A child flew past me riding in a star

This turned up on my "Liked Songs" on Spotify this morning, while I working on something else. 

 I must have "liked" it ages ago. 

 I don't recognise it. 

 But I like it.

There once was a note pure and easy/ Playing so free like a breath rippling by/ The note is eternal I hear it, it sees me/ Forever we blend as forever we die  

I listened and I heard music in a word/ And words when you played your guitar/ The noise that I was hearing was a million people cheering/ And a child flew past me riding in a star

As people assemble/ Civilization is trying to find a new way to die/ But killing is really merely scene-changing/ All men are bored with other men's lives

We all know success when we all find our own dream/ And our love is enough to knock down any wall/ And the future's been seen as men try to realize/ The simple secret of the note in us all

Face the face

We knew winter was coming back; it's way too early for a Hadean spring. Snow today, freezing rain forecast for tomorrow. Maybe that's why I found myself feeling suddenly achy, and chapped.  I hope so, because otherwise, it means I'm coming down with something.  Either way, I need to get to bed early.

Anyway, I posted a rather maimed version of "Face to Face" on this blog seven years ago.  I suppose I've been thinking about Pete Townsend because of including a video featuring him last week, so I wondered if someone had found a more complete version of what is, after all, one of my favourite Pete Townsend songs.

There are now about five.

They're all interesting, most recorded in different years.  One particularly intriguing take is a slightly more laid-back performance, heavy on the bongos and featuring Dave Gilmour of Pink Floyd, of all people.  Great footwork by Townsend, but it's difficult to fully appreciate it with the irritating camera work.

But they do have the original "official" video featuring Townsend's daughter Emma (now a Cambridge graduate and a journalist) and all of the first verse. And yes, it's supposed to end like that.


I'd dance myself to bed, but I'd probably break something.

Memed again...

Rob of the madly eclectic blog Eine Kleine Nichtmusik has "memed" me with an interesting one: List seven songs you are into right now. No matter what the genre, whether they have words, or even if they’re not any good, but they must be songs you’re really enjoying now, shaping your spring. Post these instructions in your blog along with your 7 songs. Then tag 7 other people to see what they’re listening to.

Shaping my spring? Hmmmn. Well number 1 is easy; I just blogged about it --- You'd Think by Now by Carrie Newcomer, one of those songs that get into the sore spots of your life, then presses down. Lovely song, tough situation to be in...

2. Well, as I blogged yesterday, we've just seen The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, and while the music isn't the strongest point of the show (songs are pleasant enough, but the overall humour is what makes the show entertaining), I have had the theme song stuck on the brain (watch for special guest Al Sharpton in this excerpt performed at the Tony Awards):

3. I'm been turning to The Proclaimers for comfort quite a bit this spring, but I really have a soft spot for "When You're In Love" from their Perseverance album: "Romantic love rots your brain, no doubt about it/ You're out of your mind..." Oh darlin', no truer words spoken (or sung):

4. For some Can/Con, I've been singing Had Enough of You Today, my favourite song from Bark by Blackie and the Rodeo Kings (a sort of folk/rock/country super-group comprised of Stephen Fearing, Tom Wilson, and Colin Linden - okay, they're reasonably well-known as solo artists in Canada). Can't find a decent You Tube performance of this rocker so the 30 seconds at Amazon.ca will have to do. I think this is Tom Wilson's song (ooh, just checked and he co-wrote it with Davor Valuma [a record producer in Vancouver] and Bryan Potvin of The Northern Pikes -- no wonder I love it!) and he wrote it after a road trip with his mother and his ex-wife, but we've all had days like this. Love the grrrrind...

5. I was listening to Colin Murray's "In the Company of" on BBC radio with guest star David Tennant, and right afterwards they played this amazing song, "Oxford Comma" by Vampire Weekend: Just to give the illusion that I'm in the know...

6. I've loved "Face the Face" by Pete Townsend for years, but lately have been attempting to find a clean version of the original video, which features, among other things, a turn by Pete's daughter. All I can find is this posting with the first verse missing: Oh hell, let's jive!

7. Another one I loved for years is the Rankin Family's version of Ho Ro Mo Nighean Donn Bhoidheach. I just heard a version in English yesterday "Ho Ro My Nut-Brown Maiden" which was all testosterone, lust, and thrusting. Maybe that's how it's supposed to be sung, but I adore this dreamy wistful interpretation with its lovely harmonies and round-like ending:


So there, I guess, is my musical spring this year. It's actually not the meme that's tough; it's the tagging. I tend to "lurk" at most blogs, and those where I actually speak up are darned busy blogs. Darnit, I'm only going to tag three people. (Does this mean I'll die at midnight, or lose a million dollars or something?) I tag Vanessa of Stopping to Eat the Roses for her no doubt interesting perspective from her perch in the Philippines, Jonas of Poetry in Motion who has recently rejoined us in blogger-land, and Jane Henry of Maniac Mum who, as a writer and mother of four, clearly doesn't have enough to do. Now I suppose I have to go tell these lucky people that they're "it"....