Monday, November 30, 2009

bloody christmas again!

How many more do I have to live through...I don't even remember liking christmas as a child but I must have done...In my old age it has taken me by suprise that I have become so bloody cynical about it all! I am sure many of you will have a great time with family and friends..me?, well once again I will be spending xmas day in an undertakers wondering whether I will actually get to talk to a person during the day that will actually answer back...never mind, I will have my dinner when I return from my shift and reminisce about times gone by.

I have a treat for you today, first of all from Damien Dempsey with a song called 'It's all good', I first heard of Damien when I went to see him as a support act to Saint Sinead O'connor, he was phenomenal live, full of rough Irish passion...my mate Andy told me he was huge in Ireland and so I explored further. I have three of his albums now and this is one of my favourites...if you listen closely you will hear Saint Sinead warbling away during the verse and chorus...want to know why?, because her partner produced the album and it's wonderful...feast your ears on his bright and thick Dublin drawl and wonder at the awesomeness of this mans songwriting talent.

Secondly we have one of the best dance records ever...just to get you into the party spirit..it's 'Boogie Wonderland' by Earth Wind and Fire...on this record EWF got just about everything right for the era in which it was released, nothing cheezy disco about these bad boys of funk (even though the costumes were very camp!), wallow in the groove, get out that hairbrush and sing along till the cat screams stop!

Getting ready to go out was a great time of being younger, I remember getting a bottle of Thunderbird wine from the offy, dancing in the shower with a glass or two, hair dryer and Ellnet at the ready (when I had hair)...one perfectly formed flat top style later and I was jigging about naked in front of the cat, wondering what to wear from the cornucopia of loud fashion shirts that I bought from the local designer...bit's washed and powdered I placed on the clothes of choice and after a couple more glasses of Thunderbird and a couple of fags felt ready to face the alternative world of a Friday night...sigh, now it's wondering whether I should really have another drink as I have to go to work in the morning, and Lisa clippers whats left of my hair so I don't end up looking Monkish...c'est la vie...

Over and out!...it won't be so long next time..promise!

Wednesday, November 25, 2009

A Quickie!

Hi Guys...just a quick note to say that I had a warning shot fired from box.net today telling me to take off copyrighted material from the blog...they deleted one of my Bassey tracks but left the other one (how odd!). Therefore what I have decided to do is leave the files for you to listen to for 1 week only and then I will delete the songs from the blog, I can't see them complaining about that...let's hope not anyway!
Ciao

Sunday, November 15, 2009

Happy Xmas Virgin!

Just a short blog today to thank Virgin Media for finding me a beautiful track to listen to...The latest Virgin Media advert features a girl wandering through different film sets, beautifully photographed and very expensive with the gorgeous soundtrack to boot...I don't know anything about the band 'Slow moving Millie' apart from the fact that they have a MySpace page but the track called 'Beasts' is a glorious little piece of work...the ending reminding me of Danny Elfmanns soundtrack to Edward Scissorhands. This should be played to death for xmas :)
Let it soothe you on this sunny Sunday (so far...)

Saturday, November 14, 2009

My life in Warfare!

Hi all...forgive me for not writing this week but my life has been taken over trying to complete 'Modern warfare 2' on my Xbox...nearly there now but had to take a break from the screen!
Some of you who know me know that I am a big Prince fan and today I just really wanted to share with you a couple of my favourites which both happen to be on the same album 'Parade'. The first track is 'Mountains' and I really think this typifies Prince as an artist, it's full of lush production, great horns, electro drumming and superb backup from the rest of the Revolution. In his heyday Prince was to be revered by press and public alike, now preferring to satisfy himself musically rather than go mainstream. The film that these songs cam from was a total flop! 'Under a Cherry Moon' was sort of his homage to a slapstick 1930's farce but with bad acting, rotten jokes and self indulgent attitude the public didn't really get it. The strangeness of the film didn't gel although the interspersed music sections made up for lack of anything else. That being so I love to watch it occasionally for the great cinematography and captured quirkiness of our main star.
Having seen him live on the Parade tour a few times the music became monumental in performance, the black and white stage sets, the stark vibrant coloured suits all added to the occasion and these were the times I think Prince looked happiest on stage, the 'Lovesexy' tour being a mighty close second. Thesecond track was always a live favourite for me and has a certain poignancy about it..listen to the words, get the meaning and have a lovely day... 'Sometimes it snows in April'

Friday, November 06, 2009

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

Thursday, November 05, 2009

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

Monday, November 02, 2009

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