Chart Music

[G-Man]

And that's where you get that relationship between publication and readers and bottom lines.

Of course -- and I'm not qualified in any way to comment about MM in the '90s -- there's a way for the creators of media to shape opinion and acceptance. But that requires a great sense of judgment and even courage. It's easier to take the easy way.

[laverte]

By 1991, dance music was hardly 'Black music' any more was it? And the rock press did eventually come to terms with trip hop, Eminem, Aphex Twin, etc - just years after it should have.

Which reminds me: Back to life was number one 30 years ago this month, the soundtrack to my GCSE revision and just a lovely smart cool tune. i still think of Soul II Soul as forebears of the True Britpop, the exciting moment when the UK (well, London and Bristol) was making distinctive, innovative soul pop with its roots in the city and its head in the clouds. When a previous Chart Music covered a TOTP from 1987, Taylor Parkes said something about being angry that he'd had to turn 15 in that year of all years. i'm only 18 months younger than him, i think, but turning 15 after the second summer of love and during the acid-soul burst of creativity that followed it is something i definitely feel grateful for.

[Walt Flanagans Dog]

By 1991, dance music was hardly 'Black music' any more was it? And the rock press did eventually come to terms with trip hop, Eminem, Aphex Twin, etc - just years after it should have.

There's also the common thread going through those and the ones mentioned earlier by LS (Underworld, Leftfield) that these acts could be understood by the music press on their terms - namely they all made 'proper' albums and played 'proper' gigs, and had longevity (even if this might not have been obvious initially). More ephemeral acts like N-Joi* were harder for the press to get a grip on, and there wasn't much incentive for them to do so in terms of landing nice full page display ads for records and tours.

*I know they hung around for a while, just using them as the example from the episode.

Anyway I still enjoyed the episode, despite the chart itself being beige I can pinpoint where I was in that particular week (start of Easter break in my first year at Polytechnic), and went to gigs that week that were on the same tours that Pricey mentioned from the listings. It was also a weird time for re-issues charting - I was a big Waterboys fan (still am really) so it was strange having The Whole of the Moon high in the charts, and was quite into James at the time (less so now, by a distance) so Sit Down nearly getting to number 1 seemed a bit of a triumph for the indie cause (even though they were on a major by then). Both of these songs have been played to death since, and have long gone through the point of being tiresome - but I'd guess the majority of casual music fans would assume that these songs both came out in 1991 and wouldn't know they were re-issues. Around this time Should I Stay or Should I Go got to number 1 as a re-issue (officially a double A-side with a BAD song, opportunistically on the part of Mick Jones) though I'm guessing there was little misunderstanding on whether that was a new song or a re-issue.

[Satchmo Distel]

It took a long time for Black dance music acts to be recognized as making "proper albums" (synonym for concept albums?) despite the fact that jazz acts had been producing classic albums ever since the format was introduced and "What's Going On" had been voted No. 1 of all-time by NME journalists in the mid-80s.

[Simon G]

New episode dropped today - 4hrs and 1 min.

Just feed it into my veins...

[Snake Plissken]

My short commute means I've made it as far as the Ladybird Olympics - where a comment of Als made me burst out laughing in the car.

[Walt Flanagans Dog]

Probably the soonest I've ever listened to one - good value but a bit too close to another episode from the same time period, though it's inevitable that this would happen. Along the much touted theme of if they could do episodes of other programmes, it occurred that a Swap Shop episode would have a lot to go at.

[Stumpy Pepys]

I ended up watching some of the first series of Rentaghost not so long ago.

It's necessary to first forget what the programme quickly turned into; however, series one contained some odd, dark stuff.

[Satchmo Distel]

1976 is a rich year because the acts were so random and many were making their only or last appearances. But there is only so much you can say about Noel fucking Edmonds.

[Stumpy Pepys]

But there is only so much you can say about Noel fucking Edmonds.

Alan Partridge would disagree.

[Lang Spoon]

I've just finished the Bee/Kulkarni Patreon bonus episode, which was well worth my monthly three quid. I know for sure Mr K would despise my having Mackies Haggis or scotch bonnet chilli flavour crisps as my current favourite, judging by the kicking he gives to Walkers for partly heading artisanal.

[Lang Spoon]

New one oot. 1969 and the music on offer seems chuffing awful. But it's Kulkarni and Taylor so that's all to the good, hopefully.

[Stumpy Pepys]

Good episode.

I was relieved the boys didn't do a critical reappraisal of Peter Sarstedt's Where Do You Go To My Lovely? and gave it the kicking it deserves. Truly awful record.

[Alderman Barnes]

Very enjoyable. Taylor's taking-down of Dave Dee would probably get him charged with Beamtenbeleidigung over here.

As a bonus, there's also a mammoth video playlist to get through. This podcast is taking up much too much of my life at the moment, but I wouldn't have it any other way.

[The Awesome Berbaslug!!!]

I've just finished the Bee/Kulkarni Patreon bonus episode, which was well worth my monthly three quid. I know for sure Mr K would despise my having Mackies Haggis or scotch bonnet chilli flavour crisps as my current favourite, judging by the kicking he gives to Walkers for partly heading artisanal.

I can get the Mackies Haggis being about being homesick for a land you may never again see, but Scotch bonnet based symbolic patriotism is surely a horrendous misunderstanding that leads to disastrous consequences.

[Lang Spoon]

Ach it's not Scotch homesick lachrymose bollocks, it's that they are superlative spicy potato based snacks. Not greasy at all, the kick is mild but satisfying. Their honey and mustard flavor are shite but.

[Lang Spoon]

The kind of crisp Keoghs dreams of being. Even my North county Dublin Missus agrees, only salt and pepper tesco finest turning her head from her love for a bit of Mackies.

[G-Man]

Kicking "Where Do You Go To..." is becoming a bit of a cliché, like purists getting militant over pineapple on pizza. I shall sit through Taylor's dissection of the song, and will be amused by his vitriol (his Dave Dee take-down was very funny). But I expect to find that I'd have preferred something that goes against the received wisdom that this song represents some kind of nadir (its lyrics are risible -- but hardly "Brown Sugar" risible -- but the melody and arrangement are OK). Be creative. Slaughter a holy cow, not kick against the carcass of a putrid donkey.

[Simon G]

I enjoy the put downs even if I like the song, and this is true for any Chart Music podcast.

I've been humming "Where Do You Go To" all day despite the risible lyrics and I even listened to it on Spotify on the way home from work having finished the episode. I actually quite like the song as it's quite catchy. It doesn't mean I can't listen to the criticisms and find them hilarious and in a lot of cases completely bang on.

The rest of the episode was as enjoyable as usual.

[G-Man]

Yeah, it always is, even at the absurd length. And sometimes the pundits surprise me. Some time ago Randy Crawford got mentioned. I hardened myself to hear terrible things being said about one of my favourite singers. But (I think it was) Simon and Taylor were raving about her.

When I have the energy for it, I should listen to that Love Affair. The beginning sounds like a lot like Procol Harum's "Homburg", I thought.

[Hot Pepsi]

I listened to some of the one about a show in 2000. I had to look up what "bacofoil" is.

[Jah Womble]

Some time ago Randy Crawford got mentioned. I hardened myself to hear terrible things being said about one of my favourite singers. But (I think it was) Simon and Taylor were raving about her.

I can't imagine that anybody would have a shred nasty to say about La Crawford. She seems so...nice.

[Stumpy Pepys]

Kicking "Where Do You Go To..." is becoming a bit of a cliché, like purists getting militant over pineapple on pizza.

Not for me personally (that would be Ironic by Alanis Morrissette)..

In fact, I've had more heated debates with people defending the song. My father for instance, who thinks it's 'evocative'. (He, meanwhile, saves his bile for Whiter Shade of Pale and I have some sympathy to be honest.)

[Alderman Barnes]

I think they made it perfectly clear at the start that it's the softest of soft targets, but sometimes the received wisdom is right.

I often disagree with them, but they're generally fair-minded and this was one of their finest-ever "coating-dahns", and one that we were extremely lucky to get. We should be thankful that Maurice Gibb saved it for us.

[G-Man]

Nah, having heard it, I can't even say that their case against "Where Do You Go To..." is that compelling (nasty lyrics? wow, in a pop song? amateurish arrangement? in a pop song? shitty moustache. In 1969?). And I'm not a devil's advocate for stupid moustachoid-Sarstedt, who thinks he is a cathedral. I have far more trouble with the unreasonable hatred the rather innocuous "Seasons In The Sun" receives. But there is this whiff of received wisdom about those songs which is best avoided reinforcing, especially by journalists who have more to offer than kicking at low-hanging fruit.

I wasn't so happy with the coat-down the Bee Gees got, even as I concur with Neil about the spectacularly dreadful "You Win Again". So I tonight played Odessa, which I hadn't listened to in many years, but would automatically list as a favourite. Well, I enjoyed hearing it again, mostly, but I can now see what Neil and Taylor find so objectionable about Bee Gees Mk. 1. Even if I found their criticism of "First Of May" was lazy. The song has such hilariously bad lyrics which play with basically two or three ideas, and their target was the perceived size of Christmas trees? The only thing in the song that actually makes sense?

Remember, I might coat down your favourite pundits, but they've been on Chart Music more than I have.