autumnal shuffling

Whilst sometimes the shuffle feature on the iPod can be a pain – churning out stuff I just don’t want to hear at that particular time, sometimes though it can be brilliant. Like recently.

I would never plan to play some of these songs one after another. But over the past couple of days I’ve heard - 

“Punky’s Whips” from a Frank Zappa concert in 1978, mad, silly and very funny, with a storming solo to boot. It not only rocks hard, but like many Zappa tracks, it's fearsomely complex and tries to wrongfoot the unwary listener at every turn. 

“Pale Blue Eyes” – Patti Smith live in 1976 – she does a fine job on this Lou Reed song, and for even more garage rock cred, she segues it into a laid back “Louie Louie”. Cracking stuff. 

“Birdy’s Flight” from Peter Gabriel’s brilliant Birdy soundtrack – one of my favourite PG albums – all those drums, those seesawing guitars. It's basically a rework of "Not One Of Us" but it's given an intense urgency here that is truly thrilling. 

“Stray Sinatra Neuron” from John Foxx, all chilly synths and general marvellousness. 

“Drive My Car” – one of the best Beatles songs ever surely? How can you not sing along? Beep Beep YEAH!! 

“Star Of The Age” – an epic sounding track from Shearwater’s most recent album, the severely under-rated Animal Joy. Terrific band – I recommend their tremendous Rook album from a few years ago. Really good stuff. 

Something fantastic from the soundtrack of Forbidden Planet. Electronic noises and otherworldly swoops created by Louis and Bebe Barron. Because neither composer belonged to the Musician's Union, and because no conventional instruments were used, the soundtrack wasn't allowed to be called music at all - instead the term 'electronic tonalities' was used. Clearly the BBC Radiophonic Workshop was listening and a great many William Hartnell Doctor Whos had very similar electronic tonalities and moods. Really marvellous stuff – it still sounds totally futuristic now. 

“So Alone” – Lou Reed at his funniest, with this sarcastic and very self-referential little track from Growing Up In Public. 

“I Wanna Be Your Dog” – the Stooges live in Tokyo 2004 – arguably the best version I’ve ever heard of this one. Iggy shouts “Go CRAZY!!!” as the song starts but the audience needs no encouragement. Judging from the cheers Iggy stage dives as Ron takes a savage solo – this really is a fantastic recording. 

“Island” – The Edge and Michael Brook doing beautiful stuff with infinite guitars for the film soundtrack Captive. Never seen the film, but the soundtrack is fab. 

“Reactor” – from the early version of Eno's Music For Films. This is a nicely discordant and very short little vignette. I like those discarded MFF tracks, some weird and very experimental stuff there. 

“Dance Floor” – a wonderfully tinny synth leads this track from Our Daughter’s Wedding. Not as good as their classic “Lawn Chairs” (but then not much is…), but a neat little curio of early synth pop, with a very New York / New Wave vocal. 

“Big Wheels In Shanty Town” – this is the excellent Rain Tree Crow track, but played by Jansen Barbieri and Karn on their 2001 JBK tour. This tour also featured Steven Wilson on guitar (as if the man wasn’t busy enough!) and the resulting live album Playing In A Room With People is pretty good. It’s still weird how Mick Karn could play rubbery bass and saxophone at the same time, (although I suspect he cheated with tapes…) but this is a solid, if unspectacular album. 

“Fljotavik” from Sigur Ros, a nicely low key, piano-led ballad, with Jonsi holding back to deliver a very pretty vocal, no acrobatics. 

“Drugs” – Talking Heads live in Amsterdam November 1980. This is, quite possibly, even better than the best ever version on TNOTBITH. Adrian Belew adds all sorts of animalistic groans and squeals, the keyboards throb menacingly and Byrne sings his socks off. 

“Seesaw Sway” - a top tune from the Peter Murphy's album Ninth. Catchy as hell, but sadly never a hit. 

Something from Philip Glass’ Satyagraha – completely incomprehensible as it’s in Sanskrit, but absolutely spellbinding all the same. 

This was followed by “Opening” from Glassworks, which is just gorgeous, one of the prettiest, most delicate, melodies Glass has ever written. 

“Hot Pants Explosion” – I laughed along with the B52s. Huge fun, masses of energy and enthusiasm, and Fred at his campest (and that’s saying something…). The ending is truly absurd - as the song bounces to a halt Fred says ‘these pants are sooooo hot, I might just have to take ‘em offff…’ Well it’s funny when he says it!

Something from United States – Laurie Anderson burbling on about how TV signals have been beaming across space all these years – so she suggest that basically the first space travellers are cowboys and game show contestants…

“4th Of July” – U2’s attempt at a Music For Films type track. It’s lovely, and a brave thing for them to have put onto The Unforgettable Fire. 

“The Man With The Golden Gun” – OK so the lyrics are somewhat silly with some rather schoolboyish sniggery double entendres, but Lulu really belts it out and John Barry’s music is, as always, top notch. 

“Berlin” – the original, and rather more jaunty, version from Lou Reed’s 1971 solo album. Whilst I like the extra verses I would have preferred the more downbeat approach used on the Berlin album. It’s not so bad really until the very last bit where the band vamps it up and utterly ruins the mood. I would ask ‘what was Lou thinking?’ but I suspect that during the making of this album Lou wasn’t entirely on planet earth, so I doubt he even noticed…

“White Man’s Hut” – an early It’s Immaterial single. Strange but strangely appealing. Vaguely Talking Heads-ish, but with cheery woodblock percussion and kids helping out on the chorus. It all sounds rather more accomplished that you’d imagine from a bunch of musicians who apparently had little idea what they were doing. It’s a far cry from their later masterpiece album Song, which was far more Blue Nile in sound. 

“Delia’s Gone” – One of Johnny Cash’s superb American Recordings. “I’d’ve had her for my wife if I hadn’t’ve shot her down…“ - way to cheer us all up Johnny! 

“It’s Better This Way” – This is bonkers, as are most Associates songs, but it hangs together remarkably well. Frantic doesn't even begin to describe the drumming. 

“Burning Sky” – early Porcupine Tree, basically a cool groove and an excuse for a spiralling psychedelic guitar freak out. Nowt wrong with that! The audience in the Hague like it too, although it sounds like there’s only a handful of people there. 

“Seven Years In Tibet” – Bowie live in Budapest 1997 with the Earthling band, so lots of mad guitars, spooky organ work and weird distortion on some of the vocals. DB sings like a demon on the pounding choruses. One of Bowie’s oddest songs of this period, and also one of my favourites. I assume the two things are linked...