FEBRUARY PLAYLIST

This month we’ll let the artists speak for themselves. Some do it better than others.

1. Blind Willie Johnson – “You’re Gonna Need Somebody On Your Bond” (1930)
“Now its way after midnight, when death come a-creepin' in your room / You're gonna need somebody on your bond.”

2. Baron Lee and the Mills Blue Rhythm Band – “Reefer Man” (1932)
“Oh, have you ever met that funny reefer man? / Have you ever met that funny reefer man?/ If he trades you dimes for nickels / And calls watermelons pickles / Then you know you’re talking to that reefer man.”

3. Sonny Clark – “Cool Struttin’” (1958)
Pop goes the weasel.

4. Bob Dylan – “Talkin’ Bear Mountain Picnic Massacre Blues” (1962)
“Six thousand people tryin' t' kill each other / Dogs a-barkin', cats a-meowin' / Women screamin', fists a-flyin', babies cryin', / Cops a-comin', me a-runnin'. / Maybe we just better call off the picnic.”

5. Funkadelic – “Mommy, What’s A Funkadelic?” (1970)
“If you will suck my soul / I will lick your funky emotions.”

6. Swamp Dogg – “Sam Stone” (1972)
“There’s a hole in Daddy’s arm, where all the money goes.”

7. Johnny Thunders – “Subway Train” (1978)
“I can’t ever understand / Why my life’s been cursed, poisoned, condemned.”

8. The Cure – “Inbetween Days” (1985)
“Yesterday I got so old, I felt like I could die / Yesterday I got so old, it made me want to cry.”

9. The Campbell Stokes Sunshine Recorder – “She Looks Good In The Sun” (2009)
“Fifteen sides of orange paper, covered in red ink / It looks good but, it sure is hard to read”.

10. Gil Scott-Heron – “I’m New Here” (2010)
“Met a woman in a bar / Told her I was hard to get to know / And near impossible to forget / She said I had an ego on me / The size of Texas.”

JULY PLAYLIST

If you’d wandered in to Monkey Mansions during July, just before you heard stars you may have heard one of these:

1. Tommy Ridgley – “Monkey Man” (1953)
Jumping New Orleans R&B songs about monkey men are always a hit round these parts.

2. Brenda Holloway – “Crying Time” (1965)
Our Brenda never cut anything less than fabulous for Motown who pissed her talent up the wall and left magical moments like this in the can for forty years.

3. The Spinners – “Truly Yours” (1966)
The lines “But the one thing I’ll never understand/ How you found the nerve to take a pen in your hand/ And sign the letter truly yours” sound more Dylan than Hunter/Stevenson.

4. Nick Drake – “At The Chime Of The City Clock” (1970)
Not the purists view but Drake’s songs were improved tenfold by adding strings and saxophones.

5. Mose Allison – “Wild Man On The Loose” (1970)
Mose lets rip on the organ, a big brassy band gallop down the road apiece, there’s a tiger in the street and a wild man on the loose.

6. Tommy Tate – “If You Got To Love Somebody” (1977)
A floating cloud of delightful disco. Sorry, “modern soul”.

7. The Fall – “Repetition” (1977)
When feeling particularly crotchety (and remember this is the Fall we’re talking about) they’d play this “for three hours” infuriating the punks so much they’d start fighting. Way to go.

8. Television Personalities – “Geoffrey Ingram” (1980)
The TVPs take Geoffrey from A Taste of Honey and wrap him in their quaint easy charm. “Me and Geoff got to a Jam gig, we got there too late/ The Marquee was sold out and it was only five past eight”.

9. The Campbell Stokes Sunshine Recorder – “Track One” (2009)
From the album Makes Your Ears Smile. Does exactly what it says.

10. Ben Kweller – “Old Hat” (2009)
It’s not easy to make Country music cool but it is possible. Exhibit A.