Blue Valentines Part II

Love in Vain...

When the train rolled up to the station

And I looked her in the eye

When the train rolled up to the station

And I looked her in the eye

Well I was lonesome, I felt lonesome

And I could not help but cry

All my love's in vain
Robert Johnson for Willie Mae Powell 1937

Not to be confused with Willie Mae ‘Big Momma’ Thornton who in 1953 had a hit with ‘Hound Dog’ written by Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller…

When they took Hound Dog to Big Momma Thornton she started singing it like a ballad and an eighteen year old Jerry Leiber plucked up the courage to say  "that's not how you sing it Momma" and she turned on him and said "Don’t you be telling me how to sing the blues white boy!”

The next day she gets it in one take…perfect… Another take, even better! Jerry Leiber turns to Mike Stoller and says “Wouldn’t it be great if she growled that!” Stoller looks at Leiber and says “Yeah… YOU tell her!”

Three years later Elvis Presley recorded it and the rest is his story…

Everybody in the whole cell block… Stoller, Presley, Leiber 

Since the original was written from a woman’s point of view. The Elvis camp had re-written small passages of the Lyric… of which Jerry Leiber said recently… “You ain’t never caught a rabbit and you ain’t no friend of mine… What’s that mean? It’s inane!”

“My heterosexual credits have long been established, so I can comfortably say that the first thing that hit me when I walked into the recording studio and found myself standing next to Elvis Presley was his physical beauty. Far more than his pictures, his actual presence was riveting.” Jerry Leiber June 2009

Vanilla for Pricilla

Tracks of My Tears

Proper Sorry Frown – Tears - Man Ray 1932

She brings her hands up towards where my hands rested

She wraps her fingers round mine with the softness she’s blessed with

She peels away my fingers, looks at me and then gestures

By pushin’ my hand away to my chest, from hers

Dry Your Eyes – The Streets

Take my tears and that's not really all...

Tainted Love started out as a b-side for Gloria Jones in 1965… The single didn’t take off but in 1973, after being picked up by a British club DJ on a holiday in the USA, it became a big favourite on the Northern Soul scene in the UK …

Gloria was later to become Marc Bolan’s girlfriend, bandmate and designated driver the night their car hit a Sycamore Tree on the Queen's Ride in Barnes... Bolan died instantly, while Gloria suffered a broken arm and broken jaw...

Tainted Love was later covered by Soft Cell and Marylin Manson… Soft Cell’s version went to number one in 17 countries but took 19 weeks to break into the US top 40. Once there, it spent a record breaking 43 weeks in the Hot 100, suggesting that you can’t keep a good song down.

Fear and Loathing

I’m begging of you please don’t take my man…

Jolene – Dolly Parton

The title ‘Jolene’ came via a girl who’d asked Dolly Parton for her autograph…

“She told me her name and I said Jolene, Jolene, Jolene… that’s pretty, it sounds like a song… I’m going to write a song about you…” Dolly Parton

Parton believed a red headed bank teller had been flirting with her husband, as evidenced by his overly frequent trips to said bank… In live performance, Parton often describes how she fought ‘tooth and nail’ to keep her man… thus avoiding a D.I.V.O.R.C.E

It's just an old war

Not even a cold war

Don't say it in Russian

Don't say it in German

Just say it in broken English

As Tears Go By

Why'd you do it, she said, ain't nothing to laugh

You just tore all our kisses right in half!

Why'd ya do it, she said, why'd ya do what you did

Betray my little oyster for such a low bitch.

Why'd Ya Do It? - Marianne Faithful

Why'd Ya Do It? – A raging tirade of a woman responding to her lover's infidelity. Poet, Heathcote Williams had written it as a lyric for Tina Turner, but Marianne Faithfull convinced him that Turner would never record a number so graphic. The engine room of the song’s riff was based on the Jimi Hendrix version of Dylan’s ‘All Along the Watchtower.’

There’s a Chinese cigarette case

and the rest you can keep…

Guy Garvey - Elbow

And the ghost of your memory

Is the thistle in the kiss

And the burglar that can break a roses neck

It's the tattooed broken promise

That I hide beneath my sleeve

And I see you every time I turn my back

Blue Valentines – Tom Waits

River of Salt

Quite possibly one of the most simple and perfect songs ever written...

Day turns to night

Still tears fall

Since we're apart

They won't stop at all