The One Word Countdown – #49

One of just two cover versions….

Number 49

Victoria – The Fall (1988, Beggars Banquet Records, Taken from ‘The Frenz Experiment’)

Points 86

I was in the Golden Lion pub in St Peter Port holding a pint of French brewed ale and waiting for (I don’t know why) an Arsenal game to kick off on the relatively big screen, when I first heard the news that Mark E Smith has passed away. I was standing on my own in the pub and it came up on my phone via the Guardian’s alert system.  Mark E Smith clearly wasn’t famous enough to warrant a breaking news alert from the BBC, unlike weirdly Dale Winton or Barry Chuckle.  I read the piece and said “Shit” out loud in the pub.  A pub I had never been in before or since for matter.   The man nearest to me, who was with a couple of other chaps, looked at me and said that “He couldn’t believe that they’d left out Aubameyang either”.  To which I nodded a confused yes and quietly returned to my pint gutted.

‘Victoria’ is of course a cover of a song by The Kinks – you can listen to the original here should you want to – its not a patch on Smiths version, although I strongly doubt that Mark E Smith would have agreed with me.

There were two other songs that I considered for the rundown, neither of which I think would have done as well as ‘Victoria’ they are

Repetition – The Fall (1978, Step Forward Records, taken from ‘Bingo Masters Break Out EP’) – not that I actually own a copy of the ‘Bingo Masters Break Out EP.  I’m told its quite hard to get hold of.

Iceland – The Fall (1982, Kamara Records, Taken from ‘Hex Enduction Hour’) and I only considered it because the comedian Stewart Lee once told me it was his favourite song off of his favourite album but that was in 1994, so he might have changed his mind since then if I ever meet him again, I’ll ask him.

There was one other song called ‘Victoria’ that was considered for the rundown but didn’t make the longlist at all and that was this

Victoria – Official Secrets Act (2009, One Little Indian Records, taken from ‘Understanding Electricity’)

Which I’m sure you agree is a pretty decent little tune.

The Sunday Shuffle – #23

Masquerade – The Fall (1998, Artful Records)

Today’s randomly shuffled track comes courtesy of the old iPod Classic which kept me company on Monday morning walk through the village that I did after I had dropped my daughter at school.  About ten minutes into the walk I reached the top of a hill, I was out of breath, and cursing the my decision to wear a pair of jeans that were, probably, at least one size too small for me.  I think this is because they may have shrunk in the wash, rather than me eating too much chocolate. As I stood there and caught my breath, I decided that whichever song appeared on the iPod next would be todays randomly shuffled track of the day.   That track was obviously ‘Masquerade’ by The Fall. 

The week after ‘Masquerade’ was released, Mark E Smith, was guest of honour at the 1998 NME Awards (The Brats, as they were called back them, in a joke aimed at mocking The Brits, a joke which got less funny every year), as they had decided to give him the ‘Godlike Genius Award’.   At that award ceremony Mark E Smith famously had an argument with Jo Wiley live on the TV, which ended with Smith telling her to “Fuck Off”.  Thus justifying the NME’s decision immediately. 

One of the B Side’s to ‘Masquerade’ was a track called ‘Calendar’, which was a collaboration with a lad called Damon Gough, who was at the time, an unknown musician (he later of course became Badly Drawn Boy).  Gough gave Smith a lift home, but only after Smith had promised to record one of his songs – that song then turned into ‘Calendar’ and Gough even played guitar on the track.

Calendar – The Fall (1998, Artful Records)

Thanks Chris

Totally Wired – The Fall (1980, Rough Trade Records)

A year ago today, Chris, a friend of mine who I grew up with died suddenly. He was a friend that shared my passion for music, a decent record shop, Lincoln biscuits and cheap wine from Kwik Save. Today’s post is dedicated to him

Every song on this page today was a song that appeared at some point on one of the many mixtapes he made for me, which I played until the tape wore out.

Dreams Burn Down – Ride (1990, Creation Records) – This appeared on a tape, called “Grungy MuffShag Vol. 2 and in brackets after the song title he’d written (Bloody great song) and for a while until I physically held a copy of ‘Nowhere’ in my hands, I thought the actual title of this song was ‘Dreams Burn Down (Bloody great song)’.

X, Y and Zee – Pop Will Eat Itself (1990, RCA Records) – Which was crammed in the middle of Side 2 of a cassette called “Giving a Dog a Rubber Bone (Fnar!)’

Touch Me I’m Sick – Mudhoney (1988, Sub Pop Records) – Track 1, Side 1, Grungy MuffShag Vol. 1.

I’ll be raising a bottle of dog in Chris’ honour tonight.