Together Forever: The Wedding Mixtape

I was ready to concede right away; I just didn’t have much of anything on topic for weddings. Of course I took this literally (I mean, look at what I’m doing with this project – if I’m not overly literal, who is?). There’s Pretty Thing, my favorite Bo Diddley recording, which I would play at any wedding in which I was put in charge of the music (as the bride walked down the aisle, of course)… Bryan Ferry talked about taking wedding vows in Let’s Stick Together… And of course there’s Chapel of Love by the Dixie Cups, which Jonathan Richman says he recorded in the 70s only because he heard that Iggy Pop liked the song…

Then I saw that BD’s list had some stuff that was not necessarily about the ceremony itself, just about being married. It occurred to me that extending the meaning could include quite a few more songs about husbands and wives, marriages, being together forever, etc. But a lot of those—like Love Will Tear Us Apart by Joy Division, Someone Must’ve Nailed Us Together by Len Bright Combo, and Married With Children by Oasis—are more about unhappy marriages potentially splitting at the seams. As such, I could have possibly held them back for the Divorce theme, which is next on the list, and they might have fit in just as well. Others—including Wouldn’t It Be Nice by the Beach Boys and Semaphore Signals by Wreckless Eric—are simply dreams about the possibility of someday getting hitched. Meanwhile, the 70s funk classic leading off the mixtape is all about not getting married, and getting shacked up instead. Turns out to not be a bad tape at all, but I’m left feeling a little dissatisfied (and, it’s a little too short), so I will take the hit on this one.

The Wedding Mixtape

Shack Up – Banbarra
Wouldn’t It Be Nice – Beach Boys
Pretty Thing – Bo Diddley
Let’s Stick Together – Bryan Ferry
Peggy Sue Got Married – Buddy Holly
Chapel of Love – Dixie Cups
Melancholy Serenade (Honeymooners Theme) – Jackie Gleason Orchestra
Love Will Tear Us Apart – Joy Division
Someone Must’ve Nailed Us Together – Len Bright Combo
Married With Children – Oasis
Wedding Ring – The Stingrays
Semaphore Signals – Wreckless Eric

Here is a link to BD’s winning wedding tape.

Whoa Dad: the Fathers Mixtape

The Vietnam War flick Apocalypse Now did more for Jim Morrison’s career than anything he did himself while he was still alive, bringing The Doors to a generation of teenagers too young to have known their seamier side in real-time, even if they remembered their Top 40 hits from always being on the radio. The oedipal pomp-rock opus that ended the film (“The End”) paved the way for more pop music daddy dissing in subsequent years.


But your dad won’t understand
That our love is true
And I can’t leave you here
So he...can hit on you
--24 HOURS TO VEGAS (1984)

Daddy likes men
--WE’RE A HAPPY FAMILY (1977)

Dear Daddy, I write you, in spite of years of silence
You cleaned up, found Jesus, things are good or so I hear
This bottle of Steven’s awakens ancient feelings
Like father, step-father, the son is drowning in the flood!
--SAY IT AINT SO (1994)

“The Mad Daddy” is the Cramps’ tribute to the Cleveland beatnik DJ and original horror movie host Pete “Mad Daddy” Myers, who debuted on WJW in Cleveland in 1958…Just like in the Notorious B.I.G.s “Big Poppa,” in Ella Mae Morse’s “Shoo Shoo Baby”, references to “papa” and “daddy” are clearly terms of sweetheart endearment. Or are they? The WWII soldier sayanara song never properly resolves this question…Spoonie Gee’s “The Godfather” serves the same purpose as Roxanne Shante’s “Big Mama” (see the Mothers Mixtape), at least in terms of boasting his parentage of rap. His paternal claims came earlier, in 1987, but eight years after the pioneer MC’s first record…

The Fathers Mixtape:

The Mad Daddy – The Cramps
Diddley Daddy – Bo Diddley
The End – The Doors
Shoo Shoo Baby – Ella Mae Morse
24 Hours to Vegas – The Huns (Iowa 1984)
Papa’s Got a Brand New Bag – James Brown
Daddy and Home – Jimmie Rodgers
Big Poppa – Notorious B.I.G.
Her Father Didn’t Like Me Anyway – Gerry Rafferty
We’re a Happy Family – Ramones
Son of Byford – Run DMC
Listen to Your Father – Feargal Sharkey
The Godfather – Spoonie Gee
Papa Was a Rolling Stone – The Temptations
Whoa Dad – The Trashmen
Gone Daddy Gone – Violent Femmes
Say it Aint So – Weezer

No Xmas for John's Cache

And the Christmas lights, they blew up
Now the leccy's all gone dead
I look like a coal miner
And I've a pain inside my head
--A CHRISTMAS LULLABY (1996)

I’m not gonna dwell on the negative, but this theme is woeful. Both the theme itself and my attempt to make a tape. It’s like the baseball theme – there’s just so few songs on topic that are any good. Two of my favorite artists from the borough of Queens – Run DMC and the Ramones – both made very forgettable Christmas songs late in their careers, leaving a bad taste, so I’m not gonna bother with them. It’s ill-timed too, so let’s just get it over with, concede to BD, and move on.

Little Saint Nick – The Beach Boys
Christmas Greetings – The Beatles
Merry Christmas Baby – Chuck Berry
Little Drummer Boy – Bing Crosby and David Bowie
Santa Claus is Back in Town – Elvis Presley
No Xmas for John Quays – The Fall
Christmas Episode 1946 – Jack Benny Radio Program
Run Rudolph Run – Keith Richards
Fairytale of New York – The Pogues
A Christmas Lullaby – Shane MacGowan and the Popes
Santa Claus – The Sonics
Comanche (Link Wray's Christmas) – Wild Billy Childish & the Musicians of the British Empire
Jesus Christ – Woody Guthrie

Bob Dylan's victorious Xmixtape.

Locked Up: the Jail Mixtape

Back in 1981, someone pointed out to me the macho cartoon aspect of The Clash, mostly in their choice of lyrical content and song/album titles. I wasn’t too interested in that kind of analysis at the time, but I filed away the information anyway. Visual image-wise, of course, they loved dressing up. Sometimes you’d see pictures of the group and they would look like bikers-- other times, they would be cowboys, policemen, soldiers, foppish dandies (is there any other kind?) -- or all of the above. That’s it! The Clash were the Village People!

I’m not sure if they ever dressed up specifically as jailbirds, but they certainly looked liked some kind of prisoners on the cover of their very first single. Some editing was required to get the Jail Mixtape to include only three Clash songs. In Jail Guitar Doors, they sang about real-life musicians who fell foul of the law, including Peter Green, Wayne Kramer and Keith Richards. Stay Free was a sweet ode to a thieving friend. Julie’s Been Working for the Drug Squad was inspired by the bust of a drug factory in Wales, IIRC.

They put him in a cell, they said ‘you wait here’
‘Now you got the time to count all of your hair’

Other jail songs on the tape feature more serious crimes, including at least three murders. You'll have to scroll down, though. Too clever by half with the Jail song table -- there's a big blank space and I can't get rid of it:

Song	Artist	Crime(s)	Sentence(s)
Worried Man Blues	The Carter Family	Went across the river and lay down to sleep	21 years on the R.C. Mountain line
John Hardy	Billy Childish	Murder (multiple)	Death
Jail Guitar Doors	The Clash	Deals of cocaine / gun threat / heroin possession	2 years / institutionalized / out on bail ($25,000)
Julie's Been Working for the Drug Squad	The Clash	Illegal manufacture of tablets…in their millions	10-25 years
Stay Free	The Clash	Went on a nicking spree	Three years in Brixton
Jailhouse Rock	Dean Carter	Unknown	Unknown
007 (Shanty Town)	Desmond Dekker	Looting and shooting	Probation
Folsom Prison Blues	The Huns	Shot a man in Reno just to watch him die	Life (implied)
On Parole	Motorhead	Looking for fun / forgot the reason	Forever and a day / parole
Prison Cell Blues	Blind Lemon Jefferson	Nell	Undetermined number of days
The Old Main Drag	The Pogues	Vagrancy	Beaten and mauled at Vine Street lock-up
Black Steel in the Hour of Chaos	Public Enemy	Draft dodging	Serving time in the state pen
The Auld Triangle	Ronnie Drew	Unknown	Death
Your Funeral and My Trial	Sonny Boy Williamson II	Threat of murder	None--yet
Prison Cell of Love	Werly Fairburn	Love	Love
Bad Lee Brown (Cocaine Blues )	Woody Guthrie	Blowed his woman down	Life in the penitentiary

Traditional music features heavily when it comes to the Jail Mixtape, but not everything is pure roots. There's comedy, too, from Motorhead, and from Public Enemy:

I got a letter from the government the other day
I opened and read it
It said they were suckers
They wanted me for their army or whatever
Picture me givin' a damn - I said never

For such an over the top song, I find its opening verse hilarious. Chuck D. deserves credit for inserting humor where you least expect it: there's plenty of wit dispensed throughout his otherwise often angry oeuvre.

Other stuff: I used to see Ronnie Drew around town before he passed away this year, having lived in his parish for the last while...The 80s Huns (not the 70s Texas ones) demoed Folsom Prison in Iowa...I've been to the Vine Street police station, where the protagonist of the Old Main Drag was brutalized "between the metal doors", but only to give a statement as a witness...Dean Carter's performance is the wildest on the mixtape, Desmond Dekker's the prettiest, and Werly Fairburn just has the best name.



Click here for Bob Dylan's Jail mix.

Java Jive: The Coffee Mixtape

John’s Cache 3, Bob Dylan 2

After going undefeated in the first three, the gap is now closing. That’s right, it’s been a competition all along, and how can you not win when you’re your own DJ? By not having the tunes, that’s how. These last two themes have been junk, to be sure, and it’s the only way BD can win (I think). But I admit, with Coffee, this is the first time I’ve had to go fishing outside my own collection and knowledge, just to fill up half a tape. To counter that unfortunate decline in standards, I’ve also included two very personal selections that are unique to my collection—a couple of audience recordings—one of which I made 25 years ago.

~

Well, it’s, FIFTY CUPS OF COFFEE and you know IT’S ON

So announces Adam Horovitz at the start of the Hello Nasty LP, pretty much summing up the Beastie Boys’ approach to music-making. “Super Disco Breakin’” isn’t about coffee, but the hyperactive MC-ing that rips through the first two minutes and seven seconds of the band’s fifth album—their second-best—exhibits the over-caffeinated methodology that has been a trademark throughout their long career. No one else on the mixtape is quite as embracing of the stimulating properties of the bitter bean—bouncing off the walls, rocking, joyful.


Except Bal Croce, that is, spastic singer with the Stingrays (the 80s, psychobilly/folk rock ones from London, not the 90s surf rockers, 21st century cruise ship entertainers, or various 60s garage incarnations). “Another Cup of Coffee”, one the tracks on the B-side of the group’s debut “…On Self-Destruct” EP, was one of the few ‘rays originals co-written by Bal with main songwriter Alec Palao. On the original recording, it’s hard to make out what words his highly amped and sometimes guttural motormouth is spewing besides the title refrain (“another cup of coffee, and everything’ll be all right…”), but my understanding has always been that it’s about a spoiled rich girl with a drinking problem (intelligible words include “your daddy’s car,” “down another pint on the way to the bar,” “bourgeois ways,” and “mom’s expectations”). I'm not completely sure those are accurate, but good luck making out the lyrics from this exclusive live version which I recorded on my old ghetto blaster at Mike Spenser’s original Garage club in Brixton, south London, on March 19th, 1983. Extra bonus track from same gig: "My Flash on You" (cover of the original by Love). [photo: The Stingrays on stage at the Garage]


Other coffee songs? In my groping around for filler, I was pleased to learn about The Mods, a Japanese punk band formed in 1974. Listening to a snippet of Espresso, I hear echoes of the Godfathers and the Sid Presley Experience, hometown contemporaries of the Stingrays. The last of the truly wired tracks on the mixtape is "Mug A Joe" by Mug A Joe, a short-lived teen band that played about a dozen gigs in the Dublin area in 2004. The live recording is very likely from this gig. The other songs all namecheck coffee but are mostly smooth or at least less frantic, recognizing that caffiene can, actually, be taken in moderation and be quite calming.

Here is the track list for the Coffee tape:

Black Coffee - All Saints
Super Disco Breakin’ – Beastie Boys
Black Coffee – Black Flag
Java – Bob Crosby and His Bobcats
One More Cup of Coffee – Bob Dylan
The Coffee Grind – Charlie & the Jives
One Cup of Coffee and a Cigarette – Glen Glenn
Cappuccino Bar - Jonathan Richman
Cappucino – MC Lyte
Espresso – The Mods
Iodine in My Coffee – Muddy Waters
Mug A Joe – Mug A Joe [MP3]
Black Coffee – Peggy Lee
Another Cup of Coffee – The Stingrays [MP3]
BONUS TRACK: My Flash on You -- The Stingrays [MP3]
Coffee in the Pot – Supergrass



Click here to see Bob Dylan's Coffee mixtape selections.