It wasn’t planned but there’s nothing from the last 30 years. That’s a sad state of affairs.
1. Sonny Boy Williamson – “Keep Your Hands Out Of My Pockets” (1958)
“Keep your hands out of my pockets/ I ain’t nothing that belong to you”. Simple yet effective from the Goat.
2. The Little Red Riders – “Juicy” (1958)
From the less-than-legit looking compilation Titty Shakers Volume 1 comes this twangy John Lee Hooker-goes-surfing breast mover. I’ve been standing on a chair wobbling my beer gut and swinging my man boobs like there’s no tomorrow. (Note: The references to beer gut and man boobs are merely for comedic effect and bear no resemblance whatsoever to the author’s Apollonian physique).
3. Marion Jones – “I’m The Woman For You” (c.1965)
She has a name like a Welsh dinner lady from the 70s but the only dish served here is a spicy concoction of call-and-response R&B, soulful testifying, and dollop of showbiz pizzazz, all gobbled down in a greedy one minute and fifty five seconds.
4. Julie Driscoll, Brian Auger and the Trinity – “A Kind of Love-In” (1968)
Not only did the NFT show Driscoll in Season of the Witch the other night, they also showed a fantastic live version of this recorded for Frost On Sunday in August 1968. Can’t see it on YouTube so you’ll have to take my word for it…
5. The Penny Peeps – “Model Village” (1968)
Hold tight to your floppy hats and penny collars as the Peeps whizz around their plasticine model village fuelled on heavy Hammond and super strength Who inspired freakbeaty psychedelia. Whooosh.
6. The Gaylads – “There’s A Fire” (1969)
What I know about Jamaican music can be written on Nick Griffin’s knob with a Stanley knife but rocksteady like this is simply soul music by another name.
7. The Rolling Stones – “Plundered My Soul” (1972)
If Exile On Main Street wasn’t bloated enough already, it now has another ten tracks. Scraped from the barrel maybe but most are still pretty good. “Plundered My Soul” has a “Tumbling Dice” vibe and however hard the Faces, the Black Crowes, the Scream tried they never matched the easy rock and soul charm of the Stones on top form. (Their best album is still Goat’s Head Soup though).
8. The Ruts – “H-Eyes” (1978)
There is a horrible irony that the flip of the Ruts first single contained the lines “You’re so young, you take smack for fun/ It’s gonna screw your head, you’re gonna wind up dead”, when singer Malcolm Owen would do just that a mere two years later.
9. The Chords – “Maybe Tomorrow” (1980)
Like flesh eating zombies The Chords are the latest band of decomposing carcasses to rise up uninvited and drag their lingering remains of life back on stage. That said the only time I’ve got for the whole sorry Mod Revival Class of ’79 is the time it takes to play their convincing Jam pastiche. How Weller must still be pissing himself.
10. Magazine – “A Song From Under The Floorboards” (1980)
“But it’s got a synth on it,” I hear you cry. True, and that’s usually enough for instant dismissal, but I’ll let this one pass due to Howard Devoto’s lyric (“I am angry, I am ill, and I'm as ugly as sin/ My irritability keeps me alive and kicking”) and John McGeoch’s unmistakable guitar colouring. McGeoch would next use his plectrum on Siouxsie and the Banshees’ masterpiece JuJu. Add Public Image Ltd to his CV and you wonder why he’s never on Guitar Greats lists.
Great stuff as always. Now The Chords are back too? Geeez, zombies indeed. Teen Beats, Secret Affair, crikey....I guess it's only a matter of time before The Merton Parkas come back! Spot on about The Ruts track, always thought that the punk anti-drug ethos was a little unconvincing. I'm going to have to dig that Sonny Boy track out @ home later on, in fact I think you taped me that LP way back in our young zine days!
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