A Musical Journey – Part I – Beginners Luck

Insomnia can be a wonderful thing.  It just depends what you do with it.  I will occasionally get up & watch terrible overnight TV (like the recent live coverage of the News International inquiry).

A few nights ago, I took a musical journey through the wonderous archives of YouTube.  Give or take, here is a rough outline of my journey in a number of parts.  Please feel free to watch none or all of the clips or somewhere in between,  feel free to leave your own classics in the comments.

I started with a faithful friend, possibly my favourite song at the moment.  The elder Finn, Tim, with Persuasion, live on the Steve Vizard Show, guest hosted by Nick Giannopoulos.

My wife & I recently celebrated our 10th wedding anniversary.  Way back when we were travelling down to an engagement party in the Riverina town of Narrandera, we picked up a copy of a Crowded House B-Sides & rarities CD, ‘Afterglow’.  One song stuck with us, ‘I Love You Dawn’, written by the younger Finn, Neil, for his wife.  I was searching for a copy of the song to post on Facebook, and this is what I came up with – the mercurial Pepo’s Band.

Don’t get me wrong, there is actually something I like deep down about Pepo’s Band.  There was also something there to prompt me type into the search bar “Worst cover versions”.  This next was the number one, two & three result.  There is very little that can be redeemed from this, although the drummer certainly stands well above his colleagues (can’t believe I just said that).  This is an unnamed band with what I think is a version of The Final Countdown.’

I just found this, and I can’t resist… Sorry, I need to take a moment to recover.  They do Eric Clapton, some more Floyd & other stuff, find it, please.  They are called HUSH.  Please do.  David Gilmour would be proud.  There is very little to be redeemed here, except, the lead guitarist ripping his lead out and taking his guitar off when he should be launching into a phenominal, earth-shattering solo.  It’s worth getting to the end just for that.

From The Final Countdown, I found a video of a girl playing Bohemian Rhapsody for a competition of some sort.  Playing from sheet music, she played pretty much all of them, with little emotion.  With 8 days worth of content being uploaded daily, I can handle that I can’t find the poor girl’s video (I’ll let you know if I do).  Her Queen cover led me to another, which I have found, a young lady playing guitar solos over the top of CDs.  She wasn’t at all bad, although the whole *smile at the camera* is a bit much. (*nods confidently like I’m really enjoying this*)  Here she is, Kelly, with her take on Bohemian Rhapsody (she also plays piano & drums, see her YouTube page).

A last-minute call up to the journey is I only found (rembered existed) as I was writing, but screamed out for inclusion here.  Once upon a time, the Riverina’s greatest covers band, The Plague of Clowns graced the live music venues of Narrandera and Leeton.  They did a great boy/boy duet of Iggy Pop’s ‘Candy’, some Belinda Carlisle & a better version of Comfortably Numb than is featured above.  The one in the middle, on vocals/guitar, may or may not be my brother.

To end Part 1 of this musical journey, I offer to you, the band that earlier brought you (I think) Comfortably Numb.  This is an interview, with the now internationally famous rock band, Hush.

Coming up in future instalments: Johnny Cash, Paul Kelly, Keith Richards, Jimmy Barnes & Irwin Thomas.