Sequel Songs #7: Everywhere & Anywhere

I thought this would a quick one, but they rarely are.

In 1962, the "Singing Ranger" Hank Snow (originally from Canada) had a huge country hit in which he listed all the places in North America that he'd supposedly visited...

I had a sequel in mind for this tune, but what I didn't realise was that Hank's version was a sequel in its own right.

The tune was originally written by Australian country singer, songwriter and aircraft mechanic, Geoff Mack. The Aussie hit version was recorded by Lucky Starr...

Lucky Starr - I've Been Everywhere

Lucky Starr also recorded a UK version, and I'm pleased to note that he had visited Huddersfield. This particular sequel was also recorded by some bloke we won't mention because he died in jail, leaving a black mark on all our childhoods...

Lucky Starr - I've Been Everywhere

The Mudlarks also did a version, but they sing it so fast that these aging ears can't quite make out where they went.

The Mudlarks - I've Been Everywhere

Versions have also been recorded that travel across Canada...

Mike Ford - I've Been Everywhere (he used to be in Moxy Früvous, a band I had a lot of time for.)

...Czechoslovakia...

Ladislav Vodička - Já Tu Zemi Znám

...Finland...

Turo's Hevi Gee - Oon Käyny Kaikkialla

...Germany (by an old pal of ours from Scotland!)...

Jackie Leven - I've Been Everywhere

...Catalonia...

Vàlius - Espinàs (He Estat A Tot Arreu)

...Thailand...

The Queensland Tiger - I've Been Everywhere

...India...

Rajiv Rajaram - I've Been Everywhere

...and New Zealand. (Among others, I'm sure.)

John Grenell - I've Been Everywhere

Although my favourite version might be this live take by Houston-born Hayes Carll...

Hayes Carll - I've Been Everywhere

However, none of these is the sequel I had in mind when I planned this post. No, that one circles back to the man most famous for recording I've Been Everywhere (unless you count Johnny Cash's version, backed by Tom Petty's Heartbreakers): Hank Snow. 

In 1970, Hank recorded a new version of the song... in which it appears he'd rather changed his mind.

  

And one more, in a similar vein, recorded during lockdown when all our options were limited. This should bring back a few memories...

Chuck Mead - I Ain't Been Nowhere

Positive Songs For Negative Times #76: Dementia Awareness

A workmate is doing a charity walk for an Alzheimer’s charity. Almost immediately after clicking on her JustGiving page, I heard a song that made me choke up. It’s the third song I’ve heard this year that deals with the subject, so I figured a post was in order. In days gone by, I’d have tried to find another seven similar songs to make a Top Ten, but I realised that would mean limiting the chances of you listening to these three. And they’re all really worthy of your attention… though I feel I ought to offer the caveat that those of you who are currently dealing with this situation first-hand might find these songs a little too close to home. 

I count myself extremely lucky that my own parents, both now well into their 90s, have not been afflicted with any kind of dementia. They have all kinds of other health issues to deal with (a stairlift was fitted last week, and my dad finally got a better hearing aid so I was able to have a proper conversation with him for the first time in ages) but they’re still themselves in their heads. I can’t imagine what it must be like to lose a parent (or worse still, a partner) to dementia, though these three songs evoke a great deal of empathy in me.

Hayes Carll is a playful, sometimes acerbic lyricist, so it’s good to hear him treat this subject with such depth and emotion. Written from the perspective of an old man with Alzheimer’s, the song was inspired by personal experiences. Hayes explains, “I was 14 years old and sitting in the passenger seat of my grandfather’s truck in Waco, TX, the town he had lived in for most of his life. He turned to me at a stoplight and asked me where we were. He looked scared. I know I was. I’ve thought a lot since then about what it must feel like to lose the thread of your own story.”

It feels so familiar as I watch you
Walk in the room
And at first, I don't recognize you
But then I damn sure recognize that perfume
 
And you kneel down beside me
And gently take all of my hand
I say, "Baby, I'm scared
And I'm not sure I know who I am"
 
Can you help me remember
Who it is that I used to be?
Can you tell me the story of my family
My hopes and my dreams?
 
Did I try to stand for somethin', would I always fold?
Did I do things when I was young
To be proud of when I was old?
Was I a house on fire or was I just a slow-burning ember?
Could you, please, help me remember?

Possibly the last person you’d expect to find in this post is Nigel Blackwell. It’s rare to find a Half Man Half Biscuit song that isn’t played for laughs (although Blackwell often has a serious point to make), but the penultimate track from the latest HMHB album stopped me in my tracks. The subject of a wife who can no longer care for her dementia-suffering husband on her own is treated with a great deal of respect, made all the more powerful through the use of gentle, observational humour and that special Blackwellian turn of phrase. Pathos and bathos both used to great effect.

As always, I am in debt to the Half Man Half Biscuit Lyrics Project, who debate this song with far greater erudition than I ever could, should you wish to know more.

The days she feared are here
The easy years are gone
His ‘best before’ draws near
And warning lights are on
Effort is tiring
But then again
Just for inquiring
She’ll get a free Parker pen
 
The surgery leaflets
Offer advice
But there’s no preparation
For losing him twice
And now he’s washed and dressed and ready
To keep him safe she’ll face the hurt
And if she could hold that needle steady
She could sew his name into his shirt
 
Apart, adrift, alone
Afraid of what’s ahead
She’ll be the evil nurse
And he’ll be underfed
Conduct report
Bound to be mixed
“Lashed out during bingo”
“Said the quiz night was fixed”
Occasional sunshine
Where clarity reigns
And memories are mutual
And we’re back in the lanes
 
Jeanette MacDonald had Nelson Eddy
And Bobby Darin had ‘Mack the Knife’
And she had him to hold her steady
Ah, sweet mystery of life!

Finally, the song that led to this post. Originally recorded by Kathy Mattea, and written by her husband about his own parents, though I wasn’t aware of Kathy’s version when I came across the cover on the sumptuous new collection by Rumer, B Sides & Rarities Vol. 2. It’s one of those story songs that covers a great stretch of time, and its impact can only really be felt by listening to the whole story. Which I encourage you to do. However, this is the verse that caught in my head on first listen, and drove me to delve much deeper.

They'd never spent a night apart,
For sixty years, she heard him snore.
Now they're in a hospital,
In separate beds on different floors.

Cnut Songs #14: The Dating Quagmire

There's a new dating show on TV this week in which couples act out erotic scenes from big hit films as a way of auditioning prospective partners. And another one where they choose a mate based on their karaoke voices alone. I presume these are a follow up to the one where people stare intently at the naked bodies of potential soulmates (but not their faces) before deciding the best one to go home with. You may prefer to swipe left on both. It's hardly Cilla, is it?

These kind of things make me feel very old. And yet, curiously, rather glad to be very old. I mean, who would want to be a young person trying to navigate the sexual quagmire that is the dating world in the 21st Century? A world where people can dress in as blatantly sexual a manner as they choose, and yet expressing a romantic interest in the wrong person could end you up in hot water?

It was so much easier in the good old days, when folk just went to bars to pull. Not that I ever did that. Not that I ever pulled anyone, anywhere, to be honest. But much as it seemed a pipe dream back then, it did at least seem a more realistic prospect than what goes on nowadays. Old man shouts at sea.

There is a sub-genre of music (mostly country or Americana, though I'm sure it crosses over into other genres - there's probably half a dozen Arab Strap songs that deal with it) about hooking up with people in bars. Take Todd Snider & Loretta Lynn's Don't Tempt Me for a start... 

Or Charity Chic's favourite, Parallel Bars, by Robbie Fulks and Kelly Willis (although there is a twist of Pina Colada to that one)...

My favourite at the moment comes from Hayes Carll, from the amazing KMAG YOYO album (look up the meaning behind that title title: I wanted to do a Top Ten Acronym Songs just to make that track Number One... but I couldn't come up with any others). 

Here's Hayes, alongside Cary Ann Hearst, showing how opposites really can attract... if you're pissed.

(I find the video a little distracting, to be honest. I'd recommend closing your eyes and concentrating on the lyrics. But not as a method of choosing a date.)

2021 Latecomers: This Is Why Y'All Can't Have Nice Things

It's the time of year when I feel beholden to acknowledge the records that would have made my end of year list... had I heard them earlier. To be fair, Hayes Carll left it pretty late in the day to release his new long player (end of October), so I didn't get round to buying it until I got some Amazon vouchers for Christmas. Which I guess is the modern day equivalent of a record token. Which, I was about to say, probably don't exist anymore. And then I discovered that they do. So next year, I'm asking for them instead. Screw Jeff Bezos. 

Anyway, I bought the Hayes Carll album without stream-testing it first, because with his track record, I knew it would be good. And it is. It'll probably go unnoticed by the masses, but this is why y'all can't have nice things...

My Top 19 Albums of 2019 (Part 3)

"Sir Ian Duncan Smith."

The final kick in the teeth from a year which made us all reconsider the phrase "you can't polish a turd".

It's nearly over... the year, and this countdown.

Thank god for that...

Let's focus on the positive. Another four great albums...


8. Leonard Cohen - Thanks For The Dance

Despite the bad sex award, Lenny's posthumous swan song is touching, playful and wise.

Top Track: Moving On

I loved your face, I loved your hair

Your T-shirts and your evening wear

As for the world, the job, the war

I ditched them all to love you more

7. Hayes Carll - What It Is

Best Americana album of the year?

Not quite. But we'll get to that. Meanwhile... this witty, laidback (yet quite angry in places) collection will do us fine.

Top Track: Wild Pointy Finger

I got a wild pointy finger

It points at the fever and accomplishments of man

It points at all the problems that it don't understand

It points at Parisians across the sea

It points at anybody who thinks different than me

If you're marching to your own drum or kneelin' in the news

My wild pointy finger prob'ly pointin' right at you

Best lyrical explanation this year of why the world's going to hell in a handbasket...

6. Tullycraft - The Railway Prince Hotel

Thanks go to Brian for turning me on to this lot in a big way this year. Witty, literate lyrics and poppy harmonies made this an irresistible summer listen. Plus, they steal part of Paradise By The Dashboard Light in the song below, so bonus points for that.

Top Track: (one of many) Goldie & The Gingerbreads

They shot their disapproving glances like a gatling gun

I couldn't vocalize the words that rested on my tongue

You never let yourself forget that this was passing

I'm sure you're not the only one

5. The Divine Comedy - Office Politics

Edit out three wearisome gag tracks which outstay their welcome after the first couple of listens and this is another great Divine Comedy album... though not quite as inspirational as Neil's last, Foreverland. It's a concept album set in an office... yet peek below the sitcom facade and it has quite a bit to say about Little England and the workaday world that inspired Brexit. Morrissey should give it a listen.

Top Track: When The Working Day Is Done

When the working day is through

And you're waiting in the rain

For another overdue

Overcrowded railway train

And the movie poster screams

"It's the best film ever seen!"

But it's all a different world

To which you have never been

And you're bored out of your mind

So you keep yourself amused

Reading the Financial Times

Of the fellow next to you

Then something in you snaps

And you shout with all your lungs

"We give and get nothing back!"

When the working day is done

2019 Contenders: What It Is

Scruffy Americana singers probably get more of my attention these days than any other kind of pop musician. If you look like you've just fallen off the back of a hay truck and you've got a bemused, The-World's-Gone-A-Bit-Wonky expression on your face, chances are I'm going to give your new record a try.

Hayes Carll has been on my radar for a while now, but What It Is is the first of his albums I've listened to immediately it came out.

Here he is with Alison Moorer, performing the opening track, one of those "Where've you been? Running round with other blokes?" songs that date right back to the blues. It should give you an idea of what to expect...

Hot 100 Countdown #87

Not many takers for Number 87 on my countdown... in fact only Rigid Digit dared make any suggestions...

David Bowie - '87 and Cry

Is Never Let Me Down Bowie's worst album? It certainly hasn't aged very well. Still, this was in consideration for a little while.

Bouncing Souls - 87

Never heard this one before, but I wouldn't turn it off if it came on the wireless.

Hank Williams III - 87 Southbound

This was also briefly in contention as it does live in the deepest southern reaches of my record collection.

Other possibilities...

Hayes Carll - Highway 87

Hayes passes Hank going in the opposite direction.

Fred Thomas - Expo '87

I get so hung up high on expectations

I get so sick at restaurants and on family vacations

And I leave every situation invariably feeling dumb

But you’ve got to be a little bit dumb

Otherwise you never get anything done

And you’ve gotta be kinda hit

Otherwise you spend your time smiling entirely too much

Wincing while you’re waiting

For that next soft punch

Ah, Fred... you can't half put your finger on it.


But after listening to every 87 song in my collection, I had to crown this one the winner. From Canadian indie-folksters, The Rural Alberta Advantage, the song creates a love story amidst an infamous 1987 tornado that tore through Edmonton in Alberta.

Be warned: the video is seriously creepy!


Next... 86? Could offer some interesting contenders...