My radio show Amazing Songs & Other Delights #80 – The These Are a Few of My Favourite Songs edition is now on available to listen to on mixcloud.
Amazing Songs & Other Delights airs every other Monday, 3-4pm (gmt+1), on Yé Yé Radio: yeyeradio.com (or on the app).
Amazing Songs & Other Delights #80 – The These Are a Few of My Favourite Songs edition features 17 of my favourite songs, including my favourite song, Will Your Me Tomorrow sang by The Shirelles, and three songs I would have love to have written, Sometimes I Drink My Coffee by the Grave of William Blake, A Lady of a Certain Age by The Divine Comedy, and Canção de Amigo by Um Zero Amarelo. Of course I would have loved to have written all the other songs. 🙂 You can read about the songs and my choices here.
Tracklist: 01: Julie Andrews – My Favourite Things 02: The Shirelles – Will Your Me Tomorrow 03: The The – Sometimes I Drink My Coffee by the Grave of William Blake 04: The Ramones – Baby I Love You 05: The Devine Comedy – A Lady of a Certain Age 06: Josh Rouse – James 07: The Rolling Stones – Under My Thumb 08: Um Zero Amarelo – Canção de Amigo 09 Elvis Presley – (Marie’s The Name) of His Latest test Flame 10: The Buzzcocks – Ever Fallen In Love (With Someone You Shouldn’t’ve) 11: Mick Harvey – October Boy 12: Mark Lanegan – Don’t Forget Me 13: Ben Watt – North Marine Drive 14: Tiwiza – At u Azeka 15: Erica Buettner – True Love and Water 16: Butler-Blake-Grant – Bring An End 17: Queens of the Stone Age – Mosquito Song
My radio show Amazing Songs & Other Delights #80 – The These Are a Few of My Favourite Songs edition airs Monday 2nd, 3-4pm (gmt+1) on Yé Yé Radio: yeyeradio.com (or on the app).
This edition has a self explanatory title. Some of my favourite songs, from different time periods, in one radio show. I have many more favourite songs, and could fill 24 hours, or more with them. But, here, there are 17, including my favourite song, Will Your Me Tomorrow, sang by The Shirelles.
Will You Love Me Tomorrow is also known as Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow, title that, to me, gives a better view of the longing, fear, expressed by the lyrics. It was written by Carole King, and her by then husband and co-songwriter, Gerry Goffin and first recorded by The Shirelles in 1960.
Sometimes I Drink My Coffee by the Grave of William Blake is, if not thee song,is a song I would like to have written. It’s brilliant. I would love to have written A Lady of a Certain Age by The Devine Comedy, and Canção de Amigo by Um Zero Amarelo. And all the other choises, of course.
Baby, I Love You was originally performed by The Ronettes in 1963. It was written by Jeff Barry, Ellie Greenwich, and Phil Spector, produced by Spector. Phil Spector produced The Ramones’ End of the Century, released in 1980, in which the band cover of Baby, I Love You appears.
North Marine Drive, Ben Watt’s debut album from 1983, is one of my all time favourite records. I could have picked any of the album songs. I went with the title track.
Aftermath ranks top on my favourite Rolling Stones albums, and Under My Thumb is without a doubt my Stones favourite song.
On the department of favourite albums, there is also Queens of the Stone Age’s Songs For the Deaf. Mosquito Song is the hidden song on the cd version of the album. And eerie, gentle, yet macabre, acoustic song, sang by Josh Homme, with Dean Ween, of Ween, on acoustic guitar, that grows in crescendo and ends with a bang.
Tracklist: 01: Julie Andrews – My Favourite Things 02: The Shirelles – Will Your Me Tomorrow 03: The The – Sometimes I Drink My Coffee by the Grave of William Blake 04: The Ramones – Baby I Love You 05: The Devine Comedy – A Lady of a Certain Age 06: Josh Rouse – James 07: The Rolling Stones – Under My Thumb 08: Um Zero Amarelo – Canção de Amigo 09 Elvis Presley – (Marie’s The Name) His Latest Flame 10: The Buzzcocks – Ever Fallen In Love (With Someone You Shouldn’t’ve) 11: Mick Harvey – October Boy 12: Mark Lanegan – Don’t Forget Me 13: Ben Watt – North Marine Drive 14: Tiwiza – At u Azeka 15: Erica Buettner – True Love and Water 16: Butler-Blake-Grant – Bring An End 17: Queens of the Stone Age – Mosquito Song
Amazing Songs & Other Delights #71 is the The Desert Blues and Not Just edition has a repeat Monday 7 3-4:30pm (gmt+1) on Yé Yé Radio: yeyeradio.com (or on the app). This a longer, special edition.
Tracklist: 01 – Mdou Moctar – Imajighen 02 – ANOHNI & The Johnsons – Breaking 03 – Tiwiza – At u Azeka 04 – Bombino – Mahegagh (What Shall I Do) 05 – Rui Veloso – Sayago Blues 06 – R.L. Burnside – See My Jumper Hanging On the Line (live at home, 1978) 07 – Tarwa N-Tiniri – Taryet 08 – Tom Verlaine – 5 Hours From Calais 09 – Dead Combo – Lisboa Mulata 10 – Fatou Seidi Ghali (Les Filles de Illighadad) – Telilit (live from Story of Sahel Sounds) 11 – Manu Chao – Tu Te Vas Feat. Laeti 12 – Felt – The Stagnant Pool 13 – Boubacar Traoré & Ali Farka Touré – Duna Ma Yelema 14 – Buzz Ayaz – Buzzi Ayazi 15 – Soledad Brothers – This Guitar Says I’m Sorry 16 – The White Stripes – Suzy Lee 17 – Etran de L’Aïr – Imouha 18 – Ben Watt with Bernard Butler – New Year of Grace (Upstairs at the De La Warr Pavilion Bexhill 5th April 2016) 19 – The Legendary Tiger Man – Keep it Burning 20 – Majid Bella’s – Daymallah (feat. Rachid Zeroual, Khalid Kouhen, Paolo Radoni, Marc Lelangue) 21 – Tinariwen – Sastanàqqàm 22 – Tom Hiddleston – I Saw The Light (with Mark Kermode on double-bass, live in the Wittertainment studio)
Amazing Songs & Other Delights #71 is the The Desert Blues and Not Just edition is now on mixcloud.
This edition opens with Imajighen by Mdou Moctar and closes with Tom Huddleston singing a live version on Hank Williams’ I Saw The Light. Once more, I’m travelling through connections, details, inspiration. I’ve wrote an essay for it that can be read here.
Imajighen means free men in Berber. Although the lyrics specifically, or more specifically, address the free men of the Desert, the song’s words can be transposed to encompass us all. The chorus goes: “Imajighen, we can’t afford to be divided Imajighen, We can’t afford to be divided Imajighen We have no time for hate Imajighen Calling on you all wherever you are! We are all Imajighen” Full lyrics in English, Tamasheq and Tifinagh can be read here. here.
What do Mdou Moctar and Hank Williams have in common? Everything, I venture. My essay about the programme further speaks about it.
Tracklist: 01 – Mdou Moctar – Imajighen 02 – ANOHNI & The Johnsons – Breaking 03 – Tiwiza – At u Azeka 04 – Bombino – Mahegagh (What Shall I Do) 05 – Rui Veloso – Sayago Blues 06 – R.L. Burnside – See My Jumper Hanging On the Line (live at home, 1978) 07 – Tarwa N-Tiniri – Taryet 08 – Tom Verlaine – 5 Hours From Calais 09 – Dead Combo – Lisboa Mulata 10 – Fatou Seidi Ghali (Les Filles de Illighadad) – Telilit (live from Story of Sahel Sounds) 11 – Manu Chao – Tu Te Vas Feat. Laeti 12 – Felt – The Stagnant Pool 13 – Boubacar Traoré & Ali Farka Touré – Duna Ma Yelema 14 – Buzz Ayaz – Buzzi Ayazi 15 – Soledad Brothers – This Guitar Says I’m Sorry 16 – The White Stripes – Suzy Lee 17 – Etran de L’Aïr – Imouha 18 – Ben Watt with Bernard Butler – New Year of Grace (Upstairs at the De La Warr Pavilion Bexhill 5th April 2016) 19 – The Legendary Tiger Man – Keep it Burning 20 – Majid Bekkas – Daymallah (feat. Rachid Zeroual, Khalid Kouhen, Paolo Radoni, Marc Lelangue) 21 – Tinariwen – Sastanàqqàm 22 – Tom Hiddleston – I Saw The Light (with Mark Kermode on double-bass, live in the Wittertainment studio)
Amazing Songs & Other Delights #71 is the The Desert Blues and Not Just edition airs Monday 7th, 3-4:30pm (gmt+1) on Yé Yé Radio: yeyeradio.com (or on the app). This a longer, special edition.
This programme opens with Imajighen by Mdou Moctar and closes with Tom Huddleston singing a live version on Hank Williams’ I Saw The Light. Once more, I’m travelling through connections, details, inspiration. And writing an essay.
Imajighen means free men in Berber. Although the lyrics specifically, or more specifically, address the free men of the Desert, the song’s words can be transposed to encompass us all. The chorus goes: “Imajighen, we can’t afford to be divided Imajighen, We can’t afford to be divided Imajighen We have no time for hate Imajighen Calling on you all wherever you are! We are all Imajighen” Full lyrics in English, Tamasheq and Tifinagh can be read here. Tom Hiddleston plays Hank Williams in the film I Saw The Light.
What do Mdou Moctar and Hank Williams have in common? Everything, I venture. Amazing Songs & Other Delights #71 the The Desert Blues and Not Just edition could be said to be part of my “self taught” guitar schooling, mostly related to what Grupo Operário do Ruído, of which I’m part of, have been working on music wise.
Desert and African blues often have clapping. Clapping, including Arab clapping, a dry, hand palm against hand palm, clap, along with the fat clapping, is also something we have been exploring on Grupo Operário do Ruído. The same goes for rhythm, space, speed, rests, tone, intensity, ambient, emotions, silence, continuous, abrupt or smooth changes.
Since I elected the electric guitar as my main instrument in Grupo do Ruído, I have been paying a different kind of attention to the many faces, possibilities, approaches of the instrument.
This year, on Grupo Operário do Ruído we even created our own blues. A not so standard one, nonetheless, a blues.
Which take us to, what is the blues, what is a standard blues? The answers may require a many volumes encyclopedia. Or music theory explanations. I’ll leave both aside. As my choices for this Amazing Songs & Other Delights show, the blues is many things, everything, often not what a rigid blues school would call blues. Yet, it’s precisely the richness, the uniqueness, the emotions, feeling, sentiment that make the blues. Not being a never-miss-a-note-i-can-play-it-at-1000-miles-per-second master of the mimor blues pentatonic scale, proper chords progression, and on. If that’s all you got, you don’t have the blues, you have technique.
On these blues choices of mine we go on a journey with stops on Niger to Portugal, through the United States, Argelia-France, Marocco, United Kingdom, France-Spain, Mali, Cyprus, Algeria. Or, as sang Mdou Moctar’s Imajighen “We can’t afford to be divided”. Therefore, let’s have, sing and play the blues!
Tracklist: 01 – Mdou Moctar – Imajighen 02 – ANOHNI & The Johnsons – Breaking 03 – Tiwiza – At u Azeka 04 – Bombino – Mahegagh (What Shall I Do) 05 – Rui Veloso – Sayago Blues 06 – R.L. Burnside – See My Jumper Hanging On the Line (live at home, 1978) 07 – Tarwa N-Tiniri – Taryet 08 – Tom Verlaine – 5 Hours From Calais 09 – Dead Combo – Lisboa Mulata 10 – Fatou Seidi Ghali (Les Filles de Illighadad) – Telilit (live from Story of Sahel Sounds) 11 – Manu Chao – Tu Te Vas Feat. Laeti 12 – Felt – The Stagnant Pool 13 – Boubacar Traoré & Ali Farka Touré – Duna Ma Yelema 14 – Buzz Ayaz – Buzzi Ayazi 15 – Soledad Brothers – This Guitar Says I’m Sorry 16 – The White Stripes – Suzy Lee 17 – Etran de L’Aïr – Imouha 18 – Ben Watt with Bernard Butler – New Year of Grace (Upstairs at the De La Warr Pavilion Bexhill 5th April 2016) 19 – The Legendary Tiger Man – Keep it Burning 20 – Majid Bekkas – Daymallah (feat. Rachid Zeroual, Khalid Kouhen, Paolo Radoni, Marc Lelangue) 21 – Tinariwen – Sastanàqqàm 22 – Tom Hiddleston – I Saw The Light (with Mark Kermode on double-bass, live in the Wittertainment studio)
Mondo Bizarre Magazine 