53% of people prefer Marc Almond to Cat Food

Marc Almond came into my life at the start of his career and really I have followed with interest through our parallel lives. He always sang to me songs that were relevant, songs that talked about things that I knew about...Marc has always grasped at life, twisted it around a bit and thrown it back covered in glitter and mascara. The first track I have for you is 'A womans story' which has always been a personal favorite performance for me. The song deals with the struggles of womanhood and doesn't lose anything by having a guy singing it...listen and enjoy!

Marc has always been good at portraying stories and here in 'The little cloud that cried' he takes an okay Johnny Ray song and turns it into a little heart-breaker of a tune. I remember listening to the 'Woman's Story' mini album and thinking what a genius move this was to portray his favorite songs in his own style. Not really commercially successful but it turned into a fan favorite and along the years the mini album has seen me through good and bad times.

Ciao

I blame Aretha Franklin...

Although I love Aretha a lot there were two episodes in my life where she was responsible for my heartbreak.

Number 1. The break up...it was the first time I had had my heart broken by a guy and you always seem to remember the first time more than the many episodes after!. The guy I loved was all that I wanted in a person, he to me was the sun, moon and sky...for a brief moment my world revolved around him and only him, we laughed , we cried, we shared our lives and each other...and then one day he went away, a note on the table was all i got..." you know how much I love you, but I have now decided that I love you too much...and that scares me. You need someone in your life that you can rely on completely. Don't look back with heartache but look forward with anticipation for the people you will meet in future...I love you..." and with that he was gone. I turned to the music box and played the following song 'what a difference a day makes' and wept for a while. Of course I got over it, but that song was never the same for me afterwards.

Number 2 . My friends death...It was a winter and I had a friend who was hemophiliac and had just had a full blood transplant, it was the early 80's so yes, you can probably guess what happened, the HIV virus took hold when it was an unknown quantity and for the following year I watched him deteriorate into a shadow of his former self. Every day was a struggle by the end of his life and I am ashamed to say that I was a lot younger and didn't really know how to deal with death and dying at that point in my life, so I slowly backed away from him until there was the barest of contact at the end. His mum chose this song for his funeral ' Try a little tenderness' , I don't know why but it just seemed right. Looking back I would have played the scene out differently, but as they say hindsight is a glorious thing...
Damn you for your fine voice Aretha..

Ciao

Want a Monday uplift?

Don't forget to click on the song title to listen to the track, press play and open the little player, then back on your browser to carry on reading :)
What is it about music that makes you feel all nice and fluffy? Is it to do with chordal arrangements, words, melody? I think it's a very individual thing...if you are in a certain place emotionally there may be one song that does it for you that raises eyebrows with your mates, that's fine...we are not conditioned to all get the same euphoric feeling from the same tracks, that's why we have the diversity of genres that we have today, many cultures, many traditions, many emotions...one of the songs that has always done it for me has been The Source feat Candi Staton 'You got the love', but it wasn't until last year when this fine Voyager remix came out that the beautiful string arrangent was bought to the foreground and 'whoomph!' total euphoria took over, it's an uplifting track and I hope you take it to your heart and think, 'You know what, I DO have the Love'....have a great day!

Ciao

Heim is where the heart is...

heim? , yes heim...in fact Icelandic for home. woke up feeling shit today, got them damn late autumnal blues, so i put on a favourite couple of tracks and all is right with the world...
First up we have Sigur Ros with 'Samskeyti' off the album "Heim", this track always makes me feel calm, i found out about Sigur Ros just after the 1st album had come out and they fascinated me by their use of the Hopelandic language (a lead singer invention) and emotive musical phrases. The idea of Hopelandic was so that their songs were accessible to all and people could put in meanings to songs with relevance to how they feel whilst listening to it, clever eh? Sigur Ros have seen me through some bad patches, some of you older readers will know that I had cancer 3 years ago and I used to play their albums to take me away from the reality of it all..very cathartic!
The second track today is the Paul Oakenfold remix od Massive Attack's 'Unfinished Sympathy' a track that never fails to move me. Massive attack were a mighty force around the late 80's and early 90's and I remember blasting them out when I worked at Virgin Records in Southampton. They were known for their production values and vibe, you could see customers start to nod and shimmy to the sounds emanating from the shop speakers. Thats when record shops were good and staff were allowed to play what they want without having a corporate radio station blasting out pap all day as they do now! Those days of the Virgin Empire were great, the manager used to smoke weed in his office and all of us staff knew what we were talking about and loved music so much...those days are now gone. I remember we hosted the Video premiere in shop of George Michaels 'I want your sex video' as it wasn't being shown on telly...the shop filled with hundreds of people just to see a video, it wouldn't happen today, the magic of the retail record shop has gone...may it rest in peace.

ciao

on being nude...

Nude, nudity, nudeness...is it all relevant. Here's a track by Radiohead called 'Nude' a terrific and lovely piece that makes me quiver. At my age looking at myself nude I see a lived in body that has seen the scars and knocks of a lifetime, it bears the memories of too much good food and drink, it shocks me into submission...when you're young, you see a perfect you, a body that has no imperfection, a body that you want to keep and have all the good intention of doing so...some succeed but most don't, your body is designed as a vessel to carry your thoughts, your education, it carries your love and your desires but most of all your body is designed to carry your spirit and if my spirit can only fit into a body my size, then that's good enough for me!

Through my travels around the African continent I have always been seduced by music, from Natasha Atlas in Egypt, through to the Kora players of the Gambia via the anti apartheid groups led by Johnny Clegg in Southern Africa...the melodies and song styles are amazingly different and exciting...Amadou and Mariam from Mali took a place in my heart a few years ago now and it's really nice to see them over here being accepted as a touring band worth going to see...there latest album starts off with a great little track called 'Sabali' and perhaps shows us that their music can perhaps adapt to western influences, not that they should or hopefully will though! Check them out and if you like it try and listen to 'Welcome to Mali' ..it's a real rhythmical joy.

Ciao

Have you tried love?

well....have you? 'Have you tried love' is a wonderful prelude to an album by the 5th Dimension, they were one of those bands that your mum and dad used to get groovy with on Saturday night Seaside Special television...it really is a lovely bit of work though and it's amazing what you come across in old albums that you explore..

You will hopefully have realised by now that if you click the name of the song a new little player should appear, this will be my new home for the forseeable future, it's a lot more cosy and easy to access :)

Love is a funny thing, people have the most odd and ingenious ways of expressing it..love songs are the backbone of society, where would we have been without our beloved mix tapes that we did for anyone that caught our eye...the kids today don't know what meaning a mix tape had...can you remember mix tapes that you did, I'd love to hear about them if you post onto the blog :)
'Love' by Air is a new song off the new album called Love 2 and don't you just love these french boys, taking electronica to bohemian heights, it's a groovy little album and well worth the pennies.

I've seen someone I fancy so I'm off to do an MP3mix ...it doesn't have quite the same ring does it :(

Ciao

listening problems

Hi folks, I understand some of you are getting the join google page before you can listen to the songs...all you have to do is just sign up to google, its totally FREE...once you are signed it it will give you the option of saving the track or just opening in your favourite media player.

I will try and find a better alternative for you but in the meantime if you just sign up to google you can enjoy the content.

thanks :)