Dear Dr Crotchety, I’m leaving – what music can I play my friends to say goodbye?
What serendipity, because after a year it’s also time for the Doctor to hang up her stethoscope, having recently launched a great outdoors and music fest in Flintshire that needs my full attention.
But I won’t leave you cold: here are some heartwarming songs to play as we both bid adieu. A classic farewell first: Every Time We Say Goodbye, written by Cole Porter and sung by a very raspy Ray Charles duetting with Betty Carter. Next, it’s over to Mali for Adieu Pierrette, an a cappella ditty from Boubacar Traoré’s Je Chanterais Pour Toi album: listen for the singer’s footsteps on tape as he ambles through his home village. A little Elizabeth Cotton is never a bad choice, so here is her trademark, guitar-picking style in a medley of Sweet Bye And Bye and What A Friend We Have In Jesus. I’m also sure Bob Dylan is a fan of Cotton’s, so next up play Bye And Bye with its fat, wheezy church organ riffs and Dylan’s latterday smoke-infused croonings drifting over the snazzy beat.
Now for a parting singalong: line up Willow Tree by Alton Ellis, then bring the celebrations to a peak with a steady stream of classics – Donnie Elbert’s A Little Piece Of Leather, Asha Bhosle’s Karle Pyar Karle and Derrick Harriott’s Message From A Black Man – to solidify shared convictions and promises of future reunions.
After that little lot, it’s time for the floating brass and wind of Xavier Cugat’s Adios, then it’s giddy-up and ride into the night to Motörhead’s Ace Of Spades, with the parting refrains of a Woody Guthrie song just audible as the distance between you grows wider: “So long, it’s been good to know ya!”
Hasta la vista, amigos, and keep rockin’.
