Good Gravy!

I must make sure I’m Google’s #1 for that name!

It has become campy over the years because we’ve come to associate this subject matter (girls on top, basically) with campiness. Just picking another couple of Number Ones, see also ‘I Will Survive’ or ‘Survivor’. All three, when sung by a woman, are strong statements of empowerment. When sung by a man they become ‘ooh, hark at you, you big queen’.

Alan Connor may be interested to note, for his Resurrection Watch, a cover version by Alan Connor, which you can download here:

http://www.alanconnor.co.uk

Never thought this song was all that great. I’m more of a “Some Velvet Morning” kinda guy.

Jessica Simpson & Willie Nelson

(Of course a song can be both campy and be a song of emancipation.)

One cover version that hasn’t been mentioned is Hazlewood’s own, also recorded in ‘66, which adds spoken commentary about the making of the record and the fact that it sold a million. (he doesn’t quite say “Suckers!” but comes close).

And yes, bothe the Nancy and Lee versions would get a 10 from me.

Jeff W

PS Please take no notice of Vicus Scurra. The poor lad means well but he clearly has the bass turned down on his stereo…

Nice to see “Secret Love” up there. It’s one hell of an under-appreciated ballad.

Brian

Marcello - agreed on “You Only Live Twice”, amazing record, I’m not sure I’ve been aware of two different versions and must track them down.

I’ve more to say about pop and cynicism but will try and save it for an entry sometime.

I think if her singles had kept on flopping Ms S’ career wd have been diverted discreetly away from pop.

“Good Vibrations” isn’t in the same league - this is a lot closer to The Monkees, I think, though oddly enough, I find it easier to take a manufactured group than a manufactured song.

the comment i meant to leave wz:
“my boots” is also better than “ulysses”!1

but it seems less komikal now

I suppose Morrissey might agree with you–which doesn’t mean that all that many of us will.

This might well be your biggest controversy since–I dread to write the title–”King of the Road.” (Groan)

In my peculiar way I do appreciate that your rating system depends on how you feel on the day you write your critique. I daresay it’s probably true about most forms of criticism, even if we pretend otherwise. (For example, have I, a specialist in British Modernism, always and forever thought that *Ulysses* is the greatest novel of the 20th century? No! But polls of reputedly great literary minds almost always come to that conclusion.

I know I was b^tchy with you about Sandie Shaw’s “Long Live Love.” I know I said, with considerable irritation, that girls just aren’t taken seriously. Today I have reversed myself–this girl is being taken WAY too seriously. But if I were to rely on my feelings today, I’d give Sandie an 8 and Ms. Snotra a 2. Today, yesterday, tomorrow, forty years ago, forty years from now…..

Or maybe it’s because she’s Frank Sinatra’s daughter and I could never endure her father’s vocal mannerisms.

By the way, I once read that during the Branch Davidian siege, the US government forces played this recording full blast and constantly to drive cult members into surrendering. I would surrender just to make it stop. But then, if they had to hear this 24/7, I could even understand why some of them got violent and committed suicide.

It might be apocryphal, but I like to believe it’s true.

Doctor Mod

That having been said, the less Hazlewood and Sinatra strove to make A Hit Record, the better records they made, I think (Sand, Velvet, et al).

“You Only Live Twice” is, mind you, immortal - either in the original lush John Barry-produced form or the fuzzed-up, harsher take on the single version (which Hazlewood produced).

I do believe in the facade in this case: or rather, the song makes me want to assume the same facade, which isn’t quite the same thing as ‘believing’ it but is just as powerful. This is very obviously somebody sitting down and thinking, right, let’s make an amazing pop record - it had to be or Nancy’s ‘career’ would have gone down the dumper. I don’t think the obviousness of that lessens the, uh, use-value of the record.

Hello bza! Better than Satisfaction? Not always, no, but on the days I reviewed the two records, yes.

Like Kane’s Xanadu, even if it’s the most obvious facade in the universe, I still want to believe in it (now there’s a thing - Citizen Kane, the progenitor of inverted commas cinema, and yet the meme works in cinema but not in pop).

Resurrection Watch: Covers include good ol’ Janis Ian and Barry Adamson & Anita Lane; bad ol’ Billy Ray Cyrus and Boy George and various randoms like The Fixx and Megadeth.

Oh, and let us never forget Heaven 17’s choice of vocalist for the Music Of Quality And Distinction BEF reworking?.

Films must be a gazillion, but include Full Metal Jacket, The Mexican, about a millisecond in Fargo, and of course (sigh) Austin Powers: International Man Of Mystery — oh, and if you haven’t heard The Crazy Frog’s version… can I swap lives with you? Please?

? [Paula Yates]

Anyway, good site, great idea, I’ll be a regular here, so hello.