Monthly Archives: June 2011

Luck of the Irish

It was with some joy that I opened the above text message on my phone yesterday. As you can see, I’ve won the not inconsiderable sum of 300,000 Great British Pounds in a rather wonderful competition called the Ongoing UK COCA-COLA 2011 PROMO. Not bad, eh? It sounds even better when you convert it into other currencies. For example, it’s worth a third of a million euro and nearly half a million dollars. The funny thing is I don’t remember entering the competition and I’ve yet to visit the UK this year. I don’t even drink Coca Cola! I haven’t phoned or emailed them yet in case they tell me that it’s all a mistake. I suppose I should’ve been spending my day wondering how I’d spend this sudden windfall, but instead I put together a playlist. The first three songs are about people dreaming of winning the lottery and wondering how they’d spend the money. It’s holidays and vacations for Harry, a new car for Bruce and a jet plane for Patti. The Format, Ani DiFranco and, in particular, The Walkabouts offer their own interpretations of these songs. The final three tracks deal with luck as Junior Tucker and the Easy Star All-Stars delve into reggae, while Frenchman Noël Akchoté delivers an instrumental version of Kylie’s debut hit. Its title and words should leave nothing else to be said about my apparent good fortune

The Lottery Song (Harry Nilsson cover) – The Format

Used Cars (Bruce Springsteen cover) – Ani DiFranco

Free Money (Patti Smith cover) – The Walkabouts

Some Guys Have All the Luck (The Persuaders cover) – Junior Tucker

Lucky (Radiohead cover) – Easy Star All-Stars

I Should Be So Lucky (Kylie Minogue cover) – Noël Akchoté

Top Beards

I was watching the BBC’s coverage of this year’s Glastonbury festival when Mark Everett and his band showed up. All the members of Eels seem to have fine beards, but Everett’s is most impressive indeed. It’s even longer than in the picture above and it shouldn’t be too long before they give ZZ Top a run for their money in the facial hair stakes. Here’s Eels doing a live instrumental version of La Grange followed by the clean-shaven Union Avenue‘s Johnny Cash-inspired take on Mexican Blackbird. Sporting a full set of whiskers, The Long Winters slightly rename Gimme All Your Lovin’ in their chilled-out interpretation. Finally, ZZ Top themselves sing a Sam & Dave number that opened their 1979 album Degüello and appeared as a single the following year. The lengthy beards of Dusty Hill and Billy Gibbons more than make up for their drummer’s smooth chin. His name is, of course, Frank Beard

La Grange (ZZ top cover) – Eels

Mexican Blackbird (ZZ Top cover) – Union Avenue

Give Me All Your Lovin’ (ZZ Top cover) – The Long Winters

I Thank You (Sam & Dave cover) – ZZ Top

Wastin’ Time

Yesterday my friend John and I took a day out to see a wonderful Ron Sexsmith gig at The Academy in Dublin. After a nice late breakfast at The Wild Onion in Limerick, we got into John’s car and headed out on the new motorway from Limerick to Dublin. We listened to Ron’s fine new album called Long Player Late Bloomer. I think it’s his best album since the first two he released about fifteen years ago. It’s full of his trademark hooks and melodies as well as witty and poignant lyrics. It also sounds really good and a lot of this is down to its producer, Bob Rock. The appropriately named Rock didn’t just produce the record, however. He also acted like a coach to the Canadian songwriter and urged him to work on his songs and make them even better than they already were. As we listened to the CD, John mentioned that he was actually looking forward to hearing these new songs even more than Ron’s already impressive back catalogue. I had to agree. There’s always new product to be pushed at any gig and usually a selection of tracks from the new release is something the audience politely listens to while waiting for the earlier favourites to make an appearance

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The Longest Day of the Year

Today’s the longest day of the year and it always reminds me of an earlier summer solstice I spent in Germany five years ago. You may recall that the 2006 World Cup was taking place at the time and some of my German friends had invited me over to check out the atmosphere. I even managed to convince my brother to tag along as I knew he’d get a kick out of it. Our flight was in the early hours of the tournament’s first Wednesday of football and Jack and I started out as we meant to go along. On the eve of our departure we went out in Limerick for a few pints and ended up playing poker at a friend’s house until a little later than expected. We got a taxi back to my place where we just had enough time to pick up our bags and head out to Shannon. A few hours later we arrived at sunny Frankfurt-Hahn where we had the first of many fine beers before getting a bus and a train to Bamberg, the beautiful Bavarian town where we would be based for the week. My friend Anja took great care of us and I also got to introduce Jack to some more of my friends, including a late visit for breakfast on the Sunday. Sorry about that, Katrin.

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He’s So Unusual

I’ve started to receive quite a few mp3s and requests from record labels and agents urging me to check out their artist’s latest offering. One that caught my eye (and ear) last week was a cover of Cyndi Lauper’s She Bop by a Melbourne singer-songwriter named Gerard Daley. Gerard started out as leader of The Stuntcar Racers before going solo, though he’s also been playing with The Wildflowers in recent times. His songs Human Shield and The Wrongness of Righteousness are included on the Songs of the Times page on Neil Young’s website and he numbers the Canadian among his musical influences in a list that also includes Bruce Springsteen, Tom Petty and Neil Finn. However, it is to the music of the colourful New Yorker Cyndi Lauper that he turns on his latest release and, in particular, her debut solo offering from 1983, She’s So Unusual

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Teardrops On The City

Last night, Clarence Clemons passed away six months shy of his 70th birthday in Florida. Also known as “The Big Man” ever since Bruce sang about him on Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out, Clarence was an integral part of the E Street Band’s sound and particularly for his energetic stage presence. I was fortunate to see the E Street Band on two occasions and getting to see The Big Man was a highlight each time. It was pretty hard for anyone to compete with Bruce’s on-stage antics, but Clarence and, to a lesser extent, Max Weinberg were the only ones who succeeded in taking some of the limelight off the bandleader. Clarence’s saxophone was mostly to the fore on the Born to Run album, but he was also responsible for some percussion and vocal duties after that. He worked with loads of other musicians besides Bruce and released many albums in his own right. His version of an unreleased Springsteen track called Savin’ Up is taken from a 1997 tribute to The Boss called One Step Up – Two Steps Back. In 1985, his duet with Jackson Browne, You’re a Friend of Mine, was a hit in the United States. I’m sure it will get a few more airings in the coming weeks as Clarence will no doubt be jamming somewhere with his old friend, Danny Federici


You’re a Friend of Mine – Clarence Clemons & Jackson Browne

Savin’ Up (Bruce Springsteen cover) – Clarence Clemons

Guitar Jamboree

Ireland has produced one or two great musicians over the years and Rory Gallagher, Gary Moore, The Edge and Jim Corr would surely be some of our most renowned guitarists. Okay, maybe not Jim. Well, you can now add the name of Dave Browne to that list. Yesterday, Dave set a new world record by playing his guitar non-stop for over 114 hours at Dublin’s Temple Bar pub (pictured). He set out at 4.00pm last Sunday with the intention of beating Argentinian Guillermo Terraza’s previous record of 100 hours of continuous play. According to the Guinness World Record rules each song had to be a published work and had to be at least two minutes long. He was allowed to take a 30-second break between each tune as well as a five-minute break every hour or a forty-minute one every eight hours. Dave went for the latter. He was due to break the record on Thursday night before it was discovered that Terraza had actually reached 113 hours on his attempt. So, Dave finished before noon yesterday morning after playing a grand total of 1,372 primarily rock and blues numbers for nearly five days. Well done, Dave, and I hope you enjoy your rest. I don’t know how many of the eight songs below that you played, but it mightn’t be a bad idea to learn a few of them. I’ve got a feeling that you haven’t heard the last of Senor Terraza


Goofy Guitar – Kenny & the Ho Daddies

Solo Guitar With Tin Foil – Brian Eno & David Byrne

Fender Stratocaster – Jonathan Richman

This Guitar Can’t Keep From Crying – George Harrison

While My Guitar Gently Weeps (Beatles cover) – The Drowners

Guitar Man (Jerry Reed cover) – The Jesus & Mary Chain

The Guitar Man (Bread cover) – Cake

Guitar Boogie Shuffle (Arthur ‘Guitar Boogie’ Smith cover) – Bert Weedon

The Pleasure & The Privilege

Last night I popped over to my local library to read a short little book that I’d been meaning to dip into for a while. The Uncommon Reader by Alan Bennett was recommended to be by my friend John and I picked up a used (albeit immaculate) copy of it a while back in Charlie Byrne’s in Galway. The title of Bennett’s novella alludes to a 1925 book by Virginia Woolf and the protagonist of his story is far from a common reader. She is, in fact, Queen Elizabeth II or, rather, a fictionalised version of her majesty. Liz’s recent visit to Ireland made me want to check it out and I also wanted to take a break from all the Scandinavian crime fiction I’ve been devouring lately

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