Five Frumpy Favourites For Friday
Right, given Dadrock seems to be the enduring theme of the moment, let’s poke a little further shall we? Actually, Dadrock in our house was pretty fucking cool. My Dad introduced me to the Waterboys, the Pogues, the Men They Couldn’t Hang, as well as the stuff he grew up with: Neil Young, Bob Dylan, Tom Waits, Bruce Springsteen, The Band and various other classics. Mum wasn’t bad either: Depeche Mode, Bowie, the Stones and The Pet Shop Boys, as well as some splendidly camp pop such as ABC, Erasure, Kate Bush, Elton John (just the early stuff, calm down) and things like that.
There were some moments of genuine shame in there too, to be fair. Who knows, we may look back on the Decemberists with derision for their pretension and intricacy, so you can never entirely tell which music will and won’t age with dignity.
I still make my parents a lot of compilation CDs, even though I don’t make them for myself anymore. In fact, ever since I left home in 1993 I’ve been regularly returning with a little pile of pre-filtered new music for them. I try and steer clear of the Libertines and the Von Bondies, but maybe that’s silly because you know who introduced me to the Dead Kennedys? Yup, my folks.
Having heaped them with praise, it must be confessed that after many years of cool, my Mum did rather embarrassingly lapse into a penchant for the Lighthouse Family. Or, in the recent traditions of this site, the Fucking Lighthouse Fucking Family. Or that Italian clown Eros Ramazotti. Dad has remained pretty steady, to credit the old bastard, but he is still the man who introduced me to Billy Joel, so some responsibility does need to be taken there, irrespective of the quality of Captain Jack and Piano Man.
So if you’re lurking, lurk no more. Now is the time to come out of the woodwork and alternately shame and praise your family. Come on, they can’t be all bad.
1. Your Mum’s most shameful crime against music.
2. The coolest thing your Mum listens to.
3. Your Dad’s worst moment of musical shame.
4. Dad’s moment of musical triumph.
5. The most shameful musical thing that you and your folks have in common.
David Bowie – Let’s Dance
The Men They Couldn’t Hang – Scarlet Ribbons
Depeche Mode – People Are People
Bob Dylan – Drifter’s Escape
Pet Shop Boys – What Have I Done to Deserve This
1. Endless crappy Christmas music.
2. Early Beatles is about the best she’s got.
3. Oh my god, The Bee Gees cover of Sgt Pepper’s. I don’t mean the song, I mean the whole album. Word for fucking word.
4. Early Dylan, great stuff like Freewheelin’, the self-titled and Bringin’ It All Back Home
5. Johnny Cash
Shit, I was supposed to be first, to kick things off. Totally forgot.
1. Eros Ramazotti, the Lighthouse Family, but I think I’m with you cdv1971, the appaling, ear-withering garbage we have to listen to around Christmas time reduces me to tears.
2. She really liked Time to Pretend by MGMT, actually.
3. Bruce Hornsby.
4. Got to be Tom Waits.
5. Erm, Bruce Hornsby. Well, the first couple of albums anyway.
And Johnny Cash? Shameful? I thought he was fucking cool? I’m not a massive fan, mind you, but I always thought he had plenty of cred.
1) Making me buy her 4 Cliff Richards tickets
2) going to see the Beetles support Roy Orbison in something like 1963
3) buying me a pinky and perky album when i was 7
4) John Denver
5) loving the Bay City Rollers
1. Loving everything U2 have ever done
2. Bowie (she bloody met him at the peak of his fame and didn’t know who she was talking to for 20 minutes)
3. Barenaked Ladies
4. Seeing Lou Reed supported by the original line-up of AC/DC
5. … Barenaked Ladies
1. I used to love her Wet Wet Wet tapes in the car on the way to school, and I’ve always liked her eclecticism. I’m a faithful son – The Corrs, Duffy, I don’t think I can pin her down on anything. Celine Dion is probably the worst, and Buble.
2. Her boyfriend has introduced her to Tom Waits, and that covers that base.
3. Some would say Supertramp but I like a lot of the stuff.
4. He’s met The Boss, I think, a big fan.
5. see 1 and 3, otherwise pass.
1) not really being into any music other than classical music and traditional scottish songs
2) classical music and traditional scottish songs
3) not really being into any music other than classical music and traditional scottish songs
4) classical music and traditional scottish songs
5) the proclaimers first album
1) Some ghastly Cher album I noticed last time I was back
2) Jan Garbarek & the Hilliard Ensemble, but an in-car sing along to Paranoid Android with her and some of my friends when she was kindly driving us to the pub one night was rather fun. 4-part harmonies for the “rain down” bit included. Also partial to a bit of Elvis Costello and Mercury Rev.
3) Probably the collected operettas of Gilbert & Sullivan. Christ.
4) Not big up on modern music/non-classical at all. So Elgar’s ‘Cello Concerto it is then.
5) The Wombles album.
1. Oh where to start. Elvis Presley early on Sunday mornings. Dolly Parton. George Michael. Dean Martin. Jimmy Barnes. ‘The Essential 70s’ 3 CD set.
2. Empty radio static.
3. Enya
4. Van the Man – hated it when I was a kid, totally get it now.
5. John Farnham. Only under the influence though. Me, not them.
Good fodder for this week’s Contrast Podcast Matthew.
I’m strugglnig with this, as I really don’t know enough about my parents taste in music. Sorry.
I know my dad paid his way through college playing in a band (back when playing in a band was a profitable exercise. sigh.), but the most I know is that they were a bit like the Beatles. (They may even have been a beatles covers band.)
Nowadays neither of them really actively listen to music in the same way – it’s just that bland pacifying background material for the car or the kitchen. (I have noticed CDs by the Lighthouse Fucking Family and Ronan Fucking Keating in my mums collection, to give you a taster. I’m sure you’ll agree that’s not actively listening to music).
More interesting is my girlfriend’s Dad – who went to see Tom Waits at the Playhouse in the mid 80s. And had the same argument about wasting money on the ticket with his wife as I did with their daughter 20-odd years later. (Back then the ticket price was £7.50 or there abouts. sigh.)
He also forced Talking Heads on my good lady. Talking Heads, as I’m sure you are aware, have quite a strong claim to ‘the Best Band In The World Ever’.
the best band in the world ever……?
a strong claim, at least.
i dunno…..bloody good tho they are
1. When she was alive she was a big ‘cheese’ fan: everything from Dolly Parton to Wham! ro Neil Diamond (who I think rocks); however, I’d say the nastiest piece of ear torture she listened to was Barry Manilow.
2. She wasn’t really that ‘hip’ or up-to-date (she died before the ’80s were anywhere near out, so I guess you can forgive a certain lack of musical credibility on the basis of the period alone), but she was partial to a bit of Prince & she moreorless introduced me to his early albums in the very early ’80s, God bless her cheeky sense of humour.
3. My father, an old jobbing session musician, as well as in a number of pretty successful UK touring bands, has had his fair share of musical no-no’s. But I think the worst is highlighted perfectly by the day he wandered into the DCHQ studio, while I was playlisting a Drunk Covers show, & asked me Who’s that covering Paul Young? (he’s a MASSIVE PY fan). I had to explain to him it was Joy Division singing their song Love Will Tear Us Apart. I’m fairly sure he went away thinking I was either lying or taking the mick.
4. My old man has done some pretty amazing things in his time, played with Clapton/Cream, The Beatles, has had his band supported on tour by Jones the Tom (when Jonesie was almost but not yet universally famous) , won a number of music awards, produced a documentary in the late ’80′s about Dylan Thomas that won an award at Cannes for its soundtrack (written/performed on aeleon harp), but the most memeorable music ‘triumph’ is the Manic Street Preachers. In the early 90′s my old man was A&R for a record label/studio in Wales – the finance behind the label also owned a business that purchased ‘problem’ pubs/clubs wholesale, installed an intermediary venue manager who then set about ‘cleaning up’ the place & returning them to traditional environments.
After 6months of stabilising the punter type & turnover the place was sold to a brewery & the manager woulkd move onto the next acquistion. My old man was asked by the owner if he’d fill in for a manager on one pub & ended up sorting out pubs for about 5 years. One day in early ’91, after taking control of an utter shithole of a place just outside Bridgend (it was full of used needles & johnnies – even the manager’s accomodation upstairs), he telephoned the manager of a local band to cancel their gig for that evening (as he was basically shutting the place down for a thorough make over). The manager went apeshit but my old man stuck to his guns & eventually told the man fuck off, we don’t want your sort of shit in this place ever again. The name of the band was Manic Street Preachers, who were on the verge of realeasing their debut LP. I loved him a little harder after he told me that.
5. I personally don’t think this is shameful, but I’m sure others would disagree, we always liked to sit & watch musicals like Seven Brides for Seven Brothers, The Sound of Music, Annie, My Fair Lady, Bright Eyes, A Star Is Born, & our ultimate favourite: The Jazz Singer.
1. I find the Mantovani a bit much
2. Francis Albert Sinatra
3. I find the Mantovani a bit much
4. Saying in 1985 when he was already 62 that he thought Echo & The Bunnymen’s ‘Ocean Rain’ was ‘quite good’
5. Very easy on the ear and not at all ‘authentic’ or ‘gritty’ or Rick Rubin/Americana country & western records. Sorry.
Did I post that twice? Damn these internets! Damn them to buggery!
No, you didn’t even post that once, Tommy.
Boys and girls, some truly splendid answers. Really, it’s like the post of shame and respect all in one.
Right, I’ll try again…
1. Shirley Bassey.
2. Glen Miller.
3. James Last.
4. A long time ago, when I was out the house one day, my dad thought to himself, ‘Right, I wonder what that music’s like that the young pup listens to?’ So, he chose one of my albums at random. And what did he choose? Why ‘Fun House’ by Iggy & The Stooges! Oh, the hilarity. He hasn’t listened to ‘modern’ music since.
5. Chas n Dave.
*snigger*
DC, I’m down in Cardiff middle of November – 12th-ish to the 19th-ish… You about?
It’ll be a Welsh-off! Who is the most Welsh of our resident leek-eaters. Oooo, it’ll be a close one this – far too close to call.
Right, I’ll try yet again…
1. Shirley Bassey.
2. Glen Miller.
3. James Last.
4. A long time ago, when I was out the house one day, my dad thought to himself, ‘Right, I wonder what that music’s like that the young pup listens to?’ So, he chose one of my albums at random. And what did he choose? Why ‘Fun House’ by Iggy & The Stooges! Oh, the hilarity. He hasn’t listened to ‘modern’ music since.
5. Chas n Dave.
oh bugger…
W00t!
I’d have deleted that one for you, but the ‘oh bugger’ is too funny to lose. Sorry, Tommy.
Dylan,
Long answer: The Swn festival is on over the weekend of 14th – 16th & I’ve got a press pass & a shitload of interviews & sessions lined up; so I’ll be busy as feck drinking, chatting, recording & editing & that from 14th until 18th ready for that Wednesday’s show. But, I’m never one to say no to a pint.
Shirt answer: Yes.
Short, even
Fuck me, I’ve picked the right weekend to be in Cardiff, haven’t I?
What in particular have you got lined up? Does your press pass include a photographer?!
I can’t do the Saturday as I’m on a stag do – but I’ll be around for the Friday or Sunday..
1. Your Mum’s most shameful crime against music.
Shakira. Seeing as how we are the Diaz household, someone has to listen to the latin music. My mum really enjoys her latino top 40
2. The coolest thing your Mum listens to.
Marta Gomez, colombian folk singer. I bought the cd for her years ago and she loves it
3. Your Dad’s worst moment of musical shame.
My dad’s shamefulness only comes through his oldmanliness. He has a love for classical and klezmer . There is only so much one can take
4. Dad’s moment of musical triumph.
Fabrizio de Andre. He raised me on it and soon followed with classic rock. A good man
5. The most shameful musical thing that you and your folks have in common.
Shawn Colvin or Celtic Music. I’m not sure which is more shameful, but we love it.
1. When she gets drunk and thinks she can sing.
2. Me.
3. Val Fucking Doonican (cant believe no-one else has mentioned him yet)
4. Me concluding Johnny Cash was cool (30 years after my old man)
5. Neil Diamond.
1) Crying in front of the Beatles because she’d lost her handbag. Paul found it for her.
2) Errrrmmmm, probably Billy Bragg. Though she does work at the Welfare tent every Glastonbury, so I guess she gets to hear, if not cool stuff then at least modern.
3) Fred Wedlock’s album “The Folker”. Low-grade Mike Harding.
4) I used to get a lot of vicarious kudos along the lines of “Your Dad was at Earls Court in ’73 to see the Floyd? Wow….”
5) The Moody Blues. I know. I KNOW.
Crikey, top festival indeed – you’ll have me going on about how my Welsh Granddad makes me secretly Welsh next (unlike Ryan Giggs
)
Nobody has mentioned Val Doonican, JC, because no-one else parents are quite as old as yours.
*ducks for cover*
Dylan, sorry mate – the press pass just about covers Fisk & I (you wouldn’t believe how fucking rigid they are – I’ve had to provide full background details of the station, the show, who I am interviewing, why I am interviewing, where I am interviewing, when I am interviewing, etc. etc. etc.) for the 3 days, & that’s in & out – none of this hanging about to watch the band nonsense.
To be honest it’s not a patch on last year’s line up (which is about right because Huw Stephens shot his bolt after attending the SxSW the same year & pretty much asked everyone he saw to play his then non-existent fest; this yeat they’ve relied on far too many ‘local’ bands). There’s genuinely not much I want to go see, whereas last year you had Two Gallants, <Beirut, Sons & Daughters, Spencer McGarry Season, Those Dancing Days, Edwyn Collins, ir Hearts Were Full Of Spring, ley Stoltz, Bobby McGees, key Swallows The Universe, y The Great, to name a small few.
The line up (so far) is as follows, & I’ve got the ones I’m interviewing in bold (POSSIBLE = if I can be arsed):
Boy Least Likely To
New Tea Party
Broken Records
Cats In Paris
Pete And The Pirates
Golden Silvers
Jamie And The Lionhearts
Mouse
Euros Childs
Ox.Eagle.Lion.Man
Sweet Baboo
Acid Casuals
Agaskodo Televerek
Alex Dingley
Amazing Baby
Attack + Defend
Beatbox Fozzy
Blue Wall
Butterflies With Beards
Camera
Chew Lips
Chipmunk
Chrome Kids
Clinic
Colorama
Conan Mockasin
Cyrion
Dananananaykroyd
Danblagroyd
Das Wanderlust
Dead Residents
Duffraine
Eilir Pierce
Eugene McGuiness
Fernhill
Ffred Jones – Possible
Frederick Stanley Star
Friends Electric
Future Of The Left
Gallops
Genod Droog
Georgia Ruth Williams
Goldie Lookin Chain
Gwyneth Glyn
Hemme Fatale
High Contrast
It Hugs Back
James St James
James Yuill
Jay Jay Pistolet
Jen Jeniro
John Head
Johnny Foreigner
Joy Formidable – POSSIBLE
King Cannibal (Ninja Tune) – POSSIBLE
Legowelt
Lifting Gear Engineer
Lindsey Leven
Little Eris
Little My
Llwyd
Mac
Martin Carr
Nia Morgan
Orcop
Pagan Wanderer Lu
Pete Greenwood
Picture Books In Winter – POSSIBLE
Pixel H8
Radio Luxembourg
Random Elbow Pain
Richard James
Right Hand Left Hand
Right Hand, Left Hand – POSSIBLE
Rod Thomas
Rolo Tomassi – possible
Seindorff
Serefina Steer
Sild
Silence At Sea – POSSIBLE
SJ Esau
Skinnyman
Stephen Fretwell
Telegram From The Queen
The Afternoons
The Ash And The Oak – POSSIBLE
The Big Pink,
The Chapman Family – POSSIBLE
The Fuzz Birds – POSSIBLE
The Hidden Persuader
The Last Republic
The Lovely Eggs
The Muscle Club
The Pipettes
The School
Thomas Truax
Threatmantics
Totally Enormous Extinct Dinosaurs – POSSIBLE
Truckers Of Husk
Tubelord
Valley Lines
Vito
Volcano!
Voluntary Butler Scheme
Wrightoid
Yellow Moon Band
Young Marble Giants
Zwolf
For fuck’s sake DC. They can click on the link if they want to see all that. My scrolling finger will be even more in danger of RSI than my wanking hand after that.
Snigger.
are they not the same?
I am not a lady, Tom. I do not satisfy myself using my scrolling finger.
1. Your Mum’s most shameful crime against music.
Enya. Enya! ENYA!
2. The coolest thing your Mum listens to.
The Chieftains (can you guess my mother’s ancestral nationality, perchance?)
3. Your Dad’s worst moment of musical shame.
I fear what this vicarious confession will trigger, but the old bastard loves the recent collection of Rod Stewart albums where he sings jazz standards. Christ. I’m already dreading Christmas.
4. Dad’s moment of musical triumph.
When he introduced me to this recording of Mozart’s Requiem, one of the most sublimely gorgeous performances of music I have heard in any genre:
http://www.amazon.com/Mozart-Armstrong-Fischer-Dieskau-Barenboim-Barbirolli/dp/B000002S0K
5. The most shameful musical thing that you and your folks have in common.
Our matching nipple-bells:
http://i67.photobucket.com/albums/h318/borboleta24/nipple-clamp-with-bell.jpg
And yes, the music created by Talking Heads between 1977 and 1981 makes them: The Best. Band. Ever. Except for the Chameleons.
And DC! What the hell happened to you? I’ll have you know that I sat by the phone, hanky in hand.
Oh C&B, that was just meanspirited! :-p
1. Englebert Humperdinck
2. Tom Jones, thank god for the Welsh is all I can say, … a Tart was born growing up watching that sex god.
3. Saturday nights spent watching The Smother’s Brothers
4. Watching the inception of MTV with me and declaring that “that channel is gonna be a big hit with you kids!” He especially liked Blondie’s “Rapture” but I think it was her lipstick and slinky dress.
5. We’re musical voyeurs? Is that so shameful?
1. Elton John, Annie Lennox, Barry Manilow, Manhattan Transfer and a fucking terrible Moody Blues album I remember from my early years and still gives me nightmares.
2. Leonard Cohen. And she asked me to make an R.E.M. mixtape a couple of years back.
3. Supertramp, The Eagles, kd lang, Will Young and various Pop Idol/X Factor nobodies.
4. Buying Swordfishtrombones when it came out, though he never bought another Tom Waits album and I only got into Waits a couple of years ago and so didn’t appreciate it at the time. And he owns a fair bit of Neil Young.
5. Singstar on the PS2 at drunken family gatherings.
Cf&Bf – did you not see the couple of messages I left on here hither & thither? Firstly the damn interweb connectivity was almost non existent in the area I was staying &, to frustrate me even further, my fucking Blackberry couldn’t receive a signal for more than 30 seconds without dying. On top of it all I was so stupid busy the only freetime I had was the weekend I arrived (the one you were away with the Chillies) & throughout the week jetlag got the better of me so I was dead on my arse by 8pm. Then, I came home earlier than expected (which, actually, was a relief becuase I was knackered).
Apologies, next time for definite.
1. Wynonna Judd, Dionne Warwick, insert saccharine female moaning here. No me gustan.
2. Joni Mitchell, Joan Baez, Aretha Franklin, Ella Fitzgerald. I have fond memories of singing and grooving along to “Respect” and “Chain of Fools” on road trips when I was twelve or thirteen.
3. Come of think of it, my dad has pretty awesome taste in music. The only thing I can think of off the top of my head that I haven’t liked is Diana Krall.
4. Patsy Cline, Johnny Cash, Bessie Smith, Miles Davis, John Coltrane, Thelonious Monk, Dave Brubeck Quartet, Tom Lehrer. Oh, and Janis Joplin.
5. Well, I don’t really feel shame about the taste I share with my parents. I’ve been flabbergasted by the music we don’t have in common. I picked my mom up from work one day and was blasting “Run Run Run”. My mom screwed up her face in distaste and asked “What IS this???” I suppose she might have been a little too young to listen to the Velvet Underground, but there’s something terribly strange about listening to a band that is of my parents’ generation but my parents both dislike.
Quite all right. No I didn’t see your messages, but I was offline myself for a few days there, and then we had a bit of unpleasantness with some workers at my house that kept me more occupied in the evenings than I usually prefer. Dead on your arse by 8pm? Sounds pretty much like my daily life. Were you here on 10/6? On that big red letter day I finally got to see Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds perform live. A momentous occasion. I also saw The Builders and the Butchers a few days before that and I spoke to Ryan afterwards. He remembered meeting you in San Diego and expressed his love.
Matthew this will not stand! I was about to feel silly posting on this one because you parents and mine are essentially the same. Only they like me more for obvious reasons. Anyway, to put the record straight for the toadalites.
1) Yes, Eros Ramzotti. I’ll grant you.
2) Without Mum your life would not have had Ella Fitzgerald, Nina Simone, Etta James. Also Blossom Deary.
3) Leave Bruce Hornsby alone. Actually who cares what you say, the man is so smooth your hatred slides right off him.
4) This is the man that introduced you to the Pogues, and might I add, Tom Waits.
5) I seem to remember you and Mum enjoying the soft song stylings of Brian Adams ‘Rebel’
once upon a time. Infact, it was on the first mix you ever made me.
Also Euan, your Dad sounds like a charming chap. You know, except for the tradition Scottish bit.
I like Thomas Truax an awful lot, from the Cardiff list, and would recommend him – I’ll post somethings over yonder in case you don’t know him. And the pipettes too, obviously, but I am very aware that the reaction that will get from our not so genial host.
1. Cliff Richard. In a big way. It’s not big and it’s not clever, Mum.
2. The Beatles. Okay, I might have noticed them at some point but she had odd things by them, the ‘million sellers’ EP and the ‘Oldies’ album, which is were I got my first listen.
3. Thanks to my dad’s Old Time Music Hall tendencies I can be relied upon, when very drunk, to do a turn of any number of ‘any old iron / follow the van / boiled beef and carrots’ etc etc
4. the Pogues / the men they couldn’t hang / kirsty maccoll (which would make him dig out her dad’s 78s) – anything a bit folky.
5. I think it’s probably those music hall songs…
Matthew, will you explain the picture? Pretty please??
That man’s breasts look like Chihuahua heads. Mad.
It’s a random image that I ended up choosing from a Google image search for ‘boring dad’ and all sorts of variations on that theme. It was surprisingly hard to find anything even as marginally appropriate as that one.
1. Counting Crows
2. Darker My Love
3. It’s a tie between Deep Forest and Enigma
4. Admitting 20 years on he really does like Depeche Mode despite mercilessly mocking my sister throughout childhood about listening to ‘Depress Mode’ after finding a DM cd hidden under his car seat
5. Phil Collins. Yes, I know.
Funny thing is, I genuinely don’t have a 2, 4 or 5. Both my parents were and are fairly musically blank, apart from traditional C&W ballads, and frankly Jim Reeves will never come back into fashion.
I thought Swn looked pretty decent, actually, although I suppose it’s a year on year thing. I love how both Dananananaykroyd (the best live band in Britain, by the way) and Danblagroyd have been booked.
Oh dang, and here I thought perhaps you had a twin.
1. Celine Dion – a bit standard for a mum really that
2. She loves old Delta blues – Robert Johnson, Muddy Waters, etc
3. Dido, and Enya- wtf,? – he normally has good taste.
4. He went to see Led Zeppelin live in his youth – i’m very jealous
5. Paul Simon
Tart -
Shudder.
Oops, didn’t read question 5 properly, Johnny Cash is anything but shameful. Just the shared part. I think a shameful one that I share with my folks would have to be Jimmy Buffett. Cut me some slack, though, I grew up in Florida.
My mother has very bland taste in music. She loves Michael Buble and Anne Murray and hippie songs from the 60s and the Sound of Music soundtrack. The coolest thing she ever admitted listening to was “Stairway to Heaven.”
My father had more taste in music. I can’t really think of anything shameful he liked. Is Sting shameful?
He turned me on to Johnny Cash, Hank Williams (senior, of course), big band music, Paul Simon (despite the poster above me, I don’t find Simon shameful at all), the Beach Boys, and many others.
I guess a shameful love that we all share is for the Carpenters. Is it shameful to love the Carpenters? I love them. I love hearing Karen’s voice and hearing those mournful melodies about rainy days and Mondays.
Well everyone has a different idea of what’s shameful, which is part of the fun. I know the Carpenters are often regardedas shameful, but I’ve never actually heard them – not knowingly at least – so I can’t answer that one, zh. It’s between you and your inner indie snob!