Anyhoo, this is the 40th edition of the Friday Night Music Club, and I intended to mark it with an absolute banger, but then I figured: 50 is only 10 away, I’ll keep my powder dry for that.
That’s not to say I think that this one isn’t much cop, because it is. Just, there’s more to come.
And a rarity this week: a mix which features neither The Wedding Present or Super Furry Animals. How ever have I coped??
Well, you’ll see. But first, there’s one tune this week which, unless I’ve misheard the lyrics, deserves one of these:
Actually, it seems there are two songs which require this warning, but I’m not so sure. You’ll see what I mean…
And here’s your track-listing and, yes, for the second week running, even though I said I wouldn’t be doing them any more, sleeve-notes:
The Jesus & Mary Chain – Just Like Honey
This absolute beauty always seems to end up at the end of Indie-mixes, I think probably because of where it sits in Lost of Translation, the wonderful Bill Murray/Scarlett Johansen movie, and where it figures in that (at the end) and the subsequent resurgance of interest in the works of the Reid brothers that aren’t The Proclaimers. But I say “No!” Stick it right at the top where we can all enjoy it’s majesty.
2. The Stone Roses – This Is The One
Speaking of majesty, an often over-looked track from their debut album.
It’s funny how songs can transport you back to a moment, often insignificant, but a memory nonetheless. Back when I was at college – and, before I go any further, I know this is neither an interesting or amusing anecdote – me and a girl I was moderately obsessed with at college (but who I spectacularly failed to get anywhere with, shifted far too quickly in to the Friend Zone for my liking as I was) were going to spend an evening at a mutual friend’s house, which neither of us had visited before. As we walked down the road towards his house, one of us pointed at a house and said “I think this is the one”. It wasn’t. The other said “No, this is the one” and so we went on, pointing at houses and singing this song. See, I told you it wasn’t a great anecdote, but still, whenever I hear this, I’m transported back to that dark November evening. And it pisses me right off.
3. Björk – Army Of Me
Another one of those: yes, it may have cropped up on one of those Top of the Pops reruns on BBC4 the other week, but honestly, this mix was in its first draft then, and this was already on it.
It’s staggering to me that Björk is mostly remembered by the masses for It’s Oh So Quiet rather than this or, let’s be honest, her first album, which is pretty much flawless in my book.
4. The Chemical Brothers (feat. Kele Okereke) – Believe
Nothing to say about this, other than it’s a banger (obvs) and that it sounded right, right here.
5. The Rapture – Whoo! Alright-Yeah… Uh Huh
Proving they weren’t just all about the House of Jealous Lovers, this is the tune which attracts that parental warning for – and I haven’t checked that I’ve not misheard – their use of the C-Bomb in this one. I have no problem with it’s useage per se but I appreciate some do, and you can only use it in certain company. Personally, I wish all the stigma was removed, and it entered into everyday use. I think most would be perfectly happy to see our licence fee spent paying newsreaders to use it sparingly, but where deserved. Imagine the news starting with: “That spineless C* Rishi Sunak still hasn’t sacked that useless, inflamatory C* Suella Braverman.” I mean, it’s not partisan, but it is accurate.
6. Girls Aloud – No Good Advice (Parental Advisory Version)
The first Girls Aloud record I ever bought. I wasn’t fussed on Sound of the Underground at the time, but don’t let yourself think that precludes it from featuring here at some point. Anyway, I cannot spot any difference in the lyrics between this version and the radio-safe single version to warrant the ‘Parental Advisory Version’ tag, but I’m not in marketing, what do I know?
7. The Knack – My Sharona
Because if you’re going to post No Good Advice then you have to post the song it nicked (You can’t say that – Legal Ed.) borrowed (or that – Legal Ed.) seems to have been heavily influenced by (I think that’s ok – Legal Ed.)
8. Lloyd Cole & the Commotions – Rich
Included for the following reasons: 1) having seen Lloyd live a couple of weeks ago, I’m mildly obsessed; 2) this is bloody great, and 3) the drums fit with My Sharona. It’s not exactly rocket science, this, is it?
9. Strawberry Switchblade – Since Yesterday
Staying North of the Border for the time being, I need no reason to include this other than, after all these years (it was released in 1985) it still sounds as ruddy marvellous as it did back then.
10. Belle & Sebastian – Waiting For The Moon To Rise
From their extensive back-catalogue, I’ve lifted this from my favourite album by them (don’t @ me), the superbly titled: Fold Your Hands Child, You Walk Like A Peasant.
11. Acid House Kings – Do What You Wanna Do
Positive message #1 time. Hear what they say, then put it into action, preferably whilst pretending to be Scandinavian and wearing a beige roll-neck sweater.
12. Sweet Sensation – Sad Sweet Dreamer
It’s been a while since I slung in a cheesy 70s tune, so this is me making up for lost time.
13. Madonna – Papa Don’t Preach
Madge, if we are to believe the lyrics, refused to remain a sad sweet dreamer, and instead did what she wanted to do. Her Papa in the video, played by Danny Aiello in the video, dressed in, as I recall, a rather unflattering white vest, didn’t preach, he just rolled his eyes. Sean Penn and Guy Ritchie probably did the same.
14. Smokey Robinson – Shop Around
Madge, if she wasn’t going to listen to Danny, should perhaps have listened to Smokey’s Mama, and then she wouldn’t have been in the fictional mess she found herself in.
15. 10,000 Maniacs – Stockton Gala Days (MTV Unplugged version)
A first for the Friday Night Music Club (I think) – a live performance. I have waxed lyrical about this record on these pages before, and I stand by every word. I adore Natalie Merchant’s vocals generally, and love the original version of this (from their 1992 album Our Time In Eden) but man alive! There’s not a song on their 1993 MTV Unplugged album that I don’t think is better than the original. Invest, it’s worth it, I promise.
16. The Folksmen, Mitch & Mickey, The New Main Street Singers – A Mighty Wind
Positive message #2. And so, for the second week running, I’m ending on a message of peace. Yes, it’s from the team that brought us This is Spinal Tap; yes, the film is a bit of a piss-take of the US folk scene, but yes! This, God-bothering subtext aside, is bloody great. Enjoy.
Here we are again, this week with the penultimate part of my six-hour mix, divided into six parts for your ‘delectation’.
And this week I think it’s fair to say we’re going full-on Indie Disco, albeit one from circa 1992 (with a few notable exceptions).
It’s also fair to say that once we’ve got past the chanting monks at the start of the first tune (and what better way is there to start a mix than with some chanting monks, right?) we go very LOUD before settling down to a mix of songs you’ll know, some you’ll have forgotten about, and possibly some that you’ve never heard before. Which is exactly how an Indie Disco should be, in my book: entertain and educate.
Many of these tunes remind me of when I used to DJ at college, but two in particular remind me of the first time I DJ’d in around 10 years or so (I’m excluding the time Llŷr and I DJ’d at a friend’s wedding, as all I did that day was hand him records to play).
I was at a party at Hel’s old flat in North London; our friend Ruth, her decks set up on the breakfast bar which looked out on to the living room-cum-dancefloor, has just performed a mammoth set of around 8 hours. People were starting to leave, and I figured she deserved a break. It was around 4am when I sidled up to her: “Do you mind if I have a go?” She nearly bit my hand off, and went and sat on the sofa with Hel.
Since they were practically my entire audience, every one else having left or crashed out, I decided to play some quieter stuff. My first choice caused both of my audience to break off their conversation momentarily, look in my direction, and go “Awwww!” I repeated the trick with my second choice. “Ahhhhhh!”, sighed the two ladies.
“Still got it,” I thought to myself, and played for another hour or so, until it was time to pack the decks away so Ruth could go home too.
I shan’t spoil things by telling you which two tunes I played, but you’ll spot them alright. Partly because, if you know the tunes in question (and I’d be very surprised if you don’t recognise either of them) you’ll probably make similar noises to Hel and Ruth when they start (I’ve put them together here, for maximum effect), but mostly because I couldn’t resist putting a massive sign-post in right before them.
I’ve done mixes, playlists, call them what you will, for years in various guises, from mix-tapes played in the 6th Form common room, in the motorway ‘restaurant’ I worked in during the holidays at 6th Form and at college (and for a year after I graduated), and in the video shop I pretended to work in after I finally graduated, all were sound-tracked by an ever-growing collection of mix-tapes. DJ’ing at college was almost inevitable, really. And then, when I left college – bar a very short, unpleasant stint working for a mobile DJ in Cardiff in the early 90s, which I’ll tell you about some other time (if I haven’t do so already) – nothing.
It was in those moments, standing in Hel’s kitchen, playing to an audience of two awake people and several sleeping ones, that I realised how much I missed DJ’ing, which is why I do these mixes.
So whilst the last of the six parts will be here next week, I’m already adding the final touches to the one for the week after. In short: tough luck, I’m not stopping just yet.
Time for the usual disclaimer: any skips and jumps in the mix are down to the mixing software; any mis-timed mixes are down to me (although on this one, it’s all about the timing rather than the mixing, as the cross-fader literally didn’t move from it’s central position throughout this one).
A cross-fader, yesterday
I’m not sure if that’s something I should be proud of, let alone advertise, to be honest…
There is, as usual, a little bit of potty-mouthed effing and jeffing, only on one song (I think), and as you cast your eye down the track-listing below, you’ll have no problem identifying which one it is. Previous mixes have contained worse (and next week’s mix definitely does), but it would be remiss of me not slap one of these on it for those of a delicate constitution:
Super Furry Animals – (Drawing) Rings Around The World
Teenage Fanclub – Star Sign (Remastered)
The Soup Dragons – Slow Things Down
Strawberry Switchblade – Since Yesterday
Blur – Coffee + TV (Radio Edit)
Pulp – Something Changed
One Dove – White Love (Radio Mix)
Prince – Little Red Corvette
Next week is, then, the final part of this series, where the cross-fader is in full effect as I give you over an hour of dance bangers (as I believe “The” “Kids” say, or used to anyway), which tests my actual mixing skills to the maximum, including as it does what my mate Rob insists is “the hardest tune in the world to mix in or out of.”
For here we are, a week later, and The Chain is back! Back!! Back!!! (again) for another instalment.
Truth be told, I was totally blown away by the response I received to last week’s edition, so blown away that I almost went full on Sally Field. So y’know, cheers.
I’m also delighted that not only have a couple of old Chain Gang friends chipped in this week, but we also have three new members to welcome aboard.
Before we go any further though, some admin, and I need to add a new rule to the ten I posted last week, namely this:
11. The same artist can feature twice in the same week, but only if suggested by different people. In other words, if you suggest two songs by the same act, I’ll ask you to just pick one of them; if you don’t reply, I’ll pick for one for you.
Actually, this is an old rule that I forgot to include last week. One of you nearly came a cropper with this one, but just about managed to dodge the bullet. You’ll see what I mean.
Ok, so we have 49 new songs (count ’em!) and over three and a half hours worth of tunes to get through this week, and there’s some real treats, including a couple of acts I was surprised to find featuring in The Chain for the first time, some commercially unreleased live stuff, a couple of songs which have featured here before under different guises, a couple of real rarities (I think), a contender for Worst Record In The History of Everything Ever, and – and I mention this now to introduce some totally unneccessary tension and excitement into proceedings – one of you correctly guessed the next record in the Official Chain.
So let’s kick things off with a reminder of the last source song, that is the song that you were all providing suggestions to this week:
And where better to start than with a new member of The Chain Gang? Ladies and Gentleman, please rattle your manacles and give a warm welcome to GMFree:
“The most obvious songs that I thought of first were ‘God Only Knows’ by James…”
Now, in the same way that I think if you’re going to cover a song you should try and do something interesting with it, by the same token I think that if you’re going to write a song and give it the same name as universally loved classic, then it is undoubtedly going to be compared to said song, so you’d better make sure yours is good….
“‘God Only Knows’? So what does he know? Well, he knows it’s true, obviously … so I’ll go for Teenage Fanclub”
Now, strictly speaking, I should be disallowing this suggestion, because this song has featured on The Chain before, back in edition #32, to be precise. However, I’m going to allow it this week for three reasons: firstly, it ws me who suggested it last time; secondly, I posted a Peel Sessions version last time and this time I’m posting the original, and thirdly, because last time it featured I had changed one word in the title from “God” to “Gourd” so that it linked to the source record (XTC’s “The Ballad of Peter Pumpkinhead”, in case you’re interested).
“…and ‘Lord Only Knows’ by Beck, there is a great version from his Union Chapel show in 2003 which includes harmonica and merges into Hot In Here (Herre !?) in a way only Beck can do.”
We’re into not commercially released stuff with that one, as far as I know. Any chance to feature Beck, and moreover Union Chapel, my favourite venue in London, will be gratefully seized.
Next up, it’s over to The Beard, who provides one of his usual interesting links:
“God Only Knows is featured in the film Boogie Nights. The film centres around the supremely endowed Dirk Diggler, played by Mark Wahlberg. He also starred in ‘Four Brothers’ which is pretty much a remake of the John Wayne driven western ‘The Sons Of Katie Elder’. John Wayne? Motherfuck him as said Public Enemy on Fight The Power.”
Speaking of John Wayne, he also starred in the original release of ‘True Grit’ along with the next artist. Over to you, Alyson (of What’s It All About?):
“In light of [last] Tuesday’s sad news of the death of Glen Campbell, and the fact he stood in for Brian Wilson in 1964 as a Beach Boy, I am reminded of his song ‘Galveston’ which always makes me think of a beach because of the following lines:
‘I still hear your sea waves crashing While I watch the cannons flashing I clean my gun And dream of Galveston.’
I know we’ll all have heard it a lot over the last couple of days but I never tire of these songs of his.”
To be fair, Galveston is one of a clutch of Campbell’s records that I don’t think many of us will get tired of hearing:
And so we seem to have made the seamless move from songs which reference ‘God Only Knows’, to songs which link to members, full or part time, of The Beach Boys. So what next?
George has the answer:
“Can I propose a third song that is really, really shit?” he asks.
Yes, I know you haven’t heard his first two suggestions yet. I choose the order the songs feature in, and I want to post his third (really, really shit) suggestion first.
As I pointed out to George in the Comments to last week’s edition, he doesn’t normally ask permission.
“It’s by Wilson Phillips…….one of whom is a relation of a Beach Boy…….and the song is ‘Hold On’. But feel free to disqualify it because it is simply too dreadful.”
George is fully aware that a record being dreadful, or shit, or shittily dreadful, is not enough to preclude it from The Chain. For here, we embrace the dreadfully shit (by which I categorically do not mean Donald J Trump, who we try to keep at arms length at the very least).
And besides, I’ve listened to this – and all of the suggestions – a lot over the last week, and I’ve grown to quite like this:
Actually, two of Wilson Phillips are the daughters of Brian Wilson; I expected someone would suggest a record by the parents of the third member, but nobody did, so I may as well:
“God Only Knows”, of course, features on The Beach Boys album “Pet Sounds”, so how about a couple of suggestions which link to that? Step forwards The Great Gog, who I see has now got as far as starting his own blog, but hasn’t yet got round to writing anything on it just yet. He’s probably got far more important things to be getting on with, like suggesting this kind of thing:
“I’ll go with the fact that ‘God Only Knows’ features on the album Pet Sounds. This album also features a track called ‘Caroline, No’. Whenever I spot this on the album, I always think of the similarly titled Talk Talk track, ‘Does Caroline Know?’ – not surprising really as I owned the ‘It’s My Life’ album some time before I acquired Pet Sounds.”
‘Pet Sounds’ is one of those albums, I think – or at least it is to me – that I knew what a great album it is long before I actually got round to listening to it, let alone owning a copy. I don’t think I actually heard ‘Pet Sounds’ until I was in my late twenties, but I remember in my early twenties having a very long discussion in the pub one night with one of my friend’s younger brother’s friends about how amazing it is, without him realising I’d never heard it. Hold the front page: Jez is a complete bullshitter shocker!
“I’ve got to link to the best cover of one of The Beach Boys’ songs I’ve ever heard, Don’t worry baby by Ronnie Spector from the She Talks To Rainbows EP. Produced by no less than Joey Ramone”
“So many gods to choose from… luckily I don’t own anything by Hermes House Band, so you’re spared that. Instead, let’s go for the god to whom I am most frequently compared (admittedly in the form “you’re no…”) and some proper old-school house: ‘No Way Back’ by Adonis.”
Shame about the Hermes House Band; I’ve got loads of gags about the Hermes parcel delivery service all lined up and ready to go.
The rest of you stick to referencing songs with ‘God’ in the title, so let’s work our way through them.
First up, a song which we featured a cover by Tricky of back on The Chain #37. Nevertheless, it’s the original version suggested by Martin of New Amusements so it’s in:
“…and…” Whoa there, Martin! We’ve not finished with the songs that have God in the title.
First, we’re going back to The Swede for his second suggestion of the week, “…another divine link of a slightly more irreverent nature…” as he quite rightly puts it:
If any of our overseas readers would like to know who any of the people mentioned in that song are, feel free to email me, or, preferably, Google them.
Time to welcome aboard the latest member of The Chain Gang now, so Ladies and Gentleman, please click your pickaxes together and give a warm welcome to C from Sun Dried Sparrows:
“‘God Only Knows’ made me think of God, not something I do very often, for I am faithless. And then I thought of….”:
Who else haven’t we heard from yet? Ah yes, The Robster from Is This The Life?, I wonder what he’s got to offer?
“If we’re going down the God route though, and with God supposedly living in Heaven or some such mythical place, I offer Godspeed You! Black Emperor and the title track of their seminal second album ‘Lift Yr. Skinny Fists, Like Antennas to Heaven…’.”
Remember when I said there was over three and a half hours worth of tunes this week? Well that’s almost twenty minutes of them, right there. I’d pop the kettle on if I were you.
Ok, so if we’re on songs that feature God in the title and feature an exclamation mark somewhere, then it would be terribly remiss of me not to post this:
I’ll tell you who else hasn’t chipped in yet: Charity Chic from Charity Chic Music, that’s who:
“Sorry to disappoint you but there is noGod,” he blasphemes, “so…”
Hold up, what did you just say?
“Sorry to disappoint you but there is noGod…”
Thought so.
Pray, do continue.
‘No Gods (and Precious Few Heroes)’ by Dick Gaughan, please. JC recently posted a goose-bump inducing live version which is the one to feature”
And it’s JC’s legendary place that I visited to find the specific version CC was after, so it would be rude of me not to attribute credit where credit’s due and provide a link to his site The (New) Vinyl Villain (although if you visit me here, then I’d be really surprised if you didn’t already visit JC).
Although, admittedly, it’s not the best quality recording, and you kind of didn’t really suggest that one anyway, so for one time only I’m going to allow you to suggest a different song by the same artist:
And we’ll stay with GMFree for a moment longer, if we may:
“I had a habit on the much missed When You Can’t Remember Anything series to mention the great Stephen Jones almost every time, here are two from him…”
Wait a minute, what did I just say about ‘for one time only’…?
But this is the bullet-dodging suggestion I mentioned earlier, for the first of these two suggestions is by Stephen Jones recording under the name TrUcKeR and the other one…erm…isn’t (that one will be along in a bit, if you care to hang around long enough):
Is it okay if I like the sleeve of that more than I like the actual track….?
Now when I posted the Public Enemy track earlier, I deliberately avoided commenting on how sad it is that a record released in 1989 about black oppression felt as relevant today as it did back then. And that’s because I knew that one of you was going to make precisely that point about a record released a lot earlier than that. So, abramson60, the stage is yours:
“I’ve been listening to a lot of Nina Simone of late so taking the God road ‘Mississippi Goddam’, a song that is sadly still relevant today when we see what happened in Charlottesville [at the weekend] and it was only last week the UK police released the appalling hate crime figures.”
Now, here we are, linking to songs about God, and not one of you has suggested anything by the Reverend Cliff Richard yet. The closest we get is this, from Rol of My Top Ten:
“OK, my two suggestions will be as follows…
1. A song with the following lyrics…
No it’s never too late to change your mind Don’t step on snails, don’t climb in trees, Love Cliff Richard but please don’t tease It’s never too late to change your mind
Thereby giving you your Cliff Richard fix even if nobody suggests him this time. Cliff and God go together, after all.
“…the original version…actually prefer the Kiss version, but they don’t sing the verse about Cliff. Dunno why.”
I would imagine it’s because most of Kiss’ fanbase would have no idea who Cliff is, the heathens.
Anyway, I agree with you about preferring the Kiss version, but I do really like the Argent version too, although every time I’ve heard it my little ears have pricked up as I thought something by Focus had come up on shuffle for me.
We’ll come back to Rol’s second suggestion in a bit.
That’s all the God suggestions done. Next we have a song about Jesus, but I think we need some sort of bridging song, just to reinforce the link here. This’ll do the trick:
And so to Jesus, and, more specifically, to Martin of New Amusements again. Martin’s not the Messiah, but he knows another Martin who thinks they must be.
For the uninitiated, Mr Rossiter was the lead singer of Gene (who I adore) and I cannot recommend the album that track comes from (‘The Defenestration of Saint Martin’, in case you can’t make it out from the image above) highly enough. An over-looked gem, in my opinion. Seek, and ye shall find.
Which leads us on to God’s greatest adversary, and we’re heading back to GMFree’s seemingly never-ending list of suggestions, which is for this:
Now GMFree mentioned the much missed When You Can’t Remember Anything blog a little earlier, and regular visitors to these shores will know that the writers of that now deceased blog, SWC and Badger, often contributed here. So I was delighted when SWC got in touch to make some suggestions again this week, although the first one he doesn’t really suggest, more wonders out loud about it, which he knows full well is too much for me to resist:
“I need to decide whether to go down the beach route the boy route or the God route. I thinking if ‘God Only Knows’ then perhaps ‘Better the Devil You Know’ but I may change my mind.”
Too late! And count yourself lucky I picked this one and not the song of the same name by professional Scouser Sonia:
Which leads us nicely on to our third new member of the Chain Gang. Ladies and Gentlemen, will you please be upstanding and straighten out your natty suits with arrows on them for KC:
“I’d like to suggest ‘The Lord’s Favorite’ by Danish wunderkind iceage and I’ll apologise for the use of the word wunderkind, that was how SWC described them to me.”
That’s the way to do things: if in doubt, blame SWC.
Now many of you will recognise KC from her posts on SWC and Badger’s site; she was, if I recall correctly, a relative newcomer to writing and her posts were really rather excellent, so it’s a shame she no longer has a platform to show off her talents. So KC: if you want to continue to write, and haven’t had any other offers to do so elsewhere, drop me an email, you’d be more than welcome to contribute here. Just until the boys get bored and resurrect WYCRA, of course.
God…Lord…Jesus…Lucifer…all suggestions of Biblical proportions. Which leads me back to Rol for his second suggestion, which is this “…because it’s ace.” Have you and Martin been copying each other’s superlatives? You have, haven’t you? You’ve both let me down, you’ve let the class down, but most all you’ve let yourselves down.
Good job both of your ace suggestions really are ace:
Okay, so having covered the ‘God’ aspect of ‘God Only Knows’, perhaps it’s time to focus on links to one of the other two words in the title, namely ‘Knows’. Here’s Rigid Digit from Stuff & Nonsense
“The Beach Boys tell us that ‘God Only Know’s, but Robert Plant asserts that ‘Heaven Knows’ (which is arguably the same thing?)”
Now as a die-hard fan of The Smiths, mention of a song title that starts with the words “Heaven Knows” sets by clogged up heart beating a little bit faster, for it gives me an excuse to post this:
And here’s SWC with an actual, proper suggestion, and it’s no coincidence that I first heard this song because of a post on When You Can’t Remember Anything:
And as you can see, that features on an album called ‘Father, Son, Holy Ghost’ which makes that a Double-Linker. Points!
So, having exhausted those suggestions too, let’s have a look at some Boys. And one of you got very excited at the prospect. Hello Kay, who shortly after posting her suggestions, sent me a text to say she was worried it made her sound like, and I quote “a right creepy perv”.
See what you think, readers:
“I’m going for the theme boys – so many to choose from. Maybe….”
Nothing pervy about a woman of a certain age liking her boys wild and bad. And from the 1980s.
“…but I suppose I should go with the first song I thought of which linked to the Beach Boys and that’s…”
Brace yourself everybody. It’s Worst Record of the Week time, and if this isn’t one of the Worst Records in the History of Everything Ever, then I’d like to know what is. No scrub that, I really wouldn’t.
Quick, somebody else suggest something. GMFree, you must have a few hundred more up your sleeve, surely?
“Thinking about a link to Beach and Boys lead me to ‘Boys Don’t Cry’ by The Cure included on Standing On a Beach comp, along with the b-side ‘The Exploding Boy’.”
I’ve warned you about this already….
I’ll pick the more unknown one of those two, which featured on the B-Side of the band’s wonderful “In Between Days” single:
In case you’re interested, that’s the other song which has featured on The Chain before, but then it was performed by Ronnie Spector and came from the very same EP as the one BabyLotti suggested earlier.
Let’s have GMFree’s last suggestion, the other one by Stephen Jones, which you’ll recall I’m allowing because he released it under his Baby Bird moniker, as opposed to the TrUcKeR of the earlier suggestion:
Let’s see what else Alyson has conjured up on the beach theme next:
“The other song that came to mind straight away was this one, pure cheese…from back in the early ’70s when this kind of thing was all over the airwaves!”
Which, cheese or not, is also ace. And it gives me the chance to post this, my final suggestion of the week. And it may seem an odd one to go to, but some of you will have spotted the reason for the link when listening to that last tune:
Isn’t that ace too? We went through a phase a while ago of having a record by Kirsty pretty much every week on the Chain, but that’s the first time she’s featured in ages. Sort it out folks.
And from an artist who used to feature regularly to the band I was surprised has never featured before, so many thanks to abramson60 for rectifying that with this absolute belter:
Seriously, think of how many albums the Ramones have released, and how many songs of about two minutes that means they’ve recorded. This is the 41st edition of The Chain. How did we get this far without them cropping up?
Which leads me to the final suggestion of the week. Which just so happens to be next song in the Official Chain.
Here’s their link:
“From the Boys on the Beach to…”
And here’s ours, as penned by KC in this Sunshine Strand:
“If Badger was here he would agree that the greatest song to feature beaches either in the band title or the song title is…”
Congratulations, KC! Points to the New Girl! The rest of you: hang your heads in shame, she’s tucked you all right up there.
So, all that leaves me to do is to thank you all again for the love you’ve shown The Chain, for your awesome (and ace) suggestions, and to ask you to do it all over again.
Your suggestions, please, for songs which link to “Echo Beach” by Martha and The Muffins, along with a brief description of the link, via the Comments Section down below, in time for the next edition.
So, this is the second post in this series, and yes I have changed the name. I hated the poorly punned title I gave this series last time out, so I changed it to a not-quite-so-poor-but-still-not-exactly-clever-is-it? slightly different title. And don’t bother checking what I changed it from, because I changed that too.
Anyway, this is the section where I post a record which features a sample of another record, and I let you hear them both, the sampler and the sampled, if you will. You try and work that into a usable pun, go on, I dare you.
Before I start, I haven’t forgotten about my recollections of 1985, I’ve just been really busy recently. (I appreciate this is bordering on an “I’m just really tired” or an “I’ve got a headache” type excuse. This is how I view you all, as an analogy I will make later on will prove.) (And by God I hope you’re sensing the tone there).
Anyway, this is why I’ve been busy: a friend of mine turns 40 next weekend, and I’ve been asked to compile a playlist for the party he’s throwing.
A playlist, mind, not a DJ set.
This stress of doing this right has taken up quite a lot of my spare time over the past few weeks.
A playlist, much as I love doing them, is to my mind, harder than DJ’ing. If I was DJ’ing I could just rock up, as I believe “the kids” on “the street” say (or did, in about 1990, or probably earlier) with my CDs and play whatever tickled my fancy to get the crowd rockin’ (note the missing ‘g’, I am sooo street).
A playlist, for public consumption, in a drinking atmosphere, where dancing is a possibility, is a different beast entirely. One has to try to drop the tunes at appropriate times, leave the floor fillers til the end, but keep the first couple of hours interesting enough that the natives don’t get restless and attempt to wrestle control of the sound system. (Those who know me, know exactly who I mean there…!)
A little over a year ago, my soon-to-join-me-in-the-40-club friend became a father, and to celebrate this joyous moment he decided he wanted him and a select crowd to go out on the lash, then hire a limo to drive around London for an hour or so, before going to a club. I was charged with providing the music for the vehicular instalment of the night, and I gladly obliged with a mix of songs which I think went down well with most of the small crowd (one notable exception, who tried to wrestle control of the sound system from me etc etc). One later posted on Facebook (other social media things are available) that he did not expect at the tender age of 39 to be driving round London in a limo, swigging cheap champagne and listening to “Kandy Pop” by Bis, which I took as a huge compliment, whether it was meant as one or not.
Anyway, I was hugely honoured to be asked to do something similar for his 40th, but a bar full of people most of whom I don’t know is a very different prospect to a limo with 11 people I do know. And as the night has tick-tocked ever nearer, so the slightly tweaked running order has changed, a song added here, deleted there, moved up the list somewhere else.
So. That’s what I’ve been doing. That’s my excuse.
Back to the topic in hand.
When you talk about records which have samples in them, generally we’re talking rap, hip-hop or dance records. But what we’re not usually talking about is a record by a couple of gothy Scottish teenage girls with a polka dot, lace glove and back-combed hair obsession. But, ladies, gentlemen and the undecided, I’m here to bring you one such record from 1985 which, when I heard the record from which the sample came, my little ears pricked up in astonishment, for I had no idea it was a sample at all until that moment, some 30 years after it came out.
This is a record which has enormous sentimental value for me. Firstly, because my much cooler and better looking friend bought it back in the day, which meant that much as I loved it. I couldn’t buy it too (them’s was the rules, I didn’t make them up. Although, actually, thinking about it, I probably did). Secondly, because after a break of over 20 years from DJ’ing, this was the first record I played at a house party (which was very much in the come-down stage of the event, I must hasten to add. Otherwise, it would have been Quo, obviously. That’s my requisite one reference done, oh smart arse big brother). The opening bars were met with a chorus of contented “Aaaaah”‘s and much snuggling on sofas, and all seemed right with the world, which obviously had nothing at all to do with the drugs and everything to do with my choice of record.
“Since Yesterday” was released in 1985 and proved to be Strawberry Switchblade’s only real hit, a couple of the later singles flirting with the idea of penetrating the Top 40, but ultimately deciding abstinence to be the more virtuous course (There’s your saucy analogy. Just checking you’re paying attention.)
And the sample? Well, a month or so ago I was sorting myself out a little Summertime playlist, popped the next song on, and then heard those “aaah”-inducing opening bars buried in this record from 1974 by a bunch of bleach-blond-mullet-and sideburn wearing, stonewashed denim combo lovers:
Anyway, as the former record is, apparently from 1985 (I have to be honest, I thought it was earlier) it does act as a rather convenient bridge between all which has consumed me recently and that to which I will be returning shortly.
A History of Dubious Taste 