The House Of Love - "Beatles And Stones"

After Mick Jagger's 80th birthday recently we should celebrate a man in pretty good form - at the age of 80. 80 may be the new 70, as they say, or maybe it's the new 60 because that is what Mick is displaying.

Let's add Paul McCartney to the 'aging artist on a roll' list. Yes, Paul has been playing festivals and the audiences have been on board like it's 1966, okay you know that's overstating it - but he has been going down well with all the generations of festival goers.

Instead of a Rolling Stones or Beatles song, of which there are many to choose from, some already on this blog, how about a song from the perspective of a fan. The fan in question is Guy Chadwick of London band 'The House of Love'. With lines like "the Beatles and the Stones - made it great to be alone".... so true.

We read a lot about the music of the 60's and the division between the fans of the Stones and the fans of the Beatles. The loyalty to their chosen band was from a preference to full on tribal. Although, I'm guessing a lot of people liked both bands, to be fair.

The rivalry between the bands themselves was probably started by Paul McCartney describing the Stones as a blues cover band.

It seems like the rivalry had waned between the band members after the artwork of the Beatles Sgt. Pepper album saluted the Stones. The Stones returned the favour on the artwork of Their Satanic Majesties Request album.

I think they had decided the press were taking it too far and they buried the hatchet.

Dead Man's Bones - "Pa Pa Power"

Dead Man's Bones are a band consisting of Zach Shields and Ryan Gosling, yes that Ryan Gosling. However, when I first discovered this song "Pa Pa Power" I had no idea there was a hollywood actor involved. But he deserves a lot of credit as a musician as well. Their self-titled debut album was released in 2009, which features the Silverlake Conservatory Children's Choir throughout. The album was intended to be a soundtrack to a play but the play was shelved due to rising costs - so the album was recorded anyway. "Pa Pa Power" is dark and haunting and the performance from the choir takes it to an even darker place. Find the original on your preferred streaming platform - the video included here is a live version set in an old folks home and features a different choir, the L.A. Inner City Choir. You can fast forward about 5 minutes to the song but the full video is quite touching and uplifting considering the music.