Everything Flows

Named after the debut single by Teenage Fanclub. 1,000+ blogs! This blog is all about being a music lover in Glasgow; reviews, interviews, memories, old faves, new discoveries (past & present) and more. Thanks for visiting - I hope you discover something amazing you have never heard before, or that you rediscover an old favourite. Regular features/playlists; Never Ending Mixtape / Cover Version of the Month/ Trust Me. Insta - @everythingflowsglasgow E - murrayeaston{AT}gmail{DOT}com

Showing posts with label live video. Show all posts

Tuesday, 23 June 2020

Didn't Know What I Was In For

Trust Me #12

Didn't Know What I Was In For by Better Oblivion Community Center

I'm a little late to the party, but this week I've really fallen for the songs and talent of Phoebe Bridgers.

Bridgers has just released Punisher, her follow up to her 2017 debut Stranger in the Alps. In between times Bridgers formed the band boygenius with Julien Baker and Lucy Dacus, releasing a self-titled 6-song EP on Matador Records. Bridgers also wrote and recorded an album with Conor Oberst under the name Better Oblivion Community Center

I've been blown away by Bridgers, I've not listened to anything other than the releases mentioned above all week. I'll be blogging on her latest album very soon. Probably everything else as well!

In the meantime, I've really fallen for Didn't Know What I Was In For, the opening track on the Better Oblivion Community Center album. I can't recall falling for a song quite so hard in some time.

A warm acoustic strum ushers us in and pretty soon Bridgers voice is weaving its spell. The lyrics tell a tale quite beautifully, the melody feels familiar, it flows so sweetly.

Oberst joins Bridgers on the third verse beginning I didn't know what I was in for, when I signed up for that run followed by the stunning line there's no way I'm curing cancer, but I'll sweat it out.

The songwriting is clever and compelling, the vocals and melody demand you listen (in a nice way), the playing and production are so warm, really capturing something magical.

Trust me - check this song out and everything else Phoebe Bridgers has released. Links to the previous 11 songs featured in the Trust Me series are at the bottom of this blog.

My telephone, it doesn't have a camera

If it did I'd take a picture of myself

If it did I'd take a picture of the water

And the man on the off-ramp

Holding up the sign that's asking me for help

I got a job and I'll work here for the summer

I fold the towels and set them by the pool

Everyone looks happy with each other

'Til they step away and say the thing they really meant

They always sound so cruel

I didn't know what I was in for

When I signed up for that run

There's no way I'm curing cancer

But I'll sweat it out

I feel so proud now for all the good I've done

I know the girl who owns a boutique in the city

Selling clothes to the fashionably late

Says she cried at the news but doesn't really

'Cause it's too much fun, it's too much time

And too much plastic money to be made

I didn't know what I was in for

When they took my belt and strings

They told me I'd gone crazy

My arms are strapped in a straight jacket

So I couldn't save those TV refugees

When they're on their backs

In a bloody bath

Full of sarin gas

On a screen

I didn't know what I was in for

When I laid out in the sun

We get burned for being honest

I've never really done anything, for anyone

To fall asleep I need white noise to distract me

Otherwise I have to listen to me think

Otherwise I pace around, hold my breath, let it out

Sit on the couch and think about

How living's just a promise that I made

Written by Conor Oberst / Phoebe Bridgers

Kobalt Music Publishing Ltd

Previous Trust Me blogs

1. Something On Your Mind by Karen Dalton
1A. Crimson and Clover by Tommy James and the Shondells
2. I Am, I Said by Neil Diamond
3. Where's The Playground Susie? by Glen Campbell
4. If You Could Read My Mind by Gordon Lighfoot
5. Gimme Some Truth by John Lennon
6. Gone With The Wind Is My Love by Rita and the Tiaras
7. In The Year 2525 by Zager and Evans
8. The Music Box by Ruth Copeland
9. The Ship Song by Nick Cave
10. Sometimes by James
11. I Walk The Earth by King Biscuit Time

Monday, 9 March 2020

Sometimes

Trust me #10 - Sometimes by James

When Sometimes by James came out I bought it on 12-inch vinyl and on CD. My Mum then heard me playing it and then asked if I could buy her the cassette single for the car. So our household had it on 3 formats.

James were riding high on the back of the Goldmother (1990) and Seven (1992) album, resulting in them being invited to tour with Neil Young. On return they went into the studio with Brian Eno, a producer they had wanted to work with as far back as their debut LP Stutter (1986).

The partnership worked, resulting in not only the Laid (1993) album, but also the double album Wah Wah (1994) that came from free form jams with Tim Booth adding vocals later on.

Sometimes is such a beautiful song. For me it captures the band and Booth jamming; free flowing lyrics over a driving and somewhat ferocious acoustic guitar lead to a head over heels romantic chorus.

The song allows a 7-piece band like James to open up and go with the flow, and oh how they go with the flow. Check these incredible live videos, firstly BBC footage from Glastonbury and secondly fan footage from a concert in Athen where the crowd just keep singing the chorus, Tim Booth join in, then he starts dancing and the band come in with some synth and it turns into a little rave for one glorious minute. Spine tingling.

Read on for the full lyrics and links to other songs in the Trust Me series.

There's a storm outside

And the gap between crack and thunder

Crack and thunder

Is closing in

The rain floods gutters

And makes a great sound on concrete

On a flat roof, there's a boy

Leaning against a wall of rain

Aerial held high

Calling come on thunder

Come on thunder

Sometimes, when I look deep in your eyes I swear I can see you soul

Sometimes, when I look deep in your eyes I swear I can see your soul

It's a monsoon

And the rain lifts lids off cars

Spinning buses like toys

Stripping them to chrome

Across the bay, the waves are turning into something else

Picking up fishing boats and spewing them on the shore

The boy's hit

Lit up against the sky

Like a sign

Like a neon sign

Then he crumples

Drops into the gutter

Cut strings

Legs twitching

The flood swells his clothes

Delivers him on

Sometimes, when I look deep in your eyes I swear I can see you soul

Sometimes, when I look deep in your eyes I swear I can see your soul

There's four new colours in the rainbow

An old man's taking polaroids

But all he catches

Is endless rain, endless rain

He says "Listen"

Takes my head

Puts my ear to his

And I swear I can hear the sea

Sometimes (sometimes) I look in your eyes, I can see your soul (I can reach your soul)

Sometimes (sometimes) I look in your eyes, I can see your soul (I can touch your soul)

Sometimes (sometimes) I look in your eyes, I can see your soul (I can hear your soul)

Sometimes (sometimes) I look in your eyes, I can see your soul

Previous Trust Me blogs

Monday, 24 December 2018

Gerry Cinnamon, Barrowland Ballroom, December 2018

Gerry Cinnamon blitzed the world famous Barrowland Ballroom in Glasgow last night and he’ll be back to delight his army of fans and do it all over again tonight.

The Barrowland Ballroom was packed long before Cinnamon took to the stage and the pre-show build up was more fun than most bands/artists actual shows. The pre-show setlist pumped out classics from The Temptations, Oasis, Dylan, Bob Marley, Neil Diamond and more, sing-song after sing-song to ensure that the crowd was in fine voice for Gerry taking to the stage. Hands were in the air, people were on shoulders, people had their arms around their mates and strangers and people sang from their hearts with smiles on their faces. As I said, this was pre-show.

The last song on the playlist really got things going though as KC and the Sunshine's Give It Up blasted through the speakers and the crowd chanted Gerry Cinnamon, Cinnamon, Gerry Cinnamon to the tune.

Dramatic music took over and Cinnamon took to the stage with the usual twinkle in his eyes and smile on his face. The ovation he received was incredible. Check the video from YouTube below.

I mentioned Oasis earlier in the blog. The way Cinnamon is connecting with people, the way that kids are picking up acoustic guitars to learn his songs, the way people are singing them like terrace anthems, is comparable to the way Oasis and Noel Gallagher connected with kids in the 90's.

I was fortunate to attend the two Oasis Barrowland shows back in December 1994 as an 18-year old and those shows will stay with me for the rest of my life. I looked around the audience last night and saw plenty of young teenagers hanging on to every word from Gerry's mouth in the same way I did as a teenager. I saw the way they went crazy to the songs, singing, jumping, punching the sky - and me and my mate Robbie joined them, lost in the music and the atmosphere, young at heart and feeling euphoric.

Robbie is another person that Cinnamon has encouraged to (re)pick up the guitar, only he is considerably beyond his teens!

What a show! Cinnamon was on fire, bounding around the stage, shouting to the crowd are we in? and then positively answering his own question with a loud yyyyeeeessss and cackling his beautiful laugh that made the whole Barrowland Ballroom know that he was enjoying himself as much as the crowd. Audience and artist were one last night, it was pure and powerful, there was total euphoria, an incredible atmosphere.

Cinnamon played his album in full, including a couple of tracks he rarely plays live and one, War TV, that he said he had never played live before.

Highlights? Well it was all one big euphoric high of a show. The chorus of Lullaby was sung as loud as any I have heard at the Barrowlands in 25-years of shows there (showing my age). Sometimes is a real favourite of mine, the looped guitar riff, beat and run of memories flows superbly.

Fickle McSelfish was a personal highlight for me though. I love the way Gerry sings the chorus with one line answering or expanding the line before it. And I love the line then you pulled on my hair and bit on my lip 'til it bled, f**k the notion of living without you I'd rather be dead

There is a moment in new song Canter where Cinnamon declares here comes the rain and it is euphoric, the place goes mental. And that's after a delightful pause and kiss off in the chorus. Another new song, I think its is called Darker Days, sounds really promising, I look forward to hearing it recorded.

Belter was sensational, it's a song that I've now heard buskers in Buchanan Street playing. It touches people. Cinnamon wears his heart and soul on his sleeve and remains true to his roots and beliefs. That comes across on stage and on record. Cinnamon’s album has been out for a little over a year and for me, and from the reaction last night, it has grown stronger in that time. It’s only 9-songs long yet it goes deep; there are memories, observations, there is humour, social commentary, love, hurt and dreams. He packs a lot in.

Cinnamon was always quick to thank the crowd and a couple of times he raised his glass to declare them his band. We were all certainly backing singers last night.

The encore was superb. Keysies is a real favourite of mine, Gerry really paints a picture with his lyrics and his voice is rich and soulful. A cover of Fairytale In New York was festive and euphoric before the place went crazy for his cover version of Discoland (which will be my next cover version of the month feature).

What better way to end a night at the Barras than with Cinnamon's love letter to the city, Diamonds In The Mud. Gerry talks of places, of haunts and characteristics, his humour shines through, as does his clear love for the city.

Gerry declared that he just wants to play shows and release music. I'm not the only one looking forward to his next release. I'm pretty sure that there will be something in 2019.

Cinnamon ends the year by playing Edinburgh's Hogmanay party and there are lots of others shows already booked in Europe and across the UK. Look out for festival announcements coming - there are bound to be a few.

Wednesday, 17 May 2017

Respect

R-E-S-P-E-C-T

Find out what it means to me

Aretha Franklin's barnstorming stomp through Otis Redding's Respect must surely be a candidate for the best cover version ever.

The original, released in 1965, has pounding drums and a pleading vocal by Otis who doesn't really care what his girl gets up to, a long as he gets that respect when he gets home.

The horns soar, Redding's voice is rich, soulful and stretched brilliantly to make you firmly believe that respect is what he wants and needs. The section at the end where he just vibes on the song shouting got to, got to have it and goes on to practically sound like he is frothing at the mouth with the give it to me, give it to me, give it to me baby, everything I need.....

And it's all over in just 2 minutes and 9 seconds. Sensational. If you don't own it, or if you haven't checked it out, then please do search for Otis Blue, the incredible album that this features on.

And then over to Aretha in 1967. Dear doctor, listen to her voice. The temp is higher, so is Aretha's voice and she twist the lyrics ever so slightly so there is no doubt that she is in charge. The song became an anthem for Civil Rights and Women's Rights and Redding was so impressed with Aretha's version that he introduced it as the famed Monterey Pop Festival as 'the song a girl took from me, a friend of mine, this girl, she just took this song.' Check it out below - what a performance!

Franklin certainly did. Backed by sisters Erma and Carolyn, she flies and soars through the song, barely pausing for breath. Listen to the way she sings Oooooh your kisses are sweeter than honey and then all I want you to DO for me

Franklin demands attention, demands respect, she is on fire, ripping through the song. The R E S P E C T section is sublime, leading to the brilliant sock it to me, sock it to me backing vocals.

What a song, what a singer, what a cover version. One of the very, very best.