Entertainment For Lively Minds
SPOTIFY FRIDAY: Hidden Gems
Posted by Andrew Harrison on 19 June 2009 - 10:10am.
It's Spotify Friday again and today's theme is Hidden Gems.
Everyone knows a few songs that qualify: that fantastic b-side, album track or flop single which heartily deserves a wider audience. Add them to our Hidden Gems Spotify playlist and share the love.
THE RULES:
1] Be sparing. One track per band, no wholesale additions – nobody wants to hear the whole of that Deluxe Edition b-sides disc, do they?
2] Keep the quality up.
3] There are no more rules.
If you don't have the Spotify program, you can download it here. And you can see what we're playing in the office by looking at our Last.fm page. Chocks away – add your voice to the sound of the crowd.
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Terry Callier
man's voice + Zero 7 = beauty
Panthers
by Wilco (from the "A Ghost Is Born" Bonus Disc").
Natalia by Van Morrison
From the little discussed "Wavelength".
Also has the fantastic "Hungry for your Love"
My favourite "would you like me to come in for coffee?" track - back in the day...
Natalia
me too!
Wavelength
So little is this album discussed or put into a VM top 10, that I have always felt there must be something wrong with my aural senses and have, consequently, kept quiet about its delights. Natalia is the a true feel-good song and up there on my list of desert island discs.
It's weird
Wavelength barely rates a mention in any review or discussion of Van.
But he sounds relaxed, happy and in great voice. I actually think some of his strongest vocal performances are on this album.
The only track i can do without is the cod-reggae of "Venice". But then I can do without cod reggae in general.
A fabulous re-discovery - thanks to the sunshine and this blog - which made me think of "Natalia"
Wavelength
i think it is ignored because of the production being Van's attempt to cut an FM radio seventies type of album.
Although I agree with these sentiments I do think it contains a few long lost gems. there is another igored album from this period "a period Of transition" which is equally underrated
Natalia
I bought this album on the strength of hearing this song just once recently on the local Downtown Radio station.
Apache Drop Out by The Edgar Broughton Band
Quite possibly the first recorded mashup, in modern parlance, from 1970. It's a mashup of The Shadows' "Apache" with Captain Beefheart's "Dropout Boogie", and it's quite simply wonderful. I think it was a well-known cult favourite at the time, but seems long-forgotten now. If not a hidden gem, certainly a forgotten one.
Hidden and forgotten
Peel used to play it a lot. I thought it was tremendous. I briefly considered buying that massive Harvest compilation a few years back, but in the end decided that 4 or 5 CD's for the sake of that song (and I suppose one or two more) wasn't really sensible.
Richard Cheese's
lounge version of Slipknot's People=Shit
The Police
Spotify doesn't work on my work laptop - but if it did I'd add Once Upon a Daydream - an excellent Police b side.
only a dub version
available on Spotify - pretty good
I've taken the liberty of adding it to the playlist
http://open.spotify.com/track/5j8mT8lAdcepwiOY2Pyv7z
Just like 1980 again
Let me take responsibility for adding "I know where Syd Barrett lives" by the Television Personalities. I was looking for tracks by the man himself but decided they're not so hidden as they used to be.
Anyway, serendipity brought me to this track and I'm now wallowing in nostalgia with their "... and don't the kids just love it" debut album. Thanks be to Spotify...
... The Kids Actually Do Love It
I literally love that album. It may be amateurish and shambolic and sound like it was recorded in a garden shed (which it might well have been) but it’s charming and funny and as far as I’m concerned the greatest record to come out of punk rock.
My brother-in-law is also a big fan and we played it non-stop while we were on holiday a few years ago. My daughter and her cousin both took a shine to it - the songs are really catchy, quite appealing to kids - and i-podded it straight away. They’ve since both got their mates into it. So you’ll be pleased to know that there are small gaggles of 15 year old schoolgirls in both Wimbledon and Altrincham who are, perhaps right now, listening to Geoffrey Ingram and Silly Girl and Parties In Chelsea and all the hits.
God bless him...
Tiny Tim - This Is All I Ask.
A great, great song anyway but Tiny Tim's version is the best - and proof that he was no mere novelty act.
Great REM B-Side
Witchita Lineman off Bittersweet me. Enjoy!
The Pogues
Normally I'm not keen, but I suspect Shane had left by the time they recorded the superb Lorelei. So it's excellent. I think it speeds up, which I always like in a song.
Pavlov's Dog
Who put that there? Well done.
Weird Al Yankovic - eBay
Heheh... Classic!
So much for Spotify ...
I don't use Spotify very often (not allowed on work machines, doesn't yet integrate with SqueezeBox) but I thought I'd add a few of my faves. Except they're not on Spotify! From what I'd read in various places, I thought Spotify had *everything*!
Or maybe I just haven't got the hang of it yet.
Anyway, if I could, I'd add:
Poets Of Thought - Samba With J.C.
Hurricane #1 - Remote Control
Hurricane #1 - Rising Sign (single version)
Gonzalez - Real Motherf***in' Music
Beats International - Inch By Inch
Nizlopi - that was me!
They're not just the JCB hitmakers. This is a lovely aching tune, apart from containing one of the few uses of 'Marmite' in popular song. And a very apposite use too.
The great and unjustly ignored Ashley Cleveland
with 'Queen of Soul' from her 2006 CD 'Before the Daylight's Shot' (also contains a wonderful cover of 'Higher Ground').
Plus Lowell George's great cover of Toussaint's 'What Do You Want the Girl to Do'.
WIN
by the dame. hats off to whoever put that there.