Here comes another month of Donkey Show despite it being the 3rd. Off on holiday today and tomorrow for July 4th and trying to get as many of these posts done. At first, I thought this was a lackluster month when I was looking at the records I pulled. However, after listening to the songs for a week, I felt this was a pretty good selection. Kind of all over the place as well as some real good songs. When ever I find a song that I want to add to my repertoire, it is a good month. This month there were four of them. Anyway, here is this to start off from Tom Jones. $2 was the cost with discount. The Half Price at Veteran’s Memorial (the only Half Price I went to this Memorial Day Sale) no longer has the $1 records. Most of them are now $2.50.
Ah, Wales… The Land of Song. Other than Charlotte Church, Duffy, John Cale, The Darkness, Manic Street Preachers, Goldie Lookin’ Chain, and Bonnie Tyler (who I just assumed was American), I am hard pressed to think of anyone else than Tom Jones. Also, I am reminded of Kevin, the Welsh machinist who I knew in Corpus. The later in the day, the more alcohol he drank and the more he drank, the easier he was to understand. Always ended up in the Safari Bar, which was known as the place old (65+) people went to hook up as well as where people went when they got kicked out of other bars at night. Also had the longest last call in town. They had an immaculate waterfall inside but alas, it got new ownership and it is gone (or at least last time I was there 10 years ago, it was gone). But oh, woe to the man or woman who found themselves in the Safari at 2 am.
But back to Jones, this was his 15th or so album. Released in 1970, it went Gold shooting up to #10 in the UK/ # 23 in the US. Pretty decent album, it produced two singles, the title track and “Daughter of Darkness”.
While looking (or listening more accurately) for a sample, I was struck with the fact that there were a lot of songs that are staples of this site. Songs such as “Try A Little Tenderness”, “Lodi”, and Rod McKuen’s “Love’s Been Good To Me” seem to always make their way to this blog. However, I decided to buck convention and go with “See Saw”.
Good album. Satisfactory.