Paul Weller's All Time Top Ten Songs

As told to Smash Hits Magazine for their Sept 20-Oct 3, 1979 issue ( via Like Punk Never Happened ). At the time he was promoting The Jam's fourth album, Setting Sons.

1. The Nips: Gabrielle
2. The Slits: Instant Hit
3. Purple Hearts: Millions Like Us
4. Gang of Four: Elevator
5. Vapors: Spring Collection
6. Wire: Outdoor Miner
7. Skids: Into the Valley
8. Whirlwind: Rockin High School Baby
9. Joy Division: Transmission
10.The Undertones: Family Entertainment

These are in no particular order. You could put in any single by Wire, The Nips or The Skids because I like them all. ~ Paul

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Odds And Sods: George Harrison - Party Seacombe

[purchase]

   I dedicate this post to George Harrison who passed away on this date ten years ago. His last words: "Love one another".

  Harrison's  Wonderwall Music , released on November 1st of 1968--three weeks before The White Album , is considered by many to be the first Beatles solo album. ( Those people would be Beatle fans and Beatle buffs. Beatle fanatics would argue that McCartney's 1967 "The Family Way" soundtrack was first).

Wonderwall Music IS actually a soundtrack to a little seen 1968 film starring Jane Birkin. At the time Harrison --like Lennon--was playing with tape loops. Most of the album was recorded with Indian musicians already on hand for the Beatles "Lady Madonna" B-side "The Inner Light", but Eric Clapton, Ringo Starr and even The Monkees' Peter Tork played on one or more cuts using pseudonyms (Ringo was "Richie Snare" - a terrific name for a cat). Harrison himself did not play on the album. ( So there's a bar bet for you: who was the only Beatle to play on George Harrison's Wonderwall Music? The answer is Ringo Starr.)

  Our track, "Party Seacombe", is a first cousin ,once-removed of the Magical Mystery Tour cut "Flying". At 4:37 it's probably twice as much melotron as you need, but there you go.

George from the liner notes of Wonderwall Music

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I Was A College Radio DJ In The 80's: Sex Clark 5 - I Want You Mine

[purchase]

A Southern-friend Young Fresh Fellows, The Sex Clark Five hailed from "Rocket City": Huntsville, Alabama.
In 1985, a copy of their 45-sized  EP Neita Grew Up Last Night made its way to the basement of the Tulane University student center. It was full of short lo-fi Beatlesque pop tunes like "I Want You Mine" ( now deleted) and "Red Shift". Naturally I played it every week.



The EP also caught the attention of legendary BBC Radio DJ John Peel who brought them in for at least one Peel session. A.C. Newman of The New Pornographers nominated the SC5 as one of his "unsung heroes" in a 2006 issue of GQ.

BONUS!

WTUL Promo: Mel Noonard "If"

My first promo for  WTUL was inspired by all the cool band promos we would get and Bill Murray's lounge singer routine. Not sure where I got the backing instrumental version of "If".

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Robert Forster of The Go-Betweens: Ten Rules of Rock And Roll.

[purchase]


"Sometimes I play a game in my head: name the five best American rock bands of the ’60s. My list goes: The Velvet Underground, The Byrds, The Beach Boys, The Doors, and then I stall on the fifth. Creedence? The Band – although they’re mostly Canadian. Simon and Garfunkel? Jefferson Airplane? The Lovin’ Spoonful? But I plump for The Monkees."—Robert Forster


Robert Forster tried his hand at rock criticism for the Australian magazine The Monthly and won the Pascall Prize for Critical Writing in 2006. His book 10 Rules came out in 2009 but I know how much 1001Songs readers like lists so here we go:


1. Never follow an artist who describes his or her work as "dark".
2. The second-last song on every album is weakest.
3. Great bands tend to look alike.

4. Being a rock star is a 24-hours-a-day job.
5. The band with the most tattoos has the worst songs.

6. No band does anything new on stage after the first 20 minutes.
7. The guitarist who changes guitars on stage after every third number is showing you his guitar collection.
8. Every great artist hides behind their manager.

9. Great bands don't have members making solo albums.
10. The three-piece band is the purest form of rock and roll expression.

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Deep Cuts: The Kinks - Oklahoma U.S.A.

              [purchase]

  When asked what was his favorite Kinks album, Ray Davies liked to reply the most recent one...and Muswell Hillbillies.

   The band's ninth album celebrates the North London neighborhood where the Davies brothers grew up.
 Stereo Review magazine called the poor-selling record "album of the year" in 1972 ( even though it was released on November 24, 1971). The best known cuts include the concert fave and single "20th Century Man", "Complicated Life" ( life is overrated/ life is complicated) and "Have a Cuppa Tea" which, like most cuts on the album, sounds like a music hall number. You can picture the lads on the cover all joining in on the chorus.

  Our deep cut is the tenth track It's a quiet number that remembers the effect of the big American films played at the local Muswell theatres.The song is about the dreams of a working girl ( if life's for livin', what's livin' for) who fantasizes about trading her dreary existence for something in brilliant Cinemascope: ( But in her dreams she is far away/ In Oklahoma USA/ With Shirley Jones and Gordon MacRea.)

   Yo La Tengo covered "Oklahoma U.S.A." on their 1991 album Fakebook.

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Before They Fell In Love With Their Own Voices...

All artists have the right to evolve and to perfect their craft. At the risk of losing readers, I reserve the right to say I wish they hadn't.

David Byrne Before




David Byrne After



I liked when David Byrne sang out of tune. (I even liked when Tina's bass was out of tune). Now he's wearing the dreaded double earplugs and singing opera. And even so, I'm not so sure he's nailing the notes. And you may ask yourself, well, can I leave already?

Sting Before



Sting After



Sting couldn't hit those ball imploding high notes all his life but did he really have to go for baroque? The young Sting would have torn that neck-er-cheif off the old Sting too.

Elvis Costello Before




Elvis Costello After



The day Elvis started giving his lyrics an extra degree of "importance" by adding vibrato, he lost a little love here.


Michael Stipe Before




Michael Stipe After



In the early days Stipe buried his vocals and lyrics in the mix ( and his identity behind his hair). Now he's bald-- in a hip way-- his vocals are upfront and his earnestness all too apparent. Could an album of whaling songs be far behind?

who would you add to this list?

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XTC's Andy Partridge Picks His Top Ten Songs

As told to Smash Hits Magazine for their Sept 20-Oct 3, 1979 issue ( via Like Punk Never Happened)

Andy made this list as XTC was promoting Drums and Wires.

1.The Who: Happy Jack-For the bit at the end when one of them says " I saw ya".
2. Desmond Dekker 007 (Shantytown) -I spent hours trying to work out the words to this around the youth club. Ah! memories...that's the week I stole my first guitar.
3. Danny Kaye: Mommy, Get Me A Drink Of Water-I used to have a nightmare when I was little that an airplane was flying around my room. So, it seems, did Danny Kaye.Mommy...get me a drink of Storyyyy!
4. The Beatles: Hello, Goodbye-The start of this song exhilarates me...aural Tizer.
5. Can: Babylonian Pearl-I believe that Mu existed. This song has a rude texture, twitches great. Read about Mu.
6. U Roy: Natty Rebel-Jump it up, skip it up.Rock it on over, skip it on over.yaaaaay.  Step it, step it ( Are you alright, Andy --ed.)
7. John Martyn: Solid Air-Ssssh...listen. Cut the air.
8. Philip Glass: River Run-If snowfall was orchestrated it would sound like this. That beautiful world when  you're half awake, half asleep
9. The Ramones: Blitzkrieg Bop-Hey ho, let's go.
10. Everyone: Everything That I've Liked-I have no favourite top ten. Don't ask me about this list as I already like ten different ones. All you need is love. Optimism, optimism.

Listen to the way "Babylonian Pearl" starts. It seems to point XTC in the direction they were heading with the forthcoming Black Sea and English Settlement.

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Colin Meloy: 10 Songs That Made Me Want To Be a Singer

As tweeted on November 18, 2011

Colin Meloy is the lead singer and songwriter of The Decemberists and the author , with his wife Carson Ellis, of Wildwood [purchase]

10. The Waterboys - Fisherman's Blues


9. The Jesus and Mary Chain - Just Like Honey



8. The Smiths - I Know It's Over



7.R.E.M. - Swan Swan H




6.Replacements - Unsatisfied



5. Camper Van Beethoven - Sweethearts



4. Husker Du - Hardly Getting Over It



3. Big Star - Thirteen



2. Robyn Hitchcock - The Ghost Ship



1.Morrissey - Sing Your Life

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I Was A College Radio DJ In The 80's: The Flies - Something Wrong With Me

In Which We Play A College Radio Nugget From the Mid-80's




The Boston scene in the mid-80's was full of reckless guitar bands that updated the garage rock sounds of the 60's.There were The Lyres, Dumptruck, Salem 66, The Neats, Dinosaur, Mission of Burma and The Volcanosuns among many others ( including google-proof Christmas, eventually made up of the Cudahy brothers, Michael and Nick, whom I went to school with ten years earlier)

Enter The Flies. In 1984 the practically foolproof label Homestead Records released the trio's LP Get Wise. It was as raucous as the rest of the Beantown bands but the lead singer, Nat Freedberg, had this quasi-Dylan, somewhat slacker drawl going for him. I guess the band broke up by the time I started cranking this song up on the progressive stereo found at 91.5 on the FM dial in New Orleans. But then, in New Orleans, every summer seemed endless.

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Face It: A Nod Is As Good As A Wink... Turns 40 Today

[purchase]


With the release of A Nod Is As Good As A Wink ... the Faces, with (Rod) Stewart singing lead, have three albums out, each of them duller than the one that preceded it, and with the first one having been none too great to begin with.
-- Jon Landau, Rolling Stone Magazine (1972)

1971 is one hell of a year for Rod Stewart and a pretty memorable one for Faces. In February Faces releases Long Player. The opening track "Bad "n" Ruin" contains all the DNA necessary for The Black Crowes to thrive for 20+ years. Three months later Rod launches one of the very best albums of the year , Every Picture Tells A Story,  which tops the charts thanks to "Maggie May" and the Temptations cover "(I Know) I'm Losing You" recorded with the entire Faces band. Now with 1971 winding down, Faces releases A Nod is as Good as a Wink... which contains their biggest hit "Stay With Me" and several memorable Ronnie Lane tunes.

The album also contains the poster above. Look closely for pictures of pills and naked groupies.I assume lawyers quickly suggest the record company re-issue the album in 1972 without this collage/ homage to the rock n roll lifestyle.

Side One



The album kicks off with the raunchy and rollicking Ronnie Wood riff on "Miss Judy's Farm"...apparently located just across the river from Maggie's Farm.
I dig the Ian McLagen organ lines but Rolling Stone critic Jon Landau calls the song a "dog...and what started off sounding funky now just sounds like rock band hacking".



Next comes "You're So Rude", another highlight and the B-Side to "Stay With Me". Lyrically, Lane's tune is a much funnier version of Rod's future #1 hit "Tonight's the Night", except that this seduction takes place while the family is out visiting Auntie Renee. If you haven't explored Ronnie's solo albums you're missing out.



"Love Lives Here" is pretty pleasant and bleak but breaks no new ground.



"Last Orders Please" is one of those shuffling Ronnie Lane tunes we'd be hearing a lot of in his solo career and with Slim Chance. Ronnie would be taking more of a lead role in Faces as Rod became distracted by his fame but only for one more album, Ooh La La.

SIDE TWO



Faces's biggest hit, "Stay With Me", peaked at #6 in the UK and #17 in the US. The song could be part 2 of the tale of Maggie May's young Lothario. At least in this song of a one-night stand with a groupie, Rod caught her name, "Rita" ( as opposed to Lynyrd Skynyrd's tryst in Boise, Idaho). Last year Rod told an interviewer he actually never had sex with a groupie and hardly ever had one night stands.




To anyone who has grown up with a dad, this song really hits home. Fathers can begin as heroes and wind up friends. Along the way they become real people. My father was my best man at my wedding. Ronnie's own father took his teen age son to a music store where they met an employee named Steve Marriot.



Landau's favourite track from Nod is this Chuck Berry cover: "It is only here that the band creates a fully satisfying groove," he writes. " and sustains it for any length of time." This live version doesn't really do the recorded version justice. But you can see that , live, Rod is already more than just a front man and the Faces already seem to be relegated as background players. The end is nigh.




"Too Bad" is another Faces rocker that, despite strong performances, doesn't stand out to these ears.



Ronnie Wood plays bottleneck guitar on the final track. Robert Christgau says it's a song about a brother becoming a hippie, but there could be any number of reasons the brother shows up one night at the door all but unrecognizable with eyes that are getting muddy.

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Six Degrees of Separation: Jack Bruce to Suzi Quatro

[purchase]

1. In 1971 ex-Cream bassist and vocalist Jack Bruce records his proggy solo album Harmony Row with session guitarist Chris Spedding adding tasteful licks on tunes like "The Consul At Sunset".




[purchase]

2. Chris Spedding establishes himself as one of the first guitar heroes of the punk rock era with his 1977 UK #14 hit "Motor Bikin'", produced by the famed  Mickie Most.





[purchase]

3.Two years later Mickie Most produces the 1979 UK #2 Racey hit "Some Girls" written by Mike Chapman and Nicky Chinn, whose "Chinnichap" brand of music created a series of 70's hits for artists including Sweet, Mud and Smokie.





[purchase]

4. Apparently not above getting really baked before a TV appearance, Smokie had a five year hit-making stretch with the help of Chapman and Chinn. The 1977 single "Lay Back in The Arms of Someone" hit #1 on the European charts, thanks in part to Chris Norman's Rod Stewart-ish vocals.




[purchase]

5. In 1978 Chris Norman joins Suzi Quatro on another Chapman and Chinn song called "Stumblin' In". The song peaked at #4 on the US charts and appeared on the album If You Knew Suzi.




[purchase]

6.UK Pop Music fans did know Detroit's Suzi Quatro by then. Not so much in the US. Suzi scored a string of Chapman Chinn hits in the UK including the #3 hit "48 Crash" from her 1973 debut album.

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Kate Bush All Time Top Ten Fave Albums

As Told to Smash Hits Magazine for the November 27 - December 10, 1980 issue
via Like Punk Never Happened

Kate made this list a few months after her third album Never For Ever was released. Wait, you're still looking at the photo aren't you?

1.Frank Zappa: Overnite Sensation -"Montana"was the first Zappa track I ever heard and it's stuck as a firm favourite.
2. A.L. Lloyd and Eran MacColl : Blow Boys Blow - I was brought up with this album.
3. The Eagles: One of These Nights - I played it to death when studying with Lindsay Kemp and it reminds me of him.
4. David Bowie Young Americans - It reminds me of 1976, the drought summer and open windows.
5. The Beatles Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band - Because it's an album of excellent songs.
6. Eberhard Weber Fluid Rustle - It's like having your brain massaged.
7. Captain Beefheart Blue Jeans and Moonbeams - This is the Beefheart album where he writes love songs like nobody else.
8. Stevie Wonder The Secret Life of Plants - Because it's a modern symphony with a  high emotional content.
9. Pink Floyd The Wall - Because it reminds me of last Christmas and open fires and I wish I'd written it.
10. The TV National Iranian Chamber Orchestra Treasures of the Baroque Era - Because it allows my mind to sit down and go "aah". I listen to it when doing paperwork. In fact while writing this list!

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I Was A College Radio DJ In the 80's: The Wind - House on Fire

In which we play a college radio nugget from the mid-80's...



[out of print]

Back when Mitch Easter could do no wrong, he spent just enough time with Miami trio The Wind to record the 1984 EP Guest of the Staphs. Critics compared the dense pop sound to Easter's band Let's Active (naturally) and The Spongetones.

I played this track at Tulane's progressive college radio station WTUL-FM because, as hip as I've always  tried to appear, deep down I'm just a big fan of good three minute pop songs. And in 1984, with Easter produced R.E.M, The dB's and Let's Active records getting so much airtime, anything associated with Mitch Easter got some revolutions on the turntable.

Looks like the band got back together in '08. Still tight. Sounding great!

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Odd And Sods: Serge Gainsbourg "En Melody"

Revealing Rock's Oddest Songs...





The sexy and seductive --or is it seedy and vulgar? -- 1971 concept album Histoire De Melody Nelson tells the tale of a doomed love affair between a dirty old man ( the French chain-smoking pop maestro Serge Gainsbourg as himself)  and an English school girl ( His lover, the actress Jane Birkin).

"En Melody" is a funky instrumental guaranteed to make you smile. That's because the sweet Lolita on the album cover,  Birkin, giggles, laughs and squeals throughout the three and a half minute track. Sounds like quite the hotel room romp but in fact Jane's brother was tickling her.

The album never did become a commercial success but its influence can be heard on artists like Beck and Air. When Gainsbourg died, Jane placed the monkey from the album cover in his coffin.

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Celebrating 40th Anniversary of Led Zeppelin IV

32 Million Copies sold and counting...

Has any album remained more mysterious than Led Zeppelin's  ?

Consider the album cover alone. As Jimmy Page told NME.com "Almost 40 years after the album came out, nobody knows the old man featured on the cover, nor the artist who painted him. That sort of sums up what we wanted to achieve with the album cover, which has remained both anonymous and enigmatic at the same time." and if the cover's an enigma, how about the name, 

Four symbols, The Fourth Album, The Runes, The Hermit, Untitled or ZOSO,?

In his 33 1/3 book, Erik Davis suggests the four symbols are Earth, Air , Fire and Water.
But they may just be the Discs, Swords, Wands and Cups of Tarot cards.
There are four guys in the band
Four songs on each side
And it's Led Zeppelin's fourth album

TRACK BY TRACK


SIDE ONE



Driven by a bass riff developed by John Paul Jones, "Black Dog" is the first track and first single. Robert Plant says the lyrics are a basic sexual come-on, but many Led Zep fans believe the song pays tribute to the black dog with red eyes that led Jimmy Page down a mountainside to make a deal with the devil.



Another riff-driven single that came out of an in-studio jam as the band was recording "Four Sticks". Ian Stewart of The Rolling Stones joins the band on keyboards but this song belongs to John Bonham and his incredible drumming.



An epic acoustic duet featuring Sandy Denny of Fairport Convention. The lyrics, possibly based on Tolkein's Lord of the Rings apparently are a bit of an embarrassment to Plant. "If it suffered from naivete and tweetness-- I was only 23--it makes up for it in the cohesion of the voices and the playing". On their 2008 tour to promote Raising Sands, Allison Krause sang the Sandy Denny parts.






Probably the most played song on the radio, (and not just because the DJ needed to take a dump) "Stairway to Heaven" has that soft acoustic beginning and hard rock ending that inspired bands like Aerosmith, Guns N Roses and Metallica to come up with their own dynamic epics. The song is made up of bits of guitar pieces Page had come up with and a great deal of lyrics Plant wrote spontaneously.

The opening riff appears to have been borrowed from Spirit's "Taurus".



But then, Led Zep did a lot of borrowing in their day.
There's also the allegations of a backwards message praising "Sad Satan".
Listen for yourself




SIDE TWO



When Robert Plant says of Led Zeppelin IV, "if the feel was good and it was a little bit out of tune, flat or sharp, it didn't matter. We'd keep it just for the feel", he may have been talking about "Misty Mountain Hop". There's a subtle point at 2:11 in the song when the band loses the groove and a few flat notes, but the song rocks. Fans seems to believe it's a bout a love-in broken up by cops.



Named "Four Sticks" because drummer John Bonham played on it with four drumsticks, this tune has been described as "abstract" by Jimmy Page. It certainly adds to the myth of "Four" surrounding the album.

Plant and Page re-recorded the song in India in 1972. It's a bit of a mess but here you go:





Yet another song inspired by Joni Mitchell. ("To find a queen without a king/ They say she plays guitar and cries and sings") Earlier that year Joni had released Blue which featured a song called "California". In a recent introduction Plant said it was written in an "extreme hippie period about the new hope in California and the new world that was being born with the youth generation".



For the fat drum sound, two mikes were dangled three stories above a stairwell in which Bonham played the drums. The recording was then slowed down for the big thick sound. A cover of an old blues number about the Great Mississippi Flood, the song achieves some of its power from Page's studio magic. There's panning, flanging, backwards echo, and backwards harmonica ( as played by Plant).

I'll give the final word on the album  to the dean, Robert Christgau: As always, the band's medievalisms have their limits, but this is the definitive Led Zeppelin and hence heavy metal album. It proves that both are--or can be--very much a part of "Rock and Roll.

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Elvis Costello's All Time Top 12 Fave Songs

As Told to Smash Hits Magazine October 29-November 11,1981
 via Like Punk Never Happened
(If you haven't checked out Brian's site yet, do so now. He's posting a new issue of Smash Hits on its 30th anniversary.)


This list was made at the same time Elvis released his country covers album Almost Blue.

1. The 101-ers: Let'sGetABitOfRockin ( see video below)
2. The Expressos: Tango In Mono (also below)
3. Little Richard: Commandments of Love
4. George Jones: Say It's Not You
5. The Subterraneans: My Flamingo
6. Mel and Tim: Backfield In Motion
7. Billie Holiday: Don't Explain
8. Dexy's Midnight Runners: Dance Stance
9. James Brown: Talking Loud And Saying Nothing
10. Dusty Springfield: Just One Smile
11. Was ( Not Was): Wheel Me Out
12. Chet Baker: The Thrill Is Gone

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40 Years Ago Today: Elton John's Madman Across the Water released

Though, commercially,  it was one of the least successful of Elton John's albums in the UK, Madman Across the Water ( released November 5, 1971) stayed in the US charts for nearly a year. That's despite having no major hit singles. Still, Madman remains , next to 1970's Tumbleweed Connection, 1001Songs's all time favorite Elton John album. One of five Elton recorded in an 18 month period, Madman is an album you can relax around. Most of the cuts top five minutes and eventually become good, solid friends.



It begins with one of Elton John's greatest songs, written about lyricist Bernie Taupin's first wife. To this day Taupin says Madman Across the Water reminds him of driving down LA freeways listening to the car radio. No, Elton isn't asking Tony Danza to hold him closer. In 1971, Danza was still an unknown college student  at The University of Dubuque.



Named after Band drummer Levon Helm, "Levon" hit #24 in the US charts. There are live cuts available on YouTube but you lose the orchestration which takes this song ( which seems to be about father/ son relationships) to an extraordinary level.



"Razor Face" is the third cut. Another character sketch, Razor Face sounds like a rough looking dude with a drinking problem and a good heart. Rick Wakeman plays keyboards on the album track.



The title cut is another classic song. Taupin has said this is his most misunderstood lyric. Many people suggested it was about the troubled President Richard Nixon. Taupin has refused to explain the lyrics further. Good for him. Madmen were big topics in the early 70's among John/Taupin contemporaries David Bowie, James Taylor and Alice Cooper. That's Chris Spedding with the repetitive electric guitar line. And Paul Buckmaster with the string arrangements. (Buckmaster orchestrated strings for The Bee Gees Odessa and Bowie's "Space Oddity")



"Indian Sunset" is sung from the point of view of a young Indian warrior who sees his race, culture and art facing extinction.



Elton's contribution to the rock'n'roll road song. He explains the track better than I could at the beginning of the video clip above.



A man who's seen hard time in prison works the peach orchards of South Carolina and Georgia. Another character study that reveals Taupin's tremendous gift.



Things get proggy on "All The Nasties" with the addition of the Cantores em Ecclesia Choir. Elton has said the song is a reaction to all the nasty critics out there. This might have given the critics some extra fuel.



Madman ends with the beautiful, sad and brief "Goodbye". As with "Levon", are we getting another reference to Jesus with the lyrics about wine flowing into the land to feed his lambs?

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My Fave Song of 2011: Blouse "Into Black"

[Purchase]

 I know 2011 is a little out of regular music blogging timeframe but I was recently shocked * shocked I tell you* by how many times I've played "Into Black" on my iphone.
 22!
    The second most played song ( Elvis Presley's "I Believe in the Man In The Sky") has been played 5 times.
  What is it about "Into Black"? Is it the Julee Cruise meets early Cure vibe?
    I can imagine this song coming out in the mid-80's on a small white 45 rpm single that slipped behind record shelves at college radio stations...only to be discovered this year. But the truth is Blouse is a modern-day Portland band ( yes, another Portland band).

 I don't know much else about Blouse. They have a debut album coming out this month. But I do have to agree with some Swedish bloggers I came across:


  Idag släppte Portland-trion Blouse sitt självbetitlade debutalbum på skivbolaget som är ett måste om du gillar drömpop.

No I don't what it means, but I think Drompop pretty much says it all.

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#48 Honeybus - Fresher Than The Sweetness in Water (1970)

[purchase]

With a sound that merges the best of Brinsley Schwarz and Emitt Rhodes, the inventive UK band Honeybus didn't release Story until after they had broken up in 1970. Naturally the album failed to chart, but if 1001Songs has anything to say about it, Story will get a second life.
 Honeybus is best known for a 1968 baroque pop single called " I Can't Let Maggie Go", one of the all-time faves of XTC's Andy Partridge.

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Kim Wilde Picks Her All Time Fave Songs

As told to Smash Hits Magazine for the August 6-19, 1981 issue via Like Punk Never Happened

1.Elvis Presley: Trying To Get To You 
2. Elvis Costello and The Attractions: Shot With His Own Gun - a lesson for all you miserable slaves out there.
3. The Beach Boys: Caroline
4. The Only Ones: Out There In The Night
5. Clive Pig and the Hopeful Chinamen: Happy Birthday Sweet Sixteen - Reminds me of a lovely year in St. Albans and a lot of lovely people
6. The Skids: Masquerade - Great dance record
7. Mo-Dettes: Tonight - Girls are best, n'est-ce pas
8. Kirsty MacColl: They Don't Know About Us - Wish I'd written it
9. Kraftwerk: The Model - The title speaks for itself
10. John Cale: Fighter Pilot - LA la la la la! La la la la! La la la la! Laa!

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Six Degrees of Separation: Deaf School to Death Cab For Cutie

1. Liverpool art rockers Deaf School record "Get Set Ready Go" for their debut album 2nd Honeymoon, released in 1976. The band's guitar player and songwriter is Clive Langer.



2. When Deaf School breaks up producer Clive Langer gets Elvis Costello's help with the lyrics to a song he's written called "Shipbuilding". Robert Wyatt has a Top 40 hit with the song recorded as a bonus track for his 1982 compilation album Nothing Can Stop Us.





3. Wyatt is a former member of Soft Machine. So is Kevin Ayers who recorded a solo album in 1970 called Shooting at the Moon with a seventeen year old bass player named Mike Oldfield who is featured prominently on the first track "May I".



4. In 1973 Oldfield records Tubular Bells [purchase], the first album for Virgin Records.In the middle of the album "Master of Ceremonies" Viv Stanshall reads a list of instruments being played.



5. Stanshall did something similar on "The Intro and The Outro" for his original group, The Bonzo Dog Doo Dah Band. It appears on the Bonzo's 1967 debut album Gorilla [purchase]. The roll call includes Adolph Hitler on Vibes, John Wayne on xylophone and Roy Rogers on Trigger. This televised version, instead, includes future members of Monty Python.



6.  Performing on the Beatles Magical Mystery Tour TV special, The Bonzos played "Death Cab for Cutie" which became the name of a popular Seattle band whose "You Are A Tourist" is the debut single off the 2011 album Codes and Keys [purchase].

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