This one’s for all the poor saps at Trump’s Omaha rally the other night who got stranded miles from shelter in freezing temperatures when their buses didn’t show up. Apparently, whoever’s writing this Reality Show From Hell is overly fond of ham-handed metaphors.
That’s the version that’s spawned a hundred covers, but it’s not the way Blind Faith played it live. Here’s the proof, from the short-lived band’s first public gig, in London’s Hyde Park in 1969. The band is tighter on this number than they were on most of that concert, perhaps a hint that Steve Winwood had already completed it before he joined forces with Eric Clapton.
As noted, the song has become something of a standard despite never being released as a single, let alone a hit. If anything, it seems to have grown in popularity with performers in recent years — at least 20 covers have been recorded in the past decade. Here’s Chris Thile playing it, with vocals by Rachel Price of Lake Street Dive, on his radio show, “Live From Here,” in 2018.
