When I heard “Joe” sing this at the end of a Royle Family episode it was like being struck by a bolt of lighting. This was my dad’s party piece, I’m sure in homage to my gran, and Joe’s version was too close to my dad’s to be true. My dad had died 18 years earlier.
In recent weeks it’s been stuck in my head so if i should suddenly stop posting could someone post the twilight zone theme in my memory.
Playing in our ophthalmologist’s waiting room earlier this week.
Music for Airports - Brian Eno
Was a favourite for decades, but these days prefer local ambient noises… [edit] maybe ‘local sounds’ is more apt.
Phew I found the way to get to the latest post.
Anyway I am a big Tom Waits fan, but to lighten my mood stuck on a very long flight and lull me to sleep Górecki Symphony No3 Sorrowful Songs.
Yes, I am a weird person, but it is a great piece of music.
Sorry for your loss Vero.
Amazing!
I agree. Scroll up to 1714/1748 – ‘ Wow! Time to pucker up’.
Inspired by Alice in Wonderland…
Not bad, but I think Grace Slick was better.
I’ve lived a sheltered life – didn’t know of either singer, or of the song itself. But I’m catching up!
Heard this yesterday and it’s been stuck in my head since…
I’ve learned not to click on links to other people’s ear worms.
That said, thanks to @Bonzocat I’m currently stuck with White Rabbit, albeit the Jefferson Airplane’s original. At least after many years of following the song’s advice (‘feed your head’) and fortunately many more later years of not following the song’s advice, I can still remember all the lyrics.
And despite everything, Grace Slick still looks great at eighty-five.
He’s touring - not a very big tour - later this year.
Denn alles Fleisch , es ist wie Gras.
"According to Head, he wrote the song about fallen heroes. He re-released the song in 1995 on the album When You’re in Love, and he wrote the following comment in the liner notes:
"“Say It Ain’t So, Joe” was provoked by a seventies documentary on Richard Nixon prior to his resignation. The presenter was asking the editor of a small town newspaper outside Washington, how, in the face of conclusive evidence and proof, his readers could still show such undying support for the president they elected. The editor likens the situation to a scandal in the twenties, when Joe Jackson, the famous baseball player, was rumoured to have taken a bribe to sink his team in the final of the World series. His fans hung around the stadium chanting “Say it ain’t so Joe”.
"The song is about heroes and their “Clay feet’. It is also a plea from myself to the kind of ‘Joe Public’ who, in fear of losing face or in grief at the betrayal, refuses to relinquish their faith in a fallen idol. It is human nature to cling to hope; to the love that one has invested.
"The song is on an album, which has sold over a million copies and was produced by Paul Samwell-Smith, who recently decided to re-record the song. Shortly afterwards I was watching another documentary on the O.J. Simpson case and they showed a note pinned to his gate on which was written “Say it ain’t so Joe”. Two days later a friend, just returned from L.A., rang me to tell me they’d seen placards with that same old phrase. The occasion seemed apt for a re-release.
It’s that White Rabbit again!
I think this Grace Slick version is almost just right, and I agree with the composer assessing the song – wish it was longer!
I also like Patti Smith’s version on the album Twelve.
I am going to be shot for the next comment; I prefer her version of “Changing of the Guards” to the original by Dylan.
