Antony Hegarty, an artist of questionable sexuality but undeniable gravity, flinches at nothing: he explains how the world menstruates, writes lyrics like ‘Cut me in quadrants/Leave me in the corner’, creates the profoundly unsettling video of “Cut the World”. Artists break conventions. Antony is a gentle, tortured, spiritual queer who leaves no convention or preconception unbroken. And nobody’s laughing.
Continue reading...Song Of the week
290: Becca Kristovsky, ‘Bye Bye Baby Blues’
We buried Becca yesterday, but she’s still singing. With a glint in her eye. She’s singing those bye bye baby blues.
Continue reading...140: Randy Newman, ‘Sail Away’
How would Donald Trump react to Randy Newman’s ‘Sail Away’, in which a slavemaster gives a pep talk to his African charges setting off in chains on a cruise to the Promised Land?
Continue reading...133: Spencer Davis Group (Stevie Winwood), ‘I’m A Man’
The incomparably talented 18-year old Stevie Winwood; the dark, mysterious ‘I’m A Man’. If I had a ringtone, this would be it.
Continue reading...137: Patience and Prudence, ‘Gonna Get Along Without You Now’
I first learned the song ‘Gonna Get Along Without You Now’ when I was knee-high to a lawn-mower, and I still hum it on occasion. Patience and Prudence McIntyre were 12 and 9 when they recorded it in 1956. Today they’d probably be renamed Sistas Lust and Greed.
Continue reading...131: Nickel Creek, ‘Somebody More Like You’
Children – anyone under thirty – should be seen, not heard. It’s unreasonable that Newgrass whippersnappers as young as Nickel Creek should absorb entire traditions, from bluegrass to country rock, and forge a mature, refined, sophisticated style all their own. And they’re just the tip of the ice cream cone.
Continue reading...122: George Harrison, ‘You Know What to Do’ b/w Buddy Holly, ‘You’re the One’
Do you know these obscure gems?
Can you tell them apart?