Here's another song with a West Virginia connection. It's the greatest improvement of a cover on the original that I know of.
40 years old today, released March 14th 1980 - I still have my original vinyl copy with the free live EP, and the song still sounds as good today as it did when I played it when I got home from school on that day in 1980
I was in a pub in loughborough a few years back and this version was played every 1/2 hr every night , the whole pub joined in singing it and when the song was over the pub went back to " normal" .......strange place
Loughbrough was a strange place when i knew it (a mate went to Uni there from 80-83). He was a punk and had a mohican for most of his stay and ended up in numerous fights with PE students, who didn't like anything not wearing a purple track suit. However, the 'Three Tuns' was a great place to drink and I used to have one of their t shirts bearing the logo "anything legal considered". The pub across the road from my last house had a similar 'thing' with 'Sweet Caroline' and 'American Pie'. If it got put on the jukebox, you pretty much had to sing them. Putting them on became something you did very rarely...
Can you imagine a song like this getting to no.1 nowadays? Not just that but a new entry at no.1 at a time when you had to shift a lot of records to get to the top of the charts.
We must all have a go to song/ songs to get us through , what's yours Mine are Born for a purpose: Dr Alimontado Electioneering: Morgan Heritage ( radiodread) Wagon Wheel : Old Crow Medicine Show Northern Sky : Nick Drake May You Never : John Martyn Sure there are plenty more but these are always on my play list
Mad World accompanied by images of Lord of the Flies... ...I guess we'll soon have a pretty damned good idea how long the boys were on the island...
