Music Tuesday #069: Pukka Tanita
While I was still figuring out how to grow up in 1988, the 19 year old Tanita was at the height of her musical career. I must have heard "Twist in my sobriety" and "Good tradition" so much on the radio at that time that I feel those songs are ingrained in my memory of the late 80s. I wasn't fluent in English then, so I never really listened to the lyrics at that time. Especially Twist in my Sobriety needs some research. These lyrics are not typical for pop music at all. Rumor has it that she said this about the song: "the song is really about not understanding - when you're 18, you've got a very particular emotional relationship with the world, you feel very isolated, and everybody else is so distant and cold. And I think I was singing about not feeling anything or not being moved by things around. I think this is a strong feeling when you're just after adolescence."
Yep, that was pretty much why I had long hair and my stereo on full blast from the age of 15 until I graduated and started working.
Anyway, career wise it went pretty much downhill for Tanita from that debut album. I bet she didn't see much of the proceedings of the 4 million albums sold.
To my great surprise, I have stumbled on a fairly recent song by her which is very good. Pure blues with her typical husky voice, a great musical track and good lyrics. This deserves more thatn the 70k views she has at the end of 2019. This one needs to go in my Spotify playlist.
Tanita Tikaram - Food on the table
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rZNyd7Y7ZVs
Tanita Tikaram - Twist in my sobriety
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hyJiMZVDHl8
The use of the word pukka might not be appropriate here as it is an old word first written down by the English colonists in India. It was borrowed from an Indian language and meant "solid" or "genuine". As Tanita's father had Indian roots, I thought the use to be appropriate and positive. Obviously modern English slang uses "pukka" for "excellent" or "cool".
Yep, that was pretty much why I had long hair and my stereo on full blast from the age of 15 until I graduated and started working.
Anyway, career wise it went pretty much downhill for Tanita from that debut album. I bet she didn't see much of the proceedings of the 4 million albums sold.
To my great surprise, I have stumbled on a fairly recent song by her which is very good. Pure blues with her typical husky voice, a great musical track and good lyrics. This deserves more thatn the 70k views she has at the end of 2019. This one needs to go in my Spotify playlist.
Tanita Tikaram - Food on the table
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rZNyd7Y7ZVs
Tanita Tikaram - Twist in my sobriety
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hyJiMZVDHl8
The use of the word pukka might not be appropriate here as it is an old word first written down by the English colonists in India. It was borrowed from an Indian language and meant "solid" or "genuine". As Tanita's father had Indian roots, I thought the use to be appropriate and positive. Obviously modern English slang uses "pukka" for "excellent" or "cool".
Comments
Post a Comment