Off Topic Saints Not606 Music Thread

More or less in agreement with you, though I think I prefer Manfred Mann’s version better than The Boss. You cannot ever best John Martyn’s version though ..... stunning

 

Already posted on the Politics Thread. No apologies for that:

 

Youtube, emboldened by its success at recommending something I like, is now giving me wall-to-wall John Martyn. 99% of which is staggeringly good. Here's a sample:

 

And now out of Youtube pops the 2006 BBC4 documentary, Johnny Too Bad:

 

Another one of the Cover Conumdrums. Joni Mitchell's fantastic original Woodstock was covered by Matthews Southern Comfort and Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young. So which one is best?

JM

MSC

CSNY

I know which order or preference I would have them in.

 

Reverse order for me ...... loved CSN&Y and have been a fan of Ia(i)n Matthews for many years (even though this version was a bit “poppy”), but also love Joni’s version. So, very close, but reverse order

 

Joni obviously the best

CSNY next

MSC last, sorry Ian. Loved you with Fairport but this turned a great song into a jingle.

 

Yes, very obviously...." We are stardust, billion year old carbon", if only every single human being on the planet understood this simple fact it would solve most of the World's ills, though not the ecology issue that she is singing about on this song.

 

Following on from the above, CSNY, despite all of them being superb individual songwriters, were adept at co-writing. I can never decide which version of the hauntingly beautiful post-apocalyptic classic that Crosby and Stills wrote with Paul Kantner of Jefferson Airplane I like best. You decide:

 

bit of chat this week about Tom Jones - how about this from 1996

 

Oh definitely not. I think it embodies the same spirit of Woodstock as JM's does. It was like a last call from the flower-power generation. My order was accidental, but that's my preference too.
I own a vinyl copy of Deja Vu and I'm glad that it's the last track on the album, because sometimes I'm just not in the mood for it and I get up and finish the record there and then. I still think it's a good song on its own, but it's one of the more average ones on the album, for me. Of course, Neil Young tracks are always strong. Country Girl:

 

https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=the mighty wah story of the blues

 

One for the purists perhaps [and me]. This is another in the line of covers, only this time Martin Carthy, with Dave Swarbrick sings something closer to the original,and Matthews Southern Comfort do a folk rock version. The original is known by various titles. Carty's version is called Two Butchers. MSC's version is called Jinkson-Johnson. But it's also known by The Three Butchers, Bold Johnson, Dixon and Johnson or Johnson-Jinkson.
I'll complicate it a bit more by adding Steeleye Span's version of this English folk song.

MC & DS

MSC

SS

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Three_Butchers

 

After yesterday's result

 

For some reason I love this song

 

I actually think this one is more appropriate following last night, but hey!

 

No.9 Dream is such a great track on probably my favourite of all John Lennon's solo albums. There's a consistent quality throughout. This one is my favourite off the album, but it's very much mood dependent - Old Dirt Road. It also contains one of the great lyrics in a song - "trying to shovel smoke which a pitchfork in the wind". A Lennon and Harry Nilsson composition:

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Anyone who owns the album knows that the LP cover could be quite a bugger to keep in good order, because it has flaps on it to alter the composition of Lennon's childhood drawings. I put my copy in a sleeve right from day one. Sometimes I wish I'd done that with all my LPs. My Walls and Bridges cover is in a damn sight better nick than many of my others.

 

Always loved this song as a cockney boy, the older it gets the more it speaks truth though. Done classic proud I think....