SLS: Bells And Whistles

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For this week’s Song Lyric Sunday Jim has given us an intriguing little challenge: to play a song that mentions a bell, buzzer, chime, gong, horn, siren, or whistle. read all about it in his post Quasimodo Rang The Bell. Those of you familiar with my musical tastes will immediately spot the obvious choice I could have made for this, but I’m not going there. Instead I’m leading with a nice little song by someone of whom you probably haven’t heard. Part of the fun for me in playing music on my blog is to introduce you to new ones that you may not have heard before,, and this is another of my favourite female singer-songwriters.

The lady in question is Kyler England. I’ll tell you a little more about her later, but firstly here is her song. She is so ‘obscure’ that even her own YouTube page doesn’t have the studio version of this, so here is a solo live performance, albeit with some rather empty acoustics:

I have the song in my Apple Music library, but have tried and failed to find a way of sharing it with you from there, but it can be heard in the full studio version on Reverbnation, here. Trust me, it’s worth your time. No doubt it is on other streaming services too: it is Bells And Whistles, from Kyler’s 2008 Simple Machine album. And at least I’ve managed to find the lyrics for you this week:

 

I don’t need bells and whistles
I don’t need the latest pretty thing
But lost a button
Flashy picture
To keep me busy when you’re not around

All I need is for you to talk to me
Like you used to
Like you used to
All I need is for you to lie next to me
Like you used to
Like you used to

I don’t need bells and whistles
I don’t need designer anything
I’ll settle for a sidewalk knockoff
But love, that’s got to be the real thing

All I need is for you to talk to me
Like you used to
Like you used to
All I need is for you to look at me
Like you used to
Like you used to

It’s the simple things that make or break
The difference between go or stay
It’s the simple things that make or break
The difference between go or stay
It’s the simple things that make or break
The difference between go or stay

I don’t need bells and whistles
I don’t need a fancy diamond ring
So they last forever and cut through steel
No shiny rock is gonna cut the silence in between

All I need is for you to talk to me
Like you used to
Like you used to
All I need is for you to want me
Like you used to
Like you used to

That didn’t come with any credits, but I can confirm that Kyler wrote the song herself. So who exactly is she? I first came across her back in the days when I used Noisetrade a lot to find new music, and found a sampler album of hers that I downloaded and loved – and still have in Apple Music. As well as her solo recordings – several albums and some EPs, both with and without her surname – she has enjoyed collaborations with others, but her main contributions have been as a member of the band The Rescues, along with Adrianne Gonzalez and Gabriel Mann. They were formed in 2008 and are still performing together now. To date they have released four albums and an EP, all of which I have in my library. I was a part of their Kickstarter effort for the third of those, Blah Blah Love And War, which was released in 2013, and as a result of which Kyler followed me on Twitter. She still does, but as she hasn’t posted there for ages I put that down to inertia! As she is Los Angeles-based I’m hoping that she is safe and well after all that has gone on there.

Having taken you down the path of the obscure I’m thinking that perhaps I should also play you something by a well-known name. That obvious one I alluded to earlier? Yup, this one:

That was, of course, AC/DC with Hells Bells, the opening track on their album Back In Black, which was released in July 1980 and made #1 in the UK, Australia, Canada, France, Germany and Switzerland and #4 in the US. It is one of the best selling albums of all time, with over 50m copies worldwide, and was the first to feature Brian Johnson as vocalist after the death of Bon Scott. The band has said that the album’s all-black sleeve was a mark of their mourning for Bon – a nice touch. This track was also released as a single and peaked at #7 in Australia, but wasn’t a hit anywhere else. I thought I’d play it as a bit of a contrast from my opener for today, to give you an idea of the range of my musical tastes. Or, as a girl once said to me at uni after flipping through my record collection, “you’re weird.” She wasn’t a keeper 🤣

49 thoughts on “SLS: Bells And Whistles”

  1. Pingback: One Month Done | Take It Easy

    • I’m glad you liked that one. I think she is very underrated but isn’t all that prolific, so building a base probably isn’t easy for her.

      I just had to include AC/DC – that was an obvious one for me 🤣

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  4. I like both…Kyler had a nice voice and I liked that recording of her live like that. AC/DC…yes…I tend to like them more with Scott but I do like both versions of the band.

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    • No worries. AC/DC are good for clearing the mind! The one I played of Kyler is from something called Starry Night Sessions – the acoustics are a bit spare but her voice is clearer than in the Evening Muse version. Sorry it didn’t work for you but in all honesty the studio version I linked to is the best one anyway!

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  10. I love the AC/DC song!!! What a voice! And you are not weird!!!! 🙂

    I searched for Kyler England’s video, and a live one came up. That’s a nice song and a beautiful voice.

    (I could not open the other video at first; so irritating. I am now listing the link to the video right below the embedded one in my posts for that reason!)

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    • I’m glad I’m not weird, thank you! AC/DC was a given for me today.

      Sorry about the Kyler video. Was the one you found her singing the song on a small stage in a dark room, lots of black and red around? I originally had that one in the post but chose the one I did as it was clearer! That’s also why I added in the link to the studio version, trying to cover the bases! I’m glad you liked it when you found it 😊

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  15. Lovely to hear a sweet song without all the ‘bells and whistles’ that can often detract from our listening experience. Kyler England has a strong, clear voice and I appreciate those qualities in my female singers. Thanks for the introduction!
    There’s not a lot I need to say about Hells Bells. I’m a big AC/DC fan, before and after Bon Scott, and I was hoping someone would play this song today. These guys are always great fun. Thanks for granting my wish, Clive.

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  20. What a delightful song Bells & Whistles is. Love it. I’ve found the Simple Machine album and I’ll give it a listen. Thanks again for bringing a fantastic talent to our attention.

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