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This is getting to be a habit! 

I was reading the Wikipedia page for Jane Siberry last week and discovered that she’d done the theme tune for the American and Canadian TV series Maniac Mansion which was loosely based on the adventure game of the same name. Must admit I was completely unaware of the series. Anyway, it got me thinking about finding three of Jane’s songs that could be tied, no matter how tenuously, to the AG genre and chose these.  As always these are songs that I actually own.

We’ve had rain almost constantly for three months on end now. Floods everywhere.
And while the temperature is pretty mild for the time of year, I prefer cold but dry. You can dress to the cold. You can’t really dress to the rain.

So here’s my plea for an end of rain. And yes, I know that the lyrics aren’t to be taken literally, that they’re pleas for relief from emotional struggles - and in the case of CCR: societal and political turmoil - but damnit, right now, I feel like taking them at face value.


Creedence Clearwater Revival - Who’ll Stop the Rain

The Beta Band - Dry the Rain

Lord of the Lost - Dry the Rain

Now that’s an excellent 3 that are very definitely “in the moment” Tim. So much so it inspired me to pick 3 of my own on the same subject. And they are:

When I was inspired by Tim’s original 3 songs about rain there were two I wanted to include but didn’t as:
A - I didn’t own a copy of either and
B - One was by Jane Siberry and I’d just done a “3 In The Moment” featuring her songs.

However, they’ve both been nagging at me to list them so I’ve, probably for the only time, broken my rule about only using songs that I own, added a third, and these are:

The Cascades - Rhythm Of The Rain (The extra added third one)

Ann Peebles - I Can’t Stand The Rain

And lastly, just for Tim (and anyone else that’s fed up with all this water)

Jane Siberry - It Can’t Rain All The Time

I have a new phone since this weekend. Was about time, my previous one was six years old, took an enormous balancing act just to get it to charge, and as of New Year’s, my bank app no longer ran on it so I couldn’t use it for payments any longer.

Anyway, with the new phone, I’ve decided to add a third song to my “wake up” alarms. I already used two of them, but since I set three alarms, I added a third song.

They’re all designed to get me to wake up gently and put me in a good mood, with the third one being harder as a means of saying “get up, NOW!”.

Alarm #1 (the new addition):

Rusted Root - Send Me on My Way

Alarm #2:

Peter Gabriel - Solsbury Hill

Alarm #3:

Coheed and Cambria - Welcome Home

This last one is also my phone’s ringtone, because that intro is a thing of beauty.

I was thinking the other day how little instrumentals tend to be regarded in the modern world (I’m excluding “Classical” here as that’s a different beast entirely) yet they can take you on a journey that vocals can’t - and that journey can be completely different for each and every listener.

So I thought I’d give 3 examples (although it’s actually 4 but still 3 as you’ll discover) of instrumentals that I love, the first being:

Vangelis – Pulstar

Whilst finding that live recording I also discovered a version by the James Last Orchestra which I thought was amazing so I’ve also included it here:

2nd is by one of the greatest guitarists of all time, often titled “the greatest guitarist you’ve never heard of” and he can certainly take you on a journey.

Roy Buchanan – In The Heat Of The Battle

Last one is by a guitarist you’ll have certainly heard of. This instrumental will almost certainly appear in the top ten of nearly everybody’s top ten of instrumentals and, in my view anyway, is the greatest “B” side of a single of all time. Of the “A” side the artist famously said of it “it’s like being lumbered with a pink lavatory suit around your neck for the rest of your life!”

Jeff Beck – Beck’s Bolero

Yesterday I realised that I wasn’t backing up downloaded musical bits and pieces that I had so got that going. As it was running through I noticed the literal video version I’d got of “Total Eclipse Of The Heart”, remembered that I’d managed to lose the higher quality version that I had, so looked to see if I could find it again. I did! Actually it was an upscaled 4k version (still not brilliant quality due to the age of the original video) so downloaded it.
What I also found were several other literal video songs but none grabbed me in the slightest. Clever? Yes. Entertaining (for me)? No. But I also discovered a lady by the name of Shirley Serban who has reworked various hits from down the years in the most entertaining and amusing way. Think Fascinating Aïda crossed with the late Victoria Wood. Since I could easily make up a “3 In The Moment” for here I decided to do so. Obviously these are not part of my own collection but I’m happy to break with that this time because, well, why not

Total Eclipse Of The Heart:

The Sound Of Science:

Menopause Rhapsody:

Three YouTube covers are almost as good as the original

Cream!

Three war songs