More late night classic mood pieces by the icons, joined this time by modern day crooners Jarvis Cocker, Weyes Blood, Meow Meow, Mara Carlyle. Hit the Nighthawks Bar and order yourself a stiff drink.
Apparently, this latest blue moon is the last one until August 22, 2021, making it the final blue moon of the decade. So over the next few days, the phrase ‘once in a blue moon,’ is something you might want to have loaded up for when somebody tells you something appropriately rare is about to happen. Musically speaking, this would be an Adele album say, or a Paulo Nutini record. Or a Justin Bieber album. That kind of thing.
While we await such rarities, it seems appropriate enough to produce our own occasional series of rarities in the form of The Comedown, Volume 2. The Eurovision parties are over - apparently the Dutch won. Now that must be something that happens once in a blue moon. Of course in the Song Sommelier’s alternative musical landscape, Turkey actually won. Did you get hooked on that Gaye Su Aykol track last time? We did, and the album too. Anyhow as the hangover hits, The Comedown provides the opportunity to enjoy the usual mix of songbook classics, joined this time by some much more recent numbers by modern day crooner types that we much admire. All containing vivid stories of regret, melancholy, resolution and ultimately, optimism.
So look, shake off the cobwebs tonight and take yourself down to Nighthawks Bar. It’s in one of those neighbourhood bars you find in Berlin, right there on the corner of a couple of quiet residential streets, yet always nicely humming with a cast of characters. The guy at the bar with a coffee, probably reading a copy of Frank O’Hara’s “Meditations In An Emergency”. The woman and the man in the hat conversing intensely. And a young dude on the decks. You’ll rock up, have an Old Fashioned probably. The Spring got here in one piece and so did we. And be rest assured that whatever happens, whatever life throws at you, the summer is right around the corner and there will be nothing but blue skies from then on.
Playback notes: Just don’t worry about it.
Doris Day died last week aged 97. She recorded more than 650 songs for Columbia Records, and released an album as recently as 2011.