Me and My Big Mouth Record Club

This has been my favourite Scott CD so far. I sang along to Billy (natch), Neil (which sent me swooping back to student days when the 1st XI football team sang this all the time of an evening), Frank (again, natch), James, and of course the REMsters. I like Blister in the Sun but not sure I would sing along with it.

New to me which I liked was Big City Life – normally I’d turn this kind of thing off after about half a second but this really got to me. I’m going to play it again now in fact. I’ve heard bits and bobs of The Killers and liked this one also. I like It’s a Shame but I think I’d have picked a different Lemony song (e.g. Big Gay Heart which I do sing along with).

Most of the others were jolly but not so much to my liking. In terms of controversy, I couldn’t stand the shouty Debaser, have never understood Nick Cave’s attraction (which was not a popular standpoint among my fellow indie music-loving sixth form chums) and, sorry, but Tim Buckley – I’m standing way back now to avoid the tomatoes about to be hurled in my direction – sounds like an over the hill pub singer.

Gord, February I think I picked these and never quite managed to do the burn & post thing.

My angle was dead singers, or bands I think, though I’m not 100% now.

Anyway:

1. Julian Cope – Trampolene
He walked out on the Teardrop Explodes and then did his best to kill his solo career…

2. The Libertines – The Man Who Would Be King
Another dead band, cut off in its prime, with a singer… Ditto, in fact

3. The Levellers – The Devil Went Down To Georgia
My Dad’s family were orange sash wearing, Paisley loving, apprentice boy proddies, and ‘diddly diddly’ music was a no go area in our house. Hence the loss of a god. Needless to say, by the time I got to my argumentative years, anything with a Bodhran and a fiddle was pretty cool with me. I can’t remember the first time I heard this song (maybe by a parodyband called clubsound?) but the Levellers do a decent version. Incidentally, I was reading your blog Rachel the other day, and I agree, the Devil would never have lost, and on this evidence he was robbed

4. The Bothy Band – Green Groves of Erin
Another parent-baiter, and my favourite Irish music trad type band ever. Ah, smell that peat.

5. The Editors – An End Has A Start
Can’t remember why I chose this. My best guess was that it echoed the death of goth, but then…

6. Beth Gibbons & Rustin Man – Rustin Man
Scott explained the background to this. I put it in for the death of Portishead (the band), but then noticed they had reformed and were playing Butlins. Can’t legislate for that sort of thing.

7. Joan As A Police Woman – Chrisobel
Really haven’t got a clue what it had to do with the theme, but a cool song so who cares.

8. Kristin Hersh – In Shock
Death of the Muse(s), naturally

9. Jane’s Addiction – Been Caught Stealing
I stayed in Bremerhaven for a while (which is the German equivalent of moving to England and choosing to live in Tipton), and the only English language TV station was called Super Channel. They played this all day, and if I remember rightly it was while the Wall was coming down. Me stuck in Bremerhaven, East meeting West. Trabants broken down everywhere and Super Channel.

10. Robert Johnson – Hellhound on my Tail
You sell your soul, your fingers grow to unfeasible lengths, you play the blues like a quartet and then you cop for a dose. What are you going to write about?

11. The Verve – History
Another dead band that resurrects before I get around to burning the disks. Pah. Still at least I’m not going to get suckered on that score by…

12. Stevie Ray Vaughan – Little Wing
I spent three years trying to learn to play this all the way thru and nearly did it. Then I read that he played it entirely off the cuff. Hard for people to accept that somebody can play Hendrix better than the man himself, but…

13. John Lennon – Cold Turkey
Don’t think he has really made a decent record since this one, but there you go, they get married, go soft.

14. Thin Lizzy – Whiskey In A Jar
I still can’t believe that he was married to Leslie Crowther’s daughter, but the ultimate pirate rock star. Sorely missed, at least for the paternity payments across most of Dublin, Galway and Cork.

15. Muddy Waters – Hoochie Coochie Man
Dead, obviously, but what a voice.

16. Jeff Buckley – Strange Fruit
Think we’ve said enough about Jeff Buckley, but a fine live song choice by a dead geezer, methinks

17. Billie Holiday – Summertime
The definitive version I think, of a classic song. Ah, Amy Winehouse fans…

Well, thats me up-to-date….Enjoy

Well, maybe not. I’d actually got into my head that this was driving songs for some reason, so its a bit of a loud guitar type of thing and doesn’t feature ‘Tiger Feet’ at all. Ah, an opportunity missed.

So, here we go:

1. Seahorses – Love is The Law
Brilliant guitar and cool lyrics, for a shortlived post Stone Roses excursion for John Squire.

2. Led Zeppelin – Rock & Roll
No excuses for this stomper, just pure noisy guitars and screaming

3. Patti Smith – Gloria
Speaking of screaming, this girls got it all – not half. Actually, I’ve realised that I’m starting to sound like a cross between Alan Freeman and a Time Life advert.

4. The Mission – Tower of Strength
Lightweight goths get in a member of Led Zeppelin to show them how to be a proper band, and this song is about the best of the bunch.

5. REM – Whats the Frequency Kenneth?
Monster was such  cool thing to do, and this just edged Eyeliner for the noisiness

6. Sonic Youth – Touch Me I’m Sick
I really didn’t know which SY song to pick, but they are one of those bands that I drive just so that I can listen to a lot of their brand of wildness.

7. Spaceman 3 – Take Me To The Other Side
I loved Spacemen 3, and this is from Perfect Prescription which has to be their finest album. OK, I could have just put Velvet Underground on, but I like the repetition of this for motorway journeys.

8. The Waterboys – Medicine Bow
For a couple of years, (83 & 84) I don’t think anybody could touch these for their albums and concerts. Medicine Bow reminds me of stage diving for the only time of my life, and the utter relief of realising that I was actually going to get caught.

9. The Cult – Love Removal Machine
Another goth gone heavy tale of woe, but Electric I think truly rocked, even if it meant they’d lost the subtlety of Love. I can’t say I was oversure about the red indian outfits, mind, but he carried off his Jagger impersonation pretty well.

10. Faith No More – From Out of Nowhere
Not sure this fits, but it is one I always seem to end-up listening to in the car.

11. Wheatus – A Little Respect
Teenage americans sing erasure song with guitars. Recipe for a great song, maybe not, but somehow..

12. Blur – Song 2
Whhheeerrrr-hooo

13. Oasis – Cigarettes & Alcohol
Had to follow Blur of course, and from the only good album Oasis ever made. Stuff Wonderwall, Live Forever is their best song and my T-Rex addiction is well served by this story of love, light and poetry.

14. Hole – Violet
Is it just me that thinks that Hole were a million times better than Nirvana? Oh, yes, it does seem that way.

15. U2 – Discotheque
One of those examples of monkeys happening to type Shakespeare, but this is a wicked song.

16. The Stone Roses – Love Spreads
The end of the Stone Roses, but guitar to die for.

17. The Pogues – Streams of Whiskey
Difficult to drive to as your brake lights tend to give people who can’t cope with strobes fits, but a perfect end to a CD, I reckon.

Well, I’m counting backwards – feel free to ignore all this, but…here is the Glum one.

1. Cocteau Twins – Persephone
I can’t imagine Gloomy without the Cocteau Twins, so what better place to start. Persephone I first heard whilst waiting to be cut out of a Mark 2 Ford Escort, on I think Mark Radcliffe’s show. The song not the car, that was on Rowheath Road. Or it could have been the concussion and I was listening to Born to Run.

2. Elvis Presley – Are You Lonesome Tonight
Despite all the hip-jigging and crap films, this Elvis bloke actually knocked out a few decent songs, with this being a glumfilled favourite. One to file under the ‘where are they now’ category, which probably means Walsall.

3. Enya – A Moment Lost
I used to love Clannad at one point, and someone told me about their sister or cousin or something who did ethereal stuff too…so I went a looking, found Enya and gave up on my whale music and water-running addiction forever. Actually, I was going to put whale music on the singalonga disk, you dibbed out there, I forgot.

4. Kate Bush – The Man With the Child In His Eyes
Not sure if this is gloomy enough, but it’s a heartstringpulla, and close enough.

5. Kirsty MacColl – Quietly Alone
Again, maybe not gloomy as such, but as close as she got and I feel kinda gloomy listening to it now. Maybe dead popstars aligned to modes of transport is a future theme.

6. Leonard Cohen – I’m Your Man
Probably his most dramatic and orchestral album, but the king of student squalor was in fine form in the 80s after going missing for a decade. Just heard he’s on down the road as I type this. Bugger, should have braved the mud and latrines and gone to Glasto after all.

7. Neil Diamond – Love on The Rocks
I’d picked this before I noticed someone else has selected one of his songs. Clearly, this is the better choice. La la la

8. Pet Shop Boys – Rent
Sardonically gloomladen perhaps, but a wicked song.

9. Red Hot Chilli Peppers – Breaking The Girl
Think I might be moving away from gloomy as such, but there’s an undercurrent of regret, I feel that excuses my selection of a quite beautiful song. OK, I just like the guitar, I admit it.

10. The Streets – Dry Your Eyes
I remember travelling to see a famous poet when I first listened to this, and excitedly forcing the poor bloke into listening to it, telling him that this was the future of poetry and that books were dead, and young white brummie skinheads with Reeboks would in future fill the TS Eliot & Forward Prize lists. He looked at me a little strange and said ‘bollocks’.

11. T-Rex – Deborah
Don’t know why this makes me gloomy, but it always has.

12. Terry Hall – Our Lips Are Sealed
Leonard Cohen- Check. Cocteau Twins- Check. Terry Hall-Check. That must mean, next is…

13. This Mortal Coil – The Lacemaker
Did LeatherDyke have this already? Maybe, but still a beautiful song and one that gets played over and under.

14. Tindersticks – Sleepy Song
Ah, the only problem with picking a Tindersticks song is deciding on how deeply gloomy you really want to get. I’ve sort of gone for gentle yet middling on the glum scale.

15. U2 – An Cat Dubh
I really, really liked early U2 and this one from their first album probably caught them before the teen angst coagulated into bombast. A bit fragile and understated, who would ever have thought…

16. The The – Giant
Again, maybe not as gloomy as it could have been, but with an undercurrent.

17. The Smiths – Asleep
The full set on the checklist, and again the only problem is choosing. This is gentle and gloomy, rather than the harder edged kind of the debut album. Nice to finish on, methinks.

My other Singalonga CD was in fact the second. This, as it happens was the first, but due to a bit of iTunes shenaniganism (Authorising/Deauthorising blah blah blah) I couldn’t actually burn it, so I started again. Typically now I can, I have and there we are.

Sorry, too confusing. What I mean to say is that I’ve done two CDs and this is the other one.

1. B-52s – Rock Lobster
The ultimate opener, and one that taught the world to shake yer booty, before booty was invented

2. Transvision Vamp – Baby I Don’t Care
This selection seems to be rather poppy, which I think is a good thing for once. Better than the Primitives and more tuneful than Fuzzbox (just) TV were part of a delightful movement that never happened. Andy Warhol is dead. Guaranteed

3. Strawberry Switchblade – Since Yesterday
Not sure they ever had a hit after this, though the video to the cover of ‘Jolene’ has stayed with me. More pop, and once supported Howard Jones at the NEC. Why do I know that?

4. Stephen Tin Tin Duffy – Kiss Me With My Mouth
OK, he might not have the yachts, but the ex-Duran front man made much better songs. Lilac Time were excellent, but this is where he got known and who doesn’t hum along with the chorus..?

5. The Cardigans – Rise & Shine
Before they went MTV the Cardies were quirky and covered Black Sabbath songs. Knew a thing about a catchy tune too.

6. The Smiths – The Boy With The Thorn In His Side
Flowers up the arse time again..

7. Throwing Muses – Dizzy
Catchy catchy and catchy…needs to be well loud, but worth it.

8. Suede – The Drowners
Camp and cool and not at all Bowie-influenced, with one of the 90s best guitarists to boot. Actually, maybe this should be called wiggleyourarsealonga

9. Soft Cell – Bedsitter
Maybe not quite as singable, but I always preferred this to their more obvious hits, but there you go. One for the non-singers among us

10. The Bolshoi – Away
They should have been big in a low-key goth way, if you can imagine a goth-Pulp. Think you need to be able to do the hand dancing to truly pass it off though

11. Galaxie 500 – Blue Thunder
And this could be more of a shimmeralonga. I think I put one of their songs on the first CD (oh, so very long ago) but this was probably more representative. Split up far too early and did shonky things afterwards, but good one for a Friday nite when you haven’t pulled and are trying to blot out the nightbus sounds and forget that maybe you shouldn’t really be singing at all as the geezers in suits will no doubt object and stomp on your head.

12. Spear of Destiny – Never Take Me Alive
Maybe not wise to go for a neo-Nazi image, and the singer was meant to be Boy George’s love interest. Not the best recommendation either way, but a pretty wicked song in a dramatic yet not-Bryan-Adams kind of way.

13. The Pogues – A Pair of Brown Eyes
Perhaps the best drinking song ever

14. Bob Dylan – Subterranean Homesick Blues
Now would REM have ever sang about the end of the world if Bobby boy hadn’t come up with this first? Actually, I haven’t got a clue, but a great song and the video has handrolic subtitles.

15. The Cult – She Sells Sanctuary
This one is a great one to sing as you don’t have to know any of the words, and instead just drop in a few animal-caught-in-a-trap impressions

16. The Alarm – Spirit of ‘76
Not at all self-occupied, the Alarm did a couple of great anthems before they decided they wanted to be U2. Both had numbers in the title. Now if that isn’t a conspiracy theory waiting to be typed, I don’t know what is.

01 – Nina Simone – Feeling Good

02 – Michelle Shocked - When I Grow Up

03 – Vangelis – One More Kiss Dear

04 – Marvin Gaye – I heard It Through The Grapevine

05 – Because Of You – Tim Buckley

06 – Michelle Shocked – Over The Waterfall

07 – Paul Simon – The Boy In The Bubble

08 – The Bed’s Too Big Without You

09 – Nick Cave – Where the Wild Roses Grow

10 – tom Waits - Blue Valentines

11 – Michelle Shocked – Blackberry Blossom

12 – Kate Bush – Babooshka

13 – Peter Gabriel – Solsbury Hill

Not being much of a singer, for a few of these the actual singing might be restricted to the odd word I can remember, or more likely trying to recreate a guitar sounds or somebody going la-la-la in the background. But each to their own.

The songs do all have one thing in common – I’ve been making loud noises in vague harmony with all of them as I sat at the traffic lights in Clevedon, with the window open. Always busy with pedestrians those traffic lights. In fact I think they have gatherings now whenever they know I’ll be there. There must be a Facebook group, maybe possibly.

Anyway…

1. Isaac Hayes – Theme From Shaft:

My singing to this one is restricted to ‘Whats happening Shaft?’ and ‘He’s a bad mother’, ‘Watch your mouth’

2. Bad Company – Feel Like Making Love:

To this one I tend to just bounce my head a bit and do the ‘doo-doo doo-doo, feel like making love’ bit, with a crescendo at ‘feel like making love to yooooou’.

It isn’t pretty, but I’m a dad now so figure I can get away with such things.

3. Please Don’t Touch – Motorhead & Girlschool

I always thought that Girlschool were a proto-L7, a kind of not-so-acceptable-to-your-parents Suzi Quatro. My singing on this one is limited to the part I can’t remember, which is the couplet about cheap motel and Eskimo Nell.

4. Beverley Knight – Come as you are

Not someone I particularly like, as whilst she has the voice she never seems to have the songs. This one however, I can sing the whole way thru, and have at times forgotten I’m wearing headfones pushing a pram into school. Not for the faint of heart.

5. The Smiths – Shoplifters of The World Unite and Take Over

Truly great song that I know most of the words too and can do aeroplane impressions with my shirt hanging out. Not whilst driving though, as you tend to knock the interior mirror.

6. Blow Monkeys – Digging You Scene

I never really liked these at the time, but this song has grown on me over the last couple of decades and I can sing with a lisp, and pronounce ‘bay-hi-bee’ correctly, 4 or 5 times out of ten.

7. Placebo – The Bitter End

I really shouldn’t play this one whilst driving, as I get a knot in my chest and hyperventilate. Not sure why.

8. Charlotte Church – Crazy Chick

This, I can’t understand particularly liking, but I do and comfort myself with the fact that at least it isn’t Kylie. Obviously the chorus I harmonise.

9. Counting Crows – Mr Jones

Another band that actually bore me a lot of the time, but this is a classic and includes a la-la-la.

10. Dionne Warwick – Walk on By

I tend to do the little staccato crunchy sound on this one

11. E&TBM – Do It Clean

The song that the Mighty Lemon Drops turned into a minor career, and I keep going back to.

12. Eddie Cochran – C’Mon Everybody

I grew up being told that Cochran was better than Elvis, and in a way I think he was a bit more ‘For Real’. I’ve always thought that his Three Stars, if released as a poem, would have changed history and ‘the kids’ would have turned their backs on rock and roll and spent their times writing Haiku in coffee bars ever since. Which would have probably meant that Simon Armitage would be headlining Wembley, and Seamus Heaney would be still trying to get over Marianne Faithful, and this Record club would involve retyping from Faber manuals. Its the little things.

13. Housemartins – Happy Hour

Four dorks from Hull bouncing around like eegits. Good singalong stuff though, and with a nice political underbelly..la la la

14. Jimi Hendrix – All Along The Watchtower

Bob Dylan lyrics, with the added bonus of a bit of sad-dad air guitar too. Can’t beat it.

15. Leonard Cohen – Famous Blue Raincoat

More a maudlin Friday night/Saturday morning in your cups singalong than most of the rest, but I think laffin’ Len’s finest ever song. Oranges or no oranges.

16. The Osmonds – Crazy Horses

The first pop/rock record I ever wanted when it first came out, but my Mom wouldn’t buy it me. Think I was about four. Which was a killer as my cousin had Puppy Love which I hated but got stuck with listening to every saturday afternoon. Clearly it is the ‘waaaaahhhh wwwaaaahhhh’ that I try my best to join in with.

17. Sinead O’Connor – Drink Before The War

This closely follows Famous Blue Raincoat on a ‘am I pissed enough to cry’ evening, and you have to be in a certain mindset to replicate the howling.

18. Stray Cats – Runnaway Boys

It could have been any of their songs really, love them all.

19. T-Rex – Children of the Revolution

Slightly worried about my addiction to singers who shouldn’t mix cars and trees, but again, Bolan was good in patches, but this is majestic

20. Talking Heads – Psycho Killer

Another one you can singalong to even if you don’t know the words, with the added bonus that you can sound as though you can speak French too. I travelled europe singing this song for a while which was made easier by the fact that nobody wants to talk to you.

21. Sly & The Family Stone – Dance to the music

And who wouldn’t want to.

1 Fields Of Fire Big Country
As you know, I am a big Big Country fan and sing along to all their songs so this is really a representative example (when I say ’sing along’ I actually mean I make roughly the same noises as they do when they sing as I can’t really make out more than about 75% of the lyrics). I should also add that I also imitate the instruments too.

2 Memphis In June Hoagy Carmichael
Fabulous voice, interesting chap, great name.

3 Clocks Coldplay
I’m sure there will be some anti-Coldplayists among you but to be honest I find some of their songs extremely singalongable.

4 Une Partie De Pétanque Darcelys
It’s the chorus I sing. I do try with the verse, but it’s not easy. You have a go…

5 Barbara Allen Andreas Scholl
Apologies to Ben for another Scholl entry but this is a belter. This would also go on my Songs I Sing In The Shower tape.

6 Don’t You (Forget About Me) Simple Minds
At school I couldn’t stand Simple Minds but in the intervening years I have started to play them increasingly frequently, especially in the car. A great jump up and downer this one which also reminds me of the time I used to go dancing, many decades ago.

7 Panic The Smiths
I particularly enjoy mangling ‘provincial towns’ at the same time as Steven

8 Depende Jarabe De Palo
I’ve sung this so much that it’s entered our household conversation now when we’re having a discussion about something (‘depende’ means ‘it depends’). It was also the first song in Spanish I learnt to sing along to so has happy memories for me.

9 Velocity Girl Primal Scream
Another blast from the NME86 past. This was when Primal Scream were properly indie. I remember singing this in a park after my A levels on a very sunny day.

10 Linger The Cranberries
I get to practise my rotten Irish accent with this which is always pleasing.

11 Bend And Break Keane
cf Coldplay above

12 Under The Greenwood Tree RTE Concert Orchestra
The second entry for my Shower tape. You will probably have to turn the volume up to hear it because it’s recorded very quietly for some reason. Music by William Walton, words by the other William, and no idea who the singer is. Isn’t that terrible? It doesn’t say on the liner notes and I can’t track it down on the interweb.

13 Lo Dudo Los Panchos
The acceptable face of mariachi. I first heard them on a tape while driving my brother-in-law back home after his wedding and have been singing them and their praises ever since.

14 I ‘m Putting All My Eggs In One Basket Fred Astaire

Again, I could have picked pretty much any Astaire. I was brought up in a time bubble by my parents (my father things civilisation ended in 1947, maybe 1951, but basically in 1947) and so most of my early years were spent watching Fred Astaire films and listening to Fred Astaire LPs. It’s in the blood now.

15 Goodnight Sweetheart Dean Martin
If I could choose to be any person, it would be Deano. I certainly sing like him.

CD going out today.

I can’t find my George Formby CDs for some reason and this would certainly have been on it so while you’re waiting for my CD to turn up here’s a taster. Are these not the finest lyrics you’ve ever heard?

“Take Lord Nelson with one limb
Lady William Hamilton, she fell for him
With one eye and one arm gone west
She ran like the devil and she grabbed the rest”

I’m looking forward to this month’s, and have just been enjoying Rachel’s CD. Not much time to type now, but here’s what to look out for from me.

That was lazy of me, wasn’t it? Hope you enjoy them, though…