Womack & Womack – A History of Dubious Taste

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

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

That should keep you occupied for a while.

More soon.

50 Ways to Prove I’m Rubbish #23

I’ll be honest, when I started writing this series, the plan was that they would culminate at or around my 50th birthday.

And here we are in November, over a month after my landmark moment, and I haven’t even got halfway yet.

In fact, I haven’t even written one in over a month.

This is entirely indicative of my inability to plan ahead: you would think that having hit upon the idea of writing 50 posts about 50 records I disliked when they were first released but which I now love, you would think I would then spend a little time considering what those 50 tunes would be.

Not this guy. Oh no.

“It’ll be fine,” I told myself , “they’ll just come to you,” .

And this slap-dash for no cash approach was proven to be true this week when watching the inspiration for many things I post here: the reruns of Top of the Pops on BBC4.

These repeats are now into 1988, and thankfully a period where less controversial Radio 1 DJs feature, so fewer editions have been wiped from the running order.

And specifically, to this song, which I remember thinking at the time was really rather dull, but now I see it for what it is: one of the finest soul records from the past 30+ years.

Put it this way (and I can think of no finer recommendation of any record): nowadays, when it comes on the radio I turn it up rather than down: