A Bunch of Charlies

The title is not a reference to the performance of Messrs Szczesny and Koscielny in yesterday's League Cup Final - a performance that I had the dubious pleasure of watching at first hand - but something much more pleasant.

Last week I posted four versions of the old standard "Set Me Free". Judging by the number of hits each has received since, you lot favour the Charlie Rich version. So as a special treat, here are four more of his finest moments. Fill your boots!

"When Something Is Wrong With My Baby" - Charlie Rich

"Life's Little Ups And Downs" - Charlie Rich

"I Take It On Home" - Charlie Rich

"Feel Like Going Home (demo version)" - Charlie Rich

Set Them Free

Curly Putnam is one of the greatest country songwriters of all time, being solely or jointly responsible for "Green, Green Grass of Home", "D-I-V-O-R-C-E", "He Stopped Loving Her Today", "My Elusive Dreams" and many, many more.

Here are four versions of one of his finest moments. Three are by soul singers and the fourth is by Charlie Rich, who I consider a soul singer as well. They are all pretty good. If I had to choose one I would probably pick Arthur Alexander's version just ahead of Charlie, but fortunately we don't have to choose.

"Set Me Free" - Charlie Rich

"Set Me Free" - Arthur Alexander

"Set Me Free" - Esther Phillips

"Set Me Free" - Joe Tex

As a bonus, here is a different song with the same name by a new Australian singer-songwriter by the name of Israel Cannan. And very nice it is too. The song is taken from his debut album "Walk", which came out late last year and was composed and recorded while he travelled around Oz in a camper van. Very enterprising, the young folks today.

"Set Me Free" - Israel Cannan

I said it was a good job we don't have to choose one version of "Set Me Free". Even better that we don't have to choose one Curly Putnam song. Because if we did I would have to drop all the above for this - Ol' Possum's finest moment. It breaks me up every time.

Dancing In Dodoma

Here are a couple of chirpy tunes from Tanzania. That's all I have to say about them really. I could try to pad this out with interesting facts about Tanzanian music - for example, that the Tanzanian national anthem has the same tune as the national anthems of South Africa and Zambia, that Tanzanian hip hop is called Bongo Flava, and that the Zaramo people perform traditional dance melodies on tuned goblet drums -but I can't be bothered.

"Umasikini" - Twanga Pepeta International (from "Password", 2005)

"Dada Huyu" - Ally Choky & Muhudin Ngoromo (from "Special Remix Vol. 1", year unknown)

Here are Twanga Pepeta in action.



And here is something even twanga-ier.

Sandinista!

Apologies for getting round to this a couple of months late, but last December saw the 30th anniversary of the release of the triple album "Sandinista!" by The Clash.

Like all right-minded people I bought a copy at the time it first came out. I then listened to it a few times, decided it wasn't very good, put it away and eventually got rid of it. After those first few times I never listened to it again until recently when I picked up a CD copy for £1 in the Dalston Oxfam Shop. And I quickly realised I had been missing out.

My initial reservations about it were mainly that stretching it to three albums meant there was an awful lot of flab, and that it was nowhere near as good as "London Calling". The first point still stands to a degree - does anyone really need Mickey Gallagher's kids singing "Career Opportunities"? - but there is a lot less filler than I remember. With some judicious trimming you could certainly make a very good double album. And as for the second point, well, thirty years greater experience has taught me that albums as good as "London Calling" come along once in a blue moon, so judging anyone by that standard is unfair.

Anyway, thirty years and two months late, here are some new favourites of mine.

"Washington Bullets" - The Clash

"Corner Soul" - The Clash

"Charlie Don't Surf" - The Clash

Meanwhile, at number 14 in the singles chart the week "Sandinista!" was released, another classic sound that has stood the test of time almost as well.

Adja Worried

Sticking with the female singers, today we feature Adja Soumano from Mali. These are a couple of tracks from her 2004 album, "Kokabere".

One of them is on the subject of sodomy. Not being able to understand the lyrics I don't know whether she is for or against, but seeing as they tend not to take a very enlightened view on the subject in many parts of Africa, I suspect she is against. If that is the case, I can't help thinking she has not helped her cause by having such a catchy tune, which must run the risk of making the listener think that it is fun.

"Sodome" - Adja Soumano

"Toumou Gnagnan" - Adja Soumano

Here is a clip of Adja performing the title track.

Sharon & Elyse

Mister F and I went to trendy Hoxton on Sunday night to see a set from Sharon van Etten. Normally at the sort of gigs we go to we are roughly the same age as the rest of the crowd, often towards the younger end, but on this occasion we very much stood out as the old farts, being surrounded as we were by fashionable young people. People like Anika in London, who has posted some excellent photos of the show.

Normally I look with disdain on the musical tastes of the young people of today, but on this occasion I think they are on to something. A large part of Sharon's set was taken from "Epic", her excellent album released last year. But being the hip characters that you are I expect you have that already. So instead here is something else from the set. Originally released on 2009's "Because I Was In Love", this version comes from a Daytrotter session recorded in March last year. You will want to download the full session, I am sure.

"Consolation Prize" - Sharon Van Etten

Sharon's voice really appeals to me. Immediately after the gig I found myself thinking that it reminded me a lot of Elyse Weinberg (or just Elyse to her friends). When I got home and dug out her self-titled album I couldn't quite see why, but it obviously struck a chord.

"Elyse" was first issued back in 1968, and was her only album. I first came across it roughly thirty years ago in a junk shop in South Africa and immediately fell in love with tracks like "Band of Thieves" and the first song we are featuring today. Unfortunately I lost the album in a house move or something some time back in the 1990s, and had resigned myself to never hearing it again. So imagine my delight when Orange Twin Records brought it out on CD a few years back. Here are two of the many highlights.

"Deed I Do" - Elyse

"What You Call It" - Elyse

Speaking of lady singers, we had such a positive reaction to the Leoncie clip on Monday that I thought you would appreciate another. This is one of her more, er, atypical numbers.

L-U-R-V-E

This being Valentine's Day, here are four love songs of different sorts. One happy ending. One unhappy ending. One fellow who needs a slap because he doesn't realise when he is well off. And one that is frankly ridiculous.

"The Tale Of Mr. Morton" - Skee-Lo

"You Don't Know Me" - Ray Charles

"She Ain't No You" - Thad Cockrell

"Old King Kong" - George Jones

In the absence of a current Mrs Goggins, and with no immediate prospect of a future Mrs Goggins, I had thought about dedicating these songs to all the girls I've loved before.



But then I changed my mind. Because there is a woman I am madly in love with and have been for ages. I know there is no realistic chance that she will ever return my love. She is young, beautiful, bubbly, supremely talented and famous. What would she ever want with a humble middle-aged blogger like me?

But if I have learnt anything from sobbing away with Ray Charles it is this - better to say something and risk having your heart broken than say nothing and guarantee you will have your heart broken. So here goes:

ICY SPICY LEONCIE, WILL YOU MARRY ME?