Bulletin Board of Bad Behavior

Also I've never been able to take Feargal Sharkey's vocals, sorry. I know about the Undertones I know, but I just don't like his voice.

And at #22, it's Echo & The Bunnymen "The Cutter". Last time I heard this I'd been standing on my feet for an hour and a half about 6 rows back waiting for Blondie to get their butts on stage already. It's a pretty good song as far as Echo & The Bunnymen goes, I admit. I enjoyed hearing it.

God this is terrible because I can't go to bed until the chart finishes. How long does that mean I will have to stay up?

Next up it's the Fall again for the third time in the chart. This one is not one of my fave Fall songs, it's okay. "The Man Whose Head Expanded".

"Turn that bloody blimey Space Invader off!" he says. But the song gets better towards the end when it slows down to the normal sleazy tempo more characteristic of the Fall. Then it speeds up again, unexpectedly. I dunno like I said, not one of my fave Fall songs. Oh well.

Next up a REAL good oldie - Siouxsie & The Banshees cover of The Beatles "Dear Prudence". Yeah that helps me date it as well. I definitely remember how trippy that video was. And that void the production sucks you up into toward the end when she sings "around round round" is pretty fackin' cool.

"The clouds will be a daisy chain/so let me see you smile again" god I bet I have that video somewhere...I should try dig out my old Siouxsie VHS cassette. I wonder if it made it on there.

Next up at #19 is oh god OH YUCK, really BAD Sisters of Mercy song. BAD. Oh YUCK. No. Man they just have NOT aged well you know that? The Sisters have not aged well at all. And yet I was praying when he played the last Sisters song that he would play this one instead. Now I know you should be careful what you wish for. I'm so sorry. I had no idea this song would age so badly "The Temple of Love". AWFUL.

Well it turns out Kate Bush must not like me very much because I don't have Siouxsie's Dear Prudence video at all on any VHS cassette I own. *cries* Why me? How could life be so cruel?

Luckily New Order are up next with "Your Silent Face" the first song I remember ever hearing by the band. Which I've already said that somewhere and no one cares.

Right who's up next in the chart then?

I'm feeling the Smiths coming on again. That's just my guess.

Uh no...I think it's Echo & The Bunnymen again. Yep. It sure is. It's the one where they lyrics go "Good god he said is that the only thing you care about..." yeah, you BETCHA! This is without a doubt one of my absolute FAVOURITE Echo & The Bunnymen songs ever. "Never Stop".

I can't wait to see who's next in the chart. This is real suspense here. I bet Blue Monday gets like first place or something like that, after all this was 1983.

Ah! I knew Cocteaus would come again! I knew it! Which one is it this time? Oh my goodness! It's "From the Flagstones"! Hell I never thought that was one of their better songs, that's kindof wild.

By the way why doesn't music like this come out nowadays? Why don't they make them like they used to eh? WHY?

Next up is...

wait for it...

Oh lord. The Cure "Love Cats". Okay but I've heard it too many times. Can we skip this one please? I was more amused by the fact that Peel mentions some band I've never heard before called Trixie's Big Red Motorbike. Now how's that for a name for a band? And another band he mentions I have never heard of is Yip Yip Coyote. Terrible name. One can only imagine what they sound like.

Right, I'm skipping Love Cats. A person can't be 13 years old forever, that was then and this is now.

Oh goodness well what do you know it's the Cocteau Twins up next AGAIN. That gives them at least one more song than the Fall in this chart. Wow. It's "Sugar Hiccup". Yeah, nothing wrong with "Sugar Hiccup".

I mean in some ways it's so easy to look back and pick favourites or make judgements, but when you realize that people were experiencing this music for only the first time in their whole lives when this was going on, you tend to cut people a break. If you'd just heard it for the first time you'd flip out too.

Yeah when I was a teenager, The Fall and The Cocteau Twins were more important to me than New Order. I haven't any qualms at all about admitting that, it was true. They were these two bands that had absolutely nothing in common and yet they seemed to go right along with each other simply because they were equally brilliant and equally ahead of so many other bands. And even when New Order started to lose the plot, Fall & Cocteaus were still pumping out brilliant album after brilliant album.

Now it's X Mal Deutschland again. I'm surprised! I wouldn't have expected to see them so high up the chart at all. I think one song by them is enough for a chart like this, now we've got two.

Next up is PIL "This Is Not a Love Song". Well, shit that's pretty cool. Nothing else in the chart really sounds like it, that's for sure. This must be a 12" version or something. I'm not as familiar with this version.

Peel says everyone who's written him about seeing PIL live said they were terrible.

Hmm...

what's next?

At #11...um...what is it...wait I'll tell you wait...oh yeah. I DO like this song. But I think it's the only good song this band did. They were called Red Box I think "Good Communication". I only just heard this for the first time last year. Or maybe they were called Red Guitars. I'm becoming confused now. Wait...no I think it was Red Box. But I'm not sure...wait...

No I got the title wrong. It's "Good Technology" sorry about that. And I do think it's Red Guitars, actually. Yep I'm right. It's Red Guitars "Good Technology". I'd like to think you could just buy a compilation of their work on CD, but I don't think it works like that, I think you have to either get vinyl or download. Anyway I seriously doubt they did a single other good song besides this one in their lives, so it doesn't matter.

Okay at #10 it's ....

Oooh! A reggae tune! Check it out! Just when you were least expecting it...some kind of slow ska thing...I don't know what it is. No I have no idea.

Man I need to sober up now for real. Maybe the chart will end in about an hour.

The guy keeps singing about "Rastafari" etc. etc.

Must sober up must sober up must sober up must sober up. Okay I've accepted that. I think I'll take a cold shower, that will help.

Anyway next up is...

#9, The SMITHS - HAND IN GLOVE BABY TURN UP THE FUCKIN' VOLUME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1

You know what, they were really produced well back then, too, I think. The way Morrissey's voice seems to echo in the near distance...it's all so organic. Why don't they make records like that anymore McC??? WHY?

"I'LL PROBABLY NEVER SEE YOU AGAIN/I'LL PROBABLY NEVER SEE YOU AGAAAAAIN..."

Jesus, and then the harmonica seals it! One of the most amazing moments in all of British music history right there! Unbelievable.

#8 is...


well blimey, what do you know? The Fall are now neck and neck with Cocteaus for most songs on this chart. I love it. "EAT YOURSELF FITTER" is the tune this time, from what is probably The Fall's best album ever "Perverted By Language".

Again...please remind me why it is that no one makes music like this anymore???

The next song better be a real doozy if those listeners think there's something better than The Fall's Eat Yourself Fitter. I mean it better be good.

Computers were so primitive in 1983. And this song mentions computers. "What's a computer?/Eat yourself fitter/What's a computer/Eat yourself fitter" To Americans that means in Britspeak "Eat yourself more healthy".

What a glorious racket they made, The Fall. Shit! That was the Peel Session version Peel says!!! No wonder I was going especially crazy and...

GUESS WHO IS UP NEXT????? BILLY BRAGG "A NEW ENGLAND"!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Fuck! I was totally wrong about Red Guitars!!! You can actually get a whole CD of Red Guitars on Cherry Red records can you believe it? It's called "Slow To Fade" I think. Geez, that's kindof cool isn't it? I'm going to dig out my Cherry Red catalogue. I don't remember seeing this CD in there at all.

Next up is Smiths' Reel Around The Fountain. Well I don't know what to say about that. I mean the brilliance ought to be self-evident, I think.

Well fuck me, the Red Guitars CD is in this Cherry Red catalogue. But like I said before I think the bigger problem is I don't think they did another song even half as good as "Good Technology". And guess who is on the other side of the page of the catalogue? Genesis P. Orridge from Psychic TV/Throbbing Gristle. I recently tried to listen to Throbbing Gristle after I read the Ian Curtis book because a few of their songs are mentioned that Ian particularly liked, including this one called "Weeping". I've never been able to get into TG aside from their most famous songs ("Hamburger Lady"...and the other one who's name escapes me at the moment..."Hot On The Heels of Love" is that it? something like that) anyway to my surprise I rather found these two songs by TG "Weeping" and "Five Knuckle Shuffle" to be rather interesting. Though like I said, I don't think I could stand a whole album of TG. They're just so noisy, normally. I respect Genesis, a lot though, as a person. I even have s/he on my wall.

Anyway so now Cocteau Twins are up again. I suppose it's all getting a bit samey now. Not enough variety. Which one's this? You know I can't even remember this one oh yeah I can "Musette & Drums". Now that is kindof interesting because I really don't see that as one of their best at all and yet it's so high in the chart. Intriguing, I must say. Everyone knows that even on Cocteau Twins' bad days they're still really incredible anyway. No bad hair day ever held them back. And they had a lot of bad hair days! Hahaha. Spikes galore!

Peel says the next song was Annie Lennox's favourite song of 83 and Boy George's favourite song of 83...what is it? Well it's only one of the best records ever made, that's what: This Mortal Coil's cover of Tim Buckley's song (yes that's right, Jeff Buckley's father) "Song To The Siren". Definitely a classic record. Featured Liz Fraser of Cocteau Twins on vocals, so yes anyway if you were keeping score I do believe Cocteaus have outdone The Fall for amount of songs in the chart now. Even if we don't count This Mortal Coil.

Liz was actually quite attracted to Jeff Buckley. They were an item for awhile.

Peel says it's now 5 and half songs by Cocteau Twins in the chart(This Mortal Coil being half, obviously). Now what do you suppose is at #3 in the chart? Well of course it's New Order's "Age of Consent" which I told you would tragically place higher than "Leave Me Alone". But again, this was the first time folks were hearing this stuff. So maybe I would have voted for it higher, too. Still no Blue Monday yet, though. Too conspicuous by its absence. We'll see. I wonder if we'll get another Smiths track first.

And at #2 it's....

hmm I don't immediately recognize this. Terrible overblown 80's production. Must be the Smiths by that bass line. Yeah, it is, but it's some mix or something. Totally remixed version of "This Charming Man".

And I bet Blue Monday is #1, but we'll see.

Then I get to go to bed, or try to.

I'm not crazy about this Smiths remix. Where are the lyrics? It's all butchered. I don't like it. No not at all. Crap. It's the prostituted version of the song.

So is Blue Monday #1? Eh? Oh the suspense...

Oh go on then get it over with...

And of course it is! Of course Blue Monday is #1. Oh good I can go to bed now. God I'm tired. Everything is in it's place, I'll get good sleep tonight.

The way Peel talks about it on the air, you get the feeling most people already knew this would be number one. He said someone wrote him to suggest that he should fiddle with the results to prevent it from being number one, but he said he never fiddles with the results, so...

anyway, here is a full list of the chart for anyone who might be interested:

http://www.rocklistmusic.co.uk/festive50lists.htm#1983

I would like to thank this website for putting up with me writing non stop on this board for the last 3 hours or so.

Also even though the chart says that "Pills & Soap" was by "The Imposter" it really did have Elvis Costello on vocals. I don't know why he got billed as that.

One last thing before I got to bed: it occurs to me there was no Depeche Mode in that chart at all. I find that surprising. Did they just not have an album out that year? This bugs me. I guess Speak & Spell was probably from '82. Let me check my book here....no Speak & Spell was 1981. Their album from '83 was Construction Time Again. Not one of their best, as I vaguely recall. Oh well, maybe Peel didn't even play them at all on his show. That wouldn't surprise me either.

It just occured to me that Soft Boys had a song called "Rock and Roll Toilet". What year was that? Well blimey! It was 1983! Shit! Let me check my sources again here I don't believe it. Yes, low and behold. That was 1983. Man I wish something from that album "Invisible Hits" had been in the chart. *whines*

Soft Boys were Robyn Hitchcock's old band and wouldn't you know it I heard something on the radio today from Robyn Hitchcock's brand new album. It was actually quite good, very sortof 60's psychedelic, good rock riff, not the folk or country you might expect from him these days. It reminded me of Brian Jonestown Massacre, actually. Anyway the song was "Underground Sun" and the album will be called "Ole Tarantula". I assume it's not out yet.

Okay time for bed. I love you all.