Archive for February, 2006
February 23, 2006
I used to put this on the jukebox in the hall bar at university, just to antagonise the rockists. The Jimi Hendrix lookalike and his Led Zep pals would become particularly vexed, often because it tended to interrupt their ‘American Pie’ loop.
This record’s a thumb of the nose – it couldn’t be anything else with the merging of the Andy Williams camp classic – but there’s affection too. The Pet Shop Boys’ aural soundscapes (wow) are wide enough to do justice to the sweep of the song, and it’s all big and dramatic like Bono thinks he is. I’m sure they’re not JUST taking the piss. Ok, I’m not sure. It’s great, though; I hadn’t heard it for years until this morning, and I still love it.
I’ve banged on about this before, but it’s interesting (well, sorta) that the PSBs and Prince should own the ’80s but then lose the plot at about the same time as each other. Can’t think of any proper good PSBs singles after this – honourable mention, however, to the bit where it goes mad at the end of ‘Go West’.
Junior was rather smitten with this, the Hi-NRG beats bringing forth the cockateel moves. I’ve really brainwashed the poor kid. She’ll be writing her own version of ‘Being Boring’ in about 30 years:
“I came across a cache of digital photos,
And countless blog entries from my dull old father;
He played me records and voiced my opinions,
And Girls Aloud got him all in a lather,
In my 20-noughties…”
Posted in 1991 Top 20 Singles | Tagged 1991, american pie, andy williams, being boring, bono, can't take my eyes off you, girls aloud, go west, jimi hendrix, led zeppelin, music, pet shop boys, prince, u2, where the streets have no name | Leave a Comment »
February 22, 2006
My daughter appeared to be performing the funky chicken to this one, helpless in the face of the snaky, strutting Minneapolitan grooves spun by the indigo imp of funk. That’s right, the indigo imp of funk.
Wringing out the last of Prince’s creative juice here, saving just a smidgen for ‘Sexy MF’. It’s a treat to hear him being all naughty again, the horny pony, and it’s a damn sight more enjoyable than the rest of the Diamonds & Pearls album.
Junior’s heard a lot of Prince, songs and allusions. I reckon he can only be topped as the main act here if the next song has anything to do with U2…
Posted in 1991 Top 20 Singles | Tagged 1991, diamonds and pearls, gett off, music, new power generation, prince, sexy mf, u2 | Leave a Comment »
February 22, 2006
Never having heard Rattle & Hum, Junior’s not well placed to assess U2’s seismic brand realignment from holier-than-thou, campaigning rock monoliths to fun-loving, wraparound-sporting, INXS wannabes with better songs. Good. 15 years on, Achtung Baby is just another rock album, most songs a bit tighter and poppier than U2’s earlier offerings but there’s more obvious filler.
The Perfecto Mix of ‘Mysterious Ways’ did it for me. A couple of minutes of looped guitar at the start before the nice big riff comes in, and then no sign of the first verse, just the second verse twice with a couple of choruses. It’s careless, but it works. Oakenfold’s sausage fingers were all over 1991.
Junior rocked side to side throughout; she definitely goes for the rock guitars and the sturdy drums. She needs to hear more Belle & Sebastian and Eg & Alice. I won’t have an infant Suzi Quatro on my hands.
Posted in 1991 Top 20 Singles | Tagged 1991, achtung baby, belle and sebastian, eg and alice, inxs, music, mysterious ways, paul oakenfold, perfecto, rattle and hum, suzi quatro, u2 | Leave a Comment »
February 21, 2006
So, they arrived looking like Joe Strummer fronting Japan, lost their spiritual core and eventually waddled off dressed as fat Welshman at Next. A bizarre trajectory that became very uninteresting very quickly. They were never much good. Some diverting early singles, the odd ok track on later albums, not enough to justify the devotion.
Standard gibberish in the lyrics. Junior looked all louche, draped over the side of her chair. A mess of eyeliner and spraypaint sounds like a whale of a time to her.
Ah, I do like this shoddy record. It was the first MSP song I ever heard and I was wryly surprised that this new, shocking punk thing had basically recorded a Huey Lewis melody.
Posted in 1991 Top 20 Singles | Tagged 1991, huey lewis, japan, joe strummer, manic street preachers, music, stay beautiful | Leave a Comment »
February 21, 2006
Another slab of ludicrous brilliance from Rockman Rock and King Boy D. “Basic face kick, elemental”. You had to laugh, but they were so good at what they did, and they built up their own mythology with every single they released. Then, within a year, they were gone, leaving rumour and apocrypha in their wake. Now there are people – mentioning no names – who look out for KLF-in-disguise records in each crop of new singles.
‘3 A.M. Eternal’ is meaningless, of course – “down with the crew crew” – but we’ve heard as much tosh from serious emcees. It’s the flow that matters, man. Junior was down with the mayhem, shaking the head and shoulders from side to side. Rocking the Stevie, if you will.
Someone nicked my copy of The White Room days after I bought it. I’d hazard that it’s not as good as I think it is, so I’ll continue not replacing it.
Author’s note: There is no Wham! in this chart. I repeat, there is NO Wham! in this chart. However, there is – as Kiss AMC might put it – a little bit of U2.
Posted in 1991 Top 20 Singles | Tagged 1991, 3 a.m. eternal, children of the revolution, king boy d, kiss amc, live at the s.s.l., music, rockman rock, stevie wonder, the klf, the white room, u2, wham | Leave a Comment »
February 20, 2006
We’ve established that I was a low-key Duranie. Revisionist history always has it that pop from ’82 to ’84 was all about Duran Duran vs Spandau Ballet*. Rubbish. The world was fought over by Duran Duran and Culture Club. As a consequence I hated Culture Club, even though these days I can listen to one or two singles and always enjoy a crass and bitchy Boy George innuendo.
‘Freedom’ killed Culture Club. There was a blaze of publicity for CC’s return, but ‘The War Song’, released the same week as ‘Freedom’, just couldn’t cope with Wham!’s sales juggernaut and was pulverised**. A swift fall down the chart was assured, and next single ‘The Medal Song’ peaked at No.32. Disastrous.
This is No.1 for other reasons, naturally. It’s a perfect pop Motown pastiche, for one, and the guitars and horns go mad at the end, for another. It was all very easy for George. Time after time, he was releasing vinyl joy.
Junior got into the record by standing on her dad’s lap, clapping and trying to eat his hands. By the last chorus, she was trying to eat her own feet. We’d reached the edge of elevenses.
*Spandau Ballet were irredeemably awful. No exception. Ok, except maybe that winningly hackneyed saxophone solo in ‘True’, weirdly.
**It’s incidental that ‘The War Song’ was useless anyway.
Posted in 1984 Top 20 Singles | Tagged 1984, boy george, culture club, duran duran, freedom, george michael, motown, music, spandau ballet, the medal song, the war song, true, wham | Leave a Comment »
February 20, 2006
I asked Junior to type up her own comment on this and got “bvgyijuhh”, and my glasses stolen for good measure. Green Gartside would’ve deconstructed this, intertextualised it, restructuralised it and turned it into a shimmering pop tune, glossy surfaces and candyfloss heart belying the cold intellectualism.
I reckon that’s what he did with ‘Wood Beez’. It doesn’t mean much but it sounds clever. What it is is the most brilliant white funk track to come out of the decade, zipping along a skyway of scratchy guitars and keyboard flashes, loosening ever more until he’s exchanging shouts of “schizo” with the backing vocalists and just keeping from breaking down before the last chorus.
I finally caught his disguise show a couple of weeks ago – under the name Double G & the Traitorous 3 (Plus 2), he’s playing his first gigs for 25 years or so – and it was brilliant, of course. He seems to be treating the gigs as rehearsals for the new album (the fifth in those 25 years), which sounds like something to get excited about already. Two more shows at the Luminaire in March, pop fans.
Posted in 1984 Top 20 Singles | Tagged 1984, double g and the traitorous three (plus two), green gartside, luminaire, music, scritti politti, wood beez (pray like aretha franklin) | Leave a Comment »
February 20, 2006
The little B-girl launched herself towards the stereo when this kicked off. She was even more captivated when her dad tried to rap along, believing him to be, of course, something like a phenomenon.
I was proud to know all the words back when I was eleven. I remember that surprising the bloke at school who was meant to be the embodiment of cool because he owned a Run DMC record. (I’d never had the heart to tell him that ‘It’s Tricky’ wasn’t one of their best). They were easy words to learn, of course, and I imagine I had my own spin on the meanings: “I think they’re giving away free bass”.
It’s an odd record when you listen to it now. Very soft and poppy for hip-hop at that point, with some kind of doo-wop call and response going on, and verses and choruses. None of that stops it being a bass-rolling, imperative-repeating, tongue-in-cheek classic.
Posted in 1984 Top 20 Singles | Tagged 1984, grandmaster and melle mel, it's tricky, music, run dmc, white lines (don't don't do it) | Leave a Comment »
February 20, 2006
Junior passed the time walking up and down her mum’s belly. Just checking for siblings.
My claim to credibility is that I bought this before Radio 1 banned it, back when even my mum liked it. She claimed that she didn’t when it was dogged by notoriety, but children don’t forget these things. I’d bought my first record player for £10 from a guy in Hemel Hempstead – actually, my dad paid and it was only £9.50 but, inexplicably, he let the seller keep the change. I was aghast. 50p was a fortune. To get to the point, it was one of those record players on which you could flick a switch and it would keep playing the record on the turntable over and over again until you took the arm off.
The day I bought ‘Relax’, I played it 11 times in a row.
Junior probably won’t want her dad to go out and buy a rickety turntable with a free 7” single (Bo Kirkland & Ruth Davis, ‘You’re Gonna Get Next To Me’) thrown in. She’ll just want that chip in her right earlobe upgraded.
Posted in 1984 Top 20 Singles | Tagged 1984, bo kirkland and ruth davis, frankie goes to hollywood, hemel hempstead, music, radio 1, relax, you're gonna get next to me | Leave a Comment »
February 20, 2006
Seasoned 12-year-old chart watchers knew that this single was make or break for Madonna. ‘Holiday’ made a decent impact, but ‘Lucky Star’ missed the Top Ten and ‘Borderline’ barely registered at all. ‘Like A Virgin’ edged up the chart at agonising pace, before peaking at No.3, and then the world just went into Madonna meltdown with seven more UK Top Five hits in 1985 alone.
She could’ve gone the way of Cyndi Lauper. That wouldn’t have been pretty.
What a perky number it is. Junior misses any naughtiness in the lyrics, chews every toy in sight, has a go at singing along and dances with her mum. Perfect.
Posted in 1984 Top 20 Singles | Tagged 1984, borderline, cyndi lauper, holiday, like a virgin, lucky star, madonna, music | Leave a Comment »
