Tuesday Tunes 292: Black

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Seeking a new theme for this week I was considering what was happening in the world, and from the news the idea of going with black came to me. Brownie points if you can follow my thinking on this! I have posted several times for Black Friday but never for just the colour itself, and there are some great songs for it, so I’m giving it a spin.

Four of these five date back to my teenage years, the fifth is a recent cover of one originally from that era too. They were great days for music, and a fabulous time in which to be growing up and developing my musical tastes. And for the most part these are loud, so crank up the volume!

I couldn’t really start anywhere other than this:

Deep Purple released Black Night in June 1970, at the same time their breakthrough album Deep Purple In Rock came out. It wasn’t included on the album: that had to await the 25th anniversary reissue version. It was their seventh single and gave them their first UK hit: a biggie, getting to #2. It was, however, their sixth of those seven singles to make the US chart, though it only reached #66 over there. It was around the time that I was beginning to buy more of my music in albums than singles, but this one made me get both after they left it off the album. Money grabbers!

And from a few years prior to that:

Paint It Black was released as a single in the US on 7 May 1966 and in the UK on 13 May: it topped the charts in both countries and has sold more than a million copies in each. It was included on the US version of the Aftermath album, released on 1 July 1966 and peaking at #2, but not on the UK version which had been released in April, prior to the single, and got to #1. We got fourteen tracks compared with eleven in the US, but not this one: it didn’t appear on an album here until November 1966, on the UK edition of Big Hits (High Tide And Green Grass), which got to #4 here, including the purchase made by my Mum and Dad for one of my Christmas presents that year. Perfect timing on the Stones’ part, I think: it is a stunningly good album, and again we got the bigger and better selection of songs than our Transatlantic friends. I still think this is one of the greatest rock songs ever to top the UK charts, and sixty years on it sounds as fresh as ever.

This next one is the more recent one, a fabulous cover of a Nick Drake song by my favourite German pagan folk band:

When a band you love covers a song by one of the best – and most underrated – singer-songwriters this country has ever produced, you tend to notice, don’t you? This is Faun’s take on one of the wonderful songs that the late, great Nick Drake bequeathed us after his tragic death in 1974 at the age of just 26. Black Eyed Dog was originally recorded in 1974 by Nick in what became his final session, but wasn’t included on any of the three studio albums released during his lifetime. The song first appeared in March 1987 on a compilation of outtakes, remixes and rarities, Time Of No Reply, and has since been included on a further four collections of his music – ironically, and somewhat sadly, there have been more of those than original records. Nick’s version of the song is ever so slightly slower than Faun’s, but I think they do it really well and the video is absolutely beautiful.

Back into more familiar territory with this next one. The original (and best) version:

Despite how much I consider myself a fan of the band through the decades, this is still the incarnation of Fleetwood Mac that I think of as the best. Black Magic Woman was released as a single in March 1968, back in the early days when the band was officially known as Peter Green’s Fleetwood Mac. It was their third record, and was the first to make the UK charts, peaking at #37. It wasn’t a US hit though: that version of the band only made the US singles chart once, a couple of years later, with Oh Well (#55 in 1969). They had a string of hit singles here, the best performing being the dreamy instrumental Albatross, which was a UK #1. My favourite – and still one of my all time top three songs by anyone – was Man Of The World, which reached #2 here in 1969. If you only know the mega-selling version of the band you could do worse than check out those early singles, as they show a great blues-rock band with a gifted songwriter/lead guitarist. And for those who need to need to be told: Peter Green wrote this song, not Carlos Santana!

And I couldn’t leave today without playing this one, could I:

On 10 December 2007, Led Zeppelin reunited for the Ahmet Ertegun Tribute Concert at the O2Arena in London, with Jason Bonham taking his late father’s place on drums. According to Guinness World Records 2009, the show set a record for the “Highest Demand for Tickets for One Music Concert” as 20 million requests were made online. Critics praised the performance and there was widespread speculation about a full reunion but sadly it never happened. This performance of Black Dog is from that concert, and I think it shows how good the remaining band members still were approaching forty years after their heyday.

The song was first released as the opening track on the album Led Zeppelin IV (aka Four Symbols) in November 1971, which reached #1 in the UK, Australia, Canada and The Netherlands, and #2 in the US. It is their best selling album, with more than 37m copies worldwide, 24m of those in the US, 2m in Canada and 1.8m in the UK. The track was released as a single in many countries, and among those it peaked at #15 in the US. The band (and their manager) exercised strict control over their UK releases, and never allowed  singles to be taken from their albums here. However, in the more recent days of downloads the song reached #119 in 2007, and has been certified Silver here for 200,000 download sales. It was also included in Rolling Stone magazine’s list of the 500 Greatest Songs Of All Time.

The title is a reference to a nameless black Labrador Retriever the band used to see wandering the Headley Grange studio grounds while they were recording the album there. The dog would disappear in the evening and return exhausted in the early morning, before resting all day and repeating his evening sojourns. Robert Plant believed the dog was spending nights with his “old lady,” hence the title for a song about lust!

That seems a good note on which to leave you for this week, and I hope I’ve managed to shake out any cobwebs with this set! I’ll see you again soon, and until then I wish you a good week 👍

62 thoughts on “Tuesday Tunes 292: Black”

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  5. Pingback: Tuesday Tunes 292: Black – Daily News N Blog

  6. That Faun cover of Nick Drake pulls me right back to those hushed, fragile originals, but hearing it with a bit more pulse makes me wonder how he’d have twisted it live. The rest of the lineup hits like a solid pub set from back when riffs could still rattle the windows, though I can’t help wishing for something from the fringes to unsettle the groove a touch more. Cranked it up anyway, as instructed. Cheers for the nudge.

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  8. Black is a perfect choice for what’s going on in the world these days! Love the tunes, Clive. The cover by Faun was new to me, as well as the original artist. Interesting sound! Pagan German, eh? Well, I’ll have to investigate that a bit further, being German, myself. 😎

    And I agree 100% with your assessment that Peter Green’s Fleetwood Mac is the best version of the band. Although, I actually prefer Santana’s recording of “Black Magic Woman”. Probably the nostalgia factor, as there are a lot of memories attached to it.

    Pete mentioned Eric Burdon & War’s renditon of “Paint It Black”. I’m countering with an earlier version by Eric and the New Animals, which I love a lot! 💖

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    • One thing in particular prompted my choice of theme, but it might not be easy to follow my train of thought!

      Faun are wonderful and you should try more of them. The same is true of Nick Drake.

      You won’t shift me on Black Magic Woman – original is best for me.

      Interesting version of Paint It Black, which I haven’t heard before. It feels a bit messy, as though they are trying to throw too much at the song, and I missed Charlie’s drumming!

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  11. I’m pleased to see Fleetwood Mac included, and I really like the song ‘Paint It Black’, though I prefer the cover version by Eric Burdon and War. (Which I feel sure you will have heard) I would have added Amy Winehouse’s ‘Back to Black’ of course, being a huge fan of hers.

    Best wishes, Pete.

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  15. I love Nick Drake’s original of “Black-Eyed Dog,” so personal, and so sad. And you Brits got a jump on us with Purple. They didn’t hit stateside till Machine Head and “Smoke on the Water.” And I’m one who loves both versions of Black Magic Woman…although I’m stumped why we didn’t latch onto the Peter Green and Danny Kirwan versions of Mac, which for me are more musically interesting than the Buckingham-Nicks version.

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    • I love everything Nick Drake did, but this is such a great cover.

      Actually, we were way behind you on Deep Purple: five singles and three albums charted there before they made our charts.

      I guess Peter Green’s Fleetwood Mac weren’t promoted well enough over there, as they had all the hallmarks of a band that could be successful.

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      • Comparing UK to US music success vs non-success is an interesting endeavor! Non-promotion could very well be why Green’s Mac didn’t click in the states. Their blues mates Savoy Brown were sort of the opposite.

        And after researching, Purple’s early chart activity was unusual. “Hush” was #4 and “Kentucky Woman” #22 (both cover songs) in the US, then the band slipped out of sight here till the Machine Head album. But In Rock and Fireball, which preceded M Head, were huge in the UK. I think it’s probably related to label and promotional activity…but I’m no expert!

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  16. Unsurprisingly, I knew four of the five. I recall that you’ve played many FAUN songs over the years (possibly this one). I especially like the opening of that one. While I like them all, there was no standout for me this week. Of course, there are so many “black songs” that this could go on for several weeks. Three that popped into my head immediately were Back in Black (AC/DC), Black Ice (AC/DC), and Black on Black (Heart).

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    • I expected that kind of score. I have played the Faun one before, but that was nearly a year ago so I thought I’d get away with it again!

      I have a list of other possibilities for this theme and may well go with it again. The two AC/DC ones are on it, but I don’t recall the Heart one so I’ll look it up 👍

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  20. Five good black numbers here. ‘Black Knight’ was a belter. I liked ‘Hush’ as well. ‘No contest on the Mac v Santana debate. Santana pales(🙄) into the background for me, though I understand that it often comes down to the version you first hear. Even taking that into account I’ll take my ‘Black’ by Green thanks.

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  23. Deep Purple just looks and sounds like a rock band – nice song to start with.

    I agree that Paint It Black is a classic, and one of my favorite Rolling Stones songs.

    As great as all the other songs are that you have included, I think my faovrite one, perhaps becuase it is new to me and has a bit of a different sound withsome cool instruments and video, is the one played by FAUN.

    I’m a big fan of Fleetwood mac, and this is a great song, but I thinkI prefer the Santana version.

    Black Dog, to me, has one of the all time iconic openings. Great song to close with.

    Loved the post!

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  24. Clive, we need to break out the black lights for these. I love Deep Purple, so it is nice to see one of their lesser known songs played. The other songs are terrific and most are more top of mind. Since I have done my share of head banging, “Black Dog” will do just nicely. Keith

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