Song 136 - Build by The Housemartins

When people think about the Housemartins, Carvan of love  is usually the first song that comes to mind and not Build. Build was on side four of the double album Now that's what I call music 10, which I think my sister and I were given as a joint Christmas present. On hearing the track, I always makes me want to replay it four or five times.

The Housemartins band was formed in 1983 by Paul Heaton and Stan Cullimore, where initially the band was a busking duo and then by the end of 1985, after a number of changes in the line up, the band consisted of Heaton, Cullimore, Dave Hemingway and Norman Cook. In 1986, after recording two session with John Peel, the band  had a breakthrough with their hit; Happy Hour.  Build was released in 1987 and reached number 15 in the charts. Taken from the album The people who grinned themselves to death; this was one of the last hits before the band broke up. Three members went to form Beautiful South, Norman Cook went to Beats International and then Fat Boy Slim; but all members of the band have remained on good terms and have often supported each other with different projects.

As the Easter Weekend is fast approaching and people often start their annual DIY and spring clean; use the Housemartins for a bit of inspiration:

Build by the Housemartins

Written by Paul Heaton & Stan Cullimore
Album: The people who grinned themselves to death
Released: 1987

Song 135 - Loving arms - Tom Jans

Some of you are probably looking at this song choice and going who? Tom Jans was an American singer-songwriter from San Jose, California. To be honest with you, up until I did the research for this song, I wouldn't have been able to tell you who Tom Jans was, but I have loved his song Loving Arms since I heard it being performed by The Beautiful South on Later with Jools Holland. If I had been asked a week ago, who wrote this track, I probably would have said the Dixie Chicks!

Tom Jans started his music career by playing coffee-houses in San Francisco where he was introduced to Mimi Farina by Joan Baez. Farina and Jans formed a duo and became a support act for Cat Stevens and James Taylor. They recorded one album together, Take Heart, but unfortunately hardly anyone noticed it and the duo spilt. From there, Jans moved to Nashvillie to become a songwriter for the publishing house Irving/Almo. Loving Arms was Jans' first hit as a writer and the song was initially recorded by Dobie Gray and then Elvis Presley in 1973.

Jans did try and launch his own album with his own songs; but his solo albums were not as successful as this song that so many artists have covered. I think this is the beauty of the arts, that sometimes it is the unknown heroes that create some of the most beautiful songs in the world.

 If it wasn't for the Beautiful South, I wouldn't have heard this song and for years I didn't have a recording of this song. However, when Paul Heaton and Jacqui Abbot reformed and release their album What have we become?, the last track of the Album was Loving arms and some how a missing part of my music collection was complete.

To hear different versions of the song,

Elvis from his Good Times Album, 1973
Loving arms

Dixie Chicks from Wide Open Spaces, 1998
Loving arms

Paul Heaton and Jacqui Abbott from What have we become, 2014
Loving Arms

Tom Jans from Best of Tom, 1970-1972

Loving arms

Song 134 - Blue is the colour by the Beautiful South

 It is Friday, which means an album for the jukebox. It will come as no surprise that this week's album is Blue is the colour by The Beautiful South as there has been a theme this week. This album is probably in my top ten 90s albums as it brings back so many memories of being a student and some of the mad times I had with friends.

Blue is the Colour was the sixth album from Beautiful South, released in October 1996. It was their follow up album to Carry on up the charts (their greatest hits album)  that was released in 1994. This greatest hits album was one of the biggest selling albums of the 1990s and, of course, many who had bought this album naturally went on to buy Blue is the colour but instead of the colour being blue, it was the language that some found a little blue with the opening track of the album Don't Marry Her. Due to the lyric being Don't marry her, fuck me; for the release of the single the line was altered for radio play. The song was a great success and reached number eight in the chart, but left many a fan upset when they heard the true lyrics of the song. How do I know all this? Beautiful South printed some of the comments in their tour programme when they took the album on tour. It was obvious that half the people who bought the greatest hits hadn't listen to the album Miaow.

The album itself continues with the melancholic tone of Miaow and to some is considered the band's darkest effect with songs covering capitalism, alcoholism and prostitution. Having heard this album over a thousand times, it is the characters that are created in the songs that leave you wanting more. Take the song,  The Sound of North America, it takes iconic Americans like Elvis and  Mohammed Ali and weave them into a song that makes you think about bigger issues of the world.  Here's the lyric about Mohammed Ali:  A crippled Mohammed Ali looked bad luck in the mirror; Bad luck looked back at him and sighed. He looked a good foot smaller and a couple of stone thinner, And if anyone came toward hhim he would hide. The sound of North America isn't Christians quietly praying, It's the sound of shuffling feet, that don't know where they're going. Some of the lyrics thought up by Paul Heaton and Dave Rotheray could be published in a poetry book or turned into one act plays and that for me is what makes this album stand out.

As well as releasing Don't marry her, the band also had singles with Rotterdam, Blackbird on the wire and Liar's Bar. Rotterdam was the biggest single of the album and there is a lovely acoustic recording of the song sung by Paul that was used as a B side to a single. The single version which was sung by Jacqui Abbot.

This album was also a subject of a Later with Jools Holland special, where the band linked up with the London Community Gospel Choir and Black Dyke Mills Band, together with Jools Holland to great a very special programme. 

Anyway I could talk about this album for hours and it is better that I just let you hear it:
Don't marry her
Little Blue
Mirror
Blackbird on the wire
The Sound of North America
Have Fun
Liar's Bar
Rotterdam (or anywhere)
Foundations
Artificial flowers
One God
Alone

Album: Blue is the colour
Written by Paul Heaton and Dave Rotheray
Released: 1996

Song 132 - Good as Gold by Beautiful South

Sometimes if you start singing one Beautiful South song, then another one comes alone, unless you bite your tongue. Yes today's song is another classic Beautiful South song, Good as Gold (stupid as mud). Never released as a single, it is the second last track off their 4th album Miaow released in 1994.

Without trying to repeat myself from yesterday, this song just makes me smile partly due to the first two verses which are Don't know what I'm doing here, I'll carry on regardless, Got enough money for one more beer, I'll carry on regardless. Gold as gold, but stupid as mud, He'll carry on regardless. They'll bleed his heart 'til there's no more blood, But carry on regardless. There is an irony in the lyrics due as much as you want to laugh at the character in the song, you can sometimes listen to it and ask yourself if you should be laughing.  Perhaps that's too deep, but I think we all know people who we have egged on when perhaps we shouldn't have.

This is the first album that Jacqui Abott sang as a member of Beautiful South as Briana Corrigan made the decision to leave the band after not liking the subject matter of some of the songs on the album. I must admit that of all their albums this is probably not the one to put on for family listening. But it is precisely for the bluntness of subject matter that the partnership between Dave Rotheray and Paul Heaton was sublime because they didn't stay within the fluffiness of song writing, because life isn't all about fluffy clouds and happy rainbows. Although I wonder how many people bought the album due to the brilliant version of Everybody's Talkin' to realise that not all songs were as upbeat but then again for anyone looking for romance Prettiest Eyes is a perfect love song.

Two interesting facts about the album; the tracks are listed in reverse order and the album cover was meant to feature the HMV dog but they refused the rights for the band to use them, so it is four dogs in a lifeboat. Some people probably think the album should have been called WOOF!

Have fun watching the elephant:
Good as gold by Beautiful South

Written by Paul Heaton and Dave Rotheray
Album: Miaow
Released: March 1994

Song 131 - Look what I found in my beer by Beautiful South

Here's something to laugh at, I have just asked my lovely husband to name a song for today's blog and he has said Baa Baa Black Sheep and whilst I am not going to blog about this song, it is worth noting that this nursery rhythm dates back to the 18th Century and nursery rhythms are an important part of developing language and rhythm in small children's voices. There are a number of songs that are going through my head at the moment and I think today I think I am going to turn to one of my favourite bands, which I don't think I have put in the Jukebox yet and that is the band; Beautiful South and their song Look what I found in my beer taken from their 1998 album Quench. 

Although never realised as a single, this is a Beautiful South song that sticks in my head as there is a line in the song; Look what I found in the mic, An end to screwed up drinking and a Paul I actually like. For some reason those lines echo something in me and the idea of looking at yourself and liking what you see in the mirror. Like with any Beautiful South song; it is the cleverness of the lyrics that make their songs magical. Although there is clear reference to alcoholism in the song, the whole composition makes it upbeat. I love the ability Heaton and Rotheray had of being able to compose stories and characters in 2 minutes. Also their songs stick to their roots of working class life in Hull and that is what makes the songs so colourful.

Quench was their 8th studio album which was released in 1998, after their hugely successful Blue is the colour and was their third successive album to reached the number 1 spot in the chart. The cover artwork was created by the Scottish Artist Peter Howston and the original can be found in Ferens Art Gallery in Hull.

Out of all the pop groups I may write about in the blog, Beautiful South are one of the few bands that I have seen live. When their album Blue is the colour was release, I saw them at the SECC in Glasgow with friends whilst still being students. For two of us, we fell in love with Paul Heaton and followed the band to Huddersfield the next summer. (Just to make it clear - we attended a concert there - we didn't just turn up there in the hope of seeing them.) I even think I wrote an imaginary adventure story for the two of us weaving in all their songs!! The funny thing is when I go back to thinking about Baa Baa Black sheep, it is the same friend who travelled the country with me to see Beautiful South, who probably learnt the nursery rhyme with me.

Enough about my madness, enjoy the song:

Look what I found in my beer

Written by: Paul Heaton and Dave Rotheray
Album: Quench
Released: October 1998.