The Enigma of CD #87: Part 4

More tracks from another randomly chosen CD compilation. The purpose of these CDs wasn't to show off my cool (ha!), eclectic tastes... it was just to expose my son to a wide a variety of old pop music as possible in his formative years, before I lost him to spotle-fy.

Track 11: The Fratellis - Chelsea Dagger

Confession time: I find The Fratellis a bit annoying. And most of the time, I find Chelsea Dagger, their biggest hit, very annoying. Actually, I’m not sure I can remember any of their other songs, but this one… it’s hard to get away from. Because of the yobbish terrace anthem chorus which, the more I hear it, the more I can’t help but think, “Knees up, Mother Brown!”

I was therefore surprised to discover that the Fratellis are, to quote George, Weegies. I would have sworn they were Landahners, like the Libertines who they clearly owe a sizable debt to. I also didn’t know that they took their band name from The Goonies. Clearly I need to watch The Goonies again. I did know that they called their debut record Costello Music, but apparently that has nothing to do with Elvis, it’s just the name of an old studio they used to rehearse in.

Why are they here if I don’t care for them that much? I guess because I thought this would be the kind of easy-to-singalong indie gubbins that might stick in Sam’s head and persuade him that guitar music was the way forward rather than Juice WRLD, Imaginary Dragons and Youngboy With A Broken Neck.

All those efforts were ultimately in vain…

 

12: Fine Young Cannibals - Good Thing

Is it better to burn out than fade away? The Fine Young Cannibals burned very brightly in the late 80s, and they were a band I had a lot of time for while I was otherwise falling out of love with the singles chart. Turns out that Roland Gift and his two mates – Andy Cox and Davis Steele, both formerly of The Beat – had even greater success in the US where both this song and its predecessor, She Drives Me Crazy, were Billboard Number Ones.

And then, by 1992 it was all over. Two albums, a clutch of hit singles, then the pressure of fame, musical differences, the same old story. Maybe it’s better they went out on top rather than the slow decline that kills so many bands.

 

13: The Clash - London Calling

Some of you will be wondering how I could do 87 CDs before getting to The Clash’s best song. 

The Clash are a harder sell than The Jam or The Undertones – maybe they’re a more mature proposition? Or maybe they just didn’t have tunes that were quite as catchy? Should I Stay… and the Bobby Fuller Four cover (originally recorded by a post-Buddy Crickets) had already featured by the time I got to this one, but after that there was a long gap and I’ve only recently started adding less obvious Clash songs to Sam’s compilations… long after I pretty much exhausted the early Weller output.

Or, to put it another way, London Calling is a far, far better song than Chelsea Dagger. But I bet if you played them both to the average eight year old and asked them which they prefer, Joe and Mick would be going home with second prize.

 

14: Dobie Gray - The In Crowd

I wonder if I included this one as a subtle hint at a moral message? “Don’t worry about getting in with The In Crowd, son. Just find people who accept you as you are.” That’s a lesson I’m still trying to learn as my regular carping about not being one of the cool kids on the blogosphere will clearly show.

Dobie Gray, of course, wants to be part of The In Crowd… so actually, the message is the opposite of the one I’d like Sam to learn. Did Dobie ever get to be part of that auspicious group himself? Well, he came from nowhere, born to Texas sharecroppers – there’s even a question over his real name… was it Lawrence Darrow Brown or Leonard Victor Ainsworth? He then achieved a fair bit of success over a fair few years… most notably with the song Drift Away, a hit both in 1973 and again in 2003 when it was covered by country-rap-rock dude Uncle Kracker* who took it back into the US Top 10, with Dobie on guest vocals.

(*I was unfamiliar with Uncle Kracker until today. He looks like that kid you went to school with who started working in McDonalds in the Sixth Form... and he's still working there.)

When he died in 2011, Dobie left 100% of his musical assets and royalties to charity. Surely that qualifies him for membership of a very select group, even better than The In Crowd?