Another themeless disc; looking over the track list I can see a few mini themes showing up (it gets kinda crazy over the last few songs, and I put a song about an Indian's faithful dog getting killed by a soldier right before a song about a Texas Ranger shooting a bad guy). Not a lot to say about this one, really, other than that it's got some doo-wop, country and reggae to go with the usual punk, pop, rock and surf. And that Gloria Jones cut the first version of "Tainted Love", not Soft Cell.
The label phrase refers to a prank I played on my friend Bryan at B Fest two years ago--I bought every copy of the Gus Weill horror paperback Flesh that I could find and kept sneaking copies into his pockets, his dinner menu, his hotel room, etc. over the course of the weekend. Because the year before I said he might like it and he said it didn't look stupid enough to be enjoyable.
Occasionally the Timothology is like that too. I like to get people to listen to songs they've never known about, and I'm willing to bet that one or two songs on this playlist are probably on the "I've never heard that before" list for everyone that's going to wind up with a Timothology. They probably will not be the same two songs for everybody, though. And I like that.
Timothology: Strange Aeons Disc 04 / 48
Theme: None
Label phrase: "A Fate Worse than Flesh."
01) Always On My Mind / The Pet Shop Boys
02) Tainted Love / Gloria Jones
03) The American Astronaut / The Billy Nayer Show
04) Black Sheep Boy / Tim Hardin
05) Trogdor / Homestar Runner
06) What Do I Get? / The Buzzcocks
07) Guilty / Classix Nouveaux
08) Mr. Rebel / Eddie and the Showmen
09) Mope-itty Mope / The Bosstones
10) Magnetic / Earth, Wind & Fire
11) The Uninvited / The Ghoultones
12) Living After Midnight / Judas Priest
13) Apricot Brandy / Rhinoceros
14) Chahawki / Burr Bailey
15) Big Iron / Marty Robbins
16) The Bristol Stomp / The Dovells
17) Runaway / Del Shannon
18) Sha-La-La-La-Lee / The Small Faces
19) Hey Good Lookin' / Billy Abbot and the Jewels
20) Telstar / The Models
21) Number Three / They Might Be Giants
22) Israelites (1980s version) / Desmond Dekker
23) Battleship Chains / The Hindu Love Gods
24) We Made It Through That Water / The Free Agents Brass Band
25) You Spin Me Round (Like a Record) / Dead or Alive
26) Magoomba / The Dickies
27) Out of the Bushes / The Treniers
28) Unchained Melody / Vito and the Salutations
29) Mystery Dance / Elvis Costello
30) Ca Plane Pour Moi / Plastic Bertrand
Ok, so I'm 99% through this one, but I don't want to wait to post because I don't want to forget. I've just got the last 2 tracks I still haven't heard. My CD player in my car (my only CD player [try and read that in the voice of Jonathan when he says "their _only_ guitar player" on Bermuda, it makes it sound way way bad]) has been a bit fritzy, so I tend to get through some number of tracks before it overheats and gets all skippy. Then I have to stop, wait for it to cool a bit, and I can listen normally again. All of which is way beside the point, except that I wanted you to know that I was bitching to a friend about my CD player not working, and he was pleasantly surprised because we talk pretty often about how I NEVER listen to music or talk about or think about music, and here I was trying to explain the project and what Telstar is and also how my car is frustrating me.
ReplyDeleteAnyway! This disc had several amazing sequences for me. Specifically, 2-3-4-5-6 and 16-22. Both of those sequences are just right--things I knew, things I didn't but will never forget now, and things I forgot I loved. Love that you had Trogdor in there, and the 1980 Israelites, which I played 3 times on my way to work today. Big Iron always makes me think of Rock Island Line because I have a hard time hearing Big Iron and not thinking of Cash singing "Pig Iron," though they're clearly not the same. Anyway I was amazingly glad to hear Battleship Chains again, which I think of pretty often even though I don't think I've heard it since the last Timothology.
In other words, thanks dude.
I had no idea that Desmond Dekker did another version of his signature hit until I had some birthday or tax refund money (I don't remember which) and bought the Stiff Records box set on a Timothology-fueled whim. That turned out to be a hell of a purchase; among other things, "Destination Zululand" and the single most theme-appropriate song on "Joe Meek Fights Back From the Grave!" were on it.
ReplyDeleteMy paternal grandfather was a railroad worker of some kind (I don't know exactly, and he died decades before I was born) and he actually worked the Rock Island Line so that song is meaningful to me, at least to the extent that my ancestor was actually doing some of the stuff that the song is about. And of course I dig the Lonnie Donegan version because it was produced by Joe Meek.
Meek produced "Chahawki", the song about the Indian killing a soldier for killing his dog. It is not very commercial, and one of those tracks that kind of makes you wonder what the hell he could have possibly been thinking.
Battleship Chains is a song that can be stuck in your head even when you're not thinking about it. I think the Georgia Satellites did it originally, but the Hindu Love Gods version is so much more fun to sing along to.
...Accidentally cut myself off too soon.
ReplyDeleteThank you again for the amazingly kind words; your description "things I knew, things I didn't but will never forget now, and things I forgot I loved" is the Platonic ideal of what I try to do with the Timothology. Thank you.
Haha yeah the dog song was tough for me. I have an immediate emotional response to dogs in distress.
ReplyDeleteAlso, the last 3 tracks went together great once again.
"Things I forgot I loved" would be a good name for a thing of some sort. Not like a battleship, but maybe a book.