Hello and welcome to Work Tunes.
Happy Saturday, one and all (unless you're in one of those kooky time zones where it's still Friday night). I've done the weekly dose of braving Dawn of the Dead style shopping malls to get a few lousy groceries to make some antipasto tonight. Here I am sitting down to tell you all about my playlist for next week.
With Otis Redding and Charles Bradley setting my ears on fire this week, I had to be careful not to go too heavy on the Soul, so I left off some compilations that will probably make it in a fortnight. A compilation that did make it is a tribute to John Denver. I have a healthy dose of 90s going on with Belly and Lisa Loeb & Nine Stories. Fitz and the Tantrums might be that extra bit of Soul I wanted to avoid, but I don't care; they rock. Talib Kweli's new one is here, as is the album that everyone is talking about from Daft Punk. Having recently found a second hand copy of the vinyl, I included Concrete Blonde - Free and that just leaves an early effort from The Walkmen.
Check it out:
Happy Saturday, one and all (unless you're in one of those kooky time zones where it's still Friday night). I've done the weekly dose of braving Dawn of the Dead style shopping malls to get a few lousy groceries to make some antipasto tonight. Here I am sitting down to tell you all about my playlist for next week.
With Otis Redding and Charles Bradley setting my ears on fire this week, I had to be careful not to go too heavy on the Soul, so I left off some compilations that will probably make it in a fortnight. A compilation that did make it is a tribute to John Denver. I have a healthy dose of 90s going on with Belly and Lisa Loeb & Nine Stories. Fitz and the Tantrums might be that extra bit of Soul I wanted to avoid, but I don't care; they rock. Talib Kweli's new one is here, as is the album that everyone is talking about from Daft Punk. Having recently found a second hand copy of the vinyl, I included Concrete Blonde - Free and that just leaves an early effort from The Walkmen.
Check it out:
- Charles Bradley - Victim of Love
- Concrete Blonde - Free
- Belly - King
- VA - The Music Is You: A Tribute To John Denver
- Otis Redding - The Essentials
- Lisa Loeb & Nine Stories - Tails
- Talib Kweli - Prisoner of Conciousness
- Fitz and the Tantrums - More Than Just a Dream
- The Walkmen - You and Me
- Daft Punk - Random Access Memories
Top Five Artists Last Week
- Concrete Blonde
- The National
- The Stooges
- Ben Lee
- She & Him
Song of the Week : Blondie - Hanging on the Telephone
This song has, almost by stealth, become one of my all time favourites. I'm not even sure I loved it this much as a kid - and I loved Blondie a whole lot as a 7 year old.
Hanging on the Telephone is one of those Blondie tracks that beautifully straddles the line between perfect Pop and another genre - in this case Punk. I wouldn't call it a punk song, but Blondie were considered Punk back then because they co-opted the essence of it into the mainstream; much as they did with disco and Heart of Glass (or indeed as Kiss did with I Was Made For Lovin' You). If you watch the film clip, she is thrashing about in a subdued pogo and pulling faces every bit as rotten as Johnny. Yet what you have in your ears is a radio friendly pop song with the requisite length, time signature and guitar riff.
What I love the most is Deborah Harry's "angry" refrain at the end "Hang up and run to me" While not being a John Lydonesque bitter spit, she uses the repetition and the obvious gravel in the low end of her voice with the "OOOOOooOOH' that she makes it an angry command. Couple it with the ruckus of the guitars and drums below her and it really rocks. If I ever stop singing this song, I should definitely make some room in my Hottest 100 list on my iPod at number 1.
Toodle-ooh
Go and listen to Parallel Lines now. Go on. It's brilliant for Saturday afternoons. Again, apologies to those who are still asleep in Friday land.
As I speak, my kids are in the room behind me, putting on a ballet and musical performance for themselves and their menagerie of stuffed toys. I'd really better go and check it out. Difficult to get tickets to these things, usually.
Hasala malakim.
As I speak, my kids are in the room behind me, putting on a ballet and musical performance for themselves and their menagerie of stuffed toys. I'd really better go and check it out. Difficult to get tickets to these things, usually.
Hasala malakim.
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