Mark Lanegan: “I’m Not the Loving Kind” (2013)
Mark Lanegan takes on John Cale’s “I’m Not the Loving Kind” on his upcoming covers album, Imitations, due out in September. Hide the sharp objects before you listen to Lanegan’s’s lamentation…
Songs You May Have Missed #437
01 Jul 2013 Leave a comment
in Songs You May Have Missed Tags: i'm not the loving kind, mark lanegan
Songs You May Have Missed #436
30 Jun 2013 Leave a comment
in Songs You May Have Missed Tags: rooney, stay away
Rooney: “Stay Away” (2003)
With “Stay Away” you can add the Raspberries to my previous list of bands from past decades that I hear echoed in Rooney’s propulsive tunes and harmony-laden choruses.
See also: https://edcyphers.com/2012/11/01/songs-you-may-have-missed-211/
See also: https://edcyphers.com/2013/03/16/songs-you-may-have-missed-363/
Songs You May Have Missed #435
29 Jun 2013 Leave a comment
in Songs You May Have Missed Tags: gerry rafferty, mary skeffington
Gerry Rafferty: “Mary Skeffington” (1971)
Gerry Rafferty’s 1971 solo debut Can I Have My Money Back? has the blend of rock, folk and whimsy typical of McCartney’s work of the same period.
Slotted between his work as a member of the bands Humblebums and Stealer’s Wheel, Can I Have My Money Back? would be Rafferty’s last solo effort before his monster five-million-selling City to City, the album that knocked the Saturday Night Fever soundtrack from the number one spot in the US.
The version of “Mary Skeffington” appearing on the original vinyl album is sparer, with little accompaniment other than acoustic guitar. This more fleshed-out band version has replaced it on CD reissues and compilations.
Mary Skeffington was Rafferty’s mother’s maiden name. According to Rafferty’s Daily Telegraph obituary, he was born in Paisley, Scotland on April 16, 1947, and had a miserable childhood. “His mother would hide from his father to avoid being beaten when he came home drunk.”
This lends the song’s lyric a potent poignancy.
Mary Skeffington, close your eyes
And make believe that you are just a girl again
Go to sleep tonight, dream of days
When you had something there to light the way.
Remember a holiday in a north-of-England town
You slept in a room upstairs on a bed of eiderdown.
Mary Skeffington, when you wake
You mustn’t be afraid to face another day
Think of what you have, you’ll get by
You’ve always been a lady so hold your head up high.
Look back on a home where you spent the best years of your life
Remember the man who asked you if you would be his wife.
Mary Skeffington, close your eyes
And make believe that you are just a girl again
Go to sleep tonight, dream of days
When you had something there to light the way.
See also: https://edcyphers.com/2026/03/01/songs-you-may-have-missed-824/
Songs You May Have Missed #434
26 Jun 2013 Leave a comment
in Songs You May Have Missed Tags: colin macintyre, mull historical society, the lights
Mull Historical Society: “The Lights” (2012)
Scotland’s Colin MacIntyre records by the name of Mull Historical Society, because it pleases him to do so.
His 2012 album City Awakenings is described as a love letter to three cities (Glasgow, London and New York) that have shaped him as an artist.
Songs You May Have Missed #433
25 Jun 2013 1 Comment
in Songs You May Have Missed Tags: ben folds, ben folds five, magic
Ben Folds Five: “Magic” (1999)
Another sad, gorgeous, and lushly orchestrated melody from The Unauthorized Biography Of Reinhold Messner, in my opinion the best Ben Folds album by a wide margin. Folds and company take cues from Queen, Billy Joel and perhaps Pet Sounds-era Beach Boys at various points of the record.
See also: https://edcyphers.com/2012/02/27/songs-you-may-have-missed-27/
Songs You May Have Missed #432
23 Jun 2013 Leave a comment
in Songs You May Have Missed Tags: barenaked ladies, lovers in a dangerous time
Barenaked Ladies: “Lovers in a Dangerous Time” (1997)
Barenaked Ladies have plenty of their own compositions deserving of recognition here. But their cover of fellow-Canadian Bruce Cockburn’s “Lovers in a Dangerous Time” is one that shouldn’t be missed. In fact, they make this tune their own to such a degree that you could say it defines the band as much as any of their original songs.
Props, of course, go to Cockburn for writing a powerful lyric about love and its accompanying terrors and ecstasies. But it took BNL to put across the full measure of that power.
In 2005 “Lovers…” was named the 11th greatest Canadian song of all time on the CBC Radio One series 50 Tracks: The Canadian Version.
I don’t know if it was written with this in mind, but it seems this would make a fitting anthem for LBGT rights…
This, by the way, is the original 1997 B-side version–superior, in my opinion, to the slightly more polished take which appeared on their 2001 Greatest Hits compilation.
See also: https://edcyphers.com/2012/08/02/songs-you-may-have-missed-158/
See also: https://edcyphers.com/2013/03/27/songs-you-may-have-missed-374/
Every Moment Has A Song 