Music to iron (double cuff) shirts by...

As I stood there ironing my shirts (yep, some people still do AND we tuck them in!) as usual I stuck my PC audio on random and hit play and decided (between shirts) to note what came up and maybe blog them. Now my experience of this is often it starts well then either repeats itself or plays all the tunes I don't actually wnat to hear. However today wasn't too bad.

So here, with random notes thrown in, is what it chucked at me. Some of these I "digitised" from singles or albums, others I've downloaded from Napster, some from my CDs and a couple quite frankly I have no idea where they ame from:

N'Betweens - Security - not a bad version of a classic song with Etta James still being my preferred version over Thane Russell. As you may know this band contained a number of musicians who would later become Slade. More info here. I believe this can be picked up on a CD called "Genesis of Slade" and is probably available on freakbeay albums of various sorts. So not a bad start...

The Newcomers - The Exit - taken from Kent's "Let's Crossover Again" and, I assume, the same band which did the frankly superb "The Whole World's A Picture Show". What I guess is called "Sweet Soul" and probably early 70s? A bit weird in the middle but nice smooth vocals.

Les McCann - Boogaloo - oh yes! I had this on "The Soul of Jazz Vol 2" on a "Gitanes Jazz" series from many moons ago. Nice uptempo, well, boogaloo I guess

Ben E King - Don't Play That Song. Available on "Stand By Me - the very best of..." this has obvious echoes of "Syand By Me", but is far superior (perhaps because it's not so well known?). Another builder vocally...

Nicola Conte - Jet Sounds. From an LP / CD of the same name this is a great cocktail lounge jazz and latin beat from when, late 90s?

Bob Dylan - Love Minus Zero from "Bringing It All back Home". Bob in fine acoustic form. I actually like a lot of Dylan, but have so far resisted persistent requests to play him at a do. He ain't usually that dancey! However I am tempted by "Absolutely Sweet Marie" on the "Blond On Blonde" album as it has a nice RnB feel in parts - not had the guts yet mind!

Paul Weller - Leafy Mysteries - from "Illumination" and what I thought was a good start to an album which lost it's a way a bit as it went on. But I've not played it all the way through for a good while. This track I like though...

And then bizarrely next up was the unreleased version of "In The City" taken from disc 5 of "Direction, Reaction, Creation". I don't recall playing this before and it has a less "angry" feel to the single and album versions and is no less the worse for that.

On a soulful tip and taken from the Kent LP "Soul Agents" comes Jackie Ross "Keep Your Chin Up". This mid tempo stuff from Brunswick records often hits the spot for me - mellow and soulful

George Lemmons - Fascinating Girl. An old fave of mine from when I used to go to the 100 Club allnighters about 15 years ago. Again a builder and vocally adept. This was from the time I moved away from stompers and got into more soulful mid tempo gems, epitomised by what is perhaps still my fave soul tune Chuck Jackson "What's With This Loneliness" - pure soul heaven. This track is on Goldmine's "Detroit Floorfillers" I think

To raise me from my floaty soulful mood comes the Betterdays "Don't Want That" - full on harmonica and British bluesy beat. I think I digitised my vinyl version of English Freakbeat Vol 1 to get this

Then Mr Weller in his third guise of the evening with Style Council "A Stone's Throw Away". Musically not a great track from what is still a great LP ("Our Favourite Shop") but does bring to mind a period of 1984 / 85 when the whole country seemed to be a stone's throw away from something. Lyrically he makes the links with Chile, South Africa, Poland and South Yorkshire

From a few years earlier came the Specials and "Rudy, A Message To You". Clearly a lot faster and heavier than the Dandy Livingstone version. That whole first Specials LP had a mood and menace about it which resonates now - an undercurrent of urban violence, the rise of fascists on the street and the threat of getting slapped for wearing the wrong clothes in the wrong place (Do The Dog, Concrete Jungle, Nite Klub, Doesn't Make It Alright - I like the SLF version of that as well). I sometimes wonder how a young Mod ever made it through the early 80s!

Next up is the rather superb Nina Simone "I Wish I Knew How It Would Feel To Be Free" (previously referenced in my post about Napster downloads). Great track, great voice

Lifted from my Back Beat 45 comes Carl Carlton "Competition Ain't Nothng" - a club classic if ever there was one and available I think again on Goldmine "Twisted Wheel Forever"

The second Dylan track of the night (and random play not being too random, this comes from the same alblum) "It's All Over, Baby Blue"

In a mood change next up was Sharon Jones "Bump n Touch Pt 1" which I got from the Desco CD "Spike's Choice Vol 1" - essentially a collection of the A and B sides of the first maybe dozen new funk singles from the Desco label. I think this is now defunct (pardon the expression), but they also had Sugarman Three with some righteous hammond, Lee Fields and others - heavy...

Greyboy - Unwind Your Mind. Taken from the now deleted "Home Cookin'" album (but still available on "Best Of Cookin'" this represents the very best of the 90's San Francisco dancefloor jazz which mixed soul, jazz, latin, funk and hip hop beats - masterful and on Ubiquity. They also pumped some great reissued funk out on the Luv n Haight label.

No idea where I got the next tune - Bill Doggett "The Worm" - full on sax hollering and quite nicely complements the latter day sax from the previous track

Muleskinners - Missed Your Love. I got this on the CD version of English Freakbeat Vol 2 and was Ian Mclagan's first band I believe before ending up with the Small Faces. Off the same CD I preferred "Backdoor Man", but this is till good with harmonica and bluesy guitar thrown in

And that friends concluded my ironing and I have to say my audio player did me proud tonight. Any views?