Covering The World

I was out with a couple of friends last night and the talk turned to unusual cover versions we have known and loved. When I trumped their efforts with the Thai rendition of Boney M's 'Rasputin' they foolishly asked me to put together a collection for them.

If you want the full collection click on this for the link. Many of the songs have featured here before. Here are three that haven't (as best I can remember): a bunch of Italians tackling 'Simon Says'; a marching band doing a surprisingly fine version of 'All Right Now'; and the pick of the bunch, a Dylan impersonator interpreting Dr Seuss in the style of 'Highway 61 Revisited'. 

"Il Ballo Di Simone" - Guiliano & I Notturni

"All Right Now" - The Leland Stanford Junior University Marching Band

"Green Eggs And Ham" - Dylan Hears A Who

And if, after that last one, you are saying to yourself "How ridiculous! Bob Dylan would never stoop to covering kid's stuff", then you clearly have never seen this:

Jennysongs

I have just spent 24 hours in Paris, mostly working but I did have an hour spare to visit the fancy shops in Rue Daguerre (and the local Maison d'Oxfam as well). In the first place I went into the assistant tried to engage me in conversation. My French being very poor I just waved my arm around and replied "just looking". "Ah!", she said, "dans tezitete".

It was not a phrase I had heard before and assumed that it was the French equivalent of "just looking". So when I found myself in the same position in the next shop I waved my arm around and said with great confidence "dans tezitete". I was met with incomprehension, as I was again the next time I used the phrase. Eventually it finally dawned on me that what the first shop assistant had actually said, in heavily accented English, was "don't hesitate". Quelle prat!

Anyway, the best bit about the visit was the very enjoyable meal I had with my old friend Jeni, who I have known since she was a slip of a girl, and her husband Christoph. They have lived in Paris for ten years or so now and I only get to see them once a year on average. Today's selection of songs is dedicated to Jeni. And as none of them are spelt the same way I will also dedicate them to my equally marvellous, and correctly spelt, cousin Jenny. Especially this first one, obviously.

"Cousin Jennifer" - Mighty Sparrow

"Poor Jenny" - The Everly Brothers

"Jenny, Miss Genius" - Los Brincos

"Jenny Artichoke" - Kaleidoscope

"Jennifer Juniper" - Donovan

"Jennie" - Richard Thompson

"Cotton Jenny" - Gordon Lightfoot

"Jennifer Eccles" - The Hollies

Jeni, as well as being a wonderful woman in her own right, is also the proud possessor of a 16 year old nephew called Coolio. Really. Named after this one, presumably.

Creekdippin'

Last Thursday I went to the Barbican to see the reformed Jayhawks in concert (with the added bonus of a solo Chuck Prophet in support). I thought it took them a few numbers to get up to speed, but when they did they were excellent. It was a well chosen set with a good mixture of old favourites and what are now new favourites like "She Walks In So Many Ways".

The encore was a particular highlight, starting with drummer Tim O'Reagan's "Tampa to Tulsa" and finishing with "Waiting For The Sun". Sandwiched in between was a surprising funky version of this track from Mark Olson & the Creekdippers' "December's Child".

"How Can I Send Tonight There To Tell You" - Mark Olson & The Creekdippers

I had the great pleasure of seeing Mark Olson and Victoria Williams playing as the Creekdippers in the early 2000s. It was ramshackle but utterly captivating, and it remains the only time  have heard a banjo played with a wah wah pedal. On record I never thought they quite delivered on the enormous talent in the line-up, apart from on the excellent "My Own Jo Ellen". Here are a couple of tracks from that album.

"Letter From Africa" - Mark Olson & The Original Harmony Ridge Creekdippers

"Linda Lee" - Mark Olson & The Original Harmony Ridge Creekdippers

Here they are doing "She Walks In So Many Ways" on Letterman a few months ago, and sounding uncannily like the Byrds on the verses.

Selda

Selda Bagcan is an Anatolian folk singer best known outside Turkey for her 1975 LP "Turkulermiz 2", re-released a few years ago on Finders' Keepers as "Selda". It is a classic album that makes good use of the talents of the likes of Turkish psych ensembles Mogollar and Dadaslar, allied to her own great voice.

Selda's other recordings are not that easy to track down over here so you can imagine how delighted I was when, in Trabzon last year, the nice man in the local DVD shop downloaded a load of her albums onto a CD for me for the princely sum of £1 (or thereabouts). As today's small selection shows, she was making great music before and long after "Turkulermiz 2".

"Kalenin Dibinde Tas Ben Olaydim" - Selda Bagcan (1972)

"Dost Merhaba" - Selda Bagcan (1986)

"Bir Besiktas Tramvayi" - Selda Bagcan (1997)

And here are some more Turks.

The 27 Leggies Guide to Rabbit Breeding

Stage 1: No bunny

"Blow Dumb" - Nobunny

Stage 2: One bunny

"Eyes Of A Painter" - Bunny Sings Wolf

Stage 3: Several bunnies

"Boderation" - Bunny Wailer

"Ready When You Ready" - Bunny Wailer

"Quit Trying" - Bunny Wailer

Stage 4: More rabbit than Sainsbury's

"Rabbit" - Chas & Dave

Soul on Sunday

We will keep it short and very, very sweet today. We are long overdue some Southern soul on here, and there weren't many who did it better than George Perkins.

"Cryin' In The Streets" - George Perkins & The Silver Stars

"A Man In Love" - George Perkins

"How Sweet It Would Be" - George Perkins

I couldn't find any clips of George in action, so here is a fantastic clip of the mighty Joe Tex back in 1965 instead.

Large In Lima

What better way to ease us into March than with some Peruvian psychedelia? Some of these tracks are from the two-volume "Back To Peru" compilation. Some of them aren't. That's just the way it goes.

"Apocallypsies (Beginning And End)" - Gerardo Manuel & El Humo

"Glue" - New Juggler Sound

"Camina, No Vueles" - Los Far Fen

"Haces Mal Pobre Chico" - Zulu

"White Deal/ Poco/ Big Deal" - Traffic Sound

And here is the traditional Peruvian dance the Zamacueca, performed by some traditional Peruvians.



For a special treat, here's another traditional dance.