what should i write?

In my humble opinion, Sounds of the Sixties, presented by veteran DJ Brian Matthew (8-10 on Saturday mornings), is one of the highlights of the Radio 2 week. There's a real mix of hits you've heard a thousand times, hidden gems, and songs which "unfortunately didn't make the charts", basically because they were just dreadful.

I heard this Carole King song on the programme this morning. I think it's a two-and-a-half-minute work of art. Five reasons why:

• the lyrics: the rhymes all rhyme, rather than just sound as if they rhyme as they do in so many songs (which I sometimes find mildly annoying, but that's probably just me). And they say what needs to be said. No less and no more.
• the tune. I'm a sucker for a great melody and this one does it for me. I like the way it curves up in the first two lines of the verse then back down at the end, and...
• the middle eight. Again, what a tune. The same line repeated up a semitone (getting a bit technical for a moment if you'll bear with me), with a neat modulation second time back to the original key.
• the "plink-plonk"/falling-raindrops pizzicato string figure which recurs a few times--like under "I don't need sunny skies for things I have to do" and "it doesn't matter whether skies are grey or blue" (see what they've done there?)--then again at the very end.
• I like Carole King's singing style here. It's a bit rough and ready in places, but what the hell, she's a lovelorn teenager and she's got more important things on her mind than hitting the note on the head.

Enjoy...

Tapestry, schmapestry...

blue bleezing blind drunk

Rachel Unthank and the Winterset @ The Shaw Theatre, 12th May

..."Blue Bleezing Blind Drunk" and, indeed, other Northumbrian ditties, beer-related and otherwise. I always find it interesting that as well as performing, folk singers like Rachel Unthank also spend a lot of their time seeking out new songs, not just to widen their repertoires but also to preserve small but important parts of regional musical history. Many of the songs on her award-winning "The Bairns" album, of which all the tracks get an airing tonight, were ones she actually learned from her mother and father who are also folk singers.

The most obvious family connection tonight is with sister Becky with whom Rachel shares the lion's part of the singing duties. Interestingly, the voices of the two siblings are quite different in character: Rachel's is strong and pure and her Geordie accent is as pronounced in her singing as in her speech, Becky's is more fragile but at its best haunting and bell-like, nowhere more so than in her glorious rendition of Robert Wyatt's "Sea Song". I think this is a great song: the words are fantastic, it's got a wonderful soaring melody and the piano and accordion arrangement in the Unthanks' version really does it justice. And that voice...

Hear for yourself:
- "Sea Song" Becky vox

Also...
- "Sea Song" Robert Wyatt's original version
- What wikipedia has to say about Northumbrian music
- Guardian interview with R.U.

why we love modern stuff: 1

Episode 1: youtube



This video of "I Don't Know What It Is" by Rufus Wainwright is just brilliant.

I'll tell you why:

• It really captures the atmosphere at Glastonbury. Look at that clear blue sky at the beginning (well it can happen) and there are some choice cutaway crowd shots later on.
• You can hear lots of backing parts which don't come through on the proper recording like the wah-wah guitar when the drums kick in at 0:38 (Is that a hot-air balloon fading off into the distance?)
• 1:03. The backing vocals are sublime (is that too strong a word?) all through. Again, you can't hear them on the CD. (I think that's Sister Martha hiding behind the sunglassed guitarist.)
• 1:31. Hear that new guitar part?
• 1:39. The bloke in the straw hat is having such a good time.
• 1:44. "Is there anyone else?" Those backing vocals really take off now. Sing it (mainly) girls, but also boys...
• 2:36. You can hardly hear the trumpets (and they're normally really loud right?) but it doesn't matter cos Martha and her mate are still going for it.
• 3:10. Caught up in the emotion of the moment, paralysis sets in in Rufus's left hand but it's OK cos you can hear the trumpets now.
• 3:40. No! What's that member of the stage crew doing with those tangled leads? He's totally spoiling the mood.
• 3:47. OK this is the big moment. Three backing vocal phrases over "I don't know what it is to get me over" x2, "I don't know what it is..."
• 3:58. ...puts the tin lid on it for me.
• 4:02. The music just takes off... (bit like that balloon just now)
• 4:27. Not the most musical of endings maybe, but it's about a train, see, and it's pulling into the station.

..and Old Rufus can really belt it out.

Did I mention that this is a great song too?

Well I think so.

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