Mor-Than-Words

      Stick That In Your Country Song – Eric Church   I saw Eric Church perform at Marty Stuart ’s Late Night Jam in Nashville back in 2015, I didn’t know who he was before he came on stage. He was introduced as one of the latest outlaws of Country music. His songs and lyrics are definitely more honest than lots of other modern Country, he tells it as it is in the Willie and Waylon way. One of his latest offerings is a comment on what he must think of current Country music. The lyrics of this song pointing out all the subjects that are no longer sung about and the issues the world is facing. There are a lot of current songs about drinking, bars and trucks, but as always with trends in music once something becomes popular and makes money everyone has to have a go at replicating it. Then the next phase is for someone to highlight that and do an anti song and then that becomes the new trend and it repeats the cycle. A good and bad thing, if it throws out song’s like this one the

    Gloria – Them I was terrible at English lessons in school, I'm pretty sure I’ve got dyslexia and can spell to save my life. We used to be set assignments to read books and write long essays about them. Being a slow reader I was always still reading the book when I was meant to be giving in the homework.    We were reading a book called The Outsiders by a teenage American writer called S. E. Hinton. It was getting near the end of term and we wouldn’t have got it read in time, so on this particular day our English teacher wheeled in one of those old wooden boxed TVs they used to use at school in the 80s. He had found the movie made of the book on VHS tape and showed us the film during one double period.    Now this was much better I could understand every word and best of all it had a 1950/60s soundtrack, right up my street. Only when I re-watched it years later did I realise the big hits it had in there. This song being one of them and also a personal favourite. T

    Smoke Gets In Your Eyes – The Platters   How's this for an emotional song, love the feel of this one. A brilliant example of how voices blended together create such a sweet backing to the solo singer out front. The orchestra in the background is so beautiful, the sawing violins really sound like heart strings. Reading up about this, there have been many versions recorded of this song and by some big names. This version by US group The Platters from 1958 is the one I know from all the Rock n Roll compilation records I used to play as a kid in our spare bedroom. It made me laugh to read this song was used in the British TV drama, London's Burning , which was set in a London Fire Station. Favourite lyric : They said "someday you'll find all who love are blind" / When your heart's on fire, You must realize, smoke gets in your eyes    

  Black Horse & The Cherry Tree – KT Tunstall     My introduction to KT Tunstall was, as this video shows, her performance of this song on Later with Jools Holland . What I found fascinating was the fact she performed it solo by recording parts live into a loop pedal and basically backing herself. Very clever stuff, sort of ruinng the whole 'band' thing. It's a very cool song and she doesn't get the credit she deserves for being an innovator, seeing this performance made me go buy her album ' Eye to the Telescope '. Apparently this song is based on the famous Bo Diddley beat, maybe that's why it caught my ear so much at the time. I love a bit of Blues. I recently saw a repeat of a Shirley Bassey documentary which featured KT explaining how she wrote a song called ' Nice Men " for Shirley's 'The Performance' album. Seeing KT again reminded me of this great song. Favourite lyric : When the big black horse that looked this way

  Freedom – Robbie Williams So I used to work in a converted dog biscuit factory building in East London. It was a strange place to have a design agency, we were on the ground floor and with lots of residential flats above us. There were some interesting characters that lived there, one of which was the producer of the TV show Spitting Image . Also for some reason they also filmed scenes of the BBC TV show ' Loves Hurts ' with Adam Faith and Zoë Wanamakerin one of the flats. I can only guess there was also either a manager or music producer that lived there as one day out of the blue Robbie Williams appeared at the slope that lead up to the front door. It was very shortly after he had left Take That and to be rude he was at his largest, but it was definitely him and we all had to have a good nose out the window. I'm guessing at this stage he hadn't met Guy Chambers or got any of his own music ready to go. It's often run through my mind if I had been a bit bolder

  The Next Time – Cliff Richard   Cliff Richard has been around basically as long the popular music scene in the UK. Now very associated with his Christmas songs, back in the 50s he was our version of Elvis. His early rock ‘n’ roll songs were great, his debut ‘ Move It ’ was a great way to introduce the British take on this new musical movement. Cliff then a teenage heart throb had to change his style to be more family friendly as he gained more and more music rivals.  His move into movies was a bit hit and miss, with weak story lines and poor excuses to burst into song, they weren’t ever going to win any Oscars. But some of his best song’s fell out from those films. I love this song, it’s so simple, so understated. The theme of it is so obvious, plenty more fish in the sea, it’s what everyone says to you when you break up with someone. But he sings, what about if I’m not over you, not interested in the next one yet. This song was used in the movie Summer Holiday , I inh

  Birdhouse In Your Soul – They Might Be Giants   So I was still at school, we were told we had to go on work experience for three weeks. We had to fill out a questionnaire to figure out what we would be suited to do, I filled mine out hoping it would spit out something creative. Instead it suggested I go and stir paint for three weeks. Now I've been known to stare at the odd drying wall before, but didn't fancy this much. Luckily for me my Mum found me a friendly local design studio that was willing to take me and show me how they worked. Some of the stuff they got me to do was a bit mind numbing, like endless photocopying and re-arranging their letraset sheets. But the thing that filled my heart with joy was it turned out they were aloud to listen to the radio all day, not just as background noise but full on dance along stuff. This song just happened to be around at the time and being such a good unusual poppy hit they played it a lot. Like all good ear worm songs it has sta

 Go Your Own Way – Fleetwood Mac My friend's mum was really into this weird old band called Fleetwood Mac . Seemed whenever I went round his house or she gave us a lift somewhere they were playing on the stereo. I never took that much notice as a kid, only things I knew about them where, Mick Fleetwood and Sam Fox did the worst job ever of presenting the Brit Awards. Also if you played one of their tracks long enough it had the Formula 1 theme tune at the end. Then I grew up and started 'listening' to the music I heard, then I liked Fleetwood Mac. From early instrumentals like ' Albatross ' to their extensive catalog of thought provoking, emotional songs they are one amazing band. They have been like a Premier League football team for having some of the best players pass through their racks. But just like Doctor Who they just keep on re-generating. They must also rank up there with the strangest dynamic in a band how different members were partners at different t

    You Ain't Seen Nothing Yet – Bachman Turner Overdrive     Anyone of a certain age will remember this one as Smashie and Nicey 's theme song, otherwise know as comedians Harry Enfield and Paul Whitehouse. They played a couple of DJ characters that parodied the ole school Radio 1 disk jockeys of the 70s and 80s. They used to do sketches based in a radio studio then fire up the music by introducing this with a ‘Let’s Rock'. It was featured on their to show each week and that lead them to releasing an album of rock classics with this as the introduction track. I had it on cassette and there were some storming tunes on there, covering the decades of rock music. Whenever I hear this song it always makes me smile. Also the bands name was always a Trival Pursuit question, it's not your average type of band name, but it made the mystic around this song even better. Named after some of the band members, overdrive being a good word to describe what this song sounds li

My Boy Lollipop – Millie Small This one is all about the Harmonica for me, this song has such a great swing it's infectious. With the Saxophone driving the song and the sweet sounding lyrics it's a perfect example of how a song can change your mood. You only have to picture 'My boy lollipop' to know he's a real character and it makes you smile, it does make your heart go giddy up.    Apparently this song started out as 'My Girl Lollypop' as a Doo-wop release, but it got changed round for a girl to sing it. This is created as one of the first Ska songs in the UK. Millie Small was from Jamaica and had a huge No.2 hit with this both sides of the Atlantic. There was a long standing mirth that Rod Stewart played the Harmonica on this, something Rod denies. But it's a nice thought. I have this song on loads on 1960s compilations and its been span at quite a few parties. Favourite Lyric : My boy lollipop / You make my heart go giddy up

  I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry – Hank Williams I Saw The Light the biography movie of Hank Williams is on UK TV tonight. I’ve seen some bad reviews of it over the years but there’s no getting away from the fact it tells an interesting story. Hank Williams was like the prototype pop star he was looking for fame more for getting out of a hard life, needing to make opportunities and money. Once he had got those things he did his upmost to self destruct as he couldn’t help but enjoy all the excesses and torments it brings. Then like all the greats it seems they have to have a mysterious death just to add to their legend, it was a sad ending for such a talent. So young as well. For his songs to as powerful as they were he had to live out each one, you can feel the pain and torment in his words and the crack in his voice. His messages were always so simple and uncomplicated and told the listener just the truth of the matter. So relatable that they set the benchmark for all t

Sledgehammer – Peter Gabriel This song was more famous for its animated video than it was for being a banging tune. Peter Gabriel is a bit of a hard one to talk about, his days with Genesis were legendary for his silly stage outfits and their music then was a bit out there. His solo stuff had also been a mixed bag with music reflecting the different of stages of his life. I like his more mainstream stuff like this song, Games Without Frontiers and Solsberry Hill . I remember seeing the video for Sledgehammer as a teenager and being blown away by it's complex technique. Knowing a little bit about animation I realised this must have taken forever to film, every part individually animated by being moved a fraction at a time and then photographed. The dancing frozen chickens are very good for being headless. It’s become such a part of this song it’s hard to separate them, but the meaning of the song is all about going in heavy handed, being a sledgehammer and sorting out som

Blinded By Your Grace Pt.2 – Stormzy Ft. MNEK I sat down to watch another BBC4 music documentary, this time it was Mica Paris reconnecting herself to her Gospel upbringing. She picked out six Gospel songs that between them explained the history and meaning of where Gospel music comes from and how it’s gone full circle yet again and become contemporary. This is mostly down to the Grimm scene and artists like Stormzy, along with increased notoriety thanks to Harry and Megan's wedding featuring a Gospel group. It was a very interesting watch, funny how to see how American and English choirs interpreted the standard Amazing Grace so differently. Then it explained Gospel's connection to the American slaves and how it helped develop into Blues music. But the most surprising thing for me was the whole Grimm thing, showing my musical ignorance . Mica references Stormzy 's performance at Glastonbury in 2019 , a set I watched at home, purely out of interest as not being

Careless Whisper – George Michael Oh Dear. This one takes me all the way back to the fourth years leavers disco from my Junior School. I was 10 when this came out, there was so much about 1980's music I just didn't get, but a girl from my class was a huge Wham fan and idolised George , and for some strange reason me. So when the 'slow' dances came on at the end of the evening, which was probably 5PM, we were only kids, I was marched to the dance floor to take a twirl around to this. I was embarrassed enough all ready before I looked towards the double exit doors only to see my mum and her dad smiling away at their little darlings. Cringe. But for all that, it's a great memory and a great song. The sax intro sets the tone and it's very sophisticated for the time, the lyrics are incredible. I think George knew there would be a lot of 10 year old boys with guilty feet, brilliant way to portray his feelings. Wham's other songs around this time were mostly bubble

Cry Me A River – Michael Bublé What an amazing song this is, so many versions out there, I wasn't sure which to pick. But this over the top production by Michael Bublé is my winner, he belts the hell out of this classic. The orchestral backing makes it sound as dramatic as music gets, scary and sexy all at once. I think Mr Bublé is a great crooner, he's one of those artists that has been sucked into that 'associated with Christmas' trap, even though his Yuletide offering is one of the best he should be better respected for he's revival of the swing genre. The fact this video is from the British version of the X Factor proves you can make anything contemporary if it's done in the right way. The sentiment in this song is amazing who ever is singing it, as your hearing this song I bet you have a head full of who your 'you' is. The whole concept of being that upset you could produce enough tears to create a stream is great way to express the emotional toil.

As Good As I Once Was – Toby Keith Love the subject matter of this one, it's an age thing. The lyrics are very clever and as usual in a Country song tell us a good story. Any bloke that goes drinking in bars has been in that situation where a mate has dropped them in it, time to think fast and get out of there. Plus we all have total delusions of being able to attract the prettiest girl in the place. There are so many Country drinking songs, Toby Keith has a few himself, " I love this bar " being another fine example. So I suggest getting a drink from the cooler and join in the fun. Favourite lyric : I ain't as good as I once was / I got a few years on me now