This is my third Sunday Morning Jukebox (SMJ) in an extremely irregular series of music videos. If you’re interested, I wrote my previous SMJs in July and August. Somehow I missed doing one in September. I don’t have a specific theme today. I thought about a stringed-instrument theme (violins, harps, mandolins, guitars), but that didn’t work out. And that’s fine. It’s all good.
So here are some pretty cool songs that I like a lot. I put them in chronological order (sort of). Maybe you'll discover a song or an artist that you hadn't heard of.
Follow me down below the fold...
1715 – Cam Ye O’er Frae France (Steeleye Span)
This song comes from the time of the Jacobite Risings (Wikipedia link). The Jacobites in Scotland wanted a Stuart on the throne. But James Francis Edward Stuart was a Catholic and English law required a Protestant, so the English got some searchers and seekers who searched and sought and eventually found George I in Germany and put him on the throne. The movie "Rob Roy" (starring Liam Neeson and Jessica Lange) is set around this time. Several very well-written books by Diana Gabaldon (starting with "Outlander") are set around this time, too (you’ll probably find them in the Romance section, but you don’t let that deter you because they’re page-turners).
The two Jacobite Risings are called "the fifteen" and "the forty-five" because they happened in 1715 (against George I) and 1745 (against George II). They ended with the Battle of Culloden in 1746, the last time a battle was fought on English soil. The American Revolution (against George III) happened in 1776.
I love this song. The band uses electric instruments for an old Scottish song making fun of King George I, so it’s from around 1715. And, yes, the band is called Steeleye Span (no relation to Steely Dan). Here are the first few lines of the song:
Cam ye o'er frae France? Cam ye doon by Lunnon?
Saw ye Geordie Whelps and his bonnie woman?
Oh, weren't ye at the place called the Kittle Housie?
Saw ye Geordie's grace a-ridin' on a goosie?
Geordie, he's a man, there is little doot o't,
And he's done a' he can, all can dae wi'oot it,
Doon there cam' a blade, linkin' like ma lordie,
He wad drive a trade at the loom o' Geordie.
"Kittle Housie" is a brothel and "goosie" is a nickname for King George’s mistress. Here’s the video:
Approx. 1730 – Carrickfergus (Bryan Ferry)
This is based on an Irish folk song that seems to trace back to about 1730, plus or minus a few decades. Bryan Ferry was the lead singer for Roxy Music (one of my favorite bands, especially the first two albums, when Brian Eno was playing keyboards).
I’m pretty sure this video was recorded at the 1999 Nobel Peace Prize concert. I especially like the harp part (starting about 1:30).
1928 – West End Blues (Louis Armstrong & His Hot Five)
When I was a teenager, my mom had some Louis Armstrong records and this song was one of my favorites. More recently, I was watching "Jazz" (the Ken Burns PBS special) where this song was described as "possibly the most perfect three minutes of music ever created." When I listen to the opening notes(solo? arpeggio? fanfare?) I get goosebumps. Listen for yourself:
1959 – Summertime Blues (Eddie Cochran)
In 1960, at the age of 21, Eddie Cochran died in a car crash. At the age of 21! Sometime later he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame because of his enormous influence on the genre (in his tragically short life). He wrote and recorded a ton of great songs and I might argue that if he had lived, he might have eclipsed Elvis. This TV appearance happened after 1958 (the year he wrote the song) and before 1960 (the year he died).
There’s a story that when Paul McCartney and John Lennon first met, Lennon was impressed that McCartney knew the guitar chords and the words to the Eddie Cochran song "Twenty Flight Rock." Without Cochran, the Beatles might never have gotten together. So here’s Eddie...
I love the line, "I went to my Congressman and he said quote, 'I'd like to help you son, but you're too young to vote.'"
1964 – Four Strong Winds (Ian & Sylvia)
Ian & Sylvia were a singing duo from Canada and I don’t think they ever got very popular in the U.S., but versions of this song were recorded by a lot of people. I especially like the Neil Young version. It was also recorded by Bob Dylan, Harry Belafonte, the Searchers, the Seekers, and a bunch of others. Do you think the Searchers or the Seekers ever found what they were looking for?
The video quality isn’t great (and you won’t miss much if you skip the first 30 seconds), but listen to those beautiful harmonies (and the words, too). So simple and so lovely...
1965 – I Ain’t Got You (The Yardbirds)
Rolling Stone magazine once published a list of the 100 Best Guitarists (of all time, so far, according to whatever criteria their experts used). On that list, Eric Clapton was #4, Jimmy Page was #9, and Jeff Beck was #14. All three of them played at various times in the Yardbirds, an incredibly influential and seminal rock and roll band. Clapton was their first guitarist, but he left the band because he wanted to play blues and he thought the band was going more towards pop. That’s when Beck joined (and then Page) and then they got sort of psychedelic. And that chicken laid the egg that hatched into Led Zeppelin.
Here are the opening words of this song:
I got a Maserati GT
With snakeskin upholstery.
I got a charge account at Goldblatt’s.
But I ain’t got you.
The sublimely delicious part happens at about 1:00 when Eric Clapton plays a solo that just knocks my socks off. For some reason, it reminds me of Louis Armstrong’s opening notes from West End Blues (the 1928 song above). The guitar solo is exquisite and heavenly. The visual part is a bunch of pictures and is very ordinary. Listen to the music; ignore the visuals.
1968 – Love Is All Around (The Troggs)
WTF –The Troggs? Didn’t they name themselves after troglodytes? Didn’t they record that song "Wild Thing"? Wild thing, you make make my heart sing, you make everythang groovy. Wild Thing.
Yes and yes. And yes, "Wild Thing" is the first song novices figure out how to play on guitar, because it goes one-four-five-four over and over again (E-A-B-A or C-F-G-F or whatever). It’s simple and it’s easy to play.
But the Troggs recorded several other songs, too, and they could sing harmony. Here’s a melodic little 1960s-flower-power love song (with violins). And feast your eyes on that gorgeous woman in the video (I think I’m in love with a woman from 41 years ago).
R.E.M. did an unplugged version of the same song. I’m not going to embed it, but you can find it here by clicking your mouse: Love Is All Around (R.E.M.)
1991 – Losing My Religion (R.E.M.)
Speaking of R.E.M., here’s one of my favorite songs by them (a great video, too, from a concert in Canada). I love the mandolin on this song. When I hear the words, I think of my experiences as a stand-up comic. That’s me in the spotlight. I thought that I heard you laughing. Now I’ve said too much.
R.E.M. also wrote a song about Andy Kaufman (one of the greatest and weirdest stand-up comics of all time).
I especially like the crowd shots in this video. People are smiling and singing along with the song. This concert looks like it was a lot of fun.
2003 – I’m Blue (5 6 7 8’s)
Two words: "Kill Bill." Two more words: "Energetic Punk-Rock." Or is that three words? They’re an all-girl band from Japan. They’re singing in English, but they’re singing really fast, so there are subtitles.
If you asked me, I’d rank this song up there with the best of the Ramones or the Sex Pistols or T. Rex or The Clash.
I'm done now. That’s the end of my Sunday Morning Jukebox. I hope you enjoyed it.