Comments on: Which Decade Is Tops For Pops 2011: the Number 8s https://freakytrigger.co.uk/which-decade-is-tops-for-pops/2011/07/which-decade-is-tops-for-pops-2011-the-number-8s Lollards in the high church of low culture Thu, 10 Sep 2015 08:54:55 +0000 hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.4.3 By: Ed https://freakytrigger.co.uk/which-decade-is-tops-for-pops/2011/07/which-decade-is-tops-for-pops-2011-the-number-8s/comment-page-3#comment-907276 Sat, 10 Sep 2011 12:09:57 +0000 https://freakytrigger.co.uk/?p=21099#comment-907276 Thanks to the magic of Twitter, Mike Scott is now available (as @MickPuck) to talk about what he was on about, like Marshall Mcluhan in ‘Annie Hall’.

Turns out the Prince line on the vinyl was him having a laugh; as Mike A says, the song is not about anyone in particular. His heroes at the time, though, were CS Lewis, Bob Dylan, George MacDonald, Dion Fortune and Mark Helprin. And there probably is an echo of Syd Barrett In there, too.

BTW, whatever happened to the number 4s?

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By: hardtogethits https://freakytrigger.co.uk/which-decade-is-tops-for-pops/2011/07/which-decade-is-tops-for-pops-2011-the-number-8s/comment-page-3#comment-884967 Mon, 25 Jul 2011 07:52:46 +0000 https://freakytrigger.co.uk/?p=21099#comment-884967 The opposite of number 9 – a lower standard than we could have expected.

6 Waterboys
5 Graham Bonnet
4 Shaggy
3 Andy Williams
2 Duane Eddy
1 Nero

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By: Clair https://freakytrigger.co.uk/which-decade-is-tops-for-pops/2011/07/which-decade-is-tops-for-pops-2011-the-number-8s/comment-page-3#comment-884689 Sun, 24 Jul 2011 19:55:28 +0000 https://freakytrigger.co.uk/?p=21099#comment-884689 Neil and I give the following scores:

1 pt : Duane Eddy
2 pts : Shaggy
3 pts : Nero
4 pts : Andy Williams
5 pts : Graham Bonnet
6 pts : The Waterboys

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By: mark sinker https://freakytrigger.co.uk/which-decade-is-tops-for-pops/2011/07/which-decade-is-tops-for-pops-2011-the-number-8s/comment-page-3#comment-884467 Sun, 24 Jul 2011 09:34:45 +0000 https://freakytrigger.co.uk/?p=21099#comment-884467 Relatedly — sorta kinda — I very vaguely remember someone claiming Lincoln as an avatar of the West African/voodoo trickster deity, so kin, in folklore terms, to Anansi or Brer Rabbit. Maybe it was Ishmael Reed? But we are moving WAY off topic.

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By: a tanned rested and unlogged lørd sükråt wötsît https://freakytrigger.co.uk/which-decade-is-tops-for-pops/2011/07/which-decade-is-tops-for-pops-2011-the-number-8s/comment-page-3#comment-884460 Sun, 24 Jul 2011 09:07:52 +0000 https://freakytrigger.co.uk/?p=21099#comment-884460 Yes, the song is “written” straight, whatever the intention; the irony would be at the level of performance and reception: because these are lines certain parts of the audience couldn’t hear some performers delivering without hearing a big giant “NOT” at the end of each sentence, because they’re too horribly ludicrous. The fact of double consciousness was intimately known to all in black American culture long before Du Bois named it: and with it of course came a heightened life-or-death sensitivity to the radical code-shifting such a consciousness would necessitate.

So in a sense this means it doesn’t matter how Emmett intended it, even if we could now pin this down: the song became a popular vector of two uncompatible meanings because it was so simple in tone (also, to be fair, and in contrast to its frankly RUBBISH lyrics, because it had a pretty tune, though here too claims are made that the tune is not Emmett’s but was, er, “borrowed” from slave music). As, in fact, did minstrelsy: black performers didn’t black up because they were sell-outs, they did so because, as a popular performance staple, it was also a style that was tailor-made for the virtuoso deployment of layers of doubie-voicing in improvised live contexts (and remember that performance before mixed audiences was extremely unusual in the 19th century; the way the material was performed before black audiences was thus able to parody or otherwise complicate and comment on the “straight” way it was performed before white audiences). And for the sense of subversion to have social potency and nutrition, a lot of people — ideally everyone white! — would have to imagined to be missing the joke…

But I’m not raising this point to be didactic about it: I think by its nature if the ironised coding was known to exist* for this song, in the socio-political context of those times it nevertheless had to be highly deniable and invisible: nothing was more likely to bring violence down, in slavery days or in jim crow, than hints of intelligent black mockery of higher white quality, let alone a sustained culture of same. And deniable and invisible then means unrecoverable now: black culture under slavery and under jim crow weren’t 100% oral, of course, but record-keeping and private archives were intentionally kept extremely difficult, and this has a price. We probably won’t ever know.

*Existed to a culturally significant extent, I mean: I’ve absolutely no doubt ironic use of and response to the unadorned meaning arose piecemeal, and often, because dark-humoured irony never sleeps, as a way to cope with tribulation if nothing else.

[apologies if this kept changing as you were reading it: i rewrote it about 20 times!]

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By: Ed https://freakytrigger.co.uk/which-decade-is-tops-for-pops/2011/07/which-decade-is-tops-for-pops-2011-the-number-8s/comment-page-3#comment-884299 Sun, 24 Jul 2011 00:36:51 +0000 https://freakytrigger.co.uk/?p=21099#comment-884299 @61 The possibility of hidden meanings is an interesting thought, but the intent of the original Daniel Emmett lyrics seems pretty clear:

I wish I was in the land of cotton,
Old times they are not forgotten;
Look away! Look away! Look away! Dixie Land.
In Dixie Land where I was born,
Early on one frosty mornin,
Look away! Look away! Look away! Dixie Land.

Old Missus marry “Will-de-weaber,”
Willium was a gay deceaber;
Look away! Look away! Look away! Dixie Land.
But when he put his arm around’er,
He smiled as fierce as a forty-pound’er,
Look away! Look away! Look away! Dixie Land.

Dar’s buck-wheat cakes an ‘Ingen’ batter,
Makes you fat or a little fatter;
Look away! Look away! Look away! Dixie Land.
Den hoe it down an scratch your grabble,
To Dixie land I’m bound to trabble.
Look away! Look away! Look away! Dixie Land.

One of the Dixie songs that is a clear response to the original is ‘The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down’, and Greil Marcus *has* written an essay about that one: it is at the heart of a chapter in ‘Mystery Train’, his best book. His thrust there is that in empathising so deeply with men who were on the wrong side – militarily, historically, even ethically – The Band are showing extraordinary generosity of spirit. Personally, I waver between being convinced by the nobility of Robbie Robertson’s humanity, and feeling an uneasy sense that sentimentality is being used to sugar-coat a slapdash moral understanding. It is hard to imagine a black critic ever cutting the song so much slack.

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By: a tanned rested and unlogged lørd sükråt wötsît https://freakytrigger.co.uk/which-decade-is-tops-for-pops/2011/07/which-decade-is-tops-for-pops-2011-the-number-8s/comment-page-3#comment-884069 Sat, 23 Jul 2011 14:21:37 +0000 https://freakytrigger.co.uk/?p=21099#comment-884069 I think one should always be a little sceptical of the claims of extremely astute politicians in respect of politically helpful topical tastes: Lincoln was walking a very complex and delicate middle line in respect of the secessionist party in the 1860 presidential campaign, after all, and was prepared to be seen to cede all kinds of minor things if they firmed up the Union. (The Radical Republicans and abolitionists generally were in a constant rage at his apparent willingness to seek a bipartisan solution far short of their demands; but they were not a majority even in their own party.) In the end, of course, the war came and he prosecuted it fiercely, and — when circumstance allowed, or forced his hand — freed the slaves and ended the Peculiar Institution.

I noticed the Wikipedia article also suggests that the original song may have been intended ironically, despite its subsequent adoption as representative of simple black American nostalgia for their ante-bellum lives: I don’t know the truth of this, and probably no one ever will now, given the open question of its authorship, but certainly minstrel culture had always such contained layered ironies and ambiguities, as a kind of racial Camp; songs written simultaneously to entertain and comfort the white owner class, but sending a very different message out to black listeners, who knew to interpret differently, and to enjoy the (small) fact of this superor knowledge…

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By: Ed https://freakytrigger.co.uk/which-decade-is-tops-for-pops/2011/07/which-decade-is-tops-for-pops-2011-the-number-8s/comment-page-2#comment-884045 Sat, 23 Jul 2011 13:36:28 +0000 https://freakytrigger.co.uk/?p=21099#comment-884045 Another fun ‘Dixie’ fact: it was, apparently, one of Abraham Lincoln’s favorite songs.

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By: Lionel d'Lion https://freakytrigger.co.uk/which-decade-is-tops-for-pops/2011/07/which-decade-is-tops-for-pops-2011-the-number-8s/comment-page-2#comment-883517 Fri, 22 Jul 2011 16:34:29 +0000 https://freakytrigger.co.uk/?p=21099#comment-883517 6 pts: The Waterboys
5 pts: Graham Bonnet
4 pts: Duane Eddy
3 pts: Nero
2 pts: Andy Williams
1 pt: Shaggy

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By: Chelovek na lune https://freakytrigger.co.uk/which-decade-is-tops-for-pops/2011/07/which-decade-is-tops-for-pops-2011-the-number-8s/comment-page-2#comment-883473 Fri, 22 Jul 2011 14:57:00 +0000 https://freakytrigger.co.uk/?p=21099#comment-883473 Just a gratuitious excuse to mention the finest New Orleans-set novel, lest anyone here not know it already, “A Confederacy of Dunces” by John Kennedy Toole. None finer. No greater, fatter, gratuitously reactionary character has ever existed than its antihero, Ignatius J. Reilly. I must admit I had quite overlooked the context of the word “confederacy” until reading this thread. Doh!

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By: sükråt tanned rested unlogged and awesome https://freakytrigger.co.uk/which-decade-is-tops-for-pops/2011/07/which-decade-is-tops-for-pops-2011-the-number-8s/comment-page-2#comment-883438 Fri, 22 Jul 2011 13:42:33 +0000 https://freakytrigger.co.uk/?p=21099#comment-883438 (I just reread @54 and realise I meant to write “was never considered FOR the capital and etc”)

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By: sükråt tanned rested unlogged and awesome https://freakytrigger.co.uk/which-decade-is-tops-for-pops/2011/07/which-decade-is-tops-for-pops-2011-the-number-8s/comment-page-2#comment-883402 Fri, 22 Jul 2011 12:12:12 +0000 https://freakytrigger.co.uk/?p=21099#comment-883402 Yes indeed, but I think there was some debate initially — one of the problems the southern cause had was that, since “the right to secede from a union” was what they were insisting they were all fighting for, the states in the confederacy were quite bad at agreeing on things! Georgia in particular notoriously ran its own war its own way.

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By: thefatgit https://freakytrigger.co.uk/which-decade-is-tops-for-pops/2011/07/which-decade-is-tops-for-pops-2011-the-number-8s/comment-page-2#comment-883398 Fri, 22 Jul 2011 12:03:37 +0000 https://freakytrigger.co.uk/?p=21099#comment-883398 The Confederate Capital was Richmond, Virginia.

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By: sükråt tanned rested unlogged and awesome https://freakytrigger.co.uk/which-decade-is-tops-for-pops/2011/07/which-decade-is-tops-for-pops-2011-the-number-8s/comment-page-2#comment-883388 Fri, 22 Jul 2011 11:54:09 +0000 https://freakytrigger.co.uk/?p=21099#comment-883388 ed@52: that’s interesting — the politics of money in the early US is fascinating and more than a bit mental (for a long time ANYONE was allowed to issue scrip in some states, which meant bank-notes really could be printed IOUs based on the reserves of a bar across state that had closed 2 years ago)*. And the migration of meaning is interesting too: Mississippi was indeed one of the seven seceding states, and New Orleans was a big and important port for the South’s cause — or would have been if it hadn’t fallen to the Northern blockade of ships and troops as early as 1862. Because it didn’t put up much resistance, it escape the scorched-earth attentions cities like Atlanta would eventually see.

It wasn’t ever considered as the capital of the Confederacy, as far as I know — and I would argue was in its cultural demeanour very much atypical of of the southern mythos: it was/is a wicked crime-ridden piratical city of sin and cash possibility, a bit like old Shanghai, and hence rather more pragmatic and biddable than was wanted in an ideological war of the magnitude and intensity of the US Civil War. Its attitude to the colourline was probably as unrigorous as anywhere in the South: hence birthplace of black urban music form, as a cross-race taste…

*Read J.K.Galbraith’s hugely entertaining MONEY: WHENCE IT CAME AND WHERE IT WENT.

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By: jeff w registered https://freakytrigger.co.uk/which-decade-is-tops-for-pops/2011/07/which-decade-is-tops-for-pops-2011-the-number-8s/comment-page-2#comment-883375 Fri, 22 Jul 2011 11:15:08 +0000 https://freakytrigger.co.uk/?p=21099#comment-883375 Nice to see this back, although I also see it’s already been 2 weeks…

I’m slightly surprised that Mike didn’t mention the nine minute 1979 disco rework of Andy W’s take on “Love Story”, which is just extraordinary. Drama, drama, all the way. I hadn’t heard his original take before, but both vocal performance and the arrangement are sheer class.

Bafflingly, I have no memory of “Night Games” at all. Astonished this made the top 10 but I don’t hate it. Didn’t listen to the Duane Eddy but from the descriptions above I’m not sure I want to.

6pts – Andy Williams
5pts – Nero
4pts – The Waterboys
3pts – Bonnet
2pts – Shaggy
1pt – Duane Eddy

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By: Ed https://freakytrigger.co.uk/which-decade-is-tops-for-pops/2011/07/which-decade-is-tops-for-pops-2011-the-number-8s/comment-page-2#comment-883082 Thu, 21 Jul 2011 22:19:14 +0000 https://freakytrigger.co.uk/?p=21099#comment-883082 @50 New Orleans may not be the first place that comes to mind when you think of ‘Dixie’, but it was apparently the largest and richest city in the Confederacy. (Thanks Wikipedia!) And – again according to Wikipedia – it may have been the place where the word “Dixie” was born. One possible derivation is that:

“The word “‘Dixie'” refers to privately issued currency from banks in Louisiana.[4] These banks issued ten-dollar notes,[5] labeled “Dix”, French for “ten”, on the reverse side. The notes were known as “Dixies” by English-speaking southerners, and the area around New Orleans and the French-speaking parts of Louisiana came to be known as “Dixieland”. Eventually, usage of the term broadened to refer to most of the Southern States.”

And what do the Sultans play? Maybe the lyric is suggesting that, as a band of jobbing musicians without any pretensions to artistry, they can turn their hands to a range of jazz styles. They have a rhythm guitar player and at least one trumpet, which also indicates a degree of flexibility.

(I have just read Elijah Wald’s excellent, if infuriatingly titled, ‘How the Beatles Destroyed Rock’n’Roll’, which stresses how for most of the 20th Century, most working bands had to be versatile enough to perform whatever style the listeners – and dancers – wanted to hear.)

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By: AndyPandy https://freakytrigger.co.uk/which-decade-is-tops-for-pops/2011/07/which-decade-is-tops-for-pops-2011-the-number-8s/comment-page-2#comment-882960 Thu, 21 Jul 2011 17:29:58 +0000 https://freakytrigger.co.uk/?p=21099#comment-882960 I always presumed it meant they were playing jazz from Dixieland ie New Orleans – until now I’ve never connected the word Dixie in this song with the song ‘Dixie’ – but yes I suppose they could be playing a trad jazz Kenny Ball type interpretation of the song ‘Dixie’.

Growing up with Radio 2 in the background for a large part of my childhood ‘Dixie/Dixieland’ to me was just a word that I heard mentioned quite a bit on the many Benny Green-type jazz programmes that the weekend schedules always seemed full of when I was a child in the 70s. It was all just background noise to me back then but obviously the names that were always being mentioned Count Basie, Duke Ellington, Ella Fitzgerald, Dixieland (I should imagine to describe the trad jazz sound) etc sort of registered in some way.

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By: sükråt tanned rested unlogged and awesome https://freakytrigger.co.uk/which-decade-is-tops-for-pops/2011/07/which-decade-is-tops-for-pops-2011-the-number-8s/comment-page-2#comment-882904 Thu, 21 Jul 2011 15:11:04 +0000 https://freakytrigger.co.uk/?p=21099#comment-882904 What type of music do the Sultans actually play? The line that mentions Dixie is “a band is blowing Dixie”, which is quite easy to misunderstand (the song also says they “play Creole”, but not rock and roll; and the word SWING is in their name)The term “Dixieland” derives from “The Original Dixieland Jass/Jazz Band” — who, despite their name, and all being white, all came from New Orleans, I think. New Orleans was indeed within the Confederacy, but it really doesn’t belong to the image of the South that ‘Dixie’ paints.

I’d suggest quite a lot of songs in that list take issue with the ideology of the original song: including some of the cover versions.

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By: thefatgit https://freakytrigger.co.uk/which-decade-is-tops-for-pops/2011/07/which-decade-is-tops-for-pops-2011-the-number-8s/comment-page-2#comment-882903 Thu, 21 Jul 2011 15:03:03 +0000 https://freakytrigger.co.uk/?p=21099#comment-882903 Yes, I thought that entry was a bit “belt and braces”.

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By: AndyPandy https://freakytrigger.co.uk/which-decade-is-tops-for-pops/2011/07/which-decade-is-tops-for-pops-2011-the-number-8s/comment-page-2#comment-882900 Thu, 21 Jul 2011 14:57:38 +0000 https://freakytrigger.co.uk/?p=21099#comment-882900 41: And of course since at least the early 70’s I doubt a period of more than a few weeks has ever passed on any council estate anywhere in England without the sound of a car-horn blaring out Dixie rending the air.

ps I see Wikipedia is being its typically tenuous self there with its inclusion of Dire Straits’ ‘Sultans of Swing’ as part of a Dixie canon: seeing as the song gets no closer to Dixie (the place) than a jazz band in South London playing trad (Dixieland) jazz…

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By: sükråt tanned rested unlogged and awesome https://freakytrigger.co.uk/which-decade-is-tops-for-pops/2011/07/which-decade-is-tops-for-pops-2011-the-number-8s/comment-page-2#comment-882896 Thu, 21 Jul 2011 14:44:35 +0000 https://freakytrigger.co.uk/?p=21099#comment-882896 The Beatles put out several records in the 70s under the name Klaatu.

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By: wichita lineman https://freakytrigger.co.uk/which-decade-is-tops-for-pops/2011/07/which-decade-is-tops-for-pops-2011-the-number-8s/comment-page-2#comment-882893 Thu, 21 Jul 2011 14:36:08 +0000 https://freakytrigger.co.uk/?p=21099#comment-882893 The Duane Eddy story is the equivalent of Blink 182 having a hit under the name Green Day.

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By: thefatgit https://freakytrigger.co.uk/which-decade-is-tops-for-pops/2011/07/which-decade-is-tops-for-pops-2011-the-number-8s/comment-page-2#comment-882843 Thu, 21 Jul 2011 12:38:34 +0000 https://freakytrigger.co.uk/?p=21099#comment-882843 Blink 182/Boxcar Racer/Angels & Airwaves springs to mind, but they were seperate projects, set up by Tom & Travis I believe.

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By: wichita lineman https://freakytrigger.co.uk/which-decade-is-tops-for-pops/2011/07/which-decade-is-tops-for-pops-2011-the-number-8s/comment-page-2#comment-882758 Thu, 21 Jul 2011 09:33:23 +0000 https://freakytrigger.co.uk/?p=21099#comment-882758 Re 38: Duane Eddy probably doesn’t even play on Caravan. It doesn’t sound like him to me. It’s a Lee Hazlewood production, but that’s probably Al Casey on guitar. This explains why it came out on Parlophone over here when all his other singles of the period were on London.

Really peculiar – there have been bands playing live masquerading as someone else, but releasing a record under someone else’s name and having a (minor) hit? Any other examples of this in pop history?

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By: Ed https://freakytrigger.co.uk/which-decade-is-tops-for-pops/2011/07/which-decade-is-tops-for-pops-2011-the-number-8s/comment-page-2#comment-882502 Wed, 20 Jul 2011 22:17:41 +0000 https://freakytrigger.co.uk/?p=21099#comment-882502 @41 Wow, that’s an impressive list. A case of “too many ‘Dixies’ on the dancefloor,” you might say.

I think there is a big difference, though, between the word “Dixie” and the song ‘Dixie’. The song originally had lyrics about free African-Americans in the North bemoaning how much better their lives had been as slaves in the south, and it became an anthem for the new nation that the southern states tried to create, which had racism as one of its founding principles.

As I have said, I know very little about this subject, and I am really raising questions rather than providing answers. But I think the questions are worth asking anyway.

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By: lonepilgrim https://freakytrigger.co.uk/which-decade-is-tops-for-pops/2011/07/which-decade-is-tops-for-pops-2011-the-number-8s/comment-page-2#comment-882498 Wed, 20 Jul 2011 22:06:38 +0000 https://freakytrigger.co.uk/?p=21099#comment-882498 I once watched, with gaping jaw, a local choral group give a spirited rendition of ‘Dixie’ at a benefit concert for the Anne Frank foundation.

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By: thefatgit https://freakytrigger.co.uk/which-decade-is-tops-for-pops/2011/07/which-decade-is-tops-for-pops-2011-the-number-8s/comment-page-2#comment-882223 Wed, 20 Jul 2011 12:31:58 +0000 https://freakytrigger.co.uk/?p=21099#comment-882223 Wikipedia has a Dixie canon (of sorts). Would ALL of these become as contentious as Duane Eddy’s instrumental?

“To Arms… in Dixie!”
“Acid Tongue” – Jenny Lewis
“All I Can Do Is Write About It” – Lynyrd Skynyrd
“An American Trilogy” – Mickey Newbury (also recorded by Elvis Presley and Manowar)
“Are You From Dixie?” – Jerry Reed
“Black Water” – Doobie Brothers
“Blood Splattered Banner” – Carcass
“Born Again in Dixieland” – Jason McCoy
“Christmas in Dixie” – Alabama
“Crash Into Me”- Dave Matthews Band
“Trailer Park Scum” – Stereoside
“Dear Old Dixie” – Flatt & Scruggs
“Dick in Dixie” – Hank Williams III
“Dixie” – Harmonium
“Dixie” – The Skillet Lickers
“Dixie Blues” – Don Walser
“Dixie Chicken” – Little Feat (title track of their album)
“Dixie Flyer” – Randy Newman
“Dixie Fight Song” – Artimus Pyledriver
“Dixie Highway” – Journey
“Dixie Lullaby” – Pat Green
“Dixie Now You’re Done” – Waylon Jennings
“Dixie on My Mind” – Hank Williams Jr.
“Dixie Road” – Lee Greenwood
“Dixie Whiskey” – Eyehategod
“Dixieland” – Steve Earle and the Del McCoury Band
“Dixieland Delight” – Alabama
“Down Home Town” – Electric Light Orchestra
“Elvis Impersonator: Blackpool Pier” – Manic Street Preachers
“The Fighting 69th” – Dropkick Murphys
“Freight Train Blues”
“Friday Night in Dixie” – Rhett Akins
“God Love Her” – Toby Keith
“Goodbye Dixie” – Corey Smith
“Heart of the Night” – Poco
“Hey Porter” – Johnny Cash
“I Sang Dixie” – Dwight Yoakam
“I Wanna Go Back to Dixie” – Tom Lehrer
“If Heaven Ain’t a Lot Like Dixie” – Hank Williams Jr.
“If I Didn’t Have You” – Amanda Marshall
“If It Ain’t Dixie” – Alabama
“Is it True What They Say About Dixie?” – Dean Martin
“Lay Me Down In Dixie” – Johnny Cash & Cindy Cash
“Missouri Waltz”
“The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down” – The Band, Joan Baez
“Old Red Hills Of Home” – Jason Robert Brown, from the musical “Parade”
“Rebels” – Tom Petty
“Rockabye My Baby With a Dixie Melody” – Al Jolson, Judy Garland
“Sailing to Philadelphia” – Mark Knopfler
“So Long Dixie” – Blood, Sweat & Tears
“Southern Girls” – Saliva
“Stay Away From Dixie” – Johnny Rebel
“Suck My Dixie” – Bourbon Crow
“Sultans of Swing” – Dire Straits
“Summer In Dixie” – Confederate Railroad
“Swanee” – George Gershwin and Irving Caesar
“That’s How They Do It in Dixie” – Hank Williams Jr.
“Theme From Dixie” – Duane Eddy
“There’s No Place Like Home (For the Holidays)”
“Til I Fell In Love With You” – Bob Dylan
“Trombone Dixie” – The Beach Boys
“Whistlin’ Dixie” – Randy Houser
“Your Late Unpleasantness” – of Arrowe Hill
“You Can Thank Dixie for That” – Jake Owen
“You Aint’ Just Whistlin’ Dixie” – Bellamy Brothers
“The Hobo” – Jerry Reed
“Man of Peace” – Bob Dylan
“John Deere Green” – Joe Diffie

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By: Ed https://freakytrigger.co.uk/which-decade-is-tops-for-pops/2011/07/which-decade-is-tops-for-pops-2011-the-number-8s/comment-page-2#comment-881905 Tue, 19 Jul 2011 23:38:32 +0000 https://freakytrigger.co.uk/?p=21099#comment-881905 And the more I think about ‘Dixie’, and read about the American Civil War (I got interested in all the 150th anniversary stuff), the more troubled I am.

Instinctively I would want to put ethics behind aesthetics when judging art of any kind. I have no trouble loving the Rolling Stones and Jay-Z, in spite of their often lamentable sexual politics. (Although ‘Under My Thumb’ and ’99 Problems’ are far from being my favourite tunes from either of them.)

But if there was a rocking arrangement of the ‘Horst Wessel Song’, then I would not want anything to do with it. And my sense is that ‘Dixie’ comes closer to the latter case than to the former.

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By: logged-out Tracer Hand https://freakytrigger.co.uk/which-decade-is-tops-for-pops/2011/07/which-decade-is-tops-for-pops-2011-the-number-8s/comment-page-2#comment-878899 Wed, 13 Jul 2011 17:05:27 +0000 https://freakytrigger.co.uk/?p=21099#comment-878899 Re: “Theme From Dixie” specifically: as somebody who spent the first 18 years of his life in Tennessee, it is simply impossible to hear this without thinking about what this tune meant to people in 1961. Bad things. It meant bad things. For that reason alone I can’t enjoy it at all, I’m afraid, yackety sax or no.

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By: logged-out Tracer Hand https://freakytrigger.co.uk/which-decade-is-tops-for-pops/2011/07/which-decade-is-tops-for-pops-2011-the-number-8s/comment-page-2#comment-878897 Wed, 13 Jul 2011 17:02:34 +0000 https://freakytrigger.co.uk/?p=21099#comment-878897 As fond as I am of inappropriate instrumental outbursts, that yackety sax ruined virtually every one of Duane Eddy’s singles right through the sixties, a great shame since some of those songs are simply majestic up until the second chorus. Especially hilarious is Eddy’s version of “Caravan”, in which his twangy guitar finds a perahps counterintuitively ideal home, slinking around ominously, until the entire song changes into a MAJOR KEY for the obligatory yackety sax interlude. Just bewildering.

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By: Steve Mannion https://freakytrigger.co.uk/which-decade-is-tops-for-pops/2011/07/which-decade-is-tops-for-pops-2011-the-number-8s/comment-page-2#comment-877768 Mon, 11 Jul 2011 14:28:05 +0000 https://freakytrigger.co.uk/?p=21099#comment-877768 Great to see this return!

6 – The Waterboys: “I spoke about wings, you just flew”. I got it, it gets me. I’m still not quite sure what the exact sound of the recurring hook actually is (pardon my ignorance) but I think its allure helped lift this song up the charts as much as the sparky lyrics which seem perfectly pitched between admiration and envy.

5 – Andy Williams: Grand although I do have trouble hearing that melody without it turning into ‘The Lighter’ by DJ SS in my head (but that’s quite alright).

4 – Duane Eddy: I’m lacking context but this sounded okay in itself.

3 – Shaggy ft. Rik Rok: I’m struggling to think of such a massive hit with a more unapologetically unpleasant theme, the breezy cheer-inducing tune itself in as much denial as the protagonists. Rik Rok actually sounds too polite a singer to really convince as an irresistible cadbounder, although I guess that’s the point (hence the having to seek a true playa’s advice). Perhaps Shaggy is also compromised vocally by the song’s relentless brightness and relatively high key, not able to go quite as low and lascivious as on ‘Boombastic’ or even ‘Why You Treat Me So Bad’. A charm offensive indeed but not enough of the former for me to ever have been able to enjoy it.

2 – Nero: I’m not entirely unmoved by the breezeblock euphoria characterising ‘stadium dubstep’ (e.g. Chase & Status ‘Blind Faith’) in a very similar way to the crossover trance hits of 10+ years ago but this one’s too much of a downer as the title implies and as is often the case it sounds too much like a swarm of mosquitoes invading a windy soul-destroyingly grey retail park. But less fun.

1 – Graham Bonnet: Shite lames more like (but at least he doesn’t go falsetto).

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By: Birdseed https://freakytrigger.co.uk/which-decade-is-tops-for-pops/2011/07/which-decade-is-tops-for-pops-2011-the-number-8s/comment-page-2#comment-877737 Mon, 11 Jul 2011 12:56:21 +0000 https://freakytrigger.co.uk/?p=21099#comment-877737 6 – Waterboys – Never heard this before, but I’m a sucker for repetetively euphoric music with this few chords. It’s as if Bruce Springsteen suddenly decided to record “Highway of Love” by Johnny O or “Say It Right” by Nelly Futardo.

5 – Graham Bonnet – Surprised at the low scores, I think people are reading it as Fake Metal, while it’s clearly slightly cabaretish chug-along showtuning half-way between Phantom of the Opera and Eruption’s version of Neil Sedaka’s “One Way Ticket”. Plus: nice jacket.

4 – Nero – I’m currently following the burgeoning development of a genre called “Luvstep” (search for it on facebook) which being based on the same idea (let’s sweeten up dubstep!) has exactly the opposite execution, clean and cheerful rather than filtery and atmospheric. This is probably better, if more facile.

3 – Shaggy – I was there at the time, which makes this disastrous to listen to.

2 – Andy Williams – Shirley Bassey does it better.

1 – Duane Eddy – “Dixie”? Seriously?

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By: intothefireuk https://freakytrigger.co.uk/which-decade-is-tops-for-pops/2011/07/which-decade-is-tops-for-pops-2011-the-number-8s/comment-page-2#comment-876878 Sat, 09 Jul 2011 21:36:18 +0000 https://freakytrigger.co.uk/?p=21099#comment-876878 6 – Waterboys – spirited, committed and uplifting – best of the bunch here
5 – Andy Williams – Andy gives a dull tune some grace and power.
4 – Nero – this is ok but could have done more with the vocals or am I missing the point?
3 – Graham Bonnet – perfunctory metal-lite and a fairly turgid listen
2 – Shaggy – funny for a few seconds then just pleasant then irritating
1 – Duane Eddy – pretty pointless albeit lively

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By: Erithian https://freakytrigger.co.uk/which-decade-is-tops-for-pops/2011/07/which-decade-is-tops-for-pops-2011-the-number-8s/comment-page-2#comment-876124 Fri, 08 Jul 2011 14:40:26 +0000 https://freakytrigger.co.uk/?p=21099#comment-876124 6 pts – 1991 – Waterboys. Great song, although I think it’s more squarely situated in 1985 than you acknowledge, Mike, on account of the line “you came like a comet, blazing your trail”: topical on account of Halley’s Comet, which was approaching Earth late that year! I saw the Waterboys supporting U2 at Manchester Apollo in 1984, and wanted to get Mike Scott’s autograph for a friend who was a big fan of theirs. Unfortunately by the time U2 had finished, the support band had toddled off to the hotel, and I had to content myself with Bono chatting away in the car park, leaning on someone’s motor and happily signing people’s programmes. Bet he paid tax in those days too.

5 pts – 2001 – Shaggy ft Rikrok. An amusing tale well told, and an element of Pluto’s “Your Honour” as well. Not my usual genre but hard to dislike.

4 pts – 1971 – Andy Williams. Classy ballad, the kind of thing late night BBC2 was made of in those days.

3 pts – 1981 – Graham Bonnet. Not bad in my book, but I do remember finding it less than convincing. Something about short-haired metallers (see also Rob Halford). Good to see the likes of Cozy Powell in the video though. Several years before the Smiths popularised the name of the local jail, those of us from Manchester knew from that line “He takes his pleasure in Strangeways” that this was a rum old bugger Bonnet was singing about!

2 pts – 1961 – Duane Eddy. A corollary of what Marcello calls Larkin’s Law: if you can appreciate great works of art by reprehensible people, can you appreciate pieces of music put to reprehensible use? This was no doubt appreciated as a rock version of the kind of song the Black and White Minstrels were singing every Saturday night, and going down well with people who were mainly unaware of its overtones. Enjoyable as a piece of music in its own right though.

1 pt – 2011 – Nero. A bit of generational divide here, as it does nothing for me, and that “atmospheric” keyboard bit has been done to death. Oddly enough, after that drum fill at the start I keep expecting Mark Knopfler to kick in with the riff from “Money For Nothing”.

Thanks for the shout-out Mike, but no need – just very happy to see this back.

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By: Alex https://freakytrigger.co.uk/which-decade-is-tops-for-pops/2011/07/which-decade-is-tops-for-pops-2011-the-number-8s/comment-page-2#comment-876086 Fri, 08 Jul 2011 13:10:49 +0000 https://freakytrigger.co.uk/?p=21099#comment-876086 I can report that the “This is Dubstep” launch party at XOYO was evidence that people really do dance to it. However, I think the rate of people falling all over each other or just doing something completely different was unusually high…

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By: Mike Atkinson https://freakytrigger.co.uk/which-decade-is-tops-for-pops/2011/07/which-decade-is-tops-for-pops-2011-the-number-8s/comment-page-2#comment-876024 Fri, 08 Jul 2011 10:23:33 +0000 https://freakytrigger.co.uk/?p=21099#comment-876024 Oh, I don’t think all the blame can be laid at Bonnet’s door. Let us speak of it no further!

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By: JonnyB https://freakytrigger.co.uk/which-decade-is-tops-for-pops/2011/07/which-decade-is-tops-for-pops-2011-the-number-8s/comment-page-2#comment-875724 Thu, 07 Jul 2011 20:56:20 +0000 https://freakytrigger.co.uk/?p=21099#comment-875724 Mike, I am interested (genuinely) at what it was about the Bonnet that caused such a block? It strikes me that there are a billion things to say about it – whereas I’d have expected a less… controversial track to be more difficult to write about…

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By: AndyPandy https://freakytrigger.co.uk/which-decade-is-tops-for-pops/2011/07/which-decade-is-tops-for-pops-2011-the-number-8s/comment-page-1#comment-875690 Thu, 07 Jul 2011 19:17:40 +0000 https://freakytrigger.co.uk/?p=21099#comment-875690 Re 25: that’s interesting as the first time I was ever in a jungle rave and saw them dancing to it (this was late 1994 at a jungle night at the Rhythm Station in Aldershot and my first proper rave since 1990 (if I excluding a few nights at the Club X allnighter in Wycombe)it was still very fast and to the beat – far trickier (with the fast shuffle thing all the junglists were doing) than dancing to hardcore and way way faster than in “my day” back in 1988-90). I know it looked and felt knackering and I soon headed off to the other arena!

Probably slowed down because it was so much hassle and was only slightly less tiring than that bouncing up and down all the 15-18 year olds were always doing whenever I walked through a Happy Hardcore room!

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By: Mike Atkinson https://freakytrigger.co.uk/which-decade-is-tops-for-pops/2011/07/which-decade-is-tops-for-pops-2011-the-number-8s/comment-page-1#comment-875586 Thu, 07 Jul 2011 14:27:52 +0000 https://freakytrigger.co.uk/?p=21099#comment-875586 I’ve appended the “scores so far” on this round to comment #1 (as well as updating the scores for previous rounds). Basically, Bonnet’s screwed. Serves him right for triggering my hiatus.

In the next round, you’ll get your first glimpse of how the decades are starting to shape up against each other.

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By: grange85 https://freakytrigger.co.uk/which-decade-is-tops-for-pops/2011/07/which-decade-is-tops-for-pops-2011-the-number-8s/comment-page-1#comment-875564 Thu, 07 Jul 2011 13:27:30 +0000 https://freakytrigger.co.uk/?p=21099#comment-875564 6 points – Duane Eddy – Love (near) instrumentals and this goes beautifully mad at the end.
5 points – Nero – Not bothered by the repetitiveness and had rated it before I was aware of the pole-dancing video (which I chose not to watch).
4 points – The Waterboys – I can’t help but hear Noel Furlong leading The St Lukes Youth Group in singing this.
3 points – Andy Williams – It sounds so big and reminds me of my mum who loved the film.
2 points – Shaggy ft Rikrok – Nope… don’t get and don’t care that I don’t get it.
1 point – Graham Bonnet – OK that’s just awful… but not quite hilariously so.

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By: Pete https://freakytrigger.co.uk/which-decade-is-tops-for-pops/2011/07/which-decade-is-tops-for-pops-2011-the-number-8s/comment-page-1#comment-875532 Thu, 07 Jul 2011 11:57:57 +0000 https://freakytrigger.co.uk/?p=21099#comment-875532 6: Shaggy – not only did this sound like a number one to me, when it was described to me three months before it sounded like a number one! It still produces a big broad grin whenever I hear it.

5: Nero: New to this, but it sounds really rather big and I want to hear it again RIGHT AWAY. Lovely fuzzy break, and actually feels rather heartfelt for a Euro bosher. In and out too like James Bond swopping that Faberge egg in Octopussy.

4: Waterboys: I tried to like the Waterboys a lot, I thought they could be my BIG SOUND band, but Mike Scott was too ridiculous for me to ever like. But this is their big hit, and out of time it is it still sounds good. BUT HOW DID YOU SEE DIFFERENT MOONS? Clearly an arse reference.

3: Duane Eddy – Well its not the best showcase for his twang, but before it turns into Lord Rockingham XI its rather nice. And then it turns into Lord Rockingham, and disappoints by not going more nuts.

2: Andy Williams – Along with Matt Munro’s And Then She Smiled (Eye Level theme) this is the kind of juxtaposition of words with a tune which really doesn’t need them. I used to do stuff like this to Axel F (Axel F has a problem, Beverly Hills won’t solve ’em…)

1: Graham Bonnet: Oh I remember this. As a wee nipper I had a very soft spot for stuff like this, but it squanders what soft rock promise it has on a thoroughly appalling chorus! That Graham can’t even sing. Robert Palmer would have binned this (or done it MUCH better).

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By: lockedintheattic https://freakytrigger.co.uk/which-decade-is-tops-for-pops/2011/07/which-decade-is-tops-for-pops-2011-the-number-8s/comment-page-1#comment-875527 Thu, 07 Jul 2011 11:37:16 +0000 https://freakytrigger.co.uk/?p=21099#comment-875527 6. Nero
5. Waterboys
4. Andy Williams
3. Graham Bonnet
2. Duane Eddy
1. Shaggy

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By: Chewshabadoo https://freakytrigger.co.uk/which-decade-is-tops-for-pops/2011/07/which-decade-is-tops-for-pops-2011-the-number-8s/comment-page-1#comment-875514 Thu, 07 Jul 2011 10:48:05 +0000 https://freakytrigger.co.uk/?p=21099#comment-875514 Mike, I guess with Dubstep it’s key to think of it as in inverse drum and bass. With the later I’m sure you know that you dance half-speed to it, usually to the bass. With Dubstep the bass is usually quicker than the drum tempo, so you end up dancing ‘double-speed’.

The key of course with both genres is a system providing you with bass you can feel.

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By: JonnyB https://freakytrigger.co.uk/which-decade-is-tops-for-pops/2011/07/which-decade-is-tops-for-pops-2011-the-number-8s/comment-page-1#comment-875457 Thu, 07 Jul 2011 08:28:40 +0000 https://freakytrigger.co.uk/?p=21099#comment-875457 #19 ‘net curtain-twitching Daily Express lyric’… bang! Nailed it!

I remember being thrilled by the early Rainbow Live album (I think it was called that). Essentially because they were still a Deep Purple tribute act. I also remember liking the pop-Bonnet version – but I now associate them with disastrously fancying the wrong girl, and can’t get past that I’m afraid.

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By: tonya https://freakytrigger.co.uk/which-decade-is-tops-for-pops/2011/07/which-decade-is-tops-for-pops-2011-the-number-8s/comment-page-1#comment-875373 Thu, 07 Jul 2011 04:33:11 +0000 https://freakytrigger.co.uk/?p=21099#comment-875373 20, are you expecting schools that won’t teach evolution to teach the history of the minstrel show? The glamorization of the Old South has certainly diminished since I was a child (we sang Dixie in school) but there are still plenty of white Southerners who cling to it.

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By: Chelovek na lune https://freakytrigger.co.uk/which-decade-is-tops-for-pops/2011/07/which-decade-is-tops-for-pops-2011-the-number-8s/comment-page-1#comment-875203 Wed, 06 Jul 2011 21:01:03 +0000 https://freakytrigger.co.uk/?p=21099#comment-875203 Hmm, welcome back, Mike. Not a stunning selection, I think, overall, and I’m rather surprised at the one I’ve placed top, but there you go.

6. Nero. Not heard this before, and frankly the video should be scrapped and redone completely anew in a different setting. But, despite its limitations, still, wow.

5. Andy Williams. A proper song. Emotive. Properly sung. And doesn’t overstay its welcome.

4. Waterboys. A proper song. Occasionally emotive. Well performed. It does definitely overstay its welcome, though. Far far far from the band’s best. And thinking of the “Fast Car”, and comparing it with the no 11 the week “The Whole of the Moon” was no 8 (Blur’s “There’s No Other Way”)…it’s a close call which I prefer. (We’ll have to see what happens when we reach another re-release in the 1991 chart in due course…although that one was a re-recording of a past, 2-year old flop, so I dare say that Blur won’t slip in there, either)

3. Graham Bonnet. Unremarkable music to turn up loud down the Cortina along the A13 after dark. Or even the A12 (Does it show that I am counting the days until I leave Essex, for the second time, and this time, probably for good?) . But much less horrible than I feared it would be. I really don’t mind groups like Rainbow or Magnum in certain moods, and this kind of falls in the same area. Not high art, or a classic, sure.

2. Duane Eddy. A bit disappointing really.

1. Shaggy. Profoundly dislikeable, irritating, and somehow feels incomplete, in terms of things like melody. Another none best not to watch the video to.

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By: Mark M https://freakytrigger.co.uk/which-decade-is-tops-for-pops/2011/07/which-decade-is-tops-for-pops-2011-the-number-8s/comment-page-1#comment-875183 Wed, 06 Jul 2011 20:25:29 +0000 https://freakytrigger.co.uk/?p=21099#comment-875183 6 points: Shaggy ft Rikrok – I’m generally in favour of a bit of storytelling in pop, and have never had a problem with Shaggy’s self-parodic Casanova schtick. Rikrok doesn’t a decent job.

5: Andy Williams – the movie is a very bad thing, but this is surprisingly enjoyable. I think Andy also did a version of The Godfather theme with added words…

4: The Waterboys – I possibly rather liked this for a couple of weeks in 1985. I was definitely very anti it and Mike Scott by 1991. Listening now, he sounds more shrill than I remember. It just tries too hard.

3: Nero: Far too prog-rock for my tastes but better than…

2: Duane Eddy: This is pretty horrible, and disappointing considering the people involved.

1: Graham Bonnet: His USP was that he sang hard rock in a jacket more suited for a yacht in Cannes, I believe. I like SInce You’ve Been Gone. But this is awful.

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By: Ed https://freakytrigger.co.uk/which-decade-is-tops-for-pops/2011/07/which-decade-is-tops-for-pops-2011-the-number-8s/comment-page-1#comment-875143 Wed, 06 Jul 2011 18:39:26 +0000 https://freakytrigger.co.uk/?p=21099#comment-875143 So I have just read the Wikipedia entry on ‘Dixie’, which is pretty alarming, really. Does anyone better informed than me want to explain why performing or even enjoying this song is not a deeply dodgy thing to do?

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By: Ed https://freakytrigger.co.uk/which-decade-is-tops-for-pops/2011/07/which-decade-is-tops-for-pops-2011-the-number-8s/comment-page-1#comment-875139 Wed, 06 Jul 2011 18:35:19 +0000 https://freakytrigger.co.uk/?p=21099#comment-875139 Another great week, with four crackers and only one real dud (guess which….)

6 – The Waterboys. I have no critical distance at all on this: I was in the right place at the right age at the right time. My then-girlfriend now-wife is a Waterboys fanatic. And they were responsible for one of the three best performances I have ever seen, at the Hammersmith Palais in 1986. The song is not their best, but it does achieve some of the grandeur that Scott was going for. I always thought it was about Prince. My 12″ has “For Prince U saw the Whole of the Moon” etched on the run-out.

5 – Andy Williams. Again, a sentimental pick: like Mike, I heard a lot of Williams as a child, and this is just lovely. Rather Scott Walker-ish, I thought. and now I know the story of Love Story, the subtlety of the way the lyric uses intertextuality (is that the word I am looking for?) is very winning.

4 – Nero. I have only a nodding acquaintance with dubstep, but it sounds like it may be one of those genres that is greatly improved by being dumbed down for the mainstream.

3 – Duane Eddy. Down to fourth place already, and this is still a great record. There is something very thrilling about Eddy’s insistence on the electric quality of his guitar, and the freak-out section is a riot. All in the context of a song which was in its origins a racist anthem. Has Greil Marcus written an essay about this record yet?

2 – Shaggy. Great toasting and a sharp lyric, let down by the slightly silly chorus. Like wichita, I always hear Bart Simpson, and I am afraid that ruins it for me.

1 – Graham Bonnet. As Mike says, Bonnet’s Rainbow (Richie who?) can be a whole lot of pop-metal fun. But this is just feeble, not helped by its net curtain-twitching Daily Express lyric.

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By: thefatgit https://freakytrigger.co.uk/which-decade-is-tops-for-pops/2011/07/which-decade-is-tops-for-pops-2011-the-number-8s/comment-page-1#comment-875089 Wed, 06 Jul 2011 16:53:53 +0000 https://freakytrigger.co.uk/?p=21099#comment-875089 Great to see Which Decade… back, Mike!

The scores:
6 – Nero
5 – The Waterboys
4 – Shaggy
3 – Duane Eddy
2 – Andy Williams
1 – Graham Bonnet

Let’s start with Bonnet (as I like to finish on a high with these little blurbs). I’m reminded of Rita, Sue and Bob Too. Bob’s rocking out to this dreck, while Rita and Sue are sofa dancing to Madness.
Andy Williams’ voice is a thing of wonder, but as he races up that emotional staircase, for some reason I’m not tempted to follow him there.
Duane Eddy’s “Dixie” is a pleasant surprise, though. Quite a toetapper despite its “strangeness”.
Shaggy and RikRok has a charm about it, although the whole “don’t hate the player…” aspect of R&B leaves me a bit cold.
The Waterboys, or should that be THE WATERBOYS!!! This was well received in Ibiza wasn’t it? It’s a marvellous single, especially the horns.
Top marks to Nero, and since I heard his remix of MJ Cole’s “Sincere”, this man can do no wrong in my eyes.

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