John Carney

Actualmente mi mayor fuente de inspiración para encontrar música es John Carney. A través de sus series "Shivers Inside" (http://www.shiversinside.com/), 50000 reasons (http://www.50000reasons.com/) y Shop around (http://www.tangents.co.uk/tangents/main/2005.html) -todas dentro del ya extinto webzine tangents- me lo estoy pasando muy bien. Esta mañana por ejemplo me he leído dentro de shivers inside su part 30 y es realmente brillante. Está dedicada a una mañana de compras en Londres donde visita Rhythm y Compendium (una librería ya extinta y cuyo cierre produjo gran conmoción: "The closing of Compendium is one of the sadder moments in the history of my bookstore passions. My English friends had long raved about Compendium, but back in 2000, word spread that it was shutting down. I travelled up to London a few weeks before it closed to get a feel for store. Sadly, it lived up to expectations, which made its demise that much more tragic." Jeremy Mercer en The Guardian).

Carney descubre en esta un ejemplar de sort of special edition of That Will Never Happen Again dedicado a las "British girls from the ‘60s" y "And I’ve become totally obsessed with it". El fanzine lo realiza un experto spectoriano y soulero llamado Mick Patrick, que por lo que he podido descubrir a través de Google, trabaja ahora en Ace Records.

A partir de aquí Carney evoca sus memorias sobre las chicas pop inglesas:

"The funny thing is I’ve been tracking down old Sandie Shaw and Dusty 45s for ages. But they’re just the tip of the iceberg it seems. This mag features loads of stuff I’d never even heard of. Now I really want to hear Louise Cordet and Billie Davis. The reassuring thing is I guess that there’s already things I’d stumbled across. Stuff like Madeline Bell. I absolutely love her version of What The World Needs Now. It's one of my favourite Bacharach covers. Which is saying something. And Samantha Jones’ Surrounded By A Ray Of Sunshine. I first heard that years ago on an old northern soul compilation called Sold On Soul, which my brother had. I played that to death. It also had The Drifter by Ray Pollard. Garnet Mimms’ Looking For You. Irma Thomas’ What Are You Trying To Do? The O’Jays and Jackie De Shannon. Little Anthony’s Better Use Your Head. Fantastic. A real education at the time.
The blue eyed soul thing is a bit of a recurring motif too, with a bit on Lorraine Silver of Lost Summer Love fame, and Kiki. Funnily enough they showed Doctor In Clover on the TV the other night, and Kiki sounded fantastic on the soundtrack. I love those films. Any excuse to do my Leslie Philips impersonation. All Kiki’s ‘60s recordings were brilliant. And I can fully understand why Motown asked her to make a record for them. But the soul fans over here turned their noses up. Ah the fools. "

Recomiendo la busqueda de la totalidad de dichas canciones, todas verdaderas joyas, especialmente las que están en negrita

Bonita mañana del sábado que he pasado, gracias al señor Carney.

SHIVERS INSIDE

Once upon a time I was accused of disappearing into my world of books and films where darkness came too soon. Total nonsense of course. There was music too. But the suggestion was that I was missing out. Total nonsense too. Products have so much to teach us. So many stories to tell…
© 2007 John Carney

FIFTY THOUSAND REASONS
They Made Magic These pen portraits build up into a gallery of special people. These people have made unique contributions to popular culture. Some of the stories will be fairly familiar, and some may seem slightly strange. There are some glaring omissions, and some odd inclusions. A thread of narrative runs through, and it’s all as subjective as hell.

© 2006 John Carney