The occasional Single Song Sunday apart I don't normally blog at the weekend, being strictly a Monday-Wednesday-Friday kind of guy. But I belatedly realised last night that I had missed my usual Friday slot. The long Easter weekend has obviously put me out of sync.
So a day late and apropos of nothing at all, here are four songs about cottages. And before you ask, no, it's not the snooker Steve Davis (or Dennis 'Tyrone' Taylor or Little Willie 'John' Thorne for that matter).
The original title of this post was 'Cher: Covered and Uncovered'. But I changed it because 'uncovered' prompted thoughts of that video where she is prancing about on a battleship wearing just a leather jacket and a few strips of gaffer tape, and nobody wants to be thinking of that while they are having their breakfast.
Anyway, the credit (or blame) for this post rests with that Charity Chic, so often a source of inspiration for me and I am sure for many of you as well. On this occasion, he kindly tipped me off to the self-titled album by Dollar Store, a rocking little band fronted by Dean from the Mekons (about whom you might be hearing more here soon).
One of the unexpected highlights of the album was Dollar Store's cover of "Believe" by Cher. I have combined it with another (Sonny &) Cher cover that in my view improves on the original, and a couple of covers by Cher which don't but are still pretty decent. The first is a cosmic cowboy classic by Michael Murphey, the other is by someone called Bob Dylan.
"Geronimo's Cadillac" is taken from Cher's album "Stars" which was released in 1975. In the same year she was hosting her own TV show. That had a very different vibe...
Today we have a couple of tracks for you from what is believed to be one of the first independently released Brazilian albums, "Tempo de Fratura" by Alcides Neves. Originally issued in 1979, it is now available again thanks to the good folks at Litoral Records.
It is hard to describe Alcides' musical style because there isn't just one, he hops about all over the place. There are some tropicalia influences, some folk, some jazz and even a bit of prog (which might appeal to at least one Lusophone listener). As the blurb says, the album "revels in its own disformity".
This is an unscheduled entry in our long-running occasional series. Not that there is anything resembling a schedule, but this song wasn't even on my list of possible selections until Friday.
Friday's post featured a video of the King of Latin Soul, Mr Joe Bataan. After finding that video on YouTube I dug out his records that I have in my collection. It wasn't long until I got to his great take on "Gypsy Woman", and I remembered that I have half a dozen versions of the song. So here they all are.
Before you switch off, I should clarify that this is the "Gypsy Woman" written by Curtis Mayfield we are talking about, not that irritating la da dee la da dum twaddle by Crystal Waters.
We start with the original 1961 version by The Impressions. It was the first single featuring Curtis on lead vocals after the departure of Jerry Butler and it got to #20 in the Billboard Hot 100.
In 1961 Brian Hyland was best known his big hit of the year before, a hard-hitting political folk tune called ""Itsy Bitsy Teenie Weenie Yellow Polka Dot Bikini". After several years in the doldrums his career revived in 1970 when his surprisingly decent version of "Gypsy Woman", which was produced by Del Shannon, went all the way to #3 on the charts.
Next up is the Joe Bataan version I mentioned earlier, plus one from Ry Cooder which sounds almost exactly like you would expect a Ry Cooder version of "Gypsy Woman" to sound.
We round things off with not one but two Mandatory Reggae Versions. The Uniques' version, with the mighty Slim Smith on lead vocals, is my favourite but The Mighty Diamonds do a decent job as well.
I have spared you the version Bruce Springsteen did for a Curtis Mayfield tribute album. I know some readers have strong feelings about Bruce. I don't, but I doubt even his biggest fans would consider it to be a career high.
Moderate your outrage. Unfroth your mouths. The title of the post is no oblique critique of our current Christian celebrations, just an invitation to enjoy the smooth Latin soul sounds of Ralfi Pagan. The sweet-voiced, salsa-tinged Stylistics soundalike is the perfect man to ease you all into a relaxing long weekend.
I can't find any videos of Ralfi performing on YouTube. So instead here is the King of Latin Soul, Mr Joe Bataan, live in 2015. I was at his show in London a couple of months before this was recorded. It was a pleasure and a privilege.
I recently picked up a job lot of CDs for 20p a piece - a nearby record shop was virtually giving them away because they had lost the covers. Among them was "I Hope You're Sitting Down", the 1994 debut album by Lambchop.
I had never heard the album previously - like many people I only really became aware of the band when "Nixon" came out in 2000 - so it was interesting to compare it with what I knew of their later stuff.
There was a lot that sounded familiar, but also some hunts of choices not taken and paths not travelled. Like these two tracks, on which they sound like a slightly weedy garage band using parping horns as a rhythm section. I like them. See what you think.
On Friday we brought you a soul singer called Bette and a tenuous link to The Who. Today we have more of the same, except we have added a Y and made the link a bit stronger.
I know there are some Bettye Lavette fans among our regular readers, and some of you may already have her 2010 album "Interpretations". If you don't you really should.
The album's sub-title is "The British Rock Songbook" and as that suggests it is a collection of covers of songs by the big beasts who prowled these shores back in the 1960s and 1970s - The Beatles, The Stones, Elton, Floyd, Led Zep, they are all there. I have plumped for a couple of the less well known numbers, relatively speaking anyway.
The bonus track on the album - and today's video - is Ms Lavette's live rendition of The Who's "Love Reign O'er Me". A song that never did a great deal for me in the original, Bettye grabs it by the scruff of the neck and turns it into something splendid.
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