What a lovely, lovely podcast this is.  No Mrs. Toad this week (yeah, yeah, I know, fuck off the lot of you) partly because she is away in the States being important and businesslike and so forth and partly because you are all a bunch of cunts for liking her best, you shower of ungrateful bastards.

Anyway, needless alienation of one’s audience aside, I am a little tired of doing themed podcasts.  Nothing particularly pressing leapt to mind this month so I thought I’d just throw on a pile of stuff I was really enjoying and sod having a coherent theme – that’s for the professionals anyway.  So it’s just a big old mish-mash of stuff I’m enjoying at the moment, but I think it’s quite a good playlist for all that.

There are actually a couple of songs chosen for other women in my life!  Oh shock horror! One is our reception lady here at work who revealed a surprisingly excellent vinyl collection when a few of us went round to her place after a staff night out recently, including Pavement and The Pixies.  Who would have thought it!  The other lady song is from Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, after I was entirely charmed by the niece of our next door neighbour who apparently used to go out with their keyboard player.  She is trying to move to New York at the moment actually, where there are plans to play fiddle and harp on the new Au Revoir Simone album, which is splendid news.  Apparently this one is to be more folky than the last, which bodes very well indeed.  So go Ruth!  I can’t wait to hear it.

Better stop talking about ze laydees now of course, before I get skelped by my lovely lady.  Not one of of ‘em a patch on the sparkling gem that is the delectable Mrs. Toad of course, not even close!  *ahem*

Toadcast #14 – Total Self-Indulgence

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01. The White Stripes – 300mph Torrential Outpour Blues (03.04)
02. Rachel Unthank & the Winterset – Blue Bleezin’ Blind Drunk (12.34)
03. Jonquil – Lions (18.58)
04. Misophone – The Sea Has Spoken (20.46)
05. The Pixies – Where is My Mind (29.25)
06. The Sequins – Let’s Go Drinking in the Morning (36.09)
07. The Monochrome Set – Tomorrow Will Be Too Long (39.37)
08. iLiKETRAiNS – Death of an Idealist (44.10)
09. Clap Your Hands Say Yeah – Over and Over Again (Lost & Found) (50.23)
10. Ringo Deathstarr – Starrsha (55.00)
11. Babyshambles – UnBiloTitled (57.02)
12. New Pornographers – Adventures in Solitude (64.29)
13. Phil Ochs – Here’s to the State of Mississippi (75.18)
14. The Mabuses – Bonus Track (82.46)
15. The Real Tuesday Weld – Waltz For One (86.49)
16. Kenneth Williams – When the Toad Came Home (88.40)

Ever wonder why this blog is called Song, by Toad?  Yes is the answer, before you spend too long thinking that one over.  Well I have explained that in the Song, by Toad?  Eh? page up there on the sidebar – Toad of Toad Hall is an unbearably pompous but nevertheless endearing character from The Wind in the Willows, by Kenneth Grahame.  As I was a little bastard as a child my mother took to calling me a little Toad, balking somewhat at more accurate but probably more expletive-laden epithets.

Anyhow, apart from the excellence of the book itself there was one reason in particular that we all loved the Wind in the Willows so very much, and that reason was Kenneth Williams.  The idiosyncratically-voiced star of so many Carry On films actually recorded a truly wonderful cassette version of this story many moons ago, and when we were small we would listen to this tape time and time again on long car journeys.

Unfortunately, it has been impossible to track down a copy of this version, try as we might, so this little slice of our family history appeared lost to the mists of time.  Until recently.  Two copies appeared on eBay a little while ago, and I overbid ludicrously to make absolutely sure of securing them.  So now, after some technical jiggery-pokery by my brother, who is a sound engineer, I can present to you, in all their glory, the excerpts from this recording that lead to this blog being given its name.

I’ve also added some clips to the aforementioned page alongside the appropriate text, but I thought I’d pop some of them up here too along with a couple of others, for the benefit of enlightening my readers.

Song, by Toad

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Badger on Toad

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Toad’s Last Little Song

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Toad on Cleverness

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Toad on Victory

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