Tag: Come On Home

New Turntables and Looking Out The Vinyl: Donald Fagen and Everything But The Girl

It was DD’s birthday at the weekend and when asked what she wanted for a present, she said a turntable. Things have turned full circle and young people are now discovering that having thousands of songs (heck, millions of songs?) at their disposal, might not be the best way to really appreciate music. So, we all chipped in, and between us, the in-laws and Mr DD, she is now the proud owner of a turntable, speakers and a starter selection of vinyl albums. Most were recorded by current artists but in amongst those given to her by her other half was Fleetwood Mac’s Rumours. I still find it amazing that she is a fan of a band who first formed nearly 30 years before she was born. Then again I was a big fan of Fred Astaire when I was young and his heyday was nearly 30 years before I was born, so perhaps she’s just following my lead.

Anyway, on the big day we were invited across to their new house for brunch, and for the opening of presents. Although I now have nothing decent to play them on, I still have most of my vinyl albums from back in the day and I’ve decided to loan her a couple every now and again to hear what she thinks of them. On this occasion, the first “loaning out”, I brought Donald Fagan’s The Nightfly and Everything But The Girl’s Baby The Stars Shine Bright, both albums I bought when I was roughly her age. I eagerly await her judgement as she has a good ear.

I only found out about Donald Fagen’s solo career from my friend who made the “awesome mixtapes” (see link on sidebar), as back in 1986 he made me one with a couple of tracks from The Nightfly. I had always liked Steely Dan’s music but I honestly wouldn’t have known the band members’ names back then. It was a pleasant discovery though, and I immediately treated myself to my own copy of The Nightfly.

The album is full of songs that related to Donald’s New Jersey suburban childhood, in the late ’50s and early ’60s, and refer to late-night jazz disc jockeys, fallout shelters, and tropical vacations. One of my favourites is New Frontier and as you will see from the clip it involves a young chap bringing a girl home to “party” in his father’s shelter built in the back garden. Such times.

The New Frontier by Donald Fagen:


Baby, the Stars Shine Bright was an album I bought at the start of 1987, as it was recommended in the magazine The Face which I subscribed to at the time. (I went through a stage of trying to be cooler than I actually was!) It was EBTG’s third album and despite the fact it didn’t spawn any hit singles I have always really liked it.

Apparently, Tracey and Ben were following a distinctively “anti-rock” approach at this time and were unwilling to adopt a synthetic-sounding production that was fashionable at the time. Instead, the album took its influence from ’60s orchestrated music and the singer Dusty Springfield. This explains why I must have liked the album so much as since starting this blog I find myself returning to orchestral pop time and time again. This song, Come On Home, was the first on side one – I wonder what DD will make of it?

Come On Home by Everything But The Girl:


So, “What’s It All About?” – Sharing your music with the generation below I think. DD already has a good appreciation of the music we bought on CD throughout the 1990s and beyond, but my vinyl is all new to her. I’m looking forward to having music-listening sessions in her lovely new house complete with turntable and speakers. I will report back.

Until next time…

The New Frontier Lyrics
(Song by Donald Fagen)

Yes we’re gonna have a wingding
A summer smoker underground
It’s just a dugout that my dad built
In case the reds decide to push the button down
We’ve got provisions and lots of beer
The key word is survival on the new frontier

Introduce me to that big blonde
She’s got a touch of Tuesday Weld
She’s wearing Ambush and a French twist
She’s got us wild and she can tell
She loves to limbo, that much is clear
She’s got the right dynamic for the new frontier

Well I can’t wait till I move to the city
Till I finally make up my mind
To learn design and study overseas

Do you have a steady boyfriend
Cause honey I’ve been watching you
I hear you’re mad about Brubeck
I like your eyes I like him too
He’s an artist, a pioneer
We’ve got to have some music on the new frontier

Well I can’t wait till I move to the city
Till I finally make up my mind
To learn design and study overseas

Let’s pretend that it’s the real thing
And stay together all night long
And when I really get to know you
We’ll open up the doors and climb into the dawn
Confess your passion, your secret fear
Prepare to meet the challenge of the new frontier

The Flat-Sharing Years, The Specials and Everything But The Girl

I was away from home last week which explains my blogging absence. We’ve been lying low this summer so as not to jeopardise any of our business ventures by having to self-isolate, but it was time to emerge from WIAA Towers to visit one of my oldest friends who has moved from London to ‘God’s Own Country’, Yorkshire. She has been mentioned around here often, whenever I’ve written about my flat-sharing years in Aberdeen. Between 1979 and 1987 we lived in a total of five different abodes (with up to four others depending on the size of the flat) before finally parting company and heading off in totally different directions, both figuratively and geographically.

Another very famous set of flatmates

We didn’t know each other very well when we moved into that first student flat in 1979 and we were studying very different subjects. As the years go by however, your flatmates become your ‘urban family’ and you form a very special bond that can only come from living in the same shared space for so long. (Oh yes, there were many, many dramas over exams, jobs and boyfriends.) It was lovely to be able to spend time with her last week, sampling the delights of the North Yorkshire Dales, nearly 42 years on from that first flat-sharing experience.

But this is a music blog so what song to share? Back in 1979 we didn’t have laptops, Netflix or Amazon Prime but we did have a black and white telly that sat on an alcove shelf to the right of the bulky gas fire (never serviced of course but thankfully we lived to tell the tale and didn’t die of carbon monoxide poisoning). My musical memories always lead me back to the show that aired on a Thursday night at 7.30pm, and despite the lack of colour, it was great living somewhere again with a telly. The year before we had been in halls, with no access to telly at all, so for a music lover like myself this was a step up in the world indeed.

As it turned out, only being able to view our favourite music show in black and white was not a problem in the autumn of 1979, as that was just when the 2 Tone phenomenon started to grip the nation – Pork pie hats were even spotted on the heads of Aberdonians. Suddenly ska and rocksteady, a genre we had been too young to appreciate first time around, really started to resonate with a new generation of young people. A tour was put together and in November 1979 I went along to a local nightspot with another music-loving friend to witness the stars of 2 Tone in action – Link to post about that night here. The Specials topped the bill and by then we knew all the songs from their eponymously named debut album. Too Much Too Young rattles along at a fair old speed, giving this late ’70s version of ska a whole new punk sensibility.

Too Much Too Young by the Specials:


But this post was supposed to be about the reunion with my old friend and I don’t remember her being a particular fan of ska in 1979. By the time we parted company in 1987 our musical allegiances were much more aligned and one of the albums I bought that year really did resonate with her. We gladly shared any new acquisition and took advantage of the flat ‘music centre’ to (very illegally) record a copy on cassette tape. Here is a song from the album Baby, the Stars Shine Bright by Everything But The Girl, one that apparently always brought a tear to her to eye whilst driving around the North of Scotland in the new company car she had just been given (which unbeknownst to her bosses became the Flatmobile). We had started flat life with steady boyfriends, but by 1987 they had long gone, and we were singletons again ready to start the next chapter.

Come On Home by Everything But The Girl:


So, ‘What’s It All About?’ – I seem to have mislaid a lot of local friends of late so was feeling a bit lonely. This pandemic has put paid to many of my regular routines and several of the friends I used to do things with are now finding themselves either busy with grandchildren, or are retiring, and moving away from the area. Thank goodness for old friends of 42 years standing. I had a lovely time last week and our 2021 ‘digs’, unlike our old flat, were most definitely 5 Star.

Until next time…

Come On Home Lyrics
(Song by Tracey Thorne/Ben Watt)

Baby come home, I miss the sound of the door
Your step on the stair’s not there to wake me no more
And every day’s like Christmas Day without you
It’s cold and there’s nothing to do

And it’s mighty quiet here now that you’re gone
I’ve been behaving myself for too long
‘Cause I don’t like sleeping
Or watching TV on my own
So please come on home

Baby, what’s keeping you all this time
You’re wasting your days out there in the sunshine
And who can I turn to if you believe still
That England don’t love you and she never will

For it’s mighty quiet here now that you’re gone
And I’ve been behaving myself for too long
I don’t like drinking
or painting the town on my own
So please come on home

Baby come on home Please

For it’s mighty quiet here now that you’re gone
And I’ve been behaving myself for too long
‘Cause I don’t like sleeping
Or watching TV on my own
So please come on home