Goodbye July

As we are now into August, and what passes for a UK summer is just about over, it feels right to look back a little: yes, it’s time for another of my recaps of what I gave you here in the previous month.

In total I posted thirteen times last month, and all bar one of those were music-related. There were the usual ones for my two regular dates, and some others in between. As usual, let’s start with Tuesday Tunes, shall we? There were four of these, starting with Tuesday Tunes 156: Still At Sea which, as its title suggested, was a follow up to the previous week’s set of sea songs. The music came from The Sutherland Brothers Band, Otis Redding, Gordon Lightfoot, Bad Company, and Fairport Convention. My usual eclectic mix, I think!

I followed that by continuing the sort of nature trend with Tuesday Tunes 157: Sky, which saw the return of some usual suspects: the music came from ELO, Elton John, Jackson Browne, Nick Drake, and The Beatles. Worth another visit, I think for the two beauties from an early Elton and the tragic Nick.

For the last two Tuesdays I ran a couple of matching pieces, the first of which was Tuesday Tunes 158: Holiday, in which I played some tunes to mark the onset of the holiday season. These came from Green Day, The Go-Go’s, Sarah Darling, Sheryl Crow, and 10cc.

I then surpassed myself for creativity with the title for the next post, with Tuesday Tunes 159: Another Holiday. Sometimes I wonder where I get the inspiration from! In case you missed that clue, these were more songs about holidays, from Nazareth, Lindsey Buckingham, The Zac Brown Band, The Kinks, and The Kaiser Chiefs. I was going for tunes you might not have known with that set, as I occasionally like to introduce you to new songs.

There were five Song Lyric Sunday posts last month. I kinda follow the calendar, so there had to be! The first of these was Song Lyric Sunday: Music To Die For, meeting Jim’s request that we share something we would like played at our funeral. I gave you two, the first of which was a wonderful song by Roy Harper, the second being THAT one from the Monty Python film, though for a change I played a clip from the memorial service for the late Graham Chapman, which ended with a communal sing-song of the tune.

The next week’s theme was to play something from an inductee into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, for which I gave you Song Lyric Sunday: The Cars. One of my less inspired titles, I think. The music was great, though: two of their best songs, plus the video presentation which preceded their actual induction.

There followed a companion piece, in which we were invited to play something by someone not in the Hall of Shame but who we think should be. This gave me the chance for a little rant about the whole charade that this circus has become, and to give you Song Lyric Sunday: A Late, Great to highlight the genius of the late, great Warren Zevon. I played three of his songs, two of which showed off his diabolically funny sense of humour, the other being the closing track on his final album: one of the most poignant songs I know, given the circumstances surrounding it.

Next up was for us to play something included in Rolling Stone magazine’s list of the top 500 songs of all time. Even with the removal of many of the songs from the first two versions of this list in favour of a load of pop and c(rap) stuff I was still spoilt for choice. in the end I couldn’t get this down to fewer than three songs, so I played you AC/DC, Taylor Swift, and Crosby Stills & Nash, in Song Lyric Sunday: Top 500.

For the final July Sunday we were playing something recorded at the famous Muscle Shoals Studios. This gave a wide range of possibilities, but I went for a couple of tracks by the excellent Bob Seger and the Silver Bullet Band, in Song Lyric Sunday: Muscle and Bullets. As they say, that did exactly what it said on the tin!

That just leaves four posts for me to remind you of. The first of these was New Music, in which I did my occasional thing of playing some songs which had come out in recent months: these came from Def Leppard, Caroline Jones with Alyssa Bonagura, Brynn Andre, Matchbox Twenty, and in a little bit of a cheat I closed with Lewis Capaldi.

I then, as I had promised, brought back my occasional Under The Covers series, in Under Some Covers. This featured music from The Beatles, with a cover by Crosby, Stills & Nash, from The Who with Elton John’s cover version, and from Richard and Linda Thompson, with two covers, by Susanna Hoffs and Bellowhead.

The other music post was a late programme change. I had been planning on bringing back Listen To The Band but was overtaken by the news of a sad passing. This became R.I.P. Sinead, my little tribute to the beautiful voice and wonderful talents of Sinead O’Connor, who left us at the age of just 56. There is some beautiful music in this one, plus an interesting interview with her from 2014.

The only non-music post from last month was the second in a reworked series, Friday Funnies 2. Hopefully you got a laugh or more from the videos I played from Lee Mack (two from appearances on the Graham Norton Show), Yes Minister, Father Ted, Harry Enfield And Chums, and an outrageous award acceptance speech by Sacha Baron Cohen.

So, that was my July, and I hope you enjoyed them and have found some links to anything you may have missed along the way. As usual, all that now remains is for me to play you the song which gives this piece its title. I don’t know many songs about July that aren’t American and about the fourth of the month, so I looked up on the web and found this one. By any standards I think this counts as obscure, but it’s a fun, lively tune and I enjoyed it:

You may well now be asking ‘who is Shayna Leigh?’ Good question! She is hard to pin down: there isn’t a Wikipedia page for her, and not much else, either. As far as I can tell, she originated from Orlando, Florida, and moved to New York to study and begin her music career. This is a track from her debut album, Drive, which was released in July 2015. Since then, she has only given us a few singles from 2017 to 2019 which, on the evidence of this, is a pity. I did find a little about her on Songfacts, and her singles – but not the album – are on Spotify and Amazon Music, if you’d like to hear more from her. She has a Twitter (sorry, X) account but hasn’t posted for nearly four years. A woman of mystery!

That’s all for today. I hope the recap has been helpful for you, and I’ll see you again for Song Lyric Sunday. Until then, be good, be safe, be well and be happy 😊