Songs for tomorrow: Maybe Tomorrow

Are Stereophonics a Marmite band? Maybe. This is alright though, isn't it? Or MOR-by-numbers? What do you think...?

The Unewsual IV - you're gonna need a bigger board

How would you react? Paddle like mad, or think that paddling = splashing = drawing the shark's attention?

I ask this as a layperson who attributes all he knows about great whites to Hooper and Quint...

Rain finally makes the roses grow

Last month I wrote about a planned online mini-gig from Martin Rossiter. The event was beset by technical difficulties and was aborted after one song (and much buffering). This was frustrating for everyone and, if truth be told, probably a bit embarrassing for Martin and organsiers/facilitators Star Shaped... so they had another go, last night. And it was quite wonderful. In years to come, if pandemics and lockdowns don't become the new normal, we'll all have a lot of unusual and lasting memories to take from our current situation, and one of mine will be standing in the kitchen, tea-towel in hand, breaking out in goosebumps twice during a stripped-down, piano-and-voice Olympian...

Oh, and the new song, Rain Makes The Roses Grow, teased last month, finally got an airing!

The whole shebang was also a fundraiser for NHS Charities Together and you can donate here if you like. When I last looked this had raised more than two and a half grand, so well done to all concerned.

I am loathe to embed a Facebook post but until I can find a better way of presenting the gig, here it is...

Martin Rossiter Mini Show!

Martin Rossiter performs a mini show to raise money for our courageous NHS workers.

Posted by Star Shaped Club on Tuesday, 23 June 2020

Set list:

• I Can't Help Myself
• I Must Be Jesus
• Rain Makes The Roses Grow
• Olympian
• Three Points On A Compass

Songs for tomorrow: Tomorrow Never Dies

We've already had the Bond theme that never was, from Pulp. Well, here's the song that got chosen instead, from Sheryl Crow. No, it's not her usual fare, but this woman can really sing (witness her flawless live vocal in this TOTP performance). There are some lovely chord changes in here as well, within the constraints of the Bond franchise remit. Nice pastiche video too.

I sort of have a bit of a minor crush on Sheryl, truth be told. Is that okay? And at what age do you stop getting minor crushes?

What do/did you call your grandparents?

And are there regional variations?

Today days old

There's a thing on Twitter, a meme I guess, in which people tweet "I was today days old when I learnt that..." and then insert something that is really obscure but interesting to learn or, in a somewhat meta twist of the meme, something really obvious that everyone already knows but that the Twitter user claims to have just learnt, for presumably comic or "like-able" effect.

A common one, musically, is "I was today days old when I learnt that The Only Way Is Up by Yazz is actually a cover of this 1980 soul groove by Otis Clay." The twist with this is that 6Music played the Clay original some months back, then Steve Wright of all people played it on his Radio 2 show a couple of weeks later, as if he had discovered this musical factoid. In other words, this one has transitioned from relatively obscure to quite common knowledge.

But anyway, in case you haven't already guessed where this post is headed... "I was today days old when I learnt that 1992's Cats In The Cradle by Ugly Kid Joe is not an original song, but a cover of this 1974 release from Harry Chapin."

Now the question is, does this fall into the "obscure but interesting" category, or the "really obvious and everyone already knows" category?

I suppose I should also add that I learnt this courtesy of Amazon Music, who served up Harry's original as part of their Rock Classics To Wallow To playlist. And I'm not making that up.

Monday long song: Leave

Today's long song is from Athens' finest, REM. They were at the start of their career's downhill section by parent album New Adventures in Hi-fi, which might sound a bit harsh until you remind yourself that REM's downhill is still at a hell of an altitude, far, far higher than that reached by most bands.

I think this is the longest original track they released, but I might be wrong on that. Someone will tell me, no doubt.

A ghost... and rotoscoping

You might not know the process of rotoscoping by name but you'll know it when you see it - think A-Ha's video for Take On Me, and you're there. Yes, it's the process of tracing over filmed footage, more or less.

Travis are back, with a new album and single. The latter, A Ghost, is alright, not their best work but perfectly fine. So's the video... until you read this excellent BBC interview with singer Fran, about how he painstakingly created the video by rotoscoping, drawing each frame by hand on his iPad. For me, this added a whole extra level of appreciation.

Read the article first, then watch the video.

Oh, and that Casey Affleck film Fran mentions, A Ghost Story? That's definitely worth 90 minutes of your time.

Songs for tomorrow: Tomorrow Never Knows

No, not the groundbreaking Beatles original but this slow-burn cover by long-dead bluesman Junior Parker. And if it sounds vaguely familiar, well, maybe you know it from the excellent soundtrack of dystopian masterwork Children Of Men...

Crawl

Okay, I know I said I wouldn't post every time the band did one of these but this is just so very good. And who knows, if I post enough locked down, stripped back Gedge et al I might even convert C into a fan... :)