Song Of The Day 7/23/2014: Václav Hybš - "Holky Já Mám Všechny Rád (Snowbird)"

Fun With Spotify -- The "Appears On" Game (What This Is): Excuse me for a minute... Judith! Judith Ryan! I'm picking one of your suggestions! Your long, Susan Lucci-esque nightmare is over!

See, Mrs. Ryan -- my high school English teacher -- was getting a bit of a complex about me never taking her suggestions for this blog, but now that can end, John Hughes style. Anyway, Judith had me look up Gordon Lightfoot, a Canadian songwriter about whom there's still a bit of mystery in the U.S. Beyond "Sundown" and "If You Could Read My Mind" and all that stuff whose lyrics we recall in a calligraphy font, he wrote some very good songs. I like "The List" a lot. "The House You Live In." "My Pony Won't Go." I could go on pasting links for hours, primarily because that's what I do for a living at the moment. Point being, Gordon Lightfoot is really good.

And he's listed as a contributor to Té, Kterou Mám Rád, which appears to be a compilation from Czech bandleader Václav Hybš. (Aw, man... thanks for messing up this blog's cherished font continuity. You're just a big bully, Helvetica.) But I don't think Lightfoot is actually on this record. He's in Spotify's artist credit, though, for Hybš' version of "If You Could Read My Mind," or as they call it uptown, "Tím Víc Te Mám Rád." But as for Lightfoot's actual playing on the track, I don't think it's there. You may have some over-zealous coders down Prague way. But I'm going to count it anyway, because even if Lightfoot's presence on Hybš' record is only via metadata, there's no way I'm going to pass up a chance to post Anne Murray's "Snowbird" as sung in Czech. That's kinda my thing.

By the way, I ran the Czech title through Google Translate, which says "Holky Já Mám Všechny Rád" in English is "Girls, I have everything." Another online translator says it's "I've got all the girls like." Parse at your own risk.

Sure, we'll do technicalities here! Why not! Thanks, Gordon!