The Waterboys - Destinies Entwined and Modern Blues

The Waterboys have released the first track, Destinies Entwined, from the new album Modern Blues (out January 19th). If you thought the band was all folk heaven as exemplified by Fisherman's Blues or big music as suggested by This is the Sea, you should listen to this, it's more of a nod to other influences in the rock world (Mike Scott seems to have listened to his share of Bowie, Prince, Stones and Hendrix).

 Destinies Entwined The Whole of the Moon Savage Earth Heart Why should I Love You (2010 Version) September 1913 The Pan Within (Piano & Vocal Demo) Thgis is the Sea (Amsterdam 1997) Seek the Light (Full length) The Man Who Sold the World Straight With the Medicine Don't Bang the Drum In the Beginning Was Love She Tried To Hole Me (Souped up and Extended) The Crash of Angel Wings (cassette demo) If You See Jimmy Hickey

The Waterboys - Arthur's Day EP & Fisherman's Box Set

"Too many protest singers, not enough protest songs, And now you've come along" - Edwyn Collins

I've been thinking about protest singers and protest songs, and lo and behold The Waterboys come out with a protest song EP entitled Arthur's Day EP. It's nice to see someone railing about an important issue. You can read about more here. The digital-only EP is available on iTunes and contains the two tunes below as well as an instrumental by Steve Wickham and Mike Scott And the Angels Cleared Up After Arthur's Day.

A Song for Arthur's Day



'Twas Arthur's Day in Dublin




October 14 will see the release of the 6-cd Fisherman's Box Set, which you can pre-order at The Waterboys website. As far as I can ascertain, only the tracklisting for the first two discs have been released so far.


CD1 Tracklisting:


1. Stranger To Me
2. Girl Of The North Country
3. I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry
4. Fisherman's Blues (piano version)
5. Fisherman's Blues
6. Meet Me At The Station
7. I'll Be Your Baby Tonight
8. Born To Be Together
9. The Wayward Wind
10. World Party (1st version)
11. World Party / A Golden Age
12. Sleek White Schooner
13. Drunken Head Ghost Of Rimbaud Blues
14. Sweet Thing
15. Sweet Thing (conclusion)
16. Saints And Angels


The Waterboys' official description of cd1: "CD1 was recorded in its entirety on Jan 23 1986, the first day of the Fisherman's Blues sessions, and marks the beginning of the band's new fiddle and electric mandolin driven sound. The songs are a mix of old country and gospel numbers plus new originals. Two of the tracks (5 & 14) were included on the original album. Two more (2 & 6) were on the 2006 remaster of Fisherman's Blues. The other twelve are previously unreleased and provide a fascinating insight into the Waterboys at a crossroads moment when everything changed."


Fisherman's Blues 86


I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry

Sweet Thing


The tracklist of CD2 is:

1. We Will Not Be Lovers
2. One Step Closer
3. My Beautiful Baby
4. She Could Have Had Me Step By Step
5. When The Ship Comes In
6. The Ladder
7. Will You Ever Be My Friend?
8. Too Close To Heaven (rolling piano)
9. Higherbound (prototype)
10. Happy Birthday BP Fallon
11. The Prettiest Girl In Church
12. You Don't Have To Be In The Army To Fight In The War
13. Dee Jay Way
14. Lonesome And A Long Way From Home
15. Thistlethwaite's Declaration
16. Strange Boat (first play)
17. Lost Highway
18. Higherbound Blues
19. Let Us Be Drinking And Kissing The Women
20. Will The Circle Be Unbroken
21. Tenderfootin'
22. Too Close To Heaven
23. Space Out There, Trevor


More from the official Waterboys website on the 2nd Fisherman's Box disc: "CD2 catches The Waterboys at a fascinating juncture. Not yet officially recording the follow-up to This Is The Sea, the band spent thirteen days between March and September 1986 in Dublin's Windmill Lane Studio, trying out songs, sounds and recording engineers while deepening their explorations into country, blues and roots music. Track 1 was on the original album, tracks 6, 21 & 22 were on 2001's Too Close To Heaven, track 14 was on the 2006 remaster of Fisherman's Blues, and track 17 was the 'b' side of the 1989 Fisherman's Blues single. The other 17 tracks are previously unreleased."

We Will Not Be Lovers

For those of you who never listened the first time around, The Waterboys made the amazing Fisherman's Blues after doing an abrupt right turn from the big music of This is the Sea. You can check that out below if necessary.

Olympic Closing Ceremonies Done Properly by Scruffy

The British Olympic Organizers contacted me about a do-over for the closing ceremonies, something about the music not being "Great British-y" enough. I said I would do it only if I could get artists from all over the UK. Of course, the budget has been blown, and they have only given me 20 minutes to come up with new stuff, so here it is. John Lydon/Johnny Rotten is going to pop out of a cake. Not a fake cake, either, but real one, made by the British version of the Cake Boss. But that's only if the remaining members of the Sex Pistols will join him. If not, he will come out of some kind of pudding and just do a Public Image Ltd. tune.



Next Manic Street Preachers will putt-putt in on beat-up old scooters.



Ian Hunter will parachute in. 'Cause he's cool like that.



Echo and the Bunnymen will magically appear to ener the stage rowing a smallish boat.



Buzzcocks are going to be catapulted through a giant heart.



Robyn Hitchcock is going to be spewed out of the mouth of giant frog or giant spider, he hasn't decided yet.



The Darkness will flicker out of the Olympic Flame itself. The Olympic Organizers wanted Queen, but Mercury is dead - we can't just play video or have a bloody hologram, right?



Happy Mondays will find their way one by one out from a giant Kangol hat.



The Kinks' Ray and Dave Davies are going to walk in arm-in-arm on a cloud.



Judas Priest will roll in on skateboards. They may perfomr with the London Symphony Orchestra.



The Waterboys will ride in on garishly-festooned elephants.



Nick Lowe gets to play whatever he wants and enter the stage however he wants. He's frickin' Nick Lowe.



Billy Bragg will be carried by men in expensive suits.



There are a few more artists we are working on, they will have to wait for another post one we finalize them. Who do you think is a must-have?

To the Moon!

The anniversary of humans landing on the moon passed us by this week, so I started thinking about how many songs refer to space or the moon. A random sample of cds close at hand told me...maybe too many. Do you think songwriters dream about what's about there more than others, or are we all fascinated by what we don't know?

Here's one from Crooked Fingers, Under Sad Stars, found on the the band's self-titled album.



Some technical difficulties sent my spacey playlist all wonky, but you can go here to grab the rest. You'll find:

The Waterboys - The Whole of the Moon
Possum Dixon - Crashing Your Planet
Scruffy the Cat - Kissing Galaxy
Eat - Red Moon
Bryan Ferry - Gemini Moon
Scruffy the Cat - Moons of Jupiter
Rupert Hine - The Wildest Wish to Fly
Crooked Fingers - Under Sad Stars
Pixies - Space (I Believe In)
Fountains of Wayne - Lost in Space
The Church - Under the Milky Way
The Church - Texas Moon

Of course, many people don't believe there ever was a moon landing. See the proof below. I wonder what Courtney Love thinks about it?