Holy Covers!

I have been a bit taken by this recently. I have been scrolling through my itunes looking for them. So far I have about 30 and I am looking for more.

My favorites thus far are Björk and PJ Harvey covering Satisfaction and Johnny Cash's cover of Hurt and Personal Jesus, which really made the originals far better in my book. I would love to meet the person who listened to this and dreamed up this. Has Morrissey ever commented on that?

Anyone got a favorite? Please share.

G-l-o-r-i-a

Um, here is another version. I like this one too.

I'm the crawling king snake

Booze and music - is should be a regular Wednesday evening.

Tonight, I have renewed my love of Benn loxo du taccu, which shows me I have only scratched the surface of African music. Tonight's find was Ignace De Souza, a great west african early afrobeater.

I learned the history of Sterns Music in London, a force in bringing African music to London since 1983.

Now I have moved on to all the tracks I didn't have from The Doors from their box set. God, I had missed a lot.


The song G-l-o-r-i-a makes me feel better, always. That's a Van Morrison cover?!? I had never heard The Doors version until tonight!

Plans for June 19-23?

The Gnawas have both a therapeutic and a propitiatory function. They are often summoned in cases of mental disturbance, even when the patient is being treated at a psychiatric clinic; they are also called in to treat scorpion stings.

Paul Bowles

Cheatin' Steelers

My girlfriend of over three years has patiently tolerated one of my less-than-useful habits - "watching" Pittsburgh Steeler scores on the Internet every Sunday in the fall. Pathetic, I know, but I do it. We even celebrated together at 3:00 a.m. here in London two years ago when they won the Super Bowl for the first time since 1980. As a nine-year-old who liked football cards, I was taken with Jack Lambert and the working-class dream team of the 1970s. Those were the days! (But Roethlisberger 5 TDs last night were pretty darn cool...)

Imagine my surprise as she was remembering her childhood "first songs" on Sunday and googled a previously unknown band to me - The Kendalls, a father and daughter country duo who sang a song called the "Pittsburgh Steelers" about cheating between shifts. To those who know her, you might like the image of the cheating father-daughter duo and the lyrics...

I found myself in Pittsburgh, working in a steel mill
And I was a southern girl whose husband didn't see
Well, he pulled the night shift
And I worked the day shift
And it came too easy for us to play the game

They could call us the Pittsburgh Steelers
Stealing happiness and cheating anytime we can
We both know the score but we run back for more
And tonight the Pittsburgh Steelers play again

Morning will ever find us with a night of love behind us
On a back street in Pittsburgh time after time
Just touch and go lovers running a pattern
And every time we meet we leave it all wrong tonight

They could call us the Pittsburgh Steelers
Stealing happiness and cheating anytime we can
We both know the score but we run back for more
And tonight the Pittsburgh Steelers play again

Not exactly a team fight song, but it does show creativity, I guess.