292. Band of Gold by Freda Payne 1970

Freda Payne - Band Of Gold

Often tagged a disco hit this was a definite soul classic written by Holland Dozier Holland hiding their songwriting royalties from Motown Records while in dispute. One of my first big soul loves and the first of many to come. I admit at in 1970 when I was still in the early teens the words meant not so much to and even now I still don't really know what happened on her wedding night but it didn't sound all that good. It is a song that's held up well to repeated listenings over the years. The song just powers along.
In 1970 I was listening to guitar rock or maybe even a bit of the old singer songwriter blues so this was a refreshing change.
First time I heard this was on my Crystal Radio Set which was hooked up to my window ledge. Casey Case's Top 40. I always wanted to hear the UK Top 40 but the radio staions never played that. Just the US top 40. It was so frustating. It always took so long for a good song to come on.
The crystal radio only had one earplug. After half an hour my ear would get sore and I'd have to switch to the other one. Sunday night laying in bed late at night falling to sleep to the sound of rock music. And of course soul in the form of Freda payne. Magic.

291. Laid by James 1993

James - Laid (Version 3)

A very big Lizard Lounge song this is one of those songs that got the crowd all singing in unison even the extremely high notes which verge on the point of yodelling. Just the first few strums of the acoustic guitar would get the punters running to the dance floor before the drums brought the band in.
By 1993 the Lizard lounge was really firing on all cylinders, Initially it was a saturday only club but by the end of 1990 we had taken over Fridays as well. for this I brought in Ronny from Rubber Soul. We originally called the night Revolver, the follow up to Rubber Soul. It didn't really work until around 1993. By then lizard Lounge had added a free uni night on Thursday. God knows why they called them Uni nights. Full of students straight from cheap drinks at the Armadale Hotel. First we tried to charge but when that didn't work we reduced the price of beer and made it free. Then it went through the roof. Having two successful nights on either side Friday started to pick up to. So by 93 there queues outside very night. Itwas a very exciting time. Instead of the usual headphones I rigged up an old  phone to cue tracks. Many times I had people come up and ask me why I was on the phone so many times.

290. Fell In Love With A Girl by White Stripes 2002

The White Stripes - Fell In Love With A Girl - YouTube

At the start of the 21st century there suddenly seemed to be this new wave of guitar bands. You had the Strokes, The Hives and then along came The White Stripes. It felt like we hadn't had great rock and roll bands for ages. We probably did have except this stuff was so good you forgot what was happening before. Music seemed to get all exciting again for the first time since maybe the Stone Roses. Not saying Britpop was bad just that in the end it wasn't really that exciting except for maybe the bands involved. 

White Stripes stood out. The colour red that figured so prominently. The stage costumes. No bass guitar. Rudimentary drumming meets astonishing guitar work. A real rock and roll voice that harked back to the sound of Led Zeppelin.

One night we were playing the Duke of Windsor in Prahran. Talking to one of the promoters he was excitedly telling me about his new group . Just guitar and drums. I can think of half dozen bands that now have that lineup.

Incidently I still have the ad for that gig. We headlined Saturday night and Jet, who within a year would be global superstars, were the support act to Large Number 12s on the Sunday night.

289. I Get Around by The Beach Boys 1964

Beach Boys - I Get Around - YouTube

I first heard this song in Phil Joyce's station wagon driving back from the youth club I went to every Friday night. Being 17 I didn't have a car so my mate Peter's brother usually ended up driving us everywhere. That he was totally into music and had a great collection of sixties tracks was a total bonus. Phil enlightened me to bands like the Troggs and with this song The Beach Boys.
In the early seventies I had no time for the Beach Boys. I didn't surf nor like the beach. And I didn't like surfing music. I hated Sloop John B, Cottonfields and all that rubbish that was on the radio when I was a teenager. With this song though my ears were opened. At first I didn't quite get it was the Beach Boys. It sounded to me totally different to their early records. It was like it had a motor running underneath the song. The production of the song made it leap out in front of all those other 1964 releases other than the Beatles. It was meant for driving. It was exciting and had great lyrics.
The only way I could get a copy was to buy a cheap greatest hits package from K-Mart. Which took a lot longer than I thought. Beach Boys pickings were slim. I did eventually find a second hand copy though. Horrible cover with somebody surfing on it. But after getting through the first couple of Chuck Berry inspired tracks the album turned out to be full of gems.

288. Like A Rolling Stone by Bob Dylan 1965

Bob Dylan - Like A Rolling Stone 1966

Too young to get into it when it first came out it sure created an enormous impression when I started listening to Dylan in the Seventies. One of Dylan's big put down songs it just seemed totally in tune with the changing times of the mid sixties. And I really was into sixties music. Even though I was there at the time I was a bit too young to realise what was going on. So in the early seventies I started going back. There was this magazine that came out that over a period of time built up to be an encyclopeadia of rock and pop. It was called The Story of Pop. And I bought every issue, devouring all the information. Just some of the images of the musicians from the sixties did for me. Dylan in his pomp and prime doing Rolling Stone while crowds booed him. Marvellous. Never understood it though. The single was already number one when all this happened.
Then when I bought NME it would regularly appear as the number one single ever in all the polls. It's definitely a contender. How many times have I sang with a bunch of mates "how does it feel?" at the top of my lungs. Many many times. And we knew all the words. I was in Munich in 1991 and the DJ put this on in a club and the reaction blew me away. The whole crowd singing. Very loudy. Probably gave me some ideas for the Lizard.
Brilliant!

286. My Best Friend's Girl by The Cars 1978

The Cars - My Best Friend's Girl - YouTube

when I think of the Cars the first thing that comes to mind is Nigel Rennard and his over the top reaction to their first album. Nigel who managed my band The Fiction in 1978 and later went on to manage La femme, the Ballroom and later Missing Link seemed to be besotted by this album. He was always going on about it. I think he liked the girls on the cover as much as the album inside. He started off managing my band The Fiction and then later took over La Femme. One day he bought a PA and we tried it out at our guitarist's Rob Wellington's Dad's warehouse. We played and then La Femme just blasted it away. The police came and shut it down. And we lost our rehearsal space. Then Nigel decided to concentrate on La Femme. They did have a brilliant sound though. My Mod friends weren't keen on them but I was always amazed how great they sounded. Got them on Countdown. Even Rob Furst from Beat magazine joined them on keyboards. In 1982 they had to support us at the Venue which was kind of a good feeling since in the early days we had to support them quite a few times. And they still sounded great.
I love the sound on the first Cars album and this is one of the coolest tracks on it. Power pop with a touch of the Queen sound thanks to Roy Thomas baker who produced Night at The Opera.

287. Add It Up by Violent Femmes 1983

Though I missed their gig at The Jump Club because my band was playing somewhere down the peninsula I soon got onto their debut album. That I got the record after the gig made me want to kick myself for missing the band. The music just jumped out of the speakers. Even now I find it hard to choose which particular song got to me the most but on reflection, this is the one I've listened to and played the most. It's the one that got the most consistent plays at the Lizard Lounge and before that the Beehive, Barbarella's, and the short-lived Kaos in North Melbourne. Some DJs try to cut off the slow bit at the start of the song but then it loses its appeal. You need the crowd singing along to "day after day....". And the crowd sings along to all the songs. A real indie dancefloor gem.
I did get to see them later on in Tower Records in the heart of London. And they were brilliant. I managed to get right close to the band which was good cos it was packed and they only had acoustic guitars. But the crowd sang along to all the tracks off the first album. Really the album of choice. My wife Liz got to see them busking at Missing Link Records when she was still in high school. Then she spent the rest of the day hanging out with them. How cool is that?