"45 45's until I'm 45" (#15/45)

Good morning y'all,

another one today I heard on Peel when I was much younger and still pretty as a picture and another one I immediately fell in love with and thus had to get me hands on. Which I managed to do, luckily enough.

Then again also it's one I cannot tell you anything at all about, but I found a little piece on the internet which describes today's choice perfectly well, I would think. Copyright by Spin Magazine. Sue me if you want to:

"John Wayne had a horse to kiss, but Terry Bradford has a lover neither Wayne nor his horse could beat. Over brashly strummed acoustic guitar that starts at barely a crawl but picks up to polka pace, Bradford, vocalist with the band July 14th tells about his lover in intimate detail. He met her in an old pawnshop, wrapped her and took her home, caressed her when he was alone and took her out on Saturday nights. With a soft sane voice punctuated by gnarly electric guitar twangs borrowed from a boogiefried American South, the story of 'me And My Gun', unfolds."

Wise words indeed. Here's your number fifteen, friends:

July 14th - 'Me And My Gun' (mp3)

Greasy Pop Records - GPR 110 (1984)

 

 

See you soon, all the best/take good care,

 

Dirk

"45 45's until I'm 45" (#14/45)

Gooooood morning,

a R.E.A.L. corker today, I'm sure you'll agree: nevertheless a very hard choice for me ... and that's for sure! Those few of you who read Sexyloser not only occasionally will know that The Clash have always been my number one band, and this is rather unlikely to change until I drop down dead. Which, understandably, makes it rather difficult for me not to fill the entire 45 45's - rundown with every single they ever released. Then again, to my great dismay, I don't own all of them (yet) anyway, so I had to limit myself to what I regard as being one of their finest moments.

Here's your number fourteen, friends, so please enjoy:

The Clash - 'Pressure Drop' (mp3)

CBS - S CBS 7082 (1978)

Now, really clever folk amongst you youngsters may already have realised that the song I chose is in fact the B-Side to the above single, 'English Civil War'. Itself being a tune fine enough to play here as well, no question about that, but today I prefer the B-Side. Albeit it isn't a Clash - original, but a song which Toots Hibbert and the Maytals recorded back in 1969 in sunny Jamaica, but nothing wrong with that either.

I know that a lot of you will disagree with today's choice and would have suggested another one by the band, but, as I said: I don't have 'em all in my collection, well, not as 45's, that is. Then again: which one would you have chosen instead, ey?!

There's one more Clash - single to crop up in this series, so watch out and pay further attention!

Have fun,

Dirk

"45 45's until I'm 45" (#13/45)

Good morning altogether,

a very quick/short one today as I write these things while being at work and today there's quite a lot of shit on my desk to my great dismay.

Again a standout single from an album which critically wasn't all that well acclaimed, if memory serves correctly. Then again it was the band's third longplayer, which isn't an easy task anyway. So, without further ado, here's your number thirteen, people. Enjoy.

Dinosaur Jr. - 'Freak Scene' (mp3)

Normal Records - NORMAL 89 (1988)

From the LP 'Bug' (and yes, I know, it's Dinosaur Jr's second LP, but what you young people don't know is that the band traded as 'Dinosaur' before and released their debut LP under that name).

A different source read as thus, wise words indeed: "There are no bad Dinosaur albums, but 'Bug' is Mascis's least-favourite, intra-band arguments souring the sessions. Recorded mostly by Mascis on his own, 'Bug' was less ambitious than what came before, coining a blueprint indie rock would proceed to ape to death. The brilliantly anthemic 'Freak Scene' aside, this is a sturdy record, just lacking the spark of its brethren."

Take good care,

Dirk

"45 45's until I'm 45" (#12/45)

Good morning friends,

hey, a big shout out to all the civil servants out there – how many tracks are based on civil service selection procedures? “Not enough”, I hear you bay!

But not to worry, Sexyloser will change this immediately for you of course with today's choice in the '45 45's' - series, your number twelve and - again - a record I will never get tired of listening to with great pleasure. Enjoy:

The Eggs - 'The Government Administrator' (mp3)

Hemiola Records - HEMIOLA 3 (1993)

I remember very well how complicated it was to get hold of this record back in 1993. Today you'd press a few buttons in the www and it'd be on your doorstep two days later, but 20 years ago it was somewhat slightly more complicated:

As many other records featured here, I also first heard this one on John Peel's Music on BFBS and was awestruck by its brilliance. So the next day I contacted both of the (only reliable) indie record shops in Aachen (which is the next town in accessible distance), in a "I NEED that record!" sort-of-way, but they couldn't help me. So I phoned up Peel (who I had met on a few occasions before when I was in England) in order to get hold of the label's postal adress in the States. He kindly gave it to me. Wrote a letter to Hemiola Records saying 'please give information about your European distribution channel'. But instead of an overall reply, guess what they send back? The record itself, for free, accompanied by a very nice letter from the band, saying how much they appreciated my efforts, perhaps I could send back "something cool in return" ....

And so I did, I send back a bottle of Els, which is a local Schnaps made of herbs and if you're not used to it, too much of it won't do you no good and that's for sure. The old people in the rural area where it comes from claim that it cures the stomach and your guts and that it helps you becoming as old as stone when enjoying it on a daily basis. The truth of the matter with this brew is, to be frank to you, it by and large also worsens your athlete's foot because it tastes like hell!!

Then, many many years later, by coincidence, I stumbled over Andrew Beaujon's (who was the singer with The Eggs) blog and outed myself as being the one who sent them the aforementioned bottle of booze. And, believe it or not, all those years later, he still remembered about the Els very well. Also about the headache after having enjoyed it .... great!

Enjoy the record, friends!

Dirk

"45 45's until I'm 45" (#11/45)

Hello folks,

a bit of a copy/paste - job, this, I must admit. But then again there isn't pretty much to say about today's 7", perhaps apart from the fact that A) we don't have enough Ska here on Sexyloser anyway and B) it is an outstanding record indeed. Then again all of the ones in this rundown before have been outstandingly good, right?

This was the second single of the "More Specials" album. Released at the end of 1980 it reached a healthy No. 4 in the UK charts. It was a slightly different version than that which appeared on the album and contained what was listed as "The Ice Rink String Sounds".

Please enjoy your number eleven, friends:

The Specials - 'Do Nothing' (mp3)

Two-Tone Records - CHS TT 16 (1980)

To promote it the band made a Top Of The Pops appearance dressed in tartan trousers and very naff Christmas pullovers. As bad as this may seem it wasn't as bad as one of Jerry Dammers first suggestions which was that the band wear balaclavas. The Beat were also scheduled to appear on the same episode of Top Of The Pops to promote their Too Nice Too Talk To single and if you watch the video footage of this episode you can clearly see that bass players from each band have swapped places, with Horace joining The Beat and David Steele taking up bass for The Specials.

And just to keep the 2 Tone tradition of covers alive it was backed by a version Bob Dylan's 'Maggies Farm' which was more than a passing jibe at then British Prime Minister, Margaret Thatcher.

Have fun and please let me know whether this met with your approval,

Dirk

"45 45's until I'm 45" (#10/45)

Morning my lovelies,

some big names today for you in my little chart, really big ones and thus something you wouldn't normally expect to find here on Sexyloser .... which is commonly known as a place for the lesser known bands of our time, or, if you'd rather, stuff no-one cares for but me.

Also today's choice comes from an era which by and large is not my cup of tea really: the early seventies. Something I always connect with clapped out old hippies playing endlessly long and boring guitar solos. Not on this occasion, friends, and that's for sure!

I must admit I don't know pretty much about Faces' back catalogue, the truth of the matter might well be that below single is the only one I know. Nevertheless it is an outstanding record and I can only urge you to give it a listen, so please enjoy your number ten, folks:

Faces - 'Pool Hall Richard' (mp3)

Warner Bros. Records - K 16341 (1973) 

As far as the "big names" are concerned, the Faces' line-up was as follows:

Kenney Jones (dr), Ronnie Lane (b/ voc), Ian McLagan (kb), Rod Stewart (voc) and Ron Wood (git/voc) ... I think we all know that Rod Stewart became a megastar, but what you youngsters might not know is that:

- Jones joined The Who after the death of Keith Moon,
- Wood joined the Rolling Stones as a full member,
- Lane later worked together with Pete Townshend of The Who,
- McLagan joined the Rolling Stones as some kind of sideman.

If you read this whilst being in your twenties: both The Who and The Stones used to be very big back then, so there you are ....

A real corker, friends, and I do hope you played that one really loud!!

See you,

Dirk


Edit 15.08.14: mp3 file removed due to a DMCA complaint.

"45 45's until I'm 45" (#09/45)

Hello Sweethearts,

another fine one today in my little chart, I'm sure you'll agree after having had a listen!

Should you be wondering what this might all be about: I'm trying to post forty-five 7" singles out of my collection until my 45th birthday, which is in June. In no particular ranking, although my personal highlights will by and large crop up towards the end of the series. Also I only feature records which I physically own meself, means surely better ones have been released and would have been included, but, alas, I don't own them.

There ain't pretty much I can tell you about today's combo apart from the fact that A - they were Peel favourites back in their days and B - the song is extraordinarily brilliant, in my opinion the outstanding one on a 3-track - 7" EP. And again it's from 1979 which proves how good this year was for music.

This is your number nine, people:

The Glass Torpedoes - 'Morning, Noon And Night' (mp3)

from the 'Someone Different' - 7", Teen Beat Records - TBR 1 (1979)

Should you at all be interested, I found a little bit of additional information on The Glass Torpedoes on the net and of course I didn't hesitate to shamelessly copy and paste here for your satisfaction. This dates May 1982:

"Formed in October 1978 they released a single on Rough Trade in June 79. This got to number five in the alternative charts and was played on the radio a few times. A line up change followed the single, the bass player leaving the band to form a band in which he now sings – China Crisis. The Glass Torpedoes went on to do a John Peel session in January 1980 and the following October went on tour with Gary Glitter.

The history of the Glass Torpedoes is certainly one that is full of problems. Every time things have looked up something has gone wrong. The demo for the single ‘Something Different’ was well received but the master and resulting single suffered from bad mixing and sound quality. Men in black coats from record companies came to see them play at the Masonic to confirm a recording deal, but the Torpedoes had lost their singer three days previously. The replacement forgot the lyrics and they heard no more from the record company! The tales of woe go on − most last year was spent waiting in vain for promises of tours and record deals to be fulfilled. At the end of 81 the Glass Torpedoes thought they had come to the end of the road as a band. Their hopes seemed more distant than ever and inspiration was low.

By the end of 1981 the Glass Torpedoes line-up included Mark Coleridge (drums) as the only remaining original member, Paul Reason (guitars), from the formation that recorded the Peel Sessions and went on tour with Gary Glitter and John Milton, and new members Kate Gill (vocals) and Bernie Carroll (bass). The recorded their third and last single at the end of 1981 (then re-released in 1983), featuring as the a-side a re-recorded version of a number already performed during the Peel session of the previous year."

 

Enjoy the tune, friends: it is good throughout!

 

Dirk