Need

Sometimes you just need Elliott Smith and nothing else will do


Elliott Smith - Needle in the Hay (mp3)

And just for good measure:

Just Open Your Eyes

Trips to London as an older teenager. A few miles down the track. Off the train and down the Tube. Covent Garden. Pissed (ish). Back on the Tube. Back on the train. Home.

One day outside of St.Pancras and there was this beautiful facade. And grime and filth and hurrying people and pigeons and more hurrying people inside. Lesson learned (and forgotten).

Pet Shop Boys - Kings Cross (mp3)

Well it's near enough I guess.

Oh and I think this is 100th post - eventually.

GETONWITHIT

So by deleting the post I did before christmas I reckon that this now becomes your 99th post and that means that rather than sitting around like for the last few months saying 'I think I'll do this for my hundredth post' and having established that the next Friday 29th February doesn't fall until 2036 (thank you darlin') so you're not falling back on the 'I'm sorry I only post on Friday 29th February' excuse, you can use this as the impetus to start blogging again. Don't go telling me about deadlines for Year 11 marking, we've had so many deadlines for year 11 marking this year and we've waved them all goodbye as they've receeded into the distance. It will be done.

Listen, enjoy, get on with it.

Belle and Sebastian - Your Cover's Blown mp3
The Cure - The Caterpillar (unplugged) mp3
The Decembrists - Billy Liar mp3

A Blatant Attempt to Boost My Hit Counter

What you see above is 'phasing'. I'm still unsure what this means but I think I can hear it happening when it does.

British band Nirvana (You can see it fitting into place now eh?) were the first to use this all the way through a track. Apparently The Beatles with 'Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds' and The Small Faces with 'Itchycoo Park' used the technique sporadically.

I recently dug out an old Island Records sampler album called 'You Can All Join In' made in 1969. It featured most, if not all, of the artists on the Island roster that year; including Stevie Winwood with Traffic, Spooky Tooth, Fairport Convention and Jethro Tull. In addition were the aforementioned Nirvana with 'Rainbow Chaser' - a track that was my favourite on the album. They were formed in the summer of 1967 (probably in a purple haze) and made the kind of  progressive, flowery music you would expect from a band that names their single 'Rainbow Chaser'. Their album 'The Story of Simon Simopath' has been described as the first narrative based concept album released.

So all you Nirvana (some US based alternative) fans coming here to find some obscure rarity may be disappointed. But download it anyway and expand your horizons.

Nirvana - Rainbow Chaser (mp3) Buy

Richard Anthony Hewson

I have a really awful memory. Ask me to remember the names of students in my year group in sixth form and I would struggle. In fact, if it wasn't for the occasional glance at Friends Reunited about 10-15 would be my limit.

My sixth form years in general are a bit hazy. I remember some of my teachers but none of the content of their lessons. In fact my main recollection is of the sixth form block itself with the Space Invaders machine, two table football machines and the pool table. We used to arrange competitions on all of them and being a lazy sod I would spend the majority of the time inbetween lessons (and sometimes during them) on any one of these distractions. There were also cushion fights and card marathons a plenty.

But the prize of the sixth form block was the hifi system. Students would try to dominate it with their chosen tunes and sometimes the Hendrix set would win, sometimes the punks, and at other times the Motorhead/Rainbow/ACDC crowd. For a short while someone (I forget who) used to put on the twelve inch version of Slide by the Rah Band. I quite liked it I remember and so muggins here bought it.

Now I'd completely forgotten about this until recently they were mentioned by Mick (of Raiding the Vinyl Archive fame) in the comments section of the rather spiffing Ghost of Electricity. Well to cut a long story short I dug it out and did a vinyl rip. And here I present it to you ................ and it is very, very, very dodgy. In fact I still can't work out what I saw in it at the time? This was a young man into all sorts of worthy music and I liked this pop/disco nonsense? I seriously am beginning to think I was abucted by aliens for a couple of years between 1981 and 1983. There is simply no other explanation. Tcch.

The Rah Band - Slide (mp3)

Visit them on their page at MySpace

Happy Birthday CP - Oops! I Missed Again

The Contrast Podcast was 100 this week. So a happy birthday to Tim and everybody who has shared in this marvelous collective. And while I have not exactly set the blogosphere alight with my contribution to CP, I try to download and listen when I can. Some people contribute on a random basis, while others are stalwarts who rarely miss an issue. And this, of course, is the beauty behind it. Well done Tim keep up the good work. Here's to another 100 and more.

This week the topic was 100 (I wonder why?) and here are the contributions:

(00:00) Sharon Jones - 100 days, 100 nights

Betty from The Royal Family

(04:34) Fun 100 - Computer

ZB from So the wind won’t blow it all away

(07:21) Love of Diagrams - At 100%

Bob from Gimme Tinnitus

(11:32) The Soundtrack of our lives - 21st century ripoff

Chris from Phosphorous.net

(15:35) Maxi Priest - Full 100

Mark from Cinema Du Lyon

(21:06) The Byrds - One hundred years from now

Brian from State Fare

(23:56) NOFX - 100 times fuckeder

Marcy from Lost in your inbox

(25:59) Lyres - 100cc’s (Pure Thrust)

FiL from Pogoagogo

(29:11) Generation X - One hundred punks

Dirk from Sexy Loser

(33:03) Carlton Rees - 99 and a half won’t do

Matthew from Song by Toad

(36:35) Nick Lowe - One’s too many and a hundred ain’t enough

Anna from the Music I-Quiz

(39:30) The Anniversary - A hundred ships

SiD from Too Much Rock

(45:23) Shout out louds - 100 degrees

Crash from Pretending life is like a song

(49:26) The Cure - One hundred years

Eiron from A Blog of No Importance

(56:25) The Divine Comedy - I’ve been to a marvellous party

JC from The Vinyl Villain

(01:01:00) The Offspring - One hundred punks

Andy from Circles of Concrete

(01:04:33) The Tragically Hip - At the hundredth meridian

Thom from Better in the dark

(01:08:17) The Pixies - Oh my golly

John from And you’ll never hear surf music again

(01:10:30) The Loved Ones - 100K

James from Appetite For Distraction

(01:13:51) Roy Harper - When an old cricketer leaves the crease

Stuart Dade

Well done to all concerned then. Some wonderful tracks. In time honoured tradition I would now like to offer my own interpretation - so I begin with:

Blur - End of a Century (mp3) Buy

Beloved - A Hundred Words (mp3) Buy

Droopy Drawers Number Forty Four

According to Andrew Oswald of Warwick University I should be at an all time low. I am 44 and have been now for 16 days. Fuck. You see 44 is the average age for feeling at your lowest. For the last few years it has all been down hill. In fact from my early twenties I have been heading inexorably for the doldrums, spiralling out of control as I plummet towards middle age. However, it is not the fault of the kids being a constant drain on my limited recourses, nor the fault of my inadequate job or my steadily greying head. Oswald states that there is nothing that can be done to alter my state. No kids, tough, you're still depressed. Filthy rich - well that won't help you either. The U-shaped curve of psychological well-being is fixed and unalterable.

So thats 384 hours of misery so far and 8400 more to go until things start to become a little better. But of course it will only be a small improvement because the theory states that I am at the nadir of the 'u' in my life. It will only get significantly better when I'm about 58 or so and by the time I'm 70 I will be beside myself with happiness. By then all my old friends will be dying off and I will be 'counting my blessings' as I realise what a lucky soul I am.

So how true is it? These things are always difficult to prove one way or another. A trawl through history and you will find a fair few unhappy souls in their middle years. Dante wasn't exactly a laugh a minute was he? But in many (most) ways I really don't give a shit. Some of my friends are divorced, some divorcing and some depressed. Others have a very positive demeanour most of the time. So either Oswald is right only some of the time or they are good actors. Pass the Oscar anyone?

The Smiths - Heaven Knows I'm Miserable Now (mp3) Buy

Tori Amos - China (mp3) Buy

Contrast Podcast

Its 1997 at the weekly jamboree that is Contrast Podcast. In my time honoured way I have failed to contribute. But have my submission here instead.

This is the playlist then:

(00:00) The Wannadies - Hit

Tim from The face of today

(02:43) Blur - Song 2

JC from The Vinyl Villain

(05:53) Radiohead - Electioneering

Linda from Speed of dark

(09:52) Cornershop - Brimful of Asha (original version)

Crash from Pretending life is like a song

(15:01) Legendary Pink Dots - Destined to repeat

ZB from So the wind won’t blow it all away

(20:33) Stapleton - International departures

Ross from Just gimme indie rock

(24:23) Old 97’s - Melt snow

Greg from Broken Dial

(28:03) Matthew Sweet - Superbaby

Rick from Are you embarassed easily?

(31:52) Ween - Mutilated lips

Dweller from Child without an iPod

(36:35) Whiskeytown - 16 days

Natalie from Mini-obs

(41:19) Wheat - Summer

SiD from Too Much Rock

(47:47) Bob Dylan - Make you feel my love

Eiron from A Blog of No Importance

(53:19) Everclear - Sunflowers

Andy from Circles of Concrete

(57:21) The Foo Fighters - Monkey Wrench

James from Appetite For Distraction

(01:03:03) Celine Dion - My heart will go on

The Man from S.L.I.M.E.

(01:04:30) Cornershop - Brimful of Asha (Norman Cook remix)

FiL and Gina from Pogoagogo

(01:09:12) Radiohead - Paranoid Android (live on Later)

Stuart

(01:15:56) Ben Folds Five - Evaporated

Marcy from Lost in your inbox

and this is my contribution:

The Chemical Brothers - Block Rockin' Beats (mp3) Buy

How they were ever missed off in the first place is a mystery.

The Day the Music Died

Buddy Holly died this day in 1959. The plane crash that claimed his life (as well as Ritchie Valens and the Big Bopper) when only 22 years old, had far reaching effects in the world of rock and roll music. Its hard to believe that Holly recorded songs for only three years.

Buddy Holly - Peggy Sue (mp3)

Weezer - Buddy Holly (mp3)

Buy Holly and Weezer here and here

Yeah! Phil Baby

I’m so jealous.

Davy H over at The Ghost of Electricity has beaten me to it and gone and posted about uncle Phil, our much-maligned drummer. Well, as promised, I’m going to go ahead and post anyway because Phil deserves as much praise as possible. This is the start of nothing short of a revolution. A complete re-appraisal of a song writing genius that will put him at the forefront of British musical development.

I first encountered Genesis in a bargain bin at Timothy Whites in St.Albans. There I secured a copy of ‘And Then There Were Three’. This was Phil trying to steady a rudderless Genesis for the first time. Yes it was boring and dull, but you could see the beginnings of the ‘Phil Sound’. And who could forget ‘Duke’, ‘Abacab’ and ‘Invisible Touch’? Well I could for one I suppose but sales prove that this was Phil the ambassador, promoting English prog rock to the world.

And then there was Live Aid with Phil jetting across the Atlantic to do his bit for the starving of Africa. Not a self-promotional bone in his body you see. Phil the magnificent.

Phil is, of course, primarily a solo artiste. ‘Face Value’ was famously produced after his split from his wife and it shows in the tortured lyrics throughout the album. This is Phil in his pomp. The album is full of song writing gems. Well there is a couple at least………… well there is one. ‘Hello, I Must Be Going’ continued where the previous one had left off – no hint of laurel resting from our Phil. And ‘No Jacket Required’ is frankly ……………….. hmmmmmmm ……………………….. I can see where this is going now. Perhaps you are all right.

But NO I will not be put off. Phil is brilliant. Now where did I leave my copy of Sussudio …………………………………?

Phil Collins - In The Air Tonight (mp3)

For You Davy:

Genesis - Abacab (mp3)

For you Crash:

Phil Collins - Tomorrow Never Knows (mp3)

Buy everything Phil here

On A Long Black Leash

It's Contrast Podcast time again which you can find right here. Yet again this rather fine series has produced the goods with the tempting theme of lust. And yet again some more the Vicar has failed to make his own entry. Oh dear.

I will rectify this in the future. I know this is probably just procrastination but I earnestly believe that I really want to change and add my pennysworth to the melting pot. I think that I will go throught the back catalogue of podcasts and make my own choices. There that's a start of sorts. I told you I would act. Don't hold your breath too long though.

Soft Cell - Sex Dwarf (mp3) Buy

Ben Harper - Touch From Your Lust (mp3) Buy

Hello Again

Just popped over to Fileden to notice that my bandwidth has been exceeded. I've been getting more downloads in the last month than I've ever had. Pah - just goes to show that few people ever read my jottings. As if I was ever convinced otherwise.

However resignation aside I will attempt to get this blog up and running again despite a drought of blogging desire the size of - well a very big thing. So I've updated my account to allow more bandwidth, which will be quickly followed by a little domestic housekeeping to get rid of these old links. I think they are well beyond their sell by date. So download now you mp3 leeches 'cos soon they will be gone.

A couple of favourite tunes to get me back into it then:

Scritti Politti - The Word Girl (mp3) Buy

House of Love - Beatles and the Stones (mp3) Buy

On The Eighth Day


Well I did absolutely bugger all of course, apart from posting this rather obvious little ad joiner.

The Beatles - Eight Days A Week (mp3)

Buy The Beatles right here

A Week In Music

Sunday

Sunday is derived from pre-Christian Egyptian astrology.

Well here we are at the end of an eventful weeks posting, and I get the chance to finish on a high. There are many great songs connected with Sunday and I wish I was able to offer all the ones that were on my shortlist. But unfortunately my lack of bandwidth says that this cannot happen.

In 1933 Rezso Seress, the Hungarian composer, wrote 'Gloomy Sunday'; a song that rapidly became known as the 'Hungarian suicide song'. Various people made cover versions - not least Billie Holiday and, of course, the Associates - and it supposedly inspired lots of suicides throughout the world. The claim was not diminished when Seress himself committed suicide in 1968 as did Billy Mackenzie in 1997.

The Associates - Gloomy Sunday (mp3) (buy)

Late 1978, early 1979 saw Blondie riding the crest of a wave. 'Parallel Lines' had hit number one in the album charts. 'Hanging on the Telephone' had been in the top ten, while its follow up 'Heart of Glass' had gone to number one in both the UK and US. How could they equal this? By releasing 'Sunday Girl' to go back to number one. My top ten of 1979 had both hits in it. My friends saw it as infatuation. They were probably right, but it's still a great record.

Blondie - Sunday Girl (mp3) (buy)

In 1990 The Sundays provided something a little different to the shoe gazing wall of sound that filled the indie charts. MBV, Ride, The Jesus and Mary Chain etc were all well and good but with the vocals often removed to the background the jangly sound of The Sundays was very refreshing. They are one of the finest live acts I have seen and Harriet Wheeler was simply gorgeous. So rather aptly I finish with:

The Sundays - Here's Where the Story Ends (mp3) (buy)

A Week In Music

Saturday

Saturday is named after the Roman God of agriculture Cronus aka Saturn.

So many choices. After the song drought of Wednesday / Thursday comes a veritable flood. I could of chosen Tom Waits - but I didn't. The Jam - but I didn't. Whigfield (ahem) - but I didn't. The list, while not being exactly endless, is still very long. So it comes down to the following:

Saturday Sun - Nick Drake (mp3)

The Saturday Boy - Billy Bragg (mp3)

On Saturday Afternoons in 1963 - Rickie Lee Jones (mp3)

Buy Nick Drake here, Billy Bragg here and Rickie Lee Jones here.

And apologies for the lateness of this post, I started writing it last night after getting back from an impromptu nights camping in Pembrokeshire, but then fell asleep. It's an age thing!

A Week In Music

Friday

The name Friday comes from the Anglo-Saxon Frigg - the Goddess of beauty. In Latin languages the name mostly comes from Venus who was no shrinking Violet in the beauty stakes herself.

There are lots of musical choices available for the Friday slot. No surprises there then. It seems like all songwriters spend the working week in a state of increasing gloom until Friday comes along. A few drinks later with the creative juices flowing and the worlds their oyster.

The Easybeats - Friday On My Mind (Mp3) Buy

The Donnas - Friday Fun (mp3) Buy

The Cure - Friday I'm In Love (mp3) Buy

Nouvelle Vague - Friday Night Saturday Morning (mp3) Buy

The Nouvelle Vague I've only included because I can't seem to find my copy of The Specials version. Curses.

A Week In Music

ThursdayFrom the old English 'Day of Thunor', the Latin equivilant is 'Jupiter's Day'.

Thursday was until recently a nothing sort of day. Still a day short of when the real action begins on the Friday. However, a few like minded friends and myself have officially designated that Thursday is the new Friday. We have decided that the weekend is in fact far too short and therefore festivities have to take place a day earlier. We now have a few drinks, play golf and generally relax making Friday a far more inviting prospect. By Monday you feel that the weekend has been a fulfilling experience, rather than all over before it really got started.

That doesn't mean, however, that Thursday has been celebrated in song. It is a day that is shamefully neglected. Come on all you songwriters get writing about it because at the moment there is little to include that is worthy. You know you want to - it's the start of the weekend for heavens sake.

The Futureheads - Thursday (mp3)

Buy The Futureheads here because they they are up with the times

A Week In Music

Wednesday

Although in English Wednesday is derived from the Norse God Woden, in the Latin languages the Roman God Mercury is responsible. In German Mittwoch literally means midweek which is perhaps the most apt and contemporary description.

Wednesday is perhaps my least favourite day of the week. You're already knackered but still have two days to go at work. This is, or course, the Monday to Friday contingent. In our service based economy the notion of a family based weekend seems to be diminishing by the day. Saturday and Sunday working is now the norm for many.

In popular culture Wednesday means the start of two days of relative musical paucity. But I will do my best:

Spoon - Sunday Morning, Wednesday Night (mp3)

The Undertones - Wednesday Week (mp3)

The Beatles - She's Leaving Home (mp3) [listen and you'll know]

Buy Spoon here, The Undertones here, and The Beatles right here.

A Week In Music

Tuesday

The derivation of Tuesday comes from an old English word 'Twisday' which is in itself derived from the Norse God Tyr. This God was the equivalent of the Roman God Mars and, of course, Mars forms the root of Tuesday for all the Latin based languages except Portuguese.

Perhaps this is entirely apt as Tuesday has traditionally been a day of war in my job. Not because of the fact that most of the working week is still to go, but more because I teach some particularly irksome kids!

Some more Tuesday inspired songs then:

Rolling Stones - Ruby Tuesday (mp3)

Dick Gaughan - Ruby Tuesday (mp3)

Elliott Smith - Hooray for Tuesday (live) (mp3)

Primal Scream - Gentle Tuesday (mp3)

Buy The Stones here, Dick Gaughan here, Elliott Smith here, and Primal Scream here.

Much obliged to Absonderpop for the Dick Gaughan and The Rawking Refuses To Stop! for the Elliott Smith

Her Favourite Tipple


Davy H over at The Ghost of Electricity had a recent post which named his wifes favourite Saturday night record. I was going to name a track in a comment about what I suspected Mrs Vicar might suggest as her own favourite. However, I thought it might be better to ask her first ........

Well, I got the understandable 'on the fence' reply about changing tastes and mood etc, but I managed to whittle away until I got the following mixed bag of answers:

1970's

Roxy Music - Virginia Plain (mp3)

A Taste of Honey - Boogie Oogie Oogie (mp3) [Get Down!]

1980's

Steve Winwood - While You See A Chance (mp3)

Wham! - Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go (mp3)

Shows you there's no accounting for taste.

Buy Roxy Music right here. A Taste of Honey just here. The rather spiffing Steve Winwood here. And of course Wham! just here.