A YEAR IN SONG

 Of course you remember that I said I would write a post on relevant songs for the months of the year.

Just in case your old memories need refreshing though, here's a link: THINGS WERE DESPERATE UP NORTH ...

... where I concluded:

I trust that you enjoyed this 'concept'. who knows it could be extended into months of the year, seasons of the year (Vivaldi and Stravinsky wrote some tunes about these), planets (Holst will be at the forefront there but The Moody Blues could give him a run for his money not to mention Alabama 5 with 'Woke Up This Morning').

So, let's get started.

JANUARY

Surprisingly there are a lot of songs about or named January but for me Van Morrison (with Steve Winwood)'s 'Fire In The Belly' is the best. Have a listen to this with its musicianship and phrasing.

"Gotta get through January

Gotta get through February

Gotta get through January

 Gotta get through February"

 This could also be the choice for FEBRUARY.

FEBRUARY

OK, you probably think that February songs should reference Valentines Day and for sure there are a lot of them but have you heard Lou Reed's 'Christmas In February'?

Like Bruce Springsteen's 'Born In The USA' this is a song about the pain and disillusionment of Vietnam war veterans who returned to the same old shit and worse. No Happy Valentines here.

MARCH

Yes, we could go the Souza way and there a hell of a lot of marching songs but let's stick with the calendar theme here.

Alice in Wonderland March Hare references are good and I do like Jefferson Airplane's 'White Rabbit' song. 

Many of the March-themed songs are dark and with Heavy Metal overtones.

Here's one that's reminiscent of early Pink Floyd and Emmerson Lake and Palmer albums.

Like that?

Oh well, never mind, let's go to April.

APRIL

There's lots of material to work with in April given it's Spring in the northern hemisphere so Spring, Paris, flowers, showers and towers (Eiffel) feature a lot.

There are a lot of 'stronger' songs as well by Patti Smith, Rufus Wainwright, Three Dog Night, Jesus and Mary Chain etc. that I like .... Richard, look away now .... I have never liked Dragon's 'April Sun In Cuba' song.

For the quintessentially best - I personally love this and believe you'd have to look far and wide to find better - Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong performing 'April In Paris'.

MAY

Old head bangers like Robert will probably think of Led Zeppelin and Robert Plant's 'The May Queen'.

Richard no doubt will recall Paderewski's 'Variations and Fugue on the Former nice month known as May now known as Mayhem.' 

As for me the first song about May I recall is The Bee Gees 'First Of May'.

When I was at school I bought a Bee Gees Greatest Hits album (prior to their disco days). This was in the time of Cat Stevens, Scott McKenzie, Simon and Garfunkel and all the gentle and lyrical pop songs but some of the Bee Gees stuff is still nice to listen to. I really like this one:

JUNE

Moon/June and lots of romantic nonsense populates a lot of June songs (northern summer) but the song I like most is The Kink's 'Rainy Day In June'. Ray Davis is the master of lyrics and would have been a poet if he hadn't been a musician.

Classy stuff,

JULY

The bloody Americans with their Fourth of July nonsense dominate in July songs but there are a few gems that slip through.

Who better to cut through all that shit than Nina Simone with 'July Tree'?

This delicate song bolstered by her powerful and sultry voice is a favourite.

AUGUST

All of the bloggers in this community share August as their birth month.

Richard no doubt will get out his 'Hot August Night' album by Neil Diamond - he likes Neil Diamond and gets lots of requests for his music at his gigs.

Robert will wait until he's alone and uncover his Taylor Swift single - 'August' and bop around in his bedroom.

As for me, my choice is Van Morrison's 'Cold Wind In August'.

SEPTEMBER

There aren't many September songs known to me although, looking on the 'net there are lots and lots of them, most just titled 'September' or 'September Song'.

Richard no doubt will cite Neil Diamond's 'September Morn' and Robert Tauren Wells's song 'September' but for me, I'll stick with James Taylor and his gentle 'September Grass'.

I'll end September though with Kurt Weill's lovely 'September Song'

OCTOBER

October is a funny month with many songs and compositions but not that many that stand out for me even from singers I like - Amy Winehouse and James Taylor so, instead, here's Dylan Thomas reading his poem 'Poem In October'.

I trust that you enjoyed that. If not I'm sure that Taylor Swift has an October song somewhere.

NOVEMBER

Northern hemisphere November obviously is in winter and cold so many of the songs are about this.

Why not then go to the master of doom and gloom and select Tom Waits's 'November'. After all it's about death and is about as bleak as it gets:

DECEMBER

Hey! Christmas songs. Yay! 

Well, maybe not since just about all of the worst songs ever written and performed are Christmas songs 99.9% of which I detest. The few that I do like are 'Little Drummer Boy,' 'Fairy Tale of New York', 'White Christmas', 'Baby It's Cold Outside' and very few others.

The stand out for me for December - and remember that I'm a curmudgeon - is Merle Haggard's 'If We Make It Through December'.

I like the juxtaposition of the jaunty tune and smily voice with the depressing story.

Enjoy!

I hope you liked my calendar choices. Mind you I could have saved you a lot of reading and listening by just providing this excellent Flanders and Swann song:

WOW! *

* Not The World of Wearable Arts but equally as striking.

I've always been a fan of performance art which is why I love opera I guess. When I was young there wasn't a lot of opportunity to see any great performances but I do remember going to Die Fledermaus, a Johann Strauss II operetta in Wellington in 1966. I was 13.

The music I liked at that time and over the next few years was accessible on records but occasionally some good show musicals appeared on television albeit in black and white. Truly engaging performance art was a rarity though.

In my early university years, apart from seeing Sky Hooks in Melbourne in about 1973, the best performance art group I saw that knocked my socks off was Split Enz. I first saw them perform in Victoria University's Union Hall at about the same time. Phil Judd's 'Under The Wheel' and 'Titus' brought drama and music together in a way I hadn't seen before.

Over the years pop and rock bands and stars who appealed to me had an extra edge to them that, thinking about it, was performance art. Peter Gabriel took Genesis to great heights with quirky and zany performances as did Arthur Brown, David Bowie and many others.

The master, to me has been David Byrne with his performance shows, dance collaborations and films. I was fortunate to see Talking Heads a couple of times in the 1970s and 80s and David Byrne in Auckland in 2018.

I particularly love The Catherine Wheel which is Byrne's collaboration with the Twyla Tharp Dance Group back in 1981. I wish that I'd gone then to NYC to see a performance.

OK ... are you still with me?

What led me to this post was watching again Laurie Anderson's video performance of O Superman.

This is performance art done really well and, at the time - early 1980s I was prepared to go to the Montreux Jazz Festival to see her perform it but did not go because of family issues. As it turned out I don't think that she did turn up but I might have seen Miles Davis, Wynton Marsalis, John Lee Hooker and other greats in concert.

Stunning and memorable.

Anderson took the 'O Superman' title from Jules Massenet's 1885 opera 'Le Cid.' The first lines being: "O Superman / O Judge / O Mom and Dad".

I prefer Laurie Anderson's 'version'.

I found it interesting listening again to 'O Superman' and 'Under The Wheel' side by side and noticed that Anderson's piece has some musical references to the Split Enz song. Coincidence? Here's another in the lyrics:

"They said you were bright

Had stars in your eyes
They said you were bright
Had all the ideas in your head
Under the wheel
For all those years
Under the wheel
For all those tears
But now they all stand back and shout
Go on you creep, go on get out
Oh my god what are they on about
And I think I'll get on back home to my mother
Yes I think I'll get on back home to my mother x2
It doesn't seem real
The way things turned out
It doesn't seem real
Now your heads full of doubt
But now they all jump back in fear
As if I really care
They just stand and stare
It's not fair...
It's not fair.
It's not fair!!...
Cold and silent you lie in the dark waters of the stream
Shame and suffering have passed
But death, glorious death is just another bed to sleep
Yes death, glorious death
Is just another appointment to keep".

BOOGIE WITH STU

 It's a rainy day up north so I'm mucking around inside, pretending to be busy every time The Old Girl comes out of the study (her office). I doubt that I'll go to tennis today.

I've been watching some YouTube videos and this one is outstanding. I'm familiar with Led Zeppelin's song but hadn't seen this clip before.

I wish I could dance like Stu (although I get some of the bits right - like lying down on the floor).

BLOWING ONE'S TRUMPET*

 * Not me, I just listen and enjoy.

I have my favourites like Louis Armstrong (I met him when I was a kid), Miles Davis, Wynton Marsalis, Richard Prowse (we had a memorable personal performance from him years ago), Terence Blanchard, Dizzie Gillespie plus others including Mark Isham.

Who? You might ask when I mention Mark Isham but most likely, of all the small selection of greats I referenced above it's likely that Mark Isham's playing is what you've heard and enjoyed the most without knowing:

• Who was playing?
• What instrument was played?
• What 'band' it was?
• And, afterwards, what was the context?

I'm not being unfair here but Mark Isham has, for such a huge talent, kept in the shadows.

Some of the films you might have seen where he composed the music and performed some of it (there are many more) are: The Hitcher, Point Break, A River Runs Through It, Of Mice and Men, Warrior, Nell, Blade, Crash, The Black Dahlia, The Lucky One, October Sky, and Once Upon a Time.

I 'discovered' him through Wyndham Hill Music in the 1990s and recognised his playing style from films I'd seen.

The guy is prolific with an easy-on-the-ear style that just slips through like a nice Central Otago pinot noir .... sorry about that but it's what I'm drinking and has inspired this post.

What of course really inspired the post was when trawling through YouTube on the TV this evening (The Old Girl is away) I found this:

SUMMERTIME

 Yes, summertime with warmer weather and, generally, a relaxed mood emanating from everyone before the realities, stresses and strains of the coming year take over in a couple of months.

The holiday period - and by that I'm not endorsing that stupid Americanism of a few years ago 'Happy Holidays' as a weasel way of not committing to any particular religion's belief or custom - God (Robert's god), Americans are a pain in the arse. The holiday period I refer to encompasses Christmas and New Year and is the nicest in the year and I like to enjoy it most with summer drinks, summer activities and summer music.

Music, like food and wine can be seasonal. Roast dinners, red wines and vintage port match well with colder weather and being indoors with a cozy fire. Summer allows us to live alfresco, enjoying summer fruits and salads, sparkling wines and rose wine and - cruisy music.

Who doesn't like The Rascals singing Groovin' ?

Over the years - look away music experts now - I've bought 'cruisy' compilation albums that are suitable to 'Sunday afternoon and Summer al fresco living. I do have a reasonably comprehensive music collection which I listen to often but, on cruisy Sunday or holiday afternoons it's good not to break 'the rhythm' to change albums or CDs or, when guests are involved, not to subject them all to my own choices on a random selection (the CD player accommodates 6 CDs). A couple of the compilation albums set to play sequentially suffices.

I haven't bought any of these recently - please indulge an old fella here - and these ones below I just grabbed from the CD 'bookcase' ...

... are years old from the 90s I think.

They are:

Verve Remixed

Verve Remixed 2

Sunshine - The Cool Sound of a Hot Summer

Divaria and,

Nature's Best (NZ's top 30 songs of all time.

Divaria (as the name might suggest) mixes up some great opera diva arias with electronic dance music. Sounds naff? Maybe to purists but, believe me, as a sound backdrop to afternoon conviviality it works.

Verve Remixed also takes 'classical recordings, usually Jazz and blends them with electronic dance music. The result is 'cruisy' - way better than the electronic dance music stuff which I've never really had time for except perhaps for some Herbie Hancock albums. "Naff" you might say but, hey! Mixes like these have the advantage of introducing listeners to the classics and, maybe sometimes, something sticks. Here's a Verve Remixed version of Nina Simone's 'Feelin' Good':

Good eh? Well, that's because Nina Simone was just so bloody good but, if a 'disco' recording can bring her to a new audience what's wrong with that?

I have mentioned - but no doubt you've forgotten, that I am a fan of opera. The Old Girl and I take opportunities to see productions whenever we can and have done so at home and around the world. I 'discovered' opera from watching a French film Diva in the 1980s see: DIVA

The Cool Sounds of a Hot Summer features great tracks from Ramsay Lewis,  George Benson, Georgie Fame and, let's face it, many of the greats but it introduced me to some new performers like Diana Krall who went on to record some stunning albums. Here's the introductory song I heard from her, 'Peel Me A Grape'.

 I still drag these albums out and play them, particularly at this time of the year.

Here's another compilation album I dug out : Nature's Best (NZ's top 30 songs of all time.

There are no prizes for guessing which track from this, and the music that for me, defines my 'Sound Of Summer'.

LOOKING FOR SOME CHRISTMAS MUSIC?

 Well, here's an idea:

Did you play that at high volume? Good as it needs to be loud to get the best of the pounding beat.
The punk style reminds me of The Sex Pistols from a generation earlier. Its manic and apocalyptic video set in a dingy and claustrophobic bedroom adds to the brain-numbing intensity of drums and screaming lyrics. All good stuff.

'Breathe' by The Prodigy was first released in 1996. That's almost thirty years ago! When it first came out it seemed as if society was doomed and that it was the end with the singer screaming out:

"Breathe with me
Breathe the pressure
Come play my game, I'll test ya
Psychosomatic, addict, insane
Breathe the pressure."

Well, it wasn't. Believe me there's much worse to come.

OLD FOLKS BOOGIE

Your Music Curmudgeon has been keeping his ear close to the ground and has discovered that a once famous in Wellington folk circles band The Prowse Brothers has got together to practise, which might indicate some future public performances.

The Prowse Brothers

This is exciting news for generally entertainment strapped New Zealanders post COVID with still restricted travel and performance limitations for some bands ...... hold up! I've just been informed that the picture our research department provided above is actually of brothers David Prowse and Bob Prowse who are actors. Sorry about that. Here's a picture of the musician Prowse Brothers.

The Prowse Brothers

The second one helpfully has "The Prowse Brothers" written on it so the bloody research department couldn't cock things up again. Sheesh! 

The boys might need to get another studio shot done though as they've all aged quite a bit since this vanity photograph was taken.

Maybe this Uriah Heep album cover can give them some ideas.

Anyway, I for one am looking forward to some new concerts with maybe some new songs.

Here are some suggestions for song titles:

• When I Was Sixty-Four
• I Remember it (I think)
• The Little Old Lady (from Pasadena) is now my wife
• Arthritis Blues
• Can't Find My Way Home
• The Thrill's Long Gone
• I'd Rather Not Go Blind
• Now That You've Gone
• Three Times A Night (I'm talkin' about peeing)
• Sore Bones Blues
• No Sugar Blues
• Trouble In Mind
• Pants on Backwards Blues
• You Can Say That Again (really, say it again I can't hear you)

I hope that this helps.