August

We are now just into September which can only mean one thing for me: time to recap what I did here last month. In total there were twelve offerings from me during August, which were mostly of the musical variety – some things don’t really change much, do they? So if you missed anything, here is your chance to catch up.

It wasn’t the first post in chronological terms, but I did of course give you the usual monthly review, in the form of Hot Days In July. This title reflected the heatwave conditions we were enduring here in the UK, and was borrowed and adapted from a song by one of my favourite bands. Any excuse to play The Chicks will be gratefully accepted! And of course I provided you with links to all of July’s posts, in case a sudden attack of FOMO struck you.

There were five Tuesdays in August, which meant that you saw five sets of Tuesday Tunes. The first post of the month was Tuesday Tunes 115: Secret, for which I stole my theme idea from Carol. The music came from The All-American Rejects, Semisonic, Billy J Kramer, The Band, The Go-Go’s, Willie Nelson, Suzanne Vega, and Del Amitri. Several of those were making their first appearance in the series – it’s always good to ring the changes.

Carol also provided the theme for Tuesday Tunes 116: Magic. For this one, you heard songs by The Beatles, The Cars, The Who, The Lovin’ Spoonful, Bruce Springsteen, Peter Green’s Fleetwood Mac, America, and The Police. In other words, this was one of my more mainstream weeks.

Next up was Tuesday Tunes 117: Hot Heat, which was very definitely influenced by the weather! The hot songs came from Glenn Frey, Asia, Martha & The Vandellas, Foreigner, T.Rex, Led Zeppelin, The Rolling Stones, and Fogerty’s Factory. A fairly mixed bunch, I think.

I went slightly political for my next theme, with Tuesday Tunes 118: Revolution having been prompted by a commentary piece that I had read in the paper. There was only one place I could start that one, with The Beatles making their second appearance of the month. The other music came from Tracy Chapman, Green Day, The Cosmic Rough Riders, Steve Earle, T.Rex (also a second appearance), World Party, and Prince & The Revolution. Another eclectic mix for you.

The final Tuesday Tunes piece in August was this week’s, Tuesday Tunes 119: Decisions. This theme was my response to the current – thankfully almost completed – contest to determine the next leader of the Conservative Party, who by default also becomes the UK’s Prime Minister. The usual pattern for these posts is a flurry of activity on the first day, a smaller flurry on the following day, and then a steady flow of interest throughout the week. At present this is the worst performing piece of the month, both in terms of likes and comments, so I’m hoping that steady flow materialises. Maybe you’re all a bunch of Truss and Sunak fans and I shouldn’t have been so rude about them? But I can hardly be blamed if the Tories have now reached the bottom of their barrel, can I? The music was by The Clash, Bon Jovi, The Lovin’ Spoonful (also making their second appearance of the month), Del Amitri (ditto), R.E.M, The Spin Doctors, Taylor Swift, and Bastille. They are a good selection, so head on over if you haven’t seen the post: it’s looking a bit lonely!

I also continued my involvement in the Song Lyric Sunday challenge, which I’m enjoying very much: the posts have all received a good response, which is pleasing. The first one in July was to share a song about pets and memories and for this I chose a favourite album track of mine by The Beatles. Yup, them again! It was Song Lyric Sunday: Martha My Dear, which was written by Paul McCartney about his Old English Sheepdog, though the lyrics could equally well apply to a person rather than a pet.

The next week’s theme was a song about education, or teaching. For this I played Song Lyric Sunday: Take It Easy. If you haven’t seen the post you could be forgiven for thinking that I played the song which gave my blog its title, but I didn’t. This song shares the same name, but is actually a whimsical little ditty by the fabulously talented English folk singer-songwriter Ralph McTell. It tells the story of a young man on a trip to Paris, and of what (and who) he picked up while he was there. It’s a lot of fun, if you haven’t already heard it.

After that, we were invited to play a song that was an album track but never a single, but which had become a fan favourite over time. I chose to play Song Lyric Sunday: Mandolin Wind, which was a track on Rod Stewart’s breakout solo album, Every Picture Tells A Story. This is still one of my all time favourites of Rod’s songs – it’s really lovely, and the mandolin adds so much to it. Judging by the volume of comments on the post, and the enthusiasm they shared for the song, I don’t think I’m alone in that view.

For the final Sunday in August we were to play a song which had been overlooked at first but had since become very popular. I chose to play Song Lyric Sunday: Let Her Go, another beautiful song. This one is by Passenger, who in real life is Mike Rosenberg, and it was another that struck a chord with many, especially those who hadn’t heard it before. The background story is in the post, but can briefly be summarised as being the tale of a song which became a sleeper hit well over a year after it was first released, and made up for that with absolutely immense sales figures.

There was a one off music post in the month. A couple of the comments on my Tuesday Tunes piece about hot and heat mentioned a song you might have expected me to play. I did in fact play it in June 2021, so I thought it might be fun to share that piece again, and added in a couple more from the follow up post from last year. This became Some Songs For Summer, which began with the one you were expecting, from Mungo Jerry, and carried on with songs by HAIM, The Lovin’ Spoonful (it has been their month!), Eddie Cochrane, Bruce Springsteen, Don Henley, The Kinks, and Katrina And The Waves. It was a fun post for me.

That just leaves one post for this round up. My blog reached a milestone early in the month, and I marked it with 700. Yes, it was my 700th post on here. I wasn’t quite sure what to do for this, so I just sat down and wrote. Out came a selection of some oddities, in terms of facts relating to the number, which gave me the only chance I will ever have to mention the Boston Scientific company, which makes something called the AMS 700™ LGX Penile Prosthesis. You heard it here first! I also gave you some of my thoughts on what blogging and our community means to me and of course I closed with a song. This wasn’t a hard choice to make, as I only know of one with ‘seven hundred’ in its title. Take a look if you missed it. For one of those inexplicable reasons that sometimes happen to our posts, this one became not just the most liked of the month but has also just sneaked into my top ten all time posts. Not bad for a piece which rather wrote itself as it went along.

So, that was my August. Regular readers will know that I like to conclude these reviews with the song whose title I have used for the piece. There are several about August, as I found last year when I gave you a lovely song by Noah Cyrus. My choice for this year was made for me when I watched the Disney+ documentary The Long Pond Sessions, which was about the collaboration between Taylor Swift, Aaron Dessner and Jack Antonoff for her album folklore, the first of the two she issued during the 2020 lockdown. It was fascinating to see the creative process at work and to hear their comments, as we eavesdropped on their conversations. One of the songs on the album is called august – capital letters are in short supply on this record – and this is the extract from the documentary where they play it:

That feels as good a place as any to round things off for last month. Take care, and I’ll see you again soon 😊

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