Seven Songs for the Week #184 - 14th Oct 26

In a month’s time I am off to London to go and see Miku Expo. Not a thing I would have chosen for myself but I am delighted and curious to see what the whole show is like. Hatsune Miku has featured on these lists before, she is a Japanese Vocaloid act, a virtual performer. It’ll be wild.

You think you know The Kinks but when this track popped up on an episode of DTF St Louis I couldn’t place it, so I dug out Face To Face and listened to it. Good album.

I was stunned, stunned I tell you when I read that George Martin (who famously did not write the score for She’s Leaving Home for the Beatles in 1967) had done this score for the same song in the same year. It’s different, very George Martin-y. I spent a chunk of Tuesday matching up this track with David & Jonathan stripped off it with the original Beatles vocal. Sounds good.

On a similar Beatles cover theme I dug out this 3CD compilation of mainly obscure heavy psych Beatle covers. It is a great reminder about how they infiltrated and dominated the culture at the time, and what a ride their songbook is. There’s an abridged version of the box on Apple Music which is worth checking out. I chose this because it’s live, how you can hear the band interacting with the crowd, and how much fun they’re having. Nigel Griggs and Malcolm Green, the future rhythm section of Split Enz are here. Nigel joined in 77, stayed till the end of the band, and played all the reunions until this year’s. Wonder why?

I was listening to ELO’s 2001 forgotten comeback album Zoom this week. My CD did not have this very good bonus track. It sounds very un-Jeff Lynne and was featured in the movie “American Hustle”, or as Tina Fey & Amy Poehler called it: “Explosion At The Wig Factory”

New DB from the documentary.

Such is the algorithm is that Buck Owens singing his last US Country Number One, Made In Japan, will appear if you listen to Japanese music. However are computers so clever?