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Blue Jam - The COMPLETE Music List

Started by Spiral King, April 05, 2020, 11:23:59 PM

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Spiral King

Hello again, friends.

A while ago, I promised you all something of a Blue Jam Mega Thread, with every possible curio, odd and sod that I could find. This is still happening. It's just taken a while because of real life obligations, but with this latest worldwide development I have a lot more free time on my hands. My goal is to get the thread done before the Jam 20th Anniversary year is finished. We'll see if I make it.

For the past few years, I've been doing slow investigations, trying to fill all the holes in the fabled Blue Jam Music List. I think about this a lot more than I perhaps should, but the gaps in the known lists rather frustrate me and sometimes it keeps me up at night. Toiling away, jamming the Shazam button obsessively, and mindlessly acquiring random downtempo compilations from the 1990s until my morale is broken... this has only recently started to bear fruit in the past year or so. Fast forward to today, and I think I've cracked it.

Firstly, I have found the music that accompanies LWT Complainer.

It is called Hypersleep and it's by someone called Alex Gray. Here is a YouTube link.

I was basically in shelter-in-place and the thought struck me that I haven't tried to Shazam LWT Complainer obsessively in a good few weeks... expecting nothing, I attempt to bash my head against the same wall as I had been about a month ago. Except this time, it finds a match. Long time CABers know that this is a highly sought-after track. I was honestly mostly excited to solve what has been somewhat of a 23 year long mystery.

I have, over the past year or so, had other discoveries and eventually had two gaps left (until today)... my feelings were that I would keep these to myself and have them ready for when I finally plugged the last two gaps. Here they are, in order of their appearance in Blue Jam:

Series 2, Episode 1: From the Belt monologue, the opening piano chord loop is sourced from SDP's Santastic Mix. It's from the same compilation as The Orchids track from Episode 4 of Series 1, so this was just a case of clicking around that album and striking accidental gold.

Series 2, Episode 5: From the Special Ticket sketch, this is from Alpha's Come from Heaven, and it's "Apple Orange". This is mixed very low with the sketch audio and it took a few Shazam sessions to fully pick it up.

Series 2, Episode 6: From The Giant sketch, the corresponding music is a rather obscure track called "Very Serious Smokin'" by Control Freaks. Another Shazam discovery. Also spawned the idea of getting a bunch of electronic, downtempo and Trip Hop compilations in the hope that Blue Jam tracks featured on them might reveal other missing tracks.

Of course, the confidence in my title suggests that everything has been found, right? Sadly not. I am still missing the background track from the Little Girl Balls sketch in Series 1, Episode 6/Series 2, Episode 1. But I believe it's just a matter of time before this is the complete listing of every track in Blue Jam. I don't think it's just luck that I finally IDed the LWT Complainer as Hypersleep today. I believe as more labels go through their back catalogues (or back catalogues they've bought from defunct labels) and digitize them, the more likely it is that I'll be able to locate this piece of music.

So, without further ado...

Blue Jam - The Complete Music List

It's a work in progress right now, but it has all the core information. I took Lee Ascroft's old list as my base and added stuff in and corrected known mistakes here and there. My eventual plan is to include notes and info on additional tracks (i.e. Doc Rude, the compilation CD etc). But this'll do for now.

I hope you all enjoy this. It took a while to compile and I'm quite pleased with it.

the

Just a thought - presumably at the BBC, Blue Jam will have something like a Schedule of Residuals so they know who to pay royalties to upon [re]broadcast. Presuming it's accurate, it should contain a list of all copyrighted music used.

I don't know if one could go about accessing this info from outside of the corporation (perhaps via a Freedom of Information request?).

Spiral King

Quote from: the on April 06, 2020, 12:21:09 AM
Just a thought - presumably at the BBC, Blue Jam will have something like a Schedule of Residuals so they know who to pay royalties to upon [re]broadcast. Presuming it's accurate, it should contain a list of all copyrighted music used.

I don't know if one could go about accessing this info from outside of the corporation (perhaps via a Freedom of Information request?).

This is an interesting idea. Definitely worth looking further into... I'm not sure if I could make the request myself (as an expat in the US), but it's definitely food for thought!

Quote from: Spiral King on April 05, 2020, 11:23:59 PM
Hello again, friends.

A while ago, I promised you all something of a Blue Jam Mega Thread, with every possible curio, odd and sod that I could find. This is still happening. It's just taken a while because of real life obligations, but with this latest worldwide development I have a lot more free time on my hands. My goal is to get the thread done before the Jam 20th Anniversary year is finished. We'll see if I make it.

For the past few years, I've been doing slow investigations, trying to fill all the holes in the fabled Blue Jam Music List. I think about this a lot more than I perhaps should, but the gaps in the known lists rather frustrate me and sometimes it keeps me up at night. Toiling away, jamming the Shazam button obsessively, and mindlessly acquiring random downtempo compilations from the 1990s until my morale is broken... this has only recently started to bear fruit in the past year or so. Fast forward to today, and I think I've cracked it.

Firstly, I have found the music that accompanies LWT Complainer.

It is called Hypersleep and it's by someone called Alex Gray. Here is a YouTube link.

I was basically in shelter-in-place and the thought struck me that I haven't tried to Shazam LWT Complainer obsessively in a good few weeks... expecting nothing, I attempt to bash my head against the same wall as I had been about a month ago. Except this time, it finds a match. Long time CABers know that this is a highly sought-after track. I was honestly mostly excited to solve what has been somewhat of a 23 year long mystery.

I have, over the past year or so, had other discoveries and eventually had two gaps left (until today)... my feelings were that I would keep these to myself and have them ready for when I finally plugged the last two gaps. Here they are, in order of their appearance in Blue Jam:

Series 2, Episode 1: From the Belt monologue, the opening piano chord loop is sourced from SDP's Santastic Mix. It's from the same compilation as The Orchids track from Episode 4 of Series 1, so this was just a case of clicking around that album and striking accidental gold.

Series 2, Episode 5: From the Special Ticket sketch, this is from Alpha's Come from Heaven, and it's "Apple Orange". This is mixed very low with the sketch audio and it took a few Shazam sessions to fully pick it up.

Series 2, Episode 6: From The Giant sketch, the corresponding music is a rather obscure track called "Very Serious Smokin'" by Control Freaks. Another Shazam discovery. Also spawned the idea of getting a bunch of electronic, downtempo and Trip Hop compilations in the hope that Blue Jam tracks featured on them might reveal other missing tracks.

Of course, the confidence in my title suggests that everything has been found, right? Sadly not. I am still missing the background track from the Little Girl Balls sketch in Series 1, Episode 6/Series 2, Episode 1. But I believe it's just a matter of time before this is the complete listing of every track in Blue Jam. I don't think it's just luck that I finally IDed the LWT Complainer as Hypersleep today. I believe as more labels go through their back catalogues (or back catalogues they've bought from defunct labels) and digitize them, the more likely it is that I'll be able to locate this piece of music.

So, without further ado...

Blue Jam - The Complete Music List

It's a work in progress right now, but it has all the core information. I took Lee Ascroft's old list as my base and added stuff in and corrected known mistakes here and there. My eventual plan is to include notes and info on additional tracks (i.e. Doc Rude, the compilation CD etc). But this'll do for now.

I hope you all enjoy this. It took a while to compile and I'm quite pleased with it.

MY GOD!  YOU ABSOLUTE HERO. 
Thank you so much for this,  Finally some closure on that LWT Complainer music. 
Excellent work, Spiral King.

BlodwynPig

Alex Gray was in 2nd tier Trip-Hoppers Baby Fox

i've added the latest finds to my 'Blue Jam Music' playlist on Spotify. 

(I believe this is the most complete one on there as it's been a bit of a labour of love for me too).

Still a handful of tracks that were previously on Spotify but have since been taken off again or have never turned up on there, and obviously still a couple that still haven't been identified. 

Anyway, it's here if you want it.  https://open.spotify.com/playlist/3iL0bJYnjTx041VkkQTh0x?si=nDOomcxjTpSHKuLxogcCXw

Spiral King

Quote from: Beep Cleep Chimney on April 06, 2020, 08:38:56 AM
MY GOD!  YOU ABSOLUTE HERO. 
Thank you so much for this,  Finally some closure on that LWT Complainer music. 
Excellent work, Spiral King.

Of course, man! I'm glad to have solved a longstanding mystery that was clearly driving you up the wall a bit.

Quote from: BlodwynPig on April 06, 2020, 09:19:07 AM
Alex Gray was in 2nd tier Trip-Hoppers Baby Fox

See, this is fascinating. I wonder how much of that informed Morris' decision to put Baby Fox and/or the Hypersleep track in the show? Did he know of one and then found the other? The relationship between how Morris chose tracks and what compilation/albums he had at his disposal are incredibly interesting to me. This is something I want to attempt to narrow down in the list, if at all possible.

Quote from: Beep Cleep Chimney on April 06, 2020, 11:32:23 AM
i've added the latest finds to my 'Blue Jam Music' playlist on Spotify. 

(I believe this is the most complete one on there as it's been a bit of a labour of love for me too).

Oh, so that's you, is it? Excellent work. It's been an invaluable resource for when I've wanted to play Blue Jam tracks in the car and there have been other people present, so yes. Thank you!

Quote from: Beep Cleep Chimney on April 06, 2020, 11:32:23 AMStill a handful of tracks that were previously on Spotify but have since been taken off again or have never turned up on there, and obviously still a couple that still haven't been identified. 

Now, you say a couple haven't been identified... am I missing something other than the one track from Little Girl Balls? If so, please let me know so I can obsess over it and plug up any remaining gaps.

As for Little Girl Balls, I'm looking into editing out the dialogue-less intro and making a loop of it, to see if that'll help ID software in finding out the origins of it. Beyond that, it's back to trawling through electronic (mostly lounge-centric, honestly) compilations again... Honestly, if you'd asked me which I'd have found first, it'd probably have been this over Hypersleep. But. Here we are.

Quote from: Spiral King on April 06, 2020, 04:06:00 PM

Now, you say a couple haven't been identified... am I missing something other than the one track from Little Girl Balls? If so, please let me know so I can obsess over it and plug up any remaining gaps.

No, you might be right, actually.  Maybe we are now finally down to that one last missing track.   What a journey it's been.

Spiral King

Quote from: Beep Cleep Chimney on April 06, 2020, 06:21:33 PM
No, you might be right, actually.  Maybe we are now finally down to that one last missing track.   What a journey it's been.

Absolutely. I'm super determined to get this last one now. The final piece of the puzzle is too compelling to leave sitting. That FOI request idea is a tantalizing way of finishing this decades long project up for good.

Dusty Substance


This is amazing. Nice work, Spiral King.

Spiral King

GOT IT. Little Girl Balls is...

Ram Jam World - Searchin' (Smooth Breathe Mix)

So, I downloaded "Sound Hound"... I assumed it wouldn't go anywhere as I assumed they used the same databases as Shazam? Anyway, I start it up and at first, no dice. The app says "hey turn it up", and I was a bit dubious (it was already up quite high!), so I crank my shitty line-in Cambridge speaker thing up and... there we go. Rather chuffed!

So, it's all complete. The next line of business is notes and other misc tracks used in the periphery series/films/etc. I knew my title would eventually be factually true. Hah.


Solid Jim

Excellent stuff, to echo the earlier posts. A few comments/questions:

Present in the Spotify list but absent from your document is Brigitte Bardot - La Madrague (middle bit of Doc Kiss from episode 1.)

In the old version of the episode 4 download (i.e. the original broadcast), Beth Orton - Best Bit was played in its entirety after the "welcome in Blue Jam" closer. I tend to assume this can be considered part of the episode, as the Radio 4 Extra version is a few minutes short of the full hour.

I note that Autechre - Foil only plays for about 5 seconds before fading into the next song? This makes me wonder how sure one can ever be that every snippet of music has been catalogued...

Series 3 episode 4 features Funki Porcini - Surge ("The sun to rule the day, the moon to rule the night...")

And I'm not doubting the veracity of Lisa Germano - Wood Floors in the final episode, but can somebody aid my sanity by explaining which bit of it can be heard and how? All I can make out is a few seconds of vague ambience before the horses start bashing their instruments...

Semi-related, did anyone save either of these instrumental stings back in the day?

Spiral King

#13
Quote from: Solid Jim on April 08, 2020, 06:35:55 PM
Excellent stuff, to echo the earlier posts.

Thank you. And thank you to everyone sharing kind words in the thread. It's greatly appreciated!

Quote from: Solid Jim on April 08, 2020, 06:35:55 PM
A few comments/questions:

Present in the Spotify list but absent from your document is Brigitte Bardot - La Madrague (middle bit of Doc Kiss from episode 1.)

This has been added. Not quite sure why I missed it, because I was definitely aware of it, but it's in now. Episode 1 has so much music that it keeps making the table split off onto a new page, which is aesthetically horrid. Made it work though.

Quote from: Solid Jim on April 08, 2020, 06:35:55 PM
In the old version of the episode 4 download (i.e. the original broadcast), Beth Orton - Best Bit was played in its entirety after the "welcome in Blue Jam" closer. I tend to assume this can be considered part of the episode, as the Radio 4 Extra version is a few minutes short of the full hour.

This will be included in the "Notes & Miscellaneous" section that I'm currently working on. I feel like the Radio 4 Extra repeats are a good bench mark of what was included in Morris' master tapes. The lack of the Beth Orton track suggests to me it was a very late addition, possibly not even made by Morris himself (although he perhaps approved of the selection). There's enough evidence to suggest this, including the whole Doc Rude/Bishopslips bait and switch (which is why Episode 4 is short to begin with), and it not being included in a version of the original Radio 1 mp3s back in the day.

Quote from: Solid Jim on April 08, 2020, 06:35:55 PM
I note that Autechre - Foil only plays for about 5 seconds before fading into the next song? This makes me wonder how sure one can ever be that every snippet of music has been catalogued...

Actually, Foil is played through the entirety of the sketch on top of Too Hot. It's very subtle, but it's there if you listen to the BBC 4 Extra rips. Again, this (and other similar instances) will be in the Notes section. The whole situation with this has inspired me to do a 5067th re-listen of the series and see if anything else is buried in there, honestly.

Quote from: Solid Jim on April 08, 2020, 06:35:55 PM
Series 3 episode 4 features Funki Porcini - Surge ("The sun to rule the day, the moon to rule the night...")

I thought of this last night and have now added it accordingly.

Quote from: Solid Jim on April 08, 2020, 06:35:55 PM
And I'm not doubting the veracity of Lisa Germano - Wood Floors in the final episode, but can somebody aid my sanity by explaining which bit of it can be heard and how? All I can make out is a few seconds of vague ambience before the horses start bashing their instruments...

I completely agree with this entire question/statement. The track was from a legacy listing on the CAB website back in the old days, so maybe Neil would be able to shed some light on its inclusion and what bit of it we're hearing? All I can think of is the sustained piano chord at the end of the track, and even that is a stretch, as it's more like a non-descript synth drone before the horses start playing. It'll stay for now, but will get a footnote added to explain the situation.

Quote from: Solid Jim on April 08, 2020, 06:35:55 PMSemi-related, did anyone save either of these instrumental stings back in the day?

I've been shying away from finding samples in the stings/intros etc, but known cases will eventually find their way into Notes & Misc. Sadly I didn't download any of these back in the day, but would be interested if anyone archived them.

#14
Quote from: Solid Jim on April 08, 2020, 06:35:55 PM

In the old version of the episode 4 download (i.e. the original broadcast), Beth Orton - Best Bit was played in its entirety after the "welcome in Blue Jam" closer. I tend to assume this can be considered part of the episode, as the Radio 4 Extra version is a few minutes short of the full hour.

In this excellent book (link removed) written by TJ of this parish, it's revealed that, apparently, the "Doc Rude" sketch (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NIhqQoByjGM) was originally supposed to be in Episode 4 somewhere, but the BBC asked Morris to cut it out (for obvious reasons). 

Seems Morris knew full well that the sketch was too OTT to be aired anyway, and had only recorded it as a bargaining exercise to convince Radio 1 to allow the less rude Princess Diana funeral cut-up to be aired uncut as part of Episode 6.

When Episode 4 originally aired, with 5 or so minutes to go until the next programme, Radio 1 just put on 'Best Bit' to take it up to the full hour.  (I believe that song was on fairly heavy rotation on Radio 1 at that point anyway).

This is also backed up by the fact that 'Best Bit' hasn't been included on the subsequent Radio4Extra repeats (we just got a few extra minutes of Arthur Smith blathering on like he does), so Episode 4 does definitely end with the normal outro.

Solid Jim

Quote from: Beep Cleep Chimney on April 08, 2020, 10:39:33 PM
Seems Morris knew full well that the sketch was too OTT to be aired anyway, and had only recorded it as a bargaining exercise to convince Radio 1 to allow the less rude Princess Diana funeral cut-up to be aired uncut as part of Episode 6.

Interesting. I knew about Doc Rude being produced as a sacrificial sketch, but I suppose I always assumed they'd have had something else to put in its place. Which perhaps shows I never paid much attention to the length of the episodes before today.

I was also going to acknowledge that the inclusion of Best Bit would break the pattern of no other episodes having any more music after the outro than a short repeating loop, but then I remembered the Lady in the Radiator song...

DJ Solid Snail

Nice work! Those gaps had been bothering me for years, much appreciated.

Don't know how OCD you want to be about your tracklist, but the Blue Jam intro is made up of elements of 'Stem/Long Stem' by DJ Shadow (played backwards) as well as 'Time' and 'Africa Talks to You "The Asphalt Jungle"' by Sly and the Family Stone. (I also obsessed over identifying all the Blue Jam music for many years.)

Spiral King

Quote from: DJ Solid Snail on April 12, 2020, 12:58:26 PM
Nice work! Those gaps had been bothering me for years, much appreciated.

Don't know how OCD you want to be about your tracklist, but the Blue Jam intro is made up of elements of 'Stem/Long Stem' by DJ Shadow (played backwards) as well as 'Time' and 'Africa Talks to You "The Asphalt Jungle"' by Sly and the Family Stone. (I also obsessed over identifying all the Blue Jam music for many years.)

As noted before, I will include known cases of samples used in the intros/stings/outros in the Notes section that I'm currently working on. It may be something I focus more on in the future, but we'll see.

Quote from: Solid Jim on April 08, 2020, 11:54:11 PM
I was also going to acknowledge that the inclusion of Best Bit would break the pattern of no other episodes having any more music after the outro than a short repeating loop, but then I remembered the Lady in the Radiator song...

I do find it interesting that Morris tended to add special additional post-outro bits at the end of most of the first and last episodes of each series.

Series 1, Episode 1: Lady in the Radiator song.
Series 1, Episode 6/Series 1, Episode 1: Reefer song.
Series 2, Episode 6: TMBG's Spiraling Shape
Series 3, Episode 1: The bizarre adult runaway child sketch with the Marvin Gaye track.

I guess you could include the Happy Birthday song from Episode 5 in this, but that's also in the intro. It's a shame Morris didn't put anything like that in the final episode for some reason. Oh well.

Anyway, I updated the List and added a tracklisting for:
- The Blue Jam compilation CD
- The Blue Jam BAC Live Show
- Doc Rude, Bishopslips and Rothko from the My Wrongs DVD.

Notes are still in progress.

Edit: Also, Beep Cleep Chimney, just a head's up: Broadcast's Work and Non-Work release is actually on Spotify now, so you can update your playlist!

Quote from: Spiral King on April 12, 2020, 11:05:22 PM
Edit: Also, Beep Cleep Chimney, just a head's up: Broadcast's Work and Non-Work release is actually on Spotify now, so you can update your playlist!

DONE! Cheers.

Leee

Quote from: Spiral King on April 05, 2020, 11:23:59 PM
Lee Ascroft

Close enough.

Congratulations on your fine work Spiral King. Thank you for carrying the torch. A lot of my work way back when was done through Shazam, as well as Googling half-heard bits of lyrics, so I guess it makes sense that as more music got added to the likes of Spotify, identifying music like 'Hypersleep' would only get easier in time. I'm just glad I didn't have to do it myself.

One minor note - the piano intro from 'Tongue' gets used a few times across 101, including at the end of the monologue and after 'In Heaven'. If that sounds pedantic, then welcome to my mind from ten years ago, or whenever it was I first put that list together.

As you were. Got to put the potatoes on.

Spiral King

Quote from: Leee on April 13, 2020, 08:35:40 PM
Close enough.

Hahahhhhh fuck. I proofread that first post like four times, as well.

Quote from: Leee on April 13, 2020, 08:35:40 PMCongratulations on your fine work Spiral King. Thank you for carrying the torch. A lot of my work way back when was done through Shazam, as well as Googling half-heard bits of lyrics, so I guess it makes sense that as more music got added to the likes of Spotify, identifying music like 'Hypersleep' would only get easier in time. I'm just glad I didn't have to do it myself.

Thank YOU for creating the initial "complete-ish" list! And thanks to TJ and Jake Wyatt, who I believe were responsible for the original episode guides back on this site back in the early 2000s. You guys are all a big reason why this current iteration exists in the first place, so yes.

Quote from: Leee on April 13, 2020, 08:35:40 PM
One minor note - the piano intro from 'Tongue' gets used a few times across 101, including at the end of the monologue and after 'In Heaven'. If that sounds pedantic, then welcome to my mind from ten years ago, or whenever it was I first put that list together.

I thought about adding it and I may still... but Episode 1 is already unruly in terms of how many tracks are noted within its table. I think I may stick it in the upcoming Notes section as it's only a few bars and the song IS noted as being featured earlier in the episode.