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Four more songs from the 80th in-car CD I produced to contribute towards my son's musical education...
Track 5: The Pogues - Sally MacLennane
This one has become a firm favourite with both Sam and his Mum... and why not? It's an out-and-out classic. Iffypedia tells us, "the song is based on a bar [Shane's] uncle owned which served Irish Ford workers in Dagenham," and that furthermore, "Sally MacLennane is also a type of stout".
What makes Sally MacLennane such a success is the shouting echo in the chorus "In the rain!", "On the train!", but as much as it's a drunken singalong, it also manages to be a wistful ode to "times long gone", and a bar where, presumably, everybody knows your name.
Track 6: Maurice William & The Zodiacs - Stay
From 1960, the original version of a song that's been covered by The Hollies, The Four Seasons, Jackson Browne... I'm pretty sure Barry Manilow had a go at it too? Original is still best though, especially for those of us who first came across it on the soundtrack to Dirty Dancing. Nobody puts baby in the corner...
Maurice Williams wrote this after a bad date when he was just 15. He couldn't persuade his young lady friend to stay out any later, so he went home and poured his frustrations into this little ditty. At one minute 36 seconds, it's one of the shortest tunes to ever hit the top of the US charts.
Track 7: The Damned - Eloise
Is the original always best though? Many might prefer Barry Ryan's 1968 original of Eloise, and it's a fine record in its own right, but for me, The Damned nailed it with their "throw everything at it, including the kitchen sink" Steinman-goes-Goth cover of 1986. Chartwise, Ryan got one position higher (which seems only fair) to Number 2, but this is still the Damned's biggest hit, and their only Top Ten single.
Of course, I'm sure there will be loads of old punks who shudder at what The Damned became. The band who released the UK's first punk single, and spearheaded the British punk explosion, becoming a bunch of big-hairsprayed, white-bloused, Top of the Pops Goth tossers? How dare they? And let's not even start on Captain Sensible going off to sing show tunes. But I like The Damned at every stage of their career, and Eloise was a song I bought very early on, along with their subsequent Love cover, Alone Again, Or. Both were on a CD single, so I'm guessing they were a re-issue from a few years later.
Track 8: The Dandy Warhols - Every Day Should Be A Holiday
Finally today, some chugging stoner-indie from 1998. This was the band's debut hit before they broke the big time by selling one of their songs to a Vodafone advert. Lead singer and songwriter Courtney Taylor-Taylor made a cool $1.5 million from that deal, and used the money to buy a quarter-of-a-city block in his hometown of Portland, Oregon, turning it into a complex for recording, film editing, and web design.
I was a huge fan of the Dandy Warhols back in the day. Saw them live a few times and they always put on a great show, even if they were clearly stoned most of the time.
