Track 11: The Fratellis - Chelsea Dagger
Confession time: I find The Fratellis a bit annoying. And
most of the time, I find Chelsea Dagger, their biggest hit, very annoying.
Actually, I’m not sure I can remember any of their other songs, but this one…
it’s hard to get away from. Because of the yobbish terrace anthem chorus which,
the more I hear it, the more I can’t help but think, “Knees up, Mother Brown!”
I was therefore surprised to discover that the Fratellis
are, to quote George, Weegies. I would have sworn they were Landahners, like
the Libertines who they clearly owe a sizable debt to. I also didn’t know that
they took their band name from The Goonies. Clearly I need to watch The Goonies
again. I did know that they called their debut record Costello Music, but
apparently that has nothing to do with Elvis, it’s just the name of an old
studio they used to rehearse in.
Why are they here if I don’t care for them that much? I
guess because I thought this would be the kind of easy-to-singalong indie
gubbins that might stick in Sam’s head and persuade him that guitar music was
the way forward rather than Juice WRLD, Imaginary Dragons and Youngboy With A
Broken Neck.
All those efforts were ultimately in vain…
12: Fine Young Cannibals - Good Thing
Is it better to burn out than fade away? The Fine Young
Cannibals burned very brightly in the late 80s, and they were a band I had a
lot of time for while I was otherwise falling out of love with the singles
chart. Turns out that Roland Gift and his two mates – Andy Cox and Davis
Steele, both formerly of The Beat – had even greater success in the US where both
this song and its predecessor, She Drives Me Crazy, were Billboard Number Ones.
And then, by 1992 it was all over. Two albums, a clutch of
hit singles, then the pressure of fame, musical differences, the same old
story. Maybe it’s better they went out on top rather than the slow decline that
kills so many bands.
13: The Clash - London Calling
Some of you will be wondering how I could do 87 CDs before getting to The Clash’s best song.
The Clash are a harder sell than The Jam or
The Undertones – maybe they’re a more mature proposition? Or maybe they just
didn’t have tunes that were quite as catchy? Should I Stay… and the Bobby
Fuller Four cover (originally recorded by a post-Buddy Crickets) had already
featured by the time I got to this one, but after that there was a long gap and
I’ve only recently started adding less obvious Clash songs to Sam’s
compilations… long after I pretty much exhausted the early Weller output.
Or, to put it another way, London Calling is a far, far
better song than Chelsea Dagger. But I bet if you played them both to the
average eight year old and asked them which they prefer, Joe and Mick would be
going home with second prize.
14: Dobie Gray - The In Crowd
I wonder if I included this one as a subtle hint at a moral
message? “Don’t worry about getting in with The In Crowd, son. Just find people
who accept you as you are.” That’s a lesson I’m still trying to learn as
my regular carping about not being one of the cool kids on the blogosphere will
clearly show.
Dobie Gray, of course, wants to be part of The In
Crowd… so actually, the message is the opposite of the one I’d like Sam to
learn. Did Dobie ever get to be part of that auspicious group himself? Well, he
came from nowhere, born to Texas sharecroppers – there’s even a question over
his real name… was it Lawrence Darrow Brown or Leonard Victor Ainsworth? He
then achieved a fair bit of success over a fair few years… most notably with
the song Drift Away, a hit both in 1973 and again in 2003 when it was covered
by country-rap-rock dude Uncle Kracker* who took it back into the US Top 10,
with Dobie on guest vocals.
(*I was unfamiliar with Uncle Kracker until today. He looks like that kid you went to school with who started working in McDonalds in the Sixth Form... and he's still working there.)
When he died in 2011, Dobie left 100% of his musical assets and royalties to charity. Surely that qualifies him for membership of a very select group, even better than The In Crowd?
