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
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the detail about the Broad Majestic Shannon from Shane’s sister
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Bob Geldof initially dismissing the Pogues as “paddy-whackery”
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the bloke from the Wire on The Body of An American
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
Me vs. Rolling Stone magazine
My thoughts on the top 20 songs from Rolling Stone’s 500 Greatest Songs of All Time. These thoughts clearly say more about me and my taste in music than they do about the songs themselves…but I thought it was fun
20th. Robyn: “Dancing on My Own” ⭐⭐⭐⭐ I’m a sucker for a sad banger
19th. John Lennon: “Imagine” ⭐⭐⭐ I like the simplicity, but, contrariwise, I’m a bit bored with it
18th. Prince and the Revolution: “Purple Rain” ⭐⭐⭐ The only act in Rolling Stone’s top 20 that I’ve seen live, but there are a dozen Prince songs I like better
17th. Queen: “Bohemian Rhapsody” Dreadful drivel.
16th. Beyoncé feat. Jay-Z: “Crazy in Love” ⭐⭐ Resistance is futile
15th. The Beatles: “I Want to Hold Your Hand” ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ The best at their best
14th. The Kinks: “Waterloo Sunset” ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ The other best at their best…although to be honest his voice often doesn’t work for me, for some reason
13th. The Rolling Stones: “Gimme Shelter” ⭐ Every 10 years they came up with a song that I’ve loved. Gimme Shelter isn’t one of them.
12th. Stevie Wonder: “Superstition” ⭐⭐⭐ I’d like to like Stevie Wonder more than I do, but as with Ray Davies, I don’t quite get on with his singing voice
11th. The Beach Boys: “God Only Knows” ⭐⭐⭐⭐ A work of genius, but it came on the radio when someone close to me was seriously ill. I’ve not been able to listen to it since
10th. Outkast: “Hey Ya!" ⭐ I can sort of see why people like this…but I don’t. Maybe it’s too tricky for my simple taste.
9th. Fleetwood Mac: “Dreams” ⭐ Pleasant enough
8th. Missy Elliott: “Get Ur Freak On” ⭐⭐ I prefer Work It
7th. The Beatles: “Strawberry Fields Forever” ⭐⭐⭐⭐ Cleverer than I Want To Hold Your Hand, but not quite as good
6th. Marvin Gaye: “What’s Going On” ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ All the stars aligned, magically
5th. Nirvana: “Smells Like Teen Spirit” ⭐ A bit heavy for me….and a pale imitation of punk rock
4th. Bob Dylan: “Like a Rolling Stone” ⭐⭐ I am not a big Dylan fan, but I like the Greatest Hits
3rd. Sam Cooke: “A Change Is Gonna Come” ⭐⭐ I am a big Sam Cooke fan…but this isn’t my favourite. I think this polls well with critics because they are endorsing the message as much as the song
2nd. Public Enemy: “Fight the Power” ⭐⭐⭐ Loses one star for slagging off Elvis,
1st. Aretha Franklin: “Respect” ⭐⭐ It goes without saying, this is a great song, but it’s not as good as I Say a Little Prayer.
Further to the above….if I’d done a list of 500 All Time Best Songs there would be folk, and reggae, and Elvis, Eddie, Buddy, Chuck, and Smokey in the top 20. I think.
I think the psephology of it is, in at least some cases, that some of my favourite artists had a lot of songs to choose from, whereas, say, Queen has one obvious choice, Aretha has two, Nirvana has one, and the Kinks have one.
Want to read: Season of the Witch: The Book of Goth by Cathi Unsworth 📚
I listened to this podcast in which the author spoke to Mark Ellen and David Hepworth, and the book sounds interesting
The book combines a history of goth with personal memoir, and stuff about the 1980s generally. Unsworth says there was a good queen, Siouxsie Sioux, and a bad queen, Margaret Thatcher
I never saw Goth as being that political tbh, but I’ll be interested to read about it in more detail
Also, Unsworth nominates the Sisters of Mercy single with Alice on one side, and Floorshow on the other as being the Greatest Ever Goth Record….which is, as far as I am concerned, the correct answer 😃
The two best songs which start with the same two words, imho
Goin' back - Dusty Springfield
Going back to my roots - Odyssey
I read in this month’s Record Collector magazine that:
[David Essex’s] performance of Che Guevara in Evita led to a personal invitation from Fidel Castro to meet in Cuba.
It seems odd that Fidel would want to meet someone mainly because they’d played the part of his comrade on stage
Melvyn Bragg once perceptively said that the 1970s McCartney had made a “magnificent attempt to be seen as, and to behave as, a very ordinary young English man” to hide the fact that “he was a most extraordinary young English man”.
Annual-ish post / toot / tweet / skeet….
Please could you all continuosly stream my daughter’s version of Blue Christmas from now until Boxing Day
That would be grand
Thanks in advance
Blue Christmas - Bethany Eve on Spotify
Spotify tells me that I’m in the top 0.2% of listeners to Elvis
….so the year hasn’t been entirely wasted
I’ve never seen Back to the Future.
I only realised today, when I saw this poster, that the name of the band ‘McFly’ is a Back to the Future reference
Lovely BBC radio doc about Shane Macgowan, with his wife, and his sister, and Nick Cave, and Bono, and Geldof, and Uncle Tom Cobbleigh and all
I particularly enjoyed
BBC - Archive on 4 - Shane Macgowan - The Old Main Drag
in honour of the season
Love and cannibalism in the Yorkshire Dales
I’ve never thought much about the folk song ‘Ilkley Moor Baht ‘at’ before Paul Sinha mentioned it on his radio show.
I think the only bit in the words below that really needs explanation is ‘baht at’ means ‘without a hat’ ….but there is a full translation on Wikipedia
ON ILKLEY MOOR BAHT ‘AT
Wheear ‘as ta bin sin ah saw thee,
On Ilkla Moor baht ‘at?!
Tha’s been a cooartin’ Mary Jane|
Tha’s bahn t’catch thi deeath o’cowd
Then we shall ha’ to bury thee
Then t’worms ’ll cum and eat thee oop
Then ducks ’ll cum and eat oop t’worms
Then we shall go an’ ate oop ducks
Then we shall all ‘ave etten thee
That’s wheer we get us oahn back
Lauren Laverne is the host of the Radio 4 show Desert Island Discs.
She used to be in a band, called Kenickie
I’m kind of sad that, so far, nobody has ever picked a Kenickie song as one of their eight discs
<img src=“uploads/2024/s-l400.jpg” width=“392” height=“400” alt=“Four illustrated people are driving a car on an album cover with the title “Kenickie In Your Car."">
Nick Hayward, of Haircut 100, recounts how shocked he was seeing Sparks wandering around his home town - Beckenham.
There is something particularly arresting about seeing someone famous, not on stage and not in London, but just mooching about the place in which you grew up
These are the only two famous people I’ve seen walking around Salisbury, and, coincidentally, I’m a huge fan of both
Nick Heyward reboots ‘the fragrance of rock’ - Word in Your Ear
Some music-related AI pub signs
Oasis:
The Pogues:
The fifth Beatle:
The Waterloo Sunset:
A friend has met Paul McCartney a couple of times
I thought about what I’d say if I ever met him.
I came to the conclusion that I’d ask him what his favourite Elvis song was
I dreamt last night that I met Sir Paul in a cafe. I’m a bit disgruntled that in my dream I neglected to ask the question
“1000 copies were pressed (which sell for £1000 upwards)”
I sold my copy for £25…although to be fair I was glad of it at the time
I asked Alexa to play the Sisters of Mercy this morning (yes….I’m an aged Goth, I guess), and got this
I quite like it, tbh
I’m pleased for fans of Oasis, but it’s triggered a form of Fear of Missing Out
They’ve reminded me that I’m never going to have the excitement of seeing any of my favourite bands reform.
Not in this life anyway 🎵
