…..and I’m drunk on despair but there’s no time to seize a caress from one so fair…..
I don’t know if anyone will get the song but it’s one of my all time faves and the photo has a (very) tenuous link to the lyrics. The lyric is also particularly relevant to me today - I have conjunctivitis again and I'm so busy at work (still) and DM is being neglected!
The reason for the photo only having a tenuous link is that I set out to capture a photo that represented a song I love because I have had the most depressing drive home this evening.
Over the last couple of nights we’ve sat down to eat so late (after 10 pm each day) and we only switch the TV on while we have supper and beyond. This means that the peak time viewing is all long gone so we’ve been tuning into music channels. We’ve found a programme on one of the VH channels that is called ‘music that changed the world’ and it’s been pretty good – we’ve seen quite a lot of old stuff that has a good deal of sentimental meaning to us….today I’ve been humming ‘Ghost Town’ all day by the Specials. It’s a wonderful song in its own right, it reminds me of a very special time in my life and to really add the icing to the cake it has a PA Cresta in the video. Wow – it doesn’t come much better than that.
So tonight, I set off for home and decided to seek out some music on my car radio (I don’t have a CD player in my car). Of course by listening to the radio you are in the lap of the gods because so much of it is shockingly poor…..
Anyway, while I was hopping around my preset channels looking for something I liked, I came across something so grotesquely misrepresented in a modern day cover that I nearly wept. It was truly appalling. It was a woman screecher doing a cover of Talk Talk’s sublime ‘It’s my Life’. How I love the original of that song. It’s haunting, beautiful and again reminds me of days gone by when life was uncomplicated and I was touring the country watching bands. I can clearly remember watching Talk Talk on a Saturday morning kids show while getting on the warpaint in a hotel with Shazbop in Coventry after seeing Roman Holliday the night before.
It seems as though the pop musicians of today are plundering my heritage at the moment. They’re trawling through the back catalogues of my precious artists and covering their songs. I know this practice has gone on for all time but I can’t help but get depressed when it’s done so badly. To be frank, this was so appalling that it was sub ‘wedding band’ stuff.
Last week I heard a similarly awful disco-ed up version of one of my favourite Crowded House numbers. I often wonder what the writers of the songs feel when they hear such stuff. Maybe they’re just grateful for the PRS cheques – I don’t know.
Anyway, it made me think of those lovely photos Angela did a while ago relating to some of her favourite songs and I thought I’d try an occasional series of shots of my own that tried to show something of my musical heritage. So, I had an idea and set off down the garden just as the sun was setting. The lyric above is part of the song but not the title.
The band in question were fabulous – the singer a gorgeous pouty guy with chiselled cheekbones and more lipgloss than Boots. Oh and a floppy fringe to boot. What more could a girl want – well a set of brilliant musicians and a songwriter to rival any of his day. Their songs were catchy and fun as well as being a bit dark and (sometimes very) naughty. This track was a single but before they had their hits and the content is very ‘adult’ – if you liked their hits you may have the song on their greatest hits album.
Anyway, while trying to capture a photo of the title of the song, I looked up and saw this and it was so lovely a sight that I forgot my original quest and took this. So some good came out of hearing a screecher torture a wonderful song!
A year ago today....
