When the country is facing difficult times, the radio stations play sad or
thoughtful songs, ignoring all the raucous material that they might normally
play. As a result, there have been several songs played that are also in my
personal playlists, something that normally occurs extremely rarely.
About once a month, the 'Unhalfbricking' version of 'Who knows where the
time goes?' gets played, but recently I heard what must be the original
version from 'Sandy and the Strawbs' as it was only Sandy playing acoustic
guitar and singing the original arrangement. I wonder how on earth the
station managed to lay their hands on this version - it didn't come from me!
Nick Drake also gets played about once a month; normally this is 'Northern
Sky', but over the past few weeks I've heard 'Day is done', 'Way to blue', 'Riverman' and
'Saturday sun' from his first album; 'At the chime of the city clock' from
his second album was played last night, and 'Pink moon' from his eponymous
third album has also been played.
Maintaining the Joe Boyd/Witchseason connection, I also heard a John Martyn
song one evening. I didn't recognise the song (I wasn't listening closely)
but it sounded like the style of 'Bless the weather'.
Yesterday I heard 'Colours of the sun' by Jackson Browne; I don't think that
I've ever heard him on the radio here. We do occasionally hear Joni Mitchell
- apart from the favourites 'Big yellow taxi' and 'Both sides, now', I heard
'California' recently.
Randy Newman also gets played occasionally. Twice I've heard 'In Germany
before the war', that presumably was chosen because of its melancholy
violins and clarinets. It certainly wasn't chosen because of its lyrical
content, and I imagine that the song would be dropped should someone listen
to the words and understand them - they're about a child killer.
Yesterday was played The Beatles' 'The sun king' followed by Fleetwood Mac's
'Albatross'. I couldn't hear if the presenter (if there was one) talked
about the connection between the songs, but it would be better if
'Albatross' were played first followed by 'Sun king' as the latter was
influenced by the former.
I did hear one Saturday morning a somewhat upbeat tune: at first this seemed
to be a typical 'soul' number alternating between the I and IV chords, but
suddenly the song took an extreme left turn into the sort of chord
progressions that I write. I had enough presence of mind to whip out my
phone and record part of the song for later identification (I don't have
Shazam on my phone). When I listened to the recording, I guessed that I was
listening to a song titled something like 'something to talk about' and
indeed this was the title of a song by
Bonnie Raitt
(not someone who I have ever consciously listened to). What are the chords:
A D A D (this is the straight part) F#m G F#m G C F C E. In Roman numeral
form, this is I IV I IV vi bVII vi bVII bIII bIV bIII V. The second half of
this verse is straight out of my songbook.
I want to finish this blog entry by quoting the words to a song that was
played a few weeks ago; it's a song whose opening verses I have often sung
to myself this year.
Many's the time I've been mistaken
And many times confused
Yes, and I've often felt forsaken
And certainly misused
And I don't know a soul who's not been battered
I don't have a friend who feels at ease
I don't know a dream that's not been shattered
Or driven to its knees
But it's alright, it's alright
For we lived so well so long
Still, when I think of the road we're traveling on
I wonder what's gone wrong
I can't help it, I wonder what has gone wrong
("American tune" by Paul Simon)
Fortunately this war seems to have consigned the 'judicial reform' to the
dustbin where it belongs. Nothing so unites a fractured society than a war
... although in America of the 60s, a war caused the society to
fracture.
This day in history:
| Blog # | Date |
Title | Tags |
| 141 | 11/11/2008 | Accident | Motorbikes |
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