Look out, Namesakers - this week, things are going to get really Ugly.
THE UGLIES #1
We start today with a version of the band name designed to make every English
teacher’s skin crawl – clearly, these guys missed a lot of SPaG lessons while
they were mucking around with their guitars back in 1963. (Note that the
apostrophe is missing from the band pic above – I’m guessing the designer knew
better… but it’s on all their record sleeves.) These Ugly’s (sic) featured Steve Gibbons,
who would go on to form Balls and The Idle Race (Jeff Lynne’s first band)
before launching The Steve Gibbons band in 1972.
These Uglies emerged from Detroit in 1963, and managed to keep things ugly through to the early 70s, during which time they worked with Bobby Vee, opened for The Who, and released a song all about the world's greatest superhero (no surprises which tune I chose today then). They got back together in 2005 because such things are inevitable.
No, we won't be disqualifying them because of the adjective - I know, unbelievable, right?
From Florida, a few years later, this band started out as The Uglies but
when they heard that name was already taken, they graciously changed it to U.S.
Male. I love how someone appears to have gone over all their singles with Dymo
Tape to update the band name. I couldn’t find the song advertised above – and I had to
take extra care when typing the title into my search engine – but I did
discover that these Uglies were also theuncredited backing band on the
single below, a posthumous tribute to a fellow high school student.
New England Psychobilly band formed in 1990. They had a single called
Peggy Suicide, which I’m guessing had nothing to do with the Julian Cope
record. This was a four track 7”, and the only song I can find online is track 4…
Ugly Australians with a logo that might interest AC/DC's lawyers. Active
from 2017, possibly still in the go – it appears from the camp of bands that
they’ve set up their own ugly record label.
And finally today, the “debut single from south London five piece, who formed in
2019 with a shared love of Ennio Morricone and unfavourable looks.” That blurb
is taken from discogs, who also filed this offering under “Psychedelic Rock”. I’ll
let George be the judge of that…
Mike Scott is on something of a late-career renaissance at the moment. Following on from his superb tribute to Denis Hopper last year, The Waterboys have just dropped this instant sing-along classic... although this one's about someone else, and it's a lot less complimentary.
Who assembled this enterprise
To deny the evidence of our eyes?
Who presided over this offense
Against decency and common sense ?
Whose dedication, whose labour
Turned neighbour against neighbour?
Who indeed should we blame?
I don't even have to say his name*
Who put the dogwhistle back in style?
Who makes every white supremacist smile?
Who put violence in peoples' heads?
The spider at the heart of the web
Who granted Ice immunity
To murder with impunity?
Who indeed should we blame?
I don't even have to say his name*
Two trains are rolling across America tonight
I can hear their wheels, I can see their lights
Well I don't know, but maybe you hear them too
One leads to Auschwitz, one leads to the new
Who took democracy and its sacred vote
And wrapped a noose around its throat?
Which insurrectionist and bogus King
Buried the White House under bling?
Who threatens like other people breathe?
Insults women every day on TV?
Who turned this country we hold dear
Into a land of fear?
Who indeed should we blame?
I don't even have to
I don't even have to say
I don't even have to say his name*
(*That line has a couple of extra words added when Mike sings it.)
Wait a minute, baby... we may all be long past the edge of seventeen, but who'd want to be a kid in this day and age? Far better to take our pleasures in the more relaxed pursuit of Snapshots.
Who are these people and how might their songs be connected?
15. Sounds like Jonathan, running down the road with one member of a D.C. band.
14. Told by a lavender clock.
13. Calm A Partridge by taking nothing from his surname.
12. Lottery, grid, curriculum.
11. Regularly used by Robson, Jerome and Sam.
10. Never stop looking for... Huey.
9. Made Stacy jump.
8. Found messed up in a crapulent YMCA.
7. Daley Thompson.
6. Thank God that's all over!
5. She's A Star in her playhouse.
4. Steve Rogers no longer wants to be associated with America.
We're back to over-analysing and justifying the track-list of the 32nd in-car compilation CD I made to introduce my son to the exciting world of pop music...
Track 9: Teardrop Explodes - Reward
One of those clear "why didn't I put this on an earlier CD?" moments, to which I have no sensible answer. Julian Cope's biggest hit, and arguably his finest hour. What can I say about Reward that hasn't been said by far smarter musicologists... like JC, The Vinyl Villain, for example...
The Guardian newspaper, in March 2015, had a feature on Reward in which Julian Cope and keyboardist Dave Balfe explained how they came up with and went about making the song. It turns out it was written in the main by guitarist Alan Gill, with him coming up initially with the bassline. Cope wanted it to sound like a northern soul classic and their first stab at it came via an effort for a BBC radio session but when they later got into the actual recording studio, the frontman decided to remove the drum intro so that the first and last thing you heard were trumpets, which, to be fair, was a stroke of genius as this is the instrument which really drives the song forward at pace. Balfe, in confirming that the band had problems coming up initially with a satisfactory recording and mix, heaps praise on the frontman for the end result, describing it as “…a mad awesome record unlike anything else in pop. We sounded like Vikings on acid fronted by a lunatic.”
Beyond JC's wise words, I will add that Reward contains one of the great opening lines...
Bless my cotton socks, I'm in the news
...apparently, Julian's reaction at becoming a music press darling back in 1981. The irony being that if the artist wishes to maintain any consistent level of popular success, he needs to sell out or shut up. You can't have your cake and eat it, pal.
Prisoners stand in queues and stand accused
Live in solitude like Howard Hughes All wrapped up the same All wrapped up the same
Silence has it Arrogance has it I can't have it, ooh Until I learn to accept my reward
Like all the very best pop songs from the early 80s, Rewards benefits greatly from the trumpets JC mentioned... although the trumpeters are seen driving around in a jeep in the video. As a former brass instrument player myself (see below), I'm not sure you'd get the best sounds out of your trumpet in that scenario.
Track 10: Kaiser Chiefs - Ruby
Another one of those songs I included more because it's a big catchy hit than because I love it. I do try and support the Kaiser Chiefs, since on paper they're my sort of band - local lads made good with one foot in pop and the other in indie, and generally their lyrics are a step up from the twaddle-swagger of Oasis and their ilk.
But...
But...
Beyond their debut album... maybe even beyond their debut chart hit (the undeniably excellent I Predict A Riot)... whisper it... Kaiser Chiefs are a little annoying, aren't they? They don't display the same levels of colossal arrogance as the Squabbling Mancs... but they can't help but appear ever so pleased with themselves at times. Nowhere more is that going to to be true then than on their sole Number One from 2007, when for a week at least, they were kings of the world.
It seems especially galling to me now that I slipped this one in between Reward and the track that follows it. But it's a big pop hit, and one of the few I can stomach from 2007, so that's my defence...
Track 11: Joni Mitchell - Big Yellow Taxi
...which brings us back to the classics.
For many years, Big Yellow Taxi was the only Joni Mitchell song I knew. I remember when I started working in radio, it would have been the only Joni song that stood a chance of getting played on our station (her only UK hit), and yet we didn't have a copy of it in the record library. Somebody brought their copy in from home and I dutifully recorded it onto cart so we could play it when needed.
Big Yellow Taxi is one of those perfect pop songs - as long as you promise never to listen to anyone sing it except Joni. Here's the lady herself, talking in 1969, telling the story of how she came to write it...
"Two weekends ago I went to Hawaii. It was my first time there and I was only there for two days which was kind of a bummer, I wish I could’ve really seen more of the island and I arrived there at 11 o’clock at night and the next morning I ran to the window and threw back the curtains and sure enough, there it was, paradise, you know, green, lush hills, old Sugarloaf Mountain up there, white birds flying low, Myna birds all over the place, and, right in the middle of it all, was a big parking lot [laughing]. So I wrote this little rock and roll song to commemorate the occasion. It’s called “Big Yellow Taxi,” or, alternately, “They Paved Paradise and Put in a Parking Lot.”
I have included the lyric above in English lessons as an example of good alliteration in pop songs. I'll crowbar my favourite songs into class however I can.
Track 12: John Miles - Music
I won't claim that every song I've put on these CDs for Sam has been a winner, but only occasionally has he asked me to take a song off (The Yeah Yeah Yeah song by the Flaming Lips was one he found particularly disturbing). Apathy is more likely than antipathy, and of all the songs on CD32, this would probably be the one that's sparked the least interest.
It is, let's be honest about it, a rather odd little pop song - not that little and not particularly pop, despite the message which appears universally aimed at those of us who cherish pop music as a lifeline.
Music was my first love And it will be my last. Music of the future And music of the past.
To live without my music Would be impossible to do. In this world of troubles, My music pulls me through.
You may not like the song, but I'd be surprised if you can't get behind the sentiment.
This relatable piano ballad section only accounts for about a third of Music's 6 minute run time though - the rest is orchestral pomp and swagger that would make Jimmy Webb proud. (McArthur Park was clearly an influence.) Apparently Music was regularly performed at The Last Night of the Proms, and I can understand why; it has that rousing, anthemic quality that would go down well with the flag-wavers, even though there's nothing remotely political or patriotic about it - unless you're patriotic about music itself, which I certainly am (far more so than I am about any particular patch of earth).
The song holds special significance for me because we used to play it in brass band - it's one of the few modern songs I remember performing as a tenor horn player. And whenever I remember those times, I remember how much in love I was with the horn player I sat next to, but she was a year older and she had boys in her room. Music was my first love... and it will be my last.
