Sunday 1 March 2009

Sounds For Sunday


Things have been a bit...interesting this week.

There have been letters from lawyers telling me I may have money, letters from employers telling me my job may be at risk, letters from musicians I've admired telling me they like my writings about them and an evening spent in a West End theatre listening to ABBA, which the Bump very much enjoyed if the movement was anything to go by.

Musically I've been on a funny little journey down a folky acoustic path, mixed in with some electronic music that at first glance had nothing to do with anything else. Typically, some investigation led me to discover that I was dancing around on the same path. There will be some tunes from that source later on in the week. If my bleeding fingers let me type.

Meanwhile on a Sunday we have some typically Northern(ish) tunes that may have a funny effect on you. If you find yourself wanting to go out and buy some Adidas gear, or Lambrini; or if you find yourself in KFC or running manically around Boots then it's not my fault.

Happy Sunday!

Frankie Valli - Beggin' (Pilooski edit)
Little Milton - More And More
Al Wilson - The Snake
Ernie K Doe - Here Come The Girls
The Flirtations - Nothing But A Heartache


*You have to laugh sometimes. I wrote this piece this morning, and then this evening an advert for a credit card comes on with yet another classic piece of Northern, Come On Train by Don Thomas.

That's not exactly a well known tune however, so it suggests that the person involved is a fan of the music. Good God man, how do you listen to this stuff afterwards? Don't you forever associate it with a commercial?

I'd suggest laying off the old soul for ad campaigns. There must be some other type of music that's ripe for use. And that I can't stand. Please!!

15 comments:

davyh said...

Ah, so you've been getting emails from Debbie Harry too? Damn, that girl's a nuisance.

(Word verif: FLOAR - as in 'Out On The'...shpooky!)

drew said...

The Snake, one of the wife's favs. If I could get my hands on that ad exec (must be one guy surely) who decided to use classic northern tracks to advertise shit, well lets just say I wouldn't be patting him on the back.

Simon said...

Yeah, she won't leave me alone.

Actually mine was from Elvis. My cousin runs a burger van on the A-road up from Cardiff to the Brecons. He's a regular there and wanted to say hello.

davyh said...

Tidy.

Simon said...

Drew, on the one hand it's true there are some coked up idiots somewhere making me choke everytime I see the ads, because it makes me associate great tracks with things I don't want to even know about.

But after doing some research into what ads they were used on I found a whole lot of people online making enquiries into the whole Northern thing. So if it gets people into the sounds then it's partially anwyay not a bad thing? The ads get forgotten after a while anyway.

drew said...

Not in my brain, Do I Love You is now synonymous with bargain buckets which is neither right nor true.

A bit curmudgeonly this morning.

word verif: retchin, the effect of said bargain bucket

Simon said...

Heh, I find adverts tend to drain away from my mind quite quickly. In fact the only thing I've bought in years because of an advert was Cilit Bang. BANG!!

drew said...

I'm rather partial to a Pilooski edit now and again. Check this one out.

http://www.box.net/shared/tbte9af9y5

Mondo said...

Blimey that's a good haul - love all those nuggets. Right I'm off to put on my Adidas SL 76s (as worn by Starsky in S and H)

Clair said...

Valli.Lovely.
x

Rol said...

I love a bit of Northern Soul, but there's so much of it out there (and so many dodgy compilations) it's often hard to filter out the classics. I discovered The Snake only recently, so I shall listen to these other tracks with interest.

Simon said...

A good starting point is a compilation called The Best Northern Soul All-Nighter, which you can still buy from Amazon. It has a lot of classics.

After that an album called The In Crowd:The story of Northern Soul, again Amazon still has it. That's got some great tunes on it.

If you go to those Amazon pages and check out the "Customers Who Bought This Item Also Bought..." recommendations there are right now some excellent compilations. I'd recommend most of them that are there today.

That's probably more than enough to be starting with!

Anonymous said...

you missed what must've been one of the first, and most obscure (well non mainstream)- and best; you've been away by rubin, off a catfood ad a few years back. pity you didn't post come on train, i too saw the ad early this evenin' & can't stop singin' it all night!
matt, worksop

ally. said...

not having a telly makes so many things a complete bloody mystery
x

Simon said...

Ah bless your little cotton ones Al. Have a dance instead!!!