Y’know What? I Don’t Think I Will Mess with Texas.

Josh T. Pearson is an amazing guy – a real legend in his own lunchtime, for whom I feel a huge fondness.

At the same time though, I’m almost frightened to listen to his first recorded statement in twelve years, for precisely the reasons set out by Doug Mosurock in this excellent review. I just don’t wanna have to take what it seems like he’s laying down here, y’know? Hopefully he’d get what I mean.

Anyway, a few weeks ago I heard the weirdest thing, as Radio 4’s daily arts programme ‘Front Row’ suddenly played a burst of Pearson’s album, using it as the hook for an almost unbelievably simple-minded item about long songs. I mean, if they wanted to do some promo for the record, you’d think Pearson himself would provide ample material for a good story, but no…

“That was an extract from the new album by Texan singer-songwriter Josh T. Pearson, which features a number of songs that last nearly TEN MINUTES. Hello, Mr. Writer-from-The-Guardian, could you tell us whether any people have written long pop songs in the past?”

“Why yes, ‘Hey Jude’ and ‘Macarthur Park’ were quite long, and since then people have often recorded long songs. In the ‘80s, bands like New Order put long songs on 12” singles.”

“Ha ha, yes, I remember those. I suppose you could put them on a CD now and make them as long as you like. Have there ever been any long rap songs, I wonder?”

“Why yes, since you ask, rap music has always had long songs. Here’s a bit from ‘White Lines’ by Grandmaster Flash – that’s pretty long..”

“Well, thanks for that Mr. Writer from The Guardian. Josh T. Pearson’s album is out now..”

And people wonder why we prefer to read about music on the internet these days.

Labels: BBC, Josh T Pearson, stupidity, Texas

They Don't Make... well, *anything*... Like This Anymore;

A certain amount of stupidity can be a wonderful thing, as our parents' generation knew well.

A recent post on the always reliable WFMU blog featured a bunch of strange and joyful bubblegum pop videos, and, in this sad era when all varieties of popular culture seem intractably tangled in the wretched business of trying to be 'clever' and failing, it is my duty, in the name of public well-being, so pass a few of them on.

So if, as the winter drags on, you find your life sinking into a morass of darkness, headaches, hassles, entropy, poverty and procrastination, just take a few moments to enjoy some of the wonderful, wonderful mindless awesomeness below, and, seriously.... you'll find yourself feeling a whole lot better. "Bubblegum therapy", you might call it.

First here's The Gentrys, performing "Spread It On Thick" in the 1967 movie "It's A Bikini World". I refuse to be held responsible for the amount of time this song will spend stuck in your head:



Ah, "you the man?", "I'm the man!", etc, etc. Great stuff. I could happily watch that for a solid hour.

Now, most social historians will tell you that 1970 was a pretty grim year in the UK for any number of reasons, not least the fact that the big hit of the summer was Mungo Jerry, with their (his? their? - oh who cares) eternally hateful ode to drunk driving and taking advantage of girls with poor daddies, "In The Summertime". Not so in Australia, where the discerning public gave Mungo the heave-ho, and instead propelled The Mixtures, with their infinitely superior "Pushbike Song", to number 1 for six weeks. Get pedaling, brothers:

Labels: bubblegum, pop, stupidity, The Gentrys, The Mixtures, videos