A wee break from the trams while I get myself organised.
Supposed to be tidying up the flat today. Done a bit of that, but of course finding things long since buried just takes me off on another tangent (the theme - if there is any - of this blog). I was clearing junk from the front room when I suddenly realised that the most important thing in the world was finally getting a handle on how to get Spotify to work in a meaningful way for me.
It had always seemed a bit faffy since didn't have any of my streaming devices hooked up to any half decent speakers. But recently I splashed out on an Apple TV box so I've been regularly airplaying videos from my iPad and iTunes on my telly. So it seemed imperative that I recreate the seminal series of mixtapes that I created in the late 80s in digital form right this very minute.
Forty-Fives on Forty-Six took advantage of TDK's D46 tapes to provide a short album length bash of my fabulous taste in music. Frank Sidebottom featured a lot. There's a bit of a-ha and a couple of theme tunes. But there are some oddities in there that I was delighted to rediscover.
I've lost the case for Volume One but here's the Spotify version
Track 8 was originally Matador, Jeff Wayne's theme to ITV's coverage of the 1982 World Cup but this isn't available on Spotify so like Asda chucking in rhubarb instead of celery I've put in a more familiar JW work, the best track off of The War of the Worlds, namely Brave New World belted out by David Essex. Wayne did a few ITV sports themes. Here is Matador, plus Jubilation, his theme for The Big Match.
And for good measure here's his World of Sport theme (along with what's coming up later on Saturday night...)
There's a similar problem on Volume 2. Here's the original case.
And here's the Spotify version.
Track 4 was originally neil from The Young Ones with Hurdy Gurdy Mushroom Man, the b-side to his cover of Hole in My Shoe, but again this is absent from Spotify. Your substitution this time is the Young Ones theme.
Surprisingly, Volumes 3 and 4 were all on Spotify, albeit with slightly different versions in some cases. Here's the original case for Vol 3.
And here's the Spotify version.
Originally, I only had the song of Oh Timperley, but the digital version includes all the business around it too. And come on! Thompson Twins! Labi Siffre! Cocteau Twins and Kate Bush! This is great!
I think Vol 4 is my favourite though.
The Happening! Casino Royale! 1985 Eurovision winner Let it Swing (La det Svinge)! Rather fabulously on the cassette side one ended with the fade out of Part One of Get Up (I Feel Like Being A) Sex Machine from the a-side of the 7 inch and then side two faded up with the b-side that featured Part Two. And I bought American Boys on the strength of a performance on Saturday Night Live by the Rhythm Sisters. I've just listened to the album it came from The Road to Roundhay Pier, surprisingly on Spotify along with their 20 year later follow up Tell Me How Long the Boat's Been Gone.
Funnily Saturday Night Live came up today in another spot. I half remembered Peter Cook as James Last from one edition (maybe the memory was stirred by Last's passing recently). I only saw it the once but one part has stuck with me all these years. Reflecting on the fact that the human body was mostly water he observed that that meant it was responsible for 800 million of his record sales. I remembered him saying 'Water - I salute you!'. Lo and behold, it exists on Ootoobay and it is as brilliant as I remembered. I leave you with this.
More soonliest.
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