You know what this CD lacks?

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my nominated track is an electronic one (surprise surprise). but at least this one has words..!
i love the lyrics, but what has always stood out to me is the sample from jacob’s ladder:

If you’re frightened of dyin’ and you’re holding on…
You’ll see devils tearing your life away.
But…if you’ve made your peace,
Then the devils are really angels
Freeing you from the earth….

not a particularly cheerful piece, i know. but it’s from a brilliant album, and is, in my humble opinion, the most powerful track. it weaves thom yorke’s haunting vocals into a carpet of rhythmic and melodic textures that, if you allow it to, bring a lightness to your chest and a steadiness to your breathing. and then – building it as only unkle can – after the spoken word sample it surges with an intensity that still summons a physical response in me, regardless of how many times i’ve heard it.
recently i had the opportunity to share it with a friend who i hadn’t seen in a while, due to his being preoccupied with his terminally ill father. we were raiding my cd shelf, looking for music for him to borrow. unlike the other songs we were running through on my stereo, rather than a snippet, we played this one through beginning to end. as the last beats washed away, he said, very quietly, that was exactly what i needed to hear. and in that one utterance, i understood more about his emotional life in that moment than in all the time we’ve been friends.
so – because it privileged me with a glimpse into a usually guarded friend – if i were to pick one song that’s stood out to me in the last 6 months, this would be it. if you’re looking to make a more upbeat compilation you’ll probably want to leave this track out! but i’d love for you to listen to it anyway.

Uborka Mix CD:
‘Come Back To Camden’ – Morrissey

Your leg came to rest against mine
Then you lounged with knees up and apart
And me and my heart, we knew
We just knew, for evermore

Where taxi drivers never stop talking
Under slate grey Victorian sky
Here you’ll find, my heart and I
And still we say come back

Come back to Camden
And I’ll be good
I’ll be good.

No explanation really necessary, I think.

You don’t see rabbits being walked down the street
And you don’t see many cats on leads
Dogs pet dogs dogs rapacious wet dogs
Owner of dogs slow-witted dog owner
Owner of rabid dog saving fare for tunnel
Euro-dream of civil, civil liberation for dogs
Society secret society inevitable nightmare
Of drift dog pet dogs street bullshit
Dog shit baby bit ass-lick dog mirror
Dead tiger shot and checked out by dog
Big tea-chest-fucker dog

And so on. Dog is Life/Jerusalem by The Fall might not be their best track. It certainly isn’t taken from their best album, although 1988’s I Am Kurios Oranj (Beggars Banquet) was followed by a string of outstanding albums from Extricate (1990) to The Infotainment Scan (1993) via the album that first got me hooked on the band, 1992’s Code: Selfish. On Kurious Oranj The Fall provided the music for an avant-garde ballet by Michael Clark’s dance company based on a story concerning William and Mary of Orange. Complete and utter nonsense.
And that is why it seemed an appropriate choice from the Pockless jury.
The Fall’s Mark E Smith shares a credit with William Blake for the lyrics, and Blake’s words form a fine counterpart to Mark E Smith’s Mancunian bombast on the subject of dogs and other issues of considerable importance. As such, it is the only song by The Fall to have had its lyrics featured on The Clock, back in February of 2002.
By the time Smith delivers the lines “It was the government’s fault / It was the fault of the government” the track has evolved into quintessential Fall, with a bassline that bounces like an ebullient baboon laying bricks for a backstreet beerhouse. Baboons are large terrestrial monkeys notably distinguished by their doglike muzzles. Pet dog muzzle dog dogs rapacious wet dogs, oh yes this is the stuff of genius.

Nominating a single song for anything is hard. To select one song, you are selecting one genre too. You have to eliminate songs that have a special meaning (Belly, Feed the Tree, My first alternative song), have a special gravel (John Lee Hooker, Boom Boom, My first blues song), have a special pulse (Pixies, Where is my mind, My first goth song), have a special darkness (The Stones, Painted Black, My first war song), have a special extended mix (Sisters of Mercy, Temple of love, My first bouncing around a rock club song).
I could write a list of songs that would go on my sound track to life, so to select one makes it even more incredible by the songs that aren’t that one. The few above shows the esteemed company that it keeps.
The song I have selected is my song of all time. It takes me to that place that exists at the end of a really really good book when you have finished the last page and just stare at the blank space under the last word, in a stunned shocked silence. That bit before you want to go and force everyone to read the book, with force if necessary.
Pink Floyd – Wish you were here