Up until about a week ago I never owned anything by Madness apart from the odd download here and there or a song or two on compilations.
They were a great singles band and produced a lot of good songs but I have never felt the urge to splash the cash until now.
Bu what the hell - it is time to start living on the edge and for a whopping 50p in BRICC in Ballantrae I became the proud owner of a slightly battered but perfectly playable Complete Madness CD.
Welcome to The House of Fun Madness - Madness
We are back from our week away to a bombsite.
The plan was that when we were away a new bathroom was to be put in.
However, when ripping out the bath they discovered that there was a degree of rot underneath leading to the joists having to be replaced.
All of which has led to a delay.
So after a week in a hotel in Portpatrick we had to spend the weekend in a hotel in East Kilbride.
It is still not finished so there may well be a reduced service again this week as we try to get back to some sort of normality.
As for the music meagre pickings on our travels although I did pick up the above album by Marianne Faithfull which focusses on her output from the 60's.
You should all be familiar with these two.
Disc two of Big Gold Dreams - A Story of Scottish Independent Music 1977- 1989 covers the period 1980 to 1882.
After listening to this disc I have come to the conclusion that after Zimbabwe, Scotland is in fact the spiritual home of jingly jangly guitar music.
I missed Edinburgh band Scars at the time first becoming aware of them after watching The Sound of Young Scotland documentary.
In the comments section of my previous post about them some of my esteemed colleagues waxed lyrical about All About You. I can now see why.
I never knew that so many bands had come out of Edinburgh until I got this boxset. I was however aware that Josef K originated from there although they had the good sense to switch from Salt'n' Sauce to Salt'n'Vinegar when they signed to Glasgow's Postcard label. Sorry For Laughing, however, was released on the Belgian Les Disques du Crepescule label.
I've no idea where Everest the Hardway originate from but I now know that they had two bass players one of whom Ian Stoddart went on to join Win with the other Mike Peden joining The Chimes who had abig hit with the awful I Still Haven't Found Who I'm Looking For.
This song really should not still be relevant 55 years after it was recorded. So that’s two songs I’ve given you that will not be surpassed by anything else you hear today.
Next is a track by late 60s hairy hippy rockers Mountain (and for crying out loud don’t show any children a photograph of this lot, they’ll be scarred for life)
I’ll spare you the dreadful Merle Haggard song, and instead give you this majestic song from Peace To The Neighborhood, which comes pretty damned close to being as good as the first two tracks above:
Nina Simone’s track is simply not nearly good enough for me to post. And the one I know you wanted, by Pussycat is not about the state as far as I can make out from the lyrics.
Instead, here’s Chester Arthur Burnett, who was born in White Station, Mississippi:
Alexander O’Neal and “Hound Dog” Taylor were born in Natchez.
The song Jackson, made famous by Mr and Mrs Cash, is not about Jackson, Mississippi, I checked. But, looka yonder, here’s a song that references Elvis Presley’s birthplace:
I can’t work out what Jackson Lucinda Williams is referring to so I can’t include it here.
Not quite an ICA, as there are 7 tracks, not the ten as required by JC, but when put together still album length. A short album of ca. 30 mins, but Pet Sounds is shorter, as is Last Dance Before Highway.
I picked up Songs in the Key of Life in Ballater's only charity shop.
What's that you ask? You are only just getting to picking up this masterpiece?
Surely it has been on the shelves before now?
Of course it has silly. I was merely replacing the older version which was one of those old double CD jibjobs which is about an inch thick.Given that space is always at a premium, despite a recent investment in some new CD towers, it seemed like a good idea. Plus it is always good to give a charity shop custom particularly when they let me have a look at the CDs in the back shop. Sadly I had the few good ones and nothing else caught my fancy.
From 1976 on the Tamla (Motown) label it is part of Stevie Wonder's 70s holy trinity alongside Talking Book and Innervisions.Fulfillingness' First Finale is another album from that period that often gets a mention but is not one that I am familiar with.I probably ought to be. I would put it third after Innervisions first and Talking Book second. It's still a classic though and just the thing for a Sunday morning.
I got Big Gold Dreams - A Story of Scottish Independant Music 1977 -1989 for my birthday.
A Cherry Red 5 CD Boxset with a stonking 115 songs.
It's not really something you can tackle in a oner and I have found myself dipping in and out of it since then.
Being a generous guy I've decided to share a bit of it with you over the next few weeks.
The discs are chronilogical and given that disc 1 is from 1977 to 1980 it is easily the most punky of the bunch.
And who can be more punky than the Rezillos?
A band formed at Edinburgh College of Art . Here is I Can't Stand My Baby which is the first song on the box set and which preceded Top of the Pops the song that shot them to fame.
I instantly recognised The Shape of Things to Come despite it not having crossed my rader very often in the 40 years since it was first released. Even if you had offered me a large sum of money I couldn't have told you that it was by The Headboys who were another Edinburgh band.
The final offering is by yet another Edinburgh band TV21. This is totally coincidental given that I chose the songs and then started reading the blurb in the boxset to populate this post.. Named after a Gerry Anderson comic another impressive piece of trivia is that guitarist Ally Palmer is responsible for curating the Scottish football magazine Nutmeg.
When I went to see Dave Alvin and Jimmie Dale Gilmore (which was as brilliant as you would expect) Dave mentioned that his big brother and fellow Blaster Phil had been in hospital recently but was thankfully on the mend.
Then I featured The Blasters with Hollwood Bed as part of my ICA contribution to George's CaliforniaState of the Union post.
All of which got me thinking that the band who gave us American Music would be just the thing to shake the dregs of the week out our hair and to blast us into the weekend with three numbers from Testament -The Complete Slash Recordings.
