A New View Of July

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In ‘honour’ of his recent sales trip to Scotland

I have posted an end of month review for most months in the past five years – fifty two of them in total. But something strange (to me, anyway) happened with the last one. These posts have usually attracted slightly lower viewing figures than my other offerings, but for the first time ever not one person left a comment. That got me thinking. Maybe after five years I ought to change the format? Has it become stale and in need of a revamp? I answered both of my questions in the affirmative so I’m trying something a little different this time, in the hope that at least one of you will enjoy it and tell me what you think of it!

The review will, of course mention the posts I shared last month, but with a difference, and the header meme is the first one to refer to something in the news, something other than blogging. Can you take him back, please, we’ve had more than enough of him – just ask Sir Sadiq Khan!

Including the previous review this will be the fourteenth July post from me. A quick recap of them, starting with…

Tuesday Tunes

There were five of these, and I’m providing links in case you missed any:

258: Still Protesting

259: Summer 2025

260: More Summer Heat

261: Moon

262: Hot

You’ll have noticed that I’m not giving you a detailed reminder – that’s what the links are for! But for a little something different I thought I’d play a favourite of mine from those. A hard choice, but I’m going with this one, an absolutely brilliant video by The Rolling Stones which was in this week’s set:

I know I only played this a couple of days ago but as it is one of the best videos I’ve seen in quite a while you’re getting it again!

Up next, my other regular:

Song Lyric Sunday

There were four of these:

Murders In The Times

I Loved Him Like My Friend

Lady Writer

Time And A Cat

And here’s one of the songs I played, from the most viewed and liked of the four posts:

Additionally, there were three other posts:

Listen To The Band: Mary Chapin Carpenter

R.I.P. Dave

A New Family Member

And for those of you who have shared my concern for the little one born four weeks early, I’m happy to say that last evening’s update was that she is making very good progress.

Choosing one of the songs to reprise from those posts is hard, but as I have long since declared my love for her music, MCC wins by a whisker:

That was all from here during July, but I was also featured on another blog. A relatively new blogging friend, a very nice man by the name of Peter Kurtz, invited me to join in with a series he is running on Fridays which he calls Top Critics Album Choices. I’ve no idea why I should be included in that, but I agreed to his almost impossible task of sharing our ten all time favourite albums, and then ranking them in order. The instant I hit ‘send’ on my email to him I thought of several others I could have added – no AC/DC, no Pentangle, no Steeleye Span, no Ralph McTell etc – but I still think they made a good list. Pete  blogs at Longitudes and you can find his article and my list here, if you want to take a look. And don’t argue with my choices – it’s too late now! One of them is featured here, too.

That would be it for today, but as you may have noticed one of this month’s pieces was one of my tributes to someone we had recently lost. In just over a week we have lost three more who might have merited one of my tributes, so I thought I’d play you something by each of them as my mark of respect, and to bring my blogging July to a close.

The first of them was Ozzy Osbourne, lead singer of Black Sabbath, solo artist, and general hellraiser, much loved by many. I could have given you one of his loud ones – there is an obvious candidate! – but I thought I’d go for this one, as his family were very important to him:

Someone of whom you may not been aware is George Kooymans, lead guitarist of the Dutch band Golden Earring, who passed away last week. I played their big hit, Radar Love, back in May and told the story of how he suffered for his art when I saw the band live – here, if you missed it. They had another big hit in the US though it didn’t make the charts here, and I thought I’d go with that one for today. The fact that it rivals the Stones video has absolutely nothing to do with my choice:

And finally, someone I have played several times, who left us a couple of days ago at the age of 97, just when I thought he would last forever, is the inimitable Tom Lehrer. He has left me with a perfect way to close this post:

So that’s it for my first restyled Monthly Review. I’d be interested to hear your thoughts as to whether I should stay with this – I had fun with it and hope you did too. Enjoy the rest of your week, and I’ll see you again for Song Lyric Sunday 🎶

 

68 thoughts on “A New View Of July”

  2. Thank you for linking to SSPS 372.  See you again Monday
    Always great when switching and doing something new – it does attract and readers love “new”
    I will not comment on your first image! A picture is worth a 1000 words.

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    • It’s very good, isn’t it. That performance of Changes is very moving to see now. There should be a ‘watch on YouTube’ button on that video, which works fine. It’s Twilight Zone, a good song, so it is worth a look.

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  5. Hi Clive – I have chills from the Ozzy and daughter Changes song – wow – and cheers to having that as part of his legacy of music to leave behind.

    The George Kooymans video was blocked here, but your mention of Radar Love brought me back to moving out og and apartment with that song playing – weird memory –

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    • It’s a beautiful song in that version, isn’t it. It was a #1 single here.

      You’re the second to mention the Golden Earring one. The track is Twilight Zone. I now run all my videos through a checker for restrictions and this one was ok, so I’m puzzled! It shows here as age-restricted with a link to watch it on YouTube – if you get that too the link works fine 👍

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  6. Well, first off, I found out why it never came up in my reader as I was unsubscribed.. fixed that. now secondly, the video after you talk about Golden earring says its age restricted and won’t play- but it doesn’t tell me what it was so I cannot go view it. I like that you chose Changes for Ozzy- as he was so much more than a heavy metal madman!

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    • I saw that you’d just subscribed and, like you, I thought you already were!

      Doesn’t the ‘play on YouTube’ link work for you? If not, it was The Twilight Zone, with a video of lust and guns!

      That had to be my Ozzy choice, as it is such a tender version of the song, full of family love.

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  7. I had also missed this post, Clive a good month for you…Pleased to see you chose Changes…The Trump neme is good I loved how Scotland welcomed Trump…Although what I hear and read coming out of the UK doesn’t bode well either…As my mother would say what is world coming to…I hope you have a good week ahead xxx

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  8. Pingback: Song Lyric Sunday: All Right Now | Take It Easy

  9. Love the Trump meme! 😆 He is much-reviled here in Canada as well. 🤬

    Re comments: It’s possible the comment function was malfunctioning yet again. This happens from time to time.

    Thanks for the tributes to Ozzy (I wrote one too) and George Kooymans. Ozzy and Kelly’s duet is beautiful, and Twilight Zone is my favourite Golden Earring song. Plus, I love that film noir video.

    Glad to know the new baby is doing well. Congrats on your new family member! 🎉

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    • I’ve been saving that one since his first term – equally applicable now, as his visit was met with protests again.

      The problem with this isn’t comments: it’s whether people can even see the post in the first place! I follow my own blog as a check, so I know it never appeared in the Reader. It’s caught up a bit today, but some I regard as regulars haven’t made their presence felt. Maybe they just didn’t like it 🤣

      I’m pleased you enjoyed the tributes, and thank you for your good wishes for Sirena – we’re all very relieved and encouraged.

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      • Don’t people subscribe via email? Sorry, because my site is self-hosted, the Reader isn’t something I’m overly familiar with. It could be people are out enjoying the summer weather too. Blogging activities generally drop off in the summer months.

        P.S. I see you “Liked” my Ozzy tribute, but you rarely comment on my posts. Is this due to a problem with the comment form, or, something else? I remember you said my site was very slow to load for you, but I have done a lot of tinkering to fix that. Hope it worked!

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      • Some do, but the majority are with WordPress. All should have received an email for the post – I did – so I guess it just wasn’t of interest! My recent activity has actually seen increases in response, which is why this one stands out. Oh well…

        I should comment more often, you’re right. I’ll try and do better!

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      • I wouldn’t worry too much about one post having fewer comments, Clive. You are obviously very popular in the Blogosphere. 🙂

        Glad to know you’re not hampered by technical problems on my site. We all want comments and it gets a little frustrating, sometimes, when people don’t reciprocate. Makes one wonder if the material is boring, or something… 😆

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  11. Loved seeing/hearing Twilight Zone ….. one of my top ten favorite songs of all time. It was a huge hit here in The States and MTV played the hell out of it.
    Wonderful video of Ozzy and Kelly’s version of Changes; very timely and poignant, nice to hear again. We watched about 20 minutes of Ozzy’s funeral procession on YouTube; thousands and thousands of people lining the streets and hanging out of windows, all chanting “OZZY! OZZY!” …. it was incredible and quite touching.

    PS – If there is a “like” button on this page, I can’t find it. All I’m seeing are various ways to share but no “like” button. I also had to log in for the first time ever.

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    • I’m pleased you enjoyed the tribute songs – it felt like a good opportunity to do that. Ozzy was a true local hero in Birmingham.

      This post has been blighted. It didn’t appear in the Reader yesterday, and as a result views have been way down on what I would have expected. But there was definitely a ‘like’ button when I posted it 🤣

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  12. While listening to Ozzy’s music last week, I found this video. It’s really quite moving! I hadn’t heard before then making it a lovely find. I know the song “Radar Love” but not the musician who passed and while I know Tom Lehrer, mostly by name, his music always escapes me until I hear again but yeah, I didn’t know that he had died. It’s sad so many people we grew up listening to or watching departing this world but that’s part of life. To each, may you rest in peace and thank you the contributions you left behind for many to enjoy!

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    • It is moving, isn’t it, and it felt like a much better tribute song than just playing Paranoid again!

      Golden Earring were a great rock band – if they had been American or British I think they might have been better promoted.

      You really need to check out Tom Lehrer. An incredibly witty man who only performed for a few years before going back to his day job as a university professor.

      Their legacies live on 🙏

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      • When I did my farewells last week, I used the song he did with Lita Ford, “Close My Eyes Forever”. I remember that song but I didn’t know that was Ozzy singing. A few of my blogger pals who link up on Monday’s Music Moves Me has shared Tom’s stuff and he was a witty fellow. That’s the kind of stuff I love. Ray Stevens is another such fellow I loved for his funny tunes. That’s interesting Lehrer went back to teaching but that may be the reason he lived to see 97.

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      • It was first on the Black Sabbath album Vol. 4. Ozzy and Kelly recorded it as a one off in 2003 and got a UK #1 single with it. It’s a lovely song.

        Tom Lehrer was a one off. Forgive me, but I don’t think Ray Stevens was in the same league. The closest modern songwriter I can think of in terms of lyrical dexterity is ‘Weird’ Al Jankovic.

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      • I knew “Changes” was one Black Sabbath’s songs but I just love Ozzy and Kelly’s version. It’s just so tender.

        Oh yeah “Weird” Al definitely…loved his parodies! He’s super clever with his funny arrangements. Ray Stevens isn’t quite as witty but I liked his works and he seems like such a nice guy. I’d love to go to one of his shows in Nashville, which is about three hours from us. 🙂

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    • Thank you, John, I’m pleased that you do.

      The damage Trump and his moronic toadies are doing to the US – and the world – will take decades to put right, if there is a will to do that. We’re lurching to the right here, too, and I fear that our voters are sufficiently stupid to elect Farage.

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      • Our political system has devolved into a bad reality show: all yelling and screaming, idiocracy is now here…it is sickening because government is supposed to help the people, not send us into an “ever man for himself” and no rights for anyone else!

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      • That’s the impression I get from here, too. Any sign of care or compassion is dismissed as ‘woke’ and is mocked. A terrible state of affairs, and all because a felon used it as the way to stay out of prison.

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