Music for self-respecting and wistful drag queens (but no spanish techno)

Last week's school crisis seems to have taken rather a lot out of me. I've been working on some better-thought-out ideas for posts (or maybe I'm deluding myself again; maybe they're really bad ideas...), but find myself lacking energy and courage. This morning, I decided to download some more music on to my iPod, using a wish list I keep for that purpose. I got myself about a dozen songs off iTunes, so I thought I'd share half a dozen with you. There's no unifying theme other than they each roughly represent a decade.

For the sixties, "Pata Pata" with the late great Miriam Makeba. My strongest memory of this song is of Folk Dancing Club in university. (Yes, I did. You can stop laughing now.) Several of the other girls already knew a set dance to this which involved swinging the knees and elbows out from their bodies. Maybe that was the original "Pata Pata". I wouldn't know.


For the seventies, another powerful lady, Mavis Staples with her dad Roebuck and sisters belting "Respect Yourself". This is a song that could be aimed at most arrogant young men, no matter what their colour:


Here's one of my favourites from the eighties. "If We Never Meet Again" has been covered by a number of singers, but here sung by the songwriter himself, Jules Shear with his group The Reckless Sleepers:


And this wistful number from the nineties, "Stockton Gala Days" sung by Natalie Merchant just before she parted company with 10,000 Maniacs:


The "aughts" are represented with this arresting video for "Sing Me Spanish Techno" by The New Pornographers, featuring well-known (in their field) drag queens Juanita More from San Francisco and Michael Venus from Vancouver. (Michael's the tall blond, if you hadn't figured that out already.)


Finally, "Weightless One" by Prince Edward Island group Two Hours' Traffic, a song that's been getting a bit of airplay this year, although the album it's from is two years old. The only video I can find of it is this rather shaky and talked-over club version.

That's it. I'm going to bed now...