Fascination Street

Is actually not one of the tracks I would have thought of for the recent topic on the Billy Sloan Show (re: post title).

I no longer tune in to the show but I still follow the Facebook posts because I still like to see what the topic will be for each week’s show. Last week it was a “street” themed show. I like to think of the songs off the top of my head, listing them as they come to mind rather than referring to some big old list of songs off the Internet. For one can be lazy and easily just do a web search for “songs with ‘street’ in the title” and get a plethora of results. That takes the fun away for me.

So, over the past few nights as I have been settling down to drift off to slumberland, I have been thinking about the songs that entered my grey matter before Mr Sandman swept me off to Nod. I made several little voice notes of the ones that came to mind.

I wanted to keep away from very obvious ones. For instance, I saw several Simple Minds fans choose ‘Street Fighting Years.’ For me, it was ‘Pleasantly Disturbed’ and ‘Murder Story’ that entered my mind. I like to pluck songs out from the mentions being in the lyrics and not necessarily in the song title. A fairly constant repetition of “street light” in the former made it a no-brainer of a choice, whereas the latter contains one of my favourite SM lines “the children from the street call out my name – ‘hey, you!’” After that, the mind went a bit blank when it came to the more obscure SM tracks – “I’m not half the fan I used to be” – scrambled eggs. (IYKYK)

After that, my thoughts moved to David Bowie songs. The immediate one that arrived was ‘Blackout’ – “get me off the streets / get me on my feet.” Such a fantastic song, and that splurge of dialogue that comes in the second verse – “get me to the doctor’s / I’ve been told / someone’s back in town / the chips are down / I just cut and blackout / I’m under Japanese influence / and my honour’s at stake.” I love it when someone can deliver lines in a flow like that. Not dissimilar to what a young Mr Kerr did for ‘Twist/Run/Repulsion’ – and it’s probably why I love that song so much too.

I tried to think of other Bowie songs. I visualised the ‘Day In/Day Out’ video but playing the song internally I couldn’t recall any lines pertaining to streets/roads/avenues, etc. The only other one that crossed my thought was ‘Scary Monsters’ – “now she’s stupid in the street / and she can’t socialise.”

Two others on the first night of notetaking that came to mind were Dire Straits’ ‘Romeo and Juliet’ – “a love-struck Romeo sings the streets a serenade.” It came to mind quickly because it is my absolute favourite Dire Straits song and has been for many years. Making Movies is the only Dire Straits album I’ve ever owned.

The other song was Field Music’s ‘Orion from the Street’ – I know! I actually thought of one with STREET in the title! Lol. It is a beautiful song with such lovely arpeggios running through it.

I then turned my attention to Australian artists. The first that sprang forth was ‘Girls on the Avenue’ by Richard Clapton. Then came one of my favourite Icehouse songs – ‘Street Cafe’ – which REALLY doesn’t get played enough by anyone! Finally, as I only just thought of it while composing this post – ‘Wide Open Road’ by The Triffids – I love this song SSOOOO MUCH! I can’t believe I have only just thought of it now. It is one of my most favourite Australian tracks OF ALL TIME. It HAD to be on this list!

Also, The Modern Lovers’ ‘Road Runner’ appeared in the folds of the grey matter, as did Lou Reed’s ‘Dirty Boulevard’ – which I would assume would count, making the assumption that variations of “street” are allowed? Who knows? They count for me anyway.

Of the less obscure ones that came to mind? The Doobie Brothers’ ‘Takin’ It to the Streets’ arrived as did ‘Street Life’ – which I had to look up. I knew it was sung by a female vocalist but I couldn’t recall who it was. So the song was actually released by a group called The Crusaders and it’s Randy Crawford that performs the vocals. Every day’s a school day!

Finally, could I let a post on this blog go by without trying to offer up some kind of Hamish Hawk reference? No! So, I was thinking about tracks of his and whether the opening lines to ‘You Can Film Me’ had any reference to a street/road because the first line is “driving in drag down the Moray coast” – but no. However, there is a short album track on A Firmer Hand titled ‘Christopher St.’

As a postscript to this topic – I needed the loo having compiled this post. Still thinking about all the songs mentioned. We either get the most inspired or horrendous things coming to mind when sitting on the bog, right? It just happened to me – one last Australian song that I wish hadn’t entered my mind. This song was HUGE in the early 1990s, much to my consternation as it grated on me. The band were called Frente! and they did go on to record a rather stellar version of New Order’s ‘Bizarre Love Triangle’ (until The Anchoress blew them out of the water with her version) but a couple of years prior to that, they released a single called ‘Accidently Kelly Street.’ I’ll add it here (watch at your peril!) along with a parody from a comedy show that at the time I would watch religiously: The Late Show.

See you on the streets, kids.