Seven Songs for the Week #77 - 25th Sep 24

Bookends is a 29 minute album, and not a moment is wasted. Not even the two minutes dedicated to voices of old people, called Voices of Old People. STLOMC is a startling album opener, even though it's technically track two. Recorded in December 1967, it slams into life with a big fat Moog synth note, then halfway through samples Sounds of Silence. There's no other S&G song like it.

This week I listened to The Byrds' Sweetheart of the Rodeo for the first time, but I know where my allegiance lies. When it comes to late 60s excursions into country all I need is Mike Nesmith.

A 50th anniversary reissue of this album is coming in Novemeber and this has been released as the first taster. George just sounds so good when he's on his acoustic. The main album is getting a remix and hopefully, like Mind Games, it'll wipe clean some of the windows around the music.

By the time I put out another Seven Song Playlist in a week's time, I will have been to see Elvis Costello in concert... four times. He's playing a four night residency in Dublin with the guarantee of no songs being repeated. So why this song? Imagine EC covering it. It would be perfect.

Yeah, that Morrissey. This song has appeared in the wild twice in the past few weeks, and, gosh darn it, it's wonderful. This week a group called Sponge released a cover of it ahead of an album of songs from 1994 called 1994. I listened to the cover and it is not good. I didn't want a west coast ska punk version of this track, I wanted a carbon copy of the original.

Moz has made many people, including myself, uncomfortable in recent years with his support of far right English political types. Having said that, the subset of people who voice support for Tommy Robinson and endorse Hilary Clinton is probably a party of one. His recent escapades where he (1) Claimed Johnny Marr had trademarked The Smiths behind his back and might tour as The Smiths without him only to find out that (2) Yes, JM trademarked the name in 2018 when he realised it was unprotected but had done so in the interests of himself and Morrissey and to prove it he has been waiting the guts of a year for Moz to return the signed paperwork to ensure joint ownership, which led to Moz (3) Firing his management staff... all indicates that maybe he's not as smart as we give him credit for.

Just listen to it. A moment in time, screaming into the mic and pushing the levels into the red, running out of breath at the end. I mean, why would anyone else even bother after this?

I seemed to have all the Squeeze albums for many years except this one. I got a vinyl copy at easter time and finally listened to it this week. For a 35 year old second hand LP it was pristine and certainly appeared to have been untroubled by a stylus at any point in time.

In 1989 Squeeze were following up a hit album. Hourglass had been a breakthrough MTV hit in 1987 and they were getting it together after a tumultuous ten years. Why they then decided to release a less then overwhelming collection of songs, recorded live in the studio, with the drums front and centre, and with a massive portrait of a Tortoise on the cover is a mystery. Frank did not do well and so A&M dropped them.

The next two Squeeze albums are their best. Picked up by Reprise/Warners they put out Play, a staggering good collection of songs produced by Tony Berg. When that tanked, A&M welcomed them back after a successful Greatest Hits record and they put out Some Fantastic Place. Play remains out of print, although it is on streaming, and is well worth your time.

Six of the 11 tracks on Frank were already known to me, two of them from the 1992 Greatest Hits and four from the odd but wonderful Excess Moderation Compilation. This one was new to me, and it's the album closer.