Thought it sounded familiar: the song is by Nakata Yasukata, the same producer/songwriter as Perfume. You can hear Perfume's first hit in the Tokyo portion of Cars 2 by the way.

Oh my...

That was pretty damn awesome. I may be a little misty eyed right now.

Paul Simon is an amazing singer/songwriter who has made such iconic music, so the thought of being on being brought up on stage to play his song along side him (would have been cooler if he'd joined in, then you could say you'd actually played with Paul Simon) is a pretty damn awesome thought indeed.

smooman you sound so bitter. Kesha has found an audience through image, songwriting ability, and vocal talent. I don't give a crap how many people you know that will pat your head and agree with you that she "sucks", she makes bank through talents you don't have, and you should let it go.

This song, in particular, is a HORRIBLE piece to judge someone's singing ability. It goes fast, it has background harmonizations to support it, and it is more about the lyrics and attitude than vocal ability. But despite that, she hits the notes, keeps the energy up, and has fun with it. THAT is why she gets paid. She's not sitting in judgement at a keyboard talking shit anonymously.

Here's the same song live with all the backup singers, etc. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z6MaqZa47lE

Nobody's saying it's the best song ever; it's just a fun little nothing. I'm boggled that anybody would use it as evidence that somebody "sucks". Grow the fuck up.

That's brilliant

His Bio is quite interesting, too... singer, songwriter, animator, illustrator, director... quite the allrounder!

This is awesome! Talented songwriting even for a parody response. I wish i could *promote

Sorry you lost your friend. I think Neil Young is one of the most intelligent, moving songwriters ever.

Fink @Wikipedia
Fink, AKA Fin Greenall, is an English singer, songwriter, guitarist, producer and DJ from St. Ives, currently based in Brighton. Since 2006, the name Fink has also referred to the recording and touring trio fronted by Greenall himself, completed by Guy Whittaker (bass) and Tim Thornton (drums). Fink is signed to independent record label Ninja Tune Records. Greenall is also a sought-after songwriter for other artists, having most recently written for John Legend, and Ximena Sarinana.

Bill Withers is the man. He's had many hits that are still popular today in their original form...covers...rap artists sampling him, etc. Not to mention a captivating voice. Pretty fascinating career too, battles with record companies and such.

I've always loved his lyrics...simple and right to the point, but still somehow colorful and emotional. Best. I love when people try to sing his songs on American Idol (what, my little sisters watch it) and the judges all shake their heads because they fail at reproducing the soul of the song.

You've also gotta respect his outlook on life:

COX: So, I want to ask you to look at the choices that Bill Withers has made in his life to now and tell us which choice you made was your best choice, and which one you made was your worst?

Mr. WITHERS: Let's make it a generalization thing. The best choices that I made was when I was - when I accepted who I was and was honest with myself and went about things how I believed it, without worrying about whether I was going to impress somebody or not. And the worst choices that I made was when I was trying to gain somebody's approval rather than choosing on principle. And every time I compromise one of my principles, the price is fierce for that.

From:
Songwriter Bill Withers And A Career Cut Short
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=7236327

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warren_Zevon

Warren William Zevon (January 24, 1947 – September 7, 2003) was an American rock singer-songwriter and musician noted for including his strange, sardonic opinions of life in his musical lyrics, composing songs that were sometimes humorous and often had political or historical themes.

I have heard of her but I'm not sure she's ever been so mega-successful that I could name one of her songs. I think I heard a poppy one a few years ago and felt it was so-so. Still, an enjoyable bit of marketing I guess.

I did karoake once in Cyprus. After 18 southern comfort and cokes. It was not pretty.


>> ^Sagemind:

Jewel Kilcher (born May 23, 1974), professionally known simply as Jewel, is an American singer-songwriter, guitarist, actress, and poet. She has received three Grammy Award nominations and has sold twenty-seven million albums worldwide, and almost twenty million in the United States alone.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jewel_%28singer%29
Jewel's Official website: http://www.jeweljk.com/
Cheers!
>> ^shogunkai:
yarly
>> ^Sagemind:
Really? - REALLY?
>> ^shogunkai:
Who is Jewel?

Jewel Kilcher (born May 23, 1974), professionally known simply as Jewel, is an American singer-songwriter, guitarist, actress, and poet. She has received three Grammy Award nominations and has sold twenty-seven million albums worldwide, and almost twenty million in the United States alone.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jewel_%28singer%29

Jewel's Official website: http://www.jeweljk.com/

Cheers!

>> ^shogunkai:

yarly
>> ^Sagemind:
Really? - REALLY?
>> ^shogunkai:
Who is Jewel?

This song and video just blows me away. I've taken to looping it when things get rough...much as I used to do with Pink Floyd when I was young. It's got so very many facets that resonate with my own personal history that it has forced me into the stereotyped reaction; it feels like she wrote this song specifically for me.

It's so rare to find a truly melancholy song that actually ends on an upbeat, without getting all preachy and saccharine. She has managed to remind me that life really does have it's high points...and that I really need to open my eyes and appreciate them. That makes this the kind of song one hopes to discover, but it's more than you could ever actually ask from a songwriter...it's a damned happy day when it all comes together.

So, I promise you one thing. This video -will- end up getting sifted. Even if it takes me five more years to get the votes! I've got points, and I'm not afraid to use them. LOL

*promote

While I do love this song, it's not my favorite from their portfolio. "It's Coming Around" is even better, but sadly, there was no video for that one...just a still-photo placeholder. And getting a music video sifted is already hard enough without the video portion going missing. This one's enough that I wish I had the talent, experience, and tools needed to make a video to go along with the song...it deserves the attention that it simply won't get without one.

That said, if you have any interest at all in trip-hop, please do check out that song (It's Coming Around).

Just because I'm feeling more than a little enthusiastic, let me go on a bit longer. Betsy just recently posted these two videos and a few others from her past (samples of several different genre) to youtube. Apparently she's getting back to songwriting after a "long" break, and is going to try youtube as a sounding board for her work before facing a live audience (one of the vids has an intro that explains it all).

Her channel is at http://www.youtube.com/user/betsyullery. Well, technically that's the video with the intro...when I go directly to her channel, for some weird reason it starts out by playing a video from someone else. A direct link to one of the vids seems to avoid that problem.

I find it hilarious that the Ad for the songwriter who's "writing a song about Yahtzee" is asking for ideas, shouldn't that be HER job?

In reply to this comment by therealblankman:
@aniatario- Yup, definitely has a reputation as an asshole. As for "stealing" the rights to the music, well he's the songwriter for most of it and that's where the rights to revenues lies. That said the tracks that the band recorded were very collaborative, so he could have chosen to be more equitable, but chose not to. They worked together for over 20 years and by not sharing Robbie alienated himself from the rest of The Band, especially Levon Helm. So yeah... an asshole.

@rougy- During the editing process for The Last Waltz Scorsese and Robertson lived together and consumed copious quantities of drugs. I guess Scorsese was the typical New York hopped-up cokehead, and Robertson definitely seemed to be more of a mellow stoner.

Side note: Just read on Wikipedia that Elton John's song "Levon" was written as a tribute to Levon Helm, the drummer from The Band. Interesting.

wow man.
the next time i find a good robbie robertson vid ill send it your way to post.
you know waaay more about him and the band than i do,for real.
i learned more about him just by your comments..very awesome my man.