Going to London, as you've probably heard me blather on about.
What music do you think needs to be played on one's walkman while wandering London- while on the tube, while wandering the Millennium Bridge, while waiting in line to get into the British Museum? There're a few choices that I'm dragging along for my own tastes- Aztec Camera's album 'High Land, Hard Rain'; ABC's track 'Tower of London' (from 'How To Be A Zillionaire'); Shriekback's song 'Mothloop' (for the fact that the lyrics include the name of various Underground stops); a good fuckton of Bowie; the Eurythmics' song 'This City Never Sleeps'; the British Sea Power album 'Decline Of', because it seems to fit the Anglophilia, and some Smiths, because that does too...
What does London sound like to you, then? What would you think the soundtrack of London would have to have on it, if you were putting one together?
Suggestions will duly be noted and examined and considered.
UPDATE: add 'Gravity's Angel', Laurie Anderson, to the list here. Perhaps some of Coil's album 'Horse Rotorvator', if not the whole damn album: Penetralia seems to want public transit listening.
What music do you think needs to be played on one's walkman while wandering London- while on the tube, while wandering the Millennium Bridge, while waiting in line to get into the British Museum? There're a few choices that I'm dragging along for my own tastes- Aztec Camera's album 'High Land, Hard Rain'; ABC's track 'Tower of London' (from 'How To Be A Zillionaire'); Shriekback's song 'Mothloop' (for the fact that the lyrics include the name of various Underground stops); a good fuckton of Bowie; the Eurythmics' song 'This City Never Sleeps'; the British Sea Power album 'Decline Of', because it seems to fit the Anglophilia, and some Smiths, because that does too...
What does London sound like to you, then? What would you think the soundtrack of London would have to have on it, if you were putting one together?
Suggestions will duly be noted and examined and considered.
UPDATE: add 'Gravity's Angel', Laurie Anderson, to the list here. Perhaps some of Coil's album 'Horse Rotorvator', if not the whole damn album: Penetralia seems to want public transit listening.
Me thmart. :)
one of them has the original Down in the Tubestation at Midnight. nOt the morrissey version (ugh!) and Smithers-Jones.
Bad Moon Rising would be rather fitting too, especially outside the city.
Anarchy in the UK and God Save the Queen.
Sex Pistols are probably not high on the list, sadly.
And I bought a Robert Miles CD in Edinburgh because it was on sale and I listened to that a lot while in London for the last week or so I was there after I was in Scotland. (Whee. Run-on sentence.)
Concrete Blonde - Walking in London
Komputer - Looking down on London
Pogues - Lullaby of London
Blur - London Loves
Anything by The Streets on general principles. To be listened to while standing in chip shops.
Large swaths of The Clash, particularly the obvious ones like "London Calling", "This Is England" and so on.
There's an awful lot of Carter the Unstoppable Sex Machine which is all Londonish; "only living boy in New Cross", "Lean On Me" (first verse about being "stuck in a tunnell on the Hammersmith and City Line") and, oh, tons of it. Carter's 1992 - The Love Album came out while I was there and I listened to it obsessively, but they're all British and London-esque. Less screamingly Londoner and Brit, but an album of Britpop I picked up then, is Ned's Atomic Dustbin's "God Fodder".
A few bits of Smiths, like "and if a double-decker bus / Smashes into us" and "London".
I have about five covers of "Streets of London", from punk bands to Sinead. This is partly because I like the song when it's done (im)properly, and also because it was our godforsaken graduation song when I went to school there.
I agree that The Jam's Down In The Tube Station at Midnight" is an essential, but it may not be to your taste.
Trashy Europop from the early nineties was most of my London soundtrack, but may not be as applicable. The U2 album "Zooropa" and I bonded there, also Jesus Jones' "Doubt". Bowie's recent technopop stuff and Zevon's "Transverse City" bits, plus some Garbage for variety.
Certain old Kinks bits; some old Who bits. Concrete BLonde's "Walking In London". Cracker's "Eurotrash Girl". "Werewolves of London" natch. That old Seventies tune about winding my way down Baker Street. And "All This Time" by Sting talks about Roman London and the river and such like.
Queen. Sodding stacks of Queen. Of course, my last stint in London was a) just up the road from the international Queen fan club, b) when their last album came out, and c)when Freddie left us, God rest him. There is an odd acoustic rendition of "Days of '39" by Queen, with George Michael on vocals, from the memorial concert album; in the intro to that song, Michael mentioned that he used to busk that song on the Underground.
All of this is of course either on our server or ought to be, so you can yank it.
Half of my favorite albums in the bleeding world were recorded there (or re-mastered therein), and yet- not been to the site.
What the hell.
<adding to checklist>
I always liked the Abbey Road stretch; it went through some interesting neighborhoods, and that road is where the old Roman road was, and I'm a sucker for stuff like that.
And Sting's "Englishman In New York" because I'm like that and because I listened to a lot of his stuff while I was there.
Sting is from Newcastle, which was built on the site of a Roman outpost. After all, the song is about his relationship with his father, so it's natural to assign the locale to his home town. The river would then be the Tyne, rather than the Thames.
In fact, Sting was born in the locality (or maybe suburb) of Wallsend, which gets its name from the fact that it's at the eastern end of Hadrian's Wall, and thus marks the northernmost point of Roman influence in Britain.
Massive Attack
The Clash
panic by the smiths
something by the clash
99 leuftballoons (sp?) just to throw them off... :)
What else?
Re: What else?
Maybe it's an age thing.
Also- part of this is just probing out what music makes people think of London. I'm taking the iPod MOSTLY for either zoning out on the Tube, or nodding off to. And this seems like a good way to expose myself to other people's musical influence.
Pulp - Common People (not really London-specific, but fun)
Someone will understand this.
On a side note, I love Aztec Camera - High Land, Hard Rain.
You would make a great couple.
"Life Begins at Oxford Circus" by Jack Hylton and His Orchestra (available on the soundtrack to the BBC's TV miniseries Pennies From Heaven)
"Dirty Water" by the Inmates ("aw, London, you're my home"), transplanted cover of the original by the Standells ("aw, Boston, you're my home").
"The Greatest Living Englishman" by Martin Newell ("how they'd love to see me now, a prisoner in the Tower...")
Rush, "The Camera Eye"
Smiths, "Hang the DJ" (panic on the streets of London)
Pet Shop Boys, "West End Girls"
I completely agree about ABC's "Tower of London".
Genesis, "the Battle of Epping Forest"
and a bonus for the next Paris trip:
King Crimson, "Neal and Jack and Me" ("the Seine alone at 4 AM, the in-seine alone at 4 AM")
But I've never even been to Britain, never mind London itself, so I feel unqualified to respond. And
xtc--oranges and lemons, rag & bone buffet
billy bragg--back to basics, don't try this at home
anything by smiths/moz, natch.
there's more...but i'm not totally awake yet and these were the ones that immediately came to mind.
or for fun "If I was a Mekon" by Too Much Joy