Christmas is only six weeks away, which gives us an excuse to do something slightly daft. This coming weekend we’ll be putting out our first ‘Midweek Song List at the Weekend’. We’ve got 15 Christmas-related tracks lined up, with the Beatles, Kate Bush and the Cocteau Twins among them. Make of that combination what you will.
Before we get there, there’s Remembrance Day. We remember the British servicemen and women who lost their lives, and the dead of other nations, including people our country once called enemies. We remember the civilians, too, whose lives could be destroyed by decisions they had no part in making.
Remembrance should leave room for difficult questions. Who decides that a war is necessary? Whose interests are at stake? What chances for negotiation were missed, and what happens to the truth once the fighting starts? The Katyń massacre is a case in point. In 1940 the Soviet secret police murdered nearly 22,000 Polish prisoners of war and other prisoners at several sites. The Soviet authorities blamed Nazi Germany for the killings at Katyń and only acknowledged their own responsibility in 1990.
We believe many wars could be avoided if governments were willing to talk seriously before positions hardened. Asking whether every avenue was tried is one way of taking the cost of war seriously.
As for the music, we’re giving the algorithm its usual headache. There’s rockabilly, country storytelling, a quiet piano piece, some gloriously over-the-top pop and a Sweet track that ought to be played loud. We start with a song that gets the room moving.
Black Cat Trio & Donna – ‘Rock This Town’
The Stray Cats made ‘Rock This Town’ a rockabilly revival favourite, and Black Cat Trio & Donna have a fine time with it here. The rhythm does most of the work. There’s a bounce to the playing that makes you want to move, and enough space for the vocal to have a bit of fun. Rockabilly can sound deceptively simple until you hear a band get that swing exactly right.
The Civil Wars – ‘I’ve Got This Friend’
Two people sing about a supposedly perfect match for a friend, and you can hear the penny drop well before either of them is ready to admit what’s going on. Joy Williams and John Paul White play it lightly. The pleasure is in the way their voices answer one another, with the little hesitations and sidesteps doing as much work as the harmonies.
The Cult – ‘She Sells Sanctuary’
Billy Duffy’s guitar is the first thing you wait for, even when you’ve heard the record a hundred times. That opening has an almost weightless quality. Then the rhythm section comes in and the whole thing takes off. Ian Astbury gives the song all the drama it can carry, which, in this case, is quite a lot.
Ludovico Einaudi – ‘Le Onde’
Give this a few minutes of your undivided attention. The Italian pianist and composer lets a small figure repeat, gather weight and fall away again. The title translates as ‘The Waves’, and you can hear that rise and retreat in the way he plays. If you rarely go looking for solo piano music, this is a good place to start. Einaudi gets a great deal out of a few notes and the space he leaves around them.
Nanci Griffith – ‘There’s a Light Beyond These Woods (Mary Margaret)’
Nanci Griffith had a way of singing to one person and making everyone else feel privileged to overhear. Here, a friendship gives her a way to look back at growing up and the different directions people take. Listen to the way she sings the name ‘Mary Margaret’. There’s more affection in those two words than some singers manage in a whole song.
Old Firm – ‘Saviors of the Cult’
There’s a hard edge to this one. The guitar and drums keep the pressure on while the vocal pushes its way through. It’s a sharp turn after Nanci Griffith, and that’s part of the fun of putting these lists together. Give it enough volume for the rhythm to get hold of you.
The Ordinary Boys & Death of Guitar Pop – ‘Full Bifta’
There’s a familiar pleasure in hearing a ska rhythm played with this much cheek. The Ordinary Boys and Death of Guitar Pop make a good pairing, with the offbeat keeping things moving and a chorus that sounds made for a crowd to join in. Try sitting still through the whole thing.
The Proclaimers – ‘Knock It Down’
The conviction in Craig and Charlie Reid’s voices is what keeps drawing us back to the Proclaimers. Here, the title lands like a demand. Their voices reinforce each other without smoothing away the rough edges, and the directness of the performance suits the song down to the ground.
Joey Ramone – ‘What a Wonderful World’
How do you sing a song so closely associated with Louis Armstrong? Joey Ramone gives it a full-throttle punk arrangement and sings it as though he means every word. The speed might make you grin, but there’s real tenderness in his delivery. By the time he gets to the bit about friends shaking hands, the whole thing makes perfect sense.
Roxy Music – ‘Virginia Plain’
Roxy Music’s debut single seems to be in a hurry to show you everything the band can do. Bryan Ferry reels off names and places, Andy Mackay’s sax cuts through, and Brian Eno’s electronics make the whole thing sound slightly off balance. Then, just when a more orderly pop single would give you one last chorus, Ferry finally sings the title and it’s over.
The Rubettes – ‘Sugar Baby Love’
The white suits and cloth caps made the Rubettes instantly recognisable, but the harmonies are what keep this record alive. ‘Sugar Baby Love’ takes the swooping falsetto and backing vocals of doo-wop and gives them the scale of a 1970s pop production. There’s something endearing about a record that makes such a grand affair out of such a simple plea.
Sweet – ‘Midnight to Daylight’
Put this on for anyone who thinks they know Sweet from the singles. Taken from ‘Off the Record’ (1977), ‘Midnight to Daylight’ gives Andy Scott’s guitar room to bite and the rhythm section room to drive. Those trademark high harmonies are still there, and they sound even better against the heavier playing. Sweet remain one of the most underrated British bands of their era. This is the sort of track we’d play to make the case.
Over to the rockabilly fans
We hear country and rhythm and blues in early rockabilly, and we’ve also heard people make the case for bluegrass as an ingredient. How much of what we’re hearing comes from the way the musicians played, and how much from the records they grew up with? If you had three tracks to explain where rockabilly came from, which ones would you pick?
Song List Specials
