Thirteen

On New Year's Day 2010 I started Bagging Area- which has made it very easy to remember when the blog's birthday is if nothing else. Today the blog enters its teenage years, thirteen years old. There are several songs titled for what is often seen as the unluckiest number.

Big Star's Thirteen from 1972 is a celebration of teenage love. 'Won't you let me walk you home from school', it begins, the ache and pain of young love perfectly captured by Alex Chilton and Chris Bell.

Thirteen

Big Audio Dynamite's V Thirteen is from 1987, co-written with Joe Strummer who also produced the album it came from (Number 10 Upping Street, according to Joe, the home of 'an alternative, funky Prime Minister'). V. Thirteen's lyrics take in all sorts of stuff, not least Little Jamie who writes 'V 13'- I've always assumed this means writes as in graffiti- my copy of the 12" came with a stencil for spraying V. 13 onto walls and other surfaces, still unused. V. Thirteen is one of B.A.D.'s finest moments.

V. Thirteen

Teenage Fanclub released an entire album titled Thirteen, released in 1992 following the flush of fame that Bandwagonesque brought. Inevitably it felt like a bit of a slump, the songs not quite up to par, many being fragments and leftovers from 1991/2. The experience of making it wasn't a happy one for the group, it dragged on and became hard work. Drummer Brendan O'Hare left after they toured the album. Time has been fairly kind to Thirteen I think, it sounds pretty good today, just not a great step on in any way. One of the key songs was 120 Minutes, a Raymond McGinley song, which the group recorded acoustically for their Teenage Fanclub Have Lost It EP, released in 1995

120 Minutes (Acoustic)

Andrew Weatherall's 2016 solo album Convenanza included a song called Thirteenth Night. The album was a wide ranging affair, spanning post- punk/ punk funk trumpets and featured Weatherall's vocals on many of the songs including references to writers Hans Fallada and Robert Walser (Fallada wrote Alone In Berlin, the true story of a German couple who leave a series of handwritten postcards around Berlin during the Nazi years attacking the regime and who then become involved in a deadly cat and mouse game with the Gestapo). Thirteenth Night was a slightly melancholic instrumental. For the remix album that followed- Consolamentum- Thirteenth Night was remixed by Andrew's Asphodell's bandmate and studio engineer Timothy J. Fairplay. The Asphodells' steam powered drum machine makes a welcome appearance.  

Thirteenth Night (Timothy J. Fairplay remix)

September Gurls

I've posted this song before on 1st September but not since 2018 and it's a song I can't imagine anyone would ever get tired of hearing. September Gurls was both a single and a song on Big Star's second album Radio City, released in 1974. Alex Chilton's lyrics are economical, painting a lot of yearning and heartbreak with only a few words (two verses, a brief chorus of 'December boy's got it bad' and a bridge). The song's beauty comes as much from the performance and the recording, the crunchy jangle of the guitars, those swooning chord changes, the melodic bassline pushing things on and Alex's vocal. 

September Gurls

The September gurl Alex sings about seems to be unobtainable to him. They were together (I think) and now she's gone. There's some thing very autumnal about the song- it isn't a summer song, it's not about the flush of teenage love, it's the regret and longing once it's gone. That's autumn too- no matter how much we say we love the rusty colours of the leaves and the cooler, crisp autumnal days, they don't last long and winter waits. Possibly the song describes the length of the relationship, from September to December, the whole thing done in less than a quarter of a year, Alex looking back at the end of the year at what's gone. 

Maybe we shouldn't try to pin down or describe what makes a great song great. Maybe I should just enjoy it. 

In 1986 The Bangles covered September Gurls for their Different Light album with Michelle Steele on lead vocals. The Rickenbackers jangle, the backing vocals coo away and a controversial* backwards guitar solo hints at the mid- to- late 60s. It's fine enough if not a patch on the original. 

September Gurls

* The band had a difficult time with producer David Kahne and all of them except Michelle found their parts at one point or another were played by replacements Kahne brought in. Guitarist Vicki Peterson returned to the studio from an emergency and found that Kahne had 'had some guy show up and do a solo'. That was the backwards guitar solo on September Gurls. 

September Songs

September arrives after a long August bringing with it a change in tone and pace. The first of today's pair of September songs is Ian McCulloch's solo single from 1984. Ian wanted to indulge his crooning side away from the Bunnymen and this song, a cover of the 1938 Kurt Weill standard, is decent enough (but in the same year as Ocean Rain it naturally pales a little). The lyrics nail this day and month perfectly-

'Well, it's a long, long time
From May to December
But the days grow short
When you reach September'

September Song (Long Version)

Meanwhile a decade earlier Alex Chilton wrote this song for Big Star, less about September maybe and more about a gurl. There is something heart-wrenchingly beautiful about this song- the guitars, the chord change, the vocal. Autumnal perfection.

September Gurls

September

Woah- my thighs don't work very well this morning. My arse has more or less survived the ride though, you'll be pleased to know. One hundred miles in six hours and eleven minutes. I'm well chuffed. Thanks again to those who sponsored me. Our team total in raising money for The Christie currently stands at just shy of two thousand pounds.

September always seems to me as the month of change, more than any other except January (and January is pretty grim really). The end of summer, the start of Autumn, the nights noticeably drawing in, back to school... The weather forecast for this week is really good, naturally, after a wet and chilly August. September Gurls by Big Star is inexplicably great, those crashing chords, heart wrenching lyrics and general sense of love lost, the one that got away. I love it, and I'm not an especially big fan of Big Star.

September Gurls

September Gurl

I've never quite been able to figure out quite why Big Star are held in such high esteem by certain middle aged men. The first album baffled me when I first got it, twenty years ago. It just sounded like southern boogie to me and I expected so much more. On the other hand there are some great tunes on the second album (Radio City) and Third/Sister Lovers has got its moments.

September Gurls is an absolutely beautiful little guitar song, ragged and yearning, a real head turner (and yes, it did provide Teenage Fanclub with the template for Bandwagonesque, but that's fine). George posted September Gurls a few weeks ago, so I'll provide you instead with this cover version by The Bangles, from back in the mid-80s. They smoothed it out, glossed it up a bit, Rickenbackers chiming away.

September Gurls

Susanna Hoffs didn't actually sing September Gurls, fellow Bangle Michael Steele did. Susanna isn't a September gurl, she's a January gurl, birthday-wise. I just looked it up. It has stunned me somewhat to realise that Susanna Hoffs is 55.

As of today we're off on holiday for a week, back late on Easter Monday, so most likely I won't post anything until the Tuesday. Hopefully you can manage without my meandering waffle for a week. However, if you do happen to pop in here while I'm away you will get to look at this picture of Susanna Hoffs, so it's not all bad is it?