Last time was all about saying goodbye to the old and welcoming the new. We're having a week off, but next time ?
Momentous times at Readers recommend. The last ever newspaper column has now run and a new guru is warming up and sharpening whatever it is you need to have really sharp to properly steer this wonderful ship. I'd just like to say what a pleasure it's been to bring this column together. There is a remarkable community here that will, I'm sure, push Readers recommend forward for years to come.
So, it's a week off next week ? some obscure religious holiday, can't remember it's name ? then we're back with a new topic on 7 January. Anyway, the final A-list looked like this: All Things Must Pass ? George Harrison; Life Changes ? Wu-Tang Clan; Metamorphosis ? Ananda Shankar; If He Had Changed My Name ? Nina Simone; Where Are We Going? ? Donald Byrd; Just the Way You Are ? Billy Joel; Grown So Ugly ? Captain Beefheart and His Magic Band; Freedom 90 ? George Michael; Changes ? David Bowie; The Wind of Change ? Robert Wyatt and the SWAPO Singers. As far as the B-list, well, that looks like this ...
Black Sabbath ? Changes
Who knew Tony Iommi could play the piano so well? Ver Sabs pull back from the brutalist head-squeezing and wring some tears from a tale of painful change. Covered ? delightfully ? by the Cardigans.
Blind Willie McTell ? Don't You See How This World Made a Change
Recorded in New York in 1933, McTell deals with the change brought about by no lesser person than, literally, God. Look at the believers, "marching round the throne with Peter, James and John".
Tindersticks ? The Turns We Took
There is more than a hint of Jimmy Webb's Wichita Lineman on this song from the band's 2008 album, The Hungry Saw. "Our song is carried on the wind," Stuart Staples sings, "and we chase so hard we fall." Change brought on by love, people, that's what we want.
The Lovin' Spoonful ? The Other Side of This Life
Written by Fred Neil ? this is a hymn to constant, rolling change, to never letting the world grow boring around you. "Half the time, I don't know where I'll go," they sing, "I think I'll get me a sailing boat and sail the gulf of Mexico."
Ariel Pink's Haunted Graffiti ? Menopause Man
Not just a change, but the change. Neat.
Dusty Springfield ? The Summer Is Over
From 1964 and originally a B-Side, The Summer Is Over marks out change as it happens all around us. "The night runs away with the day," she sings, "the grass that was green is now hay." Pop profundity ahoy.
Buddy Holly ? I'm Changing All Those Changes
Buddy wishes he hadn't done the things he did and, more importantly, said the things he said. "I made those changes when I thought you were untrue /but now you're gone I found I'm wrong and there's nothing I can do."
Bill Evans ? Waltz for Debby
Part of me ? a lot of me ? wishes that all pop groups looked and sounded like the Bill Evans Trio. But then they wouldn't be pop groups, would they? Do you see my problem? Anyway, if you're talking about change, then how about the change from childhood to adulthood? "When she goes they will cry," Tony Bennett sings on a later version, "as she whispers, 'Goodbye'. They will miss her, I fear, but then so will I ."
The Judds ? Grandpa (Tell Me About the Old Days)
A proper smasheroo from 1986 (WARNING: this video contains dubious social comment). The Judds want Gramps to take them back to a world where promises were kept, families bowed their heads to pray and, wonderfully, "daddy's never go away". What? Not even an overnight stag do in Riga? Are you mad?
Moby Grape ? Changes, Circles Spinning
Three guitarists, much hype, 10 singles off their debut album and a career that stalled and never recovered. Whatever, this is a succinctly beautiful piece of late-60s psyche-blues pop. "Changes, circles spinning," they sing, "can't tell the finish from the beginning." Well, I can and this is it. The finish I mean. Or is it the beginning?
Thank you for everything. Readers recommend will return after Christmas.
America Ferrera Haylie Duff Talisa Soto Julianne Hough Paula Garcés
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