Totally Shuffled Day 117 The Misunderstood

extracted from  "Totally Shuffled-A Year of Listening to music on a broken iPod"

...and really to show that not every page in the book is negative!


Day 117

April 26th

The Misunderstood-Who Do You Love? - Fontana Single 

For ages I thought this was a cover of the Doors track, but it’s only when writing about it now that I’ve found out that the song was actually written originally and recorded by Bo Diddley. That’s how much I really know about music I guess.

The Doors version was on their 1970 live album and this version by The Misunderstood was the b-side of their single “Let Me Take You To The Sun” from 1966. This is a truly wild version of the song and knocks spots off anything The Doors (one of the most over-rated bands of all time) ever recorded. The guitar is distorted and fuzzy all the way through the song as well as being played through a wah-wah pedal. Over forty years after it was recorded it still sounds innovative and could easily stand up next to anything Jack White would be recording at the moment. If this was played blindfold it could readily pass itself off as the latest Jack White project.

But it was from way back in 1966, and The Misunderstood were a band from California who were co-incidentally managed by John Peel. He was quoted as saying, “If I had to list the ten greatest performances I've seen in my life, one would be The Misunderstood at Pandora's Box, Hollywood, 1966. My god, they were a great band!”.  They only released a handful of tracks, although there is a compilation album of rarities and outtakes floating around. No live recordings however, so we just have to take Peel’s word for it. He was so enamoured of the band that he brought them over from America to London where they recorded seven songs, but had to disband as the lead singer, Rick Brown, was drafted into the Army to serve in Vietnam. He never went though, as being a pacifist, he absconded from boot camp and spent twelve years as a fugitive in India. Whilst in India, he had a spiritual epiphany and is now also known as Hrishkesh Das.  Never mind, we still have this great single to treasure.

I think that it also appeared somewhere along the line on one of the many “Pebbles” compilations of 60’s punk/surf/garage/psyche music. There were 12 LP’s released in two years within the series-I think I had Volumes 1, 2, 4 and 9. Had, being the operative word, as they didn’t survive the great record cull. This is a deep regret, as not only did they have some astounding tracks on there, but I think that they were the only records that I had that were from a record label based in Kookaburra, Australia. I’d get them, shrink- wrapped as imports from Probe Records in Liverpool, with not much, if any, of a clue as to what they sounded like. They were purchases made solely on the basis on the sleeve notes, cover art and the names of the bands.  They were so 60’s- ish that a sign of quality was if the bands had deliberately mis-spelt names-i.e. The Crykle, Green Fuz etc. Generally speaking, the greater the number of badly spelled names then the better the album, though looking back now I wish I had bought (and kept) all 12 albums.              

Totally Shuffled Day 115 Jesus & Mary Chain

extracted  from "Totally Shuffled: A Year of Listening to Music on a broken iPod" 

 

Day 115

 

April 24th

The Jesus & Mary Chain-You Trip Me Up-Pyschocandy  

Looking back on this album, and listening to it again for the first time in about five years, I find myself astonished at the legendary status that has been bestowed upon it. Virtually from its release until the present day it’s been seen as a classic, groundbreaking record. And I am as guilty as anyone for falling into the hype right from the start.

Back in 1985 when this album was issued, all new records were released on a Monday, just to have the chance to make as many sales as possible before the charts came out on Sunday. I’m not sure if this is the case now because it’s a long long time since I went out and bought a physical record, but I guess that it’s not changed.

There had been so much about Jesus and Mary Chain the music weeklies even before they’d released anything that we’d all been led to believe it was the second coming. A perfect match apparently between Spector-ish Wall of Sound,  the darkness of The Velvet Underground, The Beach Boys-put in any pop cultural reference that was hip enough, in disparate groups of three, and there you’d have it. It was what we’d all been waiting for since punk. The next big thing, and after so many false dawns, this was the real thing. Or so we were all told. The reviews of the album, on the Thursday before it was released, in NME, Melody Maker and Sounds were so over-the-top and effusive that you just knew it had to be perfect. There wasn’t a dissenting voice amongst the critics and they were so equally fulsome in their praise it was if there a competition for superlatives had been launched. The implication was that The Jesus and Mary Chain were in a direct line of lineage descended from Elvis, The Beatles and the Sex Pistols.   

All this led me to getting up early on the Monday morning of the release day in 1985 and getting into HMV at 9.00 a.m. By 9.20 I was back on the 75 bus back home and at 10 ish I must’ve been brewing up whilst it blasted out of the plastic speakers on my cheap hi-fi. I was hooked and wholly convinced. The sleeve art was cool and the inner bag was a hip collage of black and white photos of the band looking suitably moody and wasted. When, at the end of the year, not only did it make number one in critics’ polls for album of the year, but when in the once-every-decade poll of all the NME writers’ best albums of all time, it came in third, I knew that this was destined to be a classic of all time. Every time I made a mix tape I made sure that there was a track from this album was on it-it was an unwritten rule.

The second Jesus and Mary Chain album, “Darklands”, then came out in 1987, and although I got it I’m sure I didn’t rush down on the day of release. It was good, but I knew instinctively that there was something missing when compared to first album. There seemed to be a law of diminishing returns with each album- I got “Automatic”, their third, in 1989 but by the time they issued “Honey’s Dead” I couldn’t be bothered anymore. At least “Pyschocandy” was a stone-cold classic, and I could look back on to those halcyon days of the mid- eighties with rose- tinted nostalgia.

Until today actually. Today was the first time that I have listened to the album all the way through for about five years. Hindsight being a wonderful thing etc and as I feel a bit guilty and disloyal slating a record that I previously loved, all I can say is that I think that I should wait at least another five years before it troubles my ears again. Hope those five years really drag.         

Get/read Totally Shuffled here

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00CJYZ3CA 

 

Totally Shuffled extract -The Smiths

I thought long and hard about putting this extract from the book on the blog; mostly, because as can be seen from below, I am not hugely over-enamoured with The Smiths. On the other hand, I did write about them this way and although it was just how I felt about them when I write it in July 2012, my views haven't changed much since then. Back when "The Queen Is Dead" was released I did quite enjoy them; but like many things in life, tastes change. I did not write this piece with the sole intention of upsetting anyone who likes the Smiths-if I have, then I apologise. You may love The Smiths; I love The Fall. After all, it is only music and it would be boring if everyone liked (or disliked) the same things! If it makes for an interesting and friendly discusssion, then it's all worth it. Anyway-here it is..(enjoy?)

July 21^st

The Smiths-How Soon is Now-Hatfull of Hollow

I was a bit of a latecomer to The Smiths and only started listening to them properly when “The Queen is Dead” was released. It did prompt me to get their earlier albums and I sort of was still into them when “Ask” came out. Maybe it was a bit of a relief when they split up because it was all wearing a bit thin with me by then anyway. The Smiths were an odd sort of band. I’m generally wary of artists who have obsessed fans. Obsessed to the point that only “their” artist knows the true way and they elevate them to quasi-Godlike proportions. Like Morrissey and Smiths fans. ( I may be ever-so slightly obsessed with Dylan and The Fall for example, but I can recognise when they bring out some real clunkers- Dylan’s 1973 album and The Fall’s Interim are prime examples of where it went badly wrong for them. They’ve also played some atrocious live shows. I’ve heard more than one CD of Dylan live where he sounds like he couldn’t be arsed at all and where it would have been more interesting if he’d jumped on stage and demonstrated how to fry an egg. I’ve seen The Fall many times and although they are generally spectacular, there have been occasions when it’s degenerated into a total mess. And not in a good-so-bad-that-is interesting-way but in a-that’s-just-shit-way). 

However, to hear some fans of Morrissey and The Smiths you’d never think that they released anything that was below par or ever played a gig that was ever so slightly off. In fact, they’d have you believe that every single one of The Smiths and Morrissey’s records stands head and shoulders above any popular music that’s ever been recorded, and actually is the greatest art of all time. You can forget about Bach, Beethoven, Stravinsky, Da Vinci, Picasso, Joyce, Shakespeare and the rest, Steven Patrick Morrissey is your man. The words of genius that have dribbled from his mouth are worth much more than all the above combined. It’s easy to see how personality cults arise. How many misguided fools given up the pleasure of a bacon sarnie to follow in the vegetarian footsteps of Their Glorious Leader?

From all of this you’d think that I don’t actually like The Smiths that much. Well, not that much, but they were alright. I think I could come up with enough songs of theirs to just about fill up one CD. This one would be on there as well as “Death of A Disco Dancer” and a few others. I like The Smiths for the music rather than the lyrics. If I could have an album comprised of Smiths instrumentals then that would do me fine-Johnny Marr, to me, was always by far the best thing about the band. There is a common assumption that the Smiths lyrics were what made them special. That wit, that dark humour, that word play. This is something that Morrissey has traded on for years and has propped up his increasingly desperate solo career, like rotting beams in a flooded mine. It’s the Emperor’s New Clothes. He’s become more and more bitter, grumpy and irrelevant as time has progressed, and any faint vestiges of humour evaporated well before the Smiths split up.

(By the way, I’d still rather be stuck in a lift listening to Dylan’s 1973 album on a constant loop than sitting on a tropical beach, sipping a long cool drink and  listening to any single track off Morrissey’s solo albums). 

If you've enjoyed this (or would like to read more from the book, wherein other artists are written about, sometimes postively,sometimes not so much), then here's a link: 

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00CJYZ3CA               

Thanks!

Totally Shuffled August 11th extract-Los Campesinos!

(An extract from "Totally Shuffled-A Year of Listening to Music on a Broken iPod". One track out of 366 that I randomly shuffled through in 2012. There's another 365 in the book. A a matter of pure coincidence this is the very track that I wrote about exactly a year ago today ).

  

August 11^th

Los Campesinos!-We Are Beautiful,We Are Doomed-We Are Beautiful,We Are Doomed      

                  

         

Is there ever a point when I’ll stop listening to new music and merely revert back to old favourites? Is there a time when I become too old for anything different and settle for what I know works for me? Will The Fall become the aural equivalent of a pair of comfy slippers and elasticated waisted slacks? I suppose that there may be a time when something new and different happens in music and it will go right over my head. It may mean nothing to me and will just sound like a tuneless racket. (Having said that, tuneless rackets have always appealed to me, so maybe that’s not too bad a thing). 

Maybe I have to start questioning that at being over 50 years old, there is a point when a lifetime of listening to pop music is a bit daft. On the other hand, the alternative is too horrible to actually contemplate. I cannot imagine just looking back with rose-tinted glasses to a mythical musical past when all was perfect and never coming across anything different and new. I have a feeling that even in my dotage, I’ll be persuading my grandchildren that the latest Japanese thrash racket is the way to go. There’s that much music to hear that even after forty years or so, I know that I’ve barely scratched the surface. It wouldn’t be an easy option to wean myself off the pursuit of the new, but in some ways it would give me a chance to catch up. After all, I’ve got at about eighty Miles Davis albums to play at least once and over a hundred Frank Zappa albums that have only have been given the most cursory of airings and time is ticking I guess. I don’t think it’s really going to happen though. I’ll still be looking at the music press in whatever form it’s in, and still be avoiding Radio 1 and 2 like the plague years from now.

If I’d stopped at a sensible age then I would have missed out on Los Capmesinos! and that would have not been a good thing. Initially Los Campesinos! were well and truly slagged off in the music press for being too “twee-core”, and it took the album that this title track is from to kind of turn it around. If a band does get battered in the fashionable press then I always feel that there is something worth looking into. I don’t think that the twee core thing helped, but it was more because that they were from Wales rather than London, that stood against them and that they were erudite and intelligent rather than lumpen and provincial. I have liked all the albums they’ve released and really do think that if they’d originated from some fashionable area of the U.S. then they’d be bigger than they are now. But there’s always time and I predict great things for them. 

(One other thing. There is that cliché about all policemen seeming younger as you get older. Well, although that applies with me, the telling fact is that bands get younger as I get older. I have already reached a stage when they are half my age. In ten years time I may be into bands that are a third of my age and I would be easily old enough to be their grandfather. Blimey).    

Get/read/see "Totally Shuffled" here:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00CJYZ3CA