Terry Jacks - Seasons In The Sun

Yet another musical connection from a previous post - this time from Terry Jacks ex-The Poppy Family. Until Westlife massacred it a few years ago, I had always secretly loved 'Seasons In The Sun' ever since I was small and even before I knew about the Jacques Brel connection (see below).

Bonus Clips: 'Seasons In The Sun' has an interesting development story. It started out as 'Le Moribond' by the great Belgian singer-songwriter Jacques Brel, the original French version containing sarcastic lyrics about a dying man's farewell to his friend, his priest, his unfaithful wife and her lover.

... Rod McKuen then provided English lyrics which toned down the sarcasm but still referenced the wife's affair in the final verse. The first English version was recorded by The Kingston Trio...

... after The Poppy Family broke up, Terry & Susan Jacks traveled to California to work on a version of the song with The Beach Boys. That version was never completed and so Terry Jacks re-recorded it for himself and had a worldwide hit.

The Poppy Family - Which Way You Goin' Billy?

Another musical connection from the previous post. Last time, I posted The Poppy Family's cover of 'Different Drum' but here is their biggest hit which got to #1 and #2 in the Canadian and US charts respectively.

Terry & Susan Jacks were married at the time and the band also featured a tabla player (not that you can see him in this clip). After their debut album, The Poppy Family continued as a vehicle for the married couple plus session musicians but never reached similar success outside of their native Canada again. As the marriage foundered, Terry & Susan decided to drop the band name but continued to work with each other for some time after (more on that in the next post). A great compilation CD was released in the mid-90s called 'A Good Thing Lost' - highly recommended.

Bonus Clips: One of The Poppy Family's more psychedelic tracks, 'There's No Blood In Bone'...



... and the later 'Where Evil Grows'.

The Stone Poneys - Different Drum

Musical association time: having posted on Andrew Gold earlier this week brought to mind his association with Linda Ronstadt, who had a hit with this version of the Michael Nesmith-penned 'Different Drum' as part of The Stone Poneys (though it has been covered many times both before and since - more on that later). This is my favourite version, but not the one that first drew me to the song...

Bonus Clips: ... which was the cover by The Lemonheads released in 1990...

... another more recent live version by Susanna Hoffs & Matthew Sweet to plug their cover album from a few years back...

... one more by the Canadian band The Poppy Family featuring Terry Jacks (more on him coming up in a future post)...

... and finally a quick clip by the writer himself from an episode of The Monkees :-) (R.I.P. Mike)

Andrew Gold - Never Let Her Slip Away

I was quite upset to hear Andrew Gold had died last week. Although mostly known for writing the theme song to 2 US sitcoms ('Thank You For Being A Friend' from The Golden Girls and 'The Final Frontier' from Mad About You), he was also an accomplished singer-songwriter having worked with Linda Ronstadt and Art Garfunkel, as well as being half of Wax alongside Graham Gouldman ex-10cc. However, he also released a number of solo albums which spawned a couple of minor hits such as this classic from 1977.

It's amazing what you only find out about people from their obituaries; I never knew that Andrew Gold was the son of Marnie Nixon (who dubbed Natalie Wood in 'West Side Story' and Audrey Hepburn in 'My Fair Lady' amongst others) until I read about it in a tribute piece. R.I.P. Andrew.

Bonus Clips: Here's another great Andrew Gold track, 'Lonely Boy'...

and Wax's 'Building A Bridge to Your Heart'.