Friday Night Music Club

Right. Time for an explanation.

Tonight’s mix is not the one I had planned to post.

The one I had prepared was a little too upbeat for such a momentous weekend; whilst I personally won’t be joining in the nation’s mouring, I didn’t want to disrespect those that are.

And so I decided to create a mix “on the fly”; I decided what the first and last track would be, and then started recording as I journeyed from one to the other.

I tell you this instead of offering sleeve notes, as there will doubtless be those who think some of my selections are….disrespectful. That wasn’t the intention. The intention was simply to pick tunes which sounded good next to each other – any which may seem to have been chosen as some sort of comment on any recent high profile passings are entirely coincidental.

Honest.

So let’s crack on, shall we?

(By the way, because this mix is just shy of 2 hours, Google Drive can’t cope and won’t let me upload it, so the link below takes you to my old Soundcloud account. Hope it works ok!)

Friday Night Music Club Vol 18

1. Beastie Boys featuring Miho Hatori – Start
2. Cilla Black – Something Tells Me (Something’s Gonna Happen Tonight)
3. Luther Vandross – Never Too Much
4. Womack & Womack – Teardrops
5. Gary Byrd & The G.B. Experience – The Crown
6. Catatonia – Karaoke Queen
7. Marilyn Monroe – Diamonds Are A Girl’s Best Friend
8. Madonna – Material Girl
9. Annie – I Know UR Girlfriend Hates Me
10. Avril Lavigne – Girlfriend
11. The B-52’s – Wig
12. David Bowie – Queen Bitch
13. Carole King – I Feel The Earth Move
14. Eddy Arnold – I’m Throwing Rice (At The Girl I Love)
15. Half Man Half Biscuit – Paintballs Coming Home (Andy Kershaw Session)
16. The Ukrainians – Koroleva Ne Polerma
17. Status Quo – Gentleman Joe’s Sidewalk Cafe
18. Beyond the Wizard’s Sleeve – Midas Reversed
19. Barry Adamson – Set The Controls For The Heart Of The Pelvis
20. Pulp – Mis-Shapes
21. China Crisis – King in a Catholic Style
22. Doves – Kingdom of Rust
23. Black Grape – Tramazi Parti
24. Beck – E-Pro
25. Nirvana – Lithium
26. PJ Harvey – 50ft Queenie
27. Pixies – Planet of Sound
28. Supergrass – Richard III
29. Gene – We Could Be Kings (Single Edit)
30. The Teardrop Explodes – Treason
31. The Stranglers – Everybody Loves You When You’re Dead
32. ? & The Mysterians – 96 Tears
33. Inspiral Carpets – Dragging Me Down
34. The Jam – Town Called Malice

That should keep you occupied for a while.

More soon.

Ba Ba Ba Ba-Ba Ba Ba Ba

Regular readers will recall that I used to write a series called “Claps, Clicks & Whistles”, which featured songs that included one or more of those three elements.

I say used to, it’s not dead, just…I haven’t thought of anything to write in the series for a while.

When I got bored of writing earlier this year, part of my back-to-work plan was that I’d not be quite so regimented about when I would post, I’d just dip into any particular series whenever I fancied doing so. Keep you all on your toes, so to speak. So y’know, watch this space.

Anyway, the original point of “Claps, Clicks & Whistles”, was that I thought that any song featured any of those elements was likely to be a cheery little number. And it occurred to me over the weekend that there’s a fourth category here, which I’m going to pretend I thought of ages ago but didn’t include because it would have meant the title didn’t scan so well.

And so here we are. Looking at songs which feature either the lead singer or, more often, the backing singer(s), launching into a chorus of Ba Ba Ba Ba Ba’s.

I don’t think there’s anything more joyous in pop records, except maybe the aforementioned claps, clicks or whistles, or possibly the key change in any record by either Westlife or Boyzone, because when that happens you know it’s nearly over. And I think this might just edge it.

Here’s an example: Julian Cope back in The Teardrop Explodes days, launching into a chorus of ba ba ba’s, interspersed with some whoa-whoa-whoas to the tune of “As Tears Go By”:

The Teardrop Explodes – Passionate Friend

Just glorious.

I already know I’m going to regret calling this series “Ba Ba Ba Ba-Ba Ba Ba Ba”, by the way. Tune in next time to see where the hyphen will feature.

More soon.