HERE COMES THE SONG

The name Jennifer has ‘muse’ written all over it. Just ask Kurt Weill, Little Richard, Tommy Tutone, Donovan. Better still, listen to Bert Sommer. His Jennifer was conceived during the Flower Power era, christened by the young woman who inspired it, and baptised in a sea of nearly half a million at his first live gig – Woodstock.

Forgive the self-indulgence and use of the ‘I’ word. But it is my website and I am allowed occasionally to blow my own trumpet, even if it is not a trumpet solo. My great friend, the singer-guitarist Ian Tasker, and I teamed up to produce an album on Bandcamp: his vocals, his guitar-playing and melodies built around my words. Welcome to Twilight Hotel whose title track is our Song of the Week at herecomesthesong.com.

Suzanne Vega has been touring the UK and Europe this summer so it’s a perfect time to revisit what for me is her finest album, 1987’s Solitude Standing. The record is probably best known for Tom’s Diner, featured in both full band and a cappella settings, but my favourite track is Ironbound/Fancy Poultry. The song, one of many dealing with animal welfare, is about a working-class area in New Jersey where Portuguese immigrants go to buy cheap food to help feed their struggling

JJ Cale's River Runs Deep starts off with a jaunty rhythm that suggests we are in for a cheerful, possibly tongue-in-cheek ballad. It comes as something of a shock when we learn the track describes a man murdering a woman because of her alleged infidelity

A song caught my ear on the car radio recently. The voice was familiar. The song floaty, ethereal. Barely two minutes long, Lord of the Reedy River was a balm on a day of constant cold rain and wind. It took me back to the late Sixties. The tranquil ballad was the first song on a long-forgotten album, Post Card by Mary Hopkin. The Welsh teenager was one of the first artists signed to the Beatles’ Apple label and Post Card was produced by Paul McCartney.

In With God On Our Side Dylan took a broader swipe at the mentality of those who seek to justify their brutal and criminal acts of warfare by invoking divine guidance. It is a remarkable composition, its nine verses taking us on a journey through a couple of centuries of US history.

The late Rob Steen’s many generous contributions to this website might never have happened if we had not agreed on the allure of an Eighties hit single, Mary’s Prayer, by a Scottish band who deserved greater recognition, Danny Wilson.

Topping a bill that also included, among others, The Faces, America, Mott The Hoople and Lindisfarne, The Who soon had the ground rocking. Moon closed the innings by battering his drums with a cricket bat during Magic Bus, and the band ended a glorious set with their trademark mass demolition of instruments.

The recent death of Danny Thompson, known best for his distinctive double-bass playing in the revered band Pentangle, struck a chord with many. Thompson founded the group but he played on records of a raft of artists, from Nick Drake and Kate Bush to Everything But The Girl, riding the wave of the Fifties’ skiffle revolution with a tea-chest bass he rebuilt himself before becoming a big player in the Soho folk and rock scene of the Sixties when he joined Alexis Korner’s Blues

Brave Awakening showcases both Terry Reid’s songwriting ability and his rich and soulful vocal range

In the age of the information superhighway there is an expectation that the sum total of human knowledge is accessible with one click and Google is seemingly omniscient. It is highly unusual, not to say curious, that the circumstances surrounding the untimely death of an internationally renowned musician should remain shrouded in mystery for years. But this is the case regarding the demise of Ben Andrews in April 2011 at the age of 51.

Britney’s original version contains a comic interlude which Thompson cleverly replaces with a 16th-century instrumental passage (‘to show how things come round again’), and it works well. But the performance is essentially a mickey-take

Red House was written by Hendrix and follows a standard 12-bar blues format. The word Blues is a colloquialism for sadness and yet great blues songs can be incredibly uplifting. This is because the protagonist almost always triumphs over whatever adversity they are facing. So it is with Red House.

Although Lennon and Harrison contributed harmonies to McCartney’s lead vocal, no Beatle actually plays an instrument on the finished track but it is distinctive for an entirely different reason. Lennon and McCartney seldom disagreed over the authorship of a Beatles song. Eleanor Rigby is a rare example

Huddie Ledbetter, aka Lead Belly, was a hard, rough man prone to violence who spent a portion of his life in prison. He was also one of the most influential figures in the history of American music.

The standout track for me is Love You So. It is hard not to conclude that this was at least in part Rodgers’ heartfelt goodbye to his troubled bandmate

Though The Nice’s later work is dominated by Keith Emerson, the work with Davy O’List is more balanced and in my view more interesting

In the jingle-jangle morning, The Byrds came following. It is not too great a stretch to trace a line from the opening motif of When You Walk In The Room, which is repeated throughout and closes the song, to the instantly recognisable hook that introduces Mr Tambourine Man

Procol Harum are its best-known gift to the world. Yet as a new exhibition titled The Scene By the Sea at the Beecroft Art Gallery demonstrates, there’s far more to Southend (182,000 inhabitants), Canvey Island (38,000) and their corner of Essex than skipping the light fandango and cartwheels across the floor.

A Whiter Shade Of Pale regularly appears near the top of any list of the greatest singles of all time. There is no argument about its brilliance. But every other aspect of the song and its creation is surrounded by controversy.