Farraginous Fridays #20 – Food for thought

Hello my lovely, lovely people! I hope you’re all hungry, as we have a delightfully delectable playlist for you this week. As you may now have guessed this week’s playlist is food themed and I hope there is enough on here to fill you up good and proper!

Farraginous Friday #20 – Food for thought (SPOTIFY)

Farraginous Friday #20 – Food for thought (YOUTUBE)

Beach Boys

Starting us off this week is Brian Wilson and his ravenous bunch of Beach Boys. Vegetables is an ode to the great greens of the earth. I love the crunching sound effects added as percussion (by Paul McCartney) on this 1967 classic.

It still amazes me that Barbie Gaye was only 15 when she recorded My Boy Lollipop back in 1956. It proved to be her only hit and she has since vanished in to obscurity…

Next up we have Crowded House‘s humorous comment on US excess. Chocolate Cake is taken from their hugely successful and possibly best album Woodface. Take a look at what Tammy Baker’s looking like these days here. Sheesh!

I had the great fortune of seeing John Grant in concert recently. My review of which can be read here. I Wanna Go To Marz is a beautiful song and the lyrics were mainly taken from a 1940′s sundaes menu from the sweet shop Grant used to visit as a child.

There couldn’t possibly be more food similes included in 10CC‘s jaunty 1975 single, Life Is A Minestrone. One of the most fun songs on this week’s playlist, I can’t help but smile at the thought of life being compared to a minestrone.

Supertramp

A sinister shadow seems to follow Tom Waits around. The lyrics for Ice Cream Man could be taken as is, but I think most of us can tell that Waits isn’t handing out free popsicles for nothing!

Although it only reached #9 in the UK charts back in 1979, Breakfast In America has become a regular fixture on most classic rock radio stations. Supertramp at their most playful and poppy and not too prog for the average listener.

Now I mentioned fun earlier on and I wish to emphasise the fun in Tally Hall‘s ridiculous Bananaman. Taken from their album Marvin’s Marvelous Mechanical Museum this song certainly leans to the comic side, somewhat. But the album is full of ingeniously inventive pop craftings. “Do you want a banana?”

The B-52s

Next up is an absolute classic from my youth. Peaches by Presidents Of The United States Of America was released in 1996 and was even nominated for a Grammy. The band admit to having borrowed riffs from Bad Company, but if I’m honest, this is better than most of Bad Company’s output anyway…

More honesty from you humble narrator here when I tell you that I’m not entirely sure what it is that I like about The B-52s‘ Rock Lobster. It’s maybe too long, the lyrics are preposterous and the vocals highly irritating in places. But, by fuck it sounds like they’re having an amazing time playing it!!!

Right, that’s your fill for this week. I hope you’ve enjoyed the food-based Farraginous Friday playlist this week and that you’ve whet your appetite for leaving comments below!

Please, continue to invite new listeners to the blog! The easiest way is to invite people to the Facebook group dedicated to Farraginous Fridays. You can find it here – http://groups.to/farraginousfridays.

Later darlings
Farraginous Francis x

Farraginous Friday #20 – Food for thought (SPOTIFY)

Farraginous Friday #20 – Food for thought (YOUTUBE)

Farraginous Friday #10 – Mark Linkous R.I.P.

Hello farraginous friends and welcome to the tenth installment of Farraginous Fridays. This week is the first Farraginous Special where we’ll be paying tribute to Sparklehorse‘s Mark Linkous who tragically took his life last week at the age of 47.

Farraginous Friday #10 – Mark Linkous R.I.P. (SPOTIFY)

Farraginous Friday #10 – Mark Linkous R.I.P. (YOUTUBE)

Having been in many a small punk band in the 80s and early 90s and after an unsuccessful move to L.A., in an attempt to hit the big time, Linkous returned to his hometown of Virginia. There, he formed Sparklehorse and in 1995 released their debut album, Vivadixiesubmarinetransmissionplot. This was a hit with the British media and gave Linkous the chance to tour with Radiohead the following year. Radiohead’s Colin Greenwood said “They were great every night…[Mark's] first two records were very important to me, and I carried his music from the tour into my life, and my friends’ lives too.”

Mark Linkous

It was on this tour that Linkous nearly died. A combination of alcohol, anti-depressants and Valium resulted in him laying unconscious for 14 hours. His legs were trapped under him so when he was found and lifted, the sodium build up resulted in him going into cardiac arrest and he lost the use of his legs for  6 months.

This near-death experience is a strong theme in the 1999 album Good Morning Spider. Following the album’s release he said of the accident ““For a while there, I was really scared that when I technically died — which I guess I did for a few minutes — that the part of my brain that allowed me my ability to write songs would be damaged”.

2001 saw the release of It’s Wonderful Life, another haunting collection of tragically beautiful songs which although well received by critics and musicians alike, did not have a huge amount of commercial success. This album includes collaborations with Tom Waits, Nina Persson (The Cardigans), PJ Harvey and Dave Fridmann.

Linkous also had a close working relationship with the troubled singer/songwriter Daniel Johnston, who has had a life long battle with mental illness. He produced his 2003 album Fear Yourself and also The Late Great Daniel Johnston which saw him bring together many great musicians to cover the songs of the still-living artist. This album also features a collaboration with the Flaming Lips, which I have included on this playlist.

Dark Night Of The Soul

His last completed work was Dark Night Of The Soul. On this album he collaborated with Danger Mouse and David Lynch and brought another incredible group of musicians to contribute to the album.  James Mercer (The Shins), Julian Casablancas (The Strokes), Frank Black (Pixies) just to name a few. Although legal issues have meant the album has not had an official release, the album can be listened to in its entirity HERE.

On Saturday 6th March Mark Linkous took his own life by shooting himself in the chest with a rifle outside a friend’s home. He had apparently been drinking heavily and had been having many personal problems. Alcohol and depression was something he had battled with for the most part of his adult life.

His tender voice, bittersweet lyrics, intriguing collaborations and interestingly complex, yet subtle arrangements have always fascinated me. So many of his songs can make me simultaneously smile and cry. He will be sorely missed and I hope those of you less familiar with his work will enjoy some of the wonderful music created by this truly beautiful and honest artist.

Please do leave your comments and thoughts on the playlist and Sparklehorse or any feelings you have regarding Mark’s death or his music.

Thanks
Farraginous Francis x

Farraginous Friday #10 – Mark Linkous R.I.P. (SPOTIFY)

Farraginous Friday #10 – Mark Linkous R.I.P. (YOUTUBE)

Farraginous Friday #04 – Murder most horrid

Good day my farraginous favorers and welcome to the 4th installment of Farraginous Fridays!

Last week’s space adventure was a joyous journey of discovery and the future! This week’s future looks somewhat more bleak as we delve deep in to the darkest of the arts… MURDER!

Farraginous Friday #04 – Murder most horrid   (SPOTIFY)

Farraginous Friday #04 – Murder most horrid   (YOUTUBE)

The Clash

The first two tracks on this week’s playlist are inspired by true murder stories, though that is where the comparison ends (in true Farraginous Friday style). The pounding Mick Jones-penned track from The Clash is a powerfully worded piece highlighting society’s disregard for human life and the tragic anonymity of murder (“Somebody got murdered / His name cannot be found”). It is apparently based on the shooting of a shopkeeper across from Joe Strummer’s flat. One of my favourites from their epic Sandinista! album.

Tom Waits‘ twisted tale is derived from the 19th century Red Barn Murder; where a Suffolk gent murdered his mistress at their secret rendezvous in the country. I was spoilt for choice with Waits’ creepy back catalogue of music. His sleazy sepulchral voice on Murder In The Red Barn always sends a bone-chilling shiver down the spine.

The Wedding List, from Kate Bush‘s record-breaking album of 1980, Never For Ever, was based on the 1968 Francois Truffaut film The Bride Who Wore Black and tells of a bride who takes revenge on her husband’s killer(s). The album was the first number 1 album for a British female artist.

Rather humorously, if slightly naïvely, The Auteurs‘ Luke Haines once said “We released Unsolved Child Murders as our Christmas single”. Although Haines’ songwriting talent has always been clear to see, the skewed humour and quirky pop style has always limited his success.

Nick Cave & Kylie Minogue

Australia’s eeriest export Nick Cave (and his band of less-than-merry men The Bad Seeds) provides us with a next daunting ditty from his aptly titled Murder Ballads album. The swarming strings open the track and set a sombre scene for the story of obsession and death. The song features a career-best performance from pop diva Kylie Minogue. Again, many to choose from with Cave but the unusual collaboration and gorgeous arrangement meant Where The Wild Roses Grow could not be ignored. It is also Cave’s biggest hit, reaching number 2 in the Australian ARIA singles chart and is accompanied by Rocky Shenck’s beautiful video.

Excitable Boy, comes from Warren Zevon‘s 1978 album of the same name. No one can resist a bit of cheery D.O.R. especially when it’s peppered with such disturbing lyrics (“He raped her and he killed her, then her took her home”). I couldn’t decide if the delight taken from this hefty contrast was healthy or not. So I thought I’d test myself with another track of similar sentiment…

The gifted but often self-indulgent Beck came back from a minor career lull with Guero, his ninth studio album. Girl, has an irresistable summer feel to it with the dark lyrical content (“And I know I’m gonna make her die / Take her where her soul belongs”) almost going unnoticed over the chiptune backing and heavily layered acoustic guitars. From this, I decided that my original delight was healthy enough

Beck

Closing Farraginous Friday #04 this week is the unusual goth-rock-epic from the ever-negative Avenged Sevenfold. A wonderfully melodramatic and bloody blow-out, A Little Piece of Heaven seemed like the only true way to end the 4th installment such a right royal bludgeoning joy that is Farraginous Fridays.

I hope you’ve all enjoyed the doom-drenched delights this week and will leave all your caring or caustic comments as always.

Please also encourage your friends to come visit subscribe either on here or join the Facebook group aptly title Farraginous Fridays.

Until next time….

Farraginous Francis x

Farraginous Friday #04 – Murder most horrid   (SPOTIFY)

Farraginous Friday #04 – Murder most horrid   (YOUTUBE)

naive