Good evening, and welcome to your selection of songs about circuses, and associated things.
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 songs about cities and towns, and worms should reach me by close of play on Sunday 19 May.
Many thanks to all contributors, keep calm, and carry on with the show!
Os Mutantes – Panis et Circenses – UncleBen: Bread and circuses, Juvenal’s phrase to sum up the main interests of the Roman public. The ancient equivalent of McDonald’s and Eurovision, I guess.
Peggy Lee – Is That All There Is ? – Fintan28: Clowns & elephants, dancing bears and a beautiful lady. Is that all there is to the circus? Nothing for it but to keep on dancing!
Mary Coughlan – Parade of Clowns – severin: Not circus clowns but wot the hell. It sounds like something from a Brecht/Weill musical. I think, from memory, that it refers to an annual parade held in Amsterdam, including the red light district, but I am happy to be contradicted if anyone knows better.
Leroy Carr & Scrapper Blackwell – Carried Water for the Elephant – tincanman: Leroy of Midnight Hour fame and his long-time sidekick sound thin and dated, but danged if I didn’t get caught up in the tale and forgot all that.
Mr. Fox – Elvira Madigan – DebbyM: From one of the first LPs I ever owned as a kid, A Stereo Introduction To The Exciting Sound of Transatlantic.
Bruce Cockburn – Wondering Where The Lions Are – tincanman: Supposedly a metaphor for the Cold War but I wonder if, like me, his parents took him to the circus and he cried all the way home because there were no lio….ok, no. Cold War it is.
Mandy Miller – Nellie The Elephant – severin: Much though I enjoy the Toy Dolls single, this is the version for me.
The Merry-Go-Round – Clown’s No Good – Fintan28: What to do with an unhappy clown. A ride with the Merry-Go-Round could do no harm.
Will Hoge – Oh Mr. Barnum – tincanman: Will grew up listening to his father’s extensive record collection and has toured with a few dozen varied acts. No surprise then that he often sounds like someone else (like Costello and Browne here). But don’t write him off for it.
Leon Russell – Tight Rope – Fintan28: Love’s a Circus and the spotlight is on you even if you’re not ready. But he’s doing his best stuff hoping she’ll gaze his way,
Olivia Chaney – Circus of Desire – severin: Title track of her new(ish) album; the second to be produced by Thomas Bartlett. The circus being metaphorical of course.
Richard and Linda Thompson – The Great Valerio – Suzi: The song portrays the tightrope walker as an allegory of life, love and hero-worship. This version was recorded live at the BBC’s John Peel Sessions.
Main playlist, blurbs above:
YouTube playlist, blurbs below:
Dave Nachmanoff – Say Goodbye to the Elephants – Mari Booker: This is one of my favourite Dave Nachmanoff songs. (The link in the title is the one that Mari sent me, and has the lyrics. It differs from the YouTube version in the playlist – Ed.).
Bruce Springsteen with The Seeger Sessions – The Daring Young Man On The Flying Trapeze – Suzi: Bruce’s version of a musical hall song from 1867 which was inspired by Jules Léotard, who invented the garment of the same name.
Emerson, Lake & Palmer – Karn Evil 9 – LongTallSilly: With a line like “The greatest show in Heaven, Hell or Earth” it has to be a circus surely. Brilliant however you cut it!
Striknien DC – Circus – wyngatecarpenter: First recording released on vinyl by Deko of Paranoid Visions ’90s band. The music scene is the circus in question.
Mau Maus – Same Circus Different Clowns – wyngatecarpenter: Written while Bojo was PM but true to the title it still applies.
Eugene McGuinness – Moscow State Circus – shoegazer: Away from the PC where the mp3s live, so here’s one for the YouTube list
Emeli Sandé – Clown – AliM: Says Emeli: “It’s about how I felt when I was trying to get signed, I was going for all these meetings and people were looking at me like ‘What do we do with you’? It’s about not allowing yourself to be judged by others or to be taken for an idiot.”
The 'Spill 