Best Bond theme song? Probably. Maybe. Perhaps not, but I can’t think of a better one right now.
Actually, here’s another of those two-in-one songs (maybe even three?). I think Macca missed a trick. Could have knocked out separate songs and increased his fortune. I see that it’s credited as Paul McCartney and Wings, rather than just Wings, but Linda gets a writing credit. How sweet.
I was struggling to think of where to go next, then, while out this evening, we passed a site where a building was being demolished. All that remained was the back wall. Part of it was tiled, so it had clearly once been the bathroom. Guess what was still hanging on the wall.
I have to thank a certain Glen Miller for playing Bowie day after day in the senior dayroom. He was just a year above me, but he seemed so advanced in his music taste.
That said, I realise that I set myself an almost impossible task when I decided to go back to Bowie. Which track should I choose? I figured I’d go to something from Diamond Dogs or Aladdin Sane, or even The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders From Mars, but in the end I couldn’t really resist returning to Hunky Dory. It really is packed with wonderful songs. Then again, so are the others, so there is still time to return for more. Who knows?
I can’t be specific about why or how this moves me, but I think if I could write a song, I’d like it to be something like this. Goosebumps agogo. Oh yes.
A tough one to follow, but the songs was used for a BBC Television series which featured a number of tunes. One of the best came from one Mr McCartney with his band Wings. I feel a special Bond with PM, because we share a birthday.
There’s usually a bit of a fuss about JC at this time of year. Sadly one died the other day. On a more positive note, the other JC just announced his return to Sunday afternoons on 6Music.
As with many others in my selections, Joe Cocker doesn’t really feature prominently in my regular favourites, and there are not too many of his recordings I could name right now. His career took off following a rendition of this at Woodstock, but I came to know and love his version when it was used as the theme music for that rather whimsical American comedy The Wonder Years. Cocker certainly made the song his own, and the combination of his voice with those drum breaks and that guitar knock spots off the Beatles’ version. I don’t think McCartney would disagree.
Tomorrow is a normal working day out here in Taiwan, but I should still try to celebrate with a half decent Christmas song. I’ve yet to hear it this year, and the refrain says what I am feeling as I face my third Christmas abroad in three years. No turkey and sprouts for me, and I could murder a couple of mince pies. I wish I was at home…
I’m not sure if I should have to justify this, but I can’t say I am a big fan of female singer-songwriters. That said, I’m a bit of a sucker for this beautiful tune. Well, it’s one of those records that is at least two tunes in one, so let’s say I’m a bit of a sucker for these beautiful tunes. I love the change in melody and tempo, although it seems a bit if a waste to use up two great tunes in one song. Band on the Run does something similar (actually, I think Macca used up three tunes there) as does Franz Ferdinand’s debut, Take Me Out. Reckless abandon with regard to top-tune economy aside, I’m pretty certain this is the song that brought Laura Marling into my world.
Having thought about this some more, I’m sure that there is a definite lack of female artistes in my record collection, but maybe that just reflects the imbalance in the number of female musicians working in the genres that appeal to me most. There are several I hope to feature in due course – PJ Harvey, Justine Frischmann and Beth Orton spring to mind – but I am mindful of the fact that my taste is rather male-centric. Now that thought has just made me wonder about the colour of my taste as well. Should I be worrying that I have an imbalance in terms of the racial make-up of those acts I prefer? Probably not, but now I am thinking that I may be so middle-aged, white and male that I will already have alienated huge swathes of potential readers. Ah well, first-world, 21st Century problems, eh?
Tomorrow, I’m going about as middle-aged, white and male as you could imagine. Yes, I feel the need for a bit of progressive rock.
My dad gave me the album (along with a few others from our Singapore days) on which this track features, when he finally gave in to the notion that he didn’t need a record player any longer. The vinyl is all scratched and dirty and probably hadn’t been played for years anyway, but this, the first solo album by Paul McCartney, is an absolute gem in my view. Underrated? Undoubtedly. It is pretty rare to hear any of these songs, although the inclusion of this on a Cruise film soundtrack must have (re)-ignited some interest. It probably has embedded, subconscious, emotional significance for me as I’m pretty sure it would have been played alongside Bridge Over Troubled Water, but I don’t actually recall hearing it until we were back in Gosport in the early seventies.
The film soundtrack features the singalong version, so I’ll let you decide which you’d rather hear, or you could listen to both. Neither is very long.
I think I prefer the piano on the instrumental version, but do yourself a favour and listen to the other tracks on the album. It’s a beautiful record and I’m also really rather fond of the photographs on the album cover. Happy days.
Tomorrow, with thoughts of returning to the UK right at the forefront of my mind, I’m going with a tune referencing Britain which I first heard on the John Peel show back in the mid nineties.
A tune a day keeps the doctor away 