Entertainment For Lively Minds
Surprised by joy
The first time I set down a Desert Island Discs lists, I focused on the lacrimose but today, as I'm feeling mighty chipper, if a tad sleep-deprived, I'm off to the opposite end of the emotional spectrum. Yes, today, I give you my Desert Island Songs That Make Your Head Explode With J O Y
Now I'm not just talking 'happy' here, or 'mildly entertained', or 'giving a little, crinkly smile', but sheer heart-bursting, face-cracking, can't-stop-those-limbs-from-waving-around-in-what-in-some-cultures-might-be-classified-as-dancing, highest of high octane Joy with a captial OY. Harder to come by than tears in the world of song, I reckon (maybe wrongly) but a marvelous, marvelous thing to be celebrated and lauded and made into lists. Like this:
1. Free Money - Patti Smith Whoa Lordy, crank up the juice and shout it out! If you ever see a small, strange person in a blue Saxo, driving down the M6 singing along to this with full-throated abandon and being a danger to traffic, that'd be me.
2. Kuben - Hoven Droven (the coolest folkrockband in Sweden, so they claim on their website). A bit of a slow starter, this one, but once it hits its groove it's big grins all the way. Can't resist sharing the sleeve note with you: "Bosse could'nt believe his ears. There it was, adduced by Gustav and his African party trumpet: the men's choire! Woozy with inspiration he sat down, brought out pencil and paper and proceeded to draw a...cube!" And who wouldn't, under the circumstances.
3. Dig My Grave - assorted McGarrigles, Wainwrights and hangers-on family friends A rip-snorter of a song about death and burial. Oh give me two, two to my head and two, two to my feet.
4. One in a Million - Chris Wood Not loud, not fast, not noisy, just fantastic storytelling of the most heartwarming kind. With chips.
5. Bandera del Sol/Flag of the Sun - Tish Hinojosa OK, OK, I know it was on the 'weepers' list, but it's fab, I tells ya. It's about love, and justice, and freedom, and the dignity of the human spirit, and it fills me with joy when people sing about those things ... cos I'm a big, soppy, wet liberal, and proud of it.
6. Also Sprach Zarathustra - The Temple City Kazoo Orchestra It's not just that this is funny (though it undoubtedly is) but that it's so wholehearted and faithful to the orchestral version in its kazoo-ish fashion. It's as much homage as piss-take.
7. Zobi La Mouche - Les Negresses Vertes When I bought one of those USB turntable thingies a couple of years back, this was the first (and so far only) of my many LPs that I digitised. Watch me do my famous arm-waving dance as dentally-challenged Frenchmen sing about ... a fly called Zobi?
8. Praise to the Holiest in the Height - Edward Elgar Huge choir, huge orchestra - what's not to love? The soul of Gerontius makes it to the gates of heaven and gets this magnificent chorus as his welcome. Mind you, he then gets sent to Purgatory for a bit - but if you can't do the time don't do the crime, I say.
So there's my Great Glow of Joy*. Now, what gets you a-grinning and a-spinning?
*I snurked this from the title of CD by Husband's pal Derek Luckhurst - cheers, Des!
Oh, and I'll eat a celebratory Mars Bar in honour of the first person to correctly identify the source of this post's title. Overgenerous, or what!
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Zobi
I was introduced to Les Negresses Vertes on a French exchange visit back in 1990 and the only track that really stuck was this one. I occasionally find my self humming or singing it and my wife asks 'what the hell are you humming?'. Haven't heard it in a long time...*heads to spotify*...
First heard 'em (and saw ...
First heard 'em (and saw ... well little bits of and at a great distance) at WOMAD in Cornwall. Ils sont le commerce, as Johnny Frenchman would say.
Some Kazoos
Cripes - The Temple City Kazoo Orchestra - now that's a name I've not heard in years. Track down their 12" EP as you would any slab of multicoloured splatter vinyl featuring mass kazoo versions of not only the above but also "Whole Lotta Love". JAZZ.
I have it already ...
... it's kazootastic
Here's TCKO's Whole Lotta Love
Is that Sweep on lead vocals?
How did they get through that
without laughing?
Fantastic.
It's homage, I tells ya -
It's homage, I tells ya - they do not laugh because they love
I consider myself to be a man who knows 'a bit'
about music. I can safely say I am not familiar with one single song on that list. Should I be ashamed?
Be not ashamed ...
... but take a trip to YouTube.
Though you won't find all of them there.
But here's some to get you started:
The Glorious Patti Smith Group
Lovely Tish
And this is Hoven Droven - not the tune in the list, but off the same album "Hippa". A nice man in Stockholm recommended them - we were after a CD by a Scottish/Swedish group called Swap, which he'd never heard of. So He played us lots of other stuff instead. Swedish folkrockmusic is just dandy!
I'm gonna say NO
(because I am in the same boat.)
Two of them are on Spotify though, so I have now heard those at least.
I didn't get the joy out of Patti Smith - http://open.spotify.com/artist/1mha11NgDasOuKUSSw7WIh
but the Les Negresses Vertes (as Spotify have them) scored high on the joy-omiter http://open.spotify.com/artist/0baGqHSXVphCsotxWDv7NX
Spellchecker
... and Spotify have them right - its mee wot carnt spel
The Patti Smith thing is a bit of a personal obsession - there'll almost certainly be at least one track by her in any Desert Island list I do - please feel free to ignore. In fact, I can feel myself gearing up for an actual Desert Island Patti Smith one day soon...
'Desert Island Patti Smith'
Imagine that.
*sigh* - oh, I wish ...
Ooops, did I say that out loud!
Le Negresses Vertes
I stumbled across this group - and Mano Negra - around 1991 I think.
Later, I was sitting in the kitchen of the halls of residence at UCD (Dublin) with a load of French exchange students in early 1993 (mature student, me) when one of them leafing through an English newspaper haltingly read out the news that the lead singer - Helno - had died. To a man (and woman) they burst into tears.
I never quite 'got' Mano
I never quite 'got' Mano Negra - they seemed a bit grimmer than the Negresses.
Teenage Fanclub
Loads of songs by the Fannies will raise my spirits -it's the sweet melodies, the glorious harmonies, the chiming and the dirty guitars, the unabashed romanticism.
I'm sure that those Massive members (ooer, Missus) without the geographical privileges to enjoy Spotify are getting heartily sick of the sudden (and understandable - it's brilliant) 'new toy' enthusiasm on display all over this site, so here's something more of us can access (with an apology to those denied YouTube at work):
PS Welcome back, Jen. It's been a while, eh?
A while it has indeed been
A while it has indeed been Mr Nigel - I don't like to dilute the brand too much. Thank you for your kind welcome. You are a scholar and a gentleperson, sir.
Public Service Announcement:
Thought I'd listen to Sparky's Dream again, and now find an "embedding disabled" notice attached.
It's OK peeps, just double click instead of single on the YouTube screen (not the lower 'play' arrow) in my post above, and it'll play in what I believe is known as a new window.
(Apologies if I've just been teaching my grandmother to suck eggs.)
NB Bonus: it's in stereo.
Patti Smith
I get the joy in Patti completely. Gloria or Land on the first album, most of the first side of the third, Ask The Angels or Pumping on the second. Seriously uplifting and seriously sexy.
Prince's Purple Rain album gets me uplifted too:
I'd also add Heaven 17's Temptation, The Stones' Sympathy For The Devil, The Clash Complete Control, a huge pile of Northern Soul classics, too many to list here, and finally Joboxers Just Got Lucky which never ever fails to make me smile!
Ah, Gloria!
It's glorious.
Ooh, ooh - an 'Jubilee' on
Ooh, ooh - an 'Jubilee' on Trampin'
Spot On
with Tish Hinojosa, The McGarrigles, Les Negresses Vertes, though I'd probably go for "Voila L'été over Zobi.
Hmm
I could be won over to "Voila L'été", but I think Zobi takes it by a whisker for me
gloriously joyful...
look no further than the Polyphonic Spree. Yes the clip contains bits of the show Scrubs. Yes, I know Scrubs can be terribly mawkish at times, but the song is great, and any clip with Dr Kelso (has there ever been a better supporting character, by the way?) being at the wrong end of a tackle like that has to be worth savouring of a friday afternoon.
Janitor!
Was there ever a finer comic creation than Janitor? Give that man his own show (as long as it turns out like Frasier and not like Joey).
Mars Bar
Friday is my day off and the one day the computer never gets switched on - usually, like yesterday, we're not here travelling 200 miles to sort out the aged relatives. So, I missed this yesterday and I know it's too late to resurrect the thread really, but you never got to eat your Mars Bar. So, in case you're getting peckish, can I say that the thread title comes from a poem of William Wordsworth 'Surprised by joy - impatient as the Wind' and used by C.S. Lewis as the title of his autobiography (which ties in with the theology part of your name Jen).
So, have a nibble of that Mars Bar on me.
Surprised by chocolate
Well done, and thanks for the Mars Bar - will heartily enjoy its chewy-chocolatey goodness.