A Tuesday Tunes Revisited

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As you may or may not have noticed there wasn’t a Tuesday Tunes post this week, as it was the day of my father’s funeral. Although my health issues prevented me from attending it just didn’t feel right posting on that day, which I spent in quiet reflection honouring Dad’s memory. Quite by chance, however, the post I made two years ago popped up in my Timehop feed this morning, so I took a look at it. I don’t think I’ve ever reposted one of this series, although I have reworked a couple, but as this one included a cracking set of tunes I thought it could act as a kind of replacement for what we might have missed on Tuesday. I’ll share the post in its entirety and then drop back in again at the end. This is:

TUESDAY TUNES 46: WHEELS

A little bit later in the day than I usually post these, but we had a power cut this morning which took out just about everything for a couple of hours. As usual, we seemed to be the last area to be reconnected! But on we go with today’s dose of ‘msucucao.’ – see here for an explanation.

As I’ve mentioned before, one of the football teams I support is Tottenham Hotspur. Spurs were top of the Premier League for a few weeks in the autumn, but form has dipped of late, culminating in three successive defeats prior to Sunday’s win over the team currently 19th in the league (out of 20). Last week, however, one of the tv pundits came out with the old phrase “the wheels have fallen off” to describe my team – he wasn’t far wrong, but it gave me the idea for this week’s theme: wheels. I thought for a few moments, and came up with six ‘wheels’ songs very quickly, so it seemed like a good idea. Here we go then, those wheels are rolling…

This week’s first tune is from Gretchen Peters, a woman whose music I have loved for quite some time, and who I think is criminally underrated. As evidence, the fact that this video has only been watched around 4,000 times in eight years is my proof! It is a fantastic Iive performance of a great song, with a spoken intro from Gretchen – the music begins at around a minute in:

This song was on the 2012 album Hello Cruel World, which was Gretchen’s first to chart here in the UK, reaching #70. As far as I can tell she hasn’t enjoyed chart success in the US, where she is better known as a songwriter whose songs have been covered by many well known artists: the most successful was probably Independence Day, which was a #12 for Martina McBride in the US country chart. This song was also the title track of a limited edition live CD/DVD following the Hello Cruel World tour. This was released in book format, and was sold at concerts in 2013/4 – which is when I bought my copy.

I have shared a version of this one before, by Julie Driscoll in Bonfire Night Tunes last November. As I mentioned then, it was first recorded by The Band, on their debut album Music From Big Pink, so I thought I’d give you their version this time:

Considering that the video is 50 years old, I think it has stood the passing of time well. It shows what a good live band they were, though I never got to see them – very few bands of their stature came anywhere near Dover (Kent, UK, the original), where I lived at the time! The song was co-written by Rick Danko and Bob Dylan – The Band had previously been his backing musicians. The album peaked at #30 in the US but didn’t make our charts – it is still a great album to me, though.

My next song is by one of my all-time favourites, John Mellencamp. He has been here before, but not with this song:

I view this song, and the accompanying video, as a positive affirmation of faith in the ability of the human race to continue to thrive, whatever it faces. And that means all types of human beings, as you can see from the video. The chorus says it well:

“Human wheels spin round and round

While the clock keeps the pace

Human wheels spin round and round

Help the light to my face”

This was the title track of Mellencamp’s Human Wheels album, released in September 1993, which peaked at #7 in the US and #37 here. It was also released as a single, reaching #48 on the main Billboard chart, but it wasn’t a hit here. He is another in that long stream of American acts who haven’t achieved the success here that I feel they deserve, sadly.

This next tune is a thing of absolute beauty, from one of the loveliest voices I’ve ever known:

The song was written by Anna McGarrigle and was the title track of Linda Ronstadt’s fifth album, released in 1974, which was a US #1 and spent a total of 51 weeks on their chart. As usual, at that point, it did absolutely nothing over here – please see the comment on the song above! Come to think of it, that comment applies to just about all of today’s featured artists. In 2011 she was interviewed by the Arizona Daily Star and announced her retirement, and then in August 2013 she revealed that she has Parkinson’s disease and “can no longer sing a note.” Her diagnosis was subsequently re-evaluated as progressive supranuclear palsy. That is so sad, but thankfully we still have her whole back catalogue of beautiful albums to enjoy. A footnote to this one: in case you were wondering, the pianist in the video is Andrew Gold, who in addition to playing in Linda’s band produced the album from which this came. He has also featured in this series, in episode 22 if you’d like to see it again.

Having kinda trailed them with the meme at the top, I couldn’t really omit this next one. I’ve featured it in posts before, though not in this series, but as it is one of my favourite Foo Fighters songs I thought I’d give it another spin:

There used to be an ‘official’ video for this song, but it is no longer to be found on the Foos’ YouTube page. This is pretty damn good though! The Foo Fighters are the one act in this post that stands apart from the others in terms of chart placings. None of their albums has ever reached a higher chart position in the US than it has here, and this song is a case in point. It has only appeared on their Greatest Hits album, in 2009: that album peaked at #11 in the US but was #4 here. Wheels was released as a single from it, reaching #72 in the US, but got to #22 here. Odd, that. However you view it, it’s still a great song, from another of my favourite bands.

I thought I’d leave you this week with a little bit of fun:

I absolutely love this video. There is so much to enjoy in it apart from the song itself, such as the stern ‘Madame,’ and all those visual jokes and side glances, some of which you’ll probably miss on first watching. It was released on OCMS’ debut album in 2004: the album was #1 in the US Bluegrass chart and #68 on the Country albums chart. The song has become the band’s signature tune and, although it didn’t chart as a single at the time, it has certified US sales of more than 1.1m. The basis for it was the melody and chorus for a tune part-written by Bob Dylan in 1973, for the Pat Garrett movie. Dylan said that he borrowed it from Arthur Crudup, and called it Rock Me Mama, but it was never officially released, though it has appeared on bootlegs. Ketch Secor of OCMS wrote the additional lyrics in 1998, and the rest, as they say, is history. There have been several cover versions of the song: both Nathan Carter (in Ireland) and Darius Rucker (in the US and Canada) have had chart hits with it, but my advice is to leave the inferior versions alone and stick with this one. In these dismal days, with snow gently falling outside, we need something like this to brighten things up!

That’s all for this week. I wonder if Spurs will give me a prompt for next time? If you see ‘rubbish’ or ‘useless’ as the theme you’ll know that they did. Until then, stay safe and warm. Take care.

……………………………………………………………………………….

And this is me again today. Happily we don’t have any snow, though it is cold enough to worry brass monkeys. Spurs have won their last two games – including defeating the current English champions, Manchester City – and one of my other teams, Leyton Orient, are top of League Two (our fourth tier) and looking good, so almost all is well in my football world.

Watching these again, it was rather poignant to see Taylor Hawkins featuring so prominently in the Foo Fighters one, and especially so for me this week. He was taken too early and is much missed.

A final thought: as this is Thursday, not Tuesday, should I be renaming this one ‘Thursday Thongs?’

See you again for Song Lyric Sunday and for another cracking set of Tuesday Tunes next week.

43 thoughts on “A Tuesday Tunes Revisited”

      • We’ve had less than 0.1″ of an inch of snow this winter; we usually average about 21 inches. thanks for taking it off our shoulders! Sorry to hear about the Spurs… But on a good note, Ted Lasso will soon be on!

        Liked by 1 person

      • Apart from a week in December we haven’t had that much – it has been more in Scotland and northern England. We had an inch or two on Wednesday but it had all been rained away by the end of the day.

        Wednesdays are going to be busy for me: new Ted Lasso starts, and the regular weekly episodes of NCIS and NCIS Hawai’i drop too. I’ll be glued to the screen!

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  4. I looked for you on Tuesday and wondered why you weren’t here. I’m glad everything is okay, and I understand your decision not to post. You must have felt some regret not being able to attend the funeral, and I’m hoping your daughters could take your place.

    I was in the hospital Monday and Tuesday with a concerning low pulse rate of 35-40. All the tests turned out well, and it’s likely that my body was freaking out from one of the meds I was taking. Considering they were already talking pacemaker on Monday night, I’m pretty relieved.

    I won’t comment on all the songs except to mention that Foo Fighters and John Mellencamp are two of my favorites. I was glad to learn that the Foo Fighters will return after Taylor’s passing.

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    • Thanks for looking, Pete. I mentioned at the end of last week’s post that there wouldn’t be one this week, but it was easy to miss the comment amidst all the other verbiage! I was very upset to miss it, but several have told me that I couldn’t have coped with the physical demands so I think it was the right decision for me. My daughters read out the tribute I prepared and several have told me how well they did it.

      I’m very sorry to hear you’ve been hospitalised and hope there are no conditions lurking there. I’m sure you’re very relieved not to need a pacemaker and hopefully yjey can identify the rogue meds quickly.

      I was pleased that the Foos are returning but am slightly surprised. Taylor was such an integral part of the band and was a long time friend of Dave Grohl so I thought they might not want to carry on. They won’t be the same without him, though.

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      • It definitely got my attention how concerned everyone was in ER over my situation. I have felt more like myself the past couple of days, but of course, I’m trying to pinpoint what has changed to cause this.

        I’m never quite sure how to feel when a band returns after missing one of their key members. I like the feeling of having one of my favorite bands playing again, but will Taylor’s absence change that sentiment? I went to a “Beach Boys” concert once and there was only one original band member left. Their music was much more rock-oriented and it sounded nothing like them.

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      • Hopefully the doctors can help you work that out – you don’t need to go through that again! I’m pleased you’re feeling better now.

        I think some bands have coped with changes better than others. The Beach Boys are a good example of one that has suffered. It will be interesting to see what Fleetwood Mac do after Christine McVie’s passing – they are already well removed from their classic lineup and this may be the final straw for them.

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      • I don’t know how Fleetwood Mac could exist with Christine. They were one of the more unusual quartets in that each contributed equally to making the band work, despite all the associated problems they experienced with relationships and egos.

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  7. I understand well that you spent the day honoring and thinking of your father. However, I hope you are doing better.
    I am glad you reposted this one. So many great songs on “Wheels”. I love the last one the most because of the country style. Another song came to my mind which got published when I was a teenager:

    I still have the record.

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    • Thank you, Erika. I’m doing ok, I think. Glad you liked the songs, and you’re not alone in liking that last one.

      Thank you for that song. I’d never heard it before: REO Speedwagon were nowhere near as successful here as elsewhere. Take It On The Run is the one of theirs I recall best.

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      • I got aware of them when I was on my first trip in London with my dad. Then I heard “Can’t fight this feeling” and since then, this song touches my heart every time I hear it. I bought the “single” on the next day.

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      • Oh, that’s so true. Right now I am listening to songs of an artist I was listening to on my walkman when driving to and from school when I was 16… gosh, how long ago is that ond what amazing emotions are catching my heart. Yes, a lot of inspiration, Clive.

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      • I think the music of our teenage years forms our taste. Much of what I listen to nowadays is either from that time or influenced by it. But then I was lucky enough to be getting into music in the days of the Beatles, Stones, the Who, and then bands like Led Zeppelin. I don’t think today’s teenagers have it as good as you or I did. Or maybe I’m just getting old 😉

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      • Don’t underrate this. My kids are between 20 and 27 years old. The all love to listen to the 80s which have been “my time”. They even have 80s playlists, also a lot of 70s songs. So, they are into any kind of music but yes, The Beatles and Stones (never liked the Stones, to be honest), are not among their lists. Yes, some music probably is too old. But then again, they may say the same when they are our age…

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      • I’m that bit older than you, so my time was 60s and 70s. I never had much luck encouraging my two girls (now 36 and 31) to listen to what I liked. But that’s not a problem – as long as they enjoy music I’m happy.

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  8. So sorry to hear about your father – thank you for sharing this collection of music…I have two people in my life who are getting older now and it’s difficult…interesting how music can help a bit…

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  11. Sorry you couldn’t attend the funeral. You were there in spirit.
    I wasn’t here for the first time around of these videos. Very good ones, too. I like that we can think of a subject and find many songs about it.
    Loved that last one! 🙂

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    • I think my spirit was there, too, and I did my best to share it.

      You’re relatively new for this and probably haven’t seen much of my themed Tuesdays collections. This is a typical example, so I’m glad you enjoyed them. I love that last one too 😊

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  13. I remember this one from before and enjoyed the tunes once more. I did notice Tuesday Tunes missing but thought it was because of your father’s funeral. Sorry, you couldn’t be there but you were there in spirit and that is what counts. xo

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    • Thank you for remembering it, Darlene – I needed the Timehop prompt for it! Glad you enjoyed the tunes again too. I was there in spirit: I had a copy of the Order of Service and the tributes, so I could follow along in what I estimated as real time x

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