Song Lyric Sunday: The Seven Seas – ‘Ship Of Fools’

“But I would slave to learn the way to sink your ship of fools” This week’s theme for Song Lyric Sunday is all things nautical, and my immediate first thought was this – one of my favourite Jerry ballads by the Grateful Dead. Searching my previous SLS posts I was relieved – indeed, pleasantly surprised…

Song Lyric Sunday: Favourite – ‘Foolish Heart’

There are absolutely no prizes for guessing who I was going to choose for Song Lyric Sunday this week, where Jim wants to see something from our (and his, apparently) favourite artiste(s). Choosing a particular song wasn’t quite so straightforward, although hardly difficult. After all, it’s not like the Grateful Dead don’t have an extensive…

Song Lyric Sunday: Inferno – ‘Fire On The Mountain’

This week’s theme is fire or something involving heat. ‘Fire On The Mountain’ is the product of a rare collaboration between drummer Micky Hart and lyricist Robert Hunter (who more usually wrote with Jerry Garcia). In concert, it was almost always paired with ‘Scarlet Begonias’ in the ‘Scarlet-Fire’ diptych, but this is an outstanding standalone…

Song Lyric Sunday: Family – ‘Mama Tried’

This week’s theme for Song Lyric Sunday is children and/or families and Jim has entitled his post ‘Perks of having kids’. It’s not all good news though, and while not all families have a black sheep, this one clearly did. This is a Merle Haggard song that, not being a particular fan of Country music,…

Song Lyric Sunday: Acoustic Rock – ‘Cassidy’

Hang on. ‘Acoustic rock’? Isn’t that a contradiction in terms – an oxymoron, if you will. Like ‘military intelligence’? Well, apparently not. It’s rock music played on acoustic instruments, apparently. Personally, I don’t get it. I’m a simple man, and for me, it’s an either/or. However, there are, admittedly, lots of songs that in their…

Song Lyric Sunday: User Choice – ‘Franklin’s Tower’

“If you get confused just listen to the music play” Jim’s left it to us to choose this week. I thought of quite a few, but when I searched my back catalogue of previous contributions I discovered that I’d already used most of them. Unaccountably though, not this one, which contains probably my most favourite…

Song Lyric Sunday: Funeral Music – ‘Black Muddy River’

This week’s theme for Song Lyric Sunday is – perhaps a little morbidly – something that you would like to be played at your own funeral. That isn’t to say that I haven’t thought about it occasionally (who among us has not?, as Anthony Trollope might have put it.). However, it’s a bit tricky as…

Song Lyric Sunday: Emotions – ‘Black Peter’

There is a whole range of emotions to choose from for Song Lyric Sunday this week. Fortuitously, one of these feelings – more of an emotional response, as Jim points out – is ‘pain’, which allows me to present one of the Grateful Dead’s most consistently played (over 340 times between 1969 and 1995) slow…

Song Lyric Sunday: Musical Instruments – ‘Johnny B Goode’

Entries for this week’s Song Lyric Sunday should make reference to musical instruments. Right then, here is Chuck Berry’s seminal rock ‘n roll classic – the tale of a young guitar prodigy. You may have heard it before…. Deep down in Louisiana close to New OrleansWay back up in the woods among the evergreensThere stood…