In a wayward year of odd Number Ones, this is one of the rummest. It isn’t the sort of thing I’d want to listen to very often, if at all, and if it was typical of the kind of records that top the charts, well, we wouldn’t be here. But there are enough intriguing touches on The Roussos Phenomenon to not dismiss it as wholly ridiculous. You are occasionally reminded that yes, this Demis Roussos is the same D.R. who released 666, a prog triple concept album about the Book of Revelation, the year before recording most of this…. slightly more accessible material. The phased synths on “My Friend The Wind”, for instance, are a pretty nice twist on the song. Meanwhile there’s the extraordinary wobbling voice - not being used on prime material here but with enough fire and conviction to make “Forever And Ever” slightly less disreputable than it ought to be. He can’t do much with the woeful ”Sing An Ode To Love”, though.

I’m guessing that the public’s brief embrace of Roussos didn’t indicate any great swell of favour for Greek popular song (which was and remains a tough ask for the rugged British ear). Rather I would imagine it sprung from a) the suddenly Mediterranean climate making this kind of slow-baked saganaki sound good; b) accumulated memories of holidays during the Greek island package tour boom - these songs had been huge native hits for Roussos over the last few years; c) it being sung by a huge bearded bloke in a glittery kaftan. As a fat man with a beard myself, I think Roussos gets a slightly raw deal here - from garage rock to prog, through pop, opera and even a stab at hip-hop, he’s had a go at everything. Has any other artist tackled such a wide span of genres? But with the best will in the world I can’t claim that The Roussos Phenomenon is any real good. 3

Written by Tom on Friday, May 9th, 2008 | Hits: 648 | Share This

Responses

FT's pˆnk s lord sükråt cunctør on May 9th, 2008
yay aphrodite’s child! i first heard 666 on the flip of an audio-cassette containing patti smith’s horses sometime round about the release of this single i assume: the lad whose cassette it wz i had a sort of (slightly formalist) crush on, both taped off his older brother’s LPS, and for quite a long time my high opinion of p.smith and horses (undimmed to this day) was coloured a. by the crush, b. by the fact that his older brother was very cool and c. by the TOTAL WTF WEIRDNESS of some of 666 (ie there’s a whole side given over to nothing but orgasmic moans iirc) (sadly all too few prog triple LPs took this path)
Waldo on May 9th, 2008
This modestly titled EP (four tracks) used the first of these, “Forever and Ever” to sell the record and I’m sorry to say that I loved it. I thought the intro, which doubled as the middle-bit and the fade, was blinding. The alarming fact about Roussos was that his voice didn’t fit his body and here “Dennis” and I saw eye to eye, as I was small for my age but had a particularly low-pitched voice, which all the girls thought was a put on. I used to do a great (no modesty spared her, I’m afraid) impersonation of Len Martin, the guy who read out the football results on “Grandstand”, perfectly from about thirteen onwards. It was perhaps a worrying party piece but then sweet little Waldo…well, you know. Dennis, of course, was the reverse of this, being a bearded bull of a man in possession of a somewhat squeaky, though melodious bray.

It always surprised me that Roussos did not attract more female admirers from my own age group. He was certainly a grizzled old lump, without doubt all man, and by then an international superstar. My own take on it was that girly voice, which like Tiny Tim, gave him the appearance as something an oddity. Perhaps that was it.

Bit of triv. DR was the first African-born artist to top the UK singles chart. His place of origin had been Egypt, although both parents were Greek.
FT's Tom on May 9th, 2008
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hSPXlUsHbcg

Video for “My Friend The Wind” plays up the Acropolis angle. Click on it though for the astonishing opening sequence where a handcam wobbles at a big sign saying “TOP POP” which then is revealed to be a tiny sign dwarfed by enormous Demis. From 1973 - MOVE OVER QUEEN.
SteveM on May 9th, 2008
Tom why judge the release on all EP tracks but not judge other #1 singles on their b-sides? Your mark could be based just on the most played or well known track from any EP no? Apologies if, in this case, there was no ’standout’ song from this in that respect.
FT's Tom on May 9th, 2008
If a record was promoted as an EP I try and listen to all 4 tracks though I give more weight to the lead one.

If a record is a double A side I judge it on both (again with more weight to the A rather than the AA if that got airplay)*

Otherwise it’s just the A Side.

*(There are some double-A sides early on in Popular where I didn’t do this, though, because I hadn’t firmed up this policy yet.)
FT's DJ Punctum on May 9th, 2008
In terms of what we might call “sanitised”/cleaned up Greek popular song, don’t forget that for decades Britain loved/still love Nana Mouskouri, who had umpteen hit albums (though only one hit single - “Only Love,” a #2 hit in 1986) and was endlessly on TV (or endlessly being impersonated by Benny Hill) in my youth. Demis is a more complex case.

But before I get to the great man, a couple of secondary observations:

a) ‘76 may be the only case of two different songs with the same title reaching number one in the same year (even though Demis’ “Forever And Ever” was strictly speaking the lead track of an EP);

b) It’s worth ruminating a little over the resurrection of the EP. One of the several major flaws of the official (i.e. used in Guinness) chart is that for most of the sixties it excluded EPs - they had their own chart in Record Retailer, but in most of the other charts, including the NME, they were counted along with singles. Therefore another somewhat distorted picture emerges. Most bizarrely, at the time when EPs were discreetly allowed back into the Record Retailer chart, this was just before the BMRB won the chart contract, and their first stipulation was to exclude EPs again; hence Simon and Garfunkel’s Mrs Robinson EP was number nine in the mid-February ‘69 chart and number nowhere the following week.

Most labels got round this by inventing the three-track maxi single which benefited lots of artists, from Mungo Jerry to Bowie. But in ‘76 we see, not only The Roussos Phenomenon but also Bryan Ferry’s Extended Play (also top ten: lead track, his cover of the Everlys’ “The Price Of Love”) and of course Eddie and the Hotrods’ Live At The Marquee package. I’m not really sure of the specific catalyst for the revival but don’t remember it being specifically punk-related; however it did help pave the way for the forthcoming back to basics what-have-yous.

Now, back to Demis, the then-recent subject of a similarly titled BBC1 documentary watched by millions - he’d already had a top five hit here with “Happy To Be On An Island In The Sun” over Xmas ‘75-6 (clever timing, in the same way that you were always bombarded with travel adverts on Boxing Day ITV) and the doc consolidated his gathering attraction to fans of a certain age and bearing.

With Vangelis, of course, he’d been in Aphrodite’s Child with whom he scored a huge European hit in ‘68 with the rather soppy ballad “Rain And Tears” before they progressed to the challenging arenas of 1972’s climactic double epic 666. And the subsequent Roussos/Vangelis reunion as part of the Blade Runner soundtrack confirmed that he still had a taste for adventure.

(Incidentally, Vangelis himself was slowly coming to prominence with UK prog audiences at around this time; 1975’s Heaven And Hell, enthusiastically and regularly spun by Alan Freeman on his Saturday afternoon rock show, was marketed as a Greek Tubular Bells and did very well - and also includes one of my all-time favourite ballads, “Long Ago And Far Away,” the first Jon and Vangelis collaboration)

And then came the phenomenon. I have to say that whenever I think of 1976 I do not automatically think of bondage trousers down the King’s Road (since in 1976 I had as yet seen neither) but rather this - if one number one brings back the stifling heat, the endless sun, the general mood of that summer, it is this one, even though its production and delivery sound filtered through an alternative 1968 (see also Joe Dolan’s 1969 top three smash “Make Me An Island” for another possible precedent).

And the use of the song and Demis as unlikely standard bearers for housewifely values in Abigail’s Party confirmed and nailed the intended audience. Note how (at least in the 1977 BBC TV production) Beverley also pulls out of her record rack a Tom Jones best of, one of those really tacky mid-seventies Music For Pleasure-type compilations, and grooves away in her own, temporarily contented universe despite the embarrassment of her guests. Here you can see a lot of what Mike Leigh was getting at and the kind of person Beverley was; the sort who swooned over Tom back in ‘65 and knew that it was HER moment and don’t you bloody punks even think about trying to take my moment, my intact memory, away from me (did Lester Bangs watch it when he was over here to interview the Clash?), but then life changed, or got in the way, and she gradually lost interest and then heart; and the Beatles were getting a little too weird for her liking and isn’t that Engelbert a hunk? She’ll cling on to her moment forever if it strangles her. Meanwhile, unseen but not unheard, Abigail is next door, raving over (I think?) “Gary Gilmore’s Eyes” by the Adverts, the oncoming tidal wave which (in Beverley’s front room) has already claimed a casualty. Demis, then, becomes her new talisman, her beacon of reassurance that these new-fangled seventies aren’t going mad or pulling her apart - that she’s still got someone, something, to whose beaming, beneficent kaftan she may cling. The sixties minus the question mark - and in that transitional summer, Demis was the man to supply what so many people wanted.
FT's DJ Punctum on May 9th, 2008
As for “So Dreamy,” I couldn’t find it on YouTube but this download may or may not work.
FT's Tom on May 9th, 2008
Thanks Marcello - I’m not trying it at work though :)
FT's pˆnk s lord sükråt cunctør on May 9th, 2008
(further marginal prog notes: vangelis tried out for YES after fat-fingered oaf wakeman left — tho patrick moraz got the gig, “relayer” by some way their best record i think) (all old news in 76, of course, as it came out in 74)
FT's DJ Punctum on May 9th, 2008
I further note that Tony Oxley plays drums on a couple of early Vangelis albums (Dragon and Hypothesis to be exact) and I have asked him about those but he just shook his head sadly and said he did it for the money just after Paul Anka had thrown him out of his band for not playing four to the bar.
LondonLee on May 9th, 2008
“Do you like Demis Roussos, Tone?”

My mother was forever quoting Beverley’s lines at us so in an indirect way Demis always reminds me of my mother, though thankfully she wasn’t a fan (nor of Englebert). When The Beatles got too weird she moved on to Jose Felicano, The Sandpipers and then Rod Stewart.

That could be why I can’t find it in me to really hate Beverley, horror show that she is.
vinylscot on May 9th, 2008
666 has always been one of my favourite albums, apart from Irene Papas’s rather OTT contribution. I still skip that bit when I listen to the CD. I first got into it a little before this, having been aware of the single “Break” which had been a nearly-hit twice in the past couple of years.

Demis’s solo career was a hell of a sell-out wasn’t it? His albums were pretty popular in Britain too, which is unusual, because if you look at his singles chart performance, and heard this or “Happy To Be…”, you would assme that he was just a disposable novelty brought home from a holiday, and that his appeal would dry out over a few singles.

Perhaps his choice of solo material was influenced by the success of the rather insipid “Rain and Tears” mentioned earlier. It wasn’t a million miles away from his solo stuff, and Aphrodite’s Child never really came close to matching its commercial success.

Re the renaissance of EPs - although this wasn’t on the label, I think Island Records had a lot to do with the re-birth. Apart from Bryan Ferry, and Eddie and the Hot Rods, Island also released EPs from Jess Roden and Michael Nesmith around this time
vinylscot on May 9th, 2008
Oh, and 14 posts, and nobody’s mentioned the hijacking yet!!
Mark G on May 9th, 2008
Well, you can’t really hate her now, it’s way too retrospective/hindsighty.

Also, “Liebfraumilch red wine” being her height of sophistication. Were we laffing at her pretention or laffing at her getting it wrong? Putting it in the fridge.

Of course, thesedays it’s fine to put LRed in the fridge. If you want to. Then? Nonnononooo….
vinylscot on May 9th, 2008
Waldo - post no 2 - surely Manfred Mann and Freddie Mercury both beat Demis to be the first African-born at No1? Or are we only counting solo singers?
FT's DJ Punctum on May 9th, 2008
Ah yes (#13) - the hijacking (1985?), something else that Demis has in common with Bryan Ferry…
jeff w on May 9th, 2008
I can’t believe I’ve never heard the whole of 666. I really like “The Four Horsemen” (which I assume is from that LP).

I have no strong feelings either way about Roussos solo - save that last summer the then tenant of the upstairs flat adjacent to mine (whose landlord appears to have a revolving door policy) seemed to own only one CD - a Roussos ‘Best of’. As you might imagine, it wore out its welcome quite quickly.

(Pedant corner: the korrekt title of the first Jon & Vangelis collab is “So Long Ago, So Clear”. MC is quite right to recommend it, however)
FT's DJ Punctum on May 9th, 2008
“So Long Ago, So Clear” indeed (hits self v. hard with cricket bat)…
rosie on May 9th, 2008
Oh, well actually I rather like this! I liked Aphrodite’s Child when Rain and Tears came out. It sounds a bit limp now but at the time of its release it felt fresh and different, and I didn’t know then that the tune was Pachelbel’s Canon in D major and therefore a cliché that would drive me nuts in years to come.

I can even get round Demis’s association with Beverley of Abigail’s Party (and thus my rather prissy, Cliff-loving older sister, but let’s not go there). In 1976 the world was my oyster, and I didn’t feel the need to sneer and screech, so Forever and Ever in particular was perfectly acceptable. In any case, there was only one thing on my mind (aside from the heat) and that was my imminent wedding.
vinylscot on May 9th, 2008
Further to #15 (and I’ll stop now), Danny Williams was born in South Africa and had a solo no1 in 1961 with “Moon River”.

Waldo, I assure you this isn’t personal, but the Africa thing just didn’t ring true to me - I think I’ve had the same conversation with someone before!
FT's Tom on May 9th, 2008
For no particular reason other than having the time, another end of year poll, for 1958 this time:

http://freakytrigger.co.uk/ft/2004/02/popular-58/
Erithian on May 9th, 2008
vinylscot/Waldo - but Johannesburg-born Manfred Mann beats them both, and I wouldn’t be surprised to find there was someone else before him.

Punctum (#6) - there are two different number one songs with the same title within a year of each other in 1984/85, but it’s two different years (though only just)

I’ve had “Bacchanale” by Vangelis running through my head since this thread was posted - it’s from “Heaven and Hell” and is a cracking bit of prog. Anyway, Demis - his sex appeal was something I’ve always found hard to fathom, but I do remember my sister saying “ooh, I’d drop me knickers for him” - to my mother!

There was a Freddie Starr (IIRC) sketch where he’s dressed as Demis in the kaftan, singing in the customary high voice, then walks across the stage and his voice goes down three octaves as he leaves behind the bloke with a pair of pliers who’d been hiding under the kaftan. Quality 70s entertainment.
FT's Tom on May 9th, 2008
OK, time for a confession: I have never watched “Abigail’s Party”! Which it is gradually dawning on me that this record plays a major role in…
rosie on May 9th, 2008
Incidentally, this town is on edge on a muggy old day, and by tonight Barrow AFC may be joining Eastbourne Borough in the Conference. Let’s hear it for the Bluebirds!

Mind you, one should never underestimate Barrow’s potential for snatching defeat from the jaws of victory…

I can understand Demis Roussos’s sex appeal, provided I get to be on top…
Erithian on May 9th, 2008
OK, let’s hear it for the Holker Street massive, Rosie! Only ever seen one Barrow game, but it was a good ‘un - the 1990 FA Trophy final.

Oh, and crikey Tom - fat man with a beard is not at all how I’d imagined you. Couldn’t quite specify how I had imagined you, but far from a Demis-a-like!

And sorry for being so late with the Manfred Mann bit earlier.
Mark G on May 9th, 2008
Oh, that e.p. pic doesn’t load btw.
FT's Tom on May 9th, 2008
Well I’m not as large as Demis at his height (breadth?)! But yes, comfortably built to say the least.
jel on May 9th, 2008
He looks like Russel Brand in that picture!
rosie on May 9th, 2008
Way hey! Go Bluebirds!
Billy Smart on May 9th, 2008
I’m afraid that my problem with Demis Roussos is that that voice always has a fingers on blackboard/ squeaky balloon shuddering effect on me. The only other singer I know who has the same effect is John Anderson.

Which adds up as being doubly unfortunate for Vangelis!
crag on May 10th, 2008
Re#25- I, too am suprised at Tom’s outing of himself as a Roussos-alike- not what i’d pictured at all! How about uploading a pic, Tom, so we can all see for ourselves?(I too fit into the ‘fat man w/ a beard’ demographic although i’ve never wore a kaftan- or indeed a moumou..)
This is an even odder record than the other “Forever and Ever” but doesnt come close in terms of quality- like Jon Anderson, Demis’ strange strangulated vocals work well in a more experimental, “prog” framework but when heard in a pop context it just sounds weird and wrong.
Dig those bazoukis, though…
DJ Punctum on May 10th, 2008
For some reason the mid-song massed bouzouki interlude makes me think of “Strangers In The Night” ten years on.
rosie on May 10th, 2008
It crosses my mind (mainly because Green Onions just came up on the Big Mix) that one of the enduring sounds of this and lots of other summers around this time was Soul Limbo by Booker T & the MGs. I don’t think this was ever more than a minor hit but it must have sold a lot over a long period, surely? I expect somebody will know.

Anyway, it springs to my mind more than any of the sounds of that hot lazy summer. Maybe that’s because I was spending so much time watching Viv Richards setting about the England bowling attack. Always letting Booker T finish before turning down the TV volume at the first sight of the alien head of Peter West, before smarmy Richie Benaud could get in, and turning on Radio 3 for the mellifluous summery tones Arlott and Johnners.
FT's Tom on May 10th, 2008
In response to popular demand:

http://freakytrigger.co.uk/lytton/NovRide.JPG

(I’m the one underneath!)
rosie on May 10th, 2008
Swoon!
Waldo on May 10th, 2008
Vinylscot #15+20 - I really shouldn’t believe everything I read, should I? You are quite right, Danny Williams was of course born in RSA and, yes, I was referring to solo singers. My only mitigation was that I obtained the “Demis being the first African born UK chart topper revelation”, having speed-read an item about the Bubble on-line. I chose not to consider this “fact”, which you have now revealed as being complete shite. Thanks for the correction. But then hands up those of you who still buy the line that Henry Cooper was the first professional to put Clay down? He was not. The number of pints I’ve won proving that one!!!

Rosie - Well done Barrow indeed! We’ll have to keep an eye on the fixture lits for next season, as I intend to cover selected away games for Boro, and a trip to Barrow, coupled with a day or two in the Lake District would be very appealing, as long as it’s not a Tuesday night in November. BTW, I remember when Barrow were in the Football League last time. They now have an oportunity to return.

Tom - Nothing wrong with being a pieboy, son! I too am an uber-tubby lad (a fat bastard, if you will) but still manage to swim 30+ lengths most days over at David Lloyds, even if one or two of the youngsters use that opportunity to do a spot of surfing as I glide gently by.
crag on May 10th, 2008
Thanks for the photae, Tom! Lovely pic…
Waldo on May 10th, 2008
Indeed a delightful snap, Tom. Being happy is what it’s all about. And you (and Junior) clearly are.

I see that you’re a fan of “Callan”, as am I. Magnificent series.
rosie on May 10th, 2008
I note that while Demis was at the top of the singles chart in the UK, Tom Waits was busy recording the album Small Change, and therefore a 1976 album, which may or may not be considered to be punkish according to taste but which is surely one of the great albums of the period. I’m pretty sure it didn’t spawn any UK hit singles but it certainly proves that 1976 wasn’t as musically sterile period as some would have us believe.
Billy Smart on May 10th, 2008
Actually, and I fear this will provoke the ire of some correspondents, Tom Waits is the third singer whose voice I cannot stand, like a growling dog that won’t shut up…
FT's wichitalineman on May 11th, 2008
Well, after the ‘mockney’ furore around Hold Me Close by Canning Town’s own David Essex, doesn’t every Tom Waits record just sound like someone acting out Bukowski? Fake!! I can’t stand that voice either, tho the man can write a good song. Heart Attack And Vine indeed. I bet he’s tee total.

1976 is hard work (though not as deflating as 75, when I pretty much abandoned pop for several months even as a 10 yr old). I can’t think of a single year that didn’t produce something worthwhile, Rosie. I’m Mandy Fly Me (great) and John Miles’ Music (not so) probably informed my later taste for The Yard Went On Forever, The Neon Philharmonic albums, and other baroque, overlong adventurousness. And Good Vibrations also re-entered the Top 20 in ‘76 - on the back of the Beach Boys’ 20 Golden Greats zillion seller - which started a deep and life-long entanglement.

But the slide into across-the-board novelty, good and bad (and we can include stuff like Let ‘Em In which just misses this list, and Jeans On) showed something was starting to smell bad by ‘76. It’s harder to find genuinely great obscure 45s from ‘76 than any year.

My memory around this time, when I got my first cassette recorder and could tape things from lo-fi AM Radio 1, is of hearing for the first time such mindsnappers as Jerry Byrne’s Lights Out, Frankie Ford’s Sea Cruise, Red Hot by Billie Lee Riley (presumably all to do with pub rock covers?) and the Beatles Back In The USSR (new to me back then). All of which had an atmosphere that was a little, umm, livelier than the Roussos Phenomenon.
rosie on May 11th, 2008
Oh well, that’s it then. Rosie is so uncool that she even likes Tom Waits! The privileged ones with an ‘FT’ in front of their names to show rank and how cool and knowledgable and on the money they are have spoken!

Ok, I’ll go for social death. The one voice I really can’t stand is the atonal gob-on-you screeching of the bone-headed lumpenproletariat, as personified by that nice Mr Lydon, whining that the world is being so unfair to them. Watch the massed ranks of the hip young gunslingers rounding on me, with oh-so-tolerant Marcello in the van!

Shortly I’m going over to my own place to pan Young Frankenstein, which is unthinkable because it’s Mel Brooks, but I thought it a ponderous, sub-Marxian piece of pubescent male wankfest!
DJ Punctum on May 11th, 2008
Conversely, the voice I can’t stand in pop above or below any other is the Look How Soulful I Am, Can’t Control My Melisma, Why Sing Three Notes When I Can Sing Three Million (In Three Seconds) type which regrettably has now become the lingua franca of State-approved pop (which latter commits the cardinal sin of being ashamed to be pop).
rosie on May 11th, 2008
Ha! Told you so! QED!

Intelligence and musical competence are so yesterday! The thick and talentless rule, OK!

Excuse me while I enjoy some Donizetti this morning.
DJ Punctum on May 11th, 2008
The world is currently weighed down to the point of spinal breakage with “competence.” Oh The Feeling may be about an exciting and dynamic as the contents of a nine-month-old box of Scott’s Porage Oats but they’re consummate craftsmen = saying “our butcher always cuts the meat properly and charges a fair price, he’s competent at his craft ergo he must be a genius.”

Fuck competence. We want vision and magic.
rosie on May 11th, 2008
Marcello, do you realise how ironic it looks from the outside, when you demand that your own musical preferences be placed on a pedestal and worshipped, but you are excoriating in your castigation of what you don’t like? Dowen with “state-approved pop”, forward with the glorious Marcello-approved sound!

Lots of vision and magic in Donizetti. You should try it sometime. Oh, that bel canto sound, all those notes! Thrilling. Really!

Good butchers who know their craft inside out are pearls beyond price. They should be venerated. Donizetti = Lydgate’s of Holland Park Avenue. Punk = the meat counter at Asda.
DJ Punctum on May 11th, 2008
Lidgate’s are overrated and overpriced. Give me Henderson’s in Hamilton any day.

We had to play the overture to Lucia di Wotsit in the school orchestra. Sinatra/Gobbi-style bel canto = learn to breathe, less is more.

There’s no irony in it, petal. As those masters of post-Wagnerian quasi-righteous bombast Scooter put it: “Take care to get what you like, or you will be forced to like what you get - right?”
crag on May 11th, 2008
Sorry, Rosie but i’m w/ Marcello on this one. The rules of ‘compentance’ that apply to cinema, art, theatre or practically everything else simply don’t have anywhere as much weight when discussing music. The likes of Carey, Bolton, Houston et al are merely Muzak- faultlessly performed on a technical level but totally devoid of soul and passion. The list of musicians who could never be described as virtuosos, on the other hand, that have moved and/or excited me over the years are manifold- Syd Barrett, Bo Diddley, Link Wray,the Fall our pal Beefheart, any number of bluesmen, 60’s garage bands, punk groups and hip-hop artists. I could go on and on (and on) but my point is that lack of conventional musical ability does not prohibit one from making great music and having this abiltity in no way guarentees it. Ironically i’m reminded of an old quote from Keith Richard of all people-”Judging a guitarist on how many notes he can play in a minute is like judging a novelist on how quickly he can type”.
rosie on May 11th, 2008
Crag, are you saying Donizetti is ‘Muzak’? Donizetti was a great populist crowd-pleaser; Don Pasquale comes about as close to punk opera as you can get. As for Carey/Bolton/Houston etc, I don’t care much for those either but I’m not discussing them. On the other hand, as you know, I know my blues as well as anybody. I’m not for a minute going to write off Bessie Smith or T-Bone Walker, or Sonny Boy Williamson or Muddy Waters or Memphis Slim - remember that Memphis Slim at Chateauvallon was my personal Pistols moment, and nobody could say he was a musical slouch.

The test of musical competence for me isn’t technical expertice, it’s nuance, and subtlety, and emotion, and it’s the willingness to take the voice or instrument to places nobody thought of taking it before. At root it’s what puts clear blue water between Jo Stafford, say, and Billie Holiday. It’s John Entwistle’s bass riff on My Generation and the extraordinary bass-playing of Jaco Pastorius (may I mention at this point Weather Report, whose Black Market album came out in 1976 and who recorded Heavy Weather later the same year - another in my list of all-time great albums?). It’s John Coltrane taking a twee little show tune and taking it into orbit for nigh-on twenty minutes without losing it and bringing it safely back to earth. It’s Freddie Mercury doing everything and nothing, except holding the Mountford Hall, or a stadium, in thrall. There are other extraordinary things we’ll be dealing with in the not-too-distant future, but I won’t risk the wrath of the bunny.

But I don’t hear subtlety or nuance or any emotion beyond contempt in the Sex Pistols, nor do I hear any musical innovation beyong thrashing guitars like a child who has never seen one before but who likes to make a noise. And the whining of Lydon isn’t the cry of pain and anger of an oppressed people; he’s no Howlin’ Wolf. It’s the tantrum of a thwarted child. Maybe it passed for sophistication for the twelve-year-old Marcello but it cut no ice with twenty-two-year-old me.
crag on May 11th, 2008
Rosie, i’ll start off by putting my hands up and admitting i don’t have any real knowledge of Donizetti so can’t comment on that one.

The thing that punk did was make people realise(or remind them)that great pop/rock music did not require one to have a degree in musical theory and a 80 piece drum kit that cost more than most music fans would earn in a year and that imagination and enthusiasm were, at the end of the day, more important than being the next Keith Emerson or Rick Wakeman. Punk requainted rock with the power and simplicity of “Tutti Frutti” or “Blue Seude Shoes”. Even to one like myself who was too young at the time this throughline seems obvious.

Don’t get me wrong- i’m not against displays of musical prowess or sophistication and realise to be so would be hugely limiting and wrongheaded. However i get the same thrill from Pete Shelley’s two-note guitar solo on the Buzzcocks “Boredom” as i do from Hendrix’s “Driving South” and feel that they are two sides of the same coin - poweful musical statements showing two musicians expressing themselves thru their instruments and pushing the boundaries of what they could be used for in the contexts they were working in, simultaneously reflecting and reacting against everything that had gone before.The fact that they were at opposite ends of the scale in terms of prowess does not make one more or less valid than the other.
FT's wichitalineman on May 11th, 2008
Umm, not sure how I got the FT in front of my name, it just happened when I signed up. Certainly didn’t intend to pull rank…. but I still think Tom Waits sounds like someone acting, hammily at that, and therefore I find him insincere. Do nuance and subtlety really figure in his work? He’s also part of the canon - if you admit you don’t like him then you tend to get a look that means ‘you just don’t get him’. And very few members of that canon will be making an appearance on Popular. Hurrah!
a logged out p^nk s lord sukråt wötsit on May 11th, 2008
as a contributor of venerable lineage and friends in the lowest palaces i have actually quizzed the FT illuminati more than once abt who gets to be bylined “FT’s very own [xxx]”, and how, but received no intelligible answer DOT DOT DOT

hot innit
a logged out p^nk s lord sukråt wötsit on May 11th, 2008
incidentally — and i might be on shaky ground here (as when not eh) — but i think once past childhood pianoteacher keith emerson is more or less self-taught, at least compared to rick wakeman (royal college of music) or patrick moraz (conservertoire do lausanne) (ooer)

claim: craft and/or technique is what enables sustainable expressive success or evolution… — DISCUSS, noisily

(sustainability and evolution are probably vital if you want to change your OWN subject; maybe irrelevant if you’re just changing — or expanding — everyone else’s subject)

i heart johnny rotten AND mariah carey so there
Tom on May 11th, 2008
I have no idea who gets to be “FT’s…” either!

This is getting deep into spoiler bunny territory, but I can’t think of an act as poorly represented by their UK #1s as Mariah Carey.
Tom on May 11th, 2008
While we’re on the topic of least favourite vocal styles, mine is probably the faux-naif “childlike innocent in a magical bittersweet world” schtick that the Flaming Lips popularised. The Jeff Buckley school of soaring weltschmerz pop I can do without too.
rosie on May 11th, 2008
I should make clear that although I dislike Johnny Rotten, if others love him that’s fine by me. My gripe is with those who think that everybody ought to love him, but hey, I can’t help feeling with the Pistols that I am the one being gobbed on, with my shiny new university degree and my fondness for Genesis (The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway is another of my all-time great albums and I don’t care who knows it.)

As for Tom Waits, I don’t think he was canonical. It’s easy to understand why others might not like him and I don’t begrudge that. Once again, though, I begrudge those who seem to think that because they don’t like him, nobody else ought to either (same applies to Demis Roussos too, I suppose.) Me, I think of Waits as Rock Noir, like something that fell out of a Dashiell Hammett story, or a 1940s psychological thriller, complete with trenchcoat, fedora, bottle of bourbon and soft pack of Luckies. You know how I love that kind of thing. Sexy beast, he is! All the more for me then.

What we need here is more plurality, more tolerance and respect for the tastes of others.
LondonLee on May 11th, 2008
I don’t think Rosie ever came out in favour of technical proficiency over emotion and vision, Tom Waits ain’t exactly Mariah Carey now, is he?

I tend to be more on the side of the punks in this arguement (nothing wrong with childish tantrums in a 3-minute pop song) but the notion of punk reconnecting rock and roll (man) with its roots (man) seems depressingly Mojo-like. It may be true to a certain extent, but the vast number of early punk fans were also into Bowie and Roxy Music.
FT's pˆnk s lord sükråt cunctør on May 11th, 2008
haha yes my line by late 77 — in hindsight totally logically incoherent — was IT’S YEAR ZERO, ALL SHALL FALL, ALL TRADITION IS SUSPECT (not counting a. all kinds of stuff i kinda secretly liked for other reasons and b. all kinds of stuff that was in my redraw-all-the-lines-MY-way head some kind of precursor to year-zero-ish-ness, like roxy)

my attitude towards myself then is “aw bless thank god i am not yr parent”
rosie on May 11th, 2008
I don’t necessarily associate Mariah Carey as technically proficient either. She’s a belter, and the belting style is one I particularly dislike, because it’s a con.
LondonLee on May 11th, 2008
Well, I was thinking of her as someone who is “gifted” vocally (as are Whitney ad Celine) and can hit lots of notes. The problem is she never stops reminding us she CAN hit lots of notes by hitting lots and lots of them in the same line. If you watch American Idol and hear Randy Jackson complimenting some young vocal show-off for all their “runs” you can see how she’s ruined R&B singing. Melisma used to be a good thing when done right, now they sing like they’re going for gold in the Olympics of Vocal Gymnastics - the songs original melody be damned.
FT's pˆnk s lord sükråt cunctør on May 11th, 2008
mariah’s kinda the millie jackson of melisma — utterly totally deliriously unbothered by the prison bars of taste (or tastefulness), which (for me) works for really well for her, as she’s fairly unbothered also by the prison bars of emotional logic and the dull hornby-esque canons of expressive common sense either — i’m not sure ANYONE gets such pure physical joy out of their own technical gift (maybe some drummers do), and the high-wire stuff suits the sheer vivacity of her loopiness; she’s the go-to-girl for exactly this — millie j wd be pretty dull if you told to drop the pottymouth, and i wouldn’t want mariah bounded either, extreme patchiness notwithstanding

but (like a million metal guitarists convinced they’re hendrix) it really really IS a problem for mariah-wannabes, not least cz they’re generally operating as a nervous wanna-please redux of mariah-dom when (to follow her lead effectively) they should probably really only care about pleasing themselves; and of course they’re trapped in an area of the industry which has a really questionable take on the relationship between skill and expression: the judges are all openly looking to be masterful svengalis — achieving success (meaning meaning) by hypnosis of ultra-skilled empty vessels — while the audience are kind of all looking for this sinister controlling to be hilariously confounded by passionate backstory, and not that much squeezes between this destructive competition (well lots of drama does, but the range of musicality is pretty narrow)

(e=mc2, btw, is a lovely subtle summersound LP; almost gentle on the surface, with its endless oddness very controlled and slow reveal)
FT's admin on May 11th, 2008
the “FT’s X” indicates the comment was made logged in as that user - a comment without that can be from anyone (and no checking is done on fake names). this could be clearer.
FT's rosie on May 11th, 2008
Ah, you mean like this?

Hehe! I couldn’t do this when I tried a few weeks ago!¬
Chris Brown on May 11th, 2008
Do I get bonus points for not liking John Lydon or Tom Waits, as singers at any rate? And for actually wanting to inflict physical violence on the sacred cow that is/are the Flaming Lips?
OK, then. As you were.

ISTR hearing on the radio somewhere that the record in Abigail’s Party was originally intended to be Jose Feliciano, but that this was changed in the TV production for reasons unclear - perhaps Demis was just a more contemporary reference. That one decision seems to have defined him entirely for many people of my generation.
FT's s and everyones Mark G10 on May 11th, 2008
and that’s that! I now official and owned?
FT's and everybody elses Mark G on May 11th, 2008
try this instead
crag on May 11th, 2008
Re#57- Sure, Lee, i agree many punks were Bowie/Roxy fans but did this really show much in the actual music till it later shifted into ‘post-punk’? Certainly, the first wave sounded more influenced by early Who and Small Faces, Nuggets and 50’s rocknroll/RnB than “For Your Pleasure” or “Station to Station”- and not always subliminally:see the Pistols covers of “Substitute”, “What You Gonna Do About it” etc.

IMO the 70’s bands who inspired how the early punk bands sounded (as opposed to influencing their cultural or political standpoints as Bowie/Roxy probably did) were the likes of T Rex, Slade and the Faces-all, of course, heavily influenced by the pre-”Pepper” approach..

What exactly does Mojo-like mean anyway, btw?
LondonLee on May 12th, 2008
I meant Mojo, the magazine. I was trying to avoid using the word “rockist”

I think the original stage production of Abigail’s Party used Feliciano’s “Light My Fire”
FT's DJ Punctum on May 12th, 2008
Who said anything about sophistication?

To my 12-year-old self Lydon’s voice was like Dylan’s voice or Ayler’s voice, viz. total WTF I HAVE NOT EXPERIENCED THIS BEFORE WHERE IS THIS ON MY PLANE TONE OF MARVEL ORDER even if it was Kenneth Williams via Albert Steptoe with a better script tho’ kneejerk rejection of Lydon’s tones betrays subtotal familiarity with e.g. works and delivery of Stanley Holloway.

(in the same way that “Anarchy” was the Passport To Pimlico of Britpop i.e. we are PLANTING OUR FLAG HERE WHETHER YOU LIKE IT OR NOT/RIGHT IS ON OUR SIDE but yes the comedy as well which EVERYONE, including on occasion Lydon, misses in Lydon)

or like the Stooges picking up the instruments before being actually able to play them and LEARNING ABOUT THE WORLD/THEMSELVES as they progress since it’s about the story of a life lived or yet to be lived (see also Ornette DAMN YOU CAGE/APPEL trumpet/violin doubling and in stoopid punk sense he was always better on those than on actual plastic alto but again that PLASTIC!).

I was nearly sent to sleep yesterday afternoon by POTP ‘87, full of competent musicians who could play their instruments and sing the right notes, and it was like Prisoner death so YAY to MIRACLE WORKER MURPHY and BRAVE BOLD BULLARD for keeping us UP and waking ME up with added potential UEFA carrot ALL IS RIGHT WITH THE WORLD ONCE MORE hurrah.
vinylscot on May 12th, 2008
I was determined to stay out of this particular argument, despite being sorely tempted to express my agreement with Rosie, regarding Marcello’s diktat on what we are allowed to enjoy. I have seen over the past few entries in “Popular” that I have a choice of either a) contributing my comments on the particular song in question, but not entering into any discussion; or b) making my comments and defending these against Marcello’s predictable one-sided rants. It appears I am not the only one.

I can only surmise that drink played a part in that last post, as it was almost totally unintelligible (perhaps Fulham FC may have been to blame for that). However, once again, we are asked/told to accept retro-fitted nonsense as fact.

Marcello, at your age you would not have had an epiphany the moment you heard Dylan. He would have been part of your growing up; his voice would have been all around you, at least through the many hit singles he had since the mid-60s. You may well have found a new fascination with him when you became aware of more of his work. However, that obviously doesn’t sound as impressive, and wouldn’t sit well with your self-dubbed image of all-knowing muso oracle.

Once again, you also apply double standards. You are allowed to have a “WTF moment” and make your mind up instantly when you hear something, but to anyone else (who happens to disagree with you), that’s a “knee-jerk reaction”.

On your blog, you write well; intelligently and knowledgeably, if a little pompously, and I would be delighted to engage with you on here if you displayed a shred of the integrity you show there. However, on “Popular” your standard of writing is noticeably poorer, and you come across as deliberately obtuse, intolerant, condescending, egotistic, small-minded, and wilfully obscure to the point of self-parody in your referencing.

There are many contributors to “Popular” who put their own points over with differing degrees of relevance and panache. These contributors’ views are every bit as valid as yours or mine, and often more interesting, even if we don’t agree with them. They do not deserve the vitriolic responses which often come from you.

I eagerly await your ill-thought-out, pseudo-intellectual (Oh No! not that word again!), and no doubt insulting response to these comments.
Erithian on May 12th, 2008
Re the exchange on melisma and “a good thing when done right” - the prime example of it being a bad thing is, sadly, the song with which Leona Lewis conquered the earth. She actually sounds like she’s struggling with the song, it goes all over the place, and for me it totally distracts the listener from any message the song’s trying to put across. I’m ducking Spoiler Bunny ‘cos we won’t get there for a long while yet, but the song is Bleeding Awful.

It’s a good thing when Dolores O’Riordan or Alanis Morissette does it, as long as it’s used sparingly. I was going to mention another good example which might have been somewhat controversial, but since it’s coming up in 16 Popular-years’ time it’s bunny-bait.
Erithian on May 12th, 2008
Blimey vinylscot!

I probably won’t get this in before Marcello/Punctum replies to your post, but it’s occurred to me in the past that’s he’s our equivalent of Ian Dury - irascible, spiky but a genius of sorts. (A friend of mine is in the Told To Fuck Off By Ian Dury Club, and so is Chaz Jankel (they were almost Dury’s first words to him) - and I’m in the Flamed By Marcello Club as well.). He’s passionate and opinionated, but the site would be much less fun without him!
FT's Tom on May 12th, 2008
Marcello clearly isn’t saying that he had a WTF reaction to Dylan’s voice: he’s positing a class of world-changing voices which he at 12 could immediately recognise Dylan as being among.

The rest of this is more a general statement than a response to vinylscot in particular:

I don’t always agree with Marcello’s opinions either but that’s all they are, opinions, somewhat more forthrightly expressed than some would like but nothing people can’t scroll past and ignore. Last time I checked Marcello had no powers to delete or censor any comments here: his power to influence or determine “validity” is entirely down to other posters’ reactions to him.

The whole “my opinion is just as valid as yours” argument is a straw man: yes! It is already, it always was - it’s BECAUSE everyone here has a “valid opinion” and is free to state it that disagreements can arise!

And following from that, yes, attempts to invalidate other contributors’ opinions are tiresome (though still highly ignorable) - whether that be ranting about “gliberals” or dismissing chunks of a thread as “pseudo-intellectual” or finger-pointing about who “was there” or not. So please don’t resort to them or rise to them.

I’ve moderated internet forums for ages and I’ve seen plenty of groupthink and genuine bullying going on, as well as plenty of trolls and ranters: in my semi-professional opinion almost nothing on Popular qualifies as anything other than “ranters”, with some recent conversations - parts of this thread included - working as the kind of button-pushing internal trolling all forums wallow in sometimes.

(erm ok some of it qualifies as “high quality conversation and analysis” too!!)
FT's Tom on May 12th, 2008
Hold on DOLORES O’RIORDAN? You mean like the melisma on “Zombie”?!!

Popular truly is a broad church!
crag on May 12th, 2008
Re#68- Personally i dont find Mojo particularlly “rockist” at all, especially in comparison to the Indie Rock Pravda that is Q where Oasis are still viewed as The Most Relevant and Exciting Rock Band Today or Uncut which should really just bite the bullet and become the specialist Americana mag it so obviously wants to be and ignore anything that sounds like it was recorded after 1975.

The two big problems w/ Mojo are its godawful title and deeply unimaginative choice of cover stars-the range of artists it covers inside, either in reviews or features is very wide and catholic-a recent Top 10 of the Month included David Axelrod, Fucked Up, Bon Iver and Queen among others- hardly a line-up enthralled with the above mentioned “canon”. Its not a perfect read but unlike most mainstream mags out there it is historically aware but doesnt subscribe relentlessly to the “things havent been as good since ‘69/’76/’97/pick a year of your choice” school of thought so many publications do..

PS I like “Zombie” too! Maybe Erithian and me should form a club..
a logged out p^nk s lord sukråt wötsit on May 12th, 2008
erithian one of the reasons i think that high-octane melisma gets an overdetermined nod in these kinds of competitions is exactly because it feels objectively quantifiable in a way that (say) “interpretative imagination” never could: judges who disagree about everything else (and despise one another) can agree this is present as an attained skill even when they don’t think it’s good for the music — and i suspect this sense of a certain agreed-on terrain of judgeable quality is essential for it to feel like a potentially just competition (whereas if the judges were considered to agree on NOTHING, the winners would feels is they were were far more arbitrary)

(i agree it’s a bad development: leona has exactly the wrong sensibility to pull it off)
FT's DJ Punctum on May 12th, 2008
Given the good weather, my general good mood and my understandable reluctance to make contributing to this discourse as stressful as, or more stressful than, my day job (which is a very stressful one), I have now decided to adopt the following policy with regard to Popular comments:

Henceforth I will only respond to comments which are coherently and convincingly argued and demonstrate that the commentator has actually read and absorbed whatever I have to say, regardless of whether or not they agree with me.

I will merely note with some sadness that, since coherent and convincing argument requires skill, intelligence and integrity, it is hardly surprising that certain posters find it far easier to expunge generalised, unthought-through streams of personal abuse (including cry baby and really quite vicious accusations of lying and alcoholism)/pseudo-Oedipal rage/ageing adolescent sulking/therapy room gliberal platitudes, and in the process of doing so indicate that they haven’t actually read my words at all and are really not interested in participating in a MEANINGFUL collective network.

Perhaps such passive consumer whingers would be far happier composing sonnets of bile for the BBC’s Have Your Say section, or the letters pages of the Daily Mail. In any case, I certainly do not propose to waste any more of my valuable time on having to deal with such arrant and recividist puerility.
vinylscot on May 12th, 2008
Tom post 73 - I considered your first view when I re-read his piece, but I think he WAS attempting to claim an epiphany when he heard Dylan - otherwise he wouldn’t have added his trade-mark obscure reference in Ayler!

I would certainly prefer to continue to challenge posts rather than ignore them - otherwise posters like Marcello believe their views are accepted as gospel.

However, if you would prefer that one individual can dictate to the others, perhaps I should just steer clear of the site in fututre.
Billy Smart on May 12th, 2008
Erithian should have returned to Royal Holloway as a mature student in 1994 if he wanted to hear ‘Zombie’ - You could have heard “WITH THURRR TANKS AND THURRR BOMBS!! ZAHMBEE!! ZAHHMBEE!!” blaring out of every other hall of residence room many many times.

I had a theory that every year there had to be one “strong woman in pop” whose album would sell to a high proportion of female students. After The Cranberries, there was Alanis, and after Alanis there was Catatonia. I don’t know who came next in the lineage.
FT's DJ Punctum on May 12th, 2008
Dido?
FT's Tom on May 12th, 2008
I obviously didn’t make myself clear. Nothing I said in my post could REMOTELY be construed as “preferring that one individual can dictate to the others”.

I’d prefer people to present their own opinions, and if that disagrees with others, so be it. That goes for you, Marcello, Rosie, anyone else commenting. If someone else says something you think is worth arguing with, argue with it. If they say something you think isn’t worth arguing with, ignore it rather than get on the high horse.
Erithian on May 12th, 2008
Oh Christ, here am I depicted as Popular’s resident “Zombie” fan, which I’m not, honestly. I did say melisma was OK when it was used sparingly, which it patently isn’t on that particular track!! Much preferred Alanis. (Billy - could it have been Macy Gray?)

Leona deservedly won the competition with some excellent performances, but someone obviously told her that by cranking the vocal histrionics to 11 she could have a huge hit in the US, and regrettably they were right!

Marcello - I’m not planning to enter into an argument here, but “vicious accusation of alcoholism” is a bit strong, when vinylscot only suggested that you’d been on the sauce to celebrate Fulham staying up (quite justifiable if you were - if I’d had more alcohol and fewer kids in the house yesterday, by now I’d be writing incoherent stuff along the lines of “giggsysabloodylegend”…)

And vinylscot - we don’t want anyone staying off the site. It’s richer than ever with people’s opinions, and we need to keep it that way.
SteveM on May 12th, 2008
‘I had a theory that every year there had to be one “strong woman in pop” whose album would sell to a high proportion of female students. After The Cranberries, there was Alanis, and after Alanis there was Catatonia. I don’t know who came next in the lineage.’

P!nk!
FT's Tom on May 12th, 2008
I am delighted to say that none of the women I knew at university gave more than a second’s thought to the Cranberries! Unless they had secret meetings to discuss strong women in pop of course.
Billy Smart on May 12th, 2008
I think that you really have to hang out with undergraduates to really be able to trace the succession with accuracy, but Macy Gray then Pink does sound right to me. Would Avril Lavigne come next?
Billy Smart on May 12th, 2008
For the most part, the women with whom I was friends at University liked Elastica and Bjork a lot more than The Cranberries - as did I!

One girl who I liked a lot was obsessed with Kula Shaker though, probably because she fancied Crispian Mills. I didn’t say anything…
Erithian on May 12th, 2008
It’d be ideal if the current one in the lineage were KT Tunstall, eh Billy?
LondonLee on May 12th, 2008
Christ, when I think of melisma I think of Sam Cooke, not the bleedin’ Cranberries!

Crag: I just pulled “Mojo” out of my arse, I don’t read any of the rock mags and have no idea of their individual stances so I could just as easily have referenced Q or Uncut or Word. Though I did buy Word once because they had a bit about my old blog (complete with screenshot!) in it.
LondonLee on May 12th, 2008
Oh, and can I just say “bloody Manc bastards, we’ll get you in Moscow”
crag on May 12th, 2008
“I just pulled “Mojo” out of my arse”-sounds painful!(boom-tish)
Would Beth Ditto be the current “strong woman”?
FT's Tom on May 12th, 2008
If there is only one “strong woman in pop” at once (which seems a kind of ridiculous idea since we’ve already mentioned Elastica and Bjork as big newsworthy hitmaking contemporaries of the Cranberries!) then I think that’s a function of record companies having zero ideas or bravery when it comes to marketing female acts rather than a function of pop or even of student tastes!
Billy Smart on May 12th, 2008
But Elastica and Bjork really only registered with girls who had more than a casual interest in music. Even at 18 and 19, most people fall into the category of those who buy two or three albums a year - who were buying The Cranberries, The Beautiful South and Oasis when I was an undergraduate.

So I’d guess that Beth Ditto isn’t the current “strong woman in pop”, because I reckon that it would only be clued-up music fan sort of girls who would have Gossip albums (not though the young buy CDs any more), rather than a more casual follower. This year’s model is much more likely to come from the Winehouse/ Lilly Allen/ Duffy axis.
FT's Tom on May 12th, 2008
Bjork was massive at the time though - #1 albums, constant press coverage. She wasn’t a gossip column fixture like Lily A or Amy W but she was certainly in the same orbit as the Cranberries.

I’m always really suspicious of characterising the tastes of what used to be called on ILX the “12 CD crowd” - it tends to make the mistake of assuming that they only encounter and pick from popular stuff, whereas in my experience it’s a mix of popular stuff and stuff you’re surprised they’ve heard of. “Not being that into music” tends to mean “Not interested in stepping outside my comfort zone” but that comfort zone can be surprisingly deep, even if it isn’t broad.

Also I think the specific motivation you’re implying here - they like strong women because they are women who recognise and enjoy that strength - is one which suggests a level of engagement with music that goes beyond ‘casual interest’ anyway!
a logged out p^nk s lord sukråt wötsit on May 12th, 2008
i think the notion of a “strong woman of pop” — as role to be taken on by one figure at any one time — only makes sense in a grander theory of an entire numbered upper pantheon of pop, a set of unchanging top-level roles, complete with subtle internal geometry as the players of the roles shift and change: alongside the strong woman of pop, is the bearded godking of pop, the truculent sealord of pop, the slightly dull and worthy blind seer of pop, the perilous sex-kitten of pop, the ethereal space-children of pop, the vile-tastic goatsucker of pop and so on…
FT's Tom on May 12th, 2008
the bearded godking of pop

Back to Roussos AT LAST.
SteveM on May 12th, 2008
bearded godking of pop: george michael (via roussos)
truculent sealord of pop: h p baxxter
slightly dull and worthy blind seer of pop: robblie billiams
perilous sex-kitten of pop: mariahmerie
ethereal space-children of pop: daft punk
vile-tastic goatsucker of pop: phil collins RIP
Kat but logged out innit on May 12th, 2008
Argh! An inherently flawed conversation that mentions Elastica! Must… not… rise to bait…

My strong woman in pop before Justine of course was Whigfield. Or perhaps Heather Smalls, she had very big hair you know.
SteveM on May 12th, 2008
Heather Small & Love Affair more like (too obscure?)
FT's DJ Punctum on May 12th, 2008
If only Heather had remembered to take that gobstopper out of her mouth every time she started singing.

1994 Mercury judges should have been put before the firing squad and I don’t mean Siralan and Nick and Margaret.
crag on May 12th, 2008
100+ comments per track becoming pleasingly common…
crag on May 12th, 2008
100+ comments per track becoming increasingly common, very pleasing…
FT's Drucius on May 13th, 2008
At the time I thought poor old Demis just looked like a fat git in a shower curtain, and the song was the height of schmaltz. It could have been written in any decade of the previous 6. Godawful. No wonder punk was welcomed with open arms by so many people.

I’ve tried listening to Aphrodite’s Child, but it just seemed like a poor attempt at prog, to me.

Abigail’s Party is brilliant, and not just for Alison Steadman’s knockers.

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May 9^th, 2008

DEMIS ROUSSOS - The Roussos Phenomenon (EP)

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