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Is This A Talent Or Obsessive Behaviour?
137 Plays7 months ago
Giles has got the Sunday night blues. Perhaps a digressive discussion about the nature of talent, while listening to a bunch of old tunes might help? Featuring some choice cuts from the Johnny Domino tape mountain, as well as songs by MJ Hibbett and Pala.
Also in this episode:
- The track that made our Dad 'lose his s**t'.
- An improvised song about a haircut.
- Steve kick-starts the Northside revival.
- Giles’ obsession for finding old records becomes spiritual.
Related audiovisual material is available on the This Are Johnny Domino blog.
Visit the Johnny Domino website
Connect with Johnny Domino on Facebook and Instagram
Podcast artwork by Giles Woodward
Edited by Steve Woodward at PodcastingEditor.com
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Transcript
Introduction and Podcast Origin
00:00:00
Speaker
There are silver-tressed darlings and raven-maned delights. When my cockettes fired up, she beats them in the night. That red-haired walking. You get too close, she'll warn you with a growl. She's a fog-cutting, scarlet-strutting, leather-chested girl. That red-haired walking.
00:00:46
Speaker
Good day. Thank you for joining us for yet another episode of the This R Johnny Domino podcast. We're in myself, Steve, and my brother Giles. Hello. Talk about songs that we recorded about 30 years ago.
00:01:03
Speaker
for no real reason other than just to talk about music in a way that we used to. That is what we do. And in talking about those songs, we reevaluate them. And the goal of the podcast is to each episode, choose a song that will hopefully go forward onto a real life online, best of this are Johnny Domino
Sunday Night Vibes
00:01:27
Speaker
compilation. I thought we said last episode, episode we weren't going to bother doing that anymore.
00:01:30
Speaker
No, I just realised that halfway through. Yes. Sunday night vibes. That's what we've got. Sunday night vibes. You know what? I hate Sunday night. Yeah, especially tonight because you're going back to work tomorrow, aren't you? Every Sunday night is awful.
00:01:48
Speaker
This is the first episode we've ever recorded on a Sunday night, and this could go very wrong. It could go either way. You know, you're probably not going to be listening to it on a Sunday night. Now, I want you to feel the fact that you're very lucky.
Beat Happening Appreciation
00:02:07
Speaker
Feel how good it is not being on a Sunday night, okay? Because you're not.
00:02:13
Speaker
But we are. Absolutely. It's unlikely they're going to be listed on a Sunday night. We'll isn't we'll see. We'll see. I always hated Tuesdays more than anything. Yeah, Tuesdays are bad, but, you know, Sunday night's the worst. What was the comic back in the day, like a British comic? And every now and again, in the background of pretty much every strip, occasionally there will be a little sign that says Abolish Tuesdays.
00:02:39
Speaker
Oh, I do remember that. It was in Wizzer and Chips, but I can't remember. Wizzer and Chips. Yeah, that was it. Good stuff. Wizzer and Chips. Beat Happening. that That was who I was quoting thereof on the introduction. In a very, very beautiful ah interpretation of the lyrics to the song Redhead Walking. And if you've not got into beat happening ever. You really should.
00:03:04
Speaker
You really should. in One of those bands that the older I get, the more I appreciate how punk rock they were. I think I got into them because they were on Sub Pop for a brief part of their career and I bought one of their albums and I thought it was really weird.
00:03:20
Speaker
Yeah, the older I get, and the more I learn about them, which is not a huge amount, the more I enjoy them. They were very stripped back, just drums played standing up, it sounds like anyway, and rudimentary guitar and a single voice. And that's it. Yeah. a Really quite odd single voice. Incredibly low. Yeah, they were definitely punk rock. They were from Georgia, weren't they?
00:03:48
Speaker
No, they weren't. They were from Washington, washington Olympia, Washington. yeah you I mean, that song is a really peculiar one because it's ah it's an almost Lee Hazelwood type song about a vamp. Most of their songs are very kind of childlike yeah in a way. Hot Chocolate Boy. Hot Chocolate Boy is a great song.
Memories of 'Good Feeling'
00:04:12
Speaker
But we are going to listen to one of our songs, aren't we, first?
00:04:15
Speaker
So this is a single that we released back in the day or was released with us on back in the day. And it's a split single with our friend and colleague, MJ Hibbet. Yeah. We've previously featured one of the songs from a single, which is our song called Mex, which is available on the first volume of the very best of this, our Johnny Domino.
00:04:40
Speaker
available on your online streaming service of choice right now. We'll put a link in the show notes, so but this is the other song that we recorded and it's a song called Good Feeling. Is it right for a Sunday night? I think it's probably ripe for your Sunday night.
00:04:59
Speaker
o
00:06:08
Speaker
The way that everybody gives stress
00:07:49
Speaker
This is the time for obsessive behaviour This is the time for obsessive behaviour
00:08:27
Speaker
So that was our band, Johnny Domino.
Johnny Domino's Live Performance History
00:08:31
Speaker
ah From when? When was that? That was recorded in Ilkeston in 1999 and it came out in February of 2000. The split single was, as you've mentioned, ourselves on one side and MJ Hibbert and the validators on the other side.
00:08:50
Speaker
Both of our first albums were coming out on Artist Against Success. The single came out on Reveal Records of Derby. And then we did a tour together. We did. Just to recap for people who haven't been listening to this since the beginning. and The name Johnny Domino, it originated from us thinking about starting some sort of country and western type band. That's right, isn't it? Like a joke country band. But that was not very... I couldn't hear any country there. There's no country there. There's no country there.
00:09:24
Speaker
I didn't used to like that song that much, but I think my opinion of it was coloured by the fact that the bass line is quite boring and I got a bit bored playing it. oh dear Actually listening to it, I quite liked it. But that's interesting. You see you know when you call it it's kind of coloured by what you're playing, your opinion, because I didn't i don't know, I just thought that's a bit of a boring song, I don't like that. But actually listening to it now, it's all right. I've got a few memories of that song.
00:09:51
Speaker
One of the things to mention is that we used to have a pretty good time. We used to enjoy ourselves. But people used to accuse us of being miserable and quite dour. And I've got a memory of playing that song, which is quite downbeat. I remember we played it in the rain at the Abbey Park Festival in Leicester in August of 1999.
00:10:17
Speaker
And I remember us playing that song, we really kind of dug into it. And I don't think that helped us seem like a cheerier band.
Talent vs Obsession Debate
00:10:26
Speaker
I don't know. It's a weird song because it's a contrast between sort of like the song is talking about a good feeling, but it's it's a bit of a, I don't know, it's dour, but it's doggedly kind of churning along kind of music. You know what I mean? it's It sounds quite determined, I think. But the the lyrics are about good feeling, feeling good. I like the contrast.
00:10:48
Speaker
Yeah. I've got a memory of that song. I think Jim wrote the words to that song. And in my head, it was inspired by an interview that he'd read with Robbie Williams, moaning about the pressures of success. Oh, okay. And I think that's what it was about. It was it was ah inspired by an interview, and possibly a dream that he'd had where he met Robbie Williams, or imagining meeting Robbie Williams and talking about the pressures of success with him. Oh, I see. Right.
00:11:17
Speaker
And I've also got another memory of it is that annoying one note guitar bit that goes through the entire song. Me and Mark recorded that at the same time. And I think that's possibly the only time.
00:11:33
Speaker
in my memory when our dad lost it with us, the recording songs at home, because we probably did it quite loud. In my head, we did two tracks of it, so we went through the whole song twice, both of us playing that one note bit. Quite a sound. Quite a sound. It's quite a sound, yeah. The question that the song poses is, is this a talent or obsessive behaviour? and I don't know, it makes you quite think, what is why is talent?
00:12:02
Speaker
I love these questions that you just fire at me. I i don't know. I don't know. Is it just something that you do obsessively? Do you know what I mean? And then eventually get better and better. I don't know. I don't know whether I believe anyone is like talented. I think you've got to work at it. Yeah. No one no one no one's like born with like, I don't know. Oh, God given talent.
00:12:24
Speaker
Yeah, but it's not because people even people who are really good at something, that's but they do it obsessively because they're kind of getting encouraged to do it for some reason. Yeah. Either by getting feedback from people or just because they like the feeling of it and then they just get better at it. Case in point.
00:12:42
Speaker
Our kid, the youngest son, he's just playing the guitar constantly at the moment. It just does not stop. I mean, it drives you mad actually. And I don't know. I think i think that is obsessive behavior, but it's turning into a talent. He's getting really good. He's getting him really good and he's writing some good songs. So I don't know. I think i think it's an interesting observation there in the lyrics really.
00:13:09
Speaker
I don't think there is a distinction between talent and obsessive behaviour. yeah What talent would you like to have, Steve, that you haven't got? I would like the talent of managing to do DIY tasks around the house without swearing. That would be quite a talent. You'd like the talent of patience, then. You've never been the most patient person, No, but specifically within the realm of DIY, because I don't have that sort of brain of thinking logically about things and on the rare occasions when I do it. I'm very, very pleased with myself, yeah but being able to do it without losing my shit and swearing, yeah that would be something I would, I would like that. Yeah. Well, even in our advanced stage, you can practice that and develop that talent. You know, if we think about it, just dev develop, just practice it. I'd quite like to be good at free running, free running.
00:14:10
Speaker
But I think in our advanced age, that may not be the best thing to to have a go. You know, I was feeling really fed up today and I thought, what can I look at that's going to make me laugh? Have you ever seen the Vic and Bob doing the free running? Oh yeah, it's great. Oh my God, so that never fails to make me laugh.
00:14:30
Speaker
I'm glad that that's something that made you laugh, because when you started that sentence, I thought you were going to be saying, and I found some videos of people hurting themselves doing free running. No. And that really made you, that really cheered you up.
Creation of 'Neat Little Haircut'
00:14:41
Speaker
No, no don't really yeah al foma but yeah get I don't I don't get off on seeing people getting hurt. no But yeah, Vikabol. I think actually, butal I would like it to be funny.
00:14:54
Speaker
Be funny i'd like to be funny funny. I'd like to be as funny as as Bob actually. I think he's really funny. He's just effortlessly funny. I think Bob is the quiet power of Vic and Bob. Anyway, go watch that clip if you're feeling a bit fed up. It just absolutely kills me.
00:15:10
Speaker
Going back to the song that we just listened to though, I've always really liked it. It's relentless and it is dour, it's serious, but I like the digging into the guitars that we do. yeah And I like Mark doing an acoustic guitar track on it, which is really quite aggressive. I think it's really good. I hope he didn't get a blister on his important finger when he was playing those bar chords.
00:15:39
Speaker
It's got an aggressive side. No, I. But there you go. That is Good Feeling by Jonny Domina. And it made me feel quite good. Hopefully it did you too. But let's listen to what was on the other side of the record because it would be interesting to hear the the Cod Trust.
00:15:58
Speaker
Yeah, there were two songs on MJ Hibbert's side as well. There was Payday Is The Best Day Of All, which was also featured on the first album by MJ Hibbert and The Validators called Say With Words. But the song we're going to listen to is the second track on their side, which was called Ring Your Mother, which I've always really liked. No one seems to need her anymore
00:18:29
Speaker
I had conflicting emotions listening to that. And whence did they come?
Emotional Impact of Lyrics
00:18:34
Speaker
When it first started, I was thinking, if anyone was like picking up this record and didn't really know either band, they might sort of think that was the side of somebody called Johnny Domino because that did sound a bit like a country singer, really, ah especially a wailing harmonica.
00:18:56
Speaker
Yes, very nice. Which was very nice, I like that. But I disagree with the lyrics because I think you do need to tell her that you love her. You do need to call her, but he does say in the song, about halfway through the song, he says, you don't need to tell her you love her. I think you do need to tell her you love her. And it made me feel a bit sad. I think that was the point of the song though, it was meant to make you feel a bit sad.
00:19:17
Speaker
I'm sorry. I did think that was a really good song. I did enjoy it. But now it's brought on that Sunday night mood again. Oh man. Okay. Well, we need to hear something a little bit stupid then. Shall we listen to something a little bit stupid? Yeah, I don't want to, I don't want to, I mean, I did enjoy that. I love MJ. But it's made you feel a little bit down. I was not in the right place to hear that. You weren't expecting to have those feelings. I wasn't. Right. Okay. Well, let's go stupid then. Yeah.
00:19:46
Speaker
Now this podcast is called This Are Johnny Domino. But at one point in the life of Johnny Domino, we decided to form a splinter group called Jimmy Dorito.
00:19:59
Speaker
mentioned it before, but for the sake of new listeners, it was a bank holiday Monday. It was terrible weather. Me and you were in the house. We wrote down the list of eight song titles and set ourselves to challenge our writing and recording them within four hours. This was the eighth song on the list. Now, we were getting warmed up at this point.
00:20:20
Speaker
but we were just about to finish. And the thing is, a lot of the songs had like one riff or a couple of musical motifs. For some reason, this has got a verse, a pre-chorus, a chorus, and a coda. That's what I'm saying. We're getting warmed up. It is weird. we I don't understand where it came from because we didn't have any of these bits of music prepared. And it's got two guitar parts, bass,
00:20:46
Speaker
And you wrote some words. and yeah know It's a jaunty little tune. It's rather unrehearsed. It's untuned. And you may you may enjoy it, you may not, depending on what state of mind you're in. But I think I quite like it, so let's hear it. I think it's going to perk you up. It's called Neat Little Haircut.
Musical Improvisation Over Time
00:24:39
Speaker
That's the kind of low-fi madness that we need. I think one of the reasons we might have been able to come up with all those bits for that song might be because we rip it off another song. Yeah they're all ripped off of pavement songs aren't they? Yeah basically. But that might very well be in my top five songs that we ever did.
00:25:00
Speaker
I just think I just yeah you've said so that would be in the very best of the very best of the very best of the very best of this or trying yeah that's in when we make that that possibly very so that will be a very small like 12 inch with five tracks on it one sided flexidist possibly. But you said before that you've got very good memories of doing certain things in the music that we did. and i talking about music And that is one of the things that I remember doing, and just really enjoying it. And just, I don't know, it was it was a time when the music it may have been someone else's music, but it seemed to just flow out of me. And it all just came together really nicely.
00:25:43
Speaker
oh Yeah, I was watching a video about that last night actually, you know Rick Beato you bloody love him. Yeah He did a whole video and it was about how Your abilities in music changes you age so like when you're younger Your brain is much more flexible. So you are more able to improvise and you can just kind of just make shit up. And he was talking talking about examples of like, you know, people who sort of solo, like they all of their best solos. He was talking about Pat Metheny. I don't know anything about it because he loves Pat Metheny. But Jimmy, Jimi Hendrix, people like that. And they all did their best solos when they were like really young.
00:26:26
Speaker
And then as people kind of get older, that ability to just make stuff up on the fly, yeah it kind of goes a bit really. But there was a positive side to this. You know, people were in the later years, people in their 50s and whatever, you know, if you look at like the the great composers, the great artists,
00:26:49
Speaker
They did all their best work when they were older because they were making stuff that was more considered. They so you know they composed more slowly and in a more kind of using their ah wealth of experience. So, you know, maybe that's it.
00:27:02
Speaker
Pat Metheny is an interesting guy. When I worked in the jazz department in Virgin Magastore, there was an album that I found of his called Zero Tolerance for Silence. Now, the reason I picked it up is because on the front of it, it had a quote from Thurston Moore of Sonic Youth that said something like, the master shows us how it's done.
00:27:25
Speaker
And in my head, because I used to put it on if I wanted a bit of alone time in the jazz department, you know, there's never everyone in there. But if I wanted to keep everyone out, I would put zero tolerance for silence on, because it's basically the sound of him kicking a guitar around a concrete block. Okay. And it's challenging. It's not what you expect from Pat Metheny. This is the most fantastic story I've ever heard. And every word of it's true, too. That's a fantastic part of it.
00:27:54
Speaker
That was Neat Little Haircut. Thinking about that one, I was over-analyzing the lyrics last night. The person with a Neat Little Haircut is someone who fits in from the viewpoint of someone who doesn't fit in in inverted commas. like Oh, I see myself as I didn't fit in. You're an outsider. your here Did, yes. Outside the law. And maybe about someone with shit music taste and an uncomplicated worldview. Okay. There is perhaps opposite to me.
00:28:29
Speaker
because you're so deep and interesting and autistic. But that's that's what the lyrics are saying to me. I'm not saying that's true, but that's I think that's the viewpoint of the lyrics that we improvise. there yes Perhaps somebody who sat opposite me in English literature at college, who winded up dating a girl that I loved more than anything in the world,
00:28:57
Speaker
from a distance without ever telling her. But then he moved to Australia with her and had two kids. Maybe that's what it's about. I don't know. That seems an incredibly specific example of you to just pull out of the air. Is it is this something we need to talk to of mine? I think that's what it's about. OK. I'm just saying, for instance, that could be what it's about. By way of a very specific example, that's what that sounds about.
00:29:25
Speaker
yeah Interesting. It's amazing what you could just make up on the spot though, isn't it? When you when you you know you're mining your soul. When you're mining your soul. Oh yeah. Oh yeah. I wasn't sure about the Johnny Domino podcast, but I gave it a chance and now I think I love it.
00:29:43
Speaker
As we flagged up in the last episode of the This Are Johnny Domino podcast, I was talking about a compilation that was put out on Artist Against Success back in the olden days. And we were talking about the Frankie Machine track that's on it, which I loved. I still do this. Even like two weeks later, I still love it. Yeah. My taste hasn't changed. I still love it. But there was another track on there by a band called Pala called Be A Celebrity. Is that right?
00:30:13
Speaker
Be a celebrity. Be a celebrity. And I think it's time to reevaluate it because Pala were perhaps the most successful, well I think they were actually, the most successful band on Artist Against Success, the label. ah Today, today anyway. to date The most successful band that wasn't N.J. Hibbert and the Validators.
00:30:36
Speaker
Oh, yeah. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. Anyway, I think we need to listen to it again because I listened to it a few weeks ago now. I really quite liked it. And I'd like to hear again with you and let's see what we both think collectively.
00:32:59
Speaker
I thought it was cracking that. I think it's a very well-constructed song actually. I really like the middle bit where it goes, tell me you love me, tell me you love me, tell me that I'm talented. I think that's really i feel that's really good, that bit. It's like all of these songs have been chosen specifically. It's all about being talented and working at it and grafting at it. You're surprised about that because it's not like we don't think about this steep.
00:33:27
Speaker
I know, but I don't really think about it that deeply. I think you obviously do. This is written from the viewpoint of somebody who just wants to be famous. Yeah. They don't really want to work at it. In effect, they were miles and miles ahead of their time. but It came out in 1999, which means I don't think we did see them live.
00:33:48
Speaker
I don't think we saw them live. um And we I don't think we did any gigs with them. They might have been on the same bill as us at the Abbey Park Festival I mentioned earlier. They probably went down a hell of a lot better. Yeah, probably. Because they were they were playing songs like that. It's got a bit of a Britpop thing going on, but it's it's kind of after Britpop, isn't it? Yeah, is to me, it seems a little bit bit king-makery.
00:34:16
Speaker
yeah Yeah, that kind of thing. But I mean, there are lots of bands that sound a bit like that. But just thinking about the song, I just really like the song and I thought it was quite a good observation of people just wanting to be famous for the sake of being famous. I can't imagine why you would want to be famous. i still I still can't imagine why anyone would want to be famous.
00:34:43
Speaker
Historical precedent says it's not a good idea. It doesn't work out particularly well for all but the very fewest of people. It's just wanting wanting people to be looking at you, I suppose. Yeah, I don't know. I don't what don't want people looking at you. But hey, that was certainly something we never had to worry about. Well, no, we didn't. ah But I don't think we ever set out to, to Steve.
00:35:07
Speaker
Do you want to be a famous podcaster? It'd be nice, in a way. because You'd like to be known in your field, wouldn't you? I'd like to be respected in a field. in in feet In some kind. In a field. but I mean, we weren't respected in the field at Abbey Park Festival. We were just... you know The audience left in droves for drier and less miserable climbs. It was a very wet and muddy field. Oh man, it was so cold and wet. And we really didn't do anything to brighten anyone's day. No, no. My joyful memory about that day was driving home.
00:35:44
Speaker
Because it had stopped raining when I was driving home. And I remember the view on the M1 and the clouds were parting and the sun was starting to come out. And I was listening to the Mercury Rev album. Dessert songs. And I was really enjoying it. I still remember that and don't remember that. I don't remember the gig that much though. Anyway, reevaluating Pala. I've told you pretty much that I think it's quite a good song. What do you think?
00:36:10
Speaker
I think musically it's not really scratching the itch that I need scratching by music. It's not my bag, but my bag needs to be challenged because it happened to me within the last week. um A friend of mine came around and we listened to some records and he was quite open to me suggesting various things to him. It was very open and he had some stuff that he'd not heard before. He really enjoyed it. and The next day, he sent me a message saying, oh a band that I really love has decided to reform for the first time in 10 years. i'm I'm really excited about seeing them. and The band is Northside.
00:36:50
Speaker
Okay. da and and does Yes. Yes. The revival. The revival is happening. And he said, I can't imagine you're going to be into that. And I said, well, in the spirit of sharing, I'm going to listen to it. And I listened to it.
00:37:09
Speaker
And thoroughly enjoyed it. OK. I thoroughly enjoyed it. What did you enjoy? What did you enjoy? I enjoyed listening to the band Northside's one album, Chicken Rhythms. And the first song is called Take Five. It is no relation to the Dave Brubeck song, obviously. And I had no memory of it whatsoever. And as soon as it started, I thought, hang on, I've heard this. Yeah.
00:37:37
Speaker
And then it got to the chorus, I thought, oh bloody hell, Rock City, Thursday nights. And I remember dancing to it at Rock City, and I must have known it was Northside at the time, and because our mate Chris, Smithy, hi there, Chris, he was banging to Northside. He's probably very excited about seeing Northside on tour, but yeah, the whole album.
00:38:00
Speaker
I was listening to it and I didn't turn it off and I thoroughly enjoyed it and I prefer it to the first Stone Roses album. What the hell? and you go There you go. You're blowing my mind, man. You're blowing my mind. but Genuinely really enjoyed it. This is very unexpected. I never thought I'd hear you say such a thing. I just want to point out that I did predict the Northside revival about, I don't know, it must have been like over 10 episodes ago.
00:38:30
Speaker
Yeah. I mean, the you know, the Shall We Take A Trip song is just sniggering because, shall we take a trip ah in the acid rain? It's like, oh, aren't we dangerous? And that's a bit kind of inane. Take Five is a great song. It's a great pop song. Wow. Wow. You've managed to completely distract the audience from the fact that you didn't really tell us what you thought about the palace song. So well done. Thanks.
00:38:57
Speaker
Shall we go on to the last song that we're talking about? And it is a song by Johnny Domino. Yes. And it's a song that we recorded round about the time of our last album, our fourth album. You prefer it, me to call it the fourth album, not the final album. Yes, it the fourth album. The currently final album by Johnny Domino, Solid Ground, but we didn't include it on the album. It's an album off cut.
00:39:25
Speaker
It's one that I've always thought was rather good. I think we only ever played it live once, but don't worry if you weren't there because I don't think anyone else was there. um Apart from the band Mr. Lee, who we were playing with the first time we met Mr. Lee, and they went on before us. And then we played our set to pretty much empty room apart from Mr. Lee, but he was a very nice man. And we saw him fairly regularly after that. Yeah. Is there any Mr. Lee stuff online anywhere?
00:39:55
Speaker
Because I remember it being pretty good. Pretty extreme. ah One of the main things I remember about Mr Lee is he sang and played the drums, but he used a handheld microphone. So he was drumming one handed.
00:40:10
Speaker
Did he have a light in his snare? In his snare drum? There was some proper arty stuff going on. It was pretty good. Yeah. And very avant-garde guitar playing and bass playing and music presence. Anyway, this is fairly avant-garde. This is Johnny Domino with Your Wonderful Life.
00:46:16
Speaker
Do you think that song needs another bit? Well, the basis of the song, the drums, the bass, the guitar, and Mark's keyboard, we did as a jam. So we just overdubbed on top of it, but that is a whole recording of us playing that song. And we were very much into repetition at the time, and very much inspired by Andy Warhol's maxim that he turned to the Velvet Underground, which is always leave the audience wanting less. I don't know what the other bit would be.
00:46:46
Speaker
like a reggae bit in a Paul McCartney style. There's an idea. Or a key change. Maybe. I think, you know, what we could do, could we not just take the bit from the Palace song that I really liked? And paste it on top. No, ah play it again ourselves, but just just magpie that bit about, tell me you love me, tell me you love me.
00:47:15
Speaker
I mean, that sounds like a hideous mash-up. And I like a mash-up. Yeah. It needs something. It's always needed something. Can you remember recording the vocals? Because we recorded it in my bedroom at Mum and Dad's house and it was really hot. So we had the windows open. So there's loads of background noise on Jim's vocal and you could hear some birds singing. um Yeah, I can hear the birds singing. Yeah, but some of them are actual birds and some of them are you in the garden with a bird call. And I don't know which is which, but I really like the fact that you can hear birds calling, whether they are real birds or you, nobbying about with a bird call. Yeah, one of those ones that you fill it with water. Yeah. So I studied in the garden, was I?
00:48:07
Speaker
So I don't have a problem with it. Look, let's just face facts. We do like a bit of the old kraut rock, like a bit of a can, like a bit of noi. And that's what we were doing. We're just channeling that sort of repetition. Yeah. You don't need to have loads of bits in songs. You could just do the one. Not wrong with it.
00:48:27
Speaker
It's an academic point anyway, but I've always thought, did it need something else? Would it have been a better song if we'd had another bit to it or if it had gone on a bit longer? hu I don't know. it was the termber yeah Either you dig in a bit a bit longer with it or ah a bit where it does something different.
00:48:49
Speaker
Anyway, yeah, I thought it was pretty good. I found a ah set list from that gig ah in December 2002 in Nottingham with Mr. Lee. And that's the first song that we played. A little scrap of paper. It's in fairly good condition, really. It was underneath the lid in the drum machine. And there's also a list of all the songs that were on the drum machine as well. A little bit ah bit of rock history right there. It's like a pretty good set. Anyway, that song was about parasocial relationships, wasn't it?
00:49:19
Speaker
Yes, I think it was. And do you know what my favourite song about parasocial relationships that was not written about? Parasocial relationships. What is your favourite song about parasocial relationships? It is. The 1980 hit by the band Genesis, Turn It On Again. Okay.
00:49:37
Speaker
which is an incredible piece of work, I think. It's written about a man who's obsessed with people on TV. But you listen to it now, it sounds just like, I mean, it sounds like it's about Instagram or something. Okay. It's really good. It's really good. Oh yeah, he believes the people on TV are his friends, of course. But yeah, I've been listening to that Genesis song quite a lot. He's been listening to Genesis. I know, I know.
00:50:08
Speaker
Those are the songs that we're talking about on this episode of the podcast. We've had quite a laid back episode today. It's been very Sunday-ish. Are you feeling any happier about going to work tomorrow? Or do you not want me to remind you? no I want to explain. it's not It's not necessarily about the work thing. It's just I don't really like Sunday nights. I don't know what it is about them. I mean, it's tied up with the work thing, but I just find it a very melancholy time Sunday night. I don't know why.
00:50:36
Speaker
what What do you feel about it? Do you like Sunday nights? Have you got a vibe on a Sunday night? I don't have a vibe on a Sunday night. There's a bit of a getting ready for the week ahead, but I quite like the the mellow ease out of the weekend into the into the next week. I don't particularly mind them. Still not a big fan of Tuesdays though, which is weird because I don't go into work.
00:50:59
Speaker
I don't know. I think I need to start some kind of hobby or something for Sunday night. Maybe I start doing free running on a Sunday night. You start doing that or maybe we should record all the podcast episodes on a Sunday night. God, no. That's not going to work. Okay. I quite like a weeknight. Let's do Tuesday. ah People will be able to tell the ones we did on Sunday night, because you're going to be quite cheerful. And then they're going to tell the ones that we do on Tuesdays, because I'm going to be upbeat and you're going to be miserable.
00:51:29
Speaker
Thank you for listening to this episode of the This Are Johnny Domino podcast. Hold on there. Hold on. One more thing. One more thing. Just yeah just to end the podcast. End section. End section. I think this one kind of is a bands that sound like or songs that sound like they could be ween but or not written by ween. Let me explain. A few weeks ago I went into a charity shop and I picked up an album which I'd never seen before, never heard of before. And it's led me all down a whole like path of investigation. It's a very strange looking album. It's got a very healthy, shall we say, well-fed looking blonde man, looking very angelic, looking like he's kind of flying like an angel through some clouds. And the album is called
00:52:24
Speaker
upon this rock and it's by an artist called Larry Norman. If you've never heard of Larry Norman, you probably haven't heard of Larry Norman, I'm very ahead of the curve, he is a contemporary Christian, he is possibly the first contemporary Christian ah music artist from the 1969-1970 and the album Upon This Rock came out in 1969. Capital Records had no idea how to market it. It was dropped by them because Christians didn't think it was Christian enough and secular people thought it was way too Christian. and It's a very weird album.
00:53:04
Speaker
It's got a number of very strange tracks on it and I suggest you do listen to some of them. There's a good one called You Can't Take Away The Lord, first track, very good. Walking backwards down the stairs is very strange. That sounds odd.
00:53:21
Speaker
forget your hexagram is incredible. But the song I'm going to say ah that is possibly a song that could be weaned is, I wish we'd all been ready, which is a point of view for somebody who is experiencing the second coming but wasn't ready and is not getting taken up to heaven.
00:54:23
Speaker
The album as a whole is so kind of, it's very sincere. Yeah.
Discovering Larry Norman's 'Upon This Rock'
00:54:30
Speaker
But it's to the point of being ridiculous. So it makes me think of Ween in that respect because they do those things that are very straight You know what I mean? They do songs that are so sort of straight faced, but are very odd and there's a bit of a weird sly jokiness to them. I think you could listen to this album and feel that. So yeah, like yeah it's on Spotify. but yeah And if anyone wants a vinyl copy, I'll sell it to you. So it's not that good.
00:55:02
Speaker
You've got what you wanted out of it, okay. I have, yeah. I don't think I wanted to do it that many more times. But you should just check it out though. I've got the words for, forget your hexagram. I like, you can't hitchhike your way to heaven. The devil's closed the roads. You live once and you die once with no reincarnate episodes. You can't hitchhike to heaven.
00:55:23
Speaker
we'll get there but just being good the rules were set down long ago when the spikes went in the world see that's not very the spikes went in the woods i think the point i'm trying to make it with talking about this is it's that joy of picking up an album that you don't know anything about.
00:55:42
Speaker
yeah And I just like picked it up and I just thought, I'll buy that. It's got a really weird cover. I also picked up an album by the Yetis, which is horrendous. I'll talk about that another time. But back in the older days, I used to go and buy a record on spec and just because I like the cover. I don't go into rough trade now and do that because I'm not going to spend 30 quid on something that I don't know. it' shy It's not in the ah bin in selected, it's called foreign and US sale. you know Yeah.
00:56:10
Speaker
I got a couple of albums from there that are half decent for $2.99. Yeah, exactly. That was good what when you could do that. Those were the days. Please do like and subscribe to our podcast and recommend it to someone who you think might like listening to all this kind of weird shit. Send us some of your old music and enter the eternal halls of the four-track gods.