May 15, 2025 • 44 mins
We let our moms choose the music for today's episode!
We parse through hits from the likes of Stevie Wonder and Carole King, as well as jazz standards, while contemplating how our mothers shaped our musical experiences.
Subscribe so you don't miss an episode. Call your mom. And connect with us via Instagram @AtFirstListenPodcast!
(Episode 34.)
We parse through hits from the likes of Stevie Wonder and Carole King, as well as jazz standards, while contemplating how our mothers shaped our musical experiences.
Subscribe so you don't miss an episode. Call your mom. And connect with us via Instagram @AtFirstListenPodcast!
(Episode 34.)
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:15):
Welcome to At First Listen, the music podcast for people
who don't always get the hype book want to.
Speaker 2 (00:20):
I'm Andrew, I'm Dominique, and Mother's Day was just two
days ago as we're recording this, so we let our
moms make suggestions for this episode today. We didn't need
a Mother's Day primer episode to get everybody ready for
the big holiday. We could just do it a couple
of days after, and we thought that would be fine.
(00:41):
Is that weird?
Speaker 1 (00:42):
No, we're extending Mother's Day of anything we're giving.
Speaker 2 (00:45):
We're Mother's Week. Why can't it be Mother's Week?
Speaker 1 (00:48):
And it is? It is right here on.
Speaker 2 (00:50):
Ap Neither of us are going to go see our moms.
Speaker 1 (00:53):
They're far away, but they will get to hear our
lovely voices.
Speaker 2 (00:59):
It's just like talking to us, except each of them
doesn't know the other person on this podcast. So maybe
that's gonna be weird for them. We'll find out later.
Speaker 1 (01:10):
They're gonna love it. I can tell.
Speaker 2 (01:12):
So. Your mom Renee, yes, and my mom Von gave
us a bunch of suggestions. We asked them for one song, right,
and they both gave us several.
Speaker 1 (01:22):
You know, I asked for five O one song is
kind of that's kind of it's tough.
Speaker 2 (01:28):
I wouldn't want to be asked that I wouldn't.
Speaker 1 (01:30):
I don't have an answer for that. One song is
like kind of rude. I asked for five, thinking I
would like choose one, and I guess I just didn't.
So I said, give me your give me your top
five favorite songs. And I felt like I knew she
would be able to do that, and I because and
(01:51):
it's the songs she gave were not not surprising to me.
I think if I was given enough time, I would
have been able to guess most of them because I've
like grown up listening to these songs before I was born.
These songs were playing, these songs were being sung, Like
(02:15):
I can hear her singing these songs in my mind
in the grocery store or on a Sunday morning, you know,
when we're cleaning the house.
Speaker 2 (02:27):
Yeah. I needed to probe my mom specifically for non
church related songs, because otherwise she would certainly pick a
bunch of handbell things that she likes to perform, which
I didn't really want to listen to that. So's that's
me being a little bit selfish.
Speaker 1 (02:48):
Wow, that is handbell.
Speaker 2 (02:51):
Yeah, that's her. That's her big thing.
Speaker 1 (02:53):
And what is a handbell?
Speaker 2 (02:55):
Oh, well, you've probably seen them. It's like, so you
know what a bell is. So it's that shape and
it's on like a Usually it's a hard plastic sort
of loop is kind of the handle. They make them
also with like wooden handles and you kind of flick
your wrist forward to make the to produce the sound.
(03:20):
So you'll get like a case of them. Each they
have one time a different yeah, a different pitch. Yeah.
So my mom directs the handbell choir at her church,
Sparta United Methodist Church, and they'll have an ensemble where
(03:41):
basically you are responsible for like for to eight notes
if you're really good, or maybe just one or two
if you're not so good.
Speaker 1 (03:51):
Oh that's so inclusive.
Speaker 2 (03:53):
Yeah, but my mom likes to do solos. She'll have
like a table of the entire octave or octaves that
she needs to perform a particular piece that.
Speaker 1 (04:05):
Sounds like something that would be very haunting and beautiful
in like a in like a big church.
Speaker 2 (04:12):
No, it's a beautiful sound. The thing is you need
you need gloves because otherwise you're gonna smudge up the bells,
and you need like plastic not plastic like foam pads
for the table, so you don't just like clank the
bells down when you're because muting them is a big thing, right.
(04:35):
You can mute them just like by touching them to
your to your shirt, or you can put them down,
but depending on where you need to. It's a terribly
physical instrument to play because you're like kind of moving
a lot laterally depending on how long your arms are.
Speaker 1 (04:54):
That is I love picturing this. I'm gonna google it
later because I like, I'm not picturing like what it is.
Speaker 2 (05:03):
No, I think you are.
Speaker 1 (05:04):
I might be. It sounds very like complex.
Speaker 2 (05:08):
So one of the reasons I didn't want my mom
to give us some handbell tunes to listen to is
because I did not like playing them and I had
to for many years.
Speaker 1 (05:20):
Gotcha. So both of our moms like were in church
making us join in. My mom sang in the church.
Speaker 2 (05:30):
Choir, my father sings in the church choir.
Speaker 1 (05:33):
Okay, and she would I would be also there singing
and I liked it. I would get nervous and I
feel like I would just be I would never know
what was going on. I feel like it would be
too random, Like it wasn't I because I would get
out of it enough that she would just like get
(05:55):
me to go. So I don't remember ever being like
going every single week, so I would just be like,
I don't know the words, I don't know what's going on.
Why am I here? But it definitely speaks to a
way that music did exist before, you know, not that
(06:17):
our parents are that ancient, but they love there seems
in the church, it's like it's more acceptable to be
to like be a musician just in church, and it
doesn't have to become your career and it doesn't like
have to you don't have to be a musician full
time or just in my life outside of church, Like
(06:41):
people are not playing music unless they're dedicated.
Speaker 2 (06:48):
To Yeah, unless it's more than a hobby. Even if
it is technically still a hobby, it's more than a hobby.
That's one of the nice things about the handbell choir
that my mom runs is that it's a lot of
people who are basically tone deaf, like you have you
need no skill basically, and you know, she'll go as
far as to be like, if someone can't keep time
(07:09):
at all, just be like when I point right, and
then they can be involved. Yeah. The fact that they
want to even be in that position despite their complete
utter lack of talent is commendable.
Speaker 1 (07:20):
It is nice, and I think, like with singing, it's
tough because the tone deaf people, which there always are,
would throw me off. So because I'm like a kid
trying to just like find what pitch I'm and I
don't really I'm not sure how to sing still, and
so I would be like, what is the note? I'm confused? Uh.
(07:44):
But that that brings us to a couple of my
mom's for favorite songs that she mentioned, which I'm gonna
I'm gonna kind of put them in one category of
her favorite Her first favorite song My Valentine, which when
I asked her who her favorite singer of it is
(08:08):
since it's a jazz standard and there's tons of versions,
she said Renee, which is her name, And I agree,
it's a great version of it. We don't have a
recording of it here, but I can hear it. I
definitely can hear my mom's beautiful alto voice singing like
(08:35):
I especially like the high parts. I can hear her
like drawing out.
Speaker 2 (08:41):
So yeah, I before we were listening to the chet
Baker version, which you also recommended. This is a song
that I said earlier I had not heard since probably
performing it in jazz ensemble in college. And it is
a beautiful but sleepy song, at least in most of
the versions that I've heard of it, and probably also
(09:01):
the version that I ended up performing.
Speaker 1 (09:05):
Yeah, I think that chet Baker's version has the spirit
of the version my mom would like. She loves like
a heavily featured bass, and I remember her liking chet Baker.
But I definitely think that it is sleepy, and I
(09:27):
think my mom may have sung us to sleep with
that song at some point, But she also, I think,
has a better version of it, She'll Captain You, And
(09:49):
then her next one was someone to Watch Over Me,
which she also gave hide it herself as her favorite
version definitive version. But I am a huge fan of
Amy Winehouse's version, and.
Speaker 2 (10:06):
When you played this, I did not realize that it
was so contemporary as Amy Winehouse Rest in Peace. But yeah, definitely,
as people are citing Amy Winehouse more and more and
I'm sort of hip to it and realizing what a
hype was about with her still because this is like
(10:28):
a rare voice that she has.
Speaker 1 (10:30):
She has a rare voice.
Speaker 2 (10:32):
But I'm hearing great things about Renee from all.
Speaker 1 (10:35):
Yeah, I mean another rare voice, and I do I
mean huge influence vocally, like every every singer has been
trying to copy Amy Winehouse since then. Like that singing incursive,
I think is what they're calling now and Amy that
(10:56):
just like is how she actually sang. And she wasn't trying.
She was trying to to take you know, these jazz singers.
Speaker 2 (11:04):
From the fifties.
Speaker 1 (11:05):
Yeah, but I thought that was so I love any
Winehouse's version. Maybe my mom will check that one out,
but I definitely I think it's by Gershwin, George Gershwin
and the original version which was in a musical which
I didn't know, uh called Okay, which I'll have to
(11:28):
check out. And I I didn't realize I couldn't when
I looked up the Gershwin version sung by this lady
Gertrude something I I did not I could tell that
wasn't the one my mom liked. Andrew had had a
comment about that.
Speaker 2 (11:48):
Yeah, but we'll comment out. We can't do any swears
or Edgie humor.
Speaker 1 (11:58):
Episode Okay, that's our gift to our mom, my mom.
I'll mention that to her later. Uh yeah, did you
have any more thoughts on these songs?
Speaker 2 (12:11):
On those two? No, your other your mom's other choice was.
I think this was probably one of my first favorite songs,
which is Happy Together by the Turtles. Imagine I do
I think about so cute? Yeah, very yeah, perfect word,
(12:34):
A very cute song, great chorus. Yeah, I heard that.
I don't know it's twelve years old or something, maybe younger.
I thought that was such a cool song.
Speaker 1 (12:47):
It was definitely it was one of my first favorite songs.
I mean, my mom, it's my mom and my song.
My mom. We have mentioned is a saying she's a
soul singer, piano singer, teacher as well. If anyone needs lessons,
she teaches remotely and you know, a jazz a jazz
(13:10):
lover and like a a just a music lover, right,
and so like having a song for her kids was
like always gonna happen, you know, which I think that's
not like necessarily everyone, but I my mom and I
had good times, like we were besties when I was
a kid. We would we would like hang out and
(13:32):
have a great time, and we we still are close,
like we have we have a special we have a
special friendship, and I think that this song did like
it did kind of represent our relationship when from when
I was a kid, and especially kind of in contrast
(14:00):
to the song that she had for my sister, Overjoyed
by Stevie Wonder.
Speaker 2 (14:09):
From the Inner Visions record. Yes, every Stevie Wonder song
has like the most beautiful chord progression you could ever imagine.
It's like, I want to study it more because I
want to know what exactly it is. But it's just like,
oh wow, that's just incredible harmony that's on display right there.
Speaker 1 (14:32):
Totally same my mom would I because she's like knows
music theory and stuff, so she probably could explain, like
why that's so crazy beautiful the way that he uses
like minor and major stuff going on at the same time.
It's like the vocals are minor and then the piano isn't.
(14:54):
Maybe like there's I don't know enough I'd have to
get into it, but I'm like, he it's so haunting
and gorgeous. So okay. The funny thing like looking at
these lyrics now, you know, as an adult, I've been
hearing these songs my whole life, and I think Overjoyed
would have been played a lot more in my house
growing up, Like Stevie Wonder was always going, whereas like
(15:17):
the Turtles weren't a huge staple and it's it was
just that one song, you know.
Speaker 2 (15:24):
Yeah, that's how I think the Turtles are for most people.
It's just that just.
Speaker 1 (15:27):
That one so great song. But Stevie Wonder, it's like
we were playing inner Visions.
Speaker 2 (15:32):
You can let the album go.
Speaker 1 (15:33):
We would let the album go and then this would
be a special moment on the album. But it's really
cute because it's just like that song kind of when
I think about like my sister beig Bory, my older sister,
and her being like, my dreams come came true when
I looked at you. Like literally, you know, my mom
always wanted to be a mom and like she so
(15:57):
that was like a big you know, obviously it's a
big moment for people, but like it was always a
goal that she had, and it makes sense that in
this song she's like, my dreams came true when I
looked at you. But then she's like she says something
and maybe two if you would believe you two might
(16:20):
be overjoyed over love over me. And that is also
funny because it's a classic story about my sister is
that she wasn't a very affectionate baby. She likes to
be affectionate, but she doesn't want a whole lot of
affection at her. She wants to initiate it. So it
(16:41):
was like always a bummer for my mom. She's like
my first baby. I want to smooth her and snuggle her,
and she's like leave me alone. Like it was like
whenever she was born and she was crying. You know,
every baby cries when they're born, but she stopped when
you put her down, and that was like so by Si,
and so it was. It's kind of it's kind of funny,
(17:05):
like thinking about this song, I really feel like it fits.
And then versus like happy together, which is very like
we're so happy.
Speaker 2 (17:13):
Together, simple, straightforward. The title is the song There's not
really sometimes.
Speaker 1 (17:19):
Yet exactly, which is yeah, unfortunately. Yeah, that does kind
of mirror, you know, oldest sibling versus youngest sibling. There's
a lot. There's a lot there.
Speaker 2 (17:34):
And Stevie Wonder just had this this ability to capture
like joy in music and lyrics that not many artists
can do in a way that it's not cheesy and
it's not lame, Like Isn't she Lovely is another song
about like loving your child, but it's it's a great
(17:57):
song that you could listen to anytime.
Speaker 1 (18:00):
Yeah, that also does need to be studied. I think,
like if you if you listen to the discography of
Stev that concept sways it moves. I think corniness does come.
I think, like, uh it, I've heard my mom included
(18:20):
will say like he's my favorite. These are the this
is what These are the albums that I mean when
I say my favorite, you know what. Songs in the
Key of Life Inner Visions are like the main two
I remember growing up on and I'm so thankful for that.
Like I was, I growing up in a home with
(18:44):
like this variety of like really high quality music. I
think it's taught me how to listen to music. I
was never like turn this off, mom, like I it
was always good to me. And also it was never
it was like we were not playing our music in
(19:06):
the car, like she did not like it.
Speaker 2 (19:09):
Mom is not passing.
Speaker 1 (19:11):
No exactly, she was not passing the ox. She and
it was like I feel like that is potentially not
a mom rule. That was more of a Renee rule.
She's more open now probably, but she definitely has like
very specific music case and it's good music you can't
(19:32):
argue with it.
Speaker 2 (19:33):
Was there a moment with like Stevie Wonder or any
of the artists here that you were like, I am
now a fan as like a grown person. I don't
listen to this and think, oh, this is my parents' music.
Speaker 1 (19:50):
I don't even think like I remember putting these songs
on like a mix CD. Okay when I was a teen,
Like I think I I always loved it, and I
always knew he was like cool. Like I don't think
Stevie Wonder ever stopped being cool. Like it's not like
I was like, tell somebody's like, who's your favorite artist?
(20:11):
I was like Stevie Wonder, No, I would. I haven't
done that. But like, if somebody's not put on to
Stevie Wonder yet, like you need to get them put on.
Speaker 2 (20:21):
And then they'll be like, Okay, I'm on this now. Yeah,
I understand, thank you for doing that every time.
Speaker 1 (20:27):
And also you google him the best style?
Speaker 2 (20:31):
Oh yeah unique? Look, Well, I don't know if that's
all his doing.
Speaker 1 (20:36):
It could be I don't know if Yeah, my mom
knows about the conspiracy theory. Some people think that he's
not blind.
Speaker 2 (20:46):
Yeah, I went through this with Diamond. I'm not going
through it with you, Okay.
Speaker 1 (20:53):
So our last my mom's last song that she chose
was Alone Again Parentheses Naturally by Gilberto Soul.
Speaker 2 (21:01):
Sullivan. What a sad song? Oh my god?
Speaker 1 (21:08):
Yeah, Mom, what are you doing?
Speaker 2 (21:11):
So in the first verse he talks about he promises
to treat himself to visit a nearby tower and climb
to the top and throw myself off. Other than that,
really pretty song.
Speaker 1 (21:29):
I think if this song came out now, he would
be called someone, would be called Yeah. I think a
great song, and I like, for sure another song that
has been going not that this one I wouldn't have
guessed as a favorite. I'd like to know maybe if
(21:52):
she had heard it more recently, and that's why she
put it on there, because it does it is representative
of a type of music that she would have mentioned.
I also will I definitely thought it was Gilbert and
Sullivan my whole life. Until now, I thought it was
two people. So Gilberto Gilbert and could be either.
Speaker 2 (22:18):
Okay, Gilbert and Sullivan is a real thing. It's a
different Those are Victorian era composers.
Speaker 1 (22:25):
Okay, so throw them in there too. I'm I'm yeah,
that's funny. Okay, maybe his parents liked him. He was like,
kind of sounds like that's it's not impossible.
Speaker 2 (22:41):
Yeah, that's plausible for sure.
Speaker 1 (22:43):
And I was so I was when I when I
checked out this song and I saw how sad it is.
I definitely I was reminded. Definitely my mom loves a
sad song. And I think I can relate to that
for sure. Like I think, yeah, she's a she's a
(23:09):
lover girl, she's in her feelings, like that's where you know,
a lot of her soul comes from when she's singing,
and that's where she feels safe expressing it. Don't cry, mom,
and or do this song? I looked it came out
(23:31):
in It came out in seventy one, which would have
been not long after her dad passed, And it definitely
like mentions you know when my when my father died
and the only the only man my mother ever loved,
(23:54):
like that would have that would have been hitting close
to home for my mom. Definitely at the time, and
I'm sure still so. And so I'm I'm curious. It's
funny because like I think if she I think, if
she knew I was gonna go in and analyze these,
(24:15):
she might have been which is why I didn't want.
Speaker 2 (24:17):
To tell her we gotcha, we gotcha.
Speaker 1 (24:21):
Uh. I didn't want to tell I didn't want to
tell her why I was doing it because I wanted
to know, like truly, what she wanted to what she loves,
not like what she wants to tell me or what
she wants to talk about, because like because I know
I would give a different answer, like I just think
you just think it, think about it more. Yeah, And
(24:42):
like she spoke on her heart and I think it
really came through in these five songs, and they're great songs.
I'm I'm very happy to especially this one. I'm really
happy to be reminded of it because it's it has
that uk Irish sad ironic like sadness. It's like it's
(25:09):
like cheerful. It's not super cheerful.
Speaker 2 (25:11):
It's not like you wouldn't it's like a bar a
pub song.
Speaker 1 (25:15):
Yeah, yeah, exactly, but it has that melancholy but like
in a hopeful way, and he's still he's still alive,
so he didn't jump off of anything. So good for
good for us. The song did it? The song worked.
(25:37):
We didn't need to take action exactly.
Speaker 2 (25:41):
All right, let's take your break and then we'll talk
about what my mom shows.
Speaker 1 (25:57):
Welcome back to at first listen.
Speaker 2 (26:00):
I'm Andrew and it's our Mother's Day episode and now
we're in my mom's suggestions, I e. The Carol King
segment of the show. Like I mentioned, my mom is
not a huge fan of popular music, or at least
she doesn't listen to it very much, doesn't engage with
it often, or at least she doesn't have favorites among
(26:23):
Now that I'm talking about this out loud, and you
were talking about how your mom sort of raised you
on this music, my mom listened to the radio in
the car all the time, and she would have like
an adult contemporary popular music station. And I really hated
all the music on there. And I don't think my
mom cared for it either.
Speaker 1 (26:43):
Now my mom, my mom didn't, but she would still.
Speaker 2 (26:45):
Listen to it all the time because they had.
Speaker 1 (26:46):
The traffic right now. My mom NPR every day. It
was she was like she was not willing to deal
with someone else choosing the music.
Speaker 2 (26:56):
So and this was before you know, for NPR had
like a music.
Speaker 1 (27:02):
We didn't like the music on NPR either, and that
was more like, oh, this is music now I know
about it because somebody talked about it for an hour.
That was more than vibe. But it was like it
would have been back. But also before you had like
as much control to music, especially in the car. Yeah,
so it was like the one CD or tape or
(27:25):
talk radio. So yeah, our my mom had that. My
mom has no tolerance for music. She isn't like, so
we were it would be very rare that we were
just like listening to the radio. But we got we
got Carol King.
Speaker 2 (27:44):
We got Carol King, who is a great choice and
maybe worthy of her certainly worthy of her own episode.
Whether we'll ever get around to it, I don't know.
But Carol King came up as a songwriter. She was
sort of the songwriter to the stars of the late
sixties and seventies. There was recently a musical about her
(28:05):
on Broadway about her life story. She's In twenty twenty one,
was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame
for the second time. The first time was with her
ex husband, Jerry Goffin, and they were a songwriting team
for a while, and then she divorced him began writing
(28:28):
songs that were just under her own name, and that's
where I think most of the kind of immortal Carol
King songs come from. So she is this album Tapestry,
which is I think a compilation in a way where
it's kind of it was a point in her career
where she was taking the songs that she had written
(28:50):
for other people, including songs that she'd written for herself,
and just performing them all and putting them out on
an album. So when you listen to this record, which
I did the other day, it's a lot of music
that you've heard these songs before and maybe you know where,
maybe you heard James Taylor, Aretha Franklin or somebody doing it,
(29:14):
and it just sort of encompasses so many genres because
of the songs stand up on their own, you know
so well. I don't think I knew my mom was
such a fan of Carol King until a few years ago,
when we were probably in some conversation about like, what
(29:36):
were you listening to in the seventies when like all
the music that I love was made, but you didn't
show that stuff to me, like we were doing church stuff.
Speaker 1 (29:47):
Right.
Speaker 2 (29:48):
So what I just played was a song called Beautiful,
which is a very like uplifting, encouraging song.
Speaker 1 (29:58):
I thought it was it's such a such a positive
vibe and it we were noting that it sounds very
similar to another song featuring the word beautiful. Yeah, like
Christina aguilera very very similar, very similar vibe, similar words,
(30:22):
similar chord progression, not not not exactly the.
Speaker 2 (30:25):
Same, Yeah, but it does maybe different enough and different
than to have gotten away with it all this time.
But we're we're investigating.
Speaker 1 (30:34):
Yeah. I feel like Carol King, that's like that's her thing,
right though. She's like she's the creator of the ideas
and other people kind of keep keep proliferating them. And
because it is, it's just a it reminds me of
like some like Lizo songs, in not in any way
(30:58):
with the sound, but in the way of like girl power. Yeah,
like get up, get up and have a smile on
your face.
Speaker 2 (31:09):
No matter what's wrong with you.
Speaker 1 (31:10):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (31:11):
Yeah, but yeah, there's just like a sincerity to all
of these songs. Kara King also wrote, I feel the
Earth Move, which is one of the songs my mom mentioned, which,
of course, the definitive version is Aretha Franklin. The cool
thing about this album also is that because it's so
(31:32):
piano when voice focused, you get the impression that, like,
maybe when Aretha decided to do this song was because
she heard it like this and was like, yeah, I
could make something of that, and she was right.
Speaker 1 (31:46):
Yeah. I think Renee also has an excellent version of
this song in the hearts and minds of our generation.
But it's a classic, Like it's not. It's beautiful. I
hadn't I only vaguely recognized, but this one is a very,
(32:10):
very famous song, and I feel like her version is
too like Aretha. You know, Aretha owns it. Unfortunately, you
know her memory owns it. I imagine hopefully Carol is
getting still paid off of it, off of everyone's version,
but her version holds up.
Speaker 2 (32:32):
Yeah, it does. The other one, which is probably the
one that tugged at my heart strengths the most, is
so far away and I didn't look up to see
if there's another famous version of this, but this one
has the production of it that makes me think that
this was really her song. That she sort of pushed
(32:55):
when her solo career was launched. But you can definitely
hear or the mom sentiment in this as a it's lyrics,
and you could take a variety of ways.
Speaker 1 (33:12):
Totally.
Speaker 2 (33:13):
As the son of a mother who suggested this one,
I'm interpreting it as we live far away from each other,
not in the same house anymore.
Speaker 1 (33:22):
Yeah, doesn't anybody live in their mom's house anymore? And
it's true, we don't.
Speaker 2 (33:31):
But and she would be glad that the answer to
that question in her case is no.
Speaker 1 (33:36):
I think she would. Yeah, it's yeah, it's but it's
like it'd be cool if we were closer, for sure.
Speaker 2 (33:44):
And they moved a few years ago, and they could
have moved a little bit closer, they moved a little
bit farther away.
Speaker 1 (33:50):
That's how it is.
Speaker 2 (33:52):
And I have to mention one of my favorite Carol
King joints, which is You've got a friend. Of course,
the James Taylor version is the one that everybody knows,
and I think you can hear James Taylor doing background
vocals on this song. But another one overjoyed by Stevie
(34:17):
Wonder where it's it's a friend song. It's a happy
song that's not corny. Yeah, Like, it's so easy as
an artist or a musician to write about the things
that bring you down and the things that frustrate you.
(34:37):
To write about the happier moments or the things that
are like more lighthearted, especially without being funny about it,
is to me one of the most difficult things you
could do. It totally has come from such a place
of sincerity that it's hard to access creatively.
Speaker 1 (35:00):
It really is. I mean, that's why these that's why
these people are the greats, you know they it was
It's interesting because it's it's also I feel like this
wasn't I don't know, maybe it was a corny I'm like,
now we have cringe culture, and like we have ten
(35:23):
layers of irony on everything, Like we're were they worried
about being corny? Obviously corny ness has existed, but like,
was like, is it corny to to just love things? Maybe?
Speaker 2 (35:37):
Yeah, well yeah.
Speaker 1 (35:39):
I think I mean even just in the names like
you got a friend or overjoyed, those are not obvious
like you've got a friend, even though it's kind of
like straightforward, it's not just like saying, you know, it's
(36:02):
not just saying I love you. It's not just seeing
like you know, you're as beautiful as the summer's day
or whatever.
Speaker 2 (36:07):
It's like, yeah, there's like all the vapid love songs
that aren't really saying anything about anything. And then there
is like the songs where it's like everything sucks. Yeah
I hate it and you should hate it too. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (36:19):
Yeah, And these songs are a little bit These are
like kind of explaining. They're like telling a story of
a love, a type of love that is a real thing.
Like it's not like friendship or you know, a castle
(36:40):
of love. Overjoyed, Like overjoyed isn't even a word really,
Like I guess it might be, but like who says that.
Nobody is like I'm overjoyed to see you. But like
that feeling of being overjoyed and in love with somebody
that you care so much about, it's like a dream.
It's not really even real. Like that can't be corny
(37:02):
because that's just so that's so real. He's so real
for that. It was so cool to learn about these songs.
Speaker 2 (37:24):
I'm the greatest challenge of all was talking to our mom.
Speaker 1 (37:28):
Speak for yourself. Oh that text, no no, I spoke
about it, about it, no, getting in touch with her
was it was. It was tough. But I I think,
you know, at least I can thank my mom for
giving me my taste in music, my ability to both
(37:49):
love and hate music, like very have strong opinions about
music and musicians and what it's good and so yeah,
I gotta I gotta give a shout out to my mom.
Happy Mother's Day.
Speaker 2 (38:09):
Happy Mother's Day to you. Mom. Our moms have the
same name.
Speaker 1 (38:13):
Wow almost almost or the same as mom. I get it,
I got it. Yeah, that's so crazy. Now I call
her mommy or mama.
Speaker 2 (38:22):
No, it's just mom for me.
Speaker 1 (38:23):
I think guys tend to especially be like they drop
the end pretty early.
Speaker 2 (38:32):
I'm like, mommy, miss you, we shorten it?
Speaker 1 (38:35):
Yeah, hey mom? Uh.
Speaker 2 (38:39):
But yeah, certainly I should say that I wouldn't be
doing this show or a lot of the musical things
that I am involved in without my mom. Even though
we have very disparate tastes in music, there was music
all our round. It was very accessible to me. I
(39:03):
should one of the While my parents are very churchy people,
whitebread type of people, one of the great examples of
their like hands off approach when it came to the
musical taste of my brother and I. I remember, I
think I was in high school now I must have
(39:25):
been in high school. We had this dining room table
that was really just like a pile documents on table
unless there was company, and then we would clean it
off and everyone would like bring their pile of refuse
to their rooms. And because these were in the pre
MP three days or at least pre MP three's in
(39:47):
the car days, if I wanted to listen to music
in the car, and after bringing like my CD wallet,
and then I didn't want to separate the CDs too
far from their cases, so I would lea the cases
out so I knew what was in my car, what
was in the little thing, and when I went to
switch them out, I could put everything back in order.
(40:09):
And at some point at the top of the CD
pile which was on our dining table, was an album
by a band called Slayer and the uh the album
I think was hell Awaits, which Dominique, I don't know.
Maybe you want to look up the cover to that
(40:31):
album just so you know what I'm talking about. You can.
Speaker 1 (40:38):
Gotcha for sure.
Speaker 2 (40:39):
So it's hell Awaits that's on the top of the pile.
I think I walked by. I had no intention of
moving that CD out of the CD wallt I was,
I don't actually like that album, but I was definitely
trying to listen to it. So that was in the
car that was at the top of the pile. I
remember thinking, oh, that should not be at the top
(41:01):
of the pile in my parents' house. I could at
least put something less less forward on top. But then
I looked around and I thought, you know, they haven't
said anything. Let me see if they say anything. And
I left that CD on top of the pile. For
(41:22):
over a week. No one said a word about it,
and I was like, you know what, the I have
my issues with these people, but they're not trying to
police my music and the things that I'm into. I
don't know if that was like a conscious decision. Maybe
they just didn't notice it at all. Maybe they noticed
(41:43):
it and they talked about it and said, if if
we make it a thing, it's just going to become
a bigger thing.
Speaker 1 (41:49):
Yeah, they decided to choose their battles on that one. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (41:52):
That but that's something that I've always appreciated.
Speaker 1 (41:55):
That is such a great story. I think I'm so
curious now about that, because but that seems like it
was it was like a moment where you were you
kind of felt freer, and it probably did make you
care less about it. You're like, Oh, my parents don't
(42:17):
even think it's weird.
Speaker 2 (42:18):
They're not even they're not worried about me.
Speaker 1 (42:20):
Yeah, that's like they must not must not be that crazy.
But I will say, I mean, I don't know what
kind of Christian your family is, but this is given
Catholic vibes, like this is not that different from something
that you might.
Speaker 2 (42:36):
I mean, that's there's we went to Italy together last year,
and that's that kind of art is literally on every church. Yeah,
they put that closer to the pews so that all
the people who couldn't read could see. Oh that's what
hell was like.
Speaker 1 (42:50):
Yeah, so maybe your mom saw hellowaits and it was like, oh,
he's he knows that Hell awaits, so he's gonna stay
away from that.
Speaker 2 (42:58):
Yeah, they're not really the Brimstone, but it's possible. And
also Tom Mariah from Slayer famously Catholic. That makes I
believe the songwriters in the band were atheists.
Speaker 1 (43:11):
Gotcha, So he was maybe hinting something at them, maybe maybe,
Well that was our not our first listen.
Speaker 2 (43:21):
Not our first listening. Oh no, we've undermined the premise
of the whole show. Our moms.
Speaker 1 (43:29):
They got us again, they got us. That was our
millions listen. Tell us about yours at First Listen podcast
on Instagram and YouTube and any anywhere podcasts are listened
to check us out. You're probably already doing that, so
(43:51):
Happy Mother's Day.
Speaker 2 (43:52):
Happy Mother's Day, and we'll be back next week with
a new episode. Thanks or
Welcome to At First Listen, the music podcast for people
who don't always get the hype book want to.
Speaker 2 (00:20):
I'm Andrew, I'm Dominique, and Mother's Day was just two
days ago as we're recording this, so we let our
moms make suggestions for this episode today. We didn't need
a Mother's Day primer episode to get everybody ready for
the big holiday. We could just do it a couple
of days after, and we thought that would be fine.
(00:41):
Is that weird?
Speaker 1 (00:42):
No, we're extending Mother's Day of anything we're giving.
Speaker 2 (00:45):
We're Mother's Week. Why can't it be Mother's Week?
Speaker 1 (00:48):
And it is? It is right here on.
Speaker 2 (00:50):
Ap Neither of us are going to go see our moms.
Speaker 1 (00:53):
They're far away, but they will get to hear our
lovely voices.
Speaker 2 (00:59):
It's just like talking to us, except each of them
doesn't know the other person on this podcast. So maybe
that's gonna be weird for them. We'll find out later.
Speaker 1 (01:10):
They're gonna love it. I can tell.
Speaker 2 (01:12):
So. Your mom Renee, yes, and my mom Von gave
us a bunch of suggestions. We asked them for one song, right,
and they both gave us several.
Speaker 1 (01:22):
You know, I asked for five O one song is
kind of that's kind of it's tough.
Speaker 2 (01:28):
I wouldn't want to be asked that I wouldn't.
Speaker 1 (01:30):
I don't have an answer for that. One song is
like kind of rude. I asked for five, thinking I
would like choose one, and I guess I just didn't.
So I said, give me your give me your top
five favorite songs. And I felt like I knew she
would be able to do that, and I because and
(01:51):
it's the songs she gave were not not surprising to me.
I think if I was given enough time, I would
have been able to guess most of them because I've
like grown up listening to these songs before I was born.
These songs were playing, these songs were being sung, Like
(02:15):
I can hear her singing these songs in my mind
in the grocery store or on a Sunday morning, you know,
when we're cleaning the house.
Speaker 2 (02:27):
Yeah. I needed to probe my mom specifically for non
church related songs, because otherwise she would certainly pick a
bunch of handbell things that she likes to perform, which
I didn't really want to listen to that. So's that's
me being a little bit selfish.
Speaker 1 (02:48):
Wow, that is handbell.
Speaker 2 (02:51):
Yeah, that's her. That's her big thing.
Speaker 1 (02:53):
And what is a handbell?
Speaker 2 (02:55):
Oh, well, you've probably seen them. It's like, so you
know what a bell is. So it's that shape and
it's on like a Usually it's a hard plastic sort
of loop is kind of the handle. They make them
also with like wooden handles and you kind of flick
your wrist forward to make the to produce the sound.
(03:20):
So you'll get like a case of them. Each they
have one time a different yeah, a different pitch. Yeah.
So my mom directs the handbell choir at her church,
Sparta United Methodist Church, and they'll have an ensemble where
(03:41):
basically you are responsible for like for to eight notes
if you're really good, or maybe just one or two
if you're not so good.
Speaker 1 (03:51):
Oh that's so inclusive.
Speaker 2 (03:53):
Yeah, but my mom likes to do solos. She'll have
like a table of the entire octave or octaves that
she needs to perform a particular piece that.
Speaker 1 (04:05):
Sounds like something that would be very haunting and beautiful
in like a in like a big church.
Speaker 2 (04:12):
No, it's a beautiful sound. The thing is you need
you need gloves because otherwise you're gonna smudge up the bells,
and you need like plastic not plastic like foam pads
for the table, so you don't just like clank the
bells down when you're because muting them is a big thing, right.
(04:35):
You can mute them just like by touching them to
your to your shirt, or you can put them down,
but depending on where you need to. It's a terribly
physical instrument to play because you're like kind of moving
a lot laterally depending on how long your arms are.
Speaker 1 (04:54):
That is I love picturing this. I'm gonna google it
later because I like, I'm not picturing like what it is.
Speaker 2 (05:03):
No, I think you are.
Speaker 1 (05:04):
I might be. It sounds very like complex.
Speaker 2 (05:08):
So one of the reasons I didn't want my mom
to give us some handbell tunes to listen to is
because I did not like playing them and I had
to for many years.
Speaker 1 (05:20):
Gotcha. So both of our moms like were in church
making us join in. My mom sang in the church.
Speaker 2 (05:30):
Choir, my father sings in the church choir.
Speaker 1 (05:33):
Okay, and she would I would be also there singing
and I liked it. I would get nervous and I
feel like I would just be I would never know
what was going on. I feel like it would be
too random, Like it wasn't I because I would get
out of it enough that she would just like get
(05:55):
me to go. So I don't remember ever being like
going every single week, so I would just be like,
I don't know the words, I don't know what's going on.
Why am I here? But it definitely speaks to a
way that music did exist before, you know, not that
(06:17):
our parents are that ancient, but they love there seems
in the church, it's like it's more acceptable to be
to like be a musician just in church, and it
doesn't have to become your career and it doesn't like
have to you don't have to be a musician full
time or just in my life outside of church, Like
(06:41):
people are not playing music unless they're dedicated.
Speaker 2 (06:48):
To Yeah, unless it's more than a hobby. Even if
it is technically still a hobby, it's more than a hobby.
That's one of the nice things about the handbell choir
that my mom runs is that it's a lot of
people who are basically tone deaf, like you have you
need no skill basically, and you know, she'll go as
far as to be like, if someone can't keep time
(07:09):
at all, just be like when I point right, and
then they can be involved. Yeah. The fact that they
want to even be in that position despite their complete
utter lack of talent is commendable.
Speaker 1 (07:20):
It is nice, and I think, like with singing, it's
tough because the tone deaf people, which there always are,
would throw me off. So because I'm like a kid
trying to just like find what pitch I'm and I
don't really I'm not sure how to sing still, and
so I would be like, what is the note? I'm confused? Uh.
(07:44):
But that that brings us to a couple of my
mom's for favorite songs that she mentioned, which I'm gonna
I'm gonna kind of put them in one category of
her favorite Her first favorite song My Valentine, which when
I asked her who her favorite singer of it is
(08:08):
since it's a jazz standard and there's tons of versions,
she said Renee, which is her name, And I agree,
it's a great version of it. We don't have a
recording of it here, but I can hear it. I
definitely can hear my mom's beautiful alto voice singing like
(08:35):
I especially like the high parts. I can hear her
like drawing out.
Speaker 2 (08:41):
So yeah, I before we were listening to the chet
Baker version, which you also recommended. This is a song
that I said earlier I had not heard since probably
performing it in jazz ensemble in college. And it is
a beautiful but sleepy song, at least in most of
the versions that I've heard of it, and probably also
(09:01):
the version that I ended up performing.
Speaker 1 (09:05):
Yeah, I think that chet Baker's version has the spirit
of the version my mom would like. She loves like
a heavily featured bass, and I remember her liking chet Baker.
But I definitely think that it is sleepy, and I
(09:27):
think my mom may have sung us to sleep with
that song at some point, But she also, I think,
has a better version of it, She'll Captain You, And
(09:49):
then her next one was someone to Watch Over Me,
which she also gave hide it herself as her favorite
version definitive version. But I am a huge fan of
Amy Winehouse's version, and.
Speaker 2 (10:06):
When you played this, I did not realize that it
was so contemporary as Amy Winehouse Rest in Peace. But yeah, definitely,
as people are citing Amy Winehouse more and more and
I'm sort of hip to it and realizing what a
hype was about with her still because this is like
(10:28):
a rare voice that she has.
Speaker 1 (10:30):
She has a rare voice.
Speaker 2 (10:32):
But I'm hearing great things about Renee from all.
Speaker 1 (10:35):
Yeah, I mean another rare voice, and I do I
mean huge influence vocally, like every every singer has been
trying to copy Amy Winehouse since then. Like that singing incursive,
I think is what they're calling now and Amy that
(10:56):
just like is how she actually sang. And she wasn't trying.
She was trying to to take you know, these jazz singers.
Speaker 2 (11:04):
From the fifties.
Speaker 1 (11:05):
Yeah, but I thought that was so I love any
Winehouse's version. Maybe my mom will check that one out,
but I definitely I think it's by Gershwin, George Gershwin
and the original version which was in a musical which
I didn't know, uh called Okay, which I'll have to
(11:28):
check out. And I I didn't realize I couldn't when
I looked up the Gershwin version sung by this lady
Gertrude something I I did not I could tell that
wasn't the one my mom liked. Andrew had had a
comment about that.
Speaker 2 (11:48):
Yeah, but we'll comment out. We can't do any swears
or Edgie humor.
Speaker 1 (11:58):
Episode Okay, that's our gift to our mom, my mom.
I'll mention that to her later. Uh yeah, did you
have any more thoughts on these songs?
Speaker 2 (12:11):
On those two? No, your other your mom's other choice was.
I think this was probably one of my first favorite songs,
which is Happy Together by the Turtles. Imagine I do
I think about so cute? Yeah, very yeah, perfect word,
(12:34):
A very cute song, great chorus. Yeah, I heard that.
I don't know it's twelve years old or something, maybe younger.
I thought that was such a cool song.
Speaker 1 (12:47):
It was definitely it was one of my first favorite songs.
I mean, my mom, it's my mom and my song.
My mom. We have mentioned is a saying she's a
soul singer, piano singer, teacher as well. If anyone needs lessons,
she teaches remotely and you know, a jazz a jazz
(13:10):
lover and like a a just a music lover, right,
and so like having a song for her kids was
like always gonna happen, you know, which I think that's
not like necessarily everyone, but I my mom and I
had good times, like we were besties when I was
a kid. We would we would like hang out and
(13:32):
have a great time, and we we still are close,
like we have we have a special we have a
special friendship, and I think that this song did like
it did kind of represent our relationship when from when
I was a kid, and especially kind of in contrast
(14:00):
to the song that she had for my sister, Overjoyed
by Stevie Wonder.
Speaker 2 (14:09):
From the Inner Visions record. Yes, every Stevie Wonder song
has like the most beautiful chord progression you could ever imagine.
It's like, I want to study it more because I
want to know what exactly it is. But it's just like,
oh wow, that's just incredible harmony that's on display right there.
Speaker 1 (14:32):
Totally same my mom would I because she's like knows
music theory and stuff, so she probably could explain, like
why that's so crazy beautiful the way that he uses
like minor and major stuff going on at the same time.
It's like the vocals are minor and then the piano isn't.
(14:54):
Maybe like there's I don't know enough I'd have to
get into it, but I'm like, he it's so haunting
and gorgeous. So okay. The funny thing like looking at
these lyrics now, you know, as an adult, I've been
hearing these songs my whole life, and I think Overjoyed
would have been played a lot more in my house
growing up, Like Stevie Wonder was always going, whereas like
(15:17):
the Turtles weren't a huge staple and it's it was
just that one song, you know.
Speaker 2 (15:24):
Yeah, that's how I think the Turtles are for most people.
It's just that just.
Speaker 1 (15:27):
That one so great song. But Stevie Wonder, it's like
we were playing inner Visions.
Speaker 2 (15:32):
You can let the album go.
Speaker 1 (15:33):
We would let the album go and then this would
be a special moment on the album. But it's really
cute because it's just like that song kind of when
I think about like my sister beig Bory, my older sister,
and her being like, my dreams come came true when
I looked at you. Like literally, you know, my mom
always wanted to be a mom and like she so
(15:57):
that was like a big you know, obviously it's a
big moment for people, but like it was always a
goal that she had, and it makes sense that in
this song she's like, my dreams came true when I
looked at you. But then she's like she says something
and maybe two if you would believe you two might
(16:20):
be overjoyed over love over me. And that is also
funny because it's a classic story about my sister is
that she wasn't a very affectionate baby. She likes to
be affectionate, but she doesn't want a whole lot of
affection at her. She wants to initiate it. So it
(16:41):
was like always a bummer for my mom. She's like
my first baby. I want to smooth her and snuggle her,
and she's like leave me alone. Like it was like
whenever she was born and she was crying. You know,
every baby cries when they're born, but she stopped when
you put her down, and that was like so by Si,
and so it was. It's kind of it's kind of funny,
(17:05):
like thinking about this song, I really feel like it fits.
And then versus like happy together, which is very like
we're so happy.
Speaker 2 (17:13):
Together, simple, straightforward. The title is the song There's not
really sometimes.
Speaker 1 (17:19):
Yet exactly, which is yeah, unfortunately. Yeah, that does kind
of mirror, you know, oldest sibling versus youngest sibling. There's
a lot. There's a lot there.
Speaker 2 (17:34):
And Stevie Wonder just had this this ability to capture
like joy in music and lyrics that not many artists
can do in a way that it's not cheesy and
it's not lame, Like Isn't she Lovely is another song
about like loving your child, but it's it's a great
(17:57):
song that you could listen to anytime.
Speaker 1 (18:00):
Yeah, that also does need to be studied. I think,
like if you if you listen to the discography of
Stev that concept sways it moves. I think corniness does come.
I think, like, uh it, I've heard my mom included
(18:20):
will say like he's my favorite. These are the this
is what These are the albums that I mean when
I say my favorite, you know what. Songs in the
Key of Life Inner Visions are like the main two
I remember growing up on and I'm so thankful for that.
Like I was, I growing up in a home with
(18:44):
like this variety of like really high quality music. I
think it's taught me how to listen to music. I
was never like turn this off, mom, like I it
was always good to me. And also it was never
it was like we were not playing our music in
(19:06):
the car, like she did not like it.
Speaker 2 (19:09):
Mom is not passing.
Speaker 1 (19:11):
No exactly, she was not passing the ox. She and
it was like I feel like that is potentially not
a mom rule. That was more of a Renee rule.
She's more open now probably, but she definitely has like
very specific music case and it's good music you can't
(19:32):
argue with it.
Speaker 2 (19:33):
Was there a moment with like Stevie Wonder or any
of the artists here that you were like, I am
now a fan as like a grown person. I don't
listen to this and think, oh, this is my parents' music.
Speaker 1 (19:50):
I don't even think like I remember putting these songs
on like a mix CD. Okay when I was a teen,
Like I think I I always loved it, and I
always knew he was like cool. Like I don't think
Stevie Wonder ever stopped being cool. Like it's not like
I was like, tell somebody's like, who's your favorite artist?
(20:11):
I was like Stevie Wonder, No, I would. I haven't
done that. But like, if somebody's not put on to
Stevie Wonder yet, like you need to get them put on.
Speaker 2 (20:21):
And then they'll be like, Okay, I'm on this now. Yeah,
I understand, thank you for doing that every time.
Speaker 1 (20:27):
And also you google him the best style?
Speaker 2 (20:31):
Oh yeah unique? Look, Well, I don't know if that's
all his doing.
Speaker 1 (20:36):
It could be I don't know if Yeah, my mom
knows about the conspiracy theory. Some people think that he's
not blind.
Speaker 2 (20:46):
Yeah, I went through this with Diamond. I'm not going
through it with you, Okay.
Speaker 1 (20:53):
So our last my mom's last song that she chose
was Alone Again Parentheses Naturally by Gilberto Soul.
Speaker 2 (21:01):
Sullivan. What a sad song? Oh my god?
Speaker 1 (21:08):
Yeah, Mom, what are you doing?
Speaker 2 (21:11):
So in the first verse he talks about he promises
to treat himself to visit a nearby tower and climb
to the top and throw myself off. Other than that,
really pretty song.
Speaker 1 (21:29):
I think if this song came out now, he would
be called someone, would be called Yeah. I think a
great song, and I like, for sure another song that
has been going not that this one I wouldn't have
guessed as a favorite. I'd like to know maybe if
(21:52):
she had heard it more recently, and that's why she
put it on there, because it does it is representative
of a type of music that she would have mentioned.
I also will I definitely thought it was Gilbert and
Sullivan my whole life. Until now, I thought it was
two people. So Gilberto Gilbert and could be either.
Speaker 2 (22:18):
Okay, Gilbert and Sullivan is a real thing. It's a
different Those are Victorian era composers.
Speaker 1 (22:25):
Okay, so throw them in there too. I'm I'm yeah,
that's funny. Okay, maybe his parents liked him. He was like,
kind of sounds like that's it's not impossible.
Speaker 2 (22:41):
Yeah, that's plausible for sure.
Speaker 1 (22:43):
And I was so I was when I when I
checked out this song and I saw how sad it is.
I definitely I was reminded. Definitely my mom loves a
sad song. And I think I can relate to that
for sure. Like I think, yeah, she's a she's a
(23:09):
lover girl, she's in her feelings, like that's where you know,
a lot of her soul comes from when she's singing,
and that's where she feels safe expressing it. Don't cry, mom,
and or do this song? I looked it came out
(23:31):
in It came out in seventy one, which would have
been not long after her dad passed, And it definitely
like mentions you know when my when my father died
and the only the only man my mother ever loved,
(23:54):
like that would have that would have been hitting close
to home for my mom. Definitely at the time, and
I'm sure still so. And so I'm I'm curious. It's
funny because like I think if she I think, if
she knew I was gonna go in and analyze these,
(24:15):
she might have been which is why I didn't want.
Speaker 2 (24:17):
To tell her we gotcha, we gotcha.
Speaker 1 (24:21):
Uh. I didn't want to tell I didn't want to
tell her why I was doing it because I wanted
to know, like truly, what she wanted to what she loves,
not like what she wants to tell me or what
she wants to talk about, because like because I know
I would give a different answer, like I just think
you just think it, think about it more. Yeah, And
(24:42):
like she spoke on her heart and I think it
really came through in these five songs, and they're great songs.
I'm I'm very happy to especially this one. I'm really
happy to be reminded of it because it's it has
that uk Irish sad ironic like sadness. It's like it's
(25:09):
like cheerful. It's not super cheerful.
Speaker 2 (25:11):
It's not like you wouldn't it's like a bar a
pub song.
Speaker 1 (25:15):
Yeah, yeah, exactly, but it has that melancholy but like
in a hopeful way, and he's still he's still alive,
so he didn't jump off of anything. So good for
good for us. The song did it? The song worked.
(25:37):
We didn't need to take action exactly.
Speaker 2 (25:41):
All right, let's take your break and then we'll talk
about what my mom shows.
Speaker 1 (25:57):
Welcome back to at first listen.
Speaker 2 (26:00):
I'm Andrew and it's our Mother's Day episode and now
we're in my mom's suggestions, I e. The Carol King
segment of the show. Like I mentioned, my mom is
not a huge fan of popular music, or at least
she doesn't listen to it very much, doesn't engage with
it often, or at least she doesn't have favorites among
(26:23):
Now that I'm talking about this out loud, and you
were talking about how your mom sort of raised you
on this music, my mom listened to the radio in
the car all the time, and she would have like
an adult contemporary popular music station. And I really hated
all the music on there. And I don't think my
mom cared for it either.
Speaker 1 (26:43):
Now my mom, my mom didn't, but she would still.
Speaker 2 (26:45):
Listen to it all the time because they had.
Speaker 1 (26:46):
The traffic right now. My mom NPR every day. It
was she was like she was not willing to deal
with someone else choosing the music.
Speaker 2 (26:56):
So and this was before you know, for NPR had
like a music.
Speaker 1 (27:02):
We didn't like the music on NPR either, and that
was more like, oh, this is music now I know
about it because somebody talked about it for an hour.
That was more than vibe. But it was like it
would have been back. But also before you had like
as much control to music, especially in the car. Yeah,
so it was like the one CD or tape or
(27:25):
talk radio. So yeah, our my mom had that. My
mom has no tolerance for music. She isn't like, so
we were it would be very rare that we were
just like listening to the radio. But we got we
got Carol King.
Speaker 2 (27:44):
We got Carol King, who is a great choice and
maybe worthy of her certainly worthy of her own episode.
Whether we'll ever get around to it, I don't know.
But Carol King came up as a songwriter. She was
sort of the songwriter to the stars of the late
sixties and seventies. There was recently a musical about her
(28:05):
on Broadway about her life story. She's In twenty twenty one,
was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame
for the second time. The first time was with her
ex husband, Jerry Goffin, and they were a songwriting team
for a while, and then she divorced him began writing
(28:28):
songs that were just under her own name, and that's
where I think most of the kind of immortal Carol
King songs come from. So she is this album Tapestry,
which is I think a compilation in a way where
it's kind of it was a point in her career
where she was taking the songs that she had written
(28:50):
for other people, including songs that she'd written for herself,
and just performing them all and putting them out on
an album. So when you listen to this record, which
I did the other day, it's a lot of music
that you've heard these songs before and maybe you know where,
maybe you heard James Taylor, Aretha Franklin or somebody doing it,
(29:14):
and it just sort of encompasses so many genres because
of the songs stand up on their own, you know
so well. I don't think I knew my mom was
such a fan of Carol King until a few years ago,
when we were probably in some conversation about like, what
(29:36):
were you listening to in the seventies when like all
the music that I love was made, but you didn't
show that stuff to me, like we were doing church stuff.
Speaker 1 (29:47):
Right.
Speaker 2 (29:48):
So what I just played was a song called Beautiful,
which is a very like uplifting, encouraging song.
Speaker 1 (29:58):
I thought it was it's such a such a positive
vibe and it we were noting that it sounds very
similar to another song featuring the word beautiful. Yeah, like
Christina aguilera very very similar, very similar vibe, similar words,
(30:22):
similar chord progression, not not not exactly the.
Speaker 2 (30:25):
Same, Yeah, but it does maybe different enough and different
than to have gotten away with it all this time.
But we're we're investigating.
Speaker 1 (30:34):
Yeah. I feel like Carol King, that's like that's her thing,
right though. She's like she's the creator of the ideas
and other people kind of keep keep proliferating them. And
because it is, it's just a it reminds me of
like some like Lizo songs, in not in any way
(30:58):
with the sound, but in the way of like girl power. Yeah,
like get up, get up and have a smile on
your face.
Speaker 2 (31:09):
No matter what's wrong with you.
Speaker 1 (31:10):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (31:11):
Yeah, but yeah, there's just like a sincerity to all
of these songs. Kara King also wrote, I feel the
Earth Move, which is one of the songs my mom mentioned, which,
of course, the definitive version is Aretha Franklin. The cool
thing about this album also is that because it's so
(31:32):
piano when voice focused, you get the impression that, like,
maybe when Aretha decided to do this song was because
she heard it like this and was like, yeah, I
could make something of that, and she was right.
Speaker 1 (31:46):
Yeah. I think Renee also has an excellent version of
this song in the hearts and minds of our generation.
But it's a classic, Like it's not. It's beautiful. I
hadn't I only vaguely recognized, but this one is a very,
(32:10):
very famous song, and I feel like her version is
too like Aretha. You know, Aretha owns it. Unfortunately, you
know her memory owns it. I imagine hopefully Carol is
getting still paid off of it, off of everyone's version,
but her version holds up.
Speaker 2 (32:32):
Yeah, it does. The other one, which is probably the
one that tugged at my heart strengths the most, is
so far away and I didn't look up to see
if there's another famous version of this, but this one
has the production of it that makes me think that
this was really her song. That she sort of pushed
(32:55):
when her solo career was launched. But you can definitely
hear or the mom sentiment in this as a it's lyrics,
and you could take a variety of ways.
Speaker 1 (33:12):
Totally.
Speaker 2 (33:13):
As the son of a mother who suggested this one,
I'm interpreting it as we live far away from each other,
not in the same house anymore.
Speaker 1 (33:22):
Yeah, doesn't anybody live in their mom's house anymore? And
it's true, we don't.
Speaker 2 (33:31):
But and she would be glad that the answer to
that question in her case is no.
Speaker 1 (33:36):
I think she would. Yeah, it's yeah, it's but it's
like it'd be cool if we were closer, for sure.
Speaker 2 (33:44):
And they moved a few years ago, and they could
have moved a little bit closer, they moved a little
bit farther away.
Speaker 1 (33:50):
That's how it is.
Speaker 2 (33:52):
And I have to mention one of my favorite Carol
King joints, which is You've got a friend. Of course,
the James Taylor version is the one that everybody knows,
and I think you can hear James Taylor doing background
vocals on this song. But another one overjoyed by Stevie
(34:17):
Wonder where it's it's a friend song. It's a happy
song that's not corny. Yeah, Like, it's so easy as
an artist or a musician to write about the things
that bring you down and the things that frustrate you.
(34:37):
To write about the happier moments or the things that
are like more lighthearted, especially without being funny about it,
is to me one of the most difficult things you
could do. It totally has come from such a place
of sincerity that it's hard to access creatively.
Speaker 1 (35:00):
It really is. I mean, that's why these that's why
these people are the greats, you know they it was
It's interesting because it's it's also I feel like this
wasn't I don't know, maybe it was a corny I'm like,
now we have cringe culture, and like we have ten
(35:23):
layers of irony on everything, Like we're were they worried
about being corny? Obviously corny ness has existed, but like,
was like, is it corny to to just love things? Maybe?
Speaker 2 (35:37):
Yeah, well yeah.
Speaker 1 (35:39):
I think I mean even just in the names like
you got a friend or overjoyed, those are not obvious
like you've got a friend, even though it's kind of
like straightforward, it's not just like saying, you know, it's
(36:02):
not just saying I love you. It's not just seeing
like you know, you're as beautiful as the summer's day
or whatever.
Speaker 2 (36:07):
It's like, yeah, there's like all the vapid love songs
that aren't really saying anything about anything. And then there
is like the songs where it's like everything sucks. Yeah
I hate it and you should hate it too. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (36:19):
Yeah, And these songs are a little bit These are
like kind of explaining. They're like telling a story of
a love, a type of love that is a real thing.
Like it's not like friendship or you know, a castle
(36:40):
of love. Overjoyed, Like overjoyed isn't even a word really,
Like I guess it might be, but like who says that.
Nobody is like I'm overjoyed to see you. But like
that feeling of being overjoyed and in love with somebody
that you care so much about, it's like a dream.
It's not really even real. Like that can't be corny
(37:02):
because that's just so that's so real. He's so real
for that. It was so cool to learn about these songs.
Speaker 2 (37:24):
I'm the greatest challenge of all was talking to our mom.
Speaker 1 (37:28):
Speak for yourself. Oh that text, no no, I spoke
about it, about it, no, getting in touch with her
was it was. It was tough. But I I think,
you know, at least I can thank my mom for
giving me my taste in music, my ability to both
(37:49):
love and hate music, like very have strong opinions about
music and musicians and what it's good and so yeah,
I gotta I gotta give a shout out to my mom.
Happy Mother's Day.
Speaker 2 (38:09):
Happy Mother's Day to you. Mom. Our moms have the
same name.
Speaker 1 (38:13):
Wow almost almost or the same as mom. I get it,
I got it. Yeah, that's so crazy. Now I call
her mommy or mama.
Speaker 2 (38:22):
No, it's just mom for me.
Speaker 1 (38:23):
I think guys tend to especially be like they drop
the end pretty early.
Speaker 2 (38:32):
I'm like, mommy, miss you, we shorten it?
Speaker 1 (38:35):
Yeah, hey mom? Uh.
Speaker 2 (38:39):
But yeah, certainly I should say that I wouldn't be
doing this show or a lot of the musical things
that I am involved in without my mom. Even though
we have very disparate tastes in music, there was music
all our round. It was very accessible to me. I
(39:03):
should one of the While my parents are very churchy people,
whitebread type of people, one of the great examples of
their like hands off approach when it came to the
musical taste of my brother and I. I remember, I
think I was in high school now I must have
(39:25):
been in high school. We had this dining room table
that was really just like a pile documents on table
unless there was company, and then we would clean it
off and everyone would like bring their pile of refuse
to their rooms. And because these were in the pre
MP three days or at least pre MP three's in
(39:47):
the car days, if I wanted to listen to music
in the car, and after bringing like my CD wallet,
and then I didn't want to separate the CDs too
far from their cases, so I would lea the cases
out so I knew what was in my car, what
was in the little thing, and when I went to
switch them out, I could put everything back in order.
(40:09):
And at some point at the top of the CD
pile which was on our dining table, was an album
by a band called Slayer and the uh the album
I think was hell Awaits, which Dominique, I don't know.
Maybe you want to look up the cover to that
(40:31):
album just so you know what I'm talking about. You can.
Speaker 1 (40:38):
Gotcha for sure.
Speaker 2 (40:39):
So it's hell Awaits that's on the top of the pile.
I think I walked by. I had no intention of
moving that CD out of the CD wallt I was,
I don't actually like that album, but I was definitely
trying to listen to it. So that was in the
car that was at the top of the pile. I
remember thinking, oh, that should not be at the top
(41:01):
of the pile in my parents' house. I could at
least put something less less forward on top. But then
I looked around and I thought, you know, they haven't
said anything. Let me see if they say anything. And
I left that CD on top of the pile. For
(41:22):
over a week. No one said a word about it,
and I was like, you know what, the I have
my issues with these people, but they're not trying to
police my music and the things that I'm into. I
don't know if that was like a conscious decision. Maybe
they just didn't notice it at all. Maybe they noticed
(41:43):
it and they talked about it and said, if if
we make it a thing, it's just going to become
a bigger thing.
Speaker 1 (41:49):
Yeah, they decided to choose their battles on that one. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (41:52):
That but that's something that I've always appreciated.
Speaker 1 (41:55):
That is such a great story. I think I'm so
curious now about that, because but that seems like it
was it was like a moment where you were you
kind of felt freer, and it probably did make you
care less about it. You're like, Oh, my parents don't
(42:17):
even think it's weird.
Speaker 2 (42:18):
They're not even they're not worried about me.
Speaker 1 (42:20):
Yeah, that's like they must not must not be that crazy.
But I will say, I mean, I don't know what
kind of Christian your family is, but this is given
Catholic vibes, like this is not that different from something
that you might.
Speaker 2 (42:36):
I mean, that's there's we went to Italy together last year,
and that's that kind of art is literally on every church. Yeah,
they put that closer to the pews so that all
the people who couldn't read could see. Oh that's what
hell was like.
Speaker 1 (42:50):
Yeah, so maybe your mom saw hellowaits and it was like, oh,
he's he knows that Hell awaits, so he's gonna stay
away from that.
Speaker 2 (42:58):
Yeah, they're not really the Brimstone, but it's possible. And
also Tom Mariah from Slayer famously Catholic. That makes I
believe the songwriters in the band were atheists.
Speaker 1 (43:11):
Gotcha, So he was maybe hinting something at them, maybe maybe,
Well that was our not our first listen.
Speaker 2 (43:21):
Not our first listening. Oh no, we've undermined the premise
of the whole show. Our moms.
Speaker 1 (43:29):
They got us again, they got us. That was our
millions listen. Tell us about yours at First Listen podcast
on Instagram and YouTube and any anywhere podcasts are listened
to check us out. You're probably already doing that, so
(43:51):
Happy Mother's Day.
Speaker 2 (43:52):
Happy Mother's Day, and we'll be back next week with
a new episode. Thanks or
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