VARIOUS – REBELLIOUS JUKEBOX THE CD COLLECTION (FIRST SELECTION) (MELODY MAKER/IPC MAGAZINES)
Rebellious Jukebox used to be a feature that the Melody Maker would run weekly whereby a musician would select ten of his/her favourite tracks. To tie in with the feature the Melody Maker cobbled together this compilation CD which was available through mail order for the price of around £7.
As far as a tracklisting goes it is a pretty spotless selection of the great, the good and the legends, so many names that our current favourite acts would now be name checking. Released in 1993 this turned out to be the first time that I managed to hear many of these artists.
The collection begins incredibly well with “Love Comes In Spurts” by Richard Hell & The Heartbreakers. This was a song that I first heard played in the movie Pump Up The Volume and I am pretty positive I would have later heard it on Mark Radcliffe’s classic graveyard shift show on Radio One. Heard through a teenager’s ears this song was hilarious, ageing amazingly with a prickly sentiment and in-joke that represents the kind of rebellion I was itching/aching to get into at the time.
From here the second track on the compilation is “Personality Crisis” by the New York Dolls and suddenly despite sounding lumbering, early punk appeared to possess a kind of power, ingenuity and humour that the latter stuff I was being exposed to just did not hold.
The stand out track on the compilation arrived in the form of “Street Hassle” by Lou Reed. Having already been exposed to his obvious tracks this was suddenly something completely/thoroughly alien to me. Immediately I noticed that it was almost eleven minutes long. How was I supposed to get through this? Subsequently the majestic pace of the piece and glorious strings cradling the narrative has served me well over the years as the beauty of the song has always touched me (despite the degradation attached to the principles).
After this the album takes in tracks by Gram Parsons, Nick Drake and Captain Beefheart before arriving at “Teenage Riot” by Sonic Youth which truly rubs shoulders with comfort against such heavyweights.
The next track to have an immense effect on me was a live version of “Thirteen” by Big Star. To date I had never heard anything like it as the beauty of the work seeped into my consciousness and made me long even further for the relationships I was finding impossible to snag and experience. The words of this song explicitly paint a picture of problems I have always be soughting and desiring. This was such poetry, chilling and amazing to the end, the kind of song you might be able to impress members of the opposite sex with.
Continuing the flow are songs by The Modern Lovers, Husker Du, Iggy Pop and the Buzzcocks before a live, near fifteen minute of “Marquee Moon” by Television closes proceedings. Again this was the point where “Marquee Moon” hit me and clicked. A song of such length just should not be as accessible but it just is. It’s a song that loops like a generator as the masters of the piece go off on exploration. Coming from such a punk movement but exhibiting almost jazz tendencies in a way this could quite easily be the first post-punk song emerging at a point when the movement was barely a toddler. There’s no need to party.
Despite collecting together many obvious names this compilation was always far more than a cheap knock-off and cash-in and at a time long before every song was available on the internet it served to educate my musical tastes in a most vintage manner.
There was no second selection.
Thesaurus moment: schooling.
Melody Maker
Rebellious Jukebox used to be a feature that the Melody Maker would run weekly whereby a musician would select ten of his/her favourite tracks. To tie in with the feature the Melody Maker cobbled together this compilation CD which was available through mail order for the price of around £7.
As far as a tracklisting goes it is a pretty spotless selection of the great, the good and the legends, so many names that our current favourite acts would now be name checking. Released in 1993 this turned out to be the first time that I managed to hear many of these artists.
The collection begins incredibly well with “Love Comes In Spurts” by Richard Hell & The Heartbreakers. This was a song that I first heard played in the movie Pump Up The Volume and I am pretty positive I would have later heard it on Mark Radcliffe’s classic graveyard shift show on Radio One. Heard through a teenager’s ears this song was hilarious, ageing amazingly with a prickly sentiment and in-joke that represents the kind of rebellion I was itching/aching to get into at the time.
From here the second track on the compilation is “Personality Crisis” by the New York Dolls and suddenly despite sounding lumbering, early punk appeared to possess a kind of power, ingenuity and humour that the latter stuff I was being exposed to just did not hold.
The stand out track on the compilation arrived in the form of “Street Hassle” by Lou Reed. Having already been exposed to his obvious tracks this was suddenly something completely/thoroughly alien to me. Immediately I noticed that it was almost eleven minutes long. How was I supposed to get through this? Subsequently the majestic pace of the piece and glorious strings cradling the narrative has served me well over the years as the beauty of the song has always touched me (despite the degradation attached to the principles).
After this the album takes in tracks by Gram Parsons, Nick Drake and Captain Beefheart before arriving at “Teenage Riot” by Sonic Youth which truly rubs shoulders with comfort against such heavyweights.
The next track to have an immense effect on me was a live version of “Thirteen” by Big Star. To date I had never heard anything like it as the beauty of the work seeped into my consciousness and made me long even further for the relationships I was finding impossible to snag and experience. The words of this song explicitly paint a picture of problems I have always be soughting and desiring. This was such poetry, chilling and amazing to the end, the kind of song you might be able to impress members of the opposite sex with.
Continuing the flow are songs by The Modern Lovers, Husker Du, Iggy Pop and the Buzzcocks before a live, near fifteen minute of “Marquee Moon” by Television closes proceedings. Again this was the point where “Marquee Moon” hit me and clicked. A song of such length just should not be as accessible but it just is. It’s a song that loops like a generator as the masters of the piece go off on exploration. Coming from such a punk movement but exhibiting almost jazz tendencies in a way this could quite easily be the first post-punk song emerging at a point when the movement was barely a toddler. There’s no need to party.
Despite collecting together many obvious names this compilation was always far more than a cheap knock-off and cash-in and at a time long before every song was available on the internet it served to educate my musical tastes in a most vintage manner.
There was no second selection.
Thesaurus moment: schooling.
Melody Maker
1 comment:
I similarly discovered many artists (that 20 years later I still love) on this CD.
(After it finally arrived.. It took about six months and several phonecalls to get it from Melody Maker, the bunch of slackers).
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