Took a left, hit a nerve, took a right, hit the curb

[sovay]

For various reasons not limited to the overhead activity of children in the mornings, last night was the first real time all week that I slept and have thus spent most of the day in a vague state of hibernation despite the warmth of the air. There was a mauve overcast around sunset that turned out to belong to a volcanic wall of gold and bougainvillea over an agate-blue cloud-band. Have some mostly musical links.

For the more than twenty years since lesser_celery made me a CD of Peter Gabriel's Melt (1980), I have assumed that the eerily voiced French refrain of "Games Without Frontiers" was either the singer's own falsetto or pitch-shifted vocals. It turns out to be Kate Bush. I would never have identified her on my own, but then I thought about "Army Dreamers" (1980).

I grew up on Arlo Guthrie, but my favorite version of "City of New Orleans" (1971) is almost certainly Steve Goodman himself in 1970, where he reminded me unexpectedly of a Chicago-accented Stan Rogers. It's driving me nuts that I would swear the first person I heard lead "The Twentieth Century Is Almost Over" (1977) was Pete Seeger and I can't figure out where.

WERS has been playing nothing but female artists for International Women's Day, which means everything from Chaka Khan's "I'm Every Woman" (1978), Katrina and the Waves' "Walking on Sunshine" (1983), and Bikini Kill's "Rebel Girl" (1993) to Tegan and Sara's "I'll Be Back Someday" (2019), Orla Gartland's "Little Chaos" (2024), and Arlo Parks' "2SIDED" (2026). I had a moral obligation to let my father know when Rickie Lee Jones came around.

Video quality regardless, sholio's "Waking Up in Vegas" (The Greatest American Hero) remains one of my all-time favorites of their vids.

Comments

[theseatheseatheopensea]

It turns out to be Kate Bush. I would never have identified her on my own

It took me ages to realise that, too (in this one and in "No Self Control" as well!) And I had the same thing happen in PG 4, with Peter Hammill's backing vocals. Like Kate Bush, he is incredibly and immediately easy to identify, but not here!

I'm glad you got to listen to Rickie Lee Jones (and others) for women's day. I was listening to a radio station that did something similar and I got to hear Cyndi Lauper and and Suzanne Vega! <3

[sovay]

It took me ages to realise that, too (in this one and in "No Self Control" as well!) And I had the same thing happen in PG 4, with Peter Hammill's backing vocals. Like Kate Bush, he is incredibly and immediately easy to identify, but not here!

I approve of it, but it's a weird experience!

I'm glad you got to listen to Rickie Lee Jones (and others) for women's day. I was listening to a radio station that did something similar and I got to hear Cyndi Lauper and and Suzanne Vega!

Nice! I really like that WERS plays tracks as legendary as Nina Simone's "Revolution (Part 2)" (1969) and then as local but obscure to me as Kristin Cifelli's "Not Supposed To" (2011). Their themed days are always broad-spectrum.

[ashlyme]

I had no idea the two Peters worked together! Thanks for the heads-up.

[ashlyme]

(Also, respects on the PH icon. 💜)

[theseatheseatheopensea]

Yes! PH did vocals for The Family and the Fishing Net, Shock The Monkey and Lay Your Hands on Me from PG4, and then for Digging in the Dirt from the "Us" album. I love that they worked together, even though PH's vocals are not very noticeable. I might be biased, because he's one of my all time favourites, but that voice deserves more than some stealth backing vocals, haha!

Thank you for appreciating my PH icon! :D No one has done so before!

[ashlyme]

There's nothing quite like that splendid growl, is there? Oh, I see from Sovay's other post that you're a Prisoner fan; can I add you? (I comment more than I post entries, mind.)

[theseatheseatheopensea]

Of course you can, thank you for asking!

[ashlyme]

Yay! Anybody who likes Hammill and The Prisoner is worth knowing. 😊