Rol: I need to write a blog post for tomorrow but am completely blank. Any ideas?
Ben: I was thinking the other day about when is it enough with the softness of toilet roll? There was an ad for some that said it was the latest in softness technology. But at what point does it stop making a difference? Scented toilet paper gives you ass cancer so they stopped doing that. As long as it's not the single ply tracing paper in offices and schools, does it really need to be improved?
It's not a lifestyle choice, it's a functional tool.
Like they've been saying that it's the latest and best toilet roll for a good 50 years or so. When do we complete toilet roll?
Then just stick Rollin by Limp Bizkit at the end.
I don't think you take my blog very seriously.
(Very seriously?
Ugh
Awful grammar.)
Not necessarily for a blog post but it's a genuine thought I had the other day.
I'd rather play something by Lou Rawls.
Or attach John Rawls' A Theory of Justice as a PDF?
Michael Sandell does a good intro lecture on Rawls' ideas, there should be a YouTube video of that. Stick that on the end.
Bring it back highbrow...
You just want to kill my stats dead. I'd rather stick this...
How about a blogpost on the January feeling...?
But how it feels different and it's too weird not hating your life now your job has changed.
Too long to write. I've gone with your toilet roll musings because it's late and I want to go read my book.
The tips have been closed since the lockdown began, but this week they were tentatively re-opened. Louise (who likes to regularly order me to throw out anything I haven't used in a week because she hates clutter) immediately ordered me to clean out the garage, fill the car with 6 weeks of garden waste, and make a journey to the nearest household waste site.
Tuesday morning, before work (from home), I did just that. The tips open at 8am round here and I arrived at 20 past... only to find a queue stretching round the metaphorical block. I turned around and headed home, thinking maybe I'd try again a little earlier the next day.
Wednesday morning, I was there at 7.40. There were approximately 20 cars in front of me. So I waited. 2 cars in, 2 cars out. At 8.50, I finally got to the front of the queue. I drove in and was waved to one of two designated parking bays where I was allowed to dump a good proportion of my rubbish. Not the glass, because the bottle banks were closed. Not the tetra packs, because I'd been directed to Bay 2 and the tetra pack disposal thing is in Bay 1. I wasn't allowed to walk past the driver in Bay 1 to use that, so I drove them home again. At least I got rid of that stinky garden waste.
I'm not writing this down in outrage - the restrictions are what they are. I'm writing it down to remember. Because these are the details we'll forget, and we shouldn't ever forget.
Well, I think I actually won a couple this week. There were some stinkers though, so congrats for getting the ones you did...
As usual, I highly recommend giving the songs a listen if you don't know them. They're chosen because they're good ones!
10. Hatless, eyeless Mitchell, could be a Beach Boy... insists on keeping the central heating off.
Yes, as Lynchie points out, it does look a bit like "the late, great John Martyn after he's had a long weekend on the booze" (most weekends, then?) but it's not...
Hatless = Hats off... to Larry
Eyeless Mitchell = Joni without the i (well done, C)
Beach Boys = Wilson
Keeping the central heating on...?
Charity Chic got there in the end (with a little help from C), as I knew he would.
The one nobody got, which is a shame... but hardly surprising. The clues were pretty easy if you knew the band / track. But not many people do. More on that tomorrow...
6: Lou Rawls - Street Corner Hustler's Blues / World Of Trouble (Live)
Someone famous once said, of Lou Rawls, that he had, "the classiest singing and silkiest chops in the singing game". Now that's a pretty bold claim about any artist, but you might give it a little more credence when you know who said it.
Francis Albert Sinatra.
And I reckon he knew a thing or two about classy singing and silky chops, don't you?
I've been a fan of Lou Rawls for some time now, and he's one of the few... the very, very few... recording artists that I'm interested in hearing a live album by. Generally, live albums... well, you had to be there. But a Lou Rawls live recording... well, you wish you had been there.
Rawls wasn't just a great singer. He was a glorious raconteur too. As evidenced on today's track from his 1966 album Live! I don't know exactly when or where it was recorded, but I would give my little toe to have been there in that club, watching this guy do his stuff...
Take a look in the dictionary under 'cool'. Lou Rawls will be staring right back at you.
No, we're not back to Kenny Rogers. Not yet. (Although The Gambler is a great song.)
Instead, for the second Kenny Wednesday, I bring you... Kenny G!
(No, not that one. Yet.)
2. Kenny Gamble
This Kenny was one half of the legendary songwriting partnership Gamble & Huff. Kenny & Leon (Huff) also formed Motown rival Philadelphia International Records and pioneered the Philly sound. They're the men responsible for many, many classic soul standards, including If You Don't Know Me By Now, Backstabbers, Me & Mrs. Jones, Show You The Way To Go and When Will I See You Again?
But there are two Gamble & Huff compositions which stand out above all others to me, and I really couldn't choose between them... so I'm going to play you both...
The first one reminds me of being a teenager, when I was neck-deep in my first full-on Motown phase. It also reminds me of a teenage crush, unrequited love... you know the sort of thing. But this was the song which could turn that around. The rules were all right there in the lyrics, I just had to follow them one step at a time...
I'm gonna do all the things for you A girl wants a man to do, oh baby I'll sacrifice for you I'll even do wrong for you, oh baby Every minute, every hour I'm gonna shower You with love and affection Look out it's comin' in your direction...
The restraining order still stands, thirty years later.
And then there's this, which I discovered quite a bit later. A charidee record, released in 1977 when the New York City dustbin men went on strike... it led on to a lot more socially-conscious work for Gamble & Huff, putting their money back into regenerating parts of Philadelphia to really clean up the ghettos Gamble grew up around...
That really is an All-Star line up: Teddy Pendergrass, Archie Bell, Billy Paul, The O'Jays, Dee Dee Sharp... and the peerless Lou Rawls doing that incredible spoken intro.
Sometimes I pick a topic that, for one reason or another, fills the Top Ten with music of one particular genre, or era. Most of this week's list comes from the 60s and 70s... which suggests it's no longer seen as politically correct to write about bad women. Which is nonsense, considering some of the misogynistic crap that gets on the airwaves these days. (Although it'd be just as sexist to stop writing songs about bad women - since true equality comes from seeing the bad and the good in everyone.)
Oh, and in case you were wondering where all the bad girls are... They'll get their turn one day.
Originally recorded in the early 1930s, though it wasn't widely known until its re-release in the late 60s (shortly before James's death in 1969) and, no, I didn't discover it until I read / saw Ghost World. I guess the blues don't get much more authentic than this. But I'm not going to pretend to be an expert.
Cher had three US Number One Hits in the 70s, though only Gypsies, Tramps & Thieves was an international success.The second #1 was Half-Breed, in which she portrayed a woman outcast for being half white, half Cherokee. (The video for that, from The Sonny & Cher Comedy Hour, is hilariously wrong in a Parks & Recreation-style way.) And then came Dark Lady, in which Cher returned to her Gypsy roots with a watered-down version of Redbone's The Witch Queen of New Orleans (which I'm saving for my Top Ten Voodoo Songs, in case you were wondering why I hadn't found room for it here). It was 25 years before she had another Number One record... you know, the one that gave us Auto-Tune. Don't hate her for that.
By the way, Cher is 69 this year. Isn't it time she started putting some clothes on?
The only contemporary record on the list this week, this is from Eric Church's latest album, The Outsiders, and it's an eight minute epic. Think you know what modern country music sounds like? Think again...
Oh, and the Devil in question...? Her name is Nashville.
Lou Rawls has one of my favourite voices in soul music . Don't go searching for the lyrics online though - every lyrics site I checked had confused this song with another Evil Woman we'll meet a little bit further down this list. Which only goes to show that all those sites steal content from each other and don't bother to check its veracity.
Lou's song is actually a cover of Evil Woman by Spooky Tooth, a cool slice of laidback 60s psychedelia. Cool... but not Lou.
OK, you have every right to hate me for this... like I care what you think. This is one of Cliff's three biggest selling singles; I was four when it came out and my mum listened to a lot of Radio 2. Plus, I prefer it to the Marty Robbins track of the same name. Just.
If you don't like Cliff's version, I suggest you listen to the one by Krystine Sparkle (the song's co-writer). I can guarantee you'll go back to Cliff. Alternatively, check out the versions by All About Eve, Hayseed Dixie or Cradle of Filth. Something for everybody.
Also, if it wasn't for Devil Woman, we wouldn't ever have had...
You may be more familiar with the Black Sabbath version, but this is the original from a year earlier (1969). Ozzy's is heavier but it doesn't have a trumpet solo.
While we're on the subject of Black Sabbath, I suppose I should also offer Lady Evil for your consideration.
It's good to see Jeff Lynne getting some respect again this year - proof positive that if you stick around long enough, even the muso-snobs will come around to the fact that you're a national treasure. Not heard the new ELO album yet (beyond the typically Lennon-esque single), but this is one of their very best. Love that opening...
