A song that makes your heart sink?

[Peter H-K]

When you're at an FC gig, is there ever a song the announcement of which just makes your heart sink a bit? With me, the announcement of "Dangerous" never failed to do the job, and also to an extent "Close to You".

This topic occurred to me when I was streaming a Grateful Dead show the other day. For those who know the Dead: they started to play "Sugaree", and I realised that the mental reaction of "Oh no, I'm going to be bored" is an invariant one when I hear the opening chords of that song.

[Chris]

Most of Chris's 'twee' numbers....I think I would like them more as solo numbers.

[Jules Gray]

This topic occurred to me when I was streaming a Grateful Dead show the other day. For those who know the Dead: they started to play "Sugaree", and I realised that the mental reaction of "Oh no, I'm going to be bored" is an invariant one when I hear the opening chords of that song.

I like Sugaree!  It's when the Dead start with Bob Weir singing an old rock 'n' roll chestnut that I feel like snoring.

With Fairport, hmm, I think it has to be The Hiring Fair for me.  I find it both twee and dull, I'm afraid.

Jules

[quodlibet (Ian)]

This topic occurred to me when I was streaming a Grateful Dead show the other day. For those who know the Dead: they started to play "Sugaree", and I realised that the mental reaction of "Oh no, I'm going to be bored" is an invariant one when I hear the opening chords of that song.

I like Sugaree!  It's when the Dead start with Bob Weir singing an old rock 'n' roll chestnut that I feel like snoring.

With Fairport, hmm, I think it has to be The Hiring Fair for me.  I find it both twee and dull, I'm afraid.

Jules

I like "Sugaree" too and the longer the better, but, oh no, not another 30 minute version of "Turn On Your Lovelight".

With Fairport it has to be the late 70s "Bonny Bunch of Roses",  so infrequently played it was not a major problem. Otherwise, I'm happy to sit through just about anything.  

[Jim]

Im with senor jules on this, the hiring fair is a good excuse for a comfort break or a cheroot

[davidmjs]

Adore Sugaree.  Tend to agree with Jules on a) Bobby doing another bloody Chuck Berry cover and b) Hiring Fair, although my list of post-85 'heart sinking' Fairport songs is a pretty hefty list these days I'm afraid....in fact, its a far shorter list for those which makes me smile.  Wish that wasn't the case...  

[GubGub (Al)]

In a live context, of the stuff that still gets played regularly both Rocky Road & The Wood & the Wire induce that sinking feeling. There are a number of others on record including, I'm afraid, The Bonny Black Hare. Most of the others would be post '97 but my absolute bugbear as I have said many times is My Feet Are Set For Dancing which is just irredeemably horrible in every respect.

The good thing about modern methods of listening to music however is that I only have to listen to the tunes I like. Most of the post 97 period gets excluded but much of Festival Bell survives the cull.

[YaBB Master (Colin)]

When you're at an FC gig, is there ever a song the announcement of which just makes your heart sink a bit? With me, the announcement of "Dangerous" never failed to do the job, and also to an extent "Close to You".

I've always found that 'Dangerous' is far more interesting since a TAWer was heard rather too close to the Cropredy stage, loudly offering odds on the lyrics being right.

[Bob Barrows]

... my absolute bugbear as I have said many times is My Feet Are Set For Dancing which is just irredeemably horrible in every respect.

Have they ever done that live? I know you brought it up in the recording context, but I was just wondering.

[GubGub (Al)]

I rather like Dangerous, though I accept that it is not really a "Fairport" song. It would have fit better on one of Simon's solo albums. It used to frustrate me though that he would sometimes choose to play it live on acoustic guitar which rendered it sort of bland and anonymous. Whatever kick it has largely comes from the electric and Ric's swooping fiddle solo.

[Bridgwit (Bridget)]

"Si tu dois partir"
The one that sounds like "He can lap dance and sing"
"Now be Thankful" (sorry, I know this is a favourite of some on this forum)
"Hiring Fair" doesn't have the same resonance these days. I think it's quite a repetative song, and it must be hard to keep it fresh.

And I'm going to commit the ultimate sacrilige now - I'm not overly keen on MOTL... I like the sentiment behind it but not the song, and I'm not a big fan of "everyone on the stage to sing your own version in your own time, like USA for Africa singing We Are The World"-style singalongs


I'll get my coat

[Jules Gray]

"Now be Thankful" (sorry, I know this is a favourite of some on this forum)  

Never mind MOTL, I'm incredulous to the nth degree that anyone would find this anything other than utterly gorgeous, moving, and peerless.

 

Jules

[RobertD]

"Si tu dois partir"
The one that sounds like "He can lap dance and sing"
"Now be Thankful" (sorry, I know this is a favourite of some on this forum)
"Hiring Fair" doesn't have the same resonance these days. I think it's quite a repetative song, and it must be hard to keep it fresh.

And I'm going to commit the ultimate sacrilige now - I'm not overly keen on MOTL... I like the sentiment behind it but not the song, and I'm not a big fan of "everyone on the stage to sing your own version in your own time, like USA for Africa singing We Are The World"-style singalongs


I'll get my coat

Second one is The Happy Man, though the line is somewhat less risque and goes, "He can laugh, dance and sing"  

Hiring Fair still moves me though. I love the sparseness of it. True that the arrangement has not shifted much but for me it still works. Only one that I have outgrown, and by extent tend to skip is Come All Ye. In truth that may have been spoiled by Vikki Clayton's interpretations on The Cropredy Box. I love a lot of the other stuff she did with Fairport, there is just something about that one that kind of spoiled it for me

[davidmjs]

"Si tu dois partir"
The one that sounds like "He can lap dance and sing"
"Now be Thankful" (sorry, I know this is a favourite of some on this forum)
"Hiring Fair" doesn't have the same resonance these days. I think it's quite a repetative song, and it must be hard to keep it fresh.

And I'm going to commit the ultimate sacrilige now - I'm not overly keen on MOTL... I like the sentiment behind it but not the song, and I'm not a big fan of "everyone on the stage to sing your own version in your own time, like USA for Africa singing We Are The World"-style singalongs


I'll get my coat

I'm not often speechless (especially about NBT which I regard as one of the finest songs ever written by anyone ever)....

Still, horses and courses and all that  

[Mr Cat (Lewis)]

"Red and Gold" - I think its the 80s keyboards and the rather sedate pace of the song

I haven't seen FC since the XXXV tour, but R & G was a track I never liked on the various 80s/90s wintours and Cropredys..

[Jules Gray]

I'm not often speechless....

And this wasn't one of those occasions.  

Jules

[Peter H-K]

I like Sugaree!  It's when the Dead start with Bob Weir singing an old rock 'n' roll chestnut that I feel like snoring.

I avoided posting the comment on Sugaree on a Dead discussion board, because I realised that Dead fans would likely see it as sacrilege!  

I know what you mean about the Bobby rock 'n' rollers, but at least they tend to be short!

At the other end of the scale, perhaps the most elated I have ever been at a gig was the one and only time I ever saw the Dead live, hearing that opening to Dark Star rippling through the hall!

Back to Fairport: I think I sort of agree with people about Hiring Fair too. When it comes to Dangerous, my wife got a giggle from people sitting nearby at Kendal Brewery years ago, when Simon announced the song and she said, not quietly, "Oh bloody hell! Billy Joel!".

[Jules Gray]

At the other end of the scale, perhaps the most elated I have ever been at a gig was the one and only time I ever saw the Dead live, hearing that opening to Dark Star rippling through the hall!

I can take Dark Star as long as it's under a dozen minutes in length.  But that whole Drums > Space thing?  See ya!

Jules

[issy]

I adore Sugaree  

and I don't like Si Tu Dois Partir which feels like the FC equivalent of the birdie song..

I am not a fan of the hiring fair anymore..  it was fab to start with but maybe it needs resting for a bit

[davidmjs]

But that whole Drums > Space thing?  See ya!

Yes again.  Although there have been a few times when it all makes sense (although not for a couple of decades)