Day: 9 Apr 2018

Welcome back to Northern Soul Monday – where we spin the best Stompers just for you. It’s the best way to get the week going. Are you ready to Turn Up the Volume, sprinkle the wood floors with talk, get all dolled up, Press Play, and Dance? We sure are!

This Monday’s Featured Track is “Jeanette” by Wade Flemons. It was originally released in 1968, on Ramsel Records, with the B-Side of “What a Price to Pay”.

“Jeanette” by Wade Flemons
Northern Soul Monday

Wade Flemons was born in September of 1940, in Coffeyville, Kansas. He started his Music career in 1958 as a Solo Artist but is best known as Musician and Singer in Earth, Wind, And Fire, between the years 1971-1972. (from Wikipedia)

Some of Flemons’ Solo Songs were adopted by the Northern Soul movement in the UK, most notably this one – “Jeanette” – and “That Other Place”. They were both originally recorded in 1968.

“That Other Place” by Wade Flemons

A little Northern Soul History:

The Wigan Casino was a nightclub in Wigan, England that was open between the years 1973 and 1981. It is famously known as a venue for Northern Soul Music. It inspired other Northern Soul clubs such as the Twisted Wheel, in Manchester, and the Chateau Impney, in Droitwich, the Catacombs, in Wolverhampton, and the Golden Torch, in Stoke-on-Trent.

There have been quite a few Media representations of the Wigan Casino. There is a TV Documentary called “This England”, which was filmed in 1977. Russ Winstanley and Dave Norwell wrote Soul Survivors, The Wigan Casino Story, published in 1996. Also, a stage play by Mick Martin about the Wigan Casino years, “Once Upon a Time In Wigan” debuted in February or 2003, at the Contact Theatre, in Manchester. (from Wikipedia)

Young people from all over the UK regularly attended Wigan Casino to hear the latest Northern Soul Artists and to Dance. There were long lines to get inside. The second Dance Floor inside, Mr. M’s, stayed open until Six A.M. the next morning and played Oldies Songs from a variety of DJ’s, including Dave Evison and Steve Whittle.  “All-Nighters” became popular. They were known to end with three Songs that became known as the “3 before 8” – “Time Will Pass You By” by Tobi Legend, “Long After Tonight is All Over” by Jimmy Radcliffe, and “I’m On My Way” by Dean Parrish.

A Late Check-Out Reverie
A Monday Playlist

Available to Stream on Spotify and YouTube

“Because the Night” by Patti Smith
“Milk” by Garbage
“The Golden Age” by Beck
“The Only Living Boy in New York” by Simon And Garfunkel
“Not Enough Time” by INXS
“EZ” by Pete Yorn
“She’s a Jar” by Wilco
“Lovers in a Dangerous Time” by Barenaked Ladies
“Tiny Vessels” by Death Cab For Cutie
“Etta James” by Brian Fallon
“Dear Chicago” by Ryan Adams
“Sea of Love” by Langhorne Slim and Jill Andrews
“I’m Where I Should Be” by Paul Weller
“Someone Else’s Girl” by The Olms
“Into the Mystic” by The Wallflowers
“You Don’t Know How It Feels” by Tom Petty
“Day Old Blues” by Kings Of Leon
“Mockingbirds” by Grant Lee Phillips
“Reflecting Light” by Sam Phillips
“Korean Dogwood” by Devendra Banhart
“Telethon” by Emily Haines and the Soft Skelton
“Blue Lips” by Regina Spektor
“Chelsea Hotel, #2” by Rufus Wainwright
“You Said Something” by PJ Harvey
“While My Guitar Gently Weeps” by The Beatles
“Cigarette Daydreams” by Cage The Elephant
“The Ghost In You” by Duncan Sheik
“Slave to Love” by Bryan Ferry
“Graduation Day” by Chris Isaak
“Somewhere Only We Know” by Lily Allen

A Late Check-Out Reverie

Monday is here. Its been a tough one for me, but I’m getting through it, pressing Play and Turning Up the Music, letting Songs be my solace. I’m feeling terribly inadequate as a person and a parent right now, but I know if someone I cared about said the same thing I’d remind them that we all feel that way and that in many ways we are all inadequate. That’s part of the journey of life. Part of the motivator to learn and grow. It’s hard though when in the midst of these feelings. But, Music helps. Today’s Top 5 Music Obsessions are definitely helping.

The first Track is Andre Williams cover of Otis Blackwell’s Song, “Daddy Rolling Stone”, a Song that has also been covered by The Who. Over the weekend my boyfriend and I watched a documentary on Andre Williams (Agile Mobile Hostile: A Year with Andre Williams) which I would recommend. Its a little hard to find, but we did end up renting it via Amazon.

Next up is The Who. We also watched a documentary on The Who this weekend (on the making of the Quadrophenia Album), and one on Keith Moon. I’ve been discovering a lot of Music from The Who since early last year. I’ve always been well versed in The Rolling Stones and The Beatles, and not The Who, but that’s changing rapidly. “Behind Blue Eyes” has always been a favorite of mine.  It was originally written for Pete Townshend’s “Lifehouse” project (a Rock Opera that never came to be), but to me, I’ve thought it to be about Pete himself.

Track three is “Stars Align” from Belly. This one is from their upcoming Album, Dove, which is due out in May. I can’t wait for it!

“Bone Dry” from Eels follows closely behind. This is from the new Album, The Deconstruction. Something about this Song reminds me of Peter Gabriel. Especially the Vocals.

Last, but not least, is “Let the Happiness In” by David Sylvian. This is the first Song I heard today. A Song, and sentiment, I really need today.

If you’d like to Follow along on this Week’s Top 5 Songs check out Playlists at Spotify and YouTube.

Top 5 Music Obsessions of the Day – April 9, 2018

1. “Daddy Rolling Stone” by Andre Williams

2. “Behind Blue Eyes” by The Who

3. “Stars Align” by Belly

4. “Bone Dry” by Eels

5. “Let the Happiness In” by David Sylvian

Here’s to getting through another Monday and for Turning Up these Top 5 Music Obsessions LOUD! Hope you enjoy these 5 Tracks from Andre Williams, The Who, Belly, Eels, and David Sylvian.

Got something you’d like to see featured in a Top 5? Share the Song Title and Artist/Band in the Comments, or email lyriquediscordesubmissions@gmail.com.

Top 5 Music Obsessions for the Week of April 9, 2018

“New Killer Star” by David Bowie was the first Single released off of his 2003 Album, Reality. It has been a long time since I listened to this Track, and this Album, so when I heard it this morning on this week’s Spotify Discover Weekly Mix I immediately hit replay, and then started spinning the entire Reality Album.

Though there’s been speculation that the Song is in reference to life in post-9/11 New York City, there’s something about the Track that’s always reminded me of a continuation of the “Major Tom” narrative started with Bowie’s “Space Oddity”, in 1969.

“New Killer Star” by David Bowie
from the Album, Reality (2003)

“Oh, my nuclear baby.
Oh, my idiot trance.
All my idiot questions –
let’s face the music and dance.”

The Songs Title, “New Killer Star” is also said to be a play on President George W. Bush’s mispronunciation of “nuclear”, that often came out sounding like “new killer”.

Bowie has said a few things about the Song, in 2003, and about fears of the apocalypse in a post-9/11 world:

“It occurs to me that we have been living under a lot of stress in the last few years. The halcyon days are well and truly over. It’s just cyclic, isn’t it, the anxiety. That’s why I keep trying to be positive. The last time, there was the Bay of Pigs [a prelude to the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962]. I remember how scared my Mum and Dad were, they really thought that was it, we’re gonna go up in a nuclear holocaust. Every now and then you get one of those and you think, ‘Well, we pulled back last time,’ and I’ve got a 3-year-old daughter now and we are definitely going to pull back this time because she is going to have a great life, dammit. When I keep coming back to that I can’t afford to be negative anymore. It doesn’t behoove me to be the nihilist anymore, even for creative reasons. I have to be positive. Hopefully, there is a sense of that on the album. It’s not ‘woe is me.’ It’s not a ‘Diamond Dogs’. I want the ultimate feeling after hearing it to be a good feeling. That there is something to be said for our future and it will be a good future.”

The B-Side to “New Killer Star” is a cover of “Love Missile F1-11”, originally by Sigue Sigue Sputnik.

Bowie also said, of the Song’s political nature:

“I’m not a political commentator, but I think there are times when I’m stretched to at least implicate what’s happening politically in the songs that I’m writing. And there was some nod, in a very abstract way, toward the wrongs that are being made at the moment with the Middle Eastern situation. I think that song is a pretty good manifesto for the whole record.”

“New Killer Star” (live) by David Bowie