A Bob Hoskins Inspired Compilation Of Crime Fuelled Carnage

I rarely do requests but in an effort to assuage George's disappointment following Friday's post, here's a Bob Hoskins inspired compilation of crime fuelled carnage.

A 13-song, 46-minute trawl through Bob's formidable film and television CV, with namesake songs from some heavyweight artists. 

A few notable omissions, however. I was unable to find any songs named after Who Framed Roger Rabbit? or Super Mario Brothers. 

I also left off A Prayer For The Dying for three reasons:

1) I only had one song in my collection and that was by Seal;

2) The lead actor, Mickey Rourke, has been getting more screen time in the past week than he deserves;

3) The film is utter shite.

Whilst at least one of Bob's films name checked here is a classic crime drama, at least one is arguably a crime that it was ever committed to celluloid. I'll leave you to decide which is which. 

1) Mona Lisa: Grant Lee Phillips (2004)

2) Brazil: Lloyd Cole (2003)

3) Play For Today (Black Sand Extension): The Cure (2010)

4) Kate (Cover of 'You Put Me Here (Sure as Your Name’s Kate)' by Rex Allen): Johnny Cash (1972)

5) Performance: Japan (1978)

6) Hook (4-Track Demo): PJ Harvey (1992)

7) Shoulder To Shoulder: Pete Wylie (1987)

8) Outlaw: Alan Vega (1981)

9) Thick As Thieves: The Jam (1979)

10) Last Orders (Live @ Electric Circus, Manchester): The Fall (1977) 

11) Full House: Kate Bush (1978)

12) Inner Circle: The Frowning Clouds (2014)

13) Mermaids: Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds (2013)

1972: A Thing Called Love: 4

1978: Adolescent Sex: 5

1978: Lionheart: 11

1978: Short Circuit: Live At The Electric Circus: 10

1979: Setting Sons: 9

1981: Collision Drive: 8

1987: Sinful: 7

1993: 4-Track Demos: 6

2003: Music In A Foreign Language: 2

2004: Virginia Creeper: 1

2010: Extensions Volume 1: A Collection Of New Wave Remixes By Black Sand (bootleg MP3): 3

2013: Push The Sky Away: 13

2014: Legalize Everything: 12

A Bob Hoskins Inspired Compilation Of Crime Fuelled Carnage (46:20) (KF) (Mega)

Our Children Shall Rise Up Against Us Because We Are The Ones To Blame

Don't worry, there hasn't been a revolt at Casa K. Instead, here's some agit from the late 1970s, embracing punk, post-punk, post-modern, post-Mott and stick-it-in-your-pipe-and-smoke-it sounds from 15 of the best.

British Lions formed from the ashes of Mott The Hoople (via Mott) with John Fiddler (Medicine Head) taking front of stage. One More Chance To Run was their debut single and the opening track of their eponymous first album.

Quite a few self-titled debut albums featured here, now that I think about it, taking in The Clash, Tubeway Army, Squeeze, The B-52's, The Pretenders and (almost) Public Image Ltd. and Talking Heads.

 

A first appearance here for Sham 69 with - what else? - Hersham Boys and inevitable returns from Siouxsie & The Banshees, Magazine, Associates and The Jam. 

The closing song - and inspiration for today's post title - is We Are All Prostitutes, the blistering debut single by Bristol's own The Pop Group. 

 

It's been nearly a year since Mark Stewart tragically left us, so much to say in 1979 and so much still to say when he passed on in 2023. This one's for Mark and anyone who has spoken up and called out wrong doing.

Even so, our children shall rise up against us because we are the ones to blame.

 

1) One More Chance To Run: British Lions (1977)

2) What's My Name: The Clash (1977)

3) Hersham Boys (Long Version By Jimmy Pursey & Peter Wilson): Sham 69 (1979)

4) Poppy Day (John Peel Session): Siouxsie & The Banshees (1979) 

5) My Shadow In Vain: Tubeway Army (1978)

6) Attack: Public Image Ltd. (1978)

7) The Light Pours Out Of Me (Album Version By John Leckie): Magazine (1978)

8) Boys Keep Swinging (Cover of David Bowie): Associates (1979)

9) Sex Master: Squeeze (1978)

10) Marooned: Wire (1978)

11) Don't Worry About The Government: Talking Heads (1977)

12) 6060-842: The B-52's (1979)

13) News Of The World: The Jam (1978)

14) Brass In Pocket: The Pretenders (1979)

15) We Are All Prostitutes (Single Version By Dennis Bovell): The Pop Group (1979) 

 

We Are The Ones To Blame (46:05) (KF) (Mega)

 

We Are All Prostitutes

We are all prostitutes
Everyone has their price
We are all prostitutes
Everyone has their price
Everyone
 
And you too will learn to live the lie
And you too will learn to live the lie
And you too will learn to live the lie
Everyone has their price
 
Aggression
Competition
Ambition
Consumer fascism
Consumer fascism
 
We are all prostitutes
Everyone has their price
We are all prostitutes
Everyone has their price
Everyone
 
Capitalism is the most barbaric of all religions
 
Department stores are our new cathedrals
Department stores are our new cathedrals
Our cars are martyrs to the cause
Our cars are martyrs to the cause
 
Our children shall rise up against us
Our children shall rise up against us
Because
Because we are the ones to blame
Because we are the ones to blame
Because
Because
They will give us a new name, we shall be
Hypocrites

Hypocrites

Hypocrites

Hypocrites

Hypocrites

Hypocrites

Loitering With Intent

The joy of the three-minute pop song in 1978*, however else you want to label it. I missed most of these first time around, as they were B-sides or album tracks, but this music refuses to be denied and at various points in my life have gatecrashed my consciousness and my record collection.

A collection of the usual suspects perhaps though when the songs are this great, is it any surprise? A rollercoaster ride that's over in under 36 minutes but packs a lot in to it's wild ride. Strap in!

* Or, in the case of The Stranglers, the six-minute-plus cover version of a stone cold classic pop song.

The selection includes several songs that appeared in JC's excellent 60 Albums @ 60 series, which revealed All Mod Cons by The Jam at #1. So today's post is dedicated to JC with thanks and love.

1) Friends (John Peel Session): Adam & The Ants

2) Radios In Motion: XTC 

3) Reasons: Skids

4) Action Time Vision: Alternative TV

5) Touch And Go (Single Version): Magazine

6) Just Lust: Buzzcocks

7) Billy Hunt: The Jam

8) Suicide A Go Go: Big In Japan

9) I'm Gonna Love You Too: Blondie

10) Drug-Stabbing Time: The Clash

11) Sand In My Joints (Album Version): Wire

12) Walk On By (Cover of Dionne Warwick): The Stranglers

 

1978: Action Time Vision EP / The Image Has Cracked: 4

1978: All Mod Cons: 7 

1978: Chairs Missing: 11

1978: Charles EP: 3

1978: Ever Fallen In Love... (With Someone You Shouldn't've) EP: 6 

1978: From Y To Z And Never Again EP: 8

1978: Give 'Em Enough Rope: 10

1978: Parallel Lines: 9

1978: Touch And Go: 5

1978: Walk On By EP / Black And White (ltd LP+7"): 12

1978: White Music: 2

1990: The Peel Sessions: 1

 

Loitering With Intent (35:51) (Box) (Mega)

I Guess I Must Be Having Fun

Back to the 1980s for some weekend fun...but not as you know it. A clutch of brave DJs and producers - Danny McLewin & Tom Coveney aka Psychemagik, Ben Zaven Crane aka Mojo Filter, Blake Robin aka Luxxury and Nicolas Laugier aka The Reflex - have taken on some iconic songs and re-edited and re-imagined them for the 21st Century.

Opinion may be divided on whether the edits open the music up to new and interesting interpretations or whether, crudely put, it's a bastardisation of classic songs that should have been left alone. The fact that I've compiled and posted this selection probably tells you which way I'm dancing (badly) on this one. 

 

1) This Must Be The Place (Naive Edit By Psychemagik): Talking Heads (2010)

2) Arabian Knights (Mojo Filter Banshee Edit): Siouxsie & The Banshees (2012)

3) Rock The Casbah (Luxxury Edit): The Clash (2013)

4) It's My LIfe (The Reflex Re√ision): Talk Talk (2019)

5) Going Underground (The Reflex Re√ision): The Jam (2017)

6) Blue Monday (Luxxury 'How Does It Feel' Edit): New Order (2016)

7) Rapture (The Reflex Re√ision): Blondie (2017)

 

I Guess I Must Be Having Fun (47:54) (Box) (Mega)

Ghost Light

Celebrating Sylvia Syms, 6th January 1934 to 27th January 2023.

Not to be confused with American jazz singer aka Sylvia Blagman, Sylvia Syms was born in London, got into the acting profession and built up a hugely impressive body of work in a career spanning more than six decades. 

 

The handful of tributes I've read have inevitably been drawn to Sylvia's bravura performance in 1958 film Ice Cold In Alex, made familiar to a whole new audience in the 1980s when Carlsberg repurposed a clip for a hugely popular ad campaign. There's also mention of her latter performances, particularly as The Queen Mother in Stephen Frears' 2006 film The Queen, appearing with Helen Mirren in the title role.

 

For me though, one of Sylvia Syms' standout performances, mentioned if at all only in passing, was in Doctor Who in 1989. In what subsequently became the final series of the original run, Sylvia appeared as Mrs. Pritchard in the three-part story Ghost Light. Should this ever come up a pub quiz question, the very last scene to be recorded for the original series's 26-year run featured Sylvia Sims and Katherine Schlesinger.

 

Personally, I think it's one of the best Doctor Who stories of either incarnation, with a brilliantly gripping yet frequently oblique story and standout performances not only from the leads Sylvester McCoy and Sophie Aldred, but guest stars including Ian Hogg, Sharon Duce, Carl Forgione and Frank Windsor. Sylvia's realisation of Mrs. Pritchard is sublime, adding a depth and nuance to the character that less skilled actors would have missed.

 

Long suffering readers will recall - possibly with horror - that I've occasionally posted a selection of songs drawing on a particular actor's career in film and TV. Previous victims stars have included Faye Dunaway, Elizabeth Taylor and Juliette Binoche. Today's selection with apologies is a dubious tribute to Sylvia Syms.

Unfortunately, as far as I'm aware, no-one had yet to record and release a song called Ice Cold In Alex and I had to shoehorn in a Ghost Light song, breaking my usually strict rule of 'namesake' songs only. By coincidence, there's another Doctor Who reference in here: Frazer Hines appeared in the show as a hugely popular travelling companion in the late 1960s; his short-lived pop career was arguably less, er, popular.

I couldn't decide between the two choices for Together (which I think was Sylvia's final film role, released in 2018) so I included them both, topping and tailing the selection. Both very different, it has to be said.

Another tough choice was Absolute Beginners: the film's title track by David Bowie or the 1981 single by The Jam? Weller won out.

Before today, you may not have realised you needed a nearly-ten minute version of Love Story by Andy Williams. From today, you may realise that you don't need a nearly-ten minute version of Love Story by Andy Williams. It's a kitsch keeper for me.

 

Sylvia Syms' CV is such that a twelve song selection could easily accommodate some much-loved (by me) artists such as Tim Bowness, The Jazz Butcher, Soft Cell and Tom Robinson. 

 

And then there's No Time For Tears by The Marvelettes, a pure pop classic that was a mere B-side - a B-side!!! - back in 1965.

 

All in, just over fifty minutes of music as a thank you to a brilliant, beautiful actor.

 

Rest in peace, Sylvia Syms. 

 

Today's selection is also dedicated to Rol, of the wonderful My Top Ten blog.

 

1) Together (Edit): Nine Inch Nails (2020)

2) Lost In The Ghost Light (Giallo): Tim Bowness (2017)

3) Love Story (Where Do I Begin) (Long Version): Andy Williams (1979)

4) Absolute Beginners (Single Version): The Jam (1981)

5) The Human Jungle (Extended Mix By John A. Rivers): The Jazz Butcher (1985)

6) Blue Murder (Album Version By Todd Rundgren): Tom Robinson Band (1978)

7) Original Sin (Dance Version By Nile Rodgers): INXS (1984)

8) Punch And Judy Man: Frazer Hines (1968)

9) Run Wild, Run Free: Claudine Longet (1970)

10) No Time For Tears: The Marvelettes (1965)

11) Where The Heart Is (12" Version By Mike Thorne & Harvey Goldberg) (Early Fade): Soft Cell (1982)

12) Together: William Shatner ft. Lemon Jelly (2004)

 

Ghost Light (A Tribute To Sylvia Syms) (52:24) (Box) (Mega)

It's Hard To Settle For Second Best

After last year's tenuous Boxing Day themed selection, here's another to stretch credulity even further, with 10 gift-themed songs. A couple of obvious/inevitable choices with The Jam and Lou Reed, a trio of not-quite-forgotten classics from Cocteau Twins, Way Out West and Calexico and a cheeky Monday Long Song to round things off from Julian Cope, pulling a double shift as frontperson of Brain Donor.

I hope you kept your receipts!

The cover photo was taken in Gloucester city centre a few weeks ago. I was particularly struck by how well they captured the classic Nativity scene of Joseph and Mary's Bethlehem barbecue.

1) It's A Gift: The Kane Gang (1987)

2) The Gift: The Jam (1982)

3) You Can't Steal A Gift: El Perro Del Mar (2008)

4) Gift Horse: Black Box Recorder (2000)

5) Surprise Gift (Fool's Gold vs. N.A.S.A.): Team9 (2009)

6) A Gift: Lou Reed (1976)

7) Half-Gifts: Cocteau Twins (1996)

8) The Gift (Radio Edit): Way Out West ft. Miss Joanna Law (1996)

9) Gift X-Change (Album Version): Calexico (2000)

10) Odin's Gift To His Mother (Album Version): Brain Donor (2001)

 

1976: Coney Island Baby: 6

1982: The Gift: 2

1987: What Time Is It? EP: 1

1996: Milk & Kisses: 7

1996: The Gift EP: 8

2000: It's A Cool, Cool Christmas: 9

2000: The Facts Of Life: 4

2001: Love Peace & Fuck: 10

2008: From The Valley To The Stars: 3

2009: Stereogum & Team9 Present: MySplice 4: 5

It's Hard To Settle For Second Best (45:45) (KF) (Mega)

Now That's What I Still Call Jangly

Side 2 of a compilation tape, originally recorded for me by my girlfriend, circa 1996.

 

When I posted the first side of this mixtape in November last year, I mentioned that I hadn't heard several of these songs in over a decade. It's been a bit less of a gap for most of the songs on this side but even so, I'd forgotten what a great compilation this is. More of The Wedding Present and The Field Mice and a couple by The Jam at their finest. 

 

I had thought about swapping out the Manchester racist for another song by a different artist, but I've decided to leave the sequence as originally intended. The song plays from approx. 19:44 to 23:27 if you want to skip it.

 

I realised as I was recreating this side that several of the artists have recently been featured over at The Vinyl Villain: Kirsty MacColl, The Field Mice and Fade Into You by Mazzy Star; completely coincidental, I'd only really plumped for posting this side today because it featured The Sundays. Yes, that's really as sophisticated as my planning gets sometimes...

 

1) A Small Slice Of Heaven: Lightning Seeds (1992)

2) Tread Lightly: Kirsty MacColl (1989)

3) The Great Depression (Single Version): The Jam (1982)

4) Divine Hammer (Album Version): The Breeders (1992)

5) Sorrow (Album Version) (Cover of The McCoys): David Bowie (1973)

6) Think Of These Things: The Field Mice (1991)

7) Spring-Heeled Jim (Album Version): Morrissey (1994)

8) My Favourite Dress (Single Version): The Wedding Present (1987)

9) But I'm Different Now (Album Version): The Jam (1980)

10) Slide Away (Album Version): The Verve (1993)

11) Fade Into You (Album Version): Mazzy Star (1993)

12) You're Not The Only One I Know (Album Version): The Sundays (1990)

13) Beyond Belief: Elvis Costello & The Attractions (1982)

Side Two (44:44) (GD) (M)

Side One here