Arthur (1981)

 

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:

Monday Toonage #9

This Monday's toonage is this great version of 'Please Stay' by Love Affair.

I write 'this version' 'cos until I stumbled across the Love Affair's version on Spotify I had no idea that it was originally recorded by The Drifters, and that it was co-written by Burt Bacharach. I'm muttering to myself, 'why wasn't this a single? It's magic'. More fool me for missing out on another sixties classic, and isn't Steve Ellis's voice absolutely fantastic?

 

Now, I'll have to hunt down the other versions by the likes of Lulu, Bay City Rollers and Marc Almond. I bet they don't even come close. I know this version's better than The Drifters original.

EDITED TO ADD:
Okay, I've just had a quick sweep of the other versions. I couldn't find Lulu's version but the Bay City Rollers, Dave Clark Five, Duffy, Mister Costello, Marc Almond - what were you thinking?, Aaron Neville. None of you even come close to the Love Affair version. It's all down to Mr Ellis's rendition. Stunning.

A mention in dispatches to Seven Letters for their reggae version of 'Please Stay'. A nice version but still not close enough.