Trainspottting

Hey Hifny, the train has already left...

Depending on your point of view, trainspotting can be one of several things:

the act of mainlining heroin,
the act of looking over a DJ's shoulder to find out what record is being played,
the act of standing near railroad tracks to actually wait for trains pass by so one could log engine numbers and other stuff,
the act of creating a playlist out of train-related songs.
Or more sublimely, it's about trying to find out what we're actually trying to say with the song choices we have made.

Yeah... The Clash's "Train In Vain (Stand By Me)" would have been an obvious choice, which is probably why we left it out. And of course, there's no real mention of any train in the song, but Mick Jones reportedly once offered an explanation that the tune was akin to the rhythm that a train makes while running on railroad tracks. Your guess is as good as ours if that is just a load of BS. We're only sure that this is one of the best love songs ever recorded, bar Avril's "Girlfriend", the version of which by the Pigeon Detectives is much better ("Hell yeah, I'm a motherf**kin' princess!" sings Matt Bowman, the reluctant new Roger Daltrey).

OK! We're kidding! Here's the playlist, and some cuttings from the lyric sheets...

OCEAN COLOUR SCENE - "The Day We Caught The Train" (Acoustic)
"When you find that things are getting wilder...
Don't you want days like these...
Don't you NEED days like these..."

THE VAPORS - "Trains"
"Everybody I know has to face the trains
Everybody I know makes the same mistakes"

THE MOVEMENT - "Watching All Trains Leave The Station"
"Watching all trains leave the station
The world is passing by my window
Sick of all this repetition"

FISCHER Z - "The Worker"
"The hated journey on the train,
Always been the same,
Looking out windows,
Second class and second best,
What a waste of time..."

BYRON LEE and the DRAGONAIRES - "Night Train Ska"
Lyrics? Haha!

PRINCE BUSTER - "Train To Girls' Town"
“Now just for a second, take a look out the window
Look upon the hill
See that pretty house?
That's the house of the famous Judge Dread
Better known as Judge Four Hundred Years,
Y'know that man?
That's the man who cool the heat
With a rock steady beat”

...And Because It's Thursday...

... I have Friday on my mind.

After which comes the weekend :)

Trash Radio Manila EPISODE 2 Part 2: On Target

For this segment, we pay tribute to that familiar target sign used by the British R.A.F.

And of course when we do refer to this target sign bands like The Who and Ocean Colour Scene easily come to mind. The playlist is as follows:

1. THE WHO - "Pictures Of Lily"
2. THE LAMBRETTAS - "Cortina MKII"
3. THE VAPORS - "Lenina"
4. PRIVATE STOCK - "Have More Fun"
5. OCEAN COLOUR SCENE - "I Told You So"
6. LITTLE MURDERS - "She's The One"
7. THE JAM - "Burning Sky" (from The Jam Live At The BBC)

We deem it apt to include a cut from an incredibly rare release from the local band Private Stock, which played in the legendary Brave New World Series of the 80s. The band counts Mel Maniego, currently of The GoSignals, as among its alumni.

Just in case you're wondering why The Vapors is included in the playlist, The Jam's Bruce Foxton produced and heavily influenced the band. Sure, "Turning Japanese" was a runaway hit, but rest assured that the rest of their two albums' cuts were killer.

My partner in this blog site (I'm sure you guys know him by now) specifically requested that we include a rare version of The Jam's "Burning Sky," taken from CD3 of The Jam Live At The BBC CD set, and dedicate the song to "The Class of 1984," or so they call themselves when they're drunk. A line from this song goes:

"...then we’ll all be happy and we’ll all be wise and together we will live beneath the Burning sky."

Come to think of it, this may probably be Paul Weller's own way of looking at coming to full circle....

Have a good weekend y'all.