[MUSIC[ Kygo and Whitney Houston, “Higher Love”

I have recently found last year’s version of this Steve Winwood classic song, and I am caught by how suited this critical but hopeful song is for this year.

“Things look so bad everywhere
In this whole world, what is fair
We will walk the line
And try to see
Falling behind in what could be

[BLOG] Some Friday links

• Bad Astronomy notes the proposed names for new superheavy elements.
• Dangerous Minds examines the lost music of the Human League, neglected unjustly on the charts.
• The Dragon’s Gaze notes a young hot Jupiter being eroded away after only two million years, and links to a paper suggesting high-metallicity stars preferentially form gas giants.
• The Dragon’s Tales looks at the plumes of Europa and Enceladus.
• Far Outliers notes Czech defections to Russia in the early days of the First World War.
• Joe. My. God. links to Politico’s unflattering portrait of the Bernie Sanders campaign in its final days.
• Steve Munro reports about different transit plans in Toronto.
• The Planetary Society Blog notes the continued findings from Ceres.
• Progressive Download’s John Farrell notes a movement for teleology in understanding the universe.
• Towleroad notes Bobby Brown’s claims that Whitney Houston was bisexual.
• Transit Toronto notes Ontario support for the Yonge Street extension of the subway.
• Understanding Society notes LBJ’s support for cities.
• Window on Eurasia reports on the Kremlin’s use of the last Romanovs, examines Russian fears about Kazakhstan, and notes Ukrainian perspectives on the Donbas war.
• The World notes the problems Brexit would create in a divided United Kingdom.
• The Yorkshire Ranter examines efficient, and less efficient, spending by political parties in elections.

[MUSIC] Material feat Whitney Houston, “Memories”

Reacting to Whitney Houston’s death, Tim Gueguen linked to a very early Whitney Houston track, “Memories”, track #7 off the 1982 album One Down by the New York band Material.

Whitney Houston’s first professional recording as lead vocalist is supposedly this tune, “Memories,” from the 1982 album One Down by Material. Material was a group formed in the late ’70s by bassist Bill Laswell, and at the time was known for its experimental rock based music. Given the mainstream commercial course of her career the combination seems odd at first glance. On top of that the song was written by Hugh Hopper of British prog rock pioneers Soft Machine, and had a saxophone solo by jazz musician Archie Shepp. On the other hand the arrangement of the song itself isn’t too far from what Houston would later do, and One Down seems pretty obviously an attempt at a more mainstream, commercial sound than the group’s previous releases.

Houston was an unknown at the time the album was released so her prescense made no difference to its sales at the time. Conversely I’ve never seen any indication any significant number of her fans, once she became famous, knew the song existed at all, so the album didn’t have a second life.