Sing While You May: The Top 10 Best Songs of Edward Ka-Spel
There is no more brilliant musician and lyricist than Edward Ka-Spel, the leader of the Legendary Pink Dots who turns 58 years old today. Ka-Spel has appeared on something like 50 albums in his lifetime, with the Dots, solo, and with cEvin Key in Tear Garden. His songs dance the lines between psychedelia, goth, pop, and rock and he is bar-non the most interesting person we have ever seen perform.
Houston has always had a hardcore following for the Prophet, but sadly every show we attend has fewer and fewer people in the audience. As a birthday present for one of the unsung geniuses of modern music, we thought we'd present the top 10 songs we've run across in hopes of maybe re-sparking a love of the man.
Since we're trying to make friends and influence people here, we're mostly staying away from the many seven minute plus jam band on heroin tunes you get on Ka-Spel's albums, but we'd be remiss if we didn't do at least one. Since "Window on the World" starts so strong and shocking it's our pick to represent that style.
This early cut maybe the poppiest Ka-Spel ever gets, and was the song the Wife With One F used to get us into the Dots. We're still convinced it's about Walt Disney.
Even though it's nowhere near the top, Whispering Wall is one of the albums almost every Dots fan own simply because it was one of the most widely released. It's nothing next to something like Nemesis Online, but "A Distant Summer" always struck us as a master work.
The good news is that Edward Ka-Spel is hilarious. The bad news is that to get the joke you kind of have to be insane. The great news is that listening to enough of his music will ensure that you are, in fact, insane. Six minutes maybe too long to wait for a punch line, but it's worth it.
If the Dots had a hit, it would be "Belladonna." If it doesn't show up on the soundtrack for the last Twilight film then we will know that the filmmakers are complete cowards.
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