Music Labyrinth Episode 024
Does Your Mother Know / ABBA
Hello, and welcome to episode four and twenty of The Music Labyrinth. I’m informed that 24 is the total of major and minor keys in Western tonal music (not including enharmonic keys, but - I mean - who would?). 24 is also the number of karats representing 100% pure gold, which is, of course, what we aspire to here on The Music Labyrinth. In this episode we will continue to wander from song to song, following - not so much the path of least resistance, as the path of general obscurity. I’ve always considered logic to be an over-rated expectation anyway. This week we commenced where we ended our previous episode, with Does Your Mother Know, a single from ABBA’s 6th album, Voulez Vous. Now, in keeping with the numerical theme of this episode, Wikipedia advises that 24 external musicians contributed to the recording of Voulez-Vous, one of whom was the American guitarist, George Terry. Terry has a handful of song-writing credits to his name, including this song which we co-wrote with Marcy Levy and Eric Clapton.
Lay Down Sally / Eric Clapton
From Eric Clapton’s 1977 album, Slowhand, that was Lay Down Sally. I mentioned prior to playing that track that one of it’s co-writers was Marcy Levy, who was also known professionally as Marcella Detroit. About a decade after Clapton released Lay Down Sally, Marcella Detroit teamed up with Siobahn Fahey, who was already performing as a solo act called Shakespears Sister. After becoming a musical duo, Shakespears Sister released the song for which they are best remembered. This is Stay.
Stay / Shakespeare’s Sister
You have returned to The Music Labyrinth where we last listened to Shakespears Sister with their British number 1 hit Stay, from 1991. I mentioned that the founding member of that duo was Siobahn Fahey. Prior to her involvement with Shakespears Sister, Fahey had been a member of Bananarama, which gives us a perfect opportunity to do this.
Venus / Bananrama
From 1986, that was Bananarama’s cover of Venus, a song originally performed by the Dutch band Shocking Blue in 1969. The song was written by band member Robbie van Leeuwen for Shocking Blue. He also wrote Love Buzz, which was later covered by Nirvana on their very first album Bleach.
Love Buzz / Nirvana
From Nirvana’s very first album, Bleach, recorded in 1989, that was Love Buzz. Initially, Bleach was not a high selling album - at least, not until Nirvana’s second album Nevermind created the storm which was to come. Bleach had been released on the label Sub Pop Records, who ultimately released only two albums which were ever certified as platinum: Bleach and Give Up by The Postal Service. So, lets turn to Give Up, and listen to Such Great Heights.
Such Great Heights / The Postal Service
Welcome back to The Music Labyrinth were we took delivery of Such Great Heights, a 2002 hit for the US indie band, The Postal Service. The band consisted primarily of Jenny Lewis, Jimmy Tamborello, and Ben Gibbard from Death Cab For Cutie, a band which he had founded several years earlier. The name of that band comes from the title of a song recorded by the Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band in 1967. The Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band (I’m sure you will be surprised to learn) combined popular music with surreal humour and Avantgarde art, and are probably best remembered for this song from 1968.
I’m The Urban Spaceman / Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band
A founding member of the Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band was Vivian Stanshall, who also possesses a songwriting credit on the title track from Steve Winwood’s 1980 album Arc Of A Diver. Here it is.
Arc of a Diver / Steve Winwood
From 1980, that was Steve Winwood with Arc Of A Diver. Winwood is one of the towering figures of contemporary music, and has a finger in many, many more pies than four and twenty. The directions we might take from here to move on through the labyrinth are prolific, but I’ve chosen a particularly powerful vocal performance from the 2006 album Back To Basics by Christine Aguilera. Steve Winwood co-wrote this track, plays on it, and the track features samples from the song Glad, which was by one of Winwood’s earlier bands, Traffic. This is Makes Me Wanna Pray.
Makes Me Wanna Pray / Christine Aguilera
Here we are in The Music Labyrinth where we just heard Makes Me Wanna Pray from Christine Aguilera’s 2006 album Back To Basics. The album makes use of a number of samples in the various album tracks. One track sampled, on the Christine Aguilera song Here to Stay is this song from 1972 by Candi Staton.
The Best Thing You Ever Had / Candi Staton
From 1972 that was Candi Staton with The Best Thing You Ever Had. Now, I imagine that the keen-eared listener will have picked up on the name Candi Staton. I should further indicate that a campaign has been relentlessly conducted for some time now by a subset of Music Labyrinth listeners for the inclusion of a particular track, and the arrival at the Candi Staton section of the labyrinth presents a perfect opportunity for me to deliver on that promise. Arguably, Candi Staton’s biggest hit was this next song, but we’re going to listen to a cover of it by Kym Mazelle. Here, as promised, is Young Hearts Run Free.
Young Hearts Run Free / Kym Mazelle
Kym Mazelle’s cover of Young Hearts Run Free was recorded in 1996 and shot to international attention thanks largely to its inclusion in the Baz Luhrmann film Romeo + Juliet. However, the song itself was even then 20 years old, having been written in 1976 by David Crawford. Another David Crawford song had a similar trajectory. This next song was written by Crawford in 1968, was a hit that same year for Lynda Lyndell, and then in 1993 was re-interpreted by the hip hop girl group Salt-N-Pepa. Here is the 1968 Lynda Lyndell version of What A Man.
What A Man / Lynda Lyndell
That version of What A Man came from an album celebrating 50 years of recordings by the Tennessee record label Stax Records. Let’s end this episode of The Music Labyrinth with another track from that celebratory album, and one which is to me the epitome of the Stax sound. As ever, thanks for your company on The Music Labyrinth, and this week we leave you with a word of advice. Here are The Staple Singers with Respect Yourself.
Respect Yourself / The Staple Singers
Hello, and welcome to episode four and twenty of The Music Labyrinth. I’m informed that 24 is the total of major and minor keys in Western tonal music (not including enharmonic keys, but - I mean - who would?). 24 is also the number of karats representing 100% pure gold, which is, of course, what we aspire to here on The Music Labyrinth. In this episode we will continue to wander from song to song, following - not so much the path of least resistance, as the path of general obscurity. I’ve always considered logic to be an over-rated expectation anyway. This week we commenced where we ended our previous episode, with Does Your Mother Know, a single from ABBA’s 6th album, Voulez Vous. Now, in keeping with the numerical theme of this episode, Wikipedia advises that 24 external musicians contributed to the recording of Voulez-Vous, one of whom was the American guitarist, George Terry. Terry has a handful of song-writing credits to his name, including this song which we co-wrote with Marcy Levy and Eric Clapton.
Lay Down Sally / Eric Clapton
From Eric Clapton’s 1977 album, Slowhand, that was Lay Down Sally. I mentioned prior to playing that track that one of it’s co-writers was Marcy Levy, who was also known professionally as Marcella Detroit. About a decade after Clapton released Lay Down Sally, Marcella Detroit teamed up with Siobahn Fahey, who was already performing as a solo act called Shakespears Sister. After becoming a musical duo, Shakespears Sister released the song for which they are best remembered. This is Stay.
Stay / Shakespeare’s Sister
You have returned to The Music Labyrinth where we last listened to Shakespears Sister with their British number 1 hit Stay, from 1991. I mentioned that the founding member of that duo was Siobahn Fahey. Prior to her involvement with Shakespears Sister, Fahey had been a member of Bananarama, which gives us a perfect opportunity to do this.
Venus / Bananrama
From 1986, that was Bananarama’s cover of Venus, a song originally performed by the Dutch band Shocking Blue in 1969. The song was written by band member Robbie van Leeuwen for Shocking Blue. He also wrote Love Buzz, which was later covered by Nirvana on their very first album Bleach.
Love Buzz / Nirvana
From Nirvana’s very first album, Bleach, recorded in 1989, that was Love Buzz. Initially, Bleach was not a high selling album - at least, not until Nirvana’s second album Nevermind created the storm which was to come. Bleach had been released on the label Sub Pop Records, who ultimately released only two albums which were ever certified as platinum: Bleach and Give Up by The Postal Service. So, lets turn to Give Up, and listen to Such Great Heights.
Such Great Heights / The Postal Service
Welcome back to The Music Labyrinth were we took delivery of Such Great Heights, a 2002 hit for the US indie band, The Postal Service. The band consisted primarily of Jenny Lewis, Jimmy Tamborello, and Ben Gibbard from Death Cab For Cutie, a band which he had founded several years earlier. The name of that band comes from the title of a song recorded by the Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band in 1967. The Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band (I’m sure you will be surprised to learn) combined popular music with surreal humour and Avantgarde art, and are probably best remembered for this song from 1968.
I’m The Urban Spaceman / Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band
A founding member of the Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band was Vivian Stanshall, who also possesses a songwriting credit on the title track from Steve Winwood’s 1980 album Arc Of A Diver. Here it is.
Arc of a Diver / Steve Winwood
From 1980, that was Steve Winwood with Arc Of A Diver. Winwood is one of the towering figures of contemporary music, and has a finger in many, many more pies than four and twenty. The directions we might take from here to move on through the labyrinth are prolific, but I’ve chosen a particularly powerful vocal performance from the 2006 album Back To Basics by Christine Aguilera. Steve Winwood co-wrote this track, plays on it, and the track features samples from the song Glad, which was by one of Winwood’s earlier bands, Traffic. This is Makes Me Wanna Pray.
Makes Me Wanna Pray / Christine Aguilera
Here we are in The Music Labyrinth where we just heard Makes Me Wanna Pray from Christine Aguilera’s 2006 album Back To Basics. The album makes use of a number of samples in the various album tracks. One track sampled, on the Christine Aguilera song Here to Stay is this song from 1972 by Candi Staton.
The Best Thing You Ever Had / Candi Staton
From 1972 that was Candi Staton with The Best Thing You Ever Had. Now, I imagine that the keen-eared listener will have picked up on the name Candi Staton. I should further indicate that a campaign has been relentlessly conducted for some time now by a subset of Music Labyrinth listeners for the inclusion of a particular track, and the arrival at the Candi Staton section of the labyrinth presents a perfect opportunity for me to deliver on that promise. Arguably, Candi Staton’s biggest hit was this next song, but we’re going to listen to a cover of it by Kym Mazelle. Here, as promised, is Young Hearts Run Free.
Young Hearts Run Free / Kym Mazelle
Kym Mazelle’s cover of Young Hearts Run Free was recorded in 1996 and shot to international attention thanks largely to its inclusion in the Baz Luhrmann film Romeo + Juliet. However, the song itself was even then 20 years old, having been written in 1976 by David Crawford. Another David Crawford song had a similar trajectory. This next song was written by Crawford in 1968, was a hit that same year for Lynda Lyndell, and then in 1993 was re-interpreted by the hip hop girl group Salt-N-Pepa. Here is the 1968 Lynda Lyndell version of What A Man.
What A Man / Lynda Lyndell
That version of What A Man came from an album celebrating 50 years of recordings by the Tennessee record label Stax Records. Let’s end this episode of The Music Labyrinth with another track from that celebratory album, and one which is to me the epitome of the Stax sound. As ever, thanks for your company on The Music Labyrinth, and this week we leave you with a word of advice. Here are The Staple Singers with Respect Yourself.
Respect Yourself / The Staple Singers