Roxy Music • Pyjamarama

[1973]

In the great British tradition of singles not included on albums. Roxy Music's second single came out a month prior to their second LP For Your Pleasure but was not included on that record. 

It's crazy that such sonic weirdness dressed up as pop made the UK top 10 back in 73. 

It all begins with an outstanding intro with notable drummage then the tune floats along on a surreal electric marshmallow with an underlying ecstatic aquatic feel. Next is a totally off kilter studio manipulated sax, unconventional arrangement of words for pop ie. no chorus applied with Ferry's unpredictable quivering tones, cool disorientating guitar shenanigans, further toppermost drum action with added maracas and an ace fade out. 

Eno said this tune shouldn't have been released as a single but he was so wrong, as he often is, because for many of us Pyjamarama is Roxy's greatest single and one of the best chartbusters of the 70s.

*When I started this blog most songs and albums didn't have their own wikipedia pages but now everything's got an entry which engulfs the efforts of the little bloggers and kinda makes blogs redundant. However wikipedia are still often inaccurate and just don't have the Space Debris touch plus the once neutral wikipedia website is now slimy and ideologically captured with their not so subtle hidden agendas, smear campaigns and biases. For proof just seek out any interview with original cofounder Larry Sanger from the last five or six years.

Chrome - Zombie Warfare (Can't Let You Down)

[1979]

Scuzzy Acid fried surreal space rock musique concrète. 

The soundtrack to your horrifying nightmares becoming reality. 

Chaotic junkyard psychedelic noise recorded by a couple of deranged cyber-punk sailors of the mind. 

The astonishing psycho-geographical sound of a lysergically altered brain.  

Far out man.

Really though you need to listen to the Half Machine Lip Moves LP in its entirety in one sitting. Zombie Warfare out of this context is strange... well I mean it's already strange but it's weird for me hearing it on its own not surrounded by the rest of the album's insanity... so...

[1979]

I was only seven when this came out so I missed it at the time. In the early 90s we knew of this record because Chrome had been mentioned by groups like Butthole Surfers, Pavement, Jesus Lizard and I'm sure a few years later Steve Albini wrote about them once in Melody Maker. However finding their records or cds in Melbourne was hard because they were out of print so for many years I only had a tape of this with the previous album Alien Soundtracks on the other side thanks to an old friend and bandmate. Now all you young folk and late-comers have it all immediately available at your fingertips which is kinda cool but also kinda weird because you didn't have to invest the money, time and travel to gain the knowledge to anticipate getting a hold of and eventually listening to such a coveted artefact. Also renting music is an odd and poxy concept.

The 'In' Crowd · Bryan Ferry

[1974]

One of those songs that nobody ever says is one of the greatest but...

What a sound! Everybody's favourite louche lounge lizard with one of the heaviest and most brazen guitar-centric things he ever did.

The 'In' Crowd was an old 60s soul tune that Ferry rendered unrecognisable with this glorious racket. Also preempts Bowie's plastic soul period.

Menacing bass, hard riffage, dissociated vocals and ominous horns... wait for the 3:18 moment when the guitars go bananas, well the whole song gets wonderfully unhinged at this point and doesn't let up til the end. He really was doing something different, I don't think they've named whatever this is properly yet. It's hard to pin down while somewhat psychedelic it's dramatic, heavy and dark, seedy yet glamorous, and obtuse, arty and intense as well as being loud hypnotic funky sleazoid music for soundtracking disreputable discotheques everywhere.

Play it again Sam.

Daddy Maxfield - Rave 'n' Rock

[1973]

Glam insanity. 

A delirious one of a kind psychedelic glitter scuzz jam. 

If you chucked David Essex, Neu, Hendrix and Glitter Band into a blender...

The sort of thing you imagine Helios Creed and Damon Edge were probably into... I mean if you stripped the vocals off here it would resemble Alien Soundtracks/Half Machine Lip Moves era Chrome.

For your next acid rock glam disco party.

Wired Up - Hector

[1973]

Like Chicory Tip gone feral. 

An explosive stomper that's scuzzy to the core. 

Wired Up is a dynamite synth laden fuzz monster to soundtrack the havoc of a teenage riot or as someone said music to smash up telephone boxes to. 

How this didn't storm the charts I don't know. It'd be a few years before this sort of pop mayhem would catch on with the young folk.

Pages - Only A Dreamer

[1981]

I thought back in 1985 "Geez this dude from Mr Mister is pretty old. What's he been up to? Where's he been till now?" Forty years later I've finally found out the answer, he was the dude in Pages. Turns out two of the dudes from Mr Mister were in Pages. 

Pages were a soft rock duo, consisting of Richard Page and Steve George, who formed in LA in 1977. They did three LPs of soft rock with jazz and soul inflections, I guess the kids would call this breezy AOR shtick Yacht Rock these days.

Only A Dreamer is a lovely laid back tune with melodious sweetness and breezy harmonies whilst covering adult themes concerning a bleak relationship scenario. Tasty guitars supplied by none other than Jay Graydon, the dude who played the guitar solo on Steely Dan's Peg.

 

Smooth.

 

Nice.

Perhaps too smooth for some but smooth nonetheless.

How was this not a worldwide chartbuster? Surely it charted in Canadia at least. A quick interweb check reveals this wasn't even released as a single. Too smooth to be a single. None of their singles were hits. These fellas would have to form Mr Mister to finally achieve international chart success a few years later.

Web In Front - Archers Of Loaf

[1993]

The genius of a song like this was that despite being seemingly generic this was absolutely undeniable even in the face of the facts that we were coming to the end of slacker rock. Dinosaur Jr had been around for almost ten years, Pavement were about to reach saturation point, David Baker was departing Mercury Rev and the uncommercial Trumans Water had already arrived. The whole idea seemed to be running out of juice and you knew that slacker rock was on its last legs. Then out of nowhere an unknown group from of upstarts bursts onto the radio with one of the most vital bangers of the era. Audacious.

Web In Front still has that fresh energetic sound today. Hook laden youthful exuberance doesn't get any better. 

Rewind!

CHiPs' - Theme Song

[1977]

I loved CHiPs when I was little, even had CHiPs pyjamas. Friday nights were the best. When CHiPs finished we then got ace replacements like Nightrider and the A-Team.

This theme is much more way out than I remember. 

Crime-funk going wildly cosmic. 

Check it out.

Built To Spill - Car

[1994]

More slacker anthems. Catchy singalong indie rock for wasting your days away.

*Trigger warning: Music video contains wasted 90s slacker rockers smokin fags!

Take A Run At The Sun - Dinosaur Jr

[1997]

A lot of bands were doing Beach Boys influenced stuff in the 90s. The Moles, The Fauves, Mercury Rev, Flaming Lips, Primal Scream, My Bloody Valentine, Boo Radleys etc. etc. etc. It was all pretty enjoyable. 

This one was totally unexpected and beautiful.

It's a forgotten song now but one of the best Brian Wilson tributes.