Tribute songs are a much maligned and marginalised genre
within popular music. In the 1950’s and early 1960’s they were an integral part
of the charts and whenever a great musician or popular film star passed into
heaven (E.G. Hank Williams, Buddy Holly, Elvis, Eddie Cochran), you would soon
hear a hastily recorded single rushed out into record shops to make some quick
cash and buy into the general mourning and grief of the fans.
Name any great dead artist and somewhere someone has written
a song about them. I have a good number of these songs in my collection and
when I decided to add my own ‘tribute’
to the tribute song I became a bit confused because I realised tribute songs
especially the more modern rock version come in many different styles and
interpretations and often the song will offer the title of an artist or person and yet the song really has nothing to do with
that individual at all. So I tried to find a happy medium and went for three
different tracks that only loosely form a tributes triangle and yet may explain
in some strange way why they make great choices and need to be heard again.
I
have never ever been a fan of the music of Wham or George Michael but I have always been aware of their status and
popularity although George’s old partner Andrew Ridgley probably never thought
that he would have a song recorded with his name in the title. Following on and completely out
of left field I give you Vic Godard’s noisy trash tribute to Johnny Thunders the ex New York
Dolls and Heartbreaker who was an rabid drug user and whose death in 1991 has
led to conjecture and rumour ever since and probably added to his already
semi-legendary status within the confines of American Rock & Roll history.
Finally I have left you with another wonderful song written by Tom Russell a
writer who could if he was so inclined turn almost any historical or major
cultural event into a song that would be worth listening to. His track is the
story of Robert Cletus “Bobby” Driscoll, mostly known as a child actor in
Hollywood in the 1940’s who fell from grace and spent periods in jail for using
narcotic’s and died virtually penniless in the East Village, New York City in
1968.
Enjoy
Black Box Recorder - Andrew Ridgely
Vic Godard & The Subway Sect - Johnny Thunders
Tom Russell - Farewell Never Never Land
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