Abagond

Remarks:

What an earworm! This was ringing in my head mercilessly the other week. It was the best-selling song in the UK in 1982 and a number-one hit throughout the Anglosphere – except in Canada where it only went to #2. They are a one-hit wonder in the US, but in the UK this was just one of their nine top-40 hits.

The video was shot at the corner of Brook Drive and Hayles Street in London, about 1.9 km south-east of Big Ben. Eileen is played by Máire Fahey, sister of one of the Bananarama singers.

This is one of at least three songs that came out back then about Catholic girls who start much too late (as Billy Joel put it):

• 1975: Mary in “Thunder Road” by Bruce Springsteen
• 1977: Virginia in “Only the Good Die Young” by Billy Joel
• 1982: Eileen in “Come On Eileen” by Dexy’s Midnight Runners

Eileen is a composite, Virginia was real, Mary a symbol. All three singers, Bruce, Billy and Kevin, went to high school in the late 1960s.

See also:

• songs: the 1980s
• MTV
• Transatlantic hit songs

Lyrics: 

[Fiddle Tune]

[Intro]
Come on, Eileen
Come on, Eileen

[Verse 1]
Poor old Johnnie Ray
Sounded sad upon the radio
Moved a million hearts in mono
Our mothers cried
Sang along, who’d blame them?
You’re grown (You’re grown up)
So grown (So grown up)
Now I must say more than ever (Come on, Eileen)
Toora, loora, toora, loo-rye-aye
And we can sing just like our fathers

[Chorus]
Come on, Eileen
Oh, I swear (Well, he means)
At this moment
You mean everything
You in that dress
My thoughts, I confess
Verge on dirty
Oh, come on, Eileen

[Post-Chorus]
Come on, Eileen

[Verse 2]
These people ’round here
Were beaten down, eyes sunk in smoke-dried face
They’re resigned to what their fate is
But no, not us (No, never)
No, not us (No, never)
We are far too young and clever (Remember)
Toora, loora, toora, loo-rye-aye
Eileen, I’ll hum this tune forever

[Chorus]
Come on, Eileen
Oh, I swear (Well, he means)
Ah, come on, let’s
Take off everything
That pretty red dress
Eileen (Tell him yes)
Ah, come on, let’s
Ah, come on, Eileen
That pretty red dress
Eileen (Tell him yes)
Ah, come on, let’s
Ah, come on, Eileen
Please
[Bridge]
(Come on, Eileen, ta-loo-rye-aye)
(Come on, Eileen, ta-loo-rye-aye)
Now you are grown, now you have shown (Toora, toora, ta-loora)
Oh, Eileen, said
Come on, Eileen (You’ve grown)
(Come on, Eileen, ta-loo-rye-aye)
These things, they are real and I know (So grown)
(Come on, Eileen, ta-loo-rye-aye)
How you feel
Now I must say more than ever (Toora, toora, ta-loora)
Things ’round here have changed, I said
Toora, loora, toora, loo-rye-aye
(Come on, Eileen, ta-loo-rye-aye)
(Come on, Eileen, ta-loo-rye-aye)
(Toora, toora, ta-loora)

[Chorus]
Come on, Eileen
Oh, I swear (Well, he means)
At this moment
You mean everything
You in that dress
My thoughts, I confess
Verge on dirty
Ah, come on, Eileen
Come on, Eileen
Oh, I swear (Well, he means)
At this moment
You mean everything
In that dress
Oh, my thoughts, I confess
Well, they’re dirty
Come on, Eileen
Come on, Eileen
Woah (Well, he means)
Oh-ho-ho-ho
Ah, come on, ah, come on, ah, come on (Everything)
In that dress
Woah (I confess)
[Outro]
Oh, believe me, if all those endearing young charms
That I gaze on so fondly today
Were to suddenly leave you or fly in the night
Just like fairy gifts gone in the sky

Source: Genius Lyrics. 

Remarks:

Wow. I have not heard this in ages. It came out in 2000, going to #81 on the US R&B chart. That was back when most of my music was on CDs (compact discs). I still have most of my CDs but no easy way to play them since at least 2022. I came across this song by accident on YouTube.

See also:

• songs: the 2000s
• Amel Larrieux: For Real
• Tiny Tim: Tiptoe Through the Tulips – whose strange singing style came from growing up with a gramophone, which allowed him to listen to music from the early 1900s.

Lyrics:

[Verse 1]
I wish I didn’t feel it
I know it just ain’t right
But it seems to pop up in my head
Morning, noon, and night
I just can’t release it
The memory of you
Momma never told me
Love would leave me so damn blue

[Chorus]
And I got misery
‘Cause I know loving you’s a sin
You got me on my knees
Praying that I don’t give in
And baby, you and me
Never ever could have been
So I got misery
‘Cause I’ll love you ’til the end

[Verse 2]
You said that you loved me
That I’m your only one
But what you call monogamy
Is lying to everyone
Well, I gave you your freedom
But that’s not the end of that
You reached in and stole my heart
And now I want it back

[Chorus]
And I got misery
‘Cause I know loving you’s a sin
You got me on my knees
Praying that I don’t give in
Baby, you and me
Never ever could have been
So I got misery
‘Cause I’ll love you ’til the end

[Bridge]
I’m so blue (I’m so blue)
Can’t let go of you (Can’t let go of you)
I’m so blue (I’m so blue)
Can’t stop loving you (And I can’t stop loving you)
I’m so blue (I’m so blue)
Can’t let go of you (I can’t let go of you)
You give me sweet misery

[Chorus]
And I got misery
‘Cause I know loving you’s a sin
You got me on my knees
Praying that I don’t give in
Baby, you and me
Never ever ever could have been
So I got misery
‘Cause I’ll love you ’til the end

[Outro]
I’ll love you ’til the end
Oh, I know loving you’s a sin
You got me, you got me on my knees
Praying that I don’t give in
Baby, you and me never ever could have been
So I got misery
Oh, I’ve got it bad, I got it bad
I’ve got it so darn bad, so darn bad, baby
Praying that I don’t give in, baby
You and me, we never ever could have been
So I got misery ’cause I’ll love you ’til the end
Ah babe, oh babe, ah babe, ooh wee, baby
Ah ya ya ya ya ya, ah baby
Sweet misery, sweet misery, sweet misery
I got some sweet, sweet misery
Misery
Misery
Misery
Sweet, misery

Source: Genius Lyrics.

Remarks:

This is my favourite Olivia Rodrigo song – so far. It came out in May 2026 and in the first two months hit the top ten on pop charts throughout the Anglosphere, #5 in her native US, and #2 worldwide. So far. The video makes the song deeper still.

See also:

• songs: the 2020s
• Garbage: Stupid Girl

Lyrics: 

[Verse 1]
All the pretty girls in the foreground of my mind
I thought I’d done enough, but they keep moving the line
I thought I found the antidote this time
I thought I found the antidote this time

[Verse 2]
And all the nights I spent fighting bad thoughts in my room
Feeling so alone, might as well be on the moon
I thought I found the antidote with you
I thought I found the antidote with you

[Chorus]
But my head is full of poison, and my heart is full of doubt
I got toxins in my bloodstream, you tried hard to suck ’em out
And it feels like medication, and it’s good for me, I’m sure
But it don’t matter how your love feels anymore
It’ll never be the cure
It’ll nеver be the curе

[Verse 3]
Used to play a game in my head when I’d date a guy
Tally up the girls that he fucked ’til I start to cry
I thought I found the antidote this time
I thought I found the antidote this time

[Refrain]
But I’m unraveled (I’m unraveled)
I’m unraveled (I’m unraveled)
I’m unraveled (I’m unraveled)
I’m unraveled (I’m unraveled)

[Chorus]
And my head is full of poison, and my heart is full of doubt
I got toxins in my bloodstream, you tried hard to suck ’em out
And it feels like medication, and it’s good for me, I’m sure
But it don’t matter how your love feels anymore
It will never be the cure
It’ll never be the cure, oh

[Refrain]
‘Cause, baby, I’m unraveled (I’m unraveled)
I’m unraveled (I’m unraveled)
I’m unraveled (I’m unraveled)
I’m unraveled (I’m unraveled, I’m unraveled)

[Bridge]
Why can’t you come stitch me up? (I’m unraveled)
Why can’t it ever be enough? (I’m unraveled)
Why can’t you come stitch me up? (I’m unraveled)
Why can’t it ever be enough? (I’m unraveled)
It’s not enough

[Chorus]
Oh, because my head is full of poison, and my heart is full of doubt (I’m unraveled)
I got toxins in my bloodstream you tried so hard to suck out (I’m unraveled)
And it feels like medication, and it’s good for me, I’m sure (I’m unraveled)
But it don’t matter how your love feels anymore (I’m unraveled)
It’ll never be the cure
It will never be the cure
It’ll never be

Source: Genius Lyrics – where this song has quite a bit of commentary.

Remarks:

The year 1976 not only gave us “Muskrat Love” and the best song ever, but “Disco Duck” too! It went to #1 on the US pop chart and was a top-ten hit throughout the Anglosphere.

.

See also:

• songs: the 1970s
• also 1976:
  • Diana Ross: Love Hangover
  • Starland Vocal Band: Afternoon Delight

Lyrics: 

[Intro: Kenneth Pruitt]
(Quack-quack, quack-quack)
(Quack-quack, quack-quack)

[Verse 1: Rick Dees]
Went to a party the other night
All the ladies were treatin’ me right
Movin’ my feet to the disco beat
How in the world could I keep my seat?

[Verse 2: Rick Dees & Kenneth Pruitt]
All of a sudden, I begin to change
I was on the dance floor, actin’ strange (Quack-quack, quack-quack)
Flappin’ my arms, I began to cluck (Quack-quack)
Look at me, I’m the disco duck

[Interlude: Kenneth Pruitt]
Ah, get down, mama
I’ve got to have me a woman, hahahahaha

[Chorus: Kenneth Pruitt]
(Disco, disco duck) Got to have me a woman
(Disco, disco duck) Oh, get down, mama
(Try your luck)
(Don’t be a cluck) Uh
(Disco) Disco
(Disco) Disco
(Disco, disco) Disco
(Disco, disco duck) Alright
(Disco, disco duck) Oh, get down, mama
Oh mama, shake your tailfeather, hahahahaha

[Verse 3: Rick Dees & Kenneth Pruitt]
When the music stopped, I returned to my seat
But there’s no stoppin’ a duck and his beat (Quack-quack, quack-quack)
So I got back up to try my luck (Quack-quack, quack-quack)
Why, look

[Chorus: Kenneth Pruitt]
Everybody’s doin’ the disco, disco duck (Disco, disco duck)
(Disco, disco duck) Disco, disco duck
(Try your luck) Wave it, mama
(Don’t be a cluck) Hahahaha
(Disco) Disco
(Disco) Disco
(Disco, disco) Disco
(Disco, disco duck) Disco, disco duck, my, oh my
(Disco, disco duck) Give me a woman
(Try your luck) Ah
(Don’t be a cluck)
(Disco) Disco
(Disco) Disco
(Disco, disco) Disco
(Disco, disco duck) Disco, disco duck
(Disco, disco duck) Disco, disco duck
(Try your luck) Wave to me
(Don’t be a cluck)
[Outro: Kenneth Pruitt]
I’m so happy to be here (Disco)
Thank you, Duck, for gettin’ down (Disco)
(Disco, disco) Do the disco duck!
(Disco, disco duck) Thank you so very much
You’re welcome (Disco, disco duck)
(Try your luck) Yeah
(Don’t be a cluck)
(Disco, disco) Yeah
(Disco)

Source: Genius Lyrics. 

Benjamin Netanyahu (1949- ), aka בִּנְיָמִין “בִּיבִּי” נְתַנְיָהוּ, aka Bibi, has been prime minister of Israel off and on for about 19 of the past 30 years:

• 1996 to 1999
• 2009 to 2021
• 2022 to present (2026)

He faces voters on October 27th 2026 for the first time since the massacre of October 7th 2023, the genocide in Gaza and the war on Iran, the one it seems that he talked Donald Trump, the US president, into joining.

He lived in the US for part of his youth:

• 1956 to 1958 (~ ages 7 to 9)
• 1963 to 1967 (~ ages 14 to 18) – goes to high school in Cheltenham, Pennsylvania (suburban Philadelphia)
• (military service in Israel)
• 1973 to 1978 (~ ages 24 to 29) – attends MIT, Harvard, works at Boston Consulting Group where he becomes friends with Mitt Romney

I first saw him in 1984 on US television when he was an expert on terrorism. Even then there seemed to be something fishy about him. I was right to be suspicious: it was propaganda dressed up as expertise. Even way back then, during the Reagan Era, he was trying to push the US into joining Israel’s battles.

WWGD: What would Genghis do? I use this as a sarcastic joke, a take-off on WWJD, but Netanyahu lives by it. Here he is on March 19th 2026, speaking in English, trying to justify the war on Iran:

“You know, if people want to be naive, then they don’t see the kind of world we’re living in. In this world, it’s not enough to be moral. It’s not enough to be just. It’s not enough to be right. You know, one of the greatest writers of the 20th century, someone that I admire a lot, was the historian Will Durant. Now, he wrote many volumes. I read most of them. He also wrote The Lessons of History, a very brief, 100-page book, in which he said, well, history proves that, unfortunately and unhappily, Jesus Christ has no advantage over Genghis Khan. Because if you are strong enough, ruthless enough, powerful enough, evil will overcome good. Aggression will overcome moderation.

“So you have no choice. If you look at the world as it is today, you have to be blind not to see that the democracies led by the United States have to reassert their will to defend themselves. And to oppose their enemies in time, while there’s still time, before the jarring gong of danger wakes them up and wakes them up too late. This is where we are now.”

…

“We are, we have to be strong. We have to be armed. We have to be more powerful than the barbarians, or they will not be merely at the gate. They’ll crash our gates and destroy our societies. That’s what Israel is doing now with the United States. And I’m very proud of the fact that the Israeli people are standing strong, that the Israeli army is standing strong.”

Monstrous logic: Here is Netanyahu in 2023 justifying genocide in Gaza:

“we’re facing monsters, monsters who murdered children in front of their parents . . . This is a battle not only of Israel against these barbarians, it’s a battle of civilization against barbarism”

Mass funeral for the 165 schoolgirls killed in Iran by US/Israeli bombing, 2026.

– Abagond, 2026. 

Sources: particularly the Times of Israel. 

See also:

• Israel
• Iran War
• genocide in Gaza
  • Israel’s genocidal intent in Gaza – more Netanyahu
• What Malcolm X read in prison – another Will Durant fan
• Genghis Khan
• WWJD
• Mitt Romney
• Ronald Reagan
• Donald Trump
• The term “terrorist”
• The clash of civilizations
• Martin Luther King, Jr’s Riverside speech against the Vietnam War
• The Secret Course on Whiteness – it seems he attended.

580

The Economist wrote this in 2014:

“Japan has about 500,000 non-naturalised Koreans, some of whom have come in the past couple of decades but many of whose families were part of a diaspora that arrived during Japan’s imperial era in the first half of the 20th century. They have long been targets of hostility. After the Great Kanto earthquake of 1923, Tokyo residents launched a pogrom against ethnic Koreans, claiming that they had poisoned the water supply.”

I rewrote it in 2015 as:

“Japan has about 500,000 Koreans who are not citizens. Some have come since 1950, but many Korean families came in the early 1900s, back when Japan ruled Korea. People in Japan have long hated them, killing hundreds if not thousands of them in Tokyo in 1923 after the Great Kanto Earthquake. They said the Koreans had poisoned the water.”

ChatGPT in 2026 rewrote The Economist version as:

“Japan is home to roughly 500,000 ethnic Koreans who have not acquired Japanese citizenship. While some immigrated in recent decades, many are descendants of a diaspora created during Japan’s colonial rule over Korea in the first half of the twentieth century. For generations, they have faced discrimination and hostility. In the aftermath of the Great Kantō Earthquake of 1923, false rumours that Koreans had poisoned wells and water supplies sparked a wave of vigilante violence and pogroms in Tokyo and surrounding areas.”

If I asked it to write like Orwell or Thucydides it could produce something like what I wrote. And something better still if I asked it to write like John Hersey:

“In Japan there are about 500,000 Koreans who do not hold Japanese citizenship. Many of their families have lived there for generations, having come to Japan during the years when Korea was under Japanese rule. They have often lived as outsiders in the country where they were born.

“On September 1, 1923, when the Great Kantō Earthquake struck Tokyo, rumours began to spread that Koreans had poisoned wells. The rumours were false. But they moved quickly through the frightened city. Groups of people went looking for Koreans, and many were beaten or killed.”

But it said The Economist would reject those rewrites. They do not fit the tone or register of the magazine. They do not even follow the same philosophy of writing. I like the moral outrage of Orwell and James Baldwin, for example, but The Economist is not about moral outrage. It is about facts efficiently imparted to an international audience. That means summarizing charts not pictures of grieving mothers. It means mile-high abstractions, not the muck and the mire. Thucydides wrote for Athens, The Economist writes for the world. Thucydides wrote about one war, The Economist writes about many wars and so needs abstractions to talk about them the way diplomats and policymakers do.

That said, it did agree that the first sentence was too long for its own good. And that some of its abstractions were iffy: “hostility” is too vague, “diasporas” do not “arrive”, people do, etc.

It also made its paragraph more historically accurate: the “claims” about “water supply” were in fact “rumours” about “wells” – though its “facts” are not always right!

– Abagond, 2026

See also:

• ChatGPT
• The Economist
  • Rewriting The Economist – my rewrite and the reasons for it
• Orwell
  • George Orwell: Politics and the English Language
• Reading Thucydides

526

Remarks:

This came out in the summer of 1963. It was the number one song on the US R&B chart for four weeks. It is still a great song. It was written by Holland-Dozier-Holland, the same who wrote nearly every number-one hit sung by the Supremes. Linda Ronstadt covered this song in 1975.

Martha Reeves herself turned 85 just yesterday.

See also:

• songs: the 1960s
• Martha and the Vandellas: Dancing in the Street – still gives me goosebumps
• also Holland-Dozier-Holland:
  • 1964: The Supremes: Baby Love
  • 1965: The Supremes: I Hear a Symphony
  • 1966: The Supremes: My World is Empty Without You
  • 1966: The Supremes: Love Is Like an Itching in My Heart
  • 1980: Bonnie Pointer: I Can’t Help Myself (Sugar Pie, Honey Bunch)
  • 1990: The Good Girls: Love Is Like an Itching In My Heart

Lyrics: 

[Verse 1]
Whenever I’m with him, something inside (Inside)
Starts to burnin’, and I’m filled with desire
Could it be a devil in me
Or is this the way love’s supposed to be?

[Chorus]
It’s like a heat wave
Burnin’ in my heart (It’s like a heat wave)
I can’t keep from cryin’ (It’s like a heat wave)
It’s tearin’ me apart

[Verse 2]
Whenever he calls my name soft, low, sweet and plain (Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah)
Right then, right then, I feel that burnin’ flame (Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah)
Has high blood pressure got a hold on me
Or is this the way love’s supposed to be?

[Chorus]
It’s like a heat wave
Burnin’ in my heart (It’s like a heat wave)
I can’t keep from cryin’ (It’s like a heat wave)
It’s tearin’ me apart

[Bridge]
Ooh-ooh-ooh-ooh
Ooh, heat wave
Ooh-ooh-ooh-ooh
Ooh, heat wave

[Verse 3]
Sometimes I stare in space, tears all over my face
I can’t explain it, don’t understand it
I ain’t never felt like this before
Now, that funny feeling has me amazed
Don’t know what to do, my head’s in a haze

[Chorus]
It’s like a heat wave
Yeah-yeah, yeah-yeah (But it’s all right, girl)
Oh, yeah (Go ahead, girl)
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah (Well, it’s all right, girl)
Oh (Ain’t nothin’ but love, girl)
I feel it burnin’ (Don’t pass up this chance)
Right here in my heart (It sounds like a true romance)
Don’t you know it’s like a heat wave?

[Outro]
Yeah-yeah, yeah-yeah (Burnin’, burnin’)
Oh (Burnin’, burnin’, burnin’)
Yeah, don’t you know it’s like a heat wave?
Burnin’ right here (Burnin’, burnin’, burnin’)
In my heart (Burnin’, burnin’, burnin’)
Yeah- yeah, yeah-yeah (Burnin’, burnin’)
Oh, yeah (Burnin’, burnin’, burnin’)

Source: Genius Lyrics. 

Remarks:

Fifty years ago today, shortly after the Bicentennial, this was the number one song on the US pop chart, from July 10th to 23rd 1976. It was a top-20 hit throughout the Anglosphere. The band won a Grammy the following year for Best New Artist – and then never had another hit. The songwriter, though, Bill Danoff (the one in glasses in the video), did write at least one other hit song: Bob Denver’s “Take Me Home, Country Roads” (1971). Like Cher and Donald Trump, he just turned 80.

The singer who looks Hawaiian (because she is) is Margot Chapman.

See also:

• songs: the 1970s
• Captain & Tennille: Muskrat Love – also 1976.
• Cher
• Donald Trump

Lyrics:

[Verse 1]
Gonna find my baby, gonna hold her tight
Gonna grab some afternoon delight
My motto’s always been “when it’s right, it’s right”
Why wait until the middle of a cold, dark night?

[Bridge]
When everything’s a little clearer in the light of day
And we know the night is always gonna be here anyway

[Pre-Chorus]
Thinking of you’s working up my appetite
Looking forward to a little afternoon delight
Rubbing sticks and stones together, make the sparks ignite
And the thought of rubbing you is getting so exciting

[Chorus]
Skyrockets in flight
Afternoon delight
Afternoon delight
Afternoon delight

[Verse 2]
Started out this morning feeling so polite
I always thought a fish could not be caught who didn’t bite
But you got some bait awaiting and I think I might
Like nibbling a little afternoon delight

[Chorus]
Skyrockets in flight
Afternoon delight
Afternoon delight
Afternoon delight

[Bridge]
Be waiting for me, baby, when I come around
We can make a lot of loving ‘fore the sun gone down

[Pre-Chorus]
Thinking of you’s working up my appetite
Looking forward to a little afternoon delight
Rubbing sticks and stones together, make the sparks ignite
And the thought of rubbing you is getting so exciting

[Chorus]
Skyrockets in flight
Afternoon delight
Afternoon delight
Afternoon delight

Source: Genius Lyrics. 

Some songs I have posted about the US:

1939: Billie Holiday: Strange Fruit

1964: Sam Cooke: A Change Is Gonna Come

1965: Barry McGuire: Eve of Destruction

1968: Dion: Abraham, Martin and John

1969: Jimi Hendrix: The Star-Spangled Banner at Woodstock.

1977: The Eagles: The Last Resort

1977: Schoolhouse Rock!: The Great American Melting Pot

1981: Neil Diamond: America

1984: Bruce Springsteen: Born in the U.S.A.

1985: Kurtis Blow: America

2018: Childish Gambino: This Is America

See also:

• songs
  • songs: the 1960s
  • songs: the 1970s
  • songs: the 1980s
  • songs: the 2010s
• Frederick Douglass: What to the Slave Is the 4th of July?

James Earl Jones reads the most famous part of Frederick Douglass’s speech given on July 5th 1852.

The Declaration of Independence, signed on July 4th 1776, said all men were created equal, but the war only freed White Protestant men of property. US history since then can be read as the slow, uncertain liberation of everyone else. When Douglass spoke most Black people were still slaves. They were freed in 1865, what Juneteenth celebrates. But even today in 2026 Blacks are still second-class citizens and are getting more second-class by the day under the current Supreme Court. We are living through a second nadir of race relations in the US.

See also: 

• Fourth of July
• Juneteenth
• Frederick Douglass
  • What to the Slave Is the 4th of July? – my post on the speech as a whole
• ways to look at the US:
  • The three pillars of American white supremacy
  • The diseased host model of American society
  • The cosmopolitan model of US society
• The Nadir of American race relations

Remarks:

This came out in 1976 reaching #3 on the US R&B chart and the top-40 on pop charts throughout the Anglosphere. It is one of those songs that I assumed I had already posted. I especially love the long version (posted above) where the violins come in at the 4:31 mark.

See also:

• songs: the 1970s

Lyrics:

Heaven must be missing an angel
Missing one angel, child, ’cause you’re here with me right now
(Your love is heavenly, baby)
(Heavenly to me, baby)

Your kiss, filled with tenderness
I want all I can get of your sexiness
Showers, your love comes in showers
And every hour on the hour
You let me feel your loving power

There’s a rainbow over my shoulder (ooh, ooh)
When you came, my cup runneth over (ooh, ooh)
You gave me your heavenly love
And if one night you hear crying from above

It’s ’cause heaven must be missing an angel
Missing one angel, child, ’cause you’re here with me right now
(Your love is heavenly, baby)
(Heavenly to me, baby)

Ooh (heaven, heaven)
Ooh (heaven, heaven)
Ooh (heaven, heaven)
(Heaven, heaven)

Ooh, I’m captured by your spell (ooh, ooh)
You’re different, girl, I can tell (ooh, ooh)
When you’re laying on my pillow, baby
Above your pretty head, there’s a halo, that’s why I know

(Heaven) must be missing an angel
(Heaven) missing one angel, child, ’cause you’re here with me right now, mmm, ha
(Your love is heavenly, baby)
(Heavenly to me, baby)

Ooh, my sweet little angel
(Heaven) my pretty little angel
(Heaven) I love you, love you, love you, love you, love you, baby, say right now
(Heaven)

(Heaven) ooh, heaven
(Heaven, heaven) must be missing an angel
(Heaven, heaven) missing one angel, child, ’cause you’re here with me right now
(Heaven, heaven) oh, my heaven
(Heaven) missing an angel
(Heaven)
(Heaven)
(Heaven)

You must have slipped away along the Milky Way
It’s ’cause (your kiss) your kiss (filled with tenderness)
You came C.O.D. on a moonbeam straight to me
Just like (showers) showers (showers, showers, showers)
(Ooh, ooh, ooh)
(Ooh, ooh, ooh)
(Ooh, ooh, ooh)
(Ooh, ooh, ooh)
Your heavenly power gets stronger by the hour
(Heaven must be missing an angel)
I’m captured by your spell, oh, girl, can’t you tell
(Heaven) heaven (must be missing an angel)

(Heaven, heaven) Ooh, ooh
(Heaven, heaven) Ooh, ooh
(Heaven, heaven) Ooh, ooh
(Heaven, heaven) ooh say so-so good, say so-so good, say so-so good, baby, mmm
(It’s just so good, so good, so good) yeah
(It’s just so good, so good, so good) I love the way you move
I love the way you groove
(It’s just so good, so good, so good) ooh
(It’s just so good, so good, so good) Just like heaven, oh, baby
(It’s just so good, so good, so good) Heaven, yeah

(Heaven, heaven)
(Heaven, heaven) ooh, heaven
(Heaven, heaven) ooh, your love is so good
(Heaven, heaven) oh, baby, got to have your love, yeah
(Heaven, heaven) need it bad, Lord, baby, yeah
(Heaven, heaven) I got to have your love, yeah
(Heaven, heaven) [?] Sit down, sit down, sit right down[?]

Source: Genius Lyrics.

Remarks:

Aged British rocker Roger Waters of Pink Floyd and Palestinian singer Mona Miari reimagine “Comfortably Numb” from Pink Floyd’s album “The Wall” (1979). They flip a song of personal despair into one of hope for Gaza, which plays itself in the video in all of its bombed-out, betented horror. The Arabic parts of the song have English subtitles in the video. As noted in this space before, Waters lost his father to war.

Note that YouTube currently interrupts the song with ads – something it does not do to the original song.

There is a ceasefire in Gaza, meaning that Israel is killing hundreds instead of thousands.

See also:

• songs: the 2020s
• Pink Floyd: Wish You Were Here
• Vera Lynn: We’ll Meet Again – this post also has a song from “The Wall”
• anti-war songs:
  • Barry McGuire: Eve of Destruction
  • Country Joe and the Fish: The Fish Cheer/I Feel Like I’m Fixin’ to Die Rag
  • The Original Caste: One Tin Soldier
• James Baldwin on the War on Gaza
• The genocide in Gaza

Remarks: 

This is my favourite Cher song not counting “I Got You Babe” (1965). It went to #1 on the US pop chart in 1974. She did not have another number-one hit till 24 years later – “Believe” (1998). That must be some kind of record. The video above comes from 1973 when she sang it on “The Sonny & Cher Comedy Hour” (1971-74).

Cher in 1991:

‘Dark Lady’ was a pain in the ass because there was no place to take a breath – there were so many words in that stupid song!”

She turned 80 on May 20th. Today President Trump turns 80.

See also:

• songs: the 1970s
• Cher
• The Ronettes: Be My Baby – Cher was a backing singer

Lyrics:

The fortune queen of New Orleans
Was brushing her cat in her black limousine
On the backseat were scratches from
The marks of men her fortune she had won
Couldn’t see through the tinted glass
She said, “Home James” and he hit the gas
I followed her to some darkened room
She took my money, she said “I’ll be with you soon”

Dark lady laughed and danced and lit the candles one by one
Danced to her gypsy music till her brew was done
Dark lady played back magic till the clock struck on the twelve
She told me more about me than I knew myself

She dealt two cards, a queen and a three
And mumbled some words that were so strange to me
Then she turned up a two-eyed jack
My eyes saw red but the card still stayed black
She said the man you love is secretly true
To someone else who is very close to you
My advice is that you leave this place
Never come back and forget you ever saw my face

Dark lady laughed and danced and lit the candles one by one
Danced to her gypsy music till her brew was done
Dark lady played back magic till the clock struck on the twelve
She told me more about me than I knew myself

So I ran home and crawled in my bed
I couldn’t sleep because of all the things she said
Then I remembered her strange perfume
And how I smelled it was in my own room
So I sneaked back and caught her with my man
Laughing and kissing till they saw the gun in my hand
The next thing I knew they were dead on the floor
Dark lady would never turn a card up anymore

Dark lady laughed and danced and lit the candles one by one
Danced to her gypsy music till her brew was done
Dark lady played back magic till the clock struck on the twelve

Source: Songfacts. 

Remarks:

Wow, they hardly ever make songs like this anymore. It is, by far, my favourite Olivia Dean song – so far. It is not her best known song, but after nine months it has already reached the top-40 on pop charts across the Anglosphere. It is based on a sample from a 1971 song, “We Had True Love” by Hot Chocolate (the US band, not the UK band of the same name famous for “You Sexy Things” (1975)).

See also:

• songs: the 2020s

Lyrics:

[Verse 1]
Turn around
Since when are you smoking now?
It’s been a while
Let me know, mm
Like did you end up moving house?
You’re the only one who knows that name
You’re the only one that does that face
I just wanna know if you’re okay
Only have a couple minutes, it already kinda feels like

[Chorus]
Back on your sofa
Of course I still care
Love’s never wasted when it’s shared, mm
And although it’s over
I’ll always be there
Only have a couple minutes, guess we’re going back to real life

[Verse 2]
I guess we found a silver lining
I’m glad you’re doing so well
If only you could see how I’ve been
If I’m being real, no, it ain’t been the same
We could talk (Mm) if we want now (Mm)
Already know it’s no good for me
It’s alright, think I’m fine with the silence
There’s some good in goodbyes

[Chorus]
Oh, I’m back on your sofa
Of course I still care
Love’s never wasted when it’s shared, mm
And although it’s over
I’ll always be there
Only have a couple minutes and we’re going back to real life

[Post-Chorus]
In your heart, every part of me, we’ll let go
And let it start to be
In your heart, every part of me, we’ll let go
And let it start to be
In your heart, every part of me, we’ll let go
And let it start to be (Ooh)
In your heart, every part of me, we’ll let go
And let it start to be

[Outro]
Oh-oh, hey
Only have a couple minutes, guess we’re going back to real life
Oh-oh, hey
Have a couple minutes and we’re going back to real life

Source: Genius Lyrics. 

Remarks:

This came out in the summer of 1970, reaching the top 3 on pop charts throughout the Anglosphere.

It is one of those sad songs that sound happy. Because Cracklin’ Rosie is not a real woman. She is “a store-bought woman”, “a poor man’s lady” – a bottle of wine. Cracklin’ Rosé was a brand of cheap rosé wine popular in northern Canada among lonely men on Indian reservations where there were not enough women. The wine became their woman.

This was not his first song about wine. “Red, Red Wine” (1983) of UB40 fame was written by him in 1967. Nor was “Cracklin’ Rosie” his first number-one hit in the US: he also wrote “I’m a Believer” (1966), taken to number-one by the Monkees, a made-for-TV rock band.

The Wrecking Crew, the band of LA session musicians that plays on the song, has appeared in this space at least twice before: on “Be My Baby” (1963) by the Ronettes and on “I Got You Babe” (1965) by Sonny and Cher. They were the real band behind the Monkees on “I’m a Believer”.

See also:

• songs: the 1970s
• Neil Diamond:
  • Neil Diamond: America
  • Neil Diamond: If You Know What I Mean
• Americans
  • A Hidden America: Children of the Plains
• When Jimi Hendrix opened for The Monkees

Lyrics:

Aw, Cracklin’ Rosie, get on board
We’re gonna ride
Till there ain’t no more to go
Taking it slow
And Lord, don’t you know
We’ll have me a time with a poor man’s lady

Hitchin’ on a twilight train
Ain’t nothing here that I care to take along
Maybe a song
To sing when I want
No need to say please to no man
For a happy tune

Oh, I love my Rosie child
You got the way to make me happy
You and me we go in style
Cracklin’ Rose
You’re a store-bought woman
But you make me sing like a guitar hummin’
So hang on to me, girl
Our song keeps runnin’ on
Play it now, play it now
Play it now, my baby

Cracklin’ Rosie, make me a smile
Girl, if it lasts for an hour, that’s all right
We got all night to set the world right
Find us a dream that don’t ask no questions
Yeah
Oh, I love my Rosie child
You got the way to make me happy
You and me we go in style
Cracklin’ Rose
You’re a store-bought woman
But you make me sing like a guitar hummin’
So hang on to me, girl
Our song keeps runnin’ on
Play it now, play it now
Play it now, my baby

Cracklin’ Rosie, make me a smile
Girl, if it lasts for an hour, that’s all right
We got all night
To set the world right
Find us a dream that don’t ask no questions
Ba ba ba ba ba ……

Source: Genius Lyrics.