Mix No 2 August 2012

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

• 1.   I, Ludicrous - Preposterous Tales
• 2.   Gladys Knight & The Pips - Didn't You Know (You'd Have To Cry Sometime)
• 3.   Jim Boss & The Sundowners - Your Love Is Stronger Than Dirt
• 4.   Robert Smith-Hald - Thou Mayest 
• 5.   Bob Dylan - Dixie
• 6.   4h Royalty - Fall Of The Face Of The Earth With Me
• 7.   Muddy Waters - Unk In Funk
• 8.   JKutchma - Used To Believe
• 9.   Mondo Davis - Dear London
• 10.  The Dimestore Junkies - The Machine
• 11.  Hacienda - Don't You Ever
• 12.  Dolly Parton and Porter Wagoner - Jeannie's Afraid Of The Dark
• 13.  Floyd Dakin Combo - Look What You Gone And Done
• 14.  Hurray For The Riff Raff - Ode to John And Yoko
• 15.  Lisa Cormier & The Sundown Playboys - Saturday Night Special
• 16.  Roger Alan Wade - Cars And Guns
• 17.  T.Rex - Woodland Rock

The Man Who Mix No 2 - August 2012

And as the poor worked for a life at every waking hour

Last week I had just departed the train station in a large student enclave outside a major Northern city when I saw stencilled on a wall the following  logo ‘Slave To The Wage’, this made me chuckle slightly as it hit home to me immediately that this message completely put a name to my current feelings at work. I have been a Wage Slave now for about 35 years without a major break. Not for me a life changing gap year, no staying at home in my late teens with my parents paying all the bills, no long term sick, absolutely nothing, ‘nada’, other than the six months in 1985 that I spent travelling  the USA with my best mate Paul H.

I guess almost certainly by reading these comments you can probably tell that I’ve had enough and dear readers that would be a spot on assessment of my current work life predicament. I Want Out……no more days spent listening to bullshit, staring at spreadsheets, glancing at the clock on my PC then pretending I actually care about my job, my employer, my future prospects. I’ve done my bit for Queen & Country, I’ve paid my tax, I’ve contributed to National Insurance, I’ve maintained my pension and contributed to a Union for all those years and continue to do so BUT now I want a rest and a chance to live my life the way I want and not be a Wage Slave anymore.

So I have chosen four tracks that represent a wide ranging summation of my feelings on the matter of work. We have Australian anti-capitalist/consumerism electro band Snog, next are the legendary Gourds from Austin Texas, long term purveyors of mad Alternative Country with a twist, followed by the jazz/soul ensemble The Young Holt Trio from Chicago performing live and finally from further along the States in Ohio you can find ex-Soledad Brothers member Johnny Walker’s kicking up a storm of noise with his superb new band The Cut In The Hill Gang. 

Enjoy

Snog - Corporate Slave

The Gourds - When The Money Comes Rolling In

Young Holt Trio - Aint There Something Money Cant Buy (Live Medley)

Cut in the Hill Gang - Fuck The People/Revolution

Better Call Saul

I try not to watch too much TV, and most of my favourite programmes over the last few years have hardly managed to break into the mainstream TV schedules anyway. Of course BBC4 is on freeview and there you can view great Nordic Noir and I have especially enjoyed The Bridge, The Killing and Borgen recently, all of which were high class series written for people who actually like to think about what they are watching.

Thinking about this in more detail I realised that over the years I have always gravitated towards shows from the US most of all. I remember Barney Miller, The Rockford Files and Hill Street Blues. Who could forget Jack Lord on Hawaii Five-O every Friday night in the 1970’s. Recently though things have changed and American TV series have a harder more contemporary edge.

Series such as The Sopranos, The Wire, Boardwalk Empire, Game Of Thrones and others such as Justified, The Walking Dead, Oz, Falling Skies to name some more. Although I will admit that none of these have moved me and caused such anticipation in me every time a new series was produced until AMC’s Breaking Bad appeared in 2008. Now this is a show that deserves a wider audience, it is often only found on the more obscure satellite channels and then put on with no fanfare or advanced warning which is a TV crime because  this series has just everything. Great acting, great storylines, great music and it also has the unique ability to pull you into this fictional story and you really live these characters. I won’t bore you with a long synopsis (try Wikipedia Folks !) other than to mention that it’s the story of two men Walter White played by the majestic Bryan Cranston and Jesse Pinkman played by actor Aaron Paul and their life and death struggle to produce and sell Crystal Meth on the streets of Albuquerque, New Mexico, but it is so much more than that so please go and purchase the DVD’s, you would not be disappointed. I know the final and fifth series has just begun in the States and I am ready and waiting to see these guy’s through to a conclusion. As I have said earlier the show has tremendous background music supplied and sourced by David Porter and I was lucky enough to find a ‘homemade’ compilation on the net with all the music from the first three series, so below are a few personal choices.

Enjoy

Buddy Stuart - Sun Shine On Me

Darondo - Didn't I

Son Of Dave - Shake A Bone

Teddy Bears {Feat Eve} - Rocket Scientist

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

Marks of weakness, marks of woe

Well it’s getting very close know…
So what is getting close very know you may scream ? well the bloody Olympic games in London I shall reply.
So with this eye-catching subject now grabbing your attention I thought I would pay my own little tribute to the city of my birth plus add a few views of my own surrounding it all. I love London, not the touristy parts, the expensive parts or the parts where thousands of people head into every day to sell their souls for a large salary and to support the growth of evil corporate capitalists, no I like the obscure parts, the old historical parts, the parts that make London the great city it still is hidden from the general masses as they don’t want to look for it or even try to understand it. I have no problem with the Olympics as an event but have great reservations regarding this legacy it is supposed to leave behind and also why we have to indulge and involve giant corporations sponsoring everything from the tickets, the food and building massive new shopping complexes. Most of these monolithic giants are not even British run and have already invaded so much of our modern society already as to be the most invasive presence this country has ever seen. Now we have kids (children !!) going to high school proms in stretch limousines, wearing clothing produced in Asian sweat shops stuffing their faces with processed American style food portions. We can’t even offer the general public a British beer to drink when they watch the Olympic events as the corporate brewing giant Carlsberg has seen to that and will then charge around £7.00 a pint to drink something akin to one’s own urine, no I shall take that back, I have never tasted my own urine but I have tasted theirs and I’m sure mine is better.
Now before I head off into music land once again which is my main purpose with this blog let me recommend this site as my alternative offering to all the Olympic games festivities. http://www.derelictlondon.com/

Today I have picked three tracks all with a London connection of sorts, one is about a lovely river that flows through South-West London near the old Young’s Brewery in Wandsworth, another is written by Walthamstow alumni Nick Saloman (aka Bevis Frond) and sung by an ex-busker from Salem and then finally a murder song from the great Mr Nicholas Drain Lowe born in Walton-On-Thames.
Enjoy

Danny and The Champions Of The World - Wandle Swan

Mary Lou Lord - Cold Kilburn Rain

Nick Lowe - Basing Street