Free And Singles Part 1
I was given a gift of music this Christmas. An i-tunes voucher packet full of 25 pounds’ worth of music. So now I’m buying songs I love by folks whose albums I don’t own.
So far, here’s what I’ve got (and apologies because I should own this stuff already):
Oh, and I’m also going to write about them: :
1. The Beach Boys - Surfer Girl
Harmonies you could toast marshmellows on.
2. Blondie - Heart of Glass
You can’t beat a bit of small-band new wave pop sometimes. Also the kind of drumming that sounds easy but isn’t.
3. Steve Winwood - Back In The Highlife Again
This isn’t a great song. Seriously, get the sheet music and play it on whatever it is you play. Get drunk with your mates and sing it out. It’s not that good. Clippy little lines in the verse with bumper-sticker philosophies and a repetitive chorus. But it sounds soooo good. It’s got a driving snare, fiddle, synth, a great mandolin track on it. It’s got those breakdowns then leads you back into the chorus. Oh, and did I mention harmonies by James Taylor? Slipped my mind.
4. The Waterboys - The Whole Of The Moon
Brigadoon? Turnstiles? Dumbfounded? Ferryboats? Swooned? The old-fashioned words. You look at it on paper and it doesn’t make sense. It shouldn’t work. It’s like looking at a jumbo jet on the ground. And yet when they gets going: there it is.
5. Bruce Springsteen - Glory Days
This sounds like the best bar band in the world. I love the way the band talk to each other before the changes. I picture Springsteen and Little Steven exchanging gurns at their mic stands. That’s what being in a band is all about.
6. The Wailers - Craven Choke Puppy
I love the old Bob Marley stuff. Rude boy roots rastafari ragamuffin stylee. And ting, of course. I wonder if it sounded this good to them when they recorded it. Would they have had any idea what they were bound for.
February 21st, 2006 at 9:52 am
Waterboys = thing of beauty. You can actually see a poster from a Waterboys tour (circa 1995) in my Sum of All Years, ’round year 25.
Solid.
February 21st, 2006 at 10:58 am
Alright fella,
I’ve still got your Eurythmics albums in the shed; you wanna pop round and pick em up? I mean, it’s been 16 years, 8000 records take up an awful lot of space and I want to move on of the kids in there. The revival ain’t coming. Great days though, eh?
x
February 21st, 2006 at 11:03 am
“The Whole of the Moon”. That’s a brilliant track. In a sort of ‘just before you go out on a Saturday night’ way.
If I still went out on Saturday nights.
February 21st, 2006 at 11:57 am
Oh, GREAT. Now I feel like I’ve missed out because I haven’t heard that Waterboys track.
Just great. So I’ll go download a bit-torrent thing and go looking for it, and find that and that latest copy of King Kong and Memoirs of a Geisha and the Stone’s latest ( yech) and the RIAA will find me and sue me and the movie makers will sue me and the Oscars will blacklist me and I’ll lose everything and go to jail and have a cellmate named Bubba and to top it all off I’ll have SPYWARE on my machine and it’ll be all YOUR fault.
Thanks. Thanks a LOT.
February 21st, 2006 at 12:08 pm
Look on the bright side, fella. You’ll be able to borrow Bubba’s copy of the Da Vinci code.
February 21st, 2006 at 12:59 pm
Whole of the Moon was more of an “end of an evening” track for me.
Every Friday night, 2am, Legends Nightclub, Warrington.
February 21st, 2006 at 1:22 pm
Always had that ‘time to go home, kids’ feel about it. Kind of an indie ‘New York, New York’.
Wonder what deathgoth types have on at ‘pick yer capes up’ time? ‘My Way’ by Cradle of Filth, I suppose.
February 21st, 2006 at 1:26 pm
Not a wrong song on it.
I remember listening to The whole of the moon, when my boyfriend was driving me back in his Fiat Uno from watching Point Break at the cinema. I had my head out of the window, wind in my hair and felt the kind of optimism that only comes when you are so young. What happened? Perhaps I need to hear it again…
February 21st, 2006 at 1:35 pm
Fiat Uno, you say? I used to do that with my head in the car. Then again, I am a cocker spaniel. You should see my spaniel’s ears.
February 21st, 2006 at 1:45 pm
He made me keep my head out the window, my dog breath was really bad.
February 21st, 2006 at 1:53 pm
Was? Sweet mother of Moses, can you lean back from the screen, love?
February 21st, 2006 at 1:56 pm
Man, you are too good for me.
I shall retire gracefully, with my anonymous reputation intact!
February 21st, 2006 at 2:07 pm
I didn’t mean…oh shit. It’s just like when I was a kid all over again. I’d go out, with the other kids, try and play nice. Then I’d go and say something. They’d stop, look round, start collecting firewood and chanting…
“Don’t worry dear,” mum would say.
“You come in and play with your books. They’ll always be your friends…”
February 21st, 2006 at 2:16 pm
I’m sure they will be.
You are obviously a clever, witty man, who can crush a girl’s memory like a grape… (Don’t worry I never liked that boyfriend, I mean he had a CB radio in that car).
February 21st, 2006 at 2:32 pm
Can’t crush a girl’s memory, or anything else. Nor would I ever hope to. Memories are such precious things.
I can remember the poison recipes in those books mother gave to me, and the looks of horror on those kids’ faces (’Oh, look they faces, mummy! Look they little faces!’) when they came home school to find their dogs retching blood in the street.
February 21st, 2006 at 2:46 pm
Oh, I am sure you could crush a grape, particularly if you have the skills to poison dogs en masse.
Have you met Donnie Darko?
I think perhaps we have gone astray from Cliff’s original posting, will we get in trouble for taking up space with unrelated drivel?
February 21st, 2006 at 3:06 pm
Please don’t talk to the driver.
Ed, Johnny - help?
Don’t make me get the Leemer.
February 21st, 2006 at 3:14 pm
Yeh, let’s get back on topic…
Are you coming round my shed for these flaming Eurythmics albums, Cliff, or am I coming round yours for dirty protest again.
And can I have those chemistry books back? Sentimental value, you know.
Remember son, I’ve seen the whole of your moon, cocker. We still on for Brokeback Mountain, Sunday?
February 21st, 2006 at 3:50 pm
Great list, Cliff, with the exception of Steve Winwood (which just goes to prove that there never is a number 3).
Also, there is a rumor out and about that as soon as Ed checks his email, he will experience every precious dream and vision underneath the stars.
Damn, I love that song. How did you not already have it?
February 21st, 2006 at 4:13 pm
Oh, forgot to mention…
Good call on the reference to the drummer from Blondie. He ended up joining Dramarama (greatness?), and his addition added a dollop of respectability and/or professionalism to the band. (At least, the singer said something along those lines.)
February 21st, 2006 at 4:15 pm
Dunno. I don’t really like anything else they do. That’s probably a sub-heading for these posts.
As with Steve Winwood. Higher Love? Please…
February 21st, 2006 at 4:15 pm
“We still on for Brokeback Mountain, Sunday?”
Prediction: That’s the new pick-up line of 2006…
February 21st, 2006 at 7:48 pm
Yes, it is, indeed, The year of the Leemer. Leems has saved me from Bubba and certain destruction - not to mention spyware - by emailing me a copy of this ‘Whole of the Moon’ song by the Waterboys.
As to the infinitemuppet and the anonymous dater, sorry, CLiff, yer on yr own. I’m trying to burn their existence from my brain;)
Hey Leemer, got a copy of King Kong by chance?;)
February 21st, 2006 at 8:06 pm
That’s not very nice. Eh, you don’t fancy 8000 Eurythmics albums, do you?
February 21st, 2006 at 10:12 pm
no, I think I have rather enough Eurythmics albums, thank you.
Excuse me, I’m going to go gather some firewood and start chanting…
;)
February 21st, 2006 at 10:33 pm
CLIFFFFFF!!!!!!!!!
It’s happening! It’s HAPPENING AGAIN!!!!!!!!!!!!!
That’s a nice looking dog, mate. What’s its name?…
February 21st, 2006 at 10:50 pm
YOU LEAVE MY DOG ALONE YOU!
Wait- I dont’ HAVE a dog!
Go away ye muppet!
June 23rd, 2006 at 8:35 am
[…] This goes back to this post here, here and here as I finally spend blow what’s left of my £25 gift of singles. […]