My friend Emma* has recently taken delivery of a new bicycle. She's loving the open road, but is scared stiff she can't see a thing behind her. 'Get a mirror' I said. You always need to know who's behind you. Always.
My sad excuse for a bike, on the other hand, is lurking at the back of the garage somewhere; unloved and unkempt, sporting two perished tyres and a rusty chain. I can't remember the last time I donned the yellow shirt, lycra bottoms and Day-Glo bike clips. Maybe this is the answer: draw a cartoon of myself on the window of a New York cab and roll the film.
How good is this btw?
*No, not that Emma - Em's far too busy being mummy to the most beautiful baby in the world. XTC - I'd Like That
A great song is a great song; and as such, I make no apologies for including not one, not two, but three versions of today's great song.
My only concession to Halloween this year (I spent the entire evening with the lights out not answering the doorbell*) was digging out an old playlist I did for my friend when she ran her own bistro. Six or seven years ago Kate used to put on a lot of themed nights and, one in particular, Halloween 2011, was particularly memorable. Not least because of the scary food that was on offer that night. The sausages you see pictured made for a unique starter, let me tell you.
But, back to the playlist. I had a lot of fun with it - looking back at it now you can see the, often tenuous, linked songs that were on there. I put a ton of stuff on it, enough to last all night (we were there from 7 o'clock till midnight) - here's just a flavour:
Of the 80+ tunes on there (opening with this), the one that jumped out at me (and I've been playing it in the car all week) is 'I Scare Myself' by Claire Martin. Claire took the time to do a Q&A for my blog back in 2013and she's an absolute sweetheart.
Although I knew it was a Dan Hicks song the version I was most familiar with was Thomas Dolby's. Dolby was, and still is, a studio geek, so by playing around with tape speeds he actually sounded more like a female vocalist at the time.
And here's the original. Dan Hicks sadly passed away last year. He left behind a great body of work; not least some cracking song titles: How Can I Miss You When You Won't Go Away? being just one of many.
* Which proved more than a little problematical as I was also waiting on an Indian takeaway delivery.
Ian Pile - Piley to his mates - needs no introduction on this blog. Suffice it to say he is one half of the excellent Mondo & Piley monthly PODROPHEN1A podcast which you can find here . I was thrilled to receive this email in my inbox last week:
Hi John, Hope you are well. Please find attached a pic of me with the first album bought with my own money. Had numerous albums before this (Bugs Bunny, Sooty, Pinky and Perky, few 'Top of the Pops' albums), but all purchased as presents or nagged a parent into buying!
Mum was a 'middle period' Elvis fan. The films and soundtracks mostly. I was an avid Top 40 listener on Sundays, and was diggin' the mid/late 70s Elvis singles (Moody Blue, Way Down). So much in fact that I recorded them off the radio (is there any higher praise than that?!).
Anyway this rockier style didn't feature on anything my mum had, so i trooped up to Woolworths in Hadleigh to see what i could find. The recent RCA albums were all out of my league pricewise (I did get them all in the following few years), so was drawn to the cheapy MFP/Pickwick/Camden spinner rack. There were a number of Elvis albums less than half the price of the RCA ones so decided to get one of those instead. In my innocence i picked US Male purely because it had the most recent picture of him on the cover. So obviously this would be more recent tunes!! I had no idea these were all just rehash after rehash of old tunes. Turned out most of 'em were on my mum's albums anyway! Still, the great news was it had Burning Love on it. Still to this day one of my all time favourite Elvis songs. Cheers mate! Ian
It's all about timing. Being in the moment. And it helps if you know what the other person's thinking; like if they're playing a show in town and decide to bring the whole thing forward by an hour. Six bloody hours before the clocks go back.
I've never seen Del Amitri, so jumped at the chance of sliding in to the Rescue Rooms last night to catch Justin Currie. 'What time's he on?' I casually asked the guy on the door. Looking at my watch it was half eight. 'Put your money away, he's been on an hour, get yourself in.' Aaaaaagh!
By the time I found my vantage point he started playing the divine Driving With The Brakes On. Had I have paid to get in then this alone would have been worth the entrance money. Thirty minutes later and he was done. I didn't have the right to feel short changed as money hadn't exchanged hands; I just wish I'd known earlier. I don't even know if he played this . As you can see it reduces Chris Difford to tears. It does me as well. And here it is played on the piano.
