Caravan Club (Slight Return) - A Guest Post

 

I'm delighted to say that we are concluding this series with a guest post from Dubhead himself. And no doublers from Rol's contribution last week. Take it away Khayem

Yanked from the conveyor belt, metres away from the compactor, here’s half a dozen caravan

songs that nearly ended up as neat-but-heavy cubes of crushed metal.

I have a long relationship with caravans: many childhood holidays in Weymouth, Clan K excursions

to Dorset and Pembrokeshire in the late 2000s. Lots of happy memories.

In the 1990s, an ex-girlfriend bagged a relative’s caravan in Dorset and whisked me away for a

romantic weekend. I don’t know what was more odd:

that said caravan was reminiscent of the one featured in that Father Ted episode ;

that was my girlfriend’s idea of a romantic weekend (though we were pretty broke at the time); or

that;

after a quick obligatory stop en route, my grandad gifted us with a 4-pound bag of runner beans,

plucked from his back garden. I kid you not, by day 3, we had pizza topped with runner beans and

still had plenty to bring home.

None of which I think has ever been successfully captured in song. However, here are half a dozen

triers.

Karl Wallinger, who sadly passed on 10th March, may well have had a similar experience, his song

You're a Hurricane , I'm  a Caravan appearing on World Party’s 2000 album, Dumbing Up.

If that isn’t quite evoking a cinematic experience for you, how about Juliette Dans La Caravane by

French hipsters The Limiñanas and Laurent Garnier from their 2021 album De Película?

Speaking of films, the first time I heard Duke Ellington’s 1936 classic was a cover version by the

Arthur Lyman Group which featured in the Clooney & Pitt remake of Ocean’s Eleven. But I’m not

going to share either of those. Instead you get the John Buzon Trio’s 1959 cover version, remixed

in 1999 by Eat Static. The latter were possibly staying in a caravan with the windows closed and

the bong on the go when they recorded this version.

Possibly under the influence of other mind-altering substances, Jim Morrison took to addressing

his caravan in the first person, beseeching it to carry him away to Portugal and Spain and “fields

full of grain” (but presumably not the rain that falls mainly on the plain). The rest of The Doors

indulged Jim’s nonsense ramblings by providing some beautiful music.

Last but not least, a couple of plain Caravan songs from John Cale (2003) and Inspiral Carpets

(1991) before the conveyor belt is fired up again and the hollow husks of holiday homes are tossed

back on to meet their fate.

World Party - You're a Hurricane, I'm a Caravan

The Liminanas/Laurent Garnier - Juliette Dans La Caravane

John Buzon Trio - Caravan (Eat Static Mix)

The Doors -Spanish Caravan

John Cale - Caravan

Inspiral Carpets - Caravan

CC writes:

Many thanks Khayem for bringing this series to an end. Swiss Adam will be happy to see the Inspiral Carpets getting an airing.