The Chain #3

Well that was a roaring success, wasn’t it?

You may remember that last week I posted the second record in the official chain from Radcliffe & Maconie’s 6music show (or their Radio 2 show as it was at the time), and invited y’all to make suggestions as to where we could go next.

With thanks, then, to Alex G from the wonderful We Will Have Salad blog for being the only person to suggest a record that could follow Booker T & The MG’s “Soul Limbo”. So Alex, thank you for your suggestion (and I’m not going to trample all over your gag again, unless by mentioning it I just have done):

“…not wanting to go down the cricket route (especially as that’s kind of the same connection as the last one) I suggest instead “Love Town” by popular music’s other mildly successful Booker, Booker Newberry III. We could vote on which one is better and award some kind of prize.”

And so here it is:

Booker Newberry III – Love Town

One of the many reasons that I enjoy writing this blog is that every now and then I get a message from one of you, thanking me for reminding them of a band or a song that I’d featured and which they had completely forgotten about. I never thought that it would be me that had the old grey cells jogged, but this was one such record, that had fallen out from my memory banks to be replaced by a new password or something trivial like that. So, for that, cheers Alex, much appreciated.

Which leads me to the 3rd record in the official Chain:

3. Otis Redding – (Sittin’ On) The Dock Of The Bay

The connection? Well, in the 1960s, as members of the house band of  Stax Records, Booker T and the MGs played on hundreds of recordings by artists such as Wilson Pickett, Bill Withers, Sam & Dave, Carla Thomas, Rufus Thomas, Albert King…and Otis Redding.

Interesting fact: the iconic whistling part of that was never meant to be; according to co-writer Steve Cropper, Otis had “this little fadeout rap he was gonna do, an ad-lib. He forgot what it was so he started whistling.”

So, your suggestions please for a track to follow on from Otis Redding’s “(Sittin’ On) The Dock of the Bay”. Please send them via the Comments section, below. I’m going to carry on even if you don’t, so you may as well join in.

And, not that I’m attempting to guide you in anyway, but here’s Vic and Bob being Otis and Marvin:

More soon.

Same Title, Different Song

Okay, so not quite the same title, but what’s an apostrophe and a couple of brackets between friends?

First up, this bit of bare-footed Bacharach and David brilliance:

Sandie Shaw – (There’s) Always Something There to Remind Me

And here’s The Housemartins with their farewell single, which I always felt a little underwhelmed by. But then any single by The Housemartins was pretty great, and definitely better than much that was around in the charts at the same time:

The Housemartins – There is Always Something There to Remind Me

The latter song is dedicated to Alan Duncan MP for his vile “low achievers” comments.

Us so-called low achievers are not jealous of the wealthy because of their wealth, we’re angry with them because of the way that they got their wealth. That, and their failure to contribute financially to the country in which they made it.

More soon.

Sunday Morning Coming Down

Today is Glastonbury ticket resale day, when all those who were unlucky and didn’t get a ticket first time around battle to try and buy one that was originally bought by someone who was lucky enough to get one first time around, but is now unlucky enough not to be able to attend.

Stepping away from the usual Country fare I post here, this seemed appropriate:

Rose Murphy – Busy Line

Yes, I know that you no longer ring up to try and buy them, it’s all done online, but do you know of any songs called “Timed Out – Your Credit Card Has Not Been Charged”, or “This Screen Will Automatically Refresh in 30 Seconds”? No, thought not.

I won’t be going this year, but I shall be watching from the comfort of my sofa, nice and close to the beer fridge and the non-long drop toilet, but sadly a long way away from Andy’s Vodka Alchemy (you will need to have read my posts about last year’s festival to understand that), or, more specifically, I’ll be seeing what’s on the Red Button when the frankly underwhelming Pyramid Stage headliners are on.

Anyway, good luck everybody!

More soon.

Late Night Stargazing

And we’re back in the room.

Apologies for the break in service folks. Although I notice that I had as many visitors as normal, if not more, without posting anything. I’m not sure whether to take that as a compliment or not, to be honest.

Anyway, a beautiful tune for our late night shenanigans tonight, and one that without fail reminds me of my clubbing days. This was a “Cool House” (the club-night we went to most regularly) classic, often played towards the end of the night as things were winding down.

Laurent Garnier – The Man With the Red Face

The first time I remember hearing it played out, I was with my mate Rob and, it’s fair to say, we were both a little worse for wear. We both grinned to each other as we recognised the opening chords, and Rob leant in and shouted “See this?” he pointed upwards to the sound-system and the shimmering tune that was pulsing down on us. “Hardest tune in the world to mix in, this.” I smiled and nodded, trying to look impressed and admiring, never having tried to mix this, or any other tune, in all my days Indie DJ’ing. No call for it back then, see. Just fade in/fade out.

A few months later we were out and it came on again.(I wouldn’t want to give you the impression that the same tunes got played every month at “Cool House”, but the resident DJs definitely had a handful that were their favourites to play in the last half hour or so. I’ll flag them to you as and when they come up. They’re all great tracks, and had the added benefit from their point of view, of letting us know it was nearly home time).

Rob leaned in and shouted: “”See this? Hardest tune in the world to mix in, this.”

“I know”, I replied.

“You do? You’ve tried?”

“No, you told me last time they dropped it, you muppet!”

And so we had a catch-phrase, uttered whenever “The Man With The Red Face” got played again, and quite often when it wasn’t, just to take the piss.

More soon.