Music Labyrinth Episode 040
The Beginning Is The End Is The Beginning / Smashing Pumpkins
Hello Listener, and welcome to episode 40 of The Music Labyrinth. The program is now in such rarified air that Casey Kasem could do a countdown of his favourite episodes. (I realise that the reference to Casey Kasem is specific to a certain demographic, but I’m confident that it will be relevant to a significant percentage of the listenership to this program). Anyway, lets hope that if Casey was counting down his top 40 Music Labyrinth programs, that this one comes in late in the countdown. By the way, if you are new to The Music Labyrinth, well firstly I hope I did not exclude you with that age-specific reference just now, and secondly, welcome. What we are about to do is to is to find some link from our opening song to the next, and so on through the labyrinth. We started this week with what should be the unofficial theme of this program: The Beginning Is The End Is The Beginning by the Smashing Pumpkins. The song was written for the soundtrack of the 1997 film Batman & Robin (that’s the one starring George Clooney and Chris O’Donnell in the lead roles). Uma Thurman also stars as the villain Poison Ivy, and the film soundtrack includes this unusual rendition of the popular song of the same name.
Poison Ivy / Meshell Ndegeocello
That was Meshell Ndegeocello with Poison Ivy, a song first recorded by The Coasters in 1959, and perhaps best known for the 1960’s cover by Billy Thorpe & The Aztecs. In any event, I suspect that the version we just heard departs quite significantly from our expectations of how the song might sound. Meshell Ndegeocello, in addition to being a powerful vocalist and a particularly versatile musician and songwriter, is also a bass player of note. In 1997 she was invited to contribute to the Rolling Stones album Bridges To Babylon, and her bass playing is evident on this track from that album.
Saint Of Me / Rolling Stones
From the 1997 album Bridges to Babylon, that was the Rolling Stones with Saint Of Me. One of the interesting aspects of that album is the degree to which the Rolling Stones opened up the recording sessions to a variety of additional musicians, including Meshell Ndegeocello, Don Was, Jim Keltner, Blondie Chaplin, Doug Wimbish and the highly established keyboardist, Billy Preston. A few years later, the Australian band Jet were in Los Angeles recording their debut studio album Get Born, and they managed to secure Billy Preston to participate in those sessions. His keyboards can be heard on this track from that album. This is Come Around Again.
Come Around Again / Jet
From their remarkable debut album Get Born, that was Jet with Come Around Again. Following a recent discovery, I have been looking for an opportunity to take our progress in a particular direction, and Jet have just provided me with it. In 2017 Nic Cester of Jet fame joined forces with some of the leading names in the music industry to play and record under the band name The Jaded Hearts Club. I’ll tell you some more about this band in a moment, but lets have a listen to them, featuring the vocals of Nic Cester. This is I Put A Spell On You.
I Put A Spell On You / The Jaded Hearts Club & Nic Cester
From their 2020 album You’ve Always Been Here, that was the Jaded Hearts Club with I Put A Spell On You. The Jaded Hearts Club came into being when the musician Jamie Davis invited a selection of his musician mates to play Beatles covers at a party. That party band became a regular thing when the members embraced the freedom of performing traditional rock’n’roll songs without gizmos and tech. Current membership of The Jaded Hearts Club includes Nic Cester, Matt Bellamy of Muse, Graham Coxon of Blur, Sean Payne of The Zutons, Jamie Davis, and Miles Kane of The Last Shadow Puppets. Here are The Last Shadow Puppets with The Age of the Understatement.
The Age of the Understatement / The Last Shadow Puppets
You are back with The Music Labyrinth where we last heard The Last Shadow Puppets with the title track from their 2008 album The Age of the Understatement. Interestingly, one of the other members of The Last Shadow Puppets is Alex Turner of the Arctic Monkeys, and if you are familiar with that band, you probably picked up on Turner’s input into the track we just heard. The third principle member of The Last Shadow Puppets is the musician and producer James Ford, who has an impressive list of production credits to his name, including this hit from 2015.
Mountain At My Gates / Foals
From their 2015 album What Went Down, that was Foals with Mountain At My Gates. That song featured on the soundtrack of the FIFA 16 video game, and so did this one.
Dreams / Beck
From his 2017 album Colors, that was the artist known as Beck with Dreams. If you are wondering how the song we just heard made its way onto a 2016 soundtrack, the single was released in June 2015, a full 28 months before the album which contained it. Beck is a songwriter, musician, producer of extraordinary talent. On the album Colors, almost all of the instrumentation and production was completed by Beck and Greg Kurstin. Kurstin, too, appears to have more than his fair share of musical talent. He too is a multi-instrumentalist, songwriter and producer. Some years earlier than his work with Beck, Kurstin had collaborated with James Mercer of The Shins for the album Port of Morrow. Kurstin is credited with production on that album, and contribution of keyboards, guitars, bass, piano, organ and percussion. Featuring Kurstin, this is one of my favourite tracks from the wonderful Port of Morrow album. This is 40 Mark Strasse.
40 Mark Strasse / The Shins
Here we still are in The Music Labyrinth, after having enjoyed the whimsical reminiscence of 40 Mark Strasse by The Shins. James Mercer, the writer of the song, was the child of Air Force parents, and grew up in a variety of places, including Germany. The name of the song refers American military slang for a street in the area in which Mercer grew up where sex workers could be procured for 40 marks. I guess that puts this song in a category we have previously discussed on The Music Labyrinth: songs about sex workers. Here is another one.
Mama / Genesis
That was Genesis, from their 1983 eponymous album with Mama. Phil Collins has said that the laugh in the vocal was influenced by a laugh used in the vocals of this breakthrough track from 1982. We’ll talk next week about some of the legacy of this track. But for now, it remains for me to thank you for your company during this episode of The Music Labyrinth and to encourage you to come back again next week. To end this episode, here is the track which has been an inspiration for so much, including Phil Collins’ laugh in Mama. This is Grandmaster Flash & The Furious Five with The Message.
The Message / Grandmaster Flash & The Furious Five
Hello Listener, and welcome to episode 40 of The Music Labyrinth. The program is now in such rarified air that Casey Kasem could do a countdown of his favourite episodes. (I realise that the reference to Casey Kasem is specific to a certain demographic, but I’m confident that it will be relevant to a significant percentage of the listenership to this program). Anyway, lets hope that if Casey was counting down his top 40 Music Labyrinth programs, that this one comes in late in the countdown. By the way, if you are new to The Music Labyrinth, well firstly I hope I did not exclude you with that age-specific reference just now, and secondly, welcome. What we are about to do is to is to find some link from our opening song to the next, and so on through the labyrinth. We started this week with what should be the unofficial theme of this program: The Beginning Is The End Is The Beginning by the Smashing Pumpkins. The song was written for the soundtrack of the 1997 film Batman & Robin (that’s the one starring George Clooney and Chris O’Donnell in the lead roles). Uma Thurman also stars as the villain Poison Ivy, and the film soundtrack includes this unusual rendition of the popular song of the same name.
Poison Ivy / Meshell Ndegeocello
That was Meshell Ndegeocello with Poison Ivy, a song first recorded by The Coasters in 1959, and perhaps best known for the 1960’s cover by Billy Thorpe & The Aztecs. In any event, I suspect that the version we just heard departs quite significantly from our expectations of how the song might sound. Meshell Ndegeocello, in addition to being a powerful vocalist and a particularly versatile musician and songwriter, is also a bass player of note. In 1997 she was invited to contribute to the Rolling Stones album Bridges To Babylon, and her bass playing is evident on this track from that album.
Saint Of Me / Rolling Stones
From the 1997 album Bridges to Babylon, that was the Rolling Stones with Saint Of Me. One of the interesting aspects of that album is the degree to which the Rolling Stones opened up the recording sessions to a variety of additional musicians, including Meshell Ndegeocello, Don Was, Jim Keltner, Blondie Chaplin, Doug Wimbish and the highly established keyboardist, Billy Preston. A few years later, the Australian band Jet were in Los Angeles recording their debut studio album Get Born, and they managed to secure Billy Preston to participate in those sessions. His keyboards can be heard on this track from that album. This is Come Around Again.
Come Around Again / Jet
From their remarkable debut album Get Born, that was Jet with Come Around Again. Following a recent discovery, I have been looking for an opportunity to take our progress in a particular direction, and Jet have just provided me with it. In 2017 Nic Cester of Jet fame joined forces with some of the leading names in the music industry to play and record under the band name The Jaded Hearts Club. I’ll tell you some more about this band in a moment, but lets have a listen to them, featuring the vocals of Nic Cester. This is I Put A Spell On You.
I Put A Spell On You / The Jaded Hearts Club & Nic Cester
From their 2020 album You’ve Always Been Here, that was the Jaded Hearts Club with I Put A Spell On You. The Jaded Hearts Club came into being when the musician Jamie Davis invited a selection of his musician mates to play Beatles covers at a party. That party band became a regular thing when the members embraced the freedom of performing traditional rock’n’roll songs without gizmos and tech. Current membership of The Jaded Hearts Club includes Nic Cester, Matt Bellamy of Muse, Graham Coxon of Blur, Sean Payne of The Zutons, Jamie Davis, and Miles Kane of The Last Shadow Puppets. Here are The Last Shadow Puppets with The Age of the Understatement.
The Age of the Understatement / The Last Shadow Puppets
You are back with The Music Labyrinth where we last heard The Last Shadow Puppets with the title track from their 2008 album The Age of the Understatement. Interestingly, one of the other members of The Last Shadow Puppets is Alex Turner of the Arctic Monkeys, and if you are familiar with that band, you probably picked up on Turner’s input into the track we just heard. The third principle member of The Last Shadow Puppets is the musician and producer James Ford, who has an impressive list of production credits to his name, including this hit from 2015.
Mountain At My Gates / Foals
From their 2015 album What Went Down, that was Foals with Mountain At My Gates. That song featured on the soundtrack of the FIFA 16 video game, and so did this one.
Dreams / Beck
From his 2017 album Colors, that was the artist known as Beck with Dreams. If you are wondering how the song we just heard made its way onto a 2016 soundtrack, the single was released in June 2015, a full 28 months before the album which contained it. Beck is a songwriter, musician, producer of extraordinary talent. On the album Colors, almost all of the instrumentation and production was completed by Beck and Greg Kurstin. Kurstin, too, appears to have more than his fair share of musical talent. He too is a multi-instrumentalist, songwriter and producer. Some years earlier than his work with Beck, Kurstin had collaborated with James Mercer of The Shins for the album Port of Morrow. Kurstin is credited with production on that album, and contribution of keyboards, guitars, bass, piano, organ and percussion. Featuring Kurstin, this is one of my favourite tracks from the wonderful Port of Morrow album. This is 40 Mark Strasse.
40 Mark Strasse / The Shins
Here we still are in The Music Labyrinth, after having enjoyed the whimsical reminiscence of 40 Mark Strasse by The Shins. James Mercer, the writer of the song, was the child of Air Force parents, and grew up in a variety of places, including Germany. The name of the song refers American military slang for a street in the area in which Mercer grew up where sex workers could be procured for 40 marks. I guess that puts this song in a category we have previously discussed on The Music Labyrinth: songs about sex workers. Here is another one.
Mama / Genesis
That was Genesis, from their 1983 eponymous album with Mama. Phil Collins has said that the laugh in the vocal was influenced by a laugh used in the vocals of this breakthrough track from 1982. We’ll talk next week about some of the legacy of this track. But for now, it remains for me to thank you for your company during this episode of The Music Labyrinth and to encourage you to come back again next week. To end this episode, here is the track which has been an inspiration for so much, including Phil Collins’ laugh in Mama. This is Grandmaster Flash & The Furious Five with The Message.
The Message / Grandmaster Flash & The Furious Five