351. Babylon's Burning by The Ruts 1979

1979. what a great year for records. Albums and singles. When I was over there at the end of the year I bought so much vinyl I was worried I would be charged extra for baggage. So I purchased record cases and shared the weight between various carry-on bags (and my girlfriend's) and the big cases. Luckily I did alright. A few years later when I was by myself coming home from the UK had trouble with the same trick. The girl at the counter told me my check-in bags would cost an extra 150 UK pounds. I took my bags outside the terminal at Heathrow and did a major re-distribution. This time it was books and magazines. In the end it was too much and I left the magazines on a bench. I liked to keep my mags too.

When I first heard Babylon's Burning I was knocked out by the sound. It belts along at a fabulous pace. And that guitar bit. Oh yeah and the siren. It's all so bloody exciting. Punk bands making the Top Ten. England was the place to be. Then again there didn't seem to be much action on the live circuit.

Not long after I went to see this punk film from the USA. Not a doc. It's called Times Square. About a girl who runs away from the hospital and forms a band. There's this scene where she's running down the street trying to get away from who or what I don't know. Babylon's Burning plays. Made me like the film probably more than I should of.

350. Gimme Little Sign by Brenton Wood 1967

This was a big song in Blackburn South in 1968 especially in my room which I shared with my brother. For a while there it was my number one song. I can still see the yellow label spinning on the turntable. I had just started high school. I was listening to music through one ear on my crystal set. The rest of the time I heard what my brother played . Then one day there was this big old record player in the living room. Somebody didn't want it anymore. It looked like something from the fifties. It had a draw that popped out for your long players. It had a cartridge the size of a baby's fist. It sounded like the doors of Asgard had opened up. No doubt it was more a piece of furniture than a sound system. But it quickly became my record player and it was where my record collecting started. When my brother got married he gave me a bunch of singles and sold me his albums. probably the classiest and best of the singles was "Gimme Little Sign".

349. All The Way From Memphis by Mott the Hoople 1973

We were at the Trak cinema seeing a Scorsese double. The second film was Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore. After Mean Streets and Taxi Driver. A bit of a letdown really. Can't remember much about it. Except for the opening shot which was the VW bug driving down the highway while "All The Way From Memphis" played on the soundtrack. And they had this great rock sound system at the Trak so it sounded magnificent. It was just amazing. I thought this was gonna be great but alas I can't remember anything else.
In 1973 if Bowie told me to buy a record I would do it. He put his stamp on the times. Iggy Pop, Lou Reed, New York Dolls, and Mott The Hoople. Though I liked the first Mott album I loved the second. The first track which is this one just exploded out of the record player. It made me want to play piano. I still would like to play piano. Just like Little Richard and Jerry Lee Lewis. Banging the keys which obviously Ian Hunter is doing here.
I bought the book "Dairy Of A Rock and Roll Star" by Ian Hunter. Maybe the best book about being in a band ever written. It was like a brochure as Mick Jones from the Clash put it. It was the stuff of rock and roll dreams but it showed the tedious stuff too and the rip-offs and brilliant stuff like the hunt for second-hand guitars and it made we want to be in a band. But I would have to wait 3 more years for that to happen. I had to buy an electric guitar.

348. Where Were You? by The Mekons 1978

All those years of making mix tapes or mix Cd's one of the constant tracks I seem to always go back to is this song by The Mekons. I picked it up in Blackpool in late 79 after hearing it played on the John Peel show, well I'm assuming it was that show because at the time I wasn't familiar with it but there was just so much good stuff being played song after song I was almost dizzy. The day had been driving around in the car listening to the normal hits played on the radio with all this rabbiting on in between songs. Sounded novel to our ears but the music wasn't very exciting though they did play the odd Jam or Undertones song. Then late in the night driving through the cold all this amazing stuff I'd never heard of came coming on. And the presenter was very dry. Surely I was listening to the John Peel show. The legendary show. Anyway apart from California Uber Alles by the Dead Kennedys the other song that blasted me away was this one. 

I bought the single and for some reasons it's the only Mekons track I have. And I never sought it out on Cd.. so I just play the 7 inch. In the 90s I invested in a mini disc recorder and copied all my vinyl onto mini discs. Used it at the Lizard lounge so I didn't have to carry 100s of records. Then it was all CD. Last time I DJed it was all on my laptop.

Where were You still sounds as powerful today as it did then. A brilliant record.

347. The Only Living Boy In New York by Simon & Garfunkel 1970

When I was back in England 1974, for the first time after emigrating to Australia back in 1965, I stayed at my Aunt Sheila's house. On Little Murders "We Should Be Home By Now" you can see the place where I stayed for that time..3 months.. on the back cover. I was eighteen and my Mum was staying with my brother so I was having a great time hanging out with my cousin Neil. We did go out a lot and I would sleep in until about 11am each morning. We'd spend the night at Blackpool Mecca watching the great Northern soul dancers. Or down the Workingmen's club drinking pints which almost killed me.
Soon after I woke up in the morning Neil would come home from work for lunch. Aunt Sheila would have something in the oven ready for him. Cheese and Onion pie or similar. We'd eat together and he would play a record. He seemed to have only 2 records, Band On The Run and Simon and Garfunkel. Although I soon got sick of hearing them there was one song I never seemed to tire of. The Only Living Boy In New York was such a great song. I'd wait for the harmonies. To die for. Apparently they recorded them eight times in an echo chamber with the door closed.
In the 90s Everything But The Girl did an excellent version. I'd listen to that version a lot too.
Hop to 25 years after those lunchtime listening sessions and little Murders are recording a brand new record and we have Mick Barclay and Kate Stalker trying to reproduce those harmonies on songs from First Light and the aforementioned "We Should Be Home" album.
I like the Bridge Over Troubled Water album except I could never listen to the title track. Far too sentimental. ..nor el condo pasa or whatever the Peruvian song was called. But this song..brilliant!

346. Whole Lotta Love by Led Zeppelin 1969

Amongst the singles I was given by the DJ who lived around the corner in Blackburn South was a single by Led Zeppelin called Whole Lotta Love. I had no interest in Led Zeppelin whatsoever so it remained tucked away in a box in a cupboard for years. If anything I tried to avoid the Zep all through the seventies and was particularly dismayed when I would hear "Stairway To heaven" played everywhere during the seventies. It seemed to linger on and on. It wasn't until around 1985 when I was DJing at Rubber Soul that I finally played a Zep song going along with the fact that it was an actual sixties song being released in1969 while the Beatles were on their last legs. This was down to Ronny's influence as he would always be playing Rock'n'Roll from led Zeppelin 4 which was definitely not a sixties song being released in 1972. The first time I played Whole Lotta Love through those gigantic speakers, with the strobes and coloured lights and probably half whacked on one dollar beers, I couldn't believe how good it sounded. Especially the breakdown when we got those strobes flashing. Because we knew that guitar would come back with an explosion. And they did and the crowd went mental. By this time we were getting crowds of 400 in a room licensed for maybe 150. It was just heat and noise. It was fantastic.

345. Jean Genie by David Bowie 1972

Jean Genie was all over the radio in the summer of 72/73. David Bowie was huge and kids at school had started turning up with Bowie haircuts. No coloured hair just yet and no one I can remember actually looked any good in it. Actually the ones that did look good were usually the girls we'd see at Box Hill train station. Around this time I was venturing out along the Lilydale line. Once a week I would go to Hawthorn and buy comics at this little kiosk at the station there.The Avengers, Spider Man & Uncanny X-Men were my particular favourites. I had a great collection which like an idiot in 1981 I sold to my then girlfriend's brother.
I'd hop on the train at Laburnam station and travel the suburban world nearly always by myself. After comics it was records. Then movies. Then I went and spoiled it years later by getting a car.
The first time Jean Genie really clicked for me was in the Art Room. We had this new teacher who was quite hip (or hippy) and had filled the room up with Batik prints and tie dyes. Most of the art she was teaching us involved time. Previous teachers wanted the lesson finished in the hour allotted. With Sandra (she even let us use her first name!) we'd linger there at recess finishing off stuff while the music on the radio played loud. One lunch time Jean Genie blasted it's way across the room. I'm working on a pastel drawing. The smell of the art room and Mick Ronson's guitar. A great place to be.