Author: Alan Ashworth

Unusually melodic cut from the 1980 album Heartattack and Vine. And here’s the Boss doing it live not so long ago.

This reminds me of my younger days following Nelson FC in the Lancashire Combination. There was an old geezer in the sparse crowd called Frank who went ‘Heh, heh, heh’ … Continue readingNathan Abshire: Les Filles du Canada

I prefer this simple demo version to the full-band outtake from the Rendezvous sessions.

The first song Ry played when I saw him for the first time, in Manchester in 1977. Taken from his eponymous first album released seven years earlier.

From her last album of original tunes, 2007’s Shine.

Suggested by Andy Marshall, this is from her 2004 album The Tigers Have Spoken. Backing vocals are by her trusty pardner Kelly Hogan.

This little sweetie is from Burnt Weeny Sandwich, recorded before Hot Rats but released later, in 1970, when Zappa had dissolved the Mothers of Invention for the time being.

From the 1975 album Unrequited, this is a song about his baby son’s enthusiasm for his mother’s milk. Ironic, really, that camp-as-a-row-of-tents Rufus Wainwright turned out to be anything but … Continue readingLoudon Wainwright III: Rufus is a Tit Man

The old Leftie’s take on Dylan’s Subterranean Homesick Blues, with guitar assistance from Mister Paul Weller. Taken from the 1997 album Shleep – blimey, it’s 24 years old already.