I used to think it would be great to learn piano, just so I could play this song in a lobby somewhere, smile enigmatically, and then wander off into the night. Because it’s such a lovely thing, so simple yet so beautiful, that I can’t imagine anyone hearing it, even for the first time, and not being moved by it.
Although I might have to bring a horn section with me. And a bass player. And a drum machine. And a guitarist. That might be what stopped the plan from ever happening, although I’m prepared to bet voice plus solo piano would be worth hearing, even now. Guess I’d better pick up a piano. From The Flat Earth, a sumptuous album that was probably overwhelmed by having Hyperactive, his big hit that lived up to its name, tacked on the end by the record company despite it standing out like a sore thumb, in a case of an album which would be better without the hit. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IyPPVDX-tVA
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7/7/2017 0 Comments 43. Mrs Robinson – LemonheadsGlebe. How do you explain that? For a small parcel of time, it just seemed to be the coolest place in the world, although to look at it now, as a fancy inner city, middle class neighbourhood, it’s just baffling. It circled around Half a Cow records (and the Valhalla, which was easily the coolest cinema in Sydney for years, and maybe Gleebooks), whose owner joined the Lemonheads on bass just as Evan Dando became the indie world’s official heart throb, and boom.
I wasn’t a big fan of them (well, of him really), although I had a soft spot for Bit Part in Your Life, and I’ve got to admit this just rattles along, justifying some of the hype. And it still holds up, which is nice. And I do like that Nick went back to running his shop and label, giving so many local bands the chance to make a record (most notably Smudge, who had possibly the greatest album name ever: You, Me, Carpark, Now), and probably just have a great life. I remember going in to the shop once and feeling such a geek, because all those cool record shops used to trade on making you feel unworthy: he was actually behind the counter, looked up and said “hey, let me know if you want any help” and went back to chatting with his mate. I bought a bunch of records and comics and took them over, and as he flicked through them to add it up he said “nice choices: I love this one” and I floated out the door and all the way home. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zvMFm5nKeUc 7/6/2017 0 Comments 42. Pace It – Magic DirtI remember talking to Mark at some race somewhere about Magic Dirt, and how they were just a perfect band for a sub-group of people who were looking for a strong female front person with a soaring vocal dropping bombs from on high over huge, huge guitars, bass and drums. Mostly because we were both in that sub-group of people.
Adalita was (and probably still is) an amazing singer, and just commanded a band that could have fought their corner against anyone but chose to follow her into war instead. And what an amazing racket they made, until their bass player Dean died so suddenly and they decided they couldn’t continue without him. I remember You Am I, one of my favourite bands in the world, doing a Live at the Wireless on Triple J with a bunch of mates, and they got Adalita in to sing Berlin Chair, their greatest hit (“how about it Adalita? Here’s your chance at stardom”) and she owned it. I can’t find that version anywhere, but she comes on halfway through this to own them once again. But back with her own band, I just flipped a coin to come up with a track to represent them, and you could do worse than this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mXaySubvFc4 They had so many great moments, The Cruel Sea: that slide solo in Honeymoon is Over and the ma ma ma mas following, the swagger of This Is Not The Way Home, the guitar crunch and the ocifer said of Better Get A Lawyer. But it’s got to be Black Stick, just for the sheer grind of it.
I remember going to see Tex, Don and Charlie at the North Bondi Surf Club with Scott, who lived around the corner from there back in the day: I was staring out of those enormous windows watching the ebb and flow of the tide when Tex walked through the crowd, or more accurately the crowd parted like the sea to allow him, 6’3” and all hair and shoulders with (of course) an impossibly beautiful girlfriend in tow, and he wandered through as though it was the most natural thing in the world. And if you’re Tex Perkins, that probably is just how the world is for you. And fair enough too: I can’t recall him making anything that was less than great, despite turning his hand and voice to so many different things over the years. And he still looks exactly as he did those 25 (or whatever) years ago. The bastard. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mnoceT5zErs I loved the Scrittis back in the eighties, mostly for that beautifully pure falsetto Green used (and which is about the only recognisable element in this track) and the lush orchestration underpinning everything. Which is strange for a bunch of ex-communist punks on Rough Trade, but this song is even stranger.
How do you go from Wood Beez and Absolute to getting in Mos Def and friends to take over the song, relegating yourself to the background of a rap track, as beautiful as it was? I guess if you can if create something as perfect as this, you don’t really care about where you slot in, as long it’s for the greater good. You can’t take the socialism out of old socialists after all. I saw them play in Brixton a while ago, supporting someone else (I think it was Placebo? There’s a sort of symmetry to that, if it was) and they were great, but as a support no one was really paying any attention to them. But it was gratifying that someone still remembered them enough to bring them back into the public realm, particularly as they didn’t really tour when they were famous, because of Green’s crippling stage fright. Mos Def didn’t make an appearance though, sadly enough: I hope because he was busy making Be Kind, Rewind 2. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V7fnyFOlCmI I know it’s got something to do with the footy at home, but since I haven’t lived there for 20 years it hasn’t touched me, leaving me with pure memories of shouting this out in pubs when life was simpler.
Dave Faulkner was a classicist among songwriters, even if they wanted to grungy alternative rockers (Le Hoodoos, indeed), and it’s not really a surprise that they became as big as they did: Bittersweet, My Girl, 1000 Miles Away, Like Wow Wipeout, all genre classics, but this one was on Blow Your Cool, and hearing this in Mickey’s place back in LA gave me my first twinge of homesickness among the excitement of travelling the world for myself for the first time. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ugA5bLqivkY 7/2/2017 0 Comments 38. Nemesis – ShriekbackWho doesn’t like a song that includes the word parthenogenesis in the chorus? Because nothing is sexier than reptilian reproduction, obviously. I loved this band, and in particular their album Oil and Gold, because it was just so ambitious: they’d all been in bands before and clearly thought there should be more to music than four on the floor and a guitar solo.
They’re also one of the bands I regret not seeing live (apparently they just reformed for a tour and I never heard about it. Bummer), although Eyman saw them without me (I can’t remember why) in Seven Hills of all places: the contradiction between them and there is just delicious. The way he tells it he had a beer with the singer before the show and finished on stage singing this with them: I’ve got no way of knowing, but just the thought of it makes me smile. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6bMM61Y5CEU 7/1/2017 0 Comments 37. Anthem – CloudsI just love Clouds, they were such a perfect encapsulation of a period of time in Australia that was is probably my default memory of the place. Two girl harmonies, loud guitars and chugging songs: what’s not to like? My only regret is that I never got to see them live, preferably at the Enmore: that would have been bliss, if you’ll pardon the pun.
They had so many brilliant songs that it’s hard to pick just one: I always love the blink and you’ll miss it joy of Say It and the wind up robot-ness of Souleater, but I’m going to stick with Anthem because of the opening line (“I want something to think about / nothing fancy, just you”) and the amusement of the video, with the Australian flag being knocked over by a radio controlled car. Plus, I’ve always wanted a beach buggy. Who wouldn’t? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=op6ROs1l6us 6/30/2017 0 Comments 36. Johnny Johnny – Prefab SproutSad songs are just the best songs: that’s simply a fact. I’ve always been a sucker for a heartbreak soundtrack, even if I didn’t go through much of it when I was young, mostly by avoiding going out with anyone (if you don’t ask, you won’t be disappointed, as Ross might say), and a lot of it probably comes from spending far too much time with Eyman and trying to out miserable each other.
But when the Sprouts released Steve McQueen it was just a perfect album: tremendous sound from producer Thomas Dolby, a genius cover with the band sitting on a cool old motorbike, and a string of songs about broken hearts. When Love Breaks Down was probably my favourite for such a long time, and it makes sense (miserablism personified, a skinny singer spitting out his heart, and a clip that looked it was made by John Woo but for the lack of guns), although this was really the best thing they’ve ever done: that winding guitar riff, the rolling bass, the lyrics (“what are you, 21? Why don’t you give it a rest / the world is a million”), and the view that changes as the song progresses, from sympathy to the boy to pointing out the simply truths about the situation (“she is a person too / she has her own will”) and even bringing jokes (“why don’t you join the Foreign Legion”, “life’s not complete / ‘til your heart skips a … beat”) like a real friend would. Just beautiful, like all of their songs were. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XmiKqRlfX00 6/29/2017 0 Comments 35. Don’t Change – INXSAs far as I’m concerned, the video for this song should be nothing but footage of flying over Sydney Harbour.
I don’t remember when I first played it on a flight into Sydney – I must have had my iPod on shuffle, and it was one of those serendipitous moments the world throws up every so often – but now every time I fly into Sydney I have to put this song on as we get over the northern suburbs and I watch the city of my birth roll under me, recognising suburbs and landmarks as we go (“that’ll be Jen’s place down there, now it’s Chatswood, and North Sydney, it’s Balmain and the bridge, and if I dropped something out the window now it would land on Alex’s [old] roof…”). It’s an instant nostalgic moment, and one I want to crawl inside of and never leave every single time. My Mum’s probably thinking “yeah, so you haven’t played it much then…” right now. They were such a great band, and Michael Hutchence was just a perfect front man: not a great voice, to be fair, but good enough when it was backed up by that extravagent confidence and his effortless louchness. They don’t make them like that anymore. I’m not sure what is my favourite INXS song (The Gift is tremendous, and Elegantly Wasted, but it’s probably something like Original Sin), but I always have a special place in my heart for this and Johnson’s Aeroplane and all those beautiful old tracks, so vibrant and alive, before they started making hits and the rest of the world caught up to Australia. I saw them live in Centennial Park, along with the rest of Sydney and all the top bands in the country, for the Victor Chang memorial gig (Crowded House were the support, and when they played Weather With You it started to rain, so they played Four Seasons in One Day and the sun came back!) and they were incredible, coming back after breaking the erst of the world and showing us what they’d learned, and Hutchence had the whole place in the palm of his hand. It was just wretched to hear of his death and everything that followed, but I still have a fond place in my heart for those nights in Milan when Bira and I would watch Rock Star: INXS as they looked for a new singer while we drank wine and argued about who was the best choice for them (Bira was always a Marty fan, and Trees was a great track, but I still think Mig was the right choice, as proven after JD won and was later kicked out, although Jordis was amazing too). But none of that matters: this song is perfect and, although I realise it’s probably a subconscious plea for Sydney to be exactly as it was when I left every time I return, which is impossible and unthinkable, I can’t imagine ever returning to Sydney without it. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UNV0Y0EKKnA 6/28/2017 0 Comments 34. There She Goes – The La’sIt must be tough to make something as perfect as this. It’s such a nailed on classic song, just absolutely bullet-proof, but where do you go from there? No point asking The La’s, as they never did anything else. It’s as though they distilled an entire career into one song and called it a day. I know, drugs and fights and so on, and there was the entire career of Cast to follow, but all those years don’t hold a candle to this.
The album was pretty good too, with Timeless Melody and what have you, but this is really the only thing you need to know from them, a perfect slice of Scouser pop, a hymn for every guy who has been in love but didn’t have the words or the guts to tell her, and had to watch her walk by, never knowing. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CZXLLMbJdZ4 I can’t even begin to remember how I found the Campers – they didn’t have any hits, I doubt they were played on radio, they wouldn’t have been big in Melody Maker or any of the other UK music press that I read religiously – but this album was just perfect. Don’t take my word for it, you can hear the whole thing here, and I suggest you do. I’ll wait.
See? I told you it was good. I don’t really know why a major decided to give them a budget to make an album, and I don’t know how a band of scruffy surf punks ended up making something with this much ambition, but I’m really glad they did. Because Stinky will always revert back to Take The Skinheads Bowling or Where The Hell is Bill? from the older albums, or even Pictures of Matchstick Men from the later one when we inevitably reminisce about what a great band the Campers were, but for me it’s always this album, because I’ve played it hundreds of times and it’s just locked in my head. I think it’s the woozy brass section wound through it: it’s certainly why I was struggling to pick between this or Turquoise Jewelry (“take off that jumpsuit, you look like Grace Slick”), or the psych out of She Divines Water, or the words to live by closer Life Is Grand. But no, I’ll stick with Fatima, because whether I hear it in London or Bristol or Bagnacavallo or New York or even good old Double Bay, it makes me smile (“this here’s a government experiment and we’re driving like hell / to give some cowboys some acid, and to stay in motels”) at the memory of listening to it at all of those other places too. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=51PP8TwXrxE Still the greatest song of all time. Fact.
God I love this song so much: I have to stop and listen any time it comes on, to the exclusion of all else (which makes writing this incredibly difficult). I don’t know what caught me first on this song, but it’s probably those strings. What an amazing voice Shara Nelson had, though. I saw them at Sydney Town Hall, in the huge parquet floored main room, and we were suitably fueled for the evening, which featured the heaviest speakers I’d ever been exposed to at that stage. It was a brilliant night, untouchable, and even as we walked out through the detritus of beer cans (I knew even then they’d never put another show on in that room because of the mess, and sadly I was right) it was the sweep and majesty of this song that filled our heads. I’ve seen them a bunch of time since – at Finsbury Park with James, in New York, in Brixton, even in Blackheath – but that first magical night stays with me even now. And now it’s sent me down a magic rabbit hole of Massive Attack tracks – Sly, with it’s Australian bush sounds weaving through it, the neverending build of Risingson, the simple perfection of Protection – and I may get nothing further done today. So be it. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZWmrfgj0MZI This was another Barters’ house song, but Graham always took the lead vocals. It was a huge surprise to us all when he announced he was gay, obviously.
The funniest thing about that is that when we moved to Doonside and I went to school for the first time, in Year 5, at lunch time I saw him sitting there under a tree by himself I asked someone who he was and was told “that’s Graham: he’s a poof.” No idea how anyone knew what that meant at that age, but more baffling again was being told not to be his friend, because that would make me “a poof by proxy”. It was a high attainment school, I’m sure you can tell. So naturally we became mates, I was a PbP, and I’m not sure I cared much even then. I guess the first sign was a few years later, when his girlfriend cried on my shoulder that she couldn’t understand why he wasn’t interested in her, and tried to kiss me: loyally (and no doubt stupidly) I took off and told him next time I saw him, when he said “you should have kissed her back.” It wasn’t long before he came out. But this song, the unparalleled joy of it, the sheer pleasure of shouting “I want you looooooooove!”, that never grows old. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PGNiXGX2nLU Yeah, I know this is possibly the worst single he ever put out, from one of the worst movies ever, but we used to dance like maniacs to this song anyway, so screw you. Plus, it got us to go backwards to the great stuff, but I still love this song from all those nights at the Barters’ house, with a fire blazing in the backyard and the speakers pulled out to surround a makeshift dancefloor Brian built on the grass so we could do slides and splits. Ow!
We had a tracklist of songs that required someone to run in and put the next record on after each one, and they all built up to this, when I’d do the James Brown spin and shuffle with the boys doing backing dances behind me as the place went wild. Okay, so a skinny ginger kid doing James Brown is pretty funny, anyway. And I probably had the hair for it, since I’ve had a variety of crap haircuts. I never played the next song because I need to get my cape and scream “I feel good!” That was the same place I drank rum for the first time, and split my head open getting the bottle out of the washing room sink full of ice. I probably danced better for it. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c5BL4RNFr58 I don’t care: this is one of the greatest dance songs of all time, and if you can’t see that then it’s your problem. There was a year (I don’t know, maybe 1991?) where you just simply couldn’t escape this song, and nor did you want to. Groove is always in the heart: that’s right. Ignore the version where they eradicated Bootsy – that’s a crime against nature, simply to save some publishing rights – this is the one to have.
There was a whole bunch of those psychedelic rap songs around for a while – all the De La Souls, Arrested Developments and so on – but none of them make me smile as much as this song. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=etviGf1uWlg It’s just a brilliant groove, isn’t it? Rolling and rocking and just moving on and on. Kind of like the campaign for Mandela was, I guess, until he was finally released. I never really knew much about The Specials – I didn’t even really get into Ghost Town until The Prodigy did an amazing cover of it, and I worked backwards – but this song just burned up the radio and I had to buy it. And I didn’t even get my free Mandela with the 12”, ho ho ho.
Strangely enough, I wanted to call my dog Nelson and, even though I was evidently pro-Mandela, it was actually after Piquet, the first guy I really followed in F1 (and to be fair, it’s probably a bit insulting to name a dog after a human rights activist and living embodiment of patience and guile. But for a racing driver it’s fine), but ultimately I didn’t do it because I didn’t want people to think poorly of me for yelling “Nelson” after a dog. Plus, we had cousins with the family name Nelson, which might have been confusing. So I called him Digger, and then had to be very careful how to pronounce it. I met Piquet on the first day of the first season of GP2 actually, back in Imola all those years ago: I’d had a couple of years of interview current F1 drivers under my belt by then, but this was something else, and I was remarkably shy around him, even though he was just some old guy (and a driver’s dad) by then, rather than a 3 time world champion. I spent the first half of the season trying to convince Nelson Jr that, despite working for Autosport, I wasn’t going to screw him over like they had his dad (in favour of Mansell), but ultimately I won him over to the extent that he started playing pranks on me, including pouring a bucket of water while I was interviewing someone else: I chase him around the paddock before finally grabbing him in his truck and making him give me a new shirt, only for GP2 to tell me I couldn’t wear team uniform. I just found it the other day, actually. Happy days: I think he was on the podium in Le Mans on the weekend? Not sure what it has to do with Nelson Mandela, though. Or The Specials. A message to you, anyhow. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AgcTvoWjZJU I once made the claim to Will Buxton that Neil Finn is the greatest rock songwriter of our time. And I was right. He protested, obviously, because he’s a Paul McCartney fan and he thinks The Beatles are the greatest band of all time. He might even be right about that – they’re certainly the benchmark for the position – but Paul needed John to write their greatest hits, and vice versa. Sure, they wrote some great songs individually, but as many as Neil? I’d argue not.
Which is what makes this so hard to choose: how to pin down one song among so many greats? I’m just going to stick with Fall today, because of the immense swoon of it, the warm and tender embrace of the melody. But it could have been so many others: Into Temptation (and it hurts almost physically not to pick that), Seven Worlds, Weather With You, Distant Sun, Private Universe, Don’t Dream It’s Over, Not The Girl You Think You Are … I’ll stop now, because I’m just turning this into a list, but you get the point I’m making, I’m sure. I can see Buxton shaking his head and trying to form words to argue, and if all I’ve done is make him speechless for a while then it’s a public service, and you’re welcome. But Neil, at his best, took elements of both Paul (those gorgeous melodies) and John (“the finger of blame has turned upon itself”) and fused them into a whole – he was obviously a student of their work and would claim he wasn’t fit to shine their shoes but false modesty helps no one, and the body of work he’s put together, with the Crowdies and away from them, is a canon of timeless quality. And that’s without mentioning how good they are live – I saw them busk in Martin Place, and any number of other times including at Wembley (although not at their “final” show at the Opera House, because the girl I was going out with at the time had her birthday and didn’t want to go, so we were about the only people in Sydney, including all my friends, not to go, or at least watch on telly. We split up a week or so later…), and their crowd interaction is better than almost any other band I’ve seen. I remember going to see Liam Finn in London with Gardie one night, and Neil turned up to play a couple of songs before walking off through the crowd, which parted like the Red Sea for him: Gardie couldn’t help himself and hugged Neil, because being American he’s like that, but all I could do was shake his hand (now Gardie had stopped him) and say thanks before stepping out of his way as he headed out of the venue and into the night. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zZdcz1ALuBo (live) or https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gyVGNcD8PNo (record). I’ve always liked a good three piece band (and also always liked The Fauves’ Three Piece too, even if they were taking the piss out of them). There’s just something about the symmetry of them: everyone has a job, and the whole thing demands they all work together or it collapses, and the Violent Femmes were such a great example of that. Their songs are seemingly so simple, but every component is essential: the acoustic guitar, the acoustic bass, the whiny vocals, the skiffle beat snare, the combination of which is pure alchemy.
The Femmes are a band that cross over so many groups and timeframes for me: dancing around at The Farm (“why can’t I get just one kiss”), seeing them busking in front of the Opera House and then more raucously at Selina’s (I didn’t realise I went there so many times until I started writing these pieces), in New York/Italy/Bristol with Stinky, and they never sound anything but great, even though they’re properly old now. And who’d have thought a bunk of punks from Milwaukee would still be going strong after all these years. I should probably mention that Grosse Point Blank is one of my favourite albums, with one of the greatest soundtracks of all time: if you haven’t seen it, go do it now. Off you go. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rswiq4Hi-tc It’s not their best song – that’s Just Because – but it’s my favourite of theirs, just because of when it hit. It just rolls and rolls, and it’s such a ridiculous tune, with an even more ridiculous video (that reminds me of going to the supermarket in La Mirada, obviously), and it was a perfect song as far as I could tell when it came out.
It was only later when I found an old flyer that I realised: “Hey, you know that Been Caught Stealing song?” “Yeah.” “We saw them in LA.” “Shut up.” But it was true. We got taken to The Scream, this new cool club in an old building, and I remember walking up the carpeted stairs (that later featured in David Lynch’s Wild At Heart: “mah jacket is a symbol of mah in-div-id-u-al-itee…”) and thinking “this is pretty flash” before annoyingly being stamped with a Coke bottle on my wrist (because we were too young to drink), and then this band came on with a tall, blonde, dreadlocked singer (who might have been the bass player: to be honest we were getting drinks anyway) singing some song called Stop, and it was amazing. And back in Sydney, there it was on the flyer: Creado y regado de Los Ángeles, ¡Juana's adicción! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jrwjiO1MCVs |