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Music Stunt 2009

Stunt 2009: Week 3 – Memphis

*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.*

1. **John Henry** Furry Lewis – historically significant it may be, but the song bores me. It’s one of those blues songs that chunders round in a circle for six minutes.

2. **When The Levee Breaks** Memphis Minnie – see above. I can appreciate that this song may have been great in 1929, but I just don’t find it very interesting to listen to.

3. **No More Doggin’** Rosco Gordon – okay, it’s just another blues song, but there’s something about this song that I find a bit more bearable. The pace, the vocal melody, the syncopated piano – it’s got a bit more going for it.

4. **Mystery Train** Junior Parker – yawn blues.

5. **Rocket 88** Jackie Brenston and his Delta Cats – yet another blues song, indistinguishable from the rest. Apparently this song is notable for containing one of the first recorded instances of a distorted guitar, and is considered by some to be the first true rock’n’roll song. I’ve been Wikipeding, can you tell? It has to be said, I have an anti-soft spot for songs about cars. I’ve never understood why people feel this need to glorify driving. “Hey look, I’ve got a car.” Wow, aren’t you a big boy? What’s more, they are always inevitably full of a very dull shopping list of things that you do with your car, and then padded out with some nonsense in order to make the whole thing rhyme. Let’s see if I can write one right now. Ahem. “Hey look, here’s my Astra, it’s got seats in the back // I drive it to the movies, I drive it to the track // I put my bass guitar in the boot or the footwell // Gee my Vauxhall Astra is so incredibly swell //// They see me driving past, they say who’s that sexy guy? // I like his Vauxhall Astra, indeed it is so fly // I stop at the garage, to put some petrol in // I like driving my Vauxhall Astra, it might be my favourite thing.” I think I’ve made my point.

6. **Green Onions** Booker T and the MGs – needs no introduction. It’s a memorable song, but I don’t think I have ever thought to myself “ooh, I’d really like to listen to Green Onions right now.”

7. **Wooly Bully** Sam the Sham and the Pharoahs – dumb song.

8. **Suspicious Minds** Elvis Presley – I think that the first time I heard this song was in the 1983 film Breathless so I think it will always remind me of that film, specifically one particular scene. Ahem. The song also reminds me of days of adolescence, when this used to be my karaoke song. Ah, memories.

9. **I Can’t Get Next To You** Al Green – I’ve quite enjoyed having this song on the playlist, as it’s pretty groovy, but it’s a temporary kind of pleasure. I don’t think it’s a song that has an awful lot to offer me.

10. **It’s Hard Out Here For a Pimp** Three 6 Mafia – ah yes, those poor pimps. I don’t understand why society views them so dimly. They have my every sympathy. We should throw a charity concert or something, so we can raise awareness of their plight. We can call it Pimp Aid.

So, in conclusion: I’m starting to wonder if this blog stunt was a good idea. Actually, I’m coming to the conclusion that a healthy musical diet consists of taking each genre in moderation, and grumpy old folk who say “all the music that the kids these days are making sounds the same” are forgetting that the same has been true since they were kids too.

The next week’s playlist

Random number: 286
Two playlists, random selection is the first one – Elvis Presley. The book says:

> Rock’s one essential star, without whom so much else, such as The Beatles, Bob Dylan, and Cliff Richard, might never have come to pass. Uh huh huh.

Well well, there’s a little segue for you. Suspicious Minds isn’t on the playlist, but Elvis’ version of Mystery Train is. Let’s see how they weigh up.

Categories
Music Stunt 2009

Stunt 2009: Week 2 – The Replacements

*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.*

1. **Left Of The Dial** from Tim (1985) – a fairly decent rock song with a slightly Springsteen feel about it, but the lyrics are largely incomprehensible. It sounds like it has been recorded by a bunch of talentless teenagers in a garage.

2. **We’re Coming Out** from Let It Be (1984) – I understand the whole ethos behind punk music, but I still can’t get my head around the fact that some people enjoy listening to it.

3. **Johnny’s Gonna Die** from Sorry Ma, Forgot To Take Out The Trash (1981) – this is taken from their first album, which is supposedly when they were at their most punk. However, this is surprisingly melodic. And it’s three and a half minutes long, which is way too long to be considered punk.

4. **Go** from Stink! (1982) – very bland rock song. Sounds like it was written in about 5 minutes.

5. **Color Me Impressed** from Hootenanny (1983) – this one has got a few more ideas in it, but I wouldn’t say that I’m in any way impressed.

6. **Little Mascara** from Tim (1985) – I suppose I quite like the song, but I just don’t dig the way that they play. This was their fifth album – by now they should have acquired some basic talent on their instruments, surely?

7. **Unsatisfied** from Let It Be (1984) – the chorus is incredibly catchy but annoyingly repetitive, and the verses are completely nothing. That might be enough for many people, but I’m afraid that it’s not doing much for me.

8. **Within Your Reach** from Hootenanny (1983) – this song nails it. The synth drums are a little cheesy, but bearable. It’s hard to describe – it’s low-key electronic music, quite a spacey sound, phaser effect on the guitar, maybe you get the picture.

9. **Sixteen Blue** from Let It Be (1984) – nice pop song, with pretty chord changes and jangly guitar arpeggios. The whole thing bears a striking resemblance to Deacon Blue.

10. **Can’t Hardly Wait** from Pleased To Meet Me (1987) – another decent pop song. But with horns. I’m not talking figuratively – there’s actually a brass section on it.

So, in conclusion: they are a band that have had an awful lot of sounds. It improved a bit towards the end, but I’m not overflowing with enthusiasm. I’ve listed the years that the albums were produced to demonstrate how they were running in all these different genres concurrently. Maybe I would have enjoyed this playlist more, were I not generally listening to it whilst simultaneously reading The Shadow Of The Wind, which was damn good by comparison.

The next week’s playlist

Random number: 232
There were two playlists on this page, and the randomly chosen winner is – Memphis.

> Named after ancient Egypt’s city of kings, Memphis, Tennessee, turned out to be a 20th century city of musical royalty. Until Dr Martin Luther King’s assassination in Memphis in 1968 musical magic flowed from the Delta’s capital. The city crashed during the 1970s but today musical tourism and gangsta rap are revitalising the Memphis scene.

The other playlist on the page was Meatloaf, so I think we dodged a bullet there.

Categories
Music Stunt 2009

Stunt 2009: Week 1 – Grateful Dead

*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.*

1. **Dark Star** from Live Dead Some crushingly long prog rock twattery that’s 95% guitar solo. This does absolutely nothing for me at all. I like my guitar solos to be short and modest.

2. **Turn On Your Love Light** from Live Dead – Another long song, but this one’s quite bluesy. Admittedly my foot was tapping for a while, but I got bored after a while. Better than the previous song, but still I don’t fancy listening to it again.

3. **Uncle John’s Band** from Workingman’s Dead – A kind of country song, probably better than most in the genre, but not my kind of thing. Nice vocal harmonies though.

4. **Truckin’** from American Beauty – This is based around a standard blues progression, and reminds me of why I’m not a huge fan of blues – musically speaking, it seems to be a dead-end genre. The lyrics would probably be a big draw if you were a fan of the band, but I’m not.

5. **Ripple** from American Beauty – Quite a pretty song, but I can’t help but be reminded of “I closed my eyes, drew back the curtains…” when I hear the melody. It seems cruel to hold this against them, but I can’t help the way that I feel.

6. **Sugar Magnolia** from American Beauty – I fail to see the point of this song at all. It’s not as bad as the 15 minute guitar soloes, at least, but I’m still left with the feeling that if these 10 songs are supposed to be among the best that the Grateful Dead ever wrote, then they’ve got a lot to answer for. The lyrics have a certain attraction, but they seem poorly structured.

7. **Playing In The Band** from Grateful Dead – The intro of this song is quite promising, but from about 20 seconds on it’s just dull and repetitive with only occasional departures from a D chord. The playlists book suggests that like “Truckin'”, the appeal of this song lies solely in the fact that the lyrics will be meaningful to fans of the Grateful Dead. So why the fuck has it been included in a playlist which is apparently targeted at people who haven’t listened to the band before?

8. **Jack Straw** from Europe 1972 – You may think that I’ve got some kind of negative prejudice against the Grateful Dead which is colouring my reviews. Not so. This song is great. Everything is in place. I like the guitar work and the bassline, the drums aren’t too overwhelming, there are plenty of interesting chords and timings. It reminds me of Cream.

9. **Unbroken Chain** from From The Mars Hotel – This is quite a nice song. It’s got a lot of depth, but there are times when it seems so complex that it loses cohesion, and there’s a really annoying high-pitched descending tone which is clearly intentional, but makes the listening experience into quite an unpleasant one. The guitar solo is too long and wanky with hyperactive drums underneath it.

10. **Touch Of Grey** from In The Dark – This is a fairly good song, but it’s a bit of an MOR air-punching stadium-rocking anthem. Not as unpleasant to listen to as some of the other songs in this list, but I still doubt that I will listen to it again voluntarily.

So, in conclusion: a big fat “not for me, thanks”.

The next week’s playlist

Random number: 315
Only one playlist on this page – The Replacements. The book says:

> Loudier, catchier and drunker than most, the ‘Mats were in some ways the most popular band that never was – always on the verge of a breakthrough or falling apart.

Categories
Music Stunt 2009

Blog Stunt

Back in late 2007 (and early 2008) Karen and I did a blog stunt where we would both write posts on the same subject, and publish them simultaneously.

Just now, Karen and I were talking about how back in 2005 we listened to a lot of music, which was partly because we went to Reading that year. She mentioned how it would be nice to have a similar motivating force this year.

“Maybe this is the answer.” I said, holding aloft the copy of The Rough Guide book of Playlists that her dad bought me for Christmas.

And that gave me an idea for the Rise/Goo Blog Stunt 2009. Once a week we will randomly select a playlist from the book in question, spend a week listening to the specified 10 songs, and then write a few hundred words about it.

The book has 417 pages, so we will use a random number generator to select the page. If there is more than one playlist starting on that page then we will use a coin toss to select it.

This week’s playlist

Random number: 152
Playlists: Goth (Head), Grateful Dead (Tails)
Coin: Tails

Grateful Dead it is. The book says:

> From spaced-out acid rock to mellow Americana, Grateful Dead covered the whole musical waterfront until the untimely death of their leader Jerry Garcia in 1995.