Song(s) of the Day # 1,210 Albert Hammond

A real case of the Nick Cave byline above for me yesterday when I chanced upon the song above at work, probably the first time I'd heard it since I was eight or so on early seventies radio when the 'I'm a train, I'm a chgggh train' hook would really have resonated.  The moment took me straight back!

And to complement that, another song from the same artist's 1974 self-titled album. A singer-songwriter, originally from Gibraltar, halfway between Graham Nash and Paul Simon, father of the guitarist of the same name, (with a junior applied), from The Strokes

Songs About People # 370 Henry VIII

You're the one for me fatty! 'Second verse. Same as the first!' You have to suppose that The Ramones got that idea from the Hermans.

The Heart of Rock and Soul # 611 Barbara Lynn

May 12th 1942 Ian Dury

Song of the Day # 1,209 Kenny Lynch

Rare. Not in that it's a sixties British novelty record. There were hundreds of them. But in that it's, (to my ears anyway), a pretty good song. From Kenny Lynch a long-standing British public entertainer. It got to # 33 in 1962.

The Killing Moon

Songs About People # 369 John F. Kennedy & Nikita Khrushchev

Mighty Sparrow gives his two penn'orth worth about the Cuban missile crisis. Fairly plain where his sympathies lie.

Not with Nikita!

The Heart of Rock and Soul # 612 Elvis Presley

May 11th 1941 Eric Burdon

Song of the Day # 1,208 Blue House

Best song off an interesting album from last year I heard yesterday from a London based singer-songwriter team Blue House. A smidgen of the poise of early Prefab Sprout about this!

Things Found on My Local's Jukebox # 208 Glasvegas

A long, quiet evening at Rosie's this evening without any of the regulars which allowed me to indulge myself. I wanted to listen to this for some reason, having chosen it at work today to give it a listen for the first time in years. Glasvegas got a lot of hype in the UK when they emerged, largely I think because of a wish on the part of the music press and the likes of Alan McGee for a wave to ride. The band didn't achieve that for them. I think this was their best song. And although this wasn't the greatest thing I put on tonight, (the Velvet Underground, Chiffons, Modern Lovers, Talking Heads, Ronnie Spector and Shangri-Las followed on), it still sounded good coming out of the jukebox. A fine marriage of the Wall of Sound and Scottish familial angst almost ten years on!

Grant Und Ich

On a day that started out with a Go-Betweens related film, this book is out in Europe in July, (in English as well as German). There's also a Go-Betweens film on the way. Robert Forster is turning out to be a first class archivist!

Songs About People # 368 Walt Disney

Song for, (by all accounts), a rather contradictory man. From Austin roots band Shinyribs.

The Heart of Rock and Soul # 613 Rocky Fellers

'If Michael Jackson had been a prebuscent Filipino-American recorded at the height of the discothecque era by the men who brought you Twist & Shout Killer Joe is the record he would have made. Of course, if he'd gotten his start in that era, critics and collectors would venerate his producer's name and nobody would be able to tell you his.'

10 Days of Inherent Vice # 10 Chuck Jackson

And to close this one off, the song playing over the movie's final credits.

Song of the Day # 1,207 Dean Martin

From a very nicely judged mixtape compiled by Robert Forster which you can find here..You can hear echoes of his own songwriting and sensibility in every one of the songs he chose. This song interestingly was written by Bobby Darin. The rest of the list is as follows:

1. Dean Martin - Things
2. Ricky Nelson - Hello Mary Lou
3. The Byrds - I Knew I'd Want You
4. John Phillips - Topanga Canyon
5. Bob Dylan - Knocking on Heaven's Door
6. Roxy Music - Do The Strand
7. Sly & the Family Stone - A Family Affair
8. Magazine - A Song From Under the Floorboards
9. Orange Juice - Blue Boy
10. The Chills - Pink Frost

Songs Heard on the Radio # 204 A Certain Ratio

Great to hear a bit of A Certain Ratio once in a while. Underrated band!

Songs About People # 367 Neil Diamond

The Super Furry Animals, who are one of those bands who very much like putting the names of the known in their song titles allow Neil Diamond the honour.

10 Days of Inherent Vice # 9 The Tornados

The Heart of Rock and Soul # 614 Betty Everett

Song(s) of the Day # 1,206 Hazel English

Entirely generic.But quite lovely at the same time. An Australian singer-songwriter, relocated to the States and on the verge of putting out her first album

Songs Heard on the Radio # 203 Mojave 3

A friend of mine, who follows this blog, mentioned this band in conversation with me today and then this came on the radio. Lovely Velvet Underground sound!

Songs About People # 366 Woodrow Wilson

'She said her father looked like Woodrow Wilson..'

Vic Chesnutt, an artist who deserves the term 'elegaic' as much as any other, does his thing.

10 Days of Inherent Vice # 8 Minnie Ripperton

The Heart of Rock and Soul # 615 Gregory Abbott

May 8th 1911 Robert Johnson

Song of the Day # 1,205 The Electric Pop Group

Appropriately given the image here, tick tock chiming guitar music in the tradition of The Byrds fand most notably the Stone Roses' Sally Cinnamon. This hails from the band's 2010 album Seconds.

The Crucial Three

Things Found on My Local's Jukebox # 207 The Jesus & Mary Chain

Not too keen on the new Jesus & Mary Chain comeback album Damage & Joy. It's more of what you'd expect really. Paeans to an idea of black-clad, shades wearing street cool. Cliche follows cliche both lyrically and musically. It's a case of if it ain't broke don't fix it and though that may have sounded state of the art in the late eighties when it was a fresh vision it's not really on the money now. Having said that though opening track Amputation does sound cool coming out of a jukebox with it's Sympathy for the Devil woo woo steals.  

May 7th 1946 Thelma Houston

The Heart of Rock and Soul # 616 The Band

10 Days of Inherent Vice # 7 Jack Scott

Songs About People # 365 Tennessee Williams

And so another song for someone else who exists in that same tradition. Beautifully realised jazz vocals from Teddi King.

Song of the Day # 1,204 Perfume Genius

The new album from Perfume Genius No Shape is quite staggeringly good. Clearly one of the very best things I've heard for a long, long time. I listened through to the whole thing at one astonished sitting a couple of days back, quite taken back by its consistent melodic and rhythmic brilliance and insistent build. Genius is not an inappropriate term. Written from a defiant, pained gay sensibility that fits in a proud tradition going all the way back to Caravagio, it's a good as any record anyone is likely to release this year. You can hear elements of Sufjan, Vampire Weekend and Rufus Wainwright here and there but it's still very much Mike Hadreas', (the man behind the Perfume Genius moniker), own thing.  Here's just one track!

Joy Division

Songs About People # 364 Compte De Lautreamont

Uruguayan born French poet. Died at just 24 but left behind Les Chants de Maldoror, a major influence on the Surrealists and a few decades on from that a particular favourite of Richard Hell's. Here, Dutch instrumental band Radar Men From the Moon pay tribute.

10 Days of Inherent Vice # 6 The Marketts

The Heart of Rock and Soul # 617 The Three Degrees

Song of the Day # 1,203 Tash Sultana

A young Australian artist about to start her first big global tour. Has already sold out her dates in London and New York. Clearly a hot ticket and you can hear why here!

Space Oddity

Songs About People # 363 Jessica Lange

Jessica Lange. An ideal of female beauty at a certain point in movie history gets a song.

10 Days of Inherent Vice # 5 Les Baxter

Classic lounge-exotica.

The Heart of Rock and Soul # 618 Sam Cooke

Song of the Day # 1,202 Velly Joonas

Estonian / Soviet Pop from the early eighties and really rather lovely!

Don't Hold Records Like This!

Songs Heard on the Radio # 202 Ty Segall

New from Ty Segall on the radio to follow a T.Rex track. That makes sense in terms of programming.

Songs About People # 362 E. M. Forster

A kind of nice piano led thing that seems to veer occasionally lyrically from Forster to Wilde.

The Heart of Rock and Soul # 619 The Box Tops

10 Days of Inherent Vice # 4 The Association

Number # 2 on the US Billboard singles chart in 1967 with the help of the Wrecking Crew. It should have been # 1.

Song of the Day # 1,201 The Royalettes

The Royalettes, one of the greatest hidden Girl Group secrets of the nineteen sixties. Out of Baltimore. They had a couple of minor US Billboard single hits but pretty much everything they ever recorded was right on the mark. Up there with The Chiffons, The Ronettes, The Shangri-Las, The Shirelles and all the other great yearning, romantic moments of that decade.

The Royalettes  had it all. Listen through to these few that I've posted and then go back to the source for further enjoyment. They have a song on the Umbrellas of Cherborg soundtrack, surely the most romantic film ever made.

They also had It's Gonna Take a Miracle, later re-recorded by Laura Nyro on the album of the same name with Patti Labelle, but of course their version was better. There is no kiss that ever measures up to your first important one. The Royalettes understood that in every one of their recorded moments. Every single song is an unbearable drop of a coin into a fountain towards love, romance and understanding.