Category: Track of the week

Track of the week

When I was at school, every October half term we would go to Mansfield to visit relatives, staying with Granma & Granpa Waite at (55?) Beck Crescent.

One year – I think, probably when I was in the lower sixth, so Jane & Rog were not there as they had gone off to uni – I made an important, and life changing, discovery.

A year or two earlier, Granpa had been made redundant – he didn’t seem to perturbed, he was due to retire within a year – and with some of his redundancy money he bought a music centre: turntable, cassette deck and radio all fashioned into one long unit.

But that wasn’t my discovery. No, my discovery was piece of black plastic – “Stax Soul Explosion” LP. I guess that it was originally (uncle) Tony’s or Rick’s, but had been left at home. And boy, what a discovery it was – some of the greatest tracks I’ve ever heard were on that album. The next day I went out and bought myself a C90 tape cassette and recorded the whole album and for years to come I played that tape. I don’t know what ultimately happened to it, but its music is now ingrained in my soul.

And on it, I discovered The Staple Sisters belting out this brilliant track (which, I’ve since learned, was a cover of the original by the band The Band) and another – A Long Walk to DC.

Play it, enjoy it, take a load off Annie, and put the load on me.

Track of the week 13/11/16

Struggling for inspiration for track of the week this week I did a bit of YouTube hopping, and then I remembered the best band in the world, ever, The Jam.

Sound Affects was the first Jam album I owned (thirteenth birthday, I think?) and I always loved this track – fancied myself as the boy about town (and still do!)

See me walking around I’m the boy about town that you heard of
See me walking the streets I’m on top of the world that you heard

Oh like paper caught in wind
I glide upstreet, I glide downstreet

And, as ever, Paul Weller nails it with the lyric:

There’s more than you can hope for in this world

 

Track of the week 6/11/16

As a child of the late ’70s and ’80s, I grew up with the credence that “disco” was inherently uncool, manufactured and rubbish.

Today, at the tender age of 47, I finally feel I can come out of the closet and declare my love for the genre. The sheer joy, glamour and dancibility of the music makes them irresistible. I was hard pushed to make a choice as to which track would be “the one”, but More More More is it.

Although I think I had realised it myself many years ago, it was only when watching the (brilliant) “Get Down” on Netflix that it crystalised in my mind that the reason I liked so much hip hop, house & garage etc. was for the snippets of sampled tracks rather than the new hip version. On the Get Down, Grandsmaster Flash explained how you needed to find a bit of a track that you love – with no singing on it – and that is the bit that becomes the basis of your track. For me, that snippet occurs after about 2.19mins in my track of the week. Must have a go at sampling & mixing one day.

And because I’m coming out in this post, it demands an extra track of the week:

(bonus) Track of the week 6/11/16

Track of the week 30/10/16

Wasn’t sure what to pick for track of the week, so did a bit of youtube hopping at saw this, played it, enjoyed it so here it is, as the track of the week.

Track of the week 23/10/16

Some of coolest cats that ever strutted their stuff (although I still think that the Pasadena’s were a degree or two cooler.)

I first discovered them – along with Swing Out Sister – on a rather obscure album:

that I’d forgotten about. I think I bought it as I thought owning it would confer some sort of cool hipster status upon me (and this was 1986 – long before it was cool to be a hipster, not a beard in sight – which is probably a good thing as I only needed to shave once a fortnight as a seventeen year old …)

Track of the week 16/10/16

Another forgotten gem rediscovered. Makes we want to get up onto my feet and start dancing.

Track of the week 9/10/16
Don’t hate me! For some reason, a few weeks ago this track wormed its way into my head: I can scratch the itch by playing the song, but it just won’t go away so after denying the inevitable for a few weeks, it makes the cut as this week’s track of the week.

Track of the week 18/9/16

Have been watching “The Get Down” on Netflix of late, and loved it. A story of ’70s teenagers in the Bronx and the rise of Hip Hop – has some kick A music, and Grandmaster Flash.

And so this has to be the track of the week, a magnificent melange of musical mastery!

Track of the week 11/9/16
The best cover. Ever.

A brilliant track, brilliantly (and slightly bonkersly) covered by Star Trek’s William Shatner. And then some genius goes and adds it to a mash up of Star Trek footage. Superb.

Track of the week 28/8/16
A bit of Acid Jazz funkiness at its best.

Top tune, can be found on the “Wait a Minute” LP which I have (and, at the time of writing, can be found in the under the eaves cupboard on my side of the bedroom 😉 )