Tuesday Tunes 2

One of the comments on last week’s first Tuesday Tunes post suggested that I should make this a regular feature. This seemed like a good idea, so I’m going to do it at least for the duration of the Covid-19 crisis – the number of each post will serve as a useful count at the start of each week the UK has been in lockdown, even if it serves no other purpose! I dipped my toe into this water last week by sharing two songs and, as I don’t intend these to become magnum opuses (opi?) – I’m going to stick with that format. Though, knowing how well I ever keep to a plan, there is no guarantee of that!

This week’s two songs are, in title at least, my little response to Covid. The first is from a man whose music I’ve loved for over 50 years, going right back to his days as a founder member of Fairport Convention. I have just about every album he has ever made (does anyone know where I can get Sunnyvista without breaking the bank?), and have seen him play live as part of the Fairports, with his then girlfriend – and later wife – Linda, solo and with his own band. I never tire of listening to the great Richard Thompson, a man who has written so many wonderful songs. This one gives us all a suitable message for these strange times in which we find ourselves:

Yes, I know it’s about a love affair and not a virus, and yes, I know I posted it as a #SongOfTheDay on my Facebook page recently, but so what? It’s a great song, deserves to be heard again, and the message transfers well!

Continuing my (very) loose theming, my second song this week is also about doomed love, rather than a virus, But the message could easily apply: it’s what we’re all wishing we could do to Covid-19, restrictions on our lives, and worries about whether we’ll be caught short of toilet paper. The band Del Amitri had a few years of success in the pop charts, and should, I feel, have had more. Derided by some as a ‘pop band,’ and somehow unworthy of the attention of serious musos (or pseuds), they produced some seriously good songs, and Justin Currie, their leader, wasn’t given the credit I felt he deserved for his songwriting abilities. This is what we all wish we could do to Covid-19 right now:

I hope you’ve enjoyed these two Tuesday Tunes. They may not really have anything to do with viruses, pandemics, incompetent governments or lockdowns, but they have, I hope, brought a little enjoyment into your life and brightened your day. We could all do with that right now!

Stay safe, isolate if that’s what you’re required to do – it makes sense – and be well. I’ll see you again next Tuesday for some more tunes that have nothing to do with Covid-19.