Posts Tagged ‘sheryl crow

14
Feb
13

Slicky-T And The Valentine’s Day Curse

cupid5afDo you guys remember Valentine’s Day back in highschool? I do! And that shit cracks me up every time because I NEVER got any fucking roses, chocolates or cards, I was that kid.

No wait, I did get the one rose once from a girl in matric, but otherwise the whole thing was a gigantic waste of time for me. I went in with low expectations and was never disappointed because I am cursed.

Valentine’s Day and I have never been friends. The best Valentine’s Day I spent was at The Doors in Joburg where they released a gigantic net of red and white balloons that the crowd obliterated with Rammstein blasting in the background.

I can count the number of romantic, candle-lit Valentine’s Days I’ve spent gazing lovingly into a girl’s eyes while a suitably cheesy song (cue Chris DeBurgh’s “Lady In Red”) plays in the background on one hand.

That was all before J-Rab and I started dating though. Now Valentine’s Day has taken on a whole new meaning for me. Now I have someone to share my contempt for it with!

 

 

Come October this year, J-Rab and I will have been dating for six years and you know how many Valentine’s Days we’ve spent together? Motherflippin’ TWO! Hahahaha!

First two years we were living in different continents (long story), the year after that J-Rab had just moved to Cape Town and I was still packing up the flat in Joburg, the next two were the ones we spent together and this year, she’s in the UK and I’m here.

The first one we actually spent together was awesome. We both felt so much pressure to make the best of it, our very first Valentine’s Day together that it flopped spectacularly and ended with both of us fully acknowledging that Valentine’s Day is a total load of shit.

“But it’s not about the flowers or the cards or the chocolates!” I hear you all say, “Don’t buy into the commercial bullshit, Valentine’s Day is about celebrating your love for one another!”

 

 

I get that all the time when I explain J-Rab and my total disinterest in Valentine’s Day but I just nod and smile.

Real love celebrates itself spontaneously and without restraints or expectations. It flows in abundance, never running dry, never relying on anything outside itself to fill itself. It is selfless and pure and is communicated in a language that is timeless, wordless and powerful enough to change the world.

Right back when J-Rab and I first started seeing one another I remember asking my old lady how the hell J-Rab and I were ever going to close the continental space between us, whether it was even worth trying.

My old lady said to me, “If it was meant to be, it will be. Love can move mountains” and God bless her, she was right.

Back then J-Rab would often joke that I was the best mistake she ever made.

So this one’s for you babe, Happy Valentine’s Day (um, probably just listen to the song and don’t watch the actual video because yeah, clearly Sheryl’s choreographer was sick that day…)

 

 

To love.

To the real deal Winking smile

-ST

17
Mar
10

Album Review: Johnny Cash – Ain’t No Grave

I say ‘Johnny Cash’ and you say ‘Joaquin Phoenix’. I say ‘brilliant and deeply troubled country musician who struggled his whole life with alcohol, drugs and his relationship with God’ and you say ‘a feel-good Hollywood love-story that ends when guy marries girl and they live happily ever after.’

 

 

Walk The Line ended just before Johnny Cashes life actually got interesting and way too much emphasis was placed on his relationship with June Carter, which was basically the focal point of the entire movie and the reason why there has to be a Walk The Line II: Cash Comes Back which I will of course write and direct.

The tragedy of Johnny Cashes life was that for over a decade the world completely forgot about him. He reached the height of his success in the 60s and 70s and had one hit after the next, as well as numerous appearances on TV and in film, but when 1980 hit, the world turned its back on the Man In Black, leaving Cash feeling forgotten and dejected.

 

 

And that’s pretty much where Johnny Cashes story would have ended if it weren’t for Rick Rubin and his formidable skills as a music visionary and producer. Under Rubin’s supervision, Cash recorded the album American Recordings in his living room in 1994, a collection of cover songs and original material that won a Grammy that year for Best Contemporary Folk Album.

Another three ‘American’ albums followed, Unchained (1996), American III: Solitary Man (2000) and American IV: The Man Comes Around (2002). American IV is widely regarded as Cashes epitaph as it was the last album he recorded before his death in September 2003. It contains his cover of the Nine Inch Nails song ‘Hurt’, the video of which is immensely powerful and I’d urge anyone reading this to watch it right now.

After his death, a fifth American album was released from left-over material he’d recorded with Rubin entitled, American V: A Hundred Highways (2006) which has sold 337,000 copies since its release and which looked like it was going to be the last album of new material to be released, until now.

This year sees the release of American VI: Ain’t No Grave, also produced by Rubin and all I can say is I hope this is the last American album that Rubin produces because while it really does shine in parts, mostly it ambles through one overly religious country song after the next and then ends, somewhat bizarrely, on the Hawaiian song ‘Aloha Oe’ 32 minutes later.

 

 

The title track and opening song ‘Ain’t No Grave’ is definitely one of the album’s stronger tracks and the line ‘When I hear that trumpet sound / Gonna rise right out of the ground / Ain’t no grave / Can hold my body down’ is strangely prophetic given that Cash has basically released this album from the grave.

It’s a slow and badass country song which, when combined with the lumbering drum beat and the repeating sound of chains being dragged, makes for a haunting track. You kinda get the feeling that at any moment you could look over your shoulder and be greeted by zombie Johnny Cash, covered in dust and dirt, wearing a tattered black suit, grinning and playing a banjo carved out of bones.

The mood doesn’t lift as the second song ‘Redemption Day’ (a Sheryl Crow cover) plays, but that’s not a bad thing. Cashes rendition of the song, with his old and quavering bass-baritone voice is heartfelt and moving. It sure as hell won’t get the party started, but it just might keep you company in moments when life is shitty and hope is hard to come by.

The song ‘Satisfied Mind’, which featured in Kill Bill Vol. 2 is also a great track. It’s just Cash and his guitar, strumming a slow song about how ‘There’s one thing for certain / When it comes my time / I’ll leave this ol’ world / With a satisfied mind.’ I’ve always loved this song because it perfectly captures the space Cashes mind was in during his twilight years and it’s a space I hope I might reach someday myself.

The rest of the songs on the album waver between sounding like hokey church hymns (‘I Corinthians: 15:55) and down-trodden, my-girl-left-me-and-my-horse-just-died country ballads (‘For The Good Times’, ‘Can’t Help But Wonder Where I’m Bound’, ‘Cool Water’) that could very well bore you to tears.

 

 

Unlike previous American albums, this won’t appeal to a younger audience. If you’re a die-hard Johnny Cash fan, you’ll appreciate this album, but will also concede that it’s not his best. However, if you’re one of the many who’s only real perception of the Man In Black was shaped entirely by Walk The Line, you won’t find any of the upbeat tracks like ‘It Ain’t Me Babe’, ‘Ring Of Fire’, and ‘I Walk The Line’ on Ain’t No Grave and probably won’t find it appealing in the slightest.

For me though, it’s a fitting end to the body of work that Cash recorded throughout his life and I’m glad I bought it, even though sometimes it makes me suicidal.

Final Verdict: 6/10

-ST