Mad World Mix Tape

photo:   Aimee Rivers, Flickr  (CC by-SA 2.0) OK, first a few admissions. This whole blog thing was pretty much just an excuse to express my feelings about this song in a public forum. When I first heard, "Ghosts on a Landscape", I declared it to be on my Top 10 list. For life. A few decades later, I stand by my statement. It's the only song I've ever uploaded to YouTube. And it's the only lyrics video I've ever made. And probably ever will. (Thank god it was a short song!) To me it's more than a song. It's a short story. It's an Edward Hopper painting ( this one ). It's beautiful. It's heartbreaking. It's got one of the best closing lyrics of all time. And it deserves to be heard by a hell of a lot more people. I kept hoping "Ghosts on a Landscape" had been missing from YouTube for all these years because someone finally recognized its brilliance and bought the rights and were in the studio readying their mega s...

To paraphrase the  Urban Dictionary , a dykeenie is a normal human who appears to be a giant as a result of the viewer's perspective (such as being the size of a sprite). The Scottish rock band the Dykeenies headline this premier post because they are, in both name and reality, the ultimate Mad World Mix Tape artist. With MWMT, we seek to cast (an ever so slightly) brighter light on the "almost-weres" and "sort-of-ares" of the rock/pop & songwriter world. To most, these artists are just another face in the crowd. But to their hundreds or thousands of fans, they are musical giants. Veritable dykeenies. As for the actual Dykeenies in question here, Wikipedia says they hung it up back in 2012 after two albums. Their biggest hit peaked at #53 on the UK singles chart. I always feel guilty when I discover a band posthumously (um, after their passing, not mine). As if I failed to be sufficiently musically vigilant or log sufficient time on Pandora. Surely my...