I'm In Love With A German Film Star

I was a little young to be fully enamoured with The Passions' 'I'm in Love with a German Film Star' at the time it was released, but it's a distinctive song that kept turning up on the radio over the following years as it meanwhile stuck tenaciously in my mind, as it has done in many others'. Having repeatedly sought it out on YouTube, last year I eventually got around to ordering a 7" copy in a plain paper sleeve from an ebay seller.

A simple, steady arrangement with a perfectly-judged guitar part undepins Barbara Gogan's pretentious yet heartfelt lyrics. To a provincial 12-year-old who'd barely even seen a German film, it all seemed terribly sophisticated and cosmopolitan. Only years later did it become common knowledge that the object of Gogan's affection was from Coventry, and had been a roadie for The Clash and The Sex Pistols before going on to do bit-parts in German films & TV.

The song still sounds great to this day, with producer Peter Wilson presumably due some of the credit for that. The B-Side 'Don't Talk To Me (I'm Shy)' has more of a stereotypically 'angular' post-punk feel about it, with what sounds like a hint of dub influence, of which, it just occurred to me, there may be a tiny tiny taste in the spaciously echoey arrangement of the A-side too.

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All Wrapped Up

Here's another of the compilation cassettes I bought this summer, having taken home a Denon twin-deck hi-fi cassette player from the local charity shop. All Wrapped Up is a 1983 compilation of singles by The Undertones, with Side One filled with A-sides, and B-sides on Side Two. A cassette must be the least desirable medium for such an arrangement, with a long rewind required if one just wants to hear the hits repeatedly. The Undertones were unapologetically provincial and anti-fashionable, with their songs sharply-written slices of life that pointedly avoided any mention of politics, or of the then-continuing violence in their native Derry. My favourite tracks are the obvious choices: 'Teenage Kicks', 'Jimmy Jimmy', 'Here Comes the Summer', 'My Perfect Cousin' & 'Wednesday Week'. Their later singles showed increased sophistication but lack the some of the straightforward charm of their earlier work. The B-sides, not unexpectedly, are mo...

In Heat

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Bananas Are Not Created Equal

I knew Jay Berliner's name from his contributions to Van Morrison's Astral Weeks and Charles Mingus' The Black Saint and the Sinner Lady , so when I saw this curiously-titled LP at the local charity shop I was intrigued, and bought it even though I had no idea what kind of music it might contain. This was after the days when one could still buy records there for a pound apiece, but I don't think I paid more than a fiver for it. The music turned out to be an all-instrumental blend of funk, soul & jazz. Berliner's virtuoso lead guitar is only one of many attractions here. The band of first-rate session musicians behind him are all uniformly excellent too, and, crucially, sound like they're having a blast. Cornell Dupree's supporting guitar work, while less showy than Berliner's, is beautifully-judged, and the rhythm section is terrific. Arranger/conductor Wade Marcus was no slouch either, judging from the way everything comes together. Two of the funk...

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