And I'm getting old

"Heart of Gold" is a song written by Canadian singer-songwriter and the original American Idol, Neil Young, on his bestselling 1972 album Harvest, and is the only number one hit single in his long, astounding musical career.

The song is one of a series of soft, acoustic pieces – including the retrospective "Old Man" – which were written partly as a result of a back injury . Unable to stand for long periods of time, he could not play his electric guitar and so returned to his acoustic guitar, which he could play sitting or lying down, or both.

Notably, it features the back-up vocals of singer-songwriter and guitarist James Taylor and popular vocalist, entertainer and multiple Grammy Award-winner, Linda Ronstadt, former employer of the best-selling American group of all time, The Eagles of Laurel Canyon, North Hollywood, CA 91605.

As it happens, the song was taped during the initial sessions for Harvest in early 1971 at Quadrafonic Studios in Nashville, Tennessee, while Ronstadt and Taylor were in town for an appearance on Johnny Cash's television program. Originally, this song was meant to segue with the song "A Man Needs a Maid", and was therefore played on piano. However, Young, with considerable foresight, soon abandoned this approach during his 1971 tour and began to play it on guitar as it is now known.

The song has been by an interesting variety of recording artistes including the beloved and notorious Country music icon Willie Nelson, legendary Country singer-songwriter Johnny Cash, 1970s bubble-gum pop and disco group Boney M as well as 1980s Swedish pop-rock-music double act Roxette. Look sharp. Cross the ocean with us backstage at Tuck Shop on Wednesday from 9.00 pm. The Quiet (Valentine’s) Set with Jon on Thursday from 8.30 pm.

Happy New Year

No show this Wednesday (6 Feb) at Tuck Shop as The Bandits will be on reunion dinner duty.

We will return next week with The Hold Up on 13 Feb (Wed) and a Quiet Valentine's with Jon on 14 Feb (Thur).

Gong Xi Fa Cai!

She's so...

"Somebody's Baby" is a 1982 song written and performed by introspective American rock music singer, songwriter, guitarist, pianist, and poster boy of the 1970s Southern California confessional singer-songwriter movement, Jackson Browne. It was Browne's last Top Ten song, and his highest-charting as well, reaching #7 on the Billboard Hot 100 charts in 1982. Strangely, “Somebody's Baby" was not released on any of Browne's albums proper, but on the soundtrack to the 1982 American coming-of-age teen-comedy film Fast Times at Ridgemont High – adapted from a book written by Cameron Crowe – and featured the song at several key moments, mostly concerning Jennifer Jason Leigh character's romantic misadventures.

The film follows a school year in the lives of a group of college freshmen who believe themselves wise in the ways of romance and counsel their younger counterparts, and includes early appearances by several actors who would later become stars, including Sean Penn, Eric Stoltz, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Nicolas Cage, Anthony Edwards, Forest Whitaker, and Judge Reinhold.

Notably, Cage, Penn, and Whitaker would each win an Academy Award for Best Actor later on in their careers – Cage in 1996 for Leaving Last Vegas, Penn in 2003 for Mystic River and Whitaker in 2006 for The Last King of Scotland – and Crowe himself would soon become a celebrated Hollywood director and screenwriter, eventually winning the 2000 Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay for his movie Almost Famous, which was based on his experiences touring with rock bands The Allman Brothers Band, Led Zeppelin, and Lynyrd Skynyrd in the 1970s. They kept their fingers crossed a long time.

Join us as we celebrate the 30th birthday of the free-wheelin’ decade, at Tuck Shop on Wednesday from 8.30 pm. The Quiet Set with Jon on Thursday from 8.30 pm.

There's room enough for two

"Up on the Roof" is a song written by lyricist Gerry Goffin and his first wife, singer, songwriter, and pianist, Carole King. First recorded in 1962 by American doo wop/R&B vocal group The Drifters, the song became a big hit, reaching number 5 on the US pop singles chart and number 4 on the US R&B singles chart.

The 1980 Rolling Stone Illustrated History of Rock & Roll described "Up on the Roof" as "in every way a remarkable pop song for 1962," and in particular said of the above lyric, "From the internal rhyme of 'stairs' and 'cares' to the image of ascending from the street to the stars by way on an apartment staircase, it's first-rate, sophisticated writing."

Fittingly, the song was listed in 2004 as one of The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's 500 Songs that Shaped Rock and Roll.

Of the many versions of the song, the best known is, without doubt, the 1979 recording by James Taylor on his album, Flag, which was released as a single before charting modestly into the Top 30 of the US pop singles chart in 1979. Rearranged around Taylor's trademark acoustic guitar playing and vocal accents and interjections, it became a concert staple of his, often with a star-lit urban dreamscape presented behind the stage halfway through the number as his band played unison ascending notes to echo the song's theme.

When this old world starts a getting me down,
and people are just too much for me to face.
I'll climb way up to the top of the stairs
and all my cares just drift right into space.
On the roof, it's peaceful as can be
and there the world below don't bother me.

So when I come home feeling tired and beat,
I'll go up where the air is fresh and sweet.
I'll get far away from the hustling crowd
and all the rat race noise down in the street.
On the roof, that's the only place I know.
Where you just have to wish to make it so, let's go up on the roof.

And at night the stars, they put on a show for free.
And, darling, you can share it all with me.
That right smack dab in the middle of town, I found a paradise that's trouble-proof.
And if this old world starts a getting you down, there's room enough for two up on the roof.

Race you there. Tuck Shop on Wednesday from 8.30 pm.

Now here you go again

"Dreams" is a song written by American singer and songwriter Stevie Nicks, for the influential and commercially successful rock band Fleetwood Mac's 1977 album, Rumours, which is 13^th on the list of best-selling albums of all time. The song was the only US number one hit for the group, and remains one of their best known songs. In the lyrics, a woman warns a man that he can be driven mad by loneliness in the wake of a broken love affair.

In 1997, Irish Celtic folk pop rock sister-brother group The Corrs covered the song on their album Talk on Corners, and in 2005, Nicks contributed new vocals to a remake of the song by the ever-imaginative American DJ and house music producers Deep Dish. The money was too good.

See you backstage at Tuck Shop tomorrow from 8.30 pm. It’ll be a Quiet one.

Yellow moon on the rise

"Helpless" is a song written by Canadian singer-songwriter and the original American Idol, Neil Young, and most famously recorded by Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young on their 1970 album Déjà Vu.

The song was simple, at its core effectively the repetition of one melody over a descending D-A-G chord progression, with Young in the foreground singing the verses and the chorus, Crosby, Stills and Nash providing the "helpless" refrain, and instrumentation coming in the form of acoustic guitar, pedal steel guitar (played by American musician and songwriter best known for being the lead guitarist and vocalist of the psychedelic rock band the Grateful Dead, Jerry Garcia), and piano.

It later became one of the most revered songs from the Déjà Vu album, and has remained a live favourite of Young's for over thirty years. Grammy Award-winning Canadian singer and songwriter K D Lang recorded a version with a lush string section for her 2004 album Hymns of the 49th Parallel. Australian musician, songwriter, author, screenwriter, and occasional actor Nick Cave also recorded a slightly nasal rendition of this song for the 1989 Neil Young tribute Album, "The Bridge". Hmm.

See you backstage this Wednesday at Tuck Shop from 8.30 pm for a Quiet start to the new year.

The Evolution of Man

1954 – Hoochie Koochie Man: Muddy Waters, from the album Chess

1965 – Mr Tambourine Man: Bob Dylan, from the album Bringing It All Back Home

1970 – Southern Man: Neil Young, from the album After the Gold Rush

1971 – I’m a Man: Chicago, from the album Questions 67 and 68

1972 – The Guitar Man: Bread, from the album Guitar Man,

1972 – Old Man: Neil Young, from the album Harvest

1972 – Pusherman: Curtis Mayfield, from the album Superfly

1973 – Ramblin’ Man: The Allman Brothers Band, from the album Brothers and Sisters

1973 – Piano Man: Billy Joel, from the album Piano Man

1990 – Preacher Man: Bananarama, from the album Pop Life

1997 – Man! I Feel Like a Woman!: Shania Twain, from the album Come on Over

It’s so easy to get carried away. We’ll show you how.

See us backstage at Tuck Shop this Friday from

8.30 pm and celebrate XXXmas with our friends from DIVVVE and Soulfood.