Well, here’s funny. For some reason, WordPress decided not to save and publish the final, finished post yesterday, and instead farmed out an old, initial draft, with different words and songs in a different order. Sorry about that. Below is what should have been published yesterday. (Llŷr would have pretended to be mildly offended at this cock-up, but would actually have been pissing himself at me messing up on what is potentially a global stage. Laugh it up, dude)
Today would’ve been Llŷr’s birthday, and, given our shared love of compiling mix tapes and CDs, and the oh-so-many he prepared for me, it seems only right and appropriate that tonight’s mix is dedicated to him. It’s what he would have wanted.
No sleeve notes this week, as I’ve written about all of these songs before, with a couple of exceptions. I should stress that Llŷr did not like all of tonight’s tracks (only, maybe, 98.9% of them), but all of them remind me of him in one way or another, and have featured before on these pages. If you want to understand why I’ve included a particular song, then you can scroll through the Be Llŷrious series via the drop down to the left and find the back story.
The only two exceptions are the obligatory Super Furry Animals track; I’ve included one which hasn’t featured before, but, if memory serves, Llŷr told me was his favourite tune by them, in a field of many, so lawd only knows how I’ve managed to swerve posting it before.
The second is the Gene song which kicks things off; shortly after he passed I referenced this tune in my eulogy to Llŷr, but posted a different song, for reasons which I hope will become obvious. Now, five years on, it seems right to post it. Llŷr’s younger sister and uber-Gene fan Siân will know them both, of course.
As for the running order: it amuses me to stick songs next to each other which have no right to be neighbours. Hence Cliff Richard living next door to Surfer Rosa-era Pixies just tickled me.
One last bit of admin: you’ll spot that Track 16 is by Goldie Lookin’ Chain. It not only contains a huge amount of effing and jeffing, it is also incredibly filthy, so I need to slap one of these on here:
Ok, let’s go: 90 minutes of Llŷriousness. By the time you all read this, I’ll have raised several glasses (Jez-measures, of course), in his memory. Feel free to join me, whenever you read/listen to this:
Friday Night Music Club Vol 56 (Be Llŷrious edition)
- Gene – For The Dead
- The Postal Service – Such Great Heights
- Cliff Richard – Wired for Sound
- Pixies – Bone Machine
- Queens of the Stone Age – No One Knows
- Status Quo – Mean Girl
- R.E.M. – These Days
- Graham Coxon – Freakin’ Out
- Jimmy Eat World – The Middle
- Kelly Clarkson – Since U Been Gone
- Sisqo – Thong Song
- Girls Aloud – Love Machine
- Phil Collins – Sussudio
- Ralph McTell – Streets Of London
- Big Train – Ralph McTell sings…
- Goldie Lookin’ Chain – Nan Rita
- Cud – Purple Love Balloon
- Art Brut – Formed A Band
- Huey Lewis & The News – Hip To Be Square
- Mental As Anything – Live It Up
- Maxïmo Park – Apply Some Pressure
- Arcade Fire – Rebellion (Lies)
- Super Furry Animals – Hometown Unicorn
- Energy 52 – Café Del Mar (Three ‘n One Remix)
Happy birthday dude. Love ya, miss ya, always.
More soon.