Author: pete

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Music Stunt 2009

Stunt 2009: Week 11 – Chic Productions

*This is a companion piece to a similarly-themed article on Karen’s site which, all things being equal, should be published at roughly the same time.*

Two weeks ago, I said “God, I love disco.” God was evidently listening, and suspected that I was full of bullshit, which is why he sent this playlist to test me. Turns out God knows me better than I know myself. Apparently I don’t love disco.

Incomplete Spotify playlist.

After the first or second run through this playlist, I was aware that I wasn’t enjoying it as much as the week 9 playlist. Nothing that I could put my finger on, I just wasn’t getting the same buzz from it. In the interests of giving it a fair crack of the whip, I listened to the playlist again. But the more I listened to it, the worse it got.

There are lots of incredibly funky basslines on this playlist, but that’s not enough to justify listening for half an hour. I’ve always been a little critical of the “Let’s See How Long We Can Stretch This Out For” school of songwriting, and that seems to be what’s going on here. I can look down the playlist and say “ooh, *Good Times* is a good song, as is *Lost In Music* and *I’m Coming Out* by Diana Ross and *Why* by Carly Simon” but when it comes to actually listening to the song all the way through, I find myself reaching for the skip button after a minute, because I know that there’s just going to be more of the same for another four minutes.

This isn’t the first time that I have felt like God’s chewtoy.

The next week’s playlist

Random number: 139
Two playlists on this page, a coin toss selected – Dodgy French. The book says:

> Somehow, putting a few French *mots* in an otherwise *anglais* song pretty much guarantees *sérieux* kitsch. Blondie managed to get away with it; way down at the other end of the scale, there’s Bill Wyman.

\#2 in the playlist is *Le Freak* by Chic, but we’ll ignore that one.

Spotify playlist, once again woefully incomplete, don’t know why I bother

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Alpaca

alpaca

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Music Stunt 2009

Stunt 2009: Week 10 – Natalie Merchant & 10,000 Maniacs

*This is a companion piece to a similarly-themed article on Karen’s site which, all things being equal, should be published at roughly the same time.*

We’ve listened to this playlist probably more than any of the others so far, as we went to Worcestershire at the weekend. I think this might be the first time I’ve left Berkshire in 2009. It gave us ample opportunity to listen to it. The Spotify playlist is so incomplete as to be mostly useless, but hey.

1. **Hey Jack Kerouac** from In My Tribe – off the bat, I’m aware that Natalie Merchant has one of those vocal styles which means that you’ll struggle to figure out the lyrics just by listening. There’s potentially lots of fun to be had here. Fairly pleasant, inoffensive song.

2. **Don’t Talk** from In My Tribe – more of the same, very jangly 80s guitars. It’s hard to categorise the genre of 10,000 Merchants, but I suppose my initial reaction was “that sounds a bit like Blondie”.

3. **Like The Weather** from In My Tribe – I’ve come to the conclusion that I really like this song. The guitar hook, the vocal melody, the rhythm, the handclaps, the bassline. There’s lots of cute details in the drum part too. Utterly dishy.

4. **Eat For Two** from Blind Man’s Zoo – decent song, but those jangly guitars in the chorus do start to grate after a while. There’s nothing particularly remarkable to single it out, except perhaps the bass run that leads into the chorus. Quite listenable though.

5. **These Are Days** from Our Time In Eden – this one sounds like the theme tune to an American TV show. I can’t listen without imagining a series of one-second clips of some impossibly-good-looking teenagers or twentysomethings with the actor’s name superimposed.

6. **Trouble Me** from MTV Unplugged – a fairly good song, but fairly uninteresting. Musically speaking, it doesn’t feel like much effort went into this. I guess Natalie wrote some lyrics and a chord sequence, and then the rest of the band just phoned it in.

7. **Because The Night** from MTV Unplugged – not terribly different from Patti Smith’s original, but definitely better. Perhaps a bit quicker, far superior vocal performance, much more sensitive drumming.

8. **Carnival** from Tigerlily – very strongly reminiscent of Texas (you know, the band fronted by Sharleen Spiteri). I think the main reason why I have this association is because the backing vocals mirror the main vocal melody, but an octave higher. That’s a very Texasy thing, in my head. This song has made quite an impression on me – it’s memorable, albeit at 6 minutes long, it’s not very lean.

9. **This House Is On Fire** from Motherland – Karen took the words right out of my mouth when she said “sounds like Kosheen!” Well, it sounds like one of Kosheen’s slow songs. The similarity is mainly in the vocal performance. Speaking of vocal performances, she sees to be enunciating a bit more clearly in her solo stuff. And the songs seem to be a bit more crafted than the thrown-togetheredness that was apparent in the 10,000 Maniacs material.

10. **Which Side Are You On?** from The House Carpenter’s Daughter – for some people, this kind of slow, miserable folk music is their kind of thing. Not me.

So, in conclusion: I know that Karen’s really enjoyed this playlist, but it’s a bit more her kind of thing than mine. For me, this is a 5/10. No strong feelings one way or the other, though *Like The Weather* definitely has a chance of making it onto my end of year highlights playlist (assuming that such a thing will come to pass).

The next week’s playlist

Random number: 68
Two playlists on this page. The Bernard Device chose the first, which is Chic Productions. The book says:

> In the late 1970s and early 80s the sond of the Chic production team (guitarist Nile Rodgers and bassist Bernard Edwards) was the sleekest and most stylish in popular music. Some might even say that it was never surpassed.

Yay! More disco!

Incomplete Spotify playlist

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Daffodils and snowdrops

daffodil

daffodils

snowdrop

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Egypt Mill

Water wheel

Weir

Taken at Egypt Mill this weekend.

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Music Stunt 2009

Stunt 2009: Week 9 – Disco

*This is a companion piece to a similarly-themed article on Karen’s site which, all things being equal, should be published at roughly the same time.*

One of the problems with disco music is that there tend to be about 8,000 different versions and remixes of each song, so it’s hard to get hold of the definitive version. Still, here’s an incomplete Spotify playlist which hopefully comes close.

1. **Law Of The Land** The Temptations – the obligatory “historical significance” entry in the playlist, this one starts quite promisingly but goes downhill when you realise it’s just going to squat on a C chord for ages, with no direction or dynamic. There’s a cute little breakdown at about the 3 minute mark but it only lasts for 20 seconds.

2. **Ten Percent** Double Exposure – this one was relatively hard to get hold of, and isn’t on Spotify. It is on YouTube though. The version that I’ve been listening to all week is a thrilling 9:45, which has impacted my view of it somewhat. The version on YouTube is just over 4 minutes long, and much more bearable. Atrocious sound quality though. Anyway, to the song – all of the disco cliches are in evidence here – the brass stabs, the slow strings with the fast run in the chorus, a very funky bassline. Adds up to a very fine disco song.

3. **Don’t Leave Me This Way** Thelma Houston – words cannot describe how much I love this song. Utterly fabulous bassline, and the build up to the first chorus is so perfect that it makes me cry. If your only experience of this is the Communards’ version then you really are missing out.

4. **You Make Me Feel (Mighty Real)** Sylvester – again, the original is far superior to the Jimmy Somerville version that you are more likely to be familiar with, but the difference is not so pronounced as with the previous song. That said, it feels a bit busy – I think there are some bongos in there, along with a palm-muted electric guitar (or something that sounds a lot like it) that just don’t let up, and it leaves the song without enough room to breathe. It’s also a bit long – a 3-minute version of this track would be far more listenable than this 6-minute version, but perhaps a bit less disco-friendly.

5. **Weekend** Phreek – the version that I’ve been listening to all week is shorter than the one on the Spotify playlist, provided. Which is the definitive version? I do not know. Anyway, this song is another hit, in my opinion. It takes the best part of a minute to get going, and you have the feeling that there’s something great about to happen. And indeed, there is. There’s a great melody here, with a most appropriate slap bass line.

6. **I Feel Love** Donna Summer – I think you probably already know this one. Very memorable, it’s a song that you think has been rendered lame and cheesy through overexposure, until you actually listen to it and realise the depth in the arrangement.

7. **I Will Survive** Gloria Gaynor – what do you mean, you’ve never heard the Shiny Tight Stuff version?

8. **Disco Circus** Martin Circus – this seems like a fairly dull house track. Not sure what it’s doing in a disco playlist. Maybe I’ve accidentally picked up a remix or something, but it’s all I could find with this title.

9. **Vertigo/Relight My Fire** Dan Hartman – okay, so I will try to put this as unconfusingly as possible. The song on Spotify is eleven minutes long ((it is referred to on Wikipedia as the Full Length Version)). The first half is *Vertigo* which is a sort of instrumental thing that’s rather groovy, and builds up the suspense nicely, and the second half is *Relight My Fire* but it’s a version that doesn’t seem to have verses. It’s too long, and fairly dull. However, the song that I’ve been listening to all week is less than four minutes ((I think this is the one referred to on Wikipedia as the Radio Version)), and is just *Relight My Fire* but with verses. So much more akin to the version that Take That did. Having explained all of this, I’m bored of the subject and can’t be arsed to bother reviewing it. Which is a shame, because if I *could* be arsed to review it, I’d actually have some positive things to say about it. TOO MANY REMIXES! TO THE BACK TEETH I AM SICK!

10. **Go Bang #5** Dinosaur L – another rather boring dance song, this one has delusions of artiness. It just comes off as pretentious and clumsy. Again, it doesn’t seem to belong on this playlist.

God, I love disco.

The next week’s playlist

Random number: 233
Only one playlist on this page – Natalie Merchant & 10,000 Maniacs. And yes, that’s on the facing page to Memphis – I’m starting to wonder about whether this random number generator is really random. The book says:

> The Maniacs were a quintessential college-rock band, yoking good-time party-boy musicians to a solemn singer-songwriter… who finally took off for a solo career.

I could only find half of the songs on Spotify, but here’s the playlist anyway.

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Music Stunt 2009

Stunt 2009: Week 8 – The Pogues

*This is a companion piece to a similarly-themed article on Karen’s site which, all things being equal, should be published at roughly the same time.*

Karen and I have both, to all intents and purposes, taken a week off from the stunt this week, as after listening to this playlist once through, we both agreed that we didn’t need to listen to it again.

It has, however, got me thinking about the state of music. Again. When the Music Industry has completed its long, protracted suicide, and the Noise Levels At Work Regulations 2016 prohibit public music performances using amplified musical instruments or other amplified sound sources, there won’t be pop music any more. Pop music’s existence was made possible by the invention of the audio amplifier in 1906. Previously, there was (loosely speaking) two broad genres of music: classical music and folk music. Classical music was something you consumed. Folk music was something that you got involved in. There was a void in the middle, which was filled by pop music, which could be seen as a sociable form of classical music, or a form of folk music with more complexity in its structures. Classical music doesn’t need amplifiers because people sit in silence and listen to it. Folk music doesn’t need amplifiers because everyone in the pub is singing along, by design. But without amplifiers, pop music (and dance music) can’t be sustained in a live environment.

So in 10 years time (and this is entirely my hypothesis) you will have the following three options, if you want to listen to some music:

1. After clicking on the necessary EULA and paying the suitable fee, you will be granted a temporary license to listen to your music collection for the evening. Your locally-cached copies of the files will self-delete at midnight. If you want to listen with friends, you will have to pay extra.
2. Go to a concert. Remember that there’s no amplifiers, though, so you won’t be permitted to speak with your friends. If you speak during the performance, your Concert-Goers License will be suspended for three months.
3. Go to the pub, get drunk, sing along to folk music.

Options 2 and 3 are basically the same choices that you had before the 20th Century.

I suppose my point is that when (if! if!) all this comes to pass, then we will all be singing along to The Pogues, and probably enjoying it.

Here’s that spotify playlist again, if you really want it.

The next week’s playlist

Random number: 95
Only one playlist on this page – Peter Shapiro’s **Disco**. The book says:

> Peter Shapiro is author of the acclaimed *Turn The Beat Around: The Secret History Of Disco* (Faber, 2005). The book is, in his words, a trawl through the roots, development and excesses of “the music that taste forgot”. It’s an amazing story. Shapiro asserts that “although disco may be the most maligned genre in human history, these are ten records no one should be ashamed of owning.”

Incomplete Spotify playlist

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Maisy Top Photos

Yawn

Maisy yawning

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Daily Music

Daily links for Tuesday 24th February 2009

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Gardening Photos

Borders

borders

Look! Green things! Coming up out of the ground!