Songs by Source

 

Whether it’s at a house party, on a road trip or just flicking through iTunes while hanging out at someone’s place, more than once I’ve had someone ask me where I get my music from: what they’re looking for is a way in.

Sometimes I can’t really tell them anything that’s going to be of any use.  Mi Amor Es Grande by the entertainingly-dressed El Tropicombo, for example, has been a big favourite of mine ever since my uncle who lives out in Colombia sent me a compilation album with it on, featuring the truly bizarre cover image of a pink bikini clad girl holding a euphonium.

On the other hand often there are tips you can give about where to get your hands on the best stuff.  Free by 1930s music hall duo Flanagan and Allen is one of many highlights on an album of “nostalgic theatre and cabaret songs” I picked up a few years ago from a charity shop on Highbury Corner.  Particularly great here is Chesney (namesake of Mr Hawkes) Allen’s spoken word bit (from 2:46), especially when he starts banging on about a rainbow “with its divine chord of colour harmony”: they really don’t make sentimentality like that any more.

The real trick with Flanagan and Allen, though, is the way the two guys always say the same thing at the same time but in their very different voices.  Another charity shop find of mine playing games with paired voices is the brilliant Uptown Top Rankin by Althea and Donna.  This one came to me via the third instalment of Soul Jazz records’ excellent 100% Dynamite series.  Also featuring Make It Reggae, Under Me Sleng Teng and Sister Nancy’s fantastic 1982 Lauryn Hill-referenced Bam Bam it really does come highly recommended.

For all the Soul Jazz records releases and lots of other great stuff besides you can’t go wrong with a trip to Sounds of the Universe records on Broadwick Street in Soho.  Come to think of it, Soho record shops are a whole song source category in themselves – something to come back to in a later post…