Happy New Year!!

Ah, the full bellies after Christmas, the completely satisfied moans and groans of the overdoing it. And the empty pockets!!!

How long until payday again?

Here’s a tune from 1983 that sounds completely relevant today. Hey, I guess it will sound completely relevant any year. People will always be shorter of money than they would like….

It’s Jimmy Young’s Times Are Tight, a lovely little funky groove, which Paul Weller called his single of the year back in 1983, and subsequently covered. The Style Council version came from a bootleg somewhere but was originally from a Radio One concert from May 1983 with the Respond label bands. That’s the Questions backing Paul and Mick.

Jimmy Young – Times Are Tight
The Style Council – Times Are Tight

Sound For Christmas Day

Ah Christmas; a time for resting and recovering from one of the most eventful and busy years I’ve ever had. Babies being born, or created (including one very lucky couple of people expecting twins!!!); people moving house, changing cities, counties, even countries. Friends who had been together for years as a couple split, another couple who had been apart for years got back together.

Wait, did I say a time for resting????? I’m knackered already. Running around after a little man with a cold, not quite accepting that Christmas was here, not even really noticing for a while. Until this afternoon, when this tune came on the Ipod and I saw the tin of chocolates in the kitchen.

Happy Christmas then, to all my visitors, and to all the other blogs I read. I’ve been there lurking, even if I haven’t commented. Hope you’re all ok and enjoying your holidays.

Ho HO HO!!

Sorry, did anybody hear that? And the sound of bells…

😉

Smokey Robinson And The Miracles – Jingle Bells

The Living Daylights

Here’s a cool little mod pop psych tune from 1967. The band are the Living Daylights, the tune is called Always With Him. It’s a lovely little track, kind of Hollies do I Can See For Miles, with some gorgeous Leslie effected guitar, and a pulsating bass worth of Entwistle. And to cap it all, some great ba-ba ba’s!

So after some Google searching I was both surprised and not surprised at the same time to discover the bass was one Norman Watt-Roy, one of the best British bass players of all time, best known for his work with the Blockheads.

I love following paths to see how things don’t exist in a vacuum, they’re often linked backwards and forwards.

The Living Daylights – Always With Him

Pop Pop Pop Musik….

I love this: pop music as it should be, big big catchy catchy. And a great video.

Pop Kid For Life!!!

Bonkers

Maybe its the changes that have been happening. I’ve found in the past the music that means the most during times like these is the sort that you hear out and about, in shops and bars and on the radio. For instance lately Meet Me Halfway by the Black Eyed Peas is on constant replay on the iPod. Meanwhile the deeper and more meaningful (to some, probably not me) is consigned to the back shelf, gathering dust until times settle some.

And this is probably my single of the year: Dizzee Rascal and the ever so slightly cheesy Armand Van Helden (again? Two weeks in a row!!) and Bonkers!

“A heavy bassline is my kind of silence”