25 Songs, 25 Days: Sirens

Day 07: A song that reminds you of the past summer

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Sirens | My Friend the Chocolate Cake

With my pancreatitis. With feeling sick. With spending much of my past summer lying in a hospital bed. I didn’t listen to much music. What radio I listened to was of the talk variety; soothing voices to settle my troubled, pained soul. Truth be told, I can’t think of one song I listened to, be it an old classic or a contemporary number.

So, to answer today’s prompt, I’ve decided to share a song that reminds me of all summers.

Ever since arriving in Australia I have hated the months of December, January and February. I’ve hated the suffocating, humid heat, despised the endless, balmy nights and abhorred the vast quantities of sweat that pour from my body during this miserable time. And one song, above all others, captures the feel of an abhorrent Australian summer.

Music for Monday: Here Come the Sirens ’cause Babe, I’m on Fire

The thirty-day song challenge continues with two songs that remind me of things both good and bad.

A song that reminds me of summer

Here Come the Sirens | My Friend the Chocolate Cake

As I am about to enter another blistering Australian summer, my mind has been drifting to a song I discovered during my first summer in this sun-baked land. Here Come the Sirens, more than any other song, reminds me of the grotesque summer months in this otherwise tolerable land.

“I lay back in the room with dark red curtains,
Wake up to the trucks outside my door,
Short of sleep.
And the sky tonight it’s a deadly one,
It hardly lets us breath,”

A song that reminds me of my best friend

Babe I’m on Fire | Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds

Why this song reminds me of my now sadly deceased best friend, Samantha, is a little too personal to share in a non-password protected post. Needless to say, it was one of the greatest fifteen minutes of my life and this is one of my favourite pieces of music of all time! :p

“The man going hiking says it
The misunderstood Viking says it
The man at the rodeo
And the lonely old Eskimo says
Babe, I’m on fire
Babe, I’m on fire”

2 Songs…

Love in the Morning (Archie Roach)

November 2002 was a monumental month in my life. Not only was it the first full month I spent in the land Down Under, it was also the month that saw me attend my first ever music gig. The location for this auspicious moment was the Athenaeum Theatre in Collins Street, Melbourne, where I saw two of the greatest Australian artists of all time.

The first act was split between solo performances from My Friend the Chocolate Cake and indigenous singer/songwriter extraordinaire Archie Roach. Whilst the second act saw both artists come together for stunning duets and revised versions from the back catalogues.

At the time I knew Archie Roach from a track on the Seachange soundtrack and loved him from the word go. However, I had never heard of My Friend the Chocolate Cake before, but over the last ten years they have become one of my favourite groups of all time and they hold the honor of being the group I have seen perform live more than any other (which currently stands at six times!)

Here Come the Sirens (My Friend the Chocolate Cake)