Albums of the Year: 1980

In my notebook, I have shortlists for my albums of the year for 1979 and 1980 side-by-side. The list for 1979 is shorter, but infinitely better; 1980’s list includes 24 albums, but fewer which I’m particularly enthusiastic about. While I’m deciding which albums to bump from ’79, here’s the 1980 lot, with decent albums by David Bowie, Paul Simon, Kate Bush, Motörhead, Ideal and Roxy Music not making the cut for various reasons. It’s a rather predictable list, provided one knows that I never liked ska, got into New Wave only a year later, and mostly bought singles that year. And, it seems, I never really caught up with 1980. So no Specials, no Joy Division, no Talking Heads, no Jam, no The Beat, and (you’ll be surprised) no Gaucho…It is, in fact, a year to piss off the Taste Police (with the Police) with a pick of not the best albums of the year, but those I know and still enjoy.


FULL POST HERE

Have Song, Will Sing Vol. 1

Last year I did a series of Songbirds which seems to have been quite popular, showcasing female artists who fall within the singer-songwriter genre which unaccountably has acquired something of a bad name among the critics. In my view, the genre has not been in a more fertile state since the 1970s. Indeed, it is probably more varied now than it was then.

I’ve thought of doing a similar series on male singer-songwriters (which I might call "Singers with names like schoolteachers", borrowing a great dig from the Welsh music writer Simon Price). In the meantime, here is a collection of some of the male singer-songwriters I hold in high esteem. What they have in common is that they write the songs they sing, and are broadly, if not invariably, acoustic performers. But the mix transcends such narrow characterisations. Their sensibilities range from folk (such as Mason Jennings) to pop (Bob Evans, Benji Cossa) to indie (Jens Lekman, Josh Ritter) to soul (Amos Lee) to country (Joe Purdy) to rock (Charlie Sexton, Scott Matthews). Most are American, but other nations are also represented, such as Australia (Evans), England (David Ford), Sweden (Lekman) and South Africa (the excellent Farryl Purkiss).

Some are well-known (such as Damien Jurado or, again, Ritter and Lekman), others are without a record contract. Josh Woodward, whose previous album I enjoyed very much, has made his new, very good double set titled The Simple Life available for free download on his website. If you like the sample track on this mix, download it and share it widely. TV viewers will recognise the Steve Poltz song from the Jeep ad, while Landon Pigg’s voice is used to advertise diamonds (albeit with a different, very beautiful, song).

My shortlist is not exhausted. If this mix proves popular, I intend to compile a volume of Songbirds and then a co-ed one. Let me know what you think.

As always, the mix should fit on a standard CD-R.

1. Steve Poltz - You Remind Me (from Chinese Vacation, 2003)
2. Bob Evans - Friend (from Suburban Songbook, 2006)
3. Farryl Purkiss - Ducking And Diving (from Farryl Purkiss, 2006)
4. Mason Jennings - Which Way Your Heart Will Go (from Boneclouds, 2006)
5. Landon Pigg - Can't Let Go (from Coffee Shop EP, 2008)
6. Joshua Radin - The Fear You Won't Fall (from Unclear Sky EP, 2008)
7. Jay Brannan - Can't Have It All (from Chinese Vacation, 2003)
8. David Ford - Cheer Up (You Miserable Fuck) (from I Sincerely Apologise For All The Trouble I've Caused, 2005)
9. Josh Ritter - Wait For Love (You Know You Will) (from The Historical Conquests Of, 2007)
10. Damien Jurado - Simple Hello (from On My Way To Absence, 2005)
11. Charlie Sexton - Cruel And Gentle Things (from Cruel And Gentle Things, 2005)
12. Griffin House - Just A Dream (from Lost And Found, 2004)
13. Josh Woodward - History Repeats (from The Simple Life, 2008)
14. Jens Lekman - I Saw Her in the Anti War Demonstration (from Oh You're So Silent Jens, 2005)
15. Kevin Devine - Probably (from ... travelling the EU EP, 2003)
16. Joe Purdy - Why You (from Only Four Seasons, 2006)
17. Amos Lee - Long Line Of Pain (live) (from Supply And Demand, 2006)
18. Elvis Perkins - Ash Wednesday (from Ash Wednesday, 2007)
19. Scott Matthews - Passing Stranger (from Passing Stranger, 2007)
20. Benji Cossa - The Show Is Over Everywhere (from Between The Blue And The Green, 2007)

DOWNLOAD LINK HERE

And if you liked all that, you might also like the comp I posted in February:
Any Major Love Mix (featuring the Weepies, Josh Rouse, Ron Sexmith, Ben Folds, Jens Lekman, Mindy Smith, Hello Saferide, Michelle Featherstone, Richard Hawley, Ben Harper, Liz Phair, Mason Jennings, Colbie Caillat and more)

Pissing off the Taste Police with Simply Red

My abiding dislike of Hucknall is rather more prurient, harking back to the days when he was having a relationship of alleged sexual nature with the lovely Steffi Graf, owner of the greatest legs in sports. I don’t usually picture the copulation of famous people (much less non-famous folks), but upon learning of this revolting mismatch, my mind involuntarily conjured the image of Hucknall on top of the lovely Steffi Graf, his transluscent sweaty arse, polka-dotted with freckles and postules, heaving and thrusting, thrusting and heaving, before delivering his ace (note the entirely unexpected and not at all lazy tennis pun here. But be thankful I did not stoop to the level of opening up the red box, as Hucknall has in song). If I was a sex therapist, this would be the image I’d recommend to young men as a mental remedy to the affliction of premature ejaculation, perhaps photoshopped to replace the lovely Steffi Graf with Margaret Thatcher.


FULL POST HERE

Music For Bloggers: Vol. 7

Last time I promised to post more Music For Bloggers within a couple of weeks. Almost month later… As always, if your blog doesn’t feature now, it might do so in the future. Does anyone find this feature useful?

Uncle E’s Musical Nightmares
This might look like an act of reciprocity: a little while back, Uncle E. posted a bunch of made-up and amusing “facts” about Steely Dan, in honour of this little blog. While I was genuinely touched by that, I really do enjoy Uncle E.'s lists, notes and the occasional rant. His fireworks about his “little iPod cigarette lighter FM ‘port’ thingy” (it's called an iTrip, I think. At least when the fuckers from Apple make it) a few days ago is quite spectacular; and his alternative CD-R playlist not at all unattractive. Unle E. does not give us music, but he gives us some good ideas – and entertains us along the way.
Cat Stevens - 18th Avenue (Kansas City Nightmare).mp3



Jens Lekman – smalltalk
I don’t go in much for blogs written by artists. Maybe I’m betraying my utter lack of empirical research now, but my impression is that often they are either banal or written by the act’s PR interns. Armed with that prejudice, I don’t tend to seek out such blogs. Occasionally I’ll stumble upon one by accident; usually when I do research for this blog. That’s how I found Jay Brannan’s blog, and that’s how I found Jens Lekman’s. If it is necessary to introduce to the reader the great Lekman, the dear reader might right-click HERE for an introduction. Jens doesn’t update his blog with compulsive regularity, unfortunately. The last entry was on June 30. Still, so much greater the joy when he does. I like this, from his entry on 19 June: Everytime I play on some satellite radio station I always end up in the same discussion. [Satellite radio station guy] “You know you can say anything you want here right?” “Oh yeah? That’s cool.” “You know, really, anything.” “Sweet.” “I mean, you can say fuck if you want to.” “Ok.” (silence) “...We’d really like you to say fuck as much as possible.” This absolutely wonderful song namechecks Jens Lekman:
Hello Saferide - The Quiz.mp3



Ain’t Superstitious
The blog’s full title in full is “Ain’t Superstitious, but these things I’ve seen”, which by dint of a comma is an even bigger mouthful than Any Major Dude With Half A Heart. Like most music blogs with long names, it’s named after a song lyric, in this case a Faces song. Blogger Paul Madison, a resident of Wisconsin (one US state I know absolutely nothing about) has a nice, crisp style of writing; he knows his stuff and how to convey it. His music selections are invariably of interest — he scooped me with a post on Lennon/McCartney compositions recorded by other acts. To make sense of my dedication, you’ll have to visit Paul’s blog.
The Style Council - My Ever Changing Moods (12" version).mp3


AM, Then FM
I could have sworn that I featured this blog before, but apparently not, as repeated scans of previous Music for Bloggers entries confirmed. Perhaps I wrote a masterful review and in the haze of a drunken hour miserably deleted it. Like Paul of Ain’t Superstitious, Jeff is from Wisconsin. His blogroll features many sites also included on mine, but not the blog of his fellow Wisconsan (and vice versa). Which means that either they don’t each other (possible, unless Wisconsin has a population of 250; as I said, I know nothing about Wisconsin) or they do know each other but are entertaining a long-running family feud. They’d like each other’s blogs, I’m sure. Jeff deals in mostly vinyl rips, some of them quite rare, and evidently in covers of the Rolling Stone featuring Linda Ronstadt in her loveliest pomp. And some good writing along the way. This reminds me, August 12 is Vinyl Record Day , and AM, Then FM and other friends of this blog will take part. I’m trying to organise a turntable (my Technics has no stylus, and I no money for a new one) and learn to rip vinyl before then, but I’m not hopeful that I’ll succeed.
Steely Dan - FM.mp3


PsD Photoshop Disasters
I discovered this blog only yesterday, when I had a shitload of work to do. Work, which includes the occasional bit of photoshopping, had to be damned for an hour or so while I guffawed at some of the idiotic things that can happen when you let the monkeys loose on clever toys. How likely is it to clone, if you need to clone at all, a solitary hand parked on a fence? How difficult is it to let the lovely model keep her belly button (I like belly buttons. Surely everybody likes belly buttons)? I can’t understand why some images need to be created from scratch in Photoshop instead of in a photo studio, or why a model’s arm needs to be stretched to unnatural lengths. And is there no quality control. Not in glossy magazines, Apple ads or DVD covers. DTP has made print media production much easier, but it has also allowed talentless amateurs on the steering wheel. They go crazy with layers and the cloning tool, they O.D. on fonts, they violate every rule of colour management. I once saw an NGO’s annual report which ran all text in red on black background. The design agency – for it was a graphic design company, not he secretary’s 12-year-old son who designed the report – won an award for it! The Photoshop Disasters blog is a healthy way to mock incompetence and sloppiness in design. The dedicated song is a 2002 track from a now disbanded South African rock group.
Perez - Picture Perfect.mp3


SibLingshot On The Bleachers
This is a fairly new blog, kicking off business just two months ago. In its first month, blogger ib created almost as many posts as I did in all of 2007, and just in July more than I have this year. And we’re not talking about quickly churned out one-liners, but well-written and thoughtful posts written from a position of knowledge. That is impressive. ib’s music selection is very good, too, covering a wide range of genres, from Deodato via Johnny Cash and Jonathan Richman to the 1910 Fruitgum Company. Normally there is just one song per post, which means that quite a bit of thought goes into choosing the most suitable song. Some of the stuff is very rare. Given ib’s eclectic tastes and weird blog title, I’ve been stuck for a dedication. I remember early in his career, ib posted the Dionne Warwick and Frankie Goes To Hollywood version of Do You Know The Way To San José. You can never go wrong with a bit of Burt, so from 1965...
Jackie Trent - Make It Easy On Yourself.mp3


Dr Forrest's Cheese Factory
This is a treasure trove in a goldmine. It’s a malfunctioning cash machine which cannot stop spewing out loot – provided one wants comedy or collects really bad music, or gets a kick out of audio novelties. The blog’s narrative is manic, and so is the rate of posting. My heart leapt when I opened the blog yesterday and saw the Kids From The Brady Bunch album, which is truly terrible and needs to be listened to. Once. Ethel Merman’s famous disco album? It’s there. I’ve seen many albums for download in the Cheese Factory which are staples of the “worst album covers ever” type of lists. You know the type of obscure sleeves which may depict four fat brothers and their one-armed mother in matching brown polyester suits warning the kids of the devil in country style. Chances are good that the Cheese Factory has that album. The Cheese Factory also seems to share my obsession with horrible moustaches. To celebrate everything done in the best possible taste, here’s a song the Cheese Factory does not have:
Kenny Everett - Snot Rap.mp3


N.M.E. & Melody Maker
I don’t know whether there are more sites like it, but this unassumingly named blog provides a wonderful service: scanned articles from the Melody Maker and New Musical Express, circa 1987-96. At times, it might embarrass the hacks featured (I’d hate for someone to dig up some of the rubbish I wrote 15 years ago), but it’s great fun. And what fine writers there were: David Stubbs (whose Mr Agreeables and variations thereof also feature), Taylor Parkes (an incredible writer who is far too underused; just read his doubtless easily knocked out Smiths review), Simon Price, Andrew Mueller, Everett True... and a few NME types. Funny, I never liked the NME much, but, goodness, it’s so bloody horrible now that I miss the old incarnation. And the Maker is long dead. So, while we mourn the existence of the non-broadsheet, rather too laddish NME, we can revisit the good old days. Hey, is there a blog dedicated to Smash Hits’ Black Type? Is he Back! Back!! Back!!! somewhere? Of all the dedications in this post, this track was a no-brainer.
The Cure - Desperate Journalist.mp3



Previously featured:
Music For Bloggers Vol. 1: Totally Fuzzy, Not Rock On, Serenity Now (RIP), Stay At Home Indie Pop, The Late Greats, Tsururadio, 200percent, Jefitoblog (RIP), Television Without Pity, Michael's World
Music For Bloggers Vol. 2: Fullundie, Mr Agreeable, Greatest Films, Peanut's Playground, Just Good Tunes, Csíkszereda Musings, Mulberry Panda, The Black Hole, Secret Love, Hot Chicks With Douchebags
Music For Bloggers Vol. 3: Girl On A Train, Maybe We Ain't That Young Anymore, Earbleedingcountry, Spangly Princess, Ill Folks, Deacon Blues, One-Man Publisher, CD Rated
Music For Bloggers Vol. 4: Pop Dose, Todger Talk, Holy Goof (RIP), Echoes In The Wind, Sunset Over Slawit, The Hits Just Keep Coming, The Ghost of Electricity, Guitariotabs
Music For Bloggers Vol. 5: The Quietus, Barely Awake In Frog Pyamas, The Great Vinyl Meltdown, Fusion 45, Inveresk Street Ingrate, The Songs That People Sing
Music For Bloggers Vol. 6: my hmphs, Visions of Wrong Terrence, Don't Burn The Day Away, Mine For Life, 3 Minutes 49 Seconds

Interview: Jay Brannan

FULL INTERVIEW HERE

Is it possible to fairly review an album one has fallen in love with? It is legitimate to review an album one hates; those are much easier and great fun to write. In life as in music criticism, it is simpler to spew bile than to convincingly justify love. So I won’t attempt a critique of Jay Brannan’s debut album, Goddamned, which was released this month. I will not discuss the wistful beauty of Home, the biting acerbicism of On All Fours and American Idol, the sing-along properties of Half-Boyfriend or At First Sight, the staccato wit of Bowlegged & Starving or String Along Song or Death Waltz, the sweet yearning of Housewife, or the sweeping acoustic gothicism of the title track.

Perhaps it is a better indication of the album's merit that everyone I have introduced Brannan's music to has become a fan (at least those who have reported back to me). Most satisfying among my converts is Any Minor Dude, 13, who came into my study and announced that it is impossible not to listen to Goddamned on loop. Father and son share excellent taste, again. It is indeed a wonderful album in the singer-songwriter genre.

The melodies are quite lovely; the arrangement frequently spare but consistently imaginative. The set is at times intensely intimate. Some catchy phrases creep into the mind, creating recurring earworms. But above all the album’s finds its potency in the singer’s vulnerable lyrics. Brannan reveals himself, sometimes brutally so, in songs addressing issues of self-esteem, of rejection in complex romantic liaisons, of disillusionment, anger and hope. Brannan has some invigorating turns of phrase, such as “your text messages provided low calorie food for my soul”, the awkwardly lovely metaphor underlining the appeal of an artist giving of himself. One feels close to the singer, drawn to his experience. Hmm, perhaps I have found the words to justify why I love the album.

All this may sound as though Brannan is a miserablist with guitar (and strings and piano). That would be a misrepresentation. He has a delicious wit. Read his blog to meet a funny, unassuming, passionate and very likable man who feels very strongly about some things and is wide-eyed about other things.

And with all this out of the way, here is this blog’s very first EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW


AMD: Music critics are becoming increasingly scathing about the whole singer-songwriter genre. Are you concerned that being a guy with guitar performing under his own name is going to harm your reception with the reviewers?
JB: Everyone keeps telling me that this “singer-songwriter” category is becoming cliché and that people are afraid of that classification, but I never knew that until........

It’s a very rich genre at the moment, perhaps the best “singer-songwriter” scene since the '70s, with artists like Sufjan Stevens, Laura Veirs, Joshua Radin, the Weepies, Rosie Thomas, Kathleen Edwards, Josh Rouse, Mindy Smith, Griffin House and so on. Do you see yourself as part of that scene?
I don't see myself as part of any “scene”. What I do is very personal, and I do it because I don’t know what else to do with myself. It’s me and my guitar...

Your litany of swearing on On All Fours is quite spectacular. Did that come to you naturally?
Ha ha, thanks. Swearing always comes naturally to me. Curse words are ...

Some of the songs on Goddamned are very personal, evidently drawn from complex relationships. The line “You liked the guy on your iPod, not the guy in your bed” (from At First Sight), for example, suggests they are autobiographical. How much of yourself goes into your lyrics?
Pretty much everything I write comes from my own reality. Anger and pain and frustration are ...

Songs like Housewife and At First Sight obviously describe gay relationships. It does come across as being quite unselfconscious, which I admire. But did you debate with yourself how this might influence the reaction your music will receive?
I disagree that any of my songs “describe gay relationships”. I don’t think that the singer’s gender...

But are you worried about being known as “Gay Singer Jay Brannan”?
I hate having my sexual orientation used as a title or a genre. It pisses me off. I just want to be a regular musician like anyone else. When Lisa Loeb...

On your blog a couple of months ago you said you hadn't given up your day job yet. What is that day job? Do you still have it?
I proofread legal documents for a translation company. And yes, I still have it, though ...

How does a Brannan live show differ from the record?
Well, I don’t think they’re enormously different. When I play live, it’s ...

------------------------------

Visit Jays homepage (and read the very funny bio) at www.jaybrannan.com

Order the album here.


ANY MAJOR DUDE HAS MOVED TO
http://halfhearteddude.wordpress.com

Get free Jay Brannan songs here

Mandela is 90

In the late ’80s, the apartheid Security Branch raided my place a couple of times. That sounds more grandiose than it really was: my part in the destruction of the racist regime was minute. The fact that the SB was investigating at all me shows just how pervasive the bastards really were. I also hasten to point out that by the second raid, they had dispatched the intellectual rejects from the absolute bottom of their inbreds’ gene pool. Captain Domgat’s line of interrogation included the question: "Are your friends European?", employing the popular noun by which the racists liked to describe themselves. I could muster no greater wit than to reply that they were all born in South Africa. Captain Domgat was too feeble to rephrase his question. A fearsome interrogator he was not.

All the while a strong wind was blowing through the window, making the pages of my Marilyn Monroe calendar flutter. That made me nervous, because behind the calendar hung a picture of Nelson Mandela. That was contraband: it was illegal to own images or writings by banned persons, such as Mandela (especially Mandela), and illegal to publish these.

FULL POST HERE

Pissing off the Taste Police with John Denver

The cover of his first Greatest Hits album tells you everything you already think you know about John Denver. Looking like a feckless country boy (a status he thanked God for in song) dressed up like a scarecrow, wig and all, he does that boyish, goofy laugh which your granny found so reassuring. All that’s missing is the piece of straw clenched between his hick teeth. Released in 1973, the album cover communicates that this singer is so nice, he lacks the edge of the Carpenters and the raw sexuality of Donny Osmond. Who said we, the cool people, want our entertainers to be fucking nice?


FULL POST HERE

Live Aid: 13 July 1985

The music was mostly terrible, the artists tended to be self-servingly smug, we had shit seats right at the back of Wembley Stadium, and the legacy of the event is questioned by many. And still, Live Aid ranks among the best days of my life, at least in as far as concerts are concerned.

Indisputably, there were long stretches of tedium, watching wasters like Sting and Phil Collins being bumptious, Spandau Ballet demonstrating why they were a rubbish live act, Adam Ant destroying his already skidding career with one song, and the creations of demented hairstylists immortalising the decade of my youth as one bereft of sense or elegance. But these dull stretches were enlivened by some high point.

FULL POST HERE

I don’t buy into the idea that Live Aid was in itself malign because of the coke-fuelled self-aggrandisement, its logo and its failure to change the world. Viewed pragmatically, it raised money which saved some lives, financed the building of clinics and implemented water purification schemes. That is commendable. It did raise awareness on a range of issues concerning famine, albeit imperfectly, and promoted some sense of social responsibility. In the callous, self-centred 1980s, Live Aid made charity cool. But it also proposed a notion that charity is not selfless, that for your contribution you must get something in return, at least the option to congratulate yourself. Consumerist charity, as one might call it, is still alive. Look at the revolting fundraising strategy of Nelson Mandela’s doubtlessly sincere 46664 foundation, which has irrelevant celebs leeching off the Mandela name, guilting us into watching their vomit-inducing “performances” (yeah, I mean you, Annie Lennox).

Live Aid did not see itself as a solution but as a contribution to a problem. Its contribution was admirable. The music, however, was mostly shit. To celebrate the music that wasn’t (Hall & Oates, Queen, Neil Young, The Who, Status Quo), or to observe the performances which were poor but stand as novelties we may marvel at (Dylan & chums, McCartney and friends, Geldof, Costello), here is a compilation of my highlights of Live Aid, ripped from DVD.

TRACKLISTING:
1. Status Quo - Rockin' All Over The World
2. Boomtown Rats - I Don't Like Mondays
3. Elvis Costello - All You Need Is Love
4. U2 - Bad
5. Beach Boys - Good Vibrations
6. Queen - Bohemian Rhapsody
7. Queen - Radio Gaga
8. David Bowie - Heroes
9. The Who - Won't Get Fooled Again
10. George Michael - Don't Let The Sun Go Down On Me
11. Paul McCartney - Let It Be
12. Crosby, Stills & Nash - Teach Your Children
13. Neil Young - Nothing Is Perfect (In God's Perfect Plan)
14. Hall & Oates with Eddie Kendricks - Get Ready
15. Hall & Oates with Eddie Kendricks & David Ruffin - Ain't Too Proud To Beg
16. Hall & Oates with Eddie Kendricks & David Ruffin - My Girl
17. Bob Dylan, Keith Richards & Ron Wood - Blowing In The Wind

DOWNLOAD

Great Moustaches in Rock: Oates

The great pantheon of frightful and stupid moustaches is populated by hairy scary guys like these geniuses:

And then there was John Oates, modelling the porn school reject 'tache with perm combo:


It must have been hard for Oates to play second banana to the King of the '80s Mullet; harder yet if on the LP cover on which Hall & Oates went for the Agnetha and Anni-Frid look, the dude without the 'tache looks the tougher guy.






I'm delighted to note that Hall & Oates are now undergoing a critical rehabilitation. Even The Quietus, which can be heartlessly scathing in its critique, has recognised the genius of Hall & Oates. Better than I could, Adam Narkiwiecz expresses all I'd say on the subject. "H&A are up there with the greats," Narkiewiecz rules, and he is damn right.


FULL POST HERE

Intros Quiz: 1993 edition

In our five-year interval intros quiz series we reach 1993. As usual, there are 5-7 second intros of 20 songs from that year, for you to guess. I must confess to having cheated a little bit: all were single releases in 1993, as far as I know, except one (number 12), which appeared on an album released in September that year, but didn't come out as a single until 1994. And even then it was not a big hit. The rest, however, were hits in either the US or UK or both. Number 7 only reached #32 in Britain, but should be well known to anybody who remembers rock music in the '90s; #17 was a UK Top 30 hit, but is also very well known (certainly to people who listened to the rock station on Grand Theft Auto).

Answers in a few days' time in the comments section. If you can't wait to know what that pesky number 6 is, feel free to e-mail me. Actually, feel free to e-mail me anyway; every comment and message is appreciated (on that note, props to Siblingshot blog's little strop at receiving too few comments).


Intros Quiz - 1993 edition.mp3


Previous intros quizzes HERE.

The Beatles - Finally (1981)

In our alternate Beatles universe it is 1981. The final Beatles album had been recorded in November and early December 1980 at the Abbey Road studios in London, forcing John to leave his beloved NYC apartment in the Dakota, to which he returned on December 9. The album is released in February 1981.

It had been five years since the release of the previous Beatles album, Alone Again, because John had “retired” for a few years to be a stay-at-home Dad. He talked about his hiatus on the album’s opener, Watching The Wheels. In the meantime, Paul had established his initially stuttering solo career, scoring a million-seller with Mull Of Kintyre. Indeed, the members’ musical styles had diverged so much that the Fab Four knew it would be their final album together.

Paul even held back all his best songs, preferring not to share such universally acclaimed gems as Temporary Secretary and Goodnight Tonight with his bandmates. As a result, Paul’s input into Finally was at odds with the prominence his ego would have demanded normally. Perhaps appropriately, it was perennial third banana George who dominated on that last LP, and it was George who wrote the epitaph to the Beatles’ career, All Those Years Ago.

As always, the mix should fit on to a standard CD-R.

Side 1
1. Watching The Wheels (John Lennon)
2. Crackerbox Palace (George Harrison)
3. Let 'Em In (Paul McCartney)
4. Blow Away (George Harrison)
5. Girls’ School (Paul McCartney)

Side 2
6. Lady Gaye (Ringo Starr)
7. Beautiful Girl (George Harrison)
8. Nobody Told Me (John Lennon)
9. Silly Love Songs (Paul McCartney)
10. (Just Like) Starting Over (John Lennon)

Side 3
11. With A Little Luck (Paul McCartney)
12. This Song (George Harrison)
13. I'm Losing You (John Lennon)
14. Here Comes The Moon (George Harrison)
15. Beautiful Boy (Darling Boy) (John Lennon)

Side 4
16. Move Over Ms. L. (John Lennon)
17. Woman Don't You Cry For Me (George Harrison)
18. Coming Up (Paul McCartney)
19. Real Love (John Lennon)
20. All Those Years Ago (George Harrison)


DOWNLOAD LINK HERE