A GUEST SERIES

35. Buzzin’ – Asian Dub Foundation (1998 London Records)

Released as a single in January 1998 (Reached Number 31)

Of all the ICAs contributed by Tim Badger, the one he was most proud of was on Asian Dub Foundation. That ICA was genuinely the first time he had ever written anything about music before, and he was really nervous about it. It turned out that he was kind of good at writing. (editor’s note……that qualifies as understatement of the century)

It was this ICA and in particular a paragraph about this song that convinced Tim that he wanted to do a blog rather than just talk about it – which is what we had been doing for the previous three months.

When JC published the Asian Dub Foundation ICA, Tim religiously checked the comments because he was concerned that people would think he was a knobhead or something. He also thought that he would be banned from ever writing about music again, because he’d mixed up his metaphors and didn’t know what an Em Dash was (He actually said that). I worked as a journalist I told him and I still don’t know where to put an apostrophe, a comma and I don’t even pretend to know what an em dash is. (According to Google It’s one of these – a link between two statements, roughly the length of the letter M – hence em dash)

‘Buzzin’ made the list for that ICA, and I know that out of the whole piece it was this bit that Tim was most proud of. If no one minds, I’ll just copy this direct:-

“Easily their best record. This is not a lie, at 3.27am this morning I woke up and wondered if I still had the Dylan Rhymes remix of this track. So I got up and wandered downstairs to the vinyl cupboard. I couldn’t find it, so you will have to make do with album version. Mrs Badger arrived about nine minutes later and said ‘Tim, what the fuck you doing?’ – Mixtape was my answer, she sighed and went back to bed.”

Which, if you ask me, sums up most of our lives perfectly I reckon.

We never did find that Dylan Rhymes Remix of ‘Buzzin’. So again you will have to put up with the album version. If anyone out there does have the now legendary Dylan Rhymes Mix of this please let us know. It was also on the b-side of the CD release.

I could have chosen several ADF tracks on this list, but the Tim factor meant it had to be ‘Buzzin’. A distant second was this

Free Satpal Ram

Largely because I stood next to Satpal Ram at an ADF concert at the Eden Project about ten years ago and didn’t know it until they shouted out to him from the crowd and the cameras stuck him up on the big screen along with my bemused face next to him.

SWC

JC adds……

The eagle-eyed among you will have spotted that this is #35 in the rundown when the previous song featured was #41.  We both thought it would be fitting to post this particular piece up today on the anniversary of Tim’s passing, an event which has left a gaping hole in the lives of so many, including a fair number who only knew him via the blogging community.  Besides, as a man who loved the game and appreciated the Total Football approach of the 1970s Dutch sides where numbers meant nothing in terms of positions on the pitch, Tim would like how we’ve buggered about with the list…. and it won’t be the last time either!

I’ve gone digging…..

mp3 : Asian Dub Foundation – Buzzin’ (Dylan Rhymes Remix)

I’m not sure if there is any life after death, but if I’m wrong, I hope that Tim is dancing his ass off as he reads and has a wee listen.