Thanks for stumbling upon my retirement project and labour of love, Here Comes The Song. Here you'll find the latest blogs from music fanatics about their favourite songs and the artists who wrote them. It really is about the music that moves us...
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.
You would be forgiven for thinking that this was Keith Emerson in action. Emerson was indeed there but in the audience, sitting open-mouthed and experiencing a Road to Damascus epiphany. The organist was Don Shinn of The Soul Agents.
I was happily mansplaining this point to my wife as we were entering the garden centre recently when she shocked me by saying that my interpretation was wrong and that it’s Major Tom who sings ‘She Knows’
Listen To The Lion has precious few lyrics, but Van Morrison delivers each word, each syllable with mantric devotion
Spike Island: Pulp’s singer and lyricist Jarvis Cocker has now written two tracks, three decades apart, which draw on the much-mythologised event on the banks of the Mersey. Neither could be described as a celebration
According to the Söderbergs, the song is about the joy of singing with someone you love, and it name-checks two of music’s most famous partnerships
It sounds radically different from Flack’s majestic later interpretation which Peggy would always admit dwarfs her effort in every sense
There is more fluidity about Ferrell's singing but there is still a regular dip into her repertoire of long-held notes or octave cascades
Musically, John Wayne Gacy, Jr. is one of his simplest pieces. But it is expressed with an exceedingly rare degree of grace and empathy
Originally titled Jock-A-Mo, the song perhaps pre-dates its first recording and is considered emblematic of New Orleans
To comprehend the nasty buzz of that song the listener must appreciate the jubilant inclusivity of Sly And The Family Stone’s earlier music
The authenticity of the sentiments, framed within a pretty, waltz-like tempo, give Tout Suite! an uplifting feel
King's Cross has a muted brilliance – the perfect mix of lyrical interest, a great tune and a generous dollop of melancholy
A Man Needs A Maid is strange but it is wonderful. Like all great art it makes you look at the world differently
