172. Buy Me A Pony by Spiderbait

Spiderbait - Buy Me A Pony

1996 and Lizard Lounge was incredibly busy every Thursday Friday and Saturday night. There seemed to be a bit of a competition between Thursday nights which were free entry and Saturday which was not. Thursdays started as 5 bucks entry but we could see the way the wind was blowing and just let the punters in. And did they ever come in. Usually after drinking at the Armadale. I'd pop in maybe once a month and check it out but since I was there every Friday and Saturday I wasn't in a rush. But they were playing a lot of stuff we didn't play and which gradually got onto the weekend playlists. Buy Me A Pony was one of those songs. Donna one of the door girls at the club used to keep saying Buy Me A Pony. Didn't have a clue what she was on about. Then I heard the song. Then the song got big. And the crowd went crazy for it. And I guess Australia went for it too and it went Number 1 on the JJJ top 100. Donna later went out with my good friend Dan. Not before telling me I was lacing up my Doc Martens all wrong and showing me how to do them properly.

Don't you wanna be
A personality
An ocean in the sea

But you'll never make it
If you can't shake it
So don't mistake it
Just try and fake it

And I want you to know
You don't have far to go
So we'll use all your dough

To buy new clothes
And see what flows
And powder your nose
For those photos

You're almost on your way
To popularity
And we'll teach you to play

With icy stare
And punk rock hair
And beatnik flair
We'll take you there

'Coz there's nobody else like you
And we sure care just what you're doing
After we have gone our separate ways

171. Letter From America by The Proclaimers

The Proclaimers - Letter From America

One day in 1987 I was looking through the records at Brashes in Chapel Street when the Proclaimers album "this is the story" came on. I was instantly captivated by their folkie sound and scottish accents. And I bought the album there and then. Got it home and played it to death. A few days later I'm in a scond hand record shop and I see this single in the racks for 50 cents. And I love the band version even more than the acoustic one on the album. So I went a bit Proclaimers for a while and formed an acoustic band called The Folk Rockers From Hell with me, Rod and Adam Duncan on violin. We supported bands like the Killjoys and Captain Cocoa and played the Punters Club, It was great fun and we even got to record a bit too. Later we changed our name to the Val Doonicans. And then just stopped after Rod went off to play with Dave Grayney and The Coral Snakes who were starting to get quite big,
Just as I was getting sick of the Proclaimers sound they released their second album. And that was good too! and they had a band..and a huge hit more of which I wll speak of later...

When you go will you send back

A letter from America?

Take a look up the railtrack

From Miami to Canada

Broke off from my work the other day

I spent the evening thinking about

All the blood that flowed away

Across the ocean to the second chance

I wonder how it got on when it reached the promised land?

When you go will you send back

A letter from America?

Take a look up the railtrack

From Miami to Canada

I've looked at the ocean

Tried hard to imagine

The way you felt the day you sailed

From Wester Ross to Nova Scotia

We should have held you

We should have told you

But you know our sense of timing

We always wait too long

170. Loaded by Primal Scream

Loaded - Primal Scream

This song came out the same year I opened the Lizard Lounge in Windsor. In 1990 there really was something in the air. This was the start of of that particular kind of dance and indie rock fusion which was all over the first fewyears of the new decade. Suddenly everything was cool. Even Kylie was cool.  Dj sets were a fabulous cross section of dance, rock and hip hop. Rap and reggae. Basically all music was thrown into a big pot and mixed up. Then they grabbed all the sixties decor..the coloured lights and oils on glass lighting. It was a pretty cool time.
Loaded of course for not haing much of Primal Scream playing on it. It didn't matter. it was a call to 90s party life. We're gonna have some fun. When the night was starting to move into another gear this was the song to play.

Just what is it that you want to do?

We wanna be free

We wanna be free to do what we wanna do

And we wanna get loaded

And we wanna have a good time

That's what we're gonna do

No way baby lets go

We're gonna have a good time

We're gonna have a party

I don't wanna lose your love (4x)

Just what is it you wanna do?

I'm gonna get deep down, deep down

I said, (I'm gonna get deep down) deep down

Woo hey!

We wanna be free to do what we wanna do

Let's go!

169. Spring Fever by Tony Pass

Spring Fever by Tony Pass - an Aussie hit single

I first remember hearing this song in 1967 when I went to the end of year party for my Grade 6 at Box Hill State school. (No longer there). It seems like the first real party I ever went too. It was in a garage with a table laden with tons of food and then dancing to a bunch of records. We played this one about 5 times. It was just bloody great. It seemed to go on forever. It even got dark! I wish I had some photos.
Anyway at the moment I'm planning my daughters Grade 6 birthday party. She wants a Hairspray party. A sixties party. And she wants it in the garage. With coloured party lights. Life just goes round in circles.

Back in 1967 I was buying singles from a record shop in Box Hill. I could only play my records when my brothers let me. I couldn't wait to own my own record player.

Ah Ah Ah Ah Ah Oh yeah
Well all right, Well all right
Robin singing in my back yard in the tree top
Robin singing in my back yard and it won’t stop
Well it likes to drive you crazy Oh yeah
I got to see you baby All right
Robin singing in my back yard in the tree top
Won’t stop baby

Spring fever got a hold on me now
Spring fever got a hold on me
Spring fever got a hold on me baby
Spring fever got a hold on me
Spring fever got a hold on me
And it ain’t gonna’ let me go oh no no
It ain’t gonna let me go no no
It ain’t gonna let me go

168. Car Trouble by Adam and The Ants

Adam & the Ants - Car Trouble

This came out just before Antmania rocked our world for a short time in the Eighties. I thought it was bloody brilliant! Two drummers. Magic. There's something very cool about the two drummer sound. This was bought at Missing Link Records when it was in Flinders Lane. Plastic sleeve. Indie section.
Shortly after I bought the record Adam released Antmusic and then he was never off Countdown for what seemed forever. Mind you that was a great song too. Even if it was to haunt us for many years to come. It was a regular addition to DJ playlists in the late 80s and 90s.
I the time of this I was on my third car. They were always kinda crappy. The 66 Datsun Bluebird which looked like a box. Then I got an early 70s Mazda 323 with the fluffiest car seat covers ever. I was up to my Mazda Fiat which had a great sound system but stopped working on hot days. I was no stranger to car trouble!

Have you ever had a ride in a light blue car?
Have you ever stopped to think who's the slave and who's the master?
Have you ever had trouble with your automobile?
Have you ever had to push push push push?
Cartrouble oh yeah

You might have seen them very busy at the weekends (oh oh)
Lick lick and polishing the beep-beeps into shape
And then its proudly up the M1 M2 M3
And keep your feet off the upholstery Ronnie
Cartrouble oh yeah

Car carcar trouble car carcar trouble
Car carcar trouble car carcar trouble
Car carcar trouble car carcar trouble
Car carcar trouble car carcar trouble

And remember this:
You don't need anything after an icecream

I used to sit at home silently and wonder
Why all the preference is polishing the chrome
While all the mothers and the sisters and the babies
Sit and rot at home
Cartrouble oh yeah

And remember this:
You don't need anything after an icecream

167. Simply Thrilled Honey by Orange Juice

Orange Juice - Dada with Juice - 05 - Simply ...
Living in my tiny flat in Fitzroy North 1980 surrounded by hundreds of vinyl singles and albums. The walls covered in posters of my favourite bands. Guitars amps beer in the fridge and cartons of cigarettes in the cupboard. It was like a teenagers bedroom come alive. The television was simply a moving image with the sound turned down.
My favourite singles from this time were coming from the Postcard label from Scotland and the band I was fixated on was Orange Juice. Their sound was quirky but emotional. Slightly displaced from everything that was going on at the time. I suppose we were heading into post punk territory here but OJ did it with the slightest of touchs. On Poor Old Soul the refrain was "no more rock and roll for you!" In fact their lyrics really got into my psych.

I choose to leave myself of tired little fears
To stand as one against the all too obvious rising sun

[chorus]
We must be simple thrilled honey
We are just simple thrilled honey
Roominess must keep apart from me

Some girl can’t defy from her blue eyes
Turns too look at you she’s spitting foul

And she’s counting out aloud
I seemed to be ages before the album came out. So that first group of three singles which included the mighty Blue boy was all I had for ages. None of friends were much into them though. Luckily a few years down the track I started managing Captain Cocoa and I found some fellow fans.

166. Neat Neat Neat by The Damned

Damned neat neat neat supersonic 1977

The Damned put out the first UK punk album. It was just so bloody exciting! You felt like the walls of Jericho were coming down. I bought the album at Brashes and couldn't wait to get it home. And the first song was Neat Neat neat and it just ripped out of the speakers. I was in a band called Subway with me playing an acoustic guitar. I few weeks later I was writing songs like "Nothing To Do In The City" "Negative Fun" and "Play It At Your Sister" all cribbed from the English punk scene and ads and articles I'd read in NME. The Damned were my first template for punk rock writing. Quickly blown away by the Clash of course but for a while there they were the cat's pajamas. While some of their stuff is hard to listen to now Neat Neat Neat hasn't lost any power whatsoever. It's a stone cold classic. And so is New Rose of course.

be a man, kinda mystery man,

be a doll,be a baby doll,

it can't be found not any way,

it can't be found no way at all

a distant man can't sympathise,

he can't uphold his distant laws,

due to form on that today,

i got a feeling then i hear that call,i said

(chorus)

neat neat neat, you can't afford no cannon,

neat neat neat, you can't afford no gun at all,

neat neat neat, you can't afford no cannon,

neat neat neat, she ain't got no name to call,

neat neat neat