Tim’s B-List

1. Becker & Stuhlen ‘Mellotron’ – This is a track from a rare library album of vintage synthesizers. Sublime and trippy.
2. Butthole Surfers  ‘Chewin George Lucas’ Chocolate’ & ‘Goofy’s Concern’ – expert punk nihilsim.
3. The Books ‘The Lemon Of Pink’ – schizophrenic sample-magic. Also notable: ‘A Cold Freezin’ Night’ (amazing video!
4. The Beastie Boys ‘Oh Word!’ – So many amazing tracks from the Beasties – I love MCA’s sections. Always sing this when I’m in NY.
5. Biffy Clyro ‘Questions And Answers’ – Scottish. These boy keep you waiting and then drop the magic – check the BVs at 2:14 then the harmony – oh yes! All this and an album cover by Milo Manara.
6. Beck ‘Beercan’ – I shortlisted a bunch of Beck – mostly from Stereopathetic Soulmanure, but nothing can beat his rhymes on Beercan. Zeitgeist 1994.
7. Blind Mr Jones ‘Mesa’ – Sweet shoegaze from a relatively unappreciated album of great songs.
8. Big Star ‘Blue Moon (demo)’ – Again – so many to choose from, but this demo has been breaking my heart of late.
9. Busta Rhymes (feat. Mysikal) ‘Iz They Wildin Wid Us?’ – A rare hip-hop post from me – Busta Rhymes production is insane and this song is hilarious. Be sure to listen until Busta’s section 1:39 – 2:13.
10. The Byrds ‘Draft Morning’ – So many Byrds tracks could’ve made this list, but this won out over ‘What’s Happening?’
11. Boards Of Canada ‘ROYGBIV’ – This song blows my mind every time – delicately poised between whimsical, fun and utterly devastating.
12. Billy Bragg ‘A New England’ – Just great.
13. The Breeders ‘Off You’ – Kelley Deal brings it home [swoon].
14. Blur ‘This Is A Low’ – Check this live video. Graham Coxon is high in my pantheon of guitar gods.
15. Bob Hund ‘100 år’ – 100 år är ingenting för mig.
16. The Bonzo Dog Band ‘Quiet Talks and Summer Walks (Unpeeled Version)’ – A relatively straight and beautiful song from the original Novelty Band, inspirations to Monty Python. Neil Innes on vocals and the inimitable Vivian Stanshall on recorder. For contrast check out ‘The Intro And The Outro’ and ‘Big Shot’.
17. The Beach Boys ‘Little Bird’ – Just one of my favourite songs of all time, courtesy of Dennis.
18. Bee Gees ‘Wind Of Change’ – I watched a documentary recently that made me despise The Bee Gees – this song makes me forget my hatred.
19. Björk ‘Army Of Me (Suckerpunch Remix)‘ – Björk is 100% brilliant, and 90% unlistenable. This is part of the 10%. Particularly loved this remix from the ‘Suckerpunch’ movie.
20. Bad News ‘Warriors Of Ghengis Khan’ – The first Bad News TV show was shot before Spinal Tap – both are brilliant but very different parodies of Heavy Metal. Produced (and played in places) by Brian May the eponymous first album is a staple of 1980s British humor. Highly influenced by ‘The Troggs Tapes’ and 100% profane. Very funny, very metal.

Tim’s 1978 Top Tens

1978 turned out to be a good year! This probably my favourite top ten to date.

Songs:

1. Hanging On The Telephone (Blondie) – In my opinion this is the best single of all time. Debbie Harry’s voice at its best, killer guitar licks and drum fills, amazing verses, brilliant choruses, a killer bridge and huge ending – all in 2:22. Incredible song.
2. Theme From Monkey Magic (Godiego) – Godiego are a Japanese band that have released 55 albums (!) In 1978 they recorded the theme tune to a comedic chop-socky TV show called ‘Monkey Magic’. Based on the 19th Century novel by Wu Cheng’en, the show was dubbed into English and became an instant success. Godiego’s theme tune is the toughest funkiest space-rock jam ever – though some of the lyrics didn’t scan so well after translation! Email me if you want to hear the full lenghth version – Youtube took my video down 😦
3. This Perfect Day (The Saints) – Chris Bailey is probably the best rock vocalist ever. As remote and obscure as this Australian band was in 1978 – they nailed the Detroit punk sound better than most. A very intense and strange song.
4. I Don’t Mind (Buzzcocks) – One of Pete Shelley’s masterpieces. Like ‘Hanging On The Telephone’ this is an almost perfect pop song/single – tight, hooky, modern and heavy-on-the-heart. No-one writes a love song like Pete Shelley, and this is one of his best. It just beat ‘Ever Fallen In Love (With Someone You Shouldnt’ve?)’ onto my top ten list because it has such ingenious chords changes and a killer bridge.
5. The Artilleryman And The Fighting Machine (Jeff Wayne) – This is my favourite track from Jeff Wayne’s epic disco-funk-rock concept album ‘War Of The Worlds’. This track features voice-overs from Sir Richard Burton and David Essex (!) – I chose it because it includes some of the best themes on the album, and some sublime orchestration, production and mixing.
6. Safe European Home (The Clash) – Surely one of the best rock songs of all time – a brilliant sound and a hugely professional shift for the Clash. For those who are interested some discreet mixes turned up on Youtube recently. Being able to hear Mick’s backing vocal at 2:12 were a revelation to this Clash fan!
7. Carry Me Home (Dennis Wilson) – This track was issued a few years back packaged with the re-release of ‘Pacific Ocean Blue’. One of the darkest, most moving of Dennis’ typically dark moving songs!
8. Outdoor Miner (Wire) – What a strange band Wire are – the taught art-punks surprise everyone with a melodic second album. Sublime tune.
9. The Electrician (The Walker Brothers) – After a comeback hit in ’75, the Walker Brothers found themselves in a 3 album deal with GTO records. By this point, Scott Walker had already recorded too many terrible pop albums (all deleted now!) so steered the Brothers into making a more experimental album. ‘The Electrician’ is the best track on ‘Nite Flights’, and probably the most accessible of Scott Walker’s avant-garde songs. This is a great place to start, if you’ve ever been interested in what all the fuss is about.
10. Wuthering Heights (Kate Bush) – Kate’s a bit hit-and-miss in my opinion, but her first hit is an astounding piece of songwriting. Check out the ‘Red Dress’ video – oh Kate!

(11.) Kangaroo (Big Star) – ‘Third/Sister Lovers’ didn’t make my top ten albums list – but ‘Kangaroo’ is a brilliantly spooky song! This is what happens when you let the engineer loose on your demo!

Albums:

1. War Of The Worlds (Jeff Wayne) – as a child this disco-prog concept album used to simultaneous fascinate and terrify me. It still has the same effect! Wayne’s orchestration and production are pretty seminal in this genre – pretty much all disco albums sounded like this in 1979! Richard Burton is phoning in his voice-over, but all the other contributors give it their all (especially Phil Lynott as the priest!) 
2. Another Music In A Different Kitchen (Buzzcocks) – Its legend that everyone in attendance at The Sex Pistols show at Manchester Free Trade Hell in 1976 started a successful band – but The Buzzcocks were definitely there – they organized the show. After shedding vocalist Howard Devoto and swapping instruments and members, they came up with this incredible first album, packed tight with angsty love songs and futuristic art-rock-inspired pop songs. A unique and underrated band regardless of the ‘punk’ tag. Pete Shelley pretty much invented the gender-unspecific love song (though it was pretty obvious he was gay!), paving the way for the likes of Morrissey and Husker Du. Musically a huge influence on Nirvana. Also released in 1978 is their second album ‘Love Bites’ with the classic track ‘Ever Fallen In Love (With Someone You Shouldnt’ve?)’.
3. Parallel Lines (Blondie) – I’m not the biggest Blondie fan – but this album is just a classic from start to finish! Sunday Girl, Heart Of Glass, One Way Or Another…
4. Eternally Yous (The Saints) – Who the hell are The Saints? Well it seems there was an awesome punk scene in Australia in the late 70s and this album is a gem!
5. Ambient 1: Music for Airports (Brian Eno) – I’m also not a huge Eno fan, but there’s no denying this a seminal and gorgeous album. Far out,
6. Road To Ruin (Ramones) – Perhaps not the originators of punk, but the band that unified the movement across the planet. Ramones 4th album hammered home their bubblegum cartoon-rock ethic.
7. Give Em Enough Rope (The Clash) – As a Clash nerd I couldn’t leave their 2nd album off the list. Essentially its a problematic album, chiefly because it was produced by American rock producer Sandy Pearlman (Blue Oyster Cult et al) and was duly damned by the music press and punks alike as a sell-out. However, its actually a very robust rock album, the Clash show their lighter side with tracks like ‘Julies Been Working for the Drug Squad’ and ‘Drug Stabbing Time‘ (a close second to ‘Safe European Home’ on my top 10 song list!) 
8. Outlandos d’Amour (The Police) – I fucking hate Sting, and pretty much everything The Police did after this was meh – but I can’t deny everything on this album is brilliant.
9. The Man Machine (Kraftwerk) – The band’s 7th album wasn’t much of a departure, but had a perfect balance of pop, humor and minimalism. ‘The Robots’ and ‘Man Machine’ are particular highlights.
10. Bambu (Dennis Wilson) – “Gorgeousness and gorgeousity made flesh.”

 

Tim’s 1972 Top Ten

This was MUCH harder than I anticipated! Turns out that 3 of my favourite Brazilian albums came out in 1972, and it was excruciating shortlisting so many great songs. I decided to only include one song by each artist on my top ten song list, but had to include two tracks from The Harder They Come Soundtrack as they represent two very different genres of reggae in it’s most interesting era (Studio One Presents Burning Spear was a close third choice!) Also had trouble choosing which song to include from Big Star’s #1 Record. I struggled a little with the inclusion of The Bonzo Dog Band’s Rawlinson End as its technically not a song, but it is one of my favourite recordings by Vivian Stanshall, and I highly recommend his continued stories of Henry Rawlinson that appear on Sir Henry At Rawlinson End (1978). Os Mutantes’ Balada Do Louco is a pretty song from a very heavy album – again – so hard to choose! Check out #4. Mr Destroyer (Poobah), its a great rare piece of Midwestern psychedelia – sounding like Blue Cheer playing Sabbath!

TOP TEN SONGS:

1. Cravo E Canela (Milton Nascimento & Lô Borges)
2. Thirteen (Big Star)
3. Johnny Too Bad (The Slickers)
4. Mr Destroyer (Poobah)
5. Hallogallo (Neu!)
6. Balada Do Louco (Os Mutantes)
7. The Harder They Come (Jimmy Cliff)
8. Rawlinson End (The Bonzo Dog Band)
9. Zigy Zigy Za (Astrud Gilberto)
10. Lonesome Crow (Scorpions)

My Top Three albums were easy – Milton Nascimento & Lô Borges’ Clube Da Esquina is in my all time top ten – recorded at Abbey Road its a beautiful trippy easy-listening singer-songwriter masterwork. The rest were tricky – with so much Krautrock/Prog to choose from I had to cut Can’s Ege Bamyasi, Yes’ Close To The Edge  and Kalacakra’s Crawling to Lahasa in favour of Neu!, Lonesome Crow (Scorpions brilliant debut) and Focus III. Rita Lee’s awesome Hoje é o Primero Dia do Resto da Sua Vida came a close second to Os Mutantes’ psychedelic assault Mutantes E Seus Cometas No País Do Baurets. Finally I struggled with including Transformer, but in the end I couldn’t resist it!

TOP TEN ALBUMS:

1. Clube Da Esquina (Milton Nascimento & Lô Borges)
2. #1 Record (Big Star)
3. The Harder They Come Soundtrack (Various Artists)
4. Mutantes E Seus Cometas No País Do Baurets – (Os Mutantes)
5. Neu! (Neu!)
6. Lonesome Crow (Scorpions)
7. Now (Astrud Gilberto)
8. Transformer (Lou Reed)
9. Focus III (Focus)
10. Shakara – London Scene (Fela Kuti)

Great fun! Can’t wait to check out everyone else’s lists and find out what I missed!

Tim