august shuffling

Some shuffling on the iPod today (I've not done that for a while) and I've heard - 

"Marian" from the Sisters of Mercy - Goth heaven! To be honest this is closer to the sound of the Mission which Wayne Hussey was shortly to form, but whatever it's a terrific song, and Eldritch's vocals are wonderful. the word 'subterranean' seems appropriate... 

"Artists Only" - a Talking Heads demo from late 1975 when the band was still a trio, yet the song is fully formed, and although not quite as obviously loopy as the More Songs... version, it's still a very peculiar piece. Very! 

"In Power We Entrust The Love Advocated" - Brendan Perry live in 1999. A lovely rendition of an always brilliant song. This is played very close to the DCD original and Brendan's vocals are just magnificent. 

"Cold Metal" - Lord Igworth of Pop, live in 1993 with his band blasting through this one at breakneck speed and Iggy at his most manic. Lots of almost unintelligible screaming and swearing as the song begins and Iggy singing ferociously as the song gets going. He's either really really cross about something, or really really happy. It's absolutely impossible to tell which! Not the best performance of this track however. 

"People" from King Crimson's THRAK. I love this track, it's about as poppy as Crimson ever got - it's pretty much an Adrian Belew song, but played by the Crims. Great singalong chorus too. Very catchy. 

"Big Science" - the live version from United States. Brilliant. Just brilliant. Laurie Anderson has always been so impressive as a performer, and her songs somehow seem sadder and more emotional in a live setting. This has a very wistful, melancholy mood, much more so than the studio track. 

"Fill Your Heart" - David Bowie from the recent 2015 master of Hunky Dory. It may a be a silly bit of space filling fluff, but it's probably the jauntiest song I own. There's that impossibly happy vocal, the bouncy trumpet, the sprightly piano and I'm running out of 'jaunty' synonyms, but you know what I mean. 

"PPP" from last year's Beach House album Depression Cherry. Vaguely Cocteau Twins / shoegaze ish, but more summery and American. Ish. Good band though, and their last album Bloom is really terrific. The new ones I haven't got really used to yet, they're less immediate, but rather good. 

"Lighthouse" - the first demo that no-man made for this brilliant song. It dates from 1994 (the finished track ended up on Returning Jesus in 2001). Although it's fairly primitive (the drum machine is basic in the extreme) most parts of this long song are in place (including some parts that were later dropped) and it's a lovely alternative. Tim Bowness' vocals are stunning, as always, even on a demo.

"Driving Me Wild" from Bryan Ferry's Avonmore. This was a great remix which can be found on his soundcloud pages. Unlike many Ferry remixes which are very dull and lifeless without any input from the man himself, this one runs to seven minutes, but sounds as if it's simply the full length version of the song. Wonderful track. 

"Andean" - Michael Brook live in 1992. Really good stuff. Brook was always good value live, busily fiddling with dials and buttons whilst striking infinite guitar notes and controlling programmed beats.  

"The Only Daughter" from cheery Mr Sylvian's bleakest album Blemish. All glitchy and buzzing electronics. Maybe it's time and familiarity, but this didn't seem quite as forbidding or as cold as the last time I heard it. After 13 years I think I'm warming to it!

"Golden Years" - classic Bowie doesn't get much better than this. This was the 7" single which sadly fades out a little earlier than the STS album version soon after DB starts his nonchalant whistling. It's a brilliant production - ultra slick, very cool, love the handclaps and almost lazy sounding percussion. It's danceable for sure, but very laid back danceable, not really breaking much of a sweat. 

"The Bends" - haven't heard this Radiohead track for ages. It ROCKS. I've rather lost touch with Radiohead. Their last couple of albums are impressive but I don't find them very likeable, and don't really feel the need to play them. This one is 20+ years old, but really doesn't sound like it. A very punchy modern sound. 

"A Gift" from Lou Reed's Coney Island Baby. Funny stuff. Again it's a very laid back song, jaunty almost, but those lyrics are so self mocking aren't they? You can actually hear the knowing grin on Lou's face as he sings, in mock seriousness "I'm just a gift to the women of this world..."

"The Rest Will Flow" - a lovely sunny Porcupine Tree track from Lightbulb Sun, which is probably their most commercial and poppy album. Interestingly Wilson would soon after hook up with Aviv Geffen in Blackfield who really carried on with this delightful 3 minute pop song approach, while PT switched to a rather harder sound with In Absentia and Deadwing. I wonder if he'd not met Geffen whether Wilson would have let PT have more of his more commercial songs? 

"Ghosts" - Japan. Utterly perfect. How it became a top 5 hit I've no idea, but it's a brilliant song. 

"The Real" - from Eno's Drums Between The Bells. Excellent ambient backing track, with various backwards things happening, but I'm still not convinced by the female narration. It would be better, I think, either with Brian himself doing the monologue, or just as an instrumental. In fact the Drums instrumental disc is, I feel, considerably more successful than the vocal disc. Oh well. 

"Fire Of Unknown Origin" - a weird Patti Smith track (b side of "Because The Night" I think), but frankly not very good. Patti is very whiney, there's little discernable tune and it's a bit of a waste of time to be honest. 

"Heidegger's Silence" from Jan Bang's excellent …And Poppies From Kandahar. Wonderfully moody and mysterious and exotic. This is a cracking album, and a great companion record to Uncommon Deities. 

"Pocket Calculator" - Kraftwerk live in 1990, on my birthday in fact, in Bologna. Trying out the new Mix versions of songs, this is a brilliant concert. Some stuff is all shiny and new - like the spiffed up Mix version of "The Robots", some is still the old style Kraftwerk ("Radioactivity" is very much the 1975 original version) and some - like this one - are a kind of mix of the two. Excellent quality audience recording - I must play this whole gig again soon, it's terrific. 

"Fear Of A Blank Planet" - Porcupine Tree live in 1998. Really pounding version of an already heavy song. There's a fearsome relentless quality to this song. Brilliant.

random tunes on a sunny thursday

First up "Sue (or In A Season Of Crime)" (I love the silly pretentious title BTW) from David Bowie. This isn't the shortened, more intense Blackstar version, but the longer weirder single that was issued at the end of 2014. It's decidedly odd, that's for certain, but it's perhaps not quite as bonkers as it first appeared, with some oddly catchy melodies werning their way throughout the song. Bowie's vocals are wonderful, soaring, very stagey, almost acted out. Best of all though was the fact that Bowie used it as the opening song on his Nothing Has Changed best of compilation. For anyone expecting something like "Life On Mars?" this was quite a shock!

 

"Jane 12" from Harold Budd's album Jane 12-21 (the follow up album to Jane 1-11 as if you hadn't guessed...). These are all pieces played for Jane Maru, an artist friend of Harold's. Unsurprisingly, the music is quiet and gentle, fluttering by as if blown by a summer's breeze, and it's all extremely pretty. So, business as usual for HB. What's slightly more unusual is that these tracks are all improvisations - Budd set himself the task recording at least one piece per day, and once recorded he didn't revisit the pieces or embellish them in any way.

 

"Evening Star" from Fripp and Eno's concert in Paris, 28 May 1975. This gig has been bootlegged since 1975 but a few years ago it was finally available to buy officially. I first heard this concert in the mid 1980s when I got the bootleg on cassette from a cracking stall on Chelmsford market. Yet, despite listening to this gig SO many times during the past 30ish years, it still sounds fresh and exciting and reveals new depths and sounds to me every time I hear it - how is this possible?  

 

"Reap The Wild Wind" from Ultravox's Quartet. A fine track, continuing Ultravox's run of early 80s hits, but to me it lacks something. I think part of the problem is Sir George Martin's production. On previous albums Ultravox had collaborated with Conny Plank and both Rage In Eden and Vienna nicely mix German influenced synth rock with chilly cold war soundscapes. Conny really brought out the best in Ultravox. But just a year after Rage, with the exact same band, same instrumentation, same style of songs, Quartet sounds surprisingly dated and staid and oddly static. George Martin was the wrong man for the job - "Reap The Wild Wind" is a good song, but Sir George's production makes it somehow sound like an Ultravox pastiche. 

 

This one crops up quite a lot, and I don't know why, but I love hearing it - especially on headphones... "I Heard Her Call My Name" from the Velvet Undergound's White Light / White Heat. Noise, distortion, really horrid sounds, brain piercingly nasty guitars, instruments literally giving up the ghost whilst they were actually being recorded, it's all here. The album basically tries to melt your brain from the inside out and this track, with it's horrendously shrill guitar, is the ringleader. Objectively this is a horrible noise, but I absolutely love it!

 

"Lovers Of Today" - The Pretenders first album is often more remembered for the vaguely punky songs, stuff like "Precious" for example, or the swaggering attitude of "Brass In Pocket". But there's a surprising number of very tender songs on this album. For a start, "Kid" is just delightful. What a perfect little pop song. And this one, the rather epic "Lovers Of Today" is fantastic, with some soaring guitarwork, and Chrissie Hynde crooning a lovely vocal. Must play this album again soon.

 

U2's recentish album, Songs Of Innocence, struck me as a return to form, though I've really not played it very much. It's not up there with Achtung Baby or The Unforgettable Fire, but there's a lot more solid songwriting on this album than we've had recently. It feels like a proper album too, it's not too long, and the production is clean and simple, rather than the bloated overproduced pudding-y sound of the last couple of U2 albums. On shuffle today "Every Breaking Wave" came across like a really classic U2 track, with a charmingly old school feel and Bono delivering a genuinely emotional and affecting vocal.

 

"Lighthouse" from no-man's live album Love And Endings, recorded on their short 2012 tour in the rock'n'roll capital of the UK, um, Leamington Spa…

This is a superb album though, really brilliant performances on every track, with the stunning "Lighthouse" being my absolute favourite. Darkly emotional stuff, rising from a gentle opening to a sharply arpegiated mid section to some crashing chords and squalling guitars underpinning a new couple of verses specially added for this performance. It's beautiful and breath-taking and epic and intimate and I wish, so badly, that no-man would record and perform some more.

 

Finally it was the burbling weirdness and ultra mournful cellos of "Birth Of Liquid Plejades" from Tangerine Dream. It's the opening track of the double album Zeit from 1972 and it's one of my favourite tracks ever, by anyone. It's absolutely magical. 

The opening part is all droning cellos, sad but resolute. But about halfway through the side long track it changes into something spacey, like being beamed through a wormhole into another dimension, as an organ takes centre stage while bizarre synths bubble away alongside. I've obviously never been to Space, but somehow this is exactly what I'd imagine being in Space would sound like. And if it doesn't sound like this, then it really ought to! This music is so genuinely otherworldly that it's rather disappointing to learn that it was merely recorded in a cheap studio in Cologne during the summer of 1972, and not on Alpha Centauri, light years in the future. However, despite being nearly 45 years old it still sounds music from somewhere beyond time.

randomoniums

Here's what the iPod has shuffled for me recently –

"Party Of Special Things To Do" from the wonderful Captain Beefheart. Great intro, just the good Captain intoning "The camel wore a nightie, at the party of special things to dooooo". So there we are… the song itself is surprisingly conventional sounding and comes from no-one's favourite Beefheart album Bluejeans And Moonbeams. 

"Warning Sign" - a 1976 Talking Heads demo. The band as a trio, before Jerry Harrison joined. Aside from some different lyrics and Byrne sounding strangely calm, far less nervy than usual, it's not wildly different from the eventual version on MSABAF. 

"The Needle And The Damage Done" - Neil at the O2 in 2013, the show I saw. This song never changes. Always impressive.

"Wrecking Ball" - Emmylou's version, but with Neil on backing vocals. Beautiful, really beautiful.

"Dark Matter" - the final, extremely moody track on Porcupine Tree's 1996 album Signify. It's also quite brilliant. One of Steven Wilson's most impressive songs ever I reckon, understated and restrained for the most part but with a glorious, almost Pink Floydish guitar solo to close the piece.

"1984" - the opening track from David Live, which is an awesome album, despite Bowie's occasionally hoarse vocals (partly the result of too much of Colombia's finest up his nose) and the clear tensions in the band. You know the story - no-one told the band that the shows were to be recorded so bass player Herbie Flowers appointed himself as shop steward and told Bowie's management - MainMain - that the band would strike unless they were paid at a proper recording rate. Manager Tony DeFries managed to avoid the conflict by simply disappearing and Bowie himself had to guarantee that the band would be properly reimbursed. Flowers, perhaps predictably, wasn't paid as promised by the end of the tour and ended up suing MainMan to get his money…Anyway, we ended up with a surprisingly impressive live album, even if Bowie himself hated it. 

"Fortune Presents Gifts Not According To The Book" from Dead Can Dance's album Aion. This is an odd one - I'm sure it's no-one's favourite DCD album, yet it contains a number of really fabulous tracks. And although it seems like the whole album is some sort of pseudo medieval pastiche, there's still a few tracks that are played on very modern tech.

In fact you could say that when you expect flutes it's whistles, and when you expect whistles it's flutes!

Hey, it's not often you get to do a Dead Can Dance joke... Anyway, it's a much better album than my memory tells me, and one which has definitely grown on me over the years. I remember being very disappointed by it back in 1990. Too much hurdy gurdying for my liking.

There's still an odd feeling to some tracks, like "Salterello" or "Mephisto" - pieces which clearly want to evoke the feeling that a 15th century jester is playing the tunes. These, for me, don't quite work because I can't help thinking that Neil Innes and his minstrels from Monty Python And The Holy Grail are going to start singing about how -

"Brave Sir Robin bravely ran away / when danger reared its ugly head / he bravely turned his tail and fled / oh, brave Sir Robin turned about / so gallantly he chickened out."

"Er, that's enough singing for now lads," suggests Brave Sir Robin....  

Back to "Fortune Presents Gifts Not According To The Book" - I really love this song, Brendan's vocal is commanding and warm and rich, and the song is a genuine oldie from the 16th century Spanish Hit Parade. Really. 

"Do You Like My New Car?" - much silliness from the 1971 Zappa band as they go through their extremely rude, but actually rather funny groupie routine. It was semi rehearsed but changed every night with updates of what the various band members had been doing, or rather who they'd been doing… 

"We Do What We're Told (Milgram's 37)" - one of my favourite Peter Gabriel songs ever. The gradual build up of the chorus vocals chanting "We do what we're told", is chillingly effective (reflecting the chilling effectiveness of Stanley Milgram's experiments) and I love all the Eno-esque bleeps and bloops of the backing track.

"Revelator" from Gillian Welch's Time (The Revelator) - a stunningly good song from an extremely excellent album. cropped up on shuffle yesterday. There are a handful of songs on this record that are a little too banjo and straw-hat for my tastes, but then you get songs like the brilliant title song, or "April The 14th" or "Elvis Presley Blues" or the truly gorgeous "I Dream A Highway" which are just wonderful and the slightly worrying yeehaw-ness of those other tracks is all forgiven. Perhaps driving to Chelmsford across the Essex countryside doesn't really do this album justice - I need to be driving across endless plains in Nebraska or Texas, dusty and parched, in a old pick up. But the Dunmow / Chelmsford road will have to do for now. Useless factoid - Tom Jones covered "Elvis Presley Blues" on his latest album! 

"Transmission" - Peter Murphy live in 2009 blasting out a superb cover of this Joy Division song. PM does JD really well, very effective. 

"Where You End" - lovely Moby song from the excellent Hotel album. He's so good at writing very simple, but very good pop songs. I wish he'd do more like this. 

"God Save The Queen" - we mean it maaaann…. It's funny how terribly tame the Pistols sound these days. It's a cracking little song, but it's hard to see why the Pistols caused such a horrendous outcry. It's a bit insulting about Her Maj, but in a rather childish way, like a silly kid saying a rude word in front of a vicar. I suppose it was nearly 40 years ago now (!!) and I guess Britain was far more easily shocked back then. 

random tunes on thursday

With the iPod on shuffle, this is what I've heard today...

 

Some moody Doctor Who music from Tom Baker's second story The Ark In Space. Lovely stuff from Who's regular composer Dudley Simpson. This guy worked wonders, creating compelling atmospheres from a small group of, mainly, woodwind players.

Iggy Pop - "Five Foot One" live in 1979. A really strong performance - the band featured the cream of UK punk - Glen Matlock from the Pistols and Brian James from the Damned, and they were a superb foil for some of Iggy's most impassioned stage shows.

Giles Giles and Fripp - "The Crukster" - a weird spoken word thing with some impossible, frantic guitar runs underneath the narration. Bonkers. And almost unbelievable that within a year, these guys would have effectively morphed into King Crimson.

Zappa Plays Zappa - a live, note perfect rendition of the fiendishly difficult "RDNZL". Breathtaking stuff. You'd think the percussion alone would take years to master!

Tim Bowness / Peter Chilvers - "Winter With You" - the sparser version from Overstrand and quite possibly one of the best songs in the world. Really. Absolutely stunning. Brings me to tears almost every time.  

Lou Reed / John Cale - "Open House" - I'd forgotten how good the Songs For Drella album can be. When Lou was on form there was almost no-one to beat him, and this is cracking. Superbly arranged too, thanks to John Cale, and with beautifully pitched vocals. 

Harold Budd / Robin Guthrie - something with impossibly pretty piano and shimmery guitars, you know how it sounds...  

Daniel Lanois / Emmylou Harris - "May This Be Love" live in 1995 on the Wrecking Ball tour. Gorgeous. These two should work together some more - they bring out the absolute best in each other. Emmylou's voice is so lovely on this Hendrix song and Dan and the band kick up a firestorm of noise behind her.

Iggy again - "Dog Food" also live in 1979 but a really shambolic performance. Iggy's obviously somewhat, er, distracted and whereas he's usually spot on with his vocals (even when he's ingested enough stimulants to send him to another planet), here he's missing cues and just splurging the vocals out wherever he wants, regardless of the structure of the song. A right mess.

David Bowie - "And I Say To Myself". I love his 1960s songs; this one is real delight as his backing band the Buzz chant the backing vocals offhandedly back at Dave. Although none of his songs became hits in the 1960s (not until "Space Oddity" at the very end of the decade) it's sometimes hard to fathom why, as most of his songs were catchy and delightful, frequently with a welcome sense of gentle self mockery.

The Pineapple Thief - "Magnolia" - the title song from their 2014 album. It's a really solid record. 12 short snappy grown up rock songs in 45 minutes, which gives the sense that TPT were doing their level best to avoid the Prog Rock tag that frequently follows them). There's a surprising tenderness on this album which was somewhat missing from the more muscular vaguely Radiohead / Muse-ish sound of the previous couple of albums.

And finally...

 

Yet more Iggy! - "Nightclubbing" from The Idiot. In an interview conducted in late 1976 Iggy described the sound of his forthcoming debut solo album as "James Brown meets Kraftwerk". I'd argue that most of The Idiot sounds nothing like that description, except for just one track - "Nightclubbing". Harsh drum machines, big fat synths, but it's also, oddly, impossibly, rather funky. I love the two tiered vocal on the second verse, I love the wailing wah-wahed guitar at the end, it's just a superb track. And a brilliant production too - it sounds like nothing else on Earth.

thursday shuffling songs

A random collection of tunes for a Thursday:

 

"Temple Of Love" - the original 1983 12" from the Sisters Of Mercy. Entirely bonkers, but also entirely brilliant. Doktor Avalanche the drum machine is working overtime on this one. 

 

"Fur Immer" from the second NEU! album. Solid motorik drumming (not a million miles from the Sisters were doing with the good Doktor 10 years later) and lotsa wibbly guitar stuff. Perfect for driving to. 

 

"Way Out Of Here" from Porcupine Tree's Fear Of A Blank Planet. One of my absolute favourite PT songs. I love the way that Wilson sketches out the desire of the teen to disappear completely (something of a preoccupation in his lyrics I feel). If you get a chance to see it, the video is rather good too. Some stunning soundscapes from That Awful Man Fripp over the lengthy fade out. 

 

"Helen Of Troy" - a not very good live recording of Cale teetering on the edge of sanity in 1984. He sounds dangerous and scary to be quite honest, like someone you'd really want to avoid. The rough garage band approach of his musicians doesn't really suit this song either. 

 

"The Man In The Moon" - Adrian Belew's rather touching song about how he wants to be reunited on the moon with his recently departed father. 

 

"In Power We Entrust The Love Advocated" - surely one of the best tracks Dead Can Dance ever recorded, certainly one of Brendan Perry's career highlights. Just brilliant. 

 

"Utopia" - speaking of whom - this was a live recording of Brendan Perry in 2011 with this cracker from his Ark album. Great recording, off the soundboard, and a stunning performance too. As a young man, earnest, bearded, floppy hair, BP's rich baritone didin't really seem to suit how he looked. Now, stockier, bald, with greying goatee and stern expression, his voice seems to suit him rather better. 

"Slave To Love" - Bryan Ferry live in 2014. It sounds a little rushed, but then Ferry often seems to speed up songs in concert, as if he's in hurry to get home to watch Newsnight. This is always a popular live track, and Ferry and his band(s) always do it justice.

"Nowhere Man" from a bunch of unknown scousers who never amounted to much. What a very pretty, and sad, melody this song has.
 

"1917" - a 1999 b-side from Mr Bowie. An odd, synthy instrumental from the …hours sessions which kind of nicks the riff from Led Zep's "Kashmir". It's very inconsequential but very likeable. 

 

"I Don't Want To Go To Chelsea" - I only have a handful of Elvis Costello songs on the iPod, and this is one of the best. It sounds very dated, very much a late 1970s new wave sound, but Elvis' sneer is at it's peak here, which is always good. 

 

"How Does It Feel?" - yup, Slade. Noddy and the boys going all ballad-y for a change. Reminds me of my childhood - I really loved Slade when I was 6 and 7. 

 

"A Fire In The Forest" - Sylvian live in 2004 in Tokyo. This is a soundboard recording, and is better than the Blemish studio version I reckon. Great vocal from DS, deeply emotional.

"In Vogue" - another of those weird coincidences - there's no way the iPod could know that there's a link between Japan and Sylvian (just as it couldn't possibly guess the link between Brendan Perry and DCD) but here we go. This is Japan live in Tokyo in 1980. Another soundboard recording too, but one that has suffered a little over the years. It's pretty good, but a little wobbly in places and with a bit of hiss. But what a cracking version of "In Vogue".

 

"God Only Knows" - Bowie's slow and string laden version of the Beach Boys' song from the Tonight album in 1984. Most critics really really hate this, and offer it as proof that Bowie had really lost his way in the 1980s, but I have something of a soft spot for this version. And, it can't be denied, Bowie really sings his socks off on this one.

 

Speaking of Brian Wilson, I read this fascinating story about him the other day. It's from an interview with Alice Cooper and relates to a situation at the 1974 Grammy's, a period when Wilson was probably at his most, er, lost.

 

“I was sitting backstage after the 1974 Grammys with Bernie Taupin and John Lennon.

Brian Wilson came up to the table, bent down and whispered in my ear ‘Hey Alice, introduce me to John Lennon.’

I couldn’t BELIEVE that these two men had never met! They were virtually neck and neck in the 60’s as the greatest bands on the planet, and I’m SURE they must have crossed paths at some point. But then I thought to myself, ‘Wow, if they REALLY have never met, I’m going to be the one to introduce them and become a part of rock history!’ So I merely said, ‘Brian Wilson, this is John Lennon. John Lennon, this is Brian Wilson.’

Lennon was very cordial and polite, saying things like ‘Hello Brian, I’ve always wanted to meet you. I’ve always admired your work, and Paul and I considered Pet Sounds one of the best albums ever made.’ Brian thanked him and walked away, at which point Lennon went right back to his conversation like nothing had happened.

About ten minutes later, Brian came by our table again, leaned down and whispered something to Bernie, and all of a sudden, Bernie was saying ‘Brian Wilson, this is John Lennon. John Lennon, Brian Wilson.’ Lennon was just as cordial and polite as the first time, saying essentially the same thing about always wanting to meet him.

As soon as Brian walked away, John looked at both of us and casually said in his typical Liverpudlian accent, ‘I’ve actually met him hundreds of times. He’s not well, you know."

 

And here's another story about Wilson that dates from around the same sort of time, but isn't quite as sad as the above... 

Somehow Iggy Pop and Alice Cooper got invited to Brian Wilson's place for a party. How on earth did THAT happen? But Wilson's idea of a party was a good ol' sing-song around the piano. He allocated parts to everyone and got Alice and Iggy singing specific parts of the folksong 'Shortnin' Bread'. After about an hour of singing the same song, over and over and over and over, Iggy and Alice realised that this wasn't quite what they'd had in mind and made their excuses and left - Iggy later said that he'd been to some weird parties, but this was simply the weirdest night he'd ever had! 

 

 

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...

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…

warm songs for a cold day

Shuffled iPod tunes today included quite a few summery songs, which is odd as it's cold today...

"On And On" from the first Tom Tom Club album. Frankly you don't get more sunshine-y than TTC. It reminded me of sitting in the sun while I was revising at University. It also made me want a cold beer too…

"Waiting On A Friend" - the Stones get all mellow... man. Isn't this one of the best slowies that Mick 'n' Keef ever did? This started life back in 1972 at the Goats Head Soup sessions, but Mick couldn't think of a lyric. So it was shelved until 1980 when it was dusted down and finished off for Tattoo You. And that was when legendary jazz man Sonny Rollins added the lazy, winding saxophone parts which really give the song it's magic. A really laid back vibe, probably pharmaceutically induced, but who cares… 

"I Talk To The Wind" from the first King Crimson album. All that flute-ing and gentle guitar work. The Crims never really hit that pastoral button again with such fervour. It's a very English song, and a very old fashioned feeling to it, like it's some sort of ancient folk song.  

"Telling Lies" - Bowie live in 1996. So it's not an especially summery song but this was at least recorded at a summer Festival. The crowd responds well to what is the first ever performance of "Telling Lies", I believe, at the Loreley Festival in Germany. Good version too, with Reeves Gabrels really going for it.  

"Does Caroline Know?" - Talk Talk live at Montreux 1986. Arguably the best ever version of this song, stretched to a languid 9 minutes, with loads of percussion and weird keyboard sounds, this is miles ahead of the rigid and constrained sounding studio track. Mark Hollis' vocals are, as ever, perfect. I could listen to this all day.  

"Daft Punk Is Playing At My House" - brilliant stuff from LCD Soundsystem. A great party track.  

"Dead Souls" - OK so Joy Division are perhaps a band for a cold, dark, miserable night. But this is a corker of a song. It rocks. JD were a surprisingly effective rock band when they wanted to be. Much harder than people generally give them credit for.  

"Never Let It Slip" - I confess I didn't recognise this song at all until about two thirds of the way through when I realised it was Jerry Harrison. This is from his third solo album Walk On Water which actually isn't a very good record and has probably only been played about twice. This isn't a bad song though, sort of sixties sounding, with a nicely catchy chorus and Jerry sounding, oddly, a little like Springsteen, gruff voice and everything.

"Rio" - Duran Duran. Back to summery sounds, if only because the video featured that yacht!

"Fire!" - yup, the Crazy World Of Arthur Brown. Utterly bonkers. And also brilliant, because in August 1968 it reached number 1 in the funny ol' Hit Parade. Incidentally, Ronnie Wood claims that he played bass on "Fire!" How's that for some random trivia!  

"Charm (over Burundi Cloud)" from Eno and Jon Hassell's Fourth World Volume 1 - Possible Musics. It's a wonderfully tropical sounding piece, with all those breathy trumpets and muted tribal beats and Eno's heat haze synths. I love this album, it's one that's really grown on me in the last few years. I always quite liked it, but never really loved it (certainly not like I loved On Land, or Plateaux Of Mirror or other Eno stuff from around 1980) but the last few years has seen me return to this album quite often and it's a big favourite now. Never really got into Fourth World Vol 2 - Dream Theory In Malaya quite as much, but I think I need to give that on another go now. It would be fascinating to learn how these albums came about. I wonder if tracks like "Charm (over Burundi Cloud)" and "Griot (over Contagious Music)" are basically earlier pieces that either Hassell or Eno has changed so much that a new title has been required? Maybe they started off with a piece called "Burundi Cloud" and then laid so much new stuff over the top (but still kept the original somewhere in the mix) that they renamed it "Charm"? Or perhaps this is simply a mash up of two distinct pieces called "Charm" and "Burundi Cloud" that the Domed One has then mixed together? Whatever, it sounds terrific, and this album is a firm favourite of mine.