SOUL SURMISE

COME, HOWEVER YOU ARE - THE DAMIEN RICE COMMUNION

 

My mate Doug pointed it out. I had Damien Rice’s album My Favourite Fantasy but the album had made such little impression that I had missed track 7, Trusty and True. 

Doug showed me this Youtube link with the choir Dekoor Close Harmony. How deeply spiritual, it sounds. Almost liturgical. 

I searched for a Damien Rice explanation. Was he thinking in any way of religious imagery? The only story I got was rather rude, yet there was wisdom in the lewdness. From the rude it turned on a seismic pin head to new starts and forgiveness. It’s almost for a Confessional.

It begins with our aim to be true that somehow never holds:

 

We've wanted to be trusty and true

But feathers fell from our wings

And we've wanted to be worthy of you

But weather rained on our dreams

 

It is almost what the apostle Paul wrote in Romans 7 - For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do. 

 

Rice goes on:

 

'Cause we never wanted to be lusty or lewd

Nor tethered to prudish strings

And we never wanted to be jealously tuned

Nor withered into ugly things

 

For the flawed human there is nothing for it but confession, forgiveness and a new beginning. That’s where Rice goes. Though we never know who we are coming to, we are invited to come…. and to come as we are: -

 

And if all that you are

Is not all you desire,

 

Then, come

Come, let yourself be wrong

Come, it's already begun

Come, come alone

Come with fear, come with love

Come however you are

Just come, come alone

Come with friends, come with foes

Come however you are

 

Just come, come alone

Come with me, then let go

Come however you are

Just come, come alone

Come so carefully closed

Come however you are

Just come

 

It is beautiful. Utterly beautiful. Welcoming. Forgiving. Grace filled.

Doug suggested using it as a communion piece. Fitzroy are always up for the challenge. Eventually we used it. Dave Thompson with some help from Chris Blake and George Sproule. We might add a choir soon. It was sung as the congregation came forward and gathered the cross to receive the bread and wine. It worked a treat!

JAMES TAYLOR - MONTANA ... LIKE A PSALM

 

“Who can imagine the scale of the forces

That pushed this old mountain range up in the sky?

Tectonic creation, erosion, mutation;

Somethin' to pleasure God's eye.

 

The world is a wonder of lightnin' and thunder,

And green of the ground as we fall from the sky.

The old and new faces, the tribes and the races...

Thousands of places to try.

 

Over the ocean from here.

Over the mountains from there.”

• from Montana by James Taylor

I was sitting in the BBC studios on Ormeau Avenue at 5.30am, with my head phones on ready for Vanessa Feltz to welcome me to do my Pause For Thought. As I waited she played Montana, a song off James Taylor’s new record, Before This World, his first album of original songs in 13 years. 

Headphones on. Early morning. I suddenly found myself in a devotional moment. I was preaching through the Psalms of Ascent at the time and perhaps more open to such poetic reflections. 

I was struck with spiritual wonder by Taylor’s words: 

 

“Who can imagine the scale of the forces

That pushed this old mountain range up in the sky?

Tectonic creation, erosion, mutation;”

 

My theological antenna was immediately thinking evolutionary secularism when Taylor concludes:

 

“Somethin' to pleasure God's eye.”

 

Ah, forgive my prejudice, but God is still in the picture in James Taylor’s Psalm of praise.  

I immediately thought about so many who share my Christian faith who cannot equate evolution and God. God created somehow and that he used tectonic creation, erosion and mutation makes utter sense. I remember standing, not in Montana, but Arizona at the Grand Canyon and describing it as God’s post creation doodle with the knife of the Colorado River. God never stopped evolving this little planet. His art goes on.

Taylor’s Psalm doesn’t stop with creation and God. Like the Psalms he moves from the wonder of God’s art to the life lived by us humans, part of his creation. 

 

“One sits and waits while the other one wanders,

And squanders his time with a life on the road.

Down from the mountain, across the wide ocean,

The world is in motion and cannot be slowed.

 

Enough for today... the demands of the moment,

The thing on my mind is the work in my hand.

Wood for the woodstove and water for coffee,

Somethin' I can still understand.

 

We got a few friends but not many neighbors,

The trip into town takes us most of the day.

And after, "Hello", and "it's sure good to see you",

It seems like there's nothin' to say.”

 

There is a sense of Taylor’s own life in these verses. His partner waits while he goes off to write songs that will give him the need to go out on the road to play them to people. This world is demanding and fast and pressured. A coffee by the fire might be a sabbatical necessity. 

The loss of neighbour or depth of human connection is the sad final commentary on the world of the 21st century. 

So, Montana is a beautiful song to open the door of your soul. It is no new musical direction and has that Taylor sound that could have been on any of his early records but it is a wee gem. It certainly led me to praise and reflection.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

“Who can imagine the scale of the forces

That pushed this old mountain range up in the sky?

Tectonic creation, erosion, mutation;

Somethin' to pleasure God's eye.

 

The world is a wonder of lightnin' and thunder,

And green of the ground as we fall from the sky.

The old and new faces, the tribes and the races...

Thousands of places to try.

 

Over the ocean from here.

Over the mountains from there.”

• from Montana by James Taylor

I was sitting in the BBC studios on Ormeau Avenue at 5.30am, with my head phones on ready for Vanessa Feltz to welcome me to do my Pause For Thought. As I waited she played Montana, a song off James Taylor’s new record, Before This World, his first album of original songs in 13 years. 

Headphones on. Early morning. I suddenly found myself in a devotional moment. I was preaching through the Psalms of Ascent at the time and perhaps more open to such poetic reflections. 

I was struck with spiritual wonder by Taylor’s words: 

 

“Who can imagine the scale of the forces

That pushed this old mountain range up in the sky?

Tectonic creation, erosion, mutation;”

 

My theological antenna was immediately thinking evolutionary secularism when Taylor concludes:

 

“Somethin' to pleasure God's eye.”

 

Ah, forgive my prejudice, but God is still in the picture in James Taylor’s Psalm of praise.  

I immediately thought about so many who share my Christian faith who cannot equate evolution and God. God created somehow and that he used tectonic creation, erosion and mutation makes utter sense. I remember standing, not in Montana, but Arizona at the Grand Canyon and describing it as God’s post creation doodle with the knife of the Colorado River. God never stopped evolving this little planet. His art goes on.

Taylor’s Psalm doesn’t stop with creation and God. Like the Psalms he moves from the wonder of God’s art to the life lived by us humans, part of his creation. 

 

“One sits and waits while the other one wanders,

And squanders his time with a life on the road.

Down from the mountain, across the wide ocean,

The world is in motion and cannot be slowed.

 

Enough for today... the demands of the moment,

The thing on my mind is the work in my hand.

Wood for the woodstove and water for coffee,

Somethin' I can still understand.

 

We got a few friends but not many neighbors,

The trip into town takes us most of the day.

And after, "Hello", and "it's sure good to see you",

It seems like there's nothin' to say.”

 

There is a sense of Taylor’s own life in these verses. His partner waits while he goes off to write songs that will give him the need to go out on the road to play them to people. This world is demanding and fast and pressured. A coffee by the fire might be a sabbatical necessity. 

The loss of neighbour or depth of human connection is the sad final commentary on the world of the 21st century. 

So, Montana is a beautiful song to open the door of your soul. It is no new musical direction and has that Taylor sound that could have been on any of his early records but it is a wee gem. It certainly led me to praise and reflection.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

“Who can imagine the scale of the forces

That pushed this old mountain range up in the sky?

Tectonic creation, erosion, mutation;

Somethin' to pleasure God's eye.

 

The world is a wonder of lightnin' and thunder,

And green of the ground as we fall from the sky.

The old and new faces, the tribes and the races...

Thousands of places to try.

 

Over the ocean from here.

Over the mountains from there.”

• from Montana by James Taylor

I was sitting in the BBC studios on Ormeau Avenue at 5.30am, with my head phones on ready for Vanessa Feltz to welcome me to do my Pause For Thought. As I waited she played Montana, a song off James Taylor’s new record, Before This World, his first album of original songs in 13 years. 

Headphones on. Early morning. I suddenly found myself in a devotional moment. I was preaching through the Psalms of Ascent at the time and perhaps more open to such poetic reflections. 

I was struck with spiritual wonder by Taylor’s words: 

 

“Who can imagine the scale of the forces

That pushed this old mountain range up in the sky?

Tectonic creation, erosion, mutation;”

 

My theological antenna was immediately thinking evolutionary secularism when Taylor concludes:

 

“Somethin' to pleasure God's eye.”

 

Ah, forgive my prejudice, but God is still in the picture in James Taylor’s Psalm of praise.  

I immediately thought about so many who share my Christian faith who cannot equate evolution and God. God created somehow and that he used tectonic creation, erosion and mutation makes utter sense. I remember standing, not in Montana, but Arizona at the Grand Canyon and describing it as God’s post creation doodle with the knife of the Colorado River. God never stopped evolving this little planet. His art goes on.

Taylor’s Psalm doesn’t stop with creation and God. Like the Psalms he moves from the wonder of God’s art to the life lived by us humans, part of his creation. 

 

“One sits and waits while the other one wanders,

And squanders his time with a life on the road.

Down from the mountain, across the wide ocean,

The world is in motion and cannot be slowed.

 

Enough for today... the demands of the moment,

The thing on my mind is the work in my hand.

Wood for the woodstove and water for coffee,

Somethin' I can still understand.

 

We got a few friends but not many neighbors,

The trip into town takes us most of the day.

And after, "Hello", and "it's sure good to see you",

It seems like there's nothin' to say.”

 

There is a sense of Taylor’s own life in these verses. His partner waits while he goes off to write songs that will give him the need to go out on the road to play them to people. This world is demanding and fast and pressured. A coffee by the fire might be a sabbatical necessity. 

The loss of neighbour or depth of human connection is the sad final commentary on the world of the 21st century. 

So, Montana is a beautiful song to open the door of your soul. It is no new musical direction and has that Taylor sound that could have been on any of his early records but it is a wee gem. It certainly led me to praise and reflection.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

“Who can imagine the scale of the forces

That pushed this old mountain range up in the sky?

Tectonic creation, erosion, mutation;

Somethin' to pleasure God's eye.

 

The world is a wonder of lightnin' and thunder,

And green of the ground as we fall from the sky.

The old and new faces, the tribes and the races...

Thousands of places to try.

 

Over the ocean from here.

Over the mountains from there.”

• from Montana by James Taylor

I was sitting in the BBC studios on Ormeau Avenue at 5.30am, with my head phones on ready for Vanessa Feltz to welcome me to do my Pause For Thought. As I waited she played Montana, a song off James Taylor’s new record, Before This World, his first album of original songs in 13 years. 

Headphones on. Early morning. I suddenly found myself in a devotional moment. I was preaching through the Psalms of Ascent at the time and perhaps more open to such poetic reflections. 

I was struck with spiritual wonder by Taylor’s words: 

 

“Who can imagine the scale of the forces

That pushed this old mountain range up in the sky?

Tectonic creation, erosion, mutation;”

 

My theological antenna was immediately thinking evolutionary secularism when Taylor concludes:

 

“Somethin' to pleasure God's eye.”

 

Ah, forgive my prejudice, but God is still in the picture in James Taylor’s Psalm of praise.  

I immediately thought about so many who share my Christian faith who cannot equate evolution and God. God created somehow and that he used tectonic creation, erosion and mutation makes utter sense. I remember standing, not in Montana, but Arizona at the Grand Canyon and describing it as God’s post creation doodle with the knife of the Colorado River. God never stopped evolving this little planet. His art goes on.

Taylor’s Psalm doesn’t stop with creation and God. Like the Psalms he moves from the wonder of God’s art to the life lived by us humans, part of his creation. 

 

“One sits and waits while the other one wanders,

And squanders his time with a life on the road.

Down from the mountain, across the wide ocean,

The world is in motion and cannot be slowed.

 

Enough for today... the demands of the moment,

The thing on my mind is the work in my hand.

Wood for the woodstove and water for coffee,

Somethin' I can still understand.

 

We got a few friends but not many neighbors,

The trip into town takes us most of the day.

And after, "Hello", and "it's sure good to see you",

It seems like there's nothin' to say.”

 

There is a sense of Taylor’s own life in these verses. His partner waits while he goes off to write songs that will give him the need to go out on the road to play them to people. This world is demanding and fast and pressured. A coffee by the fire might be a sabbatical necessity. 

The loss of neighbour or depth of human connection is the sad final commentary on the world of the 21st century. 

So, Montana is a beautiful song to open the door of your soul. It is no new musical direction and has that Taylor sound that could have been on any of his early records but it is a wee gem. It certainly led me to praise and reflection.

 

“Who can imagine the scale of the forces

That pushed this old mountain range up in the sky?

Tectonic creation, erosion, mutation;

Somethin' to pleasure God's eye.

 

The world is a wonder of lightnin' and thunder,

And green of the ground as we fall from the sky.

The old and new faces, the tribes and the races...

Thousands of places to try.

 

Over the ocean from here.

Over the mountains from there.”

• from Montana by James Taylor

I was sitting in the BBC studios on Ormeau Avenue at 5.30am, with my head phones on ready for Vanessa Feltz to welcome me to do my Pause For Thought. As I waited she played Montana, a song off James Taylor’s new record, Before This World, his first album of original songs in 13 years. 

Headphones on. Early morning. I suddenly found myself in a devotional moment. I was preaching through the Psalms of Ascent at the time and perhaps more open to such poetic reflections. 

I was struck with spiritual wonder by Taylor’s words: 

 

“Who can imagine the scale of the forces

That pushed this old mountain range up in the sky?

Tectonic creation, erosion, mutation;”

 

My theological antenna was immediately thinking evolutionary secularism when Taylor concludes:

 

“Somethin' to pleasure God's eye.”

 

Ah, forgive my prejudice, but God is still in the picture in James Taylor’s Psalm of praise.  

I immediately thought about so many who share my Christian faith who cannot equate evolution and God. God created somehow and that he used tectonic creation, erosion and mutation makes utter sense. I remember standing, not in Montana, but Arizona at the Grand Canyon and describing it as God’s post creation doodle with the knife of the Colorado River. God never stopped evolving this little planet. His art goes on.

Taylor’s Psalm doesn’t stop with creation and God. Like the Psalms he moves from the wonder of God’s art to the life lived by us humans, part of his creation. 

 

“One sits and waits while the other one wanders,

And squanders his time with a life on the road.

Down from the mountain, across the wide ocean,

The world is in motion and cannot be slowed.

 

Enough for today... the demands of the moment,

The thing on my mind is the work in my hand.

Wood for the woodstove and water for coffee,

Somethin' I can still understand.

 

We got a few friends but not many neighbors,

The trip into town takes us most of the day.

And after, "Hello", and "it's sure good to see you",

It seems like there's nothin' to say.”

 

There is a sense of Taylor’s own life in these verses. His partner waits while he goes off to write songs that will give him the need to go out on the road to play them to people. This world is demanding and fast and pressured. A coffee by the fire might be a sabbatical necessity. 

The loss of neighbour or depth of human connection is the sad final commentary on the world of the 21st century. 

So, Montana is a beautiful song to open the door of your soul. It is no new musical direction and has that Taylor sound that could have been on any of his early records but it is a wee gem. It certainly led me to praise and reflection.

SURRENDERING TO A NOTION OF A GLORIOUS KIND

 

“The beginning and end of every wish
Is balanced in the center of a vision like this
Maybe my emotions are inclined, yeah
To surrender to the notion of a glorious kind”

-      from I Found Love by Lone Justice

Maria McKee fronting Lone Justice in the late eighties was simply a breath taking rock n roll thang! It was this lady at her peak that Deacon Blue wrote Real Gone Kid about. McKee was charismatic and gorgeous, with a gifted voice and a raw Christian faith. In the slip stream of U2’s exuberant  confessionals she released this as a single and I remember one Friday night on Channel 4’s coolest rock show on the planet, The Tube, when she ripped the place up with a tent revival type spiritual passion throwing her hands in the air with shouts of redemption and faith.

The song is a testimony about not so much someone finding God as God finding someone when they were “minding their own business.” This verse somehow encapsulates all my excitement about the vision that it is to follow Jesus. At the heart of finding or being found is that missing hole in the heart being filled. Yet, it is not an ethereal filling. In this vision of being part of God’s new Kingdom coming in we humans find our purpose and thus our inner needs met.

It is a glorious vision that McKee is inclined to yearn after – me too! It is over twenty years ago but I still love the blend of poetry and energy. It expresses in word and heart pumping sound the faith that have been committed to for 40 years.

FR GREG BOYLE, HOMEBOYS, ELVIS, GRETCHEN PETERS AND SELF FORGIVENESS

photo: Bernie Brown

It was an emotional night in Skainos. I imagine not many in the packed out Church left without at some stage of the evening, wiping a little tear from their eye. 

It was the 4 Corners Festival 2019 event Compassion, Radical Kinship and Forgiveness and Fr Greg Boyle was introducing us to his trophies of Compassion - his Homeboys. Steve, Hector and Jose were tough men, who had lived through the poorest most violent childhoods. It was tough listening.

The Homeboys took me back to a night in Cape Town. I had a team of students in town and they got broken into. We were there to build houses. We were serving that city and some of its wee thugs had come out from underneath that beautiful mountain and hit us. I was angry.

The next night we went to a Ronan Keating concert. Not my scene, you can imagine. The students loved it and my friend Steve was in Ronan’s band! Surprisingly prophetic, Keating sang an Elvis Presley song. One that the Colonel wasn’t that happy that he sang. Surely one of Elvis’s few songs on social justice - In The Ghetto.

What a beautiful piece of heartache In The Ghetto is. A baby born into poverty, growing up without help, ending up on the street and eventually killed. The question in the heart of it is a tough one, for an Elvis song:

 

People, don't you understand
The child needs a helping hand
Or he'll grow to be an angry young man some day
Take a look at you and me,
Are we too blind to see,
Do we simply turn our heads
And look the other way

 

Fr Greg wasn’t too blind to see. He didn’t turn his head. As a priest in the ghetto, he did something about it. He gave the children in the poorest LA ghettos hope and a job and ultimately a home.

Steve, Hector and Jose’s stories were the same as Elvis’s song apart from the ending. What was the key in their transformation or redemption was beginning to believe in themselves. Fr Greg would describe it as knowing the person God had created them to be. All three of them spoke about forgiving themselves of the shame and hopelessness they felt inside.

That bounced me across my playlists to a new song by Gretchen Peters. To a myriad of people among them prostitutes, drunks and homeless people she sings:

 

Say grace - say grace 

Forgive yourself for all of your mistakes 

You might find salvation in your neighbor's face 

Come inside and set yourself a place 

And say grace

 

“Salvation in your neighbour’s face.” I love that. Very 4 Corners Festival. If only we in Belfast could look across the corners and find that “good neighbourliness” as Alan McBride coined it, at the Guardians Of The Flame event.

Gretchen tweaks each chorus. The last one goes:

 

Say grace - say grace 

Forgive yourself for all of your mistakes 

You are not a loser, you are not a hopeless case 

Come inside and set yourself a place 

And say grace

 

That could actually be written above the door of every Homeboy Industries building. Losers and hopeless cases are what Fr Greg works among. Having them forgive themselves and then find their place in the world. That is what Steve, Hector and Jose had found. Say grace!

A CASE OF YOU - JONI MITCHELL

“Oh I am a lonely painter
I live in a box of paints
I'm frightened by the devil
And I'm drawn to those ones that ain't afraid
I remember that time that you told me, you said
Love is touching souls
Surely you touched mine
Cause part of you pours out of me
In these lines from time to time”

-      from A Case Of You by Joni Mitchell

I love telling the story that my friends in Lies Damned Lies told me. In the early 90s they were recording a record with renowned American producer Stewart Levine. One of his many pieces of advice was that you always hide the weakest track on side two, track four; no one will notice it there! That is where you’ll find A Case Of You on Joni Mitchell best ever record, Blue. Come on!

I fall in love with A Case Of You every time I play it! It is so crafted, so beautiful, so sad, so insightful, so objective in its emotionally raw subjectivity. The image of the beer mat in the blue TV screen light and how she gets “O Canada” in there. It also has this ability to be about the spiritually universal truth as well as the very specific individual honesty that is at its core.

The genius of a song to me is when the writer can be objective in their subjectivity. When a very personal story takes universal meaning. When in the details that are very personal to them seem to be about something very personal to us. A Case Of You is that song. I think it was Kris Kristofferson who on first hearing Blue said that it was too personally raw to release. It is. Yet it is about everybody too. 

Let me then, as the preacher, draw out a few key spiritual gems. Mitchell has spoken about her born again phase, unknown to the public, but seemingly very real in songs like Woodstock as well as this one. To be “frightened by the devil” but “drawn to those ain’t afraid.” Lovely.

What an image of the Church; a gathering of those who ain’t afraid of the devil and who in this context seem to be a place of refuge for those tossed about in their fear. Oh to create such a positive opinion of Church instead of the bad images I often get thrown at me as a minister; “God doesn’t live in most Churches!” or “I want to bring my kids up to learn about Jesus but not be institutionalised by having to attend Church.” Oh to find an authentic community that would draw the frightened.

 “Love is touching souls” is another great spiritual image and the declaration is that whoever this person is they have touched souls with tangible love; “surely you touched mine.” Oh to be a toucher of souls. Again a community showing this kind of love would be a community that would draw those beleaguered souls that, my reading of the Gospels suggests, Jesus wanted to touch.

Yet, this is not just about the Church as a community. In my own love life with my wife I need to be a toucher of Janice’s soul, bringing love and grace and healing. Indeed in all my relationships there is a need to reach into people’s souls. That is where it matters. That is where you can be involved in the transformation of lives and the world. The All You Need Is Love of The Beatles needs to have a pragmatic outworking. It is not a hippie slogan to chant or believe, it is a philosophy of life to be implemented in every personal engagement we have in every single day of our lives whether they are fleeting accidental meetings or scheduled and lengthy dairy dates. Touch souls. Change the world!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

“Oh I am a lonely painter
I live in a box of paints
I'm frightened by the devil
And I'm drawn to those ones that ain't afraid
I remember that time that you told me, you said
Love is touching souls
Surely you touched mine
Cause part of you pours out of me
In these lines from time to time”

-      from A Case Of You by Joni Mitchell

I love telling the story that my friends in Lies Damned Lies told me. In the early 90s they were recording a record with renowned American producer Stewart Levine. One of his many pieces of advice was that you always hide the weakest track on side two, track four; no one will notice it there! That is where you’ll find A Case Of You on Joni Mitchell best ever record, Blue. Come on!

I fall in love with A Case Of You every time I play it! It is so crafted, so beautiful, so sad, so insightful, so objective in its emotionally raw subjectivity. The image of the beer mat in the blue TV screen light and how she gets “O Canada” in there. It also has this ability to be about the spiritually universal truth as well as the very specific individual honesty that is at its core.

The genius of a song to me is when the writer can be objective in their subjectivity. When a very personal story takes universal meaning. When in the details that are very personal to them seem to be about something very personal to us. A Case Of You is that song. I think it was Kris Kristofferson who on first hearing Blue said that it was too personally raw to release. It is. Yet it is about everybody too. 

Let me then, as the preacher, draw out a few key spiritual gems. Mitchell has spoken about her born again phase, unknown to the public, but seemingly very real in songs like Woodstock as well as this one. To be “frightened by the devil” but “drawn to those ain’t afraid.” Lovely.

What an image of the Church; a gathering of those who ain’t afraid of the devil and who in this context seem to be a place of refuge for those tossed about in their fear. Oh to create such a positive opinion of Church instead of the bad images I often get thrown at me as a minister; “God doesn’t live in most Churches!” or “I want to bring my kids up to learn about Jesus but not be institutionalised by having to attend Church.” Oh to find an authentic community that would draw the frightened.

 “Love is touching souls” is another great spiritual image and the declaration is that whoever this person is they have touched souls with tangible love; “surely you touched mine.” Oh to be a toucher of souls. Again a community showing this kind of love would be a community that would draw those beleaguered souls that, my reading of the Gospels suggests, Jesus wanted to touch.

Yet, this is not just about the Church as a community. In my own love life with my wife I need to be a toucher of Janice’s soul, bringing love and grace and healing. Indeed in all my relationships there is a need to reach into people’s souls. That is where it matters. That is where you can be involved in the transformation of lives and the world. The All You Need Is Love of The Beatles needs to have a pragmatic outworking. It is not a hippie slogan to chant or believe, it is a philosophy of life to be implemented in every personal engagement we have in every single day of our lives whether they are fleeting accidental meetings or scheduled and lengthy dairy dates. Touch souls. Change the world!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

STOCKI'S TOM PETTY COVERS TRACKLIST

Here is track list of a CD I put together of Tom Petty songs, covered by other artists. It is fascinating in its range and again highlights the great songwriter that Petty was and was wanting to be known as. 

REFUGEE (LIVE) - THE BIG DISH

(from 25 Years CD single

 

KING’S HIGHWAY - JAMES BAY

(from Cars 3 soundtrack)

 

AMERICAN GIRL - LUKE SITAL-SINGH

(single)

 

WALLS - THE LUMINEERS

(single)

 

WILDFLOWER - THE WAILIN’ JENNYS

(from Fifteen)

 

HERE COMES MY GIRL - RELIANT K

(from Is For Karaoke)

 

REBELS - DRIVE-BY TRUCKERS

(from The Fine Print)

 

SOUTHERN ACCENTS - JOHNNY CASH

(from Unearthed V; Best of Cash)

 

FREE FALLING (LIVE) - JOHN MAYER

(from Where The Light Is: John  Mayer Live In Los Angeles)

 

LEARNING TO FLY - KEROSENE HALO

(from Live Simple)

 

STOP DRAGGIN’ MY HEART AROUND - STEVIE NICKS

(from Bella Donna)

 

WAYS TO BE WICKED - LONE JUSTICE 

(from This World Is Not My Home)

 

BREAKDOWN - SUZI QUATRO

(from If You Knew Suzi)

 

I WON’T BACK DOWN - PEARL JAM

(from Vancouver, BC 30, May 2003 Live)

 

YOU GOT LUCKY (ACOUSTIC) - BLACKBERRY SMOKE feat. AMANDA SHIRES

(from The Southern Ground Sessions)

 

THE WAITING - LINDA RONSTADT

(from Feels Like Home)

 

LEAVE VIRGINIA ALONE - ROD STEWART

(from Spanner In the Works)

 

GOT MY MIND MADE UP - BOB DYLAN

(from Knocked Out Loaded)

 

DON’T COME AROUND HERE NO MORE - DAVE STEWART & HIS ROCK FABULOUS ORCHESTRA

(from The Dave Stewart Songbook 1)

 

NEVER BE YOU - MARIA MCKEE

(from Streets Of Fire soundtrack)

STOCKI'S FAVOURITE RECORDS OF 2018 - #1-10

1. KARINE POLWART - LAWS OF MOTION

Thank you Doug Gay for the tip off, Karine probably benefited from being my main December listen BUT boy is this a serious work of art...

read my full review here

 

2. SNOW PATROL - WILDNESS

read my full review here

 

3. DOUG GAY - LIFE AFTER DEATH

read my full review here

 

4. FRANK TURNER - BE MORE KIND

read my full review here

 

5. COWBOY JUNKIES - ALL THAT RECKONING

read my full review

 

6. PAUL WELLER - TRUE MEANINGS

read my full review here

 

7. MUMFORD & SONS - DELTA

read my full review here

 

8. SAM PHILLIPS - WORLD OF STICKS

read my full review here

 

9. GRETCHEN PETERS - DANCING WITH THE BEAST

read my full review here

 

10. BEN GLOVER - SHOREBOUND

read my full review here

STOCKI'S FAVOURITE RECORDS OF 2018 - #20-11

11. AMY HELM - THIS TOO SHALL LIGHT

Discovered this beauty late in the year. Joe Henry on production. Enough said.

12. GREAT LAKE SWIMMERS - THE WAVE, THE WAKE

David Park in his wonderful novel Travelling In A Strange Land introduced me to this piece of sonic bliss.

my review here

13. THE JAYHAWKS - BACK ROADS AND ABANDONED HOTELS

I have been a little apathetic about Jayhawks records in recent years but this collection of songs they have written with other artists had me loving them again.

14. ROMANTICA - OUTLAWS

A wee extra treat from one of my favourite bands. 

my review here

15. COURTNEY MARIE ANDREWS - MAY YOUR KINDNESS REMAIN

my review here

16. GLEN HANSARD - BETWEEN TWO SHORES

read my review

17. PAUL McCARTNEY - EGYPT STATION

my review here

18. MARIANNE FAITHFUL - NEGATIVE CAPABILITY

She has this ability to bring words and phrases alive in her own inimitable way.

19. RAY LAMONTANGE - PART OF THE LIGHT

read my review

20. DAWES - PASSWORDS

Just for the brilliant song Crack The Case on its own. I will be blogging that song in the lead up to 4 Corners Festival!

STOCKI's FAVOURITE 10 REISSUES AND LIVE ALBUMS OF 2018

1. THE BEATLES BOX SET

Actual album of the year, it is so fresh with its new Giles Martin stereo mix and treasure trove of demos and outtakes…

 

2.   BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN - SPRINGSTEEN ON BROADWAY

Spectacular in the most unspectacular way… two and a half hours of Bruce throwing out insights about family. life, politics and God… 

 

3. TOM PETTY - AN AMERICAN TREASURE

I still find it hard to believe that Tom Petty has left us. This was a stunning reminder of his genius. Curated by his wife and daughter they left off the hits and made him deeper, wider and bigger as a result.

 

4 PAUL SIMON - IN THE BLUE LIGHT

Paul Simon is still as creative as ever. Here he uses that musical imagination to re-sttire some of his older songs, giving them different hues. Could have been in my top 10 of actual new albums!

 

5. BOB DYLAN - MORE BLOOD, MORE TRACKS; THE BOOTLEG SERIES Vol 14

I have looked forward to a box set of Dylan’s Blood On The Tracks out-takes for years. It was a little bit of let down, perhaps more to do with the ordering of the tracks than the actual songs themselves. It is like live Bob. Unplugged Dylan and his voice is awesome BUT 7 versions of Buckets of Rain in a row made it difficult to plumb its depths.

 

6. PAUL MCCARTNEY - WINGS OVER EUROPE

Paul McCartney is a very naughty boy. Having created sizeable box sets for two of his weaker early records he makes this live album available only if you boy the TWO box sets together at £350. For me this is the most interesting thing about the box set releases. Portstewart’s Henry McCullough is in his finest Wings’ moment and there is a Beatles on the Rooftop feel to the whole thing. Even average songs and bad ones like Give Ireland Back To The Irish sound pretty good in this live fun-fest. Should have been released at an attainable price… though I have found it for free!

 

7. GRAHAM NASH - OVER THE YEARS

I often feel that Graham nash is a little underrated as a songwriter. This was a cram packed with wondrous tunes collection and an interesting CD of demos alongside.

 

8. JASON ISBELL LIVE FROM THE RYMAN

Maybe the mix isn’t perfect but the songs are top drawer and nicely collected in the live feel of the Ryman

 

9. JOHN LENNON - IMAGINE; THE ULTIMATE COLLECTION

Lovely packaging of Lennon’s best record but there isn’t the kind of differing out takes of The White Album. All a little bit samey!

 

10. NEIL YOUNG - SONGS FOR JUDY

Young gives us more out of his big barn of tapes. From my favourite era 1976, there are some great tunes here in their earliest days.

STOCKI'S FAVOURITE RECORDS OF 2018 - #21-30

21.THE LOST BROTHERS - HALF WAY TOWARDS A HEALING

22. ELVIS COSTELLO & THE IMPOSTERS - LOOK NOW

23. MATTHEW PERRYMAN JONES - THE WAKING HOURS

24. CIARAN LAVERY - SWEET DECAY

my review here

25. RY COODER - THE PRODIGAL SON

my review here

26. DAVID CROSBY - HERE IF YOU LISTEN

27. JULES MAXWELL - SONGS FROM THE CULTURAL BACKWATER

my review here

28. BURNING CODES - LIBERATOR

29. JOHN PRINE - THE FORGIVENESS TREE

30. MARK KNOPFLER - DOWN THE ROAD WHEREVER