Mor-Than-Words

  It's Raining – Shakin' Stevens   I was a big Shaky fan throughout the 80s, never really realising most of his songs I liked were cover versions of old rock n roll hits and older classics. Some of the reworking his team did on straight laced old standards like ' This Ole House ' and ' Green Door ' were quite out there when heard next to their originals. Shaky was obviously an Elvis clone, but again I didn't know that as a kid. I just liked his songs and even tried to copy some of his dance moves. He did play a young Elvis in a West End show of Elvis' life so I guess there was the blueprint, I've grown into a huge Elvis fan since then. I wasn't into the modern bands of that time, all be it I've grown to love many an 80s tune, looking back now there was some amazing music in the charts then. I guess I missed out on them first time round, but as with each generation the sound track of their youth brings back all those precious memories. The

    Humble And Kind – Tim McGraw The lyrics to this one are pretty special. Think it's a message more of us could follow. Love songs like this, simple, straight forward, no huge production or gimmicks. Just real words, well sung and understated. I bet the writer sat down and said let's just write a song about how we would want other people to treat us and everyone else. The power of music, how it can sum up how you feel and what life should really be about in three minutes. Country music has a knack of pulling on the heart strings, it's one of the things that winds up non fans, saying it's all to self worthy. But to me it's getting a point across that the world we live in isn't always an easy place to be, but that doesn't mean you can't face your fears and make something of the hard knocks. I love all kinds of music but when a song can change the way you feel in a moment, that's class. Favourite lyric : Don't take for granted the love this life g

  You've Lost That Loving Feeling – Righteous Brothers   There used to be a nightclub in a town about half hours drive from where I lived, we used to go there quite often as a crowd. This was around the time of the music that's now called 'Old Skool' but then it was just dance music to us. We had to dress up in those days to just get in the door, past the bouncers, park your coat in the cloakroom and hit the bar. There was always a need for a few pints before even thinking about putting a toe near the dance floor. The club had a great light system and they would show it off by doing a launch theme and all the lights going off in stages building up the excitement of the evening. Then when enough beer had been consumed to pluck up the courage a few braver souls would attempt to dance to the sounds of the day, trying not to embarrass themselves and not crash into the people next to them. It was then like tag wrestling as some of the crowd would replace the early starters

Moves Like Jagger – Maroon 5 ft. Christina Aguilera If you've read a few of my past posts you may have picked up on my love of all things Rolling Stones . So it's no wonder that this song pricked my ears up, all about one of my main men and his distinctive dance moves. This was such a big song in 2011, I've been known to try and do the odd Mick impression at various birthday parties, so when this song drops it's hard to resist. I'm also a big fan of Christina Aguilera , her voice is one of the most strong and powerful of recent times. Maroon 5 suprised me with this one, I thought they were quite a laid back band, really like their song ' She Will Be Loved ' for example. But why not mix up your sound, plenty of remixes doesn't seem to hurt. This song is very critically acclaimed for it's arrangement and their performances. There's not a lot to say about the lyrics on this one, apart from it pays respect to one of rock musics best front men. I

    All Along The Watchtower – The Jimi Hendrix Experience So weirdly I never came across Jimi Hendrix to much later in life. I remember the other lads at school referencing him as part if their dads record collections as a big part of their 60s music, but my parents never had any of his stuff so I was none the wiser. As with lots of my influences I cottoned on to him at some point, like other previous posts I first heard this song on the soundtrack album of the film Stardust that I had on LP. That was enough to lead me to find out more. Apparently this is a Bob Dylan folk song that Jimi revved up. Think this is a very cool sound and I adore the riff, not really sure what the song is all about. I’ve since explored Jimi's greatest hits and really like other tracks like Hey Joe and Voodoo Child . But when you see footage of him over playing at the famous festivals and setting his guitar alight it sort of ruins his genius for me. No need for gimmicks when you’ve got r

Walk The Dinosaur – Was Not Was Open the door, get on the floor. What a fun song this is. Was Not Was is a great name for a band, sort of silly thing you never forget. We had this one on vinyl, proper old 45 single. I can still remember it blaring out in our front room, our young neighbours from over the road walking their dinosaurs up and down the lounge carpet. It’s such a catchy song, great tempo and plenty of clever hooks and silly rhythms. Boom Boom. All the chanting is a sure way to drive the listener mad, but I remember all of it so it proves it works. Even in 1987 it wasn’t your usual offering, wonder where the concept ever came from. But that could be said about loads of these silly song’s that inspire dance moves. My other memory of this song is that they played it at a Florida theme park when introducing their caveman show. All the presenters were dancing around in Flintstones type outfits and whooping the crowd up in the baking heat, all part of another brillia

Summer Of '69 – Bryan Adams One of my favourite songs, I've seen Bryan Adams a number of times and in a number of sized venues. He did an acoustic show at my local theatre a few years a go, it was amazing to hear some of his big rock hits like this one stripped back to an acoustic guitar and a piano. It's also a great memory to recall him rocking a massive crowd at Wembley Arena or the O2. Either way he's a real entertainer and a pretty solid songwriter. I've a couple of weird links to the Summer of '69, but that has nothing really to do with my love for this song. It's more about digging guitar driven songs, made up of a few chords, fantastic riffs and husky vocals, what's not to like. Not many of my Saturday nights, when I was going out regularly, didn't have me air guitaring to this song. I see this type of song in a direct line from earlier artists such as Buddy Holly and Chuck Berry . Great simple lyric which conjures up what it was like growi

  End Of The Line – The Traveling Wilburys As super groups go, The Traveling Wilburys must be pretty hard to beat. With a Beatle, Bob Dylan and Roy Orbison in their midst I think they had rock royalty covered. The others were only Tom Petty and Jeff Lynne , George Harrison did a good job of getting his mates together to start up a band. Big fan of this lot as individual artists and together they were different class, this amount of songwriting expertise should produce the goods. This song all about looking towards the end of your future it's an interesting concept for the ageing rock stars. To that end poor Roy Orbinson didn't even live long enough to get in the video. I think it proves his iconic status when just your guitar in a rocking chair is enough to establish your presence.  Their voices all blend so well together and it's not hard to pick them out for each line of the lyric. Both the albums they released are so under rated, these are quality tunes. I think pro

  Back Home Again – John Denver   Got introduced to this one by my dad, he used to play this song with his mates in a band made up from workers on a building site. I can remember him playing it when I was a teenager and a few years later, when I picked up a guitar, he taught me how to play it. We even sang it together under an star spangled Arizona sky one night, sat next to a roaring camp fire on a real cowboy ranch. We did a sort of City Slickers night stay in a tent and we had a real character for a guide, Cowboy Dave played every cowboy song you could think of. Then he passed his guitar round the small crowd and we all had a go, what a great sing along. I've grown to love John Denver , he's a proper songwriter. He writes in such a way you can picture everything he's singing about, real paint a picture with words stuff. Some of the subtle references in this song are so clever, in this one you get the yearning from the singer how much he wants to be back home. Most of hi

  Bridge Over Troubled Water – Simon & Garfunkel For my 50th post I thought I'd grab a song from 50 years ago, picked this absolute classic of a tune. Released in 1970, this song stands out for me for being such a special lyric, the concept being how to overcome your problems by relying on friendship. A universal subject if there ever was one. For some reason, I always seemed to listen to Simon & Garfunkel when I'm on a plane to America, I've made quite a few trips across the pond. I guess they were a very safe bet for any airline radio station programmer to pick out, but I can't help but feel like I'm off somewhere amazing when I hear this played. The setting of the song is so well structured and cultured, it's so reassuring throughout and you get the sense the singer really cares and wants the best for you. Paul Simon is such a clever song writer and to know of the troubled relationship between these two characters makes songs like this seem all the

    Eve Of Destruction – Barry McGuire Apologies for adding to the misery at the moment, but this one came to mind today.    A very thought provoking song, showing music can be political and have a real message. Weirdly it was used as an example of what was wrong with the youth of the 60s, with the establishment  using it to point out that young people are often seen as the trouble makers. Whereas their usually the ones that stand up against the cruelty and injustices in the world. Sadly this song is still appropriate today, lots of people still don't believe what's going on around them, or maybe some don't care. It's a very honest lyric with lots of powerful images, no big judgement on the non believers just raising questions to say, have you thoughts about this? I heard this song on a 60s compilation back when I was in my teenage years and it always struck me how out of place it must have been in the pop charts. There were lots of protest songs back then, mostly folk

Down Under – Men At Work I have great memories of visiting Australia, so this song will always be special as it reminds me of those fun times. It's about the singers travels around the world, all the Ozzie references conjure up some great images. It was always a big party song before I ever set foot Down Under, it plays like a soundtrack to one of the best holidays I ever had.   I found it funny when I visited back in 2001 when I got chatting to the locals, it was very much like this song in reverse. As much as you would expect we know lots about each others culture through TV shows and the like. It was amazing how many different sayings we had for things and how we would even phrase stuff in our own ways. They picked me up a lot on my British accent and it made for some very funny conversations as we explored the silly differences between us. Lovely people, very welcoming and I made some good friends.   Men At Work is a cool name for a band, I think this was the only time they tro

    Sittin' On The Dock Of The Bay – Otis Redding Another one of those songs that I've no idea where I first heard it, but as soon as I did hear it I was sat beside Otis on that dock. A brilliant lyric that takes you on a journey and helps you drift away to a happier place. The groove of this one so soothing and relaxing. I heard the story of how and where this song was written, Otis was actually sat on a house boat acting out exactly what he was describing in the words. Sat there in the morning sun just letting the day past him by, he thought to himself what's it all about? Love the fact it ends up by him just whistling over the backing, it's just what you would do as you were sat there contemplating life and let your mind wander.   Sadly this was recorded just days before his death in a plane crash. It was on the legendary STAX label and Booker T and the M.G 's did the backing like most of STAXs songs. Otis Redding was an amazing artist that broke new ground in

    Town Called Malice – The Jam   After ' The Sound of the Underground ' in my last post it reminded me of The Jam 's ' Going Underground .' I could have picked that as my favourite Jam song but it's trumped by this track, 'Town Called Malice.' I didn't follow them when they were most popular, I missed out on a lot of the 80's music. Weirdly I got more into them via a pub band we used to see on a semi regular basis at one of our locals, the lead singer was obviously a big fan and half their set was Jam covers. To be fair to him he would have been one of those on the TV show ' Stars In Their Eyes ', "Tonight Mathew, I'm going to be Paul Weller ," if had it existed at that time, he had him down pat.   This is a brilliant song with a hard meaning, a very clever way to sum up the state of play in his home town. People had it hard and music is a great way to highlight that to the world. I love the beat of this, the lyr

 Sound Of The Underground – Girls Aloud Some really good artists have come through the ranks of the TV talent shows, Carrie Underwood probably being my favourite. It's a shame these shows have managed to divide the average music fans into two camps, those that appreciate talent wherever it comes from, and those that can't get over manufactured Pop. You'd have to hope that talent wins out but that doesn't always seem to be the case. I've always had a huge soft spot for Girls Aloud, I think it's a very clever band name for starters. This being the song that they launched from Pop Stars the Rivals TV talent show, they turned out to be a really good group with lots of huge hits. But this song always stood out for me, think it's not so much the sound of the underground but more likly the sound of great surf guitar tunes of the 1950/60s. I love a good guitar rift, the quirky sound of the song is also very ear catching. The whole think put together with five grea