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Tuesday, 23 August 2011

Wired for Sound


It's not easy being me. I'll be on a massive writing splurge where I can write about anything, and I mean anything, there was a point where I filled up 1000 words on the joys of 'paprika garlic and chilli powder' and I shit you not, It was fucking brilliant, one of the best things I ever written, it was so good that I won a pullitzer prize for it, but that is neither here nor there as I am here sat in front of a screen feeling like I want to write but not having anything to write, and that is the beauty of having a music blog, what I write is secondary and doesn't have to be so good. Which is why I am going to do something very very bad.

I'm going to tell you all about my guiltiest of guilty pleasures. That pleasure is 'Wired for Sound' by Cliff Richard.

The majority of people who would cite a Cliff song as their guilty pleasure would go for 'Devil Woman' which I don't think is fair because it is actually a great song that it would be acceptable to like if say, the stereophonics, or The Faces, or even Paul McCartney wrote... there is no saving 'wired for sound'... have a listen for your self.



The production, the video, the clothing, the fact that a 45 year old man is chasing women wearing roller skates, the fact that he looks like he might have HIV. it all smacks of something you should ignore, take out of your computer and physically bury in a garden in the hope that you neighbours dont see you.

Yet, I like it. I like the lyrics...

"I like tall speakers, I like small speakers"

So you like Speakers then Harold? Can I call you Harold, that is your name isn't it? Harrold Webb? No? you want me to call you Cliff? So you like Speakers then Harold, whatever the size? is that what you're trying to say?

No this song actually delves in deeper than that. it goes into the depths of abstract concepts like love...

"I met a girl and she told me she loved me"...

thats a bit sudden isn't it?

Cliff agrees, stating: "I said you know that to love me you must like, what I like..."

Who would have thought that Cliff would have such an astute knowledge of what lve is seeing has he has only had farcial relationships with sue barker that involved playing tennis and not having sex, and Olivia Newton Johns generally involved loving God.

Not only that, but his "Music is Dynamite"...

I've finished taking key lyrics of the song, but I will continue to sing its praises, the call and response of the guitar part, the bizarre 6/8 timing of the drums, the allusion to vinyl lyrically in the chorus and the fact that I think Cliff looks quite cool in the video. I think people should give me a break. Its not like I go around slagging off your Guilty pleasure choices.

twats.

Wednesday, 17 August 2011

Here is the News.

I'm suspending what seems to have been a constant uninterupted stream of shoegaze to talk about music that I don't actually have on my ipod, but a sub-genre of music which I have listened to all my life simply because it was way past my bedtime.

I know that Bill Bailey has already done this in a standup so I shall take a different angle by not being funny.



It is difficult to actually understand what music actually means if it is so deeply embedded into your psyche, but what a fucking CHOOOOON!! (okay so maybe choooon isn't the right word for a piece of music like this, but...) news theme tunes were serious pieces of avant garde time shifting scene setting soundscapes. it sets the tone for what is going to be a harrowing half hour. ecconomic problems, social problems and social problems, the absolute worst of all three as well, nothing you can do about it.



British news theme tunes are by there very definition the sound of the coming apocalypse, a key factor in the writing of these pieces of music would have been when they were written: Slap bang in the middle of the cold war. Of course they are going to sound apocalyptic, they were written during the brink of the apocalypse.

Before the wall came down BBC towed the line with post apocalyptic thing. Several rebrands during the late 80s and early 90s varied the BBC news theme, none of which remotely competed with either Panorama or ITN


Of course after the cold war ended and acid house and ecstacy infiltrated the BBC offices, we got the BBC news theme tune we know and love today.



In terms of dance music, this could easily have been released on Bedrock or Kompakt records, I have heard similar tracks at Fabric, Turnmills and the End.

There are a very specific set of rules which govern the themes of music shows, they all have to have shifting time signatures, it is helpful if they are performed with a horn section, not in a dixieland jazz way, but in an urgent and threatening manner. This may not be the sort of stuff I listen to on the tube on the way in to work, but it is a powerful and attention grabbing tool to get the grown ups watching.

Tuesday, 16 August 2011

Sugar Assault Me Now.


I have no idea why this guy never became a superstar, As far as I know he started as the bass player in Scouse matching outfit electroclash misfits Ladytron, but Levi left them to form himself. Hius first album was quality but dismissed by lazy music journo's as a crap version of Iggy Pop, but one listen of this song was enough to convince me. Hand claps, a crunchy bass riff and robo dancing in the video, his second album was just not as good and he dissapeared. It was great to see an NME journo singing his praises. Looking at previous posts I was worried that people might assume that I only listen to progressive rock and that my next move would be posting fanfare for the common man by Emerson Lake and Palmer. So shove this one up your face and eat it until it comes out of your bum hole. Then do it again.



Thursday, 11 August 2011

Lee Hazelwood and Nancy Sinatra.


nancy Sinatra isn't exactly a legend. Her dad might have been, she has cameo'd in Soprano's which makes her a bit cooler, but lets be honest she'd probably not have made it as big if it wasn't for one man... BUT that man was not her father, Ol' Blue Eyes. It was the pot smoking outlaw cowboy Lee Hazelwood. This gangsters daughter and hippy combo may not have made waves when they first released songs with few hits, but they had a wide ranging influence on some of the bands that and albums that I totally love today.

Some Velvet Morning from Vanishing Point, by Primal Scream featuring Kate Moss being an obvious one, the track is a cover of Hazelwood and Sinatra and although radically different to the original, certainly has its own charm.



Anyone who has listened to any of the Isobel Campbel and mark Lanegan albums without consulting Hazelwood and Sinatra has not found the missing link between modern and classic and thus wont be aware that they are not appreciating the duo for what they really are... a Lee Hazelwood and Nancy Sinatra tribute act.

So have a blast of this, I realize I've just been lazily linking hotmail images so I promise to make it slightly more wordy just to bore you further. I was recently on holiday and the cheesy evening entertainment was cheerfully doing covers of all the James Last spectrum of hits, but in the middle of it was a version, albeit a crappy one, of this...



The fact that there are 72 dislikes of this youtube link means that there are at least 72 people on this planet who are total fucking idiots. Now lay back enjoy and click on all the related links apart from the crappy nu metal sweemo cover by the guy from HIM and the girl from Nightwish.