Desolation Row by Cat Power

Cat Power (Chan Marshall) live on 1st of March, 2024, at the Fitzgerald Theater in St. Paul, Minnesota. Recreating the famous concert of Bob Dylan in Manchester, England, 1966, wrongly named "The 1966 Royal Albert Hall Concert" for bootleg recordings.
Here, from the entire concert below, it is selected Desolation Row:

Wichita Lineman by Flea and Cave

Flea, or Michael Peter Balzary, mostly known as the bassist of Red Hot Chili Peppers, made, with the help of Nick Cave, and presented one month ago, this wonderful version of the old romantic country song "Wichita Lineman", a song written in 1968 by Jimmy Webb for American country music artist Glen Campbell.

And here's virtuoso Flea in a interview with Rick Beato:

Because there are also good souls in America

Renée Nicole Good was a fatal victim of ICE brutality*. Minutes earlier, she had dropped her 6-year-old son off at school.
John Fogerty is helping Renée's son in multiple ways.

Here's John Fogerty on Veterans Day, Nov. 11, 2025 playing his first great hit, Proud Mary, in Tiny Desk Concert - NPR session, and explaining how he wrote it in 1968.


*ICE illegal and abusive actions include:
- Illegal actions or misconduct by officers violating citizens' rights and public trust, such as excessive force, false arrest, and corruption. It includes, but is not limited to, coercion, sexual misconduct, racial profiling, and unlawful searches. These acts often breach constitutional protections.
- Excessive Force/Brutality: Unwarranted violence, including physical beatings, improper takedowns, and use of deadly force.
- False Arrest/Imprisonment: Detaining individuals without probable cause or legal justification.
- Unlawful Search and Seizure: Conducting searches, entering homes, or seizing property without a warrant or legal justification.
- Psychological/Verbal Abuse: Intimidation, harassment, mockery, or excessive stops.

Nouveau Western plus Bonnie and Clyde

MC Solaar (Claude Honoré M'Barali, born in Dakar) is a French rapper who sampled Serge Gainsbourg's "Bonnie and Clyde" in 1994, long before many artists covered the same song in tribute to Serge, who was rediscovered in the first decade of this century, reborning as a cult artist since then.

Later, Dean Wareham with Britta Phillips, made some amazing covers of that song, as follows.



The original, Serge Gainsbourg with Brigitte Bardot in 1968:


And one more by Dean and Britta:

wild child

The Doors, 1969

here she comes now

"Here She Comes Now" a 1967 song from Velvet Underground, here brilliantly performed by Nirvana, recorded in studio in 1990 and live in 1991.

Sara Correia. From the people to the people

Sara Correia is a young Portuguese singer of Fado, the urban traditional genre of song of Lisbon.
Fado are mostly soulful songs and were originally created centuries ago by a mixture of local musicians and Portuguese Guitar players with local communities of immigrants, mixing their soulful songs with Portuguese guitars.  
Sara Correia is precisely a descendent from those communities, growing up and living in one of "people's neighbourhoods", Chelas.
Now, that she is a famous artist, she decided to thank her neighbours and friends, giving them a free concert.
Here's her song of proud of her origins: "I come from my neighborhood, from my window I count the stars (estrelas/stellas). I'm not from anywhere else, I'm from Chelas."


And now, Sara expressing her gratitude to her most important reference, Amália Rodrigues.  

it's all over now baby blue

Them and Van Morrison in 1966, brilliantly covering this Bob Dylan song released only one year before.

I am the walrus

They are the eggmen. Waiting for the sun.
"I am the Walrus" is one of John Lennon's most unique pieces of music for the Beatles. It begins with the musicalization of the sound of a police car's siren. Then, Lennon develops a whole surreal story involving police officers, the Egg Man (various likely influences, such as the English campaign for egg consumption) and, above all, the walrus from the poem “The Walrus and the Carpenter”, written by Lewis Carroll in 1871. In this poem/story, a walrus and a carpenter on the beach begin a walk while talking. And they convince a group of oysters to join them on their walk along the beach... The song is related to the earlier song "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds" and the later song "Glass Onion." And it is part of a set of other fantastic narratives, including those like “Strawberry Fields Forever” from the same “Magical Mystery Tour” album where “I am the Walrus” was published, as well as others included on various albums like “Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band”.

In the end, "Oompah oompah, stick it up your jumper" means something like "oh, come on, let's go" and Lennon said that "Oompah oompah everybody's got one" means "We're all the same", we all have the same condition.

And now, one of the fantastic renditions from the Oasis.

Good bye, June! Welcome July, please be kind.

60 years of Gloria

Van Morrison wrote "Gloria" in the summer of 1963 while he was turning 18 years old and touring mostly as a sax player in Germany with the Monarchs. A little later he joined the Gamblers which became the band Them. Live performances of "Gloria" usually lasted for 15 minutes or more due to jamming improvisation. Though "Gloria" had been performed since 1963, it was firstly recorded with Van Morrison and the Them in April 1964 and released in December of that year. Here's Them performing live on October 19 1965 at Music hall de France, Paris:

"Gloria" was covered by many bands and musicians, including the Doors which may have made the most famous version of all. However, the most thrilling ones are the Patti Smith's versions.

Just for its beauty, here's also "Gloria" by Van Morrison with John Lee Hooker :)

Song to the Siren, a song of a generation

... or should I say a song of generations?
Here's the most known version of the Song to the Siren:

It was firstly known 40 years ago, after the releasing of the stunning cover by Elizabeth Fraser and Robin Guthrie of the Cocteau Twins for the British music collective This Mortal Coil in September 1983. Here's a previous version performed live by the Cocteau Twins:

The song was made by Tim Buckley (Jeff's father) over a poem from his friend Larry Beckett and firstly broadcasted 55 years ago, on March 25, 1968, in the final episode of The Monkees TV show. It was only released much later, in 1970 in Tim's album Starsailor.

After This Mortal Coil's version, Song to the Siren became a cult song included in many movie soundtracks like the David Lynch's Lost Highway and finally, it was covered by more than 60 artists, including John Frusciante, Sinéad O'Connor, Bryan Ferry, Robert Plant...
And also Larry Beckett, the writer of the poem, recorded a version with The Long Lost Band, presented in 2016.

Merry Christmas, take 1

The Beatles on 1965

Now, there's really a whiter shade of pale

Gary Brooker, who co-founded Procol Harum, and co-wrote and sang “A Whiter Shade of Pale", his band's most famous song (released 55 years ago) has died on February 19. But only yesterday (and what a day!) this sad news became public. Gary was 76 and was struggling against cancer for a long time :(

YES!

"I wanna be your dog" came to the news again two days ago due to the Russian skater Alexandra Trusova amazing performance at this 2022 Winter Olympics.

Below, Iggy singing his 1969 proto-punk song with Kim Gordon and the Sonic Youth in 1987.

beginning to see the light

Lou Reed and the Velvet Underground in 1968

such a small love

1967, fantastic Scott Walker. He will influence so many artists like David Bowie, Neil Hannon (Divine Comedy), Leonard Cohen, Brian Eno, Alison Goldfrapp and more.

Dylan in 1969

I Threw It All Away

KoM 13 women

There are not many songs with the number 13 on the lyrics.
Kings of Maybe is not a blog of famous songs. But I remember this old and amazing and not that famous Bill Haley's song, "Thirteen Women".

Once, the members of this blog were not 13 but 6 women and only one man around, me.
For those who don't know, Bill Haley was a Rock'n'roll pioneer. Check out this amazing performance:

Now, Ann-Margret Olsson, an incredibly talented woman, singing her version of 13:

Look how amazing this gal was:

This is the 2nd and last post about these 13 years of KoM.
See you later, take care :)

strawberry fields

forever

Day of Portugal and Camões ... and Portuguese Language

Portuguese and Galician languages were once the same. Luís de Camões, our 1st great poet (XVI century) and the writer of this poem, had Galician ancestry. This song was written in late 1960s by José Afonso, who had an intense relationship with Galician culture. And me too, I have Galician ancestry. Uxía Senlle is a Galician singer and a great lover of Portuguese culture.

Verdes são os campos da cor de limão Assim são os olhos do meu coração Campo, que te estendes com verdura bela Ovelhas, que nela vosso pasto tendes De ervas vos mantendes que traz o Verão E eu das lembranças do meu coração Isso que comeis não são ervas, não São graças dos olhos do meu coração

Green are the fields like color of lemon So are the eyes of my sweetheart Field, you extend with beautiful greenery Sheep therein your pasture have With herbs they endure brought by the Summer And I from the memories of my sweetheart What you're eating aren't herbs, no. Are graces from the eyes of my sweetheart