Saturday, January 13, 2018

Storm III A Bust - A Song, Time And Origins

So, yeah, we were supposed to get quite a wallop of a storm, I'm hearing other parts of the Atlantic provinces did. Man, feel bad for parts of Nova Scotia, they've been hit by every single storm so far and it's been knocking out power after power... They seem to be getting people hooked up and then the next storm tramples through like a child running through another child's building blocks.

The forecast yesterday for this storm looked and sounded pretty crazy.... We had the temps climb up around +11 and then winds were to pick up, heavy rainfall, which we did get, but then this morning (Jan 13) the temp was to plummet to -2 in the order of just about an hour or so giving rise to an alert I've never even seen or heard before. The "Flash Freeze" never came to fruition.
"Flash freeze" sounds like what happened during the end of the last ice age, where years ago now, they found woolly mammoths frozen to death with food still in their mouths and throats, it's also vaguely similar to a couple of scenes in the movie 'The Day After Tomorrow' where there's like some kind of 'polar vortex' mixed with this massive downdraft that freezes any life solid in seconds!

So I was up earlier this morning, all the ice had been cleared from the driveway with the warm temps and rain through the night, which was a bonus, but then I thought since it'd be changing to this flash freeze and freezing rain into tonight, well what point in being awake! So i slept most of the day away and woke up a few times to eat and see the lay of the land, then I checked the weather warnings and they'd all been rescinded! Hey, sometimes it happens. Any of ya's that know me know I'm a storm buff, I love storms, so it was a let down... Not a let down of course for those now without power... So no the forecast is just for some spotty rain/freezing rain/snow... But nothing to get out the emergency kit for! Oh well, some storms are good, some ain't so good... At least the ton of snow and ice that was on the roof is gone!
Need an 'Edit' here:
So, was just reading the CBC's news for New Brunswick and it would seem that Fredericton escaped quite a weather missile. While we didn't lose power (at least my area), many customers did AND at least 6 roads and highways are closed because they were washed out. Above normal temperatures with the rain and frozen ground has caused flooding and roads and highways to be demolished by rising waters! Shesh, we did dodge 'the bullet'!

'I Feel Love' -
Now don't get all excited and think, "Ohhhh Chris has met a woman!!!".... Nope, no woman, but a cool discovery for me.
I woke up for my meds early this morning and usually when I'm up for that, I end up staying up and watching some documentary or finding some old music vids to watch... I woke up and for some reason I had the 'Bee Gee's' in my head... So I brought up on Youtube 'Night Fever' - While watching this video, as we all know, Youtube has all kinds of 'suggestion' and 'related' videos to the side and one of those videos was a song called, 'I Feel Love' by Donna Summer. I'm not a huge or even small Donna Summer's fan, but for some reason I clicked on the video and was wowed by the ear candy I received.

Now let me sidetrack for a bit... As I'm prone to say, 'Those that know me', know I love music... All kinds, all genres, '70's, '80's, '90's to current, right across the board.... So in 1994, when I had moved to Vancouver, the first job I secured was with 'Paradise Entertainment' - I always thought that sounded like some kind of stripper outfit lol - But no, they were a massive lighting and sound production house that had the contract for the the 'Plaza Of Nations', which was built in the mid '80's' for Expo '86' (which my Brothers, Dad and I attended, our first excursion by car out West)... So being back at the Plaza was a bit of a head trip, so much deja vu feeling. So, Paradise Entertainment, they didn't just have the contract for events at the plaza, but also did dances, weddings, parties, karaoke, you name it.
Since I'd done some DJing at CHSR before I left and had MC'd some Fredericton events, the powers that be at Paradise asked me if I'd go out and do some DJing for them and since it was a job, since it was money, since it was getting out and getting experience, getting out in all parts of the Lower Mainland of Vancouver, I jumped at the chance.
I had some great times, super huge parties, crazy weddings at some of the richest venues in town, eating foods I'd never even heard of, meeting all kinds of great people.

I did and do hate karaoke, I think it's like the Antichrist of music, I know my Brother and his girlfriend are quite fond of getting up havin some drinks and partying the night away at karaoke bars, but I just don't dig it and hell, I'm a singer!
Anyhow, so DJing exposed me to all kinds of great music, in all kinds of great genres, Paradise had this huge room full of vinyl and CDs, so I'd spend what downtime I had checking out some great beats and making mixed tapes to listen to.
On one of these mixed tapes, there was a song, and for quite a long time, because I had not written down who was on that mixed tape, I had NO clue who this artist was or even the name of the song, though I had guessed from the chorus and most prominent spoken lines of the song was 'Sunshine After The Rain'.
That song actually got me through one of the most trying, hardest, grueling times of my life and I had no clue who it was performed by.
Years later, around the late 1990's, early 2000's, with the advent of the computer, I searched out this song and found that the version I had on this mixed tape was performed by 'New Atlantic featuring 'Berri', so now I finally had the answer to who did this song, but that's only part of the history of that song.
'Sunshine after the Rain' was originally written and performed by Ellie Greenwich in 1968 and then was re-recorded and performed by Elkie Brooks in 1977, it was a kinda a sad slow song and the chorus was extracted and use in the 'New Atlantic' version in the 1990's as a monster club hit.

So the tracks been a long time favorite or mine. But what I didn't know was the connection between 'Sunshine After the Rain' and 'I Feel Love' by Donna Summer's. Because of Wikipedia many times when I run across a movie or song, I'll check out the info on it at Wikipedia.
'I Feel Love' was was written by Donna Summers with production by Georgio Moroder and Pete Bellotte during the Disco age. A lot of disco songs featured live orchestrations, but Moroder wanted to do something different with this track and instead of an acoustic orchestrated session he wrote the song purely digitally. It's said that David Bowie was recording an album at the same time and his producer having heard 'I Feel Love' rushed in on Bowie and said "This is it, look no further. This single is going to change the sound of club music for the next fifteen years." Which was more or less right."
The song is said to be the advent of many genres of music today, including: Dance, Techno, Post Punk and New Wave.
So this is where things get crazy. Well maybe 'crazy' is a bit too big a word, but neat, cool.... When New Atlantic was writing their 1994 album that featured 'Sunshine After the Rain', 'I Feel Love' was 'interpolated' for the song. So this may be why the song hit me so hard when I heard it because essentially the music that underlies 'Sunshine After The Rain' is 'I Feel love'.... So cool!
Perusing around on Youtube I found that there is a live version of 'I Feel Love' done by Blondie as well as the innovative art trio the 'Blueman Group'.
When I first heard 'I Feel Love' this morning, my brain was on fire, 'How could I have not heard of this song? How did this manage to slip by me, especially since it is the bones of 'Sunshine After the Rain'?'
I really like how I've just stumbled across mind blowing music over the years, how one video leads to another and can open up sonic doorways...

So let's check out these versions!
Donna Summer - 'I Feel Love' (Extended Mix)
 
Sunshine After the Rain - New Atlantic feat. Berri
The Blueman Group Feat: Venus Hum

Don'tcha just love music?

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