FILL IN THE BLANK by CAR SEAT HEADREST Story by Stephen Andrew
This song goes off like a nail bomb. It carries, not an earworm, but an ear leech, that latches on and will not be silenced.
YOU MAKE ME FEEL LIKE A NATURAL WOMAN by ARETHA FRANKLIN Story by Stephen Andrew
About five minutes into the program I heard a slither of music that sent a shiver up my body. It sounded perfect. It touched a nerve of sadness. And also gave rise to joy.
SEE MY BABY JIVE by WIZZARD Story by Stephen Andrew
I couldn't escape the crush (in both senses of the word) the first time I heard it. I was dumped, pulled under and dragged disoriented across the sandy sediment of my adolescent existence. See My Baby Jive was excoriating.
PEGGY SUE by BUDDY HOLLY Story by Stephen Andrew
With every parting handshake Brendon would tilt his head slightly, lift an eyebrow and advise me to "stick to the shadows".
SEALED WITH A KISS by BOBBY VINTON Story by Stephen Andrew
Music was beginning to assert its life-long hold over me, but it still played a distant second fiddle to being a part of a team of twelve boys dressed in pads, batting gloves and protectors.
ROCK AND ROLL DREAMS COME THROUGH BY JIM STEINMAN Story by Stephen Andrew
This song sounds like Phil Spector has died and is rising to heaven. The track is a religious pop song offering deep gratitude for the divinity that can sometimes find its way into the Top 40. The rest of the album is an abomination.
MAYBELLENE by CHUCK BERRY Story by Stephen Andrew
I’d smuggled in a small cassette player and bootlegged the show. The resulting tape (now long lost) was rarely played. It sounded like a Chuck Berry cover band rehearsing in an aircraft hangar. Which I guess it was.
Brimful of Asha by Cornershop (Norman Cook remix)
Stephen Andrew The road from Hurstbridge to St Andrews, summer, 2000 I pulled off the road and spun the wheel of my iPod. I dialled up Cornershop singing Brimful of Asha. Tenzin listened intently and then said, “Play that again, Dad.”
HARD TIMES ARE OVER by YOKO ONO Poem by Stephen Andrew
Stephen Andrew Yarra River, Warrandyte, 8 December 1980 Word comes from a car radio in the riverside car park. Calling out, surreal, to nobody, “John Lennon has been shot”.
Tonight I’ll Be Staying Here With You by Bob Dylan. Story by Stephen Andrew
Phil was divesting himself of all material possessions, man. Fortunately, I was on hand to help him cleanse himself of the most evil of these things, his LP records.