In retrospect the spoken word recordings made by the poet Steven Jesse Bernstein in 1991 (and posthumously released on the album Prison) appear to foreshadow some impending mental breakdown. With years of accumulated disappointment and bile quivering in the back of his throat, their author painted a disturbing portrait of a broken man, down to his last layer of skin, savagely raging at an indifferent world.

A few months later Bernstein killed himself. There are moments on Prison where he genuinely sounds as if he can no longer bear to be alive.

No No Man (Part 2)

One of my favourites, coincidentally called The House At The Top Of The World, was from The Happy Club, Bob Geldof's third solo effort. It is very much homage to Van's memoir pieces about growing up in Belfast, Coney Island or On Hyndford Street.

In Bob's tone poem, recited over a moody and evocative backwash, he reminisces about "the Leopardstown dual carriage-way, the first in Ireland, only 100 yards long" and about the lads he hung out with in his youth in Dublin. It's quite delightful and much more palatable than his singing, which I always found grating and tiresome.

but you blew my mind.

by Tindersticks from their second album, where Stuart Staples relays the story of his sister (though I believe it is fictional) as she lurches from one abusive relationship to another and finally succumbs to cancer. Seven and a half minutes long, all spoken, not sung and utterly terrific.

No contest. Get down to Soulsville y'all.

Tom Waits - Franks Wild Years

never could stand that dog.......

Quentin Crisp delivers a warning to humanity:
http://www.divshare.com/download/3744401-24c

(The YouTube version's a bit messed up):

Here he is with Aunt Florrie Remembers (From Giant Whelks at Rawlinson End), broadcast on the John Peel show during October 1975.

Most of the album barely rises above a slow drawl, even the more uptempo tracks sound like he's just talking faster. Not exactly the spoken word but certainly not what most of us would recognise as singing. I particularly like "The beginning of a great adventure", about bringing up kids.

the sound of dignified junky subversion, my fantasy grandpa!

Somewhere Down the Crazy River by Robbie Robertson

with added Limey-confusing reference to Kokomo...

"They say time heals all wounds
But there are some wounds you don't want to heal
Memories of something really good, something truly real
That you'll never find again"
[female vocal chimes in with key line from the song: "As if we were still lovers"]

Isn't that just wonderful?

It's from Louise, by the Human League, featuring one of the great can't-actually-hit-the-notes-but-sounds-lovely voices, Phil Oakey. A small group to be sure, but I think Sarah Cracknell out of St. Etienne merits inclusion too.

1. Jerusalem tomorrow/Emmylou Harris and
2. Pog aon oidche earraich/Runrig.
and a first mention for Eric Burdon/San Franciscan Nights: This following program is dedicated to the City and people of San Francisco, who may not know it but they are beautiful......
Way to go!! (especially to a then 15 year old at boarding school in Eastbourne.........)