Please Stop Crying

While things are all Screamadelic in various pockets of internetland I thought I'd post this- the Terry Farley mix of Loaded, which appeared on the Creation dance compilation Keeping The Faith (various Keeping The Faith tracks have been posted here at Bagging Area during the year). In this reworking of Weatherall's Loaded Terry Farley pretty much keeps Loaded as it was and puts Bobby's vocal from source track I'm Losing More Than I'll Ever Have back over the top. When I previously posted a Terry Farley remix a regular reader left the comment 'I'll remain anonymous for this one- great track but Terry Farley is an elitist knob'. Bagging Area cannot comment on this claim. Mr Farley remains unavailable for comment.

09 - Primal Scream - Loaded (Terry Farley Mix).mp3#1#1

Mod Action

I've seen a lot of blokes recently wearing desert boots, which irritates me. Partly because I hate it when a long time staple of my wardrobe gets popular- I don't want to look like everybody else. Should I stop wearing them until the trend subsides or persist? When I look closely I notice they're usually not Clarks' desert boots, so, um, they've got it wrong haven't they? Desert Boots which aren't Clarks? Lunacy. Which, sadly, makes me feel better. I should probably, by my age, have got over these things, but I can't help it. The mod in me never dies.

This is Better In Black by top mod revivalists and Medway garage-rock band The Prisoners, from their 1982 album A Taste Of Pink, re-issued on cd a while back and available at most download stores, as is the album shown above The Last Fourfathers, which has a much better cover. Better In Black is top quality guitar and organ action from Graham Day, James Taylor (later of The James Taylor Quartet), Allan Crockford and Johnny Symons.

The Prisoners - Better In Black.mp3

New To Me

I do like it when I discover something new- last Friday Drew at Across The Kitchen Table posted a new Weatherall remix, one I knew nothing about. I must be slipping. I'd get over to Drew's place sharpish if I were you. It's a remix of Silver Surfer, Ghost Rider, Go, Go, Go !!! from Danish artist Trontemoller's album Into The Great Wide Yonder, and very good it is too. The 12" turned up on Saturday morning, with the original version, Trentemoller's own remix, Weatherall's stomping 50s inspired mix and Lulu Rouge's dubstep remix. Not having my finger on the pulse of the Scandinavian electronic scene suddenly I've got a whole new thing to go at, knowing I'll be shelling out for both his albums and other stuff besides. This track is Shades Of Marble, also from Into The Great Wide Yonder, and is a lovely piece of melancholic but pacey electronica, with great swathes of 50s tremelo guitar popping up.

shades_of_marble-cmg.mp3

Some Dub For Sunday

Some dub for Sunday to warm the cockles, especially as it's hovering around zero outside. This is Lee Perry's dub version of Zap Pow's River, which I posted a couple of weeks ago. River is a hazy, semi-psychedelic reggae tune, and this dub version is equally good. In true dub style Bagging Area recommends you play them back to back. If you didn't download River it's still there, alive on the internet all the way from the mid 1970s.

Lee Scratch Perry_06_River Stone.mp3#1#1

Away Goes Trouble Down The Drain

We were out in Manchester last night, sampling some of the masses of bars in the Northern Quarter (Manchester now has more than four quarters), and at one point this song came on, and I'm not saying it saved my life or anything but Indeep's 1982 hit sounded pretty good.

last night a dj saved my life mirage remix.mp3

Dangerous Liaisons

This is the third post that comes from the Weatherall Screamadelica influences show last weekend, and a new one for me (and isn't that what good radio djing is about? Opening your ears to stuff you haven't heard before mixed in with with records you like). This is Liaisons Dangereuse 1981 record Los Ninos Del Parque, described by Audrey Witherspoon as 'acid house before acid house had a name'. A reviewer at Discogs says of it- 'equally cold and dark, yet sensual and exotic'. To Bagging Area's ears this is a tough sounding early electronic dance record, stuffed full of post-punk stylings. However you want to describe it, it's good stuff, and hey, it's Friday night. Bottoms up.

Los Ninos Del Parque.mp3

The Leaves On The Tree

There's been a small outbreak of Billy Fury in one or two places recently which made me think of this- Nothin' Shakin' (But The Leaves On The Tree). It also has brackets in the song title, so follows on very tenuously from yesterday's Delfonics post. This is Liverpool's Billy Fury in 1964, with a rattling piece of British rock 'n' roll, already made slightly redundant at the time I suspect by another bunch of moptop scousers whose name I have avoided mentioning at Bagging Area so far. And, as has been commented on elsewhere, check that quiff.

Nothin'_Shakin'_(But_The_Leaves_On_The_Tree).mp3#1#1

Mind Duly Blown

Another track from Sunday's Screamadelica special when Andrew Weatherall played the tracks that inspired Primal Scream's 1991 album. This is Didn't I (Blow Your Mind This Time) by The Delfonics, an epic piece of funky Philly soul from 1969. Mind blowing outfits too.

Delfonics, The - Didn_'t I Blow Your Mind This Time.mp3#1#1

But I Know They Must Be Crazy

To compare and contrast here's the Dr John version of I Walk On Gilded Splinters, from his deranged Gris Gris album (1968). This is bizarre voodoo music, with chanting, voices jumping out of the mix, Dr John's own gravelly vocal, tom tom drums, weird instrumentation and general craziness. Late at night, in semi-darkness, a little wine imbibed, this song can spook a little.

i_walk_on_gilded_splinters.mp3

Some People Think They Jive Me

That Weatherall Screamadelica show on 6 Mix on Sunday night revealed a wide range of influences on the making of the album, from PiL to dub, Can, proto acid house, Eno, The Delfonics, Suicide and Dennis Wilson and more. It's widely available at blogs all over the place (have a look at the links on the right, or head straight to the reborn Ripped In Glasgow). One of the tracks Weatherall played was this one- I Walk On Gilded Splinters by Johnny Jenkins. I've had the Dr John original for years, an 18 carot gold song if ever there was one, but had never heard this version by Johnny Jenkins from his Ton-Ton Macoute! album. So a little internet jiggery-pokery and voila- I Walk On Gilded Splinters by Johnny Jenkins. Jenkins employed a young Otis Redding, and later played with Duane Allman, who contributes some wild guitar to this. Top stuff.

Johnny Jenkins - I Walk On Gilded Splinters.mp3

Carry Me Home Twice

And here's the original. Everyone knows the story of Dennis Wilson- the only Beach Boy who could surf, good looking drummer, fell in with Charles Manson, lost much of the 70s to drink and drugs, made a great lost album, drowned. Carry Me Home, a lament for a dead soldier in Vietnam, was an out-take, never officially released. Dennis' vocal is wracked with pain and sandblasted by coke and cigarettes. His great lost album Pacific Ocean Blue was re-released a while back and is well worth getting even though it can take a bit of getting into, but give me Dennis over re-recorded versions of Smile and Beach Boys copyist bands any day of the week.

carry_me_home original.mp3

Carry Me Home

Carry Me Home was the last track on side A of the Dixie-Narco e.p. released by Primal Scream in 1992, after the album Screamadelica the previous year. In one of those coincidences I notice that The Vinyl Villain has posted the entire e.p. today, but I'm going to plough on with this post regardless, as it was already part written. Written by Beach Boy Dennis Wilson as an anti-Vietnam war song, Carry Me Home is a masterpiece, cited by producer Andrew Weatherall at one point as the best piece of work he'd done. The production and arrangement is stunning and it features one of Bobby Gillespie's best vocals. If you get on over to The Vinyl Villain you can also get the song Screamadelica, an eleven minute acid house/rock/sample tour-de-force.

Carry_Me_Home.mp3

They Call Me The Breeze

Firstly, at the time of typing (7.45pm Sunday evening) Andrew Weatherall and Bobby Gillespie are on 6 Mix at 8 o'clock talking about the making of Screamadelica and playing the records that influenced it. Should be good.

Second, Run by Spiritualized, a song that manages to condense and distill all the features of leather jacketed, bowl haircut, pointy shoes, guitar rock with 90s post-dance production into a few minutes. Quite a feat. Even if they did have to co-credit someone who they'd pilfered (BJ Cole? Memory failing me. It's J.J. Cale Ctel informs me.) in the writing of it.

04 Run.mp3

Really Stupid

Since posting The Primitives' Crash a few days ago I've been overdosing on their blonde powered c86 indie pop, buzz saw guitars, PJ Court's cool playing, hair and threads (far right in picture), and the wonderful Tracy Tracy (second right. Obviously). There was a point, 87-88, where we all wanted to look like PJ and go out with a girl who looked like Tracy. Not that it happened. My current favourite is the perfect 60's inspired pop of Way Behind Me, especially the lipsynch version on Wogan that's on Youtube. You'll have to go and look for it, I can't be arsed embedding it. This is Really Stupid, their debut single released on Lazy Records, sounding like it was recorded in a shed and all the better for it.

For the record, I do not own the signed photo above.

02 Really Stupid.wma

When You And I First Met

A Saturday night record for you, should you feel like dancing. From 1986 (can this record really be 24 years old?) Joyce Sims All And All, when electro began to turn into house. This song has great drums- well done drum programmer- and a great soul vocal.

All And All.mp3

I Had A Hard Night

Prince Buster's Rough Rider, nothing if not explicit, set to a rocking ska backbeat.

She was a rough rider
A cool stroker
A strong whiner

I had a hard night
Last night

She was a rough rider
She whiney, whiney
Last night

She chop the wood
Last night
Me wore the brush
Tonight.

From the man who brought you Whine And Grine, Pussy Cat Bite Me, Train To Girls Town, Wreck A Buddy (The Sexy Girls), Wreck A Pum Pum (not sure what that means actually) and many more.

03 Rough Rider.wma

Got No Cure For Misery

My 7 year old daughter E.T. has recently got into Mr. Bean, and tonight was watching the recent film epic Mr Bean's Holiday when a cover of this song, Crash by the Primitives, cropped up. 'I've got the original of this' I said, ' it's much better'. She wasn't convinced, especially by a live TV version on Youtube where Tracy Tracy is a little wobbly, but she conceded eventually that The Primitives version was alright. Kids eh?

The Primitives were from Coventry and had several early songs that the devotees swear by- Thru the Flowers, Really Stupid, Stop Killing Me, (all good c86 era indie) - but none of that takes anything away from the fact that this top 5 hit is really good, sparkly, guitar pop.

Crash.mp3

Outside In

Christmas comes early in the form of two Andrew Weatherall dub remixes of ex- Beta Band man Steve Mason's single Boys Outside. Not entirely sure I should be posting this seeing as it's only just come out but obviously I'm encouraging you to get over to Domino records and pay for the e.p. with both versions. There's no sign of a vinyl release which is a shame as I'm sure this would sound even better on a turntable. Dub 1 has been available to stream on Soundcloud for a few weeks and is wonderful. I could listen to a Weatherall dub album like this all day. This one has a more synthy bass, and isn't too far removed from some of the Sabresonic era Sabres Of Paradise dubby tracks, things like RSD, Edge 6 or Return Of Carter. Highly recommended. Get it while it's hot. Or before it gets removed.

03 Boys Outside (Andrew Weatherall Dub 2).mp3

Double X

The xx's album revealed it's charms slowly for me, and I've got to say I now think it's pretty good. This remix by Four Tet however is stunning- as someone commented somewhere, it makes you think everyone should have a Four Tet remix.

The xx_01_VCR (Four Tet Remix).mp3

Half Way There

Today I am half way through growing a moustache for November. Movember aims to raise money for men's health charities (including prostate cancer) by growing a moustache. It was initiated by someone at work and I signed up, along with a dozen or so others. I'm not usually one for such work-based hilarity but I was intrigued and did wonder what it'd look like. Half the time I forget it's there until I catch sight of myself or get a slightly odd look from someone. Mrs Swiss told me last week I looked like a '70s cop'. Hmm, a cool, slightly Beastie Boys' Sabotage, mean streets of New York or San Francisco 70s cop maybe I thought. More likely I reckon she had Juliet Bravo in mind. She can't stand it. Bagging Area favourites Andrew Weatherall and Billy Childish are confirmed men of moustaches so I hope I can hold onto a shred of dignity. Not that either would mean anything to anyone at work.

Tache tune- The Chemical Brothers and Bernard Sumner with their 1999 single Out Of Control, one of their best, containing the line 'Or maybe you think my moustache is too much'.

Out Of Control.mp3

Learning Lines In The Rain

Top goth art-rockers Bauhaus with the 12" mix of their 1983 single She's In Parties, with the band making full use of those extra 5 inches. There's some great guitar work on this. The picture provides some proof this bunch were actually popstars of sorts, although how him on the right passed muster I don't know. It was also, incidentally, the inspiration for Half Man Half Biscuit's She's In Broadstairs.

12 She's in Parties [Extended Mix].wma

Where We Once Watched The Robots Landing

Almost two decades ago a friend of mine came up from London to visit, when I rented a room in a house not far from where I live now. My friend A.N. was about to go to India, and we went out got drunk and ended up back at the house listening to music, eventually sticking The Pogues on, and talking drunken rubbish, praising the lyrics of Shane McGowan for being both a realist and a romantic, and being able to paint pictures with words and all that kind of drunk music bloke stuff. This song was the one for me at the time- brilliant musical backing and Shane's lines about 'whiskey on Sunday and tears on our cheeks' and how it's 'stupid to laugh and useless to bawl about a rusty tin can and an old hurley ball'. What we couldn't understand though was why in the final two lines Shane suddenly lurched into science fiction B Movie territory- 'where we once watched the robots landing, and the broad, majestic Shannon'. Made no sense at all. Quite liked the image of robots crawling out of the river Shannon, but didn't fit with the rest of song. We got drunker and moved onto other topics. Blah blah blah.

A few weeks later I got a postcard from A.N. at the Taj Mahal describing sights seen and places been, and right at the bottom of the postcard in tiny handwriting- 'P.S. It's row-boats, not robots.'

14 The Broad Majestic Shannon.wma

Six Months Of Condemnation

Interesting article by John Harris in Friday's Guardian, initially about the student protests. I'll recap some of his points, and add a few. Obviously it attracted it's fair share of criticism from the people that leave comments on webpages. Y'know bloggers and the like.

The Con-Dem government have been in power for six months.
They have no real mandate (about 1 in 5 of the population voted Tory).
The Dem part of the government have reneged on various manifesto pledges (Clegg signed a pledge against increasing university tuition fees. Tuition fees increased this week).
Higher education is to become the preserve of the wealthy again.
EMA (up to £30 for poorer 16-18 year olds staying on at college) is to be axed.
This week Ian Duncan Smith refered to avoidance of work as a 'sin'.
But there are currently 5 unemployed people going for each available job.
Child care credit is to be cut to 'force' young mothers back to work.
The cuts the government are bringing in in benefit reform and welfare will, according to many independent commentators including the Institute for Fiscal Studies, hit poorer families and women the hardest.
Plans to restructure housing benefit could lead to a dramatic increase in evictions, DHS B&B, and homelessness.
Libraries, care for the elderly and other public facilities are going to be closed.
Arts budgets will be cut by up to 100% by some councils.
The bankers will be left to do what they do, and be paid enormous bonuses, despite them being partly responsible for some of the mess. Barclays has announced a bonus pot of £1.6 billion.
The cabinet contains 18 millionaires.
David Cameron (ex-Eton and Oxford) describes himself and his wife as 'middle-class'.
His personal fortune is estimated at somewhere between £3.4 million.
Cameron's helper Nick Clegg is sitting on £1.8 million.
Middle-class or old-school, rich, ruling elite?
We're all in this together.



In other news Pulp have reformed.


17 Last Day of the Miners' Strike.wma

Some More Dub For Friday

It seems remiss of me to have posted various bits of dub without anything from Lee 'Scratch' Perry, whose legend goes before him and surely requires no explanation from me. This track, River, is stunning. It's from an album that came out in the 90s called Voodooism, a collection of 1970s rarities from Perry's Black Ark Studio, which he himself burnt down convinced it was haunted. The original artists here are Zap Pow, and River is a dreamy, hazy, almost psychedelic piece of dub reggae, chock full of Perry's trademark phasing. Most of the songs on the compilation are present in original form and their dub version, although the original vinyl version I've got didn't include some of these. There's a dub of this track- River Stone- which is equally good, as are any number of tracks on the record. You can get the whole 20 track set from emusic. I've done it, mainly for the extras, but the whole thing is a laid back but out-there joy. Go on- it could improve your weekend.

Lee Scratch Perry_05_River.mp3

Some Dub For Friday

Let's welcome Friday in with some dub from Mad Professor, otherwise known as Neil Fraser. Responsible for hundreds of albums and remixes, he mixes traditional dub techniques and instruments with synths and electronics, which led him to his most well known work with Massive Attack in the 1990s when he remixed their Protection album as No Protection. In 1982 he began a series of albums called Dub Me Crazy which as far as I know got to volume 12. The first five are all highly rated, and as you'd expect the afficionados argue about their respective merits. I don't have them all and wouldn't claim to know which is best, but most of his stuff is worth a listen. This track is from Dub Me Crazy (the first one), and is as good an example of his electronic dub as any from that album. If you're at work, play it quietly and take a few minutes to contemplate the day ahead. Actually, if you're at work you probably can't download the bugger if your workplace's internet and download policy is anything like mine so you'll probably have to wait til you get home tonight. If you're lucky enough to be at home at this time on a Friday morning however, brew up, turn up, sit back and enjoy.

Mad Professor_04_Dub Power.mp3

Remembrance

Today is Remembrance Day. I think it's important. If you've ever been to Tyne Cot, Passchendale, Ypres or the Somme you can't help but be moved by the horror and unnecessary carnage of the First World War, and the selflessness of the millions of ordinary men who did their bit. At Victoria Station in Manchester there's a door which doesn't go anywhere now, but used to lead to a southbound platform. Above the door is a plaque which reads 'Dedicated to the thousands of men who passed through this door 1914-1918 and who did not return', which never fails to catch my eye,and tug a little. Remembrance Day and the selling of poppies started in 1919, as a way to mark the lives of the fallen, help the families left behind and to work for peace, to ensure such a conflict wouldn't happen again. Not that that last bit worked. I'm not comfortable with the way recently poppies and Remembrance Day seem to be an attempt to justify current conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan.

This is the traditional 19th century song The Bold Fusilier, a recruitment song, sung by Billy Childish acapella at a radio session a few years ago.

The_Bold_Fusilier_traditional.mp3

Splitting The Atom

A complete change to what I was planning to post. I've been to a conference today connected with work, hosted by Manchester University. By coincidence the room we were in makes a nice link to several recent posts, which is making it look dangerously like Bagging Area is planned rather than the random outpourings of my befuddled mind. Between 1907 and 1919 Ernest Rutherford led a team based at Manchester University which first discovered and then split the atom (I expect QI style objections could be made to this), which follows my recent posts about Hack Green secret nuclear bunker (music from Jetstream by Pacific), Jon Savage's music in the atomic age (Fujiyama Mama by Wanda Jackson) and nuclear testing (Gang Of Four's I Found That Essence Rare, two days ago). The room is preserved (with modern facilities for conferences) with the original tiled walls, a wooden work bench, various artefacts in display cases and wooden pew seating down one side. Hopefully a Geiger counter would've stayed calm. It was interesting though to be sat in a room where one of the key discoveries of science and history took place, and is one of those hidden history places- hugely significant but unknown to most.

Rutherford's discovery led eventually to Hiroshima and Nagasaki. OMD's 1980 single Enola Gaye is the poppiest nuclear protest song I can think of, and is great in every way.

enola gay.mp3

The Wooden Spoon

Bit rushed for time so not much blather from me tonight- Glasgow's top 60s mod beat band The Poets, with the a-side from their final release. The b-side was a stab at psychedelia, this song Wooden Spoon is what's become known as freakbeat.

16 Wooden Spoon.wma

Caught In The Undertow

Everyone's favourite new band Warpaint, with the standout track Undertow from their new album The Fool remixed by Blackbird Blackbird- loops, glitches, vinyl crackle and static, snatches of the song, usual wooziness. Positively makes your head spin.

Undertow (Blackbird Blackbird Remix).mp3

She's Dressed For The H-Bomb

Oh so influential and name-dropped left, right and centre a few years ago Leeds agit-post-punkers Gang of Four were dour but funky. This is one of their best songs- I Found That Essence Rare- with it's wire-scaping-against-wire guitars, propulsive rhythm and lyrics taking in the H Bomb, Bikini (Atoll) and bikini's, tabloid newspapers, politics, class war and other very 80s concerns. Gang Of Four also sang 'To hell with poverty, we'll get drunk on cheap wine'-definitely been there.

01 I Found That Essence Rare.wma

A Spoonful Of Your Loving

Sometimes the blues seems so overfamiliar and commonplace and 'classic' that it's difficult to listen to it or appreciate it properly, and listening to a cd compilation it can all get a bit samey. But when you happen up on a track- on a tv programme say, or a clip of Muddy Waters or Howlin' Wolf- it can blow you away, and you can see why this raw, primal, rural and urban black American music was the real starting point of pretty much everything we listen to. You can begin to understand what those stiff white kids in early 60s London were so awestruck by. I chanced up on this song, Spoonful by Howlin' Wolf (Chester Burnett), on a Chess compilation this morning when I uncovered a box of cds that came free with magazines. It's very basic but what a performance-Howlin' Wolf's voice, two guitars (one of them squeeling and peeling), simple rhythm- totally captivating.

Howlin' Wolf - Spoonful.mp3

Some Dub For Sunday

Some lovely, bass heavy dub for your Sunday from Inner Circle and The Fatman Riddim Section. I'm not exactly sure what their point of view of General Amin is, but I nearly called this post Know What Amin? and managed to resist.

09 General Amin.wma

It's A Glamorous World

Sublime piece of early 80s pop music from one-hit wonders The Passions.
It says Long Mix, but this still comes in at under four minutes.

12 I'm in Love With a German Film Star [Long Mix].wma

Red Wilmot

The first time I heard Sabres Of Paradise 1994 single Wilmot it sounded so otherwordly, so strange but danceable, I thought it was close to the best thing I'd heard. Ever. If memory serves it was in the back room at Cream (so my memory could be a little hazy due to, y'know, stuff) and Weatherall hadn't shown up. We got the train over from Manchester whenever Lord Sabre was on (monthly at least) and the guy that did the lights and projections got us in for a quid. Bargain, and no queueing. Anyway Weatherall wasn't there but a promo of Wilmot was, and the whole room started... skanking, for want of a better word.

Then the single came out, and it was as good as I'd heard it that night. At some point late at night in the flat I shared at the time with a man who is now big in local government in London, watching a really crappy black and white tv, a video for Wilmot was shown featuring Weatherall leading a marching band and majourettes through the streets of London at dawn. It's probably on youtube. Go and have a look for it, it's great.

So remixing Wilmot didn't seem like a great idea to me, but Mr Scruff turned in a decent low-key one on the Haunted dancehall album, and then this remix by jazz techno bods Red Snapper turned up on the Warp 10+3 remix compilation. It's pretty good- keeps the horns but speeds them up, clattery drum machine, more techno-ey, less skanking.

Wilmot (Red Snapper remix).mp3

Spine Bubbles

In 1999 Warp celebrated their birthday slightly less expansively and expensively than they have this time around. There were some compilation cds and a load of remixes. This track is about as laidback as Two Lone Swordsmen ever got. Spine Bubbles was a track from their 1999 Stay Down album -the one with the lovely cover painting of Deep Sea Divers, and many of the tracks had a bassy, submerged, underwater feel. When Warp got a load of remixes together for the Warp 10+3 cd Spine Bubbles was remixed by Ellis Island Sound. Somewhat improbably Ellis Island Sound included Pete Astor, formerly of Creation records 80s indie kings/flops The Weather Prophets, and before that The Loft. Ellis Island Sound released a whole album of understated, ambient, instrumental subtleness. I've got it downstairs and apart from the fact I know I liked it whenever I last listened to it, I really can't remember any of the songs. But that's kind of the point of the ambient end of things- wallpaper music to wash over you without leaving much of a trace. Now I come to think of it the Warp remix cd also included a decent stab at remixing the Sabres Of Paradise wonderful Wilmot by Red Snapper. I better go and have a look hadn't I?

This remix, as I started out saying, is laidback and lovely. It hangs around for a bit, bubbling and chirruping, patter patter drums, and then fades away. Nice stuff for a Friday evening if you're not doing fireworks and have had one of those weeks.

Spine_Bubbles_Ellis_Island_Sound_Remix.mp3

Words That Jangle In Your Head

Steve McQueen music part 2, this time from The Thomas Crown Affair film (1968) Noel Harrison's Windmills Of Your Mind, with it's circling chord sequence and unforgetable lyrics. When we were kids we had a dansette in our bedroom and my Mum gave us an album of cover versions of 60s hits (the kind of Top Of The Pops albums that have been featured at Planet Mondo recently, with scantily clad girls on the cover). This song was on it, and it's kind of been stuck in my head ever since, thirty odd years ago.

What was that? Just a Proustian rush mate, get over it.

Noel Harrison - Windmills Of Your Mi.mp3

'Look, You Work Your Side Of The Street, And I'll Work Mine'

There's a bit of a spy movie theme thing going on at a couple of places at the moment, so I'll chuck my tuppence worth in. Besides that, it gives us a chance to admire Steve McQueen's complete coolness.

This is the main title theme from Bullitt (1968), scored by Lalo Schiffrin. The score was reworked from the film for record release and jazzed up a bit (literally) to make it more saleable. The version here is from the cd re-release. On the vinyl version this track is a bit shorter- cd buyers value for money I suppose. The whole album is great and while I don't listen to this sort of thing (jazzy instrumentals or film soundtracks) very often this always sounds good.

Now, where did I put my polo neck jumper?

01 Bullitt, Main Title (Movie Versio.mp3

The Wanda Of You

Following on from this morning, not one but two Wanda Jackson items. First up Wanda's classic Funnel Of Love, but not in it's 1961 form. This version is from an album in 2003 where Wanda revisited her early songs with help from various people, including Elvis Costello (boo) and The Cramps (hooray). This version of Funnel is Wanda Jackson backed by The Cramps, and it's good stuff with Poison Ivy's guitar sounding particularly fine. They also did Riot In Cell Block 9 for the same record.

Second, you need to head on over to Diddywah.blogspot (link down and to the right), where DJ Diddywah hosts a goldmine of 50s and 60s singles- mod, psyche, blues, r'n'b, rockabilly, surf and much more. Scroll down to last Thursday and you'll find a post featuring the original version of Funnel Of Love, and Diddywah's 45 rpm Funnel Of Love single played at 33rpm. The results are astounding and have to be heard to be believed. Totally different record and feel. It's well worth a couple of clicks and a few minutes of your webtime. Go on, off with you. Meanwhile I'm going to begin playing all my 45s at 33...

Wanda Jackson_03_Funnel of Love.mp3

I'm Just About To Blow My Top

There's an interesting article by Jon Savage at the Guardian's music blog about pop music in the atomic age, and musicians responses to imminent nuclear destruction from the early 50s through to now. In the article he mentions this fantastic record by rockabilly's first lady Wanda Jackson. Savage writes she 'yokes the explosive power of 1000 suns to her orgasm'. Which isn't a sentence I'd have thought of, or one I can top.

Fujiyama_Mama.mp3

Clockwork

Two of The Horrors have a side project- Spider And The Flies. The organ player and bassist released an album, Something Clockwork This Way Comes, a year or two ago and this track Metallurge was one of the best things on it. It sounds nothing like the gothic art-rockers The Horrors (who actually went and produced one of last years' best albums), more a couple of kohl eyed kids set loose in the BBC Radiophonic Workshop. Odd but good.


04 Metallurge.mp3

When You Kiss The Base Of My Spine

This is a funny one- Scorpio Rising was the title track off Death In Vegas' third album back in 2002, featuring guest appearences from Hope Sandoval, Liam Gallagher and Paul Weller, some electroclash, some of their scuzzy fuzzy rock/dance stuff and tons of rather good Bollywood strings. This remix came off the Scorpio Rising single- the other remix was by loopy robe wearers The Polyphonic Spree. Whoever thought it would be a good idea to get The Scientist to rework this rock song as a dub reggae track, while still keeping Liam Gallagher's none more raspy vocal, deserves a pat on their back for their sense of humour if nothing else. I think it works pretty well surprisingly, though Liam's album length collaboration with Lee Perry or The Mad Professor remains something we'll just have to imagine.

Scorpio Rising [The Scientist Lead Mix].mp3