Wednesday, November 07, 2007
My shuffleathon CD and letter to Mark
Hi Mark
Well you’ve had the dubious privilege of drawing my name out of Swiss Toni’s big shuffleathon hat.
I’m probably at the older end of the age scale of participants and my choice of tracks reflects that – age doesn’t make me any less passionate about music however, which has been a huge thing in my life, not quite as long as I can remember, but certainly since I reached adolescence in the 60s. I’ve made no attempt to pick out tracks which I think are the best musically, or even to reflect my taste in music now, I’ve simply come up with a list of artists and tracks that have meant something to me over the years.
The list enclosed gives track name, artist, and the album I’ve extracted the track from (not always the original source album, some of these are from “Best ofs”) and there’s a little bit of context about each track below:
1) Pleasant Valley Sunday The Monkees The Definitive Monkees
The Monkees are the first band I really got into aged about 13 – they were a manufactured boy band and had a show on primetime TV, early Saturday evening. My friends and I used to get together to watch and scream a bit – my fave member somewhat against the general trend was always Micky Dolenz, who went on to marry one of the Pan’s People dance group off TOTP. They were derided at the time by “grown ups” but they’ve achieved some critical acclaim over the intervening 40 years or so, and this is a great track.
2) Getting Better The Beatles Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band
Again, against the general trend of the time I wasn’t actually a huge Beatles fan, but I did love Sgt Pepper – I was a bit of a hippy chick in those days. This isn’t the best track on Sgt Pepper even but its great positive stuff, and if you look at my blog you’ll see that I went to a gig in Milan recently where Sgt Pepper was recreated and this was a stand out track with Badly Drawn Boy doing vocals.
3) Son of a Preacher Man Dusty Springfield Goin'back - the very best of Dusty Springfield
Dusty is imho the best soul voice by a mile that the UK has ever produced. This takes me back to my teens, listening to a little transistor radio by the side of the cricket pitch at school in Whitley Bay on a long hot summer afternoon, my friend Amanda was going out with the son of the local minister who was a bit of a bad lad.
4) Seven & Seven Is Love Da Capo
I love this band and again if you look at my blog you’ll know why in great detail – nuff said.
5) Click Clack Captain Beefheart & The Magic Band The Spotlight Kid
Another great 60s favourite – the best gig I’ve ever been to bar none in a long career of gig-going was Captain Beefheart and his Magic Band at Newcastle City Hall early 1972 – the tightest band imaginable. Old Don was a bit of a nutter, still is, he had some weird things going on inside his head, but some of the music he created was just out of this world.
6) L.A. Woman The Doors L. A. Woman
Adulation of Jim Morrison was certainly not against the general trend in the late 60s / early 70s – another one who died far too young. The dark side of 60s psychedelia. As with Love, on the periphery of the hippy stuff going on at the time but no flower wearing in hair going on here.
7) The Jean Genie David Bowie Best Of David Bowie 1969-1974
David Bowie to me means starting University in Nottingham in 1972 and leaving the North East pretty much for good, sitting around in student bedrooms raving on about Ziggy Stardust and Aladdin Sane and so on. I could have picked any number of tracks but I really like this one..
8) If The Shoe Fits Leon Russell Carney
This takes me back to meeting my old man Keith in about 1973 – we’re still together. H e had this album and really loved it when we first met.
9) Can We Still Be Friends Todd Rundgren Hermit Of Mink Hollow
Beautiful track, again early 70s stuff. End of a heavy evening stuff.
10) You gotta walk (don't look back) Peter Tosh Bush Doctor
I’ve always had a reggae thing going on even with all the psychedelic hippy trippy stuff around – I find it impossible not to jig around the room when this is on. Brings back memories of some great nights with friends.
11) Sultans Of Swing Dire Straits Money For Nothing
Before they got arenaised and MTVised, Dire Straits were just a little guitar playing band from Newcastle. My Mum’s friend knew Mark Knopfler’s Mum, and she apparently was always berating him for spending all his time in his bedroom picking away at his guitar. Parents eh?? When this first came out it sounded so fresh and original. They also mention Whitley Bay in one of their tracks (Tunnel of Love) so how could I not love them?
12) Train To Rhodesia Big Youth Dreadlocks Dread
More reggae. Big Youth got us together in 1977 with some people who are still great friends today. Keith decided to train to be a teacher after a few years not doing much after leaving University. One evening we had a few folks from his course round to our flat, including a rather sullen youth from Hull called Steve. We put the Big Youth album on and he just came to life completely, he’d come to Nottingham to do his PGCE course and join up with his girlfriend Wendy who was already a student here after doing a degree in London, and the album had been the soundtrack to his student days. They’re still together as well and are our best pals in Nottingham.
13) No More Heroes The Stranglers No More Heroes
Late 70s. Punk. Great song. Keith became a Geography teacher but had to do some English teaching as well, which filled him with trepidation. I suggested he did something about song lyrics and he used this song, went down very well with the 3rd year apparently.
14) Jimmy Jimmy The Undertones The Best Of The Undertones
More punk. Great song. We named our son (now aged 22) after this song. Middle name Leon after the previous one.
Poor unfortunate lad.
15) Tired Of Being Alone Al Green Al
This just sends me. The man’s voice is pure liquid honey. He found religion and became the Reverend Al Green after being seriously injured when he was found by a cuckolded husband in bed with his wife and had boiling water chucked over him. Hey Ho.
That’s it, hope you enjoy at least some of it. I know I did.
Well you’ve had the dubious privilege of drawing my name out of Swiss Toni’s big shuffleathon hat.
I’m probably at the older end of the age scale of participants and my choice of tracks reflects that – age doesn’t make me any less passionate about music however, which has been a huge thing in my life, not quite as long as I can remember, but certainly since I reached adolescence in the 60s. I’ve made no attempt to pick out tracks which I think are the best musically, or even to reflect my taste in music now, I’ve simply come up with a list of artists and tracks that have meant something to me over the years.
The list enclosed gives track name, artist, and the album I’ve extracted the track from (not always the original source album, some of these are from “Best ofs”) and there’s a little bit of context about each track below:
1) Pleasant Valley Sunday The Monkees The Definitive Monkees
The Monkees are the first band I really got into aged about 13 – they were a manufactured boy band and had a show on primetime TV, early Saturday evening. My friends and I used to get together to watch and scream a bit – my fave member somewhat against the general trend was always Micky Dolenz, who went on to marry one of the Pan’s People dance group off TOTP. They were derided at the time by “grown ups” but they’ve achieved some critical acclaim over the intervening 40 years or so, and this is a great track.
2) Getting Better The Beatles Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band
Again, against the general trend of the time I wasn’t actually a huge Beatles fan, but I did love Sgt Pepper – I was a bit of a hippy chick in those days. This isn’t the best track on Sgt Pepper even but its great positive stuff, and if you look at my blog you’ll see that I went to a gig in Milan recently where Sgt Pepper was recreated and this was a stand out track with Badly Drawn Boy doing vocals.
3) Son of a Preacher Man Dusty Springfield Goin'back - the very best of Dusty Springfield
Dusty is imho the best soul voice by a mile that the UK has ever produced. This takes me back to my teens, listening to a little transistor radio by the side of the cricket pitch at school in Whitley Bay on a long hot summer afternoon, my friend Amanda was going out with the son of the local minister who was a bit of a bad lad.
4) Seven & Seven Is Love Da Capo
I love this band and again if you look at my blog you’ll know why in great detail – nuff said.
5) Click Clack Captain Beefheart & The Magic Band The Spotlight Kid
Another great 60s favourite – the best gig I’ve ever been to bar none in a long career of gig-going was Captain Beefheart and his Magic Band at Newcastle City Hall early 1972 – the tightest band imaginable. Old Don was a bit of a nutter, still is, he had some weird things going on inside his head, but some of the music he created was just out of this world.
6) L.A. Woman The Doors L. A. Woman
Adulation of Jim Morrison was certainly not against the general trend in the late 60s / early 70s – another one who died far too young. The dark side of 60s psychedelia. As with Love, on the periphery of the hippy stuff going on at the time but no flower wearing in hair going on here.
7) The Jean Genie David Bowie Best Of David Bowie 1969-1974
David Bowie to me means starting University in Nottingham in 1972 and leaving the North East pretty much for good, sitting around in student bedrooms raving on about Ziggy Stardust and Aladdin Sane and so on. I could have picked any number of tracks but I really like this one..
8) If The Shoe Fits Leon Russell Carney
This takes me back to meeting my old man Keith in about 1973 – we’re still together. H e had this album and really loved it when we first met.
9) Can We Still Be Friends Todd Rundgren Hermit Of Mink Hollow
Beautiful track, again early 70s stuff. End of a heavy evening stuff.
10) You gotta walk (don't look back) Peter Tosh Bush Doctor
I’ve always had a reggae thing going on even with all the psychedelic hippy trippy stuff around – I find it impossible not to jig around the room when this is on. Brings back memories of some great nights with friends.
11) Sultans Of Swing Dire Straits Money For Nothing
Before they got arenaised and MTVised, Dire Straits were just a little guitar playing band from Newcastle. My Mum’s friend knew Mark Knopfler’s Mum, and she apparently was always berating him for spending all his time in his bedroom picking away at his guitar. Parents eh?? When this first came out it sounded so fresh and original. They also mention Whitley Bay in one of their tracks (Tunnel of Love) so how could I not love them?
12) Train To Rhodesia Big Youth Dreadlocks Dread
More reggae. Big Youth got us together in 1977 with some people who are still great friends today. Keith decided to train to be a teacher after a few years not doing much after leaving University. One evening we had a few folks from his course round to our flat, including a rather sullen youth from Hull called Steve. We put the Big Youth album on and he just came to life completely, he’d come to Nottingham to do his PGCE course and join up with his girlfriend Wendy who was already a student here after doing a degree in London, and the album had been the soundtrack to his student days. They’re still together as well and are our best pals in Nottingham.
13) No More Heroes The Stranglers No More Heroes
Late 70s. Punk. Great song. Keith became a Geography teacher but had to do some English teaching as well, which filled him with trepidation. I suggested he did something about song lyrics and he used this song, went down very well with the 3rd year apparently.
14) Jimmy Jimmy The Undertones The Best Of The Undertones
More punk. Great song. We named our son (now aged 22) after this song. Middle name Leon after the previous one.
Poor unfortunate lad.
15) Tired Of Being Alone Al Green Al
This just sends me. The man’s voice is pure liquid honey. He found religion and became the Reverend Al Green after being seriously injured when he was found by a cuckolded husband in bed with his wife and had boiling water chucked over him. Hey Ho.
That’s it, hope you enjoy at least some of it. I know I did.
Monday, November 05, 2007
Shuffleathon 2007
We had a week in Crete recently, arriving back 27th October - nice week if a tad rainy to begin with. When we returned there was a jiffy bag waiting for me from an address in Texas - my shuffleathon CD!! It emanated from Mike of Mad Stories, an Englishman living in the U S of A.
I've been listening to the CD driving around in my car since then to get the feel of it - I've spent some of the intervening time in London working so its taken some time to get the review together, but I reckon I'm there now - so here goes...
1) Midnight - Yazoo
Not a Yazoo track I was previously familiar with - Alison Moyet has a great strong voice and I'm into electro-pop so this is a winner as far as I'm concerned.
2) Don't walk away - Toni Childs
A new artist to me. Wikipedia tells me that she is aged 50 and hails from Orange County. Another strong female voice. Like it and its become a bit of an earworm, but I won't be rushing out to buy the album.
3) Into the great wide open - Tom Petty
More familiar territory here. A rebel without a clue. Great video with Johnny Depp playing Eddie. Oi'll give it foive.
4) Fog Town - Michelle Shocked
Its about San Francisco. We were there in the summer and it certainly is foggy. Not my sort of thing although I liked "Anchorage".
5) Lil' Devil - The Cult
Driving around Nottingham suburbia in autumnal drizzle this does absolutely nothing for me - but I can imagine driving along the freeway in the vast wastes of the USA with the sun shining down and this going down a treat. Its all about context.
6) Rainbow Child - Dan Reed Network
Ditto as above re context - soft rock, made for driving along with your sunglasses on and your elbow sticking out of the car window.
7) I'm the only one - Melissa Etheridge
Don't like her voice. She's the lady famous for her and her female partner having children fathered by David Crosby. Still don't like her voice.
8) Woman in Chains - Tears for Fears
I'd forgotten how much I liked this band. Very pleasing sound.
9) Smooth - Santana featuring Rob (not Rod) Thomas
Very familiar territory here. The track that was huge a few years ago. Rob I can take or leave, bit of a parvenu, but Carlos Santana is God. Brilliant guitar playing.
10) Be my downfall - Del Amitri
Not very memorable. Scottish.
11) Ladylike - Storm Large
Mike apologised in the letter he sent with the CD for the amount of swearing in this track. I liked it, possibly even my favourite track of the selection. Looks like the lady was on a reality TV show in the States. Well done her I say!
12) Without you - Nilsson
A classic. Very reassuring. Wave that lighter in the air.
13) Troy - Sinead O'Connor
Another strong female voice, Mike is obviously a big fan of those. I always admired Sinead as an artist even if I didn't actually like much of her music. You're still a lawyer. Is that lawyer, or liar in Oirish? Or is the point that Sinead thinks the two are synonomous? Striking is the word that springs to mind to describe this track.
14) Hijo de la luna - Mecano
"Son of the Moon" in Spanish. Lovely melody, nice light and airy song. Like it a lot.
15) Nothing else matters - Metallica
Thought I'd hate this before I listened to it - I was expecting heavy metal (not a fave genre for me) but this is almost baroque. Thanks Mike, I'm almost a convert.
So a number of hits, a couple of misses, but generally very favourable. Mike likes his strong ladies, and if I didn't know he was a British expat in the USA, I might have guessed it. Thanks very much and good night.
I've been listening to the CD driving around in my car since then to get the feel of it - I've spent some of the intervening time in London working so its taken some time to get the review together, but I reckon I'm there now - so here goes...
1) Midnight - Yazoo
Not a Yazoo track I was previously familiar with - Alison Moyet has a great strong voice and I'm into electro-pop so this is a winner as far as I'm concerned.
2) Don't walk away - Toni Childs
A new artist to me. Wikipedia tells me that she is aged 50 and hails from Orange County. Another strong female voice. Like it and its become a bit of an earworm, but I won't be rushing out to buy the album.
3) Into the great wide open - Tom Petty
More familiar territory here. A rebel without a clue. Great video with Johnny Depp playing Eddie. Oi'll give it foive.
4) Fog Town - Michelle Shocked
Its about San Francisco. We were there in the summer and it certainly is foggy. Not my sort of thing although I liked "Anchorage".
5) Lil' Devil - The Cult
Driving around Nottingham suburbia in autumnal drizzle this does absolutely nothing for me - but I can imagine driving along the freeway in the vast wastes of the USA with the sun shining down and this going down a treat. Its all about context.
6) Rainbow Child - Dan Reed Network
Ditto as above re context - soft rock, made for driving along with your sunglasses on and your elbow sticking out of the car window.
7) I'm the only one - Melissa Etheridge
Don't like her voice. She's the lady famous for her and her female partner having children fathered by David Crosby. Still don't like her voice.
8) Woman in Chains - Tears for Fears
I'd forgotten how much I liked this band. Very pleasing sound.
9) Smooth - Santana featuring Rob (not Rod) Thomas
Very familiar territory here. The track that was huge a few years ago. Rob I can take or leave, bit of a parvenu, but Carlos Santana is God. Brilliant guitar playing.
10) Be my downfall - Del Amitri
Not very memorable. Scottish.
11) Ladylike - Storm Large
Mike apologised in the letter he sent with the CD for the amount of swearing in this track. I liked it, possibly even my favourite track of the selection. Looks like the lady was on a reality TV show in the States. Well done her I say!
12) Without you - Nilsson
A classic. Very reassuring. Wave that lighter in the air.
13) Troy - Sinead O'Connor
Another strong female voice, Mike is obviously a big fan of those. I always admired Sinead as an artist even if I didn't actually like much of her music. You're still a lawyer. Is that lawyer, or liar in Oirish? Or is the point that Sinead thinks the two are synonomous? Striking is the word that springs to mind to describe this track.
14) Hijo de la luna - Mecano
"Son of the Moon" in Spanish. Lovely melody, nice light and airy song. Like it a lot.
15) Nothing else matters - Metallica
Thought I'd hate this before I listened to it - I was expecting heavy metal (not a fave genre for me) but this is almost baroque. Thanks Mike, I'm almost a convert.
So a number of hits, a couple of misses, but generally very favourable. Mike likes his strong ladies, and if I didn't know he was a British expat in the USA, I might have guessed it. Thanks very much and good night.
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