Back in October I ran a set of three in this series with you as the theme, and I was prompted to expand those for another set of songs with the two variants, your and you’re in their title. Apart from its appeal to my more pedantic tendencies – the implicit grammar lesson! – I soon realised that I was spoilt for choice with this and already have enough in my list for at least three of these. I’ll share the story of what prompted me to do this later, but for now let’s get going with the music.

Last week I played Stevie Nicks’ song about her break up with Lindsey Buckingham, so it seems only fair that I should even things up by giving you his side of the story:

If you remember last week’s song and those “I could kill you” looks that Stevie was giving him, you may spot a reprise or two in this video! Go Your Own Way was, of course, a track on THAT album. Rumours was the second release by the now famous incarnation of Fleetwood Mac, after they had evolved from the English blues rock band from which they started out. It came out in February 1977 and made #1 in both the UK and the US, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and several other countries, and has become one of the biggest selling albums of all time, topping 40m: 21m in the US (21x Platinum), 5.1m in the UK (17x Platinum) among them. This track was released as the lead single just ahead of the album, in December 1976, but its chart placings weren’t all that spectacular: #38 in the UK and #10 in the US. Despite those it has still gone 4x Platinum in the UK for more than 2.4m sales – go figure!

I’m sure I’ve played this next one before – it is one of my all time favourites so I guess I must have done – but it is one of the most beautiful love songs ever recorded so I’m going with it again:

Your Song was the opening track on Elton John’s eponymous second album, released in April 1970, the one that made him a star, peaking at #5 in the UK and #4 in the US. This was the second single taken from it, but not for a further six months. They clearly weren’t in a hurry, having allowed Three Dog Night to record it first. Their version wasn’t a single, and as I never liked them I have absolutely no desire to seek it out! Elton made #7 in the UK and #8 in the US, but did best in Canada where the song got to #3. I bought the album when it first came out and loved it to bits – I still do – as it is packed with great songs. I was expecting to play the video of him performing this on Top Of The Pops but found this one instead, which I think is the official one that was made at the time. It reflects the fact that he had yet to become a star, and doesn’t show much of a budget being spent on it! Just Reg in a park, with occasional passers by, singing into something that might be a microphone – or is it? My bet is on it being a dildo, but that may just be my imagination running away with me.

Having started with a couple of your songs, I’m moving to you’re for the next two. How about a little California sunshine to cheer up a dull January day:

The Beach Boys released You’re So Good To Me in July 1965 as a track on their ninth album, Summer Days (and Summer Nights!!), which peaked at #2 in the US and #4 in the UK. In March 1966 it featured as the B-side to the single release of Sloop John B, ahead of that track’s inclusion on the Pet Sounds album in May of that year. That single got to #3 in the US and #2 in the UK, at that time their highest UK placing, later overtaken when Good Vibrations and then Do It Again made #1 here. This track is very much the signature Beach Boys sound: instantly recognisable and great fun. They were a band I took to from their early days and still enjoy hearing now – some of those sixties hits are all time classics.

I’ve played this next one for a Song Lyric Sunday post but not for Tuesday Tunes. It is by a band who may not be that familiar to you but is from another album that I bought and loved when it came out:

That was Sugar, with Believe What You’re Saying, released in September 1994 on their second album File Under: Easy Listening, which is also unsurprisingly known as F.U.E.L. – spot the reference at the end of the video! The band was a trio, comprising Bob Mould, formerly of Hüsker Dü, on guitar, lead vocals and songwriting, David Barbe on bass and Malcolm Travis on drums. They were short lived, and only released two studio albums and an EP, plus a compilation and a live album. I had them all – they were great to listen to during the long car commute to work around the nightmares of London’s North Circular Road. The band did much better in chart terms here than they did in their US homeland: F.U.E.L. reached #7 here in the UK but only made #50 in the US, and both the other album and the EP went top ten here. Some of their songs are quite loud but Bob Mould has a knack for writing catchy tunes like this one, which he has carried throughout his career – he’s still going, with fifteen solo albums to his name, the most recent being in 2020. And a final note: did you spot the grammatical error on the video – I can assure you that the album spells you’re correctly!

I said at the outset that I would tell you the story of what prompted this theme, and it is quite a story. I follow a lot of bands on various social media sites, and am also on the mailing list for many. An email from one of these arrived on Friday, from the band Dawes, who I really like and have played here before. Their communications are handled by Taylor Goldsmith, their lead singer and songwriter, and he gave us a very detailed personal insight into the horror of the Los Angeles fires – the band are based there. It is on Substack, usually a paid for option but he made this available to all, and it is a very touching piece, which you can find here. It offers a vivid view of how quickly things developed, and of what happened to him, his wife, and their three children, and the destruction it has wrought for them. I’ve seen several of the documentaries on our tv channels about the fires, but this personal experience really brought it all home to me better than any news reporter could ever manage. Do please read it: it offers an insightful perspective on the urgency of the situation and what it means to local residents there. The part where he describes having to explain to his young son why he is buying him a toy that he already has (i.e. had) is particularly heartbreaking. One of my favourite Dawes songs, and its fabulous video, came to my mind while I was reading Taylor’s words, and it became the prompt for today:

I was sure that I had played that song before but can’t find any record of having done so. Dawes released All Your Favourite Bands as the title track of their fourth album in June 2015: it peaked at #37 in the US and also made #1 on their Folk chart, while somehow getting to #137 here in the UK. The track was released as a single, making #19 in the US Adult Alternative Airplay chart. I’ve been a fan of the band since their first album and have the full set in my Apple Music library – some of the earlier ones were actual physical purchases before streaming took over! Many of the participants in the video are luminaries of the Americana scene: you may have spotted Brandon Flowers there, but you could also have seen David Rawlings and Gillian Welch, Conor Oberst, Shovels and Rope, and Sam Outlaw in there too – if you know who to look out for!

That’s all for today. They are a bit of a mixed bag, as ever, but I was particularly keen to share with you the reason why I chose the theme, as I think we all need to hear a first hand view of what has been happening in Los Angeles. And that is a great song and video on which to close, with its sentiment of hope and support in such a simple thought.

See you again soon 😊