Tag Archives: cover

Heartbreaker

What’s in a name? Last Saturday in Azerbaijan, Gerry Dorsey returned to the international stage to represent England at this year’s Eurovision Song Contest. Of course, he performed under the more familiar moniker of Engelbert Humperdinck and did just enough to finish second last. Even though it sounds completely fabricated, there was a 19th century German composer who actually had that name. Perhaps Engelbert would never have become as famous if he’d remained as just plain old Gerry, but he’s one of numerous entertainers who have decided to use a pseudonym instead of their given name. It’s not as common for music fans to use an alias, but this week I read about one who did just that

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Rock of Ages

The 40th series of Later with Jools Holland returned to the BBC this month and this week’s second episode was a right humdinger of a show. It featured an array of North American artists playing that region’s traditional forms of music, as well as an Irish group celebrating fifty years together. To celebrate this milestone, The Chieftains have teamed up with producer T Bone Burnett on an album called Voice of Ages. The Chieftains are no strangers to merging different styles of traditional music, as evidenced by their version of The Long Black Veil with Mick Jagger below. They are joined on the new album by a number of bands that have previously appeared on Later: Imelda May and Lisa Hannigan from Ireland; Paolo Nutini from Scotland; Bon Iver, The Civil Wars, The Decemberists, Paolo Nutini, Carolina Chocolate Drops and The Secret Sisters from the States

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The Right Stuff

A few weeks after seeing a wonderful tribute to The Last Waltz, I was saddened to hear of original drummer Levon Helm‘s passing on Thursday. Helm shared vocal duties with the other members of the band and was best known for The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down and, one of my favourites, Up On Cripple Creek. He was born in Arkansas in 1940 and went on to become a member of The Hawks, fronted by fellow Arkansan Ronnie Hawkins. They eventually settled in Toronto where Levon would end up as the only American amongst a group of Canadians. They then became Bob Dylan’s backing band and decided to just call themselves The Band. At the end of the sixties they released two albums that are amongst my favourites from that decade, though they sound more like the 1860s than the 1960s. As well as sharing vocal duties, the group also swapped instruments and Levon often came out from behind the drum kit to pick up a guitar, bass or mandolin. His singing and playing in Martin Scorsese’s film of The Last Waltz farewell concert is quite prominent and his chats with Marty in the film are also worth checking out

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Velvet Goldmine

This summer sees the 40th anniversary of the release of one of rock music’s most iconic albums. The Rise & Fall of Ziggy Stardust & the Spiders From Mars was David Bowie‘s fifth studio album and it made it into record shops in June, 1972. It’s basically a concept album that draws upon science fiction and rock mythology to tell the story of a musician named Ziggy Stardust and his band, The Spiders From Mars. The concept is a loose one as not all the songs on the album relate to the overall concept and one of them (It Ain’t Easy) is a cover of a song by a guy called Ron Davies. Nevertheless, the album’s packaging, marketing, sequencing and overall sound certainly made it seem like all the songs were connected and it also helped that Bowie and the band adopted the fictional band’s persona in concert and television appearances. Of course, the decision to wear the group’s “futuristic” costumes during this period was a big factor in maintaining the illusion. The album contains some of Bowie’s best songs (Starman and Ziggy Stardust) but, like all great records, its strength lies in the consistency of the work and that it can be enjoyed from beginning to end

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These Foolish Things

I meant to put up this post for April Fools’ Day earlier today but I had a late one last night. I’ve been listening to over a hundred songs about fooling and joking over the last few days and I’ve managed to whittle that number down to an even half dozen. Lots of these songs are in the soul genre and most of them are about how love makes fools of even the wisest of people. The first two songs have become standards and were both recorded by Frank Sinatra during his prolific career. He was one of the first singers to perform Fools Rush In (Where Angels Fear to Tread) in 1940. The lyrics were written by Johnny Mercer and the music by Rube Bloom and its content can be summed up brilliantly in these lines: “Fools rush in where wise men never go/But wise men never fall in love”. Zooey Deschanel does it justice on She & Him‘s 2010 version for Levi’s Pioneer Sessions

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Lonely At The Top

A few weeks ago, my friend John and I caught the first in what promises to be a busy few months of checking out some of our favourite songwriters at various venues around the British Isles. First up was Randy Newman who played two gigs at Dublin’s Vicar St. at the start of March. We had hoped to catch him there a couple of years ago, but he caught a sore throat and had to cancel. On the opening night this time, he began with Mama Told Me Not To Come and it was obvious that he was under the weather again and should probably have heeded the song’s advice. Fortunately, his head cold only affected him on a few songs and the rest of the show made me forget my own dose of the man ‘flu for a couple of hours

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Say You Wanna Dance

Today is the start of a new series which features songs by singers that I’m not a fan of being sung by people I do like. The original artists are often successful and far more well known than those I’ve chosen, though they’re also performers that I wouldn’t usually admit to liking. I had planned to feature Whitney Houston at a later date, but her untimely death over the weekend has pushed her to the front of the queue. Her first appearances on the musical scene in the eighties coincided with my own introduction to music during that decade, first through music videos, then the radio and finally the humble cassette tape. I remember being particularly struck by the 1987 single from her second album, I Wanna Dance With Somebody (Who Loves Me), possibly her finest performance

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Re-make Re-model

I finally got my hair cut last week after many months of humming and hawing about it. This big leap has also inspired me to give a bit of a makeover to Town Full of Losers. I blog with WordPress and they offer dozens of free themes to suit all sorts of needs. I’ve used three or four in the past and, as it’s been over a year since the last change, I decided to go with a new one today. It’s called Quintus and here’s what the good folks at WordPress have to say about it:

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