Worse Things Happen At Sea

I’ve been a bit busy lately and I have also taken some deserved holidays, so I haven’t had much time to think about this blog and what music I want to present. Also I must admit I have been a bit lacking in ideas as well.
I thought about picking some of the songs that have always made a great impression on me and had them chosen when I got sidetracked by listening to a version of Ewan McColl’s ‘Manchester Rambler’ which then took me far away from my original idea completely and led me back to creating a classic British Folk musicians feature.
I had all the tracks ready and then I unfortunately lost interest again. I waited a few days, tried to catch up on my outstanding listening list, which is so long it often resembles the Tour De France peloton and so maybe in the most perfect symmetry I am now creating this post after watching the Olympics Cycling Road Race failure of the British Team and also feeling exhausted from watching last night’s Danny Boyle opening ceremony extravaganza that like a lot of things these days made me shout rude and obscene comments at my TV . The contradictions surrounding these latest Olympic Games make me rather angry and last night was no exception. I won’t bore anybody here with all my negative thoughts suffice to say I am still bereft of inspiration so I will leave you now with just one track from modern folk’s latest Mr Popular (not even sure if I’m being ironic here).

Enjoy

Frank Turner - Reasons Not To Be An Idiot

Mix No 1 July 2012

The Man Who Rode The Mule Hopes That You Like It......

• 1.   Fort Atlantic - Let Your Heart Hold Fast
• 2.   The Rainmakers - Missouri Girl
• 3.   Roosevelt Graves & Brother - Woke Up This Morning (With My Mind On Jesus)
• 4.   Gangstagrass featuring T.O.N.E.z - I'm Gonna Put You Down 
• 5.   Fraser & DeBolt - Them Dance Hall Girls
• 6.   Paul "Sir Raggedy" Flagg - Papa Momma Romper Stomper
• 7.   Joe Henry - One Day When The Weather Is Warm
• 8.   Los Locos Del Ritmo - Polvora
• 9.   Turnpike Troubadours - 7 And 7
• 10.  ZZ Top - Chevrolet
• 11.  Powder Mill - Devil In New Orleans
• 12.  Luke Haines - Gorgeous George
• 13.  Apache Relay - Mission Bells
• 14.  Lee Bell - Beatin' Out The Boogie On The Mississippi Mud
• 15.  Randy & The Radiants - My Way Of Thinking
• 16.  Bloody Ol Mule - BBQ Song
• 17.  Indigo Girls - Beauty Queen Sister
• 18.  Gene McDaniels - There Was A (Tall Oak Tree)

The Man Who Mix No.1 July 2012

I Was Carried On A Silver Platter...And Then Dumped Into The Garbage

Tribute songs are a much maligned and marginalised genre within popular music. In the 1950’s and early 1960’s they were an integral part of the charts and whenever a great musician or popular film star passed into heaven (E.G. Hank Williams, Buddy Holly, Elvis, Eddie Cochran), you would soon hear a hastily recorded single rushed out into record shops to make some quick cash and buy into the general mourning and grief of the fans.

Name any great dead artist and somewhere someone has written a song about them. I have a good number of these songs in my collection and when I decided to add my own ‘tribute’ to the tribute song I became a bit confused because I realised tribute songs especially the more modern rock version come in many different styles and interpretations and often the song will offer the title of an artist or person  and yet the song really has nothing to do with that individual at all. So I tried to find a happy medium and went for three different tracks that only loosely form a tributes triangle and yet may explain in some strange way why they make great choices and need to be heard again.

I have never ever been a fan of the music of Wham or George Michael but  I have always been aware of their status and popularity although George’s old partner Andrew Ridgley probably never thought that he would have a song recorded with his name in the title. Following on and completely out of left field I give you Vic Godard’s noisy trash tribute to Johnny Thunders the ex New York Dolls and Heartbreaker who was an rabid drug user and whose death in 1991 has led to conjecture and rumour ever since and probably added to his already semi-legendary status within the confines of American Rock & Roll history. Finally I have left you with another wonderful song written by Tom Russell a writer who could if he was so inclined turn almost any historical or major cultural event into a song that would be worth listening to. His track is the story of Robert Cletus “Bobby” Driscoll, mostly known as a child actor in Hollywood in the 1940’s who fell from grace and spent periods in jail for using narcotic’s and died virtually penniless in the East Village, New York City in 1968.

Enjoy

Black Box Recorder - Andrew Ridgely

Vic Godard & The Subway Sect - Johnny Thunders

Tom Russell - Farewell Never Never Land