Dandelion Whine: the Flowers Mixtape

When there’s no future
how can there be sin?
We are the flowers in the dustbin
--GOD SAVE THE QUEEN, 1977

When critics said the Sex Pistols were nihilistic, this must have been the line they were referring to. It's not fair. Nihilism suggests immorality, but with this couplet, John Lydon evokes something more like thoughtful exasperation, and, more poignantly, deep sadness. But at this point, you would be right in thinking: "I thought this was supposed to be a mixtape about flowers?"

A shamrock is a flower, right? Close enough. I've been looking for an excuse to put the Royal Teens, the band behind the original "Short Shorts", on a mixtape. "Sham Rock" would be one of the sleaziest grooves ever made were it not simultaneously so innocent...



Flowers grow where? In gardens -- that's where. In "Beautiful Gardens", the Cramps updated Kim Fowley's cartoon acid trip vibe featured on the last mixtape. The track here is from a cassette bootleg I bought in Camden Market 25 years ago, featuring live versions of most tunes from the Psychedelic Jungle LP...Psychedelic is also the theme of Pebbles Volume 3, the album that brought Chrystal Chandlier's "Suicidal Flowers" to my attention. While the singer featured there provides adequate back-up for Jim Morrison, the Better Sweet is an early Grateful Dead doppelganger on "Like the Flowers", featured on volume three of the Bad Vibrations compilation series.

The Flowers Mixtape

Like The Flowers – Better Sweet
The Wildwood Flower – Carter Family
Suicidal Flowers – Chrystal Chandlier
Beautiful Gardens (Live 1981) – The Cramps
BONUS TRACK: Don't Eat Stuff Off the Sidewalk (Live 1981) - The Cramps
BONUS TRACK: Primitive (Live 1981) - The Cramps
New Rose – The Damned
La Vie En Rose – Grace Jones
Rose of My Heart – Johnny Cash
Give My Love to Rose – Johnny Cash
Orange Blossom Special - Lester Flatt & Earl Scruggs
Blue Flower – Mazzy Star
Sham Rock – The Royal Teens
God Save the Queen – Sex Pistols
Apple Blossom – White Stripes
Blue Orchid – White Stripes
Pictures of Lily – The Who
Dandylion Clock - Wild Billy Childish & the Musicians of the British Empire
Psycho Daisies – The Yardbirds

Here is the track list for BD's Flowers tape.

My Mixtape Brings All the Boys to the Yard

Bob Dylan has a mixtape radio show – it’s on Phantom FM here in Dublin. I like Dylan a little, and I used to love mixtapes. I can’t say I’ve been a faithful listener, but I did catch his holiday theme show last December. He played a bunch of obscuro Christmas records and spewed a surprising lot of between-song patter. Like Joe Strummer during his vanity gig as a BBC World Service DJ, Dylan seemed to be getting off on some kind of midnight hipster Wolfman Jack fantasy. It was a good show, but his shtick did get a little tiresome. Anyway, I like the choice of themes he has used for his shows (“Weather,” “Coffee”, “Trains”, “More Trains,” etc.). So I guess I’ll post my mixtapes using the same themes, and throw in some links where possible. First up is Weather.

Looks like I overlap with BD on three songs, but on two of them, it’s not the same version (see BD’s list at the end of the post)... For all those who still fail to understand that Elvis Presley was once a performer full of only innocence and no artifice, listen to him on I Don’t Care if the Sun Don’t Shine, or any other song on the Sun Sessions LP... The White Stripes are the perfect modern band for the middle aged dude who went through Led Zeppelin, Muddy Waters, Kinks, Buzzcocks and Cramps phases in the 70s and 80s... Epicycle was a band at my high school back then, and props to them for not sounding like Foreigner, whose sampled Cold as Ice chorus is chipmunkized on M.O.P.’s gangsta rap hit, the other redeeming feature of which is a truly monster bass line... Archive.org--a.k.a. the basement of the Internet--has demos from the Warlocks, the precursor to the Grateful Dead... And finally, there are times when I would agree with Youtube user prolo67, who says A Rainy Night in Soho is the best love song ever written. Shame the video features the extra slick 1991 remix (added strings and horns), not the raw, original Poguetry in Motion version.

The Weather Mixtape

300 M.P.H. Torrential Outpour Blues - The White Stripes
Four Strong Winds - Johnny Cash
California Sun - The Ramones
Keep on the Sunny Side - The Carter Family
Have You Ever Seen the Rain - Creedence Clearwater Revival
Gloomy Sunday - Billie Holiday
Life is a Breeze - Epicycle
Cold As ICE - M.O.P.
Johnny Thunder - The Kinks
Blister in the Sun - Violent Femmes
A Hard Rain’s A-Gonna Fall - Bob Dylan
Hurricane - The Collins Kids
I Don't Care if the Sun Don't Shine - Elvis Presley
Storm Warning - Mac Rebennack (aka Dr. John)
Who Loves The Sun - Velvet Underground
Rainy Days and Mondays - The Carpenters
Early Morning Rain - The Warlocks
A Rainy Night in Soho - The Pogues

For reference purposes, here’s Bob Dylan’s Weather tape:

Blow Wind Blow - Muddy Waters
You Are My Sunshine - Jimmie Davis
California Sun - Joe Jones
I Don't Care if the Sun Don't Shine - Dean Martin
Just Walking in the Rain - The Prisonaires
After the Clouds Roll Away - The Consolers
The Wind Cries Mary - Jimi Hendrix
Come Rain or Come Shine - Judy Garland
It's Raining - Irma Thomas
Didn't It Rain - Sister Rosetta Tharpe
Raining in my Heart - Slim Harpo
Jamaica Hurricane - Lord Beginner
Let the four Winds Blow - Fats Domino
Stormy Weather - The Spaniels
A Place in the Sun (song) - Stevie Wonder
Summer Wind - Frank Sinatra
Uncloudy Day - The Staple Singers
Keep on the Sunny Side - The Carter Family