Desert Island Disks - I blame Morgaine
Jun. 27th, 2010 12:43 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
f4f3The one thing that annoys me about DIDs is the fact that they only play a couple of minutes of each tune. What could be worse than having your favourite song cut off part way through? So, in that spirit, 8 under 2 minutes 30...
Tom Waits: Frank's Wild Years (1.54):Tom taught me what stories were for - not that I hadn't noticed earlier, but he spelled it out and I got the message. Cheesy organ and a story ending with "Never could stand that dog."
Warren Zevon: Bill Lee (1.37): Uncle Warren balanced some conception of honour, style and wit against the abyss (of war, drugs, women) and kept on singing right into the dark. "You're supposed to sit on your ass and nod at stupid things." And, "I always play to win, when it comes to flesh and bone", a sometimes motto. As he sung while moving into the dark, "There's a train leaving nightly called when all is said and done."
Steve Earle: Halo 'Round The Moon: Steve has been to hell, and came back. I love him more than all the hard-core troubadours who never came back at all. So no Townes van Zandt here, no Jim Morrison. This is just a lovely, to have loved and lost song - further evidence of his knack for writing traditional Irish songs, from his self-imposed exile on the West Coast.
Elivs Costello: Mystery Dance: Best song about the frustrations of teenage sex, turned up as a B side to "Watching the Detectives" (along with "Blame it on Caine", another brilliant track). And yes, I first heard it when I was 15.
Orange Juice: Felicity: If Consolation Prize hadn't been 3 minutes of perfect pop, it would have been here instead. But this is beautiful too - where jangly guitars first met floppy fringes. "Take me to the bridge" indeed. Orange Juice were the bright shining side of Glasgow bands, from the city that brought you Frankie Miller, The Blue Nile and, oh, Altered Images.
Proclaimers: Sky Takes The Soul: Someone, somewhere, described them as muscular Christians. Give or take some moments of Sam Cooke, this is as close as I get to digging that groove. "Don't bring flowers, take a stance/On some graves you should dance."
Billy Bragg: Between The Wars: The Big Nosed Bard of Barking has a whole slew of wonderful songs that clock in around 2.30. "Don't Need This Pressure Ron" ("Money maketh man a Tory/Don't fire that assumption at me") "Scholarship Is The Enemy of Romance", "Day's Like These", his spoken word version of "Walk Away Renee", with Johnny Marr on guitar... But in the end I had to go for Between The Wars, partly because I think it's a song that will be sung 50 years from now, partly because it has never lost its relevance, sadly.
Bruce Springsteen: I'm on Fire: How to compress a novel into 2 and a half minutes, and lodge yourself in someone's head forever. The quite one from "Born in the USA".
No Lloyd Cole, no Martin Stephenson, nothing classical, no comedy (although Python's "Penis Song" almost, ahem, wormed its way in).
Tom Waits: Frank's Wild Years (1.54):Tom taught me what stories were for - not that I hadn't noticed earlier, but he spelled it out and I got the message. Cheesy organ and a story ending with "Never could stand that dog."
Warren Zevon: Bill Lee (1.37): Uncle Warren balanced some conception of honour, style and wit against the abyss (of war, drugs, women) and kept on singing right into the dark. "You're supposed to sit on your ass and nod at stupid things." And, "I always play to win, when it comes to flesh and bone", a sometimes motto. As he sung while moving into the dark, "There's a train leaving nightly called when all is said and done."
Steve Earle: Halo 'Round The Moon: Steve has been to hell, and came back. I love him more than all the hard-core troubadours who never came back at all. So no Townes van Zandt here, no Jim Morrison. This is just a lovely, to have loved and lost song - further evidence of his knack for writing traditional Irish songs, from his self-imposed exile on the West Coast.
Elivs Costello: Mystery Dance: Best song about the frustrations of teenage sex, turned up as a B side to "Watching the Detectives" (along with "Blame it on Caine", another brilliant track). And yes, I first heard it when I was 15.
Orange Juice: Felicity: If Consolation Prize hadn't been 3 minutes of perfect pop, it would have been here instead. But this is beautiful too - where jangly guitars first met floppy fringes. "Take me to the bridge" indeed. Orange Juice were the bright shining side of Glasgow bands, from the city that brought you Frankie Miller, The Blue Nile and, oh, Altered Images.
Proclaimers: Sky Takes The Soul: Someone, somewhere, described them as muscular Christians. Give or take some moments of Sam Cooke, this is as close as I get to digging that groove. "Don't bring flowers, take a stance/On some graves you should dance."
Billy Bragg: Between The Wars: The Big Nosed Bard of Barking has a whole slew of wonderful songs that clock in around 2.30. "Don't Need This Pressure Ron" ("Money maketh man a Tory/Don't fire that assumption at me") "Scholarship Is The Enemy of Romance", "Day's Like These", his spoken word version of "Walk Away Renee", with Johnny Marr on guitar... But in the end I had to go for Between The Wars, partly because I think it's a song that will be sung 50 years from now, partly because it has never lost its relevance, sadly.
Bruce Springsteen: I'm on Fire: How to compress a novel into 2 and a half minutes, and lodge yourself in someone's head forever. The quite one from "Born in the USA".
No Lloyd Cole, no Martin Stephenson, nothing classical, no comedy (although Python's "Penis Song" almost, ahem, wormed its way in).
