Spandau Ballet - Gold

ORIGINATION the decade that taste forgot
RECORDED IN see above
LAST LISTENED TO in a restaurant last week
RATING ★★★★★

Imagine my disgust at finding this in my head this morning. My brain is wrong. I have nothing more to add.

Duran Duran - Friends Of Mine

ORIGINATION Duran Duran LP
LAST LISTENED TO a few days ago
CHANCE OF WAKING TO IT average
RATING ★★★★★

An album track this time and one that sounds very much a song of its period, a piece of slithering '80s pop-funk with electronic leanings. As albums go, this being Duran Duran's debut it is pretty strong, making Friends Of Mine quite a well-crafted song rather than a piece of filler. The influence of tracks like this, particularly the guitar sound and Simon Le Bon's vocal inflections, can clearly be heard in the music of many of the current '80s-leaning bands.

[repetition]

Same as yesterday. No surprise.

Duran Duran - Planet Earth

ORIGINATION Duran Duran LP
LAST LISTENED TO last night
CHANCE OF WAKING TO IT absolute certainty
RATING ★★★★★

It is Easter 1984 and the two leaving-year classes are on the annual school trip to West Germany, to the Rhineland, by bus. To this day the decision to do it and who took it is lost, however the fact remains that a tape of Duran Duran, almost certainly a home-made compilation one of the girls brought along, was played on the coach stereo for almost the entire trip, repeated and repeated and repeated, until every tune was etched into our minds. Of all those endlessly-heard songs, Planet Earth is the one that stuck indelibly. It will forever conjour the freedom of the autoroute and of the autobahn, the particular alert weariness of long distance travel, mid-eighties Europe and seeing the Atomium slide by on the horizon.

Even if Planet Earth had a catalogue of faults, I would always look on it favourably and so an objective opinion would never be possible. It is one of those songs that will stay with me forever.

Caro Emerald - Back It Up

ORIGINATION Deleted Scenes From The Cutting Room Floor CD
LAST LISTENED TO yesterday
CHANCE OF WAKING TO IT pretty good
RATING ★★★★★

A few weeks ago, whilst engaging in my ongoing struggle with the snooze button, my hand paused on its way to the button. There was something playing that snapped at my half-awake brain's attention. I listened to the song, grabbed my pen and wrote the name on my hand, hit snoozed and kept on at that for a while longer. Mid afternoon, when I took my gloves off to make my lunch I found the note. After some searching, I figured out what it meant and I was excited because it was something new and fun.

Caro Emerald, the name that I found mis-spelled on my hand is a Dutch jazz singer. Her debut album spent, from which this was the first single, spent an amazing 30 weeks at number one in the Dutch charts. The song is a lovely slice of poppy jazz, with a bouncy percussive groove, some nice and fat brassy stabs and over it all Emerald's bright vocals dance. A fresh and fun meeting of old and new.

Stevie Wonder - Isn't She Lovely

ORIGINATION no idea
LAST LISTENED TO never
CHANCE OF WAKING TO IT should be nil
RATING

No, no, no. The contrast between the extreme goodness and extreme badness of Stevie Wonder's music never ceases to amaze. This is nasty, nasty over-sweetened soul that is enough to make your teeth fall out. Don't go here.

Neil - A Hole In My Shoe

ORIGINATION who gives a
LAST LISTENED TO can't say i have
CHANCE OF WAKING TO IT bugger all
RATING

No, no, no, no. No. Really. No. I have nothing to say about this. Nothing at all. Seriously.

Boney M - Brown Girl In The Ring

ORIGINATION hell
LAST LISTENED TO not even once
CHANCE OF WAKING TO IT awful
RATING

I thought i had no song this morning. It was a bit odd. But no, just as i was making my packed lunch, this crap started up and it just won't let go. I'd really like it to stop now, so i shall never mention it ever again. Does anyone have the number for a good exorcist?

The Box Tops - The Letter

ORIGINATION dunno
LAST LISTENED TO not sure
CHANCE OF WAKING TO IT variable
RATING

Today is a bit of a weird one. Last night i listened to a cover of The Letter by Mongo Santamaria, famed Latin percussionist. This morning i have the original in my head. It's not every day that happens. However, i don't think i have a copy of the original, so there really isn't much i can say about it. I seem to recall that it is ok and that the chorus is quite catchy, but that's as far as i can go. Anything else is up to you.

Gorillaz - Clint Eastwood

ORIGINATION Gorillaz
LAST LISTENED TO maybe a few seconds last night
CHANCE OF WAKING TO IT ok, i guess
RATING

I do kinda like this number, but not hugely. I fear it is the Damonish element in it that part of me finds objectionable. Which doesn't make too much sense, as i don't on the whole dislike Blur. Maybe it is just over-exposure that bugs me.

Actually now that i think about it, the reason that i don't really like this too much is that it's just not that good. Compared to other similar work, and i'm thinking in particular of the Handsome Boy Modelling School (with whom they share producer Dan Nakamura), it is second rate. I guess you can't go far wrong with a good marketing campaign.

Jamie Hewlett's graphics, on the other hand, i do have a lot of time for. Always have done.

'80s Crap

I almost couldn't believe it when i woke and found what was in my head. Not only do i dislike most of these songs, but i can't even recall hearing anything of them in a long, long, lonely, lonely, lonely, long time. It actually took me a little while to work out what was going on as well, since they were all playing at once. So, starting with the best:

Madness - House Of Fun

ORIGINATION some ancient singles compilation
LAST LISTENED TO some years back
CHANCE OF WAKING TO IT really, really small
RATING

I do have a soft spot for Madness. They were the first band i ever noticed and liked. House Of Fun was really just a typical single of theirs and it was one of whose meaning i had little comprehension for quite some time after first hearing it. I believe i used to think it was just about a joke shop.

Aha - Take On Me

ORIGINATION no idea
LAST LISTENED TO never
CHANCE OF WAKING TO IT in a just world there would be none
RATING

Now we get to the crap. How this came to be in my head is totally beyond me. Although, i do seem to recall an old friend and sometime flatmate who used to quite like these buffoons and who would of an occasion play their music. This was especially unpleasant when he stayed in the room next to mine, with our rooms being separated by partition walls so thin it was a wonder that they didn't just fold to the floor. And why is it i can still picture the bloody video that went with this crap? It was the one that was all pencil drawing coming to life, wasn't it? To be fair, however, i do like just a little bit the high-pitched wailing bit near the end. I have no good reason for this.

Billy Idol - White Wedding

ORIGINATION again with the no idea
LAST LISTENED TO sometime around 1984 probably
CHANCE OF WAKING TO IT clearly there was one, but it was a million to one
RATING

I offer no excuses for this because it's not. my fault. Not really. Who can claim responsibility for their subconscious? I make the insanity plea. Eye thang yew.

Band Of Bloody Gold

ORIGINATION don't know
LAST LISTENED TO can't imagine i ever have through choice
CHANCE OF WAKING TO IT pah
RATING

Yuck. And i mean, seriously, yuck. I neither know nor care who did this song. I remember working in a burger 'restaurant' many years ago and this song was on one of the god-awful tapes that would be played continuously over the P.A. all bloody day. I hated it then and i still to do. Again, yuck.

Goombay Dance Band - Seven Tears

ORIGINATION no idea and glad of it
LAST LISTENED TO '82
CHANCE OF WAKING TO IT one in a million
RATING

I bloody hate this bloody song. Really, really, really. In fact, until some time around nine o'clock this morning i had forgotten that it even existed. How i wish i still lived in that ignorance. Now i get to remember once heaing it from the back seat of a cigarette-stinking banger sitting at traffic lights at the top of Easter Road on one of those miserable satrudays. Thanks, brain.