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 news just in: Ozzy Oscbourne is currently stranded in Ushuaia, Tierra del Fuego. There's a been a spot of snow and he can't fly out. It's quite a nostalgia trip for Ozzy, as he hasn't been surrounded by this much white stuff since the late 80s.
A magical moment here from 1970, when Ozzy Osbourne tried and failed to get a load of insouciant Parisians to clap along to one of the slowest songs in Black Sabbath´s repertoire. Being an indie boy, you´ll be more familiar with The Cardigans´1997 cover, although youtube has nothing decent on the subject so here´s them doing a fine version of Sick and Tired instead.
All of which is a roundabout way of telling you what a manly thing I did today. I went to a hardware shop and bought some rawl plugs and screws to put up the shelves in my study. Given that Funseeker´s dad only drilled the holes in the wall for me 5 weeks ago, this is pretty fast manly work on my part. I might even get round to putting up the shelves before I forget where I put the bag of rawl plugs and screws. Rawl plug in Spanish is ¨talugo. There´s a new word for both of us. Though not one I´ve memorised yet, I just had to ask Funseeker for the third time today, and she´d forgotten how to say it. What a team. These sheves are never going to get put up.
You may recall that the Spanish for hardware shop is ferreteria, which sadly is not a ferret shop. Funseeker later told me over lunch that her sister had ben thinking of getting a ferret, but that they cost something like 1500 pounds over here and there´s only one guy who imports them. Imagine! The very epitome of working class northern life transformed into a status symbol. And black pudding´s not cheap neither.
In no way related to ferrets or rawl plugs, at the end of year barbecue at the studio last December, Pato told me how he went to a party with his architect father´s elderly architect friends. While there, one troubled looking architect told Pato how he was worried about his daughter. She never seemed to have a boyfriend and spent all her time playing heavy metal covers in an all-girl cumbia band. Their name? Kumbia Queers...
It's at least 72 hours since you last posted which means I get to post more heavy metal. Good news for me, bad news for our reader(s). When you bring me this turntable (weekly reminder) the first thing I'll do is go out and buy the first four albums of Sui Generis and Black Sabbath. The second thing I'll do is listen to the hundred-odd albums I bought and never listened to, starting with the 30 Years of Bossa album I claim to have listened to in the post below.
A brief history of Black Sabbath, cribbed from Wikipedia: In 1968 everyone liked flowers and listened to pretty music, so Black Sabbath were pretty revolutionary. In December 68 Tony Iommi left Sabbath to join Jethro Tull, appearing on the Rolling Stones' Rock n Roll Circus and becoming the first of many members to leave the band. Their first album, Black Sabbath, was released in 1969, recorded live in one take and described by Lester Bangs of the Rolling Stone as
discordant jams with bass and guitar reeling like velocitised speedfreaks all over each other's musical perimeters, yet never quite finding synch
Which sounds like fun. Paranoid was released in 1970. The title track was written in twenty minutes, although that includes the time taken to skin up. It reached number 4 in the UK, Sabbath's only UK top ten hit. Master of Reality was released in 1971, featuring marijuana paean Sweet Leaf, which you'll know from Ugly Kid Joe's cover. Lester Bangs described it as
naïve, simplistic, repetitive, absolute doggerel
Such a way with words, our Lester, though perhaps ignorant of the very essence of heavy metal. With the success of Black Sabbath Vol. 4 the band appeared on Top of the Pops, sharing a stage with Engelbert Humperdink and Diana Ross, though perhaps not at the same time. By now the band had more money and more drugs, which shows in the video to Sabbath Bloody Sabbath, off the fifth album Sabotage, which featured 24's Rick Wakeman on keyboards. It was downhill after that.
So first I was listening to Black Sabbath and wondering why it had taken me nearly 33 years to get into them. Then I was reminiscing to Iron Maiden's first album. Then I thought, wouldn't it be fun if every time James didn't post after 72 hours, I would post heavy metal videos until he started posting again. Then I searched for Anthrax's Got The Time, that nasty track from the glorious rock year of 1991. My bass teacher once arrived and said "Isn't it awful, that Anthrax song? The bass player can't play in time". I'd just been about to ask him to teach me it. It was favourite song during a week hiatus in between changing from claiming Duff McKagan as my favourite bass player to claiming Cliff Burton as my favourite bass player. My bass teacher's words stayed in the back of my mind, and to this day, I can't for the life of me remember the name of that bassist from Anthrax.
Then I remembered this: Got the Time was a cover of a song written by Joe Jackson, and remembered I had always assumed that Joe Jackson must have been the name of the songwriter in Judas Priest or something. Hang on, I then thought. I know another singer called Joe Jackson, the one who did Is She Really Going Out With Him? Could it possibly be the same person?
Rick Wakeman is currently (2:21pm, 18th December 2008) on 5Live basically busking tunes listeners are asking for. Unfortunately for Rick, he doesn't appear to know a great deal of them. He also just made a big deal of going to a music school and then was asked what a Picardy third was and admitted he didn't know. I guess that's not unusual, but it's more bizarre when Wikipedia includes Roundabout by Yes among the four big modern hits to feature one. Things aren't going well for Rick. He's been using a celeste sound on his keyboard, until Simon Mayo told him he was "turning everything to cheese." I wonder which guest pulled out at the last minute?
Watching this bit from a Hard Days Night through again, I wonder why it took so many years for TV to copy the Richard Lester wobbly-camera bits that still look good here even though every show on the box has been doing it since 1995. Have you seen The Bill nowadays? Gor Blimey! Even my gran accepts shakeycam!
Dear James,
As an indication of how busy I am, it's taken me 22 hours to respond to this post. That's shocking blogging. Thanks for that clip of The Bill. Hasn't it changed these days? Although still with unfeasible storylines where accomplishes hand over the loot in broad daylight in the middle of the Arndale Centre. They're just trying to get on TV Burp, aren't they?
Anyway, music. We should probably explain to our reader that a Picardy third is when a song in a minor key changes to major. One of my favourite moments of the 1990s was when the Prime Minister donned a Davey helmet and went down a pit. There's nothing so finer than that change from Major to miner.
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
