THE NEW VINYL VILLAIN

BOOT THE GRIME OF THIS WORLD IN THE CROTCH, DEAR

Not only is this a fantastically funny, upbeat and wonderful single, you flip it over and find two quite special b-sides:-

mp3 : The Smiths – Sheila Take A Bow
mp3 : The Smiths – Is It Really So Strange?
mp3 : The Smiths – Sweet and Tender Hooligan

Here’s some facts and background info.

It was released in April 1987, reaching No. 10 in the UK Singles Chart, their highest chart single placing while The Smiths were together.

Morrissey‘s original idea had been to bring back Sandie Shaw to be a second vocalist on the track but after she had recorded her vocals, that version was scrapped. Sandie was not happy in being reduced to what she perceived just to be a backing vocalist. Another early version of the track was produced by John Porter but it was also deemed unsatisfactory, this time by the band. It featured a prominent sitar-sounding riff:-

mp3 : The Smiths – Sheila Take A Bow (John Porter version)

Stephen Street came on board. He scrapped the sitar (which had been played by Porter) and instead used a brief audio clip of a marching temperance band from the 1954 film Hobson’s Choice in the song’s intro.

Oh and to complete the catalogue of woes, the scheduled promo video had to be scrapped at the 11th hour when Morrissey refused to show up for the taping.

The two b-sides were lifted from a John Peel session recorded and aired in late December 1986. Just as well as the band never got round to recording and releasing their own studio versions of what are rather outstanding songs.

In the midst of life we are in debt, etc.

78 Saab, Moffs

G’DAY FROM OUR ANZAC CORRESPONDENT : DOOZIES FROM DOWN UNDER (1)

You’ll hopefully all know that I’m more than happy to accept guest contributions for T(n)VV. Up until a few weeks back, Tuesdays were set aside for posts submitted by SWC until his career opportunities took him off to the deep jungle of Guyana and far removed from the world of nonsencial musings about indie-pop. Someone has come forward and offered to step into the breach. His name is Craig Neale. I’ll let his e-mail take up the story:-

1 March 2014

So, here goes. With JC’s kind permission I’m going to attempt to start a series featuring some tracks/artists from New Zealand & Australia that i hope you might be interested in, and perhaps haven’t heard.

…2 months later (!)… after having my computer die, replacing it, re-loading everything, and having some major doubts about doing this after realising i won’t be matching the heights of other guest contributors such as the swc and dvd on the writing front, I’ve decided to (try to) continue, and maybe just let the music do (most of the) talking.

First cab off the rank is 78 Saab – seems they needed to come up with a name pretty quickly to enter a battle of the bands, and one of them used to own a 1978 Saab… the name stuck. (my first band played our first couple of gigs named after the suburb 3 of us grew up in cos our drummer couldn’t think of anything else when he rang some pubs and managed to score us some work… we were most unimpressed!)

Formed in Canberra, Australia in the mid 90’s, 78 Saab recorded a couple of ep’s and 4 albums before splitting up in 2012.

All their stuff is well worth a listen, but I’ve gone for their first single ‘Sunshine’, off their debut album ‘Picture A Hum Can’t Hear A a Sound’… It’s just one-of-those-songs.

… it’s also one of those songs I quite happily sung the wrong words (chorus) to for many years until I googled the lyrics (“suddenly ice isn’t easy”? – that can’t be right… “suddenly life… ? oh – “sun in the eyes”! of course)

Some other personal revelations about lyrics include:-

– the first lines of ‘These Days’ by Joy Division (ah! – thought it was about the army or something);
– the first line of ‘Talking to a Stranger’ by Hunters & Collectors (oh right – it’s in french);
– pretty much the whole first verse of Alternative Ulster’ by Stiff Little Fingers (learnt the chords to it but couldn’t sing along til “THEN YOU WALK BACK TO THE CITY”!)

The list goes on – I probably search song lyrics three-or-four times a week after listening to my ipod each day at work. Pretty much the only song lyrics I’ve checked thinking I couldn’t possibly be hearing right … but was, is ‘This Is a A Call’ by Foo Fighters!

Anyway, here’s 78 Saab:

mp3 : 78 Saab – Sunshine

17 September 2014

Many months later, turns out my March e-mail didn’t get through to JC the first time. Then I went away for awhile, more problems with computer (and work) … decide to have aanother go with the e-mail while throwing in another tune on the theme of sunshine. So here’s another Australian band The Moffs, know nothing about them, and have none of their other songs, but this is great.

mp3 : The Moffs – Another Day In The Sun

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JC adds

I’m guessing that Craig’s first e-mail got caught up in the Junk section of the account, but I’m pleased he persisted. He’s not, at this stage, wanting to commit to a regular series. As he said back in March, he’s nervous about whether the quality of writing and contributions is good enough and the sort of reaction he gets. So I’m asking you dear readers to have a read and listen and give Craig a little bit of feedback. Thank you soooooooo much

Mighty Mighty

THE ALMIGHTY MIGHTY MIGHTY

This lot were from Birmingham in the West Midlands of England but were hugely influenced by Postcard Records and the Sound of Young Scotland.

Mighty Mighty consisted of Hugh Harkin (vocals), Mick Geoghegan (guitar), Peter Geoghegan (keys), Russell Burton (bass, vocals) and David Hennessey (drums). Their very fine debut single came out on their own Girlie label in March 1986:-

mp3 : Mighty Mighty – Everybody Knows The Monkey

(and I’m sure the Inspiral Carpets had a listen and thought that would do nicely…..)

Before long, they were on the established indie oufit Chapter 22, for whom they recorded and released a handful of singles and a sole LP called Sharks which was issued in February 1988. Fame and fortune eluded the boys with Top 10 placings in the indie charts being the height of it. Less than nine months after their LP hit the shops the band had disbanded.

I’ve just the one bit of plastic in the collection, picked up second-hand (my copy of Everybody Knows The Monkey is from a later released compilation CD of C86 bands). This is a great 45 from late 1986:-

mp3 : Mighty Mighty – Throwaway
mp3 : Mighty Mighty – Ceiling To The Floor

Like so many other bands of the era, they have been tempted back to play their songs live, in their case at the Indietracks music festival in 2009 and Popfest Berlin in 2010.

Enjoy

Morrissey

THE MOZ SINGLES (28)

When I originally did this series a few years back, I mentioned at this juncture that within the comments section a reader had taken a pop at me with a few words to the effect that for someone who is a Morrissey fan I seemed to spend a fair bit of time being critical of his output.

But the simple idea of this series looking at all the singles in his long and distinguished solo career was and is to bring them all together in one place, complete with the numerous b-sides and by doing so, it only throws up the fact that a fair number of the singles were rather poor efforts, often saved by the inclusion of one or more great b-sides and or cover versions.

Today’s offering is the lead-off single from the much-criticised 1997 LP Malajusted, and what might surprise some of you is my admission that it’s a song I quite like.

Alma Matters was the first song released by Morrissey, in July 1997, for his new record label, Island. I really thought it was a welcome return to something resembling form after the disappointing lack of half-decent tunes on Southpaw Grammar a couple of years earlier.

mp3 : Morrissey – Alma Matters

It was a view that was seemingly shared by a fair number of fans, as we bought enough copies of the single to allow it to reach #16 in the UK Charts, after the previous six singles had all stalled outside the Top 20, and I don’t think I was alone in looking forward to the album which hit the shops about a week later. Sadly, the album was a bit of a let-down……but I don’t think it is anything as bad as some of the critics made it out to be, and in Trouble Loves Me you have one of the best things he’s ever recorded. Having said that, it also contained the truly appalling Roy’s Keen. And to be fair, the title track from said LP has usually sounded pretty decent when played live.

But back to Alma Matters…..There’s two extra songs on the CD single, one of which I’m fond of, but the other is damn near unlistenable:-

mp3 : Morrissey – Heir Apparent
mp3 : Morrissey – I Can Have Both

For the avoidance of any doubt, it’s the tuneless and dirge-like Heir Apparent I do my best to avoid.

Trivia facts.

The nipple-tweaking photo was taken by Derek Ion and in small print on the back of the sleeve, Morrissey thanks Willie Garcia. I have no idea why these thanks were offered…….

More trivia facts.

Morrissey has long been known in the UK (or until this year at least) for going on the road and promoting his new material. However, there were only two UK gigs in December 1997, one at the Battersea Power Station in London and the other at the Northgate Arena in Chester….it would be 1999 before most of us got to hear live songs from the LP. But I’ll save that for another time.

Teenage Fanclub & De La Soul

SATURDAY’S SCOTTISH SINGLE (Part 109)

Possibly the only time this series well feature an input from a hip hop act formed in Long Island, New York.

Fallin’ is a collaboration between De La Soul and Teenage Fanclub. Released in March 1994, it was recorded for the soundtrack to the action film Judgment Night and it reached #59 in the UK singles chart, which was marginally lower than TFC’s previous single, Norman 3, which reached #50 in September 1993.

The chorus was sampled from the song Free Fallin’ from Tom Petty‘s 1989 solo album Full Moon Fever.

mp3 : Teenage Fanclub/De La Soul – Fallin’ (Faded Album Version)
mp3 : Teenage Fanclub/De La Soul – Fallin’ (Final Mix)

File under curious.

Carter USM

WRITTEN BEFORE THE OUTCOME IS KNOWN

The title track of the 1998 LP will sum up the views of many folk today, no matter if we have voted ‘Yes’ or ‘No’.

mp3 : Carter the Unstoppable Sex Machine – I Blame The Government

The Saturday series and Moz singles will be in their usual place over the weekend and come Monday, normal service will hopefully have been resumed.

Thanks for your patience.

Carter USM, Jamie Wednesday

THE BURNING QUESTION OF THE DAY

Today is the day that the people of Scotland get the chance to head over to a polling station, pick up a pencil and put their mark against either ‘Yes’ or ‘No’ in response to the question of whether Scotland should be an independent country.

This is just a simple, small and hopefully enjoyable music blog. I therefore have no wish to take up any of your time asking you to have a read over the reasons why I have decided to vote in a particular way. But it would be remiss of me not to at least acknowledge this most historic of days in modern history in the small corner of planet earth where I spent the overwhelming majority of my time. It’s been a contentious campaign and a lot of people all over Scotland are going to wake up tomorrow feeling battered, bruised and deflated by the outcome and with a bitterness that could lead to them saying the wrong things at the wrong time and so putting friendships in jeopardy.

I’m going to accept the outcome and live with it. If I ‘pick’ the winning side I will not gloat, and if I end up on the wrong end of the result then I will be sad but not to the point of despair. Today’s song is for everyone in Scotland:-

mp3 : Jamie Wednesday – Vote For Love

Jamie Wednesday formed in London in 1984, and released a grand total of eight songs on two EPs. The band consisted of James Morrison (acoustic guitar, lead vocals), Leslie Carter (bass guitar, backing vocals), Dean Leggett (drums and percussion), Lindsey Lowe (trumpet) and Simon Henry (saxophone).

Neither record sold well and the band remained virtually unknown until after they split up. A final scheduled gig never happened but band members James and Leslie took to the stage as a duo and improvised for the most part. Carter the Unstoppable Sex Machine had just been born and before long the main main were better known as Jim Bob and Fruitbat respectively.

Lightning Seeds

THIS IS A VERY VERY VERY FINE POP RECORD

Ian Broudie was a big part of the Liverpool new wave scene in the late 1970s. A member of Big in Japan (which also featured Holly Johnson and Bill Drummond) he then formed The Original Mirrors in the early ’80s, and was credited as a member of Bette Bright and the Illuminations on their lone album from 1981.

In 1983, he formed the band Care with vocalist Paul Simpson and the duo released three outstanding singles before breaking up. Though he was a busy writer, performer and session musician through the 1980s, Broudie was much more well-known a producer, working with Echo and The Bunnymen, The Icicle Works, The Colourfield, The Pale Fountains and The Fall amongst many others, often using the pseudonym “Kingbird”.

In 1989, Broudie began recording alone under the name The Lightning Seeds – he has since said it was an experiment to see if he could cut it as a muso – and in this guise as a singer/songwriter/multi-instrumentalist/producer, he would achieve much success beginning with this wonderful debut single:-

mp3 : The Lightning Seeds – Pure

A #16 hit in the UK, the two follow-up singles from debut LP Cloudcuckooland failed abysmally and like most folk, I reckoned that could very well have been the end of The Lightning Seeds. But two years later, he/they returned and hit the Top 30 with Sense and for much of the rest of the decade became chart regulars, picking up lots of new fans in particular after the huge success of Three Lions, the official anthem of the England football side for the Euro 96 championships.

Some of the later material might have been bigger hits, but I don’t think there was ever anything better than that debut single. Here’s the excellent b-sides from the 12″ copy that’s been sitting in the cupboard all these years after I picked it up for 99p in a bargain bin in Woolworth’s.

mp3 : The Lightning Seeds – Fools
mp3 : The Lightning Seeds – God Help Them

Enjoy.

Prince & The Revolution

NICE ‘N’ SLEAZY DOES IT

Prince Rogers Nelson gives Mrs Villain the creeps. So much so that she cannot bring herself to objectively give his music a fair hearing. There’s just something about him that she finds oily and repulsive.

She’s always felt that way. When I first met her at the end of the 80s, there was a lot of talk about music and shared tastes. She was very surprised that alongside my love for all things jingly-jangly guitars I would rave about some of the singles that Prince had released. We agreed to differ.

He’s not someone whose material has featured much on TVV but that in the main is down to the fact that the DMCA police are usually very quick off the mark when someone posts something by him. I expect this to be no different.

Picked up this classic single on vinyl for £1 the other week. If I had bought it back in 1986, instead of wasting money on the very patchy and underwhelming Parade LP, it would have certainly have found a high position on the 45 45s at 45 series all those years ago.

mp3 : Prince & The Revolution – Kiss
mp3 : Prince & The Revoultion – ♥ or $

One of the most memorable and finest bits of pop music ever recorded. Hasn’t dated a single bit after all these years. Just a pity that there have so many bloody awful cover versions.

(Originally posted over at the old place in February 2013)

a one-off rant

WE INTERRUPT THIS BLOG TO BRING YOU AN OPINION

I’m not the biggest user of Facebook. Indeed, I use by proper Sunday name as my ID so that for the most part anyone casually looking for me won’t find me that easily. But I’ve just logged on to the site to make what I hope are a few considerable points. I hope you don’t mind if I share them with you.

—————————————–

I’ve kept my counsel on the upcoming Referendum thus far but no more.

I haven’t enjoyed the campaigning one single bit and I fear that whatever the outcome this coming Thursday, there has been a great deal of damage done to our hard-earned and well-deserved reputation for friendliness and tolerance.

I’ve always thought and believed that the existence of diverse opinions make for a healthy and happy society but right now there’s far too many folk who I previously thought of as being well-balanced and rational letting their emotions run away with them and lashing out wildly when someone has the temerity to disagree with them.

I’ve worked in and around various political environments for 30 years and have long been aware of how it is always possible to gather up figures and information to make a case for one way or another. That’s what’s been happening this past few months and increasingly so as we approach the 18th September. Politics is not, never has been and never will be an exact science and too many folk this past few months have simply not realised that. Not everything being promised by the Yes campaign will happen if we go that way but equally, not everything the No campaign are predicting will come to pass.

The level of debate has been toe-curlingly embarrassing for the most part and I’m sick to death with it all. Roll on Friday.

Now please excuse me if I spend the next few days trying my best to ignore the increasing levels of hysterical witterings across all forms of media. Nothing that is said or done now will make me change my mind on the way I’m voting. Nor will the endorsement of one particular side by any musician, footballer, actor, writer or celebrity – no matter how much I admire or respect them – influence me one way or another. So you lot can also shut up.

Rant over

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I have a posting for the day of the referendum already written and hope that you folk, as regular readers of TVV will like it when it appears on Thursday morning. I won’t be standing on any soapboxes.

Thanks for allowing me to interrupt and spoil you day.

Teardrop Explodes

A THING OF UNCLUTTERED BEAUTY

Julian Cope might be a bit bonkers but the two hit LPs recorded with The Teardrop Explodes at the beginning of the 80s contain perfect pop, timeless tunes and moments of magic.

Tiny Children was the third single lifted from Wilder and really deserved a much better fate than merely hitting #44 in the charts. It’s a gorgeous lullaby, delivered with a real degree of fragility by Julian whose vocal is quite lovely, even if he does at times appear to be at the edge of his range.

mp3 : The Teardrop Explodes – Tiny Children

By complete contrast, and to help illustrate that this particular JC is off his rocker, here’s the very bizzare b-side:-

mp3 : The Teardrop Explodes – Rachael Built A Steamboat

Enjoy.

Morrissey

THE MOZ SINGLES (27)

The Youngest Was The Most Loved was the second single taken from Ringleader of the Tormentors, finding its way into the shops in June 2006 and peaking at #14 in the UK singles chart. I have to say that I was rather surprised at this being picked out as the second single given it is quite similar to You Have Killed Me. I was certain that one of the slower songs on the LP would have been chosen as these were the tracks that most critics had homed in on as being among the best stuff in his long and distinguished solo career. But then again, that’s why I work hard for a living and other folks get to become record company executives…..

mp3 : Morrissey – The Youngest Was the Most Loved

Once again, a single which was nothing more than average was saved by some of what we found on the b-side or additional tracks on the CD. I’ve been quick enough in the past to put the boot into the various members of the Morrissey backing bands for the way they butcher some of the old classics originally recorded by The Smiths, but every now and again some of the stuff written in conjunction with Alan Whyte reminds me that I should sometimes temper my criticism.

mp3 : Morrissey – Ganglord

I first heard this track when it was played on the tour that accompanied the release of the album (I was lucky enough to get tickets to three Scottish gigs in five days – two of them at really small venues, and it was at Stirling Albert Hall that Ganglord was first aired) and while the recorded version never quite captured the impact of hearing it live, it remains a personal favourite.

I’m also quite fond of this, which could easily have fitted onto the parent LP:-

mp3 : Morrissey – If You Don’t Like Me, Don’t Look At Me

I suppose I’m quite tickled at the idea of Morrissey singing about young men and women running through the glen, which just makes me think of shortbread tins for some reason or other….although as a tune I think it has some similarity to the verses, but not the chorus, of First Of The Gang To Die.

And so to the cover version. One that I’m really not all that sure about. On the plus side, it brought royalties to Howard Devoto. On the minus side, it is a rather lame version of what is without question one of my all time favourite records….when Howard sang he was angry, ill and ugly as sin, I felt he meant it. Morrissey surely has his tongue firmly in his cheek…..

mp3 : Morrissey – A Song From Under The Floorboards

I do like the sleeve mind you, another photo by Fabio Lovino, and unlike many other of the singles which were released on 2xCds and 1×7″ bit of plastic, the same photo was used in all formats. The great man looks awfully dignified…..

Teenage Fanclub

SATURDAY’S SCOTTISH SINGLE (Part 108)

I really don’t think that I need to provide any background to the 107th artist featured in this long running series.

This is the April 1991 CD release of a belter of a tune originally issued in a limted edition of 1500 x 7″ singles…….and if you’re lucky enough to own the vinyl then you could expect to get up to £100 if you put it on the market.

mp3 : Teenage Fanclub – Everything Flows
mp3 : Teenage Fanclub – Primary Education
mp3 : Teenage Fanclub – Speeder
mp3 : Teenage Fanclub – Don’t Cry No Tears

Camper Van Beethoven

I DEFY ANYONE TO DISLIKE THIS SONG

Released here in the UK on Rough Trade Records in 1986, I was very surprised to learn that it was only ever an album track in their native USofA:-

mp3 : Camper Van Beethoven – Take The Skinheads Bowling

This is an utterly joyous two and a bit minutes, and it’s opening few bars are guaranteed to cheer me up and make me smile no matter how foul a mood I’m in. One of the greatest and catchiest sing-a-long songs of all time, and yet its success caught the composer, David Lowery, by surprise:-

“I never thought that Take the Skinheads Bowling would become a Hit. If someone had traveled from the future and told me we would have a hit on our first album I would not have picked this song as being the hit. Not in a million years. I would have more likely picked Where the Hell is Bill.

Why? We regarded Take The Skinheads Bowling as just a weird non-sensical song. The lyrics were purposely structured so that it would be devoid of meaning. Each subsequent line would undermine any sort of meaning established by the last line. It was the early 80′s and all our peers were writing songs that were full of meaning. It was our way of rebelling. BTW this is the most important fact about this song. We wanted the words to lack any coherent meaning. There is no story or deeper insight that I can give you about this song.”

Here’s the other bits of music made available on the 12″ single:-

mp3 : Camper Van Beethoven – Cowboys From Hollywood
mp3 : Camper Van Beethoven – Aktuda
mp3 : Camper Van Beethoven – Colonel Enrique Adolfo Bermudez

In case you are wondering who the subject matter of the last song is, (he is described on the back on the sleeve as ‘a real bastard’)…..he was one of the founders of the armed contra army which was formed to oppose the Sandinista government of Nicaragua and which had very controversial links with American military intelligence throuighout the 80s.

Click here for a brief bio.

Black Box Recorder

THE ART OF GREAT VALUE ON A CD SINGLE

Black Box Recorder consisted of Sarah Nixey, Luke Haines (of The Auteurs), and John Moore (formerly of The Jesus and Mary Chain).

Debut LP, England Made Me, got a fair bit of critical acclaim upon its release in 1998 but didn’t sell all that well, perhaps because it was a very downbeat take on the struggles of everyday life where the gap between the haves and have-nots was ever-increasing and life for many seemed to be mundane and not worth bothering about.

By 2000, the band had come to the conclusion that sex sells, and so while the music itself on the follow-up LP The Facts of Life was little different from the debut, many of the lyrics were a bitter commentary on the peculiar attitude us Brits – or more precisely the demograph referred to as Middle England – have to sex and pornography.

The band enjoyed a Top 20 hit single with the lead track off the LP and as follow-up they selected LP opener The Art of Driving, a song which is not really so much about moving a motor vehicle from point A to point B as ironic advice on how best to ensure a developing relationship goes along at the right pace.

There was little radio play for the single and it stalled at #53. Black Box Recorder never threatened the charts again.

I thought I’d feature the single as the 2 x CDs made up a great little package. You got a radio edit of the track, the album version and you could also access the promo video. There were also two cover versions of hit singles from the 70s, both of them delivered in ways that would make you believe they were Black Box Recorder originals.

And then there was a very interesting, funny and occasionally perverted remix of the band’s hit single – a remix by the Chocolate Layers, aka Jarvis Cocker and Steve Mackey of Pulp.

mp3 : Black Box Recorder – The Art of Driving (radio edit)
mp3 : Black Box Recorder – The Facts of Life (remixed by the Chocolate Layers)
mp3 : Black Box Recorder – Rock’n’Roll Suicide
mp3 : Black Box Recorder – The Art of Driving (album version)
mp3 : Black Box Recorder – Uptown Top Ranking

Not long after this, Nixey and Moore got married and had a child, much to the chagrin of Haines. His bitter take on how it affected him and the band can be enjoyed within the pages of his second volume of memoirs, Post Everything.

Lloyd Cole & The Commotions

A SHAMELESS RIP-OFF OF IGGY POP

Lloyd Cole & the Commotions released just nine singles and three albums during a four-year period between April 1984 and April 1988. Their biggest hit single was Lost Weekend which climbed as high as #17 – a bit of surprise to me as I was sure they had enjoyed at least one Top 10 single and I’d have thought it would have been debut Perfect Skin, but it only reached #26.

Lost Weekend was also the only single on which bass player Lawrence Donegan got a writing credit. After the band broke up, Lawrence became a very successful journalist and author and it was in the pages of one of his excellent and hugely enjoyable books – No News At Throat Lake – that he briefly mentions his part in the writing of Lost Weekend and fully acknowledges the tune is a shameless rip-off of The Passenger by Iggy Pop.

If you can’t quite hear that for yourself, then take a listen to the extended version of the song as it appears on the 12″ single, and in particular the extended instrumental break in the middle:-

mp3 : Lloyd Cole & the Commotions – Lost Weekend (extended version)

It’s actually a reasonably decent extended version, only about a minute longer than the 7″ radio friendly version which can be found on the flip side along with a couple of half decent otherwise unavailable tracks:-

mp3 : Lloyd Cole & the Commotions – Big World
mp3 : Lloyd Cole & the Commotions – Nevers End
mp3 : Lloyd Cole & the Commotions – Lost Weekend (7″ version)

Enjoy

ADDENDUM

It was only after writing this and going to load up the tracks that I discovered all of these songs were featured as recently as last December as part of the Saurday’s singles series. Sorry for the repetition.

Twilight Sad

AN IMAGINARY COMPILATION ALBUM #3 : THE TWILIGHT SAD

Just a reminder…the idea of this series is to take one of my favourite bands or singers and list what I think would make the idea ‘Best of’ album with a few words on why. The only proviso is that I’m going to do it as a proper old-fashioned LP…10 tracks in total with an A-side and a B-side and it’s got to hang together like a proper LP and not just a collection of greatest hits. Neither will it necessarily be the 10 best songs (which in any event change on a regular basis)

I started things off with The Smiths and then looked at the solo career of Edwyn Collins. Today it’s The Twilight Sad.

Once again, the inspiration was seeing from a live performance, in this instance in Richmond Park in Glasgow as part of the Last Big Weekend which saw them take to the stage at 5pm under the canvas of a tent. It was an electric performance, but then again every time I’ve seen the band perform over the past seven years has left me awestruck, whether it is the full-blown band, an acoustic stripped down version or, as on one occasion, accompanied in a fabulous gothic abbey by the Royal Scottish National Orchestra.

It was the opening three songs of the 45-minute long Richmond Park set that got me thinking they would be the perfect opening to any compilation LP and therefore I only had to narrow things down by another seven songs. It was also the fact they aired a brand new song as the fourth offering in the set that got me determined to do this now as to wait for the release of what will be their fourth full-length LP this October would make it an impossible task.

Side A

1. Cold Days From The Birdhouse
2. I Became A Prostitute
3. Reflection of The Television
4. Sick
5. That Summer, At Home I Had Become The Invisible Boy

Side B

1. And She Would Darken The Memory
2. The Room
3. I’m Taking The Train Home
4. Seven Years Of Letters
5. Kill It In The Morning

Despite getting the head start from the first three songs, it’s still take ages to come up with the final seclection….but the bonus has been getting to play all the songs all over again before working things out.

1. The first track of Fourteen Autumns & Fifteen Winters, the 2007 debut LP. It contains a couple of particularly incredible moments in what is an incredibly good song….the first of them at the two and a half minute mark when Andy McFarlane’s wall of noise from the guitar kicks in….played live it really does get the hairs on the back of the neck standing to attention. The second bit of true magic comes just under a minute from the end when James Graham‘s vocal fades out to be replaced by an unexpected bit of acoustic guitar accompanied by a repeated single piano note.

2. The second track of Forget The Night Ahead, the sophomore LP from 2009 and it’s straight back into the wall of noise, this time with pounding drums courtesy of Mark Devine and a great bass back-up by then member Craig Orzel. This is alternative indie-rock at its very best and goes a long way to explaining why the band have a decent following over in the States

3. More loud and wailing guitars, pounding drums and a killer hypnotic bass line. The opening track of the second LP. The song was later given a complete remix by Errors for inclusion on the Wrong Car EP – by complete I mean the drums, bass and guitar are almost completely replaced by electronica and a dance beat. And such is the greatness of the song and the music that the remix more than holds its own.

4. The band surprised many fans with the contents of the 2012 LP No One Can Ever Know. The previously dominant guitars were replaced by keyboards and drum patterns from machines. Imagine the music of Joy Division benefitting from technological improvements over the past 30 years and you’ll get an idea of what many of the songs sounded like. I felt the imaginary compilation LP needed a little bit less intensity at this point of listening, so in comes a slightly slower and softer number.

5. A track which in some ways is eerily reminiscent of Maps by Yeah Yeah Yeahs, this is a strange and disturbing song told from the point of view of a very unhappy and disturbed teenager. It was my introduction to the band back in 2007 when I heard it played over the speakers in a Glasgow record store. And yes, there is the occasional use of the dreaded c-word which is normally a bit of a taboo, but it is spat out by James in such a way that you can have no doubt that the person being sung about is truly loathed. They say you never forget your first time and in the case of The Twilight Sad I never will.

Take a deep breath and turn the record over……

6. Just as you might be thinking from the opening minute or so that this track from the debut LP (an edited version of which was released as a 7″ single) might be a more easy-going indie-pop listen, then the brutality and violence of the lyric and takes centre stage with boots being put in and rabbits being threatened with death. And then the final two and a half minutes deliver the sort of shoegazing noise most usually experienced via a My Bloody Valentine track. Aurally stunning…..

7. This was the most difficult part of the imaginary album to compile. I just find it near impossible to have anything follow-on to Track 6 and not sound inadequate. But I think this song from the second LP. which was also released as a 45 (and later remixed in spectacular fashion by Mogwai) does the trick. It is driven along by a constant drum and keyboard but in a minimalist way this enabling James to display that he is a very fine singer.

8. Back to the first LP again. A softer song than the others selected from that LP, this has a lyric which refers to green and blue eyes and as such recalls Temptation by New Order...not that it sounds anything like that song…just the bit about the green and blue eyes. Again, it’s a song like so many of their earlier efforts, one which builds up a great bit of momentum before slowing to a lovely climax.

9. A similarly paced song to that which precedes it on this imaginary album. Released as a 7″ single with a very surprising and very understated cover of Suck by The Wedding Present on the b-side, this is one of the few tracks that James has been happy to explain – ‘the lyrics revolve around running away from people and things’

10. I’ve ended with a song that splits a lot of fans. It’s the closing track from the third LP and it’s rather unlike anything else I’ve included on this imaginary compilation. It was originally made available free via the band’s website some five months before the release of the LP and it’s fair to say the electronica caught out a lot of folk who were desperate for more of the same after the first two LPs. I fell in love with it right away and I have never got bored with it. It belts along at a great pace and then just as you think it is going to fade away quietly, a change of rhythm takes it off on a different course altogether before it does conclude with a shouted single line. A perfect ending and again has the intention of making you want to get up out of your chair to turn the LP over and listen again.

mp3 : The Twilight Sad – Cold Days From The Birdhouse
mp3 : The Twilight Sad – I Became A Prostitute
mp3 : The Twilight Sad – Reflection of The Television
mp3 : The Twilight Sad – Sick
mp3 : The Twilight Sad – That Summer, At Home I Had Become The Invisible Boy
mp3 : The Twilight Sad – And She Would Darken The Memory
mp3 : The Twilight Sad – The Room
mp3 : The Twilight Sad – I’m Taking The Train Home
mp3 : The Twilight Sad – Seven Years Of Letters
mp3 : The Twilight Sad – Kill It In The Morning

Enjoy

James

THE JAMES SINGLES (16)

The fact that Ring The Bells had been a flop didn’t strop the record label wanting to extract every last possible drop out of James as they continued their merry way across the festivals of Europe playing the songs off Seven alongside the better received older material. Whatever else could be said about the band, they were still continuing to improve as a live act and take things to some quite substantial heights backed by huge crowds willing to sing and dance along.

Their biggest ever show was scheduled for July 1992 at the Alton Towers theme park in England with 30,000 fans making the pilgrimage…a hugely impressive achievement given the band were also high up on the bill of Glastonbury just a few weeks prior.

The Alton Towers show was also scheduled to broadcast live by BBC Radio 1 and the record label was keen to exploit the exposure offered by the broadcast with a fourth single from the LP. The band weren’t happy, especially on the back of the backlash about the poor value offered to fans by the previous single (see Part 15 of this series), but realising they weren’t in much of a bargaining position decided that they would re-record the title track of the LP along with three brand new songs.

mp3 : James – Seven (remix)
mp3 : James – Goalies Ball
mp3 : James – William Burroughs
mp3 : James – Still Alive

The remix is so blatantly stadium rock….it’s almost like a U2 cast-off…Tim Booth sounding uncannily like Bono at times. I just can’t bring myself to listen to this track….

However……….it’s a release very much saved by the b-sides.

Goalies Ball, despite the title, is not a song about football, but a commentary on human evolution set against the backdrop of a strangely melodic and haunting tune.

William Burroughs is a manic few minutes which provided a great reminder of the band at their critical peak a few years earlier when they were lucky to sell out venues with a capacity of 30 never mind 30,000. The record company must have hated it…

Still Alive is a real oddity given the rest of the material the band had been recording at the time. It’s a vocal-led track with the minimal of accompaniment in the background. It certainly sounded like nothing James had recorded before and it is one of the few tracks from the era which has dated well.

This release was made available on 7″, 12″ and CD single but for once, all four tracks were available on each format. This meant completists only had to shell out once and this was probably a contributory factor in it stalling at #46. As I said above, it’s a dreadful single and so deserved such a lousy chart performance, but long-term fans could be pleased and intrigued by what they heard on the b-sides. Were the band already preparing a move away from the stadium rock nonsense??

Morrissey

THE MOZ SINGLES (Part 26)

Released in April 1990, November Spawned A Monster shocked an awful lot of people with its candid lyrics about disability. Some weren’t sure if Morrissey was mocking the wheelchair-bound or whether he was championing their cause.

Sleep on and dream of love
Because it’s the closest you will get to love
Poor twisted child, so ugly, so ugly
Poor twisted child. oh hug me, oh hug me

One November spawned a monster in the shape of this child who later cried
“But Jesus made me, so Jesus save me
From pity, sympathy and people discussing me”
A frame of useless limbs what can make good all the bad that’s been done?

And if the lights were out could you even bear
To kiss her full on the mouth (or anywhere?)

Poor twisted child so ugly, so ugly
Poor twisted child oh hug me, oh hug me

One November spawned a monster in the shape of this child
Who must remain a hostage to kindness and the wheels underneath her
A hostage to kindness and the wheels underneath her
A symbol of where mad, mad lovers must pause and draw the line

So sleep and dream of love
Because it’s the closest you will get to love

That November is a time which I must put out of my mind

Oh one fine day let it be soon
She won’t be rich or beautiful
But she’ll be walking your streets
In the clothes that she went out and chose for herself

It was a song I found really disturbing on its release, and even all these years later, it still makes me uncomfortable. But then again, I’ve no doubt that was the whole point and intention behind its writing and recording.

It’s a tune which is one of the most unusual across the solo material…it’s almost driven along by a dance-beat akin to Barbarism Begins At Home….and again given the subject matter, that can interpreted as a bit of a sick joke. But just as the tune is bouncing along, and the dancers are in the midst of throwing the Morrissey shapes, it slows right down and Mary Margaret O’Hara comes in and starts screaming….

I read many years ago at the time of its release that she was asked to go to the studio and make noises as if she was having a painful and difficult birth. Given this, the lyric does begin to make some literal sense….the child in question was not planned, and to complicate matters for the mad mad lovers who failed to pause and draw the line, nine months later they have a daughter whose physical appearance and dependencies make it so difficult for them to love her….but who think everything will be fine if there is some sort of miraculous recovery…..

So….maybe the song isn’t really about disability and it’s actually a cautionary tale to those who were prepared to sleep around without thinking of the consequences….

Other people have got their own theories. I read once on a forum one fan’s view that the song is a parallel to Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein – a monster created in November but who was unloved by its ‘parent’. The monster then had to endure a life of misery and loneliness (a regular theme in many Morrissey songs), and this is going to be the fate of the girl in the song. The fan goes as far to comment that Morrissey is making a really strong statement here that society judges people on their looks alone….

Someone else makes reference to the accompanying video which they feel mocks so many others of its time, with Morrissey wriggling around in the desert making himself look ludicrous to emphasise the point that image and beauty isn’t everything…

Your own thoughts dear readers????

mp3 : Morrissey – November Spawned A Monster

Oh and the two extra songs on the 12″ and CD single are well worth a listen as well:-

mp3 : Morrissey – He Knows I’d Love To See Him
mp3 : Morrissey – Girl Least Likely To

The latter is probably the nearest thing we’ve ever had to a song that could have come straight from the days of The Smiths since the break-up – it was co-written by Andy Rourke.

Facts and figures time. It reached #12 in the UK singles charts. The image on the sleeve is by celebrated rock photographer Anton Corbjin…

Oh and just in case there’s any doubt….November remains one of my favourite ever Morrissey releases.

Enjoy.

Supernaturals

SATURDAY’S SCOTTISH SINGLE (Part 107)

Adapted from wiki:-

The Supernaturals were a five-piece guitar-based pop band from Glasgow, Scotland. Fronted by singer-songwriter James McColl, they signed to Parlophone in 1996, and had a string of singles which were taken from their three albums and four EPs. Other members included Mark Guthrie, Derek McManus, Gavin Crawford and Ken McAlpine.

Debut album It Doesn’t Matter Anymore received good reviews (8/10 NME and 4/5 Q) as did the follow-up A Tune a Day (7/10 NME and 4/5 Q). The band’s third album saw a change of musical direction into Europop and electronica and wasn’t as well received.

They were a band which enjoyed playing live, appearing at all sorts of music festivals in the UK and Europe (including four successive year at T in the Park between 95 and 98) and were happy enough to appear on the supoort bill for a number of better known acts and bands including Robbie Williams, Paul Weller, The Boo Radleys, Gene, Blondie, Dodgy, The Bluetones, Ocean Colour Scene, Texas, Sleeper and Tina Turner.

The band’s best known songs (Smile” and I Wasn’t Built To Get Up) were featured prominently in a series of television advertisements while The Day Before Yesterday’s Man was used on three occasions in film and TV in the UK.

Eight singles were released from the first 2 LPs, all of which went Top 50 in the UK, but only three made the Top 30 with none getting any higher than #23.

Here’s their first Top 30 hit from 1997:-

mp3 : The Supernaturals – The Day Before Yesterday’s Man

Listening now, it’s catchy enough and radio friendly (albeit I’m sure the word shit was edited out of the radio mix) but I was sad to discover that it hasn’t dated all that well…..

And here’s the two additional tracks made available on CD1 of the release:-

mp3 : The Supernaturals – Ken’s Song
mp3 : The Supernaturals – Honk Williams

The first few bars of the latter had me panicking as it felt as if Mull Of Kintyre was about to be played. But stick with it as it is a fun little number about a spaceman who looks and sounds like a dead country and western singer…..with a great wee singlaong chorus towards the end.

Enjoy