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Not sure about “Puff the Magic Dragon”…
Ian Dury can’t put a foot wrong, as far as I’m concerned.
And it’s tragic that he’s only really known for “Hit me with for rhythm stick” and “Sex and drugs and rock’n’roll.”
Billericay Dickie is as good as anything ever written about leg-overs.
And “There ain’t half been some clever bastards” sank without trace
Good golly Miss Molly and boats
Hammersmith Palais, the Bolshoi Ballet
Jump back in the alley and nanny goats
18-wheeler Scammels, Domenecker camels
All other mammals plus equal votes
Seeing Piccadilly, Fanny Smith and Willy
Being rather silly, and porridge oats
A bit of grin and bear it, a bit of come and share it
You’re welcome, we can spare it – yellow socks
Too short to be haughty, too nutty to be naughty
Going on 40 – no electric shocks
The juice of the carrot, the smile of the parrot
A little drop of claret – anything that rocks
Elvis and Scotty, days when I ain’t spotty,
Sitting on the potty – curing smallpox
Health service glasses
Gigolos and brasses
round or skinny bottoms
Take your mum to paris
lighting up the chalice
wee willy harris
Bantu Stephen Biko, listening to Rico
Harpo, Groucho, Chico
Cheddar cheese and pickle, the Vincent motorsickle
Slap and tickle
Woody Allen, Dali, Dimitri and Pasquale
balabalabala and Volare
Something nice to study, phoning up a buddy
Being in my nuddy
Saying hokey-dokey, singalonga Smokey
Coming out of chokey
John Coltrane’s soprano, Adi Celentano
Bonar Colleano
Hornby finds – in contrast to “Reasons to be thankful” – in “Calvary Cross” an “older England, full of dark satanic peasants and howling winds and pigs’ bladders and what have you”
I think he likes Ian Dury’s England better…
And he was over 40 before he heard Lindley’s “hymnal, soulful guitar solo” and the breathtakingly sombre beauty” of “Late for the sky”.
More fool him.
Mark Mulcahy represents not the music, but the discovery process.
Record store owners who point you in a direction you might not ventured, wine merchants who give you a bottle of muscadet (Muscadet? Fuck off!) to try and you find you like it.
Or the folks on my blogroll who excite me virtually every day with new finds.
Buy the book, visit their blogs.
21. Puff The Magic Dragon – Gregory Isaacs – Nick Hornby/31 Songs
22. Reasons To Be Cheerful, Pt. 3 – Ian Dury & The Blockheads – Nick Hornby/31 Songs
23. The Calvary Cross – Richard & Linda Thompson – Nick Hornby/31 Songs
24. Late For The Sky – Jackson Browne – Nick Hornby/31 Songs
25. Hey Self Defeater – Mark Mulcahy – Nick Hornby/31 Songs
You Must Be From Away 