Before the British Invasion, there was an even more modern invasion from the British Isles, Telstar rocketed up the charts everywhere.
I feel like Joe Meek must have gone "I really like the futuristic synth-y organ bit in Del Shannon's Runaway. So why don't we do an entire tune in this deliriously upbeat fairground anthem style but even more so." And Meek and The Tornadoes did and it was historic and we're still talking about it today.
A gift to carnivals, sideshows, fairgrounds and theme parks across the world to this day baby!
THE scuzzy drug fuelled sound, the sonic revelation and ace riff-o-rama that preempted Black Sabbath, Hawkwind, Spaceman 3 and all your favourite things that have proto, neo & stoner at start.
Didn't know this tune til the other day when I began reading Will Hodgkinson's book In Perfect Harmony (2022). My dad had Dave Edmunds records, which I didn't hate, but he didn't have this one.
This is a blast. The past, present and future all rolled into an energetic metallic rock'n'roll rocket of a space rock surf jam.
Another rockin' pop tune with an unhinged quality. It threatens to go full mayhem but somehow its reigned in. Joe Meek does all sorts of studio trickery to make this insane and electrifying.
The dude Max Crook who played the Musitron, an early synthesiser, on Del Shannon's Runaway did this instrumental that became a classic at mod discotheques and northern soul shindigs. Crazy funky sounds and hand clap-mania!
We all love Del Shannon's debut 1961 seven inch single, the international smash hit Runaway but what about his nasty unhinged third single So Long Baby! It is insane, relentlessly bitter, noisy, bizarre, gleefully spiteful and just brilliant.
[1961]
Okay okay despite how many times you've heard it you really can't go past this instant slice of pop perfection where rock'n'roll met synthetic electronics for the first time.
It's the toppermost fairground anthem and the ultimate jukebox selection. That mental space age musitron (a synth prototype) break is unmissable and exciting as is Del Shannon's vocal performance where he goes from rough'n'raspy to falsetto. The mysterious existential lyrics are set to an uncommonly euphoric tone making it the rave anthem of 1961.
Gotta say, sounds better than anything on the last record which was pretty disappointing. Tape 05 isn't so much the idyllic or even the deliciously eerie Boards Of Canada sound, it's more on the ominous tip and then there's a harp! There's even a hint of anthemic post-rock here. I kinda don't even wanna contribute anything to the discourse because just shut up everyone, I hate all your dumb and boring opinions and speculations and theories and breakdowns and lame youtube channels. Sometimes I think half these twits are just marketing nerds in it for the obscure advertising campaigns...
In 1998 they were my private electronic duo. Maybe I want it to be just like it was in 1998 when my mate, an electronic music fan, a so called aficionado, didn't even care or buy the cd after I told him Music Has The Right To Children was the best thing in its field since Quique or Selected Ambient Works Volume II and the best album of the year. Astonishingly it didn't make Wire Magazine or Melody Maker's top 50 albums of 1998! Simon Reynolds didn't even review it. I wasn't ever on the bloody internet so I was oblivious as to whether dorks were on there talking about it or not on their message boards and what not... so Music Has The Right To Children was my private little joy. It was just me, my discman and the glinting memory-delic Boards Of Canada with their oscillating off-pitch analogue synths and hypnotic beats. Glorious.
Smokes Quantity [1998]
The sound of my malfunctioning brain trying to conjure meaningful long lost memories but only getting nostalgic glimpses of a sci-fi wildlife documentary from the 70s I probably didn't star in as a child then again...
A lo-fi decelerated tape woosh of drug fucked suffocating wall of sound gospel so off colour, desperate and deranged it'll make you forget that you hated this song before this version.
One of these tunes you can't believe was hidden away on a b-side to an inferior track on the A side. What a blast. The entire production is an exercise in restraint of the looming mayhem, incredibly unique. Dion was such a great rock'n'roll singer and here it's all about being emotionally overwrought in the face of his existential predicament and somehow he doesn't make it suck and then there's that creepy sax that then bursts through for some sleazy sax-a-matazz and what going on with the deranged blokes doing the all over the shop backing vocals.
This song is so specifically influential on Jullee Cruise it's hard to not remark upon it, see what I mean. Californian gals Priscilla, Sherrell & Albeth Paris do a Barry Mann & Larry Kolber tune recorded by Phil Spector. A woozy slowed down doo-wop trip out with dreamy strings, seductive intimate vocals and a sultry spoken bit all basted in a thick syrup. So much purity and innocence amongst the wanton lust.
