Category: Music

Glen Hansard

I talk a lot about Ireland here, so it should surprise no one that I was a big fan of Glen Hansard. Beyond that relationship, his music and the film Once were intertwined with several of my personal relationships. It’s a bit complicated to get into here, but someone burned a copy of an album by Glen’s band, The Frames, and mentioned he’d be in a movie coming out shortly thereafter. I wound up seeing Once a couple of times in the theatre, bought the DVD as soon as it was released, saw the touring Broadway play here in Maine, and caught Glen perform live, too. He and his wife were leaving the same bar I was entering right before the show — we were within feet of him moments before going on stage.

While many know him from Once, he started his band, The Frames, in 1990. In fact, Once was directed by former bassist of The Frames, John Carney. Additionally, he appeared in The Commitments, a movie I’ve seen many times, at the age of 20. It always felt as though he had a tenuous, reluctant relationship with acting, but he was a natural.

He’ll be missed.

I was hooked from the opening scene of Once:

From the play:

Not my video, but here he is in Maine:

Trailer for the documentary The Swell Season

The Frames:

The Commitments:

Funny story: I didn’t listen to much pop music in the early 2000s. I had no idea Everytime was a cover when I heard this, but I appreciate that he covered both Britney and Justin.

Remember (Free as a Bird)

Do you know what song ties The Beatles, John Lennon, Billy Joel, Goodfeelas, and Tik Tok?

In 1977, John Lennon recorded a demo of the song Free as a Bird.

Here it is remastered with AI (hey, I didn’t do it):

Now listen to this song by The Shangri-Las (15-year-old Billy Joel is thought to have played piano on it):

I know this song because it appears in the movie Goodfellas:

That’s where I first realized Free as a Bird quotes this song, which you can really tell in the re-recorded version with the rest of The Beatles (the part where it says “whatever happened to…”

Turns out, there’s also an Aerosmith version:

In 2005, Capone sampled The Shangri-las version:

Which was sampled by Kreepa:

Which is the source for its use in many a TikTok video:

Different Drum

I’m always intrigued when I discover someone wrote or was a part of a movie or song and I had no clue. When watching Better Call Saul, I was excited to hear a Monkees song I didn’t know (‘Tapioca Tundra’). In reading about it, I also didn’t realize Mike Nesmith had written the song ‘Different Drum,’ made famous by The Stone Poneys/Linda Ronstadt.

It should be known that one of my first musical purchases was the audio cassette of the Monkee’s album Then & Now… The Best of The Monkees. I watched the show regularly, listened to my father’s copy of their first album on vinyl, and even watched the movie HEAD at far too young an age. While I (clearly) don’t know everything about the band, we’ve spent some time together.

Anyway, the song was offered to The Monkees, but rejected by producers and later released by a band called The Greenbriar Boys. However, it wasn’t until Linda Ronstadt sang the song with The Stone Poneys that it became a hit.

Below are all of the versions, including a short version from an episode of The Monkees, a full Mike Nesmith recording, and more.

You can read more about “Different Drum” on Wikipedia.

Bonus: