They gossiped, slipped behind doors, listened at the window, and had a party. But what songs made it into Neighbours Lane?
Hello again, and, as I fling open the pub doors, pass out the beer mats and switch on the vinyl jukebox, welcome back customers, one and all, to the Readers Recommend. Yes, that's right – RR is not the Rovers Return of Coronation Street fame but an altogether different establishment, though still home to down-to-earth banter, with musical enrichment and who knows, even greater popularity. We have infinite seats, after all, but it's still cosy. A pint of the usual, sir or madam? Or would you like to try a half of Kimpton's Old Peculiar™? It's a heady brew, let me warn you and here is the recipe. And I'm sure we will be serving up other guest ales aplenty.
And so to business – songs about neighbours. Now then, when I threw this particular rock into the sea I expected all kinds of pebbles to wash up onto the shore. But people, you didn't deliver mere pebbles, you brought pearls. Pearls, I tells ya! Not merely a handful, so many – enough to fill a beanbag. Imagine that. I felt like I was sitting on riches. Even more so despite the malfunction of comments in the first 13 hours of posting and my cursed luck. Thank you for your persistance.
But as these pearls floated across the ocean of my consciousness, I had to make some harsh decisions. Some would have to slip back into the sea to find another home. That wasn't easy. But making that final list isn't the only achievement. We have already collectively painted a multifarious picture of human society – of noisy neighbours – some making it, others receiving it. Of lust and longing, loneliness and jealousy, guilt and confusion, fear and fighting. Alongside beautiful sights and sounds, there have been mysterious figures, cruelty and gossip, joyful parties and personal tragedies hidden in the hustle-and-bustle of streets.
So many suggestions almost made it. Paul Simon's Duncan contains one of the best opening lines about neighbours – the hotel couple going at it all night long – but the song seems to me to be about other things, and the neighbours were just a starting point for that. Goldmund's My Neighbourhood is a beautiful piece of music – atmospheric, tranquil, moving – but it recreates a place and a state of mind, and feels less about neighbours themselves.
I was really torn about In the Neighbourhood by Tom Waits, but it throws a larger perspective, it doesn't quite have that next-door feeling. And I was really up for Mos Def's Habitat, but while he talks about home as a place of safety as well as violent street scenes, he builds it into a wider perspective too. OK. I can already hear a sharp intake of breath out there.
There were also lots of very funny songs many about antisocial behaviour, from Richard Thompson's Psycho Street, to the Bonze Dog Do Da Band's My Pink Half of the Drainpipe, Toy Dolls' Sod the Neighbours and James Bond Lives Down Our Street and Kath Tait's Hole in the Hedge. There was also lots of lust across the garden fence from Nick Cave, The Move, James, Smokie, the Candyskins, Frank Sinatra, not to mention the stirring in of Waylon Jennings wanting to Borrow Some Sugar from You. Steady on there, fella.
I was also very disappointed to discover the John Cooper Clarke's Beasley Street was zedded in a spoken word theme in 2007 (DarceysDad no less). Other zeds include Arcade Fire's Neighbourhood #1 (Tunnels), and I feel that the other three songs in the series follow it, so they're out too. So please check those on the splendid emporium that is the Marconium. And there were many more great suggestions, too many to mention.
But let us now walk out the back door of the Readers Recommend and head down the street to see who actually took up residence in Neighbours Lane …
First up, there a humorous party going at no 1, not to mention a damn fine catchy indie pop song. If we ring the bell, Space will let us in and join in with Neighbourhood.
Right next door at no 2, is well, Right Next Door by Robert Cray. A man listening to couple having a row, and he's the cause of it. Bad boy, Robert, it's because of you and all, but good perspective. Even better guitar.
Moving on, if we peer in through the window, we enter a whole new dimension at no 3. Scott Walker takes us there with Montague Terrace (in blue). It lights the blue touchpaper of the imagination.
Knock on the door at no 4 and we'll hear the Chi-Lites reminding us that We Are Neighbours, and that "if everybody looked the same, we'd get tired of looking at each other". Damn right! And on that theme it just edged Pete Seeger's Little Boxes. Now that was tough.
Now for something very different at no 5. Open that door and the neighbours are all living on barges. It's Buck 65 with Riverbed 3. Many of them are very dysfunctional, but very colourful, and they've got a great sense of community.
If we ring their bell, there is true love and longing going on inside no 6. Frank Sinatra might have lived there, but an even more beautiful rendition, and resident, is Ella Fitzgerald with her version of Dancing on the Ceiling.
In another version tussle at no 7, I was very tempted by Massive Attack's sinister and disturbing Man Next Door, but I think John Holt and the Paragons really had their name on the doormat with the original I've Got to Get Away.
There is fear and helplessness at no 8. Tracy Chapman's Behind the Wall is a sparse apartment of a song, but its feeling still resonates.
What's happening at no 9? The Curtains Are Twitchin' by Bell X1 and no wonder with all those other neighbours. Serenely it builds with some fine brass, but then throws in lines such as "The curtains are twitchin at Mrs Carey's limp/ A minor operation, or was she beaten by her pimp?". It's a deathly but beautiful song.
Neighbours can be nasty. I wondered whether A Most Peculiar Man by Simon and Garfunkel might move at no 10, but no, someone else did. The Hair of the Widow of Bridlington by Jake Thackray is an extraordinary piece of work about a neighbour who is picked on, but fights back. Thackray was a genius.
Now who's at no 11? It's a very big house, but wait, there's nobody there. Wait, there's someone living outside by the bins. And it is a genius, a Genius Next Door by Regina Spektor. Are they going to stay there? We'll have to come back to that one shortly…
At no 12 there were lots of versions of the next song, and it has a sinister edge to it. This neighbour is telling another to mind his own business in Davy Graham's Neighbour Neighbour. Don't be his wife, that's all I'm saying.
And finally, at the very end of the street at no 13 we are bookended by another party going on. It's funky and it's the Temptations. They tell us not to worry about the others and Don't Let the Joneses Get You Down. Let's dance.
Now then, I'll admit I've thrown you a slight curveball regarding the house at no 11. This is why. And please bear with me. In my enthusiasm to set my first topic, I threw in a couple of suggestions for songs that seemed absolute musts for the list. But I admit I blew it because I was not fully aware of the full traditions of RR, that the writer cannot suggest any songs. These two are Ray Davies with Next Door Neighbour, and for me, even more so, What's He Building in There? by Tom Waits. But the latter was zedded back in 2006 under the topic of "questions". Oh Dorian! So that's out anyway. But in comments several of you wanted Ray Davies.
OK, this is just a one-off, first-topic only situation. So I'm leaving it to you, wise RR readers, would you like or allow Ray to live at no 12? Or keep Spektor's homeless genius by the bins? It's a big house so perhaps you might let both move in to the upstairs and downstairs flats? See what I'm up to there? Sneaky eh? Over to you on that. It's a new era after all. I won't do this again, unless you would like more curveballs. And don't blame the landlord. I'm just offering you a free drink or two.
You can see all the original suggestions on the original blog here. If you've got a spare year, that is.
Of music lists in general, particularly this, the same could be said of them as WH Auden once described poems (after Paul Valéry): "A poem is never finished, only abandoned." But I abandon this after much painstaking effort, in my search for variety, originality and quality, and I appreciate there will be happiness and disappointment in equal measure about the rest of the list. You just can't please everybody.
Marta's up next with her first new topic. Please give her a good welcome.
Cheers all.
Right Next Door by Robert Cray
Montague Terrace (in blue) by Scott Walker
We Are Neighbours by the Chi-Lites
Riverbed 3 by Buck 65
Dancing on the Ceiling by Ella Fitzgerald
I've Got to Get Away by John Holt and the Paragons
Behind the Wall by Tracy Chapman
The Curtains Are Twitchin' by Bell X1
The Hair of the Widow of Bridlington by Jake Thackray
Genius Next Door by Regina Spektor
Neighbour Neighbour Davy Graham
Don't Let the Joneses Get You Down by the Temptations
(Next Door Neighbour by Ray Davies)
by Peter Kimpton via Music: Electronic music | theguardian.com
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