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January 27, 2003
A List of Songs
There's an Internet meme going round about songs that remind you of things. I find it hard to answer these properly; I keep thinking of other songs that mean different things, that the quiz doesn't remind me of. And then there's loads of questions I can't answer. So here instead are some songs.
A song that reminds me of lost love: "The First Picture of You" by the Lotus Eaters. It was, obviously, a holiday romance; but quite a successful one as these things go. I still stalk him on Google sometimes.
The first time I realised songs could be really meaningful and speak to my heart: "Forever and Ever", by Slik. Sometime later I realised that some art only speaks to certain people at certain times; and for this one you had to be a misunderstood ten-year-old protogoth.
A song to chop onions by: "Lies" by Stan Rogers. Floods of tears, every single time. I cannot even read the lyrics on a website without crying.
Most unlikely cover version ever: "Oops I Did It Again", covered by Richard Thompson. Bitter, vitriolic, superb.
The song we got married to: We played a set of five tracks at the register office, but nobody could hear them because the sound was turned down. If just one, it has to be "Maybe Then I'll Be a Rose" by Les Barker (as sung by June Tabor). (Marianne, who was 20 months old at the time of our wedding, had a shirt to cover up her bridesmaid's dress that included a line from this song: "ten out of ten for true true love, nought out of ten for timing"). If we'd had dancing, the song for the first dance would have had to have been "Blood Wedding" by the Oysterband.
A song I'd be quite happy to never hear again: The BBC's version of "Perfect Day".
A song I'd like to wake up to: I don't really like to wake up, so I don't really like to wake up to music. I especially wouldn't want to wake up to "I got you, Babe".
A song I wouldn't know about if it wasn't for an efficient PR girl: "Kiri's Piano" by James Keelaghan. I first saw James Keelaghan because his PR agent had read a review I wrote of an Oysterband gig at the Borderline, and suggested I might like to go see Keelaghan there. I did, and I took some friends; which was a good thing, as there weren't very many people at that gig who weren't card-carrying Canadians.
Speaking of card-carrying Canadians: This isn't really intended to be an all-Canadian music post, but I have to mention something by Moxy Früvous. It could be "Fly", or it could be "My Baby Loves a Bunch of Authors". Or it could, really, be almost anything in between. We saw them live, at the Mean Fiddler, on the evening of a tube strike. It was quiet. They called out "any Canadians here tonight?" And then, surveying the response, "is there anyone here tonight who isn't Canadian?"
A song I like from my parents record collection: They had one Beatles single; just one, to register the phenomenon rather than because they liked it. I've always liked the B side, "Thank You Girl". And of course, my father has many, many records by the late Jimmy Shand.
A song that reminds me of Steven: "Oh Baby I" by Eternal. Not our sort of music at all. But it was a huge hit when I first moved to London, and we used to chortle at its gloriously conditional declaration: "for as long as we're together I will cherish this everlasting love".
(via Swiss Tony)
Posted by Alison at January 27, 2003 10:06 PM
Comments
We saw Richard Thompson cover "Oops I Did It Again" as the encore of his "1000 Years of Popular Music" show at Joe's Pub in NYC last summer, and I have a bootleg of him doing it a year earlier at the Getty in LA, but where did you hear it? Is there a legit recording out there, or has he added it to his standard live repetoire? Just wondering.
Posted by: Patrick Nielsen Hayden at January 29, 2003 03:09 AM
We heard it at Cropredy last year. In the rain. He did edited highlights of "1000 years of popular music" as part of his set. I would have very much liked to see the whole show. According to Beesweb, he's planning to release a CD (& possibly DVD) of '1000 years' via the website, sometime in the next few months. The 'proper' new album is out in a few days, and he's playing the Shepherd's Bush Empire in March. Mmm mmm.
Posted by: Alison Scott at January 29, 2003 10:45 AM
does anyone know whre I can find song kyrics on the net? Ive heard a song and the words are really bugging me!
Cheers
Posted by: Lucy at November 2, 2003 11:00 AM