*Good choice, Clicky, thanks…*

I saw a tweet the other day, Dear Reader…

… and thought it might be fun for Cade and I to play along here at the LoL. Thankfully Cade agreed 😀

We’re starting with Day 1 with this post, and we’ve given ourselves permission to select 3 songs each. You, too, can play along, Dear Reader. Just leave your favourite song with a colour in its title, in comments at the bottom of the post.

Ready?

*Not you, Clicky. You were born ready…*

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Day 1: A song you like with a colour in the title

Cade’s first song pick…

Sorry, but the very first song that popped into my head upon reading the Day 1 requirements, was Colours by Cabaret Voltaire. It does indeed have a “color” in the title, albeit the spelling is in Limeese. But when Roob requested that I produce a song with an actual color in the title, Blue Bell Knoll by Cocteau Twins jumped right the fuck to the front of the line. Track 1 off the album of the same name, it grabbed me from the moment I put the cassette in the tape player and the tune started to play. What a great tune. It builds, and builds, and builds, then…thunder. Most people would likely NOT equate any of Cocteau Twin’s music with thunder, but the ending of Blue Bell Knoll is just that…thunder. Stunningly incredible track, and one that leads into one of the best albums I’ve ever heard.

Blue Bell is a brand of ice cream here in Texas. Pretty sure it’s sold everywhere now, but used to, pretty sure it was a Texas Only brand. It’s good stuff, they are famous for their “gold rim” line of products, and they make some astonishingly evil special flavors, although certain special flavors can be a bit pricey and also hard to find. We also have a famous “knoll” here in Texas, although it is a grassy knoll, so prolly green or brown at certain times of the year. With all that in mind, and from a synchromystical and/or synchronautical standpoint, is that why Blue Bell Knoll sticks out in my head? Cocteau Twins are a Scottish band with an English bass player. I first heard Blue Bell Knoll when I was living in Maryland and working in Virginia. I am not a Dallas native nor am I a Texan. I know fuckall about the Kennedy assassination, and have always got the feeling that nobody else knows anything about it either. I do know that Blue Bell Knoll is a great tune, and also a great album.

<Cocteau Twins – Blue Bell Knoll>

Roob’s first song pick…

I can’t remember the first time I heard this song. It may have been on the radio or on TV…

… either way, Donovan’s ‘Mellow Yellow’ is a classic, and of all the songs with ‘yellow’ in their title, it was the first one to pop into my head.

<Donovan Mellow Yellow {Stereo) Remastered>

Cade’s second song pick…

Speaking of knolls and green brown grasses of home , my head started to flood with song titles after I moved passed Blue Bell Knoll. Black Diamond by Kiss and Green Manalishi by Judas Priest kinda popped into my head at the same time. Probably because I used to work sound for a band that used to cover both of those songs, but I’ve decided to go with Green Manalishi because I admit to never being that much into Kiss’s music. The same cannot be said of Judas Priest’s music. They were one of those bands who made music that garnered the “what the hell is this?!?!?” types of reactions of both good and bad, and I personally loved the hell out of it.

To my knowledge, Judas Priest never actually recorded Green Manalishi. Way back, it was a rare track that you could only get via their “Unleashed In The East” live album. This may be their way of getting around certain lawful entanglements, as I later learned that Green Manalishi is actually a cover of a song by Fleetwood Mac. I dunno, maybe Fleetwood Mac gave Priest permission to play it live, with a stipulation that they could never do a studio recording of it? No idea, and ain’t gonna look it up either. Found a copy of them playing a tune that was for a long time a staple of their live set, and it’s at the very same US Festival from 1983 where Van Halen earned $1.5 million for a single show.

<Judas Priest US Festival 1983 The Green Manalishi>

Roob’s second song pick…

I was going to put ‘Little Red Corvette’ in here but there is another Prince song with a colour in it’s title that means a whole lot more to me, even though it’s not a particular fav. I speak of course of ‘Purple Rain’ which was played on a continuous loop one rainy Tuesday evening back in 1984. Mother and I were playing for our local pub’s ladies darts team at an away match at The Black Horse in Deptford, sarf London. We lost but of all the matches I played for The Crown in my misbegotten youth, it’s the only one I really remember.

Here’s Prince singing Purple Rain, in the rain, for the best Superb Owl half time performance EVER!

<Prince – Purple Rain live at Super Bowl XLI HD>

Cade’s third song pick…

After thinking about songs like ‘Pink Orange Red’ by Cocteau Twins, ‘Slick Black Cadillac’ by Quiet Riot, ‘Pink Cadillac’ by Bruce Springsteen, ‘Little Red Corvette’ by Prince, ‘Nights In White Satin’ by The Moody Blues, ‘Purple People Eater’ by Sheb Wooley, ‘Goldrush’ by Yello, ‘Black Celebration’ by Depeche Mode and ‘White Knuckles’ by Scraping Foetus Off The Wheel, ‘Silver Wings’ by Merle Haggard jumped in there. Prolly because I thought of ‘I’ll Go To My Grave Loving You’ by The Statler Brothers, which made me think of Don Williams, which made me think of ‘Thunder and Lightning’ by Gamma, which made me think of ‘Silver Wings’ by Merle Haggard. Dunno why I was always under the impression that Don Williams sang ‘Silver Wings’ and not Merle Haggard. Lots going on in the 1970’s tho. Music was pretty much my only outlet, and I could not get enough of it.

I think part of the problem is that I was allowed to listen to Don Williams, but was not allowed to listen to Merle Haggard. Merle Haggard was a bit of a naughty boy, or at least, had that reputation. That said, I was allowed to listen to ‘Silver Wings’, loved that track, and is one of those tunes that I listened to over and over again. The watery and ever-present reverb on the vocals always fascinated me. Gives the vocals this deep and soulful longing without being overbearing nor getting muddy nor clouded. I can recall laying on the floor with the headphones on, and marveling at how they achieved this effect. Now, I could go down to the local drainage ditch, walk myself into the huge underground flood drain, yell, and get somewhat of the same echoing type of effect as my voice disappeared down the tunnel only to return from the darkness. But how the hell did they do it? Surely they weren’t setting up a recording studio in a storm drain and recording that way…were they? Anyway, I loved airplanes, wanted to be a pilot, and also longed to travel. None of those things seemed to actually be on my horizon, but this song is chock full of imagery that can take you all kinds of places…should you care to travel. It did me.

<Merle Haggard – Silver Wings>

Roob’s third song pick…

This is my favourite song with a colour in it’s title. I bought it as a 12″ from the old HMV shop near Bond Street in my lunch hour, again in 1984. I recorded it onto tape in order to listen to it in Dad’s car. He managed a chauffeur company in London at the time, so drove Mother, sis and me each day to and from our place of employment, the John Lewis department store in Oxford Street. Eventually he came to like it 😉  and I have never taken cocaine.

<White Lines (Don’t Don’t Do It) Original Long Version – Grandmaster Flash & Melle Mel>

The final word from Cade…

So, Blue, Green and Silver, which I guess makes…what….aquamarine? Turquoise? The hexidecimal appears to be #0095C9, and the RGB is 0, 149, 201.

In a RGB color space, hex #0095c9 is composed of 0% red, 58.4% green and 78.8% blue. Whereas in a CMYK color space, it is composed of 100% cyan, 25.9% magenta, 0% yellow and 21.2% black. It has a hue angle of 195.5 degrees, a saturation of 100% and a lightness of 39.4%. #0095c9 color hex could be obtained by blending #00ffff with #002b93. Closest websafe color is: #0099cc.

 Interesting. Some kind of clarity via the mud in my head.

<How It’s Made Turquoise Jewellery>

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Songs with numbers in their titles is up next, Dear Reader. Come back for that and don’t forget to leave your favourite ‘colour’ song in the comments, below. Have a Song ❤