Who would have thought, when I posted the first Tuesday Tunes on 24 March 2020, that the series would still be going strong more than four years later, and today reaches its 200th edition? There have been a few breaks along the way, but in that time I must have played well over a thousand tunes, even allowing for the few that have been aired more than once. I started by playing two songs each week, gradually worked that up to eight, and settled on the current quota of five around a year ago. I’m marking this milestone with a special post, in which I’m playing seven of my favourites from the past four years. Unlike regular posts, I won’t be giving you loads of detail on each song, but will leave the link to its previous appearance if you want to see more. This week, the music is at the forefront – then again, isn’t it always?
I usually like to begin with something rousing, and this was what opened Tuesday Tunes 122: Celebrate:
That was the wonderful Playing For Change organisation with their version of Kool and the Gang’s Celebration. 32m views can’t be wrong!
This next one has appeared twice previously in the series, the first of those being in Tuesday Tunes 93: Run, which is still one of my favourite posts of them all. There were some great songs in that and you may remember that it was the one which prompted a great response from Dax Pernick, whose song Run And Hide was one of those in the set. This is Soul Asylum, with a wonderful video which has achieved so much good:
A great song, which is still a favourite of mine, and fully deserves to be played for a third time.
This next one is the one that I played most recently – last September – in Tuesday Tunes 166: Celebrity. Another that I have always loved, from a band I think have been underrated down the years:
Ray Davies of The Kinks has a whole catalogues of songs with brilliant lyrics, and for me Celluloid Heroes is one of the absolute best – by anyone. This is the shortened version that was released as a single – if you want more check out the album cut, which is two minutes longer.
I ran a series of posts a couple of years back using Dance as my theme. This is another little gem that I played back then, in Tuesday Tunes 107: Another Dance? A beautiful song, by a band I’ve loved since they began in the Sixties:
Jethro Tull, with Said She Was A Dancer. You can almost feel his pain at the rejection, can’t you.
The post which has meant the most to me personally in the whole series has been the one I put together to pay tribute to my father after he passed away in January 2023. That was Tuesday Tunes 134: For Dad, and it would be remiss of me not to include one of the songs in this retrospective:
Mike + the Mechanics’ song The Living Years speaks to so many of us. Say it now, while you still can, and don’t leave yourself with regrets when it is too late.
I have played this next song several times, both in Tuesday Tunes and other posts. It is another beautiful song, which carries a great deal of meaning. I first played it in the early days of this series, all the way back in April 2020 in Tuesday Tunes 5: Kindness, Caring, Support, when it was very much a message for the early pandemic days:
Be More Kind is Frank Turner in his quieter, reflective mode, and the lyrics to this are simply beautiful and so very meaningful.
Having already played one more than my current ‘official’ quota of songs, I’m closing today with another that has been heard here more than once. I first played it in October 2020, in Tuesday Tunes 31: Sixties Albums, and it provides a fitting message with which to leave you today:
Led Zeppelin, of course, with Thank You, from their second album. I would like to leave you with my “thank you” for anyone who has ever read one of these 200 posts, has left a comment or has hit the ‘like’ button. Without your response and support there wouldn’t be much point in my doing these! I always enjoy playing music, and would probably have carried on even if the viewing figures had fallen off a cliff, but it is always better when you know that others are reading and enjoying your posts, isn’t it? Blogging is, by far, the most ‘social’ of all social media, and long may it remain so. And now it’s on towards the next 200 for me! Enjoy your week, and
Another excellent choice of songs Clive, and as usual well informed. I had no idea that Soul Asylum’s Runaway Train was about missing children.
Many congrats on the 200th post, I don’t know how you do it so consistently!
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Thank you, Paul. This has become such a regular part of my life that I’d miss it if I didn’t do it! I don’t think that song was specifically about missing children, just an inspired choice of theme for the video. But it has had some good results, albeit a few less so.
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Oh right, I did notice it wasn’t specific in the lyric. Great song, either way.
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It was apparently written about a relationship – nothing new there! But it’s still a great song, isn’t it.
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Congratulations , Clive on reaching this milestone…as always some great tunes so I can reminisce and some new ones I have many favourites that came from your posts you have widened my music repertiore and for that I thank you xx
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Thank you, Carol, I’m glad you enjoy these and that you’ve found new music here that you like. I’ll keep them coming! xx
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Please, Clive I always look forward to your posts xx
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Thank you! xx
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Congratulations on reaching this milestone, Clive!
Your selections today are such good ones, some more familiar than others, but all so very profound and timely. It’s difficult for me to choose one favorite …. so I won’t.
Thanks for this terrific share of your post, Clive!
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Thank you, Nancy. I’d been wondering how to mark the milestone and this just fell into place. Some of the more meaningful songs I’ve played in the past four years!
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What a wonderful milestone to celebrate. Well done! Your posts always bring smiles and usually new artists that I haven’t heard before.
I remember I didn’t know Frank Turner before you had played his music on here. Really like the Kind song. Jethro Tull had been new to me before you shared his song. Another great one.
Congrats to your milestone and may your posts continue! 🙂
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Thank you, Carolyn. I’m grateful for your support and happy to have introduced you to some new music along the way. I’ll keep going with these – looking back at the early ones I said then that I might do this for the duration of lockdown, but it seems to have carried on!
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You are welcome, and I am so glad that your posts have lasted longer than the lockdown. 😊
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So am I! Those early posts in the series are like my take on the history that was being created around us. I wasn’t very complimentary about our government 🤣
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Haha! Understand!!
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In the interests of balance I had nothing good to say about Numpty Trumpty either!
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Neither did I!
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We’re totally in sync, Clive. My next post will be my 200th or 201st. Thanks for continuing a great thing with Tuesday Tunes. I faithfully listen and learn something every week.
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Thank you, Pete, as always. This was just the 200th Tuesday Tunes post: at the current rate I’m about seven weeks away from my 1000th overall! I’m grateful for your support all the way through this series: sometimes you just comment, others you hit the ‘like’ button too, but you’ve been here since the very first one. We had a comment chat on it, after I’d introduced you to the English folk rock band Merry Hell. If I’ve added to your musical knowledge along the way that’s great for me!
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You’ve introduced me to quite a few musicians/groups over the years including Frank Turner. Some of these I probably should have known about (Walk Off the Earth, comes to mind), but one day realized what I’d been missing. I’ve spent some lovely evenings listening to First to Eleven’s portfolio, which I also attribute to you.
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What a milestone – well done Clive
Thanks so much for participating and sharing at SSPS 311. See you again next week https://esmesalon.com/tag/seniorsalonpitstop/
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Thank you, Esme. A lot has happened in that four years! See you again next week 😊
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Congrats, 200 is no small feat, there is a a fair bit of effort that goes into compiling this kind of content. The Kinks top it for me today, but I’ve been dazzled by Ray since ‘Waterloo Sunset.’
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Thank you – it’s kept me out of trouble for the past four years! I really enjoy doing it, and it has helped my blog expand in a way I never thought possible. That Kinks song is a real beauty, isn’t it 😊
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THANK YOU Clive for your Tuesday Tunes music posts and well done reaching this milestone. I especially like this selection, three of which are by favourite bands of mine, i.e. Jethro Tull, the Kinks and ed Zeppelin. The first is a great classic and so well performed in that uplifting video. Loved the Runaway Train track. The Kinks’ Celluloid Heroes is so well written. I’m getting to like Frank Turner. Its always good to hear Ian Anderson and although I’m a a big fan, I confess I can’t remember this one. ‘The Living Years’ is a stonker of a song and always gives me goosebumps when I hear it. Keep the music coming!
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Thank you for your kind words, Paul. I never expected it would last this long! I’m pleased you found some favourites among these, and you’re absolutely right about The Living Years. The Tull one was on their 1987 album, Crest Of A Knave, one that I bought as one of my first CDs when we got a player, and I’ve always liked it. Saw them play it live around 2013, and you could have heard a pin drop while we all appreciated its beauty. Celluloid Heroes is, for me, an undervalued classic, amongst so many that Ray Davies has written. I’ll keep the music coming: playing it on the blog has become a regular part of my life these days 😊
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A very agreeable and constructive way to spend time!
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There are worse ways of passing time, but at least I’m spared from watching Spurs for the next three months 😊
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I like your list of favorites, Clive. Two or three are new to me. My favorite of your favorites is “Living Years”. Thank you for sharing it.
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I’m pleased you like them, Erika, and that I found some new ones for you. The Living Years is a very powerful song, all the more so if you know its background: it was written by Mike Rutherford and B.A. Robertson when they realised that their fathers had died around the same time and that the singer, Paul Carrack, had also lost his father at a young age. That makes it all the more poignant, I think.
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Oh, yes! That does give the song even more meaning indeed. Thanks for sharing that fact. I did not know about that.
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I didn’t know either, until I researched it when I played it. It makes the scenes in the video of Mike Rutherford and his son even more meaningful.
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Absolutely! Only thinking of it, gives me goosebumps.
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Congrats and looking forward to a lot more! Keep on rockin’!
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Thank you! I’ll try to keep them coming – I enjoy these too much to stop now 🤣
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Congratulations on 200 episodes of great music. This was super set. I too love Runaway Train a lot!!
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Thank you Darlene, I’m glad you enjoyed these, as always. I looked back at the very first one while I was putting this together: guess who was the only person to like and comment on it who is still a regular?
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I thought I had been following these posts from the beginning. I always look forward to them to see which songs you feature. We have many favourite musicians in common but you have introduced me to some great new to me ones as well! Thanks.
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You have, and I’m very grateful for your support. I’m pleased that I play many songs you enjoy, and that I’ve introduced you to some new ones among them 😊
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Wow 200 is definitely a milestone! Congratulations! I don’t think I was here for the first ones, but I’ve really enjoyed quite a few. Today’s songs are really good. Of course Soul Asylum always a favorite, and the children’s celebration is wonderful. The Kinks and Jethro Tull songs were new to me, and I liked them a lot.
I do like how you do these going by a theme! Looking forward to lots more! 🙂
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Thank you, Barbara. I did one, and then it just kind of grew! I looked back at the first one and only one of those who liked and commented on it is what I’d regard as a regular now, as many have, like you, joined since then. I’m pleased you’re here and enjoy the posts. I started theming them early on to give them a focal point, and it seems to be working.
I’m glad you like today’s songs, which are all favourites of mine. Those Ugandan kids, in particular, get me every time. Neither of the Kinks and Tull songs are especially well known, but I saw Tull in concert some years back and they played this, to my great delight.
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Great songs Clive. I was familiar with them all except the one by Frank Turner.
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Thanks, Glyn. I’m a big fan of Frank Turner, and recommend him. His folk punk style can sometimes be a bit raucous for some tastes but I think he’s great!
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A good selection today, Clive. That Jethro Tull song sounds very much like something Mark Knopfler/Dire Straits would sing.
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Thanks, Stevie. That one came out a couple of years after Brothers In Arms so there may well have been some influence with it. Though Ian Anderson’s voice is very much a trademark!
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Lovely tunes today, Clive and congratulations on your milestone.
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Thank you, Jim – on both counts 😊
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Bravo!
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Thank you!
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Congrats Clive, your posts always seem to be spot on my friend. I pinged you toady as I had called my weekly music post the same as yours, my bad. I changed it and thought you should know about the ping, have a great day and again nice job!
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Thank you, Ernie, I’m glad you enjoy them. You have a great day too 😊
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Congratulations Clive Milestone quite an achievement!
Absolutely great and poingent songs this week had to reach for the tissues more than once 💜
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Thank you, Willow. I had no idea where this would take me when I started! A comment on the very first post said I should make it a series – and here we are!
Glad you enjoyed this set. I didn’t plan on including so many tearjerkers: it just came out that way 😊
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The best ones always do 💜
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It seems so. But I think I got lucky with this set!
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Devine intervention 😂
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I often discover new to me bands from your posts (and several other bloggers). Thanks for sharing the music!
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Thank you, Leon, I’m pleased you enjoy these. I can say the same for you too – my knowledge of Canadian music has been much improved by your posts 😊
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