Song of the week - Episode 57

Woo hoo! School holidays are here. And for all of you who delight in letting me know just how many weeks’ holidays we teachers get…feel free to join in – plenty of jobs available!

Anyway, a few tracks this week for you to hopefully enjoy. Unless you’ve been off-world then the dust storms around here have been hard to miss. The red “end of the world sky” and the crud all over the car are dead giveaways! I heard a radio report mention that the snowfields in New Zealand have been turned pink in the past when there have been dust storms here in Australia. Probably an urban myth but the image of pink snow is rather amusing.

A few tracks with a weather theme therefore seems appropriate.

First up, and don’t laugh, here’s Billy Joel. I actually saw him in Sydney on tour in the 90’s. Much, much better than I expected:
Stormfront (Billy Joel) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w-zHTtyS5Jo

Now here’s one from the greatest Beatles tribute band ever – Crowded House:
Weather With You (Crowded House) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uIb6I8gtgtw

Now, those two songs were fairly obvious. When I was a kid (only yesterday) my parents had a cassette that had some country and western tracks on it. This one was a real toe-tapper and I must admit I hadn’t thought about it until yesterday! The original version has a cracking guitar solo as well. This is a live version (best I could find) and for all you guitar heads check out the Steinberger headless guitar that the soloist plays.

I Love A Rainy Night (Eddie Rabbit) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VJ1GQFtHGxU

When I first became a Johnny Cash fan, and I admit I came to it a bit late, there was a song called “Lucky Old Sun” on the first album I got. His version is fabulous, but this one by Louis Armstrong is sublime:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LUb2yfoVbUw

Now, we could go on forever with songs about the weather. Riders on the Storm, Rock You Like A Hurricane, Raining Men, The Wind Cries Mary and Who’ll Stop The Rain to name but a few. But I’m in a rock ’n’ roll mood so indulge me.

It is no secret which band is my favourite of all time and this week’s song is from them. Now, it isn’t their greatest ever song but it starts with a great guitar riff and I love the camera strapped to the guitar neck that gives us the angle on Angus’ hands. Of course, it is AC/DC and Thunderstruck. In about 1986 I was given a cassette that had two AC/DC songs on it – Back In Black and TNT. Loud guitars have been a passion ever since. Many other artists inspire me and make me sing along. But, very, very few rock as hard as AC/DC. Angus Young, their lead guitarist, once described their music as Chuck Berry but much, much louder. Fair enough.

Hey, you’ve been Thunderstruck!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zvoeeq-BH4w (video clip)


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X80Qjh9Yivs (live version)

DJ Rob