Ready or not here comes another hop, skip, and jump through six decades of something resembling rock’n’roll music: the Fingertips Eclectic Playlist Series, Vol. 7. Mixcloud followers may see that I went back and named each playlist in the series after Volume 1, because I have been feeling that titles would be a nice handhold into the music. But everything is operating on intuition here, so those in need of concrete messages or Beats-music-like “I need a playlist for this precise activity at this specific moment in my day” may simply be confused. So it goes.
I would rank “MacDougal Blues” and “Mama Used to Say” among the more highly-regarded “lost gems” in my digital music library, and I kind of like how completely different they are and that both ended up here. Note that the British R&B singer Junior went on to re-record the song much more recently, but accept no substitutes: the original 1982 version is definitive. And talk about lost, whatever on earth became of Sinéad Lohan? What a fine late ’90s effort No Mermaid was, and it was even all over the radio back before an autocratic pop sheen was required for airplay. After just the one album, Lohan withdrew from the music scene without a peep, and while I completely respect the idea that someone would in fact want to withdraw from the music scene without a peep, she seemed a great talent, and I am sorry for the loss of whatever music she might have gone on to make. And yes, “I Do the Rock” walks a fine fine line between novelty song and legitimate musical contribution, but it put a smile on my face back in the day and is kind of fun to hear again in a day and age that can use some extra smiles.
Note that Mixcloud has now eliminated the capacity to see a song list on its site, no doubt due to licensing complications. In the notes over there I have linked back to this blog post, so that the song list (see below) is relatively handy for those who would like it.
“Fantastic Voyage” – David Bowie (Lodger, 1979)
“The Wind Blew All Around Me” – Mary Lou Lord (Baby Blue, 2004)
“One Chain Don’t Make No Prison” – The Four Tops (Meeting of the Minds, 1974)
“Solid Love” – Joni Mitchell (Wild Things Run Fast, 1982)
“MacDougal Blues” – Kevn Kinney (MacDougal Blues, 1990)
“Mindless Child of Motherhood” – The Kinks (Arthur, 1969)
“Hardships (Gospel Version)” – Jenny Wilson (b-side, 2010)
“Mama Used to Say” – Junior (Ji, 1982)
“Whatever It Takes” – Sinéad Lohan (No Mermaid, 1998)
“I Always Knew” – The Vaccines (Come of Age, 2012)
“Shake the Disease” – Depeche Mode (single, 1985)
“Full Speed” – Claude Bolling (Qui?, 1969)
“This Is Love” – PJ Harvey (Stories From the City, Stories From the Sea, 2000)
“I Do the Rock” – Tim Curry (Fearless, 1979)
“Baby It’s You” – Smith (A Group Called Smith, 1969)
“Pretty Deep” – Tanya Donelly (Lovesongs for Underdogs, 1997)
“100 Yard Dash” – Raphael Saadiq (The Way I See It, 2008)
“So Long” – Fischer-Z (Going Deaf for a Living, 1980)
“Heart is Strange” – School of Seven Bells (Disconnect from Desire, 2010)
“Slapstick Heart” – Sam Phillips (Omnipop, 1996)
As for Spotify, we get a poor version of the playlist there this time around, as the widely-used streaming service is missing four of the songs I have included on this list—five, really, since the only version they have of “Mama Used to Say” is the inferior newer version. I didn’t expect the obscure Claude Bolling instrumental to be available, and am not surprised “I Do the Rock” is missing also. But Sinéad Lohan? Sam Phillips? Both released on major labels?
But, for those who find Spotify more convenient, here is the link, which yields the 16-song version, with all sorts of spoiled segues:
Fingertips 