SEPTEMBER PLAYLIST

A selection of tunes from Monkey Mansions.

1. Champion Jack Dupree – “Drunk Again” (1954)
He might’ve been the one sounding sloshed and high but it was Jack’s woman who - with a face like an old sea hag - was so drunk from December to July she couldn’t remember a thing.

2. Jimmy Merchant – “Skin The Cat” (1965)
“Go skin a cat – hit it with a bat. Meow!” It’s a good job our cat is deaf.

3. The Zombies – “What More Can I Do” (1965)
There’s more to the Zombies than Odyssey and Oracle. Check out Rod Argent pre-dating a Ray Manzarek style keyboard solo on this from the terrific Live at The BBC collection.

4. Jimmy Witherspoon – “I Gotta Girl (Who Lives On The Hill)” (1966)
The Spoon backed by the crème of UK jazzers (Morrissey, South, Seamen and Bates), dishes up a dollop of Joe Turner’s staple tune with, according to the sleeve notes on Spoon Sings ‘n’ Swings, “a smoking hot freshness”. Monkey Snr was there at the Bull’s Head on the night this was recorded. I can feel the breeze of his nodding head at the bar and faint echoes of “Oh yeah” ripple through my speakers.

5. Jake Thackray – “Lah-Di-Dah” (1967)
I’ve picked this before but with my wedding tomorrow it sprung to mind again. I should stress that all of Mrs Monkey’s family are lovely folk.

6. B.J. Thomas – “Raindrops Keep Fallin’ On My Head” (1969)
An all-time favourite.

7. Bobby Charles – “I Must Be In A Good Place Now” (1972)
If you wish there were more albums by The Band, check out Bobby’s eponymous debut which has them moonlighting throughout.

8. Little Beaver – “Listen To My Heartbeat” (1976)
When the flat is otherwise empty, in the privacy of the front room, with the curtains drawn, I like to hook up the glitterball and get down to some funky camp disco. Not a sight for the fainthearted.

9. Five Thirty – “Automatons” (1991)
Five Thirty’s Bed is now twenty years old. Where’s the deluxe double CD plus DVD set? Where’s the two hour radio documentary? Where’s the glossy collector’s edition of Mojo or Q? It sounded brilliant then and sounds equally brilliant now. In my top 5 LPs. Robbed they were, robbed.

10. The Flaming Lips – “Race For The Prize” (1999)
The Flaming Lips have a new song out. It is six hours long. That time could better be spent be playing “Race For The Prize” 84 times.

JULY PLAYLIST

Picked for the complete record rather than the lyrics; I’ve just used them to save conjuring up the usual twaddle. One thing though, I read yesterday that it’s rumoured Clydie King was a secret wife of Bob Dylan and they had two kids. Jolly. Good on ya Bobby.

1. Arthur “Big Boy” Crudup – “I’m Gonna Dig Myself A Hole” (1951)
“I might dig myself a hole/ Move my baby down in the ground/ You know when I come up/ There won't be no wars around”.

2. Butch Baker – “The Fat Man” (1966)
“When Fat Man hit Soulville, he was driving his Fatmobile”.

3. Otis Redding – “I’m Sick Y’All” (1966)
“Lord, I’m tired of it, honey/ Rain is cold, children/ Burnin’ my side, y’all/ Standing on the outside/ Water in my shoes, children”.

4. Clydie King – “Soft and Gentle Ways” (1966)
“Don’t use your misty eyes because I won’t fall again, I’ve seen those tears before”.

5. Merle Haggard – “Things Aren’t Funny Anymore” (1974)
“Maybe we laughed too soon/ Things aren't funny anymore”.

6. Dexy’s Midnight Runners – “There There My Dear” (1980)
“Let me try to explain, though you’d never see in a million years/ Keep quoting Cabaret, Berlin, Burroughs, J.G. Ballard, Duchamp, Beauvoir, Kerouac, Kierkegaard, Michael Rennie”.

7. Lloyd Cole and the Commotions – “2CV” (1984)
“We were never close if the truth were told/ All we ever shared was a taste in clothes”.

8. The Flaming Lips – “Ego Tripping At The Gates Of Hell” (2002)
“I was waiting on a moment, but the moment never came/ All the billion other moments, were just slipping all away”.

9. MGMT – “Time To Pretend” (2008)
“Let's make some music, make some money, find some models for wives/ I'll move to Paris, shoot some heroin, and fuck with the stars/ You man the island and the cocaine and the elegant cars”.

10. The School – “I Want You Back” (2010)
“Once upon a time I thought everything would turn out fine, just like lines in books”.