From a dusty AOL account to an audiobook to the depths of my own subconscious, I’ve built another playlist that makes no sense to anyone but me
Another year, another weird catalogue of tunes I’ve collected and catalogued, like a mad naturalist sharing a crumbling mansion with his specimens.
Some I stumbled upon by more conventional means, like hearing them at a festival. Others have more convoluted origin stories, like a Wikipedia deep dive triggered by a podcast episode from 15 years ago.
You can find the previous instalment here.
Love Will Keep Us Together – Captain & Tennille
Collection point: An episode from the first series of Frasier – Frasier Crane’s ex-wife Lilith visits him in hopes of a reconciliation, having discovered a heartfelt letter he wrote to her one year earlier, in which he opines that ‘love will keep us together’, a phrase she identifies as “shameless pilfering from Captain & Tennille.”
Puttin’ on the style – Lonnie Donegan
Collection point: During a car journey, an anecdote reminds my mother-in-law of this song and she starts singing ‘puttin’ on the agony, puttin’ on the style.’
Convoy – C. W. McCall
Collection point: Listening to an abridged cassette audiobook of Douglas Copeland’s 1995 novel Microserfs, read by the late Matthew Perry, in which the software-testing protagonists leave their positions with Microsoft in Redwood, Washington and travel as a group to Silicon Valley to work at a start-up.
As the group prepares to take to the road, one of the characters plays ‘Convoy’ on his ghetto blaster so frequently that it becomes lodged in everyone’s heads.
I’ve Seen That Movie Too – Elton John
Collection point: Listening to a 2007 podcast that included a reference to ‘MST3K’, an abbreviation for an unfamiliar American TV show, Mystery Science Theatre 3000. This triggered a Wikipedia search, which turned up the fact that the idea for the show was partly inspired by a Mike Ross illustration for the song ‘I’ve Seen That Movie Too’ in the liner notes of the Elton John’s Goodbye Yellow Brick Road LP.
Still with me?
Long Live the Strange – Gaz Coombes
Collection point: My AOL email account, which has been out of serious use for some 15 years and is itself probably older than Kylie Jenner.
I subscribed to the mailing lists of a large number of indie bands ‘back in the day’, including Supergrass. Former lead singer Gaz Coombes seems to have inherited that marketing list and is the only person who sends anything non-phishy to my AOL account anymore.
Queen’s Speech 3 – Lady Leshurr
Collection point: A memory from circa 2015, when I heard a girl on a bus performing her best Leshurr impression for her friend, delivering these memorable rhymes:
You look dusty / What’s that on your lip? Looks crusty / Is that cold sore? Must be
Like Humans Do – David Byrne
Collection point: Recalling that this song was preloaded with copies of Microsoft Windows XP in late 2001, including on my new laptop. Bonus points for the YouTube upload which uses the contemporaneous Window Media Player visualisations. At the time, these seemed both innovative and mesmerising.
Rain and Snow – The Pentangle
Collection point: A reprinted 1964 New Yorker article by Nat Hentoff in which he interviews Bob Dylan during the recording of Another Side of Bob Dylan. In conversation with a young actor, Dylan says he has no choice but to focus on his own songs.
Referring to this song by its refrain he explains: “I can’t sing ‘Ain’t Got No Use for Your Red Apple Juice.’ I don’t care how great an old song it is or what its tradition is. I have to make a new song out of what I know and out of what I’m feeling.”
Flame – Sebadoh
Collection point: the band name turned up unexpectedly in a dream about discovering a secret gig where Elvis Costello was supporting Sebadoh. I had no prior knowledge of the band, but sought out this Select-boosted single, which was their biggest UK hit.
Becky – Be Your Own Pet
Collection point: All Points East festival in Victoria Park, which I was attending primarily to see The Strokes and Yeah Yeah Yeahs, but which also included other early 2000s garage rock acts including Be Your Own Pet, who had never been on my radar and delivered this banned 2008 gem with gusto.
Nest – Fulc
Collection point: Discovered on a recording of Chris Moyles’s drive-time show on BBC Radio 1, apparently recorded as one of my random time capsules on July 9th 2003. ‘Nest’ was played as part of the One Music Unsigned Artists list. “They’re not signed up, yet but I reckon they will be after this,” Moyles predicted.
The Leeds-based band seem to have attracted approving notices within their subgenre, but folded a couple of years later.
Chewbacca – Supernova
Collection point: A June 11th 2003 set diary entry written by Pablo Hidalgo during the production of Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith, in which he reported that Supernova’s song was playing in the creature shop while the crew completed work on an updated version of the iconic character’s costume.
