I’ve pretty much always enjoyed live shows and live recordings over studio albums, which can often sound too stylised and over-engineered to my ears. Just ask yourself whether there would ever have been such a following for the Grateful Dead if all we had were the studio recordings. It’s really a case of ‘you had…
When I saw this week’s Song Lyric Sunday prompt – the final song ever played – two possibilities sprung immediately to mind. The first was the Grateful Dead’s ‘Box of Rain’ from their last show, at Soldier Field in 1995, but I’ve already used that for a different prompt some years back. But the second…
This week’s Song Lyric Sunday theme kicks off an interesting three-week sequence. Next week we need to find the final song ever played, and on the following Sunday, something from a live album. This week, however, the task is to feature a song from a final album. In 2007, the mighty Led Zeppelin (with the…
To be honest, I wasn’t exactly sure what constituted a ‘breakout’ album when I saw this week’s theme on the Song Lyric Sunday schedule. However, I was enlightened by the fact that ‘Rolling Stone’ magazine has an article that defined it, in broad terms, as not a debut release but the first commercial (and critical?)…
This week, Jim is looking for a song from an artiste who’s ‘gone solo’ after leaving a band with which they were closely associated. Of course this is a frequent occurrence. although with varying degrees of success. Ditching Andrew Ridgeley never did George Michael any harm for sure, but today I’m going with Rod Stewart,…
This week, Jim has sent us in search of a song from a compilation or ‘Greatest Hits’ album. He may have intended the albums to be by a single artiste or group, but he didn’t specify. However, my first thought – as for probably quite a few British participants – was the long-running ‘Now That’s…
This week, Jim’s looking for a song from a debut album. By definition, there’s a massive field to choose from: after all, any band or artiste who’s ever put out an album (I’m struggling not to type ‘LP’ here) has had a debut LP (I give up). However, very few have announced themselves to the…
This week, Jim is seeking a track from an album that features in Rolling Stone magazine’s list of the 500 greatest albums of all time. This was first published in 2003, revamped a little in 2012 and given a complete makeover in 2020 and again in 2023. To be frank, I focused my quest on…
This week, Jim’s after something from one of the Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame’s definitive list of the top 200 albums. Well, nestling there at #20 (too low, some might say) is the Grateful Dead’s 1970 masterpiece ‘American Beauty’, of which this is the opening track, here presented in an acoustic performance from 1980.…
The rather vulgar subject of money is the theme for this week’s Song Lyric Sunday. Well, it’s either that or taxes, which holds no appeal – it just encourages them. A little over a year ago, I used the song ‘Doctor, doctor’ by The Thompson Twins for an SLS contribution. I explained then that it…
the only deadhead in the hameau 