The Afterword

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Bobcuts – a companion thread

by 38 Comments

In the “bobcats Assemble” thread, @dai and others rhapsodise about the masterpieces left off the official released canon. As a Bob lightweight (only the 13 LP’s plus Greatest Hits comps) I would genuinely love to see your top candidates for a deep-cut greatest hits LP.

Thanks for your attention to this matter!

https://theafterword.co.uk/bobcats-assemble/#comment-748242

Help! I’m being held prisoner by Shakin’ Stevens

by 84 Comments

For the last three days I’ve had “Merry Christmas Everyone” by the TOHH on intermittent repeat in my head.

For the first day it wasn’t so bad: “not a terrible tune, who did it?”, I thought and then it faded out. Next day, more of the same, although it was slightly less fun. This morning I woke up with it. Not the whole thing of course. Oh no, just the first verse again and again. If I’d got to a bridge or chorus that might have broken the curse.

Now it’s become a problem. In the hope that understanding your enemy is the way to defeat it I just duckduckgoed the thing and found out the culprit. The bloke who wrote it also wrote “Japanese Boy” by Anneka, so I’m sure no jury would convict me.

I have decided not to include a video link. You are welcome.

Your current gaming obsession?

by 81 Comments

Sincve it’s raining heavily in Sunny Southend ™️this Saturday morning I have been mooching online and ended up re-reading @pencilsqueezer’s Starfield thread. Later (if I can find the time in my busy schedule) I’m going to continue my 3rd play through GTA-V and this time will probably loosen the wallet strings for the DLC.

So this …

Wake up Donny, I think Rod’s got something to say to you

by 45 Comments

“I didn’t know he was orange until a number of years ago, when he happened to turn orange. I respect either one, but he obviously doesn’t and now he wants to be known as Orange. All of a sudden he made a turn and became an Orange person. I think someone should look into that.”

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/rod-stewart-speaks-out-on-social-media-after-stopping-concert-to-slam-orange-donald-trump/ar-AA1odKZw

Low. A Best Of please

by 16 Comments

Everything I have heard of this group is wonderful. Recently Mimi (one half of the husband / wife core of the band) passed away. I’m staggered that they don’t have a recognised Greatest Hits, so I call on you to submit your favourites, please, that I might buy and compile my own.

I am sure there are some proper fans on here who can help here.

Cheers in advance, Massive

Four Seasons

by 56 Comments

Inspired by a comment about Talk Talk’s Colour Of Spring, I find it — cheap irony alert! — all brown and misty and redolent of autumn for some reason. Don’t you find some records just embody a particular part of the year?

I am not talking about Christmas records here, just one that you reach for on the first warm day of spring, or maybe when you find yourself putting on an extra layer when the leaves start turning orange. Alternatively, there are those records that immediately put you in mind of a certain season, whatever time of year you hear them, in a similar fashion to one of those pastries Proust bangs on about.

I think we have a wide enough spectrum of tastes to avoid the “Summer? Let’s slap on the Beach Boys Endless Summer!” option, don’t we? But if it genuinely signifies summer for you, well, just provide a hipper less civilian alternative…

Mid-term malaise or bye bye Boris?

by 84 Comments

Shropshire. Surely the place envisaged by Del Amitri when they wrote the song “Nothing Ever Happens” But no, the by-election result there last night — turning a 23,000 Con lead into a 6,000 Lib Dem one — was the big story this morning.

So, is it just a vote against Owen Paterson’s greed and enttitlement, or a wider message to Boris and co and the first brick in the Yellow Wall?

I knew there was a “Steely Dan” chord

by 16 Comments

… but I never knew there was a “Genesis” chord.

Reading about Phil Collins’ damaged nerves today (he can’t hold a drumstick in one of his hands) led me down one of those fun internet wormhole link-chases. I re-appeared, blinking in the daylight, at a Rick Beato youtube video of him deconstructing the song “Dance On A Volcano,” beloved of air drummers worldwide since 1976.

I feel so dirty

by 20 Comments

Tonight we thought we’d watcha documentary on the island of North Uist. Some superb scenery, local characters and so on, I thought. And so it was for the first 5 minutes.

After that the tone changes and it turns out to be a long advertorial for the P”stc”de L*tt*ery. It seems that a hundred or so of the islanders have shared a £3m prize in a no-way-planned publicity stunt for the gambling encouraging scumbags.

Literally every story subsequently is an interview with one of the winners asking how they were planning to spend the winnings, with a picture of a large cheque on the mantelpiece behind. Not a pretty taste left in my mouth that’sfor sure.

Readers, have YOU any tales to tell of being suckered by some late capitalism cynicism?

Massively Influential, brilliant, and Thirty Years Old

by 49 Comments

No, not Ed Sheeran, you silly boy. Blue Lines by Massive Attack. The first time I ever heard the term “trip hop” a style which, like it or not, was original to my ears at least and has had vast influence on pop music since.

I played it today and apart from the sheer quality of the songs it is a fantastic record sounding utterly gorgeous, warm and enveloping.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:MassiveAttackBlueLines.jpg