Foreign, Spat On & Short-Changed

1. Gospel Moment - Slaid Cleaves (2006)
2. Lonely Spartanburg Flower Store - Young Fresh Fellows (2001)
3. Day - Bill Callahan (2007)
4. I Am Talking To This Flower - Camper Van Beethoven (2004)
5. A Pack Of Lies - Fatima Mansions (1990)
6. Fat Children - Jarvis Cocker (2006)
7. Evangeline - Icicle Works (1987)
8. Stop Touching Me - Optiganally Yours (1997)
9. Johnny Said: Silver - Nits (1979)
10. White Tornado - R.E.M. (1984)
11. Sebrina, Paste And Plato - Jellyfish (1993)
12. Sidi H' Bibi - Mano Negra (1989)
13. Take It From Me Brother Moses - The North Sea (2007)
14. Evil Honky Stomp - Danielle Dax (1984)
15. Valley of the Bones - Thin White Rope (1989)
16. Holler - Tangle Eye (with C.B. "88" Cook) (2004)
17. Stone Thames - Big Audio Dynamite (1985)
18. Written All Over My Face - Richard X. Heyman (2007)
19. Saturday's Asylum - Rain Parade (1983)
20. Central Booking - John Vanderslice (2007)
21. The Reason - Thunderclap Newman (1969)
22. The Birth Of The True - Aztec Camera (1984)
23. Neck Lumps - Billy Connolly (1995)

My friend recently sat next to one of the guys from Foreigner on a flight from Copenhagen to Helsinki. Foreigner man was upset my friend hadn't heard of them.

obscure: Rain Parade

not obscure: Foreigner

However, your friend should have told him "Oh, yeah you guys did that 'Keep The Fire Burning' tune."

This friend grew up in Hong Kong.

Probably "Double Vision, " "Head Games," "Cold As Ice" and "Jukebox Hero" were hits in Hong Kong, but that was like 200 years ago or so.

"I remember you now, you did that 'Here I Go Again' song! Right? Right? That lady dancing on the car was hot."

When I actually was talking to my friend, I could only think of "Hot Blooded", "Double Vision" and "Urgent". Later I realized "Cold As Ice", "Waiting for a Girl Like You", and "I Want To Know What Love Is" would probably be more well known. If he didn't know "Hot Blooded" I doubt he'd know "Head Games", "Jukebox Hero", or "Feels Like the First Time".

I am so totally downloading this!
Thanks Phil... the new King Of The Mix Forum.

That Fatima Mansions song sounds like it could be Tenacious D. But not intentionally funny.

This I do not get.

Cathal Coughlan = Jack Black?

Does not compute for any Microdisney or Fatima Mansions fan.

But, hey, you know, Jack's okay.

I certainly take Cathal's lyrics more seriously.

I think it's more the (overly serious) sound of his delivery than anything else.

It's overly serious because Coughlan was one of the angriest British songwriters this side of New Model Army. All his songs have very specific targets, but great structure.

So, like, if Mark E. Smith knew how to write an actual melody.


They first met at the hospital, she was checking out for good
Her body patched but past repair, and there her angel stood
She was feeling quite confused now that her death was close at hand
She had to face eternity, so why not this mumbling man?
Who bought himself a wedding suit at a local warrant sale
It belonged to some old Turkish man who'd owed and gone to jail
He would coax her mind with talk of love to make her body kind
Because people hate the truth, you know; they need their pack of lies
Growing tired of being foreign, being spat on and shortchanged
He demanded that she leave with him for the land from whence he came
They were herded on like cattle to a ferry at high tide
This unkempt, aging orphan and his helpless, dying bride
But he left her at the other shore crying on the deck
She was slumped against the rail as he had struck to free his neck
and the customs shed was empty as he made his way inside
There were no chimpanzees in uniform to hear his pack of lies
Now she's ascending into heaven with contentment on her face
and Holy God is there to greet and batter her into her place
But meanwhile back on Earth, we see the prodigal's returned
and they're making him the chieftain and they've come to him to learn
How the neighbours in he rich land better steal and kill and lie
and when they ask who calls the weaklings there he just shrugs and says, Not I!
Though surrounded by diseases, I stood tall and kept my health
I could have been important if I'd been somebody else
The moral of this story is: This land's a victim-farm
Don't you ever feed a beggar here, he'll eat your fucking arm
and don't blaspheme the strong ones if you want to stay alive
Now smile and give them thanks when they say, Here's a pack of lies!

By the way, I am digging this mix.
Thanks, again!

fyi:

Bill Callahan = Smog

Thunderclap Newman should have been big and had lots of rekkids, but weren't and didn't

The R.E.M. track is an in-studio instrumental from the Reckoning sessions.

"Holler" was originally "Whoa Buck" (1947) on the Alan Lomax field recordings

The lyrics to "Stone Thames" are unusually nasty for B.A.D.

Danielle Dax was a babe and I wish she'd done more records

Thin White Rope need more recognition but didn't get it then, either.

You may remember the Optigan, the Mattel play organ of the '70's

Optiganally Yours are Rob Crow of Pinback (and seventy-upteem other projects) and Dan "Pea" Hicks.

Nits I'm still discovering. They're great. More than 30 years as the Dutch XTC.

Mano Negra manage to be both retarded and serious musicians over the years.

The CVB track is from New Roman Times, a concept album I appreciate much more now than when it came out.

Richard X Heyman is a sturdy singer-songwriter who never went anywhere. This year he put out a re-recorded version of his debut album Actual Size with additional new tracks and called it Actual Sighs.

God loves The Young Fresh Fellows