I just love the lyrics to this new Sheryl Crow song Detours.
Actually, I love the whole song, lyrics and all. But I really love the lyrics:
Mother can you hold me together
it's so dark and I'm losing my way
took all of these detours to find love
and when I did it just faded away
What do I do with this sweet love of mine
do I give it away, and hope someday I'll find
someone half as awake as the moon and the stars
mother teach me to love with a paper thin heart
You don't have to be very old to feel old in some of the bars and clubs of Lower Haight in San Francisco, especially late on week nights, when it's populated mostly by people who either don't have to get up the next morning or still don't need much sleep to function in the morning.
Then there's those of us who are a little older, maybe live close by, and maybe have -- along with a lot of responsibility -- forgiving schedules that allow for the occasional raucous night out on a school night to help us stay current with music and dance moves and groovy fashion.
If either of those two categories sound like you I recommend Tuesday nights with DJ Cheb i Sabbah at Nickies on 466 Haight Street. Cheb is a seasoned and well-respected DJ within San Francisco and far beyond. While I've never been good with my music descriptions, particularly the subtle descriptions required to distinguish one DJ's house music from another, I will say that Cheb is never boring. His music is very varied -- drawing heavily on Arab music -- and very danceable and this man has such a presence about him that he seems to infuse the places he plays with unpretentious fun (not always an easy thing to do).
And the crowd at Nickies. Oh my, the crowd. The first thing to say about this crowd is it is a tight knit one. It appears there is a core of 20 or so people who show up to dance to Cheb's spinning every week. They are all quite familiar with each other, and with each other's dance style, which makes for this sort of impromptu, mass, coordinated dance that flows continually into the morning hours. Only the very best, most un-self conscious dancers are able to become a part of this scene upon first visit, but it really doesn't matter since this is people watching of the highest order. One regular has come to be known as Whistle Boy, for the way he arrives with a basic gym school teacher whistle and makes music with it, playing off both Cheb's own timing and the movement all around him.
When I first heard this cover of Que Sera Sera, I knew I had to have it. Knowing only that it was a cover and not who the artist was, I guessed, and downloaded this version, which is totally different but just as good.
The first is by Pink Martini, the second, Wax Tailor.
Only Amy Winehouse could turn the well-known and over-covered Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow and turn it into something that's so altogether new and chilling it will stop you in your tracks.
You can't find this song on iTunes however. You can find it on the soundtrack to the The Edge of Reason, the soundtrack to the second Bridget Jones movie. Though strangely I don't remember it from the film
