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Take A Look At What You Could Have Won
149 Plays7 months ago
Another “engagement opportunity” is fulfilled as Giles' frankly ridiculous lyrics get knocked into shape and the Wollaton Hacienda story reaches an emotional conclusion.
You'll also find out our least favourite word, hear a holiday camp story, and discover a scheme to decrease the number of arseholes.
Also:
- Derby Krautrock shocker!
- Nerdy Gig Review!
- Bullseye!
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
Philosophical Musings and Influences
00:00:00
Speaker
Today, a young man on acid realised that all matter is merely energy, condensed to a slow vibration. That we are all one consciousness, experiencing itself subjectively. There is no such thing as death. Life is only a dream. And we are the imagination of ourselves. Here's Tom with the weather.
00:00:48
Speaker
Hello. Hello to Steve. Hello to Giles. This is Giles. Hello, Giles. Welcome. Good to speak to you. Yes. Can I just say, just say no, kids? They weren't my words. That was Bill Hicks, the seminal US comedian and philosopher. Yes. Right.
Podcast Journey Reflections
00:01:09
Speaker
This is the This Are Johnny Domino podcast. And we're on episode 39.
00:01:17
Speaker
39! Crazy. 39. We've got through 39 episodes of us basically just talking about songs that we recorded in our youth that nobody ever heard. That's it, isn't it really? That's an achievement. But I still feel we are in the springtime of the podcast in terms of its lifespan. So let's be optimistic. But it's not springtime at the moment. It's very, very wintery. Very wintery. And it's a Tuesday night.
00:01:48
Speaker
Mmm, which is my favourites day of the week. Yeah, as you all know, if you listen to last episode. Yes. But, you know, you're going to be right, aren't you, Steve? I'm feeling OK. I'm going to occasionally slap myself in the face just to wake up because it's been a rubbish Tuesday. I've always hated Tuesdays. But, you know, I feel like I owe it to the listener. Go on, then. I want to hear it. That's good. Harder. No, I'll do.
Listener Engagement and Creative Collaborations
00:02:17
Speaker
Right. First bit of business. m Right. Okay. Engagement opportunities. We've had a few. Probably one of the weirdest ones.
00:02:28
Speaker
was a few episodes ago in episode 35, King of Caravans, where I came up with some frankly ridiculous lyrics yeah about an experience that I had at the Hacienda event at Woolerton Park at the end of summer.
00:02:47
Speaker
and It was a kind of an interesting interesting little story, but people seemed to be wanting to know what happened next. But I said, I wasn't going to tell you what happened next until somebody turned my lyrics about the event into a song of some sort. And God bless him.
00:03:11
Speaker
God bless him and all who's sailing him. Our good friend Wilbraham has gone and put it together hasn't he Steve? He's gone and pulled it together. Now in a past engagement opportunity we read some lyrics out that we found in a book and we thought they were pretty chunky.
00:03:29
Speaker
but people managed to turn them into a song. When Will submitted this song to me, he did say he thought that the out-to-lunch lyrics were bad enough, but these were really difficult to fit in. They are ridiculous. in In retrospect, they're they're completely stupid lyrics. Yeah. But the miraculous thing is, he's made it work, hasn't he? He's gone and done it, yeah. So, shall we she would give it a bit of a spin?
00:06:35
Speaker
It's a bona fide hit. Yeah, I think he did a really good job because those lyrics, I think you presented them as a poem originally, but that that's kind of you to say.
00:06:47
Speaker
Yeah, but they are rhythmically complex. Scatter shot. Scatter shot is a good, yes. Yeah. and My favourite bit is where he eat does the what he does with the, i wet so I went to the toilet. That was the best bit. I love that guy. But I wanted him to do it again. ah It needed to happen again in the song, but yeah I just maybe want to listen to the song again, basically, that bit. Yeah. So that hooked me in, right? And ah yeah, he did a good job, didn't he?
00:07:16
Speaker
I think he did a cracking job. Thank you very much, Will, under his nom de plume, I am Wilbraham. I think we could do more with that. We could sort of remix it.
00:07:27
Speaker
And the musically, i'm I'm sensing I can hear a bit of an influence there. I wouldn't say it was an influence. I think possibly three people listening to the podcast will have gone, oh, I know what they're doing there. ah But Will sent it to me and didn't say what he was doing. But the musical bones of his interpretation of those words were based on a Johnny Domino song called Noi Groupie.
00:07:57
Speaker
that was born around the time we started playing as a scare quotes, proper band. And it was one of the first songs we wrote when we had other people in the band other than me and you. Yeah. And more of that later. Yeah. But I think the scope for that to be sort of a mix with that annoying groupie. Okay. I wonder if we could make it work.
00:08:21
Speaker
I don't know. I'd like somebody with talent to take that now because Will's created something, right? But I think we could take it further. Do you know what I mean? And kind of bend that and twist it. Yeah. I wonder if we could. I wonder if we could. Somebody could do it. Yes.
00:08:47
Speaker
I don't know. We'll see. We'll see what happens. That's my wish anyway. Yeah. You know, I'm wishing upon a star. However, when you share those words, you did say that you would relay the rest of the story. If somebody did a version.
Amusing Anecdotes and TV Comparisons
00:09:02
Speaker
Yeah. It ends rather abruptly, doesn't it? And it doesn't really fill you in in much detail, does it? No. Are you sitting comfortably? Okay. Well, I suppose I'll do it.
00:09:40
Speaker
To the point where it was getting a bit ridiculous and I felt like they were got into a conversation with the shorter, chattier one.
00:10:16
Speaker
And she was one of the most vocal in the group and the complaints about inconsiderate parking and door-to-door salesmen. You know the sort of thing. I offered to make her a badge to recognize her authority. She didn't respond to this idea and ended the conversation abruptly. And we haven't spoken since.
00:10:59
Speaker
That is quite the ending to the story. It's crushing, crushing. It's such a shame. and The whole thing about you keep bumping into them reminded me of that episode of Father Ted. It's an episode called And God Created Woman, when a lady comes to visit and stays at Father Ted's house yeah and bumps into it at the airport. And is it clearly got a crush on it? And they keep walking in the same direction and then they pull up at some traffic lights. And he's going, change, just change.
00:11:36
Speaker
I was just think that's hilarious because that's the sort of thing that just drives you mental, doesn't it? We finished this conversation. Well, we'll see you again. And then two minutes later, it's you again. Yeah, it was one of those. It was one of those. It was literally every time I turned around. It was like, oh, what's going on? you hus And then smiling and waving and going, oh, we're at the same event.
00:12:04
Speaker
So it's not just me that has those kind of awkward situations. This is a universal thing, right? Absolutely is.
Song Lyrics and Creative Processes
00:12:11
Speaker
Okay. Well, I feel glad that I shared. I'm glad you shared as well. Yeah. And thank you, Will. Beautiful.
00:12:26
Speaker
So as previously mentioned, Will's song uses as its guts or bones, depending on which version you want. I prefer bones. Okay, bones, its structure, a song by Johnny Domino called Noi Groupi. As previously stated, this was one of the first songs that we wrote when we turned Johnny Domino from a four-legged beast into an eight-legged beast. It was. And it's track number four on our first album.
00:12:55
Speaker
No, it's not. Yes, it is. It's track two. It's track four. Yeah, it is track two. Neue is a German krautrock band formed in Düsseldorf by Klaus Dinger and Michael Rother, ex-members of Kraftwerk, and they had little commercial success during their existence. And I wonder if they ever had any groupies.
00:13:38
Speaker
Can we pause it? Can we pause it? I think we need to restart this song. Sorry. Sorry. Go on. That line, man. That line. The one about panties dropping. It's one of my least favourite words in the English language. Me too. Me too.
00:13:59
Speaker
This is one of those songs that we've got sort of lyrics in there that are a bit problematic. and I've actually been in contact with Jim quite a bit over this and he sent me some messages about it because he and I, and I think Albert yeah ah wrote the lyrics. Jim's singing on it. yeah um But yeah, I just wanted to give a bit of a health warning there.
00:14:22
Speaker
that there are some quite, I don't know how to describe it, there's some weird lyrics in there, right? So ah just bear with it and we'll talk about it later. ah
00:18:05
Speaker
ah forgot that there were three panties instances oh yeah so here we are it's the this or john and domino podcast and what you're here for is two middle-aged men wrestling with their past and listening listening listening to evidence of art, shall we say, that they recorded and tried to call to terms with it. yeah And I think this is a key example right here. Yeah. Yeah. So I got in touch with Albert and he said he thought Noy Groupie was Jim's. So he thought that they were both playing each other, right?
00:18:48
Speaker
All right, is that what Jim said? Yeah, it's a collage song. Jim said it was a collage song. We all put lyrics in. Okay. Yeah. Who do you think that it's being directed to? it Is it a male protagonist who is the first in line when the pattern... Sorry, a line. Okay.
00:19:06
Speaker
who is first in line, or is it a female groupie who is first in line? I don't know. I can read you Jim's email that he sent me, if you like. That'd be lovely. It's quite good. He goes into it, but reading it again, I'm not sure whether he's doing all the older retrospectively rewriting
Themes and Irony in Music
00:19:27
Speaker
history. but Revisionist history, yeah.
00:19:29
Speaker
That's it. So, firstly, if you read the song in the context of narrow and negative female groupie stereotypes, then yes, it's a pretty terrible narrative. I don't think that was ever the intention though. I've always thought of the song as an unflattering portrait of a man, a wannabe, a rock and roll caricature, an egotistical and exploitative vampire, metaphorically.
00:19:54
Speaker
I think the Barbie Doll line is a red herring, which was probably included because it's scanned better than Plastic Doll or Action Man or whatever. And he says, this is one of numerous collage songs, some of the lines are yours, some are mine, and some are Albert's.
00:20:09
Speaker
Rightly or not, I don't think we seriously discuss the lyrics much, ah other than congratulating ourselves for the odd pithy observation contained within. I think there's a bit of the truth in that one. I think he's on to something. Yeah, Jim's thoughts. I kind of agree with him. kind of do them But I don't mind it listening back to it. I don't know. I remember playing it and quite liking playing it. Yeah. There's something a bit icky about some of the lyrics, but I It's hard to say who we're talking to I think there's something to say it could be I want to be on the music scene
00:20:47
Speaker
who's the first in line, who thinks they're great. I mean, it's hardly, as Jim says in his email to me, it's hardly girls, girls, girls like Motley Crue, is it? No. It's not really a celebration of sex and drugs and rock and roll. We are kind of obviously being ironic. Well, it was obvious to us. so I mean, yeah, we never had any groove.
00:21:09
Speaker
no's god forbid right That was like not a thing, obviously. And the I don't think Noi did either. I think that was like what we were kind of, it's like a band like Noi, in our eyes, an archetypal kind of art rock band that didn't really have much success in the time, but became like massively retrospectively influential. yeah But they're hardly kind of a groupie type band. They're not like, you know, they're not like,
00:21:38
Speaker
Stoods. Stoods or anything, right? So I think it was kind of a joke. It was also another example of one of us misreading someone's handwriting because I think it was originally, it was hay groupy. It was. And then we just thought, oh, that's funny. We could be annoy groupy. Yeah. But then the hay groupy would have been like really bad. Terrible. So, you know, Nara missed it. What do you think about it musically?
00:22:04
Speaker
I mean, it's all right. I mean, it's the it's the old spinning wheel ah cycle of fifths thing all the way through. It's spinning wheel. It's I'm so green by can.
00:22:17
Speaker
It's well, it basically ironically, you know, so it's noise haha ahha and then got the um so green line in it as well. Yeah. It's also Brinks job by pavement. Oh yeah, it is is. You know, it's not the most original chord movement. And towards the end, I do completely steal a guitar bit from the end of I'm so green, but I can.
00:22:39
Speaker
Which I don't think is a bad thing. No, it's magpying again. yeah yeah Musically, I think ah like this version. I like the bit where the beat goes all distorted on the kind of little instrumentally bit. I really like that. And I think that that works really nicely.
00:22:58
Speaker
I don't know. I always listened to it and I always thought, I kind of wished it was a bit less lumpen and I wished we were a bit more like Cannes with their lovely fluid beats and stuff. And if it had a lovely shuffly rhythm. But then it would have been too on the nail then really. It would have been a Cannes song, right? It would have been a straight cover. yeah It just is what it is, right? yeah So it's four boys from the East Midlands knocking, knocking one out.
00:23:32
Speaker
a lovely image. I think one thing that doesn't help the limpiness is just the way it was recorded on four track, because yeah we've got the drums and the bass on one track, but we decided to add some reverb to the drums. So there's reverb on the bass, which makes it very, very swampy on the low end. It does a bit. Just a minor little thing, but it it definitely has got a very ploddy, big boom-bap beat type thing.
00:24:03
Speaker
we did We did record a bit of a hippopotamus version, didn't we? We did. We played one in the album. Yes.
00:24:36
Speaker
It was a feature of the set, wasn't it? for People liked it. People did like
Nostalgic Job Stories
00:24:41
Speaker
it. Apparently, Moo, a famous Darby scene star, thought that the song was about Julian Cope. Well, he is a noi grouping. So that's noi grouping by Johnny Domino. Yeah. Will it end up on the best of this or Johnny Domino? Volume three.
00:24:59
Speaker
Yeah, going back to those lines, though, I mean, if you think about the oft mentioned ween, oh, yeah, we talk about them a lot on the podcast and some of the lyrics are objectionable, you know, more objectionable than talking about panties or the light from solid ground. ah But we kind of go, oh, it's just ween being ween. Maybe we should stop being so apologetic.
00:25:24
Speaker
No, I'm not saying we shouldn't apologize if we do anything which is really objectionable, but I don't know. Like I say, wean, we just go, oh, wean. The next song is one from from the golden summer of 1994, 1994, over 30 years ago. And it is a song which is myself and you recording on our four track in our bedrooms. And it's a song called Escape from the Ballroom.
00:25:59
Speaker
It is. And I was listening to it the other night and I was imagining a video for it with waltzing ballroom dancers dancing around us while we're standing on a beach.
00:29:08
Speaker
There's another bit of um handwriting misreading in that. I know. I really, really should sort out my handwriting. I don't know if it, is it yours or mine? No, it's mine. It's been a theme throughout our ah lives, really. Shit handwriting. Mad dreams and getting cow. Yeah. I think it was, what the hell? I wonder what you actually meant. I think it was getting cold. Oh.
00:29:33
Speaker
um No, maybe it's me. Maybe I read it and go, what does that mean? Mad dreams in getting cow. It makes no sense. Makes no sense. But you know, in in a very poetic sort of way. It does. Actually, it does. It does, doesn't it? It does. Yeah, I enjoyed that. There's a bit of blood harmonies there.
00:29:53
Speaker
Blood harmonies going on. Blood harmonies being short for bloody rough harmonies from the the grumpy low-voiced man coming and going. It's all right. I liked it. I enjoyed it musically. I like the sound of that one. It's like god it's got that nice um twangy four-tracky sound that we used to get yeah and some nice rambly guitar bits, which is cool. you know It sounds a bit kind of f thrown together. I like it.
00:30:20
Speaker
Yeah. But it's definitely got a bit of a biographical thing, that one, if you if you want to hear it. I do. I think I know what it is, but please, the floor is yours. Basically, after uni and after a traumatic end of a relationship, I ended up getting a job in Blackpool at Pontin's pontin's holiday camp for the summer. And it was a very strange period of my life, really.
00:30:50
Speaker
It was a strange existence, working long hours in a holiday camp, not getting paid that much money, but then basically just spending whatever money I got on drink and going out in Blackpool and yeah walking along the seafront in Blackpool quite a lot, which actually I've got quite fond memories, obviously, because out of season,
00:31:13
Speaker
It was pretty nice actually, and quite quiet um along the sort of far stretches of the beach. So there was good points to it. But I was living in this skanky little cabin shalllet on the holiday in a chalet. It was a chalet really, it was but it was worse than a chalet. It was like a multi-story chalet, you know, sharing a room with some fella.
00:31:36
Speaker
and it was it was weird but the song is about a night where i went out with a bunch of people that i worked with and you know it was a strange world to me as an ex art student you know nobody wanted to talk about postmodernism oh yeah ho or structuralist theories. and And I went out on a night out with this bunch of people and, you know, there was some sturdy, healthy young women who were quite loud and they could drink. They could drink.
00:32:12
Speaker
And I could not keep up. And we went to the tower ballroom. And the actual tower ballroom was being used almost like a Ritzy nightclub kind of thing, you know. And it was pretty awful. And I can remember things can only get better by D-Ream playing and it being quite poignant.
00:32:35
Speaker
because things really could only get better at that point. It went out of the ballroom and went onto the beach and it was nighttime and I got sand in my shoes and that was it. So it was an entirely biographical song. But yeah, it's a bit of an image of a point in my life where I was a bit lost and young and didn't really know anybody to talk to, I suppose.
00:33:00
Speaker
But it was a it's kind of interesting. I liked it as a song though, and it and brought back some memories. Can I just say, when you were working at Pontins, yeah weren't you employed as a photographer? you you But you were a shit photographer. Oh, really? don't You don't need to tell people that because I am actually employed now as a photography teacher. OK, right. But you've got a lot better since then. This is 30 years ago. So much better now. But yes, I did get sacked.
00:33:27
Speaker
from my job as a camp photographer at Pontins because basically I didn't really enjoy going up and talking to people and going, do you want your phone to take in? You know, that kind of thing. I hate it about you. So I used to go and hide in the toilets. So I got the sack and they just put me in the shop and I was a lot better off there. I enjoyed it just working in the shop.
00:33:51
Speaker
It's a shame you they couldn't have employed you as a reportage photographer. yeah It just takes to kind of off the cuff photos. They weren't really interested in my more arty shots of like, you know, people looking wistful next to the arcade machines and things like that. No, that they they didn't really go down well. Or like, you know, pictures of like, you know, spilt cups of coffee and sugar next to it. like They weren't interested in those shots.
00:34:19
Speaker
They wanted more like your standard. Everyone's smiling and looking at the camera. Happy holiday kind of thing. Yeah. Excellent.
Concert Experiences and Listener Contributions
00:34:27
Speaker
That's Escape from the Ballroom. Will that one end up on the best of this, our Johnny Domino? Can you see I'm bringing back the ah premise of the podcast again, Steve? Yeah. Did you get that? Are we going to choose some songs at this time? I think we might do this time. OK, cool. Right then. Oh, anne what have you been up to, Steve, recently?
00:34:48
Speaker
Wow. It's a trucker's gear change. I went to a gig. I went to a gig that I should have gone to last year, but it got cancelled and rescheduled and it was a gig by everyone's favourite nerd rockers. They might be giants.
00:35:05
Speaker
They're not my favorite. Well, they're my favorite nerd rockers or I shut your face. They were great. They were great. One thing I will say is they're quite nerdy. There's a headline for everybody and their audience are also nerds and they're worse nerds than me because they know all the words to pretty much everything that they played. And they were doing some fairly obscure things as well as celebrating their album flood by playing it in its entirety.
00:35:34
Speaker
but not in order. And one of the things they did was there's a song off the album called Sapphire Bullets of Pure Love, which is one of the shortest songs on the flood album, but they thought, we're going to play it backwards. So they played it backwards and sang it backwards in a Twin Peaks style.
00:35:57
Speaker
And they filmed themselves doing this. And they do this every night. They've basically filmed the performance of them playing the song backwards. And that's at the end of their first act. And then at the start of the second act, they show the video backwards, but forwards, if that makes sense. yeah And it was very good.
00:36:18
Speaker
Oh, wow. That's a pretty good trick. it It was, you know, that's the kind of shit that they do. But it was it was a very, very entertaining gig. Lovely. And it was the first time I've been to Rock City attending a gig as a wheelchair user. And you know what, it was all right. So that's back on the table going to Rock City.
00:36:39
Speaker
Yeah? Yeah. Did they let you in the back door? Yes, they let us in the back door. The accessible entrance to Rock City is hilariously, the first part of it is a nine inch concrete step.
00:36:52
Speaker
So it's not massively accessible. And then there are nine steps up into the main area of Rock City. And then there's a step up to the level where the bar is, as a step down into the Gents toilets. So it's doable. The last time I went there, it was not good.
00:37:14
Speaker
And I told myself I was never going there again. However, they might be giant, said they were playing there, so I thought I'll have a go. But yeah, it was good. They've improved it a bit, haven't they? this The floor's a lot better than it was back in the olden days. Well, the best thing about it was they let you in early if you have access needs. And you get to go to the gents' toilets before it gets all rock-city-fied. Oh, nice. So it's clean. You don't have to pick your feet up off the floor.
00:37:43
Speaker
Lovely. Did you get involved in any slam dancing or anything like that? Yeah, it wasn't that kind of gig. But I did get a little bit i emotional when they did Birdhouse in your song. Oh yeah, that's the only song that I really know by them. Well it's the greatest song of all time. Apparently so. So yeah, that's my going out. But Rock City back on the table and more gigs please.
00:38:08
Speaker
We'll do it again. Yeah. Back into talking about the podcast. We have been doing quite a lot of engagement opportunities recently. And I just want to sort of outline that as a thing and sort of like say at this point, you know, we still, we still want people to get engaged. So please do send us stuff, especially for the eternal halls of the four track gods.
00:38:40
Speaker
And for that feature, what we are looking for is any song that you recorded at home. It doesn't have to be on a four track. It could be on anything. It could be onto a cassette recorded, just going straight in. It could be literally anything that you recorded in your childhood, in the past, that you would like to be broadcast. It doesn't have to be done in your childhood.
00:39:02
Speaker
no well um yeah we'd like anything but the things that we've had that have been that really hit the spot have been for example songs sung with cousins and children and things like that you know that's the kind of stuff that we're that kind of gets to us man and So yeah, anything that you've recorded, if you would like your genius spread over the internet and shared with the fabulous listeners of the This Our Johnny Domino podcast, please get in touch. Either through Instagram, Facebook, or through the blog, thisourjohnnydomino.blogspot.com. Going that off the top of my head, I think that sounds about right.
00:39:46
Speaker
Yeah and I feel that there may be a more more esoteric engagement opportunity coming our way soon. I can feel one brewing. Are you sure it's not just gout?
00:40:00
Speaker
I don't have to. Okay, good. Right.
Song Interpretations and Humor
00:40:03
Speaker
We're going to listen to a final song today. It's actually another song from the first Johnny Domino album, isn't it? Accompanying Noi Groupie. Yep. It is from Rabbit Themes and it is a song called Are You Prong?
00:44:49
Speaker
I've just realized that's another song ah about working in a rubbish job that you hated. That one's by Jim. Jim wrote that one, the lyrics for that one. But yeah, it's another song about working in a crap job that you hate. And everybody's done that when they were young, haven't they? yeah to me Like working in a shop or whatever. Oh, shop work is so boring. and just and And having to pretend that you're doing something,
00:45:19
Speaker
Because like I used to have a manager who used to just go, don't just stand there. but as I've got nothing to do. in italy least like say It's like the Bill Hicks did a sketch about it. you know yeah Pretend to be doing something then. Or look like you're busy. Well, you'd be better pretending you're busy. And then Bill Hicks said, Bob, you get paid more than me. You pretend. You pretend I'm doing something. Pretend I'm mopping. Yeah, something like that.
00:45:43
Speaker
But yeah, it was just, ah it was, it was, a it was boring doing those kinds of jobs. And I remember like watching the hour hand going round, you know, looking up every 10 minutes and seeing that it's like only moved round two more minutes, gradually getting towards like half past five, six o'clock when I could go home. Which job are you thinking of?
00:46:08
Speaker
pretty much every job I did until I actually got proper job. as by Every kind of retail job, definitely. I did a lot of retail stuff. What about you did you? Did you do any crap job? Of course it is. Obviously, you did the ah Virgin Megastore, the jazz department. That sounds quite good though. cause It was good. The only thing that was really annoying is you'd find you'd have like one copy of a great album.
00:46:36
Speaker
It was invariably giant steps, John Coltrane. And I put it on and someone would come in and go, hey, what's this? Then they buy it. So I'd have to find someone else to listen to. I did that. I've worked at the American Adventure. I worked at stacking shelves in supermarkets.
00:46:53
Speaker
You know, but that kind of thing, I think, I know it's such an old man thing to say, but it's kind of good for the soul because it makes you appreciate. I swear I try never to be an asshole to anybody who's working. I never worked in a bar or a restaurant. yeah You know what I mean? I i kind of, I don't, I'm never a dick to someone like that.
00:47:13
Speaker
No, no, you totally never would be, would you? Because you know what it's like and you know how they feel. No one wants to be here. I think everybody should do a job like that. So there's less arseholes in the world to be honest. It's national service. Yeah, it is. You've got to work in retail or in a restaurant and the people that are arseholes have never done that job. Yeah, probably. Though I did meet a few dickheads doing those jobs. As I'm sure Jim did, as he was singing about it in his song. Yeah. Because he definitely worked in a few sort of shops, didn't he? Yeah. He worked in a game shop, I think. I think that was the period he was writing about, like a computer game shop or something like that. Well, he did W.H. Smith's with you at the same time as you, didn't he? And then he worked in, yeah, I think, was it Another World or something like that? Something like that, yeah.
00:48:01
Speaker
The only problem is with that lineup for Johnny Domino, Mark Elston was not working in a crap job. He was working in his dream job. He was a fully professional man. Yeah. He brought the standards of the band up by having a proper actual grown up job. Our net income, definitely. I was probably doing volunteering at that time.
00:48:23
Speaker
Yeah, it was all right. Jim was taken from the TV program, I wonder if anyone noticed, he was taken for the lyrics from the TV program... Bullseye. Bullseye. Bullseye was the guy who presented Bullseye. What was his name? Jim Bowen. Jim Bowen. Off the top of my head he was, wasn't he? Yeah, it was. It was Jim Bowen, yeah. Yeah, I don't mind the Bullseye lyrics. I just hate the guy who's doing the in one. I really hate that guy. He ruins the whole song for me. I love that guy.
00:48:52
Speaker
I hate that guy. I don't know what you don't like about him. Just sit down, little man. Shut up. In one. In two. I think you were just you were just helping us so that we didn't get lost on how many times we had to play that bit. Yeah. That's all that was happening. I mean, you did that quite often, to be honest. You had that you had to count us in quite often. Yes. Go to the chorus!
00:49:14
Speaker
you know You were counted as in as we were playing that kind of cyclical yeah riff. yeah I was trying to figure out who was doing what. I mean, obviously you're playing bass. There's two guitar tracks on it. I don't know if I played them both or Mark played one at the same time as I did one because there's two keyboard parts and I know that I did one.
00:49:33
Speaker
There might even be like three different keyboard tracks. There's a drone, and then there's sort of like his MS-10 sort of melody line, and then there's this kind of electric piano bit which is me.
00:49:45
Speaker
I'm not sure. No, man, you can make it up because no one else remembers. So you could basically just say you can say anything and everyone would just go. Yeah. Yeah. sounds about deep right it's Yeah. Cause my memory is completely fallible. Well, it's better than better mind. But yeah, that was just one where we all, we all kind of just jumped that one out together. Didn't we?
00:50:04
Speaker
I don't remember if we ever played that one live, but I like it. No, we didn't, no. No, it's a good one though. I liked it. I enjoyed it. I didn't think you were a bit negative about it before we listened to that, but I enjoyed it. No, I like it. I like it a lot. And that's one I like. The only thing I remember, I did a kind of an extended version of it for possible inclusion. We've mentioned it before, but I was an incredibly pretentious kid whose favorite film was Barton Fink.
00:50:32
Speaker
And there's a scene in that where a character called WP Mayhew and oh gosh, what's the actor's name? it Basically, it's Frasier's dad. um any that-ta What's his name? Oh man. Preparation is key. when it shut off Shut up, shut up, shut up. Look, I'll find it out and I'll slip it in.
00:51:01
Speaker
It was John Mahoney.
00:51:06
Speaker
But he's a drunk writer and he sings a song. Gone are the days when my heart was young and gay. Gone are my friends from the cotton fields away. And I recorded the drone and I tuned his vocal that he sings it drunk in a garden. And I had that going over the top of it. It just made the song about two minutes longer.
00:51:30
Speaker
and Can I hear that, please? I don't think I've got it on tape. I don't think I've got it on tape anywhere. you just Why have you just told me about something that I now want to hear, but you're telling me you it doesn't exist? Well, it doesn't exist anymore. I don't think I've got it on cassette. I haven't got any cassettes of any rough mixes for this album. You've just told me about something that you made up, but that but now I can't hear it. I'm sorry. Sorry, I'm such a disappointment.
00:51:57
Speaker
Gone are the days when my heart was the young and gay. Gone are my friends from the cotton fields away. Gone from the earth to a better land I know. I hear the gentle voices calling old black jokes.
00:52:26
Speaker
I'm coming. I'm coming. Oh, my head is bending, whoa. I hear the gentle. The truth, my honey, is a tart that does not bear scrutiny. Preach my levy at your peril.
00:52:47
Speaker
Anyway, which song of the ones that we've listened to today do you think is going to make it onto the very best of this all? Johnny Domino, The Next Compilation. Okay. Well, based based on my listening to those three songs, which are Noi Groupie, Escape From The Ballroom and Are You Prog, all I can say is I don't think it's going to be Noi Groupie because I think it's a little bit lumpy.
00:53:11
Speaker
okay And I've always liked to escape from the ballroom and I enjoyed very much listening to R.U. Prague. So I'm happy if it's either of those two. What are you thinking?
00:53:22
Speaker
I think we... I like Noy Groupie actually because it's one of the songs that we played quite a lot. It is just us, you know what I mean? Even though it might not be what we like, it kind of was us. So it's kind of hard not to include it, I think.
00:53:42
Speaker
I also really loved Escape from War Room because I thought it was quite atmospheric musically and lyrically and it kind of to took me back and it's the sort of music that I wish we could still write. And I also really enjoyed Are You Prog because It kind of like did what Noi Groupie promised to do. It had a bit more of a kraut vibe to it, yeah that was which worked a bit better, I think. And the lyrics were... At least the the lyrics didn't have the word panties in, which was quite... It's always good. always It's always a positive when you don't have the word panties in. So I'd include them all.
00:54:26
Speaker
Controversially right so controversial you brought back the fact that the original concept of the podcast was we were gonna choose one song to go onto a ah putative compilation of the best of this are Johnny Domino and in doing so you said we'll have a ball. Really great how long do we spend talking about the fact that this was the concept and we're bringing it back and now we just have a little.
00:54:53
Speaker
I'm a very capricious soul, you know, issue this is we let's just go with that man. Okay. Well, I particularly enjoyed the thought of you wanting to talk about post-modernism and structuralism and brutalist architecture.
00:55:08
Speaker
while it's working yeah What did you think about the architecture in here? It was not, it was not my place. It was not my place, but it had broadened my horizons. No, man. You know, look, you're all in the same boat. You may have had pretensions, but you know, you're all working in Pontins and you're all just trying to get by. You're all just trying to get by. It brought me out my own little, my little arty world, that's for sure. Yeah. And how? I wasn't sure about the Johnny Domino podcast, but I gave it a chance and now I think I love it.
00:55:42
Speaker
Thank you for listening to the This Are Johnny Domino podcast. If you are enjoying the podcast, please share it with at least one of your friends. even i get so
00:55:54
Speaker
such a school sub for the final section oh good i want to tell you about something that i've been doing that's been making me quiet
Episode Conclusion and Call to Action
00:56:04
Speaker
happy. And I wondered if you'd quite like to do it too. Maybe some of you do already. But I've been looking on song meanings dot com. Have you been on song meanings dot com before, Steve? I have not. Tell me about it. It's quite an old website. Some of the ah posts are like 15 years old. But it's quite big.
00:56:29
Speaker
And a lot of people have put a lot of stuff on there about what they think the meanings of songs are. And I'm finding it quite entertaining reading some of them, yeah you know, in connection to your favorite nerd rock band.
00:56:45
Speaker
they might be giants were looking at birdhouse in your soul right which is a song that i like but i don't particularly love it like you know certainly not as much as you do i i mean i don't know this isn't news to you but i never realized it was about from the point of view of a light well yeah that's what it is it's a night light a night light yeah blue canary in the outlet like the lights and it's got some yeah and it's got some quiet sort of like very weird lyrics about the light then comparing itself to a lighthouse. Yeah. There's a picture of, is it me, of my primitive ancestry? Yeah. So there's a lot going on there, right? It also and it mentions the longness symphonette, which is a popular musical act performance from the 1950s and 60s. An orchestra would play a short version of a well-known classical music pieces, and they' and they'd launch it from one piece to another without stopping. Yeah.
00:57:40
Speaker
that's so That's a bit of a heavy thing to write in a pop song, isn't it? Yeah. On SongMeanings.com, there's lots of different interpretations of it, some of it which you might agree with, some not. Some people think it's about God. Some people think it's very Christian, actually, Steve. Do you think it's a Christian song? Go back to what we were talking about last time. Yeah. Can I give you my interpretation of that song?
00:58:03
Speaker
Go on then. It's springboards from the point of view of a nightlight. But I think the the central imagery of a birdhouse in your soul, I think it's about hope and putting yourself out there. So you keep your hope in a cage. It's like a fluttering, very delicate thing. And that's what I think it's about. But most They Might Be Giant songs are about death and depression. Maybe that's why I don't like them.
00:58:31
Speaker
But that's the kind of thing that yeah you can be prompted to think about if you look at SongMeanings.com. ah Can I just tell you about one thing that I found that I thought was quite exciting? Yes, please. It's a really good post about one of my favourite songs called Sweet Jane by the Velvet Underground, which is a song I'm sure most of us know. And I never really analysed the lyrics before to that song. I wonder if you have, Steve?
00:58:54
Speaker
But the first post about that song is written by someone called Eric D, 15 years ago. And he writes a really, really perceptive analysis of Sweet Jane, talking about how but it's obviously narratively about an older couple that that Lou Reed sees on the street. And he starts making assumptions about them through the way they dress, you know, jacking a corset, looking kind of business-like.
00:59:21
Speaker
and then he basically imagines what their life might have been and how they once were young and wild, but then they got kind of older and settled into a life. and The song is about how Lou Reed is kind of catching himself and saying, you can't just put people into boxes. These people were young and groovy once in the past. and It's that sort of sense of like generations being trapped in their own shackles. And actually, it's a falsehood. And you know we are all basically just on different points of the timeline, but we're all going through the same stuff. And that's kind of what the song's about. And I think that's really interesting. And I and only really started thinking about that by looking at this website. like And I'm just wondering if if anyone else might want to have a look too and see if they can find any interesting meanings about songs.
01:00:16
Speaker
Cool. Speaking about song meanings, your favourite podcast, history of rock music in 500 songs, oh yeah got the new episode out. And it's about Beach Boys, never learn not to love, which is cease to exist, the Charles Manson song.
01:00:35
Speaker
Yeah, it's going to be a few parts of that one, isn't it? It's going to be a few bits to it, but it's a great podcast, people. You need to get into that. You were a bit scared of it to begin with, weren't you, Steve? Because it was a bit long. I'm still a little bit scared of it, to be honest, but it's a great episode. I've very much enjoyed listening to that.
01:00:50
Speaker
Yeah, check it out. Anyway, it's been lovely to talk to you. Always a pleasure. I think we are pretty much at the end of this episode of This or Johnny Domino. And we'll be back in a few weeks with another episode. 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.