Slim pickings this week, not a lot of N's I'm afraid .
First in the pile is Kate Nash's debut single Caroline's A Victim another of those singles that's in the box because of what's on the b-side. Birds is a rather simple song but one which always makes me smile. It brings back distant memories of what it was like when you first started to go out with some one, the awkwardness, trying to act cool but more than anything else trying not to fuck up. It also reminds me of Billy Bragg's version of Walk Away Renee another song which always makes me smile.
Next up is Temptation by New Order. The first New Order single I bought was Blue Monday which was also the first 12" single I bought but it's not a record I play very often; too many painful memories of it being the soundtrack to me getting a severe kicking at an under 16s disco, but that's another story. I bought Temptation after Confusion. I reckoned that their back catalogue must be worth checking out on the strength of it and the previous single. It's still my second favourite New Order track after Bizarre Love Triangle and it's a timeless tune. It sounds just as good while I'm typing this as it did when I first bought it from a stall in Wishaw Market when I was fourteen.
The third single in the box is from a Tory who couldn't really fly a plane. When I was ten/eleven I really got into Gary Numan and bought or more often or not got my parents to buy me the first couple of albums and singles as well as the Tubeway Army albums and singles re-released on the back of the success of Cars, for me the best thing that he has ever done. But by the time of She's Got Claws I had lost interest and moved on to pastures new.
It's kind of strange that hip-hop features so infrequently on this blog as I have quite a bit of it as during the late 80s I was quite taken by the genre. Okay it may have been the more mainstream end, the likes of Eric B & Rakim, Public Enemy etc but I'm from west central Scotland not South Central L.A. The last single in the N's comes from a crew from Compton. I never really got the Gangsta Rap shit, all that talk of popping caps in people's asses didn't do anything for me but I did love Express Yourself, which I think is the least profane and violent track that N.W.A. ever recorded. It also uses a sample of the Watts 103 Street Rhythm Band's song of the same name to great effect. It probably speaks volumes about me that I have this in my collection and not Fuck The Police.
So that's the N's for you.
Kate Nash - Caroline's A Victim
New Order - Temptation
Gary Numan - Cars
N.W.A. - Express Yourself
N.W.A. - Express Yourself
4 comments:
Slim Pickens indeed. Interesting how certain records bring back bad memories. Even if we don't own them. Sounds like a theme to be explored perhaps?
N.W.A. - I've got Straight Outta Compton and Express Yourself on the phone.
I'm actually a fan of the Gangsta Rap...or a lot of it. The bawdy and violent big talk has always been a part of Southern (u.s.) music (blues, country, rocknroll)...see Frankie and Johnny, Two Old Ladies, Staggo Lee. There's a great version of Staggo Lee by R.L. Burnside...check Tojo Told Hitler too.
Then there's the fact that N.W.A., in particular, were doing a better job of reporting than the local L.A. news. Los Angeles exploded in riots centered around actions of the police.
Plus there's the writing..."to calm the savage beast/there is the Alpine." Ice Cube is an excellent writer. Scarface from the Geto Boys is another outstanding story teller.
Gangsta Rap was the nihilistic flipside from the white, over educated, bored and willfully uninvolved Slacker's indifference.
Besides...a lot of the beats were smoother.
Winner...Winner.
Nelly - Freakin Weekend.
New Order - Ceremony
Notorious B.I.G. - Mo Money Mo Problems
NOrth Mississippi Allstars - Snake Drive, Down in Mississippi, Shake Em on Down, their studio recordings can be a little too caught up in what they're trying to do but, live they're untouchable.
Think I'll bob the New Seekers on and pop in later.
No Northside?
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