I happen to know that On a Friday was the original name of the band now known as Radiohead.
Thank God Mr Byrne and chums came along and gave us this:
Two to go.
After thinking about this all day, I really cannot decide. I’ll sleep on it.
Night night.
As a former employee of the Halifax, I reckon I should be comfortable with the dropped E. Get a Little Xtra was our tag line way back in the day, long before such a huge number of abbreviated words became de rigeur in every part of our lives. X-Press 2? Absolutely no idea, but if they managed to get David Byrne on board, that was good enough for me. This record takes me back to when I used to drive the night bus at Loughborough Students Union. I vividly remember listening to the radio as I pootled around town soon after midnight with a Transit mini-bus full of ‘happy’ students on their way home from the FND. This song has a punctum: just after 3 minutes. Pause and sort of gasp. That night, most passengers, me and my sidekick Tom, all gasped in unison. Warm fuzzy feeling ensued. They won’t remember, but it was important to me. Yesterday was the first time I’ve seen the video, too. Pretty literal ain’t it?
That will do for the one-offs for now. Next, another war-based record, inspired by thoughts of M*A*S*H yesterday.
All things considered, I think M*A*S*H was my favourite American sit-com, even if it was sometimes more sit’ than com’. The Korean War wasn’t exactly a barrel of laughs, I’m sure. I can’t think of another show that moved me as much as some episodes of this fabulous series, and I recall being rather down following the final episode. It has one of the loveliest themes tunes, and quite coincidentally, a line in the lyrics identical to that I quoted from the Hell/Voidoids song the other day – i.e. “I can take or leave it”.
I like it without the lyrics, too, but I’m not a fan of the MSP version. According to the Guinness Book of Hit Singles, it was a hit for Mash, a US male vocal/instrumental group. Hmmm.
Next, another entry from Mr Byrne and another one-off collaboration. I’m surprised he could be bothered.
Is there anyone making this kind of stuff any more? In a way, I hope not. It wouldn’t be as good.
Surely, this was never going to sell millions of copies, and the subject matter is hardly bubble-gum pop, but it’s just an amazing piece of work. I don’t feel the need to write anything else. Have a look and a listen.
Again, you need to see the band at work, especially as it’s an appearance on The Old Grey Whistle Test . I really miss that show.
There’s not really a good way to follow that, but I’m on a mission (and nearly half way through) so I shall have to find something. How about a tune from the first album I bought? Not exactly cool, I suppose, but it means something to me and I need a gentle reminder of how I struggled to identify the change in the vocalist back then.
I can’t be 100% sure, but I think Rattus Norvegicus was the second album I bought. Boy, wasn’t I cool? (Stay tuned to find out what the first was.) It’s a great album, but I think it’s hard to top this as a brilliant and thoroughly individual track. What else comes anywhere near the style and flavour of this little gem? I’ve just listened to it again a few times today to remind myself just how good it is, and remember, folks, this came out of that good old year of 1977. A garage band-turned punk, and with a brilliant keyboard player. Whodathunkit? I was sorely tempted to run with No More Heroes, but it came from their second album as far as I remember and I wanted to revel in the début for a while. Maybe next time.
I was offered the chance to go and see a gig by The Stranglers in Ipswich in 1978/9(ish). For some reason I turned it down. Fool.
Slightly worrying is the fact that the drummer, Jet Black, is about a year older than me dad.
Having gone with David Byrne the other day, I went a bit misty eyed for another Talking Heads track, and can’t get the next tune out of my head. The only solution is to find it, play it and share it with you (lot?). The question is, what is it I am going to select for your aural delectation?
Byrne and Eno have already featured, but this is a partnership well worthy of inclusion. In fact, it holds a special place in my music history. Not only is it a fabulous record, but it was the first song I ever downloaded. On release, it was available free ontheir website, so I duly ran along and clicked the button. I was thrilled to hear it coming out of the pathetic speakers on my laptop. Wow! Another piece of technology to improve my life, I thought. I came back to listen to it again a little while later; it was mine to listen to whenever I so desired. Except that I couldn’t find it on my laptop. I searched and I searched, but to no avail. I gave up. Thus, it was also the last song I ever downloaded. Thankfully, I still have a radio and other means through which to listen to top tunes like this. What a brilliant groove there is running through this. Indeed, “This groove is out of fashion, These beats are 20 years old”.
I think you need to see DB in action, too.
Next, a band from the punk era with a bloke on keyboards. Oh yes, a punk band with proper musicians. Loud, too.
On Wednesday we had a new super-fast fibre-optic broadband cable installed, so our internet is about a billion times faster. Except that it isn’t. In fact, we now keep losing the connection altogether. I was all set to add this post last night after returning from a fast training session, but I gave up waiting for the link to be restored. If you’ve been hanging on my every word and selection, I can only apologise. So, sorry about that, but you really should have better things to worry about. #21centuryproblems
While probably not my favourite track by this lot (in fact, definitely not… I know my favourite, but cannot recall its name at the moment) this still ranks as one of the greats. It helps that it was (the start of) this song that was bastardized and became the theme tune to good ol’ Top of the Pops, so there are always good memories associated with hearing this record. Think Pan’s People, Jocky (Jackie) Wilson, that red codpiece (Cameo), Boy George (him or her?), John Peel looking awkward. The list goes on. It’s a shame the show was cancelled, although much of the drivel (thanks to that clown Cowell) coming into the charts these days is hardly worth featuring on prime time TV.
I have no idea what this song is about. Hopefully someone will explain.
When the Internet connection was working yesterday, I was lucky enough to hear a track by Messrs Byrne and Eno. I need to hear it again, so hang on for a bit and I’ll see if I can find it.
Wouldn’t the world be a duller place without David Byrne? Such a creative chap. Always worth a listen. He was born in Scotland, according to t’Internet. Who’d have thought it?
Anyway, the Talking Heads track Radiohead is one of my favourites and yesterday it provided me with a link and a reminder of this song. I recall hearing it when I was at work as a petrol pump attendant in Fareham – my first job after leaving school. I used to get paid £1 per hour and worked 23 hours per week. I didn’t really bother the tax man too much back then. Come to think of it, I don’t bother him too much now. Once in a Lifetime is like no other song I can think of. To my (uneducated) ear it sounds like it has a strange time signature; it sounds wrong and yet it sounds brilliant. Clever bloke, that Mr Byrne. Nice suit in the video too, although not as big on the jacket and trousers front as he’s been know to sport.
There appears to be an issue with the publisher blocking this on Youtube, so here’s another website where it’s still available.
Now, the tax man reference should be where I take this tomorrow, but I am reminded of another top tune by the talk of big trousers, so I’m going with that instead.
This is a record that reminds me of a particular period in my life, but it came to mind as I was thinking about my previous choice. After acknowledging the first recording I bought, I must admit that I don’t actually own too many records or CDs. I once downloaded a tune (by Brian Eno and David Byrne, since you ask), but I promptly lost it. It’s probably there on my laptop somewhere, but I simply can’t find it, hard as I try. I’ve never had an iPod or similar*, but I have access to BBC radio, so why else would I need to download music? The point is, for all the music that I love and enjoy and have loved and enjoyed over the past 40-odd years, I really don’t own that many recordings. I want to listen to new music, as well as some old favourites, and there simply aren’t enough hours in the day, so buying and playing new stuff is rarely part of my life. I brought a handful of CDs to Taiwan which get played in the car, but otherwise I’m listening to the Beeb online.
Back to my choice for today. It was early 1997 and I had just found myself single and living alone for the first time in my life; I was unfit and unhappy in my work. I had bought a new house; it was sparsely furnished and I made the decision not to have a television, so I relied on the radio. Back then, Radio 1 was half decent (just as well, as digital radio was still a few years away) so I used to force myself out of the house every evening and I’d walk briskly for an hour or so with the radio on my Walkman (*ooh, perhaps that could be seen as a primitive MP3 player?!) listening to The Evening Session hosted by Steve Lamacq and Jo Wiley. This tune was played many times, I’m sure. Then, one day, I saw the CD single in the record shop in Haywards Heath. It was one of many I bought in the following months – probably the only period in my life of sustained music buying, albeit something like a single each week for maybe a dozen weeks. Others I bought include Bis, Urusai Yatsura, Geneva, Monaco, Gay Dad, Bennet, some of which will probably feature in future posts.
Anyway, here’s a band I know nothing about and I have just seen the video for the first time. I think the song gave me some kind of inspiration at a time when going the distance seemed unlikely. It has a certain hypnotic quality, I suppose. As for the band name, all cyclists love a bit of Cake.
Tomorrow, I’m going with another fairly obscure American band’s debut single, but very recent. The band name is kind of similar to a very successful British band from the late 70s and early 80s.
In a minute
Mental Health
It's all trial and error, isn't it?
A tune a day keeps the doctor away 