Magnapop: Merry

Track of the Week - 12 January 2025

Over the years I've posted about a 'big night out' that I and my old friends (in both senses of the word)  have early in the New Year. And that's the case this year too.

We had a merry old time chatting over a few drinks and a curry. Some of us may have been a bit on the merry side too if you are aware of that euphemism for being in drink. And we had a visit from one of our old chums we haven't seen for 20 years or so whose surname is not un-adjacent to the title of this week's track.

Merry was originally on the b-side of Atlanta-based alternative rockers Magnapop's 1990 single Rip The Wreck which was released under the name Homemade Sister. Two years later it was an a-side in its own right and featured on the band's self-titled debut album.

It's a cracking piece of 90s indie-rock.

Sultans of Ping FC: Where's Me Jumper?

Track of the Week - 5 January 2025

Don't worry, I haven't mislaid a jumper. This post is jumper-related so I needed a jumper song - and I've used two different versions of Jumper Clown already.

I did think about Undone - The Sweater Song by Weezer but this post is about a Christmas jumper. They don't get called Christmas sweaters (round here anyway.) I'll get on with it.

I was in a large supermarket doing the fortnightly big provisions shop when a man approached and said: "I like your jumper. Classic album that." He had seen my Christmas jumper which uses the album cover from the Wedding Present's Seamonsters as its design.

I thanked him and said it was one of my very favourite albums and they were still available to buy if he wanted one himself. And that there is now also a design based on the band's previous album Bizarro, giving him a year to get himself one in time for next Christmas.

He thanked me and said he would consider it. We went our separate ways.

Where's me Jumper by Irish punks The Sultans of Ping was a 1992 single that made number 67 in the UK charts and features on debut album Casual Sex in the Cineplex released the following year.

It's tremendous fun. I particularly enjoy the start of the song and its 'manifesto poem' for want of a better description.

Suede: Lazy

Track of the Week - 29 December 2024

Look, I haven't been completely idle, There have been festive visits, a bit of shopping and the general household chores but there has also been a lot of sitting on the sofa reading and/or watching the darts.

Lazy was a 1997 single by Suede. It got to number nine. I could write more if I felt like it but... fill the rest in yourselves.

The Crystals: Santa Claus Is Comin' to Town

Track of the Week - 22 December 2024

Yes, I generally pick a festive tune at this time of year and yes, Santa Claus is coming to town (if you've been nice of course) but I've got here by an odd route.

There's a book swap section of the place where I volunteer and I picked up a volume of short stories called Silent Nights: Christmas Mysteries. It delivered a mystery of its own.

Very close to the end of the book I found a folded piece of lined paper, left by a previous owner I imagine. Written on that paper was a short list:

Find cards

Write out cards

Get Christmas presents

That seems like a pretty obvious set of things to do on the run up to Christmas so it leads me to a list of my own:

Who needed to put that on a list? 

Did they complete those tasks? 

Had they intended to add more and not got round to it?

Why is the list inserted two pages from the end of the book's last story? 

Did something happen which resulted in them not finishing it? 

Curious.

So a festive song that mentions a list brings me to Santa Claus is Comin' to Town. Written as far back as 1934 it's been recorded umpteen times since.

I'm going with The Crystals version.

Dillon Carmichael: Hose Water

Track of the Week - 15 December 2024

Nearly ten years of this and I may be about to write the most boring post yet. Here goes.

We had a water butt installed earlier this year, attached to our conservatory. It seemed the right thing to do, collect our own water for when the garden plants needed it and also save money and resources. It probably is the right thing to do but it hasn't worked as planned.

The conservatory roof is so good at funnelling the water that the butt fills up too quickly. We have a couple of trough overflows but now we have too much water. We need to get rid of it.

We've moved on from buckets (I was fed up with looking like Mickey Mouse in the Sorcerer's Apprentice bit of Fantasia) and now have a hose attachment which we can run from the water butt to empty it down a storm drain in between heavy downpours. 

If you've made it this far, well done.

I searched for songs with hose in the title and found Hose Water by American country music singer Dillon Carmichael. I listened to a bit of it, it's not my thing. And I don't think drinking the water out of our hose will be Mr Carmichael's thing. There's leaves and moss and some sort of worms in it and that's just what I can see.

Lynsey de Paul and Mike Moran: Rock Bottom

Track of the Week - 8 December 2024

Yesterday I went to see Swindon Town play Fleetwood Town. Before the match Swindon went into the game propping up the entire Football League for the first time*. 92nd out of 92. Rock bottom.*

I don't know why this track has stuck with me all these years. Rock Bottom was the UK's Eurovision Song Contest entry in 1977, ultimately finishing second to France. It also reached number 19 in the charts for singer-songwriter Lynsey de Paul and writer/producer Mike Moran.

Catchy little tune. Worth watching the video for Ronnie Hazlehurst's conducting get-up!

* Since the reorganisation of the league in the late 1950s that got rid of Division Three North and South anyway.

** Swindon won so are now up to the heady heights of 90th out of the 92. Good times.

Birdland: Letter You Know

Track of the Week - 1 December 2024

My volunteering this week threw up something I hadn't done before. A man came in wanting me to read a letter he'd received to help him understand it. This isn't totally unusual, we meet people without English as a first language or with rudimentary literacy skills, but the contents were.

The letter was from the Home Office and as I read it I realised that I was about to tell the man that his request for asylum had been successful and he had leave to remain in the country for five years.

I don't think he could quite believe (or maybe understand) what he was hearing so he asked: "does this mean congratulations?" "Yes," I replied, "congratulations!" We shook hands and he left with a big smile on his face.

The first 'letter' song that came to mind was this one, Letter You Know. Trouble is, I couldn't remember who it was by. It took more of a search than it should have done but I got there in the end. Birdland. It's from their self-titled album released in 1991. 

It's a bit too restrained and polished when compared to their early work and live shows. That's much more to my taste. Here's a post from 2021 when I featured their much better Hollow Heart.