I KNOW, YOU'VE HEARD IT ALL BEFORE....

The thing is, when you hear something for the first time in ages and recall just how utterly fucking amazing it is (swear words are sometimes essential to get the sheer jaw-dropping awe that was felt about an hour ago when the track came round on shuffle), and even though you know you've already written about it before, you just want to say the same thing again :-
(a) just in case readers of old have forgotten; and
(b) new readers might get some music for pleasure they might not have known about

As written back in February 2008:-

"Keeping TVV going has rekindled a love to find records and CDs in second-hand shops and on e-bay. The plan is, over the next few weeks, to bring a number of these, often hard to find things to your attention. And I'm starting with Village Fire - Five Offerings From James. This basically, is an EP dating from 1985, which takes the first two 7" singles released by the band and puts them on a 12" record. I never actually owned this for years, only having the songs on cassette and/or VHS tape. I then saw it in a shop in Glasgow in early 2007 - it wasn't going cheap, but it was in mint condition. And I got it for less than seems to be the going rate on e-bay on the few occasions it pops up. I often wondered why it was that I fell for James when I first heard them - and it took more than 20 years for the penny to drop. I'll quote from Page 74 of the book Folklore (the band's biography) by the incomparable Stuart Maconie:-

Even by the high standards of the early 1980s, something of a golden age of alternative pop in the UK, JimOne is an earprickingly different release. What's The World rattles .....over a clattering drum pattern right out of the Bonanza theme via Orange Juice's Falling and Laughing.

Fire So Close is clearly influenced by Scotland's Postcard Records roster, but significantly there's as much Kinshasa as Kilmarnock in the song's ebullient guitar and drums interlude.

It's paragraphs like those two above that make me realise I should either plagiarise or just stick to supplying the mp3s. So here goes:-

mp3 : James - What's The World
mp3 : James - Folklore
mp3 : James - Fire So Close
mp3 : James - If Things Were Perfect
mp3 : James - Hymn From A Village

But the real bonus for you all is surely to be found over at The Video Villain. In March 1985, James made their first ever TV appearance - one that I have as piece of treasure on VHS. It was live on the BBC2 show Whistle Test. They played two songs live at the ICA in London. They subsequently put one of the performances on a DVD compilation which is why this clip can now be found on youtube - with a far superior sound that exists on my manky old bit of tape. It truly is wonderful - Maconie describes the band as being 'in their best geography teacher chic'. It's a far cry from the stage presence that the band would demonstrate just five or so years later..."

March 2011 update

It was hearing What's The World again that triggered off the nostalgia. An absolute belter of a song that still sounds amazing all these years later. It's a track that The Smiths also played live every now and again, and indeed they released a version of it as a track on the cassette only version of I Started Something I Couldn't Finish, released in October 1987. And here's a request. Anyone out there got a copy of it they could fire over in mp3 form???

Oh and given that the original posting referred to the long-closed blog The Video Villain, it makes sense to put the clip here:-



Happy Listening

A LITTLE BIT OF ALT-COUNTRY....WITH SOUL

Please don't run away or be scared. This is actually a nice bit of music.

mp3 : Lambchop - Up With People (edit)

It is a shortened version of one of the very fine tracks to be found on the LP Nixon released in 2000.

Lambchop has always had a fluid line-up from record to record dating back to their 1994 debut right up to their most recent release in 2008, but always featuring the unique vocal talents of Kurt Wagner. Now I'm happy to admit that Kurt wont be everyone's cup of tea - Mrs V for one cannot stand his singing rather cruelly likening when he goes high-pitched to Tiny Tim - but I'm a fan. The two extra tracks on the CD single feature a remix by trip-hop/ambient duo Zero 7 and a cover of a track by the late Vic Chesnutt, an artist much admired by Michael Stipe.

mp3 : Lambchop - Up With People (Zero 7 remix)
mp3 : Lambchop - Miss Prissy

While Up With People is a fine enough single, I dont think its the best track on the LP. Have a lsiten to this:-

mp3 : Lambchop - Grumpus

And here's a live version of the single to finish things off:-

Happy Listening

THE 1,503rd TVV POSTING....

I had actually intended this as the 1500th posting, but I miscounted how many times I or my guest posters had entertained or bored you, and so its a wee bit late.

Looking back it is quite incredible to consider just how much Blondie conquered the world with the release of Parallel Lines in late 1978. The self-titled debut LP from 1976 had more or less by-passed everyone but by early 1978 the UK hit singles Denis and (I'm Always Touched By Your) Presence Dear had awakened interest in Debbie Harry and her boys.

And let's not pretend otherwise, very few were all that interested in anyone other than the singer, notwithstanding that Gary Valentine, Jimmy Destri, Frank Infante, Chris Stein and Clem Burke were all reasonable musicians.

The release of Plastic Letters in February 1978 had gotten the band their first Top 10 LP in the UK although it was a relatively poor seller in their home country. But within weeks of its release, the band were back in the studio working with Australian producer Mike Chapman who had enjoyed all sorts of chart success in the pre-punk years. What emerged from two months of activity was an incredible blend of new wave, pop and disco that had the bands dominating the airwaves and the charts and capturing the hearts of many a music lover of all ages.

By the time of recording, Blondie had a new bassist in Nigel Harrison who had replaced Gary Valentine and whose playing in a rhythm section with drummer Burke was fundamental to the band's changing sound.

The twelve songs on Parallel Lines take less than 40 minutes to digest. They are all between 2 mins and 4 mins in length, just about all of them tailor-made for daytime radio. There's 10 original Blondie tracks and 2 covers. Four of the tracks were released as singles in the UK, while a further two were separately released in the USA. Most of the b-sides were also taken from the LP showing that while they were excellent recordings, there weren't many spare songs in the locker at the time. It was of course the UK where Blondie had made the initial commercial breakthrough, and Picture This, followed by Hanging On The Telephone were both hits. But it was the release of Heart Of Glass in January 1979 that really broke the band internationally, including their homeland.

It was Blondie-mania and sales of their first two LPs also benefited, although many new fans were left scratching their heads as the difference between the extremely poppy and polished Parallel Lines and the earlier work was quite marked. Sunday Girl gave them a second successive #1 in the UK. It wasn't released as a 45 in the USA but One Way Or Another was and gave the band another hit.

Parallel Lines is an album that usually features highly in critics lists. The NME placed it 18th of all time in 2003, while Blender Magazine had it as 7th best American LP ever. Even Rolling Stone with its infamous concentration on white male-orientated classic rock or singer-songwriters managed to place it 140th of all time. It is one that has aged well for the most part.

No-one can dispute that Heart Of Glass is a timeless piece of music that perfectly combines pop, new wave and disco in one fell swoop. But many of the other tracks are excellent in their own way and style:-

mp3 : Blondie - Hanging On The Telephone
mp3 : Blondie - One Way Or Another
mp3 : Blondie - Picture This
mp3 : Blondie - Fade Away and Radiate
mp3 : Blondie - Pretty Baby
mp3 : Blondie - I Know But I Don't Know
mp3 : Blondie - 11:59
mp3 : Blondie - Will Anything Happen?
mp3 : Blondie - Sunday Girl
mp3 : Blondie - Heart of Glass
mp3 : Blondie - I'm Gonna Love You Too
mp3 : Blondie - Just Go Away

I'm particularly fond of the new-wave pop of the LP opener which was also a hit single, while non-singles Pretty Baby and 11:59 also take my fancy.....

Parallel Lines has sold 20 million copies worldwide in 32 and a bit years. That's a lot of homes it has found its way into...

N.B. : - SONGS REMOVED AFTER DMCA NOTICE......BUT I'M GUESSING MOST OF YOU OWN THE LP ANYWAY..

THE SUNDAY CORRESPONDENTS

It was with great sadness that I read early in the New Year that Mick Karn had succumbed to cancer.

I first saw Japan on the 28th April 1978 supporting Blue Oyster Cult on my one and only visit to Glasgow’s legendary Apollo Theatre. It was my first visit to a real concert, I had previously bought a ticket to see Steve Harley and Cockney Rebel at Edinburgh’s Playhouse Theatre, years before, but I hadn’t been allowed to go by my “bastard” of a father, who thought I was too young to be allowed to travel to Edinburgh on a school night from Kirkcaldy.

I’d been to lots of other local gigs in and around my home town but never to a real big concert venue.

You may be saying to yourselves BLUE OYSTER CULT!!???

Aye well!!

Three nights before, I was in a pub in St Andrews where I had recently moved having left home to work at the University, It was the Dunvegan pub and some folk I hadnt long known and with who I was becoming friendly said one of their groyp had pulled out of going to the gig in Glasgow and asked if would I like to go. Now while I’d never heard of Blue Oyster Cult I said yes

Part of this was down to really wanting to go to a gig after recent shenanigans had seen me miss a concert on at Dundee University......

Graham Parker and the Rumour were playing at the student union in Dundee and I was offered the chance to go by a student who lived in the university residence that I worked and lived in. The guy who took my money for the gig was a small weedy wide-boy cockney prick who told me to be outside the St Andrew’s union building at 6.30 pm, ready for the bus to depart. I arrived at 25 past 6 to be told the bus was full at 6.15 and had left!!!! I was fuming.....

So on Saturday 28th April 1978, I was picked up at Halbeath roundabout just off the M90 and taken through to Glasgow.

The day is so vivid in my mind and I was picked up at this particular location as it was close to where I’d been to the last game of the football season watching Raith Rovers beat Dunfermline 2-0 at East End Park, having won promotion to the Scottish First Division the previous Tuesday with a 1-0 win at Clyde!!

I’m sorry to say I can’t remember the guy and his girlfriend who drove me to the gig, but I do remember Andy Harrow (whom my goldfish at the time was named after) scored the winner at Clyde and the first at East End Park.

It was with great excitement that I entered the Apollo Theatre with its 3,500 seated capacity, for my first BIG gig.

First to take to the stage were Japan, on every seat there was a flyer pronouncing their new album, Adolescent Sex.

They came on looking like The New York Dolls wee brothers and got the worst reception I’ve ever seen at any concert even in the subsequent 30 years. Drinks were thrown on the stage and I have to say I found it quite funny to watch the band members dodge the bottles, cans and an air force of flyers made into paper planes that rained down on the stage.

The sound they made was a very harsh mixture of glam and heavy rock and I’m sure they retreated from the stage without playing their full set.

It was a few years later that I next heard Japan and their sound was very different. I was at Bentley’s nightclub in Kirkcaldy and I heard Life in Tokyo a Giorgio Moroder produced piece of synth/dance music with a European feel. (Featured recently by JC)

Kirkcaldy had two nightclubs Bentley’s and Jackie “O’s”, Bentley’s played the better music, a good mixture of current disco tracks with a huge amount of electronic dance 12” singles, Simple Minds, Soft Cell and Killing Joke and the like.

There was certainly a huge change in Japan’s sound from their guitar based early days to an electronic feel that fitted in well with other bands of that early “new romantic” period.

At the heart of that new sound was Mick Karn’s distinctive fretless bass.

The albums Gentlemen Take Polaroids and Tin Drum brought the band commercial success but common with a lot of groups this seemed to produce conflict within the band, which came to a head when Karn’s girlfriend left him to move in with lead singer David Sylvian.

I did see Japan play once more before they split up, at Edinburgh’s Playhouse in October 1982. As JC explained in his posting that was the month Life in Tokyo was released for the third time and made its highest ever chart position, 28.

The tour was to promote Tin Drum and they were a different band to one that I’d seen in Glasgow. The only thing that annoyed me was the amount of Duran Duran fans at the gig screaming at every movement of David Sylvian and I do remember seeing a John Taylor look-alike posing about outside before the gig. But musically they were first class.

Two months after seeing them in Edinburgh they played their last ever gig in Nagoya, Japan.

Sylvian released a few collaborations with Ryuichi Sakamoto including Forbidden Colours the theme to Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence (which incidentally was the film I went to see on my first date with my wife Alison).

In 1984 his wonderful first album Brilliant Trees was released, which included the single Red Guitar (again as featured by JC recently). So far Sylvian has released 22 solo albums.

Karn worked with Bauhaus singer Pete Murphy and released one album as Dali's Car; he released over a dozen solo albums and contributed his unique style of bass playing to many people’s albums.

David Sylvian, Mick Karn, Steve Jansen and Rich Barbieri reformed to make an album under the name of Rain Tree Crow, before going their separate ways again.

Mick Karn (real name Andonis Michaelides) died at home in London on 4 January 2011, he was 52 years old.

Just for the record, I never got my money back from that “cockney prick”, never did see Graham Parker and never have seen Steve Harley. Oh and Andy Harrow (the goldfish) got flushed down the toilet), Andy Harrow (the footballer) got sold to Luton Town for £90,000 and my dad is still an old bastard !!!

mp3 : Japan - Adolescent Sex
mp3 : Japan - Gentlemen Take Polaroids
mp3 : Rain Tree Crow - Blackwater
mp3 : Mick Karn - Sensitive

John Greer, Sunday 27 March 2011

ONE SONG BY THE SMITHS....A SATURDAY SERIES (Part 35)

It is deliberate that today's photo only include two members of The Smiths.

The track I'm featuring today was officially released as yet another stunning b-side:-

mp3 : The Smiths - Back To The Old House

But, to those of us who knew so many of the songs from taping them from sessions recorded for the John Peel Show, the band version made available as the b-side of What Difference Does It Make? was not as good as that previously broadcast. Thankfully, the subsequent release of Hatful of Hollow meant we could all get our hands on a decent copy of the superior product:-

mp3 : The Smiths - Back To The Old House (Peel Session)


Until the release of the compilation LP, I had to rely on a poor quality mono version with a lot of hiss and a fair bit of interference on the tape. This was due , in the main to Radio 1 broadcasting only on the Medium Wave, and while we didn't know any better at the time and thought the sound was fine, listening nowadays to anything from the radio put onto tape in the early 80s shows just how much technology has improved.

In a sense the Peel Session version is The Smiths - Unplugged and Live, as Johnny picks his way through the track like a gnarled veteran rather than the teenager he was, while Moz surely shuts up those who said he couldn't hold a tune. OK, it isn't a track that would make you jump out of your seat and throw your best shapes on the dance-floor, but I'm guessing most fans will have it very high up on lists of all-time favourite tracks.

Oh and here's an early live rendition from their first ever gig in Scotland:-

mp3 : The Smiths - Back To The Old House (live, Glasgow QMU, 1984)


Some of you may be interested to know that the Bard of Barking has recorded a version of this great song. I'm sure others of you are horrified.

mp3 : Billy Bragg - Back To The Old House

Billy's take on it is quite straightforward and rather tender, but I accept that it might not be everyone's cup of tea. However......give me his effort anytime than most of the butcherings imposed on the band stuff by the solo Moz.

Happy Listening.

5 GREAT ALBUM TRACKS FOR FRIDAY (Part 16)

It really is only the fact that so many of you leave comments behind saying you enjoy this particular series that keeps it going. It really is a weekly task that is proving bad for my state of mind.

Every week I end up going for a singer or band for whom it is almost impossible to come up with a definitive five LP tracks that weren't released as singles. So far, I've had a go at, with varying degrees of success:-

1. The Jam
2. Joy Division
3. Lloyd Cole & The Commotions
4. Talking Heads (courtesy of Johnny East/West)
5. Magazine
6. The Police
7. Orange Juice
8. Frightened Rabbit
9. Blur
10. Martin Stephenson & The Daintees
11. Friends Again
12. Sons & Daughters
13. Malcolm Middleton
14. Disposable Heroes of Hiphoprisy
15. The Clash

This week I'm trying to get my head around a best 5 for The The.

At least this week, some of the very best songs they've recorded have been released as 45s - so I don't have to agonise over classics such as This Is The Day, Uncertain Smile, Heartland, Armageddon Days Are Here (Again) and Love Is Stronger Than Death etc etc etc...

And even although there are only six The The studio LPs to choose from (of which was a misguided and rather awful record which consisted of Hank Williams covers), this was still a task that bounced around agonisingly in my head for a bit.


mp3 : The The - I've Been Waiting For Tomorrow (All Of My Life)
mp3 : The The - Angels Of Deception
mp3 : The The - This Is The Night
mp3 : The The - Helpline Operator
mp3 : The The - Soul Catcher

I don't think that this week will stimulate much debate - not that I believe I've identified THE best 5 - but more because very few, other than hardcore fans, will be familiar with many songs other than the singles and also because the record label did insist on releasing so many LP tracks as 45s.

There was a Matt Johnson solo LP released in 1981, but the first official The The LP appeared in 1983. Of the eight tracks on Soul Mining, three were issued as singles. The remaining five were all candidates for the list, but in the end it is opener I've Been Waiting For Tomorrow (All Of My Life) that makes the cut. As with the inclusion of Janie Jones on the list for The Clash, this makes it on account of the memory of the opening sounds - the countdown and then the frenetic drumming of Zeke Manyika - reminding just how often I played this album back in the day and how much I looked forward to its repeated playings.

Moving on to 1986 and the release of Infected which saw probably the four strongest of the eight tracks released as singles. An epic piece of work in every way, thanks to over 50 musicians making a contribution as well as every track having an expensive promo video made to accompany it, Infected is one of the most important LPs of the era as it detailed, often in graphic language and imagery within the promos, much of what was wrong in a Western world dominated by right-wing warmongering governments who believed in the mantra 'greed is good'. It's an LP that should have spawned massive hit singles but most radio stations shied away from the controversial nature of the lyrics and denied The The the audience they deserved. Angels of Deception features in the list as an outstanding song albeit
not an easy one to listen to with its constantly changing tempo.

For the next LP, Mind Bomb (released in 1989), Matt Johnson did something nobody expected and put together a genuine band. With Johnny Marr on board, the songs on both this and Dusk (released in 1993) were completely different sounding to the earlier LPs. Many of the subject matters remained in place - particularly politics and religion - but a more sedate and softer side also came through. Four of the eight tracks on Mind Bomb came out as singles - and being by far the best tracks on the LP, I'm afraid that none of the others make this list.

Just three of the ten tracks on Dusk were singles which gives more choice than all previous albums, and as such two songs make the list. This Is The Night is not, despite the title, an alternative version of an early single but is a wonderful song in its own right with a piano opening that makes me think of saloon bars in the Wild West, while Helpline Operator wouldn't have sounded out of place on the earlier albums.

The next release was the ill-judged Hanky Panky in 1995, and then after leaving Epic Records, a totally different line-up released Nakedself on Interscope Records in 2000. It's an album that isn't anywhere near as commercial or immediate as earlier records but it is one that gets better with repeated listens. Soul Catcher is a throwback to very early Matt Johnson recording and a long long way from the bombastic productions of the 80s and 90s.

Listening again to the various albums over the past few days, it is quite clear that for the most part the very best The The songs were made available as singles, but I hope that some of you at least will enjoy and appreciate what I've put together today.

Happy (?!!?) Listening.

ONE FOR MY WEE BROTHER IN FLORIDA

The other week when I posted Life In Tokyo by Japan, I was pleasantly surprised at home many folk came on and commented positively about it. One of the comments was from my wee brother who has been out living in Florida now for the best part of 20 years and he reminded me that as a teenager he had been a big fan of Japan.

I've dug into the cupboard and fished out the only bit of solo material post-Japan I have from David Sylvian - a 12" single that reached #17 in the UK charts back in late 1984. With apologies for the fact there's a big chip in the vinyl that affects the first 45 seconds or so....

mp3 : David Sylvian - Red Guitar (full length version)


It was lifted from the solo debut LP Brilliant Trees which went Top 5 and seemed to indicate that the enigmatic and charismatic singer was set for a lengthy and successful solo career. And while it has been a lengthy career that continues today, it has not been successful in a commercial sense, largely as a result of Sylvian choosing for the next few years to concentrate on instrumentals and trying to find a different sort of fanbase. He certainly disappeared off my radar from the mid 80s onwards....

The b-side to this single is a different version of a track of olden days (again, with apologies for the chipped vinyl):-

mp3 : David Sylvian - Forbidden Colours (version)


Originally composed by Ryuichi Sakamoto with lyrics by David Sylvian, it was the vocal version of the main theme from the film Merry Christmas, Mr Lawrence and was a hit single in 1983:-

mp3 : Sylvian/Sakamoto - Forbidden Colours
mp3 : Sylvian/Sakamoto - The Seed And The Sower *

Happy Listening

* The b-side of the original single was a Sakamoto composition that was also used in the film.

A RECENT SHOW I REGRET MISSING

A few weeks back, I had to head off out of the UK at very short notice. My time away coincided with a couple of gigs that I had long been looking forward to including British Sea Power.

There are many bands who are labelled as the best live act in the world depending on who is doing the talking or the typing. Not having seen every single act, I cant say for certain who should take the title, but I reckon British Sea Power must be worth a nomination.

They've been releasing records now for about eight years and the February gig in Glasgow was in support of their fifth studio LP, Valahalla Dancehall, which was released to the usual critical acclaim but relatively low sales at the start of the year.

At the tail end of 2008, I posted this piece lamenting the fact that the Mercury Prize that year had gone to Elbow for Seldom Seen Kid when Do You Like Rock Music? by British Sea Power was also on the short-list. The award has helped catapult Elbow to new and bigger audiences and good luck to them. I just wish however that BSP would get the recognition that is long overdue them.

I don't think it will come this year as I'm not sure that Valhalla Dancefloor will get as many plaudits as Do You Like Rock Music come the end of the year. It hasn't got quite the same oomph (that's a technical term by the way) and anyway, its an unwritten rule that if an obscure indie-act is nominated for the Mercury but doesn't win, then it doesnt get short-listed again.

BSP released what was my favourite single of 2008, and its one that I picked up on vinyl at the time as well as also buying a different 7" single that featured an instrumental version of the song. Three years on and I think its time I shared the tracks and the one of b-sides with you (the other b-side is just too strange........!!!):-

mp3 : British Sea Power - Waving Flags
mp3 : British Sea Power - Ooby Dooby Doo
mp3 : British Sea Power - Waving Flags (Wandering Horn Instrumental)


There's loads of live footage of the band kicking around on You Tube and the likes, but not too much really captures how stunning they are when on stage. But I have to to tip my hat to the person who captured the manic last nine minutes or so of an outdoor gig at London a few years back....having tried to film Edwyn Collins live a few times I appreciate how hard a task it is to keep your camera/phone still while still enjoying the event itself. How this particular fan never went bonkers with the rest of the crowd is beyond me.



Happy Listening and viewing.

CHE GUEVARA AND DEBUSSY TO A DISCO BEAT

I've never hidden my love for Pet Shop Boys, an act that I reckon are as important as any other that have emerged in the UK over the past 40 years. Wikipedia advises that they have now released 10 studio albums, 2 live albums, 4 compilation albums, 1 EP and a staggering 55 singles.

I don't actually have all that much of their stuff on vinyl, but I did find this a while back in a charity shop and willingly paid £2 for it, even though I already had the main track on two 'best ofs' and an extended version on a parent LP:-

mp3 : Pet Shop Boys - Left To My Own Devices
mp3 : Pet Shop Boys - The Sound Of The Atom Splitting

Released in November 1988, this climbed to #4 in the UK singles charts.

Neil Tennant and Chris Lowe have since said that they played a rough demo of the track to producer Trevor Horn who was well-known for spending months on a track until he felt he'd nailed it. However, for this one, Horn suggested commissioning an orchestral arrangement, programming the synths and recording the song all in one day which PSB leapt at, and so signed a deal.

It took six months to finish Left To My Own Devices.......

But in a way that is hardly surprising giving how rich and powerful the sound is. Even today, some 22 and a bit years on, it remains one of the most popular songs in the back catalogue and one that PSB often play live. What's it all about?? Again, over to Neil Tennant....

"This person goes through life always doing what he wanted to do. I liked the idea of writing a really up pop song about being left alone. This song is a day in the life of someone, so it starts off with getting out of bed and being on the phone and drinking tea and all the rest of it, and it ends up with coming home. By this time I was making the words very exaggerated and camp, though writing a book and going on stage were both things I had wanted to do when I was young."

Here's the version as found on Introspective:-

mp3 : Pet Shop Boys - Left To My Own Devices (extended version)

Here's a link to a great live orchestral version for you:-

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1xpZO85LoZY

Happy Listening...and viewing.

THE WONDERFUL SOUNDS OF RADIO 2

I was on my way to work the other day and I dropped in at a shop to buy myself a breakfast roll. The music coming through the speakers was something I didn't expect to hear at just after 8 o'clock in the morning:-

mp3 : Suede - Animal Nitrate

I assumed that the bloke working behind the counter was a fan and was playing a CD. It was therefore a big surprise to hear that it was being played by a radio station. And not just any old station, but none other than BBC Radio 2, the most popular in the UK.

Many of the DJs on Radio 2 were formerly associated with Radio 1 which is of course the station aimed at the younger generation. Growing up I always thought Radio 2 was for people with the dullest of musical tastes. Nowadays, I think it has to be the choice of the 'average' TVV reader and correspondent.

The breakfast DJ and therefore the individual responsible for bringing Suede to the masses at that ungodly hour is Chris Evans, once the highest paid music presenter in the UK, and who whose fame and fortune peaked at the time of Britpop, a genre that he was quick to champion. Love him or loath him (and believe me, there's many who cannot stand him), you have to admire the fact that Chris Evans is prepared to play great songs such as Animal Nitrate, a #7 hit in early 1993 and the song which gave Suede the first of their eight Top Ten hits.

Early Suede singles also had the habit of featuring excellent and totally contrasting b-sides, and the two on this single were no exception:-

mp3 : Suede - Painted People
mp3 : Suede - The Big Time

Here's yer scary promo as well:-



I bet many of you had forgotten just how good this song is......

MORE REASONS WHY I LOVE BLOGGING

It's great when folk take the time to write and say nice things things about TVV...but its even better when I get emails offering to send tracks of stuff I don't have.

Such as these:-

mp3 : Edwyn Collins - Dream Lover
mp3 : Edwyn Collins - Ain't That A Shame


These are taken from the soundtrack LP to a 1997 film called The Slab Boys which itself was an adaptation of the play of the same name written by John Byrne.

The play is a comedy/drama and an excellent piece of work that I've been lucky enough to see four (I think!!) different productions of over the years. It is set in 1957 within a carpet factory in a town near Glasgow and centres around the lives and dreams of a number of young workers and it is semi-autobiographical given that John Byrne spent part of his early life working in such a factory.

The film should have been every bit as good given that John Byrne not only wrote the script but was given the task of directing the work. I managed to get myself tickets to the world premiere at the Glasgow Film Theatre and was excited for days beforehand. But what unfolded was a huge disappointment...more than mere words can describe. The film was a total turkey....I cringed all the way through it and didn't pay much attention to the fact that the soundtrack featured a number of contemporary acts singing songs from the era that the film was set. I certainly didn't go out of my way to seek out the soundtrack.

The film received a lot of public money through bodies such as the Scottish Arts Council and seemingly cost £3million to make. It is rumoured no more than £12,000 was recouped from box office takings during a very short release in Scotland.

As I said, I never tried to track down Edwyn's contribution to the soundtrack. I don't think it was in the shops for all that long given how quickly the film disappeared from view. But a nice exchange of email correspondence with a reader by the name of Elliot Simmons changed all that, and so it is thanks to him that today's post is possible.

Oh and thanks also to another reader from France - Jason Ruff - who also offered to send the tracks over.

Happy Listening.

ONE SONG BY THE SMITHS....A SATURDAY SERIES (Part 34)

A strange but endearing number from the final studio LP:-

mp3 : The Smiths - Unhappy Birthday

The story behind this track is that Johnny Marr brought the music to the studio in advance of the sessions - one of the few that worked out that way on Strangeways, Here We Come. It was one that was further improved by a contribution from Andy Rourke, although as ever, the track would only be attributed to the singer and guitarist.

However, what stops it being a contender for a classic isn't the tune but the lyric that was added later. Whether it was autobiographical and aimed specifically at someone who had slighted Morrissey has never been revealed, but somehow the subject matter and vindictive nature of the lyric seems rather at odds with what Marr had come up with, nor is the delivery anything special.

The song was never performed live by The Smiths, and to the best of my knowledge, hasnt yet been butchered by Moz's merry band of session men.

Happy Listening.

5 GREAT SINGLES FOR FRIDAY.....

Its not all far short of 1500 posts on TVV and to the best of my knowledge I've never done a feature on The Stranglers. Today, I'm going to rectify that but instead of the usual five great album tracks for Friday, I'm going to do five great singles. The simple reason for this is that other than a compilation CD released in 1989 and a couple of 7" singles that I've picked up second-hand in recent years, I don't own anything by the band.

Some of the music this lot made was great, but it wasn't easy to admire the band. In doing a wee bit of research for this post, I came across a fantastic appreciation of them, that I'm going to cut'n'paste as I could do it any better:-

The Stranglers were arrogant, humble, sexist, sexy, intellectual, boorish, violent, tender, crass, intellectual, uncompromising, compromising, punk, new wave, pop, reactionary, revolutionary, contrary and maddening. But most of all they were fucking fantastic.

The Stranglers shot from the hip and didn't hold back. While everyone was saying punk was from the street and the look etc while wandering around in expensive Seditionaries gear it was bands like The Stranglers who looked like they had just come out of the audience. Only when it came to The Raven did they start to look different and by then they were a serious rock band.

They provoked the GLC, they censored their own records to get airplay because they wanted success. But they didn't want it that bad. They hated America and said so. When licensing their first album they burnt their boats literally in front of the record company president when JJ set fire to the American flag and curtains to boot. Top Of The Pops appearances were vital to a bands success. They managed to smash a door down of another band and get banned from it and to storm off in protest at Students at Guildford on a live Rock Goes To College. They were still rock's bad boys long after punk had died causing riots in Nice and Australia and fights and petrol bombings in Sweden.

A band at a peak of artistic and commercial success with The Raven who follow it with Meninblack, a drug fuelled concept album about aliens. A band who had a no 2 hit with Golden Brown and followed it with a 5 minute song in French about a cannibal that flopped. A band who played larger and larger arenas but then went and played pubs and clubs again as the Old Codgers and Shakespearoes.

Sexism is another issue. This old chestnut was still being brought up in 1979 regarding lyrics on their first album. Nowadays the only thing that jars for me is on Princess Of The Streets and the 'piece of meat 'line. The Stranglers just continued winding people up with outrageous quotes eventually having on their Live album a shock horror story cover and going the whole hog at Battersea with multiple strippers. Meanwhile Roxy Music released albums with naked models on them, Queen released Fat Bottomed Girls and had publicity shots with hundreds of buck naked girls on bikes and the weekly music papers would castigate the Stranglers while featuring as many pictures of Debbie Harry as humanly possible.

The full article can be read here.

It really is only some 30 years later that the whole irony of it becomes clear. The majority of music journalists in the then important weekly papers hated the band and any angle that allowed an attack was explored while others were let off. Yes, the band could have made it easy for themselves, but there is something admirable about the whole 'fuck you' attitude they adopted.

Between 1977 and 1990, when original singer Hugh Cornwell left the line-up, The Stranglers managed to get more than 20 singles into the UK Top 40, and about half as many again that didn't. Some of these were fast and furious, others were more sedate and quite lovely. Here, in chronological order are my own Top 5:-

mp3 : The Stranglers - Straighten Out
mp3 : The Stranglers - No More Heroes
mp3 : The Stranglers - Nice'n'Sleazy
mp3 : The Stranglers - Duchess
mp3 : The Stranglers - European Female

From 1977, Straighten Out was part of a double-A single with the better known Something Better Change (which featured bassist Jean Jacques Burnel on lead vocal). It was the band's second successive Top 10 hit and helped make them one of the most successful of the bands to emerge from the punk scene, although the critics were already queuing up to have ago at them with accusations of them jumping on the bandwagon, with the evidence being that they had been around for tears before punk and that the late ages of some members of the band. Straighten Out is the first and possibly only punk single that features a vocal delivery that is Buddy Holly-esque....

The follow-up single, No More Heroes, also went Top 10 in 1977. One of the greatest and most enduring tracks of the era, it is very reminiscent of the sound that Magazine would try and bring to the masses over the next few years. A genuine classic record that has stood the test of time.

The next song I've featured was a #18 hit in 1978. At this point in time, the band were seemingly in dispute with just about everyone and every gig seemed to end in some sort of riot...the bass-line on Nice'n'Sleazy is what makes this single so very worthwhile. That and the weird keyboard solo that was years ahead of its time...

Moving on to 1979 and Duchess. This was the year when I really began to take a big interest in music. I went to my first live gig that year and I also, thanks to having a job over the summer months before going back for a 5th Year at secondary school, had sufficient money to indulge myself in my new passion. But I bottled out of going to see The Stranglers play live....I didn't think I'd survive any fights that might have broken out, and besides the reputation of the bouncers at the Glasgow Apollo was fearsome. I did buy the LP The Raven with a limited edition 3D cover on its release - I subsequently gave it away about 10 years later to someone who adored it when I thought vinyl was on its way out - but found it a wee bit too difficult to get into at the time. It was probably a record a little ahead of its time...but Duchess was a single I played a lot that year.

The final choice is European Female, a single from 1983 and it would prove to be, with the exception of a cover of a song by The Kinks in 1988, the band's last Top 10 hot. A memorable piece of music with a fine vocal from JJB, and acoustic guitar picking by Hugh Cornwell, this is one of the great forgotten about love-songs of the 80s.

The eagle-eyed among you will notice that tha band's biggest hit of all - Golden Brown - hasnt made the cut. It's not that I don't like it, I just got awful bored with it back in 1982 when it was never off the radio, and to be honest, it doesnt excite me as much as the songs featured today.

Oh and to show you how much things have changed over the past 30 years. This is a video banned by the BBC back in the day on the grounds that it was blasphemous. Such innocent days and hard to believe, especially with all you see in music promos these days.....



Happy Listening.

EVERYTHING'S GONE GREEN

OK...I confess.....it is the same title and image that I used for the posting this very day in 2009. But I liked it then and I like it now.

Hell, I'm even going to repeat one of the songs offered that day among these three covers by artists from the Emerald Isle:-

mp3 : Damien Rice & Lisa Hannigan - Your Ghost
mp3 : Luka Bloom - No Surprises
mp3 : Fatima Mansions - A Singer Must Die


And of course, here's the track always posted on TVV on this particular day:-

mp3 : Thin Lizzy - The Boys Are Back In Town

Happy Listening.

THE EARLY BELLE & SEBASTIAN EPs (Part 3)

The third Belle and Sebastian EP, entitled 3..6..9..Seconds Of Light was released in October 1997 and got to #32 in the UK charts, thus earning the band their first ever mention on Top of The Pops during the chart rundown.

The lead track takes the tune from A Century Of Elvis which had featured on the band's previous EP, Lazy Line Painter Jane, released just a few months earlier.

Where the original has really been a short story narrated by Stuart David, this is almost the most twee of songs ever recorded by the band, and that is saying something. Stuart Murdoch's vocal is fragile and very gentle and at times seems to almost take second place to the backing vocals led by Stevie Jackson and Isobel Campbell . While it's an important record in the band's history I'm not sure it is one of their best...it is almost too amateurish and low-fi and while it was endearing at the time, they have done so many better things since:-

mp3 : Belle and Sebastian - A Century Of Fakers

The upbeat nature of Track 2, in contrast, is quite wonderful and still sounds great today. Similar in many ways to the majestic aforementioned Lazy Line....and impossible not to dance to.

Incidentally, until I read The Celestial Cafe (a book that is for the most part hugely enjoyable and recommended although there are some bits which irritated me) I wasn't aware that the title had been inspired by a piece of graffiti on a the wall of one of the Glasgow shops within this exceedingly well-known chain of bakery stores.

mp3 : Belle and Sebastian - Le Pastie De La Bourgeoisie

The third track is another of those ballads that early B&S seemed to be able to turn out at the drop of a hat. One of the great almost forgotten tracks from the back catalogue, this features a fabulous trumpet solo from Mick Cooke:-

mp3 : Belle and Sebastian - Beautiful

Having already sang the tale of the fictional characters Belle and Sebastian on the Dog On Wheels EP, Stuart Murdoch again tells you a little bit more about Sebastian. This led some music journalists at the time to speculate that many of the songs being recorded and released were autobiographical with Murdoch being Sebastian and Campbell being Belle.

Almost as if he expected this sort of comment, the EP contained a 'hidden track' (entitled Songs For Children) - almost a demo type of music with the constant refrain of 'Belle and Sebastian on the radio....". This would be handy to refute any suggestions about everything being autobiographical, and that the use of the name Sebastian in tracks was just coincidental:-

mp3 : Belle and Sebastian - Put The Book Back On The Shelf/Songs For Children


As with the Lazy Line EP, this release came with a short story on the back of sleeve, one that relates to some of the lyrics on the EP as well as a coded reference to Postcard Records which has been such an influence on the young Stuart Murdoch:-

It was a day like today, really warm, when everybody is out of doors, happy to be lying around. Jim had something going. A little project that involved making posters for concerts that would never happen, and record sleeves for records that never existed. He had got up at around six am. Sprung out of bed as if the thought of sleep scared him. The sun was coming directly against the wall just beside his bed. There was a picture of Echo And The Bunnymen. It was very quiet apart from that.

He didn’t wonder what would happen today. He was going to make things happen. He felt like his enthusiasm would rip his heart out of his chest. He worked himself up into a state of excitement. The possibilities of the day were endless. He has nineteen and limber, and the sun sparkled through his tea as it splashed into the cup.

He lined up his various papers and packed them into his bag. He sat at his desk at the window and arrayed his athletes’ breakfast in front of him. He listened to Radio Four for a bit, and then he set to work with his blunted pencil and rub down transfers. He kept what he was trying to say in a straight line by using the edge forged Matriculation Card. As far as the University authorities knew, his name was Arthur Cooke.

Pretty soon, with all pressing matters blissfully set aside, he fell into a reverie the type of which could go on all day if you let it. he gladly let it because it echoed a dream he had once had, and dreams were as close as he ever got to matters spiritual. He had known a girl once who had a tent. They talked about going camping into the country one summer. He was fond of the girl and he was fond of her friend both. Her friend was nice and though studied architecture in another city was around often enough to be in on their plan. When they were around Jim often looked straight at his boots and wondered at the gifts the girls had for their various brainy pursuits. He was a bit ashamed. He was older than them, but was a bit of a flop in the brain department. His reverie involved the tent, the dusk, the smell of hot trainers and not much else. He never managed to the country with them.

Jim woke up again, his plan for the day lying in tatters he thought. It was a quarter past twelve. he had fallen asleep in a pool of sunlight and he had been woken by a ring at his neighbour’s door. He was drowsy and his head full of false literature of dreams and failed schedules. He dressed with not much care. When he flicked on the radio a song was playing that he found unexpected pleasure in. This was very, very lucky. His bag was packed for a quick getaway which was lucky too. So out and over the hill to the busy arcade where he did his photocopying. He was lucky on a day like today that he lived in an area of schools, tenants and flowering cherries. In the winter it was dour, but his one room flat was ok as long as he had outside to step into. He stepped along the street and noticed the heat off the pavement through his black plimsoll boots. He wondered, if he painted them with hot tyre rubber if they would last him till his housing cheque came through.

Jim came to the steps of the arcade. It was cooler for a second or two, but the hotness was replaced by the dry heat of photocopy fans. He waited in the queue of students and small business women, and he felt endless sympathy for the men that worked the machines.

Photocopying was all the rage that year so there was quite a queue of young trendies and h——-s. A man with the forward slanting mother of all pudding bowl haircuts struggled to see what he was doing. His machine was throwing out endless prints of psychedelic swirls. Chatty undergraduate girls warmed to the new craze. Jim wished slightly that he could have beaten the rush. But at least he recognised another boy at the copy shop. He watched in a trance as the boy’s illustration of a cat banging a drum got bigger and bigger.

Soon it was his turn to get on a machine. He was there to make a picture for his room. He had a tiny photography that he kept in a keyring. He had found it in an art college when he was working as a cleaner. It was only a test for a real photograph he thought. He didn’t think they would miss it.

It was a picture of a boy and a girl on a beach. Jim took the picture and put it in the machine. He booted the enlarge up to as far as it would go. He pressed print and the light flashed across the picture. He wondered if it would come out at all but it looked pretty good, about the size of a bank card. He did the same thing twice over. He was pretty excited. The picture was terrific, burnt out and grainy, he thought it didn’t look like real people at all. He felt much better now. He started to look around the little copy shop.

He noticed a paper lying underneath one of the machines. He stooped down to pick it up. It had stuff written on it. He picked it up and started to read.

Claire and I decided to devise a music workshop for a group of 20 children around the age of five. It could be carried out in a school or in a community centre. Children of this age are still very uninhibited and energetic, which potentially provides teachers or workshop leaders with a vast and unlimited musical scope. The idea of our workshop is to introduce some very simple movements (such as hand-clapping and marching) that will effectively relax and improve the childrens’ overall coordination and concentration. Alongside rhythm, melody and movement, we would also like to draw the childrens’ attention to musical dynamics and tempo. To demonstrate, we will get the children to perform their warm-up and song at varying speeds and volumes. The workshop will finish with a performance of the song.

To introduce the workshop we will begin with a warm- up, lasting about seven minutes. The children should be instructed to form a spacious circle. We will then demonstrate marching and clapping along to a basic 4/4 rhythm. This game can be a lot of fun. Whilst maintaining the clapping and marching along to a beat, individuals take it in turn to create any sound, at any pitch, of any length, with any words. The only restriction to the game being that they can only make their sound when it is their turn, and it must always be the same. They have to remember their own personal sound.

The report reminded Jim of the time when he was an administrator of the sick and young. He wanted to think about that for a while. He took his thoughts to the cafe nearby.

It was busy with people eating and talking in booths. He got some coffee and watched a man and a girl in the next booth. He thought they had been there for quite a while. There was books and paper scattered on the table, along with debris from cup after cup of coffee. They weren’t aware of him watching. They weren’t aware of anything as the girl was writing, while the boy read a magazine.

A another table, a girl stared solemnly into her cup. Jim wished he could’ve taken her picture. But then he was afraid that he might steal the moment away from her…

You really do want it to go on from there dont you???

Happy Listening...and reading.

FROM ONE OLD ROUGH TRADER TO ANOTHER...

The subject of yesterday's post - Scritti Politti - would find fame and fortune after departing Rough Trade Records for Virgin Records.

A similar outcome befell Aztec Camera after they left Rough Trade for a major.

I don't think I'm alone in thinking that they lost something upon signing to WEA, with none of the subsequent releases living up to the consistent brilliance of the 1980 debut High Land Hard Rain. However, there's no doubt The Boy Wonder (aka Roddy Frame) was always capable of writing the most amazing and memorable songs, albeit they were often ruined by the production fads of the day.

The 1987 LP Love spawned a huge hit in Somewhere In My Heart, as well as two other minor hit singles (and one total flop).

I'm not a huge fan of the album due to the naked ambition of the record label to make Roddy a pin-up poster boy for the Smash Hits generation. But it does have one track that stands out among the best he's ever written. It closes the LP and must be one of the most gorgeous songs ever written about Glasgow and its environs:-

As the city asleep
Shares its dreams and desires
Every wish that we keep
Will trace a line to other times, other places
Though the song of the proud
Howls and dies, never fall for defeat
Take a trip to reprieve
Every hour they leave
From Killermont Street

Drink a drink to before
And our memories spill
Adding on as they pour
From our Saturdays and secret sensations
Drink a drink to tonight
Whisky words tumble down in the street
With the pain that they cure
Sentimentally yours
From Killermont Street

And with collar upturned
I made it south to see
That the love I had spurned
Was just the hate in me

As the ships and the steel
Slip away to the cry of 'compete'
There's a message for us
We can get there by bus
From Killermont Street


Roddy Frame was brought up in East Kilbride, a town some 8 miles south of Glasgow. Growing up, he would only have got to the city by bus, and he would have arrived or departed at one of what were then two main bus stations in Glasgow city centre.

The largest of these is still in place today. Although it is known as Buchanan Bus Station, it is located on Killermont Street. You still get some buses to East Kilbride from there.......

mp3 : Aztec Camera - Killermont Street

As I said. Gorgeous.

Today's post is dedicated to Greer at A Sweet Unrest - a wonderful blog that combines music and poetry and which is the work of the a big fan of Roddy Frame.

REVISITING AN OLD POST FROM MAY 2007

I noticed the other day that a Greatest Hits compilation by Scritti Politti has been issued. It's not one that I'm going to rush out and buy given I already have most of the original albums, but then again the marketing men have insisted on a couple of new tracks so I might shell out the pennies.

I hope you don't mind, but thinking of Scritti Politti made me want to share again a piece I put together back in the relatively early days of TVV. I've edited it down as it refered to other things going on around the blog a the time in question - those were the days when I wasn't so busy at work that I did the pieces one at a time on the day in question instead of doing what I am today (Sunday 13 March) and spending hours at the PC putting the next two weeks worth together in one sitting.

GREAT UNACKNOWLEDGED ALBUMS OF OUR TIME (Part 6)
(originally posted on 6 May 2007)

Can it really now be 25 years since this underrated masterpiece hit the record racks? It seems so...

Scritti Politti, which in effect was really just a vehicle for the talents of Welsh-born singer-songwriter Green Gartside had been kicking around as a band since the late 1970s. Gartside had a reputation in the music press as a left-wing intellectual, which was maintained with the release of the debut single Skank Bloc Bologna which was regarded as a pro-feminist song that attacked the way that much of society expected young women to conform to a lifestyle of dull humdrum work and then raise families.

I never actually liked the debut single and still don't listen to it much today. If there was ever such a thing as free-form new wave, then this was it. The production values were non-existant, the vocals are lost amidst all sorts of sharp and abrupt changes in rhythm and you couldn't really dance to it. So I never thought I'd pay much attention to Scritti Politti again.

A couple of years later, I picked up a free cassette with the NME which featured a Scritti Politti song entitled The "Sweetest Girl". It was absolutely gorgeous and as far removed from Bologna as you could imagine. It's not quite a ballad, not quite a full-blown radio friendly pop-song. It was driven along sedately by a piano and a drum machine and a fantastic near-falsetto vocal performance by Green.

It was later released as a single on Rough Trade Records and topped the indie charts. I remember buying the single and after listening to the a-side a couple of times flipping it over to something called Lions After Slumber - a funk/rap number that just blew me away. I spent many many hours trying to decipher the lyric......

Into 1982 and another single came out in the summer. It was called Faithless. And it was joyful, soulful and with a hint of gospel. Three completely different song styles, and every one of them on heavy rotation.

And yet another single appeared later in the summer - a double a-side effort entitled Asylums in Jerusalem/Jacques Derrida - this time there were hints of reggae kicking around as well as a more pop-orientated feel. By now, I was itching for the album to appear.

It was a really brave move to call it Songs To Remember as it left Green (as he was by now calling himself) open to ridicule. It turned out not to to be an outlandish statement. The track listing was:-

01 : Asylums in Jerusalem
02 : A Slow Soul
03 : Jacques Derrida
04 : Lions After Slumber
05 : Faithless
06 : Sex
07 : Rock-A-Boy Blue
08 : Gettin' Havin' & Holdin'
09 : The "Sweetest Girl"

There's not a bad track on this album. My only gripe at the time was the fact it had only nine songs, of which only four were brand new. The new songs showed further musical talents, especially on the jazz-tinged Rock-A-Boy Blue which featured a lengthy double-bass solo.

I thought I was in a real minority falling in love with Scritti Politti in 1982 as I don't recall them having any real chart success - certainly none of the singles did anything. So I was surprised to learn in doing a wee bit of research that Songs To Remember sold enough to reach #12 in the UK album charts.

Green was now a man in demand, and he signed a huge deal with Virgin Records. Within two years he was a bona-fide pop star crawling all over the UK and US charts with a succession of pop singles that were typical of that decade - synthesiser-led, big big production sounds and topped-off by expensive videos with Green wearing designer clothes and expensive haircuts. These hit singles, and the subsequent album Cupid & Psyche weren't all that bad compared to an awful lot of the drivel that dominated the charts at the time, but the joy and beauty of the debut album had been left behind.

My vinyl copy of Songs To Remember was pretty much unplayable by around 1990. The only time I heard any of the songs was when they came up on any compilation cassette tapes that I had made up over the years. It wasn't until 2001 that I again got to hear all of the album in its glory when it was finally given a long-delayed release on CD. It still sounded incredible and timeless. And...........it came with a lyric booklet, so I quickly discovered discovered that I had gotten about 85% of the words to Lions After Slumber spot-on......

I suppose you all know that Scottish popsters Wet Wet Wet took their band name from a line from the song Gettin' Havin' & Holdin'.....well if you didn't, you know now....

Incidentally, if anyone has a 12" copy of Faithless, would they be kind enough to turn it, and the instrumental b-side into a couple of mp3s and fire them over to me by e-mail. It was a single that I used to own....but someone borrowed it and never returned it (I know who they are, but I've lost touch with them....).

25 years ago eh? I'm getting on a bit.

March 2009 Update

Someone was kind enough to send said mp3s over, but since then I've found a second-hand copy during one of my browsing sessions (albeit the b-side has a huge jump on it after about 30 seconds!!).

The versions of the songs on the 2001 CD were all digitally remastered, and rather than share those with you, I've gone back to the vinyl rips, from the 12" singles:-

mp3 : Scritti Poiltti - The "Sweetest Girl"
mp3 : Scritti Politti - Lions After Slumber
(Rough Trade Records RT 091)

mp3 : Scritti Politti - Faithless (Triple-Hep N' Blue)
mp3 : Scritti Politti - Faithless (Part II)
(Rough Trade Records RT 101)

mp3 : Scritti Politti - Asylums In Jerusalem
mp3 : Scritti Politti - Jacques Derrida
mp3 : Scritti Politti - A Slow Soul *
* totally different mix than is on the LP
(Rough Trade Records RT 111)

Bonus track

mp3 : Scritti Politti - Jacques Derrida (7" edit)


Happy Listening.

THE SUNDAY CORRESPONDENTS

An e-mail dropped into the Inbox the other week.

I am a daily reader. Love what you do. If you like, I would like to submit the following guest post Jesus And Mary Chain mixtape...

Even if not, I still really appreciate what you put out. Really relevant, interesting stuff. Keep up the good work

Jim Werwath aka dj80HD

Always happy to oblige. And thanks Jim for the various comments you've posted in recent weeks.

Here's how you can access said mixtape:-



Thought to myself that there's only one song to add to today's posting:-

mp3 : The Pooh Sticks - On Tape


Bloody Marvellous

PS

HUGE APOLOGIES TO EVERYONE WHO RECEIVED SOME JUNK E-MAIL AFTER MY E-MAIL ACCOUNT WAS HACKED INTO. AND THANKS TO ALL OF YOU WHO WERE KIND ENOUGH TO WARN ME ABOUT IT.

HOPEFULLY IT WON'T HAPPEN AGAIN. I'VE CHANGED AND INCREASED THE SECURITY ELEMENT OF MY PASSWORD.

ONE SONG BY THE SMITHS....A SATURDAY SERIES (Part 33)

A dreaded sunny day so let's go where we're happy:-

mp3 : The Smiths - Cemetry Gates

It was well known that Morrissey liked to hang around graveyards and philosophise with various friends, including Howard Devoto.

One of my personal favourites on The Queen Is Dead partly because of the wonderful and joyous tune created by Johnny Marr but also the hugely funny and inventive lyric.

It's almost a self-parody. At a time in his career when Moz was being accused of many of his best lyrics being rip-offs of lines in literature, poetry, plays and film scripts, he pens something that shows how little he cares. Indeed, many of the lyrics in the song are lifted from other sources including Shakespeare.

Johnny Marr is also a fan.

"I love the lyrics on Cemetry Gates because I also was getting a bit tired of people who diddn't know us much pulling up Morrissey for doing something they's have been more than happy to get anywhere near. Smart arses in the press and around Rough Trade as well. A couple of figures who were a little bit knowing needed a verbal slap. I think Morrissey did that very well."

And here's a cover version that sounds a lot less than the original than you might expect:-

mp3 : The Frank and Walters - Cemetry Gates

Happy Listening

5 GREAT ALBUM TRACKS FOR FRIDAY (Part 15)

When I first started this series, Dirk from Sexy Loser made the comment

I'm curious to see your choices though when it comes to The Clash: this will not be an easy task by all means, I would like to think!!"

For the past 5 months I have shied away from featuring The Clash on a Friday, Dirk was right about it not being an easy task, but in truth that has been the case with many of the bands or singers that I've featured.

The biggest difference with The Clash however, is that the six studio albums released between 1977 and 1985 - The Clash, Give 'Em Enough Rope, London Calling, Sandanista, Combat Rock and Cut The Crap - were completely different beasts from one another.

Where some bands had a gradual shift in their sound over their career, The Clash had a series of quantum leaps. It would be easy enough to just pick five non-single tracks from either of their debut LP or from London Calling and leave it at that. You could make the claim on the basis of five great punk songs from the former or five great rock songs from the latter. And it was tempting to go down that road. But I didn't. And I bet there's no-one out there who will agree that these are the best 5 non-singles that the band made available as LP tracks:-

mp3 : The Clash - Clampdown
mp3 : The Clash - Janie Jones
mp3 : The Clash - Safe European Home
mp3 : The Clash - Stay Free
mp3 : The Clash - Washington Bullets


It's all very personal a list like this.

There's loads I love from the debut LP. It was tough to leave out tracks like Career Opportunites, Police & Thieves and Garageland in particular. The reason Janie Jones made the cut is down to it being the opening track. Whenever as a teenager I put this record on and the needle hit the groove to bring the opening notes through the speakers, I knew I was in for 30-odd minutes of unadulterated pleasure.

Perversely, while I'm not a huge fan of the second LP, it is the only one that gets two tracks. Safe European Home is up there as one of my all time favourites by the band, including the singles, while there can't ever have been a better song written as a tribute to a best mate than Stay Free.

London Calling is a work I still listen a lot to these days. There's so much to admire about it, especially how much of a radical change it was for a band that was seen as the last great act of the punk era from just three years previous. Again, there could have been five from this record alone, but in the end just Clampdown makes the cut. That it did is probably because of the mood I've been in this past week - frustrated and angry about a lot of things - and when I'm like that I'm fond of playing Clampdown at high volume.

Only Washington Bullets makes it from the last three studio albums. Again, its all to do with personal circumstances. Political protest songs were a big thing for me in the 1980s, whether it be about the way the UK was being governed by Thatcher, the evils of apartheid or the injustices in place like Nicaragua. That Joe Strummer, at a time when much of the USA was beginning to take him and his band to their bosoms, put out such a vitriolic attack on the work of the CIA and mercenaries.....with such a catchy sing-along tune to boot. As I said, its all personal.......

Please.....feel very free to differ.

Oh and here's a great live clip:-



Happy Listening