Friday, January 16, 2009

Watch, Listen and Singalong: Part 7 All the leaves are brown



Because it's Friday, I was going to watch listen and singalong Friday I'm in Love by the Cure. But "embedding is disabled by request" on that one so you'll have to go looking for it by yourself if you feel so inclined. I do believe though that songs with specific days in their titles should be listened to on those days. So The Cure, miss out on being part of my very special Spiralling Shape series. I'm sure they're devastated.

Enough of the sarcasm.

Instead, here is one of my favourite ever songs, first encountered in my parents' record collection and loved ever since. I never get sick of it. The flute solo is perhaps a little dodgy and dated now. But at least it's not a saxophone - my least favourite of all the woodwind instruments.

What's fantastic here is the atmosphere of the song, the timbre, it really sounds autumnal and wintery. Perhaps it's to do with the key, the quality of their voices, the lyrics. The whole thing really. Plus, you can sing along with either part of the call and response type structure. Or if you're like me you try to join in with both...which results in cutting off the end of line in the crossover. And sounds strange. Luckily I'm usually in the car so there is rarely anyone to witness this mangled version. (I restrain myself to dulled humming if there are passengers). what's even better if you have more than one person who likes to do the same and you can split up the harmony. Because, talented as I am (on no more sarcasm now directed at myself) I cannot do that clever throat singing where they sing two notes at once, one as an overtone. I think it's Mongolian but I can't quite remember.

Anyway, enjoy!

Oh, and I nearly forgot...tambourines are cool no matter what anyone tells you.

2 comments:

matt said...

I concur, California Dreaming is a great sing-along song. Back in the day when I was in a band, I got to sing this at a sixties night in a church hall which was great too. Our version was a little heavier because our drummer liked metal and I think the PA system was up a bit loud that night but fun was had by all involved.

Wendy said...

yes there's no way that the song couldn't be fun....but the really important question is....who got to play the tambourine???