Teachers, Television, Technology

Continuing my love of French music with the spotlight back on one of yesterday's featured artists, Daft Punk. 

 

I posted the first Dubhed selection dedicated to Guy Manuel De Homen-Cristo and Thomas Bangalter way, way back in February 2022. I confessed then that "I don't own a single Daft Punk album - and I probably need to do something about that". Suffice to say, I've since taken care of business. 

I've stuck with roughly the same rules as before: keeping the selection to just under an hour, twelve rather than ten songs this time around, A greater focus on album versions this time around too, though the occasional remix has slipped in. 

What an incredible body of work this pair produced before calling it a day. When I saw Nile Rodgers & Chic in concert the other week, Nile admitted that he didn't understand why they'd stepped away just as Daft Punk was enjoying it's greatest success and in his view had so much more great music to give. 

I think they did exactly what they needed to do and their legacy will continue to speak for itself. 

We're going to celebrate one more time...

1) Rinzler (2010)

2) Television Rules The Nation (Album Version) (2005)

3) Teachers (Extended Mix) (1997)

4) The Brainwasher (Erol Alkan's Horrorhouse Dub) (2006)

5) Da Funk (Album Version) (1996)

6) Give Life Back To Music (Album Version ft. Nile Rodgers) (2013)

7) Human After All (SebastiAn Remix By Sebastian Akchoté) (2005)

8) One More Time (Album Version) (2001)

9) Lose Yourself To Dance (Album Version ft. Pharrell Williams & Nile Rodgers) (2013)

10) High Fidelity (1996)

11) Something About Us (Album Version) (2001)

12) Finale (2010)

 

1996: Homework: 5, 10

1997: Around The World EP: 3 

2001: Discovery: 8, 11

2005: Human After All: 2 

2005: Human After All: Remixes: 7

2006: Prime Time Of Your Life EP: 4

2010: TRON: Legacy OST: 1, 12

2013: Random Access Memories: 6, 9

Teachers, Television, Technology (58:08) (KF) (Mega)

You can find my previous Daft Punk selection, Thank You For Wearing A Face, right here.

Cool As The Deep Blue Ocean

Happy birthday to Shirley Manson, born 26th August 1966.

I bought the 12" single of Goodbye Mr. Mackenzie's eponymous 1988 single, on the back of hearing their previous single The Rattler on The Chart Show. As with all of their singles on Capitol Records, it was released in a lovely (but not doubt costly to the band) gatefold sleeve and it was there that I saw my future wife. 

Unfortunately, that didn't come to pass though to be fair it was largely down to my not writing, phoning or even buying all that many Goodbye Mr. Mackenzie records after their debut album. Oh, and Shirley's complete ignorance of my existence. I think it's fair to say that Shirley got over the disappointment and got on with her life. Fortunately for me, so did I and I had the great fortune to meet Mrs. K some years later.

 

Whilst I can't say that I've followed Garbage closely beyond the first two albums, I've always admired Shirley's no-holds-barred approach to handling the music business and being a positive role model, cutting through the bullshit about age and gender particularly. 

 

And her voice is out of this world as this 15-song Garbage selection amply illustrates. It inevitably draws heavily on the debut album, but I've included a few B-sides, remixes and later period tunes, though even the most recent song in my collection is over a decade old. A return visit is overdue to see what Shirley and the band have been up to.

 

Here's raising a glass to you, Shirley.

 

1) Automatic Systematic Habit (Album Version) (2012)

2) It's All Over But The Crying (Remix) (2007)

3) Vow (Album Version) (1995)

4) Witness To Your Love (Original Version) (2008)

5) Only Happy When It Rains (Album Version) (1995)

6) Alien Sex Fiend (1996)

7) Supervixen (1995)

8) Androgyny (The Neptunes Remix By Pharrell Williams & Chad Hugo) (2001)

9) Stupid Girl (Album Version) (1995)

10) I Think I'm Paranoid (Album Version) (1998)

11) You Look So Fine (Album Version) (1998)

12) Shut Your Mouth (Album Version) (2001)

13) Space Can Come Through Anyone (2005)

14) Milk (D Mix By Massive Attack) (#2) (1996)

15) Queer (The Most Beautiful Woman In Town Mix By Martin Gore, Gareth Jones & Paul Freegard) (1995)

 

1995: Garbage: 3, 5, 7, 9

1995: Queer EP: 15

1996: Milk (Massive Attack Remixes) EP (promo 12"): 14

1996: Stupid Girl EP: 6

1998: Version 2.0: 10, 11

2001: Androgyny EP: 8

2001: Beautiful Garbage: 12

2005: Why Do You Love Me EP: 13

2007: Absolute Garbage: 2 

2008: Give Listen Help: 4

2012: Not Your Kind Of People: 1

 

Cool As The Deep Blue Ocean (1:01:00) (KF) (Mega) 

 

Today's cover art is a modified photo by Kathryna Hancock, one of a number of fantastic images of Shirley shot to accompany an interview with Ladygunn magazine last year. A fascinating read.

Goodbye Beloved One

Provider by N*E*R*D is a perfect candidate for the Some Songs Make Great Short Stories series over at The Vinyl Villain. 

N*E*R*D is a 'backronym' for No-One Ever Really Dies and is a trio comprising US production legends The Neptunes aka Pharrell Williams and Chad Hugo, with Sheldon Haley aka Shay Haley aka Shade.

Provider appeared on N*E*R*D's debut album In Search Of... which was initially released in August 2001. The first version of the album was limited to Europe only and had more electronic leanings, not a million miles away from The Neptunes' sound. A conscious decision to differentiate N*E*R*D from The Neptunes saw the album pulled, re-recorded and re-released worldwide in March 2002 with an amended track listing and a more prominent hip-hop/rock hybrid sound. 

 

Provider was the third and final single from the album in March 2003, coupled with a Freeform Five remix of previous single Lapdance. The single entered - and peaked - in the UK at #20, spending a total of 4 weeks in the chart.

 

The UK version was fronted a remix of Provider by Zero 7 aka Henry Binns and Sam Hardaker, whose own debut Simple Things was the chillout album du jour in 2001. The radio edit is superb but for the definitive take of this song, head to the full length version, seven minutes forty seconds of downtempo bliss, acoustic guitar, added strings and Pharrell's vocals in perfect harmony. It's widely available on YouTube but someone had the idea of cutting a video using slips from US TV series The Wire, which premiered a few months after the 'rock version' of In Search Of... in 2002.

 

The official video for Provider contains a striking story of a young couple, mirroring the lyrical narrative, interspersed with scenes of Pharrell and Chad with friends on their BMX bikes (Tony Hawks also makes a cameo).

In a sad example of life imitating art, the lead actor is Brad Renfro, who first came to notice as an 11-year old in the 1994 film adaptation of John Grisham's novel The Client, directed by Joel Schumacher and co-starring Susan Sarandon and Tommy Lee Jones. 

 

At the age of 15, Renfro and his older cousin were arrested for drug possession, the former entering a plea bargain and agreeing to random drug tests, going forward. By the time of shooting the Provider video, Renfro had been in a cycle of arrest, rehabilitation and relapse into substance misuse, probation violations and further criminal charges.

Brad Renfro was found dead in his apartment in January 2008. The death was ruled accidental and attributed to acute heroin/morphine intoxication. He was only 25.

Woke up I had the same clothes on I had on last night
Damn
I must have passed out
And cash is just like the clothes I worn yesterday
We are broke
Damn
I gotta get my ass out
I went to see what my friend was talking about
Drugs
He told me cocaine would get you clout
My momma said he's trouble and schools my route
But I went to high school and got kicked out
So I'm driving this truck down the 95
I pray to God I make it home alive
I don't get pulled over by the man
I just want to make it home to hold your hand

 

Goodbye beloved one
Do you know what I am
If you don't see my face no more
I'm a provider girl, gotta face the streets tonight

 

Goodbye beloved one
Do you know what I am
You don't see my face no more
I'm a rider, girl gotta face the streets tonight
You say you don't want me to go but I have to
Please don't weep
I love you

 

I refuse to be a bum
Especially coming where I'm from
I'm a provider girl
And I love you
So it's just like I said before
Heading down 95
Dodging Johnny law
I don't need a ticket though I never got one
If he pulls me over
He can feel my shotgun
I think about life pull down my hat
It's just like this road I don't know where I'm at
I don't want to be another cocaine story
Will I find my sanity
Where I find my glory
Come on

 

Goodbye beloved one
Do you know what I am
If you don't see my face no more
I'm a provider girl, gotta face the streets tonight

 

Goodbye beloved one
Do you know what I am
You don't see my face no more
I'm a rider, girl gotta face the streets tonight

 
You say you don't want me to go but I have to
Please don't weep
I love you

 

Someday, Someday, this will be over
We'll raise a family
I'll get a job and I'll be a voter
And if I die
It will change you
Change you
I watch over a family
But only as an angel

 

So don't tell me you don't know what you see
When you're looking at a motherfucker just like me
I'm a provider girl
I said don't tell me you don't know what you see
When you're looking at a motherfucker just like me
I'm a rider girl

 

Goodbye beloved one
Do you know what I am
If you don't see my face no more
I'm a provider girl, gotta face the streets tonight

 

Goodbye beloved one
Do you know what I am
You don't see my face no more
I'm a rider, girl gotta face the streets tonight
You say you don't want me to go but I have to
Please don't weep
I love you

 

I love you girl
I'm doing this for us
I don't know any better
What am I supposed to do
Nothing I love you

Thank You For Wearing A Face

On 8th February, I celebrated Guy Manuel De Homen-Cristo's birthday, whilst acknowledging that I'd ignored Thomas Bangalter's the previous month. To redress the balance, here's some Daft Punk.

Not to celebrate the fact as such and, in typically contrary fashion, I'm a day late (although I did compile the selection on the actual day), but Daft Punk decided to exit in characteristically grand style one year ago. On 22nd February 2021, their official YouTube channel published an 8-minute video, Epilogue, a wordless, visually brilliant announcement of Daft Punk's demise, with De Homen-Cristo's robot activating Bangalter's robot's self-destruct to explosive effect. The legend "1993-2021" appears on screen before a musical, well, epilogue with the vocal refrain,

"Hold on...if love is the answer, you're home"

I don't own a single Daft Punk album - and I probably need to do something about that - but I have quite a few of their singles and remixes, which inform today's selection; 10 tracks in just under an hour. A truly unique duo, hugely successful and influential and yet, to the general, global public, unrecognisable behind their robotic faces.

I visited Stroud Library in Gloucestershire on Monday. There was an A-board in the entrance, with a poster advertising an event that partially obscured the (at the time) current Covid-related guidance about wearing face coverings indoors. The slightly truncated phrase seemed perfectly aligned with a post on Daft Punk. I love that life brings these little moments of serendipity.

1) Something About Us (Adithya Remix) (2021)

2) Revolution 909 (Radio Edit) (1996)

3) Da Funk (Serge Santiago Unreleased Live Mix) (2012) 

4) Technologic (Le Knight Club Remix By Guy-Manuel De Homem-Christo & Eric Chedeville) (2005)

5) Face To Face (Night Drugs Rework) (ft. Todd Edwards) (2009)

6) Human After All (Emperor Machine Version By Andy Meecham) (2005)

7) Around The World (Daft Punk Edit) (1996)

8) Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger (The Neptunes Remix Edit By Pharrell Williams & Chad Hugo) (2001)

9) Get Lucky (Daft Punk Remix) (ft. Pharrell Williams & Nile Rodgers) (2013)

10) The Son Of Flynn (Moby Remix) (2011)

Thank You For Wearing A Face (56:09) (KF) (Mega)

 

On a sadder note, I was completing this post when the news broke of Mark Lanegan's passing, aged 57. I did briefly considering replacing this post with an ad-hoc tribute, but I knew I wouldn't do it justice. Watch this space, but in the meantime here's John Robb remembering Mark Lanegan on Louder Than War.