This is a sixties kids show theme tune. Its a dreamy, girl song. It sometimes reminds me of Walking in the Air, and maybe Nancy Sinatra. Who said 'writing about music' is like 'dancing about architecture'? I think I'd be better at the latter
This is partly a recommendation, partly a request for information if anybody has it. (hope thats not an abuse of the website)
I recorded this by accident off of a John Peel show in the late 70s/early 80s. Its a dance-y dub-by version of a old American square dance song I believe. Its not unlike Malcolm Maclarens stuff of the same time in concept, but its al lot more taste.
So does anybody else know it?
03 Mar 05 ·n-jeff: Hmmm, Sounds like the sort of thing the Suns of Arqa were up to at that time, the early stuff tended to mix uptempo dubby backings with guitar and or fiddle, and then do something daft like phase the hell out of it. I should say it would be worth eliminating, I'll try and find te hname of the LP I have thats like that.
Suns of Arqa - Sounds like thunder ? could be... 04 Mar 05 ·mattypenny: Jeff - judging by the website, that's a really good call. I shall investigate...Thanks, Matt 19 Dec 05 ·n-jeff: Glad to be of assistance.
Suns of Arqa are well worth checking out anyway, I saw them live a couple of times in their Indian phase, Tabla's, Sitar, drums and Wadada on deep bass. At the time there was no-one like it. Nice.
A rock-y love song. Shane in good voice - maybe the last time he has been in such good voice, I dunno. The voices go together brilliantly.
Its a nice contrast with 'Fairytale of New York'. Sample lyric 'you were so cool you could have put out Vietnam'
It was originally recorded with original Pogues bass player Cait O'Riordan (forgive the spelling - I'm crap at Irish names) which I heard at the time but not since - it was on the soundtrack to Sid and Nancy
from Not on an album
03 Mar 05 ·tonyharte: How right you are Matt - tis a mighty fine nugget from 10 years ago. Should've been top 5 - instead of the lower reaches of the chart (if anybody cares these days). The voice of an angel meets devilish genius in a smokey tap room near Wardour St.
Sunlight and pathos in equal measures. 03 Mar 05 ·mattypenny: Many Thanks for the comment Tony.
I dunno how many people would feel the same way, but I really love some of the songs that Sinead O'Connor has been involved with, although I'm not as keen on all of her own stuff.
The collaborations I've paticularly enjoyed:
Marxman - Ship Ahoy
Damien dempsey - Negative Vibes
Something by Jah Wobble I forget the name of
Terry Hall and Sinead - All Kinds of Everything
I'll type some of these up as recommendations when I get the chance
The third in a series of 3 linked postings, the other being White Rabbit and the original Jefferson Airplane version of this song.
It probably wouldn't be unfair to describe this as a fairly cheese-y dance cover of the Jefferson Airplance song. It puts a fairly similar sounding vocal over a dance track, with some extra squelchy noises.
I would never have thought the world needed a dance version of this song, but its good fun, and it fills the gap when you have one of those need-to-hear-a-disco-fied-version-of-a-60s-goth-classic moments.
Where it gets really wierd, though, is the video. The singer is a fairly genericvideo female without many clothes on. But she's shot as if she's a giant lying across several fields. And then you see a number of babies parachuting out of an airplane, and eventually landing on top of her. You could say its tasteless, crass, sexist or all three (and I probably would), but its kind of nutty enough to suit what there is of the howling vocal.
available on CD - Now 60 or 61 (UK)
17 Mar 06 ·n-jeff: I've not heard this, and I'm not really going to go out of my way to find it, although I appreciate your sentiments. Anyway, before Jefferson Airplane, Grace Slick and some of the others were in a band called The Great Society, and they also did a version of this song, produced by Sly Stone. So it feels like something of a circle turning, although in 1966 he hadn't formed the great melting pot of the family.
There are stories attached to that session, but thats by the by, the Great Societys' legacy would be a very fine live album. You should track it down. Proper Psychedelia. 17 Mar 06 ·mattypenny: Jeff, thanks for the comment. Sly Stone being involved in a version of this sounds intriguing, I will try to track it down.
Also interesting that you should use the word 'psychedelia'. You're absolutely right to - I think I didn't because I tend to associate it with either very surreal type of music (e.g. early Pink Floyd) or fairly mellow music (e.g Albatross, Good Morning Starshine, or late Pink Floyd), and both Somebody To Love and White Rabbit are neither.....Well, I suppose White Rabbit is surreal, but in a direct kind of way if that makes sense. You could say its closer to punk than hippy.
I know very little about this period to be honest - as you can probably tell - but there's more interesting music there than I once thought.
P.S. I wouldn't 'go out of your way to find' the Boogie Pimps version. In the context of the video channel they have on in the gym it was great when it came on - the vocal is similar and as I say the video is just so wierd it's worth watching. All in all quite fun but not essential.
cheers, Matt
