Monthly Archives: April 2019

Arachnophonia: Jim Croce “You Don’t Mess Around With Jim”

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Editor’s note: Arachnophonia is a regular feature on our blog where members of the UR community can share their thoughts about resources from the Parsons Music Library‘s collection.

All links included in these posts will take you to either the library catalog record for the item in question or to additional relevant information from around the web.

Today’s installment of Arachnophonia is by student worker Molly (class of 2021) and features Jim Croce’s 1972 studio album You Don’t Mess Around With Jim. Thanks, Molly!

Jim Croce

You Don’t Mess Around With Jim

Jim Croce - You Don't Mess Around With Jim

The first time I listened to a song on this album was my first time visiting New York, again after moving to Connecticut. Fittingly, I was sitting in a deli enjoying New York’s finest bagels and Jim Croce’s “New York’s Not My Home” came on. Soon I was engulfed by Croce’s lyrics and every sense of nostalgia. I guess you could say, my similar feelings towards New York made me first start listening to Jim Croce.

In 1968, Jim and his wife, Ingrid Croce, were encouraged to move to New York City by a record producer. They recorded their first album in the Bronx and drove around playing in small clubs and colleges. After being disappointed by the music business in New York, the couple sold all of their belongings except for one guitar to pay their rent and moved back to the countryside of Pennsylvania. Here, Croce was forced to pick up jobs like truck driving and construction work to pay the bills while he continued to write songs. What I like most about Croce’s songs is that many of them tell the stories of these odd times in his life that I find very relateable.

This album carries an array of songs that tell stories in a folk style like “New York’s Not My Home”, “Box #10”, and “Walkin’ Back to Georgia”, while others like “Operator (That’s Not The Way It Feels)”, “Time in a Bottle”, and “A Long Time Ago” portray love songs of different sorts. This eclectic mix of songs are very warm and it is an optimistic album I recommend to many.

I also enjoy Croce’s style which I view as a mix of character, humor, and love that creates the most heartfelt and relateable material, especially in this album. In my personal opinion, this album is the best to listen to after a long day to help unwind. The common man feel to this album drops the crypticness of most of today’s folk songs but paves poetic lyrics that tells us a story.

Arachnophonia: Getz/Gilberto

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Editor’s note: Arachnophonia is a regular feature on our blog where members of the UR community can share their thoughts about resources from the Parsons Music Library‘s collection.

All links included in these posts will take you to either the library catalog record for the item in question or to additional relevant information from around the web.

Today’s installment of Arachnophonia is by student worker Colin (class of 2021) and features the classic 1963 bossa nova album Getz/Gilberto. Thanks, Colin!

Stan Getz / João Gilberto

Getz/Gilberto

Getz / Gilberto

America in the 1950s was one of the greatest growing periods of this nation’s history. The decade marked huge economic growth following the end of World War II, a spiked population rate from the “baby boomers,” and the rise of new forms of technology and music. Rock n’ roll quickly became a well-received genre among the nation’s youth, and this was expedited by the new product known as television and also the “King” of hip-shaking and dance, Elvis Presley. Jazz, which had established itself as a cornerstone of American music, found it was taking a backseat both commercially and artistically against all the attention rock had been receiving.

However, because of Tony Bennett’s trip to Brazil in 1961, the brazilian-jazz genre of bossa nova was introduced to the United States. One of the musicians that became hooked on this type of music was Stan Getz, an American saxophonist. Bossa nova then found its way into the music scene, and after João Gilberto performed a concert in Carnegie Hall centered around bossa nova, a mutual friend introduced Gilberto and Getz to one another, and the album Getz/Gilberto was released in 1963.

What first attracted me to this album was a random jazz playlist I was listening to on Spotify. Through all the eclectic songs I heard, “The Girl from Ipanema” stood out to me as significant. I had listened to the famous song before, but this version of airy, Portuguese vocals immediately drew my attention. From there, I decided to listen to the album and had such a fun and relaxing time vibing with each song. My personal favorite track is “Corcovado (Quiet Night of Quiet Stars).” The song’s lyrics are quite short, simply referring to a quiet evening in which one can enjoy the sound of music while looking upon the beautiful mountain known as Corcovado. However, the melody and performance of the song are really astounding, and this song serves as one of my favorite jazz tunes of all time.

This album was also received critically well, as it won the Grammy for Album of the Year in 1965; the only jazz album to do so up to that point in history, and it maintained that status until 2008. Also, contrary to what was mentioned about jazz earlier, the JazzTimes released an article that stated it “served as proof that it is possible for music to be both artistically and commercially successful.” Getz/Gilberto definitely helped re-establish jazz into the population’s mindset, and it pushed the doors open for foreign influence in American music.

Arachnophonia: Bibio “The Apple and the Tooth” and “Mind Bokeh”

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Editor’s note: Arachnophonia is a regular feature on our blog where members of the UR community can share their thoughts about resources from the Parsons Music Library‘s collection.

All links included in these posts will take you to either the library catalog record for the item(s) in question or to additional relevant information from around the web.

Today’s installment of Arachnophonia is by student worker Jane (class of 2022) and features two albums by English musician Bibio. Thanks, Jane!

Bibio

The Apple and the Tooth

Bibio - The Apple and the Tooth

and

Mind Bokeh

Bibio - Mind Bokeh

I can’t remember how I first found Bibio, but it seemed like all of a sudden, his songs were all I listened to (69 hours worth in 2018 alone, but who’s counting?). His music, which blends acoustic guitars and mandolins with ambient nature sounds and funky jazz-electronic beats, has had a huge influence on me since the summer of 2014. His music might not be for everyone; a lot of it is instrumental, and it doesn’t follow a lot of the patterns that most modern pop songs do. I really love it though, and I’m so excited that my requests have been heard and we now have two of his albums: The Apple and the Tooth (2009) and Mind Bokeh (2011).

There are tons of great songs on both albums, but The Apple and the Tooth is kind of special because it has 8 remixed songs from his previous album — one of my favorites in the history of all music — Ambivalence Avenue (2009). Mind Bokeh is filled with more great songs; some of my favorites include “Feminine Eye“, “More Excuses“, and “K is for Kelson“.

If you’re looking for music to study to, fall asleep to, cry to, or feel inspired by, chances are that Bibio has at least 20 songs that will fit your mood. He’s a great artist, albeit fairly unknown, so give him a listen if you want to try something new!

Arachnophonia: Dear Evan Hansen

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Editor’s note: Arachnophonia is a regular feature on our blog where members of the UR community can share their thoughts about resources from the Parsons Music Library‘s collection.

All links included in these posts will take you to either the library catalog record for the item in question or to additional relevant information from around the web.

Today’s installment of Arachnophonia is by student worker Susie (class of 2019) and features the Tony Award winning musical Dear Evan Hansen. Thanks, Susie!

Dear Evan Hansen

Dear Evan Hansen

Dear Evan Hansen is certainly not your classic musical. For one thing, there are only 8 people in the entire cast, and there are certainly no big dance numbers. But there are many reasons why Dear Evan Hansen cleaned up at the 2017 Tony Awards including winning Best New Musical, and one of those reasons is the cast recording, which also won the Grammy for Best Musical Theater Album in 2017. The soundtrack captures the rawness of the story by having the “orchestra”, comprised of 5 instruments, on stage with the performers, and it utilizes electronic instrumentation to complement the importance of technology in the story line. And the soundtrack as a whole takes you on the journey of Evan Hansen, shy, bullied, friendless teenager who finds his place in the sun through a fabricated story just to have the truth come crashing in and destroy his new “perfect” life.

dear-evan-hansen

The soundtrack opens with “Anybody Have A Map?”, a song any mother wondering “does anybody happen to know how the hell to do this?” while raising teenagers can relate to. Then you hear the heartbreaking tune “Waving Through A Window” from Evan Hansen himself as he sings about always being on the outside and never being seen. Through the next 5 songs, you hear about Evan and his bully Connor, who is now dead, but due to a combination of coincidences, Evan is believed to have been Connor’s only friend. And as Evan leans into the lie, he helps Connor’s family, the school, and the world cope with loss due to teenage suicide through the song “You Will Be Found.” As Evan builds relationships and finds love in a father figure and a girlfriend that he never thought would be possible, everything begins to fall apart in a true Broadway fashion culminating with “Good For You” and “Words Fail.” But, of course, when the whole world seems to hate you, a child can always find support from his mother, and in “So Big/So Small”, Evan’s mother comforts him and the audience with lines like “your mom isn’t going anywhere … no matter what”. And from the rubble, Evan comes back and finds himself by “Stepping Into The Sun”. And in closing, Evan Hansen reminds us that even if you don’t have the life you have dreamed about, “today at least you’re you, and that’s enough”.

This soundtrack certainly isn’t a light and breezy listen, but if you enjoy emotional ballads and the beautiful vocals of Ben Platt, certainly give Dear Evan Hansen a listen.