517. Let Me Roll It by Paul McCartney 1973

 

Back in 1973, Paul McCartney and Wings released an album called Band on the Run. Although I loved the Beatles, when it came to the divorce in 1970, I stayed with John Lennon and listened intently to albums like Plastic Ono Band and Imagine.

Although my interest in John’s records tapered off as I welcomed the onslaught of T. Rex, Slade and then Bowie, I still carried a bit of disdain for Paul McCartney’s albums. Especially rubbish like “Bip Bop”, which was all over the radio at one stage.

Then they started playing tracks from Band on the Run. And they sounded good. The album was getting all these accolades. Even Bryan Ferry mentioned how he wished he could make an album like it.

I still wasn’t sold until I read a review that mentioned how “Let Me Roll It” outdid John Lennon. Intrigued, I sought out a friend with a large stereo and a copy of the record and asked him to play it.

Boom! Mind blown!

I couldn’t believe how good this song was. How great it sounded. I had to have the album just for that track. Then I had to tape the track so I could listen to it in my car. Loud. And in the car, it was a monster.

Then the album opened up to me, and eventually I became a fan, although subsequent records were never quite as satisfying. And he was all over the radio with “Silly Love Songs”, “Let ’Em In” and so forth.

But when Paul rocks, he is pure power pop.

Jeez, I didn’t even mention “Jet”!

516. Teenage Head by Flamin Groovies 1971

 When my record collection was shaken to the core by the arrival of punk rock in 1977 not only did all these old records seem a bit out of place (not Roxy and Bowie though) but while we started to become really excited about the new thing there wasn't much in the way of releases. Just a trickle that began with the Ramones debut album.

Luckily we were pointed to several obscure bands we might have missed along the way. We used to go and see Keith Glass's band at the Tiger Lounge on Wednesdays when he started having punk bands support him. And he played this one song that I just loved called "Shake Some Action" released by the Flamin Groovies in 1976. I had to find the album and even though I scoured all the record shops I couldn't find it. I should have tried Archie and Jugheads!

However, at Monash Records I came across an earlier album by the Groovies called "Teenage Head" I wasn't expecting much and wasn't captivated until I heard this song in the right setting which was half drunk and waiting to go out on the town. And once this song got me in the rest of the tracks started to make sense too and I loved the album. I managed to get the Shake Some Action album not too long after but that couldn't nudge this off the turntable. Well not just yet!

515. Music To Watch Girls By by Andy Williams

Rubber Soul was at the Carron Tavern in West Melbourne. Started by Ronny and Michael after the Venetian Room at the Hotel Francis in the city closed down. The idea was to create a full-on sixties night. Playing all those sixties hits from the Beatles to the Stones by way of soul, Motown, bubblegum, and A Whole Lotta Love by Led Zeppelin. Complete with Strobe. I was DJing there from the first night. 30 minutes on and 30 minutes off. A DJ system that allowed us to drink, dance, and have a really good time. It became popular enough for Rob Furst of Beat magazine to open a similar themed club in the middle of the city called Shout. Monday nights.

One night Ronny and I decided to go down and check it out. It was up a flight of stairs above the Australia Arcade off Collins St. Peirre Baroni was spinning the records. And they had dancing girls. Two of them. This place was brilliant. They didn't play the same music as us. They were a little bit more sophisticated than us. Our music went with drinking and getting sweaty to loud music. Shout played Music To Watch Girls By by Andy Williams and These Boots Are Made for Walking by Nancy Sinatra. The seats were plush. The DJ console was real. Ours was turntables on a piece of wood covering a billiard table.

Anyway, I never appreciated lounge music too much before hearing this song. But this time I got it. And I would start playing it in my sets now and again. It was a fun interlude before the next Doors song and in fact, it wasn't too far removed from Light My Fire. Well kinda. From then on, I would investigate what would later be called Loungcore and found gold!

514. My Baby's Gone by Axiom

Box Hill Train Station 1971. Somebody is sitting on the bench waiting for a train into the city. Which is why I'm there too. He's got a transistor radio but it's a little bigger than the one I have at home and it makes a louder sound. And the song I'm hearing is "My Baby's Gone" by Axiom. It's not the first time I've heard it but in fact, it's the first time I hear it! like it just twigs something in my brain and sticks in there. Cos that's what a song can do. Just one day it hits you and it becomes a part of your history. And when I hear it I'm at Box Hill Station waiting for a train in 1971.

Of course, I never had a baby that was gone. I'm 15, in Form 4, and have yet to have anything close to a girlfriend. There is a good chance I'd never been kissed. I went to a boy's high school. I spent a lot of time listening to records. And working out how to buy more working a Chemist delivery round in Blackburn South. $3.60 a week.

My Baby's Gone is an absolute cracker of a record. It sounds amazing and always mystified me why a record as good as this wasn't massive all over the world. Glenn Shorrock is a great singer. As he was in the Twilights. I'm not going to mention Glenn's next band LRB but I probably should since their lead guitarist David Briggs recorded Captain Cocoa when I was managing them and also mastered a few Little Murders albums. And he was very good. He likes to go into the red on the desk.

Oh yeah. I guess I should mention that I saw one of LRBs first gigs. Billed as Mississippi (their previous band name, kind of) they played the Burwood Teachers College Ball at the St. Kilda Town Hall (supporting a Beach Boys cover band)  The bass guitarist from the Zoot, Beeb Birtles played guitar. Can't remember much about them but the Beach Boys band had everyone up and dancing.

513 One by Johnny Farnham 1969

 In 1969 I was in Form 2 at Box Hill High School and all I could think about was pop music which didn't really help my schoolwork very much. I mean why do homework when you have the radio to listen to? Every essay and assignment I wrote was accompanied by pop music blaring from a tiny transistor radio. Then there was the TV with shows like Uptight which I watched religiously each week. This brings me to Johnny Farnham who was all over the show. He was big. Lots of hits most of which didn't appeal to me. However, this song was great. It was a cover of Three Dog Nights US hit which was a cover of Harry Nilsson's version from his first album. Not that I knew any of that. I just knew I was listening to a fantastic song that pulled on the heartstrings of a 13-year-old boy who didn't have a clue how to talk to girls but spent a lot of time thinking about them. And because of all the moving about between schools because of domestic problems, I was spending a lot of time on my own. I had spent 3 months at Croydon High School (co-ed yay) and just came back to Box Hill High (single-sex school))  But it might as well have been 3 years. I had to start building friendships all over again.

512. The Boy with the Arab Strap by Belle and Sebastian

Because I've seen this band live a few times now and this song gets the crowd out of their seats and onto the stage. During this song the stage fills up. The first time I saw them it was about 6 people but the last time it was full. I love stage invasions. Back when Little Murders were riding the wave of power pop/Mod in the early 80s we would always invite the crowd onstage with us much to the chagrin of the lead guitarist who was always trying to keep people from dancing on his pedals. The barrier between artist and audience did not exist.
Because this was also the first Belle and Sebastian song I ever heard. There used to be this TV show called Teachers which starred the guy who plays Rick Grimes in the Walking Dead, Andrew Lincoln. Every episode would start with him riding his bicycle to school while this song played in the background. Loved the show and loved the song. Then it grew from there.
And because Belle & Sebastian remind me so much of the Kinks. Not the rock Kinks. No You Really Got Me or anything like that. Belle don't really rock. No, they remind me of Village Greeen Preservation Society all the way up to Everybody's in Showbiz. The Kinks with a touch of Morrissey maybe. But if I'm going down that route I might of picked "Get Me Away From Here I'm Dying"

511. Peace Frog by the Doors 1970

Well that was a surprise. I always thought this was a sixties song and while looking it up on Google I find it actually came out in 1970. I still see the Doors as the sixties though I guess I'm working under the idea that the sixties went from about 1963 (the Beatles) to about 1972 (Bowie).
As I've written before we used to have Doors specials at Rubber Soul where I DJed in the eighties. These night were just crazy. The Carron Tavern in West Melbourne was licensed for 200 and the first Doors night pulled in 800 payers. It was madness. At the end the cops rolled up and dispersed the crowd outside the club.
Peace Frog was played a lot at Rubber Soul along with a handful of other Doors tunes including The End when Ronny was in the mood for a dramatic ending to the night.
The thing with Peace Frog was though it worked equally as well at the next club I opened up the Lizard Lounge. The Peace Frog rhythm seemed to fit really well with the whole baggy movement. Plus of course the keyboards and guitar sound meant it blended into sets featuring Stone Roses, Happy Mondays and the Charlatans.
And Janes Addiction.
The song is pretty timeless despite it's references to blood in nearly every line. The Doors keeping going in and out of fashion. Some of their songs don't.

510. I'm Gonna Change the World by the Animals 1965

Back in music Year Zero which was for Melbourne punk the year 1977. Well maybe in the eastern suburbs where I lived. As well as trying our own songs we spent a lot of time picking through old sixties songs looking for the songs that would fit with the new punk stylings. Stepping Stone, Watcha Gonna do about it? were all being covered by bands like the Sex Pistols. The Saints played Lipstick on Your Collar and River deep mountain High.
All the bands had covers. We had written enough songs yet.
I'm Gonna Change the World was kind of an obscure Animals song. The b-side of It's My life. A variation on We've gotta get outta this place. Both songs were great. Unfortunately when The Fiction tried playing it at rehearsal it didn't come out a s good as we'd hoped. We never got to play it live because we never got to the stage where we felt it worked. After we scrapped it I'm sure the feel of the song influenced our songwriting.
The Animals were not one of my favourite sixties bands. But this turned my head around. I became a bit of a fan of their tough Newcastle r & b. Even better was songs like Monterey when they went a bit trippy. Even got to see Eric Burdon when he played the Jump Club a few years later. Can't remember much about it.

509. Soul Time by Shirley Ellis 1967

Back in 1974 I went back to the UK with my Mum and sister for Christmas. I spent months living in the front room of my Auntie Sheila's house. I was hanging out with my cousin Neil and going to clubs and ice skating rings and pubs. This was all new to me after living in Nunawading without a car and spending most my time at the church youth club.
One night he took me to a place called the Mecca or more specifically the Highland Room of the Mecca.
As we set off I put on my new jacket though I was a bit worried because it was slightly drizzling outside. Neil told me to put it away. If it rains it's warmer and you won't need a jacket in the club. You'd just have to check it in to the coat room.
 I had been to the Mecca once before when I was about 7 years old and seen a beat band there and remembered it was huge. The Highland Room was not huge. It had tartan walls and a low ceiling.
There were a few there. Girls dancing round handbags. But then this guy walks out and throws talcum powder on the floor and starts doing these other worldly dance moves. Flipping, spinning. We all just stood there watching. Then the DJ starts playing more soul and everyone is up dancing.
40 years later I'm at a club called Southside Soul in Melbourne. A guy pulls out some talcum powder and spreads it on the floor. No flips or slides. Just clean dance moves. Maybe the soulsters are getting on a bit now. But it brings a smile to my face. Then the next song comes on and it's Soul Time by Shirley Ellis. A song Liz and I dance to at home. So I'm on the the dance floor. Away from the talc though. Dancing to a soul great.

508. Magnet and Steel by Walter Egan 1978

When it came time to record my first single back in 1978 Bruce Milne introduced me a friend of his who had been busy playing around with sounds in his living room. Stuart Beatty was probably doing more than that but that was the brief I was given. He could record a single on his 4 track Teac and it would cost us practically nothing.
A meeting was arranged and I went round to Stuart's place in St. Kilda. I couldn't believe the number of cats prowling the place. Big fluffy ones. That's why it was called the Cathouse on the single cover later. He had a great collection of records lining the living room wall and he proceeded to play me sounds. This was the first. I was a bit taken aback by this choice because The Fiction were still a punk band. Magnet and Steel features Stevie Nicks for heaven's sake. And Lindsay Buckingham produced it. Fleetwood Mac were the opposite of what I was hoping for. But Stuart was concentrating on the sound and the harmonies. And it did sound amazing.
And the song stuck with me. I managed to pick up a copy a few weeks later and it spent a fair amount of time on my turntable. I'd never thought much about backing vocals before but this song opened my ears right up. I think I had the melodies but now I needed the harmonies.

507. Love is the Drug by Roxy Music 1975

When this came out in 1975 it seemed like the epitome of cool. It starts with footsteps and then a car starting up. A good car not like the crappy Datsun Bluebird I had bought for 400 dollars on Springvale Road. We follow Bryan Ferry to a bar. Oh it goes on. Who wouldn't want that lifestyle. Sitting in my bedroom in Nunawading it was all I wanted.  As it it turned out a year later when punk came along we didn't want it.
But in the eighties it all came back. The glamorous lifestyle was all anybody wanted. After Rubber Soul and Barbarellas the gang decided to open a club called the Beehive at the Riverside Hotel in Richmond. A great old building with plenty of room to do our stuff. By now I was taking on the roll of press officer or copywriter. On writing the blurb for this club I used all the imagery from Love is the Drug. Even the footsteps and the car starting. I think we even used it in an ad.
The Beehive didn't last long at the Riverside. It was too good for it's own sake. After a month of packed crowds the pub owners wondered why we were taking all the money and having so much fun. So they threw us out so they could do it themselves. The pub shut down a few months later. We moved the Beehive to the Carron Tavern.

506. Shot By Both Sides by Magazine 1978

Picked this single up in a bargain bin for 25 cents not long after it came out. I was very much into the Buzzcocks and Howard Devoto being their lead singer and leaving the band just when they became kind of famous was both strange and intrigueing to me. The Buzzcocks releasing Orgasm Addict put me off at first. Bit of a gimmick record. Magazine releasing this song was much more impressive. However the Buzzcocks went on to release track after brilliant track while I found Magazine a bit sporadic. 

It was almost as if the two bands were a dividing wall in conversations. If you were cool you liked Magazine. Buzzcocks were pop punk. Magazine was the onset of post punk. Me I was forming a mod band with leanings towards the Undertones. I knew then I was never going to be post punk cool. No matter what my inspirations. No matter how many Joy Division records I bought. I did buy myself a long black coat which I thought made me look mysterious. I loved that coat. I wrapped myself in it and made my way to the heart of the crowd. The crowd were probably watching The Church at the Jump Club. 

The song stills sounds great and I never tire of it. Actually the Magazine stuff sounds even better to my ears now than it did then. 

505. Walk On The Wild Side by Lou Reed 1972

This was my introduction to the world of Lou Reed back in 1972. I'd read about him from interviews in Melody Maker and the New Musical Express with David Bowie. But no one I knew had Velvet Underground records and neither did the local record shop. I'd have to wait a few years for those and a world of second hand shops and Monash Records with their large heavy cardboard sleeve cut outs.
But it started here with this song suddenly being played on the local radio station 3AK. And it was so different and other worldly. Almost like jazz. And what was he singing about? He was taking us to somewhere else. Somewhere a little more dangerous and not really anything to do with the bright sunshine of the Melbourne suburbs.
So we played this music at night or with the shades down often adding a stick of incense to the mix. My friend lent me a kind of spinning light like you would find on the top of a police car. I'd have that going and fairy lights from our Christmas tree hung on the wall. And I'd always prop the album cover up against the record player. As if to announce what was playing.
Transformer was massive. The first real party I went to. One where you had to cross town. To Carlton all the way from Nunawading. Where there were lots of people you didn't know. And the girls looked exotic. This album was playing as I walked in. The whole album. Another world.

504. Only You Can do It by Francoise Hardy 1966

Okay, she had a lot better songs. Songs that I like better. And she was cool and had her picture taken with Brian Jones and Bob Dylan. And she was French. And every now and then I go into a French mood and start pulling out my France Gall and Bridgette Bardort/Serge Gainsbourg records and the delightful Francoise. But before all that and before I bought records because their sleeves were cool I was in love with this song when I was still in primary school over in Nunawading South. Was it a big hit in Australia? I haven't got a clue. It was a big hit for me. I had a thing for girl singers and their pop tunes early in love. I had a massive crush on Sandie Shaw,Marianne Faithful and even liked Cilla Black.
Mind you I didn't get to own the record until about 13 years later when I found the Francoise Hardy in English album in a bargain bin at a record shop in 1979. Although I played the song off the LP itself it probably took me until years later  to start appreciating just how good some of her other songs were. I was playing one a few years back and my daughter Melody started singing along. Seems they started learning it in French class at her High School. Now that's cool.

503. The Cutter by Ech and the Bunnymen 1983

Two major bands came out of Liverpool in the early eighties. Teardrop Explodes and Echo and the Bunnymen. I was firmly in the Teardrop Explodes camp. The Bunnymen were a little too pretentious for me. But looking back it was the age of pretension and they were all as bad as each other. Nevertheless, my opinions about them changed dramatically with this slice of heavenly pop. From the Eastern strings that open the record to the psychedelic and almost Beatlish tone that runs throughout it just never stops. Banging along like a train.
This made a popular single to put on at just about every nightclub I played at. And through massive speakers like the ones we had in the first few years of the Lizard Lounge, it was totally massive. I think it was an old band PA stack that had been left behind. It had been a country rock venue before we took over. I saw a few bands there. Put The Cutter through those and you were transported. Forget the sticky carpet and the dingy atmosphere The Cutter put you somewhere else. I never had a clue what the song was about though.

502. Rebel Rebel by David Bowie 1974

In 1974 I was completely besotted by David Bowie. I had all the records going back to the rubbish he made at Decca (except I never had The laughing Gnome and I still don't) Posters on the walls and two scrapbooks full of cuttings which I still have tucked away in some cupboard. Rebel Rebel was another classic single and definitely sounds a lot better on it's 7 inch version rather than the Diamond Dogs version. For a while it was mine and Lynne Wilson's song when I went out with her that year. She was going through a rebellious stage ending with her cutting her hair dead short at the end of the year. We broke up at the playground round the corner from where our drummer Duncan lives in Nunawading. I don't think her Dad ever liked me. I also used to buy her Gary Glitter eps but they don't bring back any memories thank god.
7 years later Little Murders are playing a regular gig at the Continental Hotel in Sorrento involving 3 half hour sets with a newish line up once a month. So while I write most of the stuff we play we found a need to add a few different covers. Up until then I'd only ever covered sixties and soul hits but I thought it was time to gently push us into the seventies. So we added Rebel Rebel . Great riff and the very drunken surfers really went mad for it. The floor would end up 3 cm deep in spilt beer. There's only really one verse to sing then a lot of ad libbing at the end. What a great gig that was. The drive home in the middle of the night trying to get to the Jump Club before it closed was often a bit hairy though.

501. Going Down To Liverpool by The Bangles 1984

The Bangles had a few great pop singles and I must admit to having a bit of a crush on Susannah Hoffs. It was the eyes that got me. And the guitars and the power pop sounds on some of their best songs. I found this song on their first major label album "All Over The Place".
This one was written by Kimberley Rew who wrote the omnipresent "Walking on Sunshine" while he was with Katrina And The Waves. Which was also quite a good song until it was played to death forever.
The Bangles were one of those bands we played at Barbarellas during our poppy guitar sets. The first time we heard them was the single Manic Monday which was written by Prince. Which was a big deal at the time. He was going through his Paisley phase. Manic Monday was great too. But they lost us with Walk Like An Egyptian and Eternal Flame.
Still I enjoy listening to Going Down to Liverpool. It's one of those songs where you feel like putting together a mix tape just so you can have it playing in the car when it's needed. When the suns out and you need some shiny guitars to guide your way.

500. Alex Chilton by the Replacements 1987

I heard this song so many times before I knew who sang it. And I loved this song. But I was always hearing snatches of it on the radio but I always missed the tag where they revealed the name. Usually because they either talked about it before or because there was like 5 in a row. But it was familiar from the first listen.
It's a great guitar pop/rock band saluting another great guitar pop/rock band. Big Star. Who kind of laid down some of the guidelines for pure seventies power pop. And Big Star was a band I got into the same time as The Replacements. So I kind of don't know which came first. Rod, our guitarist in Little Murders had the double CD of Big Star and as I was sharing a house with him it was pointless to buy another copy so I went out and bought a Replacements CD. All For Nothing/Nothing For All. An album which as been pointed out to me numerous times is a best of Stones album without their early hits. Anyway it's a great album despite that. It would take me a few years more to hear their early songs but I'm still quite taken with my first purchase. Alex Chilton, Bastards of Young, Left of the Dial. Too many to mention. Kind of stuff that makes me want to pick up and guitar and maybe a bottle of Jack Daniels. Wait a minute...that might be Keith Richard invading my soul.
A few years later I was over in the UK and Teenage Fanclub had just released The Concept. And they easily fit into the guitar pop sound of their American predecessors. Guitars and great pop songs. Nothing better.

499. Heat Wave by Martha Reeves & The Vandellas 1963

Alright it's freezing outside and the night is as black as coal but I put this record on and it's like instant sunshine. Back in the seventies I was a little mad for the Sound of Motown and it was bands like the Vandellas that got me shaking rather than the pure pop of the Supremes. Certainly I liked the Supremes and they had some massive hits but there was a bit more soul and foot stomping lingering in the Motown vaults.
In fact the only Motown star I've ever seen was Diana Ross. I was in London around 1995 walking around the town with a friend I had hooked up with over there. We were in Kensington when there was this massive rush of photographers running down the street. And it front of them was Ms. Ross with big hair and and a flowing red dress. And it was mayhem. Shouts of "Turn This Way" and "Who are you meeting?" and it went for 30 seconds and was over. The paparazzi melting back into the shadows.
Back to Heat Wave. I first heard it on a Who album. The Jam also covered it. They were my two favourite bands at the time so they led me to Martha and the pure joy of dancing to Heat Wave in a sweaty club on a Wednesday night in Richmond. Or a packed Rubber Soul where drinks were spilled as the floor heaved to sixties classics.

498. Blue by the Fine Young Cannibals 1985

Johnny Come Home by the Fine Young Cannibals was a big dance floor hit back in 1985. I almost think it was the bit where the guitarists dropped to their knees during the film clip that really sold the song. Great song. Was Blue better? I don't know It was different and wasn't a dance floor filler. But it reminds me of DJing at Barbarellas in Smith Street Collingwood. Before that club I'd only DJed up to midnight at Rubber Soul. This one went to 5 in the morning. And it was mental. Queues around the block before opening. And we played everything. Whatever took our fancy and kept people on the floor.  Of course going so late it was harder to go out for a drink after the club because by the time we'd finished the place was almost emptied out. Made it even harder to chat up girls. You might talk to a girl half way through the night just to see them leave halfway through a set.
One night I was particular smitten by a girl I was talking to. She reminded me of Cindi Lauper in that clip for Girls Just wanna Have Fun. The bit in the clip where she actually opens her eyes.
I found out what songs she liked. Bought her a few drinks. Went back to the DJ booth. Near the end of my set I noticed she was leaving.  I liked her but I didn't have any way of contacting her if she left now. As she was halfway to the door I put on a song she had spoken about. Blue by Fine Young Cannibals. She turned around and brought her friend back onto the dance floor. I got Adam Duncan who I DJed with to take over and I went over to dance with her. I think she recognised my attempt to catch her before she left. She wasn't put off by my dancing. She gave me her phone number before she left for real. We ended up seeing each other for a short time. Eighties romance.