Stories in Song # 5 Squeeze

 

Squeeze are masters at this. They chronicle London and what it feels like to live there better than any band I can think of except perhaps for The Kinks. The Who, The Clash, The Jam and The Pistols all have their moments in this respect but none of them get the ordinary and give it a kind of weary grandeur like these two do. Inner city sadness. From the East Side Story album.

 

'She left her school for the factory
From pocket money to a salary,
From a pac-a-mac to a compact case
And every morning she inspects her face.
She discovers pulling pints in pubs
That the good looks will never cover up for
Her dumbness in taking the stock
Sees her reflection in a butcher's shop.
She finds it all quite rare
That her meat's all vanity fair.

She has her eyes on medallion men
Who get her home on the dot at ten,
She combs her hair when she gets excused
The deal she wants always ends up screwed.
Paints her nails on the bathroom scales
Gargles her breath like a landed whale,
Her beauty is as deep as her skin
Keeps her eyebrows in a tobacco tin.
She poses foot on the chair
Coconut shy but vanity fair.

In her vanity case her compact case
In her compact case her eyes,
Not bad for a sister
But her vanity's fair and her sense of humour's dry.
She comes home late with another screw loose
She swears to have had just a pineapple juice,
Falls asleep fully clothed in her bed
With her makeup remover by her head.
And she might not be all there
But her dream's all vanity fair.'

Songwriters: Difford, Christopher / Tilbrook, Glenn

Vanity Fair lyrics © EMI Music Publishing

Roddy Frame of Aztec Camera on the Tube, Early 1980s

James Garner

 

So this is a music blog. But hey, James Garner has died. And this is a great tune.

20th July 1956 - Paul Cook

 

Paul Cook's birthday. I've shaken this man's hand.

 

 

American States # 21 Mississippi - Nina Simone

 

'Alabama's got me so upset. Tennessee makes me lose my rest. And everybody knows about, Mississippi goddam.'

Booker T

 

Booker T is in town today, at the Newcastle Sage Americana Festival. Sadly not with all the original MGs. One of the truly great bands.

 

 

Songs About People # 35 Genghis Khan - Nico

 

This series takes me to all kinds of wonderful things. Like this,

 

'I have come to lie with you
I have come to die with you

On your padded shoulder
And your golden chest
In a wilderness of glass we rest

And all the flowers they are our words
And my chances follow dances
Into a storm afraid

A sweet and bitter rest he gets
A sweet and bitter rest he gets

I have come to lie with you
I have come to die with you '

 

Nico

 

 

Song of the Day # 183 The Walking Who

 

Yet another wonderful sounding new Australian band. This time from Sydney.

Stories in Song # 4 The Go Betweens

 

Haven't been to this spurious series for a while. I put this on my headphones on Friday morning and it took me to a place. I posted the song on Facebook and one friend commented that it was like a Carver short story. Another said that The Go Betweens were like a fine wine that continued to mature. They were both right. It's incredibly evocative and Grant McClennan was an enormous talent. I don't like all his songs but when he got it right there was no-one better.

 

'A white moon appears
Like a hole in the sky,
The mangroves go quiet.
In la Brisa de la Palma
A teenage Rasputin
Takes the sting from a gin,

When a woman learns to walk
She's not dependent anymore
A line front her letter May twenty-four
And out on the bay
The current is strong
A boat can go lost.

But I didn't know someone
Could be so lonesome
Didn't know a heart
Could be tied up
And held for ransom.
Until you take your shoes
And go outside, stride over stride.
Walk to that tide because
The door is open wide.

Turned the fan off
And went for a walk
By the lights down on Shield Street.
The birds in the trees
Open their wings
He goes home again.

He dreams resistance,
They talk commitment,
Things change over long distance.
Took the shirt off his back
The eyes from his head
And left him for dead.

But I didn't know someone
Could be so lonesome
Didn't know a heart
Could be tied up
And held for ransom.
Until you take your shoes
And go outside, stride over stride,
Walk to that tide because
The door is open wide.

Little lies, they'll take your pride.
Until you take your shoes
And go outside, stride over stride,
Walk to that tide because
The door is open wide.
Stride over stride
Walk to that tide.
Bye bye pride.
Because the door is open wide.
The door is always open wide.
The door is always open wide.'

 

C McClennan

Henry Rollins on The Ramones

Henry Rollins always writes and speaks very eloquently. Here he is on The Ramones.

Henry Rollins: The Ramones Rescued Rock and Roll                              

             

Thu, Jul 17, 2014 at 3:15 AM

                                                        

                

Tommy Ramone passed away on July 11. He, Joey, Dee Dee and Johnny are all gone now. Losing the Ramones was a slow process, as prolonged as it was painful.

Sometimes, I would be in some ruined backstage area on a multimonth tour and feel strengthened knowing they were most likely out there somewhere, lighting up the place. I remember when I found out the band had retired. I was alone in a small room and it was like something had been removed from the world. I wondered if everything would be OK the next day.

A few years later, members of The Ramones started to die. They were too young to go, I thought. It was very tough. For many people, their records are close friends, the shows memorable nights of their lives. They met so many of their fans over the years, the loss was often extremely personal.

Just my personal opinion: The Ramones rescued and recharged rock & roll.

For countless young, pissed-off, alienated outsiders-for-life, The Ramones spoke the language of missed dances, bad dates and no friends. They were a perfect concept, like Devo; all the brilliance without the studied self-awareness.

The cover of their first album, the classic Roberta Bayley image, is a study in cool, unease and insolence. It is one of the greatest band lineup shots ever and looks exactly like the record sounds.

The Ramones are the lesson on how to do it. They worked tirelessly on the road and in the studio. They were great and they knew it. The challenge was bringing the world up to speed.

If you want to hear a band damn near kill their audience, check out The Ramones' in-concert epic, It’s Alive. They are almost sadistic in how they tear through the songs, seemingly bashing them senseless to get to the next one, as if each song will never be played again and must be given proper trajectory into the stratosphere. They truly achieve something that is bigger than the four of them.

If you never had the chance to stand in front of this band, I dare say you missed out on something truly spectacular. I will never forget the first time I saw them. When they walked onstage and, within 10 seconds, started playing, I thought I was going to explode. The show was the very definition of how powerful true rock music is. I couldn’t understand how they could keep going. It was as full-on a live experience as I have ever had and almost ruined me for going to other shows.

There is something you will notice, if you listen closely to the first three studio albums — Ramones, Leave Home, Rocket to Russia — and the aforementioned live album: The band is evolving. Not becoming softer or hollowed out, but refining and sharpening their attack. This is not only one of the most bomb-proof live bands of all time, they were writing truly excellent, memorable songs. Some, in a smarter, better world, are top-of-chart singles. 

 

Besides Dee Dee’s songwriting going from great to amazing, Joey becoming a singular voice and Johnny’s tone and playing remaining absolutely peerless, check out Tommy. No matter what tempo they play at, he’s pushing the whole band forward from far back and way deep in the pocket, deftly putting the entire weight and velocity of the band right in your face, perfectly setting up Johnny’s razor-fisted, totally insane, all downstroke, sheet-steel chords. It is like getting cut to ribbons and smashed to pieces at the same time.

Watch live videos online, like the 1977 Rainbow show in England. Tommy’s right hand is beyond belief. Also, watch Johnny’s face, his eyes burning slits, teeth clenched. He’s so fuckin’ mad at the world and he’s going to tear it to pieces with his Mosrite guitar.

The Ramones were a band that, in my opinion, didn’t get enough credit for their musicianship and songwriting. Their stripped-down, almost purist approach showed how bloated and unnecessary rock music had become. They were the perfect reset.

Every several years, there is an almost Darwinian, utilitarian culling of the herd in the rock genre. Sadly, the bands that get taken out at the watering hole in the Serengeti of prevailing taste are not guilty of anything more than adulthood. They’re kind of screwed no matter what they do. When they strive to put more colors on the palette, they get ripped for losing their edge. When they try to remain in a state of arrested development, clinging to that brief period of time when they were the same age as their audience, they look ridiculous and ancient.

I almost felt bad for all the hair bands getting disemboweled in the early 90s. They seemed to be having so much fun. Getting all the chicks, the sunsetting Reagan-era liquidity. Remember how some of them got haircuts in an attempt to stay alive for one more album cycle? They never knew what hit them, and by the time they realized it was over, it had been for months. It was as if the entire world had changed and no one had told them.

One of the many great gifts of the better examples of music is that, while the recording is locked in the past, the listener can be completely free of concern as to age/time/place when the record plays. The music truly does live forever.

No matter what, from now until the end of your life, Ramones songs will never lose speed. They will always be as exciting as when you first heard them. As the years go on, it becomes more and more clear: The Ramones are one of the greatest bands ever.

Whenever I see a young person in a Ramones T-shirt, it is total vindication. They defined their territory so completely that nothing will ever be able to flip the script. The Ramones are legends. Giants. LAMF.

19th July 1975 Bruce Springsteen

 

Springsteen and the E Street Band rehearse for 19 hours at the Record Plant in New York City the day before the Born to Run Tour kicked off.

Songs About People - # 34 Bob Dylan - The Minutemen

 

There are plenty of songs about Bob Dylan. Quite rightly. Here's one of the more unusual ones.

 

 

Song of the Day # 182 Split Enz

 

Two for the price of one. Sometimes you get to the end of weeks you think will never end. Given that we spend so much of our lives at work there are comparatively few songs about it. Here's one. My thoughts are very much in Australia and New Zealand and all the great music both have produced and are continuing to do so. One of my first bought records was by Split Enz, Time & Tide. It's a nice little album. I'll post something from it to act as contrast to the working grind.

 

 

This song also suddenly made me think of the two Newcastle. United fans shot down in the Malaysian airlines plane over the Ukraine on their way to support their team in a friendly competition in New Zealand where Split Enz hail from.

18th July 1966 - Bobby Fuller

 

Bobby Fuller died this day in 1966. One of the great unexplained deaths of Rock and Roll. Rumoured to be a Mafia killing. Surely not a suicide as it was labelled on the police reports. A great talent!

Two Hundred Days Two Hundred Songs!

So here we go. Next hundred done and onto the next.

101. The Charlatans 
102. Magazine
103. Lush
104. The Stoney Poneys
105.The Allman Brothers
106. John Cale
107. Toni Harper
108. Tami Lynn
109. Althea & Donna
110. Bobby Womack
111. Japan
112. The Strangeloves
113. David Bowie
114. The Handsome Family
115. Echo & the Bunnymen
116. Grant Lee Buffalo
117. The Jim Carroll Band
118. Waylon Jennings
119. Carl Douglas
120. Otis Redding
121. Ben Harper
122. Strawberry Switchblade
123. Peter & the Pirates
124. Shoes
125. The Capitols
126. Dusty Springfield
127. Fats Domino
128. Buddy Holly & the Crickets
129. Josef K
130. The Feelies
131. The Heptones
132. Minnie Ripperton
133.The Go Betweens
134. France Gall
135. Loretta Lynn
136. Half Pint
137. Death in Vegas
138. Sunhouse
139. The Liminanas
140. The Organ
141. Gladys Knight & the Pips
142. Viv Albertine
143. The Ikettes
144. The Ronettes
145. The Fresh & Onlys
146. TV On The Radio
147.Grizzly Bear
148. The Jimi Hendrix Experience
149. 23 Skidoo
150. Nicodemus
151. Serge Gainsbourg
152. The Moles
153. Devo
154. The Go! Team
155.Kim Wilde
156. Brian Eno
157. The Langley Schools Music Project
158. The Cure
159. George Jones
160. The Gun Club
161. David Hemmings
162. Sugar Chile Robinson
163.John Phillips
164. October Country
165. Lloyd Cole & the Commotions
166. Francois & the Atlas Mountains
167. Dexys Midnight Runners
168. Andy Williams
169.Kraftwerk
170. Jackie Mittoo
171. Martha
172. The Chills
173 Richard Barrett
174. Mazes
175.Strawberry Alarm Clock
176. Bruce Springsteen
177. J.D. McPherson
178. Elliott Smith
179. Liz Phair
180. East Brunswick All Girls Choir
181. Future Islands
182. Split Enz
183. The Walking Who
184. Townes Van Zandt
185. Bill Callahan
186. The Mantles
187. Sam & Dave
188. Aztec Camera
189. Jimmy Scott
190. Reigning Sound
191. Sparks
192. Rosetta Hightower
193. Big Star
194. Crime
195. Johnny Cash
196. Moby Grape
197. Katty Line
198. Sinead O'Connor
199. Ultimate Painting
200. The Kinks

and the previous hundred

1. Andrew Oldham Orchestra
2. Dion & the Belmonts
3. Big Youth
4. The Left Banke
5. The Undisputed Truth
6. Ted Taylor
7. The Real Kids
8. U-Roy
9. The Regents
10. The Nits
11. The Velvet Underground
12. Jacques Dutronc
13. Aretha Franklin
14. The Lovin' Spoonful
15. The Shins
16. Carl Orff
17. Minutemen
18. Peggy Lee
19. The Chambers Brothers
20. The Thompson Twins
21. R.E.M
22. Louis Armstrong
23. Bugsy Malone Soundtrack
24. Dennis Brown
25. Charlie Rich
26. Roky Erikson
27. Richard Harris
28. Fleetwood Mac
29. Ricky Nelson
30. Linda Lewis
31. The Breeders
32. XTC
33. The Byrds
34. The Isley Brothers
35. The Swinging Blue Jeans
36. Al Green
37. Warren Zevon
38. Cal Tjaeder
39. Tim Hardin
40. The Creation
41. The High
42. Melvin Van Peebles
43. Yamasuki
44. Nina Simone
45. Cowboy Junkies
46. Black Blood
47. Ride
48. Friend & Lover
49. Chicory Tip
50. The Psychedelic Furs
51. Elvis Costello & the Attractions
52. Os Mutantes
53. Nico
54. The Paragons
55. Dmitri Shostakovich
56. The Au Pairs
57. The Sir Douglas Quintet
58. Gregory Porter
59. Pharell Williams
60. Television
61. Miriam Makeba
62. Billy Fury
63. It's a Beautiful Day
64. Simon & Garfunkul
65. C.W.Stoneking
66. Derek & the Dominos
67. Grace Jones
68. New Order
69. Ivan
70. Darrell Banks
71. Los Saicos
72. Dr. John
73. Dalek I Love You
74. The Mynah Birds
75. Bonny & Sheila
76. The Aristocats
77. The Flamin' Groovies
78. Broadcast
79. The Blue Orchids
80. Desmond Dekker
81. Love
82. The Rolling Stones
83. Guided By Voices
84. Parquet Courts
85. The Screaming Trees
86. Neil Young
87. Kate Le Bon
88. Patti Smith
89. The Black Lips
90. Mighty Hannibal
91. Nyuyorican Soul
92. Vernon Green & the Medallions
93. Cornershop
94. Dorothy Ashby
95. The City
96. The Smiths
97. Subway Sect
98. Deerhunter
99. Black Merda
100. Scott Walker

Song of the Day # 181 Future Islands

 

My friend Rod helped me find my way to this one. Thank you Rod! Cracking bass line.

The Panics - Wide Open Road

 

Like a Version is a segment on an Australian radio show where bands and artists take a shot at cover versions of songs they love. Here's a great cover of what is amongst my clutch of very favourite songs.

Songs About People # 33 John Coltrane & Billie Holliday

 

Seeing as it's a sad anniversary. The importance of music.

 

 

 

 

17th July 1959 & 1967 - Billie Holliday & John Coltrane

 

A momentous and really pretty sad day today. Two absolute giants died, eight years apart. He was 40. She was 43.

 

Song of the Day # 180 East Brunswick All Girls Choir

 

Every now and then you hear something you haven't heard before that stops you in the tracks. I heard this and The Loved Ones yesterday so that was a pretty good day. This lot are clearly not an all girls choir and may not be from East Brunswick. They are from Melbourne, have some kind of Courtney Barnett connection and I found my way to them through her recommendation as with The Loved Ones. I can't get a direct link but here is the song concerned. Wonderful video too of someone, (presumably the lead singer) tottering on a bar stool in front of a fire, with no shoes on, all the while precariously balancing and sometimes slugging from a large glass of wine. Intense, overwrought and just beautiful. Let's face it, the name East Brunswick All Girls Choir is just about enough in itself. They also have an album called 7 Drummers, named because apparently they get through a lot of drummers. It has a great looking sleeve.

Courtney Barnett

 

She's off to New Zealand!

Garage Discoveries # 9 - The Loved Ones

 

Wow! Just wow! Truly one of the great garage singles and surely where The Triffids and Nick Cave came from. Just heard this following a tip off from Courtney Barnett. Always listen to what that woman tells me to. Just a remarkable record. The group were named after the Evelyn Waugh novel, another point in their favour. This reached the Top 20 in Australia, their home country in 1967 and it has since been covered by Nick Cave, INXS, Ed Kuepper and probably every other Australian artist of note.

 

 

I'm off to investigate a bit more!

 

 

 

 

 

In case of fire...

16th July 1941 - Desmond Dekker

 

Born this day.

Things I've Found on My Local's Jukebox # 27 Urge Overkill

It's there! It's there! It will get played again. My vinyl copy of the album this comes from, Saturation, is a beautiful shade of orange.

'Come around to my way of thinkin'
Don't you want to, want to get along?
Everyday just like a vacation with you
When I'm watchin' you and Fidel Castro in the sand, kissin'!

Girl you got to roll
Sister Havana,
Overthrow
Sister Havana

She's comin on like a bicycle army
Everybody's waitin' for the man to come down from the tower
Every day is just like a vacation with you layin' right here now
I'm watchin you and Fidel Castro in the sand, assassin!

Girl you got to roll
Sister Havana,
Overthrow
Sister Havana
Sister Havana
Sister Havana
Sister Havana

Sister Havana

There's no time to lose
I don't care what they say
There's no time to lose
We could have a holiday
But there's no time for hesitation
(There's no time to lose)
There's no time, no time for waitin'
(There's no time to lose)
There's no time so let's take the time and get it on today
(There's no time to lose)

Girl you got to roll
Sister Havana
Overthrow,
Sister Havana
Sister Havana, Sister Havana
Sister Havana, Sister Havana
Sister Havana
Come around to my way of thinkin'
Come around to my way of thinkin'
Come around to my way of thinkin'
Come around Sister.'

Songs About People # 32 - Neal Cassady - Morrissey

 

This made my day when hearing it halfway through another commonplace nine to five behind a screen to slot alongside so many others. Morrissey sings about reputed main inspiration for both On the Road and One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest in second track off his new album. Another bizarre cry of individuality.

 

 

Song of the Day # 179 - Liz Phair

 

I feel that I should know Exile in Guyville. These intuitive, impulses generally end up in vinyl purchases.

15th July 1952 - Johnny Thunders

 

He should have been 62 today. Sadly, he was never going to make it so long.

Song of the Day # 178 - Elliott Smith

 

There are certain people you'll never forget hearing for the first time. For me I'd pick out Nick Drake, Gram Parsons, Big Star and Elliott Smith. With Elliott Smith, it was this album in my sister's small flat in Kew, late 90s. I was reminded of it last night as I was about to turn in. Gideon Coe, the always excellent late slot DJ on 6 for Music played something interesting by Iron & Wine who I've always thought I should listen to more closely. I tracked the song down on youtube and played it again with headphones on and it disappointed second time around, seemed over-produced, showy. It triggered something in me that I wanted to listen to Smith instead. Wasn't sure I had the CD but there it was. It's as scratched a CD as I own, I played it relentlessly for years after I got it. It led me to the rest of his work but this will always be the one for me. In fact the CD was so damaged that when I first put it on it jumped to the last track, then stopped. Some rudimentary repair work with paper towel and water got it to play. A very good album to go to sleep with as Smith's songs so much resemble the texture of dreams to me. In any case before going to bed I made a couple of clicks and now the vinyl version is heading its way to me. The poor CD can have a rest. It seems to need it. Elliott Smith, a tragic, but truly great artist.

 

 

 

 

Jim Osterberg

 

Little Johnny Jewel. He's so cool!

World Cup Chart 2014

 

The World Cup 2014 is over. I imagine the trophy is on its way back to Germany as we speak.I composed an odd chart where it goes back to front and the first song played ends up as Number 1. Lots of desperate, stretched gags.Two Nick Lowe songs. And a big Germanic presence. Fittingly. Including the hallowed Number Twenty Six spot.

1. R.E.M
2. The Clash
3. The Seekers
4. Bad Manners
5. Fela Kuti
6. Dexys Midnight Runners
7.  Sugar
8. Peter, Paul & Mary
9. Roy Orbison & Edith Piaf
10.  Joy Division
11.  Heinz
12.  Malcolm McLaren
13.  Buzzcocks
14. The Byrds
15. Marlene Dietrich
16.  Peter Sellers & Sophia Loren
17.  Can
18.  Jackson 5
19. Edith Piaf
20. Blondie
21. Nick Lowe
22. Nirvana
23. Simple Minds
24. Nick Lowe
25. The Ramones
26.  Neu

Songs About People # 31 Moe Tucker - The Jesus & Mary Chain

 

Moe Tucker definitely needs a song named after her. Generally I have a rule of thumb that I won't post songs I don't like on here. I played this fifteen minutes ago and it didn't grab me. But then it started rattling in my head so I've given it the benefit of the doubt. And it is about Moe.

 

 

Things I've Found on My Local's Jukebox # 26 Gram Parsons

It's got a whole compilation of his on there but this is always the song of his for me. The record it comes from, his first solo album GP is a recent, proud vinyl purchase.

14th July 1912 - Woody Guthrie

 

Born this day 112 years ago.

Song of the Day # 177 J. D. McPherson

 

Josh Homme directed me this way. Thanks!

2014 World Cup World Cup # 25 Germany 1 Argentina 0

Germany. Best team. Right the way through! Ring out the old. Ring in the neu.  Goodnight! End of a series.

Soviet Funk!

 

From 1975. Not quite sure what's happening here but it's wonderful whatever it is!

Songs About People # 30 - Kevin Carter - Manic Street Preachers

 

One of their best. Mod, clipped urgency and a beautiful horn break. The lyric itself says next to nothing but it's the fact that they chose such poignant subject matter, the music and feeling behind it are so emotive and made it into a Top Twenty chart hit that stands much too their credit.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Soul Train # 4 - Yellow Magic Orchestra

 

Now here's an Soul Train appearance. In honour of Ryuichi Sakamoto who is currently ill.

Song for Sunday - Carole King

 

A song for my late sister as I listen to Tapestry which I inherited from her while I wait for the corner Diner to open up so I can have a fry up on a rainy Sunday morning. The album is not all for me. I'm not wholly it's target audience but Carole King demands and deserves all our respect and gratitude. And it's made to be played on a Sunday morning. Here's to you Sarah x!

13th July 1990 - Curtis Mayfield

 

Curtis was injured when a lighting rig was dislodged twenty four years ago today and landed on top of him. One of the greats. Still missed.

Mavis Staples

Songs Featuring Recorders # 3 The Rolling Stones

 

Featuring multi-instrumentalist Brian Jones on recorder. Sensitive flower!

 

 

Gary Mullholland on Pere Ubu's Non-Alignment Pact

 

I just got Gary Mulholland's two excellent books This Is Uncool and Fear of Music. I can't recommend them highly enough. They're two overviews of the best singles and albums released since Punk and Disco. Mulholland is able to articulate things you felt about the favourite records in your collection without ever being able to put it into words. Here he is on Pere Ubu in the latter boo and one track of an album that helped me see the world in a different way almost thirty years ago .

 

'Track one side one of the debut album by Ohio's pre-punk avant-garage inventors Pere Ubu. It's called 'Non-Alignment Pact and it should be a rock standard like 'Stairway To Heaven' and it packs a metaphorical punch on the subject of 'Women are a foreign land'  that even Costello might envy. There's a precipitous bass harmonic , and an idiot Chuck Berry geetar rip, and then a headlong charge down an alleyway that still smells of Iggy & the Stooges. Then a voice'... huh ... a voice. The wail of a big baby trying to be Ray Charles. And it demands, with comic futility, 'I wanna make a deal with you girl and get it signed by the heads of state ... It's my Non-Alignment Pact ... Sign it!' The big baby's running out of time so he tries emotional blackmail: ' I can see the world in flames. It's all because of you / or your thousand other names.' He lists a few of those thousand other names , ending, of course, with that all American beach-babe Barbara Ann. And just in case she doesn't yet understand that his desire for her is gonna fry the whole wide world, he thrusts that pen at her like it's a red hot poker. 'It's all because of you girl! Sign my Non-Alignment Pact ,' and you know she's standing there grinning, shaking her head, reaching for the box of matches in the pocket of her hip-hugger jeans.'

Song of the Day # 176 - Bruce Springsteen

 

Emerging from NYC at round about the same time as The Ramones but very different. If The Ramones gave you the idea that perhaps you could do this, or at least something like it, Springsteen gave quite the opposite impression. This is quite impossibly skilled, you sure as hell couldn't do this. You've just had to buy your seat and pay your respects.

 

This is the last song from his first album. The record only sold 25,000 copies when first released but it got him noticed, by the record company and critics, got his foot in the door. I don't like it all. It's an older brother's  record passed down to me by default. I might not have it otherwise. As generally with Springsteen there's too much bombast for my liking on occasion but this is wonderful. Evident obvious genius. The open lines are just as good in their way as Iggys 'Street walkin' cheetah with a heart full of napalm' and from there the song just builds and builds in an astonishing, unbroken flow of street poetry. An incredible evocation of New York City. You can see the sights, smell the smells. It's one of the most incredible, sustained desciptions of urban living ever written. Not the worst person to share a first name with.

 

 

"It's Hard To Be A Saint In The City"

I had skin like leather and the diamond-hard look of a cobra
I was born blue and weathered but I burst just like a supernova
I could walk like Brando right into the sun
Then dance just like a Casanova
With my blackjack and jacket and hair slicked sweet
Silver star studs on my duds like a Harley in heat
When I strut down the street I could feel it's heartbeat
The sisters fell back and said "Don't that man look pretty"
The cripple on the corner cried out "Nickels for your pity"
Them gasoline boys downtown sure talk gritty
It's so hard to be a saint in the city
I was the king if the alley, mama I could talk some trash
I was the prince of the paupers crowned downtown at the beggar's bash
I was the pimp's main prophet I kept everythning cool
Just a backstreet gambler with the luck to lose
And when the heat came down it was left on the ground
The devil appeared like Jesus through the steam in the street
Showin' me a hand I knew even the cops couldn't beat
I felt his hot breath on my neck as I dove into the heat
It's so hard to be a saint when you're just a boy out on the street
And the sages of the subway sit just like the living dead
As the tracks clack out the rhythm their eyes fixed straightahead
They ride the line of balance and hold on by just a thread
But it's too hot in these tunnels you can get hit up by the heat
You get up to get out at your next stop but they push you
Back down in your seat
Your heart starts beatin' faster as you struggle to your feet
You're outa that hole and back up on the street
And them South Side sisters sure look pretty
The cripple on the corner cries out "Nickels for your pity"
And them downtown boys they sure talk gritty
It's so hard to be a saint in the city

 

C - Springsteen

 

 

 

2014 World Cup # 24 World Cup Brazil 0 Holland 3

 

I've kind of seen enough of Brazil being beaten up. Blow the whistle ref. Third fourth match is utterly pointless. Put a stop to it. The last of the original Ramones died yesterday. The Ramones were greatly loved in Brazil so it seems fitting. 

12th July 1969 - Zager & Evans

 

Seem to be on the subject of American Number Ones. This went there this day in 1969. Stayed there for six weeks. The only one hit wonders to top both the US and British charts. Wonderful song!

Tommy Ramone 1952-2014

'4-5-6-7. All good cretins go to heaven.'

 

The Ramones are gone. RIP!

 

 

Here's a well written tribute from The Guardian.

 

RIP Tommy Ramone: your band captured the sound in my head

The last of the original Ramones has died, and with him passes the band who, for this writer, opened the door of rock'n'roll at its most thrilling
 

Ramones … Dee Dee, Joey, Tommy and Johnny. All now gone. Photograph: Alamy

And that's it; they're all gone. Joey, Johnny, Dee Dee and now Tommy. Even "the fifth Ramone", Arturo Vega, is no longer with us. It seems so unfair: not only did the Ramones never achieve the commercial rewards to match their staggering influence upon the trajectory of rock'n'roll, none of their principals was even granted a long life – at 62, Tommy was the Ramone who reached the greatest age.

He played drums on just three Ramones studio albums. The ones everyone, but everyone, knows are the three best: Ramones, Leave Home and Rocket to Russia. He's on the first live album, too, It's Alive, and between those four records you get the complete summation of why the Ramones mattered, and why they continue to matter. Over the 42 tracks on the three studio albums, lasting barely an hour and half, rock'n'roll is reduced to its undiluted essence: a count-in, a riff, a verse, a chorus. Very occasionally there's a middle eight. But anything unnecessary – anything that distracts from the rush of excitement – is excised. The aim of a Ramones song is not to make you admire the musicianship or the arrangement. It's to take you from a standing start to fever pitch in 120 seconds or less. And at the back of it all, playing the unfussiest drum patterns you'll ever hear – he made AC/DC's Phil Rudd sound like Keith Moon – was Tommy Ramone.

He wasn't meant to be the drummer. He was meant to be the manager. Joey was the drummer. "What happened was, they just kept playing faster and faster, and I couldn't keep up on the drums," Joey remembered in Legs McNeil and Gillian McCain's Please Kill Me. "Tommy Ramone, who was managing us, finally had to sit down behind the drums, because nobody else wanted to," Dee Dee told McNeil and McCain.

For a while, the Ramones were the most chaotic group in the world. "They counted off a song – 'ONE, TWO, THREE, FOUR!' – and we were hit with this blast of noise. You physically recoiled from the shock of it, like this huge wind, and before I could even get into it, they stopped," McNeil himself recalled. "Apparently they were all playing a different song. They were just so thoroughly disgusted with each other that they threw down their guitars and stomped off the stage."

They got better. Of course they got better. They got so much better that for me (and for others, not lots of others, but enough of us) the Ramones were the best group rock'n'roll ever produced. Not the most inventive, or the most versatile, or the most skilful, or the most emotionally resonant, or the most lyrical – but the best, because every time I put on one of the Ramones' best records, I was reminded of how I felt the first time I heard it. And the first time I heard it, I felt: this is the sound I've been hearing in my head and here it is on 12 inches of black vinyl; this is what I have been waiting for since the first single I ever bought. The Ramones were the sound of juvenile excitement, expressed with such breathtaking singlemindedness that nothing could kill the excitement.

And they were never as exciting without Tommy. Partly that was because those first three albums were such perfect statements of intent that there was very little left for the Ramones to say, and so each new album became another turn around the circuit rather than a manifesto. But partly because it was Tommy, as much as Joey, Johnny or Dee Dee, who made the band truly Ramonic. Marky, his replacement, was a more skilled drummer, perhaps, but the slight increase in sophistication meant the purity of the message – and the medium was the message, in the case of the Ramones – was compromised. Marky's successor, Richie, was simply too fast: in the tragic Ramones documentary End of the Century, he boasts about shaving several minutes off the set by playing everything with such velocity. With Richie on drums, Ramones shows were a blur of noise – you'd be recognising the song, finally, as it came to an end. When what you wanted was to wallow in those glorious harmonics.

But now that's it; they're all gone. Joey, Johnny, Dee Dee and now Tommy. The band that unlocked the door for me.