Musical 'F*** my Hat, I didn't know that!'

[Brundle-Fly]

During the Absolute Beginners (1986) OST recording, David Bowie confessed to his producer, Clive Langer that Ashes To Ashes rhythmicality was entirely inspired by My Girl by Madness .

Blimey!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CMThz7eQ6K0

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qbVktaE0llk&frags=pl%2Cwn

[Jockice]

During the Absolute Beginners (1986) OST recording, David Bowie confessed to his producer, Clive Langer that Ashes To Ashes rhythmicality was entirely inspired by My Girl by Madness .

Blimey!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CMThz7eQ6K0

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qbVktaE0llk&frags=pl%2Cwn

Blimey indeed. My Major Tom's mad at me.

[boki]

Blimey indeed. My Major Tom's mad at me.

Why can't he see,
Space travel's alright with me,
But I want to stay in,
And watch TV,
And not shoot smack,
Every now and then?

[thecuriousorange]

Unfinished Symphony by Massive Attack is actually called Unfinished Sympathy. I always thought they had kept the working title Unfinished Symphony to be a bit meta. I also don't really care for the song, which explains my lack of attention.

[Crabwalk]

I also don't really care for the song

Fuck my hat, I didn't know there was anyone indifferent to that song. Thought it was one of those that everyone at least liked.

[phantom_power]

My "fuck my hat" thing with Massive Attack was how much their first album is based on samples. I used to think it was good for a hip hop group at the time to have so much real instrumentation until the power of the internet showed my just how much each song is based on the wholesale sampling of a couple of tracks each. It doesn't make me love the album less but it was a bit of a shock

[Fisher Goes Berserk]

I love this thread. You probably all know these two already though:

The guitar solo in Orange Juice's 'Rip It Up' is inspired by the guitar solo in the Buzzcocks' 'Boredom', the song referenced in the lyrics immediately before the solo.

The melody of Abba's 'SOS' is based on the Morse code for SOS.

[Larry Heliotrope]

Here's one for Nuggets fans that I only found out recently after owning the album for several decades: the vocalist on Sagittarius' My World Fell Down is Glen Campbell.

[gilbertharding]

Here's one for Nuggets fans that I only found out recently after owning the album for several decades: the vocalist on Sagittarius' My World Fell Down is Glen Campbell.

Confusingly - for Freakbeat fans in a pre-internet age - Glen Campbell was also in The Misunderstood. Of course it's not the same Glen Campbell.

If you've never heard The Misunderstood, get your ears on the outside of this for a kickoff: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t5V8yhBtu7U

[hummingofevil]

Matt Sweeney of Chavez, Zwan, Bonnie Prince Billy Superwolf was guitarist on Adele's 21.

[hummingofevil]

Judge Jules is also the bloke that did a DJ set* at a tiny, ropey-looking nightclub called 'Woodside's" near Hatfield in about 1990. That was the night I met another bloke at the bar whose opening gambit was, "I've killed with these hands." He was a Falklands veteran with PTSD who offered my mate and I a lift home after we'd watched him down four pints. We called a cab...

*The set was unremarkable.

I went to a Judge Jules set in a house party. I was meant to be a competition for the public to win in Mixmag or somewhere but they rigged the whole thing and it was in one of the editor's mate's sweet pad in North London somewhere.

[the]

Not sure if it belongs on this thread, but:

I was watching a documentary about the Glasgow Underground, and halfway through a piece of (presumably) library music comes on, and it's where the 'Jack Pot and Tom Bola' noise comes from in The Fast Show:

https://youtu.be/2vEEfKLK0g4?t=16m43s

[buzby]

Not sure if it belongs on this thread, but:

I was watching a documentary about the Glasgow Underground, and halfway through a piece of (presumably) library music comes on, and it's where the 'Jack Pot and Tom Bola' noise comes from in The Fast Show:

https://youtu.be/2vEEfKLK0g4?t=16m43s

Francis Monkman - Perpetual Motion from the seminal Bruton library LP Energism & Futurism
Most of the music in that film comes from that LP. Tracks on it were also used for on US TV for NFLand NBA broadcasts and as incidental music in Prisoner: Cell Block H. Monkman also supplied the music for The Long Good Friday

[Psmith]

Karen Carpenter was a kick ass drummer.

[studpuppet]

Karen Carpenter was a kick ass drummer.

That is pretty well known TBF - considering it was part of their act, and she used to sing from behind them occasionally.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sdHyzGXAJPg (nice cameo from John 'Leaving On A Jet Plane' Denver there)

[JarrowMonkey]

Billy Joel played piano on a recording session for Leader of the Pack, although he's almost certain his bit wasn't in the released version

[thecuriousorange]

For a second I thought you meant I'm the Leader of the Gang (I Am).

[JesusAndYourBush]

Billy Joel played piano on a recording session for Leader of the Pack, although he's almost certain his bit wasn't in the released version

And Iggy Pop played drums - not on the records but on a few of their live performances.

[a duncandisorderly]

it is claimed by steve tyler & others that the drum-break which opens "walk this way" was created by tyler, himself a decent drummer, while he & perry were waiting for the rest of the band to join them for a soundcheck in honolulu, whilst touring as support for the guess who.

the song's title came later; while they were recording it in new york, they went to see "young frankenstein"....

[Sebastian Cobb]

And Iggy Pop played drums - not on the records but on a few of their live performances.

I've got the first Shangri-las lp. Side 2 is a load of live recordings. They're really good and garagey which makes a good contrast to their studio stuff.

Most lp's from girl groups featured their good singles padded out with a load of guff. This is much better, probably one of my favourites.

[a duncandisorderly]

Billy Joel played piano on a recording session for Leader of the Pack, although he's almost certain his bit wasn't in the released version

the bloke on the right on this fabulous album cover is mr joel. I haven't played my copy yet, but I'm going to soon.

[sprocket]

John Barnes' uncle used to manage Marvin Gaye, I can only imagine the tales he got to swap with Alan Curbishley when playing for Charlton.

[Better Midlands]

John Barnes' uncle used to manage Marvin Gaye, I can only imagine the tales he got to swap with Alan Curbishley when playing for Charlton.

When Marvin Gaye moved to Belgium for two years.

http://drownedinsound.com/in_depth/4146614-whats-going-on-how-belgium-saved-marvin-gaye

[JarrowMonkey]

John Barnes' uncle used to manage Marvin Gaye, I can only imagine the tales he got to swap with Alan Curbishley when playing for Charlton.

And the one on the left was his best mate, Jon Small,  who's wife Billy Joel fucked off with and married. She's a right bitch by all accounts, when Joel wrote 'Just the way you are' for her, she asked 'Do,I get the royalties too?'

Billy Joel - complete fanny rat

[Cuntbeaks]

Yep - hence the first album cover:

One of the finest album covers of all time, the original vinyl is particularly striking.

[daf]

Probably a bit niche / 'who cares' this one, but the bassline on Fixing a Hole by The Batchie Beatles is played by Ol' fat-fingers Lennon.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fmAvXJnI4ZY

So, who played what?  Beatles road manager Neil Aspinall, writing in the magazine "The Beatles Monthly," claims to have witnessed Paul playing the distinctive harpsichord part.  And, while engineer Richard Lush wasn't present on this day, he is quoted in Andy Babiuk's book "Beatles Gear" as saying:  "I do remember that Lennon played the bass on that track.  He used a Fender bass on it.  If you play the album you can pick it out because it's very simple, and a ploppy sort of sound.  It didn't sound as rich as Paul's Rickenbacker bass."

However, George Martin, in his book "Summer Of Love," insists that Paul relinquished the keyboard role on the song to him while Paul took up his usual instrument of bass guitar.

However, the 2017 release of the 50th Anniversary Edition of the "Sgt. Pepper" album settles the issue once and for all.  It appears that 'take one' of "Fixing A Hole," which was used for the finished product, was "bounced back to the four-track from another machine" to become 'take two,' as documented in the liner notes of the above mentined release.  'Take three,' which is contained on this reissue as a bonus track, shows that the obvious musician playing the harpsichord on the song is Paul as Neil Aspinall remembered, him singing lead vocals at the same time.  Therefore we can conclude that Richard Lush was correct when he assumed John was on bass, this being reiterated by Kevin Howlett's liner notes for the "Sgt. Pepper" 50th Anniversary release in 2017. This, of course, would leave the maraca playing to be by George Harrison, his lead guitar work being added in later as an overdub.  Mystery solved!

And there's a further wrinkle to the recording session:

There is one other person known to have been present on this day.  Paul relates:  "The funny thing about that was the night when we were going to record it, at Regent Sound Studios at Tottenham Court Road, I brought a guy who was Jesus.  A guy arrived at my front gate and I said, 'Yes? Hello' because I always used to answer it to everyone.  If they were boring I would say, 'Sorry, no,' and they generally went away.  This guy said, 'I'm Jesus Christ.'  I said, 'Oop,' slightly shocked.  I said, 'Well, you'd better come in then.'  I thought, Well, it probably isn't.  But if he is, I'm not going to be the one to turn him away.  So I gave him a cup of tea and we just chatted and I asked, 'Why do you think you are Jesus?'  There were a lot of casualties about then.  We used to get a lot of people who were maybe insecure or going through emotional breakdowns or whatever."

"So I said, 'I've got to go to a session but if you promise to be very quiet and just sit in a corner, you can come.'  So he did, he came to the session and he did sit very quietly and I never saw him after that.  I introduced him to the guys.  They said, 'Who's this?'  I said, 'He's Jesus Christ.'  We had a bit of a giggle over that...But that was it.  Last we ever saw of Jesus!"

http://www.beatlesebooks.com/fixing-a-hole

[a duncandisorderly]

Probably a bit niche / 'who cares' this one, but the bassline on Fixing a Hole by The Batchie Beatles is played by Ol' fat-fingers Lennon.

there are pics of both george h & lennon playing a fender VI on the occasions when macca was committed to a keyboard role; I'd not heard it mentioned of this track though- seems early for the use of the fender instruments, which arrived (IIRC) as a job-lot, fender trying to woo the fabs away from the vox/rickenbacker stuff. the late ian mcdonald (whose brother is bassist bill mccormick of matching mole/801 fame) described lennon's playing on the 'let it be' sessions as 'prodding', & as an owner of a fender VI, I can see why this might be the case for a guitarist- they're hard enough for a bass player to navigate. jack bruce probably did better at it than most.

[non capisco]

Contemporaneous with the Velvet Underground that we all know and love there was a completely unconnected Australian band also called The Velvet Underground that featured Malcolm Young from AC/DC.

[a duncandisorderly]

lemon pipers ('green tambourine') = ram jam ('black betty')

[QDRPHNC]

Less "I didn't know that" than "How did they do that?", but the video for Weezer's Buddy Holly popped up on YouTube today, and it's pretty well done, back in 1994. What was it? Clever editing? There are clearly some shots where the cast interacts with the band that are a teensy bit off looking, but really very good for the time, and what I assume wasn't a huge budget.