Man Dire Straits brings me back. I think “Beds Are Burning” was the first song I remember playing on repeat as a young lad.
I liked their first album so much I waited eagerly for the follow up, Communique, which was slicker and had some very good songs (Lady Writer) but lacked something, I felt.
In 8th place for 4 points is Rexx with “Town Called Malice” by The Jam
I have a couple of things to declare here. When I was a teenager, friends of mine worked weekends at a t-shirt silk screen printer who sometimes used to get bands coming in to approve their designs, and apparently Paul Weller was a horrible surly bastard; also I remember him saying in 1979 he’d be voting Conservative lol.
I’m trying not to let any of that colour its ranking. This was a huge hit in the UK and a typically catchy pop song from his prime, with more than a nod to the 60s sound he’s in awe of (a mssive fan of Steve Marriott to the point of copying his hair cut, Weller once said something stupid about a particular Small Faces album cover being better than any Picasso), though it gets knocked down a bit for familiarity.
Also a small point dockage for them not being from London but Woking.
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If you just played this using tin cans and string then the whole walrus is invalid!!
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You mean there’s a guitar and trumpet I cant hear through my 'phones? Damn.
In 7th place for 5 points, zikzak and “The Sleepless” by Red Snapper
This single from 1998 is a jazzy hip hop track built around a sparse bass, and despite a rap that doesn’t grab me much it has a very nice and unusual guitar part (my favourite element of the track) and a trumpet.
I don’t know why it didn’t make me want to play it again and again, though: possibly the vocals are a little unremarkable and that means there’s just not enough to the song for me.
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6th place and 6 points goes to microbet with “Should I Stay Or Should I Go” by The Clash
A Mick Jones song and a hit here but unfortunately not one of my favourite Clash songs (probably White Man In Hammersmith Palais, Police And Thieves or one of their early singles like Complete Control).
It’s decent but I find it a bit too repetitive without redemption apart from the tempo break into rockabilly(ish). At least Simenon’s bass playing had improved from when I saw them a couple of years earlier, when Strummer insisted on swapping instruments with him.
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In 5th place for 7 points is MimosaDef with “Something For Nothing” by Dusty Springfield
Well you have to admit, she certainly had a voice. I hadn’t heard this before and it’s a decent piece of soul from 1970 elevated by a voice that would shame most female soul singers.
As far as my googling can tell me, this wasn’t released as a single or even on an official album so it’s an interesting choice. As a song it’s a little on the thin side and isn’t in the league of some of her more familiar hits, but it’s a good reminder of her vocal talents.
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Video for Americans:
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…and so ends the section of tracks that I’ll probably never listen to again. Tracks in this next section are all interesting and good if not better imo.
In 4th place for 8 points comes DodgerIrish with “Dog Days Are Over” by Florence And The Machine
A 2008 single from their first album, this begins very promisingly with a really good intro.
The song works a lot better for me when she’s being slightly shouty and echoing the track’s natural exuberance than it does during the occasional over-mannered R&B-ish segments (when a single syllable is split over several notes, aka showing off), one of my pet musical hates. KISS, but a good pop song.
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And that’s all for now - I’ll resume again with the podium tracks in a couple of hours after dinner.
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ty for your service
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I feel I should be awarded extra points since 2 of my other category submissions were also London based groups.
Ok, let’s finish the walrus off with the podium places.
In 3rd place for 9 points, cassette with “Strangers” by The Kinks
The second Kinks track in this walrus, taken from the same 1970 album as Lola, this is unusually a Dave Davies song.
“Strangers on this road we are on
We are not two we are one”
he sings, in lament of a friend who died of an overdose, clearly feeling the loss acutely.
It’s an affecting song that I’d only heard a couple of times before and had mainly forgotten. It grew on me with repeated plays (though it’s not quite from the top of the Kinks back catalogue). I really liked the outro featuring only the drums, unusual back then and a nice touch that mirrored the song’s theme.
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In 2nd place for 10 points is Pauwl with “Rip Off” by T. Rex
Pauwl has picked this song, from one of my favourite ever pop bands and the inventer of glam rock, the final track on their Electric Warrior album.
Featuring Bolan’s trademark rhyming couplets over an insistent glam beat, the last minute unexpectedly sees his yelps giving way to sax and feedback making it for me a clear second place here.
And the winner of this round for 11 points is suzzer99 with “Oh Well” (Part 1 and 2) by Fleetwood Mac
Both parts to this song don’t exist together on toobz but you can hear them here:
https://uploadstars.com/video/XG7ADYASN3W2
Blimey - Suzzer pulls an Ace from his hand.
I saw it was a Fleetwood Mac song and expected Albatross or something over-exposed from Rumours, not this masterpiece of a single from 1969, years before Buckingham and Nicks replaced Peter Green, their first singer and guitarist and a great and often unsung player.
This song (which was used as “inspiration” for the riff for Zeppelin’s Black Dog, it says here), only released in mono, is in two quite distinct parts split over the two sides of a 7" single, and Part 1 will be familiar to many here, a heavy rock/blues number with Green playing second fiddle to Danny Kirwan.
Part 2, a reflective instrumental for Spanish guitars featuring Green and other instruments, shows a clear influence of spaghetti western scores of the day, and was originally intended as the A side, which would have been something.
A great choice, half of which didn’t get much radio play so no dockage for familiarity - nice one if that was in suzzer’s thinking.
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I’ll tell you a secret though - the classic rock stations in the midwest play A and B together. No backsies!
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