Musical coincidences # 126

A few days ago I posted a song by American musician Jeremy Messersmith called “Lazy Bones”. After hearing it one more time, I noticed something I missed the first six times I heard it*. In a part of the song’s chorus Jeremy sings a background vocal in the left channel. He sings “You’re working so hard”:

Jeremy Messersmith – “Lazy Bones” (2010) (excerpt)

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I don’t know why I hadn’t notice it before, but the melody in that backing vocal reminds me of the violin backing in a part of John Lennon‘s “#9 Dream“:

John Lennon – “#9 Dream“ (1974) (excerpt)

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I know it’s a pretty small coincidence, and probably not worth mentioning at all, but it gave me an excuse to play you Monsignor Lennon’s “#9 Dream” which I sometimes think is my all-time favourite John Lennon song (if I’m not thinking about “Across The Universe“).

Here are the full versions:

Jeremy Messersmith – “Lazy Bones” (2010)

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John Lennon – “#9 Dream“ (1974)

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(*I just noticed how egocentric that sentence is, containing not one but three instances of “I”. Ay Yi Yi! What a fat head I’m getting.)

Song of the day: Jeremy Messersmith – "Lazy Bones"

I like how one musical thing can lead you to another musical thing.

One of the blogs I read daily is Absolute Power Pop (Hi, Absolute!). A recent review there was of an album called October House by JoDee Purkeypile. The cover looks like this:

That reminded me of the cover of Jeremy Messersmith‘s album The Reluctant Graveyard which looks like this:

And that prompted me to play you a song from Jeremy’s album:

Jeremy Messersmith – “Lazy Bones” (2010)

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And in the interests of fairness, here’s one from JoDee’s:

JoDee Purkeypile – “Company Man“ (2011)

And that post had too many sentences that started with “And”.

Jeremy Messersmith official website
Jeremy Messersmith on Facebook
Jeremy Messersmith on MySpace
Jeremy Messersmith at Bandcamp
Jeremy Messersmith on SoundCloud

JoDee Purkeypile on Facebook (1)
JoDee Purkeypile on Facebook (2)
JoDee Purkeypile on SoundCloud

Song of the day: Jeremy Messersmith – "Violet!"

If you like the idea of Colin Blunstone singing a Brian Wilson song (who wouldn’t?), then here’s folkie-turned-pop-artist Jeremy Messersmith to make your day:

Jeremy Messersmith – “Violet!” (2010)

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“Violet!” appears on Jeremy’s (sort-of) concept album, The Reluctant Graveyard (2010). The concept is, as far as I can tell, “deceased-ness”. Not the jolliest of ideas to base an entire album on, admittedly, but I’m happy to report that it’s not too much of a downer. (I’ve listened to the album quite a few times now, and each time I haven’t thought of doing myself any harm.) Anyway, for me it’s all about the tunes – and the tunes on the album are good. (Lyrics are always secondary to me.)

Jeremy Messersmith official website
Jeremy Messersmith on Facebook
Jeremy Messersmith on MySpace