Peeps,

 This Elstree tune by the mighty BUGGLES is like high heel shoes or Fafi’s apple and pear crumble: another  proof that God exists. It feels like spring in the verse and autumn in the chorus. It’s technically perfect yet sounds so simple. And it’s the upmost example of how you don’t need to be a supreme singer to make an amazing song.

  Bromance is in the air, my vieux frère Xavier de Rosnay plugged me onto this song, this post is dedicated to him. I thought I could pay him back by introducing him to my favourite EPMD track.

     M.

       Peeps,

  What are we supposed to make of Mr Tellier’s body of work?

  The question can be asked for two reasons:

  First, because his most successful album is the “least good” one, in my opinion.

  Second because of the personnage he has grown to be in the mainstream media (and on stage), which now completely overshadows the quality of his musical proposition-and it’s only my opinion, once again.

  My peoples, you should know this: of all the musicians and producers I know close enough to call friends, there is only one I refer to as a true genius. His name is Sebastien Tellier, and he swings with the best of’em. His first two albums are simply too good to be true. ‘Oh Malheur’, ‘Universe’, ‘Trilogie Chien’ are masterpieces, ok. ‘La Ritournelle’, of course, ok, ok. But nothing compares to Broadway.

  This is Tellier at an absolute high. The composition is unrivaled, but it’s the whole feeling of the song that drives me crazy. The only thing that I don’t like is the last 8 bars-and that’s because they announce the end of it. Music this good should never stop.

     Get loud,

        M.

     Seriously peeps,

  How in the world could this 1974 Kung-fu number by Curtis Mayfield be any better?

   There’s nothing about this song that I don’t like. The falsetto singing, the lyrics, the acoustics, the bass player is amazing, the drummer is amazing, the string arrangement and the horn section are beyond compare. And that guitar playing, man, sounds like he’s caressing his Fender to maximum teasing with the back of his hand. When I try to imagine perfection in music, this is one of the songs that come to my mind, in a darker, sadder, somehow stranger kind of way than Stevie’s or Marvin’s. 

   Chicago, stand-up for Superfly in heaven,

      M.

(Anything on the SWEET EXORCIST album really is on this level, buy it, rip it, burn it, something, anything.)

  In the spirit of my ‘Tomorrow is a long place’ post from two days ago, I will now randomly suggest you peeps some of these man-made accomplishments that, in my opinion, induce some help from above (or below, or elsewhere, you choose). This is not intended to be too spiritual, as it is of course very subjective. I also wish I could grant you guys with the possibility of commenting my choices, as well as proposing yours. I’ll find a solution asap because this should definitely be an open conversation.

   Not to sound too “Tower-Of-Babelicious”, but a few things really make me feel like, sometimes, mankind be thankful to God for leaving us some free time.

   A tout seigneur tout honneur, today’s suggestion is directly sprung from the great mind that inspired this post in the first place, Monsieur BOB DYLAN. Am I the only one to think that Bob should’ve received the Nobel Prize already? His songwriting is indeed literature after all.

  My personal favorites of Bob’s aren’t the more complicated ones. I love his simple love songs, and I love his break-up songs even more. ‘It ain’t me babe’, ‘Don’t think twice’, ‘Most likely you’ll go your way and I go mine’, and my absolute number one TOMORROW IS A LONG TIME:

If today was not an endless highway,
If tonight was not a crooked trail,
If tomorrow wasn’t such a long time,
Then lonesome would mean nothing to you at all.
Yes, and only if my own true love was waitin’,
Yes, and if I could hear her heart a-softly poundin’,
Only if she was lyin’ by me,
Then I’d lie in my bed once again.

I can’t see my reflection in the waters,
I can’t speak the sounds that show no pain,
I can’t hear the echo of my footsteps,
Or can’t remember the sound of my own name.
Yes, and only if my own true love was waitin’,
Yes, and if I could hear her heart a-softly poundin’,
Only if she was lyin’ by me,
Then I’d lie in my bed once again.

There’s beauty in the silver, singin’ river,
There’s beauty in the sunrise in the sky,
But none of these and nothing else can touch the beauty
That I remember in my true love’s eyes.
Yes, and only if my own true love was waitin’,
Yes, and if I could hear her heart a-softly poundin’,
Only if she was lyin’ by me,
Then I’d lie in my bed once again.

  Get Dylan’s own from his GREATEST HITS Vol2, plus the song has been covered many times. Note to Busy Pedro, even Nick Drake did one beautiful version:

   Are you all having a rainy saturday afternoon too?

    Enjoy!

       M.

  My peoples,

 Sorry for not updating this as much as I should, but this time-off I took from touring turned out to be nothing of a vacation. And when I’m not Papa Mehdi, I’m working quite hard on what will be my two biggest projects of this half of 2009: the forthcoming first EP from MAPEI and my remix compilation for Ed Banger Records tentatively called RED BLACK AND BLUE.

 Here are some quick bits of what I’ve been thinking as possible good next posts though:

- Nina Simone is my favourite singer of all-time, you really should check, for example, ‘Just Say I Love Him’ off of the FORBIDDEN FRUIT album.  She’s also one of the best musician that ever walked the planet, in my humble opinion. (I’m also going to start posting music here soon by the way…)

 - A lot of cartoons I was watching on TV growing up have been re-made with a horrible, ugly 3-D design and look absolutely awful now, the worst being INSPECTOR GADGET, hands down. Was the feeling the same for our parents, when they were telling us: “Gosh, it was really different in my time” ?

 - Nutella hazelnut paste is so good, it’s a proof that God exists. I got this from Cosmo Vitelli, and I couldn’t agree more. Actually, this could become a new series for this blog too, something like SUPREME PROOF #XX, things that are so good, or that make us so happy that it has to have something to do with the upper floor. Stuff like ‘God Only Knows’ by the Beach Boys, Seinfeld’s ‘The Puffy Shirt’, or this EPMD cover:

    Soon then,

      Mehdi.