Ever the latecomer to musical talent, I first heard Kirsty Maccoll's smoke-edged alto as it sauntered through her number In These Shoes during the credits for Kinky Boots. Which if you haven't seen, do! Rent, download, whatever. Quietly hilarious flick about lemons turning into lemonade, unwanted oxfords turning into four feet of heeled, red sex, and people who've never quite felt at home in th...
I bought the only Kirsty MacColl release I own (so far) because I heard her song played on a radio show devoted to Marshall Crenshaw. He wrote and plays guitar on the song. But I couldn't shake the feeling that it sounded familiar. At some point I realized that he had taken the tune for one of his songs, (We're Gonna) Shake Up Their Minds, from his album Downtown, changed the rhythmic emphasis ...
When one of the most respected of all MOGgers revealed the other day that he owned only one Kirsty MacColl CD, and seemed generally unaware of her oeuvre, I was the teensiest bit scandalized (as Dame Edna might put it). After all, this is a man whose embrace - figurative, of course - of talented women who write songs and sing them superbly is second to no one's. And of all the talented women wh...
Oh my goddess, I FORGOT how much I love this song:I was aware of Kirsty prior to her "Electric Landlady" album because she had done several duets with The Pogues & Billy Bragg. But "Walking Down Madison" was the first time I'd heard her solo. Such a great song but so unrepresentative of the rest of this album. Most of it is really poppy & some of it kitschy. Some nice pop ditties mind you but n...
Kirsty MacColl cover's Billy Bragg's A New EnglandWith Billy Bragg's wonderful song, including a new verse written specially for this release because Kirsty thought the original song was too short. Bragg actually wrote two extra verses but Kirsty combined them into one to score her biggest solo chart hit.After Kirsty's death Billy started to play the song with the extra verse, having always pre...
Ever the latecomer to musical talent, I first heard Kirsty Maccoll's smoke-edged alto as it sauntered through her number In These Shoes during the credits for Kinky Boots. Which if you haven't seen, do! Rent, download, whatever. Quietly hilarious flick about lemons turning into lemonade, unwanted oxfords turning into four feet of heeled, red sex, and people who've never quite felt at home in th...