I'm here today and gone tomorrow

Australian singer Tony Lee Scott's (I always have to stop myself before writing his name, because my instinct is to write "Tony Scott-Lee") pop music career never really took off; his debut single and today's song entered the charts at #50 when it was released in early 2001 (or so I've read online--please let me know if any of this information is wrong). I'm not sure what happened to follow-up single "Tastes So Sweet," but the lack of information out there makes me think it can't have done too well. Apparently he (like yesterday's group Catch) recorded an album, but it was never released, which is a shame; who knows what he himself is like, but given this song, I would've at least been interested to hear more from him. Since then, he's apparently gone on to appearing in musical shows.

Take Me Away--hearing that first verse, you'll think this song is a bad Busted knockoff; as the song goes on, though, it reveals itself to actually be a shot of pure power-pop of the sort that makes me want to go stomping across a stage or throw my hands up in the air and shout to the sky. The first verse does contain two lines that may be the worst lyrics every written, and the lyrics of the second verse need some changes, too, but I just can't get over that chorus; the second minute and a half of the song is much better than the first, too, and the song overall is a grower (well, it was for me, though I suspect it will be instant for most people). If you like pop-rock at all, listen to the whole thing--it really comes together near the end, and the whole song, even the beginning, makes sense (musically, not lyrically--I'm not sure what "you came into my life like a four-leaf clover" is supposed to mean...).

As a general rule, I'm not a fan of singers covering other people's songs and releasing them as singles; however, the rare exception does come along, and "Take Me Away" is one of them. Well, it hasn't been covered yet, but it should be, for two reasons. First, as great as this song is, I think it has some unrealized potential. A cover could change some of those awful lyrics, do a little cleaning up of the music, and give us a chance to hear the song coming from a different voice--Tony's voice verges a little on the punky or snotty side (given what he looks like, it's hard for me to believe it's actually his voice), and maybe that's what the song needs, but before definitely reaching that conclusion I'd like to hear it sung by someone else--say, Jamie Meyer (you remember Jamie, right? Swedish singer that I wrote about back in January who's done some of my all-time favorite fun pop-rock songs?), who sounds young enough to pull off this song but whose voice voice might make the song more powerful, more effective, and more mainstream--that is, give it a chance to win a fan base with a broader age range. The second reason this song should be covered, specifically by Jamie, is to save him from the nice but less energetic, less catchy, and less powerful route he seems to be going down now. Actually, I'm not sure how well the song would go down now, but if he'd released it back in, say, late 2003, it would've deserved to be a minor hit at the very least, preferably a good-sized hit...and he should still cover it now, just so we could hear his version.

I'm not sure where you can buy Tony Lee Scott's single "Take Me Away" except for checking eBay, where it sometimes shows up; this store says it will let you buy a copy, but I've never used it before and so can't vouch for it.

As for music completely unlike this song, there's two links I'd like to point you all in the direction of. AceDiscovery has a link to a very important petition that we should all sign--the stage for this year's Eurovision has a catwalk, but the performers aren't going to be aloud to use it! Clearly, for the sake of strutting, this needs to be remedied; go to AceDiscovery for details and to sign the petition.

Slippy Disco Days has remixes of a new song by the amazing Therese (ex-Drömhus, of Acapulco and "Time" and "Take Me Away" and this year's Melodifestivalen entry with the Attic).

Next up: probably that French song (although really, it's only partially in French and the singer himself was born in Belgium).