Cookin’ soul starts the set off - hot ‘n’ sassy !
Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown) - P M Dawn
It hasn’t begun till the fat man sings, and here he is with an up tempo funky drum machine type groove. Very pleasant on the ears.You Won’t See Me - Bryan Ferry
Unmistakable vocalising from Mr Ferry with what may well be Mr Manzanera’s rinky dink guitaring (though I can’t be bothered to check).Nowhere Man - Paul Westerberg
The slightly nursery rhyme elements of this tune are diminished by a tender ballad approach which, though it makes the song longer, probably increases the quality too.Think For Youself - The Out of Towners
Obscure choice of cover done to perfection by this curiously titled band. The slow jazz feel seems to highlight the slightly menacing lyrics.The Word - Al Garner
Blues is the colour for this hardened denizen of the genre. Another excellent cover. Well, I put it on because it reached number one in the UK, but it’s not much to write home about, and indeed I don’t think I will do so.
What Goes On - The Charles River Valley Boys
I bought the Boys’ album for this track, it being seldom covered, and thank goodness I did because their blue grass takes are always refreshing and very well played. Great stuff. Mr Tim takes the wind out of my worthy project with a biting debunking of this Lennon song. A piss take by any other name, but we should always be prepared to laugh at ourselves.I’m Looking Through You - The Wallflowers
This is just a straight cover of the original but it was a good song so the result is pretty decent. Folksy version for those of you longing for summer evenings sitting with guitars round camp fires getting bitten my midges and sleeping badly in leaking tents.Wait - Connie Evingson
Jazzy swinger from Connie. The lady got style.If I Needed Someone - Michael Carpenter
I knew someone called Michael Carpenter once but he was a trusts lawyer so I don’t think this is the same one. This basically follows the original with a few subtle changes and is yet another perfectly decent rendition of a perfectly decent song. Lennon hated this song but it is rescued by Earl’s bluesy beats. Great end to the album. I wonder whether John would have revised his opinion if he had heard it ?