Don Van Vliet, aka Captain Beefheart, was idiosyncratic to say the least, blending a range of often experiemental musical styles over 13 albums before giving it all up and devoting himself to abstract expressionist painting (see earlier item) which, to be fair, made him far more money.
Beefheart can be very inaccessible, at least on the first 45 hearings. But fear not, this is him at his most accessible.
Minimalist sound. Minimalist output (one album). Minimalist success.
But influential. And good for last thing at night.
For those nights when it just won't happen. Clearly it also didn't happen in the 18th century when Handel wrote this aria, though the oratorio in which is features, 'Semele', is taken from Roman poet's Ovid's 'Metamorphoses'. Two millennia of sleeplessness then.
What do maths and love have in common? Agony and ecstasy? Pleasure and pain?
Back in the Covid days we ran online mathematical art exhibitions. Among the entrants was this mathematical love song from Oriel undergraduate Siddiq Islam who graduated last summer.
Happy Valentine's Day.
Tribute bands are ten a penny, but parody bands, where the songs are imitative but original, are rarer and none reached the brilliance of Neils Innes' Beatles parody, the Rutles. So good in fact that the Beatles themselves loved them (Beatle George Harrison funded the documentary) and the songs are now widely recognised on their own merits. Let's be natural.
New Order were formed after the death of Ian Curtis ended the career of Joy Division. At first they struggled. They seemed to, er, quite like dance music and the first album was over-produced. But when 'Temptation' was released you knew something was afoot. Brilliant drumming, years ahead of its time and worth waiting for the lines towards the end: 'oh you've got green eyes, oh you've got blue eyes, oh you've got grey eyes'. Yes, a love song.
More famous songs were to come, but any better than this?
Can were part of the German Krautrock (a crass label from UK journalists that stuck) or Kosmische Musik (Cosmic Music) genre of which Kraftwerk are the best known, though it was about more than electronic music as Can demonstrate with their mix of styles and experiment.
If at first it is not your thing, stick with it because it will get you. Hard to believe that it is over 50 years old.
Petula Clark was a child star in the Second World War, first as entertainer and then actress, continuing to do both until, in the 1960s, she hit her stride with a series of bangers like this one which gave her international fame. Now 92, she still performs.
Take the "A' Train was composed in 1939, after Ellington offered composer Billy Strayhorn a job and gave him money to travel from Pittsburgh to New York. Ellington wrote directions for Strayhorn to get to his house by subway. The directions began with the words "Take the A Train", referring to the then new A subway service in New York City.
Happy 2025 Bulletinies
Model railway obsessive Rod Stewart has gone through many guises in his career from the blues to that dodgy disco phase to the inevitable music royalty status of today.
But when he was good, he was very good.
Chill time.
O Sapientia (O Wisdom) is one of the seven Great Advent Antiphons sung in Christian churches dating back to the sixth century. In fact we are a little early as O Sapientia, the first of the seven, is usually sung on 17th December.
You know how it is, everything you do and see and hear puts a song in your head. Or maybe it's just a few of us. Maybe it needs a name. Maybe it already has one. Anyway, your Song of the Week Editor does a lot of running.
Keep on running Tami.
The Mills Brothers were four brothers from Piqua, Ohio who were hugely successful in the pre and post Second World War years. They were also the first black artists to have their own show on national network radio in the USA.
This song (they performed the original) has their distinctive crooner vocals and then their trademark guitar sound and vocal harmonies as it speeds up. And eternal lyrics. Enjoy.
One of the last things Buddy recorded with just him and his guitar, Peggy Sue Got Married and its predecessor Peggy Sue were written about Peggy Sue Gerron who Holly had known for many years and who had married his band's drummer Jerry Allison. The marriage was unhappy and this song, so wistful yet written by a 22 year old Holly, was about that marriage.
Brazil's Queen of Samba, a pioneer for female Samba singers and composers, danced to the age of 96. She also spent a long and influential career in occupational therapy and psychiatry in her homeland.
Sea Song is the first track on the album Rock Bottom which Robert Wyatt released after becoming paraplegic following an accidental fall from a window. He has said that the accident saved him because he had become an alcoholic and was heading for disaster.
The Cure are back, looking much as they did in 1979 when they produced this post-punk masterpiece. Lyrics and song meshing to perfection. It's what music is about.
Known as the 'James Bond one' by aficionados, this is one of hundreds of obscure, small label soul tracks from sixties America that were adopted by the Northern Soul scene in the UK, many of them absolute bangers.
Yvonne's voice on the chorus...
Are you dancing?
Nicola Pedreschi was a postdoc in Oxford Mathematics until the summer. But like several Oxford Mathematicians he is a musician, in Nicola's case in the band Eveline's Dust. So here is the lead single from their new album. This is their website.
"If it keeps on rainin', levee's goin' to break..."
This song was made famous by Led Zeppelin, but the original was written by Memphis Minnie and Kansas Joe McCoy in 1929, two years after the Great Mississippi Flood of 1927 which killed hundreds and forced hundreds of thousands from their homes.
Who were the first boy band? Probably The Jackson 5 (R.I.P. Tito Jackson who died at the weekend), but The Osmonds were hot on their heals. In fact this song was intended for the Jacksons. The genre became known as bubblegum and much of it was. But this is class.
This song starts as if they are making up as they go along. Which in Big Star's case probably wasn't a million miles from the truth. But wait for the chorus.
Big Star did it all. Made unfashionable music at the wrong time, sold no records, self-destructed and influenced generations of subsequent bands. As they sing: "Love me, we can work out the rest".
The Herbs was a children's show featuring puppets named after, yes you guessed it, different herbs. So Lady Rosemary, Sir Basil, Dill the Dog, Sage the Owl etc., and Parsley himself who introduced each episode. It was written by Michael Bond who also wrote Paddington Bear (statue on platform 1 of Paddington Station, of Paddington that is, not Michael). The rhyming of Parsley with harshly is genius.
I will leave it to you to imagine how this would work for different areas of maths.
Some songs' greatest moment comes in the opening bars or words. When Charles Trenet starts to sing, with those first two words you know you are on to a good thing.
La Mer is also one of those songs expropriated by other languages (and lyrics). There are English, German and even Soviet Russian versions amongst others.