It’s not going to surprise anyone at all that I am being an absolute slob today, is it? Mrs. Toad got back from Australia around lunchtime, and after a few hours of pottering about she crashed out with jetlag, so I snuck off to record the podcast. I am sure that soon enough she will wake and start demanding attention and general servitude soon enough, so I better get this over with quickly.
After that I am going straight back to bed to watch stupid films while my sweetheart dozes by my side, awaking occasionally to tell me off for not being comfortable enough, or to send me to fetch her things, or to just swear at me for taking all the covers or some other such sweet nothings of the kind she is wont to come out with from time to time.
01. Elvis Perkins in Dearland – Shampoo (00.21)
02. Elvis Costello – Couldn’t Call it Unexpected No.4 (06.24)
03. Billie Holiday – Good Morning Heartache (13.17)
04. Smog – In the Pines (16.22)
05. My Tiny Robots – Ballad of the Mapmaker’s Daughter (23.17)
06. Randolph’s Leap – Going Home (32.19)
07. The Japanese War Effort – Face Like a Lemon (Ivor Cutler cover, live on Fresh Air Radio) (36.50)
08. Grass House – Lazy Bones (43.01)
09. Bob Dylan – I’ll Keep it With Mine (49.23)
10. Bettye Swann – Don’t Look Back (54.47)
I managed to miss last week’s Fresh Air show because… well I somehow failed to realise that the bloody station was back on the air, which is spectacularly dumb. This week I present Toad and Ruth’s Toad and Ruth Show With Toad and a Little Bit Less Ruth Than Usual, or indeed any Ruth at all because the lovely herself can’t make it tonight, so you will be treated to the wonderful pleasure of listening to me burble on to myself about tunes and stuff and stuff and some tunes and then probably some more stuff just to cap it off.
01. Langhorne Slim – I Love You, But Goodbye
02. Saint Etienne – Nothing Can Stop Us Now
03. The Left Banke – Evening Gown
04. Bettye Swann – Don’t Look Back
05. Lee Dorsey – My Old Car
06. The Scottish Enlightenment – All Homemade Things
07. Super Adventure Club – Hip Hop Hot Pot Pot Noodle
08. Sam Amidon – Fiddle Mayhem (Toad Session)
09. The Shaggs – What Are Parents
10. Nico Muhly – The Only Tune
11. Phil & the Osophers – Uses of a Man
12. David Tattersall – The Old Family
13. Grandaddy – Fuck the Valley Fudge
14. Elvis Perkins in Dearland – I Heard Your Voice in Dresden
15. Songdog – Obediah’s Waltz
Next week we have the splendid Loch Lomond live in session, and to tide you over until then the videos from Mammoeth’s session on the show are below the jump. The tracklisting for tonight’s show will appear below live as we go along, and feel free to heckle in the comments.
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Okay maybe not blues, maybe a bit more souly, but you know what I mean. There’s a whole area of this kind of music where these boundaries blur to the point of meaninglessness for me. Lovely old songstress lullabies might be more appropriate.
I know virtually nothing at all about Bettye Swann, although a cursory internet search reveals her to be a 60s soul singer who knocked out all of the old standards from that time and before. I have no real urge to explore further as this is generally not a style of music I can get all that excited about, but I do have one stray song of hers that I love.
It appeared on a sampler about five years ago. I’ve no idea which one, but it really stuck with me – such a compassionate song about getting over a lost love and finding the strength to move on. It’s a very stripped-down version as well, which gives is a sort of scratchy sincerity that can get a bit lost in the over-production of songs of this sort. Gorgeous.
Bettye Swann – Don’t Look Back
Around about the time The White Stripes seriously hit the big time they caused – or simply embodied, I’m not sure – a massive surge of interest in stripped down garage blues, and the Detroit scene in particular. A mass of groups were knocking about the city at that point, all mixing old blues and soul sounds with grungy, aggressive guitars. I liked a lot of it, although inevitably there was a lot of dross in the mix as well.
One group I never really took to were The Come Ons, but they did do this one gorgeous track called Strangelove. It’s a simple love song that, given I was in the very early months of a whirlwhind, preposterous romance with Mrs. Toad, became something of a staple of our late night listening. Even now it still strikes a significant chord with me for that reason. Happy days indeed…
The Come Ons – Strangelove
