I woke up yesterday morning and for the first time this year I felt the gloom that had enveloped me all year was lifting.
Anybody who reads my musical opinions (and not Helen’s -she is extreme but positive) might have noticed it always somewhere between the lines.
So it was almost with relief I went to work, where a huge problem awaited me and by the time it was 5pm I realized I was about to be felled with a throat infection of some sort or another.
And the gloom is back and I am in search of some music to comfort myself with -like you might have Mommy’s chicken soup…
We Have All The Time In The World – In one of the strangest Bond movies ever, “On Her Majesty’s Secret Service”, Bond falls in love and the girl is murdered at the end!! And during their idyllic honeymoon Armstrong sings this aching, ephemeral, song of eternal happiness and love. Way back when I interviewed John Barry who producd the song with Armstrong and he spoke of an ill, old Armstrong mustering the magic one time time. “Nothing less, nothing more, only love”.
Golden Slumbers – The Beatles – It is a strange song and a Macca masterpiece, a true lullaby till Lennon barges in and worries it out into rock. The song has the feel of a benediction and the lyric is taken from the 17th Century poem of the same name by Thomas Dekker. Here is the original poem which is pretty great as well and describe the heaviness I feel. It is indicative of Macca that he takes out the suggestion of darkness in the poem for the song.
Golden slumbers kiss your eyes,
Smiles awake you when you rise ;
Sleep, pretty wantons, do not cry,
And I will sing a lullaby,
Rock them, rock them, lullaby.
Care is heavy, therefore sleep you,
You are care, and care must keep you ;
Sleep, pretty wantons, do not cry,
And I will sing a lullaby,
Rock them, rock them, lullaby.
This Is To Mother You – Sinead O’Connor – From 1997 and off the Gospel Oak album, it is a lost masterpiece despite a coupla high profile covers. Alone at home, between wanting to be left and wanting to be comforted: “All mistakes made in distress, all your unhappiness, I will take away with my kiss, I will give you tenderness.”