Greetings and salutations Hivers. Today let's go into another Evening Groove / Three Tune Tuesday post.

As always, thanks to @ablaze for making this series. Lots of people participate in it! Follow the tags to find a ton of good music recommendation.

Today I have another mix of different genres. Trying to keep switching things up to stay interesting.

The Beatles - The Long and Winding Road

I featured a Beatles song last week, so I wasn't planning on doing another one so soon. But then on a whim I titled my Hive Goals post for last week The Long and Winding Road to 25k Hive Power and this damn song has been in my head ever since! There are worse songs to have stuck in one's head.

This is a Paul song, written on his farm. Paul intended it to be in the style of Ray Charles and so he made the chores, in his words, "slightly jazzy". It's a sad song, inspired by the growing tension between the Beatles and a sense of sad nostalgia thinking of their happier days together in the past.

Paul long considered the album version of this song to be completely ruined by Phil Spector's overdubbing. There was a fair amount of criticism from music critics about the overdub as well, especially the harps, so Paul wasn't the only one less than happy with the finished version. It is pretty extreme, but if you've never heard it before you should start there. See what you think.

30 years later Paul would release a version without strings, other added instruments, or choir on Let it Be... Naked. Ringo, among others, went on record as saying the new version was much much better. I think so too, but at the same time I have a fondness for the original. Here's the Naked version. You decide which is best.

Maki Oyama - Cha-la Head-Cha-la [Cover]

I never got into Dragonball. The first Dragonball comic was in 1984 and it quickly was turned into an anime, which started in 1986. That in mind, if I had been in Japan I almost certainly would have been obsessed with it as I was the prime age for it. But as is it didn't finally make it to the states until the late 90s when I was in university. A few of my friends still go into it and I did like kung-fu movies, so I gave it a try, but the incredibly slow pace of the show just pushed me away.

I never sought it out once I moved to Japan, but it is very much in the culture here, so bits and pieces of it seeped into me. I learned the basic story from various students and friends over the years, the character names, their battle forms. One of my the first things my son learned at kindergarten when he was 3 was how to hold his arms in front of him with his hands together and yell kamehameha!, Son Goku's signature move.

The opening song to the Dragonball Z anime in Japan is Cha-la Head-cha-la and it is iconic. Everyone seems to know it and it shows up in random places. Over the years I've built up a fondness for it, kind of a fake nostalgia.

My son was searching for the anime openings on Youtube the other day so he could sing along with them and watch. Based on that history, Youtube has been suggesting anime songs and covers to me the past few days. This one showed up the other day. With the song name that I know so well and that pretty face on the thumbnail, how could I not click on it? This is a great cover. Check it out!

Here is the original anime opening with original song by Hironobu Kageyama for comparison.

Johnny Cash - Ghost Riders in The Sky

I've never been shy about expressing my dislike for country music. There is something about it that not only never appealed to me, but pushed me away. But there are some exceptions, like many of Johnny Cash's songs. I love how he sings this song.

The song writer, Stan Jones, claimed he heard the story for the song from a Native American who may have been Apache. He took that story and set it to a melody based on When Johnny Comes Marching Home, and the result was this great song. It's been covered by many many people over the years. Of all the versions I've heard, I like this one the best.

So what's your favorite?

❦

David LaSpina is an American photographer and translator lost in Japan, trying to capture the beauty of this country one photo at a time and searching for the perfect haiku.