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The ninety-seventh TV show: #501 The Fast Show

I know we're ahead on comedies, but this worked as a great show over the Christmas break and our other options was a bit less workable after going through our random draw options. While I am still lacking in many shows to compare it to, it feels like (as the name implies) this show focuses on the faster pace of sketches and cuts, not sticking around for longer than is needed. While the show was focused on Paul Whitehouse - and he still appears more than the other performers - it feels like an ensemble show and becomes it more as time goes on. It means the later seasons work better, as they've figured out more what characters work. While there are some less interesting sketches, most of them still hold up quite well and there's some decent pay offs to jokes - it's unfortunate the first season sometimes spends more time setting them up in the early episodes without as much pay off, but it's worth powering through them.

The three hundred and ninety-seventh song: Evie - Stevie Wright

As a song in three parts, this is a number you have to judge in three parts. The first, a passionate rocker from the start of a relationship, really sounds like AC/DC and sounds great - it is catchy and energetic. The ballad that follows is weaker, Stevie Wright's sound doesn't seemq utie right for it, but it leads nicely into the disco song that is in odd contrast to the lyrics about the loss of Evie. It's interesting how it sets up a story in three parts like that, as a decent experiment in story telling through song.

The three hundred and ninety-eighth song: Free Man in Paris - Joni Mitchell

There's a happy tone to this jazz song about a record executive, taking a holiday in Paris - an upcoming destination for us, and here it sounds like a land of freedom, away from the buzz of everyday life. It's happy, grateful and enjoyable, as the holiday would be.

The three hundred and ninety-ninth song: I Will Always Love You - Dolly Parton

While Whitney Houston's cover of this song is more famous, its message is notably different in the different ways they are performed. Dolly Parton's version is tender and more broken, a lot more sadness in the voice - one where she has to let her lover go, but with great difficulty. She's not over it, but knows she has to be, and that comes through in every part of this song.

The four hundredth song: The Grand Tour - George Jones

I'm not sure now if I might be done with country. This is said to be one of the finest, but the vocals and the sound bore me. It's a shame when compared to the lyrics, which feel a bit more innovative guiding you through the house, most things still there after this wife divorced him, but I can't quite make myself appreciate it.

The four hundred and first song: Withered and Died - Richard and Linda Thompson

This isn't a very cheery bunch of songs... a slow folk rock ballad describing what feels like the loss of ambition, everything around the singer slowly drifting and falling apart with little to do. It's a depressed somg, not having anywhere to go anymore.

The four hundred and second song: Louisiana 1927 - Randy Newman

From personal problems, we go to bigger ones, the floods in Louisiana in 1927 that left hundreds of thousands of people homeless. It's both a sad story and a tribute to the people who stuck around through all of it. It's a slow song, taking its time, but one that has power in it, a strength of people that lets them persevere through it.

The four hundred and third song: You Haven’t Done Nothin’ - Stevie Wonder

I guess we've shifted to political anger in the line up now, with this too taking aim at them - here at Nixon, who is told he doesn't hear their views - in a catchy song that does well getting the message across. The fact that the Jackson Five appear on here - their first on the list - is more an interesting footnote than anything that matters, as the brass instruments and Stevie's voice does the work here and it does it well, while retaining the blues doo wop base.

The four hundred and fourth song: This Town Ain’t Big Enough for the Both of Us - Sparks

The tonal whiplash is visible in the room right now, as this song is upbeat, without as much of a clear message but a lot of joy in creating something different. Glam rock can feel tedious when done wrong, but here it creates a fascinating piece, with gunshot sound effects and an unwavering falsetto that drives things forward. A weird masterpiece that seems to be forgotten these days.

The fifty-fifth classical recording: #248 Franz Schubert - Winterreise

As we're in the depths of winter, relatively speaking, the songs of the Winter Journey seem appropriate to cover. With just a tenor and a piano, the suite stays fairly simple and through that more able to tell a story. One that I needed a list for to get the German lyrics, but it works well and shows a lot of emotion throughout. It's a beautiful piece to listen to,

The three hundred and ninetieth song: Essiniya - Nass El Ghiwane

While in other lists, we get entries that are there because of the unique viewpoint they represent, in this list we usually get hits (relatively speaking) that stand out and are often more generally known. This makes an entry like Essiniya more special, because it's not as international - instead, it's an example of Moroccan music, popular in the Arabic world but not really known here. It's a different sound, fitting the region, but quite different from the rock and pop we've been dealing with, and the a capella introduction (which runs for the first two and a half minutes) really gives us that feeling, I assume inspired by what was around them. Even when the drums kick in, the mostly choral singing feels traditional, even as the lyrics are radical for their day and they would have been the rebels in the country at the time. It's an interesting example, which feels like it deserves its own place on the list.

The three hundred and ninety-first song: Carpet Crawlers - Genesis

Now this puts us back at prog rock - I'm glad that after the previous song, we at least get something that sound different, rather than the standard rock songs we've also got plenty of. Carpet Crawlers is dominated by the constant presence of an electric piano repeating the same riff, a dreamy fantasy sound that otherwise has a restrained feel, with only Peter Gabriel's vocals sometimes breaking through the sound that feels like it is breaking through the water, coming up for water in a song that otherwise flows along.

The three hundred and ninety-second song: Aguas de marco - Antonio Carlos Jobim & Elis Regina

More than a decade after the Girl from Ipanema, Jobim shows us how alive Bossa Nova still is, with a simple but engaging melody with a nice and gentle back and forth between the two performers that, if we had the English language lyrics, we would have heard sing about Rio's rainfall in March, with some wordplay that breaks them up near the end, making it a pleasant and human bit of music that works well to create the atmosphere of this March weather.

The three hundred and ninety-third song: Ain’t No Love in the Heart of the City - Bobby Bland

It's possibly to see how blues turned into R&B in the first minute of this song, the music and background vocals coming in to give it some extra focus. It never quite hits the higher heights of it though, with a repetitive chorus that starts to wear out its welcome sooner than it should. It's a decently sounding track, but maybe not quite enough to be a good R&B track, while I don't quite feel the pathos in here either.

The three hundred and ninety-fourth song: (Looking for) The Heart of Saturday Night - Tom Waits

The Heart of Saturday Night starts with the sounds of a car driving off, an interesting introduction to a folksy blues number about, I think, going out on a saturday night, hooking up with someone, a wistful number that makes the singer sound quite lonely and disappointed with what he gets out of it, but something that helps his life a bit. After the introduction, the music simplifies, but Tom Waits' voice stands out and helps sell this story incredibly well, his emotions being clear from all parts of the song and adding a dimension beyond what the lyrics provide on their own.

The three hundred and ninety-fifth song: Sweet Home Alabama - Lynyrd Skynyrd

While this is a popular rock song, I'm not sure it quite resonates with me. It's a song responding to others that blamed the whole of the south for a racist minority, but with some bits that are a bit easy to misconstrue. I'm not necessarily the biggest fan of jingoistic pieces, but the riff itself works quite well, and I think hearing it in a group setting (say, karaoke) would be better than an album based that, by its nature, feels a bit sanitized - there's so much here that can work a crowd that doesn't work as well sitting at home.

The three hundred and ninety-sixth song: Piss Factory - Patti Smith Group

Proto punk? Where we previously saw a spoken word song act as a prelude for rap, here it feels we have a beatnik reading poetry to a frantic piano track that builds up its own aggression. There's something jazzy in there, but the aggression of the lyrics is so much bigger that we get something else, an attitude that will carry over and is enchanting in the way it wants to make a point. It gets a bit comedic sometimes, but mostly it gets in here, makes it point (and perhaps goes on a few minutes longer than it should after that). It's different, it's a sign of the times and the anger present at the time, but also something that doesn't feel like it makes its point quite as well with what feels like a semi-improvised rant.

The fifty-fourth classical recording: #802 Silvestre Revueltas - Sensemaya

Another shorter piece, and another based on a poem, this time surrounding Afro-Cuban rites, Sensemaya is threatening from the start. There's something frightening in the short sounds of the brass instruments and there's a definite threat in there. Perhaps because of a warrior going out or because of an animal being slaughtered, but the why of it doesn't matter as much. It goes between this and moments of calm, whipping you up every time it builds and everything is set up to support that. While the piece is short, is stays intense throughout, which is what works best here.

The fifty-third classical recording: #516 Paul Dukas - The Sorcerer's Apprentice

Did you know we rewatched Fantasia yesterday? Because we did, and it made us realise we hadn't covered this piece yet. Written with a clear story in mind, later reproduced in that movie. This means the leitmotifs and changes in pace are a lot more vivid than you would have without that aid. At the same time, the speed and intention is still there and you can place parts even where they don't necessarily match up. The chaos is especially present in this rendition, played up by the instruments but also feeling more aggressive throughout.

The ninety-sixth TV show: #953 Orange is the New Black

There are a lot of problems with the prison system - not just in the US, where this show is set, but also around the world. Seeing all of this on a TV show, based on a real stay, shows the power imbalance, the cliques, and how little the world cares. The show mixes a fair amount of comedy with some at times intense drama, a combination that's compelling to watch if at times exhausting.

With that, the performances are amazing with some interesting characters - pulling from stereotypes but building on them, there's more to these people. Piper, the main character, starts off slow but her arc becomes more interesting towards the end of the first season. Beyond that the wacky character may stand out, but it's where they get or are grounded that they get interesting, with fights about who ends up on top in prison, a more than expected amount of religious infighting (with a rare atheist protagonist) and otherwise dark outcomes for plots that starts lighthearted. It's a well done balancing act that makes for an interesting series.

The sixty-second book: #51 Anton Reiser - Karl Philipp Moritz

The psychological novel, as it's described here, is a biography of sorts - Anton Reiser is fictional, but is based on the writer's life - but it focused more on the protagonist's troubles, how he's mentally dealing with what happens in his life, and how that influences what follows, dragging himself down. It's a more engaging approach than using the factual accounts - not as much happens, but it flows better and makes more sense, while the protagonist is flawed enough that so much can make it through internally.

In the end, despite this book having been somewhat forgotten, it is a decent read and an actual page turned - not something I usually get with books this old.

The one hundred nineteenth album: #118 The Byrds - The Notorious Byrd Brothers

There's a nice change in contrast when I get some folk on the list, and the psychedelic folk rock of the Byrds strangely fits with the time of year - something gentle and flowing rather than the hard rock we saw last time. I'd never class the Byrds as a favourite of mine, but they hit these beats incredibly well, adding a deeper message to a decent set of songs.

The one hundred and eighteenth album: #118 Blue Cheer - Vincebus Eruptum

Today we're covering one of the first heavy metal albums. Fitting six track in half an hour means the tracks are generally longer, which feels suitable for this era of hard rock - longer pieces that don't feel the need to fit in the pop music lengths, I guess not even necessarily intended for main radio play.

That's only for a few of the tracks, of course, while it starts off with the single worthy Summertime Blues. Though far from a major hit, it's a cover that has a more upbeat melody that is overlaid with screechy guitars and generally a loud sound. Rock Me Baby, too, feels like the music has to hold back as the bluesy number doesn't allow for really rocking out. The tracks penned by Peterson feel more appropriate, louder rockers that lead you on through, and I feel they're the more appropriate songs - maybe not as technically perfect, but what I actually want from this band.