476. I Need A Million by the Laughing Dogs 1979

I first heard this song played by the Boys Next Door back in the late 70s. I swear they were playing this song back in 1978 however the record it's on didn't come out until 1979. And even if they did start playing it in 1979 it's hard to imagine they would cover something that just came out. This vexed me for a while until Phil Calvert let me know that the song appeared on a live comp from CBGBs in 1976. Mystery solved.
Be that as it may, Nick Cave and the Boys Next Door were miles ahead of the other bands on the scene back in the late 70s. Nick was and still is pure charisma. When I got my first car, a Datsun Bluebird, they were one of the first bands I saw. Rob Wellington took me to a church hall in Springvale to see them. And they were mesmerising. I didn't get a chance to explore any other kinds of music because this was where I wanted to be. My band, the Fiction was supporting them six months later.
Early BND gigs were full of covers. "I'm Eighteen" "Andy Warhol" & " These Boots are Made for Walking" were just a few. "I Need A Million" was another. And they just nailed it. I wanted to get the song but I couldn't find a copy anywhere. And when I did track it down it didn't have the urgency that BND gave to it on stage at places like the Tiger Room. I always felt I had the wrong version. There was a better version out there somewhere.
But it's a great song. Up there with all the other revered classic punk building blocks.  Even better now it's less easy to compare it to the past.

475. Keep On Running by Spencer Davis Group 1965

In the sixties when I first heard songs like these I was far too young to appreciate how good they were. My pop mind wasn't opened until The Monkees. It took until the last days of Ziggy Stardust and the end of Glam Rock for me to to really get into the sixties. And each new track just knocked me out out. So it was with Keep On Running which just pounded along. However it would be another long wait before we started opening clubs where we could play this stuff.
In 77/78 when punk was taking off in Melbourne there were a lot more parties than gigs on the weekend. Most punk bands played week nights. Parties seldom were great although they did have their moments. Half the time it was scavenging for alcohol. Or fighting over who got to put the music on. I was already in the habit of making up mixtapes of sixties singles. Pop singles like the Who and Small Faces and the Beatles. I would come across followers of the Doors or The Stooges or Kraftwerk. Many of the punks weren't into sixties pop. I wasn't into the Doors. And I certainly didn't want to hear a whole album of Stooges at a party. Despite the rocking "No Fun" et al we had to listen to the dirge too. I didn't win out. My tapes were ejected. I had to make a move before I got ejected too.
Me and my friends had to and find a place  where we could hear the Small Faces and the Stones. Eventually we created our own scene. The Melbourne Mod revival starts here.

474. I Only Want You by Eagles of Death Metal 2004

After seeing the Black Angels at the Palace I was not feeling the greatest and was hoping that someone would pour me into a cab. My friend Mark had other ideas and after fruitlessly searching for his cousin Billy who had disappeared into the ether Mark decided we needed to go somewhere else. The somewhere else being the Cherry Bar in AC DC Lane.
How could I refuse? In fact the cold Melbourne air was waking me up. And I thought I looked sharp. Not that the bouncer at Cherry Bar agreed. He didn't like the idea of my tie but he though the black denim jeans and Doc martens put me over the line. I should of mentioned I played there a few months back but that might have sounded desperate. Anyway we were in.  Almost immediately it felt like Rubber Soul as they played sixties guitar hits and Doors and Led Zeppelin. It actually seemed like the ghost of Ronnie held court above the turntables. He would have loved this place. Actually the time we played there a few ex Rubber Soul punters had come up to me and chatted about the old days. Well there's no old days in great rock music.
In between the Deep Purple and The Who they played this song. It sounded familiar but I had to use my iPhone to scan it. Because it sounded so damn good. It rocked. Eagles of Death Metal. I didn't know much about them but the next day I was on Spotify digging their music and trying to find their albums on vinyl. They're my new favourite band.

473. Don't Play With Guns by Black Angels 2013

Speaking of new music a friend of mine Mark T. was telling to me about Tame Impala a few months back and then got onto this band called the Black Angels. Part of the new psychedelic movement I guess. I wasn't sure I wanted to go back there again. But I jumped onto Youtube I gave them a listen and found this track. Which led me to their brilliant Indigo Meadow album which in turn led to me buying my first 2013 album on vinyl and last Friday heading out with Mark and his cousin Billy to see the band.
That we started the night with a few bottles of great Shiraz at a duck restaurant in Chinatown before strolling up to the Palace put us in good spirits. The exorbitant amount we paid for beers, vodka shots and Black Ice nearly blew the fun away but we were in too much of a good mood. And we somehow ended up at the front. And I've never been in the front row for anything unless you count the time I took my kids to see the Hi Five. But here I was holding on to the barrier. Listening to the support bands. Leaving the front to queue up for a smoke. There was a line of people waiting to go into the smoking area. Never seen that before. I smoke rarely now but this was the kind of gig where it felt almost right. Except for the 10 minute wait. And the fact that no drinks were allowed in the smoking area. Which kinda defeats the fun a bit.
Black Angels came on and it was a blast. Total sound. They did all my favourite songs first and then seemed to get into a groove which was just mesmerizing. Which could have been the alcohol because I was starting to find the stairs a bit elastic. I retreated to the balcony for the second half and just watched the band and the audience interact. With these trippy visuals on screen it just felt good. But I was guessing I might not feel so good tomorrow morning.

472. Elephant by Tame Impala 2012

At first I was catching up with all those great albums of the 90s that I only had on CD. Stuff like Teenage Fanclub and Blur and Radiohead. But I need to buy a bit of vinyl that was little more current. Something I didn't have on CD. So I bought Tame Impala "Lonerism" Mainly because this song grabbed me a few months back. It reminded me of the old Glam singles with a touch of Syd Barrett Pink Floyd with a bit of Beatles thrown in. It was just a great pop song. It made me wish I was still running a nightclub because i knew if I put this on the dance floor would go mad.
And my daughter Ruby is well into Tame Impala too and it's a great feeling when one of your kids likes the same music you do. Then again Ruby is the one with the record player and the stack of vinyl. At 11 years old that's pretty groovy. And she loves Tame impala. Especially the song "It Feels Like We Going Backwards"
I've broken the barrier now. When I buy new music it's only going to be vinyl. I want those big covers. And the sound when the needle hits the groove. I want to interact with my music.

471. Pictures of Lily by The Who 1967

Of course these blog entries could be filled with Who songs and at the end I guess there will be quite a few. So how to pick them? Well this one comes to my notice because I was at the Camberwell Market for the first time in years this morning. I like taking my kids Ruby and Remi to the markets because they like looking through the junk. Anyway there was loads of vinyl there. A lot of the albums I already had but a lot of singles there. But no one was caring much about the singles and they were to be found lying sadly next to their 12 inch cousins wrapped in their shiny plastic while some of the 7 inches didn't even have sleeves. Very cruel but very rewarding as I came away with some beauties including the Who's Pictures of Lily. For a dollar.
And because I've finally fixed up my automatic record player from the 70s it's now a pleasure to play singles at home. The needle lifts off at the end of the record. I don't have to run over to the turntable to lift it off before it goes round and round.
Pictures of Lily was another sixties tracks introduced to me by my mate Pete's brother Phil. He had all these compilation tapes of sixties songs I'd never heard of back when I was 16. I thought The Who were all about Baba Riley and Tommy and then I heard these pop songs and I was hooked. The music is just so exciting and Roger Daltrey hasn't got his rock voice yet. And the drums and guitars. It all seems so effortless and majestic and makes you want to play it loud. Real loud. Oh Lily.

470. No Fun by The Stooges 1969.

I have to admit that I really didn't hear the Stooges doing No Fun until after I bought the Sex Pistols covering the song on the back of Pretty Vacant. The Pistols did a great copy but the Mod inside me made me go search out for the original. Which I've done with most songs and they've turned out to be a lot better. I say usually because a few get transformed into something a lot better. Badfinger's "Without You" is the obvious one. Nillson just took it and owned it. Dave Edmunds's version of Elvis Costello's Girls Talk and Mott the Hoople Completely owning All The Young Dudes even though Bowie has tried to take it back many times.
So I went looking for The Stooges and it didn't take long. Even in Box Hill, there was a wind blowing and these alternative records were turning up all over the place. Got it back to my brother's house in Blackburn where I was staying for the last few months of college. My Mum had gone back to the UK so I was fending for myself. My brother Tony and his wife were cool though. They loved the idea of a band rehearsing there and let Subway my first band take over the master bedroom. One of our first gigs was in the Living Room.
But I digress. Loved the Stooges first album. It was a toss-up between No Fun and "I wanna be your dog". But No Fun led me to the Stooges. However, my first punk song was a rip-off of "Dog". 1969 was pretty groovy too. But it was No Fun that I got Subway to play. It was only two chords. and my favorites as well. A to D. It was just so exciting buying these buried classics. The MC5 didn't grab me at first though. Except for the name. That was cool.