Category: Six Of The Best

Six Of The Best is a semi-regular feature that pokes, prods and persuades your favourite bands, bards and barometers of hip opinion to tell us six of the best tracks they’ve ever heard. The tracks could be mainstream million-sellers or they could be obfuscatingly obscure, it doesn’t matter. The only criteria set is that, aye, they must be Six of the Best. Think of it like a mini, groovier version of Desert Island Discs…

Number 8 in a series:

Basil Pieroni, twangin’ guitar maestro from current hot to trot favs Butcher Boy – that’s him third from left.

Every Six Of the Best compilation comes in a handy RAR download file. Get Basil Pieroni’s here.

Useless bit of trivia…

I was once the lucky winner of the raffle (aye!) at one of Basil’s band’s gigs. The four scotch pies and beans didn’t quite go round everyone at our table, but we did our best to make sure everyone benefited as best as possible.

*Bonus Track!

Here‘s Girls Make Me Sick, Butcher Boy‘s debut single from 2007.

 

 

Coming next in this series –

Six Of the Best from Craig Gannon 

Six Of The Best is a semi-regular feature that pokes, prods and persuades your favourite bands, bards and barometers of hip opinion to tell us six of the best tracks they’ve ever heard. The tracks could be mainstream million-sellers or they could be obfuscatingly obscure, it doesn’t matter. The only criteria set is that, aye, they must be Six of the Best. Think of it like a mini, groovier version of Desert Island Discs…

Number 7 in a series:

Most readers on here need no introduction to Alan McGee. A genuine indie rock svengali, a cross between Andy Oldham (the schemes), Andy Warhol (the dreams) and Andy Cameron (the fitba team), I’d wager that most visitors here own records made possible mainly by him and put out on his Creation Records imprint. Originally more excess than success, it’s amazing that Creation achieved anything at all, but they did, with a style and a swagger to boot -“Bobby the anchor….the star who attracted people there, Liam and Noel the goal scorers.” 

August 1983 saw the release of CRE001, ’73 in ’83 by The Legend! Assorted singles by The Jasmine Minks, The Pastels, The Loft and The Jesus & Mary Chain followed, but it wasn’t until the cash registers started ringing to the sounds of the debut album by The House Of Love that the label started to take itself seriously. When they weren’t releasing landmark LPs like Screamadelica and Definitely Maybe, they were championing the experimentalism of Giant Steps by the Boo Radleys and the pervy dance-pop of Momus, all the while nurturing a whole host of white hot guitar bands. It’s easy to reel off long lists of the bands that have blazed a trail in retro-inspired guitar-based rock, but you know all the important ones anyway. You’ll also know that a huge number of them released records on Creation, not bad considering “half these bands were found in pursuit of female“. Throughout the 90s especially, Creation Records was the hippest, most influential label in UK music. When they weren’t down with the kids they were down in Downing Street, SWAT teams and all, unwitting leading lights of the horribly-monickered champagne ‘n charlie Brit Pop era. Apparently McGee spent most of the night keeping an eye on Mick Hucknall because “he was chasing everything that was blonde in the room.”

Where’s Mick?

When I was about 15 I had a copy of Psychocandy that I’d taped after borrowing the LP from Irvine Library. It was played to death, so much so that the tape eventually loosened and stretched and made the guitars sound even more out there and other-worldly. Guitars that had once sounded like glass smashing now sounded like my gran’s ancient Hoover. The Wall Of Sound-on-cheap-speed thunk of Bobby Gillespie’s drums began to sound as if Phil Spector himself had recorded them through one giant phaser in qaudrophonic sound. I eventually bought the LP. And the CD later on. I’ll also be buying the Deluxe Edition when it gets released in September this year. And they said home taping was killing music….

When My Bloody Valentine released Loveless in 1991 I started to wonder if that same TDK hadn’t somehow fallen into the hands of Kevin Shields, given that much of the guitar sound on Loveless sounded exactly like the wonky version of The Hardest Walk that was on my Jesus & Mary Chain tape.  Quite ridiculous all things considered, given that some estimates suggest Kevin Shields spent a quarter of a million pounds almost bankrupting Creation whilst trying to perfect the sounds in his head. “Son, I think your tape player’s broken,” laughed an old lady at the bottom of the shop as I stood playing it on the counter one day in Our Price. “Where’s your Daniel O’Donnell?”

Thankfully, there’s no Daniel O’Donnell in Alan’s Six Of the Best….

Sex Pistols – God Save The Queen

It speaks for itself.

 

Fred ‘Sonic’ Smith/Sonic’s Rendezvous Band – City Slang

Best ever punk rock single.

 

The Clash – Complete Control
Their best-ever single.

 

Primal Scream – Loaded

It changed Creation and it changed our lives.

 

The Rolling Stones – Sympathy For The Devil

It defines rock ‘n roll.

 

The Beatles –Hey Jude

Beyond criticism.

Every Six Of the Best compilation comes in a handy RAR download file. Get Alan McGee’s here.

Save for being something of a mentor to Glasvegas (read here) and DJ-ing now and again in his local pub, McGee has given up on music, moved out of London and into the Welsh countryside and spends his days listening to The Beatles. For a while he wrote a McGee on Music column for The Guardian and he ran the Death Disco club nights, but it looks like he’s stopped them too. Content to watch from afar as his most important bands become something of a tribute act (come on down, Primal Scream. And bring that tour with you), his whole hedonistic trip is chronicled in recent Creation Records film Upside Down. Seek it out. You’d like it. But you knew that already.

*Bonus Tracks!

Creation Records took their name from 60s garage band The Creation, who released Biff! Bang! Pow!, a terrific Who-esque mod-stomper of a record. Alan McGee formed a band called Biff, Bang, Pow! who released There Must Be A Better Life (on Creation Records), a slice of none-more-mid 80s indie with elastic band bass and far too much reverb on the snare drum. And talking of none-more-mid 80s indie, The Pooh Sticks recorded I Know Someone Who Knows Someone Who Knows Alan McGee Quite Well. But you’ll have to track down that particular novelty ditty for yourself.

One whole bit about Creation Records and no mention of The Greatest Creation Band In The World….Ever? That would be Teenage Fanclub if you don’t know already.

Creation was here

(Photo nicked from McMark, cheers!)

Coming next in this series –

Six Of the Best from Gruff Rhys (eh, hopefully….)

Six Of The Best is a semi-regular feature that pokes, prods and persuades your favourite bands, bards and barometers of hip opinion to tell us six of the best tracks they’ve ever heard. The tracks could be mainstream million-sellers or they could be obfuscatingly obscure, it doesn’t matter. The only criteria set is that, aye, they must be Six of the Best. Think of it like a mini, groovier version of Desert Island Discs…

Number 6 in a series:

Kris Needs is, amongst many other things, a jammy b’stard. He seemed to fall feet first into the first chaotic strains of punk rock filtering from across the Atlantic, rode the crest of the wave and survived with a headful of stories that would sound so far fetched if you didnt know he had actually been there, seen it and done it all. Twice. He’s also a fantastic music writer. Being one of the first UK writers on the scene, he found himself in the company of yer actual Ramones, Talking Heads and, perhaps most heart-stoppingly of all (for me at least), Blondie. In true Jim’ll Fix It style, if he wasn’t in the dressing room arranging set-lists for Blondie shows, he was being caught in compromising situations with la Harry herself.

He regularly dispatched writings from the trenches of the punk wars in the pages of Zig-Zag magazine, Pete Frame’s (he of Rocks Family Trees fame) slightly proggy publication that Needs transformed into the punk bible when he took charge of it in Year Zero itself (1977, if you need to ask). Writing about the music and the people who made it wasn’t enough for Kris though, and he went all out to live the same life as some of his famous subjects; dancing, dabbling and dicing with death like the best of them. If you can track it down (it’s currently out of print, I think) you can read all about the up(per)s ‘n down(er)s  in Kris’s life in his  excellent book Needs Must.

These days, Kris is perhaps best known as a DJ. He often warmed the crowd up before Primal Scream shows. In fact, it seemed that every time I saw Primal Scream between 191 and 1995, Kris was on the decks.  I was one of many in a boggle-eyed crowd who had my ears and mind blown open by a suitably terrific playlist one memorable Barrowlands gig,  when he mixed Prince (Gett Off! 23 positions in a one night stand!“) into George Clinton’s Atomic Dog (“Hey – that’s the Snoop track!”) into the Stones. And none o’ yer 60s too cool for school Stones or yer Suckin’ in the Seventies Stones at that. No! It was the none-more-80s Undercover Of The Night uber-disco Stones, with the phased ‘n flanged  Keith klang giving us the perfect accompaniment to our night out. I went back home that night and nicked my Dad’s LP, carefully slotting it into the vinyl collection like it had always been there (“….yeah, I’ve always liked Undercover, actually…“)

Kris is very much still DJing. Along with his wife he hosts a weekly show on online radio station Fnoob. Judging by last week’s playlist, he’s still every bit as eclectic too. He also compiles an assortment of achingly cool compilations, including 2 volumes of Dirty Water – The Birth of Punk Attitude – a good beginners guide to essential US garage rock. You’ll pay around £10 each for Volume 1 and Volume 2 from Amazon. Even more impressively, Kris is responsible for a compiling a historical six volumes of the New York music scene. Volume 1 of Watch The Closing Doors: A History of New York’s Musical Melting Pot is released in about a month’s time. As Kris says,

“I first became fascinated with New York City in the 60s through Dylan’s early albums and Phil Spector’s girl group sound spearheaded by the Ronettes, further stoked by anarcho-poets the Fugs and wild side narratives of the Velvet Underground. The 70s saw Latin hot sauce, before the whole CBGBs-fostered punk invasion and the parallel disco explosion plus, it has to be said, gritty TV programmes like Kojak adding fuel to a burning desire to experience New York’s evident buzz for myself. The early 80s erupted in a post-disco boogie wonderland, which couldn’t help spilling into post-punk’s wildly-disparate innovations and the hiphop explosion.”

Now that reads a wee bit like a manifesto for Plain Or Pan if you ask me! You can read more about it here. And I’m sure Kris would love it if you followed that same link and placed a pre-release order for it too. Whatchawaitinfor? Go! Go! Go! While you’re waiting for it to drop through your letterbox, why not indulge yourself with a small selection of Kris’s favourite tracks.

Here’s Kris’s Six Of The Best:

Velvet Underground – Sister Ray
Ultimate speed-thrash gonzo noise-fest.

Jimi Hendrix – Machine Gun
Still jawdroppingly untouchable; his greatest guitar solo.

Rolling Stones – Midnight Rambler
The live version – Jagger at his most satanic, Keith on fire.

The Clash – Train In Vain
Watched Mick sing this and London Calling was finished.

Primal Scream – Jailbird
Reminds me of the most uproariously brilliant year of my life.

Suicide – Dream Baby Dream
Possibly the most gorgeous love song of all time.

Every Six Of the Best compilation comes in a handy RAR download file. Get Kris Needs’ here.

Bonus Tracks!

Talking of Primal Scream….and DJing….and Jailbird……here‘s Kris‘s own 10 and a half minute (!) Toxic Trio Stay Free mix of Jailbird. It sounds just like you’d expect it to.

Recorded at the Moonlight Club on April 2nd 1980, here‘s Joy Division doing their assault ‘n battery take on Sister Ray, at 7 and a half minutes it’s a mighty 10 minutes shorter than the Velvets’ original.

Coming next in this series –

Six Of the Best from Alan McGee.

Six Of The Best is a semi-regular feature that pokes, prods and persuades your favourite bands, bards and barometers of hip opinion to tell us six of the best tracks they’ve ever heard. The tracks could be mainstream million-sellers or they could be obfuscatingly obscure, it doesn’t matter. The only criteria set is that, aye, they must be Six of the Best. Think of it like a mini, groovier version of Desert Island Discs…

Number 5 in a series:

Gideon Coe is a triple Sony Award-winning DJ who currently spins the wheels of steel from Monday till Thursday on BBC 6 Music between 9.00 and midnight. He’s also (cough) what could loosely be termed as a celebrity Trashcan Sinatras’ fan. But you knew that already. You will also probably know that Gideon’s show is quite excellent. Much like a metaphor for BBC 6 Music itself, there’s a very high quality control mechanism in place and any time I switch on Gideon’s show I know that I’m going to like (and quite possibly own) whatever record Gideon’s playing, or at the very least, the next one that comes along. Gideon’s show sounds a bit like my iPod on shuffle – there’s a heady mix of the old and the new – it’s the kind of place where you’re as likely to find Beach House as the Beach Boys and the latest hip new thing sandwiched betwixt and between the broadcast of a listener-recommended vintage Peel Session and a Live In Concert special straight out of 1972. On any given night I’ll re-discover some long-forgotten indie guitar track from the days when I had a 28″ waist or I’ll hear something by a new band that makes me think, “Oh! Not all new music sounds like everything I’ve heard already,” or he’ll play a stone-cold accepted classic that reminds me exactly why that tune has come to be accepted as a stone-cold classic. If this brief introduction has whetted yer whistle, you can listen to the latest shows here.

Gideon’s Six Of The Best list could well be a mini tracklisting from any one of his shows. Over to the man himself…….

Off the top of my head:

Aretha Franklin – It’s faultless. It’s Perfect. (It’s ‘Say A Little Prayer‘, even though Gideon forgot to mention that bit!) And the final refrain where the “For Ever”s build is my favourite bit on any record ever.

The Clash – ‘If Music Could Talk’. ‘Sandinista’ is the best Clash album by some distance. And the rest are pretty good too. Much like the rest of the record it’s meandering and delightful.

Go Betweens – ‘Cattle and Cain’. Whatever the time-sig is on this, it works. Grant McLennan and Robert Forster are two of the best songwriters of the last 30 years.

The Blue Nile – ‘Easter Parade’. It’s raining and I’m 17 years old and I know this record will haunt me forever.

Midlake – ‘Branches’. ‘The Trials of Van Occupanther’ is my favourite record of the past 10 years and this slightly odd song has the most beautiful of all choruses.

Bob Dylan/Johnny Cash – Girl From the North Country. My first introduction to both of them. The greatest ramshackle duet ever recorded.

A mighty fine list I’m sure you’ll agree. Want more? Course you do! Gideon talks about more of his favourite records and gigs here.

Every Six Of the Best compilation comes in a handy RAR download file. Get Gideon Coe’s here.

*Bonus Track!

Here‘s another version of the greatest ramshackle duet ever recorded. Even looser, rougher and ragged than the officially released version, it finds Bob ‘n Johnny vocally jousting with one another, seemingly finding it difficult to sing the same lyric and fumbling for a place where the harmonies fit. It’s taken from the Dylan/Cash Sessions bootleg that’s easily findable in all the right corners of the internet and was recorded at CBS Studios in Nashville, February 1969 as part of Dylan’s Nashville Skyline album sessions. It’s only a short while since a pill-popping, motorcycle crashin’ Dylan had taken himself (quite literally) off the road, burnt out and spent, yet here he was recording sweet songs of love about long lost sweethearts and pie (yeah!). Dylan himself has attributed his unusual nasal whine on the album to the fact that he’d just given up smoking. And probably heroin. But that was kinda hushed up at the time. Anyway you look (or listen) to it, Girl From the North Country is one of Bob’s best. Good call Gideon.

I’m now off to re-acquaint myself with Sandinista! I can usually never get past Super Black Market Clash when I need a Strummer fix.

Coming next in this series –

Six Of the Best from Kris Needs.

Six Of The Best is a semi-regular feature that pokes, prods and persuades your favourite bands, bards and barometers of hip opinion to tell us six of the best tracks they’ve ever heard. The tracks could be mainstream million-sellers or they could be obfuscatingly obscure, it doesn’t matter. The only criteria set is that, aye, they must be Six of the Best. Think of it like a mini, groovier version of Desert Island Discs…

Number 4 in a series:

Snug as a thug in a mugshot pose

That’s him there, second on the left, John Douglas, guitarist, songwriter and one of the original Trashcan Sinatras. It’s difficult for me to be entirely subjective about the Trashcans. I spent all of my late teens playing in a great wee band in the great wee town of Irvine. To be fair, there were loads of great wee bands vying for some attention and a gig in the few pubs and community centres that would put us on. Believe it or not, Irvine  in the mid-late 80s was a right hotbed of prodigous talent. Thanks to local government funding we had our own rudimentary rehearsal/’recording’ facility (in the loosest possible terms) and our own mini scene, all under the lofty pretentions of the Irvine Music Club. I had a  wee laugh to myself a few years ago when I saw a picture of Frank Reader wearing a T-Shirt that proclaimed ‘I’m in a promising local band‘. Back at the tail end of the 80s, the Trashcans were that promising local band. So promising in fact that out of all the bands around Irvine at the time, they were the ones that got the golden fleece….the recording contract (although it’s well documented what happened next).

I am particularly friendly with Paul and before he moved to Hollywood he often popped a demo of some new track or other in my direction when we met. I’ve been lucky to have heard their sound develop from demo to mastered album track. I’ve even been present in the studio when they were recording the second album – on the day I was there John was making tea while Ray Shulman was trying to magnetise the sound of Stephen’s drum kit as he played not in the recording studio, but halfway down the hall, between the band’s office and their own rehearsal room. When our bass guitar broke, it was the Trashcans who came to our rescue, lending us their own (expensive) Rickenbacker 4003 bass. They didn’t seem to mind that we had it for about 2 years. In later years, John and Frank recorded some demos for us and took payment not in cold hard cash but in whisky and other such fuggy substances (perhaps that’s why Shabby Road closed…) So I don’t look at the Trashcans the way I look at other bands. Other bands have a mystery about them. I buy their albums without knowing a single song on them. I’ve been spoiled with the Trashcans  – I know the songs and the people and it’s great.

If you’re a newcomer to the Trashcan Sinatras, it’s never too late to get on board. The Trashcans could easily be as widely loved and critically revered as a band like Elbow. They have that same uplifting melancholy and gift for melody for starters, but sadly they appear to be one of music’s best kept secrets. Those in the know are used to waiting patiently for any new album or song or chorus or chord or anything. Luckily though, the band are on a bit of a touring renaissance. The past couple of years have found the Trashcans hard at work on the road.  With half the band now living in the States you could be forgiven for thinking this might be a stumbling block. Not so. They have just finished another acoustic tour around the backwater’s of mid-America and beyond – John in his lucky striped t-shirt (see above), driving several thousands of miles in the process – see the tour poster below.

I emailed John to ask him about his ‘Six of the Best‘ and had originally planned to put this piece out mid-way through the tour, but real life and all that jazz conspired to get in the way – sorry John! Eagle-eyed internet researchers like myself will tell you that the tour has had good reviews. If you don’t believe me you should check out any one of the  Tour Films which John compiles and broadcasts on YouTube. John’s choices were mildly surprising. Since the first time I met him I knew he was a massive Scott Walker fan. I first saw Lester Bang‘s name on John’s bookshelf and he himself has said that the Trashcans approach everything with a punk attitude (although I can’t find the direct quote, so I’m paraphrasing…) I don’t know what I was expecting, but it’s nice to be presented with something unexpected. John is also a regular on the stage at Celtic Connections and it’s fair to say some of his choices reflect this. Over to you John…

Here is my 6 o’ the best:

‘Eileen Aroon‘ by The Unwanted (sung by Cathy Jordan) from the album Songs from the Atlantic Fringe. Ancient Irish air with a beautiful lyric performed acapella style by the Galway trio. I heard this masterpiece last year and it still haunts me.

(Note: This track has proven practically impossible to find, so I’ve made available an mp3 recording that’s been converted from a YouTube clip of Cathy Jordan singing with the Celtic Tenors. It sounds a bit otherwordly and spooky, the kind of thing John Peel might’ve played had it been on an old 78. It also sounds a bit like John’s significant other.)

UPDATE!

I woke up this morning to an email from John….”I need to send you the MP3 of Eileen Aroon… the version with the tenors is pish…” ………………………and finally………………………………..here it is.

‘It’s Sunday‘ by Frank Sinatra. One of his last studio recordings and the only song recorded by Frank where he is accompanied only by solo guitar. A song of old, contented love.

‘Lily, Rosemary and the Jack of Hearts‘ by Bob Dylan. Hilarious, cinematic and rockin’.

‘Marrying The Sea‘ by Declan O Rourke. Another, more modern, Irish acapella gem. Storyteller Declan’s rich baritone gets all poetic and hypnotising.

‘Holy Cow‘ by Lee Dorsey… my favourite groove.

‘Good & Gone‘ by the Screaming Blue Messiahs…… 5 star rock and roll petrol.

Every Six Of the Best compilation comes in a handy RAR download file. Get John Douglas’ here.

I also asked John about ‘One of his Best‘ – the song he’s most proud of having written:

At the moment, I’m most proud of having written a new song called ‘Howling‘. We are playing it at the soundchecks on tour and Frank is singing it beautifully… It’s inspired by a story I read about a saxophonist who was out in the wilds of America playing to the night sky when wolverines would howl when he played in a certain key. He experimented more with other animals and even broadcast his playing underwater and whales began singing. The song just flew out of me after reading the tale….

…a great idea for a song that Trashcans obsessives like me cannae wait to hear.

*Bonus Tracks!

Here‘s the John-penned Hammertime, previously only available as a digital download with the All The Dark Horses single and long-since unavailable.

Here‘s Duty Free, a Trashcans curio choc-full of their uniquely uplifting melancholy recorded during the dark years and given away on the highly collectible Sound Of Purple compilation CD.

And here‘s an mp3 of  I See The Moon – a brand new Trashcan’s song they’ve been playing on the recent tour. This is an mp3 converted from a YouTube clip. I may have to withdraw it quickly, so get to it…

Footnote:

No article on the Trashcan Sinatras could ever be complete without a mention for Five Hungry Joes, Colin’s excellently detailed and obsessive website of Trashcans articles, adverts and absolutely everything. Check it out!

Six Of The Best is a semi-regular feature that pokes, prods and persuades your favourite bands, bards and barometers of hip opinion to tell us six of the best tracks they’ve ever heard. The tracks could be mainstream million-sellers or they could be obfuscatingly obscure, it doesn’t matter. The only criteria set is that, aye, they must be Six of the Best. Think of it like a mini, groovier version of Desert Island Discs…

Number 3 in a series:

Ge-ree! Ge-ree! Ge-ree! Ge-ree!

Gerry Love is the bass player in Teenage Fanclub, easily one of my favourite bands ever. When the name ‘Teenage Fanclub‘ is mentioned, I always make a point of saying  to no-one in particular that I’ve seen them live at least once a year since 1990. This year will be my 22nd year of Teenage Fanclub gig-going and at a conservative guess, I must’ve seen them close to 50 times by now. I never tire of them. Sometimes they’re hot (Motherwell in 2009, picture below) and sometimes they’re hotter (the Grand Ole Opry, 1994 (?) and the Monday night of  those ‘3 nights at Oran Mor‘ a couple of years ago spring to mind). I’ve seen then play live dressed as Elvis, I’ve seen them play the cold, vast enormostages supporting Neil Young and Pixies. I’ve seen them in long hair. I’ve seen them in short hair. I’ve seen them in grey hair and, no doubt, I’ll still be going to see them when they’ve nae hair. I should’ve seen them playing Orange Juice’s Greatest Hits with Edwyn Collins and I never saw them back Alex Chilton at the 13th Note, but I’ve just about got over those misdemenours. The only place I’ve still to see Teenage Fanclub play live is in my living room. Which they’ll be doing next week (once I’ve cashed in that EuroMillions cheque).

Wide-screenage Fanclub

Gruff Rhys once said that he never ever needed to listen to the Velvet Underground again because he had listened to them that much their music was now embedded firmly in his brain. My brain is similarly soaked with the sparkling sounds of the Teenage Fanclub. Being one of the chief songwriters in the band, Gerry has written his fair share of those sparkling sounds. Indeed you could easily make up a Best of Teenage Fanclub compilation that featured only his songs – Sparky’s Dream, Radio, Going Places, Don’t Look Back, Sometimes I Don’t Need To Believe In Anything, Shock and Awe, Starsign, Fallen Leaves, Near You, Time Stops. I could go on, but Ain’t That Enough? Ouch! (I think that one was a Norman one in any case). You could call it Love Songs if you wanted to. Ouch again.

Not Gerry. But he does share a likeness with potty-mouthed Christian Dailly.

Gerry very kindly emailed me his thoughts on 6 of his favourite tracks. Some were new to me (the Dion and Darondo tracks ), others I hadn’t heard in a long time. Rather impressively he included You Tube links as well, although some of the videos won’t play here, you’ll have to view them on You Tube itself. I also asked him to tell me one of his best – the song he was most proud of having written. His words follow at the bottom of his chosen tracks, which you could argue mirror perfectly the music of Teenage Fanclub – coated in wistful melody, warm harmonies, weird fancy-pants chords and the sound of sunshine itself. Over to you Gerry…..

Here is a list of 6 songs that I currently like. It would change every day, but these 6 are songs I go back to time and time again.

1. It’s All Too Much – The Beatles

The Beatles had more than their fair share of groundbreaking productions, but this is by far my favourite. Possibly George Harrison’s finest Beatles moment. Love the bass clarinet, and Ringo’s drum fills are outstanding.

Trainspotters ahoy! I’ve included the mono version of It’s All Too Much in the download below.

2. The Dolphins – Dion

Beautifully orchestrated crystal clear production of the Fred Neil classic. There are simply not enough harps and celestas on records these days. Dion’s voice is so effortless and amazing.

Heads up! – I wrote a whole post on the brilliance of The Dolphins last year – catch up here.

3. Something On Your Mind – Karen Dalton

The first time I heard this it reminded me a little of of Bill Callahan. Such a great song and a great understated arrangement, and Karen Dalton’s voice just melts your heart.

4. Didn’t I – Darondo

Loose, fragile, sweet soul from the Bay Area.

 

5. Aguas de Marco – Elis and Tom

The definitive version of the song once named as the “all-time best Brazilian song”, featuring Elis Regina and bossa nova genius Tom Jobim. Don’t know if it’s my favourite Brazilian song, but I love it.

 

6. I’ll Keep It With Mine – Fairport Convention

The thing I love about this, apart from Sandy Denny’s vocal, is that it seems to start from nothing, like it almost didn’t happen; as if someone just picked up the guitar for a little strum, and might have put it down again had the others not tentatively joined in. In the course of the next five minutes it builds and builds to become, in my opinion, one of the most life-affirming performances committed to vinyl. An amazing group.

Thanks,

Gerry

Every Six Of the Best compilation comes in a handy RAR download file. Get Gerry Love’s here.

*BONUS TRACKS!

Gerry Love – One Of His Best:

The song of mine I’m most satisfied with is “Don’t Look Back” from the Grand Prix LP. I really couldn’t explain why, but I’m always quite happy to play that one. I guess it was the first “proper song” I felt I had written; everything before felt like some type of experiment. I like the intro, Raymond plays some really nice stuff and Paul’s drum part was really good.

I still find it easy to sing and when we play it live, it always seems to get a good reception – maybe that’s why I like it.

I came up with the original spark in Hawaii, of all places. Sounds quite ridiculous now; that I was ever in Hawaii, but I think I have photographs to prove it! We were only there for a few days, stopping off, on tour, between Australia and the USA. Although the idea originated in Hawaii, the song was mostly written in Lanarkshire.

Hawaii, eh! Who knew?

Here‘s Don’t Look Back from Grand Prix. And here‘s the stripped down Don’t Look Back from the Teenage Fanclub Have Lost It ep

A couple of years ago, Teenage Fanclub stuck a couple of podcasts on their website, one compiled by Norman and one compiled by Gerry. Both podcasts featured an assortment of curious and obscurities and disappeared faster than the sad cases who arrive at Plain Or Pan after googling ‘Teenage Fanny‘ and don’t find exactly what they were looking for,  so if you missed out, here‘s Gerry’s for the moment.

‘I’ll Keep It With Mine‘ is a Bob Dylan song. He wrote it for Nico, who he was more than slightly infatuated with. But you knew that already. Here‘s one of Bob’s studio run-throughs, understated, under-rehearsed and full of that Thin Wild Mercury sound he was after in the mid 60s. And here‘s Nico’s version from her 1967 Chelsea Girl album.

Coming next in this series –

Six Of the Best from Trashcan Sinatras’ John Douglas.

Six Of The Best is a semi-regular feature that pokes, prods and persuades your favourite bands, bards and barometers of hip opinion to tell us six of the best tracks they’ve ever heard. The tracks could be mainstream million-sellers or they could be obfuscatingly obscure, it doesn’t matter. The only criteria set is that, aye, they must be Six of the Best. Think of it like a mini, groovier version of Desert Island Discs…

Number 2 in a series:

FAST CARS – BUZZCOCKS

If you could encapsulate everything good about my teenage years into a couple of minutes, this would be it (especially if you included the instrumental revamp of Buzzcocks’ Boredom that leads into this song). The shiny, silver sound of my favourite punk band with a Pete Shelley vocal and a Howard Devoto lyric, opening one of my favourite albums and managing to be both ecologically sound and sneery at the same time. I could and will and do listen to it all day.

SOUND AND VISION – DAVID BOWIE

I am slightly rooted in the late 70s. I love all David Bowie, but this bizarre song, self-obsessed and croony, which only becomes a song halfway through, is a swinging classic. Mary Hopkin on backing vocals! These things matter.

GO WEST – PET SHOP BOYS

Music journalists (the good ones anyway) love songs that are made of ideas. This one is an idea that makes you cry. The original by Village People is an OK disco song about moving to San Francisco in the 1970s to live the gay dream. The Pet Shop Boys turned it into a requiem for the people who did that just in time to meet the AIDS epidemic of the 1980s. It’s the saddest song ever to become a terrace anthem, and proof – again – that pop is the best vehicle for intelligence and emotion in music.

FORGOT ABOUT DRE – EMINEM

Eminem’s combination of all kinds of loathing  – but most of all self-loathing – makes him more of an existentialist hero than most rappers, which makes this brilliant single even sweeter, as it’s a message of love to Dr Dre, the producer who recognized Eminem’s talents and made them both international stars. I could listen to Dre and Eminem all day and this song makes that easy to do.

REVOLUTION 9 – THE BEATLES

I wrote a book about the Beatles’ White Album, which was reviewed by Ian MacDonald, the author of Revolution In The Head, the definitively definitive Beatle book. It was the equivalent of being in Mumford and Sons and having Bob Dylan, Ewan MacColl and Fairport Convention come and see you. Ian MacDonald called my book “inessential at best”, which was a bit painful, but when trying to find something positive to say, he did at least say I’d made a case for this track, the epic sound collage that most Beatles fans try and skip. And I do genuinely love Revolution 9. My friends would quote bits of it, and even now Yoko whispering, “You become naked…” or Lennon listing various dances in a comic Northern accent or the EMI engineer chanting, “Number 9…. Number 9…” is as much part of my catchphrase vocabulary as anything else. It’s not a song, but a forest to lose yourself in.

BAT OUT OF HELL – MEAT LOAF

Another one from the late 70s, but you are now what you heard when you were then. And while there are millions of songs I love, I played this last night again so it’s in my head. I’ve owned the album this is on about five times. I used to sell it every so often because it was so uncool. But now I just acknowledge my love for it. Meat Loaf  is part Rocky Horror, part Bruce Springsteen, part teen romance and all sturm und drang. Todd Rundgren makes motorbike noises on a guitar. Meat Loaf sings like a teenage demon. Jim Steinman writes the best rock lyrics, in that they can be dirty and silly and innocent and knowing all at once. But when Meat sings, “Baby, you’re the only thing in this whole that’s pure and good and right,” I become emotional in at least six ways.

David Quantick

Every Six Of the Best compilation comes in a handy RAR download file. Get David Quantick’s here.

Coming next in this series – Six Of the Best from Teenage Fanclub’s Gerry Love.

Six Of The Best is a semi-regular feature that pokes, prods and persuades your favourite bands, bards and barometers of hip opinion to tell us six of the best tracks they’ve ever heard. The tracks could be mainstream million-sellers or they could be obfuscatingly obscure, it doesn’t matter. The only criteria set is that, aye, they must be Six of the Best. Think of it like a mini, groovier version of Desert Island Discs…

Who better to begin with than someone who fills every above criteria of bands, bards and barometers. Most people here will be familiar with the name of John Robb. Favourite bands? That’ll be The Membranes. The Three Johns. Goldblade. Bard? That’ll be his bylines in a variety of broadsheets and music publications as well as his definitive account of The Stone Roses and the Resurrection of British Pop. Buy it here. (Better late than never, eh?) Barometer of hip opinion? The one thing you can guarantee when you read anything written by John is that it will be passionate, opinionated, heartfelt and thrilling – in short, he means it, maaaaaaan. John has the words DIY PUNK ROCK written through his bones like a stick of Blackpool rock and this is reflected in both the subject matter and take-no-prisoners approach of his writing. Take this piece he’s recently written about Flats for example (more on them in a bit). In fact, take the time to visit his website Louder Than War. It’s choc-full of rants, raves and right-on the money reviews. I drop by from time to time. It’s a right good read and I think you’d like it too.

I got in touch with John and asked if he’d like to contribute to this feature. Quicker than you can say “A-Wop-bop-a-loo-bop a-wop-bam-boo“, he’d sent this briliant reply………

I listen to so much music that I find 6 tracks hard to pin down but here goes.

The Stranglers ‘Down in the Sewer’
Funny, dark, sardonic and plain weird…the zig zag Beefheart bass riff in the midddle, the Ventures on acid guitar break and Hugh Cornwall at his oily best, that ass sound and those keyboards at the end- magical. Punk was everything to me, saved my life and even if The Stranglers were not conventional punk their lack of convention made them even more fascinating- from here we discovered Killing Joke,The Fall, Joy Division- the world!

The Beatles ‘Strawberry Fields’
Yearning, nostalgic and disturbing, like the darkest Lewis Carroll story. Tripped-out but also very northern, with the dank, musty air of fifties post war Liverpool of childhood memory warped through LSD and the super hip summer of love – how could that be a pop single?

Crass ‘Shaved Women’
Incessant drums, mangled rhythms and a powerful message from one of the most imaginative British groups of all time- whose music was far ahead of its time and is sat there waiting for a new generation to explore and get inspiration from- and we haven’t even touched the politics yet.

Shellac ‘My Black Ass’
The best recorded rock record of all time. The perfect sound. This is what we were aiming at in The Membranes in the early eighties but just didn’t have the know how. Somehow Albini took that noise and made it into a science and on this track utterly perfected it. When the bass hits it sounds like an avalanche of raw power.

Hariprasad Chaurasia
Indian flute player…Spotify his name – so many great tunes- the Indian flute is so atmospheric it floats me away. I’ve been to India lots of times and its a full-on overload of good and bad coming at you fast. It’s an amazing place and will be the superpower of the 21st century- it has an amazing tradition and a whole rush of stunning music like this that evokes moods and atmospheres that you didn’t know existed- I also love Kirtan- the Indian harmonium religious music.

Included on the compilation is Manzh Khamaz Teental

Flats ‘Let It Slide’*
Pure noise. Indie kids who discovered Crass, Discharge and Rudimentary Peni and made it there own. Seen them live- brilliant- they haven’t connected to their audience yet but they will do- they do this stuff really, really well and when they twist it with their love of Wu Tang Clan and slow dirge noise they could make something totally genius. They are also an example of the endless rush of great young bands out there of differing styles…here’s a few more: Deadbeat Echoes, The Temps, Rats On Rafts, Obsessive Compulsive, Young Fathers, Folks, Charli xvx …

*Sadly I’ve been unable to locate ‘Let It Slide‘ for John’s compilation. Instead I’ve included Flats Waltz, the lead track from their debut EP from August 2010.

John Robb http://www.louderthanwar.com/

Flats

Every Six Of the Best compilation will come in a handy RAR download file. Get John Robb’s here.

*Bonus Track!

Here‘s One of the Best from John – Goldblade‘s Hairstyle. All tch-tch-tch hairspray hi-hats, Blaxploitation brass and Superstition-esque clavinet runs. With a great ‘nah-nah-nah-nah-nah‘ refrain in the middle. Punk/funk? Funk/punk? Who cares!

Coming next in this series – Six Of the Best from David Quantick.