Radio On

I'm in love with rock and roll - and I'll be out all night!

The Modern Lovers - 'Roadrunner' (1972, released 1976)

TFIF.

A Leaf On A Windy Day

There's no reason why there shouldn't be a Surf's Up-era Brian Wilson quotation in a 2008 Durutti Column song, but I find it startling nonetheless.

Beautiful album by the way, partly I think in memoriam Anthony H. Wilson.

The Durutti Column - 'So Many Crumbs And Monkeys!' (2008)
The Beach Boys - 'Til I Die' (1971)

Trivial Pursuits

Four days of rather aimless noodling otherwise known as leisure, in which...

We see an unusual goose on the river Thames.

A 'cocktail expert' in The Guardian confirms Drew's assertion that the perfect gin and tonic probably involves Tanqueray gin.

I am disappointed to discover that the new Ray's Jazz, a distressingly antiseptic 'concession' in the horrible Foyles bookshop, has only about five boxes of second hand LPs compared to the old real shop's entire store full.

The soundtrack to The Deep I ordered on vinyl turns out to contain the worst 'disco' song I have ever heard right in the middle of an otherwise lovely side 2.

I learn I am so old and decrepit that if I do four hours of routine weeding, tidying and lawn mowing I will ache like I have run a marathon.

It turns out I needed a large, not extra large, Stax t-shirt from 8Ball.

Getting up to 30 people to write your blog posts for you while you're away proves a bloody brilliant idea.

It's clear you can take lovely pictures at an allotment.

Welcome to my world.

Bettye Swann - 'Little Things Mean A Lot' (1969)

Yeah Baby

Cheesy 80s pop gem turned all-time Balearic classic?

For relaxing times, make it Ghost Of Electricity time...

William Pitt - 'City Lights' (1986)

Down Deep Inside (Reprise)

It was not quite our last Summer, last summer.

But now I have this.

And next I think I will need to get the whole, lovely thing...

John Barry - Theme From 'The Deep' (instrumental) (1977)

MTM Grand

We went wireless in the H household last week and it's all been very exciting. The girls can now 'go on Club Penguin' in the front room on my old laptop and last night I sat up in bed watching old Rhoda clips from YouTube on Mrs H's iTouch. I know. I am one fascinating guy.

Why don't they show Rhoda again? And The Mary Tyler Moore Show come to that? And Taxi? And Laverne & Shirley (although that probably wasn't very good really, was it) ? It'd brighten up my life no end, I can tell you.

Just watching the title sequence brings it all back...



Here's a New York song.

Lou Reed - 'Romeo Had Juliette' (1989)

'You can't beat 2 guitars, bass, drum' (or a Honda, evidently) - Lou Reed.

Yeah Baby

Fix me a cocktail, I'm shaken and stirred.

Roland Shaw & His Orchestra - 'Let The Love Come Through' (1967)

Third Person Singular

Mindful that he hadn't posted since Monday, Davy H did the lazy You Tube embed thing. Still, Mr Shuffle had pleased him the night before by dropping this track into his 'set' while the train passed a sunny Battersea Power Station; it had made him think of Colin who used to have a blog of this name before he used to have a blog of another.

'Absent friends'.

Saint Etienne - 'Kiss And Make Up' (1990)

Sunny Pop Song # 3

And very Spring-like it is too, despite the title.

No-one seems to know very much about October Country, the band. Even the sleeve notes to my Nuggets, Volume 3: Pop, which this is on, refer to them as 'undeniably obscure', but add that 'the record received enough Los Angeles airplay to outsell the Beatles one week at Hollywood's largest record store, Wallach's Music City'.

Composer/producer Michael Lloyd has already made an appearance here, as a member of the West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band.

Anyway, this is a cracking record I think - all group harmonies, stomping strings and (seemingly) fresh Californian air: a tip-top heartstarter for Monday.

October Country - 'October Country' (1968)

Big Swing Friday # 2

The weather continues inclement so I shall require a cocktail.

Ice and slice please Beryl.

Blossom Dearie - 'I Like London In The Rain' (1970)

When Your Heart Breaks

Hello Saferide's 'Arjeplog' has most certainly turned into a song of my spring since Kips posted the lovely video recently and encouraged me to buy. Consider this a sort of 'reply post'.

I don't think anyone's writing songs right now as poppy, real, heartfelt, funny, articulate and achingly, achingly sad as Annika Norlin's, but if you know differently do tell, I'm definitely in the market for this sort of thing.

HS website here.

Sunny Pop Song # 2

I dug out my mono copy of the first Monkees LP the other night and it was a splendid listen I can tell you. The general mood of it also put me in mind of this, which came much later when they'd bizarrely even started being a sort of 'real' band (though to be fair Davy Jones could always sing and Mike Nesmith not only looked the best but could, famously, actually 'play', maaan); it certainly has the requisite breeziness for our Easter weekend and may even afford Mondo some further 'straw hat and cane' action in the chorus.

The Monkees - 'Someday Man' (1969)

Wish me luck; I'm off to try and find some Smarties Easter eggs on a Woolworths-free high street.

Sunny Pop Song # 1

So what's rocking the house here as we plough through yet another box of tissues, smilingly contemplate the sunny weather without actually doing anything in it and look forward to the Easter weekend and the possibility of some choccy bunnies? Eh?

Well, this really; which I first heard on one of my lovely Nuggets LPs (this one, in fact) and which makes me think that to have been a writer and singer of sunny pop songs in California in 1967 must have been a bit like being a playwright in Elizabethan London (Golden Age, and all that).

The Lovin' Spoonful - 'She Is Still A Mystery' (1967)

I'd Call This Convalescence If Only I Could Spell It

So, apparently, I Did Not Die.

That oxymahoojeyflip hydrochloride cleared the nasal passages enough to get me a half decent night's sleep last night, an mp3 of WPIX FM's Penthouse Party Hosted By Dan Neer 1979 (thanks Jon) and a bit of Lonesome Music's mixtape got me through the shower and shave this morning, the new Word magazine arrived with some nice things on the free CD, and an afternoon walk with Mrs H and the girlies to the shops and back via the pub on the river improved the situation still further.

I have a very croaky voice and can do a mean 'I Was Born Under A Wanderin' Star' if anyone's interested, which I do not suppose they are.

Eddie Floyd - 'Things Get Better' (1967)

Well done on Paul Haig day all concerned; I'd have taken part if I'd had any Paul Haig.

PS: I do not ever want to drink Lemsip again, thanks.

DavyH Is Unwell

I'm a poorly little bunny.

And on a Friday too!

It's Rude To Stare

I am sure that minty sharp as you all are you'll already be familiar with this track, but I have to tell you that it popped up on shuffle at me one sunny morning just recently and I said to myself 'DavyH, By George And By Jingo But There Is A Mighty Fine Little Pop Song If Ever You Heard One, Oh Yes' and since this place is only ever about me posting things I've been enjoying or thinking about, here it is now for you.

Do you think if I wear a jacket and trousers like that into town tomorrow the G20 anarchists will leave me alone?

Spiral Starecase - 'More Today Than Yesterday' (1968)

Frank Post

Frank Sinatra - 'Saturday Night Is The Loneliest Night Of The Week' (1958)

Friday Reggae # 10 - SKA!

Oh, yes!

Available separately....

Prince Buster - 'Madness' (1963)
Dandy Livingstone - 'Rudy, A Message To You' (1967)
The Maytals - 'Monkey Man' (1970)

....or as a handy party Threepack.

"Two-Tone, black & white - that's the whole thing" - Jerry Dammers.

[Me and Mrs H are off to a PTA quiz at the girls' school tonight - I bet they don't ask proper questions like "Who played on both the original version of 'Rudy, A Message To You' and The Specials cover?"...Damn and blast them.]

"We've Got A Whisky Named After You"

All of this talk about what we had for our tea and did for our holidays back in 1970s Britland has set me off on what we watched when there was no school at about 10 o'clock in the morning whilst our mums hoovered upstairs and it was a bit boring outside.

I tell you, for years I thought there were countries where people spoke perfect, clipped Home Counties English but were somehow strangely unable to move their lips in synch with it.

Jacky (AKA Jackie Lee) - 'White Horses' (1968)

PS: I am aware that there is a version of this by Kitchens Of Distinction and bog knows how many other fey indie bands but really, come on, everyone knows this is the best record ever made by anyone ever.

PPS: Why is the TV version better than the record? Has it got more 'phasing' or 'reverb' or 'dampening' in it or something? Or what?

Friday Reggae # 9

This week, cool down your temper and jump the train to Zion because he who thinks only of silver and gold shall surely, surely lose his soul.

Sweet vocals and dub-heavy riddims from the punky reggae party - inspiration, Don Letts.

Davy H's Train To Zion Threepack (2009)

Ingredients
Linval Thompson - 'Cool Down Your Temper' (12") (1976)
U-Brown with Linval Thompson - 'Train To Zion (discomix)' (1976)
Junior Byles - 'Fade Away' (1976)

Conscious. Where are you listening and what's your poison?

Waves

I get this great big unstoppable longing for the sea on days like these. When I was a teenager I'd have whizzed off on my bike to St Mary's Bay or Mansands or Scabbacombe Head to get a blast of sharp cold salty air and blow the blues away; there'd be no-one up there on a weekday. Then on the way home I'd have stopped by the little electrical shop in Brixham that sold records upstairs and flicked through the singles. Therapy.

It's been a while since I went down. The Aged Ps grow more Aged and the journey on clogged motorways with all of the family paraphernalia less and less easy-breezy.

I should do the solo train trip with the iPo and a toothbrush again along the railroad by the sea.

Forgive me, I'm just thinking out loud.

The Jam - 'English Rose' (1978)

Can I Save You Any Time?

Come on, give it to me - I'll keep it with mine.

Fairport Convention - 'I'll Keep It With Mine' (1969)

Friday Reggae # 8

This week, the mighty Don Carlos - roots man with the sweetest voice.

Available separately...

Don Carlos - 'Crucial Situation (Version)' (1981)
Don Carlos - 'Prophesy (Version)' (1981)
Don Carlos - 'Roots Man Party' (1982)

...or without gaps as a Davy H Threepack.

Righteous music. Turn up the bass and tell me where you're listening.

Wednesday Week(end)

Side one, track one, nice one.

Alison Statton, I will always love you.

Weekend - 'The End Of The Affair' (1982)

Friday Reggae # 7

I been busy in Babylon with the scissors and paste, so open the windows and give it some bass.

'Davy H's Ruff Roots Reggae mix' (2009)

Ingredients
Jackie Edwards - 'Invasion' (197?)
Jackie Edwards - 'Invasion (Version)' (197?)
Culture - 'Natty Dread Takin' Over' (12") (1977)
Eek A Mouse - 'Heroes Dead And Gone' (12") (1982)
20 minutes of crucial dub-heavy riddims - enjoy x (and let me know where you're playing it!)

Softly Telling Me

Mrs H went out with the girls last night and said this was playing in the bar (they asked what it was). She says she walked home in rain that fell so straight and gentle it made her feel happy, but that may just have been the wine.

Jon Lucien - 'Rashida' (1973)

South West

 

John Surman - 'Tintagel' (1990)

Thinking 'Bout A Life Of Crime

 Got this for 30p today at the local Oxfam shop (closing down).

I think it was one in Naughty Alan's collection that I missed.

Dydd Gwyl Dewi Hapus!

Dave Edmunds - 'Queen Of Hearts' (1979)

Yeah Baby

This track's so hot I had to wear oven gloves just to post it; so slip me another cold one and come shake your tail over here sugar.

Richard "Groove" Holmes - 'Grooving With Mr G' (1971)

Ta Dah!

It's Mrs H's birthday. And this is one of her all time tip-top favourite tunes, which only recently did the daughters cease to believe was an elaborate musical tribute to our current Prime Minister ('Gordon Brown, texture like sun'). Under interrogation I had to confess it actually was not.

(Er, no, I haven't told them it's about 'drugs' yet).

We're off out to lunch later, so be advised I may return the worse for drink.

The Stranglers - 'Golden Brown' (1982)

(PS: Thanks for the present suggestions: she's going for some pampering here; just like Joan did).