#AprilSongs #14 Sunday Girl

I know it's absolutely obvious but my mind and brain has told me to follow Billy Bragg's "The Saturday Boy" with Blondie's "Sunday Girl" from their most successful and well known album "Parallel Lines".

When I was searching for options I came across The Sunday Girl a make up blog which may or may not pique your interest, but few other "Sunday Girl" songs. I need two more Sunday songs and "Sunday Girl" was not on my original list but it just means I have more choice for my final two songs in the coming weeks.

I first got into Blondie when I heard "X-Offender" from their debut album and bought the single on the Private Stock label. I followed that up with a 12" single of "Denis" when "Plastic Letters" came out and sold the pair for £50 to a collector a couple of years later., and bout the two albums for maybe six quid as I was into the music rather than the objects.

When "Parallel Lines" came out I loved Bob Fripp's guitar work on "Fade Away and Radiate" as this marked out Blondie as being more adventurous than your average band, but "Heart of Glass" (which I still like) really marked the direction they were going to take.

I only saw Blondie live once, at The King Georges Hall in Blackburn with Television in support, and absolutely great night, and great to see Blondie still producing music and playing live.

It's 2:30 AM on a Sunday morning, I wasn't intending to write this now, but it is done, so I can go back to bed now.

#AprilSongs #13 The Saturday Boy

Well it's day 13 of the #AprilSongs sequence. It's funny that 13 is considered unlucky like seeing a single magpie or a lot of other thing. Things like this used to bother me, especially 13 , single magpies and a few other things, then I started thinking how silly it was , and if I'd been brought up to believe these were good things then that is how my mind would see it. After all 13 is a "baker's dozen" where they throw in an extra item in case one is not up to scratch, so it's a definite win for you. If I see a single magpie it's a good thing, no reason , apart from magpies can look impressive in flight with their black and white colouring, so now seeing a single magpie gives me a little lift and if I see more then that's a plus, although I am aware they can be annoying bullies, but I prefer to search for the positives.

So back to the #AprilSongs sequence on Record Store Day and I have gone for Billy Bragg's "The Saturday Boy". I loved Billy Bragg's minimal instrumental style although his voice grated a bit at first, but like Bob Dylan I loved the songs and grew to like the voice. He is not everyone's cup of tea, but is now an intelligent elder statement of music involved in so many musical areas it's very impressive.

Coincidentally I was watching a documentary about Skiffle on BBC4 last night which you can catch on iplayer here for the next month and he was pointing out the similarities between the skiffle movement and the punk movement, both a do-it-yourself reaction to the mainstream and the main Skiffle man was Lonnie Donegan. That was followed by a program on Chas and Dave (here for a month) who also played with Lonnie Donegan as well.

You can always find connections, but some times the connections jump out at you. Have a great Record Store Day and the weather is looking very good. I will take some photos while I am out today and probably nip to Snackwallah for one of their excellent curries.

Coincidentally ... A Book

I'm currently reading "The White Wolf's Son" the third in a vaguely Elric trilogy by Michael Moorcock following on from "The Dreamthief's Daughter" and "The Skrayling Tree" (he does like an indefinite article does Mr Moorcock). I've seen this book described as both the worst and the best he has written and while it is in my opinion neither it is certainly enjoyable in the first fifty or so pages.

The amazing thing is that it is set in North Yorkshire, Ingleton to be precise but close to Settle and Ingleborough which both feature in the book, and it also mentions the Beatles playing Preston. Now firstly there is the coincidence of it featuring somewhere I have recently holidayed and the place I was born , but tonight I was watching a documentary about Chas and Dave and when Chas Hodges was in The Outlaws (with Ritchie Blackmore) the supported the Beatles in Preston (I saw it on a gig poster) so that is another coincidence.

Of course if I hadn't been reading the book I would probably not have made the connection, but just another example of things falling together to create another coincidence.

#TenAlbumsInTenDays #4 - 4,5,6 and Record Store Day 2019

The last three I've posted on here I haven't recorded on the blog, although it is really a Facebook thing, but I do like to remember stuff that I've done. Someone asked me recently what my first #TenAlbumsInTenDays post was and thanks to this blog I could tell them fairly quickly it was "MAn In The Hills" by Burning Spear.

The last three posts have been FFS (the Franz Ferdinand / Sparks collaboration, an odd pairing at first sight but a brilliant album) , the "Dirty Computer" by Janelle Monae, my favourite album of last year, and "Catching A Tiger" by Lissie which I posted today.

It is good to think about albums that you have maybe not played in a while, and the Facebook sequence allows you to hopefully share albums new to friends and friends of friends on Facebook. All these albums are worth your time and thanks to Social Media and streaming platforms you can often listen almost immediately. I remember having to order imported records from Germany or wherever and then wait two weeks for it to be delivered.

Tomorrow is World Record Store Day 2019 when lots of limited edition vinyl and in Newcastle we have lots of Record Shops  that will be stocked up for the day, as well as hosting many live bands on the day.

Here's a list of local record shops I'm aware of in the town centre:

• RPM
• Reflex
• Beatdown
• Beyond Vinyl
• Vinyl Guru
• 586

plus special mention to Oxfam at Jesmond ( I used to work there briefly and the manager Katie knows her stuff , Pop Recs in Sunderland and there are record shops in Durham, Hexham and Gosforth,  and if you are pushed HMV is not bad for a high street shop.

So enjoy your weekend.

#AprilSongs #12 Friday Night

This starts off sounding like a Pink Floyd song, or even The Who's "Love Reign O#er Me", from the absolutely brilliant debut album by ex Beach Boy Dennis Wilson "Pacific Ocean Blue". An extremely brooding piece, and nowhere near the best song on the album but it  is still an excellent listen. The intro lasts for over a minute of a three minute song (think the intro to "Shine On You Crazy Diamond") so the song itself is almost over before you realise it, and that is so good because it really drags you in although you don't actually realise it.

So that is number 12 in the #AprilSOngs sequence, and my only problem with this is that it almost looks like a technical manual rather than a diary entry, making the blog look very uniform and only talking about music related today (and today is Friday).

So it is Friday and it is a nice day and time for work.

Have a good one.

#AprilSongs #11 Thursday's Child

Up to 11 now and for this Thursday am going with David Bowie's "Thursday's Child" the opening song from his "hours" album. I've found a live take from Paris 1999 for your delectation. "hours" is not one of my first division Bowie albums but , like all Bowie albums it's definitely worth diving into.

I'm having things done to my roof and am working from home, so this is just a short marking post. Probably the shortest post that I have done since I started blogging, but sometimes you just have to accept that you don't actually have enough words to actually fill up the page. Actually if you take the time you can always find words to just put on the page, maybe I could write a very short story with each post such as a man who has lost a cat and found a packet of cigarettes, benough enough of this madness, it's time to return to normalcy.

Enjoy your afternoon.

#AprilSongs #10 Wednesday Morning 3AM

It's looking cold out this morning, well it is April, and the weather is British. As it's Wednesday the #AprilSongs installment is "Wednesday Morning 3AM" the slightly subversive title track from Simon and Garfunkel's 1965 debut album. I  have always loved Simon and Garfunkel even though Paul Simon stole Martin Carthy's arrangement of "Scarborough Fair" and they produced a remarkable body of work, with Simon producing an amazing body of work after they split.

Art Garfunkel is a wonderful interpretive singer but reliant on other songwriters, but I suppose you could say the same of Rod Stewart.

I recently bought an ebook on how to get lots of readers for your blog and essentially it said don't write for yourself, write for a target audience so that may explain why my readers have dropped to single figures, as essentially it's a diary which features things that catch my attention. I'm not going to change and am quite happy that this blog enables me to go back and find things that I remember recording and sometimes find things that I forgot about recording. So it is doing the job that I want.

So off we go to work once more,