No topic on RR. Pity, but it was half expected wasn’t it? Anyway, just ’cause I’m a pathological poster and because I need a topic and banter to keep me going, I suggest the following:
SONGS ABOUT ABSENCE
Why?
Because RR is absent this week.
Because like many I don’t often get to spend Christmas with all my loved ones.
I’d love it if bishbosh would set a deadline for this one and write it up (if it actually goes anywhere, that is).
Here’s a collabo
Have You Seen Her – The Chilites
I was in my early teens when I first heard this and I actually cried. Wouldn’t catch me acting like that now. Dear me, no.
Absence is a good one! (but oddly hard to spell!). My first thought was Lefty Frizzell She’s Gone Gone Gone (and Crying won’t bring her back!!)
BUt I have a few others as well…
Gone Daddy Gone… Violent Femmes or Gnarls Barkleys’ oddly faithful re- production of it.
The Thrill is GOne – Chet Baker…
Makes me think of “Daddy’s Gone” – Glasvegas – sob!!
“Oh-oh How you’re my hero
Oh-oh How you’re never here though
All I wanted was a kick about in the park
For you to race me home when it was nearly getting dark”
And THAT makes me think of Nina Persson’s “Daddy’s gone” of the sparklehorse/dangermouse ‘Dark Night of the Soul’
Department S – Is Vic There?
File under 1 hit wonders.
Crying – Roy Orbison
I was allright for a while
I could smile for a while
There’s no RR tonight
My chest was getting so tight
When Maki posted on the spill
A new topic is here
The end is not really here
& now I’m crying
over noms
Willie Nelson -” Funny How Time Slips Away”
Now I’m going to be absent. Off to York in the morning.
Ok – seriously then one of my all time favorite Everly Brothers songs. Kinda overlooked but I’ ve never tired of it
Gone, Gone, Gone
Dond!
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds – There She Goes My Beautiful World
Absence of a creative muse, writers block. Barnstormer of a song.
Donds! One of my favey Caveys that one.
love this topic – could rant about why this SHOULD be in the ten too.
Oh oh oh!!!!!!!
Tell Her – Fred WIlliams and the Jewels Band. Ridiculously beautiful, and you can’t ever quite understand why they’re not together, but he can’t go back to her…
Oh it’s one of the great songs ever!!!!
My Man’s Gone Now – NIna Simone
Oh oh oh!! I love and love and love this one!
I Still Miss Someone – Johnny Cash
Donds for your Nina Simone, which I have only just realised is the same song as the Larry Adler/Sinead O’Connor track I posted downthread. Amazing how different they sound, and are both lovely. I do love Nina’s rawness.
More donds for Johnny Cash, which I also know mostly via a cover – Stevie Nicks. Again, a very different version.
Well, I have plenty of others, but I feel bad nominating so many at the moment. So I’ll leave it with Tom Waits’ heartbreakingly gorgeous Day After Tomorrow.
Should be in bed, but can’t stop listening to tfds Festive #2, which I think would fit here, and thus belongs to her:
Mary Gauthier – March 11, 1962
Goodnight all.
Ta. Heard her do it in Edinburgh last month. Cried.
Doesn’t belong to me though – belongs to him what nommed it.
Breeders – Invisible Man
That’ll do. Night all.
God Only Knows
so they pulled the plug huh. Boo.
Isn’t January 7 2 Weeks away??
I thought of Bob Dylan’s 2 Soldiers as I put the boys to bed.
And to all a good night…
End Of The Line – Roxy Music, from Siren.
and finally
Where Did Our Love Go ? – The Supremes
night everybody
Tindersticks – Raindrops.
Love long gone.
Not sure having one of our own as selector is a good idea. You need an impartial judge to turn on like a pack of rabid dogs when things don’t go your way. Conflicted on doing a playlist about Beds, Missing or “Aspidistras” now.
Later
Zombies – She’s Not There
This one shouldn’t need much explanation – And thanks for the dond, Fintan!
Zombies – She’s Not There
I never knew Santana covered this song before. I’ll still take the Zombies, but this one is pretty good!
Santana – She’s Not There
Donds for that, Amy. Santana is interesting, but the Zombies get my vote, too!
Thanks Zala!
Smashing Pumpkins – Zero
Butthole Surfers – Pepper
Jane’s Addiction – Had a Dad
Weird, i’m used to coming home on thursday nights and jumping into the blog. Hard habit to break!
Ok, some justifications.
Jane’s Addiction – Had a Dad
Another missing Daddy song -
Smashing Pumpkins – Zero
Butthole Surfers – Pepper
Song is a long litany of deaths and losses -
Chorus hints at another absence for the singer – left only with the smell and taste of he absent person (although some interpretations say it’s heroin).
This song reminds me the class that was about 4 years ahead of me in high school. Lotta deaths in that class, some auto accidents, OD’s, lost at sea. A very close friend was in that class, said every time he looked through his yearbook, he had to x out another classmate. Of course he died in a motorcycle accident a few years later. RIP, Steve.
Aw Maki, I’d be delighted. Plus, it means I don’t have to start trawling my brains and iPod for appropriate songs. If we’re really getting a new topic next Friday, I guess maybe the usual midday Monday deadline? And I’ll try and write it up for Thursday night. Now where’s the Collabo?…
Thanks Bish!. Next topic isn’t till 7th Jan. 2 weeks away!
I’ve set up a collabo and put the link in the post, btw
Oh well in that case, maybe you can have a little longer… How about till midnight on New Year’s Eve?
We could make it next Thursday and somebody else could pick a topic for the following week? Not volunteering, mind you. Or maybe a leisurely two weeks would be nice. Bishbosh – thanks for agreeing to this, and if you wanted to limit the number of suggestions we can make, I, as a chronic over-recommender would understand.
Now to think of a Pet Shop Boys song about absence….
Thanks Bish!
(You were always my favorite. Have I told you that? No? Meant to. I was just saying that very thing the other day to, erm, well lots of people. Do you like home baking? Need any house cleaning done? Do you have a PayPal account?)
Thanks for accepting the mission, Bish! I guess you’ll be wanting links and justifications then too.
Links, justifications, bribery, flattery… all welcome! But for now, I must go and be nice to some relatives. Back to start considering nominations in a couple of days.
bb x
My Girl by Chilliwack – the lyrics are punctuated with a chorus of “gone gone gone, she been gone so long” See video at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yahBtp_1jWE
Also Nothing by The Ugly Ducklings – they were a Canadian group that sounded a lot like the Rolling Stones. See video here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ipknFjVwD6c and a live version from 2000: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Goc9uPOeZig
Seems I can post comments….will try an original post some time if I can retrieve the email with the instructions.
Songs about Absence?
Hall and Oates – She’s Gone
Grateful Dead – Looks Like Rain
King Crimson – Exiles
Excellent idea – and much better than the ‘bed’ theme suggested over on the fast-sinking mothership which, as has been pointed out, has already been done.
It also gives me a chance to nominate one of my afasaraes – It Didn’t Matter Anyway by the wonderful Hatfield & The North.
I’ve probably listened to the song well over a hundred times and it never fails to send a shiver down my spine. If any of you turn up at my funeral, you’ll hear it then…
I love this too, and that whole album.
Festive dond, ding dond merrily I’m high.
Dingle dondle right back at ya – in a jazz-prog-impro-stylee of course …
Lucero – When You Decided To Leave. ↲Should push the buttons of Fintan and RTJ, if no-one else. ↲Will Box and Collabo when I get in front of the PC.
That was a nice song, DsD. Never heard of the band before, loved the accordion in there too.
My Bonnie Lies Over The Ocean – various Liverpudlians, surely a Mitchdond candidate
No question about this one: We’re No Here by Mogwai. Went straight to put it onto the Collabo, and then had a panic that someone else might have nominated it on here in the meantime, which is kinda obsessive…
As well as Steenbeck’s My Man’s Gone Now, another classic from Porgy and Bess: Miles Davis‘ version of Gone, Gone, Gone.
Midnight in a perfect world – DJ Shadow. About the absence of everything grievous.
Willard Grant Conspiracy – evening mass. About the absence of God.
Great idea Maki.
My first thoughts on this was “Missing” by Everything But the Girl. My second one was Hall and Oats with “She’s Gone” so that’s a festive dond to @CaroleBristol for that one.
I’m sure there’s loads more. Thinking cap on!
Ah, bluepeter. EBTG‘s “Missing” was my first – somewhat belated – thought on this topic. A good choice, and thoroughly donded from this quarter. Love the song – a fresh sound from the erstwhile duo – and it is very apt, as she’s loitering outside his house despite knowing that he’s long gone!
Shall have to think of another one. I do so dislike not having an original nom!
There’s a GD song that both celebrates and mourns those who became absent from their lives, He’s Gone. Originally referring to Mickey Hart’s Dad, who absconded with a significant part of their loot (‘Rat in a drain ditch…..steal your face right off your head’), it also became a lament for Pigpen, who died in ’73, old at 27. Indeed the end of the song turned into a kind of gospel call-and-response thing after a while: ‘he’s gone/nothing’s gonna bring him back’.
The song also contains a GD prescription for life, even taking account all those that depart: ‘Nothing left to do but smile, smile, smile’. Always got a big cheer, that line.
This might turn into quite a long thread……
Definite Dead-donds for He’s Gone
Cheers, Carole. And some for your Looks Like Rain, too. A lovely song both with simple pedal steel in ’72 and with the full rolling thunder in ’89.
Good idea and choice Maki. Why anyone would post at RR when they’ve not bothered to give us a topic is beyond me.
First one that popped to mind is ,b>Carole King‘s Might As Well Rain Until September.
It doesn’t matter whether skies are grey or blue
It’s raining in my heart ’cause I can’t be with you
Haven’t heard this one in ages -and I loved it- as it was on a cassette that I lent to someone and never got it back.
(If anyone has a copy could you please drop it in the box)
From the Penguin Cafe Orchestra, “The Sound of Someone You Love Who’s Going Away And it Doesn’t Matter”
Out of interest, what happens to tincanman2010 at the end of next week?
Back in 2003 I started running across sites where tincanman was already taken so I adopted tincanman2010 in honour of Vancouver being chosen for the 2010 Winter Olympics. It seemed so far away then. I’ll keep it as a memory.
(As a bonus, people assume you are a newbie and let their guard down and its easier to nick their bank details. Kind of overspent a bit this year, didn’t you Aba?)
cheers for all who boxed noms. I added a few that I had, so most are there now.
Classic 80′s love song – close to a one-hit wonder and not my usual style, but it’s so well done:
Gary Waite – Missing You
I’m still standing here, and you’re miles away
And I’m wonderin’ why you left
Sounds like she’s gone for good whereas absence implies something temporary. Wish we had a guru so we could get clarification….oh wait … bishbosh?
I’ll dond Missing You, but isn’t it by John Waite? (if it’s the song i’m thinking of).(And sorry for the pedantry).
oopsies, you John Waite.
I only mind pedantic when its frivolous so thanks mucho!
(I googled Gary Waite to see who I might be thinking of and … have no clue wtf i was thinking. Too much egg nog!)
That excuse works.
Oh dear, I’m not supposed to be here… What does that say about how much I enjoy spending time with my family? I’m not sure the absence has to be temporary. And I do have a sly fondness for 80s soft rock…
* slaps head!
Who is absent? Lewis and Clark, that’s who!
The first thing that pops into my head is “Never Here” by Elastica, where Justine Frischmann lays bare the details of her and Damon Albarns’ relationship – together, yet absent from each other
We were sitting in, waiting
And I told you my plan
You were far too busy writing
Rhymes that didn’t scan
And you lent me your records
And I lent you an ear
Funny how it seems to me now
That you were never here
I guess then “Yuko & Hiro” from Blur’s 4th record deals with the same thing but from his perspective, although using a metaphor of two japanese workers rather than calling the song “Justine & Damon” – it’s a busy old time being indie rock gods.
I never see you
We’re never together
I’ll love you forever
Ooh yes, donds.
For Elastica, that is.
Donds for Elastica!
Since i’m contractually obligated to nom Stones songs whenever applicable, here’s a couple i don’t think i’ve nommed yet -
Rolling Stones – Dear Doctor
So help me, please doctor, I’m damaged
There’s a pain where there once was a heart
I’m sleepin, it’s a beatin’
Can’t ya please take it out, and preserve it
Right there in that jar?
Rolling Stones – Memory Motel
Rolling Stones – Almost Hear YOu Sigh
And since Bish is the Guru this week -
George Michael – Jesus to a Child
Happy holidays to all, i have to finish my shopping now before it’s too late -
Thanks for the extra time, Bish, so i can sneak in a few justifications on the (very slim) chance that there may be a few Stones tunes pretty enough to charm the ear of our dear guru of the week. (links above)
Rolling Stones – Memory Motel
Beautiful ballad, from the underrated Black and Blue album. Even comes with a Shivdond (thanks Shiv!), all the proof that you need to show that the Stones could still cough up a few post-Exile jewels. To me it’s Keith’s vocals and Wayne Perkins’ guitar in the middle 8 chorus that really make it.
Rolling Stones – Almost Hear You Sigh
Many years after Black and Blue, the Stones were running on fumes but still managed to cough up arguably the prettiest ballad they’ve ever done.
And a more guru friendly tune -
George Michael – Jesus to a Child
Tribute to Michael’s lover of 2 years Anselmo Feleppa, a Brazilian dress designer who had died of a brain haemorrhage.
Sadder still, Michael hadn’t yet come out in public, so was more or less alone in his grief.
Mrs.bluepeter has put ABBA on while house cleaning and I thought Oh! “Super Trouper”, that’s about absence and being missed, isn’t it.
Before that I had come up with “Another Brick in the Wall Pt. 1″ It’s the bit where his dad has gone off to war.
“Daddy’s gone across the ocean,
leaving just a memory.
A snapshot in the family album
Daddy, what else did you leave for me”
Bit grim for this time of the year though.
Can we have the Camera Obscura version of “Super Trouper” – so heartbreaking! “So sick and tired of being alone….When I called you last night from Glasgow”
Donds to that blimpy. I credit you for my discovery of Camera Obscura – my band of 2009.
*clears throat, drops guilty pleasure nom, slinks away*
Roxette – It Must Have Been Love
I have a big soft spot for a KT Tunstall ballad – so shall we have “The Other Side Of The World”?
I’ve added my mentions to the Collabo!
One last one then I’m going sledging!
“Stove” – Lemonheads
The gasman came, took out our electric stove.
I helped him carry her
He told me he had been a prize-fighter once
Shuffled her through and out the door
We walked back in talked about his boy at U.V.M.
And we began to put the new stove in
But I miss my stove
She’s all alone.
Call it love
She’s been replaced
I miss my stove
She’s all alone
She’s right out front
And looks a mess.
Unwanted guest
We lied to her.
I miss my stove
Feel sad I guess.
I know I shouldn’t think about it anymore
“What’s the point?” you say
But I’m reminded each time I walk out my door
My stove is gone to stay
dond for that, lovely song, and the lyrics are heartbreaking!
My father rose to a fairly high rank in corporate Toyota but seemed to hit a glass ceiling of some kind. My mom told him to simply ask his boss, and he took it all the way to the CEO, Akio Toyoda. The problem, a somewhat embarassed Mr Toyoda told my dad, was his farts. Specifically, the sound of his farts.
”You fart it sound like Honda,” Mr Toyoda said.
My father sloped off to his doctor to see what could be done, and after a series of tests and unsucessful referals to all kinds of specialists, returned to Mr Toyoda to admit defeat and hand in his resignation.
”Not so fast,” Mr Toyoda said. ”You must try dentist.”
erm, dentist?
”Yes,” Mr Toyoda said. ”Check for abcess.”
erm, abcess?
”Abcess make farts go Honda.”
Thank you to whoever it was who put Penguin Cafe in the box. That is a wonderful Christmas present.
Off to Alicante airport in the next hour to collect son and daughter who are just boarding the flight at Gatwick. 400km. round trip but well worth it. Going to be off line for a while so look after yourselves, have a good Christmas and remember……………..Nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition.
Can’t remember for what theme I nominated this on RR, but it’s an absolute heartbreaker: The Band, Katie’s Been Gone, about (for a change) the boy who’s been left behind in the small town while Katie has headed off into the wide blue yonder.
A chance to return to another Afasera – but an album this time, Patti Smith’s Gone Again. This was her return to recording after the death of her husband, Fred. Several of the tracks allude to him, and to the death of Kurt Cobain. Here’s ‘Farewell Reel’
hopefully also boxed
I thought of a few more, afaseraes all…
Remember – Jimi Hendrix. Just love it, it’s so unexpectedly pretty.
Send Me Your Pillow – John Lee Hooker. Also just love it.
Ain’t No Sunshine When You’re Gone – Bill Withers or Horace Andy
Anchored Down in Anchorage – Michelle Shocked. (Is it okay to use zedded songs here on the ‘Spill?)
I’ll try to stop recommending things soon, but this is a good topic. I might make a spill list!
You can nom zedded songs, steen. Whether I list them is another matter… Ooh, I’m liking this POWER, mwahahahaha!
Good Morning all. Making coffee this morning this phrase (& the following song) came to me. What seems to make the Spill ( & RR ) unique is we’re deft at daft. (hmm doesn’t quite do the job in print but it made me laugh at the time)
Paul Simon’s lyrics are nearly perfect for the topic & I always thought this was The Cyrkle’s best effort. Unfortunately overlooked at the time I still feel the same way. I see the Seekers also did this but I haven’t heard that version though many of you may be more familiar with that one.
I Wish You Could Be Here – The Cyrkle
Sundays in this town
There’s not a lot for me to do,
I’ve been listening to some records
And my thoughts return to you,
I tried to read the paper
But the words aren’t very clear,
Oh I know there’s something missing
And I wish you could be here.
The Seekers version is also very good and I think that Bruce Woodley co-wrote the song as he did the Cyrkle’s hit “Red Rubber Ball”.
The Boers Have Got My Daddy.
lyrics and music here . . .
http://www.nzhistory.net.nz/media/sound/the-boers-have-got-my-daddy-song
One thing I enjoy about iTunes is how they stack different versions of the same titles, I went to see what there was under ‘gone’ and found ‘Gone with the wind’, versions by Benny Carter, Stan Getz and Dave McKenna plus ‘Gone with what wind?’ by Basie; there was also ‘Gone for the day’ by June Christy. Over in the ‘L’s’ I found ‘Long Gone’ by Louis. ‘Long ago and far away’ by Gene Ammons & Sonny Stitt, Oscar Peterson and Benny Carter.
Ok, one more -
The Verve – On Your Own
I’ve got to get rid of this hole inside
This Spill format has it’s plusses and minuses for an RR topic – on the minus side of course is the load on Blimpy’s server, but on the plus side, should be easier to keep later justifications together, and also dond lists.
ooh, that link didn’t work, try again -
The Verve – On Your Own
‘Where in the world are you now?’ by the Great Lake Swimmers which I will Box for your aural delight – or you can enjoy a clip here:
(how do we make that go live over here?)
Where (ever) you are in the world now – Merry Christmas!
Debbby, it’s [youtube=link and then close with another square bracket (no gaps).
¡gracias!
could I please have:
the real tuesday weld (covering ABBA)
‘the day before you came’
or
‘Last words’
great videos if you have enough power to watch.
cant link – just stolen a computer that’s powered by steam.
lykke li ‘I’m good I’m gone’
From the legendary Vaultage 78 compilation of Brighton bands:
Lord Lucan Is Missing – The Dodgems
“I don’t know! I don’t know!”
(They don’t know, you know)
One of my all time favorite songs of absent/departed love is “Rainin’ in my heart” by the Pretty Things (not to be confused with the Buddy song of similar ilk). I love all songs that sound like they were recorded at the bottom of a left shaft (the creme of this very select genre being Dave Edmunds’ ‘I hear you knocking’)
And donds for Lykke Li
Well it hurts my heart to see a young man fall
Hurt me to my bones
To see him high in the morning
And by evenin’ see him gone
Possibly about their late bass player Howie Epstein.
High In The Morning by Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers. No, not that kind of high.
In a shameless attempt to curry an AmyLee dond I’ve Pruned the Strolling Bones catalogue down to my fav album (Aftermath) from which I’ve Ripped This terrific absence nom. (see what I did there?) I’m glad it wasn’t Absinthe noms ’cause I coulda got lost quickly.
It’s Not Easy – The Rolling Stones
All of the things that you used to do
If they’re done now, well they’re done by you
It seems a big failing in a man
To take his girl for granted if he can
And it’s hard thing (it’s not easy)
And it’s hard (it’s not easy)
And it’s a pretty hard thing (it’s not easy)
It’s not easy livin’ on your own
Of course you get a dond. (I have a feeling our guru isn’t terribly Stones friendly though.) But seriously, donds from me to you are a pretty regular occurence, usually a few a week at least!
Actually the song that keeps coming to mind for this topic is one of your zedded ones – Abraham, Martin, and John.
You’re Gonna Make me Lonesome When You go – Madeleine Peyroux’s version cos it’s jolly good and I like it.
Evening all -
- 10 from me and I’m out:
John Cale: “E Is Missing”
The Ramones: “The KKK Took My Baby Away”
Sly & the Family Stone: “Running Away”
Oasis: “Half The World Away” (TV theme heaven)
The Green Pajamas: “Missing Miss MacColl” (eg. Kirsty…)
Anan: “I Wonder Where My Sister’s Gone?” (obligatory 60s Sidecar obscurity)
Pixies: “Monkey Gone To Heaven” (possibly shedded?)
Richard Thompson: “The Angels Took My Racehorse Away”
(The late) Reg King: “Gone Away”
Syd Barrett: “Long Gone”
And with one bound he was free. Merry holly berry, all.
I might need to wash my mouth out – but to prove there is purity in every pile of riped off plastic – a mighty dond to ‘Half The World Away’ a masterpeice of a song.
Hey, how’s tricks? I posted and ran on Xmas Eve… since then I’ve posted some Spotified tracks on the Collabo (they had The Green Pajamas… blimey…), and here are some links to the songs which ain’t:
Cale:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pmuiI2hEIvg
(I’m indebted to RRer TheLetterO for the info that this is a song about the neglect of Ezra Pound by The Literary Establishment…)
Sly:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=05iCaNPjuNQ
Oasis:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C1YqF3pYAeg (if you’re too cool to listen to Oasis, you probably are too cool…)
Anan:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XY_oeCjKPpM (described by the YouTuber as “creepy psych-pop”. Can’t beat that…)
Reg King:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LV0lYnv2LmU (gorgeous song; also a wake for the ex-Action singer who died a few weeks back)
Syd:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NoI1SsZec7M (“Long Gone” = his own epitaph…)
I’ve also added a few more noms to Spotify:
Buzzcocks: “Hollow Inside”
Sheila Chandra: “Ever So Lonely” – if you prefer Monsoon’s original, it’s here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HOFmDK_1cVg
The Gun Club: “Ghost On The Highway” – I know spooks are a different topic, but…
The Velvelettes: “Lonely, Lonely Girl Am I”
Maybe more later… apols for list-drop, but it’s
…quite fun, I was going to say before being hot by electronic warfare…
hit. Not hot.
Ahhhh, an early morning start to retrieve packets, parcels, puddings and packages from all points West. Where I live, everything undelivered falls into the gravitational maw of Park Royal. An interesting and atmospheric environ at 7 in the morning when your breath is making speech bubbles as you walk, each imprinted with a misty, ‘fuck this’.
Still, every clod has some silver lino, usually in the bathroom. I did receive my copy of the latest Cult With No Name CD. They live in Leytonstone the CD came from Portland, Oregon, I hope they claim the airmiles.
http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/cultwithnoname
‘Adrenalin’ is sounding well good as I embark on a second spinning and I’m going to tug your ear until your nose is pointing at ‘Gone’ in an attempt to pique your pocket for a dond or two; you’ve got to pique a pocket or two for a dond these days.
I’ll put it in the Christmas Box, don’t forget to recycle the rapping.
Happy Christmas !
Nick Park, creator of Wallace and Gromit, was on “Desert Island Discs” this morning. One of the songs he chose was FOUR STRONG WINDS – NEIL YOUNG. Sort of an absence song. He explained that it was their soundtrack to the making of the scene in “The Wrong Trousers”, when the evil criminal penguin mastermind manages ingratiate himself with Wallace, leading to Gromit being ignored and deciding to leave home. To get in the sad frame of mind to make the scene where Gromit packs his bags, looks back at his home and faithless companion of years, shakes his doggy head at the injustice of it all, they played this song. And it takes a day for one claymation animator to make 3 seconds of footage, so I guess they played it a lot !
Neil Young here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wfZes9fFmXc
Ok, these guys aren’t listed yet, another big hole in the zed lists.
Ten Years After – The Bluest Blues
I couldn’t wait to see you
waiting by the door
There’s no one there to meet me
and your clothes are on the floor
lightbulb -Absence from the A-List to date a justification?
Oooh! Oooh! Dramatic inspiration from two glasses of champagne and a couple of glasses of an extremely nice Cotes du Rhone, which does nothing for my typing but… Gary Moore, Empty Rooms, where we used to live without love. Dammit, why isn’t Chinhealer here to dond this?
Ooh! Ooooh! Ooooh! Oooooh! Ooooooh! The Cava and I have been reminiscing about the years of our youth, and I suddenly remembered a long-forgotten thingummy, which was: when my (Saturday job) boss’ son left home to go and be a DJ somewhere, he left us a box of 45′s he no longer needed. One of the snigles had no information other than ‘Last year this artist sold however many thousand singles’ and my (much older) cousin reckoned it was Eric Clapton from 461 Ocean Boulevard, an album I have heard in the intervening years, but none of which seemed familiar to me. But I digress.
One of said bequeathed snigles was Kenny Rogers’ ‘Ruby Don’t Take Your Love To Town’, which I think rather fits the category this week, and for which I was prepared to forgive him the ’4,000 orphans alone in the fields’ ditty.
[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TprfUdSAHgM]
Debby it’s [youtube=andthenthelink
Maki, that didn’t work
(Second attempt was with the youtube ‘einbetten’ function, which I think might be called imbed in English? Sorry, I left for Germany before computers had been invented…
How about the pseudo-traditional “Where Have Al The Flowers Gone?”? (Too many question marks!). Pete Seeger wrote the first three verses; Joe Hickerson extended it and turned into a circular song. I’ll go for the Kingston Trio, ‘cos that’s the recorded version I know.
But in the true tradition of folk, I suspect most of us know this song anyhow; our primary school sang it in assemblies in the 1970s.
Who’s Al? Where’s he gone? Can I call him that? Is he a florist?
“Where Have All The Flowers Gone?”, of course. D’oh.
First we have missing flowers; then the young girls have scarpered; after that, the young men have all dunnarunna; then the soldiers aren’t there (at this point you just know it won’t end well); then we leap to graveyards, which have disappeared under the flowers. And we can, if we so choose, begin again. (Which reminds me of a certain fellow by the name of Michael Finnegan whose beard kept on vanishing, but lets not go there).
Al i know is Peter, Paul, and Mary’s version, but it’s a lovely song, so a dond for whoever gets the final nod/nom.
I’d forgotten that Peter, Paul and Mary did that song, Amy. Theirs is a lovely version.
Aha! I knew they’d be at least one!
All About Eve, “The Empty Dancehall”
Absent dancers. I particularly like the play on the French for love and death in the second verse:
And maybe I could try my asferae, “Farewell Mr. Sorrow”? He’s evidently gone, after all…
Look into my ears, look into my ears, the ears, the ears, ears, not around the ears, don’t look around the ears, look into my ears…you’re under. How about a bit of Brel Bish? Go on, you know you like a bit of Brel.
Litanies Pour Un Retour – Jacques Brel
Madelaine – Jacques Brel
The ‘Litanies’ are prompted by the absence of ‘the other’ …
Mon coeur ma mie mon âme
Mon ciel mon feu ma flamme
Mon puits ma source mon val
Mon miel mon baume mon Graal
with the pay off of return in the last line …
Voilà que tu reviens.
Whereas ‘Madelaine’ is also always there in his thoughts and imaginings but never shows up to collect the wilting lilacs.
And while you’re still under, I always think of this as one of PH’s most Brel like lyrics. A sweetly intense litany of yearning and loss.
I smell your perfume
on the sheets in the morning:
it lingers like the patterns
on the window after rain,
a past that lives,
if only for the present,
but which is gone and will never come again.
Again – Peter Hammill
Ok, 3, 2, 1 … you’re back on The Spill.
Just to keep the Brel theme going for another few minutes, the writer himself says of these songs of memories;
I first met Olivier when I was 18 and living
in a small village in the south of France. We were both punk
rockers, him from Dunkirk, me from London, both northerners
looked upon with some suspicion in the parochial world of small
village life. He always said he wanted to die either behind his
drumkit or on his motorbike. His wish was granted. He was killed
on his bike in 1982. He was 22 years old.
Olivier – Philip Jeays
And now the mornings seize no more
The gentle whispers of your scent
Sometimes I think we hardly knew
What we were or what it meant
And now everywhere I look
I see the ghosts of you
In the fog of every face
In everything I do
And I know what people say
And God knows I know it’s true
That men so often make
The shadows they pursue
The line ‘men so often make the
shadows they pursue’ comes from a poem by
Coleridge, ‘Constancy to an Ideal Object’ – “Nor
knows he makes the shadow he pursues”
Midnight In Trieste – Philip Jeays
Boxed for your ears only.
Loving the shameless appeals to my musical weak spots, guys. Quite pleased not to have to apply my mind to this topic – strikes me as a toughie. Only (vaguely on-topic) thing that’s sprung to my mind is this (zedded) track:
I shouldn’t be sharing, should I? I’d never have the self-discipline to be a guru. You have to be so selfless…
The Pretenders, “My City Has Gone”
That’s a pretty BIG absence. Just think: a whole city…
Actually, I think Chrissie is lamenting the loss of the soul of the city (Akron, Ohio):
She goes on to say that her family had also gone, and the pretty countryside, too.
Hey, that reminds me of a Joni song…
This one (in cse you hdn’t guessed):
Joni Mitchell, “Big Yello Taxi”
Her old man’s gone, too. Left in the titular taxi.
Darn those ‘a’s.
… and that ‘w’.
You’re on a roll, Zala – (headslap) donds for both the Pretenders and Joni. I guess i had best start writing justifications if i want to talk Bish into listing a Butthole Surfers nom.
Hey I always book LadyCabs too!
A close friend writes: steady on TY, this may be a time for being in the bosom of your family but don’t get carried away …. have you seen the rates they charge over the holiday season?
We’re on a roll… a rock’n'roll…
A vicarious nom from DaveSheddi:
Cinderella, “Don’t Know What You Got (Till It’s Gone)”
No prizes for guessing how we got there…
Oh, oh, oh!
Martin Stephenson, “Gone the Gypsy Davey” (We7 link)
Or, indeed – a completely different song:
Sandy Denny/Fotheringay, “The Gypsy Davey”
Steeleye Span, “Black Jack Davy”
in which the nefarious Davey/Davy steals away the consenting squire’s wife.
It also puts me in mind of “The Wraggle-Taggle Gypsies-O”, here by Alison Moyet.
how about:
Extreme – “Hole Hearted”
“there’s a hole in my heart that can only be filled by you….”
ahh……fond memories of strumming and singing along in my mate Neil’s bedroom aged around 15……we had a lot of time for Extreme!
Cowboy Junkies, “You’re Still Missing”
Ah – it’s a Springsteen song. I don’t know the original. And I’m a sucker for that vulnerable twist in Margot’s voice, so I’ll let the cover stand.
Can’t find a link… will have to get around to some boxing. It is boxing day after all.
Oops, It’s just called “You’re Missing”.
Happy Boxing Day all. This popped in my head at Grandma’s house for dinner last night & forgotten again till it woke me just now. Another great John Sebastian song, this was done by Mama Cass & Elvis Costello but I’ll stay with the original.
The Room Nobody Lives In – John Sebastian
But there’s a feeling even breathing in the air
Like there’s someone, when there’s no one even there
And I’m hearing the cheers for the heroes
Of scenes going down in this room for so many years
………
The room nobody lives in is up the stairs
And four doors down the hall
http://open.spotify.com/track/2mZmFjLjaZakklKZ43EfQI
Larry Adler/Sinead O’Connor, “My Man’s Gone Now”.
Let’s try an embed – I always forget that that can be done here:
Just in case anyone (else) missed it, this is the same song as Steen’s Nina Simone one.
While the ache in I’m So Lonesome I Could Cry is so extreme it’s assumed to be a lost loved one song, the lyrics aren’t that specific and could well be read as a waiting for someone to come home song. I’ve dropped the Bim cover because its the most gutwrenching.
In a similar vein is kd lang‘s I’m Down To My Last Cigarette:
I can’t leave this room/You might call while I’m gone
The minutes seem like hours/Its soon will be dawn
And on top of all/Of my tears and regrets
I’m down to my last cigarette
The height of torch and twang, the pair of em. The waiting is the hardest part.
Tinnie – the ache in I’m So Lonesome I Could Cry ? That’s that tractor trailer size hole in Hank Williams heart on the original. Still a dond for the Bim ’cause it does produce weather front size tears.
Torch & Twang? Well I gotta go with Patsy Cline cause that little carch in her voice’s made many a bottle go empty.
She’s Got You – Patsy Cline
I’ve got your picture that you gave to me
And it’s signed “with love,” just like it used to be
The only thing different, the only thing new
I’ve got your picture, she’s got you
Extrañándote – Rocío Dúrcal
A Mexican Ranchera by Rocío Dúrcal, who despite being from Madrid, enjoyed enormous popularity with this genre in the late eighties and early nineties. “Missing You” would be a fair translation of the title. A favourite because this came out when Mrs Maki and I had lost touch and didn’t seem likely to see each other again. In ’91 I came back to Spain and this cassette got played to death as we rejoiced in no longer missing each other! I love the melodrama inherent in the genre and Rocío was a damn fine singer whose voice and style of delivery were ideally suited to the genre.
Here’s a youtube with lyrics.
Cowboy Junkies – 200 More Miles
There is a light/drawing me to reach an end/and when I reach there, I’ll turn back/and you and I can begin again
hmm, lost a post
Cowboy Junkies – 200 More Miles
there is a light/drawing me to reach an end
and when I reach there, I’ll turn back/and you and I can begin again
My fave Junkies song. I always assumed it was zedded, but appears not.
ok, third try
Cowboy Junkies – 200 More Miles
there is a light/drawing me to reach an end
and when I reach there, I’ll turn back/and you and I can begin again
My fave Junkies song. I always assumed it was zedded, but appears not.
4th try!
Cowboy Junkies – 200 More Miles
there is a light/drawing me to reach an end
and when I reach there, I’ll turn back/and you and I can begin again
My fave Junkies song. I always assumed it was zedded, but appears not.
The mysterious absent-not-absent posts!
Here, have a dond. I’m usually up for a bit of Cowboy Junkies, me.
Hello everyone! Hope you all had a good Christmas. I had a couple of ideas…
For some reason I keep thinking of Dire Straits So Far Away. I listened to this a lot in Highschool. Maybe it was my older brother’s album? Don’t remember. But I liked this song a lot.
Also Regina Spektor’s Summer in the City is an achingly pretty one, but zedded.
And Mos Def’s Travellin Man is about missing your family when you’re on tour, and it’s a humdinger. I’ll try to put some in the dropbox, but my sons are clamoring for the computer a the moment.
fifth time lucky?
Cowboy Junkies – 200 More Miles
there is a light/drawing me to reach an end
and when I reach there, I’ll turn back/and you and I can begin again
My fave Junkies song. I always assumed it was zedded, but appears not.
Cowboy Junkies – 200 More Miles
there is a light
drawing me to reach an end
and when I reach there, I’ll turn back
and you and I can begin again
Donding Shiv’s nom of The Angels Took My Racehorse Away (which I’ve dropped): but my RT nom is Missie How You Let Me Down for the lines
Your food’s still sitting here at the table where you used to be
The shape of you is still in the bed here next to me.
That’s in the box too.
Oh and, Zalamanda, I do feel I need to nominate the Springsteen original of You’re Missing…
I thought you might…
And in case people don’t know, it’s about the aftermath of 9/11
To lose one post, Mr Tincanman, may be regarded as a misfortune. To lose all five looks like carelessness….
First time, I thought ok I did something wrong.
Second time, I thought, hmm try it with a different browser
Third…well, you get the picture.
Shoulda been more patient, bane of my life. (I think it was slowed down by a missing / in a format code.) Oh well, hard for bishbosh to miss now!
* * *
thanks for the dond zala
…and let’s not forget Gene Clark’s lonely gem-in-a-dark-night song “Here Without You”. I’ve added The Byrds’ original to the Spotify list, but you can choose from Clark solo, Holsapple/Stamey’s yearning take… and, as tfd will have us know, Richard Thompson/Christine Collister/Clive Gregson’s revisionist cover from the “Time Between” tribute album. They’re all cool, and it’s still Christmas!
The night is cold and I’m so alone / I’d give my soul just to call you my own
Billie Holiday knows there’s a huge hole in her personal universe & sends her sultry voice out into the cosmos lookin’ to fill it. Just timeless.
Lover Man – Billie Holiday
Let’s raise the toast to absent donds:
“Memory Motel” (Stones); “Remember” (Jimi); “God Only Knows” (any version, but here’s the very fab P.P.Arnold – again: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3LQ4mrl-8aw Kafunta!); “There’s A Ghost In My House” (R.Dean Taylor); “Have You Seen Her?”(Chi-Lites); “Other Side Of The World” (KT Tunstall; hey, nobody’s nommed “Whole Wide World” this time… yet); “Missie How You Let Me Down” (Richard Thompson); Farewell Mr Sorrow” (All About Eve; not sure whether it fits the rubric [What rubric? - Ed.], but it’s a very nifty pop song); “Gone Daddy Gone” (Violent Femmes); “Is Vic There?” (Dept S); and “Looking For Lewis And Clark” (Bobbie Gentry. Er…)
Thanks to tfd and Santa for donds… Santa need fear no ridicule.
Probably be back before NYE, but enjoy the dog days til then anyhow. Be seeing you.
I posted this for SV80 a while back:
AKB48 – “Aitakata” (I Miss You)
come on BishBosh, how can you resist 48 (Forty Eight!!!) Japanese schoolgirls?!!
It strikes me that this is a potentially huge topic, what with all those lonely songwriters pouring out their hearts when their loved one is elsewhere (whether they’ve left with the milkman or just gone to the store).
I was going to dond a couple of loneliness songs, but I’m not so sure now (even though I love Shiv’s Sheila Chandra and Severin’s Madeleine Peyroux). Just because someone is lonely, does that make the song one about absence, or is it about an effect of the absence? I suppose that it’s really a matter of emphasis, but it does strike me that loneliness is a whole topic by itself (even if it does fit neatly inside absence).
Oh, what the heck – I’ll dond ‘em anyway.
Kind of glad I’m not the one making the choice. I reckon Bish is going to have to be ruthless.
Oh, and ta muchly for donds to Shiv and Amy.
Hell, but I wish I hadn’t enabled ‘Comments as emails’ on this thread; my phone’s threatening to have a nervous breakdown.
Anyhoo, I’ve added my last word on the subject to the files in the ‘Box: Somebodys Brother – It’s Not For Long
Mid-80s single from the DsD & gordonimmel Uni housemates band.
Another with huge personal meaning. At the time it was written / rehearsed endlessly in our cellar / never missed out of a set, I must have heard it played live between three and a dozen times a week. Also at that time, I was engaged to a girl who lived 150 miles away, and neither of us had a car, so these lyrics – quoted in their entirety – ABSOLUTELY described my life, (though Carol wrote them about her then boyfriend, not my girlfriend):
Saw you off on a train; long time no see
I’m counting the days you’ll be back with me
In the distance we stopped and stared
Til you were gone, until you were no longer there
Took the long way home, but I’m already bored
Put the key in the lock and opened up the door
You’ve only just gone, but baby I think I’ll write
A television evening, my first cold and lonely night
Maybe I’ll send myself along in this letter to you
Would it be better if I could come too?
Didn’t think that I’d miss you half as much as I do
For my peace of mind, I’m sure I’ll pull through
You’re missing me, don’t worry, it’s not for long
Think I’ll send you an old-time love song
Then we can laugh, though we are miles apart
Apart but together, here inside each other’s hearts
Only two weeks now I’m there for a while
We can laugh and then I won’t miss your smile
But then I’ll see you off on another train
And we’ll be miles and miles and miles apart all over again
Pull a book from its cover, my life was totally bare
Looked into the bedroom, but you were not there
Your old chequered shirt was lying there on the chair
I knew you’d be back soon so I didn’t care
I didn’t care
I didn’t care
I didn’t care
I noticed someone has typed EBTG on the page, but only about Missing: what about Come On Home?
“Every day’s like Christmas Day without you
It’s cold and there’s nothing to do”
Lyrically similar to It’s Not For Long, but with added strings. Carol Neen gives Tracey Thorn a run for her money with the vocals on these two songs, mind!
Bedtime.
The void caused by the sudden death of a friend led Jackson Browne to write these poignant lines. I thought of this one straight away when Maki threw up the topic but I’ve kinda avoided it till now ’cause it really rips at the heart. Still it was a magnificent attempt at dealing with the unanswerable & is still one of my all time favorite songs.
For A Dancer – Jackson Brown
I don’t know what happens when people die
Can’t seem to grasp it as hard as I try
It’s like a song I can hear playing right in my ear
That I can’t sing
I can’t help listening
And I can’t help feeling stupid standing ’round
Crying as they ease you down
‘Cause I know that you’d rather we were dancing
Dancing our sorrow away
Not sure exactly when the drawbridge drops on this but I need to throw out some donds for great songs. Have You Seen Her (Severin), I Still Miss Someone (Steenbeck), She’s Not There ( Amy Lee), He’s Gone ( Chris), Last Words (Saneshane), My City Was Gone (Zalamanda) & 200 More Miles (Tinnie – sorry Tin only one dond per nom but I do admire persistence)
Couple of last minute killers especally for Steenbeck:
Serve Me Right To Suffer - John Lee Hooker
The whole song is regretting the absence of a woman, due to the man’s ignorance and pride. Segues nicely into ‘Milk, Cream and Alcohol’, too. Wish I had a doctor like that…
And:
Early In The Morning - Sonny Boy Wiliamson I, especially for the chorus:
WARNING – This song may be ruined for some listeners by the much better known Eric Clapton cover. That much-better-knownness is criminal IMHO.
Donds, Williamsbach, they are indeed killers.
OK guys, I know I’ve been dithering over when the topic would close, but I’ve decided: you have until midnight tonight! A little unconventional, I know, but I don’t want our transatlantic cousins waking up this morning and finding they’ve missed the boat!
I would leave the deadline for another week, but I’ve got a couple of fairly free days tomorrow and Wednesday in which (amongst other things) I can do some listening and selecting… Then at some point on Thursday, I will post the list. If people want, I can then suggest another topic and someone else can guru for a week. Or someone else who wants to guru can suggest their own topic. Or we can have a week off. Or or or…
Sorry to be indecisive about deadlines. Hope this is OK with everyone!
bb
Oops! Missed an ‘l’ in Sonny Boy’s name. Sorry, son…
The Handles Broken On My Cup – Jim Byrne
The handle’s broken on my cup
There’s no way to fill me up
Oh no, oh no
As I watched you turn your back
It crossed my mind you won’t be back
Ongoing earworm of mine, Jim says the song is about reconciliation but the lyric majors on the feelings around absence.
Lyrics and a free mp3 here http://www.songsbyjimbyrne.com/handlesbrokenchords.php
You want absence? I’ve give you absence…….
Oooh, Steenbeck, your Mos Def nom reminded me – thematically, not musically – of Little Rock & Roller – Steve Earle. It’s a belter, if you like tears in your eyes.
I think we need a few more people who’ve gone for a soldier… there’s The Plains of Waterloo, where the woman left behind imagines her lover’s death:
“Farewell my comrades, likewise my sweetheart.”
These were the very words he said and then he did depart.
They dug my love a silent grave, the tears they were not few.
And they laid him in the cold clay on the Plains of Waterloo.
Although he’s gone and left me no other will I take.
Through lonesome woods and shady groves I wander for his sake.
Through lonesome woods and shady groves I’ll wander through and through,
And I’ll mourn for him that’s dead upon the Plains of Waterloo.
I like the version by Kate Rusby and Kathryn Roberts.
Then there’s The Blue Cockade, by Show Of Hands, where the woman’s a lot bitterer about being left:
I hope you never prosper
I hope you always fail
In anything you venture
I hope you ne’er do well
And the very ground you walk upon
May the grass refuse to grow
Since you’ve been the very cause of my sorrow, grief and woe…
Or Peter Paul and Mary’s Gone The Rainbow:
Oh, my baby, oh, my love
Gone the rainbow, gone the dove,
Your father was my only love
Johnny has gone for a soldier.
Or what about Banks Of The Nile, in the peerless version by Sandy Denny (I like the word ‘peerless’) which concludes:
Oh, cursed be those cruel wars, that ever they began,
For they have robbed our country of many’s the handsome men.
They’ve robbed us of our sweethearts while their bodies they feed the lions,
On the dry and sandy deserts which are the banks of the Nile.
Or what about someone who gets transported for poaching?
They said he’s gone to America,
To work the land that some called Virginia;
They said he’s gone to America.
Married him in April, lost him in July
Gone To America by Steeleye Span.
OK, I’ll get boxing now.
Well well well. I was going to box some songs, but dropbox is 102% full!!
So here are some youTube links, let’s see if I can get them to work. I feel a little strange writing justifications over here for some reason, so hopefully the music will speak for itself.
These are the few that weren’t on Spotify…
Fred Williams and the Jewels band.
and I thought of Fatima by K’naan. He misses her, and he misses his home. This is a weeper.
Hope this works…
I don’t know if you’ll be able to listen to this. It’s Bob Dylan’s Two Soldiers. I couldn’t find it on youTube, and it’s not on spotify, but hopefully you can hear it here. Just beautiful, and so sad. Two soldiers are far from home, one misses his mother, the other misses his sweetheart. THey make a pact to deliver letters to their loved ones if one of them dies. But they both dies. I know his voice isn’t to everybody’s taste, but in these later albums, something about the vulnerability and honesty of it … well it just kills me.
http://mp3skull.com/mp3/bob_dylan_two.html
Steen -
Here’s a Grooveshark link for Dylan’s Two Soldiers, it’s lovely. I find a lot of songs on Grooveshark that i can’t find elsewhere.
Bob Dylan – Two Soldiers
oops, extra S
THanks Amy.
And Oh oh oh!!!!!!!!
Just thought of Auld Lang Syne. Jean REdpath’s version for me…simple and beautiful. I’ll try to find some room in the box for it. Or maybe try the new method of linking to it on the ‘Spill without boxing it. But first…a walk in the snow.
Dropbox is a bit space challenged this week because of extra stuff, but it was still under 1.5gigs of RR stuff.
Dropbox allows 2 gigs of storage each. 1.5 of that is for RR stuff (roughly 1 gig for the topic and 0.5 of extra stuff), leaving 0.5 gigs for your personal and public folders.
I’ve pared this week’s RR stuff down to 1 gig, but thats a bit unfair on ppl who were counting on getting it before the normal Weds cleanout.
If you need more than 0.5gigs for your personal and public folders
- you can purchase more storage, but that only works if others you interact with do too.
- Easiest is when you share with someone, ask them to delete once they have it
- get a 2nd dropbox with a separate email address for personal use. It will be browser-only access as the Dbox app only interacts with one folder set.
any questions, feel free to email
oh and FYI, new guru is signing up for dropbox. Dunno if he’ll listen primarily there or spotify, but deffo drop anything you can’t spotify
Sorry, I didn’t mean to cause anything to be cleared out before its time. I think it’s wonderful that there’s so much music in there and people have been so busy sharing. Didn’t mean to sound complaining.
My public & shared folders are empty at the moment…was just trying to find songs I might have missed and clear them out.
Sorry
People can restore a folder if they missed stuff so its no biggee.
We can have zedded songs? OK then…
Who will shoe my babe’s little foot?
Who’ll put gloves on her hand?
Who will tie my babe’s middle with a long linen band?
Who will comb my babe’s yellow hair
With an ivory comb?
Who will be my babe’s father
Till Lord Gregory comes home?
Young woman turns up at castle where her aristo one-night-stand lives, to show him their baby. Unfortunately he’s away from home.
But his mother is there.
Lord Gregory by Shirley Collins. (Zedded by me.)
Um, ok…
1) Happy Belated Holidays to you all
2) Pink Floyd – Wish You Were Here, surely? Actually, the whole record, I suppose.
Kid Rock & Sheryl Crow – I Put Your Picture Away
Two sides of an absence.
Not a nom, just a poem I love. Pablo Neruda’s “When you are still”.
I like for you to be still
It is as though you are absent
And you hear me from far away
And my voice does not touch you
It seems as though your eyes had flown away
And it seems that a kiss had sealed your mouth
As all things are filled with my soul
You emerge from the things
Filled with my soul
You are like my soul
A butterfly of dream
And you are like the word: Melancholy
I like for you to be still
And you seem far away
It sounds as though you are lamenting
A butterfly cooing like a dove
And you hear me from far away
And my voice does not reach you
Let me come to be still in your silence
And let me talk to you with your silence
That is bright as a lamp
Simple, as a ring
You are like the night
With its stillness and constellations
Your silence is that of a star
As remote and candid
I like for you to be still
It is as though you are absent
Distant and full of sorrow
So you would’ve died
One word then, One smile is enough
And I’m happy;
Happy that it’s not true
Do you know, I was just listening to the songs I’ve put on Spotify, to see whether I needed to change the order, and when Lord Gregory came up I noticed something I’ve never noticed before (and I’ve known the song for years and sung it often): Lord G isn’t absent at all when his girlfriend comes to the door! He’s there, but he’s asleep, and his mother tells the girl he’s in Scotland just to get rid of her. Then he wakes up, and says he had a dream she had come; and his mother says don’t bother, I told her to go and drown herself.
Well! It still counts though, since the girl is pretty much absent by the end of the song – and the baby, too.
Here’s Jean REdpath’s Auld Lang Syne
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/534327/21%20Auld%20Lang%20Syne.mp3
The song, of course, is about remember old friends, the lyrics focus on the fact that they were once together, but aren’t any more…
“But seas between us braid hae roar’d
sin auld lang syne.”
(Broad seas have roared between us since the old days)
I see we’ve been granted special Bishpensation to continue the rubric a bit more so here goes.
On the long, long list of sad things brought on by war among the saddest is the body that comes home alive when the mind & soul was left behind. His friends & loved ones think they see him intact but what made him real is missing. Can’t think of a song that deals with that any better than this one.
Sam Stone – John Prine
But life had lost its fun
And there was nothing to be done
But trade his house that he bought on the G, I. Bill
For a flag draped casket on a local heroes’ hill
There’s a hole in daddy’s arm where all the money goes,
Jesus Christ died for nothin’ I suppose.
Little [pitchers]pictures have big ears,
Don’t stop to count the years,
Sweet songs never last too long on broken radios.
Whoops, stop press:
“You can picture happy gatherings
Round the fireside long ago,
And you think of tearful partings,
When they left you here below.”
“One by one their seats were emptied,
One by one they went away………”
Yup, Will The Circle Be Unbroken?
Pentangle’s version does it for me although the Johnny Cash/Carter Family one is ace too.
Hang on, what happened there? I have never in my entire life described anything as “ace”.
Aw, heck, one more…
Franz Ferdinand – Come on Home. I remember saying once, on RR, many years ago, that this song is narrated by a person that, well, gets off on the absence, in some way…
“Although my lover lives in a place that I can’t live
I kind of find I like a life this lonely
It rips and pierces me, in places I can’t see
I love the rip of nerves
The rip that wakes me
So I’m dissatisfied, I love dissatisfied
I love to feel there’s always more that I need”
Oh god! And in my quest to have the entirety of Randy Newman’s Bad Love album zedded (although I gather that this week doesn’t count) I just have to nom I Miss You – sorry about the vid – I didn’t do it.
I dond therefore I ham.
Rare, Precious & Gone – Mike Scott
From the ‘Still Burning’ album, and he was; this stuff stands up well alongside The Waterboys’ brand. Bit brassy, bit funky, bit smart, bit tart, bit artful.
This is a SPECIAL TREAT for bishbosh
and is in no way intended as a bribe (the Great Lake Swimmers sound good though, don’t they?!)
Till midnight tonight you say?
Tindersticks – She’s Gone
… and it’s quiet now, as it is when a toddler’s not around. What’s clever about this is that, while ostensibly about the absence of his daughter, he does harp on about how she “took her mother with her”.
I used to think it was really about the mother’s absence – although since having kids myself, I’m not so sure about that anymore. Great song either way.
Hope everyone’s been having a lovely Christmas.
aHA! I Live Not Where I Love by Linda Thompson
When I sleep I dream about you
When I wake I find no rest
Every moment thinking of you
My heart fixed within your breast
Though great distance may prove assistance
From my mind your love to remove
My heart is with you all together
Though I live not where I love
Just in time for the bell – a snotcore nom!
Blink 182 – I Miss You
Ott wtf lyrics, what with morgues and vampires and spiders, but here’s the chorus -
And here’s an oldie but goodie -
Klymaxx – I Miss You
oops, try again
Klymaxx – I Miss You
‘What’ll I do’ (when you are far away)? Let’s listen to Julie London’s version – short but very, very sweet
Barbryn: Oh no it’s not, it’s a special treat for me! The BBC production of Stephen Fry on Wagner!
I love Wagner and I love Fry, so when I heard he’d done it I went straight to Amazon and youtube but neither had it but now they do. You pointed me to youtube, the last time I looked it wasn’t there but it is now.It’s there in full and this is the best Christmas present I could have wished for, thank you…
wish I could record it
GF – have you tried anything like this?
http://www.youtube-mp3.org/
I watched him leave that Friday morning
It was in the month of May
I told my son to be a good soldier
But return again some day
He was returned just one year later
But I’ll not forget that day
The baggage car is where he traveled
In a casket where he lay
With A Memory Like Mine by Darrell Scott and Tim O’Brien
Many of the noms have a lonely or (in the case of a couple of mine) scarred edge to them. But I’m just back from a gloriously sunshine filled walk with Murphy – the sky was blue the mountians white & beckoning( thursday) & I found that edgey feeling replaced with the other side of the coin. Absence makes the heart grow fonder it’s said & I came up with 3 noms to fit the theme & warm your night.
First up is Jimmy Buffet (I’m still tryin’). Life on tour has made him a little worn but the end’s in sight & pretty soon that empty feeling will be gone
Come Monday – Jimmy Buffet
I hope you’re enjoyin’ the scen’ry
I know that it’s pretty up there
We can go hikin’ on Tuesday
With you I’d walk anywhere
California has worn me quite thin
I just can’t wait to see you again
Come Monday, it’ll be all right
Come Monday, I’ll be holdin’ you tight
That the abscence has been hard is easily & gorgeously overcome with these lines delivered in full doo-wop glory. He’s home not ‘A thousand miles away’
Daddy’s Home – Shep & The Limelights
How I’ve waited for this moment
To be by your side
Your best friend wrote and told me
You had teardrops in your eyes
Daddy’s home your daddy’s home to stay
Daddy’s home to stay
And if it’s just the exultant feeling of abscence nearly overcome you’re looking for look no further
Flying Home – Lionel Hampton
To be boxed & spotted. Nite All!
I got an (English) Beat album for Christmas. Forgot How much I like them. For this topic…
Can’t get Used to Losing You
Amylee: Thanks for that, I just spent an hour at uTube and some of the comments there were for a similar program, I just checked it and it looks good.
What I’d ideally like would be a means of downloading youtube videos.
I’ve just been typing in the url and the video appears.
gf, if you get the most up-to-date (free) version of Real Player, it’ll let you download videos from YouTube and convert them to different formats too if you want.
hmm…doesn’t seem to be working for me any more dammit – although the Help section in RP still tells you how to do it.
ah – as you were. Works in IE, though not in Chrome at the mo. Baby on the way so I’m a bit distracted.
Some additional donds. Great topic and an awful lot of good songs. Had to trim the list down a lot. Thanks all!
Dept S – Is Vic There (Shoey)
Beach Boys – God Only Knows (magicman)
Dodgems – Lord Lucan is Missing (Severin)
Dylan – 2 Soldiers (Steen)
Ugly Ducklings – Nothin (Marconius)
Dead – Looks Like Rain (Carole)
Neil Young – Four Strong Winds (DaddyPig)
Great Lake Swimmers -Where in the World Are You (debbym)
Pixies – Monkey Gone to Heaven (Shiv)
Steeleye Span -Black Jack Davy (Zala)
Billie Holliday – Lover Man (Fintan)
John Lee Hooker – Serves Me Right to Suffer (WB)
Pink Floyd – Wish You Were Here (Lambre)
And since it’s hopefully past the bell now -
I will never again grumble about not getting an A-lister I think I deserve… This is SO hard!
amylee, forgot to dond “She’s Not There” – my first thought, and a song strangely out of time.
Thanks, Shiv. My other first thought was Hall and Oates’ – She’s Gone that Carole posted. But as I’m originally from the Philly area, i got pretty burnt out on them early on in life. The Zombies, i still love.
Hey, Bish!
is it over yet? I haven’t had time to participate, and I think I have a bunch of them… absence is a huuuge topic!
(it doesn’t make any difference if it is, really, just curious!)
Er, yeah it’s over. Sorry Lambi. Nearly firmed up a list from the 150 or so songs nominated and not sure I can face listening to a load of new tracks. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve heard some fantastic music, but Songs about Absence are (by and large) depressing after a while!
@ bish: psst, last thing before you post your list, make sure the first letters of each line don’t spell out a naughty word. *giggles
TFD: Thanks for that, I must pursue it, I am up to date with Real Player [on my 2 week old new computer] but I never look at such things, time for a new year’s resolution, thanks.
TFD: Just checked out Real Player and it’s just what you say, I did my first download from YT and it couldn’t be simpler. Now I’m all embarrassed about yesterday’s Stephen Fry rave, it was embarrassing, nothing I’d ever want to download or even see again. Doesn’t change my appreciation for Wagner and there’s a wonderful collection of his music up there.
Ha! Well, luckily I like neither Fry nor Wagner so I wasn’t disappointed – just checked whether it would download.
I have a new grandson, born half an hour ago, so I’ve got that to be excited about now.
Congratulations!
Congratulations Tfd. Well worth the wait and no more nailbiting! Very happy for you from one grandparent to another!
TFD – on behalf of Bo Diddley, Elvis Presley, Jimmy Page, Patti Smith, T- Bone Burnett, Janis Joplin , Jimmy Buffett, Del Shannon & myself I’d like to welcome the newest Texas demon to the capricorn tribe. There are some who say there’s nothin’ to this star bizness & we’re only a bunch of old goats but you know how them lions like to preen.
Well, thank you, Fintan. First goat in our family – didn’t know he was joining such a distinguished set of folks!
He surely is a big chap already – but everything’s bigger in Texas, of course.
tfd -
Congrats! Are you in Texas now?
Fintan -
You left out Bowie, Beefheart, Mick Taylor, and Marilyn Manson.
Doh!
Coo-er! Thanks, amylee – no, unfortunately the other set of grandparents have free rein and I’m here in Scotland.
I HAVE just made myself a rather large margarita, though.
TFD: More thanks and congrats.