YouTube

This is everyone's addiction here in New York. When bored the solution is easy - just go to YouTube and watch a video from The Smiths. Anyway here's four of my picks for you ...


1. The Nomads versus The Philistines "HALA"



I went to school with Nizar (of Palestinian origins) and CJ (of Filipino origins). Toward the end of the final year, CJ said that he was working on music tracks for Nizar's rhymes and that Nizar was putting together a rap group called "The Philistines." They moved to LA and now have a music video. Enjoy...

2. Jefferson Airplane "The House at Pooneil Corners"



Before U2 did it, and before the Beatles did it, Jefferson Airplane did it. The band from San Francisco put on a live show on a roof in New York in 1968, captured on film by Jean-Luc Godard. It still seems like a cool stunt, and they sound pretty good live. Listen for singer Marty Balin's wake up "Wake up fuckers! Free music! Free love! Get some!" Their song is one of their most apocalyptic. It was written the year Robert Kennedy and Martin Luther King were assassinated, and we had the riots at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago. By all accounts a bad year.

3. France Gall "Les Sucettes"



Oh dear. This is French pop singer France Gall singing "Les Sucettes." It's a song penned by Serge Gainsbourg about lollipops, but really it's a song about fellatio. Apparently France Gall, then just about 17 years old, didn't get the innuendo. She supposedly ended her professional relationship with Gainsbourg after she found out what she was singing about.

4. Baltic Chain



And for your baltic fix, here's a video of the Baltic Chain from August 1989. Better get out your handkerchief. It's a tear jerker.