In Capri or Amsterdam
Honolulu or Siam

I hear a bird
a Londonderry bird.

Then you'll know we'll both agree
That no other love for me.

I've heard it all a million time before
Take off your coat, my love, and close the door.

winchester cathedral

When one reads these lyrics in print, they sound like an exceedingly romantic expression of tender love. but what is funny is how petula clark is so the wrong singer for the song. she sings these romantic lines in a vindictive tone that sounds more like she's about to go ballistic and cuss somebody out than like she's expressing sweet love. she might as well be saying, "you listen to me --i love you, dammit!

Over the weekend I've been checking out a few numbers on CDs.The one which has got it's claws into me,for various reasons,is another Petula Clark song.Called I know a place,it hails from those swinging 60s,and it's hard to imagine a more positively electrifying number.Guys,this whole thing sounds fantastic.The distinctive voice of Clark herself,the backing group,the breathtaking music-Almost everything about it is fantastic.In fact I'd go so far as to say that hearing this on my sound system,giving it a few atmospheric tweaks and so on,has been,and will be,one of the best pieces of listening pleasure in my life.I strongly advise you to check I know a place out for yourselves.This is three or four minutes of,as I said,electrifying stuff.One other thing I should mention is that numbers of this very type tend to be linked with other things in my mind,such as the longish picturesque route to where my father's cousin John and his wife Lillian lived many years ago in quite a nice house,and also links formed between such music and Lillian herself.She always had me somewhat in awe of her when I was a kid,because she looked stunning,was very well spoken,and of a happy,lively and get up and go nature.Such thoughts can be hard to put into words,but I'm sure the rest of you guys can make similar connections from your own previous experiences when you chance to hear a certain number or something.So,with all this talk about how amazing I know a place sounds,made even more so for me by those links with other stuff I mentioned,what,you ask,is the problem?Well,you'll notice I've been praising this to the skies because of how it SOUNDS.The problem lies in the actual LYRICS themselves.She commences with the line I picked out shown above.EVERY day when the work is behind you?Like,she's saying get your ass to this place EVERY day?What's with talking about the shop AND the store?Same thing surely.What's with talking about putting the LOCK on the door?That sounds like these particular stores don't fit the locks themselves until closing time.She says that when you get to this place she knows,there will be a man at the door to greet you.GREET you?Like,who are we talking here?Some kind of butler or something?Then you'll,quote,...go downstairs to some tables and chairs.Sounds like this place she knows is extremely spartan in it's layout.Then again,she refers to it as a CELLAR aswell.She says you'll soon be tapping your feet because the beat is the GREATEST there.Like,these people got records noone else in the world knows about?All around,she continues,you'll see boys and girls swinging to the music and so on.BOYS and GIRLS?Makes this place sound like back to school or something.Apparently the place has,quote,...an atmosphere of it's own somehow.Well,from everything we've heard from her about this singular establishment,and it's seemingly paramount importance in life outside of the workplace,it would need to have.

I've mentioned a few times in my little diatribes about the almost unbelievably stupid in the song world,that many of these musical wastes of time,money and talent reached my ears as a youngster.Some,like My friend the sea for instance,I think I listened to a few times as far back as the age of six or seven.Ofcourse at that age you don't know much about the metaphorical,the symbolic or the abstract,and thus you tend to take things literally and as read. Thus I can well recall that being the case when I listened to this number as a young kid.My thoughts on it ran something like this-[She must be stark raving mad.Man,she sure scares me with all that talking to the sea. Like,maybe that lover guy she's on about got real scared of her and that's why he crossed the sea in the first place.Like,she's insane.She's saying stuff like telling the sea to be good to her,because she feels it's her friend.She's telling it to search everywhere it's ever been for that lover guy.Say mommy,have you heard how mad this lady sounds?She's telling the sea to ask the tide to bring the lover guy home to her side.Say mommy,what's all this stuff I keep hearing about all that loving anyway?Sounds kinda silly to me.]Guess at that point my mother might well have responded with something along the lines of-[Yeah,forget all that silly love thing and that silly lady on the record,son.She can't hurt you]-I would have came back with something like-[Sure,mom,I know that kinda,but suppose there's a lady as crazy as that next door or something.Then what?]At that point she'd have mentioned that old standby about kids having imaginations in overdrive or something,and went off to see to dinner.Ofcourse,and here's the truly frightening thing-She knew only too well,just as I did in that uncluttered way of kids at times,that such a thing was entirely possible-That there COULD be someone as crazy as that-YES.MAYBE EVEN RIGHT NEXT DOOR.Looking at such a song as a grown man,you could say that the lady in My friend the sea is simply toying with words,weaving a make-believe world in which the sea is an intelligent being,and befriending it,and pleading with it to return her lover.Like,she's not being LITERAL about all this, but just using symbolic stuff.She's simply saying throughout the entire song-I sure hope and pray he returns to me across the sea soon.However,what if that's wrong?What if this lady really is flaking out?Really is thinking the sea's her buddy.Why not?The fact is you could put EITHER interpretation on it.Especially when she's spouting stuff like the words I immediately pounced on as sounding as though this woman actually IS insane-That thing about telling the sea to tell the fish to check out with each other incase he's been seen around,perhaps even-IN SOME LITTLE BROOK?In a recent posting I said that the Petula Clark song Downtown had left My friend the sea several lengths behind in the madness race.Now I come to look more closely at the full picture,maybe My friend the sea is catching up again.

Been there, done that...

This song made Petula Clark one of the first female British artists to hit #1 in America during the 1960's British Invasion.

In February 1966, "My Love" was Petula Clark's second #1 single on Billboard Magazine's HOT 100 charts. It would also be Petula Clark's last #1 single on that charts, although she'd continue with several top 10 hits throughout the remainder of the decade of the 1960's.