Because it’s the f***ing Sex Pistols, arguably the greatest rock and roll band of all time, at their most pop, such as it is. Pretty Vacant being the one you could find on a mixtape with the likes of Elvis Costello, The Who, The Doors, The Cars even, without offending anyone. Certainly no one you didn’t want to be offending. Based on an Abba song apparently.
Installment #21. of the Final Countdown aired in November 2018 (c/o CiTR.FM.101.9).
The Final Countdown* is Randophonic’s longest and, if we’re doing it right, most relevant countdown yet – the end of result of a rather convoluted process that’s still evolving such is the existential nature of the project question: the 1297 Greatest Records of All Time right now right here. Whatever that means. What it means is dozens of radio programs if all goes to plan, and when has that ever happened?
Installment #21 went like this:
896. Jonsi vs Tiesto – kaleidoscope ne
895. Drugstore – el presidente
894. Boo Radleys – wish I was skinny
893. Wire – I am the fly
892. Magnetic Fields – All My Little Words
891. Dusty Springfield – no easy way down
890. Prince – pop life
889. Grateful Dead – box of rain
888. Age Rings – Caught Up in the Sound
887. Blur – trimm trabb
886. Gorky’s Zygotic Mynci – Spanish Dance Troupe
885. Van Morrison – the way that young lovers do
884. Arno – knowing me knowing you
883. Howlin’ Wolf – moanin’ at midnight
882. Dub Syndicate – stoned immaculate
881. Material – memory serves
880. MGMT – Siberian breaks
879. Sally Oldfield – water bearer
978. National Health – squarer for Maud
Tracks can be found on this Youtube playlist (not entirely accurate).
Randophonic airs pretty much every Saturday night, starting 11 pm (Pacific time) c/o CiTR.FM.101.9, with streaming and/or download options usually available within twenty-four hours via our Facebook page.
“The first time I heard Wayne (eventually Jayne) County’s Man Enough to be a Woman was at a punk bash, 1979 sometime. It showed up on a mixtape somewhere in and around the Buzzcocks, the Ramones, Devo, maybe some Kinks. It was that kind of scene. I didn’t even like punk rock (yet), but the parties were always good. So here’s a hint, kids. If the party’s good, the music is too, in spite of what your so called ‘taste’ may be telling you, because if you’re anything like me, your taste will be shit until you’re at least twenty-one. But anyway, Wayne County and the Electric Chairs weren’t even punk really, just loud and proud and defiantly brave rock and roll tearing glamorous scars into the fabric of reality. There was also some Abba on that mixtape. I was wrong about them, too, for a long while.”
“Sally Oldfield being Mike’s big sister, Water Bearer (the song and album that contains it) being smooth, ethereal, fresh as the waters of Rivendell itself. Indeed, it’s right there in the lyrics for Songs of Quendi (found deeper into side one) – these sounds aren’t just redolent of what you’d expect to hear on a Saturday night at Elrond’s joint, they’re purporting to be the real thing. Which would be laughable if they weren’t just so darned sumptuous. Or as I once heard someone say about Abba – it’s the musical equivalent of taking a hot bath, then going to bed with clean sheets, except these particular sheets are woven from mystical elven silk that transports you to dreams of the undying lands found beyond the great ocean of Belegaer. It’s true.” (Philip Random)
“Listening to Abba is like having a bath, then going to bed with freshly cleaned sheets. Or so I heard it put way back when, the 1970s. But by the time the 1980s hit, the culture no longer had time for such luxuriant cleanliness. So Abba effected a change, got darker, deeper, paranoid even. Which worked for me, but I can’t say I’ve ever heard The Visitors popping up at a wedding.” (Philip Random)
Randophonic 
