Week 14 - Talkin' Different Genre Blues

Now, don't let me mislead you from the start. This isn't about Blues. This is about songs with Blues-style titles that are anything but.

I'm never sure what to think of Cat Power. On the one hand, I admire her as an artist, but on the other I can't get into her style. I don't necessarily mean that with regard to different songs, sometimes it happens within one track. However, from her Jukebox album, Blue is a stunningly soulful piece. Lovely sounds complemented by, rather than topped off by, her vocals.

One female artist I do like is Joanna Newsom. Her voice isn't everyone's cup of tea. Some people may say it's like a cat being strangled on a washing machine, but I like it (the voice, not laundry-themed feline murder). The harpist's This Side of the Blue is a stunning dreamscape of sounds. One of the most beautiful songs I know of, plus it's about time I put a folky track on here. Trust me, there'll be a lot more to come!

The Coral are a great band. They burst onto the scene in 2002 with their eponymous album, containing tracks like Goodbye and Dreaming of You. Since then, they've had a mixed output. Magic and Medicine was a great album - Don't You Think You're The First, Pass It On and Bill McCai. However, Nightfreak and the Sons of Becker was a quite dodgy album. It was a modern psychedelic work, but a bit too piecemeal for me. The Invisible Invasion contained In the Morning, a quality song, but little else. Fortunately, their most recent album, Roots and Echoes, is possibly their best since their debut, containing She's Got a Reason and Put the Sun Back.

But enough of the biographical stuff, the song I've chosen this week is a beaut off Magic and Medicine.

It's called Talkin' Gypsy Market Blues and its lyrics go thus: Talkin' gypsy market blues, I was too late and I never got to choose.

As you may know, there are many Talking blah-blah Blues song titles throughout history - whether it's Woody Guthrie's Talkin' Dust Bowl Blues, Townes van Zandt's Talkin' KKK Blues or Bob Dylan's Talkin' Hava Negilah Blues.

Now, to try to tie this back together, when I first heard Talkin' Gypsy Market Blues, I imagined The Coral as a bluesman in modern times. I figured they wanted to do a song in the talkin' blues spirit, but because all the good titles had gone they were stuck with a song about a gypsy market. Hence "I was too late but I never got to choose".

A lovely story, but hopelessly inaccurate! Instead it seems like a holiday in Portugal gone wrong. A man wants some boots, goes into an Al Stewart Year of the Cat-style haze, then decides he doesn't want the boots anymore. But, it's still a cracking song.

Enjoy!

Week 1 - Displacing talk of coconuts on Fridays

A very busy week. Friday afternoon at work. Extremely tired, counting down the hours, trying to stay awake. Idiots talking incessantly about coconuts and other ridiculous things. Anger growing. Need to find a happy place.
All of a sudden, out of nowhere this classic came into my head and all was good in the world.
From 1962 New York to 2009 East Yorkshire, this Carole King and Gerry Goffin penned tune was something I hadn't heard nor thought about in quite some years, but it was certainly a very welcome reunion.

So, purely because it rescued me from very dark times, that's why it's my song of the week.
Although, it could quite easily have been anything by jazzer George Shearing after a Kerouac-inspired hunt for songs by the old blind English-born pianist.
Likewise, it could so easily have been Atlas Sound's Recent Bedroom as I finally figured out it was that song which featured on the conclusion of Johnny Vegas' sitcom Ideal.
But no, it's Up on the Roof by The Drifters, and here it is:







One thing that strikes me about the video is the releasing of doves from the coop. It brings to mind Will Ferrell in the remake of The Producers.
That Was the Song of the Week That Was, ta!