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Saturday, July 05, 2008

Jazz Leaves Her F'cking Number, July Fourth

What did he say? Taylor Hicks' appearance in the "Capitol Fourth" event gives new meanings to the phrase, "Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness" as outlined in our Declaration of Independence. Taylor Hicks delivered a fast-paced, energetic and always for me, interesting performance in the Capitol Fourth event.

Taylor Hicks performed three songs, "Soul Thing", "Dancing in the Dark" and "This Land is Your Land". About 4:28 into the performance, during the "Dancing in the Dark" Springsteen cover, it seems Taylor Hicks employed a little lyrical "libertay". I truly love when this man gets all improvisational.

video c/o KarinP

"Soul Thing" is one of my favorite Taylor Hicks' songs, and I've had "Dancing in the Dark" on my previous on-site little jukebox. Outside of Mr. Hicks' lyric improv moment, I thought copycatting the Bruce Springsteen/Courtney Cox video moment a bit trite, but likely considered 'expected'.

"This Land", obviously a 'must do' for a patriotic special selection - rehearsal photos provided by the ever-on-top Taylor new news, over at righthickssave.com - Mr. Hicks is depicted working the Guthrie tune with a guitar and harmonica ala Bob Dylan. By showtime it seems decisions obviously made that the instrumental focus a 'must not do'. Taylor did incorporate the harmonica during the last portion of the tune, it worked well, but man, Contrary Mary that is me, I'd rather seen the instrumental focus. Fashion over art, perhaps.

Earlier in the day, yesterday, Taylor had been over at the CNN studios for an interview. While Cheshire cat grinning he mentioned his current run on Broadway and said, 'hopefully', he'd have a new CD ready for a Fall release. Hopefully?

video c/o pboyer
Speaking of Fall releases, last Sunday Mr. Hicks was filmed signing playbills following a performance of "Grease". I think he's being very accommodating to the fans. Gal filming this, Candy, tries to get him to divulge information on the upcoming release of Mr. Hicks' "Early Works" CD. Taylor nimbly sidesteps the question. Certainly Hicks' is not rude, but it's quite obvious he's not a tail wagging push over, either.

TAYLOR HICKS-STAGE DOOR (GREASE) 6-29-08 from Candy on Vimeo
vimeo c/o Candy
I'm left somewhat confused regarding the Fall releases that have been discussed on the fan forums. On one hand there's the CD that Candy brought up in her video of Taylor, "The Early Works", the other hand a promise of a new CD with new material. This CD Hicks' talks about on CNN for Fall release, is that the one composed of his past post-Idol works or is he speaking about a new material CD? Or both? Hard to tell, haven't read anything from the man himself clarifying this issue.

All in all, my favorite moment from Taylor Hicks this week was delivered in "Dancing in the Dark". Taylor Darlin' you don't have to sit there f'cking wi' yourself, man, this Sun shines for you.

video c/o adridu74

12 comments:

  1. Anonymous10:50 AM

    Uh...Ummmmm I do believee the man sang "funnin' with myself....." If you listen closely I think you will hear it....

    Cheers!

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  2. Sorry, no, I don't hear 'funnin' and that's not the lyric anyway - although, I must say that's a good cover. Likely 'he' could use that if questioned, hey darlin'? Nice to see you stop by.

    Keep on keeping on.

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  3. Anonymous4:11 PM

    It's so funny how the SP makes up all kinds of excuses for him. I've heard all sorts of words, except the obvious one, LOL!

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  4. God love them. But being fair - not all SP'ers are head in the sand-ers. lol I know a few that are rational and realistic.

    I tell you though, he's never boring. I love him for that. lol

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  5. Anonymous7:22 PM

    Yeah, he totally dropped the F-bomb. I heard it when it happened, and I was like "OMG! He dropped the f-bomb on PBS!"

    God- I love that guy! LOL!

    Some SP'er's will continue to believe he said "funnin." pfffft..

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  6. Anonymous10:28 PM

    Well, he was sure stumblin all over the lyrics but I don't think he said fuckin, but that would have been fun if he had. LOL
    I thought he was good, I too would liked to have had a little more with the instruments.
    Just a guess, but I think the producers wanted movement and lots of it. He did well.

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  7. Anonymous11:16 PM

    I went back to listen to that a few times and boy I don't know. Who knows what he said. I know the more I listen to it the more I like it. I saw that rehearsal where he used the harp and guitar. He started the song with it, I believe.
    I think hes been pretty clear about the cds in several interviews. Theres was an "early works" to be released in August and the new Cd he first said in Sept. Early works was a compilation of the best of UTR and IYT and I am hoping for something else maybe a live performance or something. I don't know why anyone would expect something brand new on an early works cd. I have thought that hes working to build a few new fans so there will be a bigger interest in that. Then he said the new cd in Sept, but I think the best we can hope for is Halloween. It will be hard I think for him to quit changing it to make it better and just "git er done"

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  8. Here's a song dedication for Taylor this a.m. "I'm No Angel".

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  9. Anonymous10:34 AM

    LOL, great blog sunny.

    How do you "fun" up lyrics with a tele-prompter right infront you? I think those spins just got him "funnin" dizzy if you ask me.

    Could somebody explain what "funnin" with yourself means?

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  10. Anonymous1:21 PM

    Maybe about the same as the other means LOL
    There was a blogger who said people kept getting in front of the telepromter, caused a few problems. Maybe he was just muttering his way through it.
    Whatever he said, at least it wasn't clear enough for anyone to go into fits over, I'm glad of that anyway.

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  11. Anonymous5:21 PM

    "funnin" with yourself makes no sense at all - I have no idea what it means. "fucking" with youself - yes, that makes sense and it's what he said. Why are people so surprised about this anyway? Taylor has said the word "fuck" numerous times in interviews and so forth. People who are not fans, I'm sure didn't even notice, so this will will not hurt him in the least.

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  12. No, this isn't going to hurt Mr. Hicks at all. None of the rag mags jumping on it either.

    Can't prove anything he said as the "'funnin' wi' myself" lyrics would work.

    I read there were some audio missteps in the show, live. That might explain why the audience being shown on the camera monitors seemed off the beat most of the time.

    Darling Man said it was embarrassing: a sea of Caucasians and nobody with any rhythm. Bwhahahaha.

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