SONG OF THE WEEK – “CAN’T DO WITHOUT YOU”

As I write this, it is late afternoon on New Year’s Eve and for some reason I have had the thought that somewhere out in the world someone may be waiting for the Ralston Creek Review  Song of the Week to be posted so he or she would know what music to play for a New Year’s Eve dance party.  I hope this is not too late.

Critics and others sometimes talk about needing a good “hook” to make a pop music song successful.  It seems that for 21st Century dance music, it is better for the whole song to be a “hook.”  That is pretty much what Caribou did in “Can’t Do Without You.”

Caribou is the stage name for a gentleman named Daniel Victor Snaith.  He is an interesting musician who holds a Ph.D. in mathematics (his thesis being on Overconvergent Siegel Modular Symbols).  He is originally from Canada, but I believe he now lives in the UK.

Snaith previously performed and recorded under the name Manitoba, but “Handsome Dick” Manitoba of the Dictators, a New York punk rock band, threatened to sue him; so he he took the moniker Caribou.  Trial lawyers often speak of going to trial as “throwing the dice” because we have an imperfect judicial system and you can never predict how a case will be determined by a judge or jury.  It would be interesting to see how a legal proceeding between a punk rocker and an electronic dance music composer/performer might play out.  I guess we will never know.

Here is the song “Can’t Do Without You” from Caribou’s 2014 album, Our Love:

Can’t Do Without You
By Daniel Victor Snaith (Caribou)

Can’t do without you (repeat)

© CARIBOU

5 thoughts on “SONG OF THE WEEK – “CAN’T DO WITHOUT YOU”

  1. I nominate (Don’t go) “Sleeping with the Past” by Elton John as the perfect New Year’s party song – the rhythm is a hammer, some really down and dirty head-slamming breaks. It’s a real boogie-til-you-drop number you can loop on the player and dance your brains out to – plus, a great sentiment to start the New Year out right with.

    For a gentler sensibility on the past for those satisfied souls who prefer a more contemplative and reflective celebration on karmic returns I nominate Keb Mo’s “It’s All Coming Back.”

    “Bonie Maronie” is also good, but only in neighborhood taverns performed by unknown garage bands with anonymous guitar avatars and a drummer with a situational psychosis involving percussion. After the smoke gets thick and everybody’s beer-happy. It has to be the last song of the night, involve an ever-building crescendo of monster riffs, last about a half hour, and when it’s over and the lights come up all the little girls and boys are cooling themselves in front of the floor fans and the layers of smoke drifting through the aftermath are reminiscent of a battlezone. And everybody’s happy.

    • Those are all great songs for New Year’s Eve. Here it is New Year’s Day. Cathy and Darcy and I took a 5-mile walk through the snow, came home and had hot chocolate and then Cathy went out to do some shopping. I sat down and listened to Joni Mitchell’s “Songs to Aging Children Come.” Now I have to go do some cleaning that I promised to do, while recognizing that people do hurry by so quickly. Don’t they hear the melodies?

      • Sometimes. Sometimes it’s the Sirens, other times the Banshees, or Harpies. Sometimes it’s just that crazy social rabbit howling in their head; late, late, for a very important date at a hatter’s twisted banquet. But sometimes they hear the melody. I reckon it’s all just different movements in the same great symphony.

        • How about a spontaneous mashup of Leon and Joni?

          …been so many places in my life and times, I’ve sung a lot of songs, I’ve made some bad rhymes… And still those songs to aging children come… Aging children, I am one.

          • That would be a good mashup. Or possibly do Joni and Jerry:

            …Does the moon play only silver when it strums the galaxy …Oh well, a touch of gray kind of suits you anyway; that was all I had to say but it’s alright. I will get by …Aging children, I am one.

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