I could work, but...

[caddyman]

In the end I decided against wandering up to the park at lunchtime. What I take to be the after effect of last night’s chicken dhansak suggested to me that it might be er… inconvenient in the widest sense of that term. I shall try to remember to keep my camera with me and provided that tomorrow is still chill, I shall wander across then and see about ambushing frozen ducks.

In the meantime, simply to take up time that could be more profitably used writing letters to idiot tenants and MPs, I have decided to list the last ten songs pitched up by my iPod, just to show that not everything in my music collection is progressive rock:

That’s the Way God Planned It: Billy Preston, live at the Concert for Bangladesh 1971. Part Blues, part gospel, all good;

All Along the Watchtower: Jimi Hendrix’ classic and unsurpassed interpretation of the Bob Dylan song;

Sweet Sunday: Chris Rea, from Blue Guitars: Beginnings. One of the tracks from Rea’s mammoth eleven CD opus exploring the Blues and its derivatives. Beginnings isn’t strictly Blues as the tracks on that CD are written in the style of various songs in a blended African style that prefigured the Blues and Gospel on the slave plantations of the Deep South;

Stiletto Heels: Sailor, Buried Treasure. Quirky 70s pop from the band whose best known, but not best number is probably Glass of Champagne;

Hallelujah: Leonard Cohen, Various Positions; the original and probably still the best of the versions out there in my opinion, though unlike some of my friends, I do like the X-Factor winning version by Alexandra and the studio version by Jeff Buckley.

Tunnel of Love: Dire Straits – eighties giants now rather unfashionable, though they did crop up on the radio the other day. I still like them;

Blue Eyes: Elton John. Another piece of pop/rock from the eighties, I think. Certainly it was in the days before his knighthood and probably from when he still thought he was straight. A classic piece of Taupin/John;

I Can Remember: Billie Davis from Tell Him: The Decca Years. Classic piece of superior 60s pop by the supremely unlucky Ms Davis, who kept getting fractures instead of breaks.

Freedom: Alice Cooper. Nice piece of rock about which I know nothing other than it was a single in something like 1987 or 1988.

Stealing My Heart: Rolling Stones, one of – think – the four new tracks recorded for 2002’s Forty Licks by the current core band of Jagger, Richards, Watts, Wood, Leavell and Jones.

Better do some work now, I guess.

Comments

[bluesman.livejournal.com]

"Blue Eyes" by Elton John. Bought the single at the time. Lovely, lovely, lovely. One of my favourites from a guy who knows how to write great songs.

[fencingsculptor.livejournal.com]

I am ever-so grateful to you and Elle for introducing me to Leonard Cohen's Hallelujah.

I knew I knew it from the intellectually robust feature film, Shrek, but for all I knew at the time it was composed for the film !!!! I liked the original version but like the pleb I am liked the Shrek version just as much!

However, when I heard the X factor version over Christmas, I actually wanted to scrape my ears off with a claw hammer and then turn said tool against the perpetrator of that awful awful version......

BP and the Sunshine Band

[mr-h-r-hughes.livejournal.com]

I don't not know Billy Preston or his song but now I can't stop singing to myself' That's the way (uh-huh, uh-huh) God planned it (uh-huh, uh-huh)'

[immerwahr.livejournal.com]

I have admittance that I love Sailor and all of their insane, build-yer-own keyboard magnificence. Glass of Champagne is one of the finest songs ever recorded by man.

I do recall playing it on repeat at studio-emitting volume in protest at those with no heart or soul at a place of previous employment (we managed it all the way through three times, followed by Monkey Man and The Boiler by the Specials... saved the latter for last only because we knew it was the boss' favourite).

She still arranged for my colleague to be beaten, however. I escaped due to the fact that I borrowed a winning smile at the right moment.

But anyway - keep the Sailor light shining. It makes me feel that little bit less alone.

Betty Grable on my wall

[caddyman.livejournal.com]

I have to say that my favourite Sailor track is Blue Desert, which didn't appear on any compilations for years and then suddenly there it was in all its magnificence!

[mr-h-r-hughes.livejournal.com]

Glass of Champagne is G-E-N-I-U-S !