Saturday 4 November 2017

I Scare Myself

A great song is a great song; and as such, I make no apologies for including not one, not two, but three versions of today's great song.

My only concession to Halloween this year (I spent the entire evening with the lights out not answering the doorbell*) was digging out an old playlist I did for my friend when she ran her own bistro. Six or seven years ago Kate used to put on a lot of themed nights and, one in particular, Halloween 2011, was particularly memorable. Not least because of the scary food that was on offer that night. The sausages you see pictured made for a unique starter, let me tell you.

But, back to the playlist. I had a lot of fun with it - looking back at it now you can see the, often tenuous, linked songs that were on there. I put a ton of stuff on it, enough to last all night (we were there from 7 o'clock till midnight) - here's just a flavour:

Black Keys - Howlin' for You
Dusty Springfield - Spooky
Warren Zevon - Werewolves of London
Alice Cooper (& the Muppets!) - Welcome to my Nightmare
Twisted Nerve theme

You get the picture, I'm sure.

Of the 80+ tunes on there (opening with this), the one that jumped out at me (and I've been playing it in the car all week) is 'I Scare Myself' by Claire Martin. Claire took the time to do a Q&A for my blog back in 2013 and she's an absolute sweetheart.


Although I knew it was a Dan Hicks song the version I was most familiar with was Thomas Dolby's. Dolby was, and still is, a studio geek, so by playing around with tape speeds he actually sounded more like a female vocalist at the time.



And here's the original. Dan Hicks sadly passed away last year. He left behind a great body of work; not least some cracking song titles: How Can I Miss You When You Won't Go Away? being just one of many.


* Which proved more than a little problematical as I was also waiting on an Indian takeaway delivery. 

10 comments:

  1. That photo of your sausage starter almost instigated a reappearance of my breakfast.

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  2. One of my favourite Dan Hicks' songs. I was lucky to see him and the Hot Licks (and gorgeous Lickettes) back in 2003 at Aberdeen's Lemon Tree. The band was fantastic and after the gig they all stayed back for 2 hours and more, signing autographs and posing for photos with fans. Great people - great music.

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  3. We used to do the sitting in the dark and not answering the door thing. Then the grandchildren arrived. It's hard not to play along, then. Nice musical choices, as ever.

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  4. TS - It's no surprise that Kate's vegan!

    G - I need to bring myself up to speed with Dan Hicks; can you recommend a good jumping off point?

    M - The delivery guy had to ring three times before I would come to the door!

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    1. "Striking It Rich" (1972) is my all time favourite Dan Hicks album (not a duff track on it, in my opinion). I would recommend it to fans of any kind of music - it's that good.
      "The Most of Dan Hicks & his Hot Licks" is a good sampler album.

      And I'd like to add this incredible sample of their live work - a 10 and a half minute version of "I Scare Myself" from 2001. It's one of the best live music videos I've ever seen...

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZZXzifzsDHg

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    2. Thanks Gram, I'm on it.

      Love the video; I'm sure I have a shirt just like that hanging up in the back of the wardrobe.

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  5. And now I have to go investigate Dan Hicks. (3 great versions, but Dan has me intrigued.)

    I'm still sitting here with the lights off TONIGHT!

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  6. I love Halloween (but not the commercialisation of it), so sad to hear so many people avoid it like the plague - Talking of plague, those sausages don't look as if they came from a healthy dude's hand. Love Spooky by Dusty, always a good choice for people of a certain vintage. Also enjoyed the Claire Martin song you chose - A new one on me.

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    1. A - You'll love Claire Martin. Take a peep at this: https://youtu.be/yIgMdsZ_U6k

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