We write about the songs that make the whole world sing, we write about the songs of love and special things, we write about the songs that make the young girls cry, we write about the songs, we write about the songs.
This blog is so going to turn into a dodgy 70s rock blog. In a bid to turn the tide, here's some dodgy 70s rock. Pablo told me about this one, in a conversation about celloes and Ozzy Osbourne. He reckons Jeff Lynne sounds like Ozzy. I reckon I might start cello classes again. Jeff Lynne in this video looks like he'd always wanted to do a Christmas single like Wizzard. I bet Ozzy Osbourne's always wanted that too.
Have you read the bit in "17" where Bill Drummond says the bands that try to copy The Beatles are always the worst bands, just look at ELO and Oasis. Do you ever find ELO start to sound like Oasis? I do with this one, but less so with the likes of The Diary of Horace Wimp.
See? I can't be a music snob. I've posted Genesis. It's impossible to be a music snob and publically admit knowledge of their post-Gabriel work. Although clearly the only time it is acceptable to listen to this song is when you are making the point: I haven't replied to you because Virgin are too busy to plug me in before Thursday. Did you notice I wrote "work" before? I did that because I bet they call it work. Except Phil. Phil doesn't call it work. It's all just a joke to Phil. Tiny Phil. You see how small he is next to a regular-sized rack tom? You think it's a trick of perspective or some 80s bluescreen wizardry until Phil playfully knocks his floor tom at 21" to prove it's no lie. He doesn't care. It's all a joke to Phil. (Except homelessness.)
Dear James,
Good to have you back. I thought you were going to post a Lamb Lies Down on Broadway clip there. Should've known with you. I would've thought Little Phil would call it work more than the other two. Probably because the other two now have real day jobs to support their post-Genesis poverty. How do you know he doesn't use special extra-large toms? Can you imagine if other bands' singers had left and the drummers had taken over lead vocals? Roger Taylor? Lars Ulrich? It would've been carnage.
Oh, sweet bass playing, Mr. Mechanics. (Is he Mr Mechanics or is the other one?)
By the way, you can reply to the other posts below by logging in and clicking on that little pencil. Yesterday my co-writer Pablo told me he'd been listening to ACDC and Flash and the Pan for years and never knew they were related. The power of this blog! Of course, I told him that trivia junket myself. He doesn't read this blog.
There was an uproar on one of the blog pages of The Guardian about an X Factor contestant covering Hallelujah. Or they did a Leonard Cohen day on X Factor. Or something. Anyway, everyone was very tetchy about the king of grumpiness being bastardised in such a callous and commercial way. Then there was an argument about Jeff Buckley's version being better. Then someone said it had 14 verses. Then someone said Jeff Buckley was a whining girl. The thread of the original argument was lost shortly after.
I don't think it's such a bad thing that X Factor warblers do Hallelujah. As you can see from this appearance on a Japanese chat show, Leonard Cohen isn't that arsed either. I think the thrust of the argument on the Guardian blog was down to the old chestnut of people wanting to protect the secret songs that are special to them and unknown to the masses. If you're mum starts buying Leonard Cohen compilations to go alongside her James Blunt and that David chap who did very well a few years ago, you have to leave Lenny behind and find some other musical curmudgeon. And that means getting into Nick Cave.
Why is that we stop listening to stuff we like when everyone else starts liking it? Are we snobs? Are we music Nazis? Does the music get devalued? Would you still be listening to Oasis if no one else had bought Definitely Maybe? And how come this doesn´t apply to older bands like The Beatles and Billy Joel? Eh?
Did you see the obituaries for Richey James yesterday? Of course you did, you're a journalist. It reminded me of the first year of university when he went missing and wondered if the announcement of his presumed death means we're no longer young. Or did we stop being young many years ago? Or is this all fanciful rubbish to delay going to work?
You can tell this song's from the early 90s by the double snare beat. They almost sound like James (the band, not you).
Here's a good 'un, recommended by Ian. I'm not sure if he reads the blog or just had a fit of recommending far-out jives from the late sixtees. This is the most passable of his recommendations. He's very eclectic. He enjoys modern jazz and everything.
With this video I've finally resolved my Arthur confusion, to wit:
1. Arthur Brown was not the singer from Love. 2. Neither was Arthur Lowe 3. It was Arthur Lee. 4. I should stop watching Dad's Army in the hope that they'll play something from "Forever Changes".
This clip is taken from Peter Sykes' 1968 film "The Committee", which also featured music by The Pink Floyd.
Note the limited pyrotechnics of the era, so Mr Brown's flaming horns go out 33 seconds in; the organist's dad looking on proudly at (1:18); a young Cher dancing at (2:31); and that's not a real drummer, or indeed, a real cigarette. Arthur Brown was from Whitby. What is about Whitby, eh?
Dear James, Back in August I told you you'd like Fleet Foxes and you took offense and asked me why, as if it was so easy to read you. Here are ten reasons why:
1. They have an animal in their name. Like The High Llamas. And other bands you like with animal names. 2. Stop-motion video. Duels do this all the time. So do Tool. That´s probably who you got it off. 3. Nice clean harmonies. Like the Beach Boys. 4. Moderate tambourine use. Like the Beach Boys. 5. Suprising chord change at (0:33). Like the Beach Boys. 6. That electric guitar sound that always reminds me of Hank Marvin but which seems to be awfully popular these days. 7. They've only released one album and thus have yet to disappoint with their second. 8. Audible breathing (2:10). Like Elliott Smith. And the Beach Boys. 9. "The quintet describe their music as "baroque harmonic pop jams"", it says here. Nothing says James more than baroque harmonic pop jam. In fact, that's probably an anagram of your name. 10. The Daily Telegraph called their debut album "pretty but almost pathologically unobtrusive". Just like you, again.
Dear reader, James is moving house and using this as an excuse not to do anything else. Dear James, Not the Carpenters song. Or the Travis song. Sorry. This Benny Goodman 1936 piece is one we're using in the opening sequence to episode one, though we still need to find out if the copyright has expired and we can use it for free. Otherwise I'll just compose a similar work myself, but we'd rather use this one.
I like this because Keith Moon's granddad plays drums on it. It's also very amusing to watch with the sound turned off. It all goes very nicely up until (3:22) and the vibraphone kicks in and we have ourselves an entirely different animal. They say the piano solo is very special too. It's a "four chorus, highly chromatic masterpiece". What does that mean, James?
This song featured in three Woody Allen films. Can you name them without looking at the wikipedia page? More importantly, can you tell me which British ice dancers used this for their winning 1981 routine?
There's also an even longer version but without the piano solo, notable for the looks on the audience's faces, as if Carnegie Hall were Benny Goodman's Free Trade Hall moment. There's also a woman at (0:49 who appears to have eaten her husband.
Dear James, Yesterday I was reading about this blog called stuffwhitepeoplelike.com (don't even think about clicking on that link, it's far too entertaining and you'll never come back again) and it said something about how one of the things that white people like the very very most is Vampire Weekend. You can see why: the nice sweaters, the university education, the neat haircuts and the overwhelming sensation that at no time are they likely to board your super long tanker and hold all your crew to ransom.
Another thing white people like is clever pop videos which try to look like fillums. Pop videos are for stupid kids, but if you divide them into chapters and shoot them with a single camera shot it's almost the same kudos as sitting through Bergman's The Seventh Seal and in a fraction of the time.
See that guy who falls over at the end? I bet he did it on purpose. And is the last line "Littlejohn he always tells the truth"? Is this a reference to forthright Daily Heil hack Richard Littlejohn? If so, can I think of a pay off for this post after looking at Littlejohn's Wikipedia page? No.
Dear James, Is this the worst song ever? This was on VH1 right before the Hey Saint Peter video, and was no doubt instrumental in heightening my appreciation of the latter. This video has so many things to dislike: -the barrels under the drum-riser (0:30). Why? Do they have a constant supply of Jack Daniels fed intravenously into every one in the audience so they'll holler more? Are Lynyrd Skynyrd vintners? - the double bass drum (0:31). Why again? Are they going to launch into a Slayer cover? Or does the drummer have a small penis? -the futility of having a keyboard player (0:41) with two keyboards for a song that consists of the same three chords over and over again. Is the keyboard pink as well? Does the keyboard player have a small etc and so on? -all these references to the south (0:59). Can you imagine if there was a war between north and south England, the north lost and Stuart Maconie was left wandering the theatres of West Yorks. with an obsolete flag singing "Sweet Home Wakefield Westgate"? I bet you can. -there are at least 9 people on stage to perform a song that could easily be done by 4. Are Lynyrd Skynyrd the new GNR? Do they run some kind of musicians' cooperative? Is it so that half the musicians can play interminable solos? Ah. -the hair. Can't the ageing backing singers share their conditioner around? Sadly, Lynyrd Skynyrd got their name from gym teacher Leonard Skinner, who enforced the school's anti-long hair policy. I suppose once you've made that kind of statement, the barber shop's kind of out. - I think this is where GNR got their inspiration for their 10-minute version of Knockin on Heaven's Door hey hey hey hey hey yay.
Charlie Garcia, Argentinian nutjob and occasional musician, did a cover of this called Sweet Home Buenos Aires. You don't really want to click on that link.
Alternatively you can watch Free Bird and tell me whether that slide guitar is out of tune or not.
Hey Saint James, Ever heard of these people? Australian twosome Flash and the Pan (George Young and Harry Vanda) and 1983 one-hit wonders with "Waiting for a Train". George Young was the elder brother of the Angus and Malcolm Young, which may explain the penchant for playing the guitar while wearing shorts. Never a good look. Not even that nice boy in Vampire Weekend pulled it off at Leeds.
Young and Vanda played in the Easybeats, who had a big hit with "Friday on my Mind", which David Bowie covered on Pin-Ups. Another of there songs "Good Times" featured Steve Marriot on backing vocals and was later covered by INXS, featuring on The Lost Boys soundtrack. They wrote and produced John Paul Young's "Love is in the Air". They also wrote Meatloaf's "Running the Red Light". I'm scraping the barrel there, I know.
I like how this song combines the better elements of late 70's rock, namely The Motors' "Airport" and ELO. Is sounding like ELO a good thing? I'm no longer sure. They spoil the effect slightly with their attempts at comedy (the cork hat, the hitting the tall man with a hard hat, the skeleton producer) but at least no one dresses up as a schoolboy for the best part of 30 years.
James and Daniel, or Jim and Danny to an unfortunate few, were going to be like the old men who ran 78 Records in Stockport, but writing a blog about the songs and videos they came across seemed a lot less hassle, and saved them having to move to Stockport. And so they created 78x78 Records, so that other people could know what it was like to be their friend, and what they wrote about when they wrote to each other about music. And so they will post videos of songs you might enjoy 78x78 times. And then they will stop. And then they will do something else. That's 6084 posts. They´ll endeavour to get it done quickly. They'd love to hear from you and any videos or songs you'd like them to post. You can do this by commenting in the pertinent area, or by e-mailing them your suggestions at 78discos@gmail.com
