full enough for typing and prattling on about music.
For those of you who may have forgotten, or are just stumbling along this piece of self-absorption for the first time, the idea is that I am going through my ripped music collection 10 songs at a time, alphabetically, and blogging loosely about the music I encounter in each set. While I was injured I started going back through the collection and finding links to videos of the songs I listened to. These are not my uploads, and hopefully I can avoid C&D letters. Some caveats about the videos - I am not always that concerned about getting the exact version of the song that I have listened to. If mine is unavailable, or if there is something much more awesome out there, then I will link to something else. Generally, if there is an official video I will use that, unless there is some other bit of fan art that is more exciting (see, kids' recital to "Galaxy" after a science class, although I will now cheat and give you this live version from "Thee Mr. Duran Show," complete with messy opening interview). I then tend to look for live versions (Of which there are many - even while Steve Jobs continues to try to displace Lars as the most hated man in music). After that, the only thing I try to avoid are the lazy "videos" that just slap up a photo of the album cover and play the song (in this set, I did use one of those for the Art Blakey song - there wasn't going to be anything else. However, I used an odd remix by the Drapers for "Yakety Yak" rather than one of those, or one that was a slide-show of stills from "American Graffiti). I am continuing to update the old posts with links as well.
I would point out here that !!! and Yeah Yeah Yeahs are in some kind of competition to create the more disturbing official video. Despite the singing roadkill and the poorly dancing daughters of the corn for !!!, I would have to say Karen O & Co. win.
We are about a week out from New York's legalization of gay marriage. This comes too late for Jacques Morali, the producer behind The Village People, who died of AIDS in 1991, and for the leatherman, Glenn Hughes, who died of lung cancer in 2001 (and was interred in his leather). However, the cowboy, Randy Jones, married his partner in 2004, stating presciently (but underestimating the public), "Its only a matter of time before the courts rule in favor of what is morally right and humanly decent." The lawyer me believes they will probably have to renew those vows now in order for the marriage to be legally binding. Victor Willis, the cop and frontman, was the only straight man in the original group, and made his way into the news this week for demanding an apology from Tracy Morgan for implying that the writer of "Y.M.C.A." (Willis) was gay. Willis was apparently married to Claire Huxtable for a few years, and apparently was fighting drug abuse for 25 years, spending time in and out of jail, and being featured on "America's Most Wanted." Since getting clean, he has apparently been fighting with the other village people. On May 2 of this year he filed suit for more royalties from the other Village People (not his first suit against the band). I love this website's then & now picture of Willis - it clearly shows the pages feelings. The three other original members still go around as The Village People - the construction worker, David Hodo, who started as a roller-skating fire-eater and now apparently rescues stray animals in the Bronx, the soldier, Alex Briley, whose brother was the photographed "falling man" on 9/11/01, and without question the greatest of all Village People - the native american, Felipe Rose, who has embraced this all as strongly as Willis seems to have fought it, and whose website defies adjectives.
As for the song itself (and the other hits), Willis has tried to say that it was not meant to be a gay anthem when he wrote it. He is of course lying. The lyrics are one long double-entendre, and the context only drives the point home, it doesn't create the issue. In fact, hearing it now (and watching the video), it is astounding that there was not a quicker or more vehement backlash at the time. Instead, it became a mainstay of not only dance clubs, but sports arenas. Kind of amazing.
