Music Learning. Round 1: 69 Love Songs (ALBUM)

69 Love Songs is a three-volume concept album
by The Magnetic Fields released in 1999.
As its title indicates, the album is composed of 69 love songs
all written by Magnetic Fields frontman Stephin Merritt.

The album was originally conceived as a music revue. Stephin Merritt was sitting in a gay piano bar in Manhattan, listening to the pianist's interpretations of Stephen Sondheim songs, when he decided he ought to get into theatre music because he felt he had an aptitude for it. "I decided I'd write one hundred love songs as a way of introducing myself to the world. Then I realized how long that would be. So I settled on sixty-nine. I'd have a theatrical revue with four drag queens. And whoever the audience liked best at the end of the night would get paid.

The variety of 69 Love Songs also derives from the many song genres that Merritt raids and filters through his own sensibility. Merritt has said "69 Love Songs is not remotely an album about love. It's an album about love songs, which are very far away from anything to do with love."

Other songs indirectly reference some of Merritt's favourite artists, including Fleetwood Mac[1] ("No One Will Ever Love You") , Cole Porter ("Zebra"), Orchestral Manoeuvres in the DarkThe Jesus and Mary Chain ("Let's Pretend We're Bunny Rabbits"), ("When My Boy Walks Down the Street"), Billie Holiday ("My Only Friend"), and Irving Berlin ("A Pretty Girl is Like...").
*yay! learned something new. awesome something new learning. amazing, a happy-making fact learning at its best.
** i can't wait to re-listen to these tunes with the newfound understanding of the influences in mind

Another way of understanding 69 Love Songs is through Merritt's praise of an artist (Laurie Anderson) who "write[s] heartbreaking melodies with words that make fun of heartbreaking melodies."

Consider "Yeah! Oh, Yeah!" where Stephin and Claudia, playing jilted lovers modelled closely on Sonny & Cher, sing their complaints to one another, overplaying and overstating their grievances such that their words become garish declarations of woe ("what a dark and dreary life / are you reaching for a knife?") to which the other character isn't really capable of responding but must still follow in tone ("yeah, oh yeah").

The lack of a firm distinction between content (what is sung) and form (the way it is sung) implies that this couple lives and dies by virtue of how persuasively they can sing to one another, and illustrates the persistent Magnetic Fields songwriting device of trapping a character within the conventions or formalities of a genre.

Q: why is stephin merritt AMAZING?
A: Below are the credits for the album(s)

(note the beautifully overwhelming size of the list indicating 'instruments played' by Merritt on the album. unreal.)
(the fact that a list is required is extraordinary to begin with)

Stephin Merritt – vocals, Digitech vocalist, Roland harmonizer, vocoder, ukulele, baritone ukelele, Kaholas ukelele, Admira classical, acoustic-electric 12-string guitar, lap steel, fado guitar, bass guitar, mandolin, autoharp, Marxophone, ukelin, tremeloa, violin-uke, sitar, zither, violin, musical saw, keyboards, synclavier, Moog Satellite, piano, harmonium, Wurlitzerorgan, rhythm units, recorder, ocarina, pennywhistle, Maestro wind synthesizer, Hohner melodica, Paul Revere jug, rumba box, xylophone, kalimbas, Radio Shackdrum kit, cymbals, rain stick, chimera, maracas, conga, bongos, triangle, bells, tambourine, washboard, steel drum, Chicken Shakers, finger cymbals, springs and Slinkypipes, bamboo harp, spirit chaser, sleighbell, fingersnaps, thunder sheet,
cabasas, cowbells, gong electronic piano, 75-in-One Project Kit, guitar,
I don't think I've ever seen, or ever will again see ONE person credited for playing that many instruments one one work.
oh wait! thats not true, re: Brian Wilson and Paul Mccartney. case & point. talented enough to join the

(i'm curious as to whether or not there are even any other instance documenting one person responsible for playing that sizable a number of instruments on ONE album (release).)
(there must be. yay!NEW INTERVESTIGATION!
If there are, I must find out what album, when, who, how, and how many.
Results of research to come)
(i wonder if there is Guiness World Record for that. There must be. Also update to come.)

69 Love Songs, A Field Guide (i get it! took long enough. a FIELD guide. wittay.)
LD Beghtol's review of 69 love Songs (released December 15, 2006. Continuum International Publishsing Group. As part of the 33⅓ series of books on influential pop/rock albums.
The book includes studio anecdotes, an extensive annotated lexicon of words and phrases culled from the album's lyrics, performance notes from the performers and friends of the band, full-album shows in New York, Boston, and London, rare and unpublished images, and other items such as a crossword puzzle, and a list of academic cant words not otherwise used in Beghtol's book.

FOR YOUR LISTENING PLEASURE
listen to peter gabriel's book of love. SO PRETTY.

notes to self:
1. research guiness records for random album facts
2. research albums with most instruments/parts credited to any one person
3. let you all know whatup with that
4. listen to some mag fields
5. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/33⅓

that's not all:

1. http://69lovesongs.info/wiki/
This site is an unofficial companion piece to the triple album 69 Love Songs by The Magnetic Fields. It focuses on each of the songs on the album, providing background information on source materials, lyrical references, musical tropes and influences.
The heart of the site is the series of pages devoted to each song: use the navigation on the left to view songs in Volume 1, Volume 2 and Volume 3, or via the list of all songs (alphabetical). See the site map for a full overview of the site.

2. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/33⅓
re: 33⅓ (Thirty-Three and a Third) is a series of books written about music albums, featuring one author per album.
The series title refers to the speed (33⅓ revolutions per minute) of an LP album.
Rest assured, i will publish the 'k's-notes' for this article & subsequent wiki's (which in this case, i foresee MANY re: further reserach on my favourite albums covered in the series. I bet there are exerpts/hilites on wikimedia, or wikiquote. Oh shit/whoneeds sleep anyway? Intersomnia


3.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stephin_Merritt
Merritt suffers from a hearing condition known as hyperacusis; any sound heard louder than normal begins to "feedback" in his left ear at increasingly louder volumes. This has largely influenced the reserved live setup of The Magnetic Fields, which usually consists of acoustic instruments and little to no percussion. Merritt also wears earplugs during performances, and typically covers his left ear if the audience applauds.
Heartbreaking. Stephin Merritt is one of the most heartbreaking victims. What an asshole (God?). Crime against humanity. meanwhile (i'm an asshole) there are more than enough musicians who make music thats could be considered a crime against humanity, whod be doing us a favour in losing their hearing/ability to make music.

DONE.

about right

FAMILY (n.)

DEFINITIONS OF FAMILY

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Family, as defined by the U.S. Census Bureau: "A family includes a householder and one or more people living in the same household who are related to the householder by birth, marriage, or adoption. All people in a household who are related to the householder are regarded as members of his or her family. A family household may contain people not related to the householder, but those people are not included as part of the householder’s family in census tabulations. Thus, the number of family households is equal to the number of families, but family households may include more members than do families. A household can contain only one family for purposes of census tabulations. Not all households contain families since a household may comprise a group of unrelated people or one person living alone."

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		Family, as defined by a 1970s Long Island, New York housing code (upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1974): "One or more persons related by blood, adoption, or marriage, living and cooking together as a single housekeeping unit, exclusive of household servants. A number of persons but not exceeding two (2) living and cooking together as a single housekeeping unit though not related by blood, adoption, or marriage shall be deemed to constitute a family." Three Views of "Family," by the U.S. Supreme Court: 1. a traditional “nuclear family” of two parents and their children, and where the parents are presumed to be acting in the best interests of their children. In such a family, there is no need to give the children their own voice – even when parents do such things as institutionalize their children; 2. an extended-kind model of family made up of a community of parents, siblings, grandparents and other relatives which should be recognized as a primary family, even if the blood-ties are not as strong as a nuclear family; and 3. an individualist model where family members are fairly autonomous and that individuality should be respected.

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Family, as defined by Statistics Canada:

"[A] now-married couple, a common-law couple or a lone-parent with a child or youth who is under the age of 25 and who does not have his or her own spouse or child living in the household. Now-married couples and common-law couples may or may not have such children and youth living with them. Now-married couples and common-law couples are classified as husband-wife families and the partners in the couple are classified as spouses." (not anymore)

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Family, as defined by the Netherlands Cabinet:
"a social unit where one or more children are being cared for and/or brought up."

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As long as you're under my roof . . . .

The National Statistical Service of Greece counts all the people who live under the same roof as a family – even if they aren't related.

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House -
Similarly, the Zinacantecos of southern Mexico don't have a word that is equivalent to our concept of family as a parent-child relationship. Instead, their basic social unit is a "house" – and that can mean just one or as many as 20 people who live there.
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Oxford English Dictionary
first defines a family as the servants of a house, or the household. The second definition is everyone who lives in a house or under one head. It isn't until the third definition that it defines family as a "group of persons consisting of the parents and their children, whether actually living together or not."

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Guo + Jia
The Chinese word for "nation" consists of the combination of two other characters: "guo" – country – and "jia" – family.

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It doesn't just take a village – it is one –

Up until the mid-1800s, a Japanese family unit was considered those who worked together in a single village.

		In 1889, Japanese law defined a family to be based on blood lineage, with a father as head of the household, passing on down to his eldest son. Since the determining factor was paternal blood relations, that included polygamous families: all children who had the same father were considered to be in the same family. uchi: The contemporary Japanese term for family, following post-World War II changes in the nation's laws and society. It may refer to a nuclear family of parents and unmarried children, but it can also mean a household as a unit of production or consumption.

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The Arabic equivalent to American concept of family is: ‘aila.

The root of that word means: “to support.”

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Family, as described by George Santayana:

"one of nature's masterpieces."

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* Family, as described by Kayla Moryoussef - to come.
Current information on this working definition suggests that it will be constructed on the basis of LOVE as the basic unit, and Humanity as the ultimate family. The definition will be intended as an example equation using Love as a constant, and Love=Humanity as the solution.
Given that the variables for the equation are profoundly infinite, the purpose of the definition will act as an invitation to participate in collecting as diverse and as many definitions as possible - to the point that the 'known' 'traditional' 'official' definitions implode into oblivion. At which point the universal collection of definitions is reduced back to the original common denominator, so that all that is left to define family is LOVE=FAMILY=HUMANITY.

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there's more! a lot more...
guess what i just found --
THE FACTBOOK:
EYE-OPENING MEMOS ON EVERYTHING FAMILY
an organized collection of research on family - memo after memo on various topics, synthesizing facts, statistical data and opinions - 100 of these memos online. They vary in length from a single page to over 20 pages.
Those memos are the core of The Factbook.
The Factbook draws from over 600 different source materials and is several hundred pages long.
i suggest starting with the "How To Use This Site" page

i'm screwed. in the best way possible

to my favourite person(s)

born to run

most.
happy - making
ever.
(well, for now)

why flashmobs are AMAZING #1276872