Even though we don’t celebrate Thanksgiving Day here I have posted several times in the past to mark the event as many of you will, I know, be enjoying your special day today: it is my way of showing some respect for your culture and traditions. In earlier years I posted about the day and its traditions but came to the conclusion that American readers didn’t really need a Brit to tell them what their big day was all about. For the past couple of years, as I now mostly post music here, it seemed a good idea to play a few songs on the theme of giving thanks. I started with four songs, then added in four more the following year, and I’m working around the same base for this year. Only one of them is actually about Thanksgiving Day itself, but they all speak to the people in our lives who we are thankful for, and that is what it is important, today perhaps more than most. If things are getting on top of you after all that celebrating, relax and enjoy some good music!
A theme that runs through the day, and which I think is particularly appropriate in the blogging community, is friendship. We are all grateful for our friends, I think. I have begun with this one each year, and it seems a good place to start again now:
I bought the album that came from – All This And Heaven Too – at the time of its release in 1978. You may well recognise it as the theme tune from the long-running tv show The Golden Girls, although they used a cover version by Cindy Fee for that. If we are going to be thankful for anything on any day – not just today – friends and family top the list for me.
My next choice is another I have shared before, and which I have described as “very much a gift from English folk music to my American friends”:
Fairport Convention were one of the two main leading lights in the development of the English folk-rock music movement, along with Steeleye Span. That clip is remarkably well-preserved, being over fifty years old, but watching it takes me straight back to my youth: I was 17 then. The song was released as a single in September 1970: I bought it on the 1972 compilation album The History Of Fairport Convention, the first of many such albums in the band’s lifetime. They continue to this day, and guitarist Simon Nicol is still with them. The song was written by Dave Swarbrick, who takes lead vocal, and Richard Thompson, who provides the main harmony. Sadly, Dave is no longer with us but Richard is still producing wonderful music to this day.
My next tune is also nothing to do with today, but is a heartfelt ode to being thankful for love:
I have played that one in other posts as well as on Thanksgiving Day: it is one of my favourites from one of my favourite bands. For today, all I want to say is that, as an expression of love, and of being grateful that someone is in your life, you can’t really do any better than that.
Those three were all in the first post in which I included music for today, but this next one was added in later. As before, it is more about ‘thanks’ rather than having any particular relevance to this day, but that’s my version of artistic licence, I guess. This was a big hit, so you may well know it:
Florian Cloud de Bounevialle O’Malley Armstrong, to give her her full name, is an English singer and songwriter. I guess they had to shorten it to Dido as there wasn’t room on the record label for the full thing. She enjoyed international success with her debut album No Angel in 1999 (UK #1, US #4). This is one of the hit singles (UK #3, US #3) from the album, which sold sold over 21m copies worldwide and won her several awards, including two Brit Awards: Best British Female and Best British Album, and the MTV Europe Music Award for Best New Act. The first verse of this song is sampled in Stan, a collaboration with American rapper Eminem, though I prefer this version..
I played this next one for the first time last year. It is about families, memories, and what our childhood home can mean to us. This is, I think, perfect for a family get together to share, to reminisce, and to remember those who may no longer be with us:
The House That Built Me was the third single to be released from Miranda Lambert’s third album, Revolution: it was the first single of hers that she hadn’t been involved in writing, as it was by Tom Douglas and Allen Shamblin, and reflects the latter’s annual trips back to the house in which he grew up. The video was shot in a house which looks very much like the one in which Miranda was raised, and the scenes there are interspersed with old home movie clips from her childhood. Call me an old softie, but this one really gives me the feels!
This next one is an audio only clip, for the simple reason that it is by an English folk band who I doubted many of you would know, and there isn’t a video for it. I’ve played them a couple of times since then, and if you saw my recent post for Remembrance Day you’ll know how much I like them:
Show Of Hands are one of those I’ve seen play live on multiple occasions. The long term core of the band (formed in 1986) comprises Steve Knightley and Phil Beer, and for a long time they have been joined by Miranda Sykes and, more recently, Cormac Byrne. This was the closing track on their 2012 album, Wake The Union, which achieved the unlikely feat of hitting the UK album charts, all the way up to #73. I can remember discussing them here, but I guess it was in a comment rather than a post, as this was the first of their songs that I had played. They are a pretty special band, as their Wikipedia entry tells. One of the times I saw them was on their tour promoting this album, which they kindly signed for me afterwards. This was the closing track to the album and to the show, and we all left in good spirits after it.
Although this next one is called My Thanksgiving, it isn’t about today in particular, but it is a very pertinent take on what we have in our lives that can make us grateful:
Given that Don Henley is a member of The Eagles, who are the scourge of bloggers trying to embed their songs in posts, I wasn’t sure that this one would play for you, and an American friend has told me that it didn’t, but kindly gave me an alternative link which does work over there: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=65wpSmEQlc4
This was the closing track on Don’s Inside Job album, which was released in 2000 – his first in eleven years. But that was just a short gap compared with his next one: the follow up came out in 2015. But then again, he was busy back being with the boys in the band, so I’ll forgive him. Inside Job reached #7 in the US and #25 here in the UK.
My final song for today is the only one that is actually about Thanksgiving Day. I guess I had to get there in the end:
I’ve played this each year and, although I know there are other songs by American singers about today, anything by Mary Chapin Carpenter is going to be high on my list. The warmth and beauty of her voice and her lyrics give me comfort, and the video that someone has made for this song is a perfect fit. You can find this one on MCC’s 2008 album Come Darkness, Come Light, a fabulous collection of songs for Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year: highly recommended, and you will hear more from it next month, as always.
Wherever you are, if you are celebrating today I send you my best wishes for a wonderful day, hopefully spent in the company of those you love. Enjoy your special day.
Take It Easy 