SOUNDTRACK: STING AND SHAGGY-Tiny Desk Concert #866 (July 10, 2019).
Sting is certainly one of the biggest names to play the Tiny Desk Concert thus far (even if his star has probably faded somewhat). I was surprised to see him here. And also surprised to see him with Shaggy, a singer I don’t know all that much about.
Sting and Shaggy might not be the most likely musical pairing. But one thing is certain, they love playing each other’s music. On a bright autumn morning, the legends arrived at the NPR Music office bleary-eyed yet excited to play for the diverse staff of Shaggy and Sting fans. What surprised many of my NPR colleagues is just how well the collaboration works.
I don’t know if they have done more together besides this, but they certainly sound familiar with each others work. Well, the blurb suggests that they are or were touring together:
Shaggy affectionately refers to his collaborator as “Stingy,” putting his arm around him mid-performance. It’s easy to see the camaraderie that being on the road together affords these veteran musicians.
They open the set with “Englishman in New York” and Sting’s bass sounds great. When he sings, he is so clearly Sting (even if he’s singing is slightly affected). Dominic Miller strums Reggae offbeats on acoustic guitar. Then Shaggy takes the second verse.
Shaggy (zoinks! – his nom de guerre comes from the Scooby-Doo cartoon character) was born in Kingston, Jamaica. He moved to New York when he was 18 and his music evokes only good vibes. The positive energy he brought to their opening song, “Englishman[and Jamaican]In New York,”had everyone in the room grinning ear to ear, “early morning Reggae style,” as he put it.
Shaggy adds this humorous verse:
I wear my colors in my back pocket / I got a big spliff in my hand /
and you might notice there’s swagger anytime I walk / I’m a Jamaican in New York.
Their voices sound great together especially as the end of the song soars unexpectedly.
After the tune, Sting announced “I never sang that song before 8 PM… Ever!”
Up next is “Don’t Make Me Wait,” a song I don’t know. Sting plays a reggae bass line will Shaggy sings the first verses. The backing vocals from Gene Noble and Melissa Musique fill the chorus. Then Sting takes the next verses.
The end is really funny as Shaggy tries to clap along with the backing singers but he gets lost and everyone laps.
The final song is a mash-up. Dominic Miller co-wrote “Shape Of My Heart” which is mashed-up with Juice Wrld’s “Lucid Dream.” “Shape of My Heart” sounds familiar–or at least sounds like a pretty typical Sting song. Since I don’t know either song, I didn’t realize that Gene Noble was singing the lead of “Lucid Dream” within “Shape.” Miller and Sting plays the same melody all the way through. Noble has a nice voice, but I don’t like the way he sings. Shaggy takes a verse.
This is an unlikely collaboration, but it works very well.
[READ: July 1, 2019] “Diamond Monkey”
The Summer 2019 issue of The West End Phoenix was a special all comics issue with illustrations by Simone Heath. Each story either has one central illustration or is broken up with many pictures (or even done like a comic strip).
Each story is headed by the year that the story takes place–a story from that particular summer.
1995: This is another story about a summer job opportunity–one that promised much but delivered little.
This time the job opportunity was working the diamond mines in Yellowknife, Canada. Heidi and her friends were driving up from Montreal.
This was pre-cell phone, pre-internet, pre-everything. They squatted in grubby trailers playing cards. What else was there to do? Drink beers of course.
But you never wanted to go outside to pee, even after four beers because 20 seconds of dropped pants equaled at least three times that number in angry northern mosquito bites. (more…)
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I have seen Lucy Dacus twice and she has been really amazing both times. I was very excited to see that she would be at Newport. But I was really bummed to see that she would be running into Jeff Tweedy’s set. I had to decide who I wanted to see more, Lucy or Jeff. Since I had seen Lucy twice and more recently, I decided to pick Jeff. (It also seems more likely that Lucy will tour again before he does). That meant I could only see a few Lucy songs.
I Just Read About That... 