The title of this blog comes from a Gaelic expression -"putting on the poor mouth"-which means to exaggerate the direness of one's situation in order to gain time or favour from creditors.
23 January 2007
Come up and see me (make me smile)
More than 30 years on and I still love this. The clothes and the haircuts look quaint now but a great song is a great song.
The lead singer looks like he would fit right into the pop/rock scene today. Except for the annoying gum chewing in between verses. What's up with that???!??? I like the tone and melody of it.
Also, correct me if I'm wrong, but you didn't see many "brothers" mixed into bands like this back in the day, did you?
his is one of a few number 1 singles that I truly like, THe chewing goum? perhaps to make him look cool? Ither wise blow me guv! (that does NOT have rude connotations!)
It certainly wasn't unknown here. Hot Chocolate and Showaddywaddy (gah!) spring to mind immediately. Be Bop Deluxe#s bassist was Maori.
To the clothes and the haircuts, add the musical instruments. My digital piano is over five years old now, but it would stand out in that band, by appearance alone, not to mention sound. Fortunately, a lot of musicians today like "classic" instruments for some purposes... good thing we don't have to use "classic" computers, eh?
I think it's about time for me to give myself a "quaint" haircut...
I know Roger but it is one of those songs that cuts through the years and still sounds great now. It is a perfect pop song in that sense.
lol steve! A great instrument is a great instrument (says jams showing the authority of the tone deaf no talent he is!) but styles change don't they.. I daresay many musicians find the instruments they love and stick with them?
jams, it depends on the circumstance. My girlfriend of 30 years ago, a brilliant singer/songwriter in several languages and a guitarist good enough to hang with Sergio Mendes when she lived in Brazil for a while, owned and performed on an ancient Martin acoustic, which was coveted by every guitarist who ever saw it. In my days of performing 16th- through 18th-century music, all my instruments were handmade copies or near-copies of period instruments. You would think I could have acquired one of each type for each period and just settled in to perform on them, but instrument makers kept making better and better copies over the span of my career. I've sold a lot of my instruments over time, but as you say, there are a couple of them that I love and would never part with, even though my interest these days is in much newer music.
jams, my tastes have moved from the 1650's to the 1950's... I love all jazz, and especially bop and most of what came after it, until jazz went flabby. Fortunately, jazz went on a diet and is healthy again, so I like recent jazz as well. (Australia is producing some really interesting jazz these days.)
Of course I also like a lot of the rock we all listened to from the early-mid-Sixties to the early Seventies. OK, so I'm old, and I like the music of my childhood... so sue me. :)
About once a week, I get a wave of nostalgia and drag out some instrumental music from around 1650 or so, to remind myself of the musical world I once inhabited as a performer. Sigh.
I suppose I really should scour YouTube for videos of some of this stuff...
14 comments:
The lead singer looks like he would fit right into the pop/rock scene today. Except for the annoying gum chewing in between verses. What's up with that???!??? I like the tone and melody of it.
Also, correct me if I'm wrong, but you didn't see many "brothers" mixed into bands like this back in the day, did you?
his is one of a few number 1 singles that I truly like, THe chewing goum? perhaps to make him look cool? Ither wise blow me guv! (that does NOT have rude connotations!)
It certainly wasn't unknown here. Hot Chocolate and Showaddywaddy (gah!) spring to mind immediately. Be Bop Deluxe#s bassist was Maori.
Class.
Oh that it is Tyger!
When it was originally released I would never have believed that it could still be so popular 30 years on. Great!
Cool song; thanks for posting it.
To the clothes and the haircuts, add the musical instruments. My digital piano is over five years old now, but it would stand out in that band, by appearance alone, not to mention sound. Fortunately, a lot of musicians today like "classic" instruments for some purposes... good thing we don't have to use "classic" computers, eh?
I think it's about time for me to give myself a "quaint" haircut...
I know Roger but it is one of those songs that cuts through the years and still sounds great now. It is a perfect pop song in that sense.
lol steve! A great instrument is a great instrument (says jams showing the authority of the tone deaf no talent he is!) but styles change don't they.. I daresay many musicians find the instruments they love and stick with them?
jams, it depends on the circumstance. My girlfriend of 30 years ago, a brilliant singer/songwriter in several languages and a guitarist good enough to hang with Sergio Mendes when she lived in Brazil for a while, owned and performed on an ancient Martin acoustic, which was coveted by every guitarist who ever saw it. In my days of performing 16th- through 18th-century music, all my instruments were handmade copies or near-copies of period instruments. You would think I could have acquired one of each type for each period and just settled in to perform on them, but instrument makers kept making better and better copies over the span of my career. I've sold a lot of my instruments over time, but as you say, there are a couple of them that I love and would never part with, even though my interest these days is in much newer music.
What sort of music do you care for these days, Steve?
jams, my tastes have moved from the 1650's to the 1950's... I love all jazz, and especially bop and most of what came after it, until jazz went flabby. Fortunately, jazz went on a diet and is healthy again, so I like recent jazz as well. (Australia is producing some really interesting jazz these days.)
Of course I also like a lot of the rock we all listened to from the early-mid-Sixties to the early Seventies. OK, so I'm old, and I like the music of my childhood... so sue me. :)
About once a week, I get a wave of nostalgia and drag out some instrumental music from around 1650 or so, to remind myself of the musical world I once inhabited as a performer. Sigh.
I suppose I really should scour YouTube for videos of some of this stuff...
Me, I tend to be an utter barbarian and philistine when it comes to music (the best songs start ONE TWO THREE FOUR! and have buzzsaw guitar riffs).
It would be a much more boring place if we all liked the same stuff...
Ah Mullet no need I have donated it for use by the People!
mullet - thirty years AGO. That girlfriend and I were together for about two years. But she was a truly amazing musician.
jams - I doubt I could get away with calling Stella "the not wife" ... not more than once, in any case!
Ah Steve.. I have a suggestion as to how you can get to call her that the second, third and fourth time - that is to roll with the punches!
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