165. Life On Mars by David Bowie 1971

A few weeks ago I went to the Roxy Music concert with my friend Dan. At one point he mentioned that David Bowie would be touring Australia quite soon. I didn't believe him and when I got home I double checked and there was no tour. But deep down I hope there is going to be another one. He's been very quiet now for almost 5 years after his heart attack. A world without Bowie is something I don't want to think about.
Is Life On Mars? is greatest song. Some days yes. I mean a lot of days really. After buying Ziggy Stardust I was thrilled to find another Bowie album in the shops. 1972. Brilliant year. The song that got to me first was Life On Mars. It was like nothing I'd heard before. And it was a song I couldn't stop playing. I have to admit that at first I got the lyrics mixed up and was singing the middle bit all wrong for ages. The lyrics have often been compared to Salvador Dali images. I thought they were just about the movies. Maybe they're both. Whatever it just is utterly captivating.  A mention of lennon's on sale again tied the song to my previous hero John Lennon. A stand out on a brilliant album.
Just the use of the song on the BBC television series of the same name made the show a must see.

164. The Lemon Pipers - Green Tambourine

The Lemon Pipers - Green Tambourine

Always loved this song though didn't have a copy of it forever. 

When punk just got started their were only a few bands around. My band the Fiction being

one. The Babeez were another but they were so far ahead both in music and attitude. I was at a party in Richmond one night when they played this song. Brilliant cover of the song especially Jarryl Wirth's guitar playing. I never realised it had so much power or even such an identifiable riff. There were lots of parties where the punks of 76 and 77 would meet up. I mean there wasn't that many in Melbourne really. The Boys Next Door and The Babeez were the top bands on the scene. The Babeez changed there name to The News and graffitied the town. The whole of Melbourne had News spray painted on bus shelters for years. 

Drop your silver in my tambourine
Help a poor man fill his pretty dream
Give me pennies I'll take anything
Now listen while I play
My green tambourine

Watch the jingle jangle start to chime
Reflections of the music that is mine
When you drop a coin you'll hear it sing
Now listen while I play
My green tambourine

[Instrumental break]

Drop a dime before I walk away
Any song you want I'll gladly play
Money feeds my music machine
Now listen while I play
My green tambourine

163. Quick Joey Small (Run Joey Run) by Kasenatz-Katz Singing Orchestral Circus

Kasenatz-Katz Singing Orchestral Circus - Quick Joey Small

I remember they used to have a music show on Saturday afternoons. When I first started reall getting into music Hey Jude was on all the time because it was number one like forever. I seem to remmember it going for 16 weeks at number one. But one day they played this film clip and it blew me away.  I t started my love affair with bubblegum music. In the end there were just a few great songs maybe enough to make a best of album you could see where Glam rock and later punk rock got some of their ideas. This was the flip side to garage rock but even dumber.

Quick Joey Small went over the wall With a ball an' a chain behind him Quick Joey Small went over the wall Send the dogs right out to find him. In a striped prision suit with no room to move He headed for the highway With his chain still dragin' He thumbed down a wagon said Well you're goin my way. And they say now Run Joey , Joey run run the hounds are on your trail Jump-up Jump-up Run Joey , Joey run run they're gonna send you back to jail

162. Coz I luv you by Slade

Slade - Coz I Luv You [totp2]

I bought this record in 1971 from KMart on the corner of Burwood Highway and Blackburn Roads in Burwood East. I was 15 and the only places to hang around were the local shop are Kmart which was pretty big. Also late night shopping had just begun on Friday nights. I bought a lot of records and they always had a good selection of singles. And when they left the charts you could buy the singles for 20 cents each. I bought this one full price though. It was an instant charmer as soon as I heard it on the radio. Noddy Holder had the greatest Rock voice since John Lennon. And it had that beat the pop kids really go for.
I managed to get a huge poster of the band to put on my door of bedroom. Later I got tickets to their Showgrounds gig. It was my first real concert. I got to watch the show on the shoulders of my mate Geoff Thake. I was small and light and he was tall. In 1971/1972 Slade were the band for me (though I was also big on T. Rex). I had yet to be introduced to Bowie.
I never went back to KMart. A girl I liked thought it would be funny to hide a chocolate bar in my shopping bag. Caught but innocent. Stupid skylarking. I think they were more pissed off because I didn't have a phone at home so to follow it up they would have had to drive to my place. So they let us go with a bit of a warning. It did mean a longer bike ride to buy records and I really liked all those cheap sixties re-issues they had there. Oh yeah the girl disappeared too.

I won't laugh at you when you boo-hoo-hoo coz I luv you

I can turn my back on the things you lack coz I luv you

I just like the things you do mmm,

don't you change the things you do mmm

You get me in a spot and smile the smile you got and I luv you

You make me out a clown then you put me down I still luv you

I just like the things you do mmm,

don't you change the things you do mmmm

161. To Sir with Love by Lulu

Lulu • To Sir With Love

Back in the late seventies/early eighties I was busy soaking up sixties pop culture like there was no tomorrow. I had got my first video player. Beta! doh! but there were a few titles about. Not nearly as much as the VHS titles. But I would argue the compact size and better quality made it a worthwhile purchase. Meanwhile I waited til I felt I'd owned it long enough to justify dumping it. One of the first films I taped off the TV was To Sir With Love. That I was already enamoured with Suzy Kendall and Judy Geeson only added to the enjoyment of watching this great film. It probably had something to do with me being a teacher too. Though I don't know about that.

And it's a great song too. It goes beyond the lyrics. Great melody. Those opening strings followed by The Mindbenders backbeat followed by strings again. The quiet loud quiet format. Maybe this is where the pixies got the idea from!  Cool song, great voice.

Those schoolgirl days of telling tales,
And biting nails are gone.
But in my mind I know they will
Still live on and on.
But how do you thank someone,
Who has taken you from crayons to perfume?
It isn't easy, but I'll try.

If you wanted the sky,
I would write across the sky in letters,
That would soar a thousand feet high,
"To Sir, With Love."

160 Sit Down by James

James - Sit down

1991 I'm in London. HMV in Oxford Street. It was a time when bands seemed to be making more from T-shirts than from selling records. They were bright day glo creations with a touch of sixties nostalgia run rampant. I was buying up plenty. My favourite and the one I wore until it fell apart was my James T-shirt.
Before coming to England I had a copy of Sit Down on 7 inch and it was quite a good song. But in England the Record Stores, which had their own deejays were spinning a different version. More of a beat to it similiar to the old Gary Glitter beat. It was a brilliant! Completely changed the whole feel of the song and made it bright and commercial.
One night we went to this little Indie club in Edgeware Road. When the DJ played this song everyone sat down on the dance floor. I started playing it at the Lizard lounge when I got back to OZ but unlike in England no one sat down. but they danced! and sang along!

I'll sing myself to sleep 

A song from the darkest hour 

Secrets I can't keep 

Inside of the day 

Swing from high to deep 

Extremes of sweet and sour 

Hope that God exists 

I hope I pray 

Drawn by the undertow 

My life is out of control 

I believe this wave will bear my weight 

So let it flow 

Oh sit down 

Sit down next to me 

Sit down, down, down, down, down 

In sympathy 

159. Wrote For Luck by Happy Mondays 1989

Happy Mondays: WFL

In 1989 there was a feeling that something was happening in music. One of those times where it all comes together to make something special. The eighties had it's share of great music and rubbish but now tere was talk of a new sound centred on Manchester in the UK.  we had begun to hear snippets of the Stone Roses already but their rivals in pop music were to be The Happy Mondays. I had heard their Bummed album and didn't quite get it. Then again I had listened to it at a Matt Wilson party at the College Lawn Prahran while in a state of inebriation.
But one night I was down at The Beehive which I was no longer DJing at and Jason the new DJ there was playing these wonderful sounds from the UK. Especially this song. I couldn't believe it was the same Mondays I'd heard before. This had such a clean groove. Well produced. Indie but dance!
Clothes were changing. It was the first time people started wearing hoodies to clubs. I picked up this great top from Central station Records. And baggy jeans. The psychadelic lighting from Rubber Soul which was on Friday nights fitted just as well with this music on saturdays. It was a cool movement and what felt like the start of a great decade to come. and listening to happy Mondays was perfect for reading Tank Girl comics to.