JOCK'N'ROLL (Part Five)

The photo kind of gives it away doesn't it........

Orange Juice feature at Number 1 in both mine and Jacques The Kipper's Top 10s.

But we've gone for different songs.

We've also gone for different eras in espect of our second favourite Scottish singles. I'm still stuck back in the 80s. JTK is a 21st CenturyBoy.

Number 2s

JC : Breaking Point - Bourgie Bourgie (3:50) (mp3)*

*song no longer available to download

Quite simply, the best singer I’ve ever heard. It was really tempting to have multiple Paul Quinn appearances in this Top 10 under the guise of his work with The Independent Group and also his brilliant duet with Edwyn Collins on ‘Pale Blue Eyes.’ But I resisted.

It’s so sad that illness brought his relatively short recording career to a premature end. It’s even sadder that Bourgie Bourgie imploded just as the world was beginning to take notice of them. But I suppose when you leave behind just a couple of perfect singles, there’s nothing to taint the memory.

(Note : link to song deleted and replaced with one of a better quality. See Sunday 10 December 2006)

JTK : The Church of John Coltrane - St Jude's Infirmary (5:21) (mp3)*

*song no longer available to download

JTK says "Proof positive that it doesn't matter how old you get, music can still sound great, not necessarily new but certainly exciting. This works for me on so many levels. (And any song that gets John Coltrane into its title can't be bad.) Seeing them do "All my rowdy friends are dead" live is one of my favourite music moments ...... ever. Everlasting thanks to Bert for introducing me to this lot."

Number 1s

JTK : Blue Boy - Orange Juice (2:53) (mp3)*

*song no longer available to download

JTK says "Sadly I was too young to be in at the beginnings of punk. I was buying singles and albums long before this came out and seeing David Bowie on TOTP in the early seventies remains a formative moment, but for me my real love of music started with Orange Juice's early singles and this in particular. That jangle, that voice, those words. Genius.

Orange Juice remain my all time favourite band, surpassing even the Smiths, and it's good to see that Edwyn still retains dignity and musical credibility, something that can't always be said of Stephen Patrick. And let's not forget James Kirk and Malcolm Ross, both of whom have gone on to make some pretty decent music."

JC : Felicity - Orange Juice (2:34) (mp3)*

*song no longer available to download

This is the sound of happiness. Need I say more??

Slighty ironic that OJ are seen as Edwyn Collins' group when my favourite song of theirs was in fact written by James Kirk.

It was a really difficult task to finalise a Top Ten. I started off with a long-list approaching 100, and then a short-list of almost 40 which I listened to a few times. I wrote down 10....then changed my mind. I wrote down 10....and then changed my mind again. It didn't help that my final submission included a track that wasn't a single, 'Musette & Drums' by the Cocteau Twins. That was how the original No.11 by the Trashcan Sinatras sneaked in.

I would love to have found space for the likes of Altered Images, Lloyd Cole (with & without the Commotions), Edwyn Collins, Idlewild, James Yorkston, The Jazzateers, Paul Quinn & The Independent Group, Belle & Sebastian, Aztec Camera, Aberfeldy, Foil, Cocteau Twins, This Mortal Coil ('Song To The Siren' is admissable) . Teenage Fanclub, Goodbye Mr Mackenzie, Jesus and Mary Chain and Primal Scream - all of whom could have made it just as easily.

When you look at that list - and it's hardly exhaustive - you begin to appreciate that we're not a bad wee country when it comes to rock and pop music.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

It's a bit more tricky to buy today's offerings. Orange Juice records are at Amazon right here

St Jude's Infirmary stuff is best obtained from the website of their label - SL Records. But the site was down the last I looked.

Keep trying on www.slrecords.net

As for the majestic Bougie Bourgie. You might get lucky on e-bay. Here

So that's the Top 10s as far as two of the contributors to Jock'N'Roll are concerned. At this point in time (6th November), none of our favourite four Scottish singles are in the overall chart:-

1 The Associates—Party Fears Two

2 Aztec Camera—Oblivious

3 The Skids—Into The Valley

4 The Blue Nile—Tinseltown In The Rain

5 Franz Ferdinand—Take Me Out

6 Big Country—In A Big Country

7 Jesus and Mary Chain—Never Understand

8 Orange Juice—Rip It Up

9 Deacon Blue—Dignity

10 Trashcan Sinatras—Obscurity Knocks

If you don't agree, do something about it.

USE YOUR VOTE. VISIT JOCK'N'ROLL TODAY.

CLICK here