Hello Old Thing, Hello New Thing: 11

Marty Feldman: Cautious Love Song (Decca, 1969)
Sometimes you open the post and the day's new listening sits there before you like a threat. On better days, like last Thursday, what you receive seems more like a promise. This morning I received an MFP Chitty Chitty Bang Bang soundtrack LP from 1968 and, rest assured, the Mike Sammes Singers version of Chu-Chi Face will appear here sharpish. Anyway, Marty Feldman then, perhaps the most famous sufferer of the rare thyroid condition, Graves Disease evah. I hope that gave him some comfort as he lay dying of a heart attack (from shellfish poisoning) in a hotel room in Mexico City in 1982. Perhaps his mind went back to this LP he recorded 1969 and some of the fine material upon it. Comic songs generally make me want to kill people (including myself), but there are some fine moments here, including this ode to, well, not rushing in and generally seeing how things pan out...


Buffalo Tom: You'll Never Catch Him (New West, 2007)
There used to be a lot of fraught discussion as to why Buffalo Tom never really "broke through" (man) in the early 90's grunge explosion. They wrote fantastic songs, they had a record company that loved them to pieces, they were brilliant live and lots of other bands thought they were ace. On the flip side, singer Bill had red hair. Such is (pop) life. Anyway, I am particularly pleased to see them back - as an ex-employee of said supportive record company - Beggars Banquet - I saw BT about 300 times between 1989 and 1994 and never saw a bad show. Once, at Camden Underworld, they were joined on stage by an extremely drunk Evan Dando wearing a recently-dead Kurt Cobain's old raincoat. How we laughed! Interestingly, the last time I saw them (about 13 years ago) I ended up sat next to Bill at the after-show party at Filthy McNasty's. Sadly, our conversation was a trifle limited by me being so drunk I saw three of him and had to leave early. I never did have much booze-stamina. I can now see Filthy's from my office window. Spooky...

Enjoy!