Quite a bit of support on the mothership this week for Richard Thompson's 'Oops, I Did It Again'...it's unlikely all right, but in a way it'd be a shame if he gets zedded for that, since he's written so many terrific songs of his own.
Here are cover versions of some of them, though they're not that unlikely I suppose (except the Elvis Costello, maybe).
Warning: these songs are not too cheerful.
Calvary Cross - Tortoise and Bonnie Prince Billy
Albion Sunrise - Albion Country Band
God Loves A Drunk - Norma Waterson
Mrs Rita - June Tabor
1952 Vincent Black Lightning - Mammals
Never Again - Shirley Collins
Dimming Of The Day - Any Trouble
Has He Got A Friend For Me? - Debra Cowan
The Great Valerio - Maggie Holland
End Of The Rainbow - Elvis Costello
The Madness Of Love - Adams, French, Kaiser, West
13 comments:
That is, Albion Sunrise is pretty cheerful.
Wow! Don't know most of these covers. It seems to me, that, for someone with his body of work, he doesn't have had his songs covered so much (and he's one of the very few people in folk/rock/pop/etc who can boast good-to-great records in 5 different decades -with FC in the sixties, tnough-)... Off to listen, and many, many thanks, tfd!!!
tfd: have you heard The Fatima Mansions' version of The Great Valerio? It's slower than this and, I think, the original. I could put it in that dropbox thingy if you're interested (it's not in Spotify).
Our Richard has written so many great songs, hasn't he?
Oh yes, please, Chris - I don't know that one.
Just heard that RT has broken a finger...
I've not heard all of them yet but there's a lot of 'impersonations' (and a few too many fingers in ears for my taste). The Mammals' 1952 Vincent.. stands out as making a new song of it. I like it better than Richard's. The harmony singing is lovely.
I'll start the upload, once I've collected my coat.
Man On Wire, in box.
Yay, Tortoise & June Tabor. You realize that if these get zedded your man won't get any credit? Unless you can covince the Marconium to acknowledge songwriters. Never heard the version of Did it Again, but hope it gets in this week.
There was a 4 CD retrospective of his work released today.
It's here:
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=111987188
It's here:
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=111987188
They won't get zedded, shoey, cos I haven't recommended them - they're not unlikely enough.
Yes, I know about the boxed set, gf. I've got all the tracks of course. It's to mark his 60th birthday, which he had in April - catching up with me again!
The most unlikely cover of an RT song I know is Yo La Tengo's sheet-metal version of "For Shame Of Doing Wrong". Unlike most of that reliable band's work, it's blimmin' awful.
What's unlikely about Elvis as an RT fan, tfd? During the punk ascendency, EC was asked to spontaneously name his 10 favourite albums in an interview in one of the inkies. One of them was "Full House". "You don't strike me as a Stooges fan!" marvelled the journalist.
Shiv, I didn't know Costello had namechecked Full House...I just sort of assumed he'd have lumped RT in with the stuff he was rebelling against. Glad he didn't.
It's not unlikely that Any Trouble would do an RT song, of course, as Clive Gregson was in RT's touring band quite a bit.
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