JULY PLAYLIST

Current spins in Monkey Mansions.

1. Margie Day – “Take Out Your False Teeth Daddy” (1953)
“Take out your false teeth Daddy, your Mommy wants to scratch your gums, Oh you’re gonna feel good after I’ve rubbed them some”. Now, I’ve no degree in bluesology but I’m thinking Margie had something other than her fella’s dental work on her mind.

2. The Martinels – “I Don’t Care” (1962)
This punchy rhythm and soul house shaker was released on Success records out of Des Moines, Iowa. The label proudly boasts of it being an “unbreakable 45 RPM” and fifty years later it’s been as good as its word.

3. Wanda Jackson – “Memory Mountain” (1963)
No need to choose between Wanda’s rockabilly years and her country years; have ‘em both.

4. Jimmy Witherspoon – “Drinking Beer” (1964)
“Let’s have party and drink up lots of beer/ Well, wine is fine but give me lots of beer/ Wanna drink some beer, talk some trash this mornin’/ Let’s drink some beer ‘til the rooster crows at dawnin’/ Well, wine is fine but give me lots of beer.” What he said.

5. Derrick Harriott – “Monkey Ska” (1965)
Irresistible.

6. John Mayall’s Bluesbreakers – “Snowy White” (1967)
Fear not the white boy blues band. Co-written by Mick Taylor - who plays lead - this Hammond and horns instrumental from the surprising warm Crusade LP is more reminiscent of the Small Faces than Bukka White.

7. The Rolling Stones – “Far Away Eyes” (1978)
Hard not to think of Gram Parsons and, for maybe the last time, hard not to think of Jagger and Richards having a right old laugh writing and recording this.

8. The Stone Roses – “Good Times” (1994)
Striped of context and nostalgia, the more muscular groove of Second Coming has dated far better their first album, and now sounds better than ever.

9. The Horrors – “Sheena Is A Parasite” (2007)
Thorny critic Everett True wrote a scathing piece on the new Horrors album, saying they sound exactly like U2. He over-egged the pudding but there are a couple of tracks where they're more U2 than Q65. Pity by his own admission he’s never heard the majestic tinny dustbin rattle of their debut 45.

10. Yuck – “Holing Out” (2011)
There is something comfortably reassuring about Yuck’s eponymous LP, sounding as it does like an record I would’ve bought in the early 90s next to Dinosaur Jr., Swervedriver, Sugar, The Pixies, Pavement and Teenage Fanclub.