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

Back in the mid eighties I'd heard so much about R.E.M. that when it actually came time actually buy a record it was incredibly exciting. I didn't even know what they sounded like. I just remember being in this record shop in Elwood when they were talking about the new R.E.M. record and that 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.  and 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

The first thing I think of when I hear this song is Rubber Soul. And visa versa of course. Rubber Soul was started by Ronny and Michael. 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 bit slow in the first six months it gradually picked up and was packed every Friday night. And this is not the time to mention the legendary Doors nights)
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 around with a few other bands I was doing nothing. Ronny lived two streets away and I popped into his place when he was creating the poster. He asked if I had any sixties records. Luckily I had a massive collection and 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 with. We played half-hour sets. At the end of his set Ronny would put on a song he really liked and dash to the dancefloor to do his moves. And he did great moves. This was one of those songs.

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.