Today is November 5th, which is marked in the UK as Guy Fawkes Night, or more colloquially Bonfire Night. For those outside these shores who might not know of this, we are celebrating the failure of a plot in 1605 to blow up the Houses of Parliament, which we do with bonfires on which we place an effigy of Guy Fawkes. A ‘penny for the guy’ was a part of the tradition when I was growing up, when we took our effort out in Dad’s wheelbarrow in an attempt at demanding money with menaces from the local  population. I should perhaps say at the outset that no comment is being made here about what might be the outcome of today’s US election, though it is to be hoped that the aftermath of that bears no resemblance to our little bit of old history. If you want to know the full story Wikipedia has a very detailed page about the Gunpowder Plot, which you can find here. And I do mean very detailed! It might help explain the cartoon above, too.

In previous years I have played selections of songs about fire to mark the occasion and as today is Tuesday it falls rather conveniently as a subject for Tuesday Tunes. I think I have played all of these before at some point, but they are among my favourites of the many I have shared for this. But before the tunes here is another repeat – my favourite piece of historical retelling:

As today is a special day in our history I’m playing six tunes today (actually, I couldn’t decide which of these to leave out, but don’t tell anyone). None of them have anything remotely to do with today, but they all have fire in their title, like this first one:

I’ve loved that one ever since I first heard it, probably some sixty or so years ago – I was nearly 10 when it came out. Nothing says ‘fire’ quite like a quasi-mariachi band, does it? And the song is nothing to do with curry either, in case you were wondering. Though that video is from 1968 the track was released in April 1963, and made #1 in the US Country chart and #17 on the main Billboard listing. It wasn’t a hit here, though – he hasn’t had much chart success with UK singles, though his albums have fared better. I am still a fan of much of his music, particularly the six American albums he recorded near the end of his life.

Back over this side of the pond for my next one:

That is a fairly recent video for the song, which actually dates back to early 1965. It was the B-side of The Last Time single (UK #1, US #9), and was also included on the US version of the Rolling Stones’ album from later in 1965, Out Of Our Heads, though not on the UK release – we were expected to buy the single too! It subsequently appeared on several compilation albums in the US, but we had to wait until 1971 before we got an album version here. To me, none of that matters: it is still a great song.

Across the pond again for this next one, a classic bit of rock and roll:

As you can see, I went for a later version of the song rather than an original. I did so deliberately, to show how well he had survived over thirty years in the business by then – this was 1989 – and how respected he must have been to have assembled a backing band like that! I’m sure you don’t need reminding that this one goes all the way back to 1957, when it was #1 in the UK and #2 in the US, a few short months before his UK tour was cancelled after just three shows when it came out that his third wife (at the age of just 22!) was only 13, and was a first cousin once removed (don’t ask, I’ve never understood that either). I suspect that even after all these years, that might happen nowadays too. It doesn’t seem to have done any long term damage to his career, though! A number of the YouTube comments on this attribute the guitar solo to Brian May, but I’m not entirely sure about that: to my eyes the guitarist bears more than a passing resemblance to Mike Campbell of Tom Petty’s band, The Heartbreakers – anyone fancy a guess on it?

I’m travelling back across the Atlantic again for this next one, and will be staying over here for the rest of the set. How about a little bit of fun:

This is a typical 60s English pop song, from a band which eventually morphed into two parts – Jeff Lynne (who joined after this song) turned his bit into the ELO, and Roy Wood turned into Wizzard. This is nutty but I love it still – I bought the single when it was released, in January 1968, and am still word-perfect on it now, even to my timing for Carl Wayne’s ‘oohs!’ This has absolutely no influence from Guy Fawkes, but it’s still a great song. It was one of a string of hits The Move had here in the UK, reaching #3, but it didn’t chart in the US. In fact, they only ever broke into the US chart once, with their final single before the band broke up in 1972: that was California Man, which got to the dizzy height of #93!

Another favourite of mine now, which I have played just once before and really should share again:

Julie Driscoll was a solo artist and actress, who had a number of musical collaborations, including this one with the Brian Auger Trinity. There was some strange editing going on there, though: the rather bemused guy at the beginning was Simon Dee, a DJ and TV host from that time, who did both Top Of The Pops and his own early evening chat show, Dee Time. As for the guy at the end, I have absolutely no idea who he is and why he was there – he looks as though he was in the process of failing the audition for Monty Python! You may well know that the song was written by Bob Dylan, with Rick Danko of The Band. The Band’s version is on their 1968 debut album, Music From Big Pink, which is a great record and is still among my favourites. Dylan released his version on The Basement Tapes, in 1975. This cover was a UK #5 in 1968 – a classic one hit wonder.

I’m rounding off today’s tunes with one I often play, but it is none the worse for an occasional repeat, and I’ve managed to find a colour version this time:

Fire, by the Crazy World Of Arthur Brown, was released in June 1968 in the UK, and in September in the US. It reached #1 in the UK and Canada, and #2 in the US. The band’s self-titled debut album got to #2 in the UK and #7 in the US, largely on the strength of this song’s performance as a single. I would say that this is the archetypal one-hit wonder, were it not for the fact that the follow up single made it all the way to #56 in the UK chart. I guess there really was no chance of really following up something as utterly bonkers as this, though. Arthur Brown wore that flaming headdress on stage for live performances, and somehow the BBC let him get away with it for this Top Of The Pops appearance. I think Health and Safety might have a few words to say about it nowadays, but it is a good way to close my selection of songs about fire, complete with a little bit of the real thing!

That might have been the final song for today but I couldn’t leave without giving you a little bit of safety advice for tonight. It’s these guys again:

That’s all for today. We managed to preserve our democracy all those years ago, and I hope I wake up tomorrow to find that the US has done the same with theirs. See you again soon.