This fifth anniversary is turning into a celebration of P Diddy-esque proportions. Into its second week and still going strong, you can find in today's paper (that's Friday) a nice package of column by me and five years' worth of RR stats from Marconius. If you haven't bought one yet and are able to, allow me to highly recommend it.
Now, last week's thread turned out to be a toughie but I enjoyed reading the reminiscences and, also, the musings of Abahachi and others on the nature of anniversaries (something I attempt to reference in this week's col).
Here is a link to the column but, more importantly, here's the A-list: On a Wedding Anniversary – John Cale; Happy, happy birthday baby – the Tune Weavers; Happy Birthday – The Birthday Party; Unhappy Birthday – The Smiths; 4th of July – The Beach Boys; 45 – Elvis Costello; Franco – Sept ans de mariage; The Very Best – Birthday; Lee Perry – Happy Birthday Jamaica Version; Sarah Vaughan – 100 years from Today.
Following that list is another, colloquially known as "the B-list". However, I'm afraid the pressures of time mean I'm unable to expand on my choices, suffice to say that I was amused by John Eddy, swayed by Billy Bragg, entranced by Eddie Boyd's mellifluous piano work and having a little bit of a rave to the Junior Boys.
Anniversary Song – Django Reinhardt
40 – John Eddy
St Swithin's Day – Billy Bragg
The Applicant – The Blue Aeroplanes
Five Long Years – Eddie Boyd
Tears of Rage – The Band
2080 – Yeasayer
Thanksgiving – Mary Gauthier
Birthday – Junior Boys
Two Sevens Clash – Culture
On to this week's theme. It's another toughie, in that I don't imagine there's an endless supply of poetry-inspired songs and it's not exactly open to subjective interpretation; it's either inspired by poetry or not. But I do think it's an interesting area to explore and may prompt us into looking at how a musician interprets someone else's art, what effect is achieved by adding music to verse and such like. I promise to do something a bit dumber next week.
The toolbox: Archive, the Marconium, the Spill, the Collabo (which, oddly, worked for me last week in that I saw all your songs).
The rulebook:
DO post your nominations before midday on Monday if you wish them to be considered.
DO post justifications of your choices wherever possible.
DO NOT post more than one-third of the lyrics of any song.
DO NOT dump lists of nominations – if you must post more than two or three at once, please attempt to justify your choices.
Finally, let's treat each other like it's our birthdays
