1000 SONGS - Day 24 - SONG # 44

Day 44 - A Song that no one would expect you to love

As already mentioned below (and not above, due to the order of posts on a blog, which reverses the order in a book), I do not think that there is any song I like where there is not a least one person who could imagine I did. So I decided to use that post to feature a track that represents a different style of music than all the posts so far in this "1000 Songs Challenge". Among the heavy bands, one of my favs is PRIMUS, at least their early years, with Tim "Herb" Alexander on drums (I think he is an outstanding drummer). Here is their first single, "JOHN THE FISHERMAN", an out-take from their first studio album "FRIZZLE FRY" (they have recorded one live album before that). Primarily, this is the band of bassist Les Claypool, who is one of the few persons I know who think that the bass is the solo-instrument played by the frontman of the band (the other one is Goeran Bredberg, great bass player, to whom I dedicate this post because it was through him that I got to know Primus). There is a famous anecdote about Claypool auditioning for Metallica, which in the Wikipedia version reads like that:
"Claypool has also been close friends with Metallica guitarist Kirk Hammett since childhood and he owns a copy of Ride The Lightning that was given to him by Kirk Hammett. This act prompted him to audition for the then vacant position of bassist in Metallica after the death of Cliff Burton. Metallica frontman and rhythm guitarist James Hetfield has said Claypool didn't get the position because "he was too good", which Claypool himself has said he doesn't believe, stating that he believed the reason he was not chosen for the band was because he simply did not "belong" with Metallica."

JOHN THE FISHERMAN (to be played at maximum volume!):

And, as a bonus track, "Frizzle Fry" from the same album; maybe one could critisise, that it takes them so long to reach the fulminant passage in about the last minute of the song (they could have gone faster to the climax, which is, on the other hand, not advisable in each and every situation :-) ); a version where somebody has done a video to the original recording:




I DON'T BELIEVE IN CHARITY I DON'T BELIEVE IN SIN
AND IF YOU DON'T BELIEVE IN ME WE'LL PLAY THIS TUNE OVER AGAIN
(A live version to a picture of Les):

1000 SONGS - DAY 23 - SONG # 43

DAY 43 - A SONG ABOUT THE DARK SIDES OF LIFE

As I already have mentioned, I have no idea what the category from the original "30 Days Song Challenge" called "A song that is a guilty pleasure" could possibly be about. I have therfore decided to change it into "A song about the dark sides of life".

We had a "murder ballad" - a guy killing his unfaithful woman - in the last post, now we will have a murder ballad about a woman killing a man that tries to rape her in this here post. Although I have already posted it on that blog long before I started the 1000 Songs Challenge, it will be featured here once again, because it is such an energetic, wonderful song by one of my favourite songwriters, GILLIAN WELCH, performed by one of my favourite acts, Gillian and DAVID RAWLINGS. One of the women I would like to spend an evening (not a night, though) with, Gillian, the great. First, a live version of CALEB MEYER by Gillian & David, & the lyrics (as printed in the booklet of "Hell among the Yearlings"):

Caleb Meyer, he lived alone
In them hollarin' pines
And he made
A little whiskey for himself
Said it helped to pass the time
Long one evening in
Back of my house
Caleb come around
And he called my name
Till I went out
With no one else around

Caleb Meyer
Your ghost is gonna
Wear them rattling chains
But when I go to sleep at night
Don't you call my name

"Where's your husband, Nellie Kane
Where's your darlin gone?
Did he go on down
The mountain side
And leave you all alone?"
"Yes, my husband's gone
To Bowlin' Green
To do some business there"
Then Caleb threw that
Bottle down and grabbed
Me by my hair

Chorus

He threw me in the needle bed
Across my dress he lay
Then he pinned my hands
Above my head
And I commenced to pray
I cried My God, I am your child
Send your angels down
Then feelin' with
My fingertips
The bottle neck I found
I drew that glass
Across his neck
Fine as any blade
Then I felt his blood
Pour fast and hot
Around me where I laid

Chorus

Chorus

Here is the version from the original recording "Hell among the Yearlings", [produced by T Bone Burnett], (t)he(i)r second album (as far as copyright is in question: I do own all of Gillian's albums and I do recommend to buy 'em...).

Btw, Joan Baez has done a cover of that. But it is useless, since the versions done by Gillian & David remain high above Joan's efforts on the artistic level.

1000 SONGS DAY 22 - SONG # 42

Day 42 - A Cover Version you like

In the second run of the "30-days song challenge", I have decided to change all "I hate" and the like categories to "I like" (why should I post songs I do not like?). The easiest way to change "A Song from a Band I Hate" seems to be to feature a good cover version of a song that in the original version does not sound that good (as I have already tried to do in the first run, when posting a fine cover - done by a cool guy - of a song by a band I do not like that much). In a way, there is no real cover-version of the song featured here, since none of the performers has actually written the song. The song would best be described as a "murder-ballad", but it is too highly (or: deeply) orchestrated in the original recording to be called a "ballad". And the version that I want to present here is also not a ballad, it is simply a great performance of a song you would not like but are afraid of that you like (so it is something like "a song I like and dare not to tell anyone".)
DELILAH was written by Les Reed, with lyrics by Barry Mason and originally recorded by Tom Jones in 1968. The welsh guy did his normally good job in delivering the lyrics with his powerful, brilliant voice. But the scots stroke back, Alex Harvey (1935-1982), born in Glasgow, - (like his brother, Les Harvey (1945-1972), who was the guitarist of Stone the Crows and died during a live performance after having touched an unearthed microphone with his wet fingers) - did the best version, in my humble opinion, His Sensational Alex Harvey Band played it as a circus-song, and that gives us the best of both worlds: in a way, they stick to the pathos of the song - a deceived lover killing his beloved - but, very obviously, they ridicule it (but we never really know). I think, this is a great performance, because the band does a somewhat simply arranged version and uses the room set free by that simplicity of the music to do some mocking commentaries on the subject (in a way, they deconstruct the song).



In contradistinction, the recording featuring Tom Jones drowns the simplicity of the song in an orchestral arrangement that leaves no space for reflecting on the possible absurdity of the situation (he could just have left the woman, why should he kill her, she loves another, let her go…). Altough, after having listened to the Alex Harvey version, we cannot take the Tom Jones rendering seriously, we cannot listen to it without thinking it could be irony, can we?




And we cannot consider the German version to be an earnest attempt at delivering a murder ballad. It is done by the Austrian singer Peter Alexander, who was proficient in that time (the late 60ies) in doing German versions of British hits.



One man that has written some murder ballads in a convincing style, is the Australian singer/songwriter Nick Cave, who has done a cover version of one Alex Harvey song on the Bad Seeds' "Kicking against the Pricks" (an album merely featuring cover versions), "The Hammer Song", not to be confused with Nick's own song of the same name from the album "´The Good Son"



Finally, and DEFINITELY NOT LEAST "THE HAMMER SONG" as performed by the SENSATIONAL ALEX HARVEY BAND:

1000 SONGS DAY 21 - SONG # 41

Day 41 - A song from your favourite band

Growing up, during puberty, roughly from 1972-1976, Roxy Music has been my favourite band - at least, this is how I reconstruct my youth today. Not to be misunderstood: I do not like "Avalon". MY ROXY is the ROXY of the FIRST FIVE ALBUMS, two of them featuring Brian Eno. For those not acquainted to that wonderful British band, it has to be mentioned, that crooner/rocker/poseur/dandy or whatever front-man Bryan Ferry (whose solo efforts I also like - to a certain degree) stems from a northern England miner's (working-class) family.
As at least the first two RM albums are among my favourite albums, there will be other songs among the 1000 songs I do like most or so to be posted here. For the moment I am content with one song each from the first five albums. I will try do add songs that are not the ones that everybody knows already, and that can show the stylistic diversity of RM during its (imo) creative years. As some critic sometimes somewhere has credited RM (or BF) for having introduced "Hollywood" to Rock Music, my first choice is "2HB" (meaning: to Humphrey Bogart), from the first RM LP, simply called Roxy Music. The girl on the cover is Kari-Ann Muller, later to become the wife of Chris Jagger, brother of Mick.

FROM "ROXY MUSIC": TO HB



The second RM album was the first that I did own; after having not listened to it for about 10 years I re-bought it in the beginning of the 90ies, put it on my record player and knew all the words from the first line of the first to the last line of the last song. First song on side 2 is "THE BOGUS MAN". I remember to have read in an interview with Ferry, that they tried to re-create "that Dr. John-New-Orleans-sound" with that one, whilst, according to Wikipedia, Eno remarked that the eerie "Bogus Man" displayed similarities with contemporary material by the krautrock group Can. Great, anyway. Girl on the cover is Amanda Lear, having been friend of people like Brian Jones and Salvadore Dali, at that time short time girl-friend of Bryan. Soon thereafter becoming the disco queen.

FROM "FOR YOUR PLEASURE": THE BOGUS MAN




The third RM album, released only a few months after "For Your Pleasure", the first RM record after Brian Eno quit the band with then 19 year old pianist and violinist Eddie Jobson as a substitute for Eno, is the first one to feature tracks co-written by other members than Ferry, as AMAZONA, which seems to have been written by guitarist Phil Manzanera (I guess the lyrics are Ferry's). This is a rhythmically difficult track, at least, for the drummer (at least, for me..). It starts as a normal 4/4, than it has an interlude (from approximately. 0:52 to 2:05), which is in 14/4 (4 times ¾ and 1 time 2/4), after that there is a short reminiscence of the introductory phrase followed by a guitar-solo to be accompanied in a very fast 16th-notes 4/4 only to end as it has begun; I have always thought of Paul Thompson as being a really great drummer (they used to call him "The Great Paul Thompson"). The cover girl is then BF girl-friend Marylin Cole


FROM STRANDED: AMAZONA



To show, that this is not so easy to perform, here is a live rendering of that one:




I have always thought, that the 4th RM album features exercises in different musical styles. For example, there is "Prairie Rose", a song about a girl from Texas, obviously dedicated to Jerry Hall, a girl from Texas, the then girl-friend of Bryan Ferry, later to become the wife of Mick Jagger, brother of Chris (husband to Kari-Ann Muller from the first RM-album cover). Nevertheless, the album does not star Jerry on the cover, but the lesser known German models Constanze Karoli (obviously of Hungarian ancestors) and Eveline Grunwald. They are also said to have helped Ferry with the German part of the lyrics of the song "Bitter-Sweet" (in a totally different musical style than "prairie rose"):
Nein - das ist nicht das Ende der Welt / Gestrandet an Leben und Kunst / Und das Spiel geht weiter wie man weiß / Noch viele schönste Wiedersehn
BITTER SWEET was co-written by Andy MacKay, who plays the saxophone and the oboe on all of these recordings. As a trained theologian, I really aprpeciate that Andy, according to Wikipedia, from 1988 to 1991, largely abandoned music to take a three-year Bachelor of Divinity course at King's College London.

FROM COUNTRY LIFE: BITTER SWEET




Last not least, we have Siren, featuring Jerry Hall as a cover girl. The song I chose was
co-written by Eddie Jobson. I think it is a musically rather complex tune

FROM SIREN: SHE SELLS

1000 SONGS DAY 20 - SONG #40

SONG # 40 - A Song that makes you fall asleep

This will be re-defined as chill-out songs. I remember a time before CD's, MP3, YOUTUBE, FACEBOOK, MOBILE PHONES (simply: nothing in the air) and the like. We simply used to put on an album on a record-player, turn off the light, go to bed and fall asleep whilst the music was playing. One record that would work extremely well with that and give you wonderful dreams surely was side 2 (there were 2 physical sides of records containing different music, back then) of BRIAN ENO's "Before and After Science", featuring some of my favourite songs by Eno (but I have to confess, there are nearly as much songs among "my favourite songs by Eno" than among "songs by Eno"). So here are the five pieces of music that make up SIDE 2 of "BEFORE AND AFTER SCIENCE":

Here He Comes:



Julie With…




By This River



Through Hollow Lands


Spider And I:

1000 SONGS - DAY 20 - SONG #39

Song #39 - A song that you can dance to

From now on, this simply means: dance tracks. CAPTAIN YABA, from the town of Bolgatanga in the "Frafra"-aerea of Northern Ghana, was a master of an instrument called the molo. As far as I understand, this two-string-guitar is the local variation of an instrument also called koliko and best known under its Wolof name "xalam" . In 1996 he recorded the album "Tinanure". Unfortunately, he died shortly after the release of that record, that was later re-issued as "YabaFunkRoots" with some additional tracks. Look out for that one. Here is the track "YABA FUNK" from that album. It is a great dance track, as I think.

1000 SONGS - DAY 19 - SONG #38

Day 38 - A song that you know all the words to

One of my favourite songs from one of my favourite albums (at least, my favourite SMITHS' album, something like the depths of the smiths), "CEMETERY GATES", not just a song to know the words, but a song to love the words - this is poetry, in my humble opinion.



And, for the sake of a language I have no mastery of at all (but I can communicate my basic needs in), a simple French song I know the words to: MICHEL POLNAREFF, LA POUPÈE QUI FAIT NON and I do like the video those girls (is there a guy?) made to that classic, really simple song from 1966:

1000SONGS DAY 18 - SONG # 37

Day 37 - A song that reminds you of somewhere

Among the songs that millions of people like, there are some, that are. nevertheless, good songs. One among them certainly is "SING" by TRAVIS. It reminds me of a place in Upper Austria, a monastery, Aigen-Schlaegl. I could have had a fine week off. After having finished my "habilitation"-thesis, having organised an international conference, having finally achieved somewhat like a tenure-track-position at Vienna University, still not being paid too well, I could have needed some time off. But, in order to gain a fistful of dollars, I had agreed to teach the philosophy course at a kind of summer school for people with interest in catholic theology (a course organised by sympathetic people from the archdiocese of Vienna, not by the bad ones). Having had a hard time, personally, a dissatisfying time, financially, and a sceptic time, philosophically, I found myself among some (clandestine) wives of priests, hypocrites, men and women with subaltern jobs in the catholic church, some of them just interested in theology, others of them in need of some formal education in the field, (almost) all of them with no real interest in QUESTIONS. Unfortunately, my course (as a newcomer) was scheduled for the whole week, so the (few) sympathetic colleagues among the teachers stayed for one day, whilst I had to do due. I will not go into detail, but there were 2 things that kept me alive and helped me survive: jogging in that beautiful landscape (hours I went) and, at night, in my cell (the rooms are modernised monk's cells) listening to Travis on my discman. Hopefully, I have planted the seed of questions before answers in some of the attendants' brains. Here is "Sing", don't know what the video is about, but the song is GREAT



And, as a bonus track, Travis doing a really big hit:

1000 SONGS - DAY 17 SONG # 36

Day 36 - A Song that reminds you of a certain event

If I recall it rightly, the first essay written by me that was published in something like a "REAL" (not a student's) magazine was about this song by Julian Cope, - a small event for humankind, but a big event for me. It was featured in "Entschluss", a journal published by the Austrian Jesuits (I understand, the way church membership is declining and the way the catholic hierarchy is trying to handle that problem, there are few people left, that will call that a "real" magazine). It is by JULIAN COPE, it is called SAINT JULIAN, it is about a guy that meets GOD only to tell HIM that he has lost HIM (nowadays people meet GOD to give HIM their capsules for making coffee). What I still like about the song, is the oboe, one of my favourite instruments (if I ever learn to play a REAL instrument it will be the oboe)

1000 SONGS - DAY 16, SONG # 35

Day 35 - A song that reminds you of someone

This song reminds me of a girl I did not marry. I definitely would not say, that I was glad about that circumstance. But I am definitely glad to have married the wonderful girl that is my wife (although she would have deserved a better husband).
This is a song for all the wonderful girls in the world. One can find versions by Santana and John Mayall, too (there is life after the 60ies). But the most dignified version (with the least amount of schmaltz or kitsch) is by the one who wrote the song, J.J. Cale, the master of understated vocals:

1000 SONGS - DAY 15 SONG # 34

Day 34 - A song that makes you sad

It is not really sadness, but some kind of melancholy connected to sensitiveness for the human condition (la condition humaine) that I associate with KEVIN COYNE, a wonderful British artist. Here is a melancholic comment on the above mentioned conditio humana, from his album "Millionaires and Teddy Bears", THE WORLD IS FULL OF FOOLS:

Matching Head and Feet from 1975 was the first album of Coyne that I have bought, it features Andy Summers (who later became the guitarist of Police) as a sideman of Coyne, and one of the fine tracks on that record is "Lonely Lovers":

In a way, the theme of that song anticipates the theme of his 1979 collaboration with Dagmar Krause Babble - Songs for Lonely Lovers, but that one (and the art of Krause) will be the topic of another (forthcoming) post among the 1000 songs series.

1000 SONGS- DAY 14 - SONG # 33

Day 33, the same task as Day 3: A song that makes you happy

There are some songs written by Steve Harley that make me happy; here is one from the first Album of Cockney Rebel, a "Glam-Rock" or whatever British band from the early 70ies. I did like their first album immediately, and also their second single "Judy Teen". The two albums recorded by the original line-up of the band, "The Human Menagerie" and "The Psychomodo" are classics, and so is the third Steve Harley album, "The Best Years of Our Lives", by "Steve Harley and Cockney Rebel". The band got re-named after every member but Harley and drummer Stuart Elliott left - due to the not so easy personality of SH (?) -, turning into a changing ensemble of musicians accompanying Harley. Nevertheless, he had his biggest hit with "Make Me Smile" from the third album (at least it was #1 on UK charts) - with the possible exception of "Sebastian" from the first CR album. "Sebastian" is a beautiful song, but I do not think that it is considered to be a song "that makes me happy" by anyone. In contradistinction, listening to "Hideaway" makes at least one person in the world happy, to my knowledge.

The same holds for "Judy Teen", a song in a Cockney accent that does not make it easy to understand the words. For example, until very recently I have understood Steve's words "she made us happy", to render the German name "Schneider Seppi". As Judy Teen made 'em appy, it is the song named after her to make me appy :

And, last not (but among these three, probably) least, to have it completed "Make Me Smile", as rendered on "Top of the Pops". Definitely not playback, as Steve changes the lyrics after the first chorus; the whole band gives the impression of having had one or more good nose jobs before performing (Cocaine Rebel?):

Link to the studio recording

By the way, the sad thing is that the bassist of the original line-up, Paul Jeffreys, died on the Lockerbie airplane-accident, along with his bride on their way to their honeymoon.

1000 SOnGS- DAY 13: THE HEART OF DARKNESS

Day/Song 32: A song that takes you into the heart of darkness

I have done the short programme, according to the rules that somebody has set - the so called 30 days song challenge is over. Now I have 970 (or: 1065 ) days left for free skating; first thing I will do (among the Rittbergers, Salchows, double and triple Lutz and the like) is to make some fundamental changes in categories: no more songs/bands/music I do not like, that are not my favourites or that I simply hate.
First step: Doing away with "my least favourite song" I proudly introduce "a song that takes you into the heart of darkness". This, as a first choice, is "In Heaven" aka "The Lady in the Radiator" from "Eraserhead", a movie by David Lynch (I think it is one among his best), the version done by Tuxedo Moon (far more better than all the other versions, even those brought forth by the Pixies, although I do like 'em):

1000 SONGS- DAY 12 - NOT A SONG

DAY 31 - Your favourite song

Why songs? There are other forms of musical expression. "Piece of music" is a fine word. For those who have more time than 3:15 min, here is one of my favourite pieces of music, in my opinion a truly DIONYSIAN one, by IGOR STRAVINSKY: LE SACRE DU PRINTEMPS. By the way, interesting choreography (how did they get the horses to behave accordingly and fit into the overall scheme?)

1000 SONGS - DAY 11: SONGS # 29 & 30

Day 29 - A song from your childhood

Tom Jones was all around my childhood; here is a version of "Green Green Grass of Home" a song I remember that I have come to know through Tom
Then, there is this New-Orleans-style song "IKO IKO" that has been recorded by so many artists. I first heard it(in the time that ideally separates childhood from adulthood - called puberty) as rendered by Malcom John (Mac) Rebenack, who named himself "Dr. John" after a legendary "Voodoo Priest" from New Orleans (19th century). Dr. John (the musician) also wrote a song on Marie LaVeaux, the famous "Voodoo Queen" and one that is an incantation of various lwas and orisha. Here is Iko Iko, as recorded by Mac Rebenack way back in 1972. Hopefully, it stays on Youtube for some time (it is a traditional tune, should be public domain, so wtf, record company?? - I do own the record and this is pr):

In case you want to learn to play that the New-Orleans-Style shuffle [some think it is a Cuban-style clavé - if I have understood it correctly, accents [*] are on 1, the 16th before 2, the 16th before 3 and on 3& and 4 : * - & * 2 - & * 3 - * - * - & -] on the piano, here is Dr. John showing how he does it:



Day 30 - Your favorite song at this time last year

As Dr. John has been a musical disciple of Professor Longhair (oh how I love that name) on the piano (he started as a guitarist, but changed the instrument due to an injury of his left hand), this brings to my mind the latter's "Going to the Mardi Gras" or however. I am not sure, whether it has been among my favourite songs exactly one year ago, but the tune very regularly hits my personal "top of the pops":

So finally, there has been at least one song to every category, I have done my first run in the 30 days song challenge in 11 days; the rest of the 970 (or 1065) coming up soon. Thx 4 listening.

1000 SONGS - DAY 10: SONGS # 26-28

Day 26 - A song that you can play on an instrument

I can play no real instrument; I can play some simple songs on the drums. At least, I pretend. Here is a tune recorded in the early 90ies by BAD BISHOP'S DAUGHTER; lyrics and music are by Clarissa Horak, the singer, featured are Andreas Wernitznig (guit.) and Göran Bredberg (bass); me, I play the drums - to be honest, I do like what I play on the hi-hat at the outro of the song:


THE POP SONG

Day 27 - A song that you wish you could play

Back to real musicians: Frank Zappa wrote this piece of music called "The Black Page" with respect to the fear musicians feel when being confronted with a sheet full of notes (so that it literally seems to be black). There is an anecdote about Terry Bozzio who auditioned for Zappa's band and got the drum notes handed out, only to return a few days later being able to play it. Nevertheless, this video features Chad Wackerman on drums. As far as I can judge, this is a challenge to all the musicians involved:

Day 28 - A song that makes you feel guilty

Gordon Gano sings a kind of prayer (taken from Violent Femmes' album "3")

See my ships
they are sailing
in and out of the harbor
will they go together
or must they stay apart
yes I know it's in my heart
surely you see what's inside of me
Jesus is coming soon
I can hear Gabriel
blow his trumpet tune
this I know
this I know
our Lord is coming soon
mercy mercy me
Marvin Gaye he was shot
by his father
o my Father
have mercy on me
cold Kane o my cheap thrill
o my shame for Cain
and the devil
momma I need water
I'm thirsty
surely you see
what's inside of me

DAY 9 - SONGS # 21-25

Day 21 - A song that you listen to when you're happy

Does anybody say to him/herself: "Oh I'm happy - let me listen to that and that song!"? At least not me - but there are songs that come to my mind when I am happy or that can make me happy. One of them (others to be featured later on) is IGGY POP "THE PASSENGER" (many strange videos to that on YouTube):

Plus the cover done by Siouxsie and the Banshees (I like this video more than the other one that shows her trapped in some transparent bowl and rolling around aimlessly).

Day 22 - A song that you listen to when you're sad

Same as above. LOU REED, two songs from "Berlin", the album by Lou that I have been listening to more than to any other of his recordings: CAROLINE SAYS II - it's so cold in Alaska:

And SAD SONG:



Day 23 - A song that you want to play at your wedding

I am married. For 29 years. Does not seem to me that a change is gonna come in that (basic as basic can be) aspect of my life. A woman from my neighbourhood (that I find rather attractive, too) told her daughter a few months ago when introducing me to her: "this is the man that I will marry in my next life"; I answered: "go ask my wife" - she replied: "I am talking about NEXT not this life". She didn't quite understand me: I didn't say "ask for permission", what I meant is: "ask for experience". Experience tells me, that , at least when married to me, the quarrelling starts on wedding day.
So here is JOHNNY CASH once more, this time accompanied by JUNE CARTER, doing "JACKSON", one of the best wedding songs ever (and much more realistic than "I will alwaay-aay-aayys loooo-oo-ooove you-ou-ou-ouuuuu" - one of my favourite choices for a song I hate). I could have also looked for a video of the Hazlewood/Sinatra-version of that Leiber/Wheeler tune. First video comes from the Gran Ol' Opry, second one from St. Quentin. I have the impression, that June Carter does not feel too well in that situation (understandable, since she will have asked herself: I am the first woman that most of these guys have seen for - how long?).

Day 24 - A song that you want to play at your funeral

As I am still alive, plans for my funeral can still be made. I want that people dance at my funeral and have a good time. Later on I will post some real dancing tunes in that category. I will start today with paying hommage to 2 female musicians that - sadly enough - have already passed away. Most people will not know, that "WHEN I DIE" - a song made famous by Blood, Sweat and Tears, has been written by LAURA NYRO :

In January 2010, KATE MCGARRIGLE died of cancer. She formed a brilliant duo with her sister Anna, she once had been married to Loudon Wainwright, she is the mother of Rufus & Martha Wainwright. All excellent musicians and/or songwriters. Here is an a-cappella-version of the traditional "DIG MY GRAVE", featuring - if my ears don't deceive me - long-time fellow musician and friend Chaim Tannenbaum.

Day 25 - A song that makes you laugh

HUGH LAURIE, PROTEST SONG - best comment on Robert Zimmerman ever (although there is nice parody by Bowie, too). Here is an early version, without switching to a Reggae-rhythm and without the final part where he says: "all we gotta do is", then looks around and finally blows his harp.