Desert Island Discs - fangedango! - 4th Nov. 2011

User avatar
fange
100% fangetastic
Posts: 14171
Joined: 20 Jan 2010, 11:30
Location: 香港

Desert Island Discs - fangedango! - 4th Nov. 2011

Postby fange » 04 Nov 2011, 00:26

Hi everyone. My name is Angelo, and I’m a music lover.

The idea of having to be stuck with just 8 pieces of music to last me for years, or maybe the rest of my life, is pretty damn frightening. It kind of crystalises not only what’s been important to me musically, but also how that relates to me now and the possible me down the road apiece. Just as I’m listening to stuff today that I’d never really thought about in my teens, the Lawd only knows what I’ll be digging in another 20 years (will my classical music journey finally take off…?), but if I was tossed onto a deserted island tomorrow with just a stereo, a lifetime supply of batteries and 8 recordings, I’m damn well gonna choose things that not only made a deep impression on me in the past at some point, but are still connecting to me now, and will probably continue to mean a lot to me after I’ve prepared my millionth ‘Coconut Crab with sashimi and seaweed’ dinner.

So here we go, all aboard the SS Angelo for that 8 song tour.

I was born in Melbourne, Australia, a few days before Christmas, 1970. I am the child of Greek immigrants, two of the many millions who left that small but proud country in the decades following the devastation of WWII and the Greek Civil War to find greater economic and life opportunities. Theirs was an arranged marriage, as they so often were in the Greece of that time, but luckily it was a happy and prosperous union, which bore two kids (my older sis and I, both named after our paternal grand-parents), and a relationship which remained a strong, loving one right up until my mum was taken from us by cancer around 10 years ago.

My family history on both sides comes from the same mountainous region in central Greece for at least the last few centuries, which means I come from two long lines of small village farmers and shepherds. There was little time, money or energy for anything other than surviving, and I can only imagine the tremendous fortitude, sense of belonging and sheer mule-headed stubbornness needed to stay and eke out an existence in those isolated hamlets, many of which only got permanent electrical services and dirt road access from the 1980s onwards. Stuck halfway up some of the most treacherous mountainsides to be found in Southern Europe, these were/are places which practically melt in the Mediterranean summer sun, and then got snowed in for months at a time during the winters… and yet despite all that they never seem to lose their raw, majestic beauty. I went there again during the last summer holiday with my wife and kids, and as you can see from the picture below taken from my Yaya’s balcony, it was and still is one hell of a place for humans to try and live…

Image

I never felt any of the antipathy that some children of migrants sometimes develop towards their roots and backgrounds, for a number of personal and environmental reasons I guess, but mostly because from the very earliest of times I can remember enjoying being both Greek and Australian. In fact, looking back now, it was a distinct advantage in many ways, opening my mind to learning and seeing things in different ways, which I now see mirrored in my own children as they grow up in Hong Kong.

My first language may have been Greek, but English very quickly seeped into my head courtesy of our TV and radio, as well as the neighbourhood kids I played tag, football and cricket with, and then soon began to go to school with. In some very real ways I believe it was television that taught me to speak English. My parents always had a pretty laissez-faire attitude when it came to how much TV we watched, and as long as I went outside for a run once in a while (which was never a problem, as I’ve always loved sports), they would generally leave me alone to watch the Warner Bros. and Hanna-Barbera cartoons, Sesame Street, and various nature documentaries I loved to my heart’s content.

The first of my D.I. songs then would have to be this one, which I first saw and heard in the mid-70s, a wide-eyed kid watching a lot of Sesame Street and eating it up in every sense…



‘Superstition’ is still a song I love today, and for pretty much the same reasons I dug it as a kid. The relentless energy makes you want to jump, dance, live! Stevie looked as cool as you could get to me in those 70s threads and shades, and his vocals seemed to shoot straight into me like a needle full of emotion; the way he twists his enunciation around and gives different inflections to a line like ‘thirteen month old baby’ as it leads into the horn lines is pure musical magic to me. Innervisions has been one of my favourite albums my whole life, and if I couldn’t take the whole disc at least I’d have this song to bust a Robinson Crusoe move to in the sand.

Both of my parents were exceptionally non-musical people. Not that they didn’t like some music, or that they didn’t have their own small collection of LPs and singles, because they did – but music was rarely more than just an occasional interest to them, and it was never discussed with any great passion or regard. Like many young kids, my prime source of musical news and access was my elder sibling, in my case my sister. The 5 years between us, as well as our quite different yet compatible personalities, meant that we seldom got into fights or overly bothered each other very much, and so when Rita began buying records and tapes in her early teens, she would happily lend them to me as well. Some of my first and deepest musical loves were born during this time. While not heavily into Sex Pistols style punk, my sis’ love of all things new wavey and post-punky made a huge impression on me in my formative years. And while I have largely out-grown any real interest in bands like Spandau Ballet, Duran Duran or Pseudo Echo other than as fall-backs on Karaoke nights or triggers for warm moments of nostalgia, some of the bands my sis put me onto became real cornerstones of my musical life, like Cheap Trick, New Order, Blondie, Talking Heads and The Go-Betweens.

One of these was The Church, and over the 30 years since I first heard their music the band has been a firm favourite, and been a regular soundtrack to some of the most enjoyable and important moments of my life. I could pick more than a dozen songs which I’d be quite happy with as a D.I. tune, but it may as well be one of the first to really hit home, ‘Almost With You’ from The Blurred Crusade LP.



The drawled Steve Kilbey vocals, the gloriously bittersweet chiming of the guitars, Marty Willson-Piper’s beautiful Spanish style solo and the post-punk snap of Richard Ploog’s drums were, and still are, a perfect musical mix to me. A blending of the colours.

And of course those bands became sign-posts during my teen years on my journey back into the music of the previous decades – the Trick led me to a deeper look at The Kinks and The Who, Blondie was a door opener into the world of the VU and Iggy and The Stooges – and music became this expanding family tree, growing ever more intricate and fascinating the more I followed the branches. Of course, as an Aussie kid back in the 80s it took a lot longer to check out this stuff, due to both lack of real money and knowing people who I could borrow these records from, but the die was firmly cast on a lifetime of musical searching.

One of my sister’s favourite records during the early 80s was Built For Speed by The Stray Cats, Brian Setzer’s rockabilly group who had a couple of decent hits in Oz with songs like ‘Rock This Town’ and ‘She’s Sexy and 17’. The clothes, the teased hairstyles and the energy in the music appealed to her, as they did to a lot of kids, including me. And while I certainly knew about Elvis, Little Richard, Chuck Berry, and the other early rockers from their songs on the radio, it was the Stray Cats who became the catalyst for my dive into 50s music during the early 80s. The Wheelers Hill library, the K-Mart at the Brandon Park Shopping Centre and the Lum Road Salvation army store became frequent stopping points after school and on Saturdays, as I grabbed anything I could find by those guys and listened with growing rapture.

And of course once rock and roll was in my blood, then the blues, early R&B, soul and jazz followed quickly on as new worlds opened before me. I still remember, and I’ll probably never forget, the first time I heard Big Mama Thornton’s ‘Hound Dog’, Muddy Water’s ‘Mannish Boy’ and this one, ‘Moanin’ At Midnight’ by Howlin’ Wolf, which still raises the hairs on my neck 26-odd years after I first heard it, and will be doing so on my Desert Island till the sharks or visiting headhunters get me…



The primal beat, Wolf’s unearthly vocals and that juiced up, buzzsaw harp that seems to scrape straight across your brain and make you jerk and shake like a man having a vision… oh boy. It was so raw and emotional that I knew instantly what it was about, despite the fact that it was recorded decades earlier by a Black American in a place I’d never been to, who seemed to be speaking in animal howls and some sort of economical, coded language. You could FEEL what it was about; the desires, the strange power coming out of the music, the possibilities in a line like ‘Do not worry, Daddy is going to bed’ just before the song suddenly dies. My body might have been in my bedroom, or in our brown-on-brown living room, but my mind was moving, knocking on doors i didn’t even know the names of yet. A journey had begun, in spirit if not yet in body.

Looking back now, the enormous sprawl of Melbourne’s Eastern suburbs in the late 70s and 80s was generally a pretty pleasant, if isolated, place to grow up for me and most of my friends. The youth culture was an ever-shifting, overlapping mix of styles; those who still idolized the Sharpie link bands and lifestyles of the Coloured Balls, Quo, Deep Purple, AC/DC; those who had fallen for disco, soul and dance music; those who were still listening to straight rock and roll via groups like Ol’ 55 and the Happy Days, American Graffiti and Grease inspired newer bands; the punk and new wave lovers, which included everything from Joy Division to Flock of Seagulls – it was all there. The various gangs like the Dandenong Sharpies, the Lebanese Tigers, and the Oakleigh Wogs would occasionally have brawls around the shopping centres or nightclubs on the weekends, more out of a ‘something to do’ mentality rather than any real social unrest, because that was just what you did. Deep down everyone just wanted to have fun and belong in some way, so they got their kicks the way they could - though at that time it was mostly still just dancing, fighting, fucking, drinking and a bit of grass.

I danced through that all too, and looking back now I’m not really surprised I’ve spent most of the last 20 years moving around, because even in my teen years I wanted to see as much as I could of the world I was reading and hearing about, to taste as much as I could of life. I’d developed a love of languages after growing up with two of them - how they sound, how they work – and I enjoyed listening and talking to people. I liked to try everything I could. Plus, with my love of music I always knew about what bands were big and what their songs were, and I came to be known as a music lover from early on. This meant I could move quite easily from group to group – talk Nick Cave or Smiths with the kids who liked Art & Graphics, talk Heavy Metal with the footy guys, talk Madonna or Duran Duran or U2 with the various girls I wanted to pash and more at parties. Music was a connection, first to who I was, and then to others in my teens, and I learnt as I went. Most of the kids I grew up with didn’t want to talk about the stuff I was getting into at home, Eddie Cochran, Muddy Waters and Miles Davis, so I didn’t; and that was fine because there was other stuff to do and talk about, life to live.

While I sure wouldn’t go out of my way to listen to much Motley Crue or Iron Maiden these days, it was all sifted and filtered and went into making what I still love all the more important. AC/DC as a band were a huge part of my youth, and while they often get tossed in the ‘dumb repetitive rock’ basket, so much of their Bon-era work still resonates with me, because of the blues and rock and roll fire that’s such an important part of their sound. One of the very first albums I bought with my own money was Let There Be Rock, so it may as well be one of those tracks that I take with me to the island. Maybe this one, ‘Overdose’, the first track on side 2: not an immediate stand out, or big single, but it’s got everything I need…



As raw as hell, with a simple blues-rock structure, but that connection between Muddy and Wolf and the sound from the Young brothers and Bon is there for me. Listen to the part between the 1:00 mark and 1:30, where Malcolm starts hammering that damn dirty riff, Angus works up some steam firing off chords and feedback, and then they meet on the riff in a moment of pure musical release. You hear the space after they hit it together? That’s where the blues and rock and roll live for me. That’s where funk lives too, because it’s where the groove, the beat, the rhythm, whatever you call it, that’s where it breathes. Then just add a great melody, and voices or instruments that talk to you, and you’re set. The ragtime bands knew it, so did Chuck Berry, The Beatles, the Youngs, Chic, the Ramones and the hip-hop crews. It ain’t a secret, but it ain’t that easy either.

The Funk Brothers and the whole damn Motown organization sure knew it, and it’s no surprise I dug Soul music straight away. There were cheap compilation LPs and tapes to be found everywhere, like the Motown Chartbusters volumes 1 - 278 or whatever, and I grabbed them whenever I could. Motown, Stax, Chess, Atlantic and 60s Soul in general didn’t carry the same baggage for me as it did for my friends, who regarded it as ‘fucking parents music’, and scorned it as only the next generation can. But I was a fresh slate. Every oldies gem I came across on the radio or on record was another wonderful discovery for me - Sam & Dave, The Temptations, Aretha, Booker T & the MGs, Gladys Knight and Etta James – an endless list. I could have picked any one of these artists and their works for my D.I. song, but I’ll pick a song that reminds me of my wife, something that I was playing a lot when I met her in Japan in the ‘90s, and became one of our songs. It’s Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell with ‘Ain’t Nothing Like The Real Thing’



It was still R&B with that beautiful groove that made you want to dance, but it was all scrubbed up and ready for a proper date rather than a backseat shag. The melody, arrangements and playing, the vocals and lyrics, everything is wonderful, and it’s all made to seem so perfectly easy and natural. Genius.

My love for jazz also sprang from the same Blues well, really, starting with the more accessible vocalists like Ella Fitzgerald, Sarah Vaughan, Chet Baker and Billie Holiday, who played with some of the biggest names in jazz - Louis Armstrong, Lester Young, Dizzy Gillespie, Coleman Hawkins, Charlie Parker, Duke Ellington and so many more. I would then graduate to guys like Monk, Miles, Coltrane, Blakey and Mingus, who would then lead me onto names like Silver, Morgan, Hancock, McLean, Dolphy and so on. The depth and diversity of jazz’ legacy is a constant joy to me, as there’s always something new to explore from its century-long history.

Albums like Miles’ ‘Round About Midnight and Porgy And Bess, or Coltrane’s Giant Steps, My Favorite Things and A Love Supreme have been firm favourites since my teens, and never fail to bring me joy and provide new things to savour. No kid I grew up with seemed to listen to jazz - even now I only have one mate here in HK who is a jazz lover and regularly goes with me to little jazz club shows - but it’s been an essential part of my musical life for more than 20 years, and in the last 10 years or so I believe it has begun to take up about 50% of my listening time. If I had to pick only a single track from my early jazz faves to take to my D.I., right now I might lean towards Coltrane’s ‘My Favorite Things’, 13+ minutes of the Trane quartet at one of their greatest peaks …



The way the group approach this famous song, which I’d heard as a kid in the horrible ‘The Sound of Music’, blew me away, and still does now, though in different ways. In my teens it was all about Trane’s sound, the sense of control and power when he first drives that melody, the small inflections and drawn out notes he uses to accentuate the moods and turn what was an overly theatrical, slightly silly wordplay of a lyric into an aural experience which is by turns joyous, bittersweet and fiery, and always captivating. Later on it was McCoy Tyner’s contributions which started to fascinate me, hearing the way he was using the repeated chords and notes over and over, some light and delicate as a breath, others strong and declarative, all worked together to create a deeply hypnotic and freeing feeling that takes the song to another level, and to which Trane immediately responds with another wonderful solo, this time more ragged and ferocious, tearing at fragments of that melody like a rainstorm tearing leaves off a tree. And the huge contributions of Steve Davis and Elvin Jones have become clearer to me over the years, how incredibly alive they keep that groove at the song’s heart, pushing or laying off Coltrane and Tyner when they feel the tune requires it, adding so much depth and colour to the emotions being played out, in ways that even old Rodgers & Hammerstein probably had never dreamed of.

Through university in the late 80s and early 90s I dug everything I could socially and musically, and I worked summers in a nearby Woolworth’s liquor warehouse to fund the traveling bug I’d been bitten by during my first trip to Europe as an adult, in ‘90. (The evening shift was my ideal choice, 3.30 – 11 pm, just in time to hit the bars and clubs when they were warmed up, get a few hours sleep and then wake up for a late lunch and get into work. Ahh, memories.) The rise of Hip-Hop, House and dance in the 80s and 90s was viewed with initial skepticism by my guitar-band loving friends, but I could see the appeal straight away. While I never got into the clothes styles or gangster images commonly attached to hip hop, there was a lot of music which I loved immediately, from Run DMC to NWA, and especially in the early 90s when the acid jazz and funky hip hop strains really started to take hold. Gang Starr, Us 3, A Tribe Called Quest, Nas, Digable Planets, Ronny Jordan, JTQ, DJ Krush and so on were all favourites, that mix of dance and funk and jazz hit me right in my pleasure zones, and most girls loved that stuff too so we were cookin’. I’d need one of these tracks with me on the island, and on any given day it might be Nas’ ‘The World Is Yours’ or maybe Us 3’s ‘Cantaloop’, but today I’ll go with Guru’s Jazzamatazz tune ‘Take A Look (At Yourself)’



A wonderful track from a great album, an arse-shakin’ torchbearer of the social message funk and jazz of the 70s, with guys like Roy Ayers, Donald Byrd and Lonnie Liston Smith bringing the good shit and mixing it with the young lions. Saturday nights on the island drinking virgin coconut daiquiris don’t sound so bad anymore… maybe.

Studying English Lit. and History at uni. gave me the tools to… well, become an English and History teacher. Like any job it has had its ups and downs, but there have been a lot more smiles than frowns along the journey, and I have been able to travel the world to ply my trade, spending of lot of time in America, Europe, more than 5 years in Japan, and now over 4 years in HK. My listening habits, like music in general over the last 20 years, have simply broadened with time, like that ever-expanding musical tree, and I have followed it gleefully wherever time, opportunity and finances have allowed me to go. I have been married for more than a decade now to a wonderful wife who doesn’t share but generally understands and accepts my condition, and we have two great kids who are growing up as they should, listening to contemporary pop as well as a little of what their old man might have on when he gets the chance to sit down and spin some music at home.

Well, I now realize that I only have one more song to choose for my island stay and I don’t have anything by the Beatles, the Stones, Dylan, Kinks, Who, Springsteen, Beach Boys, ZZ Top, New Order, Ed Kuepper, Cheap Trick, Miles, Lee Morgan, Monk, Silver, Mingus, and all the other bands and musicians who have created so much music I love and wouldn’t want to live without – so I’m not going to pick anything by them. They’re in my head deep enough already so I’ll pick something else.

My last choice is a song called ‘Latona’ by Big John Patton, which I first heard in ’94, riding in a car near Beale Street while I was staying with friends in Memphis. Patton was a Hammond organ player who cut a bunch of great albums for Blue Note during the 60s, as well as appearing as a sideman on dozens of records by guys like Lou Donaldson and Grant Green. It is the second track on Patton’s ’65 album Let ‘Em Roll, and over the last few years I have become convinced that it is the greatest tune ever. OK, you may not agree with me on this, and that’s your prerogative – but listen to it first, and then if you continue to disagree with me, then we’ll just have to agree to discuss the issue further outside…



If you’ve come with me this far, then you’ll know all too well how much I like a groove – and ‘Latona’ could be used as Exhibit A in any investigation of what it means to groove. Patton assembled a terrific group for the session: Grant Green on guitar, Otis ‘Candy’ Finch on drums, but perhaps most surprising and crucial of all is the appearance of Bobby Hutcherson on vibes.

From the very first 10 seconds, when the four of them start laying the soulful, bluesy base of the tune down, you’re immediately struck by how tight and powerful they sound together. All FOUR of them are hitting those simmering beats in tandem – a 6/8 time according to the liner notes, but Sesame Street only taught me to count in ones so I’ll let someone else be the judge of that - with Finch working his rims and cymbals as well for added texture. Then the groove and heat shifts up a notch, letting some long notes simmer as they climb some scales and introduce the tune’s head, again all of them together and super tight. They repeat the climb, lay into the melody again, and then Hutch lets loose on his solo while the others chop and stir the soul underneath.

Bobby Hutcherson’s sound on the vibes is beautiful and distinctive whenever he plays, and his work on ‘Latona’ is certainly no exception. That spacey, ringing sustain he gets on those high notes is simply joyous, uplifting - and when he goes through his quick runs it’s as if glittering fragments of sound are lighting up and bouncing around like shooting stars in your head. While he’s doing this the rest of the group are moving relentlessly through those changes again, vamping together to create this incredible Latin-edged blues, part Green hot chords, part Finch rim shots, part Patton long vibrato notes, and all groove.

After the cosmic sounds of the Hutch it’s Green’s turn to solo, and he immediately takes us to the Carnivale in summer. That trademark Green precision feels a bit more edgy here, with little bursts of distortion around the notes that give it a slightly rockier, R&B feel than usual. He gets down and dirty with the blues, and then at about the 4:10 mark, when the three behind him shift up a notch again, he lets loose and, man, it’s like you’re standing at the edge of a Rio beach and he’s calling forth the sun from behind some clouds - you just want to stand with arms out and bask and smile as the rays hit you.

After Green it’s Patton’s turn, and he takes us away from the Fair and straight into church – Green, Finch and Hutch become the congregation, vamping loud and proud in the background while Patton sends up a soulful and sweaty prayer to the heavens, all energy, exhortation and hope, before leading them back into the head one last time around the 6:36 mark, changing down to give the blues one last satisfied, slowing turn, and exiting to the sounds of a last B-3 burst and the floating, shimmering ring of Hutch’s last fading note.

I can’t begin to explain how much I adore this tune, though you’ve probably gotten the idea by now. The fast paced changes make the 7+ minutes simply fly by, and the incredible chemistry between the players, their talents, and the brilliance of the tune itself at awakening emotions inside me have made it probably my favourite piece of music in the whole world.

OK, there are my 8 tunes. Phew.

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

For my book I may cheat a bit and take a complete boxed series of The Flashman Papers by George McDonald Fraser – I’m sure I could still swim to shore with it tucked under my sweater. As a writing and history lover, the Flashman books have brought me years of enjoyment, and I’m sure I would happily spend my time reading and rereading them over my years of solitude. For those who don’t know or recall the extraordinary life and exploits of Sir Harry Paget Flashman, here's a link.

And for my luxury, there would be no better item for a Desert Island than a beautiful Shimano rod, reel and tackle set - maybe a large carbon surf rod for long casting and durability, plus a box full of enough lines, lures, hooks and assorted gear to last till the rescue boats come.

Cheers.
Last edited by fange on 19 Mar 2012, 03:58, edited 4 times in total.
Jonny Spencer wrote:
fange wrote:I've got my quad pants on and i'm ready for some Cock.


By CHRIST you're a man after my own sideways sausage, Ange!

User avatar
never/ever
Posts: 26478
Joined: 27 Jun 2008, 14:21
Location: Journeying through a burning brain

Re: Desert Island Discs - fangedango! - 4th Nov. 2011

Postby never/ever » 04 Nov 2011, 02:28

Ange- that's a top read! Cheers!

Almost With You is a very personal and dear track to me so big kudos to you! I've always been partial to acid jazz and soul, am giving the Howlin' Wolf a listen now (very primal indeed, just thinking if he and Beefheart would have recorded together, who would have one that contest?) As far as the BJP is concerned...erm, I'm afraid I'll have to meet you in the carpark for that one. Your description sounds way better than the outcome- I'm a fair bit lover of latin jazz and wish that a couple of timbaleros could kick ass on this one...sorry!
Outside of a couple of bands you don't mention much Australiana for the rest, just asking because you grew up in the hotbeds of OzMusic- just casual interest of were there any bands next to The Church that you dug at the time?
And the Coloured Balls- yeah! I've been listening to a lot of Lobby's output after his untimely demise, he was a gun!
kath wrote:i do not wanna buy the world a fucquin gotdamn coke.

User avatar
T. Willy Rye
Spinner of crazy fuck-ass shit
Posts: 3815
Joined: 30 Jan 2010, 21:41
Location: Fogertyland

Re: Desert Island Discs - fangedango! - 4th Nov. 2011

Postby T. Willy Rye » 04 Nov 2011, 03:35

Wonderful piece of writing, Ange! The Big John tune is an ace selection, though you know I would approve.

User avatar
trans-chigley express
Posts: 19238
Joined: 11 Nov 2003, 01:50
Location: Asia's WC

Re: Desert Island Discs - fangedango! - 4th Nov. 2011

Postby trans-chigley express » 04 Nov 2011, 04:36

Great writing and a lot to take in. I can't listen to the music right now but shall check it out later as I need to hear these selections after reading about them. I've dabbled with jazz but never fully embraced it though I'm always prepared to try.

I haven't put my name down to do one of these but I do occassionally try to come up with a possible list during idle moments and your opening paragraph pretty much sums up the dilemmas.

A great read, Angelo.

User avatar
never/ever
Posts: 26478
Joined: 27 Jun 2008, 14:21
Location: Journeying through a burning brain

Re: Desert Island Discs - fangedango! - 4th Nov. 2011

Postby never/ever » 05 Nov 2011, 01:56

Come on guys! You all have read Minnie's, how about giving this guy a fair go?
kath wrote:i do not wanna buy the world a fucquin gotdamn coke.

User avatar
WG Kaspar
Posts: 9110
Joined: 28 Jan 2007, 09:07

Re: Desert Island Discs - fangedango! - 4th Nov. 2011

Postby WG Kaspar » 05 Nov 2011, 07:08

A great read Ange. The mention of Coloured Balls made me smile. And the Big John Patton track is outstanding.
Oh and where exactly's your gran's house?
I run out of talent

User avatar
trans-chigley express
Posts: 19238
Joined: 11 Nov 2003, 01:50
Location: Asia's WC

Re: Desert Island Discs - fangedango! - 4th Nov. 2011

Postby trans-chigley express » 05 Nov 2011, 07:56

I got round to listening to the tunes - re-reading your detailed descriptions as I went - and found that the ones I enjoyed the most were the ones I least expected to: AC/DC, Coltrane and Big John Patten. Never heard any of those before but loved all three (though I'm not yet convinced Latona is the greatest tune ever!)

User avatar
fange
100% fangetastic
Posts: 14171
Joined: 20 Jan 2010, 11:30
Location: 香港

Re: Desert Island Discs - fangedango! - 4th Nov. 2011

Postby fange » 05 Nov 2011, 09:17

trans-chigley express wrote: (though I'm not yet convinced Latona is the greatest tune ever!)


Just wait, my friend, just wait. :)

WG Kaspar wrote:A great read Ange. The mention of Coloured Balls made me smile. And the Big John Patton track is outstanding.
Oh and where exactly's your gran's house?


It's a tiny place called Helidona, K, a few kms off the main road between Karpenisi and Prousos in Evrytania. An amazing region.

T. Willy Rye wrote: The Big John tune is an ace selection, though you know I would approve.


Call me Nostradamus. :D

never/ever wrote:Outside of a couple of bands you don't mention much Australiana for the rest, just asking because you grew up in the hotbeds of OzMusic- just casual interest of were there any bands next to The Church that you dug at the time?
And the Coloured Balls- yeah! I've been listening to a lot of Lobby's output after his untimely demise, he was a gun!


A gun indeed. I loved the Hoodoo Gurus' first albums, Maarts, and always will. Stoneage Romeos, Mars Needs Guitars and bits of the next couple of albums are terrific pop, but i think from Crank onwards they lost a bit of the humour and garage elements that made them so much fun, though they have done some decent tunes since. The Lime Spiders were also a real fave - they used to play The Village Green in Waverley in the mid-late 80s, as did the Gurus back before the great Poker machine invasions, and went off live; very punky and garage-y, lots of energy. Their The Cave Comes Alive LP is still one i pump up loud on regualr occasions, and despite that booming 80s drum sound it's still a fun listen, as is The Stems' first album, with some sweet singles like 'Sad Girl' and 'At First Sight', though The Church had better tunes, greater talent and the band chemistry to keep things together for longer.

Of course, I saw Ed Kuepper many times live, both solo and with various groups around him, and he was seldom less than terrific. I dearly wish i could have seen him with the Saints and the Laughing Clowns, just as i wish i could have seen the Birdman and New Race groups before they bit the dust at that time, but i was just too young.
Still, i'll always have my memories of a pre-fame 1927 gig to remember... :lol:
Jonny Spencer wrote:
fange wrote:I've got my quad pants on and i'm ready for some Cock.


By CHRIST you're a man after my own sideways sausage, Ange!

User avatar
Footy
Filler
Posts: 13694
Joined: 17 Jul 2003, 11:57
Location: Lost in the supermarket

Re: Desert Island Discs - fangedango! - 4th Nov. 2011

Postby Footy » 05 Nov 2011, 09:38

I still have to listen to one or two of the tracks but what a magnificent piece of writing!
It's made me more content than ever that I never opted into this project - blimey, how do you begin to compete with that? (OK I realise it's not a competition but you know what I mean).
Grab your coat sweetheart....I've got a knife.

User avatar
ConnyOlivetti
Probing The Sonic Heritage
Posts: 10587
Joined: 06 Nov 2003, 07:14
Location: Below The North Pole
Contact:

Re: Desert Island Discs - fangedango! - 4th Nov. 2011

Postby ConnyOlivetti » 05 Nov 2011, 09:41

another robust read!
thanks!
Charlie O. wrote:I think Coan and Googa are right.


Un enfant dans electronica!
Je suis!

User avatar
never/ever
Posts: 26478
Joined: 27 Jun 2008, 14:21
Location: Journeying through a burning brain

Re: Desert Island Discs - fangedango! - 4th Nov. 2011

Postby never/ever » 05 Nov 2011, 09:44

Footy wrote:I still have to listen to one or two of the tracks but what a magnificent piece of writing!
It's made me more content than ever that I never opted into this project - blimey, how do you begin to compete with that? (OK I realise it's not a competition but you know what I mean).


Can I tell you that writing this came petty easy and naturally for me? And I've seen posts from you that are eloquent in itself. It would be fantastic to get a bit to know about you....truly!
kath wrote:i do not wanna buy the world a fucquin gotdamn coke.

User avatar
Footy
Filler
Posts: 13694
Joined: 17 Jul 2003, 11:57
Location: Lost in the supermarket

Re: Desert Island Discs - fangedango! - 4th Nov. 2011

Postby Footy » 05 Nov 2011, 09:48

never/ever wrote:
Footy wrote:I still have to listen to one or two of the tracks but what a magnificent piece of writing!
It's made me more content than ever that I never opted into this project - blimey, how do you begin to compete with that? (OK I realise it's not a competition but you know what I mean).


Can I tell you that writing this came petty easy and naturally for me? And I've seen posts from you that are eloquent in itself. It would be fantastic to get a bit to know about you....truly!


Thanks for that but I do find the standards being set rather intimidating.
Grab your coat sweetheart....I've got a knife.

User avatar
never/ever
Posts: 26478
Joined: 27 Jun 2008, 14:21
Location: Journeying through a burning brain

Re: Desert Island Discs - fangedango! - 4th Nov. 2011

Postby never/ever » 05 Nov 2011, 09:53

Footy wrote:
Thanks for that but I do find the standards being set rather intimidating.



Try it anyway- I bet you've got plenty to tell so put a bit of it in chronological order and whomp 8 tracks inbetween it. I bet the hardest part is to come up with the songs- the stories will flow onto the screen in no time! :)
kath wrote:i do not wanna buy the world a fucquin gotdamn coke.

User avatar
Belle Lettre
Éminence grise
Posts: 16143
Joined: 09 Oct 2008, 07:16
Location: Antiterra

Re: Desert Island Discs - fangedango! - 4th Nov. 2011

Postby Belle Lettre » 05 Nov 2011, 22:37

Bloody marvellous!

You're all going to have to be kind to me when my turn comes.
Nikki Gradual wrote:
Get a fucking grip you narcissistic cretins.

User avatar
the masked man
Schadenfreude
Posts: 27074
Joined: 21 Jul 2003, 12:29
Location: Peterborough

Re: Desert Island Discs - fangedango! - 4th Nov. 2011

Postby the masked man » 05 Nov 2011, 23:28

Whoo! This could be the best entry yet in this spectacular series. The pleasure here is in finding new biographical details that I didn't know before, and this sounds like a fascinating life, Angelo; certainly more adventurous than mine has been. Also good to see points where your musical journey ties in with mine, and others where you follow other paths.

Just fantastic. Thanks for sharing.

User avatar
Jock
Posts: 9476
Joined: 31 Dec 2005, 10:59
Location: Guid aul' Killie

Re: Desert Island Discs - fangedango! - 4th Nov. 2011

Postby Jock » 06 Nov 2011, 09:49

Very good indeed. I'm with Footy on this though. Glad I didn't commit.
Always Cheated Never Defeated

User avatar
copehead
BCB Cup Stalinist
Posts: 24763
Joined: 16 Jul 2003, 18:51
Location: at sea

Re: Desert Island Discs - fangedango! - 4th Nov. 2011

Postby copehead » 06 Nov 2011, 13:48

lovely exposition on the purity of AC/DC's muse and a great song choice
Dancing in the streets of Hyannis

Image

Bear baiting & dog fights a speciality.

User avatar
Six String
Posts: 23075
Joined: 16 Jul 2003, 20:22

Re: Desert Island Discs - fangedango! - 4th Nov. 2011

Postby Six String » 06 Nov 2011, 14:30

I haven't had time to listen to the music selections yet although many of the songs I'm already familiar with and own. I love that Sesame St. performance by Stevie and Co. I'm glad you used that one to illustrate the song as I haven't seen it in ages.

Your writing is really first rate and I really enjoyed getting to know a bit about you and it was the quality of the writing that made it easy. I had no idea your family was from Greece. While that photo of the region you are from is beautiful and one that sparks the imagination of hikes and exploring I can't imagine trying to carve a living out of that same space.

You mention that some music made you want to pash a girl and even more. No comprende pash?

I read your love about space in music with glee as it's something I treasure as well. It's one of those things that makes it hard for me to enjoy some of the electronic music out there today. That pulse or beat that is relentless in some of that music drives me bonkers and while I can appreciate why it's there for that music it does absolutely nothing for me except make me want to turn it off or run away.

You did a really superb job and I have to get off to work now but I'll be listening to that Big John Patton album as I make my way to the salt mines.
Everything is broken
B. Dylan

User avatar
fange
100% fangetastic
Posts: 14171
Joined: 20 Jan 2010, 11:30
Location: 香港

Re: Desert Island Discs - fangedango! - 4th Nov. 2011

Postby fange » 07 Nov 2011, 10:44

Thanks again everyone, much appreciated.

Six String wrote:While that photo of the region you are from is beautiful and one that sparks the imagination of hikes and exploring I can't imagine trying to carve a living out of that same space.


Yes, there are groups of intrepid hikers who travel out there and hit those hills in the summer, and they definitely get their money's worth, but that photo and very few photos really do justice to the sheer wildness of those mountains; the perilous slopes, the loose, thorny vegetation and occasional rock falls used to claim people regularly, including 2 of my great grand-parents. A mad place to live, but they did.

Six String wrote:You mention that some music made you want to pash a girl and even more. No comprende pash?


Ah, to pash was (and maybe still is) an Aussie slang when i was growing up which means to kiss someone passionately. Don't you speak 'Stralian, mate? ;)
Jonny Spencer wrote:
fange wrote:I've got my quad pants on and i'm ready for some Cock.


By CHRIST you're a man after my own sideways sausage, Ange!

User avatar
Six String
Posts: 23075
Joined: 16 Jul 2003, 20:22

Re: Desert Island Discs - fangedango! - 4th Nov. 2011

Postby Six String » 07 Nov 2011, 17:42

Fangedango! wrote:Thanks again everyone, much appreciated.


Six String wrote:You mention that some music made you want to pash a girl and even more. No comprende pash?


Ah, to pash was (and maybe still is) an Aussie slang when i was growing up which means to kiss someone passionately. Don't you speak 'Stralian, mate? ;)


No I don't but I like the word/meaning.
Everything is broken
B. Dylan


Return to “BCB Desert Island Discs & BCB Interviews”