The Next 30 Day Song Challenge - day 02

day 02 - A song by an artist born in your home town
A rich list to pick from, but I think I'll take the opportunity to speak up for this lost classic from the early 80s:

It wasn't so lost at the time, reaching number 7 in the charts in April 1983, but when people talk about Altered Images these days - and it's usually middle-aged men of a certain vintage - they'll always hark back to 'Happy Birthday' and/or 'I Could Be Happy'. Neither of those two songs come close to this Mike Chapman produced gem.

The Next 30 Day Song Challenge - day 01

I meant to do another one of these months ago but . . . but . . . you know the score. Let's not embarrass each other about this recurring matter.

Thirty days in June and a threadbare post count for 2012 gives me a cheap excuse to litter the page with embedded videos for the next thirty days. My one reader in Kerala with dial-up will be so so pleased.


day 01 - Your favourite cover version
It could be any number of Dick Gaughan's versions of Leon Rosselson songs and, up until a minute ago, it was going to be this wonderful version of a Chic classic but I suddenly remembered that I've had Kris Drever's version of Boo Hewerdine's 'Harvest Gypsies' on repeat for months now, and what better excuse to belatedly mention the song on the blog:



A great voice, a touching d-i-y video, and some backstory to the term 'Harvest Gypsies' and the John Steinbeck connection.

30 Day Song Challenge - day 05

day 05 - a song that reminds you of someone

My big Sister used to sing this song to me all the time . . . she had a mean streak.

Only joking.

30 Day Song Challenge - day 03

day 03 - a song that makes you happy

Kevin Rowland looks pissed off as usual but the music in itself has an exuberance which can't help but make you smile:

Honorable mentions go to . . . no, I can't mention them. They might come up later in the month.

30 Day Song Challenge - day 02

day 02 - your least favorite song

I'm not the angry young man I once was so picking a least favourite song was more difficult than I imagined.

My decades long hatred of Bon Jovi's 'Living On A Prayer' melted away once I moved to the States and realised that Jon Bon Jovi didn't stand a chance. The poor swine's from New Jersey. He couldn't help myself. My loathing of the BritPop also rans such as the likes of Cast and The Seahorses is so all encompassing that I couldn't pick out the one song to hate above all others. Their combined back catalogues merge into one mass of mediocrity; and it's a cop out to hate a novelty hit or a charity comedy record. They're there to be shot at.

Ten seconds before penning this post, this tuneless pious crock of happy clappy liberalism shite was stepping up for the gold medal - dishonorable mentions also go out to here and there - but I suddenly remembered that one particular song that I always hated above all others from the first moment I heard it. Twenty years on and it still raise the hackles.

Step forward James, Ian, Derry, Mark and Zac:

Number 1 in the US Charts back in '91, and still number one for me - but in a very different sense - all these years later.

April means the 30 Day Song Challenge

From the other place.

A music meme with a difference. Thirty days, thirty musical taste questions. If I had my blogging mojo switched on, I'd have activated a file sharing account but, in these blocked times, You Tube is my friend.

day 01 - your favorite song

Christ, kick off with the hard one. How can you have a favourite song? . . . or novel, film or Socialist Standard front cover, for that matter. If you're anything like me, you have 20 or 30 favourites, and you flip between them from month to month suiting the mood, the season or your angst level.

Favourite song? How's my angst level? Ask me next week and it'll be something different but, at this moment in time, this old standard still does it for me every time. Probably listened to it over a thousand times, and I've never got sick of it.

I'm cheating myself a bit with the embedding of The Tube video when, in truth, I first discovered the song via this performance on Top of the Pops.

But surely you can watch both?

7 Bloggers . . . 7 Songs . . . 7 Links

There's a canny music meme that's been doing the rounds for a few weeks now and, at the last count, I've been tagged four times to do it but bare arsed laziness - coupled with an exceeded bandwidth - has thwarted me in complying with the repeated request.

So, whilst I'm in the process of trying to relegate my bloggers block to the bottom of the sock drawer, here's a quick series of links to a magnificent seven who have done the meme in good time.

The music choice are all theirs . . . the snotty comments are all mine . . . and, as an afterthought, rather than me tagging seven people in turn to do the meme, this is my arse about face way of finishing at the end and working my backwards.

Btw, just noticed that I've written arse twice in less than three paragraphs. It must be the dutch oven effect.

Back to this meme that has been hanging over me:

"List seven songs you are into right now. No matter what the genre, whether they have words, or even if they’re not any good, but they must be songs you’re really enjoying now, shaping your spring. Post these instructions in your blog along with your 7 songs. Then tag 7 other people to see what they’re listening to."

Bob From Brockley tagged me nearly a month ago and I was a good little blogger at the time, selecting seven songs and the rest, but the bandwidth thing intervened at the time. I can't even remember what songs I selected (that's a partial fib), and I know that I wouldn't pick the exact seven songs today or tomorrow.

Of the seven songs 'Bob's' selected, the only one that recognise is the Miles Davis track and that's only because the self-same track is mentioned in glowing terms in 'The Shoe'. Of course, I recognise three of the other artists listed but tracks 5, 6 & 7 have me reaching for the cut and paste function on the computer.

Going by Bob's selection I'm guessing that he is a bit of a muso. Has been known to subscribe to Record Collector magazine, and has index carded his record collection. Back in the day he was more of a Charlie Gillett groupie than a John Peel groupie. Been known to not only buy CDs that have been reviewed in the New Internationalist, but he's also been known to listen said CDs voluntarily.

Never Trust A Hippy Paulie over at NTAH also tagged me last month. Damn, I'm struggling here. I only recognise The Specials track - great track, btw, and I also know of Roy Ayers. (The title of his song looks interesting.) Have I already done the CDs reviewed in the New Internationalist joke? Shit, moving on then. I think Paulie may have misread the meme because his choices seem to be based more on, 'Name 7 songs that remind you of the 1981 Nottingham Riots.' I'm prompted to ask, has Nottingham ever produced any decent bands? I can only think of Paper Lace off hand.
Back to Paulie's selection. Another muso by the looks of it. And I'd always pegged him as a meat, two veg and a Jam box set sort of guy. I got him wrong. He's the Rob Gordon to 'Bob's' Barry. Music wise, they'd both intimidate the hell out of me, but I like the sound of The Enemy . . . even if I've yet to hear the sound of The Enemy.

Big Blowdown Surely I'm on safer ground with Reidski's selection? The bloke's not known for his obscurantist music tastes, and I admire him all the more for it. OK, I recognise all of the seven artists listed but only one song? What the hell?
I think I've got a handle on this meme now. The theme of the meme is the more obscure the better. Everybody's hiding their ABBA greatest hits inside a Captain Beefheart record sleeve. I'll bear that in mind when I pick seven obscure tracks in my meme

Reidski likes LCD Soundsystem? I guess someone has to.

Harpymarx Socialist-Feminist blogger is a kindred musical spirit. I actually recognise - and like - 5 of her 7 selections. Well, you can't go wrong with The Jam, Liz Fraser and Blondie. And I've long since come round to the opinion that Julian Cope is a bit of a lost treasure. He seems resigned to being a *spit* cult artist and he's much too talented to be put in that category.

A Very Public Sociologist Just like Phil over at AVPS blog to actually apologise for the best song on his list. Since when have The Boo Radleys become a guilty pleasure? I must have missed the leaking of Peter Taaffe's memo in the pages of Weekly Worker where he outlines the CWI's opposition to Britpop/Creation crossovers.
Phil mentions an Icelandic band that isn't the Sugarcubes, and tries to make a case for the monstrosity that is Morodor and Oakey's 'Together In Electric Dreams': without a shadow of a doubt the worst piece of music that Oakey has ever put his name to.

I know Phil (from Stoke, not Phil from Sheffield) is trying the old 'so bad it's good' defence with regards to Moroder and Oakey, but though that sort of logic might work with regards to the Millies transitional programme, it doesn't cut any musical mustard from where I'm sitting . . . in an aged armchair which has only one arm (on the ultra-left of where I'm sitting) and which is cut off from the working class.

Life is all Cobblers JJ comes up with the goods with a selection of The Auteurs, The Divine Comedy and one of Chumbawamba better tracks.
Nice to see that JJ didn't feel compelled to dredge up the obscure stuff to belittle the rest of us muso wise, but I have to say that, even after all these years, the jury is still out for me when it comes to McAlmont and Butler's 'Yes'. I sometimes hear it and wonder at its spine tingling majesty and lush orchestration. Other times I hear it, and I think 'Will someone stop trying to drown that cat. It just depends on which day you catch me.

Infinite Thought A totally random pick. Just typed '7 song meme + socialist' into the google search engine, and this post came in at number two (after Bob From Brockley).
Never clicked on IT before but it sounds familiar. A quick look at the links suggests that s/he might be an SWP blogger, so where's The Redskins tracks in amongst the seven? (Alleged) SWP members really have lost sight of their original political tradition.
An eclectic selection that reflects the SWP's current perspective of a popular mixtape of a special kind. From what I recognise, very last century, very angsty . . . someone who is obviously harking back to the safe political security of the downturn period.

Bet after all that, IT isn't even a Swuppie. I should have just recycled that New Internationalist joke again.

OK, that's 7 bloggers, 7 links, 49 songs and 83 gratuitous insults. If I ever get round to actually doing the meme, I'll get totally bloody slaughtered.

Playing With A Different Set List (The B Sides)

Morphing Into A Music Blog (3)

How many letters are there in the alphabet? I could throw the blog over totally to this sort of stuff. Or at least for the years 1978-1984. Struggling like a bastard with the late eighties and the late nineties, but nice to see that the last few years have seen a re-emergence in good left-field pop music. Even if it's only because of the post-punk reload/revival. The hipsters will no doubt move onto the next fad, but at least they will have left us with a few good albums with the requisite scratchy guitars and oh-so-arch vocals.

Thought I'd start with '78 this time. No point scrambling my brains over the period 71-77 once more. I was struggling the first time. I'd end up having to pick a Bread album at some point, and that wouldn't be right.

Nice to see that there is a tad more variation with the B list. Some people might think I'm taking the piss with the Rachel Stevens album, but it's a hidden gem. Perfect pop and all that. Weird to admit that . . . what with me being a Jo fan from SC7.

Shame to discover that The Sound Team have since broken up. No great claims about them. A quick google search of the album, 'Movie Monster', will reveal that I obviously rated the album more than most, but they're worth checking out. I should have played it safe by listing a Spoon or Shins album instead and I'm sure I'll retract my high opinion of them at a later date. I did the same with The Wendys a few years back.

PS I know the Au Pairs aren't in the list - and with Gang of Four, Orange Juice, Josef K, Elvis Costello, Japan etc etc, they should be - but I love the album cover.

1978 - Parallel Lines, Blondie

1979 - Singles Going Steady, The Buzzcocks

1980 - Searching for the Young Soul Rebels, Dexys Midnight Runners

1981 - Dare, The Human League

1982 - New Gold Dream (81-82-83-84), Simple Minds

1983 - High Land, Hard Rain, Aztec Camera

1984 - Rattlesnakes, Lloyd Cole and the Commotions

1985 - Our Favourite Shop, The Style Council

1986 - The Queen is Dead, The Smiths

1987 - Sign o' the Times, Prince

1988 - Sunshine On Leith, The Proclaimers

1989 - Cosmic Thing, The B-52's

1990 - Heaven or Las Vegas, Cocteau Twins

1991 - Bandwagonesque, Teenage Fanclub

1992 - Mexican R'n'B, The Stairs

1993 - Debut, Björk

1994 - Parklife, Blur

1995 - Different Class, Pulp

1996 - Fuzzy Logic, Super Furry Animals

1997 - OK Computer, Radiohead

1998 - The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill, Lauryn Hill

1999 - How I Learned to Love the Bootboys, The Auteurs

2000 - Tropical Brainstorm, Kirsty MacColl

2001 - Feminist Sweepstakes, Le Tigre

2002 - Life On Other Planets, Supergrass

2003 - Keep Going, Stephen Duffy & The Lilac Time

2004 - Franz Ferdinand, Franz Ferdinand

2005 - Come And Get It, Rachel Stevens

2006 - Movie Monster, Sound Team

2007 - Once (music from the motion picture), Glen Hansard and Markéta Irglová

The Yorkshire Pudding Stole This Meme From Alkelda the Gleeful, I'm Stealing It Back

Morphing Into A Music Blog (2)

Spotted this music meme via Reidski's mate The Yorkshire Pudding . . . mmm, yorkshire puddings, gravy and roast potatoes . . . who mugged it from a Seattle blogger called Alkelda the Gleeful a/k/a Farida Dowler.

'My Life in Music Albums' is a music meme where you simply start from year you were born - in my case 1971 - and year on year, list the album that in your opinion was important for you in that particular year.

Granted I didn't really start getting into music until the early eighties, so my variation on the meme is that for every year I will try and pick an album that at some point in my life has been in my record/cassette/CD/mp3 collection. Where possible, rather than being a Monday Morning Leninist, I'll try and pick an album that was my favourite for that particular year, rather than opting for an album that I have subsequently discovered.

I'm taking Alkelda's wise advice by using Wikipedia's Tables of Years in Music as an aide memoire.

1971 - What's Going On, Marvin Gaye

1972 - Saint Dominic's Preview, Van Morrison

1973 - For Your Pleasure, Roxy Music

1974 - Slaughter on 10th Avenue, Mick Ronson

1975 - Between the Lines, Janis Ian

1976 - A New World Record, Electric Light Orchestra

1977 - Pink Flag, Wire

1978 - All Mod Cons, The Jam

1979 - Secondhand Daylight, Magazine

1980 - Sound Affects,The Jam

1981 - Penthouse and Pavement, Heaven 17

1982 - Lexicon of Love, ABC

1983 - The Hurting, Tears For Fears

1984 - The Smiths, The Smiths

1985 - Steve McQueen, Prefab Sprout

1986 - Infected, The The

1987 - Crooked Mile, Microdisney

1988 - Viva Hate, Morrissey

1989 - Stone Roses, Stone Roses

1990 - The La's, The La's

1991 - Don't Try This At Home, Billy Bragg

1992 - It's A Shame About Ray, The Lemonheads

1993 - Giant Steps, Boo Radleys

1994 - Dummy, Portishead

1995 - Grand Prix, Teenage Fanclub

1996 - Everything Must Go, Manic Street Preachers

1997 - Radiator, Super Furry Animals

1998 - This Is Hardcore, Pulp

1999 - Le Tigre, Le Tigre

2000 - The Great Eastern, The Delgados

2001 - Persevere, The Proclaimers

2002 - Redd Blood Cells, White Stripes (with Steven McDonald from Redd Kross)

2003 - Black Cherry, Goldfrapp

2004 - No Cities Left, The Dears

2005 - As Is Now, Paul Weller

2006 - Back to Black, Amy Winehouse

2007 - Yours Truly, Angry Mob, Kaiser Chiefs

If I'm being honest, '74 & '75 were the only difficult years to pin down, but the Mick Ronson and Janis Ian albums were honest enough picks. Just don't put me on the spot, and ask me to give you the name of track 3/ side 1 on either of the albums. Also, I couldn't have been listening to a lot of albums in 2002 if I had to plump for Redd Blood Cells, but I do remember loving the album at the time. White Stripes have passed me by ever since.

Next tagees?

The usual suspects: Robin Scott; 'Chris' from the Kensington blog; Hogan Ephraim; Tina Fey; Julia Louis-Dreyfus; Reidski; Sarah Silverman.

Friday's Playlist #18 - It's a G-Thing

An ongoing series:

Paris, 'Guerrilla Funk' (Guerrilla Funk)

Kristen Vigard, 'God Give Me Strength' mp3 (Grace Of My Heart Soundtrack)

Cher, 'Gypsys, Tramps & Thieves' (Gypsys, Tramps & Thieves)

The Stranglers, 'Golden Brown' (La Folie)

Japan, 'Ghosts' (Tin Drum)

Liberty X, 'Got To Have Your Love' (Thinking It Over)

Robert Wyatt & Cristina Dona, 'Goccia'

Violent Femmes, 'Gone Daddy Gone' (Violent Femmes)

Electronic, 'Getting Away with It' (Get the Message - The Best of Electronic)

Microdisney, 'Give Me All Your Clothes' mp3 (Crooked Mile)

As you might have guessed, there's a theme - or rather a meme - to this week's playlist. The alphabetised meme was found via here, and hat tip to Will for pointing me in the direction of that particular blog. Even if I did get off at the wrong stop. Apologies Will.

A couple of the songs are available as mp3s for a limited time. Both class tracks, and after hearing them you'll be compelled to go out and buy the back catalogues. The finders fee can be determined at a later date.

Next Tagees?

The usual suspects: Vic Davidson; Patrik Fitzgerald; Sarah Silverman; Mooey and Tegan . . . Sara Nicole Atkins.