I haven’t done one of my Top 5 music lists for a while. Although, believe me, we do it all the time at home.
It’s a dull, grey day today so I feel like an injection of colour.
So here they are, my Top 5 songs about Colours :
1. Purple Haze by Jimi Hendrix.
This is the Live at the Isle of Wight version.
I want a Hendrix song played at my funeral.
It’ll probably be All Along The Watchtower but for sheer irreverence it should be Foxy Lady.
‘Scuse me while I kiss the sky…
2. She’s A Rainbow by The Rolling Stones. I know Apple got hold of this song and we’ve all heard it a million times, but it fits the bill today. I mean, it’s got ALL the colours of the rainbow.
Have you seen her dressed in blue, see the sky in front of you…..
3. This one isn’t quite as cheery.
It’s Black by Pearl Jam. Eddie is looking rather fetching in this clip. Sweaty, but fetching.
Ooooh, and all I taught her was everything….
4. I can’t go past this song.
Yellow by Coldplay.
Look at the stars, look how they shine for you…..
5. And finally, what would this Top 5 list be without an offering from the King (or should I say Prince) of colour? From His Holy Purpleness himself? No, it’s not Purple Rain. It’s not Little Red Corvette. It’s the only song that has made me want to wear a suit printed with clouds –
Raspberry Beret by Prince.
I think I loooooovvvee her…..
So what are your favourite songs about colours? Have I left any out that you think should be included?
I also thought of Colours by Donovan, Red Rain by Peter Gabriel, Green Green Grass Of Home by Tom Jones. It’s hard to narrow it down to just five. Look forward to hearing your picks.
Selma In The City 
That’s a good selection. This is one of my favourite games, the song game.
“Back in Black” ACDC
“Pink Cadillac” Natalie Cole
“Blue Valentine” Tom Waits
“Black is the Colour” Nina Simone
“Kind of Blue” Miles Davis.
I started thinking blue and the list got endless.
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PAUL:
I love this game too. I can’t believe I missed ‘Pink Cadillac’. I was wracking my brain trying to think of a pink song. All I could come up with was ‘Lily the Pink.’ You’ve got some cool selections in there!!!
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Paint it Black – Rolling Stones
Black Eyed Boy – Texas
Black Cherry – Goldfrapp
Fisherman’s Blues – Waterboys
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Off the top of my head:
Mellow Yellow – Donovan
Love is Blue – Paul Mauriat Orchestra
Lady in Red – Chris de Burgh
The Green Door – Frankie Vaughan (That’s going back a bit!)
Lily the Pink – Scaffold (Trivia: Did you know the lead singer of Scaffold, who uses the name Mike McGear, is Paul McCartney’s brother?)
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Damn! Someone already thought of ‘Lily the Pink’ So, I’ll substitute Leroy Anderson’s ‘Blue Tango’
>>want a Hendrix song played at my funeral.<<
I’d have to go a long way to beat my old primary school teacher … at the crematorium, her coffin went down the conveyor to the tune of Gracie Fields’ ‘Wish me luck as you wave me goodbye!’
We managed to hold the laughter till we got out of the chapel … the funeral behind us must have thought we’d all gone crazy!
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good time for a post like this!
1. Blue by Joni Mitchell
2. Green Tambourine by Lemon Pipers
3. A Whiter Shade of Pale by Procol Harum
4. Crystal Blue Persuasion by Tommy James and the Shondelles
5. Brown-eyed Girl by Van Morrison
also:
5. Yellow Brick Road by Elton John
6. Trampled Rose by Robert Plant and Alison Krauss
7. A Little Green by Joni Mitchell
8. Forever Blue by Chris Isaacs
9. Blue Moon
10. Little Pink Houses by John Mellencamp
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Neat idea, Selma. Sorry about the lack of variety, but these were the first to come to me.
1. Yellow Submarine Beatles
2. 99 Red balloons Nina
3. Fade to Black Metallica
4. Paint it Black Rolling Stones
5.Red Sammy Hagar (The red rocker)
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CRAFTY GREEN:
Excellent choices. I love the Waterboys. Haven’t listened to them for years. Going to put their CDs on first thing tomorrow!!
TRAVELRAT:
I didn’t know the lead singer of Scaffold was Paul McCartney’s brother. And I completely forgot about The Green Door. We used to sing that all the time when we were kids. Your primary school teacher obviously had a great sense of humour. That is hilarious!
LURAGANA:
Love all of yours. I can’t believe I left out Joni Mitchell. What was I thinking???
DAN:
I can’t believe I forgot 99 Red Balloons. I used to know that song off by heart. Cool choices!!
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I’m headed back to play “Yellow” and “Raspberry Beret”–when that song was popular, I actually bought and contnually wore a beret that was called a “cranberry” color, but actually looked quite raspberry.
What about Elvis’ “Blue Suede Shoes”? I love that old song.
If you would like, Selma, you might want to pitch this question to a dear friend of mine, Dan at Dan’s Song Search.(He does a lyrics-look-up service)
I bet he’d have some songs-about-colors-favorites!
Peace, woman, and thank you for your comments at my
http://www.lisananetteallender.blogspot.com
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>>I can’t believe I left out Joni Mitchell. <<
As soon as the name was mentioned, I thought of ‘Big Yellow Taxi’ … the theme tune of our Search and Rescue helicopters (which are, of course, big and yellow)
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I like “yellow” – the only Coldplay song that I like but I like Tanya Chua’s version better (you can hear samples at iTunes), I suppose I’ve never been a fan of Coldplay but I like the lyrics of that particular song
my color song list just out of my head:
Boy Blue by Cyndi Lauper
Blue Sky by Patty Griffin
Pink Moon by Nick Drake
Blues Away by Erasure
Blue by Wham
-I do like songs with the word “blue” – can you tell?
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Okay, here’s a few:
1) Silver, Blue and Gold by Bad Company (on Run with the Pack). It’s got metallics!:
“So give me silver, blue and gold, the colors of the sky, I’m told”
2) Green Manalishi (with the two-pronged crown). Originally written by Peter Green of Fleetwood Mac. Judas Priest covers this song and their live verson, on Unleashed in the East, is a career highlight:
“Green Manalishi with the two-pronged crown, making me see things I don’t wanna see”
3) Blue Moanin’ by Bachman-Turner Overdrive (on Not Fragile). I never could figure out what this song is about. Must be sex.
4) Fade to Black by Metallica (on Ride the Lightning). It’s about dying, like every other song on that album.
5) Colours. This one is on an album called Kossoff, Kirk, Tetsu, Rabbit, which is really a part of the Free canon. It’s about an acid trip.
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When does Eddie not look fetching… what were we talking about oh right.
“I know some day you’ll have a beautiful life… ” God, I tell you that song NEVER gets old.
Some colourful songs:
Lemon – U2 (someone mention this as a U2 song they didn’t like, it’s been stuck in my head since.)
Yellow Ledbeder — Pearl Jam
Famous Blue Raincoat — Leonard Cohen
Red Headed Woman — Springsteen (The Man plays this one for me, it makes me laugh.)
Red Rain — Peter Gabriel
Just off the top of my head.
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oh well I just write one …the good ones have all been mentioned…
BLACK BOOK
Got your letter yesterday
the envelope was white
but it should’ve been blue
nowhere did it say
I still miss you
Guess I was just a
stud in your stable
another plate at your table
a number
in your black book
a picture
on your mantle
for your friends to have a look
you like to ride horses
and I’m here to tell
you make all of your studs
go through heaven and hell.
just a stud in your stable
another plate at the table
a number in your black book.
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The definitive version of “mellow Yellow “is of course done by the Bananas in Pyjamas 🙂
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Oh how funny – I’m working on my new playlist for my blog – choosing “sunny” songs to go with the background theme. And guess what’s at the top of the list?
“Mr. BLUE Sky” by Elo.
Gotta love it!
Oh – and I so love the German version of 99 Red Balloons. 🙂
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Beautiful Day by U2 was Redbeard’s thought. Forgot about that one. 🙂
See the world in green and blue
See China right in front of you
See the canyons broken by cloud
See the tuna fleets clearing the sea out
See the Bedouin fires at night
See the oil fields at first light
And see the bird with a leaf in her mouth
After the flood all the colors came out
It was a beautiful day
Don’t let it get away
Beautiful day
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TRAVELRAT:
There are more songs about colours than I thought. I do love ‘Big Yellow Taxi.’
LISSA:
How could I forget ‘Pink Moon’. I am like the biggest Nick Drake fan that ever lived. What about ‘My Blue Heaven’, ‘Blue Hawaii’, ‘Red Roses For A Blue Lady,’ ‘Blue Monday’, ‘Don’t It Make My Brown Eyes Blue?’
RICHARD:
Kudos to you for the inclusion of a Peter Green track. Do you know how much cred that gives you in the eyes of my husband? And yes, I think Blue Moanin’ must be about sex. 😆
NAT:
Excellent inclusions. I agree, when does Eddie not look fetching? I think it is so cool that The Man sings you that song.
PUNATIK:
That is fantastic. WOW. Now we just need to set it to music.
IAIN:
Hahaha. Love the Bananas. That Rat is very Machiavellian.
TEXASBLU:
Great minds and all that, hon. I love the German version too –
‘Neun an neunzehn luft ballon…’ who am I fooling, I can’t speak German.
‘Beautiful Day’ is a great song. That is one of my son’s fave albums. He must have played it 100 times!!
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Here are mine:
1 – Purple Rain – Prince
2 – True Blue – Madonna
3 – Back to Black – Amy Winehouse
4 – Orange Crush – REM
5 – White Wedding – Billy Idol
Well I don’t think all these songs are about colors but they have colors in their titles and these are some that I thought of. I could have just picked all songs by Coldplay (I like them) but I figured I would be versatile!
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Oh, Hendrix. Nothing more to be said 🙂
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I kinda like the oldies you mentioned, Donovan (Mellow Yellow is another nice color tune. Always makes me smile) and I admit, in my younger days I loved Tom Jones (saw him in person years ago, he was a wonderful performer) and this beautiful song.
Great post as usual Selma, thanks. Hugs, G 🙂
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TBALL:
Love all of yours. Can’t believe I forgot’ White Wedding’, it’s my Aunt Jo’s favourite song.
ANTHONY:
It is so cool that you love Hendrix!!!
GERALDINE:
Tom Jones really was amazing, wasn’t he? Sometimes you just can’t beat the old songs!!
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LISA:
I have always loved ‘Blue Suede Shoes’. Didn’t mean to make you think I’d missed you – the bots lost you for a bit there. Your friend Dan’s site sounds cool. I’ll visit it later!
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great list! thank you for featuring a live version of Black! i must agree Eddie looks quite fetching. 😀 his bandmate isn’t half bad either… I wish more guys still looked like that.
I also like Mellow Yellow by Donovan..
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FLORETA:
I do like a bit of Eddie. Very cool. Very cute. Stone is nice too. *sigh*
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