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:
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:
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
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 🎶
