Woke Up This Morning

I have finally woken up to The Sopranos, I missed out on it’s original screening and could never seem to catch the repeats from the beginning.

Now thanks to it’s current run from the outset courtesy of Sky Atlantic I am hooked line and sinker.

The song “Woke Up This Morning” chosen for the titles sequence is by British group Alabama 3 and is taken from their 1997 album Exile on Coldharbour Lane and was a favourite of mine well before it’s use in the television series.

The song was re-mixed for the title sequence so here it is in it’s full original glory.

You woke up this morning
Got yourself a gun,
Your mama always said you’d be
The Chosen One.

She said: You’re one in a million
You’ve got to burn to shine,
But you were born under a bad sign,
With a blue moon in your eyes.

When you woke up this morning
All that love had gone,
Your Papa never told you
About right and wrong.

But you’re, but you’re looking good, baby,
I believe that you’re feeling fine, (shame about it),
Born under a bad sign
With a blue moon in your eyes.

Woke up this morning
Got a blue moon in your eyes
Woke up this morning
Got a blue moon in your eyes
Woke up this morning

You woke up this morning
The world turned upside down,
Lord above, thing’s ain’t been the same
Since the Blues walked in our town.

Baby, but you’re, but you’re one in a million
You’ve got that shotgun shine; shame about it,
Born under a bad sign,
With a blue moon in your eyes.

Woke up this morning
Woke up this morning
Got a blue moon in your eyes
Woke up this morning

When you woke up this morning everything was gone.
By half past ten your head was going ding-dong.
Ringing like a bell from your head down to your toes,
Like a voice telling you there was something you should know.
Last night you were flying but today you’re so low
Ain’t it times like these that you wonder if you’ll ever know
The meaning of things as they appear to the others:
Wives, husbands, mothers, fathers, sisters and brothers.
Don’t you wish you didn’t function,
Don’t you wish you didn’t think
Beyond the next paycheck and the next little drink’
Well you do so make up your mind to go on,’cos
When you woke up this morning everything you had was gone.

Woke up this morning
Woke up this morning
Woke up this morning
You wanna be the Chosen One.

Woke up this morning
Woke up this morning
Woke up this morning
Got yourself a gun.
Got yourself a gun.
Got yourself a gun.

Alabama 3 who  mix rock, dance, blues, country, and gospel styles,were founded in Brixton, London, in 1995, however, in the United States, they are known as A3, allegedly to avoid any possible legal conflict with the country music band Alabama.

Following their exposure via The Sopranos they hit a commercial high with their 2000 album “La Peste”

The album included this “hit” single.

The band remain active both in the studio and on tour with their latest album “Revolver Soul” having been released in 2010.

To buy the music of Alabama 3 click HERE

 

Then and Now

“Telephone Man” – Meri Wilson

To buy the music of Meri Wilson click HERE

Jessica – The Allman Brothers

……………….better known to many as the source fot the “Top Gear” theme tune.

“Jessica” is a rock instrumental written by Dickey Betts, guitarist of The Allman Brothers Band, and Les Dudek, who played with them soon after Duane Allman’s death.

Jessica was first released on the band’s 1973 album Brothers and Sisters, and has subsequently been used in many musical contexts.

In January 2006, a Wall Street Journal article referred to the piece as “a true national heirloom.”

As noted above it is widely known as the theme to the BBC Two motoring programme Top Gear and its popular reformatted revival.

The piece, along with “Ramblin’ Man”, is one of the two tracks from the album which marked the beginning of a new era for the Allman Brothers Band following the deaths of Duane Allman and Berry Oakley.

The song is named for Jessica Betts, the daughter of Dickey Betts and Sandy Bluesky.

CSI New York

For fans of CSI New York

2010 Top 30 New and Old #6

A surprise for me was this great and somewhat appropriate track from the Katie Melua album “The House”

“The One I Love Is Gone” – Katie Melua

I don’t know I don’t know

 Where I’ll go or what I’ll do
It makes no difference what I do without you

Oh I love you my darling
But I’ll have to let you leave
Goodbye it’s the last you’ll hear of me

Well I found the bluebird
High on a mountainside
And the little bird would sing its little song

So I’ll sigh, I’ll cry
I’ll even wanna die
For the one I love is gone.

Well I found the bluebird
High on a mountainside
And the little bird would sing its little song

So I’ll sigh, I’ll cry
I’ll even wanna die
For the one I love is gone.

I’ll sigh, I’ll cry
I’ll even wanna die
For the one I love is gone.

To buy the music of Katie Melua click HERE

To view a similar earlier post view HERE

This Ryan Star track came to my attention via it’s use as the theme tune to the great television series “Lie To Me”

“Brand New Day” – Ryan Star

To buy the music of Ryan Star click HERE

For a post on Lie To Me click HERE

Ace Of Spades

Well you have seen the advert, you have seen how it was made now crack open a can and download the song.

“Ace Of Spades” (Slow Version) – Motorhead

To nuy the music of Motorhead click HERE

To find out more about Kronenbourg 1664 click HERE

Dr Who

“Doctorin’ The Tardis” (12″) – The Timelords/KLF

 

To buy the music of the KLF click HERE

Lie To Me

I don’t watch much television beyond movies and sport but I have to admit to being hooked on the latest US import “crime” series “Lie To Me” (Season 2) which is currently screening at 9pm each Thursday night on Sky1.

It was first broadcast in the US from January 2009.

In the show, Dr. Cal Lightman (Tim Roth) and his colleagues in The Lightman Group accept assignments from third parties (commonly local and federal law enforcement), and assist in investigations, reaching the truth through applied psychology: interpreting microexpressions, through the Facial Action Coding System, and body language.

In May 2009, the show was renewed for a second season consisting of 13 episodes, Season 2 premiered on September 28, 2009.  On November 24, 2009, Fox ordered an extra nine episodes for season 2, bringing the season order to 22 episodes.

On May 12, 2010, Entertainment Weekly reported that Lie to Me received a 13-episode third season pick-up to start November 10, 2010.

Based on the real-life scientific discoveries of Paul Ekman, the series follows Lightman and his team of deception experts as they assist law enforcement and government agencies to expose the truth behind the lies.

The season opens with Cal and Gillian hiring a new associate: former TSA officer Ria Torres. Ria scored extraordinarily high on Cal’s deception detection diagnostic, and is labeled a “natural” at deception detection. Her innate talent in the field clashes with Cal’s academic approach, and he often shows off by rapidly analyzing her every facial expression. She counters by reading Lightman and when he least expects it, peppers conversations with quotes from his books.

It was gradually revealed that Dr. Lightman was driven to study micro-expressions as a result of guilt over his mother’s suicide; she claimed to have been fine in order to obtain a weekend pass from a psychiatric ward, when she was actually experiencing agony.

For a small number of the early episodes Lightman would team up with Torres working on a case, while Foster and Loker would team up on a separate case. Occasionally their work would intertwine or Foster or Lightman would provide assistance on each others cases. As the first season progressed, the cases became more involved and all four of the main characters would work together on one case for each episode. This formulaic technique is often used in the first episodes of a new series to help establish the characters.

In addition to detecting deception in subjects they interview, Lightman and his team also use various interviewing and interrogation tactics to elicit information that is useful to their cases. Rather than by force, they instead use careful lines of questions, provocative statements, theatrics and healthy doses of deception on their own part. In the show’s pilot episode, Lightman is speaking to a man who is refusing to speak at all, and is able to discern vital information by talking to him and gauging his reaction to each statement.

The theme tune to the series sounded like Colplay but on googling it I dicovered it is a song called “Brand New Day” by Ryan Star who it turns out is a winner of a reality television contest “Rock Star : Supernova” which perhaps explains why it sounds like someone else.

Harry Carpenter

Just heard the sad news about the passing of Harry Carpenter on Saturday. I have never been a big fan of boxing but “Harry” was without doubt the voice of the sport in the UK.

Carpenter was the BBC’s voice of boxing for almost half a century after joining the corporation in 1949, when he first began commentating on the sport.

Known for his double act with British boxing great Frank Bruno, Carpenter also presented Sportsnight, Grandstand and Sports Personality of the Year.

He retired in 1994 and died in his sleep at King’s College Hospital in London in the early hours of Saturday.

His lawyer David Wills said: “He had been unwell since last summer when he had a minor heart attack.

“The funeral has not been arranged but will be a family funeral, to be followed by a memorial service in London.”

Carpenter became closely identified with Frank Bruno, whose catchphrase “know what I mean, ‘arry?” featured in their post-fight interviews.

The former world heavyweight champion, 48, was said to be “very upset and shocked” by the death.

“The most exciting time was probably the Tyson fight when even Harry Carpenter, who was quite a cool man, sort of lost his cool,” the spokesman added.

Carpenter was on air for the “Rumble in the Jungle” between Muhammad Ali and George Foreman in Zaire (now the Democratic Republic of Congo) in 1974.

He labelled the end of the contest – underdog Ali won by knockout in the eighth round to reclaim the world heavyweight crown at the age of 32 – as “the most extraordinary few seconds that I have ever seen in a boxing ring”.

Of Ali himself, Carpenter said: “He is not only the most remarkable sports personality I have ever met, he is the most remarkable man I have ever met.”

Carpenter also had the privilege of presenting Ali with the BBC’s Sports Personality of the Century award in 1999.

His immediately recognisable, warm broadcasting style earned him plaudits outside the United Kingdom, too.

In 1989, he received American Sportscasters’ Association and International Sportscaster of the Year awards.

He will be greatly missed.

For a full tribute visit the BBC page HERE

Smells Like TV Bull****

………………that’s more like it.