The Supremes - A Go Go
This record has gone down particularly well in the parent core household this week. Given Lady Friend’s childhood propensity to stand on her toy box while singing along to Diana Ross’s Ain’t No Mountain High Enough, The Supremes A Go Go was always going to go down well. And I’m not surprised really as it’s stuffed full of some of the most recognizable Motown tracks of the 60’s - classic perfectly formed up-tempo swinging soulful pop at its best.
A Go Go was The Supremes’ 1966 debut record and the first all female record to reach number one in the US Billboard charts. This Old Heart of Mine, Shake Me, Wake Me, I Can’t Help Myself, Get Ready – nearly every track on this album is a belter. With a revolving membership policy that saw around ten members joining and leaving the band over nearly two decades The Supremes appear to be the original Sugababes. Although the Sugababes are yet to grace us with a superstar quite as gifted at football as Diana Ross.
The only thing that slightly freaks me out about this record is You Can’t Hurry Love. A perfectly decent tune in its own right sure, but one that has become permanently damaged goods in my eyes following a shoddy Phil Collins cover in 1982. And I’m no Phil Collins hater - No Jacket Required is an awesome record… although ironically if you want to do a passable impression of Phil at a fancy dress party, a jacket most certainly is required. Along with a t-shirt, blue jeans and rapidly receding hairline. Hmm, actually maybe not judging by THIS. Anyway, the point is that Phil shouldn’t have dabbled with the Supremes. If it ain’t broke don’t fix it in my opinion.
Oh sod it, what the hell. It’s time to reconcile myself with it once and for all. You Can’t Hurry Love is going on the parent core playlist.
I went to see Grand Master Flash play on a rooftop in Brixton last weekend. He still can’t scratch for toffee but he still knows how to rock a party. What a legend. It’s fitting therefore that PJ has used the famous Flash scratch sample on this week’s finger bashed Supreme’s parent core remix. Enjoy!
Abba - Greatest Hits Vol.2
Volume 2? What have you done with Volume 1 Mum and Dad!? Were Waterloo and Fernando not good enough for you hey? To be fair actually, I think one greatest hits record is just about as much Abba as I can listen to without wanting to plug my own ears up for good. You can therefore imagine my disappointment at attending a good friend’s wedding party recently, only to find that the DJ played not one but two Abba tracks – severely eating in to the limited time that he had to entertain this particular pissed tie-round-the-head wearing wedding usher. Still, he made up for it by playing Toto’s Africa – although I don’t quite know who Toto think they are blessing the rains down in Africa – I’m sure Africans couldn’t give two shits whether their rain has been blessed by an 80’s soft rock act or not.
Limited tolerance for their musical output aside, you really can’t fault Agnetha, Benny, Björn and Anni-Frid’s skill at crafting incredibly catchy pop numbers. Phenomenally successful between 1972 and 1982 Abba’s demise proved that it’s probably not wise to pair off in to two couples when you’re in a mixed four piece band… otherwise you’re probably going to end up seriously getting on each other’s tits. Volume 2 contains some of their biggest and best hits. From Gimme Gimme Gimme (successfully sampled by Madonna in her tune Hung Up) to Knowing Me Knowing You (AHA!); and from Take a Chance on Me (nice little Erasure cover that one) to Dancing Queen (You’re terrible Muriel. No seriously, you are you slob) – this record is stuffed full of granny pleasers.
… and Vladimir Putin apparently. If you type Abba fan in to google images, the first thing that shows up is a picture of the Russia’s very own shirtless horse riding, bear slaying macho man himself – apparently a big fan of the Swedes. Hey everyone has to unwind somehow I guess.
You can’t fault Abba’s relentless nose (yes noses can be relentless alright) for commercial success. They even went as far to record a Spanish version of their greatest hits called Gracias Por La Musica. I really think more bands should take a leaf out of Abba’s book. If the likes of Olly Murs were forced to record everything they released in an additional Spanish version, maybe they’d think twice before inflicting such drivel on us.
Despite the inclusion of many better known hits, I’m actually going to stick Angel Eyes on the parent core play list this week, mainly because I’ve never heard it at a wedding. More fingers bashing beats from PJ below, plus if you like that, you’ll probably like this Van Halen Super Trooper mash up too. Enjoy!
Check out PJ’s beats here:
Simon and Garfunkel – Bridge Over Troubled Water
Another mainstreamer from the parent core collection this week, Simon and Garfunkel’s Bridge Over Troubled Water is their final and most successful album, recorded in 1969 a year before their break-up. Their first break up that is – these guys split up and got back together more times than Roberto Mancini and Carlos Tevez.
In fact, this record, as stuffed full of catchy folkster hits as it is, is basically one drawn out relationship meltdown – the charting of a painfully withering bromance. The Only Living Boy in New York was penned by Paul Simon when he was left to finish off writing Bridge Over Troubled Water on his own as Art Garfunkel buggered off to Mexico to film Catch 22; the album title track sung solely by Garfunkel charts their increasingly fractious relationship as their creative differences spiralled out of control; Why Don’t You Write Me is a pretty much a blatant heart-on-sleeve cry from Simon for a nice facebook wall post from his best buddy; while their cover of the Everly Brothers (who were a strong influence for S&G) song Bye Bye Love pretty much says it all. I could go on. I mean dudes seriously, man up! Some laundry is quite happy being aired at home in the spare room where no one can see it. Apart from drunken friends who’ve crashed out at yours for the night after missing the last bus home that is – they normally end up sleeping in it.
Oh well, if this is a break up record, it’s better than doing it by text message I suppose. Just a bit more of an effort. Not everyone who wants to break up with someone has the benefit of being a member of a talented duo of Greenwich Village folk rockers I guess.
My favourite track and inclusion in this week’s parent core play list is actually El Condor Pasa, based upon the original instrumental number by Los Incas from 1963 and featuring the simultaneously uplifting and slightly mournful Andean pan pipes that you could imagine some jubilant Ewoks dancing to after staging an unlikely victory against a particularly evil intergalactic empire. Or perhaps even a Cylon empire. Who knows. Incidentally DJ Shadow sampled El Condor Pasa’s opening refrain on his track You Can’t Go Home Again. That’s two DJ Shadow references and two Battlestar Gallactica references in the last month. More varied pop culture references cannot be guaranteed I’m afraid.
Check out PJ’s Simon and G Funkel beats below:
The Beatles - With the Beatles
No surprises here. You know what you’re getting with the Beatles. I’m afraid my parents can’t provide a random “treat” like Marshall Hain every week. With The Beatles is their second album, recorded only four months after their debut Please Please Me - clearly an era when bands didn’t muck about when it came to producing that difficult second record (take note The Quarry) - perhaps in an attempt to get as much usage as possible from their mums’ washboard / broom / sewing machine / whatever-the-hell-else-skiffle-bands-used-to-nick-from-the-kitcen-to-make a-god-awful-racket before she noticed it was missing. Not that the Beatles are a skiffle band obviously. More skiffle influenced.
With the Beatles consists roughly of 50% original compositions such as the boisterous It Won’t Be Long and the melodic All My Loving; and 50% covers (mainly motown and R&B hits) such as Chuck Berry’s Roll Over Beethoven and Smokey Robinson’s You Really Got a Hold on Me. They belt through it all in pretty efficient fashion keeping the tempo fairly consistent throughout - maybe to make life easier for poor old Ringo….. sorry, that was too easy - he’s a better drummer than I am.
Incidentally my mates Will and Andy’s mum once crash landed a hot air balloon in Ringo Starr’s garden, only for Ringo to storm out of his mansion and express his extreme displeasure at such apparently incompetent use of thermals and prevailing winds. Well I’m sorry Ringo, but if you ageing rock stars do insist on buying up half the home counties in order to while away your remaining years reclining on your chaise-longues made of fifty pound notes or whatever it is you do, hot air balloonists don’t have much choice but to crash in to your garden buddy boy. And I take it back: I am better at the drums than you. Which, as anyone who has seen me play the drums will confirm, is pretty damning indeed.
I wanted to stick All My Loving on the parent core play list this week, but I can’t because Sir Paul is one of those awkward gits who hasn’t allowed Spotify to publish his tunes. Seeing as live streaming music directly in to your brain cells is probably the way everyone will be listening to music in the future, Sir Paul doesn’t seem to be doing much to future-proof the appeal of the Beatles to younger generations. Meh. His loss. I’ve stuck the Me First and the Gimme Gimme’s cover version on instead. PJ informs me that he bashed out the rhythm to this week’s remix on his sampler live with his fingers, prompting a short debate as to whether “finger bash” sounds a little too rude to become a genre of music. Enjoy!
Listen to PJ’s beats here:
Mike Oldfield – The Orchestral Tubular Bells
This album is brilliant. Although that said, I was a little disappointed to discover that half way through writing this I was in fact listening to the 1975 orchestral recording of Tubular Bells and not the 1973 original (first rule of parent core: read the album cover properly before listening) which replaces the glockenspiel, and “double bass line in 5/4 polyrhythmically played with a 4/4 acoustic line” (nope, no fucking idea either), and ten minute Mike Oldfield bottle of Jameson induced screaming sessions (apparently a result of Virgin Record Boss Richard Branson, increasingly exasperated at the delayed release of Tubular Bells – which he’d taken a punt on as the first release of his new Virgin Records label after all other major records labels rejected it – storming in to the studio and demanding more vocals much to Oldfield’s annoyance), with the more sedate sounds of the Royal Philharmonic kicking back in the Royal Albert Hall (second rule of parent core: actually listen to the record when writing blog update rather than blindly launching in to a tirade of irrelevant nonsense).
Either way, this is still a brilliant album, taking the listener through ethereal lilting melodies, sweeping blockbuster movie-esque scores and traditional classical music-that-they’d-play-at-Stockwell-tube-station-to-stop-commuters-stabbing-each-other fare. And that’s not even mentioning the haunting opener that was made famous by Mark Kermode’s favourite movie The Exorcist (Third rule of parent core: do not rotate head through 180 degrees and spew green vomit while attempting to write a blog update). Incidentally if you’ve ever wondered what the Exorcist would look like with Ace of Bass doing the soundtrack – which I’m sure you all have – you can see this vision realised here.
Having listened to both, the orchestral version really does justice to Mike Oldfield’s original. I actually feel slightly less dirty listening to the orchestral version of Tubular Bells, as 2.5 million copies of the original were distributed free with the Mail on Sunday in 2007 against Oldfield’s wishes as it subsequently emerged (really Mike? I bet you’ve sneaked a peak at the Kim Kardashian celebrity gallery on mailonline once haven’t you you dirty bugger? Hmm? HMMM?) meaning that I’m not listening to the same music as the sort of people who probably do believe that PAEDOPHILE ASYLUM-SEEKERS ARE SWAMPING BRITAIN (existing record collection cross-over not withstanding).
For it’s sheer legendary cinematic fame I’ll have to add the Tubular Bells introduction to the a parent core play list this week. I probably should have told PJ that I was reviewing the orchestral version before he went to the effort of making this week’s mix, but no matter, it’s still awesome and has won him a lot of Japanese art student listeners.
Check out PJ’s beats here:
Elkie Brooks - Two Days Away
Elkie Brooks. A strong name. A robust name. A name which brings to mind a powerful moose like creature standing nobly over a fresh babbling mountain stream, braying proudly at any forest animal that cares to listen. And my can Elkie bray. Her husky voice drips through Two Days Away like a big dollop of natural honey – bits of bee and all - doing as much justice to the more pop oriented numbers such as Spiritland and Sunshine After The Rain , as it does to the more soulful numbers - such as the sultry album opener Love Potion No.9 and the surprisingly decent cover of Aretha Franklin’s Do Right Woman, Do Right Man.
Born in Salford, Manchester, Elkie Brooks spent much of 60’s on Britain’s cabaret circuit, introducing the likes of the Small Faces, supporting the Beatles and then touring the US with the Animals. By 1977 she had come to the attention of legendary producers Jerry Lieber and Mike Stoller (a duo responsible for much of Elvis’s best recordings) who subsequently produced Two Days Away - her second solo album. I’m a big fan of this album. Her take on Love Potion No.9 which Lieber and Stoller had made a hit for The Coasters over 15 years earlier, is an excellent down key intro to the effective mixture of pop, soul and blues which is to follow, and which culminates in her raucous rendition of Saved – a cracking gospel inflected number about an ex-drinker, smoker, cusser and fusser.
Elkie Brooks spent much of the 70’s in her sparsely furnished New York apartment, sitting around in her underwear, racking up enormous phone bills by calling Donna Summer and plotting to convene twenty years hence with the aim of combining two of their most successful hits and unleashing 90’s pop sensation Berri on the world along with her irritating top ten hit Sunshine After The Rain (a tune helpfully reviewed by youtube user chandlerbingbong with the concise “I’d slip her one.” Classy chap that bingbong.) Well I’m afraid you didn’t succeed with your nefarious plan ladies. Not quite – it only reached number 4. So there. Good 90’s pop foresight from the parent core collection though!
The parent core playlist is getting a new addition in the form of Saved this week, while PJ has had a veritable goldmine of breaks and beats to play with, which I’m sure you’ll enjoy – especially if you take a leaf out of Elkie’s book and listen to them while sitting around with your trousers off.
Check out PJ’s beats here:
