This Recording

You can find the previous entry in this series here.

“Some Sensation” — Last Night (mp3)

“Under the Bridge” — Red Hot Chili Peppers (mp3)

Top Ten Books of the Year

6. Selected Poems, Gwendolyn Brooks

I who have gone the gamut from an almost angry rejection of my dark skin by some of my brainwashed brothers and sisters to a surprised queenhood in the new Black sunam qualified to enter at least the kindergarten of new consciousness now… I have hopes for myself.

–Gwendolyn Brooks

You know you’re a top poet when you have a middle school that looks as boss as this named after you.

Gwendolyn Brooks is one of our finest American poets, ever. She placed her work in a space that she wanted it to go. If she is more trendy at different times in history that is OK, but what is not OK, is for her to get eclipsed, is being like “we real cool” that is all that Gwendolyn did although that poem is factual genius.

Gay Chaps at the Bar

…and guys I knew in the States, young
officers, return from the front crying and
trembling. Gay chaps at the bar in Los
Angeles, Chicago, New York…

–Lt. William Couch in the South Pacific

We knew how to order. Just the dash
Necessary. The length of gaiety in good taste.
Whether the raillery should be slightly iced
And given green, or served up hot and lush.
And we knew beautifully how to give to women
The summer spread, the tropics of our love.
When to persist, or hold a hunger off.
Knew white speech. How to make a look an omen.
But nothing ever taught us to be islands.
And smart, athletic language for this hour
Was not in the curriculum. No stout
Lesson showed how to chat with death. We brought
No brass fortissimo, among our talents,
To holler down the lions in this air.

– Gwendolyn Brooks

“It Must Have Been Love” — Roxette (mp3)

More stupendous covers here. Her book Annie Allen is maybe her best, as it finds her both engaged and solemn and funny.

You can listen to her poems in her own voice by buying this.

Elizabeth Alexander breaks down “The Bean Eaters.”

Speaking of black people, Ben Yaster has a great review of the new Dizzee Rascal album over at Dusted Magazine:

On Maths, Rascal has also progressed in his range of character, which tended towards the aggressive, and has learned to lighten up. Lily Allen guests on “Wanna Be,” a chastisement of the various posers in Rascal’s periphery. Allen serves as both Rascal’s muse and heel, providing the chorus and assuming the role of one of Rascal’s antagonists. The song, balanced on one piano chord keeping time, is silly and recalls Showtime’s “Dream,” which used an ingratiating Rodgers & Hammerstein chorus as a vehicle for Dizzee to recount various forward-thinking platitudes. But where “Dream” was a burden, “Wanna Be” is whimsical. Rascal can, it seems, convincingly hide his teeth when he wants.

“Wanna Be” — Dizzee Rascal featuring Lily Allen (mp3)

Thanks to Glorious Hum for this track.

“Boys Will Be Boys” — Goldfrapp (mp3)

PREVIOUSLY ON THIS RECORDING

Molly went in the time machine back to 1997.

Danish went to ye olde remix well.

I forced you to listen to The Verve and The Go Find.