The repeat of my Amazing Songs & Other Delights # 18 – The Wintry Songs edition by António Cunha & Raquel Pinheiro airs Monday 13, 3-4pm (gmt) on Yé Yé Radio: yeyeradio.com (or on the app).
Tracklist: 01 – Bobby Womack – California Dreamin'(John Phillips & Michelle Phillips’ song) (Tó) 02 – Belle & Sebastian – The Fox in the Snow (Raquel) 03 – Clinic – I Can’t Stand The Rain (Tó) 04 – Billy Mackenzie – Winter Academy (Tó) 05 – Pink Floyd – Goodbye Blue Sky (2011 Remastered Version) (Tó) 06 – John Parish – How Animals Move (Raquel) 07 – Taylor Swift – Forever Winter (Taylor’s Version) (Tó) 08 – Zeca Afonso – Canção de Embalar (Raquel) 09 – The Decemberists – January Hymn (Raquel) 10 – Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds – Fifteen Feet of Pure White Snow (Raquel) 11 – Finneas – A Little Closer (Finneas’ Version) (Tó) 12 – Manic Street Preachers – Die in the Summertime (Remastered) (Raquel) 13 – Lianne La Havas – Starry Starry Night (Loving Vincent OST) (Tó) 14 – The Doors – Wintertime Love (Tó) 15 – Zoot Woman – Grey Day (Tó) 16 – The Beatles – Here Comes The Sun (2019 mix) (Raquel)
Tracklist: 01 – The Beatles – While My Guitar Gently Weeps (Raquel) 02 – Dillard and Clark – Don’t Let Me Down (Bill) 03 – George Harrison – My Sweet Lord (Raquel) 04 – Junior Parker – Tomorrow Never Knows (2024 remastered version) (Bill) 05 – Bryan Ferry – Jealous Guy (Raquel) 06 – George Harrison – Try Some Buy Some (2024 mix) (Bill) 07 – Suede – A Day In The Life (MTV intro (Raquel) 08 – The Beatles – You Can’t Do That (Bill)l 09 – John Lennon – Gimme Some Truth (Bill) 10 – Paul McCartney – Waterfalls (Bill) 11 – George Harrison – Wah-Wah (2014 Remaster) (Raquel) 12 – The Beatles – Octopus Garden (Raquel)p 13 – The Carpenters – Ticket To Ride (Bill) 14 – The Beatles – Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown) (Raquel) 15 – The Beatles – Yellow Submarine (Raquel) 16 – Robert Wyatt – Love (Bill) 17 – Ringo Starr – It Don’t Come Easy (Bill) 18 – Lucinda Williams – While My Guitar Gently Weeps (Raquel)
There’s a repeat of my radio show Amazing Songs & Other Delights – The It’s a New Year, Let’s Dance edition Monday 30th, 3-4-pm (gmt) on Yé Yé Radio: yeyeradio.com (or on the app).
I wish you all a happy, joy filled, peaceful 2025.
Tracklist: 01 – Império Pacífico – Aftershow feat. Panda Bear 02 – Zirkus Maximus – Jean et Luc 03 – Kai Bosch – Be Right Back 04 – Ladytron – City of Angels 05 – Altered Images – Glitter Ball 06 – Hercules & Love Affair – Painted Eyes (Inflagranti Remix) 07 – WhoMadeWho – Inside World 08 – Dead Or Alive – You Spin Me Round 09 – Yellow Magic Orchestra – Rydeen 10 – Depeche Mode – Behind The Wheel (Vince Clarke Remix) 11 – Korean Boyfriend – Greedy Happiness 12 – New Order – Round and Round 13 – Dead Method – Femme! 14 – ABBA – Dancing Queen (Club Remix)
There’s a repeat of my 5th Amazing Songs & Other Delights #5 – The Poetry edition tomorrow, Monday 2nd, 3-4pm (gmt) on Yé Yé Radio: yeyeradio.com (or on the app).
Tracklist: 01 – Marianne Faithfull with Warren Ellis – Ode to a Nightingale (Keats poem) 02 – Suede – Heroine (Byron She Walks in beauty 1st lines) 03 – The Cranberries – Yeats Grave 04 – Amália Rodrigues – Barco Negro (David Mourão-Ferreira poem) 05 – Secos Molhados – Não não digas nada (Fernando Pessoa poem) 06 – Annie Lennox – Live With Me And Be My Love (Christopher Marlowe poem) 07 – The Waterboys – Stolen Child (Yeats poem) 08 – Bob Dylan – On the Road Again (Bob Dylan poem) 09 – Radio Bukowski – The Genius of The Crowd (Charles Bukowski poem) 10 – Carla Bruni – If You Were Coming In The Fall (Emily Dickinson poem) 11 – Rufus Wainwright – When, in disgrace with fortune and men’s eyes (William Shakespeare, Sonnet 29th) 12 – Fagner – Fanatismo (Florbela Espanca poem) 13 – Ralph Schuckett and Richard Butler – Alabama song (Bertolt Brecht poem, Kurt Weill music) 14 – Patti Smith – Changing of the Guards (Bob Dylan cover and poem) 15 – Phil Ochs – The Bell (Edgar Allan Poe poem) 16 – Quilapayun – Complainte de Pablo Neruda 17 – The Smiths – Cemetery Gates (Keats, Yeats, Wilde came to play)
My Amazing Songs & Other Delights #73 – The New Things edition is now on mixcloud.
Tracklist: 01: Peter Perrett – Mixed Up Confucius 02: Naima Bock – Feed My Release 03: Ritta Tristany – Esquina do Chile 04: Gavin Friday – Stations of the Cross 05: Rossana – Inglaterra 06: Tess Parks – California’s Dreaming 07: Fabiana Palladino – Drunk 08: Velatine – Orange to Black 09: Paul Victor – Passport 10: Tunde Adebimpe – Magnetic 11: Rose City Band – Lights on the Way 12: David J Moriarty & Adam Baranello – Fade 13: Raoul Vignal – Icarus 14: Young Knives – Dissolution 15: Brick Briscoe & Kim Giani – Grands Boulevards 16: The Chefs – I’ll Go To 17: Dean & Britta & Sonic Boom – Pretty Paper
My Amazing Songs & Other Delights #73 – The New Things edition airs Monday 18th, 3-4pm (gmt) on Yé Yé Radio: yeyeradio.com (or on the app).
This programme features an assortment of new songs.
Tracklist: 01: Peter Perrett – Mixed Up Confucius 02: Naima Bock – Feed My Release 03: Ritta Tristany – Esquina do Chile 04: Gavin Friday – Stations of the Cross 05: Rossana – Inglaterra 06: Tess Parks – California’s Dreaming 07: Fabiana Palladino – Drunk 08: Velatine – Orange to Black 09: Paul Victor – Passport 10: Tunde Adebimpe – Magnetic 11: Rose City Band – Lights on the Way 12: David J Moriarty & Adam Baranello – Fade 13: Raoul Vignal – Icarus 14: Young Knives – Dissolution 15: Brick Briscoe & Kim Giani – Grands Boulevards 16: The Chefs – I’ll Go To 17: Dean & Britta & Sonic Boom – Pretty Paper
This time I’ll go with a repeat. My Amazing Songs & Other Delights #32 – The Autumn Is Here edition airs Monday 4th, 3-4pm (gmt) on Yé Yé Radio: yeyeradio.com (or on the app).
As the name says it’s an Autumn edition. You can read about it here here.
Tracklist: 01 – Arkadia Jazz All-Stars – Don’t Get Around Much Anymore (feat. Buster Williams & Carl Allen ) (Duke Ellighton original) 02 – António Vale da Conceição – Love Is The Storm 03 – Billy Childish & The Singing Loins – Pocahontas Was Her Name 04 – Blache – Garbage Picker 05 – Charlie Megira – Fear and Joy 06 – Cream – World of Pain 07 – David Bowie – Breaking Glass 08 – Francie Moon – Everything Goes 09 – Heavenly – I Fell in Love Last Night 10 – Japan – Canton (Live from Hammersmith Odeon, 1983) 11 – Jessie Buckley & Bernard Butler – Footnotes On The Map (Live From The Green Note) 12 – Miguel Feraso Cabral – Indo Por Ali Longe 13 – Taylor Kingman – Heaven Ain’t Hiding 14 – The Shins – The Celibate Life 15 – Weyes Blood – It’s Not Just Me, It’s Everybody 16 – Wolf Manhattan – Five Years
My Amazing Songs & Other Delights #72 – The Ecosystem edition is now on mixcloud.
Of late, I’ve been coming upon the word ecosystem from different sources. Or happen upon lyrics, or otherwise that mention the concept that we’re all one, we’re connected, that we depend on each other.
That concept is part of Body Count’s Comfortably Numb version of Pink Floyd’s Comfortably Numb the song that opens this edition. Ice-T writes and says: “Listen… ’cause I’ve been on both sides of the gun As you stand before me we’re all here as one We gotta come together or our chances are none Maybe I’m just a dreamer, too many obstacles” (full lyrics here)
An ecosystem implies environment and those in it interacting, forging connections, relationships, one thing leading to another. That is how both Mondo and Yé Yé came to be. The longer text about My Amazing Songs & Other Delights #72 – The Ecosystem edition can be read here.
Tracklist: 01: Body Count – Comfortably Numb (feat. David Gilmour) 02: Raveloe – Passing Place 03: 12 Roads – Waiting For JB 04: Rowland S. Howard – Shut Me Down 05: Ned Swarbrick – Somebody, Something, Somewhere Else (live York City FC) 06: Mick Harvey – October Boy 07: Johnny Marr – New Town Velocity 08: The Birthday Party – The Friend Catcher 09: Saint Sappho – Grass is Gold 10: Oh Bobby (Bill Rivers and Simon Hayward) – Are You Still There 11: Sorry Monks – One Rule For Them 12: Paradise Lost – The Last Time 13: Harry Howard And The NDE – Sensitive To The Cold 14: Mark Robin White & Adam Lato – Rabbit Hole (Tranquility mix) 15: The Courettes – Shake! 16: A Resistência – Maré Alta
The Blues is a 2003 seven episodes documentary film produced by Martin Scorsese. In each episode a different different director goes into a step of the history of the Blues. It’s worthy every second of footage, stories, music.
01: Feel Like Going Home. directed by Martin Scorsese, featuring Ali Farka Touré, Corey Harris, Salif Keita, Son House, Taj Mahal, John Lee Hooker, Keb’ Mo’, Willie King
02: The Soul of a Man. directed by Wim Wenders with music by Skip James, Blind Willie Johnson and J. B. Lenoir.
03: The Road to Memphis. directed by Richard Pearce, featuring B. B. King, Bobby Rush, Rosco Gordon, Ike Turner.
04: Warming by the Devil’s Fire. directed by Charles Burnett, featuring: Tommy Hicks and Nathaniel Lee Jr., and performances by Big Bill Broonzy, Elizabeth Cotten, Reverend Gary Davis, Ida Cox, Willie Dixon, Jesse Fuller, John Lee Hooker, Lightnin’ Hopkins, Son House, Mississippi John Hurt, Vasti Jackson, Bessie Smith, Mamie Smith, Victoria Spivey, Sister Rosetta Tharpe, Dinah Washington, Muddy Waters and Sonny Boy Williamson.
Sister Rosetta Tharpe
05: Godfathers and Sons directed by Marc Levin, featuring Marshall Chess and Chuck D.
06: Red, White and Blues. directed by Mike Figgis. This episode is focused on the blues in Britain and the British Invasion effect on American blues.
07: Piano Blues. directed Clint Eastwood, featuring Marcia Ball, Dave Brubeck, Ray Charles and Pinetop Perkins.
The Blues A Musical Journey is a cd box-set companion of the documentary with recordings from August 10, 1920 to April 9, 2003. It’s over six hours of all sorts of blues! It goes from Othar Turner & the Rising Star Fife & Drum to Bonnie Raitt through Sun House, Jimmi Hendrix, Blind Willie McTell, Elvis Presley, Bob Dylan, Robert Johnson Howlin’ Wolf with dozens of blues players. The Blues A Musical Journey is more standard and geographically confined than my Amazing Songs & Other Delights #71 The Desert Blues and Not Just edition, but it’s an absolute joy.
Blind Willie McTell
My beloved Blind Willie McTell titles my favourite Bod Dylan song on Dylan’s voice because “… no one can sing the blues / Like Blind Willie McTell. Dylan is on piano and voice, Mark Knopfler on acoustic guitar. Blind Wille McTell, the song, has been providing endless hours of conversation with a musician friend. Is it a song? A poem? A criticism? A critique? An observation? What are the lyrics really about? To me, they’re about America and its History and ways. It’s also a testament to Dylan’s lyric brilliancy.
Blind Wille McTell I seen the arrow on the doorpost Saying this land is condemned All the way from New Orleans To Jerusalem Well, I travel through east Texas Where many martyrs fell And I know no one can sing the blues Like Blind Wille McTell
Mmm, I heard that hoot owl singing As they were taking down the tents The stars above the barren trees Was his only audience Them charcoal gypsy maidens Can strut their feathers well But nobody can sing the blues Like Blind Willie McTell
See them big plantations burning Hear the cracking of the whips Smell that sweet magnolia blooming See the ghosts of slavery ships I can hear them tribes a moaning Hear that undertaker’s bell And I know no one can sing the blues Like Blind Willie McTell
There’s a woman by the river With some fine young handsome man He’s dressed up like a squire Bootleg whiskey in his hand There’s a chain gang on the highway I can hear them rebels yell And I know no one can sing the blues Like Blind Willie McTell
God is in His heaven And we all want what’s His But power and greed and corruptible seed Seem to be all that there is I’m gazing out the window Of that old Saint James Hotel And I know no one can sing the blues Like Blind Willie McTell (Bob Dylan)
Stealing from The Legendary Tiger Man – the blues, like folk, is all about inspiration and ideas passed around – don’t firetruck Christmas, but I’ve got the Blues!
Good morning with Preaching To The Choir (Live At The Green Note) by Bernard Butler. Have a nice weekend.
An essay, in the form of a tragicomedy letter is accompanying today’s song choice. It’s in the vein of what I, in my Picky INTJ Fairy incantation have been posting to Bernard on his Instagram.. It’s also a shout-out to my essay on Deep Emotions and to my note on Camber Sands.
Oh mine! Where did that super deep, manly, hoarse voice came from? Me thinking live at The Green Note was safe. You live on youtube or social media tend to be . It’s live, no risk. Turns out, it’s a minefield. Urg! Urg! Urg! Picky INTJ fairies don’t know what to do when we’re nearly in tears with emotion. There’s a glance at the guitar, a “maybe the bass?”, a “poem, write a poem, pour it on the page” I’m always doing it, like right now, writing this). But it’s too much, and too many hours of non-creative discomfort, and of being silent and still.
Preaching To The Choir gives me the chills, it’s too close to home. It’s home, times ago. Preaching To The Choir is, or is supposed, to be about politicians, rulers, their deceit and lies and hypocrisy. That’t not my meaning of the lyrics. Songs are this, they mean a different thing to each of us.
“… Oh I’ll reach across the covers to caress your skin / The memories we overcome could mean anything / The words I use to hurt you disappear / Their presence only lingers in your tears…”
Those words always, always, get to me. They cut deep, they have a multilayered, multi side meaning to me, and there are almost, if not really, tears. I don’t know the exact meaning Bernard had in mind when he wrote them. For personal purposes, it doesn’t matter. They bring me memories, they bring out a “good grief”, they’re touching.
“Isn’t it a good thing that you have emotions.” asks Bernard on the Super Deluxe Edition interview. It is. But… but I keep being amazed at how, why, Good Grief, the album, and now it’s companion Live At The Green Note bring out such emotions in me. It’s unusual.
Therefore, congratulations, Mr. Butler. You did it again! Fortunately I have forever cancelled you a few months ago because you don’t like to play bass! You may recall that from Instagram. It has now become hazardous to attend your concerts. However, you will not get away that easily. For purposes of practice and reharsals duty, coupled with protection I’ll most likely turn up with my guitar. It’s becoming something of a trademarks to show up at concerts with my guitar on my back. Don’t worry, I will not take to the stage. It’s all yours. But I will have my safety blanket. Dark glasses are also useful and a side blessing in disguise of photosensitive. Any possible tears Will be hidden.
The hallmark of a great artist is not measured in record sales, size of venues played or any other similar thing. It’s in how deep and truthfully how many hearts and souls are touched by the artist’s work. You’ve deeply touched and moved a few, if not a lot, of us, Mr. Butler.
Signed Picky INTJ fairy.
Bernard Butler is currently touring the UK. Bernard Butler plays in Portugal for the first time in November. 14 (Thursday), Casa da Cultura de Setúbal, Setúbal, 9:30pm 17 (Sunday) 1, Sala 2 Casa da Música, Porto, 9pm
