High Fidelity

"High Fidelity meme". (Because all the cool kids are doing it.)

Top Five Lyrics That Move Your Heart

"And the Band Played Waltzing Matilda" - The Pogues

When I was a young man I carried my pack
And I lived the free life of a rover
From the Murrays green basin to the dusty outback
I waltzed my Matilda all over
Then in nineteen fifteen my country said Son
It's time to stop rambling 'cause there's work to be done
So they gave me a tin hat and they gave me a gun
And they sent me away to the war
And the band played Waltzing Matilda
As we sailed away from the quay
And amidst all the tears and the shouts and the cheers
We sailed off for Gallipoli

How well I remember that terrible day
When the blood stained the sand and the water
And how in that hell that they called Suvla Bay
We were butchered like lambs at the slaughter
Johnny Turk he was ready, he primed himself well
He showered us with bullets, he rained us with shells
And in five minutes flat he'd blown us all to hell
Nearly blew us right back to Australia
But the band played Waltzing Matilda
As we stopped to bury our slain
And we buried ours and the Turks buried theirs
Then we started all over again

Now those that were left, well we tried to survive
In a mad world of death, blood and fire
And for seven long weeks I kept myself alive
While the corpses around me piled higher
Then a big Turkish shell knocked me arse over tit
And when I awoke in my hospital bed
And saw what it had done, Christ I wished I was dead
Never knew there were worse things than dying
For no more I'll go waltzing Matilda
All around the green bush far and near
For to hang tent and pegs, a man needs two legs
No more waltzing Matilda for me

So they collected the cripples, the wounded, the maimed
And they shipped us back home to Australia
The legless, the armless, the blind, and insane
Those proud wounded heroes of Suvla
And as our ship pulled into Circular Quay
I looked at the place where my legs used to be
And thank Christ there was nobody waiting for me
To grieve and to mourn and to pity
And the band played Waltzing Matilda
As they carried us down the gangway
But nobody cheered, they just stood and stared
Then turned all their faces away

And now every April I sit on my porch
And I watch the parade pass before me
I see my old comrades, how proudly they march
Reliving old dreams of past glory
I see the old men all twisted and torn
The forgotten heroes from a forgotten war
And the young people ask me, "What are they marching for?"
And I ask myself the same question
And the band plays Waltzing Matilda
And the old men answer to the call
But year after year their numbers get fewer
Some day no one will march there at all

Waltzing Matilda, Waltzing Matilda
Who'll go a waltzing Matilda with me


"Deportees" - Woody Guthrie

The crops are all in and the peaches are rotting
The oranges are piled in the creosote dumps
They're flyin me back to that Mexico border
To pay all your money to wade back again

Chorus:

Goodbye to my Juan, Goodbye Rosalita
Adios mis amigos, Jesus y Maria
You won't have a name when you ride the big aeroplane
All they will call you will be "deportees"

My father's own father he waded that river
They took all the money he made in his life
My brothers and sisters they worked in the fruit trees
And they rode the trucks till they took down and died

Some of us are illegals and others not wanted
The work contract's out and we have to move on
Six hundred miles to that Mexico border
They chase us like rustlers, like outlaws and theives

Chorus

The skyplane caught fire over Los Gatos canyon
Like a fireball of lightning it shook all our hills
And though our best friends fall scattered like dry leaves
The radio says they are just "deportees"

Chorus

We died in your hills and we died on your deserts
We died in your valleys and died on your plains
We died in your trees and we died in your bushes
Both sides of the river we died just the same.

Chorus

Is this the best way we can grow our big orchards?
Is this the best way we can grow our good fruit,
To fall like dry leaves and rot on your topsoil
And be known by no name except "deportees"?


"Atmosphere" - Joy Division

Walk -- in silence
Don't walk away -- in silence
See the danger -- always danger
Endless talking -- life rebuilding
Don't walk away

Walk -- in silence
Don't turn away -- in silence
Your confusion -- my illusion
Worn like a mask
of self-hate
Confronts and then dies
Don't walk away

People like you -- find it easy
Aching to see -- walking on air
Hunting by rivers, through the streets,
every corner abandoned to soon
Set down with due care
don't walk away -- in silence --
Don't walk away


"She Talks To Rainbows" - The Ramones

She's a little lost girl in her own little world
She looks so happy but she seems so sad
ah ah oh yea oh oh oh yea
She's a little lost girl in her own little world
I'd like to help her I'd like to try
ah ah oh yea oh oh oh yea

She talks to birds she talks to angels
she talks to trees she talks to bees
She don't talk to me
Talks to the rainbows and to the seas
she talks to the trees
She don't talk to me
Don't talk to me

You know she drives me outta my mind
You know she drives me outta my head
You know she drives me outta my mind
You know she drives me outta my head


"An Die Freude (Ode to Joy)" Friedrich von Schiller (Chorus of Beethoven's 9th Symphony)


Top Five Instrumentals

"Rhapsody in Blue" - George Gershwin
"James Bond Theme" - as done by Naked City
"The Wedge" - Dick Dale
"Psyko" (Themes from "Psyko" and "Vertigo") - Laika and the Cosmonauts
"Spec Bebop" - Yo La Tengo


Top Five Live Musical Experiences

Frank Zappa, April 10, 1980, Boulder, Colorado

The Clash, July 30, 1982, Brixton Fair Deal, Brixton, London, England

Nick Cave, August 12, 1985, Metropol, Berlin, Germany

Sue Foley, Tuesday Nights at Antones, Austin, TX 1991-93

Diamanda Galas with John Paul Jones, Novemer 30, 1994, Paramont Theatre, Austin, TX

Top Five Artists You Think More People Should Listen To

Howe Gelb

Kristin Hersh

Alejandro Escovedo

Jad Fair

Bleach

Top Five Albums You Must Hear From Start to Finish

Peggy Suicide - Julian Cope
Daydream Nation - Sonic Youth
Ocean Rain - Echo and the Bunnymen
Double Nickles On the Dime - Minutemen
Exile On Main Street - Rolling Stones


Top Five Musical Heroes

Frank Zappa
Ramones
Woody Guthrie
Kate Bush
Sue Foley