Cocktails and Records

Oingo Boingo
Stay

If there is one job I wouldn’t mind having (assuming I had any musical talent whatsoever in the first place) it’s Danny Elfman’s post as resident composer for American film director Tim Burton. This is probably because from Beetlejuice and Batman to Edward Scissorhands and The Nightmare Before Christmas, he always sounds like he is having fun. There is something just lushly gleeful about Danny Elfman’s soundtracks which I love.

But before he ventured into the world of film soundtracks and Simpsons themetunes, Danny Elfman was the chief songwriter and singer in Oingo Boingo for a good 10 years. The band may have featured in quite a few rubbish 80s movies (try Weird Science and Fast Times at Ridgemont High) and released a number of flop albums, but they were also responsible for this often forgotten 80s pop gem.

‘Stay’, Oingo Boingo, 1985

Update: Sorry folks, just realised that there’s a bit of a jump 29/30 secs into this. Will attempt to fix on the weekend. In the meantime, just appreciate that genuine vinyl sound…

Martin Denny
The Girlfriend of the Whirling Dervish

I can only wish that I owned a lovely 12″ vinyl copy of Exotic Percussion. Sadly I don’t, but that’s not going to stop its top tune ‘The Girlfriend of the Whirling Dervish’ from being song of the week.

While Martin Denny’s earlier work dabbled in Hawaiian sounds, Exotic Percussion was inspired by the sounds of the Far East. As Joseph Lanza says in one of my favourite music books, Elevator Music, Denny was ‘attempting to meld the charm of Buddhist temple ceremonial rites with the clatter of cocktail trays’.

I think that there are also some seriously swinging jazz influences happening here, but whatever, it works - whenever I hear this tune, or indeed anything by Martin Denny, I find myself reaching for the cocktail shaker. What time is it now…?

‘The Girlfriend of the Whirling Dervish’, Martin Denny, from Exotic Percussion, 1961

A very occasional series…

Gil Trythall
Ode to Billy Joe

What better way to pass a rainy Sunday afternoon then to kick back with some country music - moog style.

As the liner notes to this classic LP, Nashville Gold: Switched on Moog, optimistically explain:

Country music is an integral part of America’s heritage.

The moog is a unique part of America’s musical future.

The combination of country music and the Moog brings it all together with a “Now” sound that will hold up for a long time to come.

Gil Trythall, a composer in his own right, is a faculty member at the Peabody School of Music. But he’s never allowed the groves of academe to obscure Nashville’s Music Row. He’s got the feel for the “Nashville Sound” and he puts it into the Moog.

So he does. Here’s Gil’s rendition of Bobbie Gentry classic ‘Ode to Billy Joe’ for your enjoyment.

‘Ode to Billy Joe’, Gil Trythall, from Nashville Gold: Switched on Moog, Summit Records, 1973

Amadou & Mariam
Coulibaly

I’m going to see Amadou & Mariam this week as part of the ripper Africa Now! line-up at the Barbican, so to celebrate, here is one of my favourite tracks from their album Dimanche à Bamako.

Amadou & Mariam are a good example of why the marketing tag ‘world music’ so often doesn’t work. They (like, well, loads of musicians) get dumped in the world music section simply because they are not from an English speaking country and don’t sound like landfill indie or my new favourite irritant, Daniel Powter.* And because world music has such an image problem (Paul Simon’s Graceland?, weird obscurist Romanian folk music? middle class worthiness?) and no one knows what the term actually means, they struggle to escape from the label.

I say all this because despite being on the festival circuit, selling tons of records and appearing on Later… this week, very few people still seem to know who Amadou & Mariam are.

But let me tell you, they are damn good and they absolutely kick ass live.

‘Coulibaly’, Amadou & Mariam from Dimanche à Bamako, 2005

* Of course after writing a post titled ‘Who the hell is Daniel Powter?’, all I hear now is that damn song.

The Byrds
Triad

I have a bit of a love-hate relationship with this song. I love the tune and its quaint capturing of 60s ‘free-love’ sleeziness, but I hate what it says about singer David Crosby. If there is a song which says ’slime bucket’ (or wistful thinking chancer) anymore than this does, then I’ve yet to find it.

Maybe the rest of the band agreed. ‘Triad’ was left off The Notorious Byrd Brothers LP and Crosby fired soon after. Still, The Notorious Byrd Brothers, with or without ‘Triad’ is one of the best albums ever and Jefferson Airplane rescued the song with a more sassy version on Crown of Creation a year later.

‘Triad’, The Byrds, outake from The Notorious Byrd Brothers, Columbia, 1967. Reissued 1997.

Letta Mbulu
Mahlalela

I first heard this excellently funky track about two years ago through one of those free CDs* that come with Songlines magazine. I can’t find the issue it came with and I am really struggling to find out more about Letta Mbulu. All I know is that she comes from Soweto in South Africa, this tune might well be produced by Hugh Masekela, her back catalogue is ‘currently unavailable’ and she knows a groove when she hears it.

Oh, and she Wikipedia tells me she is responsible for the Swahili chant in Michael Jackson’s single ‘Liberian Girl’.

‘Mahlalela’, Letta Mbulu, 1970

*yes, I’ve clocked the irony of the free CD after my last post…

A few months back I deserted my old gym on the grounds that it played some of the worst music of all time - on repeat and at a quite frankly obscene volume.

My new gym is the exact opposite. It plays incredibly good music (and at a reasonable volume). For example, over the past few months I have regularly heard tracks like:

1. ‘Nothing but a Heartache’ - The Flirtations
2. ‘I Believe in Miracles’ - The Jackson Sisters
3. ‘Money’ - Buddy Guy
4. ‘As’ - Stevie Wonder
5. ‘Push it’ - Salt ‘n Pepa
6. ‘Black Gold of the Sun’ - Rotary Connection
7. ‘It Takes Two’ - Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell

However, there is just no pleasing some people and the exemplary music taste of my new gym is beginning to disturb me (although not as much as the 10cc dance remixes and Pink albums favoured by the last one, don’t get me wrong). But this music is too good for the gym. By becoming the soundtrack to my showering and hair drying, it’s like the songs are being devalued and slipping away from me.

For the same reason, I am more than slightly perturbed by the fact that The Times is now giving away several of my very favourite albums of all time for free. For FREE!!!!  I don’t mind more people discovering the brilliance of Love’s Forever Changes through a national broadsheet rather than by some ‘cooler’ means, but there is something soulless about it being given out gratis to all and sundry with absolutely no emotional effort or expense from the listener.

I know I’m a music snob, but I don’t want soul classics becoming background music to sweaty bodies and stinky feet in the gym changing rooms, and the idea of someone hearing Joy Division thanks to a free CD give-away by The Times irks me. There is just no romance or passion to it - and that’s what music’s all about, isn’t it?

The Go-Betweens
Bachelor Kisses
Man O’Sand to Girl O’Sea

I went to see ex-Go-Between Robert Forster play last Friday. Although I’ve seen him solo before and the gig was very good, something wasn’t quite right. Grant McLennan, the other half of the Go-Betweens crack songwriting team, went off to tune heaven two years ago now and his melodic balance to Robert’s angularity was just… missed.

So to commemorate that empty space on the stage, here are two classic tunes from the bands 1984 album Spring Hill Fair. Could have picked any of them though really.

‘Bachelor Kisses’, The Go-Betweens (Grant McLennan)

‘Man O’Sand to Girl O’Sea’, The Go-Betweens (Robert Forster)

Ace
How Long

Staying with the MOR theme of late, this weeks song is by UK band Ace. I’ve only recently managed to acquire this track, largely because I have spent at least ten years labouring under the impression that it was by someone else (Little River Band if you’re interested, because Glenn Shorrock does sound a bit like Ace singer Paul Carrack if you’re not listening properly).

Anyway, How Long was Ace’s debut single from 1974 and I don’t think that they ever topped it. They were out-classed/out-MORed by Steely Dan, Boz Scaggs and the Eagles and by the late 70s the band had fallen apart - leaving Paul Carrack free to record with the likes of Squeeze, Roger Waters, Roxy Music and The Smiths before he completely lost the plot and shamelessly helped inflict Mike and the Mechanics on the world.

But lets forget that - How Long was ace. Sorry.

‘How Long’, Ace from Five-a-Side, 1974

As much as I love this country, I have to admit that Britain has let me down on occasion. One of the things I’ve found particularly disappointing is the quite frankly boring ideas that pass for pop compilation titles and covers. I know they do as it says on the tin, but Now That’s What I Call Music 1 - eternity, Top of the Pops, The Hits, Hits, Hits Scene etc. etc. just don’t cut it.

Let me show you how it’s done, Australian style, with some favourites from my personal collection.

Ripper ‘76

This was the second in a series of Ripper albums on Polystar with similarly themed covers. I think we can guess why these might have been popular…

Cocktails’ choice cuts:

1. Howzat - Sherbert
2. Right Back Where we Started From - Maxine Nightingale
3. Late Last Night - Split Enz
4. I Like It Both Ways - Supernaut
5. Convoy - C.W. McCall

Bullseye

Another Polystar favourite, this time from 1979, containing some corking tracks - none of which are even remotely related to darts.

Cocktails’ choice cuts:

1. Hot Summer Nights - Night
2. Let’s Go - The Cars
3. Get Used It - Roger Voudouris
4. Halfway Hotel - Voyager
5. Are ‘Friends’ Electric - Tubeway Army
6. He’s the Greatest Dancer - Sister Sledge
7. Sunburn - Graham Gouldman

Bacon and Eggs: The Album

Similarly, if there is any correlation between the songs below and fried breakfasts, I’ve yet to find it.

Cocktails’ choice cuts:

1. Knock on Wood - Amii Stewart
2. Chiquitita - ABBA
3. Shooting Star - Dollar
4. Lost in Love - Air Supply
5. On the Inside - Lynne Hamilton

Thru the Roof ‘83

This was one of the first records I ever bought with my own money. It was pink, had a top song about skipping and a strangely feminine sounding bloke on it called Mike Oldfield singing a song about a shadow - perfect for an 8 year old.

Cocktails’ choice cuts:

1. Moonlight Shadow - Mike Oldfield
2. Maxine - Sharon O’Neill
3. Double Dutch - Malcolm McLaren
4. Wanna Be Startin’ Somethin’- Michael Jackson

1984 Shakin’

This mid-80s crayon cover art belies a great album of Australian pop gems (and Cliff Richard).

Cocktails’ choice cuts:

1. Pseudo Echo - Listening
2. Daryl Hall & John Oates - Say It Isn’t So
3. Kids in the Kitchen - Change in Mood
4. Pat Benatar - Love is a Battlefield
5. QED  - Everywhere I go
6. Hoodoo Gurus - My Girl

With thanks to the K-Tel blog for the images