It’s a fairly standard response in this place to the current situation – immerse yourself in a crazily large audio project. Then share your findings. So here’s mine, for this week at least. I own a copy of hits bible The British Book of Hit Singles – 18th edition, which is the penultimate in printed form (2004). So how’s about working through the whole shebang (about 500 pages) at a page a day. That should take me through the current scenario and out the other side.
Ground rules: it’ll be A-Z. Unfamiliar stuff only. So the whole page that is David Bowie can be skipped (see the ‘it’ll take about a year’)…er skip that as Rebel Never Gets Old reached no 47 in 2004. Need to hear that (don’t get too excited it’s a mashup but an official one).
The greatest hit is it. Not got time to listen to all of A – so clearly it’s their top 10 Hit Nothing and unless my curiosity is greatly piqued (reader it was not, generic late 90s Green Day punky rock) then in this case their other 9 top 75 smashes will remain for others to discover.
Nothing unfamiliar skipped from Al Martino (no 1 Nov 1952) onwards. Discoveries posted on a weekly basis from Youtube as quelle surprise a lot is NOS (Not On Spotify). If you want to read along then 18th edition starts with A (the band) and finishes with ZZ Top.Not sure that’s too much of a spoiler.
Week 1 is in the comments.
The Gold.
A.B’s – can you believe the first entry after A is a massively hip and terrifyingly obscure 80s Japanese jazz funk or as their wikipedia page says ‘city pop’. This stuff slavered over in mixtapes on youtube. Their one track Deja Vu hit number 80 in April 84 and is here enclosed. It is excellent. NOS of course. I am cheered that the project is worthwhile.
I do like this.
Look forward to more hidden gems!
It instantly recalls the soundtracks to early Sega videogames – drifting outrageously in a Suzuki Impreza around a hairpin facing a georgeously-hued sunset, while 10s away from the gate time.
Curio #1
Is reggae the best genre for covers? Endlessly flexible (there is a reggae version of Back in Black) yet also turns whatever it touches into laid-back slinkiness.
That beats the you know what out of the original!
Exhibit 2: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ONOVz98xK_w
Lovely and will get to it around June time! Stay tuned. Always tempted to look ahead in these projects… here is that AC/DC cover.
Exhibit four:
Looks like it’s chilly out on that pier
I have a question: does Al Martino qualify as an act with a single that went straight in at number one?
Technically yes – but it’s a bit of a cheat.
Then again, he sold more records than the other 11 that week, so straight in at the toppermost it was
But. It had been released a few weeks before and it wasn’t number one in those weeks.
The Bad. The charts were awash in the 90s with eurodance covers, that turned everything it touched by contrast into crap. Abigail’s version of Smells Like Teen Spirit is even worse if such a thing were possible.
That really is quite gruesome.
Kids, don’t do drugs. Or, when you listen to this kind of thing, it sounds good.
In dispatches:
Tom the Peeper by Act One probably would struggle to be released today.
Adams and Gee – Chung Kuo is a lovely piece of ambient dance reminiscent of Papua New Guinea FSOL.
Heliopolis by Night is a charming bit of folk indie by Aberfeldy, slightly ruined by some strange vocal choices.
Jewel Aken’s The Birds and the Bees is terrible.
I have a few Aberfeldy CDs, which are quite good. They’re a Scottish band and, whilst some of their stuff does sound a bit folky (a bit like The Decemberists in places) they are more Indie pop. They should appeal to fans of Fountains of Wayne. The single you listened to, from their first album, was the single of the week in the NME, but their other two albums, Do Whatever Turns You On and Somewhere To Jump From, were better. Here’s a single from Do Whatever Turns You On.
I’m currently working through the unplayed tracks from my 2016 digital acqusitions. Some are mundane to the extreme, but the odd gem pops up. Can’t be arsed to figure out and then list what I listened to in the last couple of weeks of March. Here’s April so far. A long list:
The White Stripes, Natasha Bedingfield, Razorlight, Parliament, The Libertines, The Verve, Tom Waits, Spiers & Boden, Mark Isham, Stan Getz, Victor Feldman, Värttinä, Moondog, Wizz Jones, Paul Motian & the Electric Bebop Band, Moby Grape, Stephane Grappelli & Stuff Smith, Shankar, Tito Puente, Modena City Ramblers, Slipknot, Sigur Rós, Maria Muldaur, Sonny Terry & Brownie McGhee, Les Rhythmes Digitales, Rokia Traoré, Rufus Wainwright, Max Romeo & the Upsetters, Lorraine Hunt Lieberson, Was (Not Was), Richard Thompson, Tangerine Dream, Luke Vibert, Pulp, The Ting Tings, New Order, Simon & Garfunkel, Of Montreal, The Real Tuesday Weld, Page France, Ween, Ruth Brown, R. Crumb and his Cheap Suit Serenaders, R. L. Burnside, Stefan Grossman, Thievery Corporation, Renaud García-Fons, Michael Chapman, Ralph Stanley, The Ramones, Tears For Fears, Tori Amos, The Stranglers, Red Garland, Victoria Spivey, Lil Green, Richard & Mimi Fariña, Sandy Bull, Talking Heads, Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, The Tubes, Renee Rosnes, Resina, Peter Green’s Fleetwood Mac, Monty Alexander, Man, T-Bone Walker, Luke Jones, PJ Harvey, Martin Carthy, Oscar Alemán, Staind, Misery Loves Co., Rock Workshop, Steeleye Span, Memphis Slim, Satoh Michihiro, Rodrigo y Gabriela, Loudon Wainwright III, Richard Green & Jack Shit, Roedelius, The Strokes, Mojo Nixon & Skid Roper, Portishead, Soap Kills, OOIOO, Nagisa Yoko & Justin Simon, Thelonious Monk, Roxiller, Roxy Music, Roy Buchanan, Roy Harper, Nick Harper, Neil Young & Crazy Horse, Ry Cooder, The Pretty Things, The Steve Miller Band, Stan Kelly, Van Morrison, Shattered Faith, The Ruby Braff-George Barnes Quartet, Sam Cooke, Orlandivo, Sandy Hurvitz, Time of Orchids, The Louvin Brothers, Remember Shakti, Trio Beyond, Sonny Rollins, Vail Johnson, Scouting for Girls, Oliver Nelson, The Screaming Headless Torsos, Seamajesty, My Diet Pill, Public Image Ltd, Rockpile, Terry Reid, Terje Rypdal, Misha Mengelberg, Material, Miles Davis, Peter Gabriel, Sharon Shannon, Nigel Kennedy Quintet, Tuxedomoon, Shankara, Richard & Linda Thompson, Reg Meuross, Taj Mahal & the Phantom Blues Band, Prince, Penguin Café Orchestra, Maddy Prior & June Tabor, Orchestre Rail Band de Bamako, Suede, Otis Redding, Lightnin’ Hopkins, Rodney Branigan, Mira Calix, Skip James, Martin Horntveth, XTC, Pieter Nooten & Michael Brook, New Model Army, Mike Heron, Mel Tormé, Shirley MacLaine, Polly Bergen, The Mills Brothers, Nightmares On Wax, The Thrills, Nucleus, Sex Mob, Ralph Towner, Robbie Robertson, Richie Havens, Mbogwana Star, Maroon 5, Nanci Griffith, Simani, Tom Chapin, Rick Fielding, Ocean Colour Scene, Paul Robeson, Queens of the Stone Age, Salif Keita, Tomasz Stanko Quartet, Wizz Jones, Silverside, Richard Hell & the Voidoids, The Soupsongs Band, Neil Morris, Soft Machine, Orchestra Baobab, Tilly & the Wall, Tim Berne’s Hard Cell, The Staple Singers, Nick Gravenites & Mike Bloomfield, Rich T, Stockton’s Wing, Skunk Anansie, Sam Brown, Jeff Beck, Szakcsi, Weird Al Yankovic, Tuung, Tyrannosaurus Rex, Tomita, Terry Riley & Don Cherry, Soma, New Order, Townes Van Zandt, Lonesome River Band, Terry Allen, Rodney Crowell, Sean Watkins, Sun Ra, Paolo Nutini, Teddy Edwards, Tord Gustavsen & Jarle Vespestad.
A good chance I was asleep or otherwise occupied for some of them.
I think you win the random list of the month award, possibly the year.
I’m assuming this was/is permanent ‘background’ sound, or do you pay close attention at times?
If something stands out enough to grab my attention then it gets it. Otherwise it’s background as I read, net-surf, drink coffee, make toast etc.
Ramsey Lewis Trio’s “Wade In The Water”, Shakey Horton’s “Need My Baby” and Miles Davis’s “What I Say” from the Cellar Door Sessions 19th Dec. 1970 (McLaughlin guitar solo) all particularly got my attention this morning.