It’s Private Tonight

Some songs boast the triple-threat of amazing verse, bridge and chorus. Lots of songs have an ordinary verse leading to a kick-ass chorus. Less common, but still a frequent sub-category, are those songs where the chorus is a bit of a let-down. I would argue that Billy Bragg’s virtually perfect ‘The Boy Done Good’ has a forgettable chorus. ‘It’s Private Tonight’ by Arthur Adams is another example. The chorus is fine, but doesn’t deliver on the promise of the verse, which is why it is relegated to my PYRITE RADIO. Check him here, playing live in March 2017. What a dude.

Joy

Carl Sagan and the rest of the Golden Record team chose three, yes three pieces by J.S. Bach. There were disagreements about this. With only 90 minutes to play with, why clog up finite space with music from just one composer? The counter argument, which won the day, was that it would prove an interesting thought experiment to include two or more pieces created by the same human brain. Plus as the records were sent space-wards without any kind of tracklist, who made the music was essentially an irrelevance. In the end, the Voyager Golden Record went with two pieces by Beethoven, and three by J.S. Bach.

I’m much more concerned that the aliens should have something to dance to. So instead I choose this instrumental by Apollo 100 based on Bach’s ‘Jesu, Joy of Man’s Desiring’, and featuring Tom Parker on the keys.

Once You Understand

I begin PYRITE RADIO – where I explore curios, also-rans and terrible songs that shouldn’t be let anywhere near a golden record – with this piece of preachy weirdness from 1971.

‘Once You Understand‘ was put together by two studio dudes under the band name Think. It’s an endlessly repeating refrain – ‘Things get a little easier, once you understand’ – which sounds like something out of Godspell or Hair, building slowly as more voices and instruments join the fray, all set against the spoken word backdrop of parent/teen disfunction. Death comes at the end, as we listen in on a father being informed of his son’s death from an overdose. Sobbing occurs, then the refrain returns for one last kick in the teeth. It’s awful, makes no sense and I love it, but only in the same way I love Sinbad of the Seven Seas with Lou Ferrigno.

Soulshake

I discovered Peggy Scott & Jo Jo Benson’s ‘Soulshake‘ while working near Record Collector magazine. I say ‘near’, because I was actually editor of Book Collector at the time, but wrote bits and bobs for my magazine’s better-looking, better-selling vinyl sister. When new reissue CDs or LPs came in for review, I could sometimes feed on the soul-funk scraps. It was during one of these feeding sessions that I discovered an LP named Soulshake. I liked the look of the cover and the moment I dropped the needle in the groove of the title track I knew it was the start of a long association with my ears. I also recommend the single ‘Pickin’ Wild Mountain Berries‘.

Misalliance

‘Misalliance‘ is a melancholy song for Flanders and Swann. It’s the story of forbidden love between two climbing plants, and it sits right at the top of my GOLDEN PLAYLIST. It appears on both LP recordings of At the Drop of a Hat, but I prefer this one (Parlophone PCS 3001) from the final night of the West End run at the Fortune Theatre in May 1959, because the audience’s laughter falls in a more pleasing way. Aliens won’t know what these two guys are singing about, but I think it’s worth sending anyway, in the hope they figure it out in the end.