Earworms 29 January 2024

Good evening, and welcome to your selection of songs about Angels and Demons.

If you have an Earworm you’d like to share, please send an .mp3, .m4a or a link to adempster73@gmail.com, together with a few words about why you’ve chosen it. Next week’s theme will be wine, women and song, as suggested by LongTallSilly. Or wine, persons and song, if you prefer. Worms should reach me by close of play on Sunday 4 February.

Many thanks to all contributors. Keep calm, and carry on!

Bohren & der Club of Gore – On Demon Wings – glassarfemptee: Abahachi recommended this doom jazz outfit years ago, and I’m still enthralled. Here’s ‘On Demon Wings’.

Rasputina – Transylvanian Concubine – DebbyM: Qualifies thanks to the lyrics ‘Satan has been sighted’, but mainly because it’s on my Buffy the Vampire Slayer CD and wherever Buffy is, there be demons.

Katzenjammer – Demon Kitty Rag – severin and Suzi: severin: An old favourite from their first album. They have a devil song too, of course, but I’ve probably sent it in a few times already. Suzi: The incomparable Katzenjammer with a song about getting your own back.

Eurythmics – There Must Be An Angel – Suzi: Just a reminder of how good this ’80s band really were.

Delgados – I Fought The Angels – Shoegazer: Reformed in ’22 after a 17 year gap, but no new stuff yet. This one is from ’04.

Nanci Griffith – Nobody’s Angel – Fintan28: Can you pass from angel status so easily? In another country and feeling so out of one’s skin that pen in your hand is a stranger. How to figure it?

Sidsel Endresen – Angel – severin: I only got to hear about Sidsel because Olivia Chaney covered one of her songs a few years ago. I’m very glad she did as I now love her music.

Metropole Orkest – Ca va le diable – DebbyM: Entertainingly theatrical cover of Jacques Brel’s ‘Le diable (Ca va)’ by a Dutch jazz orchestra.

Grateful Dead – Victim Or The Crime – Chris7572: The lyric – about personal demons – was written by US TV actor, Gerrit Graham, and the apparent allusion to Garcia as a junkie caused much consternation amongst band members and Deadheads alike (although Jerry himself said “I don’t give a fuck, sing what you want”). Weir took inspiration from Bartok for the music and I find the whole thing rather magnificent. Garcia’s guitar lines are definitely demonic.

David Bromberg – Demon in Disguise – Fintan28: David is letting out his inner self and ya shoulda figured it out by now. Poetry & flowers can’t cover it.

Richard Thompson – Demons In Her Dancing Shoes – Suzi: From the Dream Attic album, RT, his guitar, and a girl who has bedroom eyes as well as those demon-infested shoes!

Bonnie Raitt – Angel from Montgomery – DebbyM and tincanman: DebbyM: One of my favourite songs ever. If Bonnie R. outlives me I’ll get her to sing this at my funeral. Actually, someone else will have to get her… tincanman: Anyone lucky enough to have seen Bonnie, as I finally did this winter, will know she loves it so. Those even luckier will have seen her perform it with the guy who wrote it, her dear friend John Prine.

Willie Nelson – Angel Flying Too Close To The Ground – Fintan28: From the underrated film Honeysuckle Rose, I always thought this a gem. You can patch an angel’s wings knowing she’s bound to fly away. What else could you do?

Otis Gibbs – Sometimes Angels – tincanman: For the compassion of Sometimes angels lose wings, end up strung out and high.

John Martyn – I’d Rather Be The Devil – severin: From his classic Solid Air album which I think was the first of his that I bought. After hearing him play May You Never on either Whistle Test or BBC In Concert.

Prefab Sprout – Michael – toffeeboy: The song is ‘narrated’ by Lucifer and refers to the Archangel Michael.

Placebo – Centrefolds – toffeeboy: He’s been waiting far too long: Come on Balthazar / I refuse to let you die… Be mine.

Bohren & der Club of Gore – Dead End Angels – glassarfemptee: Bohren & der Club of Gore’s 2000 album Sunset Mission had both demons and angels – this is the angel track. You’d never guess they started out in punk bands.

Main playlist, blurbs above:

YouTube playlist, blurbs below – here’s the link, if you want to add any more: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLqxz-zGCy09owXgL2Yq2sL6OwtbBpLcB7&si=cGmrd55f9QY35y-e

Bruce Springsteen – Devils and Dust – MaggieB: Love this song.

The Charlie Daniels Band – The Devil Went Down To Georgia – LongTallSilly: For some obscure reason I love this track. The devil is the top demon so for me it works this week.

Sam Fender – Angel in Lothian – AliM: I wish an angel fell somewhere in Lothian / She could’ve fixed all the problems that I cannot fix / But one day I might have kids myself / And hope that I don’t – them up myself…

Imagine Dragons – Demons – AliM: One of those songs that you’ll probably recognise as soon as you hear it, although you didn’t know that’s what it was.