28 years to the day since this edition of John Peel’s Music was broadcast on BFBS and how disappointing that all I have to mark the occasion in this post is a Peel anecdote about watching Jimmy Reed, which he subsequently admitted he had never done, in which he said that a feature of Reed’s live performances was the way that he would play more slowly as a gig progressed due to his fondness for drink. As a result, his wife would have to whisper the lyrics to him. “What a great man he was and much missed, especially by me.” Peel never needed an excuse to eulogise Jimmy Reed and in this instance, the impetus came from him reading one of The Black Crowes being quoted in the Rebellious Jukebox feature of Melody Maker that Jimmy Reed “‘...was a forgotten man these days.’ Not while there’s breath in my body, he isn’t!” and he played A String to Your Heart.
The programme was also blighted by the sound of background drilling in the studio. Peel reassured his audience, “It’s just irate music fans trying to get at us.”
The selections from this show were taken from a full 2 hour show. There was one selection I would have liked to include but which wasn’t available:
My Brain - Train - Taken from the same compilation album as featured Puppets! by Syntec, which will give you some idea of the style of the track: noisy, Germanic electro pop.
As with the previous week’s programme, I found myself being a lot more ruthless with borderline selections:
Wawali Bonane - Methode - Oh dear...I promise that a track from Peel’s favourite soukous album ever is due to be included here shortly.
Fishwife - Almighty Wurlitzer - My notes describe this as “Scuzzy US rock with a lascivious streak” but subsequent listens failed to turn me on. Peel complained that their album, Ritalin was, “...one of those irritating records in which all the tracks run into one another.”
Howlin’ Wolf - Goin’ Down Slow - One of the very first tracks I blogged about on this site was by Howlin’ Wolf and it led me to buy a compilation album of his singles in which this track featuring his sage advice to lovers was included. However, listening back to it, I realised that if I want my Howlin’ Wolf fix from that album, I usually choose any track other than Goin’ Down Slow. Peel played the vinyl album he’d bought in Dallas and recommended that listeners play Goin’ Down Slow “...stupendously loud so as to better appreciate Hubert Sumlin’s guitar playing.”
The Fall - 2nd Dark Age - Taken from their 1980 Fiery Jack EP, I was initially quite taken by the simple, but persistent clatter of this tune, but with my 2020 ears picking up potentially misogynistic lines about the treatment of women in Arab countries and references to “a mediocre Anti-Jew”, I started to get that feeling which Mark E. Smith could occasionally engender in me, where I just found myself thinking, “I’m really not able for you today.” As ever, The Annotated Fall is your best place to unpick the puzzles.
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