Category: video

Mazzy Star – Halah

It’s A’s birthday and this song reminds me of her birth, simply because it was one of the albums that we took into the hospital to listen to while we were waiting for her to arrive.

I don’t actually think it was playing when she was born, but it brings back happy memories…

Mazzy Star were effectively a one-album wonder, their debut She Hangs Brightly, although they released two further albums later in the 90s.

They never really had any success in the UK and have picked up a sort of cult status in this country, mainly through the help of the internet.

Their singer Hope Sandoval has a wonderful ethereal quality to her voice and, since Mazzy Star’s split, has recorded with a folk hero of mine Bert Jansch.

Halah is a dreamy, almost psychedelic track from She Hangs Brightly and typifies this album. Glorious!

‘Ullo John…’ what are you on about?

Fresh evidence that I am getting old, when this morning in the office, someone said ‘Ullo…’ Naturally, I added ‘…John, gotta new motor?’ and was met with baffled looks all round.

‘You don’t know the song?’ I asked incredulously.
‘No,’ came the reply from pretty much everyone, even the other 30-somethings on the team.

Amazingly, though, V admitted that she knew it because she’s a big fan of The Young Ones and loves Alexei Sayle. V is 24! She wasn’t even born when the accompanying clip was recorded!

Possibly even more sad to relate is that A only recognised the song, when I reframed it and told her it was used to sell TVs a few years later: ‘Ullo Tosh, Gotta Toshiba?’

Anyway, enjoy this clip from way back in 1982 of Alexei Sayle on OTT. You’d never know he was a Scouser, if this was your only evidence!

Weekend Song: Karen Dalton

I love discovering music that really chimes with my own personal tastes, but had totally passed me and many other people by.

Karen Dalton is one of those singers. She was a peer of the likes of Bob Dylan in the late 60s, a Greenwich Village folk singer stalwart and has one of those unique voices that should have marked her out as being quite special.

Sadly, she faded into oblivion and died forgotten and almost unknown in 1993. Two albums were re-released back in 2006 and her tag as the ‘blues Billie Holliday’ should give you an idea of what to expect.

This particular track is taken from th DVD that comes with the album “It’s So Hard To Tell Who’s Going To Love You The Best”.