Discussing with my mate Steve (Preston's funniest man) the art of jukebox discipline the other evening....we came up with our fantasy 100 jukebox classics.
Anyway, a link here to the saddest list of the day. And such a white Western one too.
Shame on me.....
20 comments:
Where's Don't Stop Believing by Journey?
Sadly I actually own the CD that picture came from.
The jukebox at mine & Gordon's local at Uni in the mid-80s was pretty good - Kirsty's version of A New England (#102); Joolz' Mad Bad And Dangerous To Know (#139); Johnny Cash's A Boy Named Sue (#105? #115?); any number of New Model Army songs (it was their local too); etc., etc.
There was a cracking pub in Carmarthen called the Elephant and Castle - perhaps the best jukebox ever. It closed in 1992 as the landlord had erm customs and exicse difficulties. I still remember half the numbers needed for the songs we chose....
I couldn't tell you how that Journey song goes, ejaydee!!
Good to see the Katzenjammers at #18. Thought I was alone in liking steel drum 80's covers.
Nice And Sleazys jukey in Glasgow has Slint's Spiderland on it. WIN!!
Blimpy
I used to frequent a very cool bar that had a jukebox without any titles, it was a gamble every time. I figured out which was Johnny Cash's Ring of Fire and played it about 4 times in a row, to the delight of everyone else in the bar, I am sure...
Ahhh ... the classic jukebox should always be a mix of tracks that support the flow of conversation lubricated by booze ... kind of ambient but kind of LOUDER!! Pushy enough to intrude appropriately; I would say 50% that make you feel hip to the groove, 25% guilty pleasures and 25% utter tosh ... there is such a thing as the too, too perfect jukebox, it becomes a demanding little beast in its own right then. And a hundred songs has got to be the limit, the subtleties of sequencing over familiar songs gets lost then ... bit like choosing cereals in Sainsburys.
ah the joys of a jukebox eh..
glad to see Smiths and Morrissey, Happy Mondays and Black Grape in there...
After college, when I didn't want any real work, I was a cleaner in a pub once.. not as bad as it seems, it only ever had 15 regulars that treated it better than their own homes.. real ale, brandy and cigar for each one of them.... somehow the brewery decided this was the place to try out a new fangled digital jukebox.... me and the bar manager had some time off and returned to find the locals all had bleeding ears.
The owner couldn't work out how to stop the thing.. we had programmed in loads of Pixies, Janes addiction, R.A.T.M Levellers and new model army to keep us working in the morning.. it thought this was the customers taste.... we laughed.
The country pub near my parents was an old spit and sawdust place.. I could go and quietly read my book in the corner, it was great.
Until the landlord had one too many and would stuff the jukesbox full.. crooning and shite country and western.. and singing along.
To stop him people had to get in first, there was nothing I really wanted, I liked the peace, until one day a best of 2tone/ska album appeared ... after drinking a sup too much one weekend I put the entire album on...
A few tracks got the pub bouncing along.. then the realisation that 'The Boiler' had begun.... opps.
Pretty damn good jukebox. I hate to sound old but I think less is more and 100 45s seems like a good round number, to paraphrase Cool Hand Luke. But, gripes:
1. No B-sides. Does 'Don't Stop Me Now' have 'In Only Seven Days' as the B-side or 'Fight From the Inside'? Or, is it a "juke box only" single re-issue with a double-A side offering? 'A Kind of Magic' etc? I need to know.
2. No Fall, Cars or Joan Armatrading. This obviously is an unreal jukebox poised twixt student-trendy and normal-pub. You need to add one of these for authenticity. I'd suggest chucking out the Charlatans but you'll probably fire-bomb my house.
3. Shucks, I WANT this jukebox. I want it to creak and whirr like a Wurlitzer. It should be crackly and stick occasionally. Preferably not on Charlatans songs though.
PS. The Boiler. Yup, that's happened to me too.
Don't understand The Boiler reference: can someone explain, please?
I see what you were trying to do here, fourfoot, but surely it's self-defeating to claim a one-song-per-artist limit as a classic jukebox? S'pose I'm griping like Proudfoot there ...
I have seen what the Fall on a jukebox can do to a pub! And I have 30 or so Fall albums but they're just not a jukebox band.
Perhaps it should just be 50 classic singles with their B sides....
The one in the aforementioned pub in Carmarthen had a lot of those Solid Gold reissue singles where you got another hit by the same artist as the B-side. For example, for many years I thought "God Only Knows" was the flip of "Good Vibrations". Some fucking B-side, eh?
Also....
I've left out "Devil Went Down To Georgia" - naff maybe but after 6 pints or so, a killer record...
"Rebellious Jukebox" would be the perfect Fall choice.
@DsD
a Rhooda Daker vocal with The Special AKA
it got into the scary song list..
basically it's a date that goes very very wrong.. as Dorian put it.."it makes ghost town sound like 'agadoo'"
frightening as fuck.
don't put it on in a pub (or ever.. really)
Aah! OK, thanks Shane.
I thought it was going to be one of those irritating songs-immediately-before-22-mins-of-feedback-prior-to-pointless-studio-outtake-hidden-end-track jobbies!
I suppose this gives away the fact that I never download Friday's column Ten!!
I am the proud owner of a jukebox (a very fine early 60's stereo Seeburg, an LPC1B to be precise....), it holds 80 vinyl singles,so you have 160 choices, I change the contents regularly, it is filled with a mix of new vinyl, indie classics, rock classics, some classic Dutch & Belgian tearjerkers, some nice German schlagers and a lot of French 60's stuff (Gainsbourg, France Gall etc.). It plays 3 songs for an old Dutch 25c coin, an ashtray filled with these coins is standing next to it. It is funny to see that it is the first object in the room visitors walk up to, and they are always amazed to find it in perfect working order...
My classic juke box was Sneaky Pete's in Edinburgh's grassmarket. Please tell me it still exists. Thanks to special Scots licencing laws (blessed country) they stayed open until 4 am by which time, by common consent, someone would have put on Solisbury Hill by Peter Gabriel. Classic end of the evening song.
Sneaqky Pete's closed down a hell of a along time ago, i'm afraid. Soz!! It's changed into a few things over the years, and is now called "Red" or somehting. I saw the Horrors DJ there quite recently after one of their gigs - good selection of nuggets type jams they span.
So that's the black armband on, then. You live in Edinburgh, Blimp? Just curious. I studied there. Do they still have funny licensing laws whereby certain places can stay open until 4am? But tell me the City Café is still going... I know the Pierre Victoire restaurants closed down eons ago which was sad. They were phenominal. You could get a three course REAL French meal for £5 at lunchtime. Needless to say it became the unofficial canteen of the language department. They had French students working in the kitchens and they regularly, inadvertantly flambéd things other than the crêpe suzette. The GU (I think) decribed the "Gallic chaos" in the open plan kitchen and said it was like Fawlty Towers. It still remains, to this day, one of my favourite ever restaurants.
Post a Comment