Yes, it's time for another playlist, and this time we are off to mainland Europe.
Here we have ten more interesting (well, eleven actually - I had to choose between two out of three and couldn't) tunes for you all with a European theme to the titles. I think this one is covering quite a lot of ground musically, so I hope there is something in here for everyone.
1. Ultravox: Vienna
This was the third single and the title track from Ultravox's fourth album, the first to include new front man Midge Ure (replacing original vocalist John Foxx). The song was written in 1980, and found the band trying to achieve a sound that would remind them of nineteenth century romantic composers. The viola solo in it was inspired by the German composer Max Reger. The song is about someone having a brief affair while in Vienna. Their label, Chrysalis, thought it too long and too slow to be a single, but the band insisted, and it ultimately spent four weeks at number two in the UK - infamously kept off the top spot for some of that time by the novelty Joe Dolce song, Shaddap You Face.
Vienna: (Official music video)
2. Fleet Foxes: Mykonos
Fleet Foxes are an indie-folk band hailing from Seattle. Mykonos appears on their critically acclaimed second EP Sun Giant (2008). Like many of theirs, the video is animated and unusual, this one being directed by Sean Pecknold, brother of lead singer Robin. Pitchfork said that the video "imagines a fluid universe filled with triangles, castles and barbershop moustaches. It's a little playful... and a little creepy." Lots of reviewers likened the style of the EP to that of Crosby, Stills and Nash.
Mykonos: (Official music video)
3. Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark: Maid Of Orleans
This was the second of two Joan of Arc based singles from the album Architecture & Morality. They were both written by singer / bassist, Andy McCluskey, in 1981 around the time of the 550th anniversary of Joan's death. Some, like Ian Birch writing in Smash Hits, described this song as "their Mull Of Kintyre."
Maid Of Orleans: (Stunning live Proms version)
4. Lee Hazlewood: The Girls In Paris
This song is taken from his 1967 album Lee Hazlewoodism: It's Cause And Cure. Hazlewood had been born in Oklahoma, the son of an oil worker, who moved around the south and mid-west a lot through his youth. Growing up listening to a lot of bluegrass, he became a lead figure of what was termed the Cowboy Psychedelia movement. He was particularly famous for work with Duane Eddy and Nancy Sinatra (he wrote and produced These Boots Were Made For Walkin'). Although his musical style is not something I would generally listen to, I find his deep baritone voice somehow quite captivating, drawing me in anyway.
The Girls In Paris: (Audio only - possibly Nancy Sinatra on backing vocals?)
5. The Beautiful South: Rotterdam
Rotterdam was written by former Housemartin, Paul Heaton, along with Beautiful South guitarist Dave Rotheray, and featured Jacqui Abbott on lead vocals. Heaton, talking to The Guardian, described what led to him writing the song. "I wrote the lyrics to Rotterdam (Or Anywhere) sitting in a bar on the north end of Lijnbaan, Rotterdam's main shopping street. The bar was modern-looking and not friendly at all. It was in January 1996, about three in the afternoon. I'd probably been up all night drinking, I probably smelled, and I'd walked into their bar and plonked my bag down. I wasn't the sort the owners wanted in there. They probably thought: 'Oh God, we don't want this bloke to be our regular. Let’s make sure he never comes back.' So they were trying to think of different excuses to move me on, like: 'You can't sit there, there's a private party coming in.' I got really pissed off – and I wrote a short story that became a very bitchy song, scribbling it down while sitting there."
Rotterdam (Or Anywhere): (Official music video)
6. Half Man Half Biscuit: All I Want For Chritmas Is A Dukla Prague Away Kit
Dukla Prague was released on a 7" single with The Trumpton Riots ahead of the EP of the same name - on legendary Liverpool indie label, Probe Plus. The song title referenced back to several novelty records of the past; namely, 1944s All I want For Christmas Is My Two Front Teeth by Donald Gardner, and 1963s All I Want For Christmas Is A Beatle by Dora Bryan. Dukla Prague were a real Czech football team, active between 1948 and 1996 - and for the record, their away kit was a yellow shirt with red sleeves, red shorts and yellow socks.
Dukla Prague Away Kit: (Live on The Whistle Test)
7. Marillion: White Russian
Clutching At Straws was the last album before original vocalist Fish (if you are wondering why he changed his name - his real name is Derek Dick...) left the band in 1988. It was a concept album about Torch, a young out of work man struggling with alcohol problems and a failed marriage. This particular song was written at a time when Kurt Waldheim, an ex-Nazi, had just been elected president in Austria - and it contains many references to the end of WWII, the East-West divide and a re-awakening of the right wing in Europe. Fish would later say, "This is a heavy, soul-searching song that touches on politics and deals with the Jewish problem in Austria. Torch is observing all these things that attack his conscience and make him feel he should act and face up to reality. There's a big fight between the two halves of Torch; the realist and the escapist."
White Russian: (Live in Berlin, 1988)
8. The Clash: Spanish Bombs
Spanish Bombs, from the Clash's seminal third album London Calling, was written by Joe Strummer at a time when ETA (Euskadi Ta Askatasuna - a far left Basque nationalist group) were bombing hotels on the Costa Brava (and with echoes of the more familiar IRA bombing campaign occurring back in the UK). The song compares the holiday mecca that Spain had become post-dictatorship, with the Civil War and Franco era. It praises the anti-fascist poet Federico Garcia Lorca, in the line "Oh please leave the ventana [Spanish for window] open / Federico Lorca is dead and gone" - echoing lines from his poem Farewell.
Spanish Bombs: (Live in 1980)
9. Neutral Milk Hotel: Holland, 1945
In The Aeroplane Over The Sea is the second and final album by the well respected, but low key, Louisiana lo-fi indie band Neutral Milk Hotel, led by Jeff Mangum. Holland 1945 is one of their more upbeat tunes, yet has dark subject material, referencing amongst other things, the sad wartime tale of the young Dutch girl, Anne Frank. She is also referenced elsewhere on the album, as Mangum had read a collection of her diary entries prior to recording the record, and was profoundly moved by it. The album as a whole contained such a raft of conflicting influences and tones, it led Jason Ankeny to write in AllMusic that it was "like a marching band on an acid trip."
Holland, 1945: (Audio only)
10. The Stranglers: Nice In Nice
The Stranglers ninth studio album, Dreamtime, was also their lowest charting of the Hugh Cornwell era (up to 1990), only making number 16. It also received some very mixed reviews, with many critics believing the record didn't hit the creative peaks of earlier LPs. Nice In Nice however, was broadly seen as a moment of strength on the record, being written and sung by bass player Jean Jaques Burnel. The single would reach number 30 on the UK chart.
Nice In Nice: (Official music video)
11. R.E.M.: Radio Free Europe
Radio Free Europe was the bands very first single, originally released in 1981 on the Hib-Tone label. It was later re-recorded for their debut album, Murmur (which came out on IRS). Both versions were produced by Mitch Easter and Don Dixon (who would produce their first two albums). The song was somewhat typical of their early work with often hard to decipher lyrics - Michael Stipe would later deny that the Murmur lyrics were indecipherable, although he would admit that Radio Free Europe was one of the exceptions and was mostly him babbling. Bassist Mike Mills said that the song is not really about the US government radio station that shares that name, but was just picked as a title because it sounded good. The band seem to have preferred the faster tempo of the first version.
Radio Free Europe: (Live on The Tube, 1983)
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