How could I surpass the greatness of Shocking Blue's Venus... the additively cuteness of Lynsey dePaul and the total coolness of Nancy Sinatra singing Bang Bang...and damn, how fab & fun is Cher's Gypsies, Tramps and Thieves...
A different mood was needed altogether... but it was the arrival of my Blue Mink 45 in the post that insisted there be another Tape for Meggs.
And once again, I set the rule of only playing music I have on vinyl.
Side A:
1. Can The Can - Suzi Quatro (LP 1973)
My brother was the bigger Suzi fan when I was a teenie. To me her band was really ugly to look at (aesthetics in pop mean a lot to a teenager) but she was pretty cool even though it looked a bit silly having that big bass guitar so low when she was so little.
I saw her on the telly recently in an English whodunit where she played a has-been type rock star, still on the booze. She was excellent and funny.
In the early 1970s her biggest record hits were in Australia (followed closely by Europe / UK).
Born in Detroit USA, she's lived in the UK for many years, was the voice of Rio in the Bob the Builder film and turns 60 in 2010.
2. Melting Pot by Blue Mink (45 1969) - an all time favourite
3. Love Shack by The B52's (LP 1989)
4. Sex & Drugs & Rock & Roll by Ian Dury (LP 1977)
The LP cover this comes from includes Ian Dury's son, Baxter at the age of six.
5. Shivers by Marie Hoy and Friends (LP 1986)
Also sung by The Boys Next Door (Nick Cave), this is from the Dogs In Space movie soundtrack - to me, hers is the coolest version - one of my very favourite songs from the 1980s.
AH doesn't like hearing this song because an old boyfriend a lifetime ago used to sing it, badly.
6. Tubular Bells by Mike Oldfield (45 1974)
Unlike the long-winded LP where he announces all the instruments about to be played (gee, isn't Mike a clever lad), this is the single - the compact version, an excellent tune and was released as single from the soundtrack from the The Exorcist. A friend of mine can't even hear the title of that film; it frightened her so much as a kid...
7. O Caritas by Cat Stevens (LP 1972)
Excellent guitar, wonderful macho voice with a splash of high drama. Love the Cat.
8. Penny Lane by The Beatles (EP 1968)
Can't even remember when I got this EP record it's fun to play & this particular piece of vinyl has the romantic, nostalgic addition of quite a bit of surface noise... but no distortion
9. Eleanor Rigby by The Beatles (EP 1968)
Got lazy & let it play from the last song.
10. Billy Don't Be A Hero by Paper Lace (45 1974)
As said in a previous blog - they're a bit like topiary & cement garden animals - 4 men often in matching suits with spangles and with the same flower in each lapel. In this song, they also whistle and the 5th member, the drummer, is the singer... fabulous.
I still regret the day I didn't buy that how-to book on indoor topiary from a sale table... At least I have Paper Lace on 45 (I would never regret not buying their LP - that would be like actually having a topiary garden)
11. The Corrupt Ones by Dusty Springfield (LP 1967 - soundtrack)
Crappy B grade James Bond wanna be film starring Robert Stack & Elke Sommer (need I say more...) BUT! - with a fabulous theme song
12. I Feel Free by Cream (LP 1972)
13. Elephant Talk by King Crimson (LP 1981)
SIDE B.
1. Bohemian Rhapsody by Queen (LP 1985) a hits LP - the song was released in 1975
I don't need to link this one as everyone has heard and can probably still sing it most the way through, making up that other language operatic bit.
AH learnt English at school singing songs including this one - funny, hey?
To my horror, I cut off the first word of this song underestimating the leader tape and apologised to Meggs. She replied that it’s fine but her face tightened as she told me about the guy who'd been stalking her and was a nutter Queen fan as well so she's not too fussed about listening to Queen.
I may have to redo the tape.
2. Young Blood by Rickie Lee Jones (LP 1979)
From her first album with the hit, Chuckie's in Love on it that really was overplayed in its day and I'm still not in the mood to hear it. Young Blood is cooler and less self conscious.
3. Games Without Frontiers by Peter Gabriel (LP 1979)
Not the original video to this song but all I could find after looking for, oh 3 minutes...
4. One More Cup of Coffee by Bob Dylan (LP 1975)
With accompaniment from Emmylou Harris & good fun to sing along with providing one does a nasal roberty bob impersonation.
5. In The Wilderness by Genesis (LP 1976)
one of those "Rock Roots" series. Original recording was 1969 & it shows - a little corny but it has a good pop feel
6. Dancing Barefoot by Patti Smith (LP 1979)
Poet, patriot, artist, messenger. I saw her in concert last year (2008) at the Sydney Opera House - I think none of us, the audience and her, Patti Smith, could really believe it. She loved opera at a young age and said on stage, I may not be able to sing opera but I'm singing in the Opera House!
The last time I'd been in the same room as she, it was the local Enmore Theatre in 1997. Ushers kept making us in the audience stay in our seats. Patti got down, off the stage and danced with people until we all got up and stayed up. This latest concert was full of subdued people and I was asked to sit down during Gloria (I knew the playlist and it was the 3rd last song for f*&ks sake) - hey mister, this is rock, this is Patti Smith and I WILL NOT BEHAVE!! some sweet girl in retro clothes suggested I dance over there, in the side aisle... ... where do these people come from?
At the age of 62, Patti Smith is dancing through the audience, motioning people to get up and dance. They get up as she passes, clambering arms with hands out to touch her, only to sit again when she passes. What a lame lot of well fed people...behaving... She was talking politics - Bush was still in but Obama was on the campaign trail.. Here, Howard was gone, even humiliated and Rudd is in - quiet, mediocre and not John Howard.
Patti Smith lives in the Chelsea Hotel in New York. She was there when those people flew planes into the twin towers. In the book of her exhibition, Strange Messenger (2002 Andy Warhol Museum) she writes; "They (the twin towers) are gone. And all those people. I keep sitting on my stoop looking towards the night, to where they were, thinking they will reappear. A dazed businessman impeccably dressed, save for the white dust covering his shoes, passes..."
7. Starman by David Bowie (LP 1972)
Check out the boy in the audience with the horizontal striped vest who spots himself on the monitor about 2 third through - What an effing dork. As a just made it to wet dreams youngster, would he ever envisioned being seen more than 2 million times 35 years later - heh heh.
This song has been covered by more than 25 other artists. This song was not a first choice for Bowie's album, The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars but replaced a cover of Chuck Berry's Round and Round, reportedly on the insistence of Bowie's record company lawyer/executive, Dennis Katz.
8. Universal Radio by Nina Hagen (45 1985)
go Nina. Nina for president
9. Dancing In The Street by Martha and The Vandellas (LP from original recording 1964)
10. Too Nice To Talk To by The Beat (LP 1983)
(see! and you thought I couldn't remember the 80s...)
11. Dear Prudence by Siouxsie and the Banshees (45 1983)
12. Doodlin' by Dusty Springfield (LP 1965)
Have to go now & play some records...
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