Tres Songs

Written by Jim S.

Wherein I randomly crash together a few songs for your entertainment. 

I mentioned Annie Lennox in one of my lists of favorite singers. She’s not only got a great voice but she channels some real feel into her stuff. Here she covers Bob Marley’s “Waiting in Vain” from her 1995 solo album, Medusa. I could hear Sade doing this too.

It’s been three years since I’m knocking on your door
And still I can knock some more
Ooh boy, ooh boy, is it crazy look, I want to know now
Like I said, the tears in my eyes burn
Tears in my eyes burn
While I’m waiting

Spotify link

Live is a band from York, PA who have been around since 1984. According to their bio they haven’t put out an album since 2014. Maybe their peak was in the ’90’s in the so-called “grunge” era. They’ve put out some nice shit but I have always loved the tune “I Alone” from the album Throwing Copper.

I like the way this song starts out with the singer (Ed Kowalczyk), rhythm guitar and cymbal taps. Then it just builds nicely, each chorus becoming a little more insistent before it explodes.

Kowalczyk explained the line, “The greatest of teachers won’t hesitate to leave you there by yourself chained to fate,” by saying that a profound lesson he derived from studying spiritual teachings was that religion and truth must be found for oneself and practiced, rather than just accepting the word of others.

Spotify link

So we all remember Marianne Faithfull, yes? (Pictured on top of post.) Pretty ingenue from the Swingin’ Sixties in London. Her first big hit was the Jagger/Richards tune “As Time Goes By.” Ah, yes. So young. So sweet. So innocent.

Then she made the mistake of getting caught up in the Stones’ vortex of hedonism and debauchery. And so she fell into struggles with heroin addiction, alcoholism and anorexia. She disappeared for a while then in 1979 released an album called Broken English.

Wikipedia:  After ending her relationship with Mick Jagger in 1970 and losing custody of her son, Faithfull’s career went into a tailspin as she suffered from heroin addiction and lived on the streets of London. Severe laryngitis, coupled with persistent drug abuse during this period, permanently altered Faithfull’s voice, leaving it cracked and lower in pitch.

But it sure as hell worked for the title song.

Spotify link

26 thoughts on “Tres Songs”

  1. Not much for Eurhythmics/Lennox, but I like Faithfull. “Broken English” was a real breakthrough for her. I have her album “A Child’s Adventure,” which is very smooth and “autumnal,” and underrated. Will check out Live (my old employer is based in York, PA… not that it matters!).

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    1. Faithful came back from nowhere (the street, basically) to blast that album out. I had forgotten it came out in the Seventies. Her voice sounded (and was) world-weary. As to Live, I wouldn’t call myself a mega-fan but I dig some of their stuff.

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  2. I was a big fan of Throwing Copper way back when. Kowalczyk was very interesting lyrically, which I reckon was enough to lift them out of that post-grunge arena they seemed to be thrown into. I believe they split and reformed recently… all very complex, I’m sure. Anyhoo, a fine song choice.

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      1. Yup, it certainly is. “Oh, I remember them… didn’t they have a big hit or something”. Said about pretty much every 90s artist / band at some point.

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  3. Good stuff! I think Annie Lennox is a great vocalist and also like some of her tunes.

    I’m mostly intrigued by Marianne Faithfull. Other than her lovely, almost angel-like version of “As Tears Go By,” she hadn’t been on my radar screen; though when sampling “Broken English,” I recognized “The Ballad Of Lucy Jordan.” I recall listening to that tune on the radio in Germany.

    Wow, what a change in voice – scary what drugs can do. That lady is a true survivor!

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    1. Back in the day, you’d see pictures of her and Keef together, the beautiful people of London. (Although she was really Mick’s girl.) I saw a recent picture of them together and man, age and substance abuse have really done a number on both of them.

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  4. I’ve was listening to a few female singers yesterday, same page again Doc. I have that Faithfull album, I should bust it out and give the whole thing a listen to see how it sounds today. I like the cut you posted.

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        2. I just like to see people make choices to live better lives. It was probably as simple as a life in shit city or clean up and enjoy life clean.
          (Moon Boy, my oldest is home for a visit and he made a wicked “Philly Cheese” last night. I was thinking of you Doc).

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  5. I like Live more than I’m supposed too. They’ve always been pretty critically reviled, especially after the first three albums, but I enjoyed Throwing Copper a lot when it came out. My wife has a piece of art she made in school about the song ‘White Discussion’.

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      1. I think the critical backlash really hit in the 21st century, but they’re a pretty uncool band to admit liking. I like Throwing Copper though – it hit some kind of sweet spot between REM and Nirvana.

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  7. Don’t know Live and wasn’t impressed with track you gave us here. That’s a terrific version of Waiting In Vain, though. Annie Lennox has always been a great singer and that track has some excellent guitar work. Nice production, too. And Marianne Faithfull was always underrated as a singer (and actress) in my opinion. Liked Broken English a lot.

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    1. The Lennox album has some nice stuff on it. I heard that song on the radio and gave it a spin. I think you’d like it. Broken English – as you doubtless recall – seemed to come out of nowhere. A rough sound for a rough life.

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  8. Just stumbled upon your blog and I love it. I too am a music enthusiast! The first time I heard the Annie Lennox cover was in a movie called Serendipity. I feel in love with the song, and it just so happens that, along with my then girl friend now wife, the movie became “our movie” and that song became “our song”.

    I’m looking forward to digging further into your blog. Also, I’ve been kicking around the idea of doing a music blog of my own for some time but I can’t find a good answer to this question; is it ok to post embedded videos in your blog or are you not really supposed to do that? Some folks seem to warn against it but I see plenty of people doing it. What is your take on this? Do you need to get permission to embed these videos?

    Thanks!

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    1. Firstly, thanks for stopping by. I look forward to any comments you may want to make. This blog is about the conversation about music as much as anything else. As to embedding videos, I am no copyright lawyer so take what I say with a grain of salt. I have been blogging now for about 2 1/2 years and I have never heard from any publisher, artist or anyone that I should not embed a song or use it. I think the guys they go after are not the ones who embed what is already out there but the guys who are copying the songs up to YouTube. It makes sense if you think about it, right? Sometimes I look back on an older post I did and a song will have disappeared. They didn’t pull it from me – they pulled it from the site of the guy/gal who posted it. They usually seem to go after serial offenders. Because then 9 times out of 10 I can find it someplace else. If artists really and truly don’t want their songs up there, their “people” then get very aggressive with the posters. So good luck finding Beatles, Prince, Dylan, etc. Which is one of the reasons all my posts have both YouTube and Spotify. Again, if you’re uncomfortable with it, either don’t do it or ask a copyright lawyer. But there are a lot of artists (e.g. Springsteen) who freely have their songs on YouTube. I think they see us bloggers as a secondary form of marketing.

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  9. I recently re-read Marianne’s autobiography, and immediately listened to all the Hal Wilner material. I saw her perform Kurt Weill’s “The Seven Deadly Sins” at St. Anne’s Warehouse. And then of course when I was 16 I wanted to be her. Thank you for not allowing people to forget her, no matter what they think of her. (wonderful roast chicken recipe at book’s end)

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