Da Feem Choonz

The opening credits for the first episode of Grange Hill from 1978. Featuring the unmistakable sounds of Alan Hawkshaw. 

Apropos of nothing Emma put on season 5 of Grange Hill from 1982 after tea the other night. Not seen these episodes since 1982 but I probably watched it up until the late 80s. Maybe the ABC stopped showing it, if my memory serves. Anyway surprisingly some episodes were still quite watchable, then again some were horrendous and infuriatingly unwatchable. Mainly what makes it interesting though is the time capsule aspect indicating how much our freedoms have been eroded since I was a kid. I mean in Starmer's Britain some of these scallywags would be getting a visit from the the fuzz because of words. 

Alan Hawkshaw - Chicken Man [1976]

Feem tune gold.

An absolute banger and all time classic British telly theme tune.

The jolly bouncing funkiness of it all is so infectious, exuberant and full of cheeky swagger.

Make no mistake this isn't just a great library music or top theme tune for the telly, it's one of the greatest pieces of music of the 70s!

So the Grange Hill theme came from a 1976 music library record from Themes International Music called Rock Comedy. 

Fun Fact: Hawkshaw played keyboards on Donna Summer's classic 1977 LP Once Upon A Time.

Write the theme tune, sing the theme tune.

Opening credits for Minder. Funnily enough Dennis Waterman didn't write the theme tune at all. It was co-written by his Mrs, Patricia Waterman. 

Dennis Waterman - I Could Be So Good For You [1979]

Absolute time capsule gold of a video. Filmed at Church Street Market London before the influx. Waterman seems very strange or maybe he's just had one pint too many. Worth watching for the lady with the dog sequence and the bit where he's sleazing onto a saucy parking inspector...  so much awkward... everybody seems to hate him. They don't make 'em like this any more folks.

Back in the days when there was comedy. 

Comedy: It's funny. You might like it. 

You haven't got long to live you know. Go on give it a try.

Opening and closing credits to Only Fools and Horses.

John Sullivan - Only Fools And Horses Theme [1982] 

Here's a video that prints the lyrics which sheds some light on what they're on about. 

Stick a pony in your pocket 

?

Many think this is Rodney singing. I just assumed it was Chas n Dave. Anyway it turns out Only Fools creator/writer John Sullivan wrote the tune intending for Chas n Dave to sing it but they couldn't make it on the day so he just sang it himself.

John Sullivan - Hooky Street [1982]

This clears up what some of those lyrics are. 

Mush

? 

The end of an Only Fools And Horses episode is great because you get this, the best closing credits song in the history of telly.

"TVs, Deep Freeze & David Bowie LPs"

"No income tax or VATs

No Money back, no guarantee"

Chicory Tip - Son Of My Father

[1972]

Chipper Moog led glam rock bubblegum goodness on the beach with mums pushing prams in the background.

Number one baby!

Denim - Middle Of The Road

Denim - Middle Of The Road [1993]

Still a fucking top tune!

"Force fed your so called heroes"

I always assumed this was some sort of minor hit because I heard it on Melbourne's airwaves on 3RRR and 3PBS back in the day but maybe it was just on those British obsessed specifically Anglophile shows I used to listen to. And I recall the genius pop triumph Back In Denim getting in the 1992 Melody Maker best albums of the year chart but...

Anyway apparently there's a critically acclaimed book about Felt/Denim/Go-Cart Mozart main man Lawrence that came out last year. So maybe he's finally having a resurgence and will get be famous in his 60s. Can you have a resurgence if you didn't really get a surgence.

Denim - Back In Denim [1992]

Stomping glam choon with massive crowd chorus worthy of a terrace chant. Before Suede and Oasis jumped on the bandwagon. Legendary.

Denim - Song For Europe [1992]

Lawrence and the boys and lady some of whom were Glitter Band veterans on Vic & Bob's Popdoodledandy. This was a 1992 pilot for channel 4 for a show that was never commissioned. The hilarious episode didn't got aired until 2012 and is now considered a cult lost item in Vic & Bob lore. There you go, you learn something every day.

Denim - Summer Smash [1997]

I didn't even know they did anything after Back In Denim. I mean I thought music was done by 97 so I wasn't really paying attention. All the great 90s genres were finished: Shoegaze, Grunge, lo-fi, ambient, hardcore rave, jungle, techno and whatever were over. Post-rock, trip-hop and brit-pop were starting to get way too fucking boring and I wasn't into tech-step or speed garage until later when I realised I had been wrong. 

This tune though coulda been a an absolute summer smash to go along with Bittersweet Symphony and Tubthumping before the teenybopper-ization increased its stranglehold on the second half of the 90s. However that was not to be. The story goes that this Radio 1 single of the week was cancelled just after promotional copies had been sent out due to the death of Lady Diana. It was considered that mourners may have thought the title was in poor taste at that moment in time.

Mozart Estate - Relative Poverty [2022]

Lawrence is still a card and this is funny stuff.

Come On sing it!

"I'm living in relative poh-hov-erty

I'm living on a tenner a day

Goodness gracious

a tenner a day!"

Brilliant video for a brilliant tune directed by Jesus And Mary Chain drummer Douglas Hart and Valerie Philips. Someone in the comments neatly calls it ChaznDaveWave. Actually the comments are onto it: Syd Barrett, The Kinks, Marc Bolan, Chaz n Dave, wrote the theme tune sang the theme tune - Minder, Grange Hill & Only Fools And Horses. 

Those upbeat bouncy synths redolent of British TV sports themes and library albums put this in a zone similar to hauntological acts like Position Normal and Belbury Poly. Actually I've always thought the first Denim LP could have been a precursor to all that stuff too maybe was it just the track The Osmonds.

Mozart Estate - Electric Rock n Roll

This one's just from a coupla months ago. A revival of of a twenty year old Go-Kart Mozart tune. I wanna feel good, get pissed and go down town tonight to the disco like I'm 23 years old again.

Girl, I feel good now
So put your red dress on
Oh, you look so cool
Nails and make-up done

Oh we're all gonna go downtown tonight
Oh we're all gonna go downtown tonight

All those nights she danced to electric rock and roll
All those nights she danced to electric rock
Electric rock and roll

Girl, oh you taste good
Oh you turn me on
Move to the DJ
I'm gonna shoot my gun

Electric rock and roll

Jimmy!

Saving your frisbee could set your flares on fire! 

...or even worse... 

...aww no...

Jimmy!

RIP Jimmy.

Moral Of The Story: Save your flares not your frisbee.

Lawrence English - Viento

Patagonia [2015]

A very windy wind recording. Lots of wind. Squalling wind. Not just the wind though, all the the things around being affected by the wind like abandoned buildings, trees, road signs, fences, grass and misc. other items. 

Antarctica [2015]

Chilly winds captured in Antarctica. The sound of the howling wind during a blizzard battering the recording equipment and the base camp building causing all sorts of reverberations, drones, low frequency vibrations and general sonic havoc.

The Scenic Route - The Pattern Forms

Five years later: The Scenic Route is a splendid album that still holds up which is pretty good for a retro faux library LP. Lush downtempo electronic library jams. Exquisite arrangements and melodies take this beyond mere library muzak recreations. These are sublime luxurious instrumentals, smooth, sweeping, soulful and cinematic.  

For cruising or daydreaming in any kind of weather at any time of day... 

Nice...

This cover designed by Paul Flack of Trunk Records fame is excellent, appealing on so many levels. So evocative of idyllic seaside drives. Then there's the whole fantasy of living the lighthouse life...

Gee I dunno... you think it was inspired by this 70s library LP cover at all... 

This original design was done by Nina Klein for Studio G's 1974 music library Scenic and Romance: Volume 2.

This fascinating documentary from the BBC Archive might put you off your living in a lighthouse fantasy. 

Peter Balke [1845?]

Clarkson Stanfield [1836]

A coupla great ye olde paintings with lighthouses in. Also containing boats. I like a very lot.

The Secret Love Life Of The Octopus - Pierre Henry

[1967]

Abstract reverb drenched musique concrète.  

I would have liked to have heard the entire thing sans French fella voice over but that doesn't seem to be available on anything. 

Pierre Henry & Michel Colombier - Jéricho jerk [1968]
Musique concrète crossed with funky rock for novelty fusion fun in the 60s.

Pierre Henry - Appocalypse De Jean [1968]

Before industrial, dark ambient, drone and noise you had Pierre Henry and this epic one hour and forty minute apocalyptic musique-concrète jam.  

Biblical man!  

Steve Hiett - Down On The Road By The Beach

[1983]

Dreamy sun drenched summer days to infinity. 

Hazy sea breeze hypnagogic surf guitars glisten on the beach.

Wenn der Südwind weht - Roedelius

Wenn Der Südwind Weht - Roedelius [1981]

The all time greatest electronic album nobody ever says is the all time greatest electronic album. The reassuring halcyon loveliness of Wenn der Südwind weht is irresistible. 

Veilchenwurzeln - Roedelius [1981]

It's lush, pastoral, sparkling and mildly euphoric. The lightness of touch and unhurried approach is a winning and charming musical strategy. 

Mein Freund Farouk - Roedelius [1981]

These gliding breezy melodies all seem so effortless like they always naturally existed it's unimaginable how they were even created.

Auf Leisen Sohlen - Roedelius [1981]

As serene as the delicate glistening of raindrops on leaves in the golden sunlight...  idyllic. 

Saumpfad - Roedelius [1981]

Somehow he even makes the only vaguely ominous tune on the album just as comforting as the tranquility he usually delights in. 

Sonnengeflecht - Roedelius [1981]

Gentle elation evocative of playful childlike innocence...

ZERKALO [The Mirror]

 

JS Bach - Das Alte Jahr Vergangen Ist, BWV 614

I don't think this is Artemiev but it might be Simon Preston from a Deutsche Grammophon 14 cd box set compilation Johann Sebastian Bach: The Organ Works. The only Bach albums I have are Switched On Bach, Johannes Passion Version IV (1749) and Matthäus-Passion so I'm no baroque expert and find it tricky navigating classical catalogues. Simon Preston is best known to pop culture plebs for playing some Bach on his organ for the Rollerball (1975) soundtrack. 

[1975]

The first 22 minutes and 40 seconds here are the original Aduard Artemiev recordings for the soundtrack of Tarkovsky's 1975 masterpiece Zerkalo aka The Mirror.