One of the things I really miss about Gideon Coe’s daytime BBC 6Music show is his ‘Wednesday Wist Wagon’. So, in homage to it I invite you all to climb aboard my Sunday Sadness Stagecoach. Here are four songs to make your heart ache just a little bit - and here’s the thing: they are all off the same album.
One of the unexpected consequences of having the decorators in (not a euphemism for anything, but now you mention it…) was stumbling upon a 4AD compilation CD from 1995 called ‘Facing the Wrong Way’. I’d forgotten how wonderful this album was. And it’s chock-full of wist.
So here are snatches from:
‘Summer Dress’ - Red House Painters
‘You Sweet Little Heart Breaker’ - Air Miami
‘Love Songs on the Radio’ - Mojave (actually Mojave 3 but this CD must pre-date the change of name)
‘Cheap Cuts’ - Liquorice
I know the Air Miami track is probably too thrashy for most people to consider it wistful but the title alone qualifies it. And the Liquorice track is probably a bit too feisty, but I love the lyrics and couldn’t not include it. And hey, I did drop ‘Valley of the Morning Sun’ by Kendra Smith which is utterly lovely but the lyrics are just bonkers and I have no idea what it’s about. (Aviation. Just looked it up). And it is my list.
LOVE SONGS ON THE RADIO - Mojave 3
She looks just like an angel
When she walks across the room
She shines tonight
Her golden light
Is everything I need
Lovers all around her
She wears them like her jewels
My friend says she’s all he needs
To feel alive
Love songs on the radio
His sweetheart lies in bed
She’s dreaming of the things he said
She’s hoping that he’s well
Inspired by Wardy, I’ve cranked up Garage Band for the first time - it says here - in two years. Now I have rather less than no musical talent, though I can just about play the gramophone. But that hasn’t stopped me trying to make bloody awful cover versions of tracks off the first Human League album, Reproduction. It’s a synthesiser album from 1979, and it’s still my favourite album in the world ever. I love the weird noises, I love Phil Oakey’s fragile vocals, I love his mad lyrics like:
I spent a bad day yesterday
With a man and a picture of himself
The tape was running and the tv turned…
…fading into a news report of Jim Callaghan leaving office.
I’ve had ‘Nannou’ by the Aphex Twin stuck in my head all day.
And I don’t even like the Aphex Twin. I think I heard one of his tracks once and hated it, and I used to snigger when the NME said “Congratulations, Mrs Aphex, it’s a twin!”
The soundtrack album to Morvern Callar changed that. Its plinky, plonky melodic genius closes the film and the album. And it’s wheedled its way into my brain.
I enjoyed the film of Movern Callar, but I’m enjoying the book much more. Reading it makes some of the decisions they made in adapting it seem very odd… I don’t recall Morvern crying at all at the start of the film, but she does in the book. And there are some arresting images in the book that I can’t believe they didn’t want to film - the model village and train set in the loft, the body crashing down on it, a man drinking whisky from the gullet of a fish… and why is Morvern English in the film? Why?!
I dug the old turntable out of the loft months ago and never had the time to dub off any of that precious vinyl… and when I did get round to it I discovered the stylus was missing. I didn’t want to shell out the best part of £100 on one of those USB turntables, so I sent £20 to the Diamond Stylus Company in Wales. A few days later a shiny new stylus arrived.
And I know why vinyl died out. It’s crap. It pops, hisses, clicks and is horribly prone to sibilance. But listening to ‘Glad it’s all over’ by Captain Sensible and ‘The Official Colourbox World Cup Theme’ for the first time in over twenty years put a big stupid grin on my face.
Today on BBC 6 Music, Gideon Coe was getting listeners to vote for ‘great lost tear-jerkers’. Three tracks to choose from, including ‘Ship-building’ by Robert Wyatt and ‘Tank Park Salute’. I hadn’t heard ‘Tank Park Salute’ for years, all my Billy Bragg records are locked on vinyl, away from my iPod, and so I voted for it. It won.
I vaguely remembered the song bringing a tear to my eye back in 1991. I hadn’t reckoned on what having three children and the death of my father would do the emotional power of this song. I cried for ages and keep welling up when I think of the lyrics which have been in my head all day.
Some photographs of a summer’s day
A little boy’s lifetime away
Is all I’ve left of everything we’ve done
Am totally hooked on ‘The Decision’ by a band called The Young Knives. Can’t get its pleasingly bonkers riff and lyrics out of my head.
I wore the blue with the green
I wore the blue with the green
I mixed the matt with the sheen,
It’s not the way to be seen
That decision was mine,
that decision was mine
I’ve grown to hate all the music on my iPod (familiarity breeds contempt) and this song has got me happily bopping down the Strand for the first time in… months. Check out the wonderful video on their web site. Bliss.
(If, like me, you’re having touble playing all of the Decision video on that site, try their MySpace page instead. And if you’re wondering what they sound like, I’m going to hazard a guess at “The Small Faces meet XTC”).
The Complete Peanuts 1955-56 by Charles M Schulz
The Murder of Roger Ackroyd by Agatha Christie
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