Woodstock - Matthews Southern Comfort

For a song very much if its era you would have to look hard to find a better candidate than Woodstock, first performed live in 1969. The song was written by Joni Mitchell (and is the B-side of Big Yellow Taxi) but several notable versions immeditately threatened to eclipse the original. In the USA, there was the version by Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young (which initially had input from Jimi Hendrix) and in the UK, the modified version by the short lived Matthews' Southern Comfort, the most successful commercially. The lyrics reference the famous Woodstock Music and Arts Festival of 1969 and tell the story of a concert-goer on a trek to attend the festival at Max Yasgur's farm. Mitchell was unable to perform at the festival, having been advised that a TV appearance was preferable, but heard all about it through her then boyfriend Graham Nash, who had performed there. She wrote the song in a New York hotel while watching TV reports of the festival. David Crosby for one felt she had captured the feeling and importance of the Woodstock festival better than anyone who had actually been there. Among the most interesting lyrics, apart from the anti-war message, are the references in the chorus to "We are stardust, we are golden/We are billion-year-old carbon" and "and we've got to get ourselves back to the garden". The first picks up on the idea of modern science which teaches that we are largely made up of elements made in the stars billions of years ago. The second phrase references the Eden of the Bible lost in the Fall. Of course, the problem is that we cannot get ourselves back there, we need salvation from God. "We are caught in the devil's bargain" is another lyric worth pondering.

Down by the Salley Gardens - Clannad/You rambling boys of pleasure - Planxty

Down by the Salley Gardens (Irish: Gort na Saileán) was a poem by celebrated author W B Yeats first published in The Wanderings of Oisin and Other Poems in 1889. Yeats said it was "an attempt to reconstruct an old song from three lines imperfectly remembered by an old peasant woman in the village of Ballisodare, Sligo, who often sings them to herself." The song no doubt was the ballad Ye Rambling Boys of Pleasure which includes the verse "Down by yon flowery garden my love and I we first did meet. I took her in my arms and to her I gave kisses sweet. She bade me take life easy just as the leaves fall from the tree. But I being young and foolish, with my darling did not agree." The rest of the song, however, is quite different. Yeats' original title, An Old Song Re-Sung reflecting his debt to Rambling Boys gave way to the present title when reprinted in Poems. The power of the song is in the ability of its author to look back on his youth with palpable regret. Rambling boys rather blames money for the problems encountered. (It should be noted that the Bible does not say that gold is the root of all evil but that the love of it is the root of all kinds of evil). The "Salley Gardens" were on the banks of the river at Ballysodare where trees were cultivated for roof thatching. Sally is Standard English for "sallow" ie a tree of the genus Salix and close in sound to Irish saileach, willow. In 1909 the verses were set to music by Herbert Hughes to the traditional air The Maids of Mourne Shore. (Other tunes were written by Rebecca Clarke (1886–1979) in the 1920s and John Ireland (1879–1962) in 1929–31. A vocal setting by poet and composer Ivor Gurney was published in 1938. In 1943 Britten set it using the tune Hughes collected. In 1988, American composer John Corigliano published his own setting.) Clannad recorded it live in 1979 and are just one of a host of artists to record it - from Kathleen Ferrier through Dolores Keen to actress Emma Thompson.

The lyrics

Down by the salley gardens my love and I did meet. She passed the salley gardens with little snow-white feet. She bid me take love easy, as the leaves grow on the tree, but I, being young and foolish, with her would not agree.

In a field by the river my love and I did stand and on my leaning shoulder she laid her snow-white hand.

She bid me take life easy, as the grass grows on the weirs, but I was young and foolish and now am full of tears.

*

You rambling boys of pleasure, give ear unto these lines I write. Although I am a rover, in rambling I take great delight. I cast my mind on a handsome girl and often times she does me slight. My mind is never easy, except when my true love is in my sight.

Down by yon flowery gardens, where me and my true love do meet, I took her in my arms and unto her gave kisses sweet. She bade me take love easy, just as the leaves fall from the tree, but I being young and foolish, with my own true love I did not agree.

And the second time I met my love, I thought that her heart was surely mine but as the season changes, my darling girl has changed her mind. Gold is the root of evil, although it bears a glistening hue, causes many the lad and lass to part, though their hearts like mine be e'er so true.

And I wish I was in Belfast town and my true love along with me and money in my pocket, to keep us in good company; liquor to be plenty, a flowing glass on every side - hard fortune would ne'er daunt me, for I am young and the world is wide.

Hello, Goodbye - The Beatles

When talking about popular music it is hard not to get round to the Beatles at some point. But which track to highllight? The single, Hello Goodbye recorded at the end of 1967 is as good as any to focus on. It has plenty to commend it  - a great commercial tune, interesting vocal harmonies and a nice (improvised) 45 second coda after the briefest caesura. Lennon is said to have considered the McCartney song inconsequential, calling it "three minutes of contradictions and meaningless juxtapositions." Perhaps the real problem was that it knocked his I Am The Walrus on to the B-side. The single was commercially successful all over the world and spent seven weeks at the top of the UK chart. Partly because it came after the advent of BBC Radio 1, it is said to be the most played Beatles record on radio. McCartney later said that the lyrics take duality as their theme. It is claimed that the song was started off by McCartney sitting down at home at a harmonium with Alistair Taylor, who had been an assistant to the then recently deceased Brian Epstein. McCartney got Taylor to sing the opposite of whatever he sang. He was later eager to point out that he sang all the more positive words but he does sing no as well as go. The Beatles produced three promotional films for the song, one of which was shown on The Ed Sullivan Show in America.

Fire Brigade - The Move

Fire Brigade by the Birmingham band The Move was released in 1968 as their fourth single. It is a consummate piece of pop music, two and a half minutes long. It starts with the sound of an old fashioned fire engine, has a very catchy hook of a guitar riff (apparently derived from "Somethin' Else" by Eddie Cochran and a favourite of the composer but almost twangy enough to be Duane Eddy) and some nice background vocals (including onomatapoeic hoots). It even has an excellent middle eight, courtesy of Carl Wayne, the main vocal being taken by Roy Wood, the song's composer. (On Flowers in the rain the roles had been reversed). Wood apparently wrote it to order the night before in a hotel room. Sessions for the song began the next day, on 16 November 1967, at Olympic Studios, Barnes, London. There are apparently other versions of it, including one with Matthew Fisher of Procol Harum on piano. In a 1976 interview for Sounds magazine, Wood said, "When The Move began I had a lot of children's fairy stories I'd been writing and the songs grew out of them, childlike with a lunatic side like 'Fire Brigade.' I really worked on the words." When consulted, the lyrics are surprisingly poetic. The basic idea is that there is a girl who is so hot she "could set the place on fire". Hence the need to "Run and get the fire brigade, Get the fire brigade" as you "See the buildings start to really burn". The metaphor is legitimate because it well describes the excitement only a teenager really experiences.