Music Night 2016

So, after the babies were tucked up in bed and we'd read the story of how Brer Rabbit tied Mr Lion to a tree Jazzer and I went downstairs to see what Bert and Ben were up to and we found that Ben had taken over YouTube and was playing Bert his favourite numbers from Bruce Springsteen and the Seeger Sessions Band.

After we'd had our fill of The Boss I moved it on to Krystle Warren singing Circles on the Jools Holland show in 2005. Jazzer reckoned Warren was a man and could not be convinced otherwise. In her defence, she did have a quantity of strong drink taken. She rambled on in this vein throughout the track while Bert and I rolled our eyes at each other. The next one we listened to was Krystle Warren singing Jealous Guy a couple of years ago in Amsterdam. Even Jazz was struck dumb. When it was over she said,

Did you and Bert really think she was a man then?

I did not take this remark on board.

Bert asked for Paolo Nutini singing I'd Rather Go Blind. We weren't overly impressed. Heard it better. Nutini had himself referenced Etta James and Dr John doing it so I checked this out. This one was from 1987 and it was mesmerising. The others did not agree with me, especially Jazzer. Bert shouted for Christine Perfect (as she was) but I thought her version bland compared to Etta's. To annoy them all I played Etta doing Crawling King Snake.

After that we took it in turns to choose the music.

Ben (15) picked the .357 String Band, R.E.M. Losing My Religion and Joy Division, Love Will Tear Us Apart.

Bert went for The Dirty Heads, Cabin By The Sea, George Ezra, Budapest and John Prine, Killing The Blues. All songs that the fellows at the Tuesday night sessions work on.

I chose The Bangles, Walk Like An Egyptian, Miley Cyrus, Look What They've Done To My Song Ma, The Pixies, Caribou and Joe Cocker and The Grease Band at Woodstock doing With A Little Help From My Friends.

Jazzer went for an audition clip of some guy doing Redemption on Holland's The Voice. It was good enough. And then two videos by Taylor Swift. She did some serious dancing to one of them. I have managed to avoid Taylor Swift and her work until now. All I can say is that I plan to redouble my efforts. Swift is awful. Music for people who don't actually like music. I can't deny that she has talent but she wastes it. Still, who can blame her? The folk who don't actually like music seem to spend shed loads on it and make people like Taylor Swift, Madonna and their ilk very rich indeed.