Entertainment For Lively Minds
Reclaiming the classics
I think it’s fair to say that when talk turns to music here, it tends to veer towards the obscure end of the spectrum – lost talents, lesser known artists (old and new), b-sides, obscure album tracks, bootlegs and so on. Well let’s explore the other end – those tracks and artists that are so well-known and so ingrained in our DNA that we think we know them inside-out, maybe even to the point of skipping them when they come up on our music-players…
I thought of this last week because I had an iPod disaster (since sorted, thanks for asking) and was forced into borrowing the FPO’s iPod shuffle for an imminent journey without time to check or amend the track selection, and 2 songs in particular unexpectedly struck me during the trip, that for some reason suddenly felt fresh as paint…
Donna Summer – I Feel Love: what a record – brutally minimalist techno that invented the “soul singer over an electro backing track” template still in use today, and sounds as relevant next to Cabaret Voltaire as it does to Chic (a good trick if you can do it.) If this was released today it would just be too weird to chart, that’s how good it is.
Sparks – This Town Ain’t Big Enough For Both Of Us: is there anyone here over 40 who doesn’t remember Sparks’ debut TOTP performance as if it were yesterday? Luckily the record is worthy of every braincell devoted to that memory, it’s ridiculous, baroque, funny, and unlike anything else, skating perilously close the edge of being a novelty hit without quite tipping over – amazing.
This isn’t about “guilty pleasures”, and I wouldn’t remotely claim to have “rediscovered” these tracks, they were huge hits and are classics for a reason, but what other great tracks do we think are worthy of reappraisal with fresh ears, the ones that are so much part of the furniture that everyone takes them for granted? State your case, send us back to our iPods!
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'Crazy Horses' by The Osmonds
A solid rock song from unexpected quarters.
Other songs that occasionally pop up with some pleasure are:
'Burlesque' by Family
'Her Eyes Are A Blue Million Miles' by Captain Beefheart
'Blue Jean Blues' by Jeff Healey
'Orange Blossom Special' by Charlie Daniels
'Constant Craving' by K.D. Lang
Culture Club
Do you Really Wanna Hurt Me?
As remarkable a debut appearance on TOTP as the Mael brothers and a bitter-sweet slice of gospel soul-pop. I still love the change in the bass-line during the instrumental break.
The Moody Blues - Go Now
A great vocal performance from Denny Laine and some fine piano from Mike Pinder.
Walking On The Moon - The Police
Simple, spacious, atmospheric and unique.
and there we go again...
Reason #3465 for 'why i love this site'...I did NOT know that Denny Laine sang on 'Go Now'. I'm sure I could have looked it up, but what were the odds on me wondering what the answer was to that question!.
'Denny Laine' isn't...
... his real name, either.
That could be reason #3466 to love this site or reason #0001 to hate me for telling you something you already know.
Denny Laine
is in my ears and in my eyes.
That dreadful pun
has just made my day!
Go Now
Surely the perfect pub jukebox song?!
OK
Red Light spells Danger-Billy Ocean
MacArthur Park-Richard Harris
Bowie - Ashes to Ashes
Still seems utterly original and without precedent, as if the whole thing was just beamed in from another planet. Otherwordly, melancholy and a massive hit. Still moves me when I hear it.
Good call
Did even Bowie know how he'd collide head-on with the mainstream with this track?
And what time is it in? I've always thought it was a tango (the only one I can think of to make it to number one), but will bow to the superior knowledge of The Massive...
Straight 4/4
...don't think it's a Tango - dum dum dum dede dum dum dum - though the bass is very syncopated*
I love the intensely strange vocal grimace before the second verse, the sound of a heavily constipated man unloading.
*I'm a *very* amateur musician, so this may be cobblers
I think you're right, Nick.
The bass and percussion does skate in front and behind of the beat but it's a straight 4/4 all through to my ear.
I've always had a soft spot for Paul Young's cover of
Marvin Gaye's "Wherever I Lay My Hat"
Me too
and Love Of The Common People
Any excuse to post a clip featuring the Fabulous Wealthy Tarts
And remember pop-pickers
You can pick up a shiny vinyl copy of No Parlez at pretty much any charity shop in the UK.
Effortlessly brilliant.
I always loved his version of that tune. Cracking band on this performance. Thanks for posting that Stimps.
Ah... those jumpers....
very moving for a young lad...
Best backing singers ever.
Only because of their name. The Fabulously Wealthy Tarts.
Whisper
I like it better than Marvin's original. Especially the bass line.
Wherever I Lay My Hat..
..That's My Hat
Roxy Music - Virginia Plain
By now we're all over-familiar with Bryan Ferry's lounge-singer tendencies, with B.Eno's professorial ubiquity, and with Andy Mackay's way with a soundtrack. Back then, though, when it first issued from my tinny little transistor radio it sounded like a message from another galaxy, and when I saw them on Top Of The Pops, this impression was more than confirmed. Over-familiar now, but impossibly thrilling back then. And listened to closely, it still sounds impossible to pigeonhole, and just plain great.
Sex Pistols - Anarchy In The UK
Never mind Mr Lydon's butter ads, Sid's troubles, plastic punks, various dodgy film projects this is perhaps the single most electrifying 3 minutes to hit Britain since the Beatles. No matter how many times I hear it, it sounds dangerous.
The Partridge Family - I think I love You
Baroque pop classic. Harpsichord to the fore - always a winner. Proper frutrated teen-pop lyrics. The middle 8 (and the equally odd little breakdown that precedes it) faintly reminds me of early Pink Floyd singles, and the bass toward the end! Macca-tastic!
If it had only sold 15 copies, it would have turned up on a nuggets type compilation and originals would be covetted by young men with bowl haircuts and turtle necks. As is we can all just pop to our local charity shop and pick it up for 50p (unless it's an oxfam in which case it'll be 7.99)
Oddly enough, the FPO had a 'Jackie' compilation CD with this on
in her car last time I borrowed it. As you say, briliant track...
Jackie cd's
I bought one of them compilations for my Aunt one Christmas but she already had it. 'Fair enough' I think, 'I'll take it back to HMV, may as well have a quick listen first...'
Still got it. Some genuinely good songs (Lulu's 'Man who sold the world', Paul and Barry Ryan's 'Kitsch', Marmalde's 'Reflections of my Life' etc) Plus I got a David Cassidy wallposter!!! You don't get that with 'Rubble vol.XXIII'
(Voice of Greg Wallace) "Pop Music
doesn't get any better than that".
Jackie CD
I have, & love all of the Jackie CDs.
I blame my sisters
Some more
Paul McCartney - Coming Up
Macca makes silly pop songs. Get over it.
Aztec Camera - Somewhere In My Heart
The kind of song for which FM Radio was made.
Genesis - Follow You Follow Me
A great and unashamedly sentimental love song
UB40 - Food For Thought
Makes you wonder why they became karaoke reggae.
Elton John - Goodbye Yellow Brick Road
Contains a stone cold classic melody with a verse most people would kill for as a chorus and a chorus only a handful of song-writers have ever matched.
UB40
Agree re Food For Thought ("Ivory Madonna" or "I'm a Prima Donna"?)
They were a fine band at around that time.
Here's a few..
Paper Plane and Down Down - imagine what we'd have been saying about these if The Quo had come from Detroit.
Knowing Me, Knowing You - this just sounds amazing, the arrangement is so well crafted, everything is a hook of some kind and the bass playing on it is absolutely mental. Take a listen:
Young Hearts Run Free - I'm always staggered when this comes on and the dancefloor is filled with grinning partygoers, have you heard the lyrics? Lou Reed would have rejected them for a song on Berlin as being too depressing..
More you say?
Led Zeppelin - Stairway To Heaven
Hearing the Rodrigo y Gabriela version of this 2-3 years ago reminded me just how special this is as a song.
10CC - Art For Art's Sake
It never ceases to amaze that there are in fact about 6 or 7 songs in this song and yet it still works from its prog-metal opening riff to the psychedelic ambience of the instrumental break before the final verse...oh and don't forget the Boogie Nights outro....
Gerry Rafferty - Baker Street
A song that has always felt big and bold without ever being pompous and overblown. The sax riff's not bad either.
Gilbert O'Sullivan - Nothing Rhymed
and when is Justin Currie
going to make his version of this available on a proper CD?
Brilliant song.
Alone Again (Naturally)
Gets me every time
Bay City Rollers
As a Scot I'm going to stick my neck out dangerously here, because until the 80s they were one of this country's very few claims to pop fame.
Shocking dress sense, even by 70s standards, and some sleazy behaviour by various members, overshadow what are some excellent pop songs - I'd go as far to say "surf music harmonies"!
Of course they were also guilty of the most heinous rhyming couplet in pop history:
"Gonna tell her that I can't linger
There's a wedding ring on my finger"
The best Rollers song ever was this one:
"Ian jacked it in, now we've got Pat McGlynn
But as long as he's a Roller then we'll love him"
Cruel To Be Kind
is a beautiful song
3 from me
Bee Gees 'Jive Talkin''
10cc 'I'm Mandy Fly Me'. Fabulous masterpiece. Cue clip:
Beatles 'Lovely Rita'. Sometimes dismissed due to daft, seemingly lightweight lyrics but actually great. Particularly all that ahh ahh ahh huh huh huh ugh ugh ugh with piano stuff at the end.
10cc
The Things We Do For Love.
Not one of those best-beloved 10cc tracks; Godley & Creme had gone, and the critics turned against Gouldman and Stewart. Dismissed as pappy at the time, now we can luxuriate in the depth in the production and the quality of the writing.
Dexys Midnight Runners - Come On Eileen
I think this song tends to get overlooked or dismissed as a kind of wedding stomp-along. But I love it. I find it very moving, quite similar to Like A Rolling Stone for some reason.
easy...
..Led Zeppelin - Stairway (the guitar solo is still really really good - not as trendy as Kashmir but gets my vote anyday)
..Frankie Goes To Hollywood- First three singles (two of the most dynamic pop records of all time followed by one of the most beautiful)
..Gerry Rafferty - Baker Street (not so much for the sax solo but for the cool restrained verses)
3 More Suggestions
Monkees - Daydream Believer:
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xo9pi_the-monkees-daydream-believer_mus...
Motorhead - Aces Of Spades:
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x17j01_motörhead-ace-of-spades_music
Animals - House Of The Rising Sun:
A few more
Althea and Donna - Uptown Top Ranking: a great song by any standards.
Seal - Killer: he went on to produce mulch, but this is fantastic.
Simple Minds - Promised You A Miracle: they went on to produce Belfast Child, may the good lord forgive them, but this is a slice of early eighties brilliance.
OMD - Souvenir,: just lovely.
U2 - One & I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For: when they're good...
Mr Blue Sky
Much as I mank about Jeff Lynne's signature production in the 80's, ELO did come up with some snorters under his guidance. And this snorts more than most. Absolute everything chucked at it, kitchen sink, bidet, Sodastream and anything else found lying around in the late 70's. And it works.
One of the best
false endings ever, too.
AOOOOOW!
May I ask that you those of you who consider yourselves to be ignorant disc jockeys now gyrate your arms above your head in a fashion that suggests indifference?
Never Fails:
Mama Used to Say by the Mighty Junior Giscombe.
Good advice for young folk too!
And this is still a masterpiece
Impact!
Are "friends" electric?
Nothing before or since has sounded anything like it (apart from a few hundred other Gary Numan songs)
Ride on Time - Black Box
Probably the shoutiest song ever to get to number one.
Fade to Grey - Visage
Strange is as strange does.
And yes, being 43, Sparks is a vivid early TOTP memory. To be honest I was only young and a little spooked by "Hitler" on the keyboard - but the rest of the family were laughing so much that I decided that it wasn't actually Hitler so there was nothing to be worried about.
This Town Ain't Big Enough For Both Of Us
I bought it the very day I first heard it on the radio. Like the OP says, it was unlike anything you'd ever heard. I remember Ian MacDonald wrote a typically flowery review in the NME. One phrase has always stuck in my head. He talked about Kimono My House as a record to wipe away the "post-Woodstock malaise".
As ever the answer is ...
... Boston with More Than A Feeling.
I truly love this and it's commercial as hell
Songs I should be sick of, but isn't ?
Van Halen - Jump
Gene Pitney - Twentyfour Hours From Tulsa
Sam Cooke - Wonderful World
Aretha Franklin - Respect
The Band - The Weight
Supertramp - The Logical Song
Steelers Wheel - Stuck In The Middle With You
Iggy Pop - The Passenger
The Cure - Friday I'm In Love
The Knack - My Sharona
I won't go on, though the list is endless.
Movies, TV and commercials are mostly to blame I guess; some of these songs have been used to death on soundtracks, and radiostations of a certain kind ALWAYS play that Cure song once a week ( guess when ).
There are a surprising
number of songs that never bore me - no matter how many times I hear them. There are also a far greater number of songs which bore me to tears.
I have probably listened to Stairway To Heaven a thousand times - the lyrics are rubbish - but I could listen to it all day.
There are those songs that just have to be played again as soon as they have been heard. A few others that spring to mind:
After the Goldrush - Neil Young
The Lowdown - Boz Scaggs
Brooklyn Owes the Charmer - Steely Dan
May You Never - John Martyn
Northern Sky- Nick Drake
.....oh ... there's so many
Ringo Starr
"Photograph"
Magnificent melancholy
and I have to add "Disney Girls" by the Beach Boys, a Bruce Johnston song with a gossamer melody and the power to make grown men cry