The Next 30 Day Song Challenge - day 01

I meant to do another one of these months ago but . . . but . . . you know the score. Let's not embarrass each other about this recurring matter.

Thirty days in June and a threadbare post count for 2012 gives me a cheap excuse to litter the page with embedded videos for the next thirty days. My one reader in Kerala with dial-up will be so so pleased.


day 01 - Your favourite cover version
It could be any number of Dick Gaughan's versions of Leon Rosselson songs and, up until a minute ago, it was going to be this wonderful version of a Chic classic but I suddenly remembered that I've had Kris Drever's version of Boo Hewerdine's 'Harvest Gypsies' on repeat for months now, and what better excuse to belatedly mention the song on the blog:



A great voice, a touching d-i-y video, and some backstory to the term 'Harvest Gypsies' and the John Steinbeck connection.

Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck (Penguin 1937)

"You're nuts." Crooks was scornful. "I seen hundreds of men come by on the road an' on the ranches, with their bindles on their back an' that same damn thing in their heads. Hundreds of them. They come, an' they quit an' go on; an' every damn one of 'em's got a little piece of land in his head. An' never a God damn one of 'em ever gets it. Just like heaven. Ever'body wants a little piece of lan'. I read plenty of books out there. Nobody ever gets to heaven, and nobody gets no land. It's just in their head. They're all the time talkin' about it, but it's jus' in their head."

Lifeboat (1944)