For Music Obsessives and Bargain Lovers

The Beatles' "Yesterday" is one of the most recorded songs, and although I love it, I'm not particularly curious to hear other interpretations, which I fear might be saccharine. The song "On Broadway" is another matter. I can't get enough of it, and, fortunately for me, I can download multiple versions of it--to keep!--from Freegal, the library's free music download provider, available via our website.

The song, which has one of the catchiest opening riffs ever, and in which the singer dreams of making it on Broadway, has been interpreted by, among others, The Drifters, 80s synth pop singer Gary Numan ("Cars"), Sly and the Family Stone, Frank Sinatra, Neil Young, and Jennifer Hudson and Katharine McPhee (on the tv series Smash).

On Freegal I was able to download one of the earliest recordings--and my second favorite--by the girl group The Crystals. A haunting, atmospheric version that opens with just  piano, castanets, and (I think) a cornet, it swells to include strings as the small town heroine of the song sings: "I swear I'm gonna get there or I'll die." In this version, with the pathos of a Tennessee Williams play, you're not convinced the girl's going to make it to Broadway.

My favorite version is the jazz-inflected George Benson recording, which won a Grammy for best male R & B vocal performance and was used to impressive effect in the movie All That Jazz. (Younger viewers may remember an instrumental version from the Kevin Spacey movie American Beauty.) Benson has an amazing voice--in his lower register he sounds like a more sultry Stevie Wonder--and this is a triumphant rendition in which he tells the nay-sayers who insist he'll end up on a Greyhound bus for home: "But they're wrong, I know they are/'Cause I can play this here guitar." It also boasts an eerie synthesizer line that looms over and contrasts with Benson's joyous scat singing. (I'm not a fan of most scat singing, but  it sounds as natural as speech here, frequently doubling Benson's guitar lines.) Although this recording isn't available via Freegal, several of the libraries in our system have it on CD.

Among the many other versions available on Freegal are an awesome instrumental performance by the Tito Puente Latin Jazztette and Jennifer Hudson and Katharine McPhee's duet, a great showcase for Hudson's powerful voice and emotional range.

Whether you're into rock, rap, classical, or something else, you can often find multiple recordings of favorite songs and compositions on Freegal. Des Plaines card holders can download up to three songs a week, and they're yours to keep, to transfer to your iPod, etc. (Note to Windows users: if you have iTunes, after saving a Freegal song to your computer, search for the song via the Windows Start button and click on the song, after which it will show up in your iTunes library.)

Do you enjoy listening to multiple versions of a particular song? If so, which one?

Photo of George Benson: http://www.last.fm/music/George+Benson/+images/2779771

Download a Song in Two Minutes OR Surf's Up

One recent morning, not long after I woke up, I found myself moving twice as fast as usual. The reason? I had a song playing in my head--or rather, an instrumental: a classic piece of surf music that, like me, you've probably heard many times but never knew the name of. It's a two minute and thirty-five-second adrenaline rush fueled by just bass, guitar, and an unforgettable drumbeat. (You might remember it from the movie Dirty Dancing: the teenage heroine practices her dance moves to it.)

As I was bopping around to the music in my head, it occurred to me that as good as it sounded in my head, it would sound even better through my computer speakers. Which was when I remembered that we can now download three free songs a week from the library, via Freegal, and keep them forever.

Although I was on a roll, I stopped moving long enough to type the words Dirty Dancing and CD into the library catalog so I could determine the title of the piece, which I learned is Wipe Out (or alternately, Wipeout) by the Surfaris. Since I was due to blog here soon, and thinking of you, dear reader, I decided to time the search and download process, having only tried Freegal once previously, here at the library. All I had to do was:

• Go to the library's homepage and click on eDPPL, your link to digital books, movies and music at the library
• Click music
• Click Freegal
• Type in my library card number
• Type Surfaris in the search field
• Click downlnoad now after my search retrieved the song
• And select Open with Tunes. (iTunes was already loaded on my computer. Your setup may differ.)

Viola! Wipe Out was playing through my speakers! (And automatically saved to my iTunes library). Although that may look like a lot of steps, it took less than two minutes! There's no long setup process. That's one of the great things about Freegal: you're literally up to speed instantly (even without an energizing song like Wipe Out playing in you head).

What's your go-to song when you need to get energized?

Freegal Rocks

From Apple's iTunes to Amazon's instant downloads, internet tycoons left and right are wedging their feet into the door-jam of downloadable music. With a single content search nearly any recording from Bing Crosby classics to Ke$ha's electronic pop to cult favorites like Steve Goodman can be called instantly to your computer screen, and for about ninety-nine cents you can own  any of them instantly and transfer them to your digital music player of choice without ever changing out of your jammies.

The Des Plaines Library has provided patrons with an extensive selection of music for many years with an extremely well-developed and rounded collection of contemporary and classic music of all sorts on CD. Recently, however, we too have made a foray into instant downloads--as many will already know the Library has offered a great selection of e-books and audiobooks through our virtual branch MyMediaMall for a while now. A More recent addition to our bountiful list of services and products, however, is Freegal. Through the Freegal platform Des Plaines patrons will be able to access the whole catalog of Sony Records and will be entitled to three free downloads a week for keepsies. That's right--no torrent work-around, no fear for the consequences of violating intellectual property laws. Just free, legal music for keepsies in your jammies.

To access Freegal simply head to our homepage at dppl.org and hover over the "Reference" tab. Select "Research databases A-Z" and scroll all the way down to the bottom of the page. In the column on the right side the very last link will say "Freegal Test." After entering your library card number you will be directed to the Freegal platform where you can browse popular music or search for something that interests you.I personally used my three downloads for the week already on a Train song and two songs by Julieta Venegas, but there are plenty of artists to appeal to any music lover. Just remember, the catalog includes only albums and artists which were produced by Sony Records, so the selection isn't quite as extensive as platforms like iTunes. Still, though...Free...Legal...Jammies...Need I say more?

The Sin Box and The Shawshank Redemption OR The Power of Music

One of my favorite moments in the novel A Lesson Before Dying is when a self-righteous, old-school southern minister in 1940s Louisiana rails at a young schoolteacher for supplying an imprisoned man with a radio. "He needs God in that cell, and not that sin box."

A sin box!!??

I burst out laughing the first time I read that line. The author's inspired term for a radio in the eyes of Reverend Ambrose offers some much needed comic relief in this heart-breaker of a book. Winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award for Fiction, A Lesson Before Dying is the story of a young black schoolteacher, Grant, assigned to instill a sense of worth, courage and pride in Jefferson, an 18-year-old black man wrongfully convicted and sentenced to death in the Jim Crow South.

Referred to by his own defense lawyer as a hog ("Why, I'd just as soon put a hog in the the electric chair as this"), Jefferson has been repeatedly degraded and denied his humanity by an unjust society, and is understandably embittered. When Grant begins visiting the imprisoned Jefferson, Jefferson is virtually unreachable. He is uncommunicative and beaten-down.

But then Jefferson begins to change. It is a seemingly small change: when the schoolteacher comes to visit him one day, Jefferson looks at him without hate. "Last Friday," Grant tells the Reverend, "was the first time he ever asked me a question or answered me without accusing me for his condition."

What brought about the change in the imprisoned Jefferson? That little "sin box" the schoolteacher gave him.

I'm a great believer in the power of music. I'm convinced that it reaches some part of us that words cannot. When I first got into Beethoven, I remember telling someone that Beethoven was good for the soul. I still believe that. I also feel the music of Bruce Springsteen is good for the soul, though my appreciation for both puzzles some. (To which I'd reply with a Leonard Bernstein line: there are only two categories of music that matter--good and bad.)

Which is why I love it when the schoolteacher in A Lesson Before Dying balks at the possible removal the "sin box" from Jefferson's cell. "You can take it from him," Jefferson tells the Reverend. "But you won't reach him if you do. The only thing that keeps him from thinking he is not a hog is that radio." The radio and the music that comes out of it has lifted Jefferson to a higher plane.

An equally powerful depiction of the power of music is in the movie The Shawshank Redemption. Although Stephen King wrote the novella on which the movie is based, this scene is not in the novella, and full credit must go to the empathetic imagination of screenwriter and director Frank Darabont.

This scene also takes place in a prison, Shawshank Prison, where a prisoner played by Tim Robbins bars the door to the guard's station, places a record on the turntable, and then broadcasts the music over the PA system, so that every prisoner in Shawshank can hear it. Everything in the prison comes to a halt as the men stand transfixed by the music, staring at the speakers from which a duet from Mozart's The Marriage of Figaro is broadcast.

In the movie's voice-over, Red, played by Morgan Freeman, says:

"I have no idea to this day what them two Italian ladies were singin' about. Truth is, I don't want to know. Some things are best left unsaid. I like to think they were singin' about something so beautiful it can't be expressed in words, and makes your heart ache because of it."

Do you have a favorite example of the power of music in literature, film or our lives? Feel free to share it!

Intentional Meanderings

A frequent patron of the library and the Readers' Services department raved about the movie Snow Falling on Cedars. He spoke about it being beautiful to watch. He said he enjoyed the book by David Guterson, but loved the movie.

The patron is a prolific reader with varied interests but he is not a big film watcher. I suggested he consider other movies by the director of Snow Falling on Cedars. I'm not sure the patron followed my advice, but I did. Its been an interesting and delightful endeavor. One that has hit all the entertainment buttons - words, music and film.

Scott Hicks, the director of Snow Falling on Cedars, was nominated for best director in 1996 for Shine. It was a huge success of a film with Geoffrey Rush winning best actor. Though Hicks didn't win the Oscar, his work on this film propelled his career. Other films of Hicks' include No Reservations, Hearts in Atlantis, and a documentary of composer Philip Glass, Glass: A Portrait of Philip in 12 Parts.

Hearts of Atlantis, a story based on a Stephen King work with Anthony Hopkins was a completely new title for me. The movie is presented as a flashback by a 50 year man to his 11th year. It's captivating with a poignant story and good acting.

Regarding the Philip Glass documentary, had it not been for these intentional meanderings, I probably wouldn't have checked it out. Glass is a unique, intellectual artist with a colorful personality but I'll give Scott Hicks the credit for keeping my attention for two hours. The bonus dvd is aptly named, with performances from Glass' operas.

I still have more meandering to do - the short stories of Stephen King, the music of Philip Glass, films with Geoffrey Rush, novels of David Guterson......

Bruce Springsteen, The Wrestler and Hundred Dollar Songs

To borrow the opening line of S. E. Hinton's great young adult novel, The Outsiders: "When I stepped out into the bright sunlight from the darkness of the movie house, I had only two things on my mind . . . "

The two things on my mind, however, were not Paul Newman and a ride home, but the story of Randy "The Ram" Robinson, the main character in the beautiful and heartbreaking movie The Wrestler, and the haunting Bruce Springsteen song of the same name, used to stunning effect at the end of the movie. Blocks from the theater, the song's refrain ("Then you've seen me") was still playing in my head. I needed to hear the song again and I wasn't going to be satisfied until I did.

So I understood when a co-worker came to the desk with need in her eyes and said: "Laura, where can I find the Bruce Springsteen song from The Wrestler. What CD is that on?"

"Oh my God!" I said. I put my hand on my heart, my all too frequent reflex when someone mentions a Bruce song that I love, that I REALLY love, as if I'm pledging allegiance to the country of Bruce. "I love that song. It's on the new Bruce album, Working on a Dream! Oh my God, that's a great song!"

My co-worker nods--she understands--and her hand is on her heart now, too, and she sings the opening lines of the the song about a battered and broken wrestler who tries to make a life outside the ring:

"Have you ever seen a one trick pony in the field so happy and free
If you've ever seen a one trick pony then you've seen me."

I love that song," I repeat, helpless at the moment to explain why it so moves me, but happy to talk with someone else who loves it. And in trying to express the importance of the song to me, I make a goofy comment: "That's a hundred dollar song! I would pay a hundred dollars for that song! If someone told me I could never hear that song again unless I paid a hundred dollars, I'd do it.!"

My co-worker is nodding and laughing. And a few days later, I find a post-it in my box from another co-worker. It says: "Write about hundred dollar songs for the blog!" (I love that I have co-workers who indulge my Bruce fanaticism.)

Now, I'm a frugal woman, and I wouldn't want the folks at Columbia Records to start charging more for Bruce CDs. But there are songs, Bruce songs in particular, that I so love and need that their value trumps all else. If forced to choose between new winter boots, which would be nice, and the latest Bruce CD, Working on a Dream, which has the song from The Wrestler, well, you're just going to have to look at my grungy boots for one more year. However! Since the library owns almost every Bruce CD, you never actually have to choose between boots and Bruce. We own lots of rock CDs and just about every other kind of CD. And you can check them all out for free! (The CDs, not the boots. You wouldn't really want to check out used boots now, would you?)

I realize that referring to hundred dollar songs may sound crass. I've put a price tag on art when what I really want to express is my tremendous love and awe of songs that I can't live without. (And yes, I am calling "The Wrestler" art. Right about now I'm picturing a co-worker in another department rolling his eyes, but good-naturedly, I like to think.)

Mickey Rourke's performance is also a masterpiece--I can't think of another performance that has stayed with me or moved me as much as his portrait of an aging wrestler who finds life outside the arena more excruciating than the repeated and brutal blows he endures in the ring. And the Springsteen song is the perfect, haunting coda to Rourke's performance. At the end of the movie, before the credits start to roll, synth strings rise out of the darkness, faintly at first, but then swelling and joined by a few spare, well-chosen notes on the piano that sound so perfect and inevitable that the foolish will say--"I could have written that"--but they can't, because they're not Bruce and because selecting just the right notes is an art. I then hear the scratchy, familiar voice that is Bruce count out "1, 2, 3, 4," the synthesizer fades and it's Bruce on an acoustic guitar singing of a "one trick pony," a man whose only home is the ring and who has driven away some of the people and pleasures that could offer him solace. Like the best Bruce songs, it captures the humanity of a specific person in specific situation, and in doing so sheds light on those around us and ourselves.

Bruce once said: "The best music, you can seek some shelter in it momentarily, but it's essentially there to provide you something to face the world with." In spite of my reference to 100 dollar songs, music like that is really priceless, its worth immeasurable.

Is there a song that you can't live without? A song that makes you place your hand on your heart and say, "Oh my God, I LOVE that song!"

Music Goes Into Your Ears

Remember the word "album"? In today's age of downloadable music, the album as an entity unto itself has become somewhat under-appreciated. I feel that while a single song by itself may be a smash hit, its lasting effect is often less than that of a great album. A certain Chicago radio station uses the following phrase as their slogan, "the soundtrack of our lives". My own soundtrack is not measured so much in individual great songs, but more in terrific albums.

First and foremost is Achtung Baby by U2. I remember sitting in the open side door of the family van in the late spring of 1993, my hands clutching a boom box and my ears riveted to the amazing intro of the album's first song, "Zoo Station". The Edge was eliciting sounds from his guitar that I never imagined. When Bono's electronically distorted voice followed with the beginning of the first verse "I'm ready, ready for laughing gas / I'm ready, I'm ready for what's next", I embarked on a journey of exploration that has landed Achtung Baby at the center of my musical universe today. From the grinding buzz saw chords that shimmer from the Edge's guitar in "the Fly" to the melodious yet melancholy tones of "One", this album is a poster child for contrast, a microcosm of everyday life. It is full of hurt, discovery, betrayal, and hope, among other themes.

Another good friend of mine is Led Zeppelin's "IV (Zoso)" This album was a constant companion during the endless summer hours spent mowing grass and other maintenance tasks at the 55-acre camp I worked at during the turn of the 21st century. From the deliberate ferocity of "Black Dog", during which the weed trimmer I'd be holding became my air guitar, to ending many of my days at that camp sitting alone on the Pennsylvania mountainside as the velvety acoustic strummings of "Going to California" faded into the sunset, this record spoke to me. "When the Levee Breaks" sparked my fascination for the blues and Chicago itself, foreshadowing my later move to the Windy City area.

The third album I'll mention as having an impact on my life is indeed a blues album: The Big Come Up by the Black Keys, though they are not from Chicago but from Akron, Ohio. I purchased this album late last spring and experienced the heady combination of the thrill of discovering a new great-sounding band with the satisfaction of money well-spent. The songs on this album bring to mind a lollipop dropped in gravel: earthy guitars accompanied by gritty vocals. Despite this, however, or possibly because of this, the album is beautiful in its simplicity and honesty. Whenever I listen to this album, I think of my vacation to Key West that I undertook soon after I bought this CD, and that, my friends, is a good thing. Passionate, heartfelt blues and palm tree memories are a terrific combination, especially during a Chicagoland winter. Unfortunately, our library does not have this specific album yet, but check our catalog soon, it's on order! In the meantime, you can check on the Black Keys' latest record: Attack and Release.

So, you've learned a few of the albums that have helped write my story. Dear readers, which albums have been part of your life's soundtrack?