Round 15: Weaving a tapestry, people. There may be fictionalized bollocks along the way

Darts Thrown: January 18th 2019

Blog Written: May 3rd 2019

Highest Score: 121

Lowest Score: 2

Sixties: 13
100+: 1

Blogger's Note: Written in haste, so there will be spelling mistakes and slapdash grammar.

Look at the date this blog was written. A backlog, people. No specially selected book, as a backdrop with the piss-poor excuses for why I haven't read it. Just a the facts, mam. I have a lot of these to steam through. Maybe I'll provide the colour commentary once they are all on the blog.

. . .  And you just know that I will have mislaid at least one sheet.

But I will use the this rush through as a cheap excuse to post music videos from YouTube. Why not? I need a soundtrack whilst I do this. Next up is 'God Give Me Strength' by Kristen Vigard. Written by Costello and Bacharach, this song features in Allison Anders' film' Grace of My Heart', a loving tribute to the 50s and 60s Brill Building and its songwriting factory and, of course, the main character, Denise Waverly, is a thinly disguised Carole King. Even a numbskull like me knew that. Like millions of other families across the western world in the early to mid 70s, we received a copy of Carole King's 'Tapestry' album as a free gift when our parents bought the Crying Boy painting from our local Woolworths.

Discovered this song one late night when I happened to stumble across the movie on tv. It was half way through the film so I had no idea what was going on, but this scene popped up and I was hooked. Apparently Matt Dillon was playing a fictionalised Brian Wilson, but I don't see any sandbox, And just cos he plays with his specs a few times in the movie, that's not proof enough that he's a troubled soul. (For clarification purposes, Illeana Douglas is miming to Kristen Vigard's vocals. A good old Hollywood staple.)

Why this now? Well, it was either this song or The Cavedogs song which is my first MP3 download. I can't remember which. *Cough* There's been a few more since.

Costello and Bacharach recorded their own version, and it's fine as it goes but this will always be the definitive version for me:

The Next 30 Day Song Challenge - day 29

Day 29 - A song from a film soundtrack

I was going to go with a Michael Nyman piece from Michael Winterbottom's 'Wonderland' for this challenge, but I'll save that for another day.

Instead, it has to be Kristen Vigard singing Costello/Bacharach's 'God Give Me Strength' from Allison Anders 1996 film 'Grace of My Heart', and for the following reasons:

• Probably my favourite Costello song of all time. Just pips out 'I Want You', 'London's Brilliant Parade', 'Shipbuilding' (spoiled by too many shite cover versions) and 'Alison'.
• Discovered this song - and the film - in the good old fashioned way*. Late night, half asleep, flicking through channels 'cos you're bored and there's nothing's on and you stumble across a film you've never heard of before, looks half interesting, so you stop flicking for a few minutes and then this scene pops up and your eyes and ears pop out. It's only months later that you discover that Illena Douglas doesn't have the voice of an angel, but in fact that she's miming to Kristen Vigard's vocals. Costello's version isn't half-bad either.
• Either the first or second song I ever downloaded from the t'internet. I can't remember if it was this or 'Love Grenade' by The Cavedogs.  Both great songs that should be heard by more people. The world would be a better place.

Footnote

good old fashioned way* - I miss those days of stumbling across an unknown film late night on the telly. We're all so overloaded these days that there's little or no surprises out there. Everything comes via a tweet or a shared message on your facebook wall. Honorable mention to these two other great films also discovered in the same half-assed fashion as 'Grace of My Heart'.