Happy Music Monday! Gather up your fuzzy friend, because today we're taking a look at the wild kingdom. Our mix this week is all about the animals, and we don't mean Eric Burdon's band. Scott's out of town today, but he's still left us with five songs that represent the tooth and claw, the land and air, from the insect kingdom to the big jungle cat. We'll start with a radio-friendly cat song:
Duran Duran - The Man Who Stole A Leopard
There really aren't a lot of bands who make it to their golden years with the same energy. It's to be expected, since rockin' out is a young person's domain. But "The Man Who Stole A Leopard" is just as good as any of the early Duran Duran hits and carries the same New Romantic energy for which the band was once known. If you're curious, I linked the studio version above, but the image I used is from this David Lynch-directed video in which Simon LeBon kinda messes up. Watch that key, Simon.
As always, lurking inside are four more tracks, the Spotify playlist from last week, and the impending comment cavalcade. See you after the jump!
Once you've rocked with the animals, remember our new Spotify playlist will be featuring a great selection from last week's Music Monday comments. The theme of the mix this time is Songs About Songwriters and you'll be impressed at how tied together the music industry can be. But before you start reminiscing…
If you want to learn more about the aliases of Dave Lee you can do the research on your own time. All I care about today is that "Disco Owl" is an amazing song, combining the right mix of stupidity and talent to make something that feels crazy but never stops being funky. "Don't need a trowel/to dig that owl" is a truly inspired rhyme, and how many dance songs have an unforeseeable twist ending?
Maybe the previous song drew inspiration from this sweet '70s hit chronicling the mating life of the Coccinellids. Prepare yourself for a million bug puns and a really strange "hard-to-get" routine that wouldn't really fly in today's culture. It's an innocent sort of "let's get a novelty hit, okay guys?" that today's music industry just couldn't support. But once upon a time, this is how some people made money.
There aren't a lot of Osmond family songs that approach psychedelia, but "Crazy Horses"" takes the band to a kinda weird place. The fuzzy guitar and stylophone kinda hint at Black Sabbath, but it's all just so sweet and innocent underneath. Like, it's impossible to think of Toni Iommi and Geezer Butler ever doing this, you know? Basically these horses might seem crazy, but they're really quite tame.
Hate me if you want, but before there was Destroyer, there was Al Stewart. This easy listening, slow-moving river of a song winds you through imaginary streets with lyrics that sound like they were scribbled down after a dream. Culture references, the illusion of romance, a tune that's just curious enough to remember, all hung on the shoulders of the Internet's favorite animal? No wonder it was a smash hit back in the day.
There's a whole bestiary of songs out there for you to pet. Set out some kibble and lure them into our forums below! Post your best animal song, then creep over to our Turntable.fm room for the regular Music Monday enjoyment. Also, let us just remind you: some images come from the corresponding Wikipedia page and are here under fair use.