Down Deep Inside (Reprise)

It was not quite our last Summer, last summer.

But now I have this.

And next I think I will need to get the whole, lovely thing...

John Barry - Theme From 'The Deep' (instrumental) (1977)

MTM Grand

We went wireless in the H household last week and it's all been very exciting. The girls can now 'go on Club Penguin' in the front room on my old laptop and last night I sat up in bed watching old Rhoda clips from YouTube on Mrs H's iTouch. I know. I am one fascinating guy.

Why don't they show Rhoda again? And The Mary Tyler Moore Show come to that? And Taxi? And Laverne & Shirley (although that probably wasn't very good really, was it) ? It'd brighten up my life no end, I can tell you.

Just watching the title sequence brings it all back...



Here's a New York song.

Lou Reed - 'Romeo Had Juliette' (1989)

'You can't beat 2 guitars, bass, drum' (or a Honda, evidently) - Lou Reed.

Yeah Baby

Fix me a cocktail, I'm shaken and stirred.

Roland Shaw & His Orchestra - 'Let The Love Come Through' (1967)

Third Person Singular

Mindful that he hadn't posted since Monday, Davy H did the lazy You Tube embed thing. Still, Mr Shuffle had pleased him the night before by dropping this track into his 'set' while the train passed a sunny Battersea Power Station; it had made him think of Colin who used to have a blog of this name before he used to have a blog of another.

'Absent friends'.

Saint Etienne - 'Kiss And Make Up' (1990)

Sunny Pop Song # 3

And very Spring-like it is too, despite the title.

No-one seems to know very much about October Country, the band. Even the sleeve notes to my Nuggets, Volume 3: Pop, which this is on, refer to them as 'undeniably obscure', but add that 'the record received enough Los Angeles airplay to outsell the Beatles one week at Hollywood's largest record store, Wallach's Music City'.

Composer/producer Michael Lloyd has already made an appearance here, as a member of the West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band.

Anyway, this is a cracking record I think - all group harmonies, stomping strings and (seemingly) fresh Californian air: a tip-top heartstarter for Monday.

October Country - 'October Country' (1968)

Big Swing Friday # 2

The weather continues inclement so I shall require a cocktail.

Ice and slice please Beryl.

Blossom Dearie - 'I Like London In The Rain' (1970)

When Your Heart Breaks

Hello Saferide's 'Arjeplog' has most certainly turned into a song of my spring since Kips posted the lovely video recently and encouraged me to buy. Consider this a sort of 'reply post'.

I don't think anyone's writing songs right now as poppy, real, heartfelt, funny, articulate and achingly, achingly sad as Annika Norlin's, but if you know differently do tell, I'm definitely in the market for this sort of thing.

HS website here.

Sunny Pop Song # 2

I dug out my mono copy of the first Monkees LP the other night and it was a splendid listen I can tell you. The general mood of it also put me in mind of this, which came much later when they'd bizarrely even started being a sort of 'real' band (though to be fair Davy Jones could always sing and Mike Nesmith not only looked the best but could, famously, actually 'play', maaan); it certainly has the requisite breeziness for our Easter weekend and may even afford Mondo some further 'straw hat and cane' action in the chorus.

The Monkees - 'Someday Man' (1969)

Wish me luck; I'm off to try and find some Smarties Easter eggs on a Woolworths-free high street.

Sunny Pop Song # 1

So what's rocking the house here as we plough through yet another box of tissues, smilingly contemplate the sunny weather without actually doing anything in it and look forward to the Easter weekend and the possibility of some choccy bunnies? Eh?

Well, this really; which I first heard on one of my lovely Nuggets LPs (this one, in fact) and which makes me think that to have been a writer and singer of sunny pop songs in California in 1967 must have been a bit like being a playwright in Elizabethan London (Golden Age, and all that).

The Lovin' Spoonful - 'She Is Still A Mystery' (1967)

I'd Call This Convalescence If Only I Could Spell It

So, apparently, I Did Not Die.

That oxymahoojeyflip hydrochloride cleared the nasal passages enough to get me a half decent night's sleep last night, an mp3 of WPIX FM's Penthouse Party Hosted By Dan Neer 1979 (thanks Jon) and a bit of Lonesome Music's mixtape got me through the shower and shave this morning, the new Word magazine arrived with some nice things on the free CD, and an afternoon walk with Mrs H and the girlies to the shops and back via the pub on the river improved the situation still further.

I have a very croaky voice and can do a mean 'I Was Born Under A Wanderin' Star' if anyone's interested, which I do not suppose they are.

Eddie Floyd - 'Things Get Better' (1967)

Well done on Paul Haig day all concerned; I'd have taken part if I'd had any Paul Haig.

PS: I do not ever want to drink Lemsip again, thanks.

DavyH Is Unwell

I'm a poorly little bunny.

And on a Friday too!