The Somewhat Delayed Song Thread

[cloughie]

Reminded me of the Johnny Cash song, cloughie.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lkpHiby391Y

Strange, jc, but in my youth I could take or leave C&W but in retrospect I realise how good some of the songs were and how good the singers and their musicians were. Rock ‘n’ roll, rockabilly and C&W was a continuum and not separate genres but then Sam Phillips recognised that in the 50s.

[Lat-Literal]

Strange, jc, but in my youth I could take or leave C&W but in retrospect I realise how good some of the songs were and how good the singers and their musicians were. Rock ‘n’ roll, rockabilly and C&W was a continuum and not separate genres but then Sam Phillips recognised that in the 50s.

You must have a look at the country thread on WM which we started a few years ago and which to my mind has been one of the most rewarding.

It's sort of weird that I went all a bit Diana shortly before my sojourn and that record cropped up every night in the Dolphin. It is definitely what Sean Rowley would have included in his programme "Guilty Pleasures" and I find it very hard not to love it very much. The other holiday song was "Heart of Gold" in the Blue Peter Inn. Two things here. The lesser is that both in many ways are about the absence of relationship love. The greater is that both are from the 1970-1972 era which for people born across at least three decades has solidly endured:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R1iAtoX9DKk

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X3IA6pIVank

Apart from the occasional music of amateur musicians that I heard in the dim distance, I don't recall hearing any post 1972 music throughout the entire eight days!

This is the equivalent to much of the nation in 1972 living and working to a soundtrack from the mid 1920s which would, of course, have been unthinkable!

[Padraig]

A wee story.

c1960 coming up to Rag Day at Queen's a student group made a record - a 45 - for fundraising purposes. Side A was called Foolin' Time, Side B was Nutrocker (A collector's item here.) The composer was Phil Coulter. I have the original recording on tape, but I could only find this version by the Capitol Showband 1964, ( which is not as good!) What do you think? Worth including?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AWSyEXpz1WI

So it's not worth including.

[johncorrigan]

Strange, jc, but in my youth I could take or leave C&W but in retrospect I realise how good some of the songs were and how good the singers and their musicians were. Rock ‘n’ roll, rockabilly and C&W was a continuum and not separate genres but then Sam Phillips recognised that in the 50s.

Back in the early 80s, cloughie, I shared a flat in the West End of Glasgow with a guy who went on to considerable fame - he was in films, TV and eventually had a long-running chat show on American TV. Anyway we used to go to this bar across the road which had a juke box and he always persuaded me I needed to listen to more country music, so we would always play these two tracks 'Six Pack to Go' by Hank Thompson (B-side of 'Wild Side of Life') and Hank William's glorious 'Honky Tonk Blues' (B-side of 'Jambalaya'). We also worked in a bar together and used to do a fine version of Six Pack for the customers - funniest guy I ever met. Anyway here they are:
Hank Thompson - 'A Six Pack to Go' https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0n_-StDp5tM
Hank Williams - 'Honky Tonk Blues' - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Y55RX3_5xs and it's still one of my faves and takes me back to Wintersgills' Lounge every time.

[cloughie]

Back in the early 80s, cloughie, I shared a flat in the West End of Glasgow with a guy who went on to considerable fame - he was in films, TV and eventually had a long-running chat show on American TV. Anyway we used to go to this bar across the road which had a juke box and he always persuaded me I needed to listen to more country music, so we would always play these two tracks 'Six Pack to Go' by Hank Thompson (B-side of 'Wild Side of Life') and Hank William's glorious 'Honky Tonk Blues' (B-side of 'Jambalaya'). We also worked in a bar together and used to do a fine version of Six Pack for the customers - funniest guy I ever met. Anyway here they are:
Hank Thompson - 'A Six Pack to Go' https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0n_-StDp5tM
Hank Williams - 'Honky Tonk Blues' - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Y55RX3_5xs and it's still one of my faves and takes me back to Wintersgills' Lounge every time.

I think it was a Hank Williams EP that seriously made me look at C&W - it contained 4 of his gems - I'm so lonesome I could cry, Lovesick Blues, Your Cheating Heart and best of all Cool Water. I also liked Ray Charles' take on C&W with his Modern Sounds LPs. I suppose that if you want to be a real C&W artiste you need to be called Hank and wear a big hat! Williams I II & III plus Locklin and Thompson are testament to that and maybe we should include Wangford! I recently bought at very economical price a 3CD set of HW - on some tracks the sound quality wasn't magic but his songwriting and influence set something of a template for those who followed! (As did maybe his lifestyle!)

[johncorrigan]

I think it was a Hank Williams EP that seriously made me look at C&W - it contained 4 of his gems - I'm so lonesome I could cry, Lovesick Blues, Your Cheating Heart and best of all Cool Water. I also liked Ray Charles' take on C&W with his Modern Sounds LPs. I suppose that if you want to be a real C&W artiste you need to be called Hank and wear a big hat! Williams I II & III plus Locklin and Thompson are testament to that and maybe we should include Wangford! I recently bought at very economical price a 3CD set of HW - on some tracks the sound quality wasn't magic but his songwriting and influence set something of a template for those who followed! (As did maybe his lifestyle!)

Don't forget Snow, cloughie.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PGj7-R6WPf4

[Tevot]

@JohnCorrigan - I'm intrigued. Your former Glaswegian flat mate wasn't Craig Ferguson by any chance?

Best Wishes,

Tevot

[johncorrigan]

@JohnCorrigan - I'm intrigued. Your former Glaswegian flat mate wasn't Craig Ferguson by any chance?

Best Wishes,

Tevot

Sure was, Tevot. Was at his first couple of gigs too. He used to try his material out on me. He was naturally very funny. Interestingly he was also in a band with Peter Capaldi...The Dreamboys. Can't understand why they didn't follow that Dream.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2AfGi-_fQ5o

[Lat-Literal]

Lindisfarne:

You Never Miss the Water - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SJAi3YYKD7Y
Good to Be Here - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cb3ku_XDQjw
Roll On River - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M2NrVrhtJLA
Clear White Light - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2_IPFOTUpEo
Train in G Major : Live '72 - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WfaWCjtJcgU

[cloughie]

Lindisfarne:

You Never Miss the Water - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SJAi3YYKD7Y

Is that related to ‘Fog on the Tyne’ and the wet on the wall?

[Lat-Literal]

Is that related to ‘Fog on the Tyne’ and the wet on the wall?

Hah. It's much later - a decade later - 1982. The second revival which never quite happened. The heyday was the early 1970s as I am sure you will know and I remember the singles from that time. The revival was in 1978 with Back and Fourth and the single Run For Home. I bought that album a year later at the Croydon Air Show. In '82, I first saw them live at the University of York. On 27 December 1982, my father's 52nd birthday, I went to Newcastle for a day from London to meet a mate and attended their Christmas concert, one of many, at the City Hall before returning on what effectively was the later version of the milk train all the while sitting on the floor. That was my one and only time in Northumberland although via evacuation ish my Dad was there with mixed emotions - scared but more achieving under discipline - and my uncle was born there.

I saw the band again at York in late '83 and the beer festival at either Olympia or Earls Court - not sure - very much later. Alan had died by then, god rest his soul (1945-1995) and I often think that The Guardian died with him, what with him being the avid reader of it on their tour bus. The joke was "oh dear, he has produced another song when he was feeling sorry for himself" but everyone knew that almost everything he produced was quality and especially the sad ones. He was and is the Tyneside people's poet. He absolutely enriched my life. And what is quite interesting to me now is just how much of their material was about journeying in one way or another and less so about the Tyne. That, I think, reflected the business they were in and where they called home. It resonated then with me. That never ceases. In fact, as I always anticipated, it grows.

[Lat-Literal]

I now think I am going to have to go sooner rather than later but I say that tonight. Tomorrow is another day. For what it is worth, I was in N Yorkshire 82-85 and dipped into other aspects of Yorkshire - I like Sheffield and Wednesday in particular- but it was upwards which grabbed me emotionally and I didn't necessarily associate it then with family. So in terms of Durham, that was and is Paddy for me and I fully appreciate in terms of accepted taste it is easily dismissed - it is the total antidote to raw - but I still believe strongly in what he did and see it as an 80s pinnacle. So many things to be said. Genius etc. All of us Prefabbies say that - it's defensive, knowing the general reaction. Especially, Disney missed a trick there. I do actually see connections between these two bands of different eras other than the geographical. They had music truly in their blood and were, this is probably the key word, literate:

Looking For Atlantis - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6xh5fhT0mPI
Cars and Girls - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jEJdfDD4dVg
Cruel - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1T_GU1rwkYQ
Real Life : Live - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RII83B904Ew
We Let The Stars Go - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TbpVP1qc96Y

The extraordinary period when he was losing his key senses and he was in a darkened room listening to the radio:

I Trawl the Megahertz - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1bSPNboKCzM

And post semi deafness and blindness, the mystery, to some extent cultivated but not for financial gain, continues:

America (solo and live) - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0jbdjD6a-xw

[cloughie]

Hah. It's much later - a decade later - 1982. The second revival which never quite happened. The heyday was the early 1970s as I am sure you will know and I remember the singles from that time. The revival was in 1978 with Back and Fourth and the single Run For Home. I bought that album a year later at the Croydon Air Show. In '82, I first saw them live at the University of York. On 27 December 1982, my father's 52nd birthday, I went to Newcastle for a day from London to meet a mate and attended their Christmas concert, one of many, at the City Hall before returning on what effectively was the later version of the milk train all the while sitting on the floor. That was my one and only time in Northumberland although via evacuation ish my Dad was there with mixed emotions - scared but more achieving under discipline - and my uncle was born there.

I saw the band again at York in late '83 and the beer festival at either Olympia or Earls Court - not sure - very much later. Alan had died by then, god rest his soul (1945-1995) and I often think that The Guardian died with him, what with him being the avid reader of it on their tour bus. The joke was "oh dear, he has produced another song when he was feeling sorry for himself" but everyone knew that almost everything he produced was quality and especially the sad ones. He was and is the Tyneside people's poet. He absolutely enriched my life. And what is quite interesting to me now is just how much of their material was about journeying in one way or another and less so about the Tyne. That, I think, reflected the business they were in and where they called home. It resonated then with me. That never ceases. In fact, as I always anticipated, it grows.

‘Run for home‘ was a great single and as going back were ‘Lady Eleanor’ and ‘Meet me on the Corner’.

[Lat-Literal]

‘Run for home‘ was a great single and as going back were ‘Lady Eleanor’ and ‘Meet me on the Corner’.

Yes - they are outstanding singles. There is, actually, a connection between the two bands above other than geography. In places, they both do great harmonica. I waited 20 or 30 years for something from the region that moved me to the same extent. When it came, it was Rachel Unthank and the Winterset or now the Unthanks. Bring on their harmonica album soon.

The Unthanks - King of Rome - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6fL3E8FRxiw

[johncorrigan]

The Unthanks - King of Rome - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6fL3E8FRxiw

Talking of unique voices, Lat, here's the great re-working of the 'Prodigal Son' parable courtesy of the incomparable Iris Dement - 'Infamous Angel'.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i-XNHqaOxFs