Take Me Out To The Ball Game

With the World Series starting tonight, what better time for a baseball playlist?

Baseball has a special place in American culture.

In a country with so little history, at least relatively speaking, this is a game that has passed from father to son, and one that embraces its past as a way of renewing itself and keeping itself new.

It is held in a regard like no other sport in the country, a regard that means that, even thought the NFL has risen to eclipse it as the most popular league, baseball can keep a straight face while referring to itself as America's pasttime.

That status is reflected in the number of songs written about baseball. As we've covered before, writing songs about sport is dangerous territory, but baseball seems to be safer ground than most, as evidenced by the tracks here.

So as the New York Yankees get ready to take on the Philadelphia Phillies, slip yourself into the right mood by listening to these.

John Fogerty - Centerfield (Centerfield, 1985)


The quintessential baseball song, heard all summer long at ballparks big and small across America. It might not be a patch on some of the great Creedence classics, but this track has probably earned Fogerty more than many others in terms of royalties. And it's the only place to start this list.

The Baseball Project - Harvey Haddix (Vol 1: Frozen Ropes And Dying Quails, 2008)


This supergroup, featuring Peter Buck, Steve McCaughey, Linda Pitmon and Steve Wynn, was, as you can tell by their name, formed exclusively to pay homage to the great game of baseball. Their only album to date was a mixed bag, often filled with dirge, but this one has always stood out for me. The perfect game - in which the pitcher allows not a single man to reach base - is that rarest of baseball achievements - there have been only 18 in the history of the game, and pitching is much harder today than it once was in the so-called "dead-ball era". But that list has never included Harvey Haddix, who went further than just nine innings, tossing 12 perfect innings for the Pittsburgh Pirates against the Milwaukee Braves in 1959. But he was denied his place in history as none of his team-mates could score either, and the Pirates ultimately lost the game in the 13th, meaning Haddix's line did not fit the strict definition of a perfect game.

The Felice Brothers - Cooperstown (Yonder Is The Clock, 2009)


A musical biography of Ty Cobb, the Detroit Tigers great, sounds like a concept too awkward to pull off, but the Felice Brothers once again show off their superb storytelling ability in this beautiful track from their latest album. Tracing Cobb's life from rural Georgia to "the great Hall of Fame" in Cooperstown, its a song that evokes some wonderful imagery. Cobb, a menace on the diamond, has "a game like a war machine", his achievements measured when "the scoreboard sweetly hums". But my favourite line comes when looking at his never-say-die attitude: "I'm on First/And you're on Third/And the wolves are all between/And everyone's sure that the game is over." Of course, Cobb comes through, "And tomorrow, you'll surely know who's won."

The Be Good Tanyas - For The Turnstiles (Hello Love, 2003)


I've posted Neil Young's original on here before, so here's a nice wee cover of the classic. Interpreted as a lament of the way the music industry chews up and spits out musicians, Young used the imagery of minor league baseball players, men who either failed to make the majors or who's skills let them down before they retired, they are "left to die on the diamond".

The Hold Steady - Take Me Out To The Ballgame (Unreleased, 2007)


This track could have had a great deal more resonance on here had not the Twins been eliminated early in the play-offs. Although known as a Brooklyn band, the Hold Steady's roots are in Minneapolis, and they salute the Minnesota Twins here with their own take on the baseball standard, recorded in 2007 for the team to use at the Metrodome and then made available as a free internet download. The Twins lost to the Yankees in the first round.

Whiskeytown - Empty Baseball Park (Faithless Street Expanded Edition, 1998)


We'll finish here, with the track that lent its name to what became known as Whiskeytown's Baseball Park Sessions, released on the repackaged Faithless Street. This song places baseball back in its most natural setting, the community facility in the American small town. When the first pitch is thrown at the grand cathedral in the Bronx tonight, baseball will be on its greatest stage - it seems fitting to end with a celebration of its most humble.

Extended Play

The long, slow death of the single is well documented. You can get in the charts these days by selling a hundred or so copies. I've seriously considered grunting on a record for a couple of minutes, buying up 200 copies myself, and waiting for the radio play to follow. Someone somewhere would probably also decide it was art.

But the industry has responded to the death of the single by breathing life back into an old favourite. The EP is back. Everywhere I look it seems people are releasing EPs. In a lot of cases, they are new, up-and-coming bands for whom the format is a perfect way to get material out there before the album is ready. But for some of the others, and I'm looking at The Pains of Being Pure At Heart and Elvis Perkins here, you wonder if its not just a marketing gimmick, selling what is essentially a single as an EP to boost sales. You don't tend to buy the single if you already have the album, but an EP? Well, that sounds more interesting. Heck, I know it works on me.

Anyway, all I know is that I've bought a ton of EPs of late. Here's the best of 'em.

The Pains of Being Pure At Heart - Falling Over (Higher Than The Stars EP, 2009)


The Pains of Being Pure At Heart were one of the most refreshing arrivals of 2009, taking us all back to that old-school indie of our youths (or slightly before). With an early winter tour planned, they obviously felt the need to stick something new out in for the form of the Higher Than The Stars EP. The title track itself has a slightly more stripped down feel than the album, the trademark buzz guitars largely gone, but the rest suggests there is plenty more to come of the sound that made their debut so addictive.

Emmy The Great - Canopes and Drapes (The Edward EP, 2009)


These songs were recorded before Emmy's debut album, "long-lost songs" that Emmy claims were forgotten about until fans kept asking for them at gigs. She even reckons she had to look on the internet to check the lyrics to them. Looking at said lyrics, all I can say is that, given how much we've come to like and respect Emmy, we really hope she wasn't all that upset the day S Club 7 split...

Peggy Sue - Lover Gone (The Lover Gone EP, 2009)


Put this right at the top of the list of albums I can't wait for. I'll let the song explain why. Peggy Sue have been big on the EP format, kickstarting their career with three so far, the Body Parts EP (with Left With Pictures, more of whom below), the First Aid EP, and then this, the Lover Gone EP. All we need now is that album...

Beth Jeans Houghton - Hot Toast (Hot Toast Vol. 1, 2009)


Put this in second place behind Peggy Sue on the hotly anticipated albums list. Newcastle's pop diva (who comes with one of the more, er, inventive biographies of late is in the studio recording right now, apparently, so it shouldn't be too long. In the meantime, the best we have is this five-track EP.

Left With Pictures - Secretly (Secretly EP, 2009)


The debut album from these London folksters is due any time now. If it contains even just a few slices of the delicious hooks that have dominated their singles and this here EP so far, it should be well worth the wait.

Elvis Perkins - Gypsy Davy (The Doomsday EP, 2009)


The Doomsday EP is one that would seem to qualify as just a rebranded single. Where you used to do a CD1 and CD2, here it all is together. Aside from Doomsday itself, everything is essentially a b-side, not least the extended, slowed down version of Doomsday. This is the pick of the other selections and, while good, its not good enough to live on the (rather excellent) album.

Treetop Flyers - Mountain Song (To Bury The Past EP, 2009)


This is a lovely slice of Americana which reminds me of my beloved Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young. I'm not sure if you're supposed to be this good at Southern Rock if you're from London, but there you go.

Bon Iver - Beach Baby (Blood Bank EP, 2009)


This strikes me as a more genuine use of an EP by an established artist. While still basking in the success of "For Emma, Forever Ago", Bon Iver used Blood Bank to introduce several new ideas, and to record his first music feating a full backing band.

The Deep Vibration - Oklahoma City Woman Blues (Veracruz EP)


If this five-track EP was designed to pique interest in the Nashville foursome, it worked on me. Of course, I'm not hard to sell on alt-country.

PS - While I'm on, this should be the final apology for it going quiet on here for a while. Starting in the next couple of days, coming in about seven or eight parts, will be a compilation I've been making for a while now, featuring a track for each of the 50 US states. Once that is out of the way, we'll begin counting down towards a very exciting project planned for December - the musical advent calendar. Much more to come on this soon...

The Day John Henry Died

Everyone loves themselves a working class hero. And there is no greater working class hero in folklore than John Henry, the steel driving man who is said to have hammered himself to death.

Like all the best legends, dozens of versions of Henry's tale now exist, but the best we can piece together, this bull of a man was working on the construction of the railroads across America in the late 19th century.

And it was 122 years ago today, at least according to one account, that he sealed his place in history. The owners of the line Henry was working on, thought to be either the Chesapeake and Ohio Railway or the Columbus and Western Railway, wanted to bring in a steam-powered machine to do the job of their workers for less.

But Henry insisted he could do the work better than any such contraption, and a great battle, man versus machine, was arranged to settle the argument.

Away they went, with the steam drill eventually pulling narrowly ahead. Seeing this, Henry grabbed a second hammer and began again, catching up and surpassing the machine, which soon enough broke down. But in his moment of victory, Henry suffered a heart attack, and died with his hammer in his hand. So was born the legend of John Henry.

His story might have faded with time, but he lives on through a wealth of songs.

Woody Guthrie - John Henry (Woodie Guthrie Sings Folks Songs, 1962)

Many different versions (see Bruce at the foot of this list) exist of this retelling of Henry's story, but we'll start off with Woody's. The writing credit is given only as 'traditional' and each different version seems to add and take away verses, changing the details but not the meaning of the story. Henry is perfect fodder for Guthrie's brand of left-leaning folk music, in which the plight of the working man was a constant theme.

Johnny Cash - The Legend of John Henry's Hammer (At Folsom Prison, 1968)

The Man in Black's take on the Henry tale first appeared on the 1963 album Blood, Sweat and Tears, but the more famous version was the one sung by request during his legendary gig at Folsom Prison. Cash, who famously used a dollar bill to provide the percussion on 'Walk The Line', improvises the fitting sound of hammer on metal to keep the beat here.

Laura Veirs - John Henry Lives (The Triumphs and Travails of Orphan Mae, 2005)

Veirs steers clear of the details, disputed as they so often are, of Henry's life, but the lyrics 'By the railroad ties lies a hammer/It's all painted red' clearly speak to the sacrifice of Henry and the thousands of other, less famous men who built America's railroads.

The Felice Brothers - Take This Hammer (Tonight At The Arizona, 2007)

'Take This Hammer' is an old prison work song which shares many themes with Bill Monroe's Nine Pound Hammer, one of the oldest songs of John Henry's legend. Here the Felice Brothers use it to bring the house down in a live recording which only serves to make me more excited to be off to see them next month.

The Drive-By Truckers - The Day John Henry Died (The Dirty South, 2004)

At this current rate, it will only be another couple of months before we've sampled every song from The Dirty South on this blog, but then it's hardly a surprise given how many great stories are told on this album. In this updating of Henry's tale, the Drive-By Truckers draw the parallel to more recent upheavals in the US economy.

Gillian Welch - I Dream A Highway (Time The Revelator, 2001)

Welch only makes passing references to Henry's legend, but does so often enough to get a mention here. Henry shows up in Elvis Presley Blues, featured on here last month, and later again on the same album in I Dream A Highway.

Steve Earle - Steve's Hammer (For Pete) (Washington Square Serenade, 2007)

Although primarily about his move to New York and his new bride, Allison Moorer, Earle didn't entirely forget the politics that had dominated his previous two albums in Washington Square Serenade, and called on the ever-reliable legend of Henry.

Bruce Springsteen - John Henry (We Shall Overcome: The Seeger Sessions, 2006)

I don't think I've ever heard an album on which it sounds like the artists were having more fun recording it than this. Springsteen rips through a full-length version of the traditional classic 'John Henry'. Given the Boss' affinity with all things blue collar, the only surprise is that it took until he did a album of classic American folk songs before he ever got to singing of John Henry.

Holding Action

Folks

Sorry things have been so quiet on here of late. I've had a month of travelling, a fine mix of work and pleasure, that have rather hampered efforts to get much else done. That is now all over, but it might take a week or so for me to get fully caught up.

In the meantime, here's something of a holding piece - an effort to show willing, if little more.

Keeping it simple, it's just a few tidbits from some of the best albums I've bought in the last couple of months.

Normal service will resume later this week.

(By the way, if anyone is wondering what that picture is all about, you try putting 'holding action' into a google image search...)

Floating Action - 50 Lashes (Floating Action, 2009)


Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeroes - Home (Up From Below, 2009)


She Keeps Bees - Release (Nests, 2009)


The Joy Formidable - The Greatest Light Is The Greatest Shade (A Balloon Called Moaning, 2009)


Here We Go Magic - Fangela (Here We Go Magic, 2009)

Riding Shotgun in the Sky: an Alternative Woodstock

On Friday we opened the anniversary of the Woodstock weekend with some of the best bands to have played in Bethel 40 years ago. Today, we close it with our alternative Woodstock - the bands that turned it down. Retrospectively, you can only say 'ooops'.

Could Woodstock have been even better? You judge...

Led Zeppelin - Dazed and Confused (Led Zeppelin, 1969)


The call to turn down Woodstock came from Led Zeppelin's manager Peter Grant, who wanted them to instead focus on their own headlining tour. Their debut album was still only a few months old and they were in the middle of what was proving to a successful tour making their name in North America. Woodstock seemed like a distraction, and they spent the weekend in New Jersey instead.

Jethro Tull - Living In The Past (Living In The Past, 1972)


Jethro Tull's Ian Anderson apparently claimed that he didn't want to spend his weekend "in a field of hippies", at which point the idea to skip Woodstock seems like a pretty strong one. But given their later history of playing festivals, it's not entirely clear if this was the real reason they stayed away, of if, like so many others, the young band - still very much in their formative stage and trying to capitalise on the success of this single - didn't know what they were missing.

The Moody Blues - Ride My See-Saw (In Search of the Lost Chord, 1968)


The Moody Blues, very much in their psychedelic stage following the release of In Search of the Lost Child and with To Our Children's Children's Children on the way, got as far as appearing on the promotional posters for Woodstock, but instead chose to play in Paris that weekend.

Spirit - Fresh Garbage (Spirit, 1968)


File Spirit under the list of bands who didn't think Woodstock would be all that big. Nevermind, guys...

Bob Dylan - Blowin' In The Wind (The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan, 1963)


Dylan, a Woodstock resident by this time, was just emerging from his lengthy hibernation after the 1966 motorcycle accident when the festival rolled around. He talked to organisers about a potential slot, but ultimately pulled out when his son fell ill.

The Byrds - Wasn't Born To Follow (The Notorious Byrd Brothers, 1968)


Former member David Crosby may have been on hand with Stills, Nash & Young, but the Byrds never considered accepting an invite to play, put off by the lack of pay for performers and claiming to be burned out by the festival scene.

The Doors - Strange Days (Strange Days, 1968)


The Doors, who would have been one of the biggest names on the bill, were booked to play until a late cancellation. Drummer John Desmore went of his own accord.

Joni Mitchell - Woodstock (Ladies of the Canyon, 1970)


Joni Mitchell penned the last anthem of that weekend, but was never there. 'Woodstock' is said to voice her frustration at missing the event because her manager insisted she keep a booking on the Dick Cavett Show. Good work, Mr Manager.

Going on Down to Yasgur's Farm - 40 Years After Woodstock

I came upon a child of God

He was walking along the road

And I asked him, 'Where are you going?'

And this he told me

I'm going on down to Yasgur's Farm

I'm going to join in a rock n roll band

Joni Mitchell - Woodstock, 1970

Forty years ago today they gathered, almost half a million of them, at the dairy farm of Max Yasgur in Bethel, New York, for three and a bit days that helped define a whole generation. The Woodstock Festival was, from all members of my generation can gather, a total one-off. Glastonbury may once have had a hippy vibe, still there but now hugely diminished, but as an event it happens almost every year, and its legend is spread across several decades. There may now have been six Woodstock Festivals, but the word itself means only one of them - the original 1969 edition - still, as far as many people are concerned, the only one worthy of the name.

There will never be another festival like it. Trying to recreate it is hopeless - all we can do is imagine, which is what this playlist is designed to help you to do.

Richie Havens - Freedom/Motherless Child (Woodstock, 1970)


He kicked off the festival on the Friday morning, so there's no other slot to give him here than first on the bill. Havens was originally supposed to be up fifth, but opened instead. The fans wouldn't let him leave as he received endless ovations, and he eventually ran out of songs. Good thing he did, as he instead improvised this before finally departing the stage, having set the bar high for the rest of the weekend.

Canned Heat - Going Up The Country (Living The Blues, 1968)


Canned Heat were a blues band that over the years ended up having almost as many different members as people in the audience the day they performed this at Woodstock. The song would become the unofficial anthem of Woodstock, thanks in part to its role in the soundtrack to the film.

Creedence Clearwater Revival - Bad Moon Rising (Green River, 1969)


Creedence's set was dominated with tracks from the then newly-released Green River, highlighted by this. CCR played somewhere in between Saturday and Sunday, deep into the night, with John Fogerty complaining the Grateful Dead had overrun so long most people had gone to bed. We struggle to believe the Woodstock crowd were the sort of folks to be asleep by midnight, but then we weren't there...

The Who - Sparks (Tommy, 1969)


As if to further condemn Fogerty's complaint about CCR's "late" slot, the Who played for a little over an hour, starting at 5am on Sunday morning. By this point in the festival, all notion of night and day seems to have been pretty much lost, but it's hard to think of a better way to hear Tommy played live in full than to have the sun rising in the background.

Jefferson Airplane - Volunteers (Volunteers, 1969)


If The Who soundtracked the sunrise, Jefferson Airplane had breakfast covered with an 8am slot. This, for anyone counting, was officially the headline slot for Saturday (And to think Bruce Springsteen got fined for playing past midnight at Glastonbury this year...). Grace Slick came on stage to introduce what she called the band's "morning maniac music", before they unleashed their particularly spectacular brand of psychedelia. Volunteers was then a brand new song - we can only imagine what it sounded like totally fresh.

Country Joe & The Fish - I Feel Like I'm Fixin' To Die Rag (Woodstock, 1970)


Country Joe McDonald had already played a solo set earlier in the weekend, but he appeared with his band on Sunday evening to get things back under way after a thunderstorm ripped through the site. It was a pretty short set, but was highlighted by this ripping performance of their classic anti-Vietnam protest song. "GIVE ME AN F..."

The Band - The Weight (Music From Big Pink, 1968)


At the time of Woodstock, The Band had only the one album, Music From Big Pink to lean on. What an album it is to have to lean on. The Weight is in the Top 10 Greatest Songs Ever Recorded. This is a fact.

Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young - Wooden Ships (Crosby, Stills & Nash 1969)


This was only the second gig for Crosby, Stills & Nash, who in the three months since the release of their first album had also added the incomparable Neil Young, Stills' former band mate from Buffalo Springfield. He wasn't on stage at the start, but joined them in time for renditions of his own wondrous Mr Soul and, a little later, this timeless classic from the first CSN album.

Jimi Hendrix - The Star Spangled Banner/Purple Haze/Woodstock Improvisation (Woodstock, 1970)


Jimi Hendrix's so-called Sunday night headline slot opened up at 9am on Monday morning. Some folks had already left by then, but those who hadn't caught one of the defining moments of the festival. Many have said Hendrix was far from his best as he worked with a realigned backing band, but his biting rendition of the national anthem, kicking in here just before the two-minute mark, was the most angry and effective he ever delivered and has fuelled the legend of Woodstock ever since.

Under the Covers: Neil Young Edition

First, a little housekeeping, in the form of an apology for a lack of posts on here of late. The combination of Glastonbury and related hangovers, followed by a bout of overnight shifts, knocked me back a bit. The bad news - I now have some time off to make up for it. Expect a rash in the next few days.

Right. Welcome to the first edition of Under the Covers, which will become an (ir)regular feature on Ragged Glories going forth. It does what it says on the tin, which is to say it deals exclusively in cover versions. And what better way to start than with five of the best Neil Young covers.

Johnny Cash - Heart of Gold (Unearthed II: Trouble In Mind, 2003)


Take one old master, emptying the tank on his final set of recordings, and give him a Neil Young song to cover. This can only work out well.

Heart of Gold was one of two Neil songs Johnny Cash tackled during the American Recordings, but both it and Pocahontas were added to the pile of cast-offs before finally appearing on the posthumous Unearthed. Thank goodness they did.

Pocahontas is the better song, one of Neil's best, but this is the better cover. While Pocahontas suffers from a little over-elaboration, distracting from the raw beauty of its battle-weary lyrics (which should have been perfect for Cash's fading voice), Heart of Gold is given a fresh lease of life by a man coming to the end of his life. When Neil first summed up his search for a Heart of Gold with the line "...and I'm getting old", there was irony - he was 25 years of age. When Cash sings it here, it is with the rueful smile of a man who has conducted a life-long search.

Emmylou Harris - Wrecking Ball (Wrecking Ball, 1995)


If you're going to cover a Neil song, and need someone to do backing vocals, who do you get? Neil. Only if you can, of course, but Emmylou Harris can.

There's absolutely nothing not to like about this. Whisper it, because I can hardly bring myself to write it about Neil, but it's better than the original (it's okay, it's not like he wasn't there and involved, right?). Emmylou's take is more tender and touching than the original, and these are lyrics that seem like they were written for a female voice. Emmylou subtly adds "I'll" to the chorus lyric "Wear something pretty and white", which is no longer a request but part of the offer.

This served as the title track of Emmylou's 1995 album, which ushered in something of a revival for her, followed as it was by the likes of Red Dirt Girl and Stumble Into Grace. Working with Daniel Lanois, best known as U2's producer, she used an updated electric sound, far more atmospheric, which only served to enhance the greatest voice in country music.

Scott Miller & The Commonwealth - Hawks and Doves (Reconstruction, 2007)


The original sounds like it was recorded in a bar, presumably quite considerably after closing time, so what better way to cover it than live, in a bar, with closing time fast approaching.

A gloriously ragged slow stumper back in its original form, Hawks and Doves epitomised Young's surprising and controversial rightward political tilt at the start of the 80s.

Miller first covered it for his 2006 album, Citation, but I've gone with the more raucous live version from 2007's Reconstruction. Cleaned up and speeded up, Miller turns this into an anthem, and one I used to love belting out at the top of my lungs flying down the freeway - "I'm proud to be living in the USA" is a great lyric to sing when you've just moved to the country, as I had when this came out.

Given how misplaced most of the analysis of the original proved, we won't even consider the politics of covering this at the time Miller did, but just appreciate a good ol' sing-along.

The Pixies - Winterlong (Bridge: A Tribute To Neil Young, 1989)


This was one of the true highlights of the 1989 collection, Bridge: A Tribute to Neil Young, for a couple of reasons.

Firstly, this song is something of a lost classic - at least as lost as anything that figures on the essential Neil compilation Decade can be. Never appearing on an album proper, it almost seemed to be forgotten in the great mass of Neil's works.

The Pixies rescued it from obscurity and made it their own - which maybe wasn't too hard given how the flowing melody of the vocals over a driving rhythm echoed their own sound.

Buddy Miles - Down By The River (Them Changes, 1970)


If you were drawing up a list of songs that no one should bother trying to cover, there's a strong case for putting Down By The River somewhere near the top. Let's be honest, Neil nailed it. The original version is among the greatest nine minutes and 27 seconds in musical history.

But Buddy Miles clearly was not put off. Bringing his soulful sounds to the party, Miles polishes the raw edges of Neil's classic, changing the mood to something more sinister. Gone is the emotion that charged the original, almost as though Miles doesn't care what he's done.

No, this isn't as good as the original, but it's a more than worthy effort.


PS - The picture credit for this post goes to my good friend Jack Doyle - this was our view of the great man at Glastonbury. Fantastic.

Help Me Make It Through The Night

Today's playlist is pretty much entirely about self-preservation. I'm heading into a week of nocturnal activity which will play havoc with my already largely mythical sleep pattern. I'm going to need a little help to make it through the night, every night.

So here are 10 of my favourite songs of the early hours, each and everyone of which is going to be needed to help me last until next Sunday on the barest amount of sleep. We open with CCR, pausing only to ask whether any band was ever any better at choosing covers to complement their own work, and race through to Neil Young's timeless classic by way of sinister goings-on in REM's garden and Scott Miller's advice for songwriters - remember, the best material is in the Bible.

Enjoy. And remember, sleep is for the weak. Good night.

Creedence Clearwater Revival - The Midnight Special (Willy And The Poor Boys, 1969)


Gram Parons - Sleepless Nights (Sleepless Nights, 1976)


Scott Miller - Good Morning Midnight (Are You With Me? 2000)


Kris Kristofferson - Help Me Make It Through The Night (Kristofferson, 1970)


Whiskeytown - Excuse Me While I Break My Own Heart Tonight (Stranger's Almanac, 1997)


Lucinda Williams - The Night's Too Long (Lucinda Williams, 1992)

R.E.M. - Gardening At Night (Dead Letter Office, 1987)


The Kinks - All Day And All Of The Night (Kinks-Size, 1965)


Bruce Springsteen - Prove It All Night (Darkness On The Edge of Town, 1978)


Neil Young - Tonight's The Night (Part II) (Tonight's The Night, 1975)

Happy Birthday, Mr Parks!

A little toast to my partner in aural crime, as Mr Parky celebrates his birthday today. In his honour, I've picked out five suitable songs to commemorate his birth, get him in the party mood and hopefully gloss over the fact that I haven't bought him a present. 

Well, it's the thought that counts and I've certainly given this selection some thought. In fact, this playlist was much more difficult to compile than I first expected, what with my natural inclination to avoid the obvious (Stevie Wonder's Happy Birthday), coupled with my appreciation of his post-Glasto state (Whiskeytown's Dancing With The Girls At The Bar is great but perhaps optimistic on a hungover Tuesday, no?!). Instead, I went for the bluesy, the modestly celebratory and the tongue-in-cheek, ending - as Mr P always does - with Neil Young. A fitting tribute then, and hopefully a decent listen for everyone else.

The Beatles - "Birthday" (The White Album, 1968)

Jim White - "God Was Drunk When He Made Me" (No Such Place, 2001)

Rare Earth - "I Just Want To Celebrate" (One World, 1971)

Little Axe - "All Night Party" (Hard Grind, 2002)

Neil Young - "Old Man" (Harvest, 1972)

Welcome to Adventureland

Less a mix this one and more a mini soundtrack of sorts, from a great new film that I saw recently. Adventureland is set in 1987, with Kristen Stewart and Jesse "Squid And The Whale" Eisenberg working dead-end summer jobs at the local theme park. It's being sold as a film "From the director of Superbad", though this would be akin to slapping a sticker announcing "From the writers of Surfin' USA" on a copy of Pet Sounds. In truth, the humour, ambition and emotional range is light years ahead of McLovin and co's original outing but it is the period setting that I'm hooked on here.

Like all great coming-of-age films, they've realised that the key to wider appeal is to set it 20 years previously. Just as Dazed And Confused repackaged 1970s stoner rock classics for the post-Nevermind set, so Adventureland digs up some late 1980s early indie masterpieces for sensitive plaid-shirt wearing Noughties types. Two generations of cinema-goers for the price of one. Winner.

Ok, so the soundtrack is far cooler than anything I was actually listening to in 1987 - at the time, I was transfixed by the sleeve of my older sister's vinyl copy of Iron Maiden's Somewhere In Time and taping early Bon Jovi tunes off the radio - but it just feels right. From the glamorous drivetime rock of Bowie's Modern Love to the reckless backcombed thrash of Paul Westerberg's underrated Bastards of the Young, they have all bases covered. Throw in a Foreigner tribute band and a running joke about Lou Reed's Satellite Of Love and it quickly becomes less of a film and more of a lifestyle choice. No wonder I want one of those "Games Games Games" t-shirts...

The Replacements - "Bastards of the Young" (Tim, 1985)

David Bowie - "Modern Love" (Let's Dance, 1983)

INXS - "Don't Change" (Shabooh Shoobah, 1982)

Husker Du - "Don't Want To Know If You Are Lonely" (Candy Apple Grey, 1986)

Big Star - "I'm In Love With A Girl" (Radio City, 1973)

Batter Up

So I spent most of my working day with thoughts wandering off to what this first post might be about. Where to begin? In the end, I figured, what with this being an introduction and all, I'd go with my other great love - and, incidentally, my day job - and make it about sport. So here is a sports journalist's guide to some of the best songs about sport.

You'll notice right off the bat (see, you get sports analogies too), that this list is dominated by Americans and American sports. There is a reason for this. The Brits, it seems, are just plain rubbish at singing about sport. If we don't get boozed up and turn it into some manner of terrace anthem, it's not happening. The Americans, on the other hand, have written 101 great baseball songs, and plenty about football - their football, that is - too.

Neil Hannon, he of the Divine Comedy, is out to change this with his new band, the Duckworth Lewis Method, who will sing exclusively about cricket. We'll wait to see how that works out. In the meantime, away we go... Boxing has produced plenty of great records, and we don't mean Eye of the Tiger. We could have gone with Dylan's epic Hurricane here (or even a British effort, The Hours' Ali In The Jungle) but it had to be this from the Felice Brothers, who might just turn into prolific sport songters, given their ode to baseball, Cooperstown, on the new album.

The Felice Brothers - Ballad of Lou The Welterweight (Tonight At The Arizona, 2007)

When it comes to American football, the college game has always stirred deeper passions than the NFL, so I guess it's only natural you'd want to propose marriage at a Tennessee-Florida game. Todd Steed explains how. 

Todd Steed & The Suns of Phere - Peyton Manning Shirt (Knoxville Tells, 2002)

The Drive-By Truckers might have got the football nod - legendary Alabama coach Bear Bryant is a lead character in their Southern Rock Opera double album - but instead we'll leave it to them to explain NASCAR culture. 

The Drive-By Truckers - Daddy's Cup (The Dirty South, 2004) 

Choosing a baseball song was hard, so I chose three. As if to show the sheer number of baseball songs out there, Peter Buck's 'supergroup' The Baseball Project churned out an entire album last year. Rather than going with my favourite of this dirge-filled effort (that would be Harvey Haddix), I went with the most topical. You get to thank Manny Ramirez and his failed drugs test for Broken Man.

The Baseball Project - Broken Man (Vol. 1: Frozen Ropes and Dying Quails, 2008)

I suspect there are a lot of Pearl Jam fans that don't know this exists, but Eddie Vedder is a huge Chicago Cubs fan, and wrote this last year to mark the team's 100th year of ineptitude in the field of winning the World Series. I don't know to what extent non-Cubs fans appreciate it, but you tell me...

Eddie Vedder - All The Way (Live in Chicago, 2008)

We'll close with this, which isn't quite in line with theme, not strictly being about sport, at least not entirely. But I doubt I'm going to have many posts without a Neil Young song, and I'm not about to start now.

Neil Young - For The Turnstiles (On The Beach, 1974)