SLS: American Devil Maid

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After a brief change last month, Jim is reverting to his usual practice and for this week’s first Song Lyric Sunday of the month is inviting us to play a song written or performed by someone who was born in this month: August, if you hadn’t noticed. His post The First Emperor tells all. I consulted the website I use for these posts and found that I was really spoiled for choice. Amongst those born in August are Mark Knopfler, the late Lesley Duncan, Ian Anderson, John Hiatt, the late Phil Lynott, Robert Plant and Van Morrison. But after much thought I’m not playing any of them: I have found three more August babies and am giving you a song by each of them.

First up is Adam Duritz, leader, lead vocalist and songwriter of Counting Crows, who turned 62 yesterday. I’ve been a fan of the band since they first started, and have so many great songs of theirs from which to choose. I’m going with this one:

American Girls, of course, the lyrics for which can be found on the ever-reliable genius.com.

American Girls was a track on Counting Crows’ fourth album, Hard Candy, which came out in July 2002 and reached #5 in the US and #9 here in the UK: it is one of my favourites of theirs. This song was released as a single ahead of the album, in May 2002, and reached #33 in the UK, but didn’t make the main US chart, though it did feature in two of their airplay listings: #1 on the Adult Alternative chart and #24 on the Adult Pop one. If you listen really hard you may just be able to make out Sheryl Crow in the backing vocals, as the video credit promises. As is usual, Adam wrote this one, and I love the song and the video, which is a real tonic to watch.

My second choice for today is to celebrate the upcoming birthday of Barry Hay, who will be 78 on 16 August. If you don’t recognise his name, this might help:

Barry Hay is, of course, the lead singer of Golden Earring. Again, I had many to choose from, the obvious of which would have been their signature hit Radar Love. But they have loads of other great songs, so I am going with The Devil Made Me Do It, the lyrics for which can be found at genius. com. Where else?

Golden Earring were founded in 1961 as The Tornados, though they changed the name to avoid problems with the identically named British band, who you may remember from their big hit, the instrumental Telstar. After going through two further changes they finally became Golden Earring in 1969. They have been hugely successful in their homeland – The Netherlands – and have enjoyed success elsewhere too. Like most of their songs this was written by Barry with George Kooymans, their lead guitarist, and was released in September 1982 on their sixteenth album, Cut, which went to #1 in the Netherlands, #18 in Canada and #24 in the US. This was the second of two singles from the album, in December 1982, and it peaked at #15 in The Netherlands, #24 in Belgium and #79 in the US. They continued releasing music until their final album, Tits ‘n Ass, in 2012, and finally retired in February 2021 after George was diagnosed with Motor Neurone Disease, from which he passed away in July 2025.

I promised you three songs, and this one is by another longstanding favourite, the first lady of English folk music and her band. Maddy Prior, lead vocalist of Steeleye Span, will be 79 on 14 August, and I had absolutely loads of songs I could have played for her. I’m going with what I think is a lesser-known one, as it fair belts along and Maddy is having a lot of fun with it:

That was The Old Maid In The Garrett/Tam Lin Reel, and presumably you can now see where my title for today came from, if you were wondering (and if you were, I can recommend a good therapist). This is a traditional Irish folk song, but that still didn’t stop genius.com from giving us the lyrics, though I can’t tell you who wrote it!

This was a track on Steeleye Span’s fourteenth album, Time, which came out in 1996, a full seven years after their previous record. It was prompted by a 25th anniversary reunion tour in 1995 in which former band members including Gay Woods, who was in the original lineup, took part. They decided to make another record but as Maddy was having trouble with her voice at the time she asked Gay to rejoin the band, and after some persuasion she did, and stayed with them for six years and two further albums, both of which Maddy sat out. Like everything the band did I really enjoyed the album, and have the full set in my Apple Music library, having previously bought most of them in the days when we actually had to get physical copies of our music.

That’s my set of three tunes for today: a bit of a mixture but they all shuffle along quite nicely, I think. I’ll leave you with my usual thanks to Jim for hosting the show, and I’ll be back again for another set of Tuesday Tunes, which will be a companion piece for last week’s offering. I hope to see you then. Take care 😊

39 thoughts on “SLS: American Devil Maid”

  1. Pingback: Tuesday Tunes 315: Bride | Take It Easy

  2. Clive, I like the Counting Crows song but choose to skip the video. THANK YOU for not choosing Radar Love. It’s been played to death in the US. Good to hear a new (to me) one. Really enjoyed the Steeleye Span tune. I love the stories they sing.

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    • Thanks, Lisa. I wanted to show that Golden Earring had more than just the one song in their catalogue. And I’m pleased you liked Steeleye Span, a favourite band of mine since their first album, around 1970.

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  5. This was a really enjoyable read! Thanks for sharing. I’d love for you to check out my latest work at weurd.com, if you’re interested – i appreciate any feedback. Keep up the great work!

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  9. Great post, Clive as I knew very little about Counting Crows, Golden Earring and Steeleye Span, although I know you have posted about them several times.  I am very familiar with the Golden Earring hits Radar Love and Twilight Zone as they both did well over here in the US. Your post title was a great way to blend these songs together.

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  11. Three very diverse songs Clive 😃I love Counting Crows but this one’s not one of my favourites – and I’m not sure why that is? I had not heard your second track before but enjoyed it and I really liked the Steeleye Span number especially the fiddle playing 🙌

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  12. Three super choices, Clive, but I’m especially stoked to see/hear Barry Hay and Golden Earring. I’ve been a huge fan since the early days of “Radar Love” and was obsessed with “Twilight Zone” for a while. They are a band we don’t hear on the radio very often …. even SiriusXM gets stuck on “Radar Love” when they play Golden Earring …. so it was great to hear “The Devil Made Me Do It” this morning. Excellent choices!

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  13. All three were new songs to me- in fact Adam Duritz was the only artist I knew of the three. I have heard several songs by Steeleye Span on this prompt before but never this one. All excellent choices Clive.

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  16. You might be surprised to know that I actually bought ‘Radar Love’. It wasn’t the kind of music I usually liked, but the first time I heard it on a car radio I knew I had to have it. I still like it now, and it was featured on my blog ages ago. The only Steeleye Span record I ever owned was ‘All Around My Hat’. My first wife liked it, and used to hum it a lot at the time. So I bought her a copy, and started to enjoy listening to it.

    Best wishes, Pete. (Shared on Twitter)

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    • I always knew there was a rocker lurking inside you somewhere! I bought the single too, one of the last before I went across to albums only, and loved the B-side too: ‘Just Like Vince Taylor.’ I hope I’ve added to your knowledge of both Golden Earring and Steeleye – both have remained favourites of mine for nearly sixty years. And thanks for sharing – much appreciated 👍

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