Suggs to Be You

Welcome to Day 10 of the badly titled Everyone Has Got one Good Song blog thing.

I was thinking of building the ultimate playlist with one simple rule. One artist. One song. Each day will feature a song by an artist whose birthday is that day and then nine other songs by nine different artists just because people like things to be in tens.

The playlist is here - https://open.spotify.com/playlist/4exU9MUJMWaouOgnu7zmSl?si=I5fqk7VpQX6aDGec7xvqsQ&pi=e-IfIWXc5GT56R

 

So, the idea was that you might want to follow and share and either have the playlist yourself or do your own or chat about it with me, you could use the hashtag #EHGOGS.

I’m on Twitter X thing as @fourfoot

Today’s selection.

Our featured birthday artist is Suggs. First LP I ever got by a band was Absolutely by Madness. I was 9. I don’t listen to them enough now – that first run of classic singles really is up there with anyone’s isn’t it? I have fond memories of my Dad prepare for a Saturday night out by watching some bizarre tv show which seemed to consist of Suggs hosting some bizarre karaoke thing on Channel 5. Maybe it doesn’t exist. Maybe I dreamt it. I am epically hungover today.

The other songs today….

Helpless – Kim Weston. Northern Soul classic. Went to a Northern Soul night once in Cardiff. Music incredible. Punters not so. That aside, this is a proper stomper. Waste your talcum powder if you must.

Sign of the Judgement – The McIntosh County Shouters. Because I am a sucker for a righteous slice of preachy acapella. “LOOSE HORSE IN THE VALLEY….!”

Talkin All That Jazz - Stetsasonic. Listening to hip hop in late 80s Ceredigion as I did, I was painfully aware of the incongruence of my privilege. We didn’t have gangs or gun violence or endemic racism to deal with. We had shit beer and crap schools and rural poverty. Still, I could listen to this without feeling too guilty, it was a tune and nothing much more.

A Love From Outer Space – AR Kane. This lot were part of M/A/R/R/S from what I recall. Proper Balearic 80s vibes all round. I do love a bit of house piano me. Even the mildly shit rap in the middle makes me feel youthful and optimistic again. There’s a bit in the Green Mile where a condemned death rower asks if a man is truly sorry, can he go back to the time and place he was truly happiest in the afterlife? It makes me cry that scene, fair play. Anyway, that’s my idea of heaven, 1990, the summer, the sunshine, and somewhere on a beach this song is playing….

Can’t Keep Checking My Phone – Unknown Mortal Orchestra. This song is dedicated to my friend S, she loves this song and is going through a tough time.

Spin Spin Sugar – Sneaker Pimps. Working in a tedious beyond words data entry job in the Valleys late 90s. Had this on my Walkman on the bus a lot. I got sacked for bitching to the boss about his new car on the day he told me my wages would be late. Smashed his glass office door on the way out. I get sacked a lot despite only losing my temper about once a decade. A lot of good stuff came out as dance music began to reassert itself in the dying days of Britpop…

Stronger - Sugababes. Fourfoot Said: Stronger - I said all I needed to say here....

These Eyes – Guess Who I’d never heard this song before I saw Michael Cera and Jonah Hill lay it down reluctantly in Superbad. And then I sought it out and it’s a proper tune. I’ve got to stop saying “proper tune”.

Get Off This - Cracker. This song came on the radio one afternoon in my latest atrocious flat in 1995, Carmarthen. I was living with this really nice girl who bored me shitless at the time. But she saved my life so I think of her fondly now. Anyway, I didn’t catch the name of the song and I tried humming it to people for years. And then about ten years later I heard it in a café and asked the dude behind the counter what it was and he told me and I still loved it. Anyway, now it reminds me of the world’s tensest drive – six hours from Loch Lomond to Lancashire after my best pals had a bit of a falling out in the car. This album was playing. We’re all good now.

Tomorrow, we have ten more….including one from birthday boy LL Cool J.