Manolo’s Gift Music III
Manolo says, here are three more recommendations from the Manolo to help those who must find the gifts of the last minute.
Jesus’ Blood Never Failed Me Yet
On the face, the concept it is most simple: the minimalist composer Gavin Bryars found the audio loop of homeless street person singing the repetative jingle and to this he added the music. But this description, in no way does it fully convey the emotional power of this composition. It is, in the opinion of the Manolo, perhaps the single most affecting piece of music composed in the past fifty years.
The Next Hundred Years
The Ted Hawkins, he is the absolutely best soul singer of whom you have never heard. His voice, it is so good, so very good. so soulful, so very soulful.
Simply Masterful!
(If you do not believe the Manolo you must read the Amazon reviews, they are unanimous in their fulsome praise of this majesterial body of work.)









December 19th, 2005 at 7:27 am
Fulsome, you say. I am starting to understand….
December 19th, 2005 at 7:41 am
That Ted Hawkins CD changed my life (the live double CD is also brilliant). It’s very difficult to find good songs about green-eyed girls, but Ted Hawkins’ ‘Green-Eyed Girl’ makes me cry.
David Hasselhoff also makes me cry, but in a different way…
December 19th, 2005 at 10:30 am
OMG, those Amazon reviews of the Hasselhof CD are hilarious!
December 19th, 2005 at 12:50 pm
Fulsome- Magnificent- Lifechanging-
December 19th, 2005 at 6:11 pm
“Hot Shot City” is particularly good.
December 19th, 2005 at 11:24 pm
Totally agree with the Bryars recommendation. I was at college at Leicester Poly when Bryars was developing this - I can’t describe the effect it had on a room full of students on first hearing. Cathartic, revivifying. A “must have”.
December 20th, 2005 at 7:06 pm
Surely you must mean that Gavin Bryars is a minimalist *composer*. The other possibility is difficult to contemplate. :-)
December 20th, 2005 at 7:34 pm
Ayyyyy! Once again, the Manolo he has been undone by the spelling!