Valerie and Cecilia and…
Ah, those bad girls, Valerie and Cecilia. They remind me a bit of each other.
First we have Valerie:
Now Cecilia (I looked for a live version, but the few on You Tube were really bad, so I settled for this):
And then there’s Layla. Now Layla, she ain’t so bad (be patient; it takes close to a minute to really start):
Since the last two songs feature girls names that end in “a,” the next one that happened to come to mind was “Lalena” by Donovan.
Donovan. There’s a name I hadn’t really thought about in decades. The quintessential hippie, he seemed dated and mired in the 60s, full of flower power and vibrato, bells and beads.
So imagine my surprise to find an oldish video of him (1983) at You Tube. And imagine my surprise to find on watching it that I thought he acquitted himself—and sadder-but-hardly-wiser Lalena, and that extraordinary quaver in his voice (how ever does he do it?)—very nicely indeed:
Have you met Virginia?
BTW, I keep getting a CPU overload message on your blog. Could be that snowflake…
:o)
And don’t forget lo-lo-lo-lo-Lola:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IMsnqQHOwFg
What about “Gloria”? G — L — O — R — I — A.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F_iJO39-IQg&feature=related
and
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l1CeB8WqRFM&feature=related
Then there’s Caldonia.
“Caldonia…Caldonia,
What makes your big head so hard?”
I recommend Woody Herman’s version.
http://us.dada.net/audio/7480063/Woody-Herman-Caldonia-(What-Makes-Your-Big-Head-So-Hard/?)/
Valerie is a good song. There is a good cover of it done by Marshall Crenshaw.
“Donovan…that extraordinary quaver in his voice (how ever does he do it?)”.
Learnt it from the BeeGees, perhaps? ❓
(Or was it vice-versa?!)
Same category, but much older.
Nina
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pTrVEfea64c
This is the best live version of Layla I’ve ever seen.It might have something to do with the musicians on stage 🙂
From the 1983 ARMS Benefit at the Royal Albert Hall, London:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j-j-pf5LykQ
Okay – Eric Clapton – still got the chops after all these years. Difficult for me to believe “Layla and Other Love Songs” came out when I was a junior in high school. Some great old blues standards on the album but Layla, Bell Bottom Blues, and Thorn Tree in the Garden” (written by keyboardist Bobby Whitlock) were my favorites.
I saw one of Cream’s last concerts – Denver ’68 – sophomore at Aurora Central High. Before that I knew of Clapton from the Yardbirds – “Smokestack Lightning” – “Heart Full of Soul” (this song had a guitar lick that was as memorable as the one in Orbison’s “Pretty Woman”. Then Blind Faith with a couple of great songs off the one album they did.
Back when I lived in Denver Ginger Baker (drummer for Cream and Blind Faith) lived in Parker, CO and during the summer used to do these things once a month “Polo and Jazz” – Polo matches followed by his jazz group. After fighting it for many years I think he finally got deported a few years ago for something – could have been a marijuana conviction on his record – seem to remember something like that. Weird when you think of who gets to stay.
Well enough of the Conrad “Stream of (un)Conciousness” otherwise I won’t be able to find my way back (though not sure that would be such a bad thing)
One More thing about the original version of Layla – the “twin lead lines” on guitar really gave the song it’s hook. This was a technique that was a trademark of The Allman Brothers Band (Listen to Ramblin’ Man or Statesboro Blues). And Duane Allman brought the technique to the song Layla.
The Monkees also knew Valerie (she spelled her name funny then–I guess it was the ’60s), but I think Steve Winwood captured her essence best.