I assumed that my son must have known this...

but I discovered a while ago that I'd never played it to him. This Roy Orbison song was the first record that really meant anything to me. Interestingly, the 45 was a ‘double A-side’ - ‘Running Scared’ and ‘Love Hurts’. ‘Love Hurts’ is a haunting, distinctive song which becomes quiet background music through much of your life (and then you discover the version by Gram Parsons and Emmylou). ‘Running Scared’ is something else again, the consummate story song, packed with narrative power, building to its magnificent, orgasmic denoument, which, time after time after time - and I’ve been listening to it for fifty years - knocks you into the middle of next week. The point at which the bass rhythm enters and carries the song and the listener forward and upwards is extraordinary. The words build, the story builds, the music builds. So much of the pain and joy of human relationships in a pop song lasting two minutes twelve seconds. And perhaps the most amazing thing about the song - Orbison claims to have written it ‘in about ten minutes’.

Roy Orbison - Running Scared (iTunes)

I’ve never been totally sure about the Proclaimers -

some great songs, always at least interesting, often quite original, yet for me there’s something very slightly creepy about them, e.g. 'She Arouses Me So' (too much information?). However, this is a brilliant track and the perfect answer to the current publicity given to those who refuse to see the benefits of immigration. If only there were a similar song about England. Anyone know one?

The Proclaimers - Scotland's Story (not on iTunes)

Bruce Springsteen is playing live in London soon

I turned down the opportunity to go and now I'm having pangs of regret. I have seen him once before at the Royal Albert Hall but that was acoustic, and it was before I knew his catalogue well.

But I've seen so many legends way past their peak - would this be another disappointment? He hasn't written a great song since Streets Of Philadelpia (or if he has, I missed it).

Anyway, here are the two tracks that gave me those pangs of regret.

I very much approve of this phenomenon of the likes of Todd Terje and Cousin Cole taking classic tracks and adding a few little synth noises and tweaks for the dancefloor rather than radically remixing.

As for Thunder Road, "Ladies and gentlemen, Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band"... if only this were 1975!

This post can also stand in tribute to Clive Davis, the man who told Bob Dylan, Bruce Springsteen and many others to write him a hit. I can live without Lay Lady Lay but we should all be grateful for Born To Run.

Bruce Springsteen - I'm On Fire (Cousin Cole's Bad Desire Mix) (here's a link to the original on iTunes)

Bruce Springsteen - Thunder Road (Live at the Roxy, 1975) (iTunes)

Chris de Burgh's time will come again

If Supertramp can come back into fashion then Chris de Burgh will sooner or later, right?

There is a new CdeB compilation released in the UK this week. Included on there are my two favourites - Much More Than This which I've written about previously, and Borderline. Borderline has a topical lyric about deciding between going away to fight for your country and staying with your lover. The Borderline sequel Say Goodbye To It All is also on there (more songs should have sequels).

Chris de Burgh - Borderline (iTunes)

Ludacris vs Born Slippy

Ludacris is one of my favourite rappers (or he was back at the start of the millennium anyway).

Born Slippy is one of my favourite records of all time.

How could I resist a combination of the two?

Yes, the chord does eventually change and when that happens it is of course the high point of the track.

Thanks to my new favourite blog Burnt Waffles for the link.

Ludacris - Ultimate Satisfaction (Cabin Bwoy Refix) (not on iTunes so here's a link to buy the original Born Slippy)

really beautiful track from Sweden that I found via Popjustice

shades of Jeff Buckley and they know how to write a good tune in Sweden

the album is lovely and available from iTunes now, without DRM

Moto Boy - Ride My Wild Heart (iTunes)

Very honoured to be invited (see below).

I would have to say that in recent years I’ve learned just as much about great music from him as he may have done previously from me. I’m afraid, by the way, that my version of the Bunny Berigan intro is a very simplified one but I like to think I’ve caught the spirit of it. Mention of Humphrey Lyttleton’s ‘Best of Jazz’ and its recent demise prompts me to draw attention to one of the best recordings he ever played - one to which he returned from time to time. I don’t know anything about Marion Williams or whether she recorded much else, but even if she didn’t the power and excitement of this one track is a greater achievement than the whole output of many other artists. Here also is another great Humph favourite (apparently made it onto the playlist for his very final programme that I sadly missed) which is similarly gospel based, and equally memorable with a tinge of 'tailgate' trombone humour - it just wouldn’t be the same on any other instrument.

Marion Williams - It is Well (nothing on itunes)
Carla Bley (featuring Gary Valente) - The Lord is Listening to Ya Hallelujah (iTunes)

a new poster on The World's Greatest Music

I've decided to introduce a new poster on The World's Greatest Music - my dad.

My dad was the first influence on my music taste, and possibly the biggest. Before I listened to any contemporary music, I listened to his record collection. It was an impeccable musical education - The Beatles, Buddy Holly, Bob Dylan, David Bowie, Paul Simon, Elvis Costello, Chris Barber, Joni Mitchell, Motown Chartbusters, Jimmy Cliff... (the last few might have been my mum's but still).

I inherited his predilection for recording shows off the radio and making up cassettes of the best tracks (I did it with Mark Radcliffe's Out On Blue 6, John Peel and Mark Goodier's Evening Session; he did it with Jazz Record Requests and Humphrey Lyttelton's The Best Of Jazz, which sadly came to an end recently).

It was only a matter of time before we both started mp3 blogging.

Also, he can pretty much replicate Bunny Berigan's awesome intro to I Can't Get Started on the trumpet.

Bunny Berigan - I Can't Get Started (iTunes)

RIP Sean Levert

Sean was in LeVert with his better known brother Gerald. LeVert's track Casanova is a classic.

LeVert - Casanova (not on iTunes except for a karaoke version)

"If I only knew your name, I'd go from door to door"

Joe writes: I heard Ciara Haidar cover this at the weekend. What a great song, and one that I vaguely knew - surely a classic '80s hit for someone like The Bangles or Cyndi Lauper, I thought.

But no, it turns out it's the current single by the Mystery Jets featuring Laura Marling.

I love it when I group I had written off come up with something really great (when I say "love" I obviously mean "grudgingly accept").

Someone has to cover this and make it a hit.

Mystery Jets feat. Laura Marling - Young Love (iTunes)

Herman Dune, Jonathan Richman and Paul Simon

Joe writes: Herman Dune played a lovely set at SXSW with Kimya Dawson joining him to sing vocals on a couple of songs including I Wish That I Could See You Soon. A very endearing song from a very endearing artist, although the lyric about spooning is a bit much.

I Wish That I Could See You Soon is clearly inspired by Jonathan Richman, and my favourite Jonathan Richman song is I Was Dancing In The Lesbian Bar.

I can also hear shades of Late In The Evening in I Wish That I Could See You Soon. Late In The Evening is the opening and best remembered track from Paul Simon's 1980 album One Trick Pony. The album has been slated by critics, perhaps more because of the film of the same name than the music (see also Parade by Prince). The critics are wrong about the music anyway. The album is great from beginning to end and is probably Paul Simon's best alongside Graceland.

Herman Dune - I Wish That I Could See You Soon (iTunes)




Jonathan Richman - I Was Dancing In The Lesbian Bar (iTunes)




Paul Simon - Late In The Evening (iTunes)

Black Kids video for I'm Not Going To Teach Your Boyfriend How To Dance With You

I'm just posting this because I like the track and I love the lyric but I never got round to saying that here, and it would look hopelessly late if I posted the mp3 now, right?

some good tracks from bands who played SXSW

Foy Vance - Indiscriminate Act Of Kindness (iTunes)
I really like this song which reminds me of Romeo & Juliet by Dire Straits for some reason (obviously that's a good thing).

Fleet Foxes - White Winter Hymnal (not on iTunes UK yet but there is an EP up there including Sun Giant which is also lovely)
One of the buzz bands of SXSW. Their live show is very endearing.

Stephen Kellogg & The Sixers - 4th Of July (not on iTunes UK but lots of his stuff is)

Tigercity - Red Lips (not on iTunes UK yet but there is an EP up there)

Eagle Seagull - I'm Sorry But I'm Beginning To Hate Your Face (not on iTunes yet but lots of their stuff is)

Litttle Jackie - The World Should Revolve Around Me (not on iTunes UK yet)
Macy Gray revivalists with Imani Coppola on vocals

Lars Vaular - Eg E Fra Bergen (iTunes)
Norwegian rapper. No idea what he's saying but I like the backing track and the chorus.

from Adam Green to Jessica Simpson to John Cougar

The Moldy Peaches have broken thanks to Juno. As Kimya Dawson is getting most of the attention, I have an excuse to post my favourite Adam Green track, a savage but superb song about Jessica Simpson. The lyrics about waitressing, Cortisone and that line "where has your love gone? It's not in your music, oh no" make me wince every time.

There was a good single on the first Jessica Simpson album, I Think I'm In Love With You. It was released in the year 2000 but it's totally 1990s.

How can you fail with a sample from Jack & Diane by John Cougar (before he was Mellencamp)?

Adam Green - Jessica (iTunes)
Jessica Simpson - I Think I'm In Love With You (iTunes)
John Cougar - Jack & Diane (iTunes)

The Whitest Boy Alive - Golden Cage (Fred Falke Remix)

This was Pete Tong's Essential New Tune on Friday and was recommended to me by my friend Daz who was also first to tell me about Call On Me by Eric Prydz, Amarillo by Tony Christie, Cha Cha Slide by DJ Caspar and many other huge records. Thanks Daz.

It's a great remix of The Whitest Boy Alive, which is Erlend Øye from the Kings of Convenience.

I saw Kings of Convenience play at Benicassim a couple of years ago - tent packed with continental Europeans, total silence during the songs, then huge applause at the end of each one. But I'm whiter than he is.

The Whitest Boy Alive - Golden Cage (Fred Falke Remix) (only the original version is on iTunes so far)

Phil Campbell

Phil Campbell has just been added to the Radio 2 playlist, more than a decade after he should have been.

Hope, Faith & You is his classic Tom Waits pastiche

rap with sampled, sped up chorus... paradise

Let It Be by Dyme Def is available on iTunes so it must be cleared, right? Thanks to Fun Bongo for telling me about this track.

Stay With Me by Ironik has not one but two sped up choruses. It's big on the Fizz TV channel.

All this sped up vocal business reminds me of Mark Oh's classic interpretation of Lionel Richie's Stuck On You. That vocal drop out crowd noise trick is so good!

Dyme Def - Let It Be (iTunes)
DJ Ironik - Stay With Me (iTunes link that will probably be removed soon)
Mark Oh - Stuck On You (there's only a terrible soundalike on iTunes)

White Lies

The UK music industry buzz band of the year so far and it's not undeserved.

www.myspace.com/whiteliesuk

Chris Barber

Joe writes: My dad tells me that Chris Barber is 80 this year [correction - he's not - see comment below] and just appeared on Later with Jools Holland.

The Chris Barber variety of trad or mainstream jazz is the kind of jazz that's closest to my heart. Generally, the band start by playing the melody, led by the trumpet. Then each player takes a solo in turn. Then they all come back in and play the melody again. The end. Magic.

There's a scene in a film that perfectly captures how exciting this music can be (or seemed to do so twelve years ago when I saw it). It's the 1959 film of John Osborne's iconic play Look Back In Anger. Richard Burton plays Jimmy, the archetypal angry young man. At the start of the film he walks down into a basement where a jazz band are playing (Chris Barber's). He picks up the trumpet and plays with them. It's dangerous, exciting, poetic - rock 'n' roll, you might say.

Climax Rag is the opening track from a legendary concert album, Barber In Berlin. Joe Meek was one of the recording engineers.

Duke Ellington's Creole Love Call is one of my favourite downtempo jazz standards. This version was recorded at the London Palladium. The best moment is at 6.49 when the band comes in with the melody again after a wonderful muted trumpet solo.

Both tracks available on an excellent double CD.

Neither are on iTunes but plenty of other Chris Barber tracks are.

Chris Barber's Jazz Band - Climax Rag (Live at Deutschland Halle, Berlin, 23rd May 1959)




Chris Barber's Jazz Band - Creole Love Call (Live at the London Palladium, 31st March 1961)

one of the best ever documentaries about music is back on BBC iPlayer for the next 6 days

How Pop Songs Work