A nimbus-rich 1990 song much loved by anyone of a certain age who went out during a particular era - the dance and club scene of the late 80s and onwards, but who are the voices and samples within it? The woman's sky-describing, dreamy voice is that of Rickie Lee Jones, in a 1989 interview, sounding blissed out in a way many thought was drug-related, but she later put down to having a cold. Also heavily sampled, the haunting harmonica of L'uomo Dell'armonica by Ennio Morricone from the soundtrack to Once Upon A Time in the West (1968), as well as additional material from Electric Counterpoint - Fast (Movement 3) by Steve Reich featuring Pat Metheny (1989), and drum samples from Jump Into the Fire by Harry Nilsson (1971). The result, a beautiful rippling of sounds and beats, was expertly mixed and engineered by Kris "Thrash" Weston, who joined temporary member ex-Killing Joke member Martin "Youth" Glover along with founding member Alex Paterson to release the record in November 1990. Paterson's previous partner in the band was the KLF's Jimmy Cauty. The song has had many remixes, including the top 10 shorter re-release in 1993, but here's the full-length 1990 original. Let's hope it brings on the spring and summer.
Over the past few years
To the traditional sounds of the English summer
What were the skies like when you were young?
They went on forever and they, when I, we lived in Arizona
And the skies always had little fluffy clouds
And they moved down, they were long and clear
And there were lots of stars at night
And when it would rain it would all turn, it, they were beautiful
The most beautiful skies as a matter of fact
The sunsets were purple and red and yellow and on fire
And the clouds would catch the colors everywhere
That's neat, 'cause I used to look at them all the time when I was little
You don't see that
Layering different sounds on top of each other
Layering different sounds on top of each other
Little fluffy clouds and little fluffy clouds and
Little fluffy clouds and little fluffy clouds and
What were the skies like when you were young?
They went on forever and they, when I, we lived in Arizona
And the skies always had little fluffy clouds
And they moved down, they were long and clear
And there were lots of stars at night
And when it would rain it would all turn, it, they were beautiful
The most beautiful skies as a matter of fact
The sunsets were purple and red and yellow and on fire
And the clouds would catch the colors everywhere
That's neat, 'cause I used to look at them all the time when I was little
You don't see that
Little fluffy clouds and little fluffy clouds and
Little fluffy clouds and little fluffy clouds and
When I, we lived in Arizona
And the skies always had little fluffy clouds
And they moved down, they were long and clear
And there were lots of stars at night
And when it would rain it would all turn, it, they were beautiful
The most beautiful skies as a matter of fact
The sunsets were purple and red and yellow and on fire
And the clouds would catch the colors everywhere
That's neat, 'cause I used to look at them all the time when I was little
You don't see that, you might still see them in the desert
The most beautiful skies as a matter of fact
Purple and red, purple and red and yellow on fire
And red and yellow on fire
The clouds would catch the colours.
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