PLAYING OLD 45s THAT NOW MEAN NOTHING TO ME

The other day, ctelblog of Acid Ted fame left this hugely thought provoking comment after I shoved up the mp3 of Falling by McAlmont & Butler:-

"I always thought that this suffered from the Prefab Sprout 'too perfect' problem"

The thing is, while I disagree with him on McAlmont & Butler, I think I know exactly what ctel is getting at.

There' s an awful lot of stuff, particularly from the mid-late 80s and early 90s, that at the time of release I found myself really liking but which I now find all rather bland and trite. And I have to admit that quite a few of the songs and bands I'm thinking about came out of Glasgow and other parts of Scotland.

I'm not saying, per se, that I dislike the stuff and disown it all completely, but it now seems all a tad antiseptic and clean sounding. The production levels were incredibly high, as was the level of musicianship. The records sounded great on the radio at the time. Even today, many of them are the staple diet of some DJs on local radio stations, but I find myself squirming a bit at just how much I championed some of these bands in arguments down in the pub.

What I have also noticed is that almost all of the bands and acts I'm thinking of emerged at a time when we were brainwashed by the industry to dispose in some way of our vinyl and instead go for everything on CD which we were assured was the most perfect way imaginable to listen to music. And I don't believe that is a mere coincidence.

This sort of stuff:-

mp3 : Deacon Blue - Real Gone Kid
mp3 : The Blue Nile - Tinseltown In The Rain

Neither of the above are in any way offensive, and they stuck a chord with many, many, many people that has led to them both being sort of regarded as timeless classics (thus their regular appearances on local commercial radio stations), but they now leave me very unmoved.

I should add that some acts in more recent years that I thought were pretty decent at one point have also subsequently fallen out of flavour in later times when I've revisited them. Like these:-

mp3 : Turin Brakes - Underdog (Save Me)
mp3 : Spiritualised - Come Together

I'll await the brickbats......

Meanwhile, I've had yet another new reader ask for a reposting of the Bourgie Bourgie songs. This is something that seems to happen every couple of months or so, but I've decided, for 2008 anyway, that enough is enough. This is going to be last chance saloon - so today is the last time the two singles will be posted. Next Sunday I'll post the b-sides, the Sunday after that, the 12" versions of the singles and the Sunday after that, the 12" versions of the b-sides.

mp3 : Bourgie Bourgie - Breaking Point (via sharebee)
mp3 : Bourgie Bourgie - Careless (via sharebee)

And finally, for the two folk who responded previously to this posting, (and thanks for the prompt Miss P), here's what we, between us, consider are the lyrics to the song that reached #5 in the 45 45s at 45 series. You'll see we're none the wiser:-

Version 1

I'll stake my claim
I'll strike the vein
I could stipulate
There's only half a way
If you can talk (oh you can talk)
But can you tell? (but can you tell?)
But you should know (yeah you should know)
I stretch to better things

You're running pretty wild
You're running pretty deep
You ought to get some sleep
You ought to take your time
You ought to heed my words
And just wait until your ship comes in.


Version 2

I'll stake my claim,
I'll strike the vein
Cos sleeping late
Is only half of it.
You can talk (oh you van talk)
Boy, can you talk (boy can you talk)
But you should know (yeah should know)
I'll stretch to better things.

You're running pretty wild
You're running pretty deep
You ought to get some sleep
You ought to take your time
You ought to hear my words
And just wait until your ship comes in.

Happy Listening.