Totally Shuffled Day 28/366 Laura Cantrell

Totally Shuffled Day 28/366 Laura Cantrell -Lee Harvey Was a Friend of Mine

Totally Shuffled Day 27/366 A Sudden Sway

extracted from "Totally Shuffled-A Year of Listening to Music on a Broken iPod"

 

 

January 27^th

A Sudden Sway-Dance of Joy-To You With reGard E.P.     

Rumbelows were an electrical retail chain pre-Dixons/Comet/PC World etc. They sold stuff like irons, fridges, cookers and the like. They were mired deeply in the post war 50’s-70’s retail style. Their store in Liverpool was spread over three floors and was full of the technological wonders of the age; deep-fat fryers, Sodastreams and Breville sandwich toasters. (The store in Liverpool was actually the old NEMS store from which Brian Epstein launched his career). In the basement of the store there was still a record department. This was distinctly old-school. You could still see where old listening booths had been back in the NEMS days. If you wanted a record by, say Vera Lynn, then you fully expected to be asked if you would prefer it as a 78 or on wax cylinder. Anyway, in 1982, Rumbelows decided to shut the Liverpool store and as part of an intense closing down “everything-must-go” sale over about two weeks they attempted to make the best of a bad situation by selling all the records off at low prices. They were that desperate to get rid of everything that it evolved over these two weeks into a musical jumble sale. Prices were slashed day by day, to the eventual ridiculousness of one price in the morning and a lower one in the afternoon. By the end you could haggle and name your own price. I kept bumping into friends in there at random times, and we were all trying to get records at the lowest price possible. Matters reached levels of absurdity if we were all after the same record. We started to hide it in the racks so it couldn’t easily be found by each other, in order you could return at a later date when the price had dropped. (I remember hiding Neil Young’s “After the Goldrush” within the M-S section so that my friend Andy wouldn’t see it reduced to £1.49 and hoping it would have plummeted to less than a quid when I went back later. It did, and I got it for 79p. Sorry, in retrospect, Andy).

There was no such hunt for A Sudden Sway’s “To You With reGard” E.P. though, but there should have been. That there was such an esoteric record being sold next to hairdryers and four-ring hobs defies all understanding. It had been released on such a small independent label and had had little or no press coverage. I think that there was a tiny four line review in one of the music weeklies and I never even heard it on the John Peel show. It was a mystery, an audio piece of driftwood, the fact that it had ended up filed beside Paul Simon and Sister Sledge in an electrical retail shop. Unless you were actively looking for it, it could have stayed there for years, as the sleeve was so nondescript. It was a 4 track 12” E.P. in a murky blue matt sleeve. The name of the band was in small print and the only artwork was a strange white line drawing of a weird character (a wizard-y type I think). I’d never heard anything by A Sudden Sway until I got back home and listened to it. Even now, after 30 years it still is a totally unique record. I would not know how to categorise it-avant-garde, progressive, dance-y, poppy. Hummable, ethereal, melodic and mysterious. I searched high and low on the internet for a copy of it for years after I foolishly sold my copy. After a decade of being online, I finally found an mp3 of it and for once, it lived up to the reputation I had given it. This is truly a classic record and should have been a massive hit. The fact that it wasn’t means it counts for so much more.      

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Totally Shuffled Day 26/366 U2

Totally Shuffled Day 26/366 U2 Trip Through Your Wires

 

Totally Shuffled Day 25/366 Sugarcubes

Totally Shuffled Day 25/366 Sugarcubes-Birthday

 

Extract from "Totally Shuffled" Johnny Fortune-Soul Surfer

thought it would be a good time to put an extract from "Totally Shuffled" up..

Johnny Fortune-Soul Surfer-Park Avenue 7” single

There’s so much that’s good about this single from 1963 that I barely know where to start. It might be the actual tune itself, a surf instrumental that lasts just over a couple of minutes, replete with twangy guitar (but not too twangy that it makes a parody of the genre), it’s just got the correct level of twanginess. The drums are just spot on; sharp enough, but not overpowering the tune in the way that sometimes the drums do in surf songs- no novelty rhythms for Johnny Fortune here. The bass line just does its job and that’s all there is to it, guitars, drums and bass. What more do you need? It’s all put together to make a tune, that if I was ever in the enviable position to be hosting a radio show, then this would be the one that I’d have as my theme tune. It’s such a great, great tune that it should be played, as a matter of national policy, every night over the 6 o’clock news titles on BBC 1 or in the event of any great occasion of State. And it’s just the b-side to the single. The a-side, “Dragster”, makes anything that The Beach Boys or Jan and Dean recorded about cars sound as if they were writing about a ten year old Daewoo that had just failed an MOT.

The first time that the term “soul surfer” was used was in the title of this song. It became used within surfing communities to describe anybody who surfed just for the sheer love of the sport and who resisted the competiveness of the sport and it’s increasing commercialisation during the 1960’s and 70’s. Johnny Fortune’s little b-side on a small label became a symbol of a counter-culture.

As if all this wasn’t good enough, then there’s the band as well. Johnny Fortune; what a great name. Even if the single was rubbish and he’d never done anything else it is still a brilliant rock and roll name. If it wasn’t his birth name-and if it was, then surely a career in rock and roll beckoned- it was an inspired choice. But this single-which he recorded at just 16 years old-wasn’t a one-off, an obscure track by a nobody who only had a fleeting acquaintance with fame. This b-side was also on his first album, released at the same time and which has the same title. It was that well thought of that he was invited to tour with Johnny Burnette in England, but couldn’t go because he was too young.  He later worked sessions for Sam Cooke, Glen Campbell and The Beach Boys and played with the latter when they toured. He’s still going strong and is now a top country guitarist in Nashville. The other members of the band who recorded “Soul Surfer” were Jim O’Keith and, get this, Joey Sudetta-a 10 year old drummer! Not only did Johnny Fortune have a great drummer, but he was only 10 years old and had a name that would fit well in any Scorsese film.

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"Totally Shuffled" Day 24/366 Steve Reich

"Totally Shuffled" Day 24/366 Steve Reich -Section 3A (from Music for 18 Musicians) bit of minimalism for a Bank Holiday!

 

 

Totally Shuffled Day 23/366 Massive Attack vs Mad Professor

Totally Shuffled Day 23/366 Massive Attack vs Mad Professor- I Spy

The Fall- Re-mit, or, how I finally fell out of love with The Fall

The Fall- Re-mit, or, how I finally fell out of love with The Fall

I have been listening to The Fall for 35 years or so now. Been to see them live countless times and they are the one band, the one artist, where I have always bought their records on the day of release, come what may. Every album, every single, every e.p.. It hasn’t mattered if I’ve been skint at the time or enough cash to buy the record 10 times over, then I’ve always got it. It’s a bit like being a season ticket holder, I’ve always renewed my subscription irrespective of how well the team performed.  So it was a bit of a given that I’d get hold of the latest album by The Fall last week.

As I type, it’s been playing in the background and I’m at that point of wondering why and when I can switch it off and listen to something else. I don’t really know where to start with it, it’s just so unremittingly poor. Maybe the best place to start is way back in time, a long time ago.

I know I might get accused of being a “look- back- bore”, but there was a time when The Fall made music that was vital, that had a spark of genuine humour, of compassion and genuine strangeness. A taut sense of mysticism, of passion and wit. This wasn’t just for a brief period either; they kept it going for a long time. There’s not much point in really trawling through their extensive discography and comparing earlier records to this one. Not much point, but I will touch upon it. Right from their debut “Live at the Witch Trials” album through to “The Frenz Experiment” (ten years, eleven albums) they consistently made music that was so ahead of the curve, it was as if they had lapped all their contemporaries and were making something that was more than music. It was something that was so much over and above what could be expected from a rock band from the North of England.

But slowly, subtly and inexorably, it’s changed and declined. From the stunning tracks that made up “Slates”, the windswept “Hex” or the triptych of Smile/Garden/Hexen off “Perverted by Language”, we’ve ended up with the pile of dross that is “Re-mit”. This is not to say that there are not some very good, and indeed magical points, on their records that have been made in the past twenty five or so years since, it’s just that they have been coming increasingly less and less. If I had to make up a mixtape for someone who had never heard The Fall before and tried to capture the essence of the band, then I’d be hard pushed to decide which 90 minutes worth of music to pick from those 11 aforesaid albums. I’d end up prevaricating between just sticking all of “Slates” on and saying that would be enough or picking any random tracks, they were that good. On the other hand, post-PBL, I would really find it hard to pick 90 minutes of uniformly excellent stuff. I know that there are 90 minutes worth of great Fall tracks off the rest of their output but it would be difficult, in a different way to decide what to pick.  And as time has moved on, I feel that increasingly there are less and less worthwhile tracks.

Which brings me to “Re-Mit”. If I thought that “Ersatz GB” and “YFOC” were Fall albums that would possibly be listened to out just of a sense of duty and loyalty, and then to be filed away, “Re- Mit” should be filed away, never to be played again. I’ve listened to it over and over again for the past week and there is nothing that makes me want to hear it again. The past five or so Fall albums have been dialled in, to say the least, but this is Fall-by-numbers par excellence. There is nothing on there that surprises me, that fills me with joy, or even hope for better things ahead. Everything is exactly how I’d expected it to be, from Smith’s growling vocals to the increasingly irritating tendency for the “boys” to show off their sub-Zappa-ish musical chops. I can guess with relative ease, what the songs will sound like, what the subject matter will be and what the thing will sound like a whole. It’s as if the rest of the world has moved on and The Fall have remained preserved in aspic, sometime in the mid-2000’s. (There’s sub-Nuggets songs, a bit of MES’s ramblings and er, that’s it.)

I really hope against hope that this isn’t it for The Fall, but I fear it might well be. I will still get there new records, of course I will, but with every report of a shambolic live gig and Smith’s frankly laughable assertions that their audience is “made up of kids”, I feel that they’ve gone so far that the point of no return has been reached. Maybe Mark E Smith could avoid turning into the Rolling Stones and do something that none of his peers has done, and retire.

I’m off to listen to the new Daft Punk album.                     

All lined up for Glastonbury

All lined up for Glastonbury

In a little over 4/5 weeks I’ll be getting up on the Saturday morning and emerging from my tent like a mole, blinking in the summer sun, squinting at the burning rays of the sun and wondering what the day will bring. Or possibly not. I may well be rummaging around in the tent, wondering what got soaked and/or ruined with the rain and thinking just how much muddy can it possibly get. Come what may, I’ll have seen the first full day of Glastonbury and there’ll be two days to go.

Along with all the practical planning; getting all the gear together, checking the list and buying a new tent, I’ve been looking at the line-up since it was announced and trying to work out the must-sees. (On a bit of a side issue, there appears to be quite different opinions as to the whole purpose of Glastonbury. At one end of the spectrum there are some that will say that the music is irrelevant; that what happens on the Pyramid Stage is simply major artists flogging the same old tat and that simply being at Glastonbury is the most important thing, soaking in the atmosphere and being a part of the experience. At the opposite end are those, who I’m sure, rush around from stage to stage, trying to see as much music and as many artists as they possibly can. They’ve paid £200 for their tickets and they’re going to get as many bangs for their buck as possible. I do think, however, that most people fall somewhere in the middle. It’s just too big to see every band that you could possibly want to and however hard you try there are always going to be ones that you miss. On the other hand, I can’t personally see the point of going and not seeing and watching any music. You may just as well stand in a field with your mates, getting pissed and stoned for 5 days. But that’s just my position, and I’m fairly relaxed about the whole thing. That is why it is such a fantastic place and without falling into obvious clichés, there really is something for everyone).

But back to getting lined up. Or rather, the line-up. And here is where I go on about the music. For me in 2010 and 2011, there were obvious artists that I wanted to see-Flaming Lips, Coldplay, Dr John and many more. At least  a dozen each year. This time however, it’s a bit slightly thin on the ground. When the line-up was announced it was a case of “here’s the line up !”  followed by a bit of “well, ok but, mmm, I don’t know exactly”. It was all ho hum. There was all the fuss about The Rolling Stones finally playing Glastonbury and then the rest. Just add ons. Now I am in a bit of an odd position about the Stones. Legends of music and all that, but would I just go to watch them out of a sort of sense of duty i.e. because they are legends and because they are clearly on their last legs, I may never get the chance to see them again?  I certainly would never pay just to see them, so in one sense it will be my only opportunity. And they may be really, really good and I therefore would regret missing out. On the other hand, I may end up wasting a Saturday night at Glastonbury watching a bunch of old men drag the tired, bloated corpse of “rock ‘n’ roll” (oh, how I hate that phrase!) round a stage. In the mud and rain, possibly.  A bit of a dilemma therefore. Maybe I’ll just wait to see what happens and go with the flow. Maybe I’ll just stand in a field, getting pissed (wet) and cursing the fact that “Sir” Mick Jagger appears to be bone dry.

(More about the rest of the line-up later today. Or tomorrow. It make take a couple of days as I’ve got a tent that needs to be tested. I’m so cack-handed it will take a couple of days. Actually, thinking about it, I’ll probably miss the Stones as I’ll still be trying to get the damn thing up.)