pop music 🎵
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what was the last gig that you went to?
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it was one of the Gallagher brothers…but I can’t remember which one
Crucial Track for 20th May 2025 - "Hello" by Alaine
What’s a remix or cover you like more than the original?
There are a number of covers I could pick. Virtually any Elvis song, for example. Although I’ve heard many of the originals and liked them, I like Elvis' versions more…but because his versions are so familiar they often don’t feel like covers, especially given singer-songwriter-ing wasn’t as much of a thing at the time.
Instead I’ve picked a song from one of my favourite micro-genres - reggae covers.
This is the Adele song, not the Lionel Ritchie. Adele’s original is marvellous, but I listen to Alaine’s version more often
Crucial Tracks over the last week - Come From Away, The Stranglers, Abba, Joey Ramone, The Beermats, The Pogues, 23 Skidoo, Christy Moore, Barbara and Barry, The Undertones, The Isleys, and the wonderful Mary Saenz
These are the posts from my Crucial Tracks for the last few days.
16 May 2025 - A song from a genre you didn’t think you’d like - what changed?
“Welcome To the Rock” by Joel Hatch & ‘Come From Away’ Company
The genre is ‘musicals’. A lot of West End musical music, and the shows themselves have left me cold, to be honest.
I saw Come From Away a couple of years back, with family, and really enjoyed it. The story is interesting and works well as a couple of hours in a theatre. The songs are strong, and the folk-rock vibe is a kind of music I like.
More than that…it caught me at just the right time. A couple of bits chimed with stuff that had happened in my life
“Welcome To the Rock” by Joel Hatch & ‘Come From Away’ Company on Apple Music
15 May 2025 - What’s the last song you discovered and loved instantly?
“The Visitors” by ABBA
I must have heard this before, but I hadn’t taken any notice before seeing Abba Voyage last month.
I’ve since learnt that it’s about Soviet dissidents waiting for a ‘visit’ from the KGB/GRU. I live in Salisbury, England, which adds to the song’s resonance
The Salisbury Poisonings - BBC
“The Visitors” by ABBA on Apple Music
14 May 2025 - What’s a lyric that resonates deeply with you and why?
“And If You Should See Dave…” by The Stranglers
“It would be nice to say hello
This is where your solo would go”
The Stranglers were the first band I saw, at what is now the Southampton Mayflower. I’ve hardly listened to them since the 1970s -I’ll occasionally play Nice and Sleazy, or Duchess, or their version of Walk On By. This song is about the death of their keyboard player, Dave Greenhill. I don’t knowuch about Greenhill, but the lament for the loss of a friend is something we can all relate to, sadly.
“This is where your solo would go” encapsulates the absence
“And If You Should See Dave…” by The Stranglers on Apple Music
13 May 2025 - If your life were a movie, what would its theme song be?
“What a Wonderful World” by Joey Ramone
“What a Wonderful World” by Joey Ramone on Apple Music
12 May 2025 - How do you discover new music, and what’s the latest gem you’ve found?
“Henrietta Street” by The BeerMats
It’s a mixture of the streaming service, Shazam-ing stuff, music magazines (through Libby)…and very occasionally seeing bands. This is from a band who I saw last month, who were fab
“Henrietta Street” by The BeerMats on Apple Music
11 May 2025 - What is a song that feels like home to you?
“Blue Is the Colour” by Chelsea Football Club
This feels like home both because it was the first record I had when I was a kid, and because I hear it at Home Games
“Blue Is the Colour” by Chelsea Football Club on Apple Music
10 May 2025 - What’s the first song you’d play at a party?
“Could You Be Loved” by Bob Marley & The Wailers
“Could You Be Loved” by Bob Marley & The Wailers on Apple Music
09 May 2025 - What song do you associate with the current season?
“Here Comes the Summer” by The Undertones
“Here Comes the Summer” by The Undertones on Apple Music
08 May 2025 - What’s your favorite love song, and why?
“A Rainy Night In Soho” by The Pogues
We used to go to see the Pogues in the ’80s, and it was lovely to go again last weekend, after 30-odd years, with our eldest
“A Rainy Night In Soho” by The Pogues on Apple Music
07 May 2025 - What’s a hidden gem or underrated song you love?
“Would She Do That for You” by Mary Saenz
“Would She Do That for You” by Mary Saenz on Apple Music
06 May 2025 - What’s a guilty pleasure song?
“Guilty (Duet With Barry Gibb)” by Barbra Streisand
“Guilty (Duet With Barry Gibb)” by Barbra Streisand on Apple Music
05 May 2025 - What’s a song you’ve had on repeat recently?
“(You Gotta Walk) Don’t Look Back” by Peter Tosh & Mick Jagger
"(You Gotta Walk) Don’t Look Back" by Peter Tosh & Mick Jagger on Apple Music
04 May 2025 - What’s a song that helps you focus or concentrate?
“Kundalini” by 23 Skidoo
“Kundalini” by 23 Skidoo on Apple Music
03 May 2025 - What’s your favorite collaboration between artists?
“Miniskirt Blues (feat. Iggy Pop)” by The Cramps
In all honesty my favourite is probably the Pogues' Fairy Tale, but it’s not December yet
“Miniskirt Blues (feat. Iggy Pop)” by The Cramps on Apple Music
02 May 2025 - Which song would you use to introduce yourself to someone new?
“Ordinary Man” by Christy Moore
“I’m an Ordinary Man, nothing special nothing grand”…. although I have seen Christy Moore a zillion times
“Ordinary Man” by Christy Moore on Apple Music
01 May 2025 - A song that tells a story
“Camouflage” by Stan Ridgway
Possibly the last I a series of hit songs with a spooky ending such as Johnny Remember Mr, Big Bad John and, obviously, Ernie
“Camouflage” by Stan Ridgway on Apple Music
30 April 2025 - What song always cheers you up?
“Train In Vain (Stand By Me)” by The Clash
Not necessarily my favourite Clash song but it always puts a spring in my step
“Train In Vain (Stand By Me)” by The Clash on Apple Music
29 April 2025 - A current mood
“Summer Breeze” by The Isley Brothers
It’s unseasonably warm in The Shire today
I found this today.
We missed our connection on the way home and had to get a taxi home from Basingstoke
Crucial Track for 07 May 2025 - “What’s a hidden gem or underrated song you love?"
“Would She Do That for You” by Mary Saenz
“Their eccentric sound at times was almost like if Blur’s Parklife was being played by (very talented) pirates.”
I love this description of Stick in the Wheel by Isobel O’Mahony
"I would love to have been in Memphis at the time of Elvis, or in Liverpool at the time of the Beatles...but I was young and in London during the heyday of the Pogues and that's more than enough musical good luck for one lifetime"
I wrote that, or something like it, while waxing nostalgic during one of the covid lockdowns.
I think I’m luckier still to have gone back to Brixton Academy to see the Pogues again at the weekend, with my daughter and my partner.
Of course it was different without Shane, but it was still a great show. Some bits worked better than others, but that was always the way with the Pogues.
God bless them.
Really enjoyed 24 Hour Party People. It would be nice to think that some of it is true….although it’s obviously a bit sad in parts.
Also enjoyed reading Paul Morley’s bit about the film in the Guardian
Malcolm Tucker on the Cramps
Our influences were Bowie, Talking Heads and the Cramps, who were like a voodoo-swamp version of the Munsters
Podcast episodes I enjoyed in March - Pat Nevin, the Irishness of Kate Bush, Nazi sterilizations, Mike Leigh, Nicholas Parsons, Naomi Klein, ice cream, the Taj Mahal, Boy George, Oliver Cromwell, and Lenny Henry's influence on Theresa May and Caitli
Word In Your Ear - Pat Nevin - “Pat Nevin has musical memories even better than scoring a diving header against Arsenal”….a sentence that could keep Socrates, Plato, and every phone-in host on every radio station busy for years
BBC Witness History - Nazi Eugenics - horrific, tragic and weirdly banal. A tough listen. “In July 1933, Adolf Hitler passed a law requiring the sterilisation of Germans with physical and mental disabilities. Helga Gross was one of those sterilised.”
Word in your ear - Nick Duerden’s talked to 50 pop stars about life when the big time’s behind you - Eddie Tenpole-Tudor (of the Swords of a Thousand Men, and Who Killed Bambi) got down to a shortlist of two for the Richard E. Grant role in Withnail and I
Give Kate Bush back to the Irish - Kate Bush is judged to score 9.5 on the Irish-o-meter
This Cultural Life - Mike Leigh - on the night of the second or third repeating of Abigails Party, the weather was dreadful, a strike had taken out ITV, and BBC2 was showing something ‘very esoteric’. 16 million people therefore watched Mike Leigh’s show
BBC - Political Thinking with Nick Robinson - The Theresa May One - the former PM relates how hearing Lenny Henry changed her mind about the Windrush scandal. Henry was giving a speech at a memorial for Stephen Lawrence and he said that the Windrush people had to produce four pieces of documentation for every year they had been in the UK
BBC - This Cultural Life - Caitlin Moran - aged 13, Caitlin Moran somewhat optimisitically applied for the job of Managing Director of Comic Relief. Lenny Henry replied “You wouldn’t want to be MD of Comic Relief, it’s really boring, but I’m sure you will fly like a comet through British society’’”. Moran says she lost the letter but knows it off by heart
Hancocks Half Hour - The Blood Donor - perfect, in my opinion
That Reminds Me - Nicholas Parsons - originally the host of Just A Minute was going to be Jimmy Edwards, but he was unavailable when the pilot was recorded
WTF with Marc Maron - Naomi Klein - “conspiracy culture often seems like it’s anti-establishment…its a gift to the establishment”
BBC Radio 4 - Archive on 4 - Scoop - Mr Whippy ice cream was based on the American Mr Softy. Mrs Thatcher didn’t invent either
This Cultural Life - Jarvis Cocker - Jarvis Cocker says that the lady in Common People is not the wife of the Greek Finance Minister
Linda Smith’s A Brief History of Timewasting - I’ve only heard one of these but it was very funny. There was a great line from Margaret John (Doris from Gavin and Stacey) to the effect that if life was a Countdown puzzle then she’s in the bibbedy-bibby-boo bit rather than the boom-diddy-boom bit. Or words to that effect.
Cardew ‘The Cad’ Robinson? Comedy’s great lost heroes remembered by Robert Ross - The Word in your Ear podcast - lovely chat about old semi-forgotten comedians, like Roy Jay, the “Spook Spook Slither Hither” chap. The podcast / book needs to be a multi-part BBC4 series
EP99: Yoon Suk Yeol–The Hated and the Dead - South Korean presidents can only serve one term. Not having any prospect of re-election seems to be a bad thing
Dave Rimmer’s classic Culture Club book is republished. Boy George hated it “as it was all true” - Word in Your Ear - Culture Club split their songwriting royalties equally, like U2 and REM
History Extra - Great Reputations - Oliver Cromwell - Oliver Cromwell’s was voted the 10th ever Greatest Briton in a poll in 2002. I guess ‘great’ doesn’t necessarily mean ‘good’?
A short history of the Taj Mahal - the poet Rabindranath Tagore described the Taj as ‘a teardrop on the cheek of time’
I love pop music and I love Chelsea (Pat was a great Chelsea player in the ’80s)
The sentence below will keep me awake at nights
I very much like the cover of the upcoming Kate Rusby LP…but does it look a bit like it’s going to be another Christmas record?
Happy 'Boys from the County Hell's day to all those celebrating it today
On the first day of March it was raining
It was raining worse than anything that I have ever seen
I drank ten pints of beer and I cursed all the people there
I wish that all this rain would stop falling down on me
And it’s lend me ten pounds, I’ll buy you a drink
And mother wake me early in the morning
The Pogues (or possibly Pogue Mahone when this originally came out, I don’t remember) - The Boys from the County Hell
#TodayILearned that 'Bouncing Babies' by the Teardrop Explodes has been streamed 516,716 times, but 'I can't get Bouncing Babies by the Teardrop Explodes' by The Freshies has only been streamed 24,393 times
<img src=“https://cdn.uploads.micro.blog/139254/2025/16772316772303-3.jpg" width=“300” height=“300” alt=“A vinyl record label featuring the text “bouncing babies” and “The Teardrop Explodes” with a yellow triangle design.">
In honour of it being 80 years since the birth of Bob Marley, this is a bit of an obscurity, but it’s one of my favourites.
Bus dem shut (pyaka) - Bob Marley and the Wailers
#TodayILearned that Lily the Pink is actually Lydia E.Pinkham’s Vegetable Compound
#TodayILearned that the Bad Sisters theme is a Leonard Cohen song
I was intrigued by the name of this LP - ‘Live at Basins Nightclub’. Most nightclubs of the time had glamorous sounding names - locally for example we had Oscars, Concordes and the Grange
I can’t imagine why anyone decided to call a nightclub ‘Basins’…but apparently it was in Porstsmouth.
It’s a great record, but as with most live albums, I’d probably advise beginners to listen to a straight Greatest Hits first
I wonder if any of Bob Dylan’s LP’s have ever been advertised on a poster this big? In Andover?
There was a very ‘Radio 4’ exchange on the radio just now