Echo and the Bunnymen with Billy Bragg – Run Run Run

Back in 1985 BBC’s Old Grey Whistle Test did an all-nighter show called Rock Around The Clock.  It was hosted by Word Magazine’s Mark Ellen and David Hepworth, with a bit of help from Andy Kershaw.

I remember staying up and seeing Echo and the Bunnymen joining up with Billy Bragg to play a rather shambolic version of The Velvet Underground’s Run, Run, Run at about 3 in the morning.  I’d just discovered The Velvet Underground for myself and it felt like being a member of an exclusive club.  In a pre-Amazon and MP3 world, just getting hold of their records was a challenge.  To see two of my favourite acts teaming on a Velvet’s cover was tremendously exciting.

I hadn’t seen or heard it again in nearly 25 years until I found this on YouTube.  In the intervening time I had thought about this version, and being a bit of a guitar geek, I remembered distinctly that Billy Bragg was playing a Telecaster f hole Thinline and that Will Sargent of the  Bunnymen was playing a Bond Electraglide.  A very 80s high tech guitar, made with carbon fibre with digital controls and readouts and a stepped rather than fretted fretboard.  Very much of it’s time and technology in a guitar that never really caught on.  Mick Jones played one in Big Audio Dynamite.  The Edge probably played one too.

Heartbeats – José González

Now this really surprised me today.   José González was one of the headline acts at Moseley Folk Festival in 2008 and to be honest I thought he was shit.  He just sat there hunched over his guitar meandering away at his tunes.  Between songs he took ages to tune his guitar and did not engage with the audience at all at any point during the so-called performance.  I will admit that I had had a couple of tankards of ale, but felt justified in heckling “Buy a guitar tuner”.  We gave him about five songs before all agreeing that he was over-rated and went for a curry instead.

This evening, I was doing that internet thing of distractly following links more and more tangential from the original thing I’d been looking for, when I came across an interesting video on the Graffiti Research Labs site.  The track on it was lovely and fitted the video perfectly.  There was no credit but on firing up the rather clever Midomi on my iPhone(an app that identifies music by hearing it)  imagine my surprise to find it was by the previously dismissed José González.  Think I might need to go back and have another listen.

So go check out the video I was talking about.  It is quite nice.

The photo is one of mine.  Reminds me I need to get the rest of the photos from Moseley Folk Festival processed and uploaded.

Gone Gone Gone (Done Moved On) – Robert Plant and Alison Krauss

I’m not planning to do any of that review of the year stuff that other bloggers and other more traditonal publications are doing but one of my highlights of 2008 was when Robert Plant joined Fairport Convention onstage at Cropredy Festival for The Battle of Evermore.

This track originally by the Everly Brothers, comes from his collaboration with Alison Krauss on the Raising Sand album.  T Bone Burnett, a man with a collection of fine guitars, does a fine job on the production with the spacious reverb and slapback echo.

You can hear this track over at YouTube but for copyright reason it can’t be embedded here.

Shoplifting – Senseless Things

Listening to the Senseless Things today whilst wandering round the farmers market, I decided on this song for today’s selection.  I can’t find a clip of it on YouTube or Last.fm although if you go to the rare sounds section on their site there is a stack load of other downloads to be had.

Shoplifting is from their first album, Postcard CV which was on the wonderfully named Way Cool records.  Still got it all on vinyl although I was chuffed when it all cropped up on iTunes a few months ago.

One of the great forgotten Fraggle bands of the early nineties.  I didn’t realise until I started searching online for a clip that this was actually a cover of a Slits song though.

Still got my Pop Kid T shirt and it still fits.  I wore it to the Wonder Stuff’s 20th Anniversary gig recently.

“Do a runner! Do a runner!”

Seven Days Too Long – Chuck Wood

Been doing this blog for a whole seven days now so what better track to celebrate this minor milestone than Northern Soul classic, Seven Days Too Long.  I’ll give you a couple of versions to choose from.

First up the original Chuck Wood version, one of the finest Northern Soul tracks ever.  I defy anybody not to want to start dancing to this.  If you like this then get yourself on Amazon and pick up one of the many fine Norther Soul compilations out there.  A good starter is The Best Northern Soul All Nighter..Ever!

And for the BrumBloggers out there, here’s Dexy’s Midnight Runners doing their cover version of it, from one of my all-time favourite albums, Searching for the Young Soul Rebels.

Personal Jesus – Johnny Cash

I came to Johnny Cash quite late, around the time of the American IV album, The Man Comes Around, that thisis  from.  I like a cover and there’s some great songs on this album.  I think it is the best album of the American recording revival of his later career, that he did with Rick Rubin.  I’ve since gone back and mined the back catalogue which is just full of great, great stuff,  but this is something I was listening to today that caused me to hit replay a couple of times.