438. She's So Fine by the Easybeats 1965

Last week I was off to see Morrissey at Festival Hall in Dudley Street in West Melbourne. What always comes to mind is that this was the place the Beatles played. It was also the first indoor gig I ever went to when I saw Roxy Music there back in the seventies. It is also just around the corner from the Carron tavern which was the home for a very long time of Rubber soul and the Beehive. So when my friend Paul and his partner Tanja told us to meet at the pub around the corner I was surprised that it was the carron and it was totally packed.  3 drinks for 25 dollars was a bit stiff considering it would have cost about $4 back then.
yes the place had changed as places do but you could still see the basic structure with it's pillars that mapped out the dancefloor. The kitchen behind the DJ booth, well pool table, where we count out the money. The side doorway where people would line up. The garage across the road is now just a wasteland.
"Shes So Fine" always went down a storm at Rubber Soul. Manic upbeat rock and roll. The Easybeats had brilliant songs. Never could understand why they weren't massive all over the world. Their greatest hits album is magic. The sound just leaps off the record.

437. Red Light Spells Danger by Billy Ocean 1977

I was busy sorting through my singles the other day when I came across the single "Love Really Hurts Without You", a big hit for Billy ocean in 1976. It was one of those Old Gold releases so I flipped it over to see what was on the other side. And it was his 1977 hit "Red Light". Brilliant. Not that I've known this song for all that long.
I was in the UK a few months back and I was up in Lytham staying with my brother Dave. On the third night there we went around to his daughter Sharon's place for a BBQ.  We've been there before for dinner so the family and I knew we were going to to enjoy ourselves. As we did. Micheal, Sharon's husband insisted that after dinner we needed to dance. We need more people in the world like this! There were only a few of us but we danced. Possibly helped by the consumption of wine and spirits. And it was "Red light Spells Danger". And I'd never heard it before but it seemed so familiar. Maybe some time back I'd heard it but really it was like finding a lost treasure. It had that real Northern soul feel. How could you not dance?
The kids peeped around the door to see us moving and shaking their heads quickly retreated to other rooms. Despite our urging to come and join us.
So now 3 months later I'm in the garage with it on vinyl and it just jumps off the record. Sweet. Now I just need somebody to dance with.

436. You're Gonna Lose Us by The Cribs 2005

Found this song on a NME compilation CD back in the mid noughties. Thanks to every magazine seeming to be giving away free CDs each month I had a ton of new music to listen to. Mainly because I was an avid magazine buyer too. Mojo, Word, Uncut.  Actually I've got boxes and boxes of compilation CDs from magazines stretching back 15 years. Q, Select etc. Still not sure what I'm gonna do with them.
I remember reading about the Cribs before hearing any of their music. Three brothers who seemed to be bringing a mix of classic punk and the libertines together. Their were tales of vomiting on stage and being completely gross. In fact looking at their videos I can quite imagine all that kind of stuff going on. But hearing them reminded me of The Wedding Present. It's going this train like punk sound going but then it's got these great melodies. And great lyrics too. I was soon singing along especially to this song which is the second song I picked up of theirs. The first being Hey Scenesters. Didn't do much for me that one. Well not at the time. Now I've got the Cribs on constant rotation.
Then big surprise Johnny Marr joins the band and they tour Australia. And for some reason which I don't remember I miss the gig. It still kills me.  And he's already left. Then again they do alright on their own anyway.

435. Nothing But a Heartache by The Flirtations 1968

A Northern Soul classic and a great pop tune that I discovered on one of Decca's world of Hits compilations back in the Seventies. 

Despite being round for the sixties and even being a teenager (just) in 1969 pop music passed by in a parade of latest and greatest hits. Unless I could afford to buy the record this meant a lot of time glued to the transistor radio just waiting for a favourite song to come on. This much devotion meant I also would be sick of the songs by the end of their run of the charts.

However when I really got started buying records in the Seventies I kind of had to start digging through all those sixties hits to find long forgotten songs. Luckily there were tons of sixties compilation records around. And so I came across songs I'd never heard like this one. But this should have topped the charts all round the world it's just so damn good. 

434. Victoria by The Kinks 1969

For all the brilliance of the Beatles and really there is no getting past their hold on popular culture throughout the sixties, I still prefer the journey that The Kinks made from the heavy metal template of You Really Got Me right up to this song in 69. And there was more to come with songs like Apeman and Lola. And I did like the concept albums of the seventies.

Why this song as remained a firm favourite of mine is because quite like Picture Book it rocks with an acoustic guitar blazing the trail. A song made to spin on a turntable. This time from the Arthur album which was not one of my favourites but has grown on me. Maybe it's got something to with the large kangaroo in the gatefold of my copy. And some of the songs were quite odd. But there was this and Shangri La.
I picked up the album at Monash University. Cut out sleeve. Imported from the USA and sold cheap. Cardboard sleeve that weighed a ton.
Never got sick of this song. Even the Fall did a good job of it. Why isn't our state's tourist anthem?

433. How Soon Is Now? by The Smiths 1985

After sorting out my record collection and finding a large chunk of it as disappeared in the last few months I've been steadily refilling the holes left. Still haven't got any idea where the records went but there is a black box I used to carry records to the Lizard lounge to that is no longer with me. Because I basically ignored vinyl for so long these records could have gone anywhere in the last 16 years.
So now I'm back at record fairs and browsing garage sales and the like.
It's kinda peaked my interest in vinyl and now I'm hunting down not only lost records but vinyl I would like to have.
"How soon Is Now?" was a big record at all the clubs I DJed at starting with the Beehive in the mid eighties. The first time I heard it I don't think I was that impressed but Ronny kept playing it and soon I was hypnotized by those strangely psychedelic Bo Diddley rhythms and the slide guitar. And of course the lyrics although brief just seemed so poignant standing on the dance floor. Often surrounded by slow motion groovers awash in this wall of sound. It lacked the pop punch that got people jumping up and down but it had the crowd moving from back bar to front bar.
Quite a magical song that left it's mark on our young impressionable minds.

432. This is The Day by The The 1983

Spent many an afternoon sitting on around on Sunday afternoons listening to this song and it's parent album. This was the kind of music we would immerse ourselves in as the eighties droves us into South yarra flats and bottles of chardonnay.
I had a flat just off Toorak Road. Three flights up. The balcony was the size of a dining room table and in fact you could only fit one director's chair on it. But the light streamed in and you could see the city over the tree tops. And all the furniture was off white.
I had to trade in my Fender twin reverb for something lighter because it was too hard to carry up the stairs after a gig and my Mazda couldn't lock up because the window was broken. Eventually I sold it and replaced it with a Fiat that would break down in hot weather.
I got myself a VCR and threw away my Beta cos there were no videos in the shops. I borrowed a video camera and made hours of tapes of my friends miming to Cure records. I wore white shirts and 501s and went to the Club in Collingwood but never watched the band for longer than 10 minutes.
My band was folding. Things were changing.

431. Excitable Boy by Warren Zevon 1978

In the grip of punk rock in 1978 and going to endless parties where they played Bowie and Kraftwerk I still found myself listening to artists none of my group of like minded inner city rock dudes were taking any notice of.
Warren Zevon was big on the radio with a track called Werewolves of London which I found 'too' funny. Never caring for funny songs longer than the one play when I would get the joke. So I wrote him off. Kinda. There was something in the piano playing and the casual looseness of the recording that I liked. The fondness bore fruit when I was at a teacher party in 79 (the kind of parties I would avoid because I found them quite alien to me) and someone sat me me down and said "you're in a band, you like good music, listen to Warren Zevon"..or something along those lines.
The wine was flowing from the casks. I was feeling alright so I thought I would give it a go. The first thing I heard was Excitable Boy and not only was the music great but I couldn't get over the lyrics. They were not only humorous but incredibly macabre. and the backing and the feel just got you singing along to these nasty doings by this serial nutter.
I ended buying the album and collecting his other stuff. It also made me like a few things Jackson Browne did after I learned of his connections to Warren Zevon.

430. Kinky Afro by The Happy Mondays 1990

1990 was a great year because I opened the lizard lounge and music was going through this amazing phase where Indie and alternative and dance music all seemed to come together. Madchester was on everyone's lips as we grooved to the Stone Roses and Happy Mondays. This was a single off their "pills thrills and bellyaches" album which got them high rotation both on the home turntable and at the club. Just a fantastic groove.
It also had a very groovy video where all these beautiful model types dancing around the grotty looking Mondays. Magic.
Because I had opened a club that seemed to be doing alright I started getting invited around to record companies to collect masses of new records. I used to love going around to places like Festival records and coming out with a bunch of new vinyl. They would also throw in videos of the bands. Which was the first time I saw the above video.
Some of the record companies were a little bit more up tight and wanted you to come to DJ meetings where they sold the merits of particular songs. Never went to those. For me if it wasn't hello and thank you I wasn't there. I could buy my own.
When CDs came along it all went slightly weird and gradually became too hard because they didn't really want to part with CDs. Gradually it became a little too painful and I just bought my own stuff.

429. Try A Little Tenderness by Otis Redding 1966

Just found out that song was written in 1932 and had been around for a long time before Otis covered it. I heard the song first when it was a hit on the radio for a band called Max Merrit and the Meteors and though I was a bit of a Glam fan in those heady days of the seventies I could tell that Max was singing a great song.
But that was nothing compared to what I heard when someone finally played me Otis Redding. A slow build up that takes you right to the top and then it's over and you want to play it again straight away. When I finally got my hands on my own copy of the record and it did take me awhile to find the single I played it to death. And never got sick of it. Even when it was all over the place when the Commitments pushed it back into the limelight in the eighties.
Just a totally fab song that gave me my first real taste of soul. I was one of those saddos who carried Otis Blue to parties to show how hip I was. And it was the love of this music rather than electronica which made it important that the Mods of 1979 had to establish our own clubs.

428. You're Wondering Now by The Specials 1979

As I sorted out my records during the holidays one of the first pieces of vinyl I discovered missing was the first Specials album. It wasn't long before I discovered I lost a few more gems including all my Smiths records to. I've wracked my brains but I can't for the life of me even guess where I may have lost them. The only thing I can think of now is that a box went missing in between houses when I moved 6 years ago.
One good thing that may have come out of this is I'm back to looking through record racks searching down those cool records I lost.
"You're Wondering Now" is the last track on the Specials debut album. In the Mod clubs I DJed at in the early 80s The Specials were a big fixture of the night's sound. Gangsters. Little Bitch, Nite Klub, Message to You Rudi were all dancefloor favourites. And from Kommottion to the Venetian Room to Barbarellas to the Beehive and onto the Lizard Lounge the songs on this album were a staple of my DJ sets.
At the end of the night I would sometimes finish with this track. Sometimes to a half empty beer stained crowd. Sometimes to a capacity crowd who wrapped arms around each other and sang along. And went off into the night. Wondering what to do now this was the end.

427. Can't get It Out Of my Head by ELO 1974

This one always reminds of late night radio, second hand vauxhalls and college girlfriends.
Late night radio back in the seventies was a thing of pure beauty. Songs would go on forever. This song came from the album Eldorado. I heard it first on the album show.
I was out on a date with a girl from teachers college. She drove because I didn't have a license yet. Though I had a car. 400 dollars worth of Datsun Bluebird. 1965 model. She had a white vauxhall viva.
I think we went out to the pizza parlour. But I don't remember that too well. I remember sitting talking outside my house in her car and listening to the radio. Then this song came on and we just listened. And then I kissed her goodnight.
I sat on the fence as she drove off. And that song was in my head. I must have sat on the fence for a long time. It was just a magic moment.

426, My Girl by Madness 1979

When I hit the UK at the end of 1979 I had just released Little Murders first single "Things Will Be Different" and played a handful of gigs. Mainly at the Champion Hotel in Fitzroy which became home of the Little bands movement. I went over looking for all things Mod having read about the movement in NME and Melody Maker. But when I got there something else was happening,.
One night I was watching Top of The Pops and it featured three ska bands. The Specials, The Beat and Madness doing this song. It was wonderful. My Girl is a great song. Reminds me a bit of Ian Dury or Squeeze. But definitely Madness. So much going on but it all makes sense. Makes you want to get up and move.
And it was also the clothes these bands were wearing. They seemed to make wearing suits a little bit more groovy than some of the Mod bands. And for some reason the Mod bands weren't playing while I was there. Just ska bands. And a new band called Dexy's Midnight Runners.
It was the middle of winter and the radio was playing ska and soul. And the Jam were reaching their zenith. Great times indeed. And lots of ideas to bring back to Melbourne.

425. Golden Slumbers by The Beatles 1969

One of my favourite pieces of music is the medley on the second side of Abbey Road. At Rubber Soul we would have these band specials which featured one artist that we played every third song. The Beatles had a few nights and a highlight would be playing the Abbey Road medley to finish off the end of the night. Rarely would we end there because Ronny would run back to the decks and put on something more lively to finish the night.
Golden Slumbers is based on a traditional folk song. I came across it in an old songbook. Don't think it had the same tune but then I don't read music. The lyrics always seemed a little poignant and sad to me. "Once there was a way to get back home" which for me is that point where the past is so far away you'll never return to that place. Circumstances change, people change, people pass away. The bridge is washed away. I used to get envious when friends would go home for the weekend to rest up. Or go looking for stuff in the garage at the family home. When I was 18 my Mum moved back to the UK so that was that for me.
At the moment in Melbourne the community is in turmoil because of the Gillian Meagher murder. Just a young woman out on the town who decides to make the short walk to her home and her life is horribly taken. It could of been anyone. Seeing the videos of her last moments your heart goes out to her. terribly sad. And the world seems a little different.

424. Fall On Me by R.E.M. 1986

I'd heard so much about R.E.M. that when it actually came time to lay down and buy a record it was incredibly exciting. I didn't even know what they sounded like. I just remember being in this record shop when they were talking about the new R.E.M. record and you could actually hear some of the words. Well this got me really interested. What was this band all about. Especially since I heard the words Indie, Rickenbacker guitars and the Monkees bandied about.
So my first album I bought was Life's rich Pageant. At first I played Superman incessantly but as the album took over my life Fall On Me seemed to be the one that stayed with me. And yep, it does sound like a Monkees song.
At the time I was DJing at Rubber Soul. Playing sixties tunes. At home I would listen to R.E.M. just about constantly in the mid eighties. Cos I went chasing down any records of theirs I could find. Murmer was another one I got into. I think it was that jangly guitar that got me every time. And singing along to words I couldn't make out. I'd sing them when I was out. I was singing this one out loud one night at Inflation in King Street. Or maybe I was singing Cuyahoga. Billy Bragg was on the next table with his small entourage. He gave me a funny look. In fact I'd been to his concert earlier that night and come away singing R.E.M. songs.
Later on the words of their songs became very clear and straightforward and that's when they lost their edge a bit.

423. Gloria by Them 1964

Thinking about some of those great Van Morrisson tunes I went back to his first single when he was a member of Them from Ireland. This was the b-side of 'Baby please don't Go'. Now that's what I call a double a-side. 3 chords and anyone could play it really. Certainly I've played it a few times. And I've heard plenty of other bands cover it. My favourite being the Eddie and Hot Rods sprint from 1976.
I remember covering it one night in Daylesford. Back in 1980 when Clint Small was still in the band and we were doing a regular monthly thing up in the town. 3 sets on a Saturday night. We did well in Daylesford as did The Fiction before us. the other band doing well there was Men At Work. Same thing was happening at the Market Hotel in Prahan. we were two bands tipped for the top by both pub owners. Well Men at work did alright.
Back to Gloria. There was a girl there that night who kept requesting Gloria. She kept popping up during in between sets to ask for the song. It drove us so mad we actually played the song. but more in a Patti Smith type like version. A long quasi religious rant. When we got off she didn't say thanks. She asked if we would now play 'Search And Destroy'

422. Get Off Of My Cloud by The Rolling Stones 1965

First thing I think of when I hear this song is Rubber Soul. And visa versa of course. The other night we, Little Murders , played at the Lyrebird Lounge in Ripponlea. One of the punters who turned up was Micheal, who together with Ronny started Rubber Soul back in the early eighties. They had a place called the Venetian Room in the city where bands played and it was starting to wind down so they decided to open another place with a sixties theme. The opening night went through the roof. And though it was a bot slow in the first six months it gradually picked up and was packed every Friday night.
It was my first proper DJing gig after a few guest spots at some of their other places. Little Murders were finishing up (actually playing their farewell gig at the Venetian Room) and despite mucking round with a few other bands I was doing nothing. Luckily I had a massive collection of sixties records so I talked my way into a gig at the Rubber Soul. I ended up DJing there for the next 6 years before eventually starting my own club, the Lizard lounge.
Get Off Of My Cloud was a dance floor filler. It's made for jumping up and screaming along to. Magic.

421. Wild Night by Van Morrison 1971

When I was younger there was Van Morrison the rocker with those great songs in Them and then there was the van Morrison we sat around barbecues listening to up in St. Andrews while a bonfire burned.
I didn't know there was a lot more to the guy until I heard songs like this.
It was hard to like VanMorrison when I was punk. I was living in a share house in Carlisle street Oakleigh. One of the guys there was mad on Van the Man and pplayed his stuff incessantly. Drove me to tears. But I didn't get to hear the upbeat stuff. Didn't hear Domino or Jackie wilson Said or Wild Night or Brown eyed Girl. Just a bunch of moaning through the thin walls.
Luckily I met a girl in the early eighties who put me right. She just wanted to dance to Van. She gave me a lesson in Celtic Soul. She also opened my ears to what he was singing about which I thought was peace and love hippy stuff. No he was singing about being young in Derry, Ireland and getting ready to go out and meet girls and dig crazy music.  Some of the songs are just so full of joy they put a smile on my face everytime.
Oh and I did learn to listen to his quieter stuff too.

421. She kissed me by Terence Trent D'Arby 1993

In 1987 I have to admit I bought the first Terence Trent D'Arby album. Well it was huge. And Wishing Well was such a big song. And my girlfriend liked it. It was the time and Terence was pretty cool. I had a convertible. I drove down Chapel street a lot and ate at South Yarra restaurants. I lived in Elwood in this small pad that looked out across the bay if you looked really hard. But the suburb only had a few things going for it which was a 7-11 and a record shop.
Times change and after Terence's huge first album he made a second which kind of destroyed his career. Or maybe he was just too pretty. I bought the second album as a cassette in Thailand and I never ever got past the first side because it was so sleep inducing. He released other stuff but no one was listening,
Then in 1993 he released this ripper of a song. A great little single. It rocks and had this great film clip which is impossible to find on the net which I find remarkable. And when she kisses him "there" where exactly is "there"?
Anyway it was a favourite of mine from those early days of the Lizard. Tonight I had the iTunes DJ on and it popped up. I'd almost forgotten it.

420. Wipe Out by The Surfaris 1963

One of the first covers I ever did in a band was "Wipe Out" by the Surfaris. After playing in a couple of pizza parlours as a three piece with me playing guitar while my friend Ian and my girlfriend Leonie sang songs I'd written we thought their would be more protection in having a greater number on stage. Ian had to leave because he lived too far away. But we found a proper guitarist to help me out. His name was Ken Hamilton and he was to reappear later for the recording of the first Fiction/ Little Murders singles as bass player. On drums was Vic Bolgarow who also stuck around.
Ken was a good guitar player and he could actually play songs like "Wipe Out" so we put that in our set. We only played one set with this line up. Bayswater Youth Group Drop In Centre. We went down like a lead balloon.
Ken also let us use his garage for rehearsal. I had met Ken through church and he lived behind it. Ken's garage had no walls which kinda made it a car port. Our mad versions of "Wipe Out" and "It's All Over Now" brought complaints from the church. We didn't mind because our time was up there. What we did mind was here we were doing surf songs in the middle of winter basically in the backyard.And it was freezing. It wasn't internal fighting that killed Subway version 2. It was frozen fingers. Leonie was supposed to sing with us too but it was far too cold for her.
A few weeks after the Bayswater gig I heard the Sex Pistols and then everything changed.

419. See My Baby Jive by Wizzard 1973

The first time I heard this on radio it was totally mind blowing. I was used to Bowie and T. Rex and The Beatles where you could hear the individual instruments playing. But this was a wall of sound. I didn't know then that Roy Wood, was mixing together the sound of Phil Spector and fifties rock and roll to make a new Glam epic. It just sounded fantastic banging out the radio. I was so excited after hearing it on the radio that I took the train to Box Hill to buy the single then, when  I made my way home to Blackburn South I got on my bicycle and rode over to my girlfriend's house in Blackburn North so I could play this utterly fantastic record to her. She though I'd bought it for her which caused a few problems. "No, I just wanted you to hear it". A week later I rode round with a Gary Glitter ep. to make up for not giving her this single.
These were the days of Glam pop and I'd thought I'd found my new pop gods. Unfortunately when I actually saw a picture of the band and saw Roy had make up and a beard I was a bit disheartened. Neither were any of their subsequent singles any good. But they left behind one perfect single.
Later I found out Roy Wood was the leader of The Move in the sixties and wrote great songs like "Flowers in The Rain" and "Fire Brigade"

418. You're Pretty Good Looking (for a girl) by The White Stripes 1999

In the song "Hitsville" by The Clash there is a line about songs that "Blow a hole in the radio when it hasn't sounded good all week" Well The White Stripes certainly blew a hole in the radio with songs like these. With only a guitar and a set of drums the Stripes created such a wonderful sound which was full and lean and blues and pop and just rocked. And they were one of those bands that everyone was talking about before you even heard any of their music. They played little venues in Melbourne for free and then left behind this incredible reputation that had everyone excited. And then suddenly you had the Strokes and The Hives and rock and roll was all over the radio again.
I haven't bought much vinyl in the last twenty years but today I made a short list of artists that I should have vinyl copies of their work. Stuff that would sound good on the record player. The Libertines, the Strokes and White Stripes were the first albums I wrote down.

417. Everyday is Like Sunday by Morrissey 1988

With lyrics inspired by, amongst other sources, the film "On The Beach" which is set in Melbourne after a nuclear war which leaves Melbourne the last place on Earth. Actually I think it was the actress Ava Gardner who said that Melbourne was the perfect place to hold the end of the world. and not in kind terms. I haven't seen it all the way through since the early seventies but I think it was a little depressing. Which I guess he's aiming for in this song. Which is about a seaside town out of season. What do these towns do when it's not summer. Well I guess I came from one of these towns growing up in Blackpool. But I left for Australia when I was 8.
I would go back and visit Blackpool quite often and it was always in winter because that coincided with my school holidays and the summer here. The beach was deserted. The streets a little quieter. But I came from Melbourne and in comparison it was bustling. I didn't know crowds until I went to England in the summer.
Anyway I would play this song near the end of the night at Lizard lounge. Especially since by the time I put it on it was Sunday morning and time to go home. The crowd sang along. And they sang it into the night. It wasn't the Smiths but it was right up there with their best.

416. Racing For The Prize by Flaming Lips 1999

1999 and it's summer in Elwood, Victoria, Australia. I pick up the Flaming Lips new album  because I had read so much about them in the music magazines I regularly buy on import from a number of Melbourne record shops. The album as rave reviews and I ignore the reluctance to buy it because I couldn't stand the old song of theirs "She Don't Use Jelly" back in the early nineties. This is a good move because the first song I listen to is this. Race for the Prize. And I'm mesmerized. And even though I love the album and it's regularly played on those sunny days 13 years later this is the song I still recall. Maybe I can go and find the album and suddenly remember all the other great songs but that's something I will do after I write this. But for now this is it.
It was mentioned in the latest Mojo that arrived in the post yesterday which is a coincidence because the song was played at 6:55am in the morning on 3 triple R as well. Maybe they had the latest copy of Mojo too. Whatever this song just resonates in my soul.  Wayne Coyne seems to capture a little bit more than having released a classic song. This one just makes me emotional. It's about two scientists racing to find a cure for humanity. This may involve their own sacrifice. They have wives and children. At the time my daughter Melody had just been born. Maybe that's why it gets me every time.

415. Something Else by Eddie Cochran 1959

His records may have come out when I was 3 years old and he died while I was still listening to "Little White Bull" by Tommy Steele but when I finally got to hear him properly I realised just how influential he had been on the music I loved. Obviously Marc Bolan took a lot of his sound and even covered Summertime Blues. But what made me start looking for Eddie Cochran records was an interview in Rolling Stone magazine with Pete Townshend.
Before I liked the Who. In 1979  I loved the Who. Mainly because I was getting into the sixties and The Jam. Not only that The Clash and the Sex Pistols were referencing Eddie too. It was much cooler to be into Eddie than Elvis.
And he wrote these classic pop songs with a driving rhythm banging it out on a acoustic guitar. Writing all about how hard it was to be a teenager. And I loved the story that the drums were just cardboard boxes because that was the closest they could get to the sound of Little Richard's "You Keep A Knocking" I don't know if that's true but it sounds great. Songs like this made me explore the music of the Fifties, a world I never wanted to go to musically. And it was "Something Else"

414. Until You Came Along by Golden Smog 1998

When the sun is out and the light streams through the window and it's Sunday afternoon well that's when I reach for my copy of the Golden smog album. Or the Jayhawks. Or any number of country rock albums. Love the strumming guitar acoustic guitar in a rock setting. Melody and harmony.
Bought this album in 1998 when I was living in Elwood. They were a kind of alternative country rock band type supergroup with members of the Jayhawks and Wilco and Soul Asylum. At the time I wasn't that keen on the whole country thing but I had picked up some best of country album and maybe it was the time of the year but it just clicked. Or maybe it was the time of life. Sitting out on the decking drinking Coronas suited me for a time.
This was my favourite song on the album. I just drove up to Castlemaine to visit a friend for his daughter's 18th birthday. It was the first day of Spring after a terribly cold winter. This was on the playlist with Teenage Fanclub and sundry other sunshine delights. And the sun just pored in.

413. White Light White Heat by Velvet Underground 1968

I first hear Lou Reed in the early seventies when he released his Transformer album. At the time I was besotted by David Bowie so whatever he had a hand in I went out and bought. Which sounds a little crazy until you recognise the absolute taste the man had. I came away with a love of Velvet Underground, Iggy and the Stooges and the New York Dolls right at a crucial moment of my musical formative years. These influences would kick in a few years later when just as I turned eighteen and got my first car, a Datsun Bluebird, and started going to parties the whole punk thing came riding into my life. Parties I went to played these records. In 1977 for a very small part of Melbourne these bands were hip. Before this I would be at parties listening to horrible horrible stuff. But when we started to hear about the Sex Pistols something changed. There wasn't any punk music because it hadn't been recorded yet. So we went for other cool sounds. Early Rolling Stones. Garage bands. For some it was Kraftwerk.
 I loved the Velvet Underground. The songs were dark and lo fi and messy and dealt with the bad stuff at the dark end of the street. But I also though Lou reed wrote great catchy pop songs. I f i was going to start imitate anyone in my writing this was a good place to start.
White light was a particular favourite. I knew it would be a good song as soon as I saw the title. It drives along like a locomotive. Like many VU songs it's rock and roll from another planet. And I love the backing vocals and their "White Light" shout outs at the beginning of each line. Great song.
The other night we were driving home from seeing a local band, Even,  doing the Ziggy Stardust album . We were with our friends Susie and Mark. They put on a Velvet Underground CD. We sang along all the way home. A great way to end to a night.

412. These Days by Nico 1967

On first listen to the Velvet Underground and hearing Nico's tuneless voice I was quite on the side of those who would say what is she doing on the record. Then again the song on the end whose name I forgot and which probably came from John Cale's head wasn't a bag of fun either. But as I listened more and more to the album the off key singing of this beautiful Germanic model made sense. But there was no way I would buy her her solo album. That much I couldn't take. So for years all I heard were the Velvet Underground songs.
In the 80s I did go to see her play live at the Jump Club in Collingwood. It was really a horrible night and because I didn't pay to get in i didn't have that investment in trying to enjoy the show and spent most the night upstairs drinking.
But a few years back I saw "The Royal Tennenbaums" a film by Wes Anderson, whose vision I find simply breath taking. I was addicted to watched the "Rushmore " DVD for ages. Same with each film he brought. One of the best things about his films is his use of music. To me he is the master of putting songs to scenes. And digging up slightly off center songs by big artists. So it was that I heard "These days" and was knocked out. Together with "Fairest of The Seasons" (both songs written by Jackson Brown) I got quite hooked on listening to these terribly depressing Nico songs. I even bought the Chelsea Girl album which as a great cover but I think Wes Anderson used the best two songs in his movie.

411. Into The Groove by Madonna 1985

If I have to have a favourite Madonna song well I guess this is the one. I just love the start really just before she says "And you can dance" or something like that. Wasn't a big fan of Madonna in the Eighties but I think she made some great singles. I was playing in bands and DJing in sixties night clubs but now and again I'd get out to dance clubs and hear some different stuff. The mid eighties there was night clubs open every night. Monday night I'd be at the Underground. Tuesday some basement in the city. Wednesday Chasers. Thursday I'd DJ at a ska place. Friday Rubber Soul. Saturday Beehive. I didn't get to see many bands other than when I played myself.
A lot of girls dressed up a s Madonna. It was a nice change after a bunch of girls dressing up as Boy George. It was all a bit glamorous in the eighties. I think I even wore  silver jacket a few times.
I even got to see Madonna live. At the MCG. Sitting on seats that slowly sank into the hallowed turf of football's home. And that's all U remember about it. I liked the records a lot more. Actually maybe "Like A Prayer" is my favourite Madonna song. Wait I think it's actually Material Girl. She had some great singles. This one went number one in Australia and in the US it was a b-side of one of her singles that failed to chart. And that's why I love the world of Pop.

410. For Once In My Life by Stevie Wonder 1968

One of those songs that just instantly cheers me up and gets me on my feet. Incredibly feel good song with no saccharine included.
I never really noticed it I was watching an episode of Entourage and this song came on near the end of the show as Ari danced with his wife around the car. Happy because he was about to make a new start. I guess you'd have to see it to know what I'm talking about. The thing is it starts with that rhythm guitar kinda shuffle and then just keeps going lifting higher and higher as they say.
I'm a big fan of songs used in TV shows and films and commercials. Sometimes it puts a song in a completely different perspective to what you thought it was. This song had been sitting in my collection for over twenty years and I might have played it maybe once or twice. And after CDs and when programming came along probably not at all.
But I catch it on the TV about six years ago and suddenly it makes sense and becomes one of my favourite songs. And I go out and explore more Stevie Wonder songs and find out what all the fuss was about. I probably stayed away from Stevie because of songs like "Ebony and Ivory" and "I just called to say I love you" which really did my head in I thought they were so bad. So it was great to go back and rediscover his music. I even went so far as to buy some of it on vinyl. To get some kind of authentic feel for soul going.

409. That's Entertainment by The Jam 1981

Here's a song Little Murders have covered in our acoustic set and one that a lot of other big stars have covered too. Morrissey and the Wonder Stuff come to mind not that the Wonder Stuff were really major but they did put out some great singles. It's also a song I like to play at home since it consists of minimal chords played in a sequence that rarely varies. Of course the problem is trying to learn al the lyrics. Six verses in all. And a lot of words which you can pick up as you sing along to the record but when you're on your own it's pretty hard. So I often have a cheat sheet taped somewhere close.
First heard the song back in 1981 when it was a track on Sound Effects. I was frequenting and sometimes DJing at a club in Richmond called Kommotion. A big Mod club in a small venue. Scooters out the back. Jumping off the speaker stacks. Mod girls in sixties gear. Boys in Parkas. Our music was sixties pop, soul, ska and the odd new Mod band from the UK. And The Jam featured heavily. Surprisingly or maybe not so surprisingly considering how good it is this song went down a storm. Everyone would get up and dance to this basically wordy acoustic song. Years later at the Lizard Lounge it would have the same affect. People filled the floor when it came on. And they sang along. And put in the La la Las.
Paul Weller says he wrote this in 10 minutes after coming home pissed from the pub. Magic.

408. Reet Petite by Jackie Wilson 1957

It may have been released in 1957 but it wasn't until 1986 when it finally made number one in the UK. Again I was there for England's madness as dance clubs were full of people dancing to this old fifties classic. We already knew the name after listening a few years earlier to Dexy's cover of Van Morrison's song Jackie Wilson Said but here was the real thing. And it was utterly fantastic.
And what comes to mind. I was on my way to London for New years Eve in Trafalgar Square and a stay at the Regent Palace in Piccadilly Circus. I thought I might drop in on Mick Barclay's sister Kirsten who was staying in a little village somewhere down south. It turned into quite a journey where I had to take a train to Milton Keynes and the take this bus that seemed to wind it's way through all these tiny villages in the English countryside. Finally when I was the only one on the bus it dropped me at the the pub across from where Kirsten was staying. By that time I was so worn out I can't remember anything else. Just this incredibly long journey on a freezing cold night. Maybe one pint and then I was out like a light.
The next day I got up early and went back to London to find myself frozen into the city and unable to get out as they closed the ferries and railways. A plan to meet a friend in Italy just crashed as transport was delayed and then France was hit by a rail strike. Trafalgar Square was pretty magical though. And they did play Reet Petite.
Disastrous holiday but I came home with some great singles. Most of them soul and dance stuff I was starting to get into.

407. Never Can Say Goodbye by Gloria Gaynor 1975

1975 I went to Blackpool after finishing High School. Went there for an extended holiday and stayed with my Aunt Sheila and Uncle George who had two sons. Neil and Colin. I spent a lot of time hanging out with Neil and one of his mates whose name I can no longer recall. Phil Green rings a bell.

One of the places we would go to was the Blackpool mecca. At the time I had no knowledge of Northern soul nor it's importance in the musical world. I just remember this place full of amazing dancers.

The first night I went there it was raining. I put on my new coat but Neil told me just to wear a shirt. Explanation was it's usually warmer when it rains and where would you put your coat when you got to the pubs and clubs which were most of the time overheated. So I set of in the winter night as the rain drizzled with my sleeves rolled up.

At the Mecca I caught my first sight of dancers with baggy trousers and talcum powder scattered underneath their feet as they slipped, span and jumped. Amazing stuff. The music was a mix of songs I didn't know but had a familiar Motown beat which turned out to be the essence of Northern Soul. They also played top hits. Never Can Say Goodbye was a number 2 hit in the UK. I don't even think we were calling it disco then. It was just a magnificent soul single with a driving beat. And no one stopped dancing. In fact more people got on the floor.
By the time I got back to Australia in early 76 the album was huge. It was sequenced to play without gaps. So the FM radio would play the whole side. By memory I think it was just 3 songs. Honey bee, Never Can say Goodbye and Reach Out. 

406. Funny Little Frog by Belle and Sebastian 2006

I was on one of those open top bus tours of Edinbrough a few days back when we went past this guitar shop so I forced the family to get off at this place called the grass market so I could look and see if they had any vintage guitars. I'm still regretting passing up a Rickenbecker in London a few weeks back. As I made my way to the shop after leaving the family at a toy shop I was distracted by a record shop called Avalanche. It was in the middle of renovations so there was wood and posters and records everywhere. but there was a massive Belle and sebastian poster on the wall whch I enquired about. O fcourse it wasn't for sale but it did manage to get a conversation going with the owner who told me that the band was the biggest seller in his shop.
It reminded me how much I loved this band. I see them as direct descendants of the Kinks. Just the wordplay and the mixing of styles in their records. Even the vocals sound a little like Ray Davies at times. With a Scottish brogue.
Funny Little Frog was the single that revitalized my interest after I had lost interest in them after their Sinister album.I was over at Bruce Minty's house (little Murders guitarist) when he played it and my ears pricked up. From there I went back and found their later albums and realized how much I still liked their music. Especially Dear Catastrophe waitress which this was from.
Even got to see them live at the Forum in Melbourne. It wasn"t packed so Liz and I could get pretty close to the front. Magic night.

405. Fools Gold by Stone Roses 1989

Last week I was in Bayswater in London when I came across a huge poster on the Underground Station advertising an exhibition of Stone Roses photographs. It was wet and windy and my family were all tired from walking around London but it was just down the road at the local shopping centre and really I wasn't going to get another chance to see it if I didn't go now. So off we went. It was a big room full of expensive large photos. As we walked in I realised the only other people there were Ian Brown and his two sons. Ruby chose that moment to ask who the Stone Roses were. Ignoring that I said hello to Ian, had a little chat and got my photo taken with him. I was a bit tongue tied. I mean The Stone Roses created one of the best albums of all time. And then they brought out this single on 12 inch.
we played this to death at the Lizard Lounge. It would get everyone up dancing from the get go. It was incredibly hip. And just a beautiful groove and that kinda summed up where we all were in 1990.
The Stone Roses got me back into playing my guitar more and writing songs. I hadn't really done much since the break up of Little Murders 6 years earlier but the Stone Roses got me all excited about music again. Unfortunately thanks to bands like the Roses and the rise of alternative music in clubs the popularity of Lizard didn't give me much time to actually play live. But at home I had my portastudio and I was writing again.

404. Mr. Cab Diver by Lenny Kravitz 1990

One of DJ Jason's classics. All the DJs who worked at Lizard Lounge would have songs that were kind of 'their' songs. Out of bounds for other DJs. Jason Underhill, who I started the Lizard Lounge with in 1990 was big on Lenny Kavitz, The Cult and God. God, the band not the diety. Well one song "My Pal'
The Lizard. We started off playing to 25 people. Each week the crowd would grow by a couple of people and we had to try having a band on at one stage. Captain Cocoa who featured comedian Dave O'Neil. I booked them because I was their manager. Paid them 60 bucks. But that didn't work. We were surviving ..but just. All profits went to buying records. Then the other Jason, who ran Friday night's alternative club at the same venue convinced the landlord to put on a happy hour. Well, two hours. 9-11pm $1 pots. Then Lizard went through the roof and we never looked back.
Our Jason liked to play Lenny Kravitz. The first I'd heard of Lenny was through Ronny Williams who ran Beehive. He used to rave about the analog sound of Lenny's first album "Let Love Rule" A pure sixties sound. Made the same way records were made in the sixties. Presumably with sixties dust on the mixing desk. Mr. Cab Driver was a highlight of the album. I liked that rhythm guitar sound that runs across the record. Ace.

403. Security by Thane Russell 1966

As Little Murders got bigger back in the early 80s we got offered a lot more support gigs with bigger bands often out in the suburbs. City gigs were ours unless the band was a lot bigger or from interstate or overseas. Some of the bands were left over relics from before punk came along and we thought all the rubbish would be swept away.However some of the bands predated punk but were still bloody good. One of those bands were Jo Jo Zep who were a great pub rock band who managed to have a bunch of hit singles. There first single was Security in 1976. Back when I  had just started going to gigs by Sports and Last Chance Cafe and Bleeding Hearts at rooms like the Tiger Lounge.
One night we supported them at the Oxford Hotel which was one of our usual haunts. Opposite RMIT on Swanston Street before they closed it to traffic. Big room with good vibes. This night Jo Jo Zep played song "Security" They really knocked the socks off it. The Saints had recently covered it too but I set out to hunt down the original. This hunt took a long time and I found it on cassette first on this album called "Hard To Get Hits" complield by Glenn A. Baker.  And what an original. It's all dirty and the drums crash and the guy is screaming for Security.  And this was a hit in Australia! Number 4 in Melbourne from a time when states had their own charts.

402. The Waiting by Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers 1981

Saturday night and instead of out playing a gig or watching some band I'm at home watching this four hour documentary on Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers and it's just brilliant. Someone told me it was good but at 4 hours.. I mean is there that much to say  about this American rock and roll band? well I'm engrossed at it's almost 2 hours in and they've just released The Waiting which apart from American Girl is my favourite song from a whole bunch of excellent tunes.
They were always the business. When I started getting into punk in 1976 and buying UK music papers to keep up with the news from the epicentre of music in the world (in my mind)  I remember the week they had this long haired guy on the front cover of Melody maker and a whole bunch of superlative prose inside. I was just about to get my hair cut too. Then I heard American Girl on the radio. A knockout. I bought the album.. and the next album. Tried to get The Fiction to cover I Need to Know. Every few months Tom Petty would release a single that cut across my idea of what was cool. Whether I was a punk or into two tone or a Mod I kept buying his records. At the time it felt like a guilty pleasure. Until a time when we started playing a lot more with a lot of different bands and when you talked about bands you talked about The Heartbreakers. Looking back they were just a perfect group.
And then they released The Waiting in 1981. When Mick Barclay joined Little Murders this was the first song we bonded over. Singing it at the top of our lungs. A power pop classic with it's Byrdsian jangle and that great opening line. Just joyful.

401.Up The Junction by Squeeze 1978

A classic quintessential song from 1978 and the band Squeeze. However in Australia they were called UK Squeeze. Used to hate it when that happened. It would wreck the album and single sleeves. Having UK or British or English plastered over the art work. No matter, this song was just mesmerizing and is every bit as strong today. Another story song set in the world of the sixties, kind of, with it's reference to Clapham Junction and the Nell Dunn novel and movie "Up The Junction" Also one of my favourite films.
In 1978 I was watching all those English movies and devouring the literature. Billy Liar, Bond movies, Saturday Night and Sunday Morning, Blow Up. I was building up a little world which began to influence what I wrote about and led to Little Murders becoming Melbourne's first Mod band at the end of 1979. When I look back now it wasn't so much the Mod thing that grabbed me but the idea that I wanted to be living in Swinging London in 1965. I think I still do sometimes. And the coolest thing was Modernism. And pop art. And the Who and the Kinks. And the list is endless.
Then when the punk thing came along I leant towards the the cool sixties references in songs like Elvis Costello's "I don't want to go to Chelsea" But now I'm just wandering. "Up The Junction" is a great song with a great storyline with some fantastic and odd rhymes. And Squeeze had plenty more good songs too. Actually I pinched the title of their first single "Take Me, I'm Yours" for my debut single.

400. Thirteen by Big Star 1972

I was too busy listening to all my Glam records to notice a band like Big Star back in 1972. I think the only American bands I was interested in then were Alice Cooper  and  New York Dolls. Oh and thanks to Bowie Lou Reed and Iggy Pop. But sixties power pop which wasn't anywhere near the charts. I don't think so. I wouldn't really get to hear Big Star properly until I was sharing a house with Little Murders guitarist Rod hayward. Who at the time was playing in Dave Grayney and the Coral Snakes. We drank, we played chess and smoked heaps.And we listened to records often very loud. He had this CD with two Big Star records on it. I had heard a bit about them but the fact that Alex Chilton was a cult hero and had recorded The Letter at age 16 cut no mustard with me. I never really liked the Letter.
It took a compilation tape from Bobby Gillespie from Primal Scream which put me heroes Mott The Hoople next to this track Thirteen by Big Star to wake me up to the their sound. It was in a Select magazine from the UK. Pop stars made mix tapes. in those days they weren't giveaways. they were just listings. so for fun I'd sometimes copy the mix tape. Which meant hunting down records. So I finally got to listen to Thirteen properly. I was knocked out. It put me right back to being a teenager in 1972 when it came out. It probably wouldn't have got me back then but after kicking around the planet for a few years it really spun my head. He just encapsulated a teenagers love of rock bands and girls in a bunch of lyrics. Of course this opened up the door to Big Star. sometimes it just takes one song.

399. Almost Saturday Night by John Fogerty 1976

It may of been made in 1976 but I didn't hear until many years later having rejected the whole Creedence thing when Punk music took over my listening sensibilities. Creedence were too American and too Southern. Really I should of known better. The wake up call was the early eighties when I found myself watching some band I've totally forgotten playing a pretty typical pub rock set. But then they played this song and it was just brilliant. I don't care how bad the band played it I knew it was a great song. When I asked the guitarist later whose song it was he told me it was a Dave Edmunds single. I really liked Dave Edmunds and Rockpile and didn't know this one.
So I went round the record shops and hunted down the single. Finally got it for a very cheap 25 cents at some record shop in the city. But the record didn't do it for me. But when I looked at the credits on the vinyl I noticed it was by John Fogerty. I knew that would have to be the one. That's where the song was. In the hands of it's writer. But for the life of me I couldn't get a copy of the single. And gradually I forgot about it. Sometimes hearing the Dave Edmunds copy and trying to figure out how I would find that elusive John Fogerty track. Well at least it got me back into Creedence.
Then this morning I was checking out the Power Pop Criminals blog and there was a copy of Almost Saturday Night on a compilation made up by Will Birch of The Records for Mojo Magazine a while back. So now I'm blasting it out on my computer. And it rocks!

398. Safe European Home by The Clash 1978

Couldn't wait for this one in 1978. We'd read the bad things being said about the Clash and how they'd sold out using an American producer, Sandy Pearlman, whose claim to fame was Blue Oyster Cult. It was a time of supposedly rotten second albums by The Jam, The Stranglers and The Damned. Nothing from the Sex Pistols. It seemed punk was already starting to fizzle. So I put this on the turntable with quite low expectations.
But then it starts off with one of the best songs The Clash ever did. Who cares what else was on the record. This was just magic. It blew everything else away. And the production was magnificent. Topper's drums sound like explosives going off. Great tune, great lyrics..great backing vocals.
Alright, the album got a bit patchy from then in. Some of it seems very forced especially tunes like Tommy Gun and English Civil War. At the time. Now I can appreciate the album a bit more, No expectations to cloud my judgement. And we did like to have a singalong to Stay Free.
Anyway, Safe European Home is worth the price of entry for this one. Off to see bands in the city with the cassette player turned up really loud singing along to Joe Strummer and co. Tiger Lounge or Martinis or the Collingwood Town hall. To see great bands in small venues which is always the best way to see them. What a time!

397. Lucifer Sam by Pink Floyd 1967

From the great Psychedelic album "Piper at the Gates of Dawn" which I didn't get around to buying until I think around 1980 because as a punk I hated Pink Floyd. Even though I loved some of the stuff on the Relics album the name Pink Floyd just couldn't be uttered in polite company. They also had a number one single in that dreadful Another Brick In The Wall song which was on the radio all the time.
Anyway I was in one of my favourite second shops when I came across a copy of their first album. I knew I had to have it. I had read so much about it. So I took it home and it was fantastic. Couldn't stop playing the thing for weeks. Put me right in that sixties frame of mind I loved. The song Lucifer Sam was the first one that really stuck out for me. A song about Syd's cat seemingly. At first it reminded me of the descending guitar line in our song "Take Me , I'm Yours" never did get round to asking Rob if that's where he got it from. Whatever the ancestry of ours, I guess it was the most straightforward song on the album in a pop guitar kind of way.
And I liked the way Syd sang. I could connect it to some of that early Bowie stuff I had laying round the house. A voice that Bowie came back to. Even covering Arnold Layne with Dave Gilmour live in concert.
Later on it would be one of the songs I would play before everyone turned up at the Lizard Lounge. And when there was just a few in I was playing songs like that I used to get guys come up and want to discuss music. I used to love the quiet before the storm. You could play favourite songs and they would come blasting out of these huge speakers. With flashing lights and swirling images. And really great songs. It was a bit like having your own radio show for a hour. Then the crowd would come in and then you're playing stuff you might have played hundreds of times before. Come On Eileen or Love Shack or Groove is in the Heart.
But then it was all over and you went home and listened to Syd's Piper or Dylan's Blonde on Blonde.
By the way I did manage to get to enjoy the Dave Gilmour Pink Floyd in the end. They had some top songs. But I still can't stand Another Brick in the Wall. Okay I like Comfortably Numb.

396. Mother of Pearl by Roxy Music 1973

1975 Festival Hall West Melbourne. 400 people in a venue meant for so many more. The first in a year of concerts. My second big concert after Slade at the Showgrounds
Absolutely brilliant. Roxy Music.
This was a song off their third album, Possibly it's their greatest song. It comes in two parts. The first fast and ferocious. A night out. The second part falls into a groove.  I used to listen to those Roxy Music albums constantly and dream about the glamorous life Bryan Ferry seemed to be having. And here I was living in Nunawading. Australia. I wasn't ever gonna get close. Though we used to have these school dances where I used to get dressed up in shirt and jacket and paisley cravats while the other kids thought putting a shirt on was dressing up. Unfortunately I spent a good deal of my teenage life being short so I didn't have luck with the girls for a long time. And they never played the music I liked. it was all boogie or prog rock. Never Bowie or T. Rex or Roxy Music.
Actually I think I had to wait until 1979 until I went to a place that actually played decent music. I guess that's how I became a DJ. No one else was playing anything good at parties. I just came loaded with mix tapes where songs faded into each other. Then fight over the tape deck. Once I chucked another guys tape out the window. Then I ran for my life.

395. In The Ghetto by Elvis Presley 1969

                                                                        
  In 1969 I was in Form 2 at Box Hill High School. I used to hate Music as a subject but every now and again we were allowed to bring in a song and play it to the rest of the class and tell everyone why we liked it so much. I don't know where I got a copy of this song but this was my choice. Not that I was a big follower of Elvis. I'd always thought of him as a leftover from the fifties. We had a family friend who had an entire back room kitted out like a Presley Museum. It was incredibly tacky. It was a long while before I actually got to see the real Elvis and realise just how good he was in the Fifties and how he changed music. But that was to come later. For now I was mesmerized more by the song "In The Ghetto" I was a bit of a sucker for story songs. Probably why I few years later I was into rock musicals and concept albums. I was always looking for a story in the song. This one was like a mini crime tragedy. And it came with a coda at the end. 
The music and that voice put me on the means streets of the USA. It was like reading a short story. I'm not even sure I knew exactly what a ghetto was at the time. Bit the world was getting quite political. Students kept talking about having a sit down strike or marching to the city to protest the Vietnam war. As some people say the Sixties started in 1963 and ended with the last days of the Vietnam War. I am always glad I was there to see it. But even happier when Punk came along and I found myself part of it.
But in 1969 I was listening to Casey Case  American Top 40 on my crystal radio set late on a Sunday Night.

394. Hyper-Ballad by Bjork 1995

I saw Bjork at the Melbourne Sports and Entertainment Centre on March 12 1996. It was right up there with the best concerts I'd ever seen. And although her albums were full of beats and lots of club atmosphere she replaced strings with an accordion (the band was also very simple) and just let the songs and her fantastic voice do their work. I was glued to the stage. My mind didn't wander once. Those songs on Debut sounded better plus she had the new songs from Post which had just come out.  It was also the only night I've ever taken a pair of binoculars to a gig. And they were good ones so they brought me up real close. Unfortunately I've never taken to another gig. Maybe they made me too conspicuous. Oh and I was on the side so I came away with a bit of a sore neck. But while the music played and Bjork just glowed I didn't notice.
And of all her songs this is the one that gets to me every time. It's the lyrics with their details and the singer at the top of a cliff looking down at the waves. While her lover sleeps. It's almost a companion piece to Kate Bush's "Wuthering Heights" in the atmosphere it creates. This was one of my Walkman classics. Press the play button and it sound tracked the everyday things people were doing and made them something a little more special. It takes you some place else. Nothing better than that.

393. The Rat by The Walkmen 2004

If you're going to get angry in a song this is the way to do it. It reminds me of Positively Fourth Street by Dylan in a lot of ways but this one just rocks like a locomotive. And it still stands up 8 years later. I don't need to be angry to listen to it, mind you. It works on it's own level as a great driving song. Although with songs like this I do tend to drive a little faster. It would have been a good song to play at the Lizard Lounge but when this came out we were really in the last days. Although we had closed two years earlier the owners of the hotel were half heartedly trying to resurrect the place. I was just came in for a  few hours at the start of the night and played stuff that was easy to dance to. I thought I was keeping my hand in but it wasn't fun. One night I got dizzy and fainted. Never went back after that. And the times I've DJed since then can be counted on my fingers. If it's not fun best to get out. Playing in a band again and regularly as been great though. I'm loving it. Tonight we rocked at the Great Britain in Richmond. We were tight. People danced. Compliments were thrown our way. Brilliant.
But of course I digress. The Rat by The Walkmen. A New York classic.

392. God Only Knows by The Beach Boys 1966

From the amazing "Pet Sounds" which just seems to get better every year. Though I must say the copy I have now is a thousand times better than my old vinyl that I picked up from Burwood K-Mart. It was a re-packaged album. Released on a budget label like Music For Pleasure. Didn't even have the title so I had it for years before I realized I actually had the Pet Sounds album. Even the liner notes by Molly Meldrum of all people don't mention what I'm listening to. A classic album.
When I bought the album I was just looking for some surf music to round off my education of music. I'd been reading the Story of Pop magazines and got to the part where they mentioned Brian Wilson's little symphonies to God. I'd always deplored songs like Surfin' USA. Tinny Chuck Berry rip offs. So I couldn't work out why John Cale could write an ode to Brian Wilson on his Guts album. Or why Paul McCartney talked up the Beach Boys. Then I heard Pet Sounds. And mostly I heard this song. An amazingly beautiful song. It just takes you somewhere else for that 3 minutes it plays. I'm not going to get all sentimental here but it's also very emotional. It even put a lump in my throat in the closing credits of Love Actually.  Enough said. As love songs go this is the big one. And even if you forget it's a love song just listen to those sounds. Amazing.

391. New York Mining Disaster by The Bee Gees 1967

Because this was the week that Robin Gibb died. And he sings the opening verse of this fabulous song by The Bee Gees. And because it was the first song of theirs that I thought was incredibly brilliant. Even though I was still at Primary School at the time. The first time I heard it I was in the top bunk in my bedroom at Beaumont Hostel in Sydney. Lucky I didn't fall off it was so good. I leaned over the side to turn up the sound on my little transistor radio. Despite the tinniness of the speakers in those early days our ears could turn the sound they were hearing into something quite powerful and magical. I became quite obsessed by the song. At the time there was this major disaster in Aberfan in Wales where a whole school was destroyed by a coal disaster. Later I found out this was the inspiration for the song. I'd read about it in the English papers. Each week I'd buy a bundle of two month old UK paopers to keep myself in touch. My step father's parents also used to send me the Manchester Evening Gazette each week so I could keep up with the doings of Manchester United. I guess I was desperately trying to hang on to being English.

Later on my brother bought the best of the Bee Gees. He would play it continously on the portable record player he kept between our beds. Those early Bee Gees songs soundtracked the late sixties for me. So it was really hard when they had all that success in the 70s with Saturday Night Fever. And Bee Gees became the enemy of what punk stood for. I remember going to a 21st and almost being physically sick because all they played was Saturday Night Fever. And when you said you liked the Bee Gees you had to point out which era you were refering to. And so we buried those Bee Gees records for a long time. 

But really it was all good. 

390. Chill Out Tent by The Hold Steady 2006

This is from the album Boys And Girls in America. Craig Finn writes these great tales of life in America with thumping choruses and what sounds like the best bar room band in the world making a healthy racket behind him. Actually it takes me back to the first bunch of bands I use to see around Melbourne before punk rock exploded in 1977 and they kinda became old hat. Or those records by Brinsley Schwartz in 1975. or even early Springsteen. Especially when the piano comes tinkling in.  Or someone else takes over the lead vocals for a line of the song. And the lines of the song that keep tumbling out. This guy is like some modern Jack Kerouac.
Whatever the ingredients it's like reading a short story that you never get sick of. And even though the characters go through a bad time meets good time it makes we wonder why I never went to a festival in all these years. I've played a couple but then we drove in and left a few hours later. And that was the Sunny Sedgewick festival run by our friend Ayesha. Up in the hills outside Bendigo. which was fun. But never overnight. Actually I think I've only stayed in a tent 4 times in my life. In the back yard of a friend's house when I was 11. In Army cadets when I accidentally shot a hole in the tent with my 303 rifle. I was 13 and they let us carry guns to bed. It was a blank but still could blow a hole through thick tarp. Only in the 70s. Wilson's Prom where I was attacked by a wombat! And those things are big. Yeah and at the snow. Enough said on that one. I've realised I'm not big on tents.

389. Your Love Alone Is Not Enough by Manic Street Preachers 2007s

Never been a big fan of the Preachers but they do have some really good songs now and then. The best song of theirs by my reckoning is this wonderful slice of power pop from 2007. With the added attraction of Nina Persson from the Cardigans sharing the vocals the first time I heard it on the radio I almost had to pull over. The Manic Street preachers releasing a perfect 45 inch single. That's what this song reminded me of. Those 45s tucked away in boxes waiting to be played when I find room to restore my records to their rightful place in the home. might have to wait until the kids get a little older. Although I picked up an old record player and put it in my son's room and he goes mad playing all my old unwanted singles. It does mean that some rubbish was coming from his room so I had to go out and buy some copies of old eighties stuff. God knows how it will affect his taste in music.
As I was saying, not a huge fan of the preachers but there is something about them. Maybe it's the Welsh connection and my family originally coming from there. Maybe it's because just when you get sick of them they throw up another great single. i look forward to the next one.