As a sequel to George's Rainbow Post yesterday, I decided to respond to Martin's Challenge and pick one song for each colour of the rainbow. Only one song!?! Impossible. So instead of picking the obvious tunes, I went looking for some lost gems...
RED
Eat were from Bath. They formed in 1986 and released their debut album, Sell Me A God, in 1989. Red Moon is taken from that, a record which reached #10 in the album chart... though its follow up, four years later, disappeared without a trace. Eat reformed in 2014 because that's the law now.
ORANGE
Romeo Void came out of San Francisco in 1979. They're full of New Wave goodness, and the vocal ramblings of Debora Iyall on this track make me wonder if Florence Shaw from Dry Cleaning is a fan.
YELLOW
This is probably Devendra Banhart's most well-known tune. Was it in an advert at some point? Probably. I prefer not to look that up.
GREEN
Liverpool 1982 welcomed Candy Opera onto the scene, with a similarly lush romanticism to Prefab Sprout. They stuck around until 1993, much unappreciated. And then came back in 2020 with a new album. Because that's the law now. This is one of their older tunes...
BLUE
The X-Certs were Bristolian punks who occasionally flirted with reggae flavourings between 1978 and 1981. I chose this because they're singing about "blue movies", which seem both innocent and antiquated in today's world of wall-to-wall internet pornography. Simpler times.
INDIGO
I have to admit that I struggled a little with indigo, particularly as Martin had already bagged the Peter Murphy track. Then I remembered my favourite Frank Sinatra album, In The Wee Small Hours, and this timeless Duke Ellington tune...
VIOLET
Levon Helm was the drummer in The Band. You probably know that already. He also released some very fine solo records. This comes from his 1980 album American Son, and it's really quite lovely.
36 comments and counting from last week, as I begin to type this up. To be fair though, most of them were from George, who doesn't even like this series. Here's his first suggestion...
John Lennon had a really truly awful single in the mid 70s called Number nine dream. Don't include that in your list.
I've got to say, I'm with George on that though: that is bloody awful. Don't watch the video either, unless you want to catch Yoko Ono in leather hotpants. I'm sorry, but I'm siding with Paul on this one.
At least the REM version doesn't have Yoko in it. Or her hotpants.
Whenever I heard the name Meat Puppets, I expect them to be some kind of industrial metal / goth band... not a million miles from Nine Inch Nails. I never fail to be amazed by how they actually sound.
Now much as I like the idea of torturing George, I'm afraid I have to agree with him again on this. Which makes twice in the same week. I am now officially worried for my mental health.
And the perfect lyrical opener for next weeks column... says Rigid Digit.
Trust me, I listened to the opening lyrics... and I couldn't make head or tail of them.
Welcome back, my friends
To the show that never ends
We're so glad you could attend
Come inside! Come inside
Really? Is that what he was singing? Why can't he enunciate? He was so much nicer when he was singing about Father Christmas.
Speaking of properly enunciating: back to The Swede's list...
I think this was The Swede's last suggestion this week. I don't think I missed any out...
The Studio One Band - Nine Pence
Can't find that last one anywhere on t'internet, but I'm sure it's a belter. It's got to be better than John Lennon and ELP anyway. Eh, George? Go on, old pal, it's you and me against the world this week. What else have you got for me?
Of course it does... just listen to that intro too! Blimey. Makes me want to do high kicks. I've got half a mind to let you take over this feature, George.
Yes, Revolution 9 is a perfect example of why the Beatles had to split up. Weird, really, since the same title (minus the 9) produced one of my all time favourite Beatles songs.
Wow, Rol, your Hot 100s are getting longer and longer, says C. I suspect this trend is set to continue for a few more weeks...
What doesn't kill you just makes you stronger, C. As we're all supposed to be discovering at the moment. I'll go with 'Nine Plan Failed' by Adam & The Ants from his arty Dirk Wears White Sox days.
That's a good one! says Lynchie. And it is too. I've been listening to quite a bit of Dave Alvin lately - his voice is a great comfort. But I didn't know that one, so thank you.
Marie (can't link to you this week, Marie, your blog has disappeared again) sided with George on the Nine Pound Hammer, also suggesting this version...
This post reminds me of one of the most epic of epic Chain posts over at Jez's place.
One of my inspirations.
Talking of The Chain he used to have a Worst Record of the Week award so I'm going to nominate song Nine Million Bicycles by Katie Melua. She has a sweet voice and looks stunning but those Mike Batt lyrics drove me mad and I wrote about them over at my place.
Alyson then goes on to explain in detail her issue with this song, but she forbids me from reposting it here (even though it might have helped me beat Jez's record for longest blog post ever). You can read her cutting analysis here though.
Then Lynchie joined in with his own analysis of the Beijing bikes issue:
Fair point about those alleged 9 million bicycles in Beijing, Alyson. As you suggest - it was closer to 9 and a half million back in 2005 when the Katie Melua song was released. But, bicycle use in Beijing has dropped from about 60 percent in 1986 to 17 percent in 2010. At the same time, car use has grown 15 percent a year for the last ten years. (Note - these statistics come from a study of cycling in Beijing conducted by Jinhua Zhao, an urban planning professor at the University of British Columbia. You can find more about the De-Bikification of Beijing here.
I have to admit, I quite like that song though, despite all your objections. My biggest problem is with the video - she's going to ruin that lovely jacket. What a shame.
I bet George is a big Katie Melua fan too. Speaking of George, here's one final suggestion from my new co-writer this week...
With all the suggestions above, I hesitate to add to your sifting burden frivolously. But I have always tried to inject a small Canadian element to your rundown, and though Bryan Adams has been listed already, I feel Canada deserves a more fair and balanced representation than just that one...song. So my musings have turned up a short 1 minute exuberant little ditty I hope you will accept, "Song Nein", by Gunnarola. Its lyrics, though nonsensical, are certainly no moreso than "Song 2" by Blur, which surely must feature prominently in a few weeks time. My favourite lyric is the line "Ich habe Sauerkraut in meinen Lederhosen!" And before you look at the Teutonic spelling in the title and cry "Nyet!", I suggest he certainly intends at least a pun on the Nummer Neun, as indeed it comes in its due and proper sequence following numbers einz and zwei all the way through to seven and eight. For those interested, Gunnarola is a young Youtube artist from London (not of course in England, wherein the Queen lives, but London, Ontario, a gritty industrial town a couple hours west of where I live). He reached his pinnacle of popularity in 2009 with his song "Canadian, Please", which elicited 5 million views for its saucy lyrics extolling the virtues of life in Canada.
I think it's fair to say Mike Nesmith has a more respectable post-Monkees career than either Lennon or McCartney, post-Beatles. Ooh, little bit of controversy there.
That's rather lovely too. But I had to hold off on spending any more money for the moment.
I'm going to miss this series.
Well, that makes one of us, Brian. I do have an idea for what'll replace it though. Hopefully something that doesn't offer up quite so many potential songs every week...
And finally this week, it's over to Jim in Dubai...
Not much left this week but here's what i can add.
Y'know what, Jim? When you suggested that, I shuddered slightly. Then I listened to it again and... bloody hell, you're right. I'd forgotten what a fine pop song that was.
However, I have to hand it to The Swede again this week, for being the first to suggest what he called "surely a massive contender". Because, yes, it was.
Even before The Temptations start singing, this was the winner...
