Heading for the Ditch No2

Songs Ancient and Modern

Here’s my second trawl through songs Ancient and Modern, looking for the songs that pass the Old Grey Whistle Test for me (Now that I’m old and grey.) Can I suggest that, rather than sit down and listen to them with furrowed brow thinking “What the hell is this?”  You stick the playlist on your phone (You can play either Spotify or YouTube playlist without membership) and maybe try them in the car on in the background on Saturday morning. I give you my word that at least one of these will get you smiling in remembrance or delving for the phone to remind yourself of the band….

The list this month evokes in me a slightly more sombre feeling, because of the fact that the people of genius seem to be lining up for departure these days and a couple are on here. Rest assured, the music itself though is far from gloomy.  

Go on! Whack it on the HiFi (Whoops, nobody calls it that any more do they!), you’ll be glad you did. More choice cuts coming along soon…… Meanwhile I’ve done a para for each to add to the fun.

Here’s a preview of the playlist for Spotify users. Press play for the whole track:

And the link is here for Youtube music

Mayor of Simpleton                     XTC

When Andy Partridge wrote this song in 1989 he created a magnificent walking bass line for Colin Moulding and overlaid it with typically quirky, funny and romantic lyrics, creating a nailed-on classic. It’s one of many in their oeuvre. It feels like XTC are sometimes a bit overlooked and it could be because they sound a little …sort of …. “spikey” to me. They suffered a bit from typical 80’s over-bright production, but underneath that the songs are grand.

On the Beach                                  Boz Skaggs

Neil Young recorded the album On the Beach, a ragged majestic epic, in 1974. After ‘Harvest’ had put him in the middle of the road he hoped it would point him back towards the ditch. He then proceeded to bury it for decades for reasons which have never been made clear. The LP was deleted and the cassette likewise. It became a cult item, finally being released on CD for the first time in 2003.  I had a muddy-sounding cassette recording of it in the mid-70s, from a girlfriend of unimpeachable musical taste (evidently not carried over to boys.) To add to the weirdness, this is Boz (“Lido Shuffle”) Skaggs’s version of the title track. Which is, rather unexpectedly, terrific.

Tangled up in Love                                        The Rifles

One of those instantly recognisable tracks beloved by clip editors on the telly, this is a really good, euphoric love song of the kind that surfaced every 10 minutes in the Britpop era. The Rifles have a ‘by royal appointment’ from the king of the Mods himself, Paul Weller and it’s no surprise to know that Ian “Lightening Seeds” Broudie has produced them in the past.

Bus stop boxer                                               Eels

Mark ‘E’ Everett is a singular talent. He has his own pretty traumatic backstory which he frequently mines, but this tale actually came from an engineer who said his world view was formed by his father, who would encourage him as a boy to pick fights with people at the bus stop to ‘toughen him up’. Go figure, as they say over there. The song unfurls like a therapy session, but with mesmeric music.   

Only love can break your heart             St Etienne

When Indie dance troupe St Etienne released their first album “Fox Base Alpha”, it had a Neil Young (Yes, him again) song on it. Young’s version registers a solid 9 on the slush-ometer, so it seemed a quixotic choice for St E at first glance. But it all made sense when you heard it. NME at the time said, “It should nark a few old hippies”. The album and this single were nominated for various prizes when released and you can hear why. It was the soundtrack to the so-called Second Summer of Love™.

I don’t believe you        The Magnetic Fields

I do love a clever lyric. This track is full of them. Here’s one of many:

You tell me I'm not, not cute
It's truth or falsity is moot
‘Cos honesty's not your strong suit
And I don't believe you,

But its more than just words. It has a tremendous ‘cello (!) line and a really memorable hum-along tune, picked out on the banjo (!!). Stephen Merritt, Magnetic Fields leader enjoys his themes and this track comes from an album called “i”. All of the tracks feature the word I in the title. They’ve also released an album called 69 love songs consisting of, as you might guess 69 songs about love. Anyway, this is a great track. 

I Hate Hate                       Ian Hunter

As we crawl dazedly from the shelters after Armageddon we will be greeted by a very tall, very thin, shape in shades emerging from the mist. It’ll be ‘Untah’ and he’ll be looking for a recording studio. This track is from last year’s album Defiance (He’s just released another btw…. it’s very good). As you can hear on this typically ranty track, in his 9^th decade he’s sounding, well, just like Ian Hunter. A very good thing.

Pitch the baby                Cocteau Twins

By 1990, Grangemouth’s Cocteau Twins had been releasing albums for 10 years, culminating in the career peaking ‘Heaven or Las Vegas’. On this track from that album vocalist Elizabeth Fraser’s beautiful voice joins with the chiming guitar to soar over the big beats from the ubiquitous Roland 808 drum machine.

Medicine Bow                 The Waterboys

I do a blow a bit hot and cold on the Waterboys, but the album ‘This is the Sea’ (Karl Wallinger’s last with the band btw, see below) is really good. This is a big old slab of noise driven by loads of percussion and the extended version (here) has a piano break that renders the original edit a pale substitute.

The Oaks                           Gaz Coombes

One of the high-point albums of the 90’s, Supergrass’s “In it for the Money” put the band onto my “bands whose albums are an automatic buy on day of release” list. I never regretted that decision once. Gaz Coombes inherited the berth after the group’s demise and he continues to produce cracking tunes. The sound has softened a little over the years (I mean he’s old now. He’s …. looks up Wikipedia…. Oh…48, so not old at all.) Anyway, this is a cracker from the album before last.

Jean the Birdman          David Sylvian and Robert Fripp

Sometimes with collaborations they can be a bit, well…. crap. This track shows how it should be done. Featuring the mellifluous voice of early ‘80’s fops Japan in the form of David Sylvian, teamed up with needs-no-introduction King Crimson lead Robert Fripp. They both throttle back the pyrotechnics to produce something super-smooth and altogether rather wonderful. Listen out for the fade where Fripp’s guitar sound runs backwards. Lovely.

Gullwing Doors             Fruit Bats

I remember when I stumbled over the album ‘The Pet Parade’ one Sunday afternoon. It produced an immediate reaction, “Bloody hell, this guy’s listened to a lot of Dave Cousins from the Strawbs”, but then I listened again and heard a really good LP full of melodies to cherish. It’s one of those lockdown albums which was produced by three individuals in different States in the US. Not that you’d know. Modern technology, eh? What will they think of next?

Skeletons                         Brothers Osborne

Coming essentially from a Country stable, the Brothers Osbourne are not normally where you’d find me panning for gold, except this track seems to have snuck up (Can you use the word ‘snuck’ if you don’t come from Texas?) on me. It’s a 3’30’’ loud, brutal, rock song which I can imagine going down a storm in those roadside bars in the States where Tommy Lee Jones is permanently in the shadows and a shooting is permanently on the agenda…… as always it deserves significant volume.

Stoned Train Driver                     The Bevis Frond

Back to the Frond for this classic track from 1995’s album “Superseeded”. The evergreen qualities prized by the disgracefully tiny following Nick Saloman has amassed over 40 years and approximately 30 albums, are all here - namely a great hook, memorable lyrics and stupendous guitar work. The astonishing thing about Saloman is that as he has aged his album quality has, if anything improved. Do I like the Bevis Frond? Let’s say that I rank them as highly as any band from the 60’s onwards and yes that does include the…. well, you get the gist.

Nylon Strung                   Underworld

When the Underworld album “Barbara, Barbara we face a shining future” (No, me neither) it came after a hiatus that had lasted 6 years. But the guys have still got their trademark sound, electronica and big beats with avant garde lyrics and strong melodies. This track is the album closer and ends things very nicely.

All come true                   World Party

It feels like we are approaching the eye of the storm for music-related death announcements, and a certain resignation creeps in when you hear that another big name has handed in their lunch pail. Notwithstanding that, Karl Wallinger was an unexpected left-field shock. As World Party he released two or three classic albums in the early 90’s. His first album after leaving the Waterboys was Private Revolution in 1987 which contained the almost perfect “Ship of Fools”, but I’ve gone here for the track after it. A wonderful, melancholy example of his genius, it feels more apposite in the circumstances.

The Numbers                  Radiohead

Radiohead have a marvellous knack of unsettling you. You never know what’s coming next, they are the Bowie of the current music business. When A Moon-Shaped Pool was released it received almost universal approbation, skewed as it was towards the more tuneful end of their songwriting spectrum. Thom Yorke’s voice is as clear as a bell on this track and I love the way the almost Indian-sounding strings crank up the menace at 3’33”. We are lucky to still have them.

Tunnel 13                           Mark Knopfler

This is from Mark Knofler’s newly released album “One Deep River” and is a good example of where he is these days. Broadly it’s in the space exemplified by ‘Six-Blade Knife’ on the first album rather than ‘Sultans of Swing’. No flash, not a note is played that doesn’t fit perfectly and his softly spoken rich voice is perfect. All in all, a treat

Madman across the Water      Elton John & Mick Ronson

John and Taupin knew they had something with this track in 1970, but they allowed it to steep a little before the final version came out on the eponymous album in 1971. That version is splendid, but here I’ve gone for an earlier one which features the stupendous guitar of one Mick Ronson, rather than the strings of the later version. At over 8 minutes long, in some ways it’s a bit less coherent, but boy, could he play guitar, as someone later sang.

Four in the morning                    Ivy

And in memory of another egregious loss, I’ve included a track to stand as a memorial to Adam Schlesinger. He died in the first wave of Covid so I’m a little late. He was one of those, slightly below the radar, songwriters who nevertheless had a stunning way with a tune. He was one of the two prime movers behind The Fountains of Wayne, but before that he had formed Ivy with a couple of friends. They produced several albums, all worth investigation. This track is a good representation of the sound. Smooth French-inflected vocals and a magnificent melody underpinning it. What a talent and what a loss.