Blue Moon Playlist Review Club - Season 2 - Episode 32 - threespires - Could have been a Contender (pg 472)

From one of his best latter period albums, this haunting and beautiful song is tough to unravel fully.
Clearly about the Iraq war but is the guy dead and dreaming or recovering and remembering? The "ward with blue walls" and "Just metal and plastic where your body caved" suggest the latter.

"Devil's Arcade" - Bruce Springsteen
 
My 3/3rd addition for this week:

Mid 80's mashup



Edit:
Age restricted huh?
We are becoming a society of wet rags.

For those not bothered with the vid link:
Paul Hardcastle: 19 (1985)
 
Coatigan said:
The Dixie Chicks - Travelling Soldier

A nice bit of storytelling in this one, and the banjo americana I promised Rob.
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Lol - what have you done with Coatigan you country loving alien clone?

It was this song that got them in the shit with the rednecks when Maines dissed Bush when introducing it at a gig in London.

Home is a good album, bit sentimental but that's country for you :-) You could nominate it on the album thread ;-)
 
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threespires said:
Lol - what have you done with Coatigan you country loving alien clone?

It was this song that got them in the shit with the red necks when Maines dissed Bush when introducing it at a gig in London.

Home is a good album, bit sentimental but that's country for you :-) You could nominate it on the album thread ;-)
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You know, I have actually listened to, and liked, the whole album.

I did previously say that when it comes to this genre, I prefer the wifeys singing men.
 
mancity2012_eamo said:
Thing about this theme is, there is any number of Irish Rebel Songs that would fit here, but I don’t think they’d be appreciated.

Know your audience!
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The thing is something like Come Out Ye Black and Tans is a great song but outside it's historical context it probably would be misunderstood :-( Anyway, one that most of us can hopefully get behind in these darker days...

Viva La Quinta Brigada - Christy Moore
 
threespires said:
The thing is something like Come Out Ye Black and Tans is a great song but outside it's historical context it probably would be misunderstood :-( Anyway, one that most of us can hopefully get behind in these darker days...

Viva La Quinta Brigada - Christy Moore
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I agree and the IRA they reference was historical rather than what grew out of the late Sixties-seventies.
The same could be said about ‘Off to Dublin in the Green, in the Green’.
It’s talking about 1916.
I grew up with that stuff in the radio as a child. I think they came out around 1966 or earlier.

There’s a ton of other stuff though. Foggy Dew comes to mind, about 1916 also.

Anyway. I won’t inflict it upon you.
 
mancity2012_eamo said:
I agree and the IRA they reference was historical rather than what grew out of the late Sixties-seventies.
The same could be said about ‘Off to Dublin in the Green, in the Green’.
It’s talking about 1916.
I grew up with that stuff in the radio as a child. I think they came out around 1966 or earlier.

There’s a ton of other stuff though. Foggy Dew comes to mind, about 1916 also.

Anyway. I won’t inflict it upon you.
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Foggy Dew ties into one of the songs already on the list as it references the debacle at Sulva Bay.
 
Any volunteers for next monday?

As we now listen to/discuss the songs of this one over the coming week.
 
Abba had a thing about war, Waterloo, Fernando etc so they should really be in the list. Despite their typically idiosyncratic use of English, the chorus of this makes a very fair point.

Soldiers - Abba
 
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Has anyone whipped this up into a playlist, did I miss what page it is on?
 
Mr Grumpy said:
BM PLC, WK31, Mr Grumpy: WAR.

I was listening to the last track on my playlist as I was reading (discovering) this thread and thought to myself that war would make a good theme.
Then I read the plea for new entrants and the die was cast. I've no pithy intro as to why war was chosen but on reflection, it's a deep mineshaft so should be ripe for the unearthing of some diamonds. This subject also allows me to crowbar some cultural and non-indie music into the sub :)

For format, I have a subscription to YouTube Music unlimited and I'll be posting those links which should be available on YouTube standard. As per the post early on in this thread, if you don't have YTM, then google is your friend.

So onto the tracks:
-------------------------------------------------

1) Frankie Goes to Hollywood: Two Tribes. 12"

Anyone growing up (i.e. early teens) in the 80's, can attest to the cold war USSR-USA tension that was thick in the air. This was time of films such as threads, when the wind blows, & the day after. Bands too, followed suit with songs about Armageddon, the cold war. Cheery stuff.
I picked up this 12" remix of two tribes in the late 80's as it caught my eye in the record shops (remember them?) I started frequenting after buying my new HIFI system with the money from my 1st job. This 12" uses sound clips from the very disturbing (because they are real and actual public service broadcasts!) nuclear war preperation series "Protect and survive". Poor Grandma. Bonus quiz: Who's the voice of President Reagan? (clue: He's a smeg heeeeeeeeeeed)

Trever Horn at his finest.

Listener Notes: Play it LOUD and on decent gear.



Further reading: https://rcrdkeeper.wordpress.com/2021/01/26/review-of-the-two-tribes-single-and-12-extended-mix/
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2) U2: Sunday Bloody Sunday.

According to the UK government at the time, "the troubles" were just that and not a war. Those involved in that period would beg to differ.
The events of 1972, put down on vinyl in 1983 by a young Irish group just starting out on their own version of world dominance.
Perhaps the finest record they made, everything is absolutely tight and highly tuned with the horrors of the day(s) perfectly narrated to the ignorant world of the time.

This, to me, is how political pop music should be. Nothing finer.



Further reading: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bloody_Sunday_(1972)

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3: Don Mclean: The Grave.

I bought the LP American Pie for a friend a few years back as a thank you for a favour he did (We used to talk a lot about music). He mentioned the LP a few times and i thought it a nice change from the usual pint/ chocolates/smelly candle* friends sometimes give each other.
I got the best version i could find and it was 2nd hand (now long out of pressing). Before wrapping it up, I gave it a spin to see how it sounded and oh boy, what a gem of an album. It is one of those albums where the title track is probably the worst on it and becomes forgettable the more you play the album. "The Grave" hits home hard. Very hard. I won't expand on it's lyrics or composition, that's for you, the listener to discover but it is not track to be listening on a personal high point...

Notes: A track for listening, not hearing.



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

4) Guns n' Roses: Civil War

Taken from the 1st track of the double album: Use your Illusion II (and originally from Nobody's Child), this track has perhaps the greatest sample intro ever.
Fans of the band argue it is their best track. Hard to argue against that and I think it's them at the peak for sure.

I wasn't a huge fan of GnR, I'm not really a hard rock/metal fan but this just carries across all genres. It's a fantastic, energetic stomper of a track with some superb musicianship and penmanship on show.

Bonus quiz: Name the film from the opening sample.....



What's so civil 'bout war anyway?

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5) Platoon soundtrack: The Vancouver Symphony Orchestra: Adagio for strings.

I had another (forum controversial) track earmarked for the bookend of this list, but I dunno, this just seemed to be a perfect ending, rather than just another good track. If you are going to source this from anywhere other than the link, please make sure it is the official soundtrack version as it has the haunting dialogue of the films main character which is essential.

Is platoon the finest war film ever made? Some would say yes, some no. Personally, it's up there although I would say that Full metal Jacket would have been mine had they finished filming after the scene in the toilet.....

How ironic, that despite the eons of classical music emanating from across the globe, one of its finest pieces is by a 20th Century Yank :) .

In a series of tracks where the lyrics are the keystones, perhaps perfect that this last track says the most by saying nothing.

I played this to my wife once, on a evening, sat down on my listening couch, lights dimmed, glass of wine, no words. We were both in tears at the end.



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

Epilogue.

I had intended to add something fun and light hearted in the list of tracks but decided to leave that for next week. War is not fun.
To finish off this post, no finer words than from the Last Post:

They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old,
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.
At the going down of the sun, and in the morning,
We will remember them.



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Prologue: Playlist

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Playlist updated.
(Using ChatGBT: Sorry for anny missed links :) )
 
Actually the AI thing is pretty cool huh (haven't done that before!)
For those in the future, here is what i did:

1) Cut and past all recommendations into a simple list (no need to do any editing)
2) Go to AI (ChatGBT in this case) and simply ask it to "Sort the list out" It will then rearrange same in a constant Song-Artist manner with proper punctuation etc.
3) Ask it to add "youtube hyperlinks to the list" It will do so with a complaint that it can't actually do specific links given the variety, however YT search results are fine tbh)
4) Cut past same into your OP.
 
Mr Grumpy said:
Actually the AI thing is pretty cool huh (haven't done that before!)
For those in the future, here is what i did:

1) Cut and past all recommendations into a simple list (no need to do any editing)
2) Go to AI (ChatGBT in this case) and simply ask it to "Sort the list out" It will then rearrange same in a constant Song-Artist manner with proper punctuation etc.
3) Ask it to add "youtube hyperlinks to the list" It will do so with a complaint that it can't actually do specific links given the variety, however YT search results are fine tbh)
4) Cut past same into your OP.
Click to expand...

Yea one would still need to turn that into a spotify or youtube playlist that can be shared, but cuts down the searching through pages if done at the end.

Any thoughts yourself of songs that atiod out or gave what you might have wanted out of this theme share?
 
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