Well the stinky cold I mentioned in my last post has got worse and I am bedridden – Can’t be helped though as it seems the whole town has come down with this horrid virus. We will all emerge from our sickbeds in due course but just goes to show, even in 2017 the “common cold” (doesn’t feel that common from where I am at the moment) is something we are still a long way off from conquering. Oh and of course this was the week that I was due to start my new job but what with going home early on Monday, braving it out on Tuesday and Wednesday but then missing Thursday and Friday altogether, not a great start. We have collectively decided that I will now start the new job next week instead so cross fingers I’ll be back to firing on all cylinders by then. But don’t worry – Last time I checked you can’t catch a cold via an internet browser!
How have I passed my time then over the last couple of days? I have actually finished a novel which I started only recently. Since starting the blog I have noticed a serious decline in the time I spend reading fiction although I have of course spent an awful lot of time reading other people’s blogs and carrying out research for my own, so not low on word count, just not as much from the new Best Sellers lists as used to happen.
I also had another look, as I have been wont to do quite often this year, at the UK Singles Chart from 1967 – Now a full 50 years ago but always something “lesser-known” in there that jumps out at me. This time it was Single Girl by Alabama-born countrypolitan (it’s a thing) artist Sandy Posey. I really don’t think I am remembering this song from back then however but rather from 1975 when it was re-issued. We seemed to be having a bit of a love affair in the mid ’70s with the music of the ’60s when all of a sudden back in the charts were songs by The Shangri-Las, The Chiffons and so it seems Sandy Posey.
I’m not sure what Sandy looked like in 1975 but first time around she looked like the
average ’60s housewife but that was the style of choice back then for women singers who hadn’t really adapted yet to the brave new world that was emerging. Also this song can be seen as being a bit anti-feminist but I don’t really see it that way. It tells the simple, yet timeless tale, of a woman who just looks forward to the day when she will find someone to love and settle down with. Considering how popular online dating sites are nowadays, have things really changed all that much? I know that some of the best times in my life were when I flat-shared with other single girls but what did we spend every weekend doing? – Going out on the town in the hope we would find the man of our dreams which ironically would ultimately put an end to the “fun-times” we were all having flat-sharing. We are it seems, pre-programmed to pair up and create families but again, ironic, as in 2017 the divorce rate is as high as 50 percent so we’re not doing a very good job of it. I have my own theories about that one but perhaps for another today.
Single Girl by Sandy Posey:
As it turns out, indie band The Primitives from Coventry, who are probably best known for their 1988 hit Crash, must also have been a bit smitten by Single Girl as they included it on their 2012 comeback album “Echoes and Rhymes”. I really don’t think they would have included an anti-feminist track on any of their albums so like me they must just be reading into the lyrics that there are indeed two sides to this independence we have fought so hard to achieve.
Being ill today reminds me of the time when I first came to live in the Highlands – I had this great new job, a nice flat and car but no close friends yet. Down to very bad timing (and trust me I’m not ill very often) I picked up a nasty virus in the first few weeks and was all alone in my new flat with no-one to go out and get bread, milk or flu-remedies for me. In the end I sent out an SOS to my new workplace asking if someone could drop a few things off which they kindly did – Like Sandy Posey I was that single girl, all alone in a (medium-sized) town and feeling very sorry for myself!
Until next time, I leave you with The Primitives and their version of Single Girl.
Single Girl Lyrics
(Song by Martha Sharp)
The single girl all alone in a great big town
The single girl gets so tired of love letting her down
The life’s unreal and the people are phoney
And the nights can get so lonely
The single girl needs a sweet loving man to lean on
I’m a single girl wondering if love could be passing her by
I’m a single girl and I know all about men and their lies
Nobody loves me cause nobody knows me
Nobody takes the time to go slowly
The single girl needs a sweet loving man to lean on
I gotta make my own way
There’s rent I gotta pay
I need a night-time love to get me through the day
I’m a single girl all alone in a great big town
I’m a single girl and I get so tired of love letting me down
But there’s a man I’ve yet to know
Waiting somewhere I’ve yet to go
Someday I’ll have a sweet loving man to lean on
What's It All About? 
Get well soon, sounds like your new boss is understanding. Sandy Posey is indeed lesser-known to me. Definitely a song that needs a female vocalist. Nice cover by The Primitives. I wonder if there are equivalent ‘single man’ songs? Can’t think right now what they might be.
The number of books I read is also worryingly down. Once the computer is turned on it’s tough to switch it off again!
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Thanks Chris – Luckily the new job was in the same office working for the same boss so not too disastrous but had really wanted to get started on everything this week – No matter these things happen. Luckily none of them visit this place or they may wonder how I can “blog” but not get in to work but lying in bed with a laptop is a different story to the commute to work followed by a long day at a desk (trying to justify it a bit too much perhaps!).
Had never heard of Sandy Posey myself until yesterday but dipping back into the archives throws up a lot of surprises and didn’t expect that song to have been covered by The Primitives. Hmm… single man songs. Can’t think of any offhand but feel sure there must be some especially from the country music camp. The 3 Jimmy Webb songs recorded by Glen Campbell in the ’60s are all in that vein but perhaps before your time – https://jukeboxtimemachine.com/2016/06/04/glen-campbell-country-music-and-an-american-trilogy/
And yes once the computer is on, difficult to switch it off and pick up a book – Must try harder!
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I haven’t listened to Glen Campbell’s albums, as you say before my time. I know Wichita Lineman, I remember Johnny Cash’s late career cover version packs an emotional punch.
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Yes anything by Johnny in the later years was powerful stuff. The 3 songs I wrote about in that post were by Jimmy Webb whose lyrics could be a bit bizarre (MacArthur Park) but sometimes were just spot on and suited Glen’s voice and background perfectly.
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Oh no, so sorry to read that the cold got worse and you’re all poorly. Get well soon and in the meantime take it easy! It shouldn’t work but I also find a shot of whisky always helps, well, it’s “warming”…. So far the lurgy doesn’t seem to have reached this part of the country but I’ll keep a bottle handy in case 😉
I love the Primitives’ version of Single Girl. Very Blondie-esque, with a nice shimmering guitar. When I saw the title of your post the first track I thought of was another ‘Single Girl’ by Lush, a great song – do you know it? There’s a nice twist to the lyrics…
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PS Oh and a nice Breton top in that pic too!
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I haven’t gone down the whisky or “hot toddy” route yet which is ironic because of where I live but will try that next I think.
Yes I think it made it ok to write about this song because The Primitives covered it – a great version and like you I do warm to a girl in a Breton top. She looked great back in the day and still looks very good. Funnily enough when I was uploading the song I noticed that the one by Lush was right next to it – On Mr WIAA’s computer however as his holds the “master library” so will check out those lyrics when its free.
No walks for me this week at all because of the lurgy – will have to make up for it when I feel better. Good on you for getting out there though – so important when we spend so much time in front of a screen.
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Oh, I could come up with a long list of Single Man songs if I didn’t have a killer headache myself tonight. Hope you’re feeling better soon, Alyson.
As for Jimmy Webb, I’ve long considered him one of the greatest songwriters ever (and not just because he wrote my favourite song of all time, Wichita Lineman). Yes, his lyrics could get a little metaphorical and metaphysical at times, but they could also break your heart, make me feel intensely happy, and make me see the world in a completely different way. I try not to overuse the word genius, so I’ll just quote the Boo Radleys instead who wrote a song called Jimmy Webb Is God.
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Oh I’m sure you could come up with Single Man songs and you probably have at some point but couldn’t myself when put on the spot. What a surprise that WL is your favourite song of all time – didn’t see that one coming! I wrote about the 3 Jimmy Webb songs early last summer when I still used phrases like “guilty pleasures”. Don’t do that anymore and of course it has come to light that he is one of the most respected songwriters around, even in cool music blogging circles, so no need to anyway. Yes Wichita Lineman an achingly beautiful/heart-rendering song which is also one of my all-time favourites.
I hope you are not about to come down with this awful cold (this is our second Lost Weekend now) – Can’t catch it via people’s blogs though so not my fault if you do!
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