512. The Boy with the Arab Strap by Belle and Sebastian

Because I've seen this band live a few times now and this song gets the crowd out of their seats and onto the stage. During this song the stage fills up. The first time I saw them it was about 6 people but the last time it was full. I love stage invasions. Back when Little Murders were riding the wave of power pop/Mod in the early 80s we would always invite the crowd onstage with us much to the chagrin of the lead guitarist who was always trying to keep people from dancing on his pedals. The barrier between artist and audience did not exist.
Because this was also the first Belle and Sebastian song I ever heard. There used to be this TV show called Teachers which starred the guy who plays Rick Grimes in the Walking Dead, Andrew Lincoln. Every episode would start with him riding his bicycle to school while this song played in the background. Loved the show and loved the song. Then it grew from there.
And because Belle & Sebastian remind me so much of the Kinks. Not the rock Kinks. No You Really Got Me or anything like that. Belle don't really rock. No, they remind me of Village Greeen Preservation Society all the way up to Everybody's in Showbiz. The Kinks with a touch of Morrissey maybe. But if I'm going down that route I might of picked "Get Me Away From Here I'm Dying"

511. Peace Frog by the Doors 1970

Well that was a surprise. I always thought this was a sixties song and while looking it up on Google I find it actually came out in 1970. I still see the Doors as the sixties though I guess I'm working under the idea that the sixties went from about 1963 (the Beatles) to about 1972 (Bowie).
As I've written before we used to have Doors specials at Rubber Soul where I DJed in the eighties. These night were just crazy. The Carron Tavern in West Melbourne was licensed for 200 and the first Doors night pulled in 800 payers. It was madness. At the end the cops rolled up and dispersed the crowd outside the club.
Peace Frog was played a lot at Rubber Soul along with a handful of other Doors tunes including The End when Ronny was in the mood for a dramatic ending to the night.
The thing with Peace Frog was though it worked equally as well at the next club I opened up the Lizard Lounge. The Peace Frog rhythm seemed to fit really well with the whole baggy movement. Plus of course the keyboards and guitar sound meant it blended into sets featuring Stone Roses, Happy Mondays and the Charlatans.
And Janes Addiction.
The song is pretty timeless despite it's references to blood in nearly every line. The Doors keeping going in and out of fashion. Some of their songs don't.

510. I'm Gonna Change the World by the Animals 1965

Back in music Year Zero which was for Melbourne punk the year 1977. Well maybe in the eastern suburbs where I lived. As well as trying our own songs we spent a lot of time picking through old sixties songs looking for the songs that would fit with the new punk stylings. Stepping Stone, Watcha Gonna do about it? were all being covered by bands like the Sex Pistols. The Saints played Lipstick on Your Collar and River deep mountain High.
All the bands had covers. We had written enough songs yet.
I'm Gonna Change the World was kind of an obscure Animals song. The b-side of It's My life. A variation on We've gotta get outta this place. Both songs were great. Unfortunately when The Fiction tried playing it at rehearsal it didn't come out a s good as we'd hoped. We never got to play it live because we never got to the stage where we felt it worked. After we scrapped it I'm sure the feel of the song influenced our songwriting.
The Animals were not one of my favourite sixties bands. But this turned my head around. I became a bit of a fan of their tough Newcastle r & b. Even better was songs like Monterey when they went a bit trippy. Even got to see Eric Burdon when he played the Jump Club a few years later. Can't remember much about it.

509. Soul Time by Shirley Ellis 1967

Back in 1974 I went back to the UK with my Mum and sister for Christmas. I spent months living in the front room of my Auntie Sheila's house. I was hanging out with my cousin Neil and going to clubs and ice skating rings and pubs. This was all new to me after living in Nunawading without a car and spending most my time at the church youth club.
One night he took me to a place called the Mecca or more specifically the Highland Room of the Mecca.
As we set off I put on my new jacket though I was a bit worried because it was slightly drizzling outside. Neil told me to put it away. If it rains it's warmer and you won't need a jacket in the club. You'd just have to check it in to the coat room.
 I had been to the Mecca once before when I was about 7 years old and seen a beat band there and remembered it was huge. The Highland Room was not huge. It had tartan walls and a low ceiling.
There were a few there. Girls dancing round handbags. But then this guy walks out and throws talcum powder on the floor and starts doing these other worldly dance moves. Flipping, spinning. We all just stood there watching. Then the DJ starts playing more soul and everyone is up dancing.
40 years later I'm at a club called Southside Soul in Melbourne. A guy pulls out some talcum powder and spreads it on the floor. No flips or slides. Just clean dance moves. Maybe the soulsters are getting on a bit now. But it brings a smile to my face. Then the next song comes on and it's Soul Time by Shirley Ellis. A song Liz and I dance to at home. So I'm on the the dance floor. Away from the talc though. Dancing to a soul great.

508. Magnet and Steel by Walter Egan 1978

When it came time to record my first single back in 1978 Bruce Milne introduced me a friend of his who had been busy playing around with sounds in his living room. Stuart Beatty was probably doing more than that but that was the brief I was given. He could record a single on his 4 track Teac and it would cost us practically nothing.
A meeting was arranged and I went round to Stuart's place in St. Kilda. I couldn't believe the number of cats prowling the place. Big fluffy ones. That's why it was called the Cathouse on the single cover later. He had a great collection of records lining the living room wall and he proceeded to play me sounds. This was the first. I was a bit taken aback by this choice because The Fiction were still a punk band. Magnet and Steel features Stevie Nicks for heaven's sake. And Lindsay Buckingham produced it. Fleetwood Mac were the opposite of what I was hoping for. But Stuart was concentrating on the sound and the harmonies. And it did sound amazing.
And the song stuck with me. I managed to pick up a copy a few weeks later and it spent a fair amount of time on my turntable. I'd never thought much about backing vocals before but this song opened my ears right up. I think I had the melodies but now I needed the harmonies.

507. Love is the Drug by Roxy Music 1975

When this came out in 1975 it seemed like the epitome of cool. It starts with footsteps and then a car starting up. A good car not like the crappy Datsun Bluebird I had bought for 400 dollars on Springvale Road. We follow Bryan Ferry to a bar. Oh it goes on. Who wouldn't want that lifestyle. Sitting in my bedroom in Nunawading it was all I wanted.  As it it turned out a year later when punk came along we didn't want it.
But in the eighties it all came back. The glamorous lifestyle was all anybody wanted. After Rubber Soul and Barbarellas the gang decided to open a club called the Beehive at the Riverside Hotel in Richmond. A great old building with plenty of room to do our stuff. By now I was taking on the roll of press officer or copywriter. On writing the blurb for this club I used all the imagery from Love is the Drug. Even the footsteps and the car starting. I think we even used it in an ad.
The Beehive didn't last long at the Riverside. It was too good for it's own sake. After a month of packed crowds the pub owners wondered why we were taking all the money and having so much fun. So they threw us out so they could do it themselves. The pub shut down a few months later. We moved the Beehive to the Carron Tavern.

506. Shot By Both Sides by Magazine 1978

Picked this single up in a bargain bin for 25 cents not long after it came out. I was very much into the Buzzcocks and Howard Devoto being their lead singer and leaving the band just when they became kind of famous was both strange and intrigueing to me. The Buzzcocks releasing Orgasm Addict put me off at first. Bit of a gimmick record. Magazine releasing this song was much more impressive. However the Buzzcocks went on to release track after brilliant track while I found Magazine a bit sporadic. 

It was almost as if the two bands were a dividing wall in conversations. If you were cool you liked Magazine. Buzzcocks were pop punk. Magazine was the onset of post punk. Me I was forming a mod band with leanings towards the Undertones. I knew then I was never going to be post punk cool. No matter what my inspirations. No matter how many Joy Division records I bought. I did buy myself a long black coat which I thought made me look mysterious. I loved that coat. I wrapped myself in it and made my way to the heart of the crowd. The crowd were probably watching The Church at the Jump Club. 

The song stills sounds great and I never tire of it. Actually the Magazine stuff sounds even better to my ears now than it did then.