20/12/2009

MEMORIES OF ROY

ROY ORBISON is known as The Greatest Voice in Rock'n Roll. We are definitely not going to argue with that.
He is also known as mostly a singles' man. Indeed, we now have all of his albums and none of them is truly great from start to end. But that doesn't mean the man doesn't have some amazing deep cuts.
HERE IS JUST ONE OUT OF MANY from his lesser-known-of and absurdly underrated mid-60's output, when he wrote his darkest, saddest songs - which is saying a lot when we're talking about a songwriter who used the verb "cry" and the noun "heartache" in almost every song.
The historical backdrop, which explains the sadness and makes the songs from this period (this one especially) even more poignant, is the tragic death of his loving wife Claudette.

On a less depressing note, as we browsed YouTube to see if someone else had already uploaded this song so we wouldn't have to do it ourselves, we came upon THIS NICE LITTLE NUGGET: ROY invited on THE JOHNNY CASH SHOW and dueting on Oh Pretty Woman. Now the performance itself is really unremarkable (why do they sing in unison a song famous for its Everly-Brothers-inspired harmonies?) but seeing these two together is mighty heartwarming.

17/12/2009

DON'T BE AFRAID

There are classics, and then there are absolute classics.
No matter how many thousand times I've listened to this song, it still always hits when I hear it. But why? Probably for these two reasons:
-No matter how many times I play this song in my head on the subway, I still have to play it when I get home, cos my mental jukebox simply cannot replicate AARON NEVILLE's angelic voice.
-Because that one small, short, elusive part that is the chorus, the title, the major hook, and the only moment where the voice is double-tracked, only occurs three times in the whole song, leaving you wanting to play it again. And again. And again.

HERE IT IS ON YOUTUBE.
So far it has 112535 views, I believe half of these are me.

15/12/2009

NEW BEAT SUPREME

During a short trip to Belgium, we've acquired quite a lot of NEW BEAT 12 inches. But it only confirmed what we already knew: the best (and possibly the slowest) NEW BEAT band in Belgium is without a doubt THE MACKENZIE.
ENJOY THIS 1990 CLASSIC.

03/12/2009

JUST LIKE JC

Even if you hate U2, you cannot deny the power of THIS MASTERPIECE OF A SONG.
Incidentally, this is the one and only JOHNNY CASH song with an electronic backing. You can only wonder how great an album ENO and CASH would have made together had they tried.

01/12/2009

SCARLET THREAD #1 : JUST LIKE BUDDY HOLLY

BUDDY was covered by THE BEATLES......one of them married PATTIE BOYD......who plays in THE KNACK AND HOW TO GET IT
Only click on THIS LINK if you're willing to have this BUDDY HOLLY COVER stuck in your head all day. I AGREE WITH THE TERMS AND CONDITIONS.