| Author | Message | ||
     Pádraig Collins Member Username: Pádraig_collins Post Number: 8720 Registered: 05-2005 |
The Ocean Party - Rain On Tin. The lyrics, by Zac Denton who has just died from a brain cyst, aged 24, are heartbreaking. | ||
| Andrew Kerr Member Username: Andrew_k Post Number: 1240 Registered: 04-2005 |
Tony Joe White - Wille and Laura Mae Jones https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tzWqkVz9 H1A Driving back home last night, I caught an hour of his music on French radio. It was a tribute to the singer and composer, following his death during the week. Some wonderful songs and lovely anecdotes. The story goes that his moment of revelation was hearing "Ode to Billie Joe" on the radio in '67 whilst driving a garbage truck. | ||
| Pádraig Collins Member Username: Pádraig_collins Post Number: 8723 Registered: 05-2005 |
Mastersystem - Old Team. I got the album this is from, Dance Music, and then Scott Hutchison died and I didn't play it. I'm listening to it now for the first time, six months later. There are nine tracks on the album and the titles of five of them - Notes On A Life Not Quite Lived, Peaks & Troughs & Graves, Must Try Harder, A Waste Of Daylight and Bird Is Bored Of Flying - could perhaps be read as an indication of the tragedy that was to come a month after the album came out. RIP to a great songwriter who left us with one final great album. | ||
| Randy Adams Member Username: Randy_adams Post Number: 3999 Registered: 03-2005 |
Juniore -- Mon Autre So far I have their album Ouh La La and EP Marabout. The EP is highly entertaining and has had a few listens. (It came in very handy when the kids were knocking at the door on Halloween). This is the opening track. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WaKAoK7H lPk | ||
| Randy Adams Member Username: Randy_adams Post Number: 4001 Registered: 03-2005 |
Kev Carmody -- Flagstone Creek From "Pillars of Society." Unfortunately I couldn't find it on youtube. | ||
| Rob Brookman Member Username: Rob_b Post Number: 1929 Registered: 08-2006 |
Superchunk - "Reagan Youth." It's election day here in the colonies and we're fixin' to burn the place down. | ||
| TROU Member Username: Trou Post Number: 443 Registered: 05-2005 |
Beto is on discogs ! https://www.discogs.com/fr/artist/389047 8-Beto-ORourke A punk guy next president? | ||
| Randy Adams Member Username: Randy_adams Post Number: 4002 Registered: 03-2005 |
From your lips to God's ear, Trou! Meanwhile, this was meant to be my song of the day two days ago but I couldn't get the website to respond Folk Devils -- Evil Eye https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HfjN2PKI 9AE | ||
| Simon Withers Member Username: Sfwithers Post Number: 556 Registered: 08-2005 |
House of Love - Shine On | ||
| Jerry Clark Member Username: Jerry Post Number: 1253 Registered: 08-2004 |
Bedbugs & Ballyhoo (transformed) - Echo & The Bunnymen | ||
| Andrew Kerr Member Username: Andrew_k Post Number: 1243 Registered: 04-2005 |
Bruce Springsteen - I Want You https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0iv6TGPi T8A One of my favourite Dylan covers. And normally (as the ad went), nobody sings Dylan like like Dylan. In maybe 1977 I bought the ’75 Springsteen bootleg “You Can Trust Your Car to The Man That Wears The Star” from a head shop on Yonge Street in Toronto. I loved this song but never knew it was a Dylan composition until about 3 years later when I bought “Blonde on Blonde”. This is from the short period that the E-Street Band featured a young Israeli violinist Suki Lahav and her playing is heavily featured on the song. The whole album is a great live recording and Springsteen was in his full Van-the-Man meets West Side Story phase, so some veeeery long takes on songs. “New York City Serenade” runs to almost 20 minutes. I loved his records up until “Darkness on the Edge of Town”. I lost interest after the bloated mess of “The River” and the feeling that he was playing it easy...all those throwaway 3 chord rock’n’roll numbers. But he does seem to be a sincere person, with a genuine passion for music. | ||
| Randy Adams Member Username: Randy_adams Post Number: 4005 Registered: 03-2005 |
Yonge Street! That reminds me of a fine song of the day. Ian & Sylvia when they fronted The Great Speckled Bird, 1969 I believe: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eCMZIA5d K4c | ||
| Pádraig Collins Member Username: Pádraig_collins Post Number: 8731 Registered: 05-2005 |
The Good, The Bad & The Queen - The Truce Of Twilight. | ||
| Stuart Wilson Member Username: Stuart Post Number: 1486 Registered: 10-2006 |
Paul Weller - I'm Where I Should Be The poppiest thing on his Saturn's Patterns album, which turned up, rather unexpectedly, from some mysterious source, with a bargain-price ragbag of other CDs, at my friendly neighbourhood newsagent's. First time round, I thought, oh, Damon's guest-starring, cool, but, no, all Paul it seems; but it does, as I await Merrie Land, sound like a great Albarn song. | ||
| Pádraig Collins Member Username: Pádraig_collins Post Number: 8733 Registered: 05-2005 |
Stuart, I'd never spotted that about the Weller track before, but you're exactly right. If anyone else wants to judge, the video is here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qYsUr7Kg Usw | ||
| Pádraig Collins Member Username: Pádraig_collins Post Number: 8736 Registered: 05-2005 |
David Bowie - Let's Dance (Nile Rodgers' String Version) | ||
| Pádraig Collins Member Username: Pádraig_collins Post Number: 8740 Registered: 05-2005 |
New Order - Evil Dust (Exclusive Remix), from the Alternator One (Best Of Funky Alternatives) compilation. A New Order cut so deep this is the first time I've ever heard it. Or heard of it. | ||
| Simon Withers Member Username: Sfwithers Post Number: 558 Registered: 08-2005 |
Orkestra Obsolete - Blue Monday I've probably posted this before but it's worth a reprise! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cHLbaOLW jpc | ||
| Simon Withers Member Username: Sfwithers Post Number: 559 Registered: 08-2005 |
As with my last post, there's every chance I've posted this before, but this is my song of the day: a flash mob choir in Hobart singing 'Under the Milky Way'. The UK may be throwing itself under a bus in an orgy of self-mutilation, which can only end two ways - badly and disastrously - but there are always glimmers in the darkness: like this. http://www.abc.net.au/local/videos/2010/ 07/10/2950252.htm?site=not-regionalised& source=rss | ||
| Hugh Nimmo Member Username: Hugh_nimmo Post Number: 1105 Registered: 03-2007 |
Simon, I checked out Orkestra Obsolete after your initial post. Loved the song but was very disappointed when I discovered that it was their only recording. I had hoped for an album or at least an EP. | ||
| Stuart Wilson Member Username: Stuart Post Number: 1493 Registered: 10-2006 |
A teacher friend of mine asked me to recommend a “quintessentially English pop song” to do with her teenagers and my mind went immediately blank. She said, you know, something like Elton John or Bowie; but neither of them really seem to deal much with Englishness in their work, with Taupin always gazing mistily at the USA and Bowie at the stars. Eventually the titles that struggled to the surface were Gilbert o’Sullivan’s Nothing rhymed, Morrissey’s Everyday is like Sunday, Madness’s Our house and the Beatles’ Penny Lane. This last had to be abandoned however because of the dodgy “fish and finger pie” line. Then I discovered that a phrase in the GoS song which I’d always heard as “drinking my bowl of hot shandy” – something I supposed they did Up North, although, strictly speaking, it was Down South – was actually “drinking my Bonaparte shandy”. After a bit of research, this mysterious drink seems not to exist, but to be a copyright avoidance expression for Napoleon brandy; was that what young guys drank at Christmas in Swindon then? I think she went with Morrissey in the end; but was there some “quintessentially English song” that I should have come up with? Any ideas? | ||
| Pádraig Collins Member Username: Pádraig_collins Post Number: 8742 Registered: 05-2005 |
Stuart, how lovely that your “quintessentially English pop songs” have such an Irish influence! Gilbert O'Sullivan - born in Ireland and spent his first seven years there Morrissey - both parents were Irish (as were five of the six other parents of The Smiths) Madness - Cathal Smyth's parents were both Irish The Beatles - Paul McCartney, John Lennon and George Harrison all had Irish grandparents Kevin Rowland, Kate Bush, the Gallagher brothers, John Lydon and Boy George are just some of the many other English musicians with Irish parents. | ||
| Stuart Wilson Member Username: Stuart Post Number: 1494 Registered: 10-2006 |
You know, that occurred to me too, Padraig, but I couldn't fit Madness into the grouping! I forgot two other ideas I came up with, Paul Weller's Down in the Tube Station and Eton rifles. | ||
| Pádraig Collins Member Username: Pádraig_collins Post Number: 8743 Registered: 05-2005 |
Can't claim Weller! Maybe Waterloo Sunset by The Kinks could be the quintessentially English pop song? | ||
| Stuart Wilson Member Username: Stuart Post Number: 1495 Registered: 10-2006 |
Yeah, might as well get the Welsh in there too! | ||
| Randy Adams Member Username: Randy_adams Post Number: 4009 Registered: 03-2005 |
Quintessentially English pop song? I suppose it has a lot to do with what era you want to convey, or what is meant by Englishness. For my money, I'd choose something by Skint & Demoralized. They seem more quintessentially English than anybody else I can think of at the moment. Probably "The Lonely Hearts of England" or "This Song is Definitely Not About You." They're definitely pop songs. And not so old and moldy as to fall into the category of dad music. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vo9OZ6So 1fs https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kNoOdObY R3U | ||
| Simon Withers Member Username: Sfwithers Post Number: 560 Registered: 08-2005 |
A lot of Squeeze's 1970s (or thereabouts) oeuvre. I'm thinking Up the Junction, Cool for Cats; or perhaps Kirsty MacColl's A New England (another Irish connection there and yes I know it's a Billy Bragg song); I was also going to mention the Kinks, a lot of whose material might qualify. I'm now going to have to think about this... | ||
| Andrew Kerr Member Username: Andrew_k Post Number: 1246 Registered: 04-2005 |
Jeanne Balibar - Le tour du monde https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BpnSNKFj 9tk A friend gave us a copy of her 2003 recording "Paramour", from which this song is drawn. He said that is one of his 5 desert island discs. And as a coincidence, Balibar was in a film I saw last night Paweł Pawlikowski's "Cold War" | ||
| Andrew Kerr Member Username: Andrew_k Post Number: 1247 Registered: 04-2005 |
In my negative moods towards England (and I shall point out that my mother was English and to my eternal shame I was actually born in England) there are moments when I ask myself it there really an identifiable culture in England ? In the same way as in Scotland, Wales or Ireland ? And there was already a huge gulf between the south and the north of the country, which was well exposed in the era of Thatcher. As Pádraig points out, it is a culture which has absorbed other cultures and influences. Not a bad thing it must be said. But often the English seem to fail to recognise that ? I'll vote for "Waterloo Sunset" (and one of my favourite songs of all time) but in the end it is maybe the quintessential London song ? | ||
| Stuart Wilson Member Username: Stuart Post Number: 1496 Registered: 10-2006 |
Well, according to Ray D, in one of his several versions of the song's genesis, the original title was "Liverpool sunset"! | ||
| Randy Adams Member Username: Randy_adams Post Number: 4010 Registered: 03-2005 |
The Balibar number was promising Andrew. As was another one, "Rien." So of course I've ordered copies of "Paramour" and even the subsequent album "Slalom Dame" which doesn't get as positive a rating among Discogs users. Better to err on the side of too much, I think. I love "Waterloo Sunset." The Kinks made a career for a while out of being the ultimate spokespersons for a fading England. Because of that you could just as validly pitch "Sunny Afternoon" or "Village Green Preservation Society" (the song). But I'm still trying to nudge it to newer things. Bearing in mind the observation of an expat Yank friend of mine (who just visited me in LA with his partner in November) that nobody can complain quite like the English, here's another suggestion, admittedly perhaps too mellow to qualify as a pop song: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HWV8c49u Tfo | ||
| Randy Adams Member Username: Randy_adams Post Number: 4011 Registered: 03-2005 |
Andrew's mention of London songs reminded me that the Stones' "Play with Fire" was a remarkably London-specific song at a time when it might have been expected they would be aiming more intensely at the American market. At least the 60s London songs explored the class strata in London, as in "Play with Fire." Or the culture of strivers particular to London (much like New York and also to a degree Los Angeles) illustrated in an early Van Morrison song "You Just Can't Win" in which he's still struggling to come up with some non-embarrassing lyrics but he name-checks a few places: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OBcbgt4a Yzw Then there's David Bowie's great early entry "Maid of Bond Street": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rSzkes_n 4WU And then I promise to stop torturing this subject with a much newer offering from a rootless Australian that starts us in Sweden but then proceeds to hold up a mirror to the London of the final pre-Brexit era. This is the only era of London I have any personal familiarity with. Here's Allo Darlin's "Let's Go Swimming": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HDvxyxyj AcA | ||
| Stuart Wilson Member Username: Stuart Post Number: 1497 Registered: 10-2006 |
Excellent, Randy! Next time Alessandra gets in touch, I'll just pass on your e-mail! | ||
| Stuart Wilson Member Username: Stuart Post Number: 1499 Registered: 10-2006 |
Meanwhile, an old favourite: Joni Mitchell - For free | ||
| Austin Member Username: Bruegelpie Post Number: 192 Registered: 09-2004 |
Sufjan Stevens - "Lonely Man of Winter" Another great Sufjan single. Like last year's excellent "Tonya Harding" single, there are two versions, both mind-blowingly good. I love this time of year, when I can listen to my two favorite holiday group of song's - Low's "Christmas" CD and Sufjan Steven's 60+ (!) holiday songs (originals and remakes). | ||
| Simon Withers Member Username: Sfwithers Post Number: 562 Registered: 08-2005 |
The Seekers - Georgy Girl I think this has become my favourite song ever. At the moment anyway! |