Saturday, July 31, 2010

Song Stuck In My Head This Week - 31st July '10 - The Wildhearts - Beautiful Thing You

Last week I blogged about the Pink track 'Glitter In The Air' which is a brilliantly simple love song. Delicate and not over the top melodically, it hit the nail of love on the head really well. This week I have another love song but this time it's one with loud guitars and drums that really rocks, yet it still has some amazingly romantic lyrics and doesn't lose the sense of romance for one moment.

I've already featured The Wildhearts a couple of times in my blog but for me they're such an amazing band and their lead singer Ginger, in my opinion, is the greatest singer/songwriter of his generation.

'Beautiful Thing You' is one of the B-sides from the 'Suckerpunch' single released in 1994. The Wildhearts have always had B-Sides that are just as good as anything they've put on an album which makes every single as worthy a purchase as the albums themselves. 'Suckerpunch' also includes the classic Wildhearts track '29 x The Pain' which is a firm fan favourite and one of my top songs of all time, but 'Beautiful Thing You' is a great song of romance and the uncertainties of it.

Not only does the song have great lyrics but it also has a brilliant, catchy melody which helps keep it stuck in your head. Add to that a hefty slice of rocking riffs and you'll be humming it, bouncing around and singing away all week. This is why I have loved this band as much as I have for the last 17 years. Also Ginger's solo work is also amazing and he's great live too. The highlight of every year is Ginger's Birthday Bash. Held on his birthday, 17th December, he always puts on a great show with guest performers doing a mix of his material from outside of The Wildhearts, Wildhearts songs and then songs he just really loves. To get your ticket for this years Birthday Bash in London go here -> http://www.ticketweb.co.uk/user/?region=gb_london&query=detail&event=401029 it's well worth it!

Two videos this week as the live one's audio is a bit muffled so there's also a regular audio version too. The live one, though, does capture the energy of the band so is worth watching.

I hope you all enjoy this week's song. I think it shows you can be romantic while still rockin' your socks off!!

The Wildhearts - Beautiful Thing You

And in the time it takes to feel,
I could swear that you get closer every day
And my only hope is when it all comes real,
I don't fuck it up and throw it all away
cos every time the chaos starts (time after time)
A message screams into my heart
We're always an ocean apart.
You're always in my heart

Oh-woah-woah you beautiful thing you
You beautiful thing you, you beautiful thing
Oh-woah-woah you beautiful thing you
You beautiful thing you, you beautiful thing

And I console myself when life is throwing spears,
There's a growing of the spirit deep inside
And the part of me that smells you getting near,
Trying patiently to break the great divide
And if I fall Im only down (I face the sky)
I'll be there second time around
To practice the balance I've found,
I'll always be around

Oh-woah-woah you beautiful thing you
You beautiful thing you, you beautiful thing
Oh-woah-woah you beautiful thing you
You beautiful thing you, you beautiful thing

Always an ocean apart
You're always in my heart

Oh-woah-woah you beautiful thing you
You beautiful thing you, you beautiful thing
Oh-woah-woah you beautiful thing you
You beautiful thing you, you beautiful thing
(You beautiful thing)
You beautiful thing
(You beautiful thing)
You beautiful thing



Sunday, July 25, 2010

Song Stuck In My Head This Week - 25th July '10 - Pink - Glitter In The Air

Springing onto the music scene in 2000 with the feisty 'There You Go', Pink has gone on to make some of the best pop music of the last decade. However, what can't be doubted is that she's also made some really great ballads too and 'Glitter In The Air' is, in my opinon, the greatest song she's ever recorded.

For a hopeless romantic like me it sums up how you'd like love to be. No big gestures, no over sentimental nonsense...just someone holding your cup of coffee calling you sugar (to paraphrase the lyrics). It's all about that feeling of loving someone and knowing they love you back.

Having been single for quite some time, I often find that romantic stuff can bring me down but this song just leaves me feeling hopeful that true love does exist out there and that maybe someday I'll find some for myself.

The song is simple, beautiful and I hope you all enjoy it!

(ps There were no copies of her amazing performance at the Grammy awards this year that I could embed but it's worth checking out -> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6TRL-bz68vk/ however I did embed an audio + picture version for those of you who just want to hear the track)

Pink - Glitter In The Air

Have you ever fed a lover with just your hands?
Closed your eyes and trusted, just trusted
Have you ever thrown a fistful of glitter in the air?
Have you ever looked fear in the face
And said "I just don’t care"

It’s only half past the point of no return
The tip of the iceberg
The sun before the burn
The thunder before the lightning
The breath before the phrase
Have you ever felt this way?

Have you ever hated yourself for staring at the phone?
Your whole life waiting on the ring to prove you’re not alone
Have you ever been touched so gently you had to cry?
Have you ever invited a stranger to come inside?

It’s only half past the point of oblivion
The hourglass on the table
The walk before the run
The breath before the kiss
And the fear before the phrase
Have you ever felt this way?

La la la la la la la la

There you are, sitting in the garden
Clutching my coffee
Calling me sugar
You called me sugar

Have you ever wished for an endless night?
Lassoed the moon and the stars and pulled that rope tight?
Have you ever held your breath and asked yourself
Will it ever get better than tonight?
Tonight


Sunday, July 18, 2010

Song Stuck In My Head This Week - 18th July '10 - Pearl Jam - Elderly Woman Behind The Counter In A Small Town

Pearl Jam formed in 1990 out of the ashes of, in my opinion, the first and greatest bands of the 'grunge' movement Mother Love Bone. After storming to mainstream success in 1991 with their debut album 'Ten', Pearl Jam were often criticised for being 'too commercial' but over the following years since then have been staunchly anti-commercial in the way they have behaved within the industry - not recording videos for their songs especially when MTV was key in 'selling' music, boycotting Ticketmaster etc.

Two decades on, Pearl Jam are still recording and performing, still putting out seriously amazing music. The song that quite often, like this week, gets stuck in my head comes from their 1993 album 'Vs'.

Composed by Eddie Vedder in a mere 20 minutes - he didn't even write the lyrics down, just got the melody and recorded it as the words came to him - 'Elderly Woman Behind The Counter In A Small Town' is one of the bands more popular songs and even featured on their 2004 Greatest Hits album 'rearviewmirror' despite having never been a single.

'Elderly Woman Behind The Counter In A Small Town' tells the story of a woman who's lived in a small town all her life. When an old flame who'd long since moved away comes in she at first doesn't recognise him but, when she does she's too afraid to say anything. It's as if she's too embarrassed that she didn't move on and achieve her potential like he did.

I think the song, while set in a small town in America, can really reflect on the lives of many people all over the world. I long to get out of the town I'm in. I'm really drawn to California and would love to live there. I want more than the life I have now and I'm sure there is more out there for me, yet I often feel destined to be where I am forever like so many others I know.

When Eddie Vedder sings the line 'I just want to scream hello', while in the song it's the internal voice of the woman who is too shy to speak to her old flame, for me it feels like a cry to the world. A cry to show the world I'm here and to hope that the world says 'hello' back. I mean, this blog is my attempt to spread my music tastes with the world. I hope that it sometimes opens people’s eyes and ears to music they've never heard of or change their minds about people they'd previously heard. It's my way of saying 'hello'. It's very rare that someone will say 'hello' back and I have no idea if anyone's even reading this or if it's making any impact at all but still I speak just in case someone is. As for the 'teen angst' years of the 90s, this was also the song that struck a chord with me too as, when you're at that age, you tend to feel isolated and like no one understands. It was like my emotions were my 'small town' but I didn't feel I had any way of communicating with anyone about how I felt.

My favourite version of this song was when they performed it at the Fox Theater in Atlanta, Georgia on 3rd April 1994. The concert was broadcast on the radio worldwide and I was up in the early hours recording it off the radio while listening to it on Radio 1. That recording is one of my most precious possessions as, though the recording is a bit sketchy having been played a lot over the years (even with one of the tapes breaking and being repaired with some sellotape), it brings back all the memories of sitting alone in the near dark in my room excitedly hearing a band I loved play live for the first time (I was 14 at the time of broadcast).

I hope you enjoy the song this week. It is, in my opinion, truly wonderful!


Pearl Jam - Elderly Woman Behind The Counter In A Small Town

I seem to recognize your face
Haunting, familiar yet, I can't seem to place it
Cannot find the candle of thought to light your name
Lifetimes are catching up with me
All these changes taking place, I wish I'd seen the place
But no one's ever taken me
Hearts and thoughts they fade, fade away...
Hearts and thoughts they fade, fade away...

I swear I recognize your breath
Memories like fingerprints are slowly raising
Me, you wouldnt recall, for I'm not my former
It's hard when you're stuck upon the shelf
I changed by not changing at all,
Small town predicts my fate
Perhaps that's what no one wants to see
I just want to scream...hello...
My god its been so long, never dreamed you'd return
But now here you are, and here I am
Hearts and thoughts they fade...away...

Hearts and thoughts they fade, fade away...
Hearts and thoughts they fade, fade away...
Hearts and thoughts they fade...fade away...
Hearts and thoughts they fade...


Sunday, July 11, 2010

Song Stuck In My Head This Week - 11th July '10 - Kirsty MacColl - There's A Guy Works Down The Chip Shop Swears He's Elvis

Being the daughter of legendary folk singer Ewan MacColl, Kirsty was always going to have music play a part in her life somehow. When she was 19 she sang backing vocals for a punk band called Drug Addix under the stage name of Mandy Doubt on an EP released by Chiswick Records. While their sound didn't impress record labels, her vocals did and she was soon given a solo deal by Stiff Records.

Kirsty was unlucky that a distributors strike meant that her first single, 'They Don't Know', failed to chart after having had strong airplay. After that she fell out with Stiff and moved to Polydor where she had a hit single with 'There's A Guy Works Down The Chip Shop Swears He's Elvis' from her album 'Desperate Character'.

When Polydor didn't like the sound of her proposed second album they dropped her and so she returned to Stiff Records where the signs that showed how her career would pan out really began to show. Kirsty would always receive critical acclaim but her commercial success would continue to be hit and miss throughout the rest of her career.

Kirsty's last album, 'Titanic Days', was released in 2000 and included the song 'In These Shoes' which was used as the theme tune to Catherine Tate's BBC comedy series, in the British movie 'Kinky Boots', was covered by Bette Midler and was used in the HBO tv series 'Sex In The City'.

Kirsty was tragically killed in an accident in Mexico in December 2000 when she was hit by a speedboat while diving in Cozumel in an area where watercraft were banned. She was only 41.

'There's A Guy Works Down The Chip Shop Swears He's Elvis' is such a catchy song that it's easy to see why I've been humming it all week since it popped up on my mp3 player. Also the lyrics are well constructed, Kirsty was a fantastic songwriter, and tell a tale with straight to the point narrative while still making it seem a little tongue in cheek.

If you've not listened to Kirsty's stuff before - or not beyond the realm of 'Fairytale Of New York' which is yet another wonderful song - then I hope you will as she was amazing.

Hope you enjoy this week's song!


Kirsty MacColl - There's A Guy Works Down The Chip Shop Swears He's Elvis

Oh darling why'd you talk so fast
Another evening just flew past tonight
And now the daybreak's coming in
And I can't win and it ain't right

You tell me all you've done and seen
And all the places you have been without me
Well I don't really want to know
But I'll stay quiet and then I'll go
And you won't have no cause to think about me

There's a guy works down the chip shop swears he's Elvis
Just like you swore to me that you'd be true
There's a guy works down the chip shop swears he's Elvis
But he's a liar and I'm not sure about you

Oh darling you're so popular
You were the best thing new in Hicksville ...
With your mohair suits and foreign shoes
News is you changed your Pick-up for a Seville

And now I'm lying here alone
'Cause you're out there on the phone
To some star in New York
I can hear you laughing now and
I can't help feeling that somehow
You don't mean anything you say at all

There's a guy works down the chip shop swears he's Elvis
Just like you swore to me that you'd be true
There's a guy works down the chip shop swears he's Elvis
But he's a liar and I'm not sure about you

There's a guy works down the chip shop swears he's Elvis
Just like you swore to me that you'd be true
There's a guy works down the chip shop swears he's Elvis
But he's a liar and I'm not sure about you
I said he's a liar and I'm not sure about you
I said he's a liar and I'm not sure about you
He's a liar and I'm not sure about you

Sunday, July 4, 2010

Song Stuck In My Head This Week - 04th July '10 - Nirvana - About A Girl (Unplugged)

I was 11 when Nirvana first shot to fame. With their slightly dishevelled appearance and angsty songs they struck a chord with young people the world over. Even today they are still loved by so many that weren't even born when they first came along.

After all these years, I still love their music though I've found that the best of all of their releases is the 'Unplugged' album. Stripped down to the bare minimum you finally get to hear the real beauty and talent of the music. It takes away the angst and shows it for what it really is, amazing music.

If you've never seen or heard their 'Unplugged' session then you really should.

Here's my favourite performance from the 'Unplugged' album, 'About A Girl'.

I hope you enjoy it!


Nirvana - About A Girl (Unplugged)

I need an easy friend
I do, With an ear to lend
I do, Think you fit this shoe
I do, But DO you have a clue?

I'll take advantage while
You hang me out to dry
But I can't see you every night. Free
...I do

I'm standing in your line
I do, Hope you have the time
I do, Pick up number two
I do, Keep a date with you

I take advantage while
You hang me out to dry
But I can't see you every night. Free


I need an easy friend
I do, With a ear to lend
I do, Think you fit this shoe
I do, But DO you have a clue?

I'll take advantage while
You hang me out to dry
But I can't see you every night,
no I can't see you every night...
free

I do...