"Keep A-shovelin' That Coal"
[This is one post in a series about my music mixes. The series list has links to all posts in the series and also definitions of many of the terms I use. You may wish to read the introduction for more background.
Like all my series, it is not necessarily contiguou
One of the earliest of the pre-modern mixes1 was Stumbling Locomotive. Like most of the pre-moderns,2 this was made to play at parties, and its central conceit was that it would feature songs that started off a bit slow, perhaps staggering around a bit, but then eventually worked up a full head of steam and went rolling and rollicking along. Such songs are great for parties, in my opinion, because they provide natural breaks: particularly when you’re dancing, as one song fades and the next one begins, if the new song starts off slow, that gives you a little break, a short time to cool off before the song eventually hits its stride and you can get back to your frenetic gyrations.
Now, like all the pre-modern mixes, the original version was both chock full of songs from the period of my second college attendance (roughly 1989 – 1992) and riddled with bad choices. Not meaning bad songs, of course, just songs that didn’t really fit the theme. For instance, “Sin” by Nine Inch Nails was originally on this mix. And that’s a fantastic song, and great to play at parties, but in no way does it fit the description I gave above.3 So this is probably the pre-modern mix that’s been most extensively reworked: less than half the tracks from the original mix survive, and only a third of what remains falls into that college timeframe that tend to dominate the other pre-moderns.4 As I started to get the vibe for the mix, it was easy to find songs that fit the theme.
For instance, songs about trains are common, and many of them actually tend to sound like trains. And that’s sort of the epitome of what this mix is about. If you can write a song about a train that has the same rhythm as a train rolling down the tracks (and if you can manage to avoid it being a country song), you’ve really got something kinda cool. “Train” by 4 Non Blondes is perhaps the best example of this; if you’re familiar with that album,5 it’s even got a picture of a train right on the cover. It’s a kind of wacky, cartoon train, sure, but there it is nonetheless. And, on this album with a train on the cover, there’s a song called “Train” that both sounds like a train and is about a train.6 Plus it has a harmonica! Totally trainy.
Many songs on that album have that train vibe, though none are quite as on the nose. Still, “Old Mr. Hefffer” gives “Train” a run for its money, so it earned a spot here as well. But, for powerful female vocals belting out train-inspired lyrics, Linda Perry of 4 Non Blondes has a powerful competitor in Liz Phair, whose “Baby Got Going” not only has the harmonica, but also gives us our very trainy volume title. And we can’t leave out Johnette Napolitano: Concrete Blonde’s “Carry Me Away,” which is the transition song between the “Day Side” and “Night Side” of their amazing album Free actually throws the line “Today I saw a train roll by the river” into its first verse, and the song follows the now familiar pattern of starting off slow and then kicking it into high gear.
Of course, that brings up the question of how Stumbling Locomotive differs from Creeping Rageaholic. The main thing is, songs on that latter mix tend to burst forth into being; these mostly ramp up gradually.7 And these songs have a rolling quality that is reminiscent of riding on a train. Perhaps the best example of this is to look at Pete Yorn, who has tracks from his musicforthemorningafter featured on both mixes. “For Nancy” is a song you belt out when you’re in a joyous mood; “Life on a Chain” is one that just carries you along in its wake while you bop your head and carry on with what you were doing. Heck, some of these tracks actually don’t have the slow start: “Buzz Buzz Buzz” by the Primitives has that rhythmic rolling right from the opening notes and it maintains a frenetic pace throughout. And “Railroad Steel” by the Georgia Satellite
As much as this rework diverges from the original version, there’s one place they’re exactly the same: the opener. It was always “It Makes No Difference” by the Darling Buds. Once described as “sounding more like the Primitives than the Primitives” by 120 Minutes music critic Dave Kendall, this band from Wales8 produced a great Britpop first album (Pop Said), and, while their follow-up Crawdaddy was not quite as impressive, its opening track will always epitomize this vibe for me. It doesn’t really sound like a train, but it starts out slow and quiet, building gradually, with some breathy vocalizations from Andrea Lewis, and eventually that driving bassline kicks in, and that carries the song (and the listener) along for the rest of the journey. It’s just brilliant.
In fact, several of the tracks here are less reminiscent of trains so much as they remind me of galloping horses. One of the first additions to the rework was in fact “Shadow of Love” by the Damned, off the brilliant Phantasmagoria. With Dave Vanian at his gothiest, the rhythm section of Brynn Merrick and Rat Scabies turned in some of their best work on this track. The song takes the occasional break from that strong canter, but the sonic reflections of hoofbeats always come back, driving on and on and on. It was an early choice for second track here. And another track that showcases that rolling equine gait is “Take Me I’m Yours” by Squeeze. This was actually their first single, originally released back in 1977, but I never heard it until I picked up what is quite possibly the best greatest hits compilation ever: Singles: 45’s and Under. Every song on that collection is a winner, and this, the opening track, is a great example of what we’re looking to achieve here.
For another song that gives that riding-on-a-horse vibe, there’s the aptly named “Ride,” also from Liz Phair (she can do trains and horses, on the same album, even). The titular ride is more of a car ride, granted; here’s my favorite lyric from the song:
I don’t know, but I’ve been told
That the road to heav’n is paved with gold
And, if I die before I wake,
I need a ride ...
The best thing about this bit is that she compresses “heaven” down to a single syllable, which makes it sound remarkably like “hell,” so you’re not quite sure which one she’s singing. Chef’s kiss. And I follow that up with KT Tunstall’s “Push That Knot Away,” from her magnum opus Tiger Suit. As I’ve said before,9 Tunstall reminds a lot of Phair, in both style and attitude, but with significant enough differences that pairing them isn’t repetitive. So I put these two back-to-back in the closing triptych of the volume: “Knot” has a slightly different rolling gait than “Ride,” but it’s quite insistent as well. But perhaps the best example of this rolling beat outside of “Shadow of Love” is another late-80s-early-90s classic, “Away” by the Feelies. With two drummers, a great bassist, and some guitar work that somehow manages to sound like lonely train whistles, “Away,” with its Jonathan-Demme-directed video, was my introduction to the Feelies, and still stands as their greatest achievement in my opinion. It was a natural choice to open up the back third.
[ Keep A-shovelin' That Coal ]
“Shadow of Love” by Damned, off Phantasmagoria
“Old Mr. Heffer” by 4 Non Blondes, off Bigger, Better, Faster, More!
“Life on a Chain” by Pete Yorn, off musicforthemorningafter
“Say Amen (Saturday Night)” by Panic! at the Disco, off Pray for the Wicked
“On the Corner Where You Live” by the Paper Kites, off On the Corner Where You Live
“Take Me I'm Yours” by Squeeze, off Singles: 45's and Under [Compilation]
“Railroad Steel” by Georgia Satellites, off Georgia Satellites
“Baby Got Going” by Liz Phair, off Whitechocolatespaceegg
“Burn-Up” by Siouxsie and the Banshees, off Peepshow
“Cakewalk” by House of Freaks, off Cakewalk
“Carry Me Away” by Concrete Blonde, off Free
“Train” by 4 Non Blondes, off Bigger, Better, Faster, More!
“Buzz Buzz Buzz” by the Primitives, off Lovely
“I Wonder Why” by the Heart Throbs, off Cleopatra Grip
“Cecilia Ann” by Pixies, off Bossanova
“Away” by the Feelies, off Only Life
“The Bosses Daughter” by the Lucky Bullets, off Dead Man's Shoes
“Shine On” by the House of Love, off The House of Love [Butterfly Album]
“Add It Up” by Violent Femmes, off Violent Femmes
“Gipsy Threat” by Ratatat, off LP3
“Ride” by Liz Phair, off Whitechocolatespaceegg
“Push That Knot Away” by KT Tunstall, off Tiger Suit
“400 Bucks” by Reverend Horton Heat, off The Full-Custom Gospel Sounds of the Reverend Horton Heat
There are 3 bridges used here, of which “Cecilia Ann” by the Pixies is easily the one which hews closest to the theme: it’s a hard driving instrumental with impeccable basswork from Kim Deal (as always) and a great beat from Lovering, though it’s (somewhat surprisingly) Black Francis’ rhythm guitar that provides the “chunk-a-chunk” that gives it its impetus. And of course Joey Santiago’s great Western-sounding ringing guitar chords. I thought it made a nice lead-in to “Away.” Next, the title track of House of Freaks’ third full-length album Cakewalk has that great Johny Hott percussion and the now familiar rolling beat; it introduces the middle stretch of the volume. Finally, I felt that the back third needed a little something in the middle to introduce the return of Liz Phair, so I found a bit of electronica from Ratatat10 which also featured that galloping hoofbeat rhythm that features so heavily here.
There’s not too much surprising going on. I did want to add a few newer tunes, so I slotted in “Say Amen” by Panic! at the Disco, which is, to be fair, more of a happy trot than a proper canter, but I think it still works here, followed immediately by “On the Corner Where You Live” by the Paper Kites, a lovely Australian band that I discovered through a coworker at my current job. They’ve been around since 2010, and this album (of which “Corner” is the title track) is from 2018, but I never heard of them until 2020, when this coworker suggested a song from their 2012 EP as our “push song.”11 That song had more of a Simon-and-Garfunkel vibe to raised-by-my-record-collector-father me, but it was intriguing enough to me to send me scurrying to listen to more of their work. As it turns out, Corner is a fantastic album, and this track is one of those not-quite-downbeat songs with a very steady pace that I thought was quite excellent coming off the much more ebuillient “Amen.” Finally, the Lucky Bullets is a Norwegian rockabilly band (as unlikely as that sounds) that also treads dangerously close to that country line, although they rarely trip over it. “The Bosses Daughter” [sic] trades the harmonica in for a trumpet, giving it a Western hoofbeat that’s almost enough to earn it a spot on Tumbledown Flatland. But I thought it worked well here.
For more late-80s-early-90s goodness, “Add It Up” by the Violent Femmes is a classic that, again, starts off slow and quiet, then picks up the pace. As always, Brian Ritchie’s basswork is the stand-out, giving it the requisite rhythm. Meanwhile, “Shine On” by House of Love hits the pace right out of the gate, then alternates between slowing down (but never too much) and speeding up (but never to a reckless level). Both are perhaps a slight stretch here, but they match well with “Away,” and using “The Bosses Daughter” to break up the 80s goodness just seemed to work. Our final track from this period is from the criminally forgotten Heart Throbs, who hail from Reading, home to the lead singer of the Sundays. And Cleopatra Grip was even released the same year as Reading, Writing and Arithmetic, but the latter was a huge hit while the former produced one song that hit #2 on the Modern Rock charts and then they seemed to fade from the spotlight.12 And there’s no good reason for it: Cleopatra Grip is a fantastic album with consistently good songs, and “I Wonder Why” has the perfect beat for this mix.
Our volume closer is one of those patented screech fests from the Reverend Horton Heat, “400 Bucks.” The psychobilly auteur is going off this time about some money owed by an ex-girlfriend. The relentless pace just adds to the desperation in Heat’s voice, and I thought it worked well to wrap up the set.
Next time, it’s time to get dark again.
1 You can find a definition of that term in the series list.
2 Probably all of them, with the exception of Wisty Mysteria.
3 Which is why now you can find it on an entirely different mix.
4 The worst offender on that score being HipHop Bottlerocket, whose volume I is still 80% composed of tracks from that narrow slice of music history.
5 Yes, “album” singular. 4 Non Blondes only ever had the one, and it was primarily known for containing “What’s Up?” Which, as songs go, was ... fine. It was fine. Perfectly lovely. But, like I said about Natalie Imbruglia: the rest of the album is so much better.
6 I mean, technically the song is about something else, but it uses a bunch of train imagery, which is close enough.
7 To be fair, “Carry Me Away” is a bit of an outlier there, and it might have qualified for Creeping Rageaholic if it weren’t for the obvious train imagery.
8 Perhaps oddl
9 Specifically, on Sirenexiv Cola.
10 You may recall them from Paradoxically Sized World VI.
11 Specifically, it was “Leopold Street,” off Young North.
12 Technically, they produced two more albums, but I didn’t even know that until doing the research for this blog post. I may have to track them down.
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