Best Last Songs

The Guardian are currently running a discussion about the best songs which come at the end of an LP.

You can read the discussion here.

...and here is my list (in no order)
(and I could not keep it down to 10 - so it's 20)

1. "Soon." My Bloody Valentine. (Loveless)
2. "Day In the Life." Beatles. (Sgt Pepper.)
3. "I Am The Resurrection." Stone Roses. (Stone Roses)
4. "Eclipse. " Pink Floyd. (Dark Side Of The Moon.)
5. "You Can't Always Get What You Want." Rolling Stones. (Let It Bleed.)
6. "Big Country." Talking Heads. (More Songs About Buildings and Food)
7. "This Must Be The Place." Talking Heads. (Speak In Tongues)
8. "Jungleland." Bruce Springsteen. (Born To Run)
9. "Darkness on the Edge Of Town." Bruce Springsteen. (Darkness On the Edge of
Town.)
10. "Jet Boy." NY Dolls. (NY Dolls.)
11. "Waiting For The Great Leap Forward." Billy Bragg. (Worker's Playtime.)
12. "Train In Vain." Clash. (London Calling.)
13. "Are You Ready To Be Heartbroken." Lloyd Cole and the Commotions. (Rattlesnakes)
14. "Gouge Away." Pixies. (Doolittle)
15. "Sunrise." Divine Comedy. (Fin De Siecle.)
16. "Tonight We Fly." Divine Comedy. (Promenade.)
17. "The Happy Goth." Divine Comedy. (Absent Friends.)
18. "Build." The Housemartins. ( The People Who Grinned Themselves To Death.)
19. "Thank You World." World Party. (Goodbye Jumbo.)
20. "Untitled." The Cure. (Disintegration.)

Bruce Springsteen

..went to see him last night at the O2 and I'm still wondering what I can write about it - but I like this review

The Future Is Unwritten - Review

I saw this documentary about Joe Strummer earlier this year at a preview screening which was followed by a question and answer session with the director Julian Temple.

It is an excellent documentary which stands up as both a brilliant portrayal of Strummer's life and as a brilliant piece of film making. Using a mixture of archive footage and commentaries by Strummer's friends and contemporaries the film shows Strummer's awkwardness and his contradictions - as well as his passions and his obsessive idealism. It's about as vivid a portrayal of a musician as I have seen in a documentary and, as was clear in Temple's comments after the screening, it was a film that was made with huge affection for its subject matter.

It's brilliant.

Here's the trailer

Lazy but Brilliant Pink Floyd Cover by Roderigo Y Gabriela

I saw them do this last year- and it was fantastic-but unfortunately I did not know all the words. (Felt a bit left out)



..and here they are doing it filmed on a phone camera- and it kind of shows you the inherent risk of getting the crowd to sing the song.

Gig of the Year? John Cale

I moved to Cambridge from London two and a half years ago. The month we moved we had a daughter and it was decided that I would be the one staying at home and looking after her.

So I was in a new town where other than my family I didn't know anybody and I was pretty much stuck in most of the time with a small kid. Obviously being stuck in with a small kid has it's rewards and I liked the arrangement but I knew that I needed some way of getting out the house now and again- a kind of "my time" sort of deal.

So I went to lots of gigs. The fact I didn't know anyone in Cambridge was ok-I don't mind going on my own-and in some ways I prefer it (I'm the same with the cinema). My criteria for choosing who to see, whilst not totally profligate, was fairly broad- obviously I would go and see bands I liked- but was happy to pay and go and see people I thought I might like- who were associated with stuff I like. There are plenty of artists that fall into that category and John Cale is one of them so I went to see him at the Junction in January.


So I turned up not knowing any of his material (other than what he had done with the Velvet Underground) - and not really knowing what to expect. He opened with an intense, compelling electronic re-working of Heartbreak Hotel and I'm not sure why-but it reminded me of Tom Waits. And that was the pattern of the gig- almost every song reminded me of someone else- some songs reminded me of Leonard Cohen, others of Bob Dylan. One song (Dirty ass Rock N' Roll) I thought could have been a Patti Smith song sung by a Welsh bloke.

Of course this was entirely a reflection of me not knowing his material- and I suppose with the songs being unfamiliar I was looking for markers to put it into some sort of context. Anyway-the fact it reminded me of other stuff did not mean that I did not like the songs and the next day I got a couple of Cale's LPs , Black Acetate and the really quite brilliant Paris 1919.

And guess what?

The songs in no way reminded me of Tom Waits, Leonard Cohen or anyone else.

Here he is singing Paris 1919



So could it be my gig of the year? Well probably not- I'm going to give a GOTY rating of 5/10.
However what I like about gigs like this is that it is about listening to new stuff (at least to me) and as such it runs counter to what are the increasingly conservative instincts of a 40 year old man- like my bizarre current obsession with U2 - a band to whom I was totally indifferent in the eighties (...and which is part of a decidedly odd mid-life crisis)

Gig of the Year?- Chris Difford

Ok- the year is drawing to its close so I'm going to start to think about what was my gig of the year. (..which gives me a chance to review all the gigs I went to this year before I started this blog).

I'll start with the ex- Squeeze co-front man Chris Difford at the Jazz Cafe back in January, (I think).

This gig was a lovely bonus. A friend bought me a ticket to see Richie Havens playing the Jazz Cafe in Camden and when I turned up I found that Chris Difford was the supporting act. His set was made up of his reworking of a whole load of Squeeze's songs in a doleful country-ish style. He was supported by a steel guitar player (Melvin Duffy I think) and a backing singer (Dorie Jackson I think). At first the audience seemed a little indifferent but gradually the familiarity of the songs -albeit played in such a different way- along with a disarming brand of chat won over most of the audience who in the main had paid to see someone else.

I guess ultimately it was all a bit low key- people were still drifting in during his set- and a few people were chatting at the bar. But I never saw Squeeze and I was delighted. Afterwards I had that buzzy feeling I get after I've seen something really good- which just about got me through a rubbish train journey back to Cambridge - (the light bulb in the train's headlight blew and the driver did not have a spare) and I spent an hour, around midnight- waiting at Welwyn station staring up at the Shredded Wheat Factory.

Richie Havens was also worth seeing, though I didn't know too much about him before the gig and I suppose Chris Difford's set eclipsed his (for me anyway). Also I had to leave before the end of Haven's set to rush to get the train with its ill-fated headlamps.

The next morning I bought Chris Difford's LP- South East Side Story- which features the re-worked Squeeze songs as a download- and despite being pretty tired-I spent the next day, as you should spend most winter days, sitting in front of the fire trying to explain to your 18 month old daughter why the music you are listening to is so good- and on that particular day why Squeeze were such a really great band.

Possibility out of 10 that this will be gig of the year- a good 8/10 which is not bad for a support act.

Here he is live at the Albany.



...and this is what I loved when I was about 13



I think one of the reasons why I really liked Squeeze is because when they appeared on the Christmas Top of the Pops playing Cool for Cats my Dad got really angry. I think it must have been the line about "Give the Dog a Bone" (which certainly went above my head when I was 13). Anyway he wasn't having that on the telly on Christmas Day and with the first stirrings of adolescent rebellion I sulked.

Well that's how I remember it.