Death Disco

People often say to me, "DavyH old fruit, we know your occasional series of extended disco classics builds into a magnificent library our whole family will enjoy, but sometimes of a Friday we'd quite fancy a blast of the Young Master Lydon in his prime, especially given the recent resurgence of interest in his second most-famous band".

I am happy to oblige.

Hit it Wobble.

Public Image Limited - 'Public Image' (1978)

'Musee Des Beaux Arts'

About suffering they were never wrong,
The Old Masters: how well, they understood
Its human position; how it takes place
While someone else is eating or opening a window or just walking dully along;
How, when the aged are reverently, passionately waiting
For the miraculous birth, there always must be
Children who did not specially want it to happen, skating
On a pond at the edge of the wood:
They never forgot
That even the dreadful martyrdom must run its course
Anyhow in a corner, some untidy spot
Where the dogs go on with their doggy life and the torturer's horse
Scratches its innocent behind on a tree.

In Brueghel's Icarus, for instance: how everything turns away
Quite leisurely from the disaster; the ploughman may
Have heard the splash, the forsaken cry,
But for him it was not an important failure; the sun shone
As it had to on the white legs disappearing into the green
Water; and the expensive delicate ship that must have seen
Something amazing, a boy falling out of the sky,
had somewhere to get to and sailed calmly on.

- W.H Auden

(a postscript for Greer).

Another Day On Earth

It's been a strange few days of plans thrown out and random stuff perking away in the rattly old coffee pot of my head.

Getting ahead of myself a bit, since it's still bloody cold out there, I was trying to find out where those lovely lines come from that the steadily-reforming Phil Connors quotes in Groundhog Day

And winter slumbering in the open air,
Wears on his smiling face a dream of Spring

and found it was a poem by Coleridge.

And spookily, The Grauniad has given it away in a little free book today.

My head full of Eno (of which more here and, of course, here) I popped this on in the car on the way to collect my big sister who'd unexpectedly arrived in London and found it, in the light (or, I think we should say, darkness) of all the suffering in the news lately, very, very right and, well, moving.

Brian Eno - 'How Many Worlds' (2005)

-----

And she'd been to see the Aged Ps and felt 'things could be better' and that the little screws in the Old Man's mind may have shaken still looser since the last time she, or I, went down.

-----

I'm taking the biggest bag of old baby clothes up the road to this man in a minute; while all those mega-agencies and the mighty US military were noodling about at the airport, him and his little white van got straight through - and he's going back on Friday.

-----

Friday Reggae # 13

No matter what the people say
These sounds leads the way
It's the order of the day from your boss DJ
I King Stitt. 
Hot it from the top, to the very last drop!

He's right you know.

Clancy Eccles (featuring King Stitt) - 'Fire Corner' (1969)

Gumshoe Blues

Re-reading Raymond Chandler at the moment - it's been a while. God I love his writing.

I smelled Los Angeles before I got to it. It smelled stale and old like a living-room that had been closed too long. But the coloured lights fooled you. The lights were wonderful. There ought to be a monument to the man who invented neon lights. Fifteen stories high, solid marble. There's a boy who really made something out of nothing.

- 'The Little Sister' (1949)

----

Of course the best film of a Chandler novel, the one that truly and most accurately evokes Philip Marlowe's world of all-night drugstores, hired heavies with blackjacks, bent Bay City cops and platinum blondes who are not all they seem is, ironically, the one made, and set, in 1973 - albeit a 1973 shot through with and/or rammed uncomfortably up against Chandler's 40s, thanks in no small measure to John Williams' blue, blue score, and the constantly reiterated title song, with lyrics by Johnny Mercer...no less.

Jack Sheldon - 'The Long Goodbye' (vocal) (1973)
John Williams - 'The Long Goodbye' (vocal*) (1973)
Dave Grusin Trio - 'The Long Goodbye' (instrumental) (1973)

* I think, Clydie King.

Yeah Baby

Our occasional series of extended disco classics builds into a magnificent library your whole family will enjoy.

This week, in memoriam Theodore De Reese 'Teddy' Pendergrass (1950-2010).

Lovin' the 'breakdown' at 5:08. And what a voice.

Harold Melvin & The Blue Notes - 'Don't Leave Me This Way' (extended version) (1975)

Softly Still

Thick snow fell again here through the night, and it's falling softly still.

Here are three beautiful blue things uploaded just now from my LP of the soundtrack of the movie that made us cry, 24 years ago baby.

Chet Baker - 'Fair Weather' (1986)
Herbie Hancock - 'The Peacocks' (1986)
Lonette McKee - 'How Long Has This Been Going On?' (1986)

Herbie Hancock - piano
Pierre Michelot - bass
Billy Higgins - drums
Dexter Gordon - tenor saxophone
Wayne Shorter - soprano saxophone (on 'The Peacocks')

One For Sorrow

Claude Monet 'The Magpie'

There's a direct line from this (written in 1888) to the sort of thing Bill Evans was playing in the 1960s and even on to, as I was thinking when I played it last night, 'Nightporter' by Japan which only goes to show that like the man said, 'It's all just music' (and it's all just lovely).

Reinbert De Leeuw - Erik Satie: 'Gnossiennes - No 1 (Lent)' (1995)

It's Friday...Let's Skid Around Berkshire!

In an outrageous imposition on my Friday, I was today required to drive to an unpaid, afternoon 'meeting' outside of London! 

And my wheels went slippy slippy on rubbish country lanes!

I may need an extra day off on Monday just to recover.

The Invitations - 'Ski-ing In The Snow' (1966)

Snow Business

Had it not formed the lynchpin of our school music teacher's dastardly plan to sneak 'classical' music at us when we weren't looking, I'd never have heard this: he used to play it (quite loudly, as I recall) on the classroom record player.

Debussy played on a 'synthesiser'! That took up a whole room! Imagine!

Like my old man said - clever chaps, those Japanese.

Tomita - 'Snowflakes Are Dancing' (1974)
Tomita - 'Footprints In The Snow' (1974)

Marty!

What a song.

And something put it into my head today, cripes knows what.

Mum & Dad had it on this (ah! more K-Tel memories).

One of those LPs in the steel rack, by the radiogram.

Marty Robbins - 'A White Sportcoat (And A Pink Carnation)' (1957)

HNY

That there's a Black Velvet - Guinness with a dash of champagne - and it's what I'll be drinking to welcome in the (yes Mondo!) very sci-fi sounding 2010 (though actually mine'll have a darned sight more Guinness in it and quite a bit less bloomin' champagne and will be served in a PROPER PINT GLASS! but you get the general idea).

Anyway.....New Year, old record, best intro ever.

Cheers!

Frankie Valli & The Four Seasons - 'The Night' (1971)

Post Solstice, Postgate

Dark, isn't it?

No wonder we people of the northlands bring the only trees that are green into our huts and light our fires & candles and quaff of the winter ale and tell our tall tales at this point in the cycle of the turning of the mother earth.

It is all I can do to lift my head from the pillow of a morn.

The Jesus & Mary Chain - 'Darklands' (1987)

Peace, Out

I've wrapped the presents but still have that nagging feeling I've forgotten something important; Mrs H is back from the supermarket with vittels and I'll be making the booze run later. We've already watched The Snowman, The Muppets Christmas Carol and that daft one where Leslie Nielsen is Santa with memory loss, but haven't yet steeled ourselves for the weepfest that is It's A Wonderful Life (be strong my heart!). The mother-in-law arrives tomorrow ("Is there anything I can do to help?"). Someone has eaten all the cheesy footballs and most of the Quality Street before it's even Christmas Eve. The sprouts have two more days to boil.

Putting this on for a moment I'm in Vegas in '63.......JFK's still alive and the crowd at The Sands are wearing those pointy foil party hats you only ever see in the movies - Frank, Dino and Sammy are living high in the dirty business of festive dreams. I won $35,000 on the blackjack tables earlier today and blew it all on diamond jewellery and that sexy red dress with the sequins for Mrs H. The girlies sleep tight in their great feather bed in the penthouse suite.

Sing it Sammy.

Sammy Davis, Jr. - 'It's Christmas Time All Over The World' (1963)

And so it is! And so are you - my friends.

Thank you so much for your company this year.

And have a splendid one - wherever you are x

R'n'B Home For Christmas

 

In which B.B and Lucille Memphis-up our last Friday before Christmas. Yeah baby and woo hoo! the cheesy footballs are on me! 

 B.B. King - 'Christmas Celebration' (2002)

Seductional*

 Julie London - 'I'd Like You For Christmas' (1957)  

* Yes, I know that isn't actually a word. But it should be.

Traditional

Goodness me, I love this record.

Last posted two years ago to the day!

Aretha Franklin - 'Kissin' By The Mistletoe' (1961)

Once Upon A Time

Just got back from watching the girlies' school Christmas production - the musical version of Roald Dahl's subversive Cinderella, in which Cinders decides not to marry the handsome prince (because he seems far too keen on chopping people's heads off) and plumps for the local jam-maker instead; quite rightly.

It reminded me a bit of this...

'Any Prince To Any Princess' 

August is coming
and the goose, I'm afraid,
is getting fat.
There have been
no golden eggs for some months now.
Straw has fallen well below market price
despite my frantic spinning
and the sedge is,
as you rightly point out,
withered.

I can't imagine how the pea
got under your mattress. I apologize
humbly. The chambermaid has, of course,
been sacked. As has the frog footman.
I understand that, during my recent fact-finding tour of the
Golden River,
despite your nightly unavailing efforts,
he remained obstinately
froggish.

I hope that the Three Wishes granted by the General
Assembly
will go some way towards redressing
this unfortunate recent sequence of events.
The fall in output from the shoe-factory, for example:
no one could have foreseen the work-to-rule
by the National Union of Elves. Not to mention the fact
that the court has been fast asleep
for the last six and a half years.

The matter of the poisoned apple has been taken up
by the Board of Trade: I think I can assure you
the incident will not be
repeated.

I can quite understand, in the circumstances,
your reluctance to let down
your golden tresses. However
I feel I must point out
that the weather isn't getting any better
and I already have a nasty chill
from waiting at the base
of the White Tower. You must see
the absurdity of the
situation.
Some of the courtiers are beginning to talk,
not to mention the humble villagers.
It's been three weeks now, and not even
a word.

Princess,
a cold, black wind
howls through our empty palace.
Dead leaves litter the bedchamber;
the mirror on the wall hasn't said a thing
since you left. I can only ask,
bearing all this in mind,
that you think again,

let down your hair,

reconsider.

- Adrian Henri (RIP).

----

The show was excellent. And so was the mulled wine. Oh yes it was.

Donna Summer - 'Happily Ever After' (1977) (camp as Christmas)

Morrissey On 'Desert Island Discs'

I missed this when it was on the radio, and then I missed its run on the iPlayer (hopeless!), so thank you dear person unknown who uploaded it in such fine quality to Media Fire.

It's a warm, funny and (for him) relatively revealing interview and an tip-top selection of tunes, only one of which I had heard before.

Morrissey's Desert Island Discs (presenter, Kirsty Young) (BBC Radio 4, November 29th 2009)

The songs played are listed in comments - 'so if you don't want to spoil the surprise, look away now'.

Ja Baby

Neon Licht
Schimmendes Neon Licht
Und wenn die Nacht anbricht
Ist diese Stadt aus Licht
-
Neon lights
Shimmering neon lights
And at the fall of night
This city's made of light
-

Mein Gott, Ich liebe this.

Ein groß Bier bitte Brigitte!

Kraftwerk - 'Neonlicht' (1978)

Little Boy Lost, Little Boy Blue

This song comes from a sweet children's animated film based on the book & illustrations of David Melling and when we watched it on telly with the girls last Christmas, I was most struck with it.

It popped up on the iPo the other day in one of those Mr Shuffle Gets It Right For The Season moments, and then I heard Kate Rusby interviewed on Radcliffe & Maconie too.

As the summer always turns me on to sweet soul, funk and reggae, so these nights-below-zero send me back to things that are English and folky and ancient-sounding.

Kate Rusby - 'Little Jack Frost' (2005)

More Advent-urous

Well....I've been waiting and waiting and I think I finally must now be allowed to play this again. And look! It's so early, Low's lights and tinsel haven't even arrived yet!

Low - 'Just Like Christmas' (1999).

Woking Class

Out in the pastures we call society
You can't see further than the bottom of your glass

Here's a band you might know x

Ping Pong

It's alright 'cos the historical pattern has shown
How the economical cycle tends to revolve
In a round of decades, three stages stand out in a loop
A slump and war then peel back to square one and back for more
Bigger slump and bigger wars and a smaller recovery
Huger slump and greater wars and a shallower recovery
You see the recovery always comes 'round again
There's nothing to worry for, things will look after themselves
It's alright, recovery always comes 'round again
There's nothing to worry for if things can only get better
There's only millions that lose their jobs and homes and sometimes accents
There's only millions that die in their bloody wars, it's alright
It's only their lives and the lives of their next of kin that they are losing
It's only their lives and the lives of their next of kin that they are losing
Don't worry, shut up, sit down, go with it and be happy.

Stereolab - 'Ping Pong' (1994)

King Me

As if I needed another PC-based distraction, I seem to have developed an addiction to internet checkers (or draughts, as we used to call them).

I'm playing it late at night and early in the morning, with a cup of tea at lunchtime and whenever I should be doing something 'important' but am bored.

It's not as if I've played the physical version obsessively over the years - there's been the occasional sortie on holiday with the girls or Mrs H, and my grandad used to visit slaughter upon me with it when I was a kid (lawdy didn't that generation know their board games, their cards, their billiards?). But this infernal computery versh has got me hooked.

It's taught me a few things about myself, mind you, viz -

- I can't think very far ahead (hence rubbish at chess)
- I'm impatient when things aren't moving quickly - so act in haste and make mistakes
- I'm not very good at taking risks
- I play defensively
- I can play well when the chips are down

I've tried to work on all this, and have started to win more.

Yesterday I finished a game with a satisfying flourish by taking the last three of my opponent's pieces on the board (all kings) in a single move.

Because I bided my time.

It all reminds me of those lessons the Master used to give Grasshopper in Kung Fu.

The Dave Brubeck Quartet - 'Everybody's Jumpin' (1959)

If you're running one of the older versions of Windows, the pesky game is lurking in your Start menu right now waiting to lure you - be warned!

Yeah Baby

Our occasional series of extended disco classics builds into a magnificent collection your whole family will enjoy.

This week - a solid gold classic in rarely-heard twelve inch form.

From that stash of vinyl we've been discussing.

It's big and it's bassy and the breakdown's to die for.

Jocelyn Brown - 'Somebody Else's Guy' (12") (1984)

In Their Tender Grasp

When one of the Dads at the girlies' school told me he was moving house and planned to chuck all his vinyl out (!) I was round there like a shot for a rummage; he'd very sportingly granted me first refusal on the 'stock' before he hefted it up to the charity shop.

He's a bit of a disco bunny, as it turns out - so I picked up some late Marvin and an Imagination LP (*sings* - "Music and lights! I'll sing and dance with you all night!") a couple of nice twelve inches I'm sure will crop up here some Friday or other and - a tad anomalously given the general spangled thrust of his collection - this.

Which he was kind enough to let me have for nothing, even though I said I thought it'd fetch a few quid 'out there' (I was right - crazy prices for even the CD!).

We popped it on chez H last night and oh, what loveliness we found it to contain.

Sorry, poor work-rate I know, but I'm only part-way through computerising it I'm afraid; still, I wanted to share a little of it with you.

This old music is lighting up my dark, dark November, and perhaps it will yours, too.

The Lotus Eaters - 'German Girl' (1984)

The Lotus Eaters - 'Out On Your Own' (1984)

Tagged

*sigh* Evidently I have been 'tagged' by the Drewster.

I don't usually approve of this sort of thing, but he's a companero and it would seem churlish not to comply.

The rules of the game are

1 To post a song that makes you happy
2 To tag as many people as you want
3 To say one thing about the blog(s) that you tag that will make them smile.

I tag Mick because it was his birthday yesterday, I like him 'Simpsonized' and this might encourage him to post twice in the same month.

The world's a brighter place in my beautiful balloon.

The 5th Dimension - 'Up, Up And Away' (1967)

Wo Wo Wo, It's Magic

Shoot me down in flames but I most wickedly and indulgently took a lunchtime-afternoon off on Monday to meet my old funk-buddy Wayne 'up West' for pints and a pub tuna-melt & chips.

There was much quaffing and blethering on about nonsense.

At one point Wayne asked me if I'd heard a certain song by Bobby Womack, and when I said I hadn't, he played it for me down his iPod. We agreed it was a smoker, the acoustic guitar (Bobby's) high up in the mix a special delight, and I said 'I've gotta find that, it'd make a tip-top Friday post'.

Just an hour or so later as we flicked through the racks at Revival Records in Berwick St, looking for nothing in particular, we found a 'near mint' copy of the original album with the song on for just £2.

£2!

The great and beneficent gods of vinyl be praised, it was another of those moments when you know they are smiling down upon you.

How could I not buy it? It had been waiting there for me. And it turns out to have lots of lovely things on it, mostly ballads, with Mister Mack in fine vocal form.

So I get to post what I wanted...

Bobby Womack - 'When The Weekend Comes' (1986)

and a bonus for your late nites too...

Bobby Womack - 'I Can't Stay Mad' (1986)

Both songs - Bobby Womack/Harold Payne.

Yeah baby and Amen.

Winter Garden

If you came to my garden right now you'd see a shambolic layer of soggy, fallen leaves on what passes for the lawn and a couple of old bicycles rusting in the rain.

Minnie's sounds better.

Minnie Riperton - 'Come To My Garden' (1970)

[Stepney if you've heard this one before]