Listen and Be Happy (A musical stream of stream of consciousness post)

Ellie McKay (pronounced MaKai)

I heard her on “fresh air” on my drive home today. She was just so…I don’t know…loveable? I want to say cute but she has a steel infrastructure.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WXYgziSxxt8]

The Style Council

Something about the way McKay is underated reminds me of the Style Council. (Don’t be alarmed by Paul Weller’s teeth in this clip. He is English.)

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f5mKMAgD390]

The Housemartins

The Style Council never made it as big as the Housemartins over here, since the Housemartins had one big legitimate hit. This song is not it. This is the one that continues to make sense to me in my 40’s. (BTW – I think that is Paul Weller doing the backgound (call and response) vocals.)

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DEPvsJ3ZiEQ]

Elvis Costello

The Housemartins CD I played over and over alternating it with Elvis Costello’s “My Aim is True.” I bought that album having heard zero songs from it. The cover art was that good. Anyway, this song is not from that album but came a little later around the Falklands war.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6LNB6M7yTBo]

The Dixie Chicks

What is it about Elvis that reminds me of the Dixie Chicks? I think that maybe it is the integrity.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nlDPPu53V80]

Billy Bragg

The first version of this list ended with Elton John, but that just did not fit. I played the shit out of Billy Bragg’s “Worker’s Playtime” for years so he gets the last ticket.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gozdCwvHK6M]