Hands up who thought that heavy drug references in music arrived in the 60s and the ‘straights’ just didn’t get it? Well if that’s you, you’re very, very wrong. Fred Astaire was singing about Benzedrine in a song back in 1942. The song was “On The Beam” written by Johnny Mercer and Jerome Kern. Astaire sang it in the film ‘You Were Never Lovelier‘ (Thank you to the rather excellent Word magazine for bringing this to my attention)
It’s certainly not the earliest drug reference in song either. Cole Porter wrote “I Get A Kick Out Of You” for the Broadway musical ‘Anything Goes‘ in the early thirties and the song has the lines ‘Some get a kick from cocaineI’m sure that if I took even one sniff That would bore me terrifically, too’ I love that I have been able to talk about lines and cocaine in the same sentence there!
Feel free to contribute with your own favourite drug reference in songs, especially if it’s earlier than these two!
Supreme Disco Diva Donna Summer passed away today aged just 63. It has been reported that she had battled breast cancer and lung cancer and died at her home in Key west, Florida. She was born LaDonna Adrian Gaines exactly 10 years and one day before me.
In the late 60s Donna auditioned for the part of Sheila in the Broadway production of ‘Hair’ but the part went to Melba Moore. However when the show moved to Europe she was offered the part and moved to Germany. She later went on to appear in the stage versions of ‘Godspell’ and ‘Showboat’.
While in Germany she married an Austrian, Helmuth Sommer in 1972. They divorced later but Donna kept an Anglicised version of her surname. She also learned to speak fluent German. She met influential producer Giorgio Moroder while she was singing backing vocals for Three Dog Night. Her first album came out in 1974 and was titled ‘Lady Of The Night’. A single taken from the album “The Hostage” went to number one in Belgium. Following this Donna worked with Moroder on an idea for a song that eventually became her first major hit, “Love To Love You Baby“. It was eventually released in November 1975 in both the edited 7 inch version and the extended 17 minute 12 inch version. The latter was at the request of Casablanca Records head honcho Neil Bogart. Many radio stations refused to play the song owing to the orgasmic moans it featured. Those noises certainly worked well on my teenage mind!
Donna Summer would be seen by many as a singles artist, but in my opinion she also released some superb albums. In particular the four albums that came out through 1976 to 1977; ‘A Love Trilogy‘, ‘Four Seasons Of Love’, ‘I Remember Yesterday‘ and ‘Once Upon A Time’. Of course the track that epitomizes the peak of her disco success was almost hidden away on ‘I Remember Yesterday’; that track was “I Feel Love“. There is a very strong argument to say that this song was one of the most influential songs ever, certainly of the 70s. Without it there may never have been electro, techno and according to the Fatboy himself (that’ll be Norman Cook) no Acid House either. David Bowie recalled Brian Eno‘s reaction on hearing the song when they were recording in Berlin. Bowie said ‘One day in Berlin … Eno came running in and said, ‘I have heard the sound of the future.’ … he puts on ‘I Feel Love’, by Donna Summer … He said, ‘This is it, look no further. This single is going to change the sound of club music for the next fifteen years.’ Which was more or less right’
Her last big album of the 70s was 1979’s ‘Bad Girls’ which spawned three classic Donna Summer singles; “Hot Stuff”, “Bad Girls” and “Dim All The Lights”. Whilst the 70s was probably where she peaked she did release a few more classics. In the 80s there was “On The Radio”, “State Of Independence” and “She Works Hard For The Money”. Also in the 80s there was the stuff she recorded with Stock, Aitken and Waterman, notably “This Time I Know It’s For Real”. I heard Pete Waterman talking about Donna on Simon Mayo’s Radio 2 show earlier today. He said that she was by far one of the most amazing and talented vocalists he had ever worked with. She scored a few number ones on the US dance charts as late as 2008 and 2010. She also won five Grammys between 1979 and 1998.
She became embroiled in controversy over alleged derogatory comments about gay people and AIDS. However she refuted those claims and publicly apologised. But this should not mar her glittering career. I for one will miss such a great talent and my thoughts go to her family, friends and legions of fans across the world. Donna Summer RIP.
A few of you will know that I am part of what can probably only be described as a jokes syndicate. I receive tons of jokes from friends via text/ SMS and send them on to a select group of 18 people. I presume these 18 send them on to their buddies too. Perhaps this is what the real six degrees of separation is all about!
I occasionally receive a music related joke as I did earlier this week. If you are easily offended I suggest you stop reading now because I am going to publish said joke in this post. You have been warned! I would be interested to know if any of you have already seen this via an SMS/ text message, who knows, we may have mutual acquaintances.
Mick Hucknall of Simply Red has been arrested for shagging a rabbit. Apparently he was holding back the ears and singing bunnies too tight to mention!
And finally to show that I have ill feeling toward Mr Hucknall, it is only a joke after all, here are three Simply Red classics fo you to enjoy
According to a recent article in the Australian Geographic magazine it seems that global warming in the Mesozoic era may have been caused by windy dinosaurs. Scientist have calculated that all the herbivore sauropods produced around 470 million tonnes of methane, that compares with up to 90 million tonnes produced by modern ruminant animals, which includes cows, pigs and giraffes. I suspect that Catwoman (my good lady wife to those of you who aren’t regular readers of this blog) would say that I contribute another 50 million tonnes at least!
Current global emission of methane including natural and man-made (and me) is in the region of 470 tonnes and plays a big part in the warming of the planet. I would like to thank Simon Mayo‘s show on Radio 2 yesterday for bringing this wonderful story to my attention. Come on anything that is fart related has to be funny right? They used this story as the theme for a number of tracks yesterday, my favourite of those was probably “Whodunit” by Tavares. But the one that they didn’t play is the one I will use to bring this flatulent dinosaur story back to music. It is the rather beautiful sonnet, “I’ve Parted (Misprint)” by Ivor Biggun and the Red Nosed Burglars. Did you know that Ivor Biggun is in fact Doc Cox who used to appear on Esther Rantzen‘s ‘That’s Life‘ programme?
Enjoy the song, which in my opinion is a brilliant earworm and I’m confident it will be in your head for days! Click here to read the article on the Australian Geographic site.
Goldie Lookin’ Chain are back in the news, but probably not for any reason that you might be thinking. Rhys Hutchings aka Zardoz, P.Xain & Dwain Xain Zedong (well they are his personas in the band), has been elected as a local councillor in the St Julians ward of Newport in Wales.
He was announced the winner after three recounts having polled more than 900 votes. His comments were quoted on the NME as “It’s the hardest thing I’ve had to do since my Duke of Edinburgh Award when I was fifteen years old. I’m chuffed to have won and it comes after hard work by my supporters and I’ve got to thank them for that. I can’t wait to help those people that trusted me and voted for me.” I wonder where he will stand on gun law, because as we all know “Guns Don’t Kill People, Rappers Do”
Enjoy some classic cuts from GLC to celebrate Councillor Hutchings win.
According to the UK tabloid the Sun Prince Harry has aspirations to become a reggae DJ. This apparently all stemmed from what has been described as an inspirational meeting with Bob Marley’s widow Rita on his recent visit to Jamaica. He has supplemented his House music vinyl collection with some heavy reggae on vinyl and has taken mixing lessons.
Someone needs to sign him up for a club gig, for a Royal he seems to have a good attitude. Coming from me that is high praise indeed. I wished that I hadn’t retired as a mobile DJ, otherwise I’d have offered my help. In fact maybe my life long buddy Glen and I (formerly Bill & Glen the Disco Men) should reform and let Harry join the team. How does Harry, Bill & Glen the Royal Disco Men sound?
I have some sad news to report, some of you may know this already, Adam Yauch or MCA of the Beastie Boys passed away earlier today. He finally lost his battle with cancer aged just 47. I believe that the Beastie Boys were among a handful of really groundbreaking acts of their generation paving the way for white rap and legions of rock/ rap crossovers.
On top of all that they were also the people who really kick started the awareness and promotion of a free Tibet. They are on the Chinese governments undesirable list. That to me says that they did things really well. Many people will remember Adam and the rest of the group for the controversies of their early years. I will remember them as a classic act who were not afraid to use their position to influence the world around them.
My thoughts are with Adam’s family, friends, fans and especially Mike D and Ad-Rock. Take some time out to enjoy some of my favourite Beastie Boy tracks in memory of Adam Yauch. RIP MCA.
Today is May 3rd which must mean that tomorrow is Star Wars Day right? Of course it is; May the 4th be with you! I thought I’d celebrate this with a couple of Star Wars related tracks. Notably Ash, they did a cover of Cantina Band as a B Side to their classic single “Girl From Mars“. They also opened their album ‘1977’ with the sound of a TIE Fighter, whilst their label was called Deathstar.
Do you ever get the feeling that some days are just going to be crap days? I don’t get that feeling much at all, however yesterday was one of them. I parked my car the usual 5 minute walk from the office and started walking. It was a typical British spring day in that it was bloody cold. So I had my raincoat on with the collar up. Why did I have the collar up? Actually it was to keep the wind off me, although I don’t mind rocking that FBI agent look occasionally. Anyway it turns out I was lucky to have my collar up, for halfway to the office I heard and felt an almighty splash on my shoulder and the back of my neck.
Yes I had been shat on from a great height and judging from the volume of shit it was either a really large bird or a flock that had practised synchronised defecation. But because my collar was up every last drop stayed on my raincoat, otherwise it would have been right down the back of my shirt collar. It was quite obvious that I had been used as a bird toilet (or bird bathroom for my US readers) but still two people stopped me and said “Do you know you’ve got bird shit on you?”
The footnote is that when I arrived back at the car to go home it had been bombed with two of the largest dollops of bird shit I have ever seen. Still I suppose we should be thankful that elephants can’t fly, well apart from Dumbo anyway. Incidentally whilst it was a moderately crappy day for me, it was nowhere near as bad as the birds had perhaps tried to indicate.
So as I have said many times before, so how can I bring this post back to music I hear you ask. relatively easy really, take some time out, especially if you’ve had a shitty day, to enjoy “Pigeons” by Genesis
So yes, let’s be thankful that elephants can’t fly!
At last work has started on cataloging the music collection of the late, great John Peel. A project called The Space at the John Peel Centre in Stowmarket is aiming to recreate his library and home studio. Details of his 25,000 strong vinyl album collection is being put on-line at the rate of 100 per week in alphabetical order. This has already begun and includes Adam and the Ants and Abba. The website does not allow you play the music but it will give links to places where you will be able to listen to it.
Along with the album covers even Peel’s index cards have been digitized for the project which benefits from Arts Council funding. I am looking forward to watching it grow on-line, although one worrying point is that Arts Council funding only runs until October. By this time it is hoped to have at least 2,600 album details on-line. Click here to check out the rather excellent site.
A few years ago I considered the idea of contacting John Peel and possibly Elton John (who also has a very large music collection) with a view to offering my services as organiser and curator of their music collections. I had a vision that this would also include building a database for the collection. So if you’re reading this Elton please feel free to get in touch. I will be in the crowd when you play the Royal Harrogate Showground next month!
what song should I choose to celebrate such a momentous piece of Peel news? Surely there is only one option right? yes John Peel’s favourite song ever; “Teenage Kicks” by the Undertones.
With Just A Hint Of Mayhem 