Day 275: London

London by Third Eye Blind

“London” feels like a hard rock song written by a 13-year-old, albeit one who can rip some super impressive electric guitar riffs. The song’s narrator doesn’t want to go to London and get in another stupid fight with this girl, and nearly the whole chorus is just “I don’t wanna go to London.” Those looking for tattoo-able 3EB lyrics won’t find them here, but the song’s tight musicianship and defined structure make it a worthwhile jam on occasion.

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Day 274: Roundabout

Roundabout by Yes

Yes, this is the 8 minute version…

When we first heard the ‘Roundabout’ single, it was on the radio. We didn’t know it was released. We were busy being a band on the road, and then we heard the edit and we thought, ‘Wow, that must have been a big pair of scissors to edit that song.’ I mean, it was just totally wrong musically. It actually worked and all of a sudden we became famous, we had a hit record and more people came to see us, which was great, because then they would see the progression of music we’d been doing and they’d see us more as a band and not just wait for ‘Roundabout.’ Because we didn’t do that ‘Roundabout’ in those days. We did the 8-minute version

https://www.songfacts.com/facts/yes/roundabout


Day 273: Senses Working Overtime

Senses Working Overtime by XTC

Another great find from a classic mixtape given to me by a friend in the 80s.

So I messed around until I found two chords that seemed to go together and I thought, “Yeah, this sounds great, it’s medieval, it’s like pictures from illuminated manuscripts, tilling the soil, and wow, how hard life was in those days. So, I know, I’ll make the verse kind of like these little figures tilling the land, and cutting hedgerows, and stuff — I’ll make it as if it’s their woes, and their worries, and the things that they’d be singing about — or the things they’d be fantasizing about.” About how the clouds were all made of whey, you know, while worrying if there was enough straw for the donkey, and that. So, because I blundered into this sort of medieval thing by accident for the verse, I thought, “I’ll roll with it, I’ll write kind of medieval words to it, and we’ll go for the rhythm as a sort of medieval single little tight drum.”

http://chalkhills.org/articles/XTCFans20061210.html

Day 268: All Right Now

All Right Now by Free

“We didn’t think we’d written a classic song at all. We just regarded it as a kind of throwaway three-chord trick. I thought we had a lot more mature songs, like ‘Heavy Load’, which was also on Fire And Water. It was Chris Blackwell, our manager, who wanted to put it out as a single. We didn’t take him seriously and tried to suggest another one, but he was thick-headed, and proved himself right.

https://www.uncut.co.uk/features/the-making-of-frees-all-right-now-67207/

Day 267: All Your Love

All Your Love by Eric Clapton, John Mayall and The Bluesbreakers

Promise me you will listen to the Blues Time Machine so you can get the the essential history of this song from DJ John Kessler at KNKX, our great local jazz and blues station here in Seattle.

Another British blues player who has repeatedly cited Otis Rush as his main influence is John Mayall, one of the originators of the British blues movement of the 1960’s. His various versions of the Bluesbreakers would feature guitarists Peter Green, Mick Taylor and Eric Clapton. Mayall’s 1966 release Bluesbreakers with Eric Clapton was the record that established Clapton as a legitimate guitar hero, and featured “All Your Love (I Miss Loving)”.

https://www.knkx.org/post/all-your-love-tracked-through-time

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