a band I seemed to either avoid or miss in' them 80s', turns out their album 'Raise' is rather up my street... must pay more attention...

nothing else of any note, it's Nov. already

Hats off to Lucas. Similar tastes it seems.
A lot of mine are originals of songs that where covered by some of my favourite artists. God i love mp3 blogs

Solomon Burke- The Stupidity (Thank you Danny Baker)
Candi Staton- Prisoner of Love
Eldridge Holmes- Substitute
George Jones -Glad to Let Her Go
Conway Twitty-Image of Me
Jerry Lee Lewis- Break My Mind
Ronnie Self- Pretty Bad Blues
Otis Rush- I Can't Quit You Babe
Tarheel Slim- Number Nine Train
Chubby Checker- Karate Monkey
Janice Nicholls- the Wednesbury Madison (Oil Give it Foive)
Dorothy Black- Miracle Man
Mongo Santamaria (I can't get No ) Satisfaction
Sleepy La Beef- Boogie Woogie Country Girl
and many many more and i can only echo what you said at the end of your post. Very well put.
Also Lucas Check this out. an Excellent read
Say it One Time for the Broken Hearted: Country Side of Southern Soul by Barney Hoskyns

I seemed to have wandered by mistake

but I'm not a Gurl

Nick Drake - At The Chime Of A City Clock (heard this on Radcliffe show, never really listened to Drake properly before - love the atmosphere of this song and arrangement, then bought Bryter Later and read Trevor Dann's excellent biography. Not lighting any candles for any shrines though. It's sublime music is it not?)

Smith - Baby It's You and Hold Tight by Dave Dee, Dozy, Beaky, Mick and Tich (featured on the Death Proof soundtrack among other fine things. Just great performances.)

Straight To The Captitalist Head by King Tubby And The Aggrovators from Dub/Original Bass Culture compilation (enjoyment of sounds for themselves, a refreshing change from the usual cliches of pop and rock)

Rubycon Part 1 by Tangerine Dream (love the sound of those synthesizers, seems like the origins of Donna Summer's I Feel Love, electronic dance music and other good things)

Good idea for a thread.

Nice one, Lucas. My Festive Fifty entry was slightly half-hearted - I love the tracks I nominated, but these have mostly beaten them in the "play count" stakes:

* "Bar-B-Q" - Wendy Rene ("I like a barbecue; you like a barbecue; we like a barbecue; y' know I sure like a barbecue" - charming, foot-tapping old Stax number in praise of crispy black sausages.)

* "Keep Your Silver Shined" - Devon Sproule (Only from last year; the sound of a sunny day in a hammock in an American orchard, or so it seems to me.)

* "Satta Massa Gana" - The Abyssinians (During many years of loving reggae this essential song had somehow eluded me, until its bassline rattled my teeth at Public Enemy's Brixton gig.)

* "Agony Wagon" - The Legendary Shackshakers (Frantic rockabilly and klezmer, beginning with one of those almighty American train whistles.)

* "Enjoy Yourself" - Prince Buster & Jools Holland (Sometimes, just sometimes, your old favourite songs benefit from a bit of spit and polish. Play this to anyone and it will cheer them up.)

but rules didnt allow.

Take me to the river - A southern soul story was a boxset I desperately wanted but I thought at around £30 it was too expensive. My dear old mum got if for me for my birthday - next week but she let me have it early. By the way it is £25 incl postage on 101cd.com.

David Byrne and Brian Eno - Life in the bush of ghosts - much,much,better than I remember it.

Waterboys - Red Army blues - bought the expanded album that this was off after seeing him play it in concert.

King Tubby Dub collections - sold for £3.00 at hmv and better that a lot of stuff I paid full price for.

If I don't get that for my birthday in a month I'll be very disappointed. I've been wanting it since Rob Fitzpatrick casually mentioned it on the Glastonbury blog in June.

Just re-reading my list, and I thought I'd share this:

Stick around for when King Curtis comes in at 3.50. And here's to Jerry Wexler.

DUSTY SPRINGFIELD - You Don't Own Me (1964)
ALVIN CASH & THE CRAWLERS - Twine Time (1965)
JOAN ARMATRADING - Down To Zero (1976)
JOHN MARTYN - Couldn't Love You More (1977)
ANNETTE PEACOCK - My Mama Never Taught Me How To Cook (1978)

The Dusty is perhaps the finest pure torch performance ever by a British singer. "Twine Time" became my anthem for the year as soon as I discovered it, and the three from '76-'78 could have been recorded yesterday - in fact, I wish they had been, because I'd have a lot more proper new music to listen to.

In terms of old stuff, this year has really been about Kate Bush and early Tom Waits albums. Before this year, I don't think I'd heard a single track by Tom Waits from his first 7 albums. Now I've been listening to them all the time.

And with Kate Bush, I'd always liked her stuff but I only had Ariel and The Whole Story. Now I've got everything and she is now in my top 10 last fm artists.

My practice is to have a pen and paper next to the system when on random during the day. When something crops up that I think 'God yes I'd forgotten how good this is' It then goes on a playlist.

This weeks jottings are:

Cosmic Rough Riders "This Gun isn't Loaded"
Stephen Duffy "What if I fell in love with you"
XTC "This world over"
Cake "Short skirt and Long Jacket"
Beatles "Two of us"
Ian McNabb "Little Princess"
The Coral "Pass it on"
Eels "Pretty Ballerina"
Graham Coxon "Are you ready"
The The "This is the day"

Actually rereading the string I know I'm off topic but what the hell.......

I do so want to like local band Elbow. It's just going to take a few more years, that's all. Trouble is when I do I will no longer be "down with the Hep Cats"

I double-second Paul Beard. Music blogs are fab. Not just for MP3s - some are well written and informative. I regularly visit those with cover versions, christmas songs (all year long), new stuff, er, prog, soundtracks, easy listening and exotica.

Here's a few recent additions to my hard drive and brain bank:

Cocky - Jollity Farm
Marshall Crenshaw - Valerie
Taken By Trees - Sweet Child O'Mine
Johnbob - Barnsley Man's Rap (bet Heppo could translate this for me...)
Julie Andrews Sings LP (from 1958)
John Lithgow - The Sunny Side Of The Street
Pete Atkin - complete back catalogue

I'm off to compile my annual Christmas CD for me mates.

Small Town Talk by Bobby Charles... wonderful.

As I type I'm enjoying 'The Complete Blue Horizon Sessions' from Gordon Smith.

This is a collection of sides and alternate takes recorded by Mike Vernon during the 1960s British Blues boom, and there are some great cuts to enjoy, with Duster Bennett, Peter Green (on harp!), Fleetwood and McVie among others playing in the backing band.

If you like acoustic guitar blues, this is a treat.

Only heard about him yesterday on Radio2-

there are at least another 2 people that recognize the talent that is Bobby Charles - the new album he released this year is also excellent and has some magical guitar from Sonny Landreth on it too.

ST, LH and PC commending. I'm off to amazon, his eponymous is less than a fiver!