League Two Music – #24 – Hartlepool United

6 Underground – Sneaker Pimps (1996, Clean Up Records, Taken from ‘Becoming X’)

The point of this series, when it was conceived was to follow the progress of my team, Gillingham as they adapted to life in football’s bargain basement.  The team that featured each week was where I had back in August, predicted where they would eventually finish at the end of season.  It didn’t quite go to plan though.  Saying that I didn’t do too bad –  I did say Northampton Town would finish second (behind the ‘obvious’ champions Gillingham) and that ‘might’ still happen.  I also said Bradford would be third, and that ‘might’ still happen.  I also said that Leyton Orient (who should be champions by the time you read this) would finish fourth. 

Which brings us to Hartlepool, I thought they would finish bottom, and right now they sit 23^rd, which in all honesty, baring a Rochdale shaped miracle, is where they probably will finish.  I know next to nothing about Hartlepool FC, I do know that about ten years ago, they played in a match in which they won 2 – 0 and the scorers for the team that day were a guy called Hartley (the same chap was appointed the club manager in June 2022, and then sacked by September) and a guy called Poole and the media literally went crazy for it. 

I also know that in 2002, the clubs mascot, one H’Angus the Monkey (so called because the good people of Hartlepool once tried, and sentenced a monkey to death by hanging – this was a while ago, I think that monkey hanging is not a regular occurrence in towns in County Durham) ran for mayor and won and then had the temerity to not only do a good job (presumably) but also get re-elected twice.

I also know that Britain’s greatest sports presenter (face facts Jason Mohammed) Jeff Stelling is a big Hartlepool fan and that they were the first club that Brian Clough managed. 

I wish Hartlepool well, I also hope that they somehow survive this season (and send the madness that is Crawley Town down in their place) but I think they might be doomed.

Musically, Hartlepool gave us mildly successful Britpop trippoppers Sneakers Pimps and for a few years their track ‘6 Underground’ was everywhere, it even cropped up on the soundtrack of the new Saint movie.  Another of their tracks ‘Spin Spin Sugar’ was remixed to death by Armand Van Helden and is now largely credited as being one of the first ‘speed garage’ tracks.

Spin Spin Sugar (Armand Van Helden Mix) – Sneaker Pimps (1996, Clean Up Records, Single)

If we stretch the geographical boundaries a little bit, we can post something by this lot because Prefab Sprout hailed from nearby Durham.

The King of Rock and Roll – Prefab Sprout (1988, Kitchenware Records, taken from ‘From Langley Park to Memphis’)

And possibly even better than that – from nearby Sunderland came the mighty Leatherface.

I Want the Moon – Leatherface (1991, Roughneck Records, Taken from ‘Mush’)

All of which, tired and clearly exhausted witterings brings us to the very final previously unheard of band who insist on writing their name in capitals, which means that they will undoubtedably be the best thing since the last new band who insisted in using capitals.  This is DAWKS and their recently released single ‘Be Someone’ is described as being “rousing and catchy” – well we will be the judges of that.

Be Someone – DAWKS (2023, Self Released)

Next Sunday in a new and radical series will appear (when I’ve decided exactly what that will be)

Nearly Perfect Albums – #58

Deserter’s Songs – Mercury Rev (1998, V2 Records)

Of all the records I have listened to over the past 35 years or so, ‘Deserter’s Songs’ is comfortably the one I have changed my mind about the most. 

At first, I just didn’t get it.  Then again, I didn’t want to get it.  I didn’t want to read all those reviews which remarked about how extraordinary ‘Deserter’s Songs’ is or how apparently it is an album where “Almost every note communicates emotional fragility and nostalgia for lost love, lost youth, lost dreams”.  I certainly didn’t want to listen to it.  I remember reading the NME end of year issue where ‘Deserter’s Songs’ sat proudly at Number One and just saying “Pfft” before I’d even left the Exeter branch of WHSmith.

Then when I did first listen to it, I found it irritated me, I found it over wrought, and a bit needy, like a cat who hasn’t been fed all day, and just sits there constantly making a noise until you address the issue.  I found the musical interludes unsettling as they crackled into your ears, as if they were being played on a really rubbish record player from some 80s stack system. 

I thought it sounded unstable, especially on songs like ‘I Collect Coins’ where a piano seems to wrestle itself for primacy or on ‘The Happy End’ where the same problematic piano starts an argument with a violin that sounds like it is being played by a four year old who has no knowledge of what a violin should sound like.

The Happy End (The Drunk Room) – Mercury Rev (1998, V2 Records)

However, three years or so ago at an impromptu barbecue at a friend’s house, ‘Goddess on a Hiway’ came on the speaker and it sounded glorious, fantastic, otherworldly almost and when I got home I revisited ‘Deserters Songs’ and somewhere a lightbulb flickered on.  Of course, in keeping with the tone of the album the lightbulb crackled as if powered by a guinea pig riding a bike rigged to the electricity boards but suddenly, I was sold.   It remains a song some 25 years after it was released that still stirs something in the very depths of even the most cynical of souls, and the way that line “I know it ain’t gonna last” is delivered is simply stunning. 

Goddess on a Hiway – Mercury Rev (1998, V2 Records)

So it is with some confidence that I can declare ‘Deserter’s Songs’ as marvellous, an epic ode to recovery, full of songs that stand alone that are about recurring dreams, fractured relationships and hope.  Songs that have been written as singer Jonathan Donahue recovers from an alcohol fuelled breakdown.  Songs that sound fragile and gorgeous at the same time.

Songs like ‘Holes’, which is all woozy and pulls at the heartstrings in a way that only certain songs can.

Holes – Mercury Rev (1998, V2 Records)

Likewise ‘Tonite It Shows’ which starts like it belongs in a kitsch 50s style coming of age film and just gently rocks you like a parent swaying a precious new born to sleep, its wonderful and in a way similar to ‘Goddess on a Hiway’ they way that Donahue delivers the line “The way I lit your cigarette” is stunning. 

You can say the same thing about ‘Endlessly’ as well, with the way that is liberally borrows the melody from ‘Silent Night’, and then uses it to sing what it essentially a modern day lullaby, all of it is terrific (apart from ‘Hudson Line’ that still sucks).

Tonite It Shows – Mercury Rev (1998, V2 Records)

Endlessly – Mercury Rev (1998, V2 Records)

The funny thing is that ‘Deserters Songs’ was supposed to be a swansong of sorts.  It should have been the final act of Mercury Rev but instead of that it revigorated the band and pushed them somewhere near the mainstream.

Rocks Greatest J’s #1 – Joy Division

She’s lost control

She’s Lost Control – Joy Division (1979, Factory Records, Taken from ‘Unknown Pleasures’)

Points 119

“Is this going to be like the last ICA world cup over the vinyl villain, where we all knew Joy Division are going to win before it’s even started?”

I’ve done three Musical Jury votes now (One Word Titles, Goth! Show Me Magic and Rocks Greatest J’s) and Joy Division have finished top of two of them, and I’m fairly sure that had I allowed people to suggest that Joy Division were a Goth band that they would have topped that one as well.  This is as JM3 above states becoming slightly predictable and JM8 also goes there : –

“Joy Division will be top of any list regardless of the first letter”

To say this was a cakewalk for Joy Division would be an understatement.  They were 28 points above the Mary Chain in second place.  They featured in all but four of the countdowns that were submitted by the Jury, they were voted at the top of more countdowns than any other act and roughly halfway through the scoring process I declared Joy Division the winners even though there were about ten sets of votes left to count. 

Transmission – Joy Division (1979, Factory Records, Single)

I’m kind of running out of things to say about Joy Division.  For a band with a relatively small back catalogue, their influence on music is extraordinary – or as JM6 puts it.

“Joy Division are surely the only band about whom there’s been as many feature films as they released studio albums”

Indeed.  A record that will remain unbroken until Steven Spielberg finally gets round to making that epic blockbuster about New Romantic Revivalists, In Aura, that he has been planning since 1997.

But it isn’t just about that back catalogue or those studio albums, it’s not just those songs that we’ve all been playing for the last 40 years or so – is it JM12?

“Joy Division – call it local pride and all that, but when you add the songs, the story and what they set in motion.  Even the people around the band – Hannett, Wilson, Saville, Gretton – are bona fide geniuses”

Isolation – Joy Division (1980, Factory Records, Taken from ‘Closer’)

That’s why Joy Division continue to matter, folks – because they are, and their music is genius.

Love Will Tear Us Apart – Joy Division (1980, Factory Records, Single)

Its just left for me to say thank you to all the members of the musical jury who took part, your knowledge, wit and tolerance is as ever much appreciated.

The next Musical Jury Vote will be on a category where Joy Division will not be able to take part – and jury members – stand by your emails – because that will be coming your way very soon indeed.  Actually, if you want to be part of the Musical Jury get in touch via the comments or you can email Nobadgerrequired@gmail.com to be part of the fun.

I’m going to finish this series with the only J in my own personal list that hasn’t featured so far this month, they may not have made the Top Twenty – but here is Rocks 47^th Greatest J.

Give Me Daughters – Jonathan Fire*eater (1996, Deceptive Records, Taken from ‘Tremble Under Boom Lights’)

Rocks Greatest J’s #2 Jesus and Mary Chain

Oh, honey, give me one more chance

Sometimes Always – Jesus and Mary Chain (1994, Blanco Y Negro Records, Taken from ‘Stoned and Dethroned’)

Points 91

The Jesus and Mary Chain topped my own personal poll for more reasons that I’ll go into here, but if you really must know some of them.  They were the band who in the early nineties soundtracked (well them Pavement and The Cure) my first real love affair.  In the pouring rain on an odd summer evening in July a 17 year old me kissed a girl just after she whispered “I’m happy when it rains” into my ear and ran her fingers down my neck.  Right there and then the world could have stopped turning and I wouldn’t have cared a hoot.  That 17 year old me, had never been so happy as the rain drizzled down my face.  They are worth ten points for that alone.

Happy When It Rains – Jesus and Mary Chain (1987, Warner Records, Taken from ‘Darklands’)

The Jesus and Mary Chain also recorded ‘Psychocandy’, the only record ever made that has made me regret not being about six years older than I already am and to have been in my late teens in the mid eighties.  When I first heard it – roughly six weeks after the July incident mentioned above – I spent the rest of the week wishing that I could have seen the Mary Chain live in 1985, even though the average Mary Chain gig lasted ten minutes, in fact, I wanted to see the Mary Chain, because, the average gig lasted ten minutes.  I wanted to be blown away by the waves of feedback and then serenaded by the vocals, that despite the content of lyrics (typically death, pain, drug abuse, rejection, filthy depraved sex etc.) were somehow amazingly sweet.

JM13 wants to interject –

“I saw them live in the late 80s and I’ve retained my love for essentially those same three chords ever since”

You can go off people you know…

‘Psychocandy’ was nearly everything to an 18 year old me, if was brilliant because it was antisocial, angry and aggressively noisy when it really didn’t need to be.  It is one of hugest influence on my life and if I was in a burning building with two rooms and I had my cat in one room and ‘Psychocandy’ in the other, then I’d be saying goodbye to the cat (I wouldn’t really, I’ve got ‘Psychocandy’ locked away in a fire proof safe, but hopefully you get the point).

Never Understand – Jesus and Mary Chain (1985, Creation Records, Taken from ‘Psychocandy’)

They also made one of the greatest B Side’s ever recorded. In fact their B sides are the sort of records that most bands would give their feedback pedals for.

Everything’s Alright When You’re Down – Jesus and Mary Chain (1988, Blanco Y Negro Records, Taken from ‘Barbed Wire Kisses’)

But don’t just take my word for it.

Here’s JM7 for instance “The Jesus and Mary Chain are a band who could combine noisy guitars and melody so that they stuck together like syrup over fruit.  They are a band who have stood the test of time”

JM12 puts it slightly ruder way than JM7

“I’ve placed the Mary Chain arbitrarily high because I fucking love them”

Which I think the band would sort of agree with.

I Hate Rock and Roll – Jesus and Mary Chain (1995, Blanco Y Negro Records, Taken from ‘Munki’)

And so we reach the end, tomorrow, on Friday we will reveal the band/act/musician that the Musical Jury have voted their Number One – The Greatest J in Rock Music – A title that from now on will see a slew of new bands whose name starts with J – just in case this blog decides to repeat this countdown in five years time.

Here just in case you needed one, is the lyrical hint, …”and she’s clinging to the nearest passerby”

Rocks Greatest J’s #3 The Jam

Get out your mat and pray to the west

The Eton Rifles – The Jam (1979, Polydor Records, Taken from ‘Setting Sun’)

Points 86

If the gap between sixth and fifth was a ‘gulf’ then the gap between third and fourth is a yawning chasm that you could lose a bus in.  19 points separate The Jam in third and Johnny Cash in fourth.

But if it was left to JM 11 they wouldn’t have featured at all.

“I actually can’t stand the Jam”

JM 11 was thankfully for Weller and co, in a minority as oodles of Jury Members fell over themselves to vote for the finest thing to ever come out of Woking (apart from Tim Buzaglo that is)

We will start with JM 6 who puts it succinctly and at the same time rather suggestively, as they hint at something rather saucy happening as ‘All Mod Cons’ chirped away in the background.

“The First band I ever fell in love with and nobody ever forgets their first time”

Down in the Tube Station at Midnight – The Jam (1978, Polydor Records, Taken from ‘All Mod Cons’)

Well quite, then again the first band I fell in love with might have Simple Minds and I have definitely, despite their musical protestations, forget about them.

Moving very swiftly on…JM8 is up next and he puts things more cleanly,

“The first 2 in this rundown are easy – The Jam get 9 points because their second and fourth albums still shine brightly.”

Although JM 10 points us in the direction of tracks on the third and sixth Jam albums

“The great thing about The Jam is that (unlike James) they knew when to call it a day.  Therefore we have a perfect set of pop singles, unsullied by lesser later efforts. Weller’s solo efforts ‘The Changingman’ was decent enough but if it were included on a Greatest Hits alongside ‘A Town Called Malice’ or ‘Eton Rifles’, it would evidence a serious decline.”

A Town Called Malice – The Jam (1982, Polydor Records, Taken from ‘The Gift’)

JM10 has a point, I met Paul Weller once, seriously, he was in bar in the Students Union at Guildford University.  I shook his hand and asked him how he was.  He said he was cool and told me that he liked my Supergrass Tshirt.  Why was Paul Weller in the Guildford University Students Union? Because he was there to watch Menswear, who were just about to release their debut single.  Like JM10 says, a serious decline.

JM13 have a slightly different take on things

“The Jam were always there when I was a kid in the late 70s, but I was too young for them to be ‘my’ band (and anyway JM6 was already shut inside his bedroom with them by then so you would have been disappointed anyway – SWC).  That came in 1981/82 with Two Tone, particularly Madness and The Specials, just as The Jam was coming to an end and Paul Weller had his sights on the Style Council.  I was impressed by Weller and liked his anger, even if I didn’t understand what it was directed at, but conversely Bruce Foxton and Rich Buckler looked like old men to my eyes.  I didn’t really revisit The Jam until the 1990s and I really appreciated their music properly and fully for the first time, even though I’ve swiftly become the old man that I dismissed the then mid 20s Foxton and Buckler as back in the day.

I hear you JM13, when I saw Colour TV the other week I felt like Paul Weller at an early Menswear gig.

Here is the penultimate lyrical teaser…”I hurt you through and through”

Rocks Greatest J’s #4 Johnny Cash

Didn’t leave very much to my mom and me

Boy Named Sue – Johnny Cash (1969, Columbia Records, Taken from ‘At San Quentin’

Points 67

One of the musical jury (number 11 if anyone is interested) was once in a band whose singer was obsessed with Johnny Cash.  He dressed only in black, styled his hair (on occasion) like Johnny Cash and when the band started to actually record their own material, he changed his surname to ‘Cash’. That was where the similarities ended though, because despite all that, the singer had ginger hair, and looked like an extra from the set of The Hobbit.

In my predicted Top Five, I had Johnny Cash in second place, I was slightly wrong but like the rest of the Top Five, he was an obvious pick and my personal Top Ten would have felt slightly odd without him it.  

JM 15 agrees with me and goes further to make a very scientifically difficult suggestion.

“Ah, Johnny Cash…was there ever a cooler person in the history of music…even people who said that they hated Johnny Cash, didn’t actually hate him.  It maybe an obvious choice but ‘The Man In Black’ is one of the albums that should be automatically downloaded into people’s record collections because it is life affirmingly great”

Singing In Viet Nam Talkin’Blues – Johnny Cash (1971, Columbia Records, Taken from ‘The Man In Black’)

He’s not the only one who thinks Johnny Cash was the coolest man to ever strum a guitar either, here is JM 6 with this pearl of wisdom,

“Johnny Cash – Cool as Fuck, long before the Inspiral Carpets put it on a Tshirt”

Now JM 6 is undoubtedly correct – very few people I think are going to suggest that the Inspiral Carpets were ever cooler than Johnny Cash.  Even the wives, families and best friends of the Oldham organ botherers.

Oney – Johnny Cash (1973, Columbia Records, Taken from ‘Any Old Wind That Blows’)

JM 7 also loves the country tinged drawl of the man in black.

“Even in my younger days I liked Johnny Cash’s voice.  In former times I had to hide this but now he’s got the acclaim he should have.”

Lonesome to the Bone – Johnny Cash (1975, Columbia Records, Taken from ‘John R Cash’)

I’ll leave the last words on Johnny Cash to JM 19, who whilst I am here wins the award for the most obscure Top Ten submitted – Johnny Cash was literally the only act in their Top Ten that I had heard of.

“My dad’s favourite singer was Johnny Cash.  The first and only time I saw my dad cry was when Johnny Cash died.  I’ll put some context on this, he lost he mother and father in the space of a week, and then the funeral cortege for his father’s ceremony ran over his dog.  Not one tear was shed.  Johnny Cash dies and the man is a blubbering wreck.  That is why Johnny Cash is Rock’s Greatest J”

Well, nearly JM 19….

Folsom Prison Blues – Johnny Cash (1964, Columbia Records, Taken from ‘I Walk the Line’)

Here is tomorrow’s lyrical teaser…”There’s a row going on down near slough…”

Rocks Greatest J’s #5 James

… Pop tunes, false rhymes, all lightweight bluffs

Hymn from a Village – James (1985, Factory Records, Taken from ‘James II’)

Points 64

Welcome to the week in which we finally find out who is Rocks Greatest J, although I think most of you will have guessed that already (don’t get excited Jason Mraz, if you are reading).

When I started this nonsense, I predicted in a message to one of the Musical Jury what I expected the Top Five to look like.  James were at number four in that list, so in some sense they have performed worse than expected (for the record I got the acts right but in the wrong order).  Saying that there was a gulf between the top five and the rest of the Top Twenty that was quite wide (16 points between fifth and sixth)

I’ve previously discussed James and what I call their decidedly dodgy period in the early nineties where they flirted with stadium rock (‘Seven’) and some unlistenable electronica (‘Wah Wah’).  However, it seems most members of the musical jury were prepared to overlook this.

JM 6 for instance tells us that “The good stuff over a remarkable 41 year career outweighs the unlistenable”. 

He’s right of course, because James made more songs like this

What For? – James (1988, Blanco Y Negro Records, Taken from ‘Stripmine’)

And thankfully very few like this

Jam J -James (1994, Fontana Records, Taken from ‘Wah Wah’)

It was songs like ‘What For?’ and nearly everything that came before and after it (up to and including ‘Sound’) that made James one of the bands that I loved when I was aged between say fifteen and nineteen.  They were one of the bands that never failed to make me smile.

JM 13 and JM 14 both agree with me and both put it better than me as well –  “an essential band in my 20s, saw them live a number of times in the 90s and they always put on an amazing show packed with killer tunes.  Then they called it a day.  Then they decided to come back, minus the spark that made them so great…” that’s JM 13 and this is JM 14 who stuck them at the top of their list.

“Consistently great tunes, but satisfyingly quirky and sometimes even quite odd.  They are #1 because they’ve long been a family favourite…”

I’m often undecided as to what I consider to be my favourite James album.  For a long time it was ‘Gold Mother’ largely because of the swirling indie anthem that is ‘Come Home’ (a record I first heard in a Girl’s Guides Tent on the isle of Guernsey).  Then as I became a fan that changed to those early indie folk blasts of ‘Stutter’

Skullduggery – James (1986, Blanco Y Negro Records, Taken from ‘Stutter’)

Come Home (Weatherall Mix) – James (1990, Fontana Records, Taken from ‘Gold Mother’)

Now if I had to pick one, I’d choose ‘Whiplash’ because it is genuinely the last album by James that made me smile and reminds me of everything that the band had that made them so great.  The last James album that had that ‘spark’ if you like.

Tomorrow – James (1997, Fontana Records, Taken from ‘Whiplash’)

Here is tomorrow’s lyrical hint…. “Well, my daddy left home when I was three…”

League Two Music – #23 Doncaster Rovers

Cotton Candy – Yungblud (2020, Interscope Records, Taken from ‘Weird!’)

The first time I saw Gillingham play away was at Doncaster Rovers, it would have about 1989 I think.  I went with my dad, we clambered on board a Kings Ferry coach at around eight am and trudged our way up the various motorways to South Yorkshire.  I have no idea why we went to this particular match but it really excited me, the thrill firstly going somewhere I had never been before (or since for that matter) and then going to a new ground (I have to do this day visited 20 league grounds in the UK, six in Europe, 2 in the States, and the national stadium of Bermuda, and each one gives me that same prickle of excitement as that hazy April day in 1989).   The game ended one each but was ill tempered and had if I remember rightly three red cards dished out.

Back then Doncaster played at a ground called Belle Vue, which was a fine old stadium that at its peak had a capacity of somewhere near 40,000.  When I went though, much of the ground had been fenced off because the mine that ran underneath the ground had subsided and caused some instability.  Now that ground has been demolished and Doncaster play at a new purpose built stadium called the Keepmoat Stadium (although like many clubs that sold the naming rights to the highest bidder and now it’s the Eco-Power Stadium).  Rovers have like most clubs in League Two struggled for consistency in the recent years and have been something of a yo yo team (and again like many teams in this division, they were badly run, in the nineties for instance, they were owned by a man called Ken Richardson, who paid a former soldier ten grand to torch Belle Vue).

They spent five years in the conference, being relegated in 1998 (with a goal difference of – 83) before returning to the league in 2003, then they rose as high at the championship.  In 2006, Rovers beat both Manchester City and Aston Villa in the league cup before eventually losing to Arsenal on penalties since then Rovers have bounced between the championship and league two – where they currently sit untroubled in mid table obscurity.

Until around 2020, Doncaster’s biggest musical export was unquestionably one Louis Tomlinson from the band One Direction.  He regularly wore Doncaster Rovers top on stage and hoards of young girls would turn up at the ground during home matches as Tomlinson regularly tweeted that he was in attendance.  However, in recent years, a new very modern rival has come out of Doncaster, that being Yungblud (real name Dominic Harrison).  Yungblud has had two number albums in three years and is right now of the UK’s most bankable pop acts.

Way before Tomlinson and Yungblud, were even born, Doncaster gave us another singing sensation, that being velvet voiced crooner Tony Christie, he himself had a career renaissance thanks to his friendship with the comedian Peter Kay who took his ‘Is this the way to Amarillo’ track and turned it into a hit single.   However his finest moment remains, this Jarvis Cocker penned masterpiece

Walk Like A Panther – The All Seeing I (with Tony Christie) (1999, FFRR Records, Taken from ‘Pickled Eggs and Sherbert’)

That aside, the best band to have ever come out of Doncaster are easily Groop Dogdrill, a band’s who debut album ‘Half Nelson’ comes very highly recommended by me at the very least.

Lovely Skin – Groop Dogdrill (1997, Mantra Records, Taken from ‘Half Nelson’)

All of which brings us to the penultimate previously unheard of act of the week, who this week I have actually heard.  Skinny Pelembe has been around for a few years, he was born in Johannesburg but raised in the Yorkshire equivalent of that – Doncaster.  He makes a sort of twinkly guitar based dub music and it’s really rather good.

Like A Heart Won’t Beat – Skinny Pelembe (2022, Brownswood Recordings, Single)

Next week this series stutters to a close, with Hartlepool United.   After that I was supposed to be starting a new series called ‘Fantasy Festivals’ but I haven’t actually got round to working out how I’m supposed to do that yet- so that is currently on hold.

Nearly Perfect Albums – #57

Sticky Fingers – The Rolling Stones (1971, Rolling Stones Records)

I know at least one person who will disagree with me (Hi Dad) , but ‘Sticky Fingers’ is for me the definitive Stones album.  It came at a time when in many people’s eyes the Stones could do no wrong.  It was the third (and best) album in a run of four albums (‘Beggars Banquet’, ‘Let It Bleed’ and ‘Exile on Main Street’ being the others) that saw the band crowned, and then continue to be for a while at least – the greatest rock and roll band in the world.  It was the album where Mick Jagger never sang better, Keith Richards riffs never sounded bigger or better and for the record the Warhol designed sleeve is probably one of the best album covers in musical history (original copies actually had a zip on the cover that you could open and shut – although it apparently damaged the vinyl – so they changed it to a photograph) I think it’s also the first Stones record to include the big lips logo that has become so famous since.

Brown Sugar – The Rolling Stones (1971, Rolling Stones Records)

‘Sticky Fingers’ just has so much, from the riff in album opener ‘Brown Sugar’ through the country tinged ‘Wild Horses’ to the distinctly latin style grooves of ‘Can’t You Hear Me Knocking’ all of it is superb (with exception, perhaps, of the bar room boogie and in hindsight, badly named ‘Bitch’).

Wild Horses – The Rolling Stones (1971, Rolling Stones Records)

Can’t You Hear Me Knocking – The Rolling Stones (1971, Rolling Stone Records)

‘Sticky Fingers’ is essentially Mick Jagger’s album, I mean after all his singing on it is insanely good.  In most of the songs Jagger adopts a kind of faux American twang which alternates from Deep South Blues to honky tonk soul singer depending on the song (See ‘I Got the Blues’ for evidence on this, where Jagger appears to do a passable impression of Otis Redding).  Jagger is great on ‘Sticky Fingers’ (even better than he is in the 80s futuristic thriller ‘Freejack’ and he is incredible in that) but I wanted to draw attention to the influence of Mick Taylor on the whole thing.

I Got the Blues – The Rolling Stones (1971, Rolling Stone Records)

‘Sticky Fingers’ was only the second Stones record that Taylor had played on (the first being a live album I think) and it is his influence here, his fluidity if you like that allows the band to really stretch out and enjoy themselves.  It was Taylor as well who encouraged the band to add a more depth to certain songs, such as the country elements on ‘Wild Horses’ and the Latin flavour to ‘Can’t You Hear Me Knocking’ was solely Taylors idea (apparently).

The best two tracks on this marvellous album are quite near the end, ‘Sister Morphine’ and ‘Moonlight Mile’ are in some ways quite a departure from the rest of the album but they shine with a kind of tired beauty.  They are exactly the sort of songs that Bobby Gillespie and Tim Burgess spent most of the Britpop years trying (and largely failing) to copy. 

‘Moonlight Mile’ remains one of my favourite Stones songs.  Proper music critics say that it’s the sound of a band who have had too much coke and are exhausted because of it – but to me it evokes images of the sun setting over the Mississippi for some reason.  It is a remarkable end to a remarkable record.

Moonlight Mile – The Rolling Stones (1971, Rolling Stones Records)

Rocks Greatest J’s #6 Joe Strummer

…..Tonight there was a power cut in the city of madness

Tony Adams – Joe Strummer & The Mescaleros (1999, Hellcat Records, Taken from ‘Rock Art and the X Ray Style’)

Points 48

Apparently the song ‘Tony Adams’ is named after the former Arsenal footballer and sometime dancer of the same name.  This news puts this song in distinguished company in being a decent song named after a footballer – and for what it’s worth, it is the best song about an Arsenal footballer since Wat Tyler’s quintessentially classic ‘Bring Me the Head of Gus Caesar’.

You can listen to that here via a handy You Tube Link, should you feel the urge.

Anyway, enough Arsenal related shenanigans let’s talk about Sir Joe of Strummer, who is (JJ72 notwithstandng) perhaps the first artist on this list who possibly could have been placed higher in this gimmick masquerading as a countdown, something which I’ll take personal responsibility for.  I’ve just checked back through the archives and have realised that I have never once posted a track by The Clash – so let’s rectify that right now.

White Riot – The Clash (1997, CBS Records, Taken from ‘The Clash’)

I chose this track because, when I was at college, a friend of mine named Brad, once stood up at an Open Mic night at the pub and did an acoustic version of this and got laughed/thrown off the stage by the ‘punk mafia’ who sat in the corner of the pub.   That didn’t stop Brad coming back the next week and doing exactly the same thing, only better.  That, punk mafia, is how punk rock works, not sitting around in a corner drinking lager in skin tight black jeans and moaning at people.

Another friend of mine, who lived next door to me in my final year at university (this would have been 1997), told me that he once met Joe Strummer in the canteen at Pinewood Studios.  According to my friend, Strummer ordered the bean chilli and then went outside and smoked a cigarette.  Now, usually I raise an eyebrow when I’m told these sort of things, (once a chap I know called Gordon, told a girl he fancied that he’d met Jim Kerr from Simple Minds simply because she was wearing a Simple Minds TShirt – he hadn’t met Jim Kerr) but this one seemed genuinely true, because my friend seemingly had no idea who Joe Strummer was. 

He sat in our kitchen and as he ate our food and told us excitedly how he’d served Martin Clunes a roast beef sandwich and when asked if he’d spoken to anyone else famous, he casually dropped into conversation about smoking a fag with “some rockstar called Joe – no idea who he was though, everyone else tiptoed around him like he was some sort of god”.

There might be a reason for that. JM 12 can take over here

“there’s only one Joe Strummer. Joe is the greatest J.”

Joe Strummer’s work after the Clash, is if we are honest, not as good as his work with the Clash, but very little work anywhere is as good as the Clash.  What I have heard is still very good.  Saying that Joe’s work with the Mescaleros isn’t something I have explored that much.  I’ve ventured as far as the debut album ‘Rock Art and the X Ray Style’.

Forbidden City – Joe Strummer and the Mescaleros (1998, HellCat Records, Taken from ‘Rock Art and the X Ray Style’) Here is Monday’s lyrical teaser…”Cosmetic music, powderpuff…”