WARMER MIXTAPES #841 | by Jack Peachey [Gallery 47]

I am the son of a Dentist, I was kicked out of my first band Storyville for not singing well enough and my brother David was Bernard in the Children’s TV Program, Bernard’s Watch.

1. Bob Dylan | Subterranean Homesick Blues
I discovered Bob Dylan when I was about 20 years old. Quite Late really. I was fascinated by this song, especially after several Smoky months with the First Four Acoustic Albums. I bought the No Direction Home Documentary on DVD and watched it most nights trying to figure out how to Finger Pick like Dylan. Anyway, this Video came on and I spilt ash all over myself. This was before it went too far, when I tried, and failed, to write a Critical Commentary of Visions Of Johanna for a Stylistics assignment.

2. John Lennon | Hold On
I like John Lennon in the same way I like my Dad. Sometimes he’s a little Barbaric, but he means Well. I also like the idea of the New York Police Department banging on the door of John and Yoko’s flat - the Ensuing Panic - John rushing around half naked trying to find and flush his pile of hash, etc.... - well, I’m sure they had a good laugh about all of that later on and whenever I hear this Happy Little Song it makes me smile.

3. The Beach Boys | God Only Knows
Brian Wilson is Something Really Special and Everybody Knows It. I can’t figure it out. I have a hard enough time trying to play a Guitar piece to a Click Track without Breathing on the Microphone. This song has Glockenspiels and Sleigh Bells and French Horns all tied up with Crazy Time Changes and Beautiful Melodies. It’s that kind of Pleasant Complexity, much like Modern Science in General, which makes me stop trying to Analyse and just Enjoy.

4. Neil Young | After The Goldrush
As with Dylan, I’ve always found Neil Young’s Character to be Admirably Unconcerned. He’s off doing his own thing. I have an Affection for People who Choose an Uncertain Path, especially if they have Fun while they’re Following it. Like with Brian Wilson and his Piano in the Sandbox, I listen to Live At Massey Hall and there’s this 24 year old Neil young talking about a ranch he’s just bought. A ranch at 24. Who buys a ranch!? You crazy, man. He laughs about it and, again, it makes me smile. In fact, writing this has made me realise something, namely that my description of why I Love a song usually ends with, ...and it made me smile.

5. Joni Mitchell | Little Green
I borrowed my Dad’s copy of Blue on Vinyl in 2008 and bought a Record Player. On another day I might have chosen a different song, but for now this one seems Right. I think I’d be terrified of Joni if I met her in person, but her Voice, her Musicianship in General, is Completely, Naturally Beautiful. She wrote that whole album on a Dulcimer while travelling around Europe. Not only that, but she would sit under Big Lonely Trees and Smoke Tobacco as a 12 year old, and still sing like this. I bought a Dulcimer and used it on a song called When The World Gets You Down, but she’s better.



6. Tim Buckley | Strange Feelin'
It was 2010 and I had just been played on Local Radio for the first time. I was Naïve and Super Happy. It was before all this Weirdo Pseudo-Analytical Semi Depressive Negative Happy Stuff. I was so Happy that I went and spent £80 in Fopp down the road. I bought 16 albums for £5 each, which might be why I feel Awkward about charging that more than that, if anything at all, for a Record. One of these was Imagine by John Lennon, another was the American Beauty Soundtrack, but a third was Happy Sad by Tim Buckley. Six tracks of Wonderful, Absolute Madness. Me and Louise had this little Stereo in the corner of the room next to the Alarm Clock, and in the Morning she would get up and turn the Alarm Off and Press Play and this Song would Come On. I was half Asleep, Decrepid and possibly Suffering from some kind of Withdrawal Symptom. Either way, it soothed me in the early Morning Time and Tim Buckley’s Life in General has proved to be Constant Source of Interest for me.

7. Bob Dylan | She Belongs To Me
It’s one of those songs that I can put on in Any Mood and it will be the Right Song. It reminds me of 20th Century English Lectures and Late Night Tea Drinking Cupcake Baking Sessions. I write most of my songs about Girls and it’s interesting to consider who he’s singing about. Is it Joan Baez? That’s the question. I always thought Girl From The North Country was about Suze. I was wrong.

 8. Radiohead | Gagging Order
I was 15 years old and obsessed with Radiohead. At that age I Loved The Bends and tried really hard to Love OK Computer, a bit like with Sigur Rós. Now I much prefer OK Computer to the Bends and have a Quiet Affection for Hopelandic. Then, I was Young and more interested in Tight Commercial Indie Songs like Chocolate by Snow Patrol or Thru The Glass by Thirteen Senses, possibly because they fell more In Line with the Marilyn Manson Rock Signatures I’d escaped to in my Adolescence following my Dad’s obsession with Chicago. This song was a B-Side to Go To Sleep, a single from Hail To The Thief, which everyone was hailing at the time as being a Return To Form, which drives me insane now I think about it (with Kid A and Amnesiac being as stupidly good as they are). I Fear Hegemony. Anyway, I’ll stop complaining about that. The point about this song is that it was an Acoustic Effort from Thom who had seemed to become quite Anti-Acoustic in recent years. I like it because he’s doing it anyway even if he doesn’t like the way it sounds.

 9. Martin Grech | Only One Listening
The album Open Heart Zoo is one of my favourites. Martin Grech is and was a Singular Talent and it’s both a Happy and Sad Thing that he seemed to show a Decided Middle Finger to Pop Sensibility and Commercialism with his Second Album of Metal Epics. I used to live in an apartment with a Guitarist in Nottingham. Many of our days would be spent trying to hit that Crazy High Note in Dali. We strained our voices.

10. Pavement | Here
It was either this or Major Leagues. Slanted And Enchanted. I read about it all the time in Rolling Stone and NME. It was always in the Top 20 Albums, or always seemed to be, but whenever I played it my ears just hurt. It was the Production I think, the Scratchy, Slightly Out of Tune Walls of Distortion which seemed to Envelop the Whole Record. This was quite a Shock, especially if you consider I was listening to Snow Patrol at the time. But, like a nice pair of shoes, I gradually came to admire and adore Pavement. This song in particular showed that they didn’t necessarily need to face the Rigours of Studio Production to have an Impact. In fact, it wouldn’t have been as good in any other setting. I bought Terror Twilight and eventually went to see Stephen Malkmus play on his Solo UK Tour in Birmingham. We left the gig and saw a signpost saying, Gallery 37. That’s where the name came from.