‘Let us now praise famous Canadians’ is the essence of Jim’s prompt for this week’s Song Lyric Sunday. If you’ve dropped by hoping for some Justin Bieber then you’re definitely in the wrong place, but there’s plenty of excellent Canadian music to choose from. As I haven’t featured him for a while, I’ve gone with…
Jim’s theme this week is ‘contrasts. This song – which surely needs no further introduction – is full of them. You say yes, I say no You say stop and I say go go go, oh no You say goodbye and I say hello Hello hello I don’t know why you say goodbye, I say…
A complete change of pace this week for Song Lyric Sunday, as Jim has chose the themes of Musical and Opera. As a general rule, I can’t get to grips with musicals, apart from the odd so-called ‘jukebox’ type. The one about Tina Turner was pretty good. When it comes to opera, I do have…
There’s a dark edge to Jim’s trigger words this week: ‘cruel’; ‘evil’; ‘wicked’. I’m taking this one quite literally. And besides, it was the first tune that popped into my head. You can’t beat Elvis: why even try? You know I can be found, Sitting home all alone, If you can’t come around, At least…
I usually try to avoid – albeit for no particular reason – featuring the same artistes on consecutive Sundays, but this time is an exception – and it’s for an exceptional song. Another – the final? – Robert Hunter/Jerry Garcia collaboration, ‘Days Between’ is a plaintive, elegaic ballad that featured quite frequently in live performance…
For Jim’s prompt this week, it couldn’t really be anything else for a self-respecting deadhead but the touchstone of their psychedelic improvisation: ‘Dark Star’ Robert Hunter’s lyrics are intriguing, to say the least, and nothing if not psychedelic –‘reason tatters’; ‘glass hand dissolving’. Unusually, the music is credited to all members of the group (at…
When I saw that the prompt for this week’s Song Lyric Sunday was ‘harmonica’, my immediate thought was early, pre-electric Bob Dylan. However, about ten days ago we sat down with our twin 13 year old grandsons for what we thought would be a great treat for them, music lovers (and players) as they are…
And now for something completely different. This week’s theme is, broadly speaking, ‘gathering’. This was the first song that came into my head when I saw the prompt. Brits of a certain age (mine) will quite possibly remember listening to the BBC Light Programme early on a Sunday evening, when they would be entertained (sic)…
Same or different is the choice for Jim’s Song Lyric Sunday this week. You can find excellent versions of this song by The Allman Brothers and The Grateful Dead among others, but here it is as performed by Willie Dixon – who did, after all, actually write it in the first place Why do men…
“Someone left a cake out in the rain” Baking is the broad theme for Song Lyric Sunday this week. Nobody knows why – but then again, why not? Anyway, seeing that prompt took me straight back to this compelling oddity from 1968: Richard Harris singing Jimmy Webb. Anything was possible back then. On a more…
