Listening Post #44: Old Girls

If anyone's wondering what's happened to The Cancel Culture Club, we will be back a little later this month with two festive offerings... possibly our last, for reasons I'll discuss more later. 

In the meantime, in a belated follow-up to the first edition of that series, when we discussed Gary Puckett's Young Girl, here are a couple of tunes celebrating the virtues of older woman.

First, from his excellent 2025 album Only Frozen Sky Anyway, here's Jonathan Richman with a tale about being a lovestruck teenager obsessed with a "slightly older girl"...

And secondly, also from this year, and sadly from what turned out to be his final album, here's the late great Todd Snider again with a sentiment that many of his male rock star contemporaries might do well to take note of...

Ain't nothing that a young girl can do for me

'Cept to show me where some older women is

Listening Post #43: Nervous Twitch

Nervous Twitch are from Leeds. Their new album, The Day Job Gets in the Way, comes out on Friday.

Despite its newness, it sounds very 1979.

This, of course, is a very good thing.

I just pre-ordered my copy. You might want to think about doing the same.

 

Listening Post #42: Finding Dory

The wonderful thing about obsessively investigating music, old and new, even when you’ve been doing it for far longer than is sensible, is that you can still dig up gems from people you’ve never heard of… case in point: Dory Previn.

I featured a song by Dory in a recent edition of Snapshots and part of the clue referred to another famous Previn – Eric Morecambe’s favourite composer, Andre. Even while I was writing that clue, I hadn’t realised that Dory was married to Mr. Preview throughout the 60s, during which time they co-wrote a shed-load of songs for the likes of Doris Day, Matt Monro, Rosemary Clooney and Dionne Warwick. 

It's important, however, that we don’t remember Dory as “Mrs. Previn” since her best songwriting was done in the 70s following her split from the conductor, who left her for the much younger Mia Farrow.  

Beware of young girls who come to the door
Wistful and pale, of twenty and four
Delivering daisies with delicate hands
Beware of young girls, too often they crave
To cry at a wedding, and dance on a grave

Dory Previn – Beware Of Young Girls

Intensely autobiographical, full of honesty and raw emotion, but also wit and warmth, the songs I’ve heard so far from Dory during this period are really quite wonderful. 

Those lemon haired ladies, why must you seem them?
All that I want, in your eyes, is to be them
Time is on their side, that's all I lack
Oh, I wish you would just go away
No, come back
Come back. Go away
Come back. Go away

Dory Previn – Lemon-Haired Ladies

This one’s my current favourite, the female version of Baby, It’s Cold Outside, full of aching vulnerability. I love the way she voices her desperation, then shrugs it off with a joke, so as not to appear desperate at all.

Would you care to stay till sunrise?
It's completely your decision
It's just the night cuts through me
Like a knife, like a knife
Would you care to stay awhile
And save my life?
Would you care to stay awhile
And save my life?
I don't know what made me say that
I've got this funny sense of humour
You know I could not be downhearted
If I tried, if I tried
It's just that going home is such a ride
Going home is such a ride
Going home is such a ride
Isn't going home a low and lonely ride?

Listening Post #41: Having A Paddy

Another new discovery, thanks to Mickey Undertone. 

This is Paddy Nash, who the Web of Lies tells me is "often hailed as 'Ireland's Springsteen'". But don't let that put you off, George.

Can't really hear the Springsteen comparison on this track anyway, it reminds me more of Squeeze. Anyway, it's right up my street and I immediately wanted to buy the album. However, Bandcamp are now adding VAT onto CDs, so it was almost the same price to "Download Paddy's Full Digital Discography" as to buy one CD... and that was too much temptation. 

I'll let you know about the rest of his discography once I get round to it!

Listening Post #40: How To Swim

How To Swim are from Glasgow, which will no doubt endear them to some of you. They've got one of those band names that might have seemed like a good idea at the time, but nowadays makes them very difficult to google. Still, they've been around for a quarter of a century, so it was probably less of a concern in their early days.

They narrowly missed out on last week's Festival of Foul Language...

How To Swim - They Don't Give A Fuck

But we've had quite enough of that sort of filth around here lately, so here's something far more pleasant from their most recent offering, Poundstore Diabolism...

Still in the same ballpark though, I guess.

Listening Post #39: Born To Cry

Dion - Runaround Sue

I was a big fan of Dion DiMucci as a teenager after hearing Runaround Sue used in an episode of Moonlighting. Soon after that, I discovered his 80s output, including the excellent 1989 album Yo Frankie and it's big single...

Dion - Written On The Subway Wall

A little later, I fell for the allure of perhaps his greatest record, the Phil Spector-produced Born To Be With You... although Dion had such a hell of a time working on that record that he later disowned it. The curse of Phil.

Dion - Born To Be With You

I've even checked in with Dion's 21st Century recordings, including collaborations with some of his biggest fans...

Dion with Patti Scialfa and Bruce Springsteen - Angel In The Alleyways

Dion is 86 now. He's been releasing music for almost 7 decades. I've been listening to his songs for 4 decades. And yet, I only heard this one for the first time a couple of weeks back.

It's a belter.

Listening Post #38: England... oh, England

Over at The Vinyl Villain, Dirk was singing the praises of the 1982 debut single by The Wild Swans yesterday.

Lately, I've spent a lot of time listening to the band's 2011 "comeback" album, The Coldest Winter For A Hundred Years. ("Comeback might not be the most appropriate word, since with the exception of lead singer / songwriter Paul Simpson, this was a completely new line-up, including Les Pattinson from Echo and the Bunnymen and Ricky Maymi from the Brian JOnestown Massacre).

Lyrically, it's one of the most interesting records I've heard in ages, a tour of provincial England steeped in nostalgic longing, but not the kind of flag-waving nonsense that's currently in vogue. "William Blake in Cash Converters" sums it up perfectly.

In the madness of my 3 a.m.s, I'm lost without a guide

English electric lightning protected
Green unpleasant land infected
Vulcan bombers, cornish habors
Elizabethan costume dramas
Sun reporters, New World Order
Johnny Rotten, Geoffrey Chaucer
Bargain Booze and Robert Wyatt
Happy-slappers, Toxteth riots

All the kingdom's quiet now and I can't stem the tide alone

Listening Post #37: This Year

Very tired.

So very, very tired.

End of the fifth week of the summer holidays and this has been the most exhausting one yet.

Wish I could just lie under that willow tree and watch the house martens swooping overhead for the next week. But that is not to be.

I take heart in the words of John Darnielle and his Mountain Goats...

I'm gonna make it through this year

If it kills me

Listening Post #36: Searchin' In The Wilderness

The interweb can't tell me much about Allen Pound's Get Rich, except that they might have come from Bradford in 1966, and that they produced this "wild and weird, fuzz-ravaged freakbeat freakout. One of the oddest, rarest and best proto-psychedelic 45s of them all."

I heard it for the first time a couple of weeks back on Mickey Undertone's radio show. Mickey claimed he'd only just discovered it too. And isn't that the great thing about music - you can still turn up wonderful gems no matter how much you think you've heard before. All you have to do is listen with open ears and an open mind...

Listening Post #35: McMurtry

There have already been some strong contenders for my favourite album of 2025, and Pulp were obviously leading the field... until James McMurtry played his hand.

Now it's anybody's game...

South Texas lawman, he brings 'em back alive

He hunts quail from horseback and he cheats on both his wives

One in Rio Bravo, one in Raymondville

He's never been to Houston, and he doubts he ever will

South Texas lawman, old time in his ways

He wore the cinco peso, and it dogged him through his days

The hours were long and lonesome, the paperwork's a bitch

His years are empty bottles now, tossed off in the ditch

I used to be young

I used to undеrstand

I used to be strong as any man

I used to bе bold

Nobody bothered me

And I can't stand getting old, it don't fit me

It don't fit me

Listening Post #34: Keith

Here's Australian band Playlunch with a song about their annoying neighbour, Keith. 

It made me smile. 

That's all I need.

Listening Post #33: Summer Tattoo

Summer's here, so the usual contradictions apply. I'm not at work, but I may not be able to maintain regular blog transmission. We'll get by on a reduced service, with Namesakes & Snapshots guaranteed... anything else will be a bonus.

Here's a song I really like by Irish singer and actress, Bronagh Gallagher. You may remember her from The Commitments, but I'm sure she's been in other stuff too.

Anyway, it's a simple tale, well told. Just the way I like them. And it's the best song you'll hear from a Gallagher this week... unless you dig out some Rory. Or Gallagher & Lyle come on the radio.

 

Listening Post #32: Random Algo-Recommendations

In the process of compiling Namesakes and Saturday Snapshots, I go on youtube quite a lot looking at music videos. Whenever I go on there, the algorithm tries to recommend other things it thinks I will like.

Things like this...

Clearly I'm going to be interested in a song called The Jamie Oliver Petrol Station, for any number of reasons. The jury's still out on CMAT, I want to like her material more than I do, but I'm always impressed by her lyrics... even though the whole point of this song is waiting for her to get to the point.

And then there's this...

I can pretty much guarantee that 95% of people reading this blog would run a mile from the video above, but I loved it. I mean, come on... Dolly Crue? Credit to all involved. And it's a charity single too, so you can't knock it.

And finally... this has got to be the best thing Jack White has done in years. And I'd just about written him off too...

Great performance from John C. Reilly in the video too...

Listening Post #31: Girl Band Starter Pack

It's not often that Louise recommends a band to me, but the other day she was listening to RadMac, and afterwards she said: "I heard something I knew you'd like." 

And she was right.

Panic Shack are from Cardiff. Apparently they've been kicking around since 2018, but they've only just managed to cobble a debut album together. You've got to admire their work ethic. That eponymous long player comes out in July, if you're interested. And you really should be. Look, they even have a song about Gok Wan!

Although this is probably my favourite so far...

Listening Post #30: Dear Stephen

You're still my bad habit

My dark little secret

My illicit unseen drug

My secret hidden love

There's a track on the new Manic Street Preachers album about Morrissey.

Dear Stephen, please come back to us

I believe in repentance and forgiveness

It's so easy to hate, it takes guts to be kind

To paraphrase one of your heartbreak lines

Songwriter Nicky Wire has gone to great pains in interviews to state that the song has nothing to do with Morrissey's controversial public persona these days, his nasty opinions that have driven away so many long-term fans.

I'm still ill, I'm cursed to stay

Under your spell for all my days

I'm still a prisoner to you and Larkin

Even as your history darkens

Wire claims, “The only moral judgement on this album tends to be about me...”

“The song is about many things and it’s multi-layered. It’s about me critically looking at my own reliance on the past – about why those years were so scorched onto me. It goes for a lot of people, to be honest, but being between 12 and 18, I don’t think I’ve ever shaken them off for the imprint they’ve had on my aesthetic appreciation of music, literature and film. It’s an investigation of that.

“The idea that I had this postcard off Morrissey as well that said, ‘Get well soon’ and I kept it, it was quite a worthless thing that I imbue with so much meaning. It’s about so many different things but mainly about not being able to get out of that, and the amazing comfort and joy it brings. It’s a love letter to my former self as much as it is everything else.”

Which is all very well, and I can see why Wire might want to tow this particular line in the press (particularly the NME), but it's blatantly obvious that there's another meaning to these lyrics, a meaning that goes beyond Wire's past and one that will touch the heart of lapsed Morrissey fans everywhere. Maybe not those who have cut him off completely, but those for whom his work meant so much in our earlier lives, that however we might want to hate the singer, we cannot hate the songs. I'm thinking of myself, of Martin, and of JC particularly here. 

The passing of time and all of its sickening crimes

Is making me sad again

But don't forget the songs that made you cry

And the songs that saved your life

Yes, you're older now and you're a clever swine

But they were the only ones who ever stood by you

The Smiths - Rubber Ring

Earlier on in my blogging career, I spent many hours trying to defend Morrissey's slow descent into fascism as a mis-reading of his intentions. I was wrong, and I've got to own that now. But I still can't let those songs go, those songs that meant so much to me, that spoke to me like nobody else's ever have...

Morrissey - I Have Forgiven Jesus

Yes, Nicky, songs are about many things and [they're] multi-layered. But this one is clearly saying what so many old Morrissey fans are thinking. Although the very fact that you steal a line from I Know It's Over suggests you know it's all just wishful thinking... too late, was the cry.

The Smiths - I Know It's Over

Still - thank you for writing it.

I've been the boy with the thorn in his side

I want you vivid in your prime

Dear Stephen, please come back to us

I believe in repentance and forgiveness

It's so easy to hate, it takes guts to be kind

To paraphrase one of your heartbreak lines

Listening Post #29: The Dude Abides

"And even if he was a lazy man - and The Dude was most certainly that - quite possibly the laziest in Los Angeles County... which would place him highest in the runnin' for laziest worldwide."

The quote is from The Big Lebowski, and it's talking about The Dude, Jeff Lebowski, as played by Jeff Bridges...but it could just as easily be talking about Slacker King and potentially sole remaining Lemonhead, Evan Dando. 

The last time Evan got out of bed and recorded some new songs was 2006. Yeah, there have been a couple of covers albums since then, but covers, man... they don't take a lot of effort, do they?

Still, it's always good to see him up and about, with a new song Fear of Living, co-written with his friend Dan Lardner who died in 2023. Apparently Evan plays all the instruments on this track, so he must be knackered. Didn't expend too much effort on the video then...

Listening Post #28: An Early Contender

Of course, it's way too early to start talking Album of the Year predictions, and considering how well his solo LPs have done in my countdown over the past decade or so, this is probably an obvious call... but... damn if that new Craig Finn album isn't excellent work.

The news that Craig had drafted in Adam Granduciel of The War On Drugs for production duties didn't exactly light a fire under me, since I'm generally underwhelmed by TWOD's output. But when I think about it, I do often like the sound that band makes... it's just the songs themselves don't seem to say very much. Craig Finn, on the other hand, is a master of making every word count, so his superb storytelling lyrics set to the 70s/80s Laurel Canyon sound Granduciel specialises in is the perfect combination. 

Talking up his latest record, Finn name-drops Randy Newman, Jackson Browne and Warren Zevon (also John Prine, who doesn't musically with the others, but lyrically... yeah), so I'm in hog heaven here.

Attention, anyone thinking of releasing any new music that might be of interest to me for the rest of this year: the bar's been set pretty high now, guys. Go big or go home.

Luke and Leanna 

Don't have any children 

They said they didn't want them 

But lately she's thinking 

What's the point of this whole thing? 

Go to work for the weekend 

Wake up early on Monday 

Start it over again 

And again 

And again 

Listening Post #27: Jump In The Line

There's two ways we can look at this one...

1. Ash are desperate for a bit of radio airplay to remind folk that they're still out there, 30+ years on. (Ash formed in 1992, when Tim Wheeler was just 15.)

2. The members of Ash are now turning 50 and have stopped giving two hoots what anyone thinks of them, they just want to have some fun.

It doesn't really matter. This is great.

But then, so was the original. This isn't a comparison post. It is possible to have two great versions of a song in existence with the universe exploding...

Listening Post #25: Not Enough Purple

This blog's been pretty much me writing about music lately, with very little me writing about life. If there's a reason for that, I guess it's that life is getting me down more than usual and I've got a major case of the blues.

Gary Moore - Still Got The Blues

I never understood why blue should be the colour of depression, since it's a bright and happy colour: everyone loves a blue sky, right? What should be the colour of unhappiness then? Some might say black, but there's a million reasons why that would be a bad idea... mostly because black is way too cool.

Colin Vearncombe - Cool

No, I reckon the real colour of misery is GREY. Boring, insipid, lifeless, moribund grey. 

I'm hoping my mood is just a reflection of the long winter. It's half term this week, so at least I get a bit of a break. It's certainly the case that for the last month or so, to quote Clint Boon, there's been not enough purple... TOO MUCH GREY.

  

Listening Post #24: Iggy Pop's Jacket

Those Naughty Lumps were to be found hanging around Liverpool street corners as the 1970s became the 1980s. They liked visiting the local zoo and eating ice cream.

Those Naughty Lumps - Down At The Zoo / Ice Cream

If only they could have owned Iggy Pop's jacket... then, they might have made the big time.