Day 14: March 31st - Fortnight of Fortnite
Today marks two weeks of QuaranTunes! That’s not really a happy milestone, but it is a milestone (I’m just proud I maintained something for two weeks…) I have some ideas for new QuaranTunes posts and spin-offs. That’s right, this is like Cheers, a place where I don’t know any of your names and will have a half dozen spin-offs which are better somehow.
All of the songs today are about weeks or time or days or something. They’re all also bangers.
Buddy Holly - Everyday
This is a proper tune. Buddy articulates that excitement, that butterflies in the stomach feeling, that comes before new love. How time stands still and moves faster. The Crickets accompany Buddy with guitar, upright bass, thigh slaps, and a typewriter as well as celeste from the producer’s wife (and what a lovely solo!). Ever the Bard of Young Love, this is just a whole pot of wholesomeness.
John Dowland - Time Stands Still
If Buddy Holly is the atomic era’s Bard of Young Love, English-Irish composer and lutenist John Dowland was the Elizabethan era’s Bard of melancholic love. That is on full display here, as Dowland sweetly waxes about how time stands still while gazing on his lover’s face:
All other things shall change
But shee ramaines the same
Till heavens changed have their course
And time hath lost his name.
As with Buddy Holly, there is no hint of irony or posturing. This is simple sincere affection. Performed here by countertenor Daniel Taylor and lutenist Andreas Martin.
They Might Be Giants - Seven Days of the Week (I Never Go To Work)
What a fun tune. Aesthetic Brooklyn indie band They Might Be Giants are known for their quirky and humorous style, which makes them well-suited to children’s music. This bopper about being home all week (familiar to us now) bops properly (boperly). The protagonist does not go to work, but instead lays around and practices trumpet, which is a mood tbh (I’ve decided to learn recorder with this time. Be glad you’re legally required to keep your distance from that).
Harrison Birtwistle - Harrison’s Clocks: No. 3, Clock III
English composer Harrison Birtwistle has already made an appearance on QuaranTunes, which makes him the first repeat living repeat offender (probably among his highest honors………….). His solo piano work, Harrison’s Clock, based after 18th-century English clockmaker John Harrison (who invented the marine chronometer), deal with repetition, time, and memory. In this movement, short riffs (called ostinati) appear,slowing and speeding up (like Buddy Holly, eh) and moving throughout the piano’s registers. Listen for the appearances of these short loopy bois and for when they return, which will help you parse this complex and difficult work. Played here by Joanna MacGregor, head of piano at Academy.
Tyler, The Creator - Boredom (feat. Rex Orange County and Anna of the North)
This vibes hard. Through a lush laid back soul groove, Tyler malaises (it’s now a word) in boredom and hunger. That repetition of boredom is sick. Just a good vibe man.