more random tunes

Lots of random songs on the iPod recently. Some good ones, some... not so good ones... see if you can figure out which is which...

 

“Move On” – from Lodger, and one of Bowie’s most under-rated songs I reckon. Superb control in his vocals, that galloping rhythm track which is very Eno, and the dreamy, hazy chorus which is actually “All The Young Dudes” backwards!  

 

“Midnight Sun” – David Sylvian live in 2001. Much better than the rather ponderous studio version, this has a startlingly loud guitar break and then a bonkers jazzed up piano solo to help it along. DS sounds extremely lugubrious as he groans out the vocal, but it’s actually all rather good. 

 

“Hey Hey” – Neil Young and the Blue Notes from This Note’s For You. Possibly the worst song on the album, this is frankly rubbish. Absurdly ‘jolly’ and irritating. There are some truly excellent tracks on the Blue Notes record, but these are mainly the atmospheric ballads like “Twilight” or “One Thing”. When Neil tries a soul rave up type number like this he comes dreadfully unstuck. 

 

“Sally Can’t Dance” – now this is quite a good Lou Reed song, but on 1984's Live In Italy it’s terrible. Hoarse shouty vocals that only occasionally fit the tune and a very lacklustre performance from the usually reliable Robert Quine era band. A waste. 

 

“Warnography” – this is much better, despite the poor sonic quality. Brian Eno and J Peter Schwalm playing one of the very few live gigs they did in 2001, at the Mt. Fuji Rock Festival. I so wish this had been released properly. It was scheduled at one point, when Eno started putting out those Curiosities discs, but seeing as those faltered after just two, the rest of the cupboard clearing didn’t happen either, which is a terrible shame as Eno's cupboards must contain all manner of goodies. This is funky and quite considerably more fun than Drawn From Life. A cracking band, including the brilliant Leo Abrahams on guitar, and everyone having a great time. 

 

“Stupid Man” – more Lou Reed, but this is one of my all time Lou favourites, from The Bells, an album that no-one else seems to like except me. There’s something oddly appealing about the bouncy melody and Lou’s rather bizarre attempts to really sing. It’s short and fun and immensely catchy. As is… 

 

“Hanging On The Telephone” – what a classic Blondie single this is. Punchy power pop at it's best. Just brilliant. 

 

“Fun Time” – Peter Murphy's very silly ‘Cabaret’ version of Iggy’s classic. Was it really recorded in a late night club? Still makes laugh though. 

 

“Ramada Inn” – Neil Young and Crazy Horse at Red Rocks in 2012. One of the very best of his very long songs – this one runs to 15 minutes – and is wonderful, and oddly moving too. Classic Horse set up - verse, chorus, guitar wig out, verse, chorus, guitar wig out, repeat ad infinitum... Very nearly perfect. Really. 

 

“Here Comes Your Man” which is one of the best Pixies songs I reckon. I quite like this band, but the loud, angry, noisy Pixies tunes can get very tiresome I feel, whereas they can do really strong power pop stuff like “Here Comes Your Man” really really well, and it’s this side of them that appeals to me the most. This is nice and melodic too, like REM in their later IRS days.

 

And then the absolute 5 star classic that is Television's “Marquee Moon”. Various live versions made me forget quite how amazing this studio track actually is. It’s incredibly tight but also surprisingly loose too. Verlaine’s strangled goat vocals, those slashing chords with the answered twiddly bits, the drumming, that superb solo in the middle, the big wind up towards the end, everything just works brilliantly, and yet this was astonishingly issued at the height of punk when anything longer than three minutes was frowned on, and lengthy jazzy guitar solos were right out! Yet Television were still, weirdly, classed as a punk band, despite being streets ahead of most other punk groups in both songwriting and instrumental prowess. An amazing achievement, and a song that has rarely been bettered, by anyone. 

 

“Under The Boardwalk”. Tom Tom Club do a cracking version of this one, with the Weymouth sisters’ naïve vocals over a seriously funky rhythm track. It doesn’t actually sound terribly dated, maybe a consequence of covering a fairly timeless song. TTC never did anything terribly serious, and this one, as with most of their songs, always cheers me up.

 

“Into Tomorrow” – a marvellous track from Paul Weller, from 20+ years ago. This was on his first solo album after he’d ditched the Style Council and reinvented himself as a slightly psychedelic rocker. There’s some dullness on his 90s albums, but the good tracks are tremendous and the live album recorded after Wild Wood (called Live Wood) has some lengthy tracks that remind me of Neil Young and Crazy Horse doing their best guitar work outs. Anyway, “Into Tomorrow” just rocks. Great to hear this again. 

 

“Fade To Grey” – here it is again, Visage with the best New Romantic song ever, and one of my favourite songs of all time. Nothing more to say. 

 

“City Of Dreams” from Talking Heads’ True Stories. What a lovely song this is. Must be years since I’ve last played it and I really enjoyed hearing it again. It's a shame that True Stories (the film) doesn't seem to be available on DVD. I had the video once upon a time and it was a very funny film. 

 

“Silver Machine” – Hawkwind!! Ha ha ha! What a mad and utterly spaced out track. Totally bonkers, and quite brilliant. The very definition of Space Rock. Man. 

 

“Money” - the Flying Lizards’ unique take on Berry Gordy’ Motown classic. Again it’s been a while and I’d forgotten quite how bizarre the Lizards’ version actually was. However was this a hit?? 

 

“Big Love” – Fleetwood Mac. Probably their last decent hit, but what a good one. Remember the video to this? The camera appears to be constantly pulling back from the action as multiple Lindsay Buckinghams keep appearing and singing away as they fade out of shot. Extremely clever, and probably extremely expensive for 1986. Superb song, it builds to a wonderfully breathless climax. 

 

“Europa & The Pirate Twins” – this was the first Thomas Dolby song I was aware of and it still sounds pretty good today. Perhaps a touch too frantic for it’s own good, but, like most Dolby songs, it’s stuffed full of inventive touches and clever production. 

 

And just when I thought I wasn’t going get any more Bowie, up popped perhaps the weirdest track he’s ever committed to tape. “Little Toy Soldier” was recorded with The Riot Squad in the spring of 1967, not long after he’d recorded his first proper album for Deram. The Riot Squad was a London band who were like an unsuccessful mix of the Mothers of Invention and the Bonzos. Bowie apparently loved their anarchic shows and the Riot Squad, thinking that having a good looking young singer / songwriter amongst their weirdo outfit might increase their ‘teen appeal’, asked him to join them. He played a handful of shows with this outfit during the spring and early summer of 1967 before it became apparent that he wasn’t a terribly good fit. However, around March 1967, he did persuade them to record the first ever cover of “Waiting For The Man” and a Bowie original (well nearly) called “Little Toy Soldier”.

In late 1966, Bowie’s manager, Ken Pitt, had been in talks with Andy Warhol to bring the Exploding Plastic Inevitable to the UK and he’d been given a copy of the as yet unreleased VU and Nico album, which he gave to David as a present for Christmas 1966. Bowie must have been the first person in the UK to have a copy of this seminal album. “Little Toy Soldier” is the loopy tale of a girl called Sadie and her wind up little toy soldier - but one day she winds him too much and he explodes in a mad mash up of Goon-like sound effects, raspberry explosions and, er,  the speaking clock… And the chorus is cheekily stolen entirely from the Velvets’ “Venus In Furs”. 

 

And finally, a little sanity is restored by “Forbidden Colours”, the original version not the Brilliant Trees era reworking. Pretty though the remake is, I prefer this original as I just love Sakamoto’s synths on this. It’s a really beautiful song, and I can’t believe it’s now well over 30 years old… Where does the time go…