363: LADIES OF THE WORLD

And so we near the end of this ‘thingy’ of ours. Except, dear reader, don’t think you can get rid of us that easily. More on that in the next couple of days. Many to thank for encouragement, criticism, patience, tech support, a laptop, comments, taking dictation, and of course the suggestion of Ray Davies acoustic versions. Much appreciated.

This one’s for the ladies. The last two selections are from ‘Electric Ladyland’ and ‘Electric Landlady’, respectively.

363: LADIES OF THE WORLD

1. Billie Holiday – Lady Sings the Blues
2. The Impressions – Gypsy Woman
3. T. Rex – Lady
4. Kate Bush – This Woman’s Work
5. The Rolling Stones – Lady Jane
6. Stevie Wonder – Boogie On Reggae Woman
7. Richard Hawley – Lady Solitude
8. Grinderman – Go Tell The Women
9. The Divine Comedy – A Woman Of The World
10. Aretha Franklin – (You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman
11. Neil Young – Such A Woman
12. Urge Overkill – Girl, You’ll Be A Woman Soon
13. Tom Waits – Warm Beer And Cold Women
14. Jimi Hendrix Experience – All Along The Watchtower
15. Kirsty MacColl – Walking Down Madison

59:30

345: UNTITLED

Why ‘Untitled’ ? I just thought we should have one at some point. Besides, it is titled, it’s just titled ‘Untitled’.

Whilst I of course love the music that makes up these playlists, what with time usually being an issue, the occasions when I have listened to music for non-blog related reasons over the last few months have been rare. When I have, these are some faves. Which I suppose now makes them blog-related.

345: UNTITLED

1. Kate Bush – Lake Tahoe
2. Morrissey – Why Don’t You Find Out For Yourself
3. Cat Power – The Greatest
4. Steve Earle – City of Immigrants
5. Roxy Music – For Your Pleasure
6. The Divine Comedy – At the Indie Disco
7. Edwyn Collins – The Campaign For Real Rock
8. Subway Sect – Ambition
9. Leonard Cohen – First We Take Manhattan
10. Billie Holiday – Strange Fruit
11. Magazine – Do the Meaning
12. New Order – Sub-Culture

59:58

191: REVISITATION 6

I didn’t realise how long it’s been since I did one of these, and there’s some catching up to do. Time once again then, to move forward by looking back.

191: REVISITATION 6

1. REGATTA DE NOT – Modest Mouse – Float On
2. THE MAN – Ian Dury – My Old Man
3. GLASTONBURY – The Streets – Turn The Page
4. TIME TIMES TWO – Morrissey – You were Good in Your Time
5. EXCUSE ME, DO YOU HAVE THE TIME ? – Tom Waits – 2:19
6. THE PERSISTENCE OF MEMORY – Billie Holiday – It’s Easy to Remember
7. GOING LONG AGAIN – Japan – Sons of Pioneers
8. RAIDING THE ROOMIES RECORDS – Peter Gabriel – And Through the Wire
9. HAPPENO DAY – Roxy Music – Bitters End
10. MY BACK – Quincy Jones – Back on the Block
11. THE YEAR THAT WAS – Thievery Corporation – 2001 Spliff Odyssey
12. ’67 – Love – You Set the Scene
13. HOBBLING AND MELTING – The Kinks – Supersonic Rocket Ship

60:48

141: SUMMERTIME

Well, I had to, didn’t I ? Today is, of course, the first day of Summer. Allow me to explain how and why this came to be. On June 21st 1487, one Reginald Stone, a farmer from Salisbury, Wiltshire, England ( a man, incidentally, who spent his entire life living on a Henge), erected a giant pyramid using nothing but the finest West Country haystacks. Climbing to the peak of this magnificent structure, he was able to determine that the Sun had in fact floated further North than it does on any other day of the year. He reported his discovery to the ‘Solstice Times’ (a sort of rural, 15th Century version of ‘The Guinness Book of World Records’), who, rather than publish his findings, immediately alerted the King of England. The King had Stone incarcerated and, having been found guilty of ‘Crimes against the throne of England’, namely ‘Not knowing one’s Place’, and ‘Causing a bit of a fuss’, the poor farmer was publicly executed, his discovery buried along with him. Until…..

In 1934, renowned American Scientist Henry Miller, using the modern technology of the day ( synthetic haystacks and a couple of telescopes), arrived at the same conclusion Reginald Stone had some Five Hundred years earlier. He named his ‘discovery’ ‘Tropic of Cancer’, which, when translated to ancient Latin, means ‘Summer starts now’ (though oddly, in the Southern Hemisphere  this day is known as ‘Tropic of Recnac’ – nobody really knows why.)

So there you have it. A little history lesson explained to me many years ago by my old Auntie Mildred (although she was on her fifth brandy at the time), and now, dear reader, passed on to you. But I’m not quite done…

The first day of Summer is also known as ‘The Longest Day’, though recent studies and research seem to suggest it is in fact no longer or shorter than just about any other day of the year.

The 21st of June is also referred to, at least by me, as ‘Oh bugger, I forgot to send my Dad a birthday card Day’. O.K., now I’m done.

141: SUMMERTIME

1. The Undertones – Here Comes the Summer
2. The B-52’s – Summer of Love
3. Roy Ayers – Everybody Loves the Sunshine
4. Martha Reeves and The Vandellas – Heatwave
5. Billie Holiday – Summertime
6. The Flaming Lips – It’s Summertime
7. The Divine Comedy – The Pop Singer’s Fear of the Pollen Count
8. The Durutti Column – Sketch for Summer
9. John Lydon – Sun
10. The Pogues – Summer in Siam
11. Nina Simone – Here Comes the Sun
12. The Velvet Underground – Who Loves the Sun
13. Nancy Sinatra and Lee Hazelwood – Summer Wine
14. Sly and The Family Stone – Hot Fun in the Summertime
15. Love – Bummer in the Summer
16. Bob Marley and The Wailers – Sun is Shining
17. Marianne Faithfull – Summer Nights
18. The Kinks – Sunny Afternoon

60:49

94: What Will You Do?

No really, what will you do? I wonder what I would do…

1. I’ll Be Here In The Morning — Townes Van Zandt
2. I’ll Be There — The Del McCoury Band
3. I’ll Be With You — Black Lips
4. I’ll Be You — The Replacements
5. I’ll Be Doggone — Marvin Gaye
6. I’ll Come Running — Brian Eno
7. I’ll Stick Around — Foo Fighters
8. I Will Follow — U2
9. I’ll Do A Little Bit More — The Olympics
10. I’ll Make It Clear — Teenage Fanclub
11. I’ll Remember April — Miles Davis
12. I’ll Still Be True — Sharon Jones & The Dap Kings
13. I’ll Believe In Anything — Wolf Parade
14. I’ll Do Anything — Doris Troy
15. I Will Kill Again — Jarvis Cocker
16. I’ll Never Be The Same — Billie Holiday
17. I’ll Do It Anyway — The Lemonheads

59:58

69: SUNDAY MORNING

This is a variation on something I was messing around with a couple of years ago. It all began – wait for it – on a Sunday morning. The TV was on with the sound down, I was my normal groggy morning self, and the missus was engrossed in school work with a deadline fast approaching. “Put some music on,” I was instructed. But what to play ? I wasn’t really in a jazzy frame of mind, and clearly Anal Cunt were out of the question. And then it hit me. Quicker than you can say ‘anal moronic idiot’, a self imposed challenge was issued. My mission would be to provide an ‘easy listening soundtrack’. Easy listening – that most odious and vile of genres. Sounds stripped of any cultural connection, with all jagged edges smoothed down. A musical land where Manilow is king, the here and now is neither here nor there, and any potential zeitgeist is buried beneath a mountain of denial and refusal. A bit like Richmond really, only with a big nose. “Challenge accepted,” I pompously muttered to myself, and set about my task as though the very future of music itself depended upon my success.

69: SUNDAY MORNING

1. The Velvet Underground and Nico – Sunday Morning
2. Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds – Deanna/Happy Day
3. Dennis Brown – Money In My Pocket
4. Nina Simone – My Baby Just Cares for Me
5. Gil Scott-Heron – Save the Children
6. The Specials – Do Nothing
7. Billie Holiday – Do Nothin’ Till You Hear From Me
8. Nick Drake – Hazey Jane 1
9. Neil Diamond – Do It
10. Buffalo Springfield – Flying on the Ground is Wrong
11. Mary Wells – You Beat Me to the Punch
12. Dionne Warwick – Do You Know the Way to San Jose
13. TLC – No Scrubs
14. Nouvelle Vague – Teenage Kicks
15. David Bowie – Kooks
16. Scritti Politti – The Word Girl
17. John Holt – It’s a Jam in the Streets
18. Lee Dorsey and Betty Harris – Love Lots of Lovin

60:43

61: A PERFECTLY GOOD REASON

There’s a perfectly good reason why the following selections belong together on this playlist. This reason will be revealed in a couple of days. In the meantime, should anyone care to hazard a guess, please feel free.

61: A PERFECTLY GOOD REASON

1. Prince Buster – Whine ‘n’ Grine
2. Daft Punk – One More Time
3. Gene Vincent and His Blue Caps – Who Slapped John
4. Bob Dylan – I Want You
5. White Stripes – Icky Thump
6. Elvis Presley – (Marie’s the Name) His Latest Flame
7. Run DMC – Rock Box
8. Aretha Franklin – Night Time is the Right Time
9. Jackie Wilson – Reet Petite
10. Prince – Condition of the Heart
11. Morrissey – Something is Squeezing My Skull
12. David Bowie – Teenage Wildlife
13. The Chi-Lites – Stoned Out of My Mind
14. John Coltrane and Johnny Hartman – Lush Life
15. Billie Holiday – Stormy Weather

60:54