Half An Hour Of Kids

A bit of a diversion from my Sunday mix series of (roughly) thirty minute mixes of tracks and songs by a single artist- today's mix is themed around the sound of children's voices/ children's choirs. Do not fear though, there are no St Winifred's School Choirs here, no Primary School end of year shows. This is I hope a bit further left of there. Sometimes the use of children's voices in songs can be quite unsettling, that combination of sweetly sung innocence and the feeling of something being lost. Sometimes they provide a higher register counterpoint. Sometimes they add to a sense of trippiness and dislocation. Sometimes they just sound good, a contrast to adult voices and instruments. Sometimes, as The Clash and Mickey Gallagher's kids prove, they're a joke to ensure that Sandinista! had six songs on each side, making thirty six songs in total. 

Thirty Minute Kids Mix

• Family Of God: Family Of God
• Frank Ocean, Mick Jones and Paul Simonon: Hero
• The Children Of Sunshine: It's A Long Way To Heaven
• The Avalanches Ft Jamie Xx, Neneh Cherry and Calypso: Wherever You Go
• Gorillaz: Dirty Harry
• Soul II Soul: Get A Life
• Poly High: Midnight Cowboy
• The Clash: Career Opportunities

It's only right I should give a nod of the head to David Holmes whose crate digging inspired some of this mix. He played the Poly High song on his Desert Island Disco on Lauren Laverne's 6 Mix show earlier this year, included the Family Of God track on a free CD that was given away with the NME in 2000 and put the Children Of Sunshine song on his superb Late Night Tales compilation from 2016. The Frank Ocean, Paul Simonon and Mick Jones song was a one off done with/ for Converse in 2014, produced by Diplo, with the West Los Angeles Children's Choir providing backup. The Avalanches song also has Mick Jones playing on it but this time piano not guitar, and samples The Voyager, NASA's tape for aliens, currently somewhere out there way further than any of us have ever been. The album We Will Always Love You came out in 2020. Gorillaz, Damon with Dangermouse, was released in 2005.  Soul II Soul's Get A Life was a huge hit in 1989 and includes Jazzy B's still excellent advice- 'Be selective, be objective, be an asset to the collective/ As you know, you got to get a life'. Something in that for all of us perhaps. 

I've Been Playing Concerts In The Mud

I've posted this song before but it always cheers me to hear it when it returns into my musical orbit. Back in the early/ mid 2010s Converse had a marketing project called 3 Artists 1 Song where they, yep, got three artists to collaborate on one song and hoped everyone would buy a new pair of pumps after hearing the results. Often product tie in makes me run a mile but I appreciate I'm of a generation where this type of thing is seen differently and that music- product synergy is broadly acceptable now. Also Converse can't be too near the top of the list of evil mega- corporations, we've all pairs of Converse haven't we? (I'm now worried that if I run a search for Converse I'l find all sorts of unpleasant things I didn't want to know involving child labour, shady union practices and Nazi gold). In 2014 Frank Ocean, Mick Jones and Paul Simonon, and producer Diplo came up with a song called Hero. It looks like they were grouping the two former members of The Clash together as one artist. In 2014 Mick and Paul were coming off the back of touring together as Gorillaz. Frank Ocean was hot news but has been very quiet for the last few years. Diplo I don't know much about other than his work with M.I.A. (and depressingly having just done a Google search I've read that allegations were made against him in 2020 from three women including singer/ rapper Azealia Banks regarding sexual behaviour and revenge porn). 

Hero is a blast, a splicing of old and new sonically with guitars and beats and a stuttering effect. Frank's voice is both honeyed and raw as he sings of being young and black in the USA in the 21st century- 'I'm a bad boy/ I'm a punk/ I'm a black man/ I can dunk...' Mick and Paul''s bass and guitars swim around, clanging heroically through the chorus. Then the West Los Angeles Children's' Choir come in and the second half goes all California sunshine and 70s TV. Lovely stuff. All over in under three minutes and it could easily be longer without losing anything. 

Hero

I'll Be Playing Concerts In The Mud

Periodically it's good to remember this 2014 song from the combined talents of Frank Ocean, Diplo, Paul Simonon and Mick Jones. Put together as something to do with Converse it goes way beyond a cheap commercial tie in. Mick's shimmering guitar part and Diplo's beats are the perfect accompaniment to Frank Ocean's meditation on being a young black man in the USA- 'I'm a badboy, I'm a punk'. The West Los Angeles Children's Choir join in and lift it further upwards. I don't think all four were ever present in the same room at the same time- Frank's vocals were done elsewhere, at a different time- but it doesn't show or matter. At the time there was talk of other tracks Mick and Paul put down with Diplo but it doesn't look like anything came of them, so this is all we have. The only real disappointment is that it's all over in under three minutes.

Hero

Conversely

Mick Jones and Paul Simonon re-appear here, courtesy of a well known plimsoll manufacturer (hard to get too po-faced and uppity about this piece of 'advertorial synergy', we've all owned a pair of Converse haven't we? Cue a string of comments by people saying no). Half of The Clash along with producer Diplo and Frank Ocean and the West Los Angeles Children's Choir for the Three Artists, One Song project. Dodgy arithmetic but the song, Hero, is really rather good with a lovely fade in. Free download.