RIP Timmy Thomas

 

Wonderful song. And with a minimalist sound that still startles with its skeletal spareness. The drum machine and organ combo almost makes it a soul Suicide. 

I had "Why Can't We Live Together" on this K-Tel compilation - not in 1973, though, when I would have been nine or ten - but some years later. 

I had this one and all

Good value, this series, if you weren't fussy about hi-fi (12 tracks crammed on each side!) - and even more so when I picked them up second-hand for a quid each. 

On Superbad, the track just before the Timmy Thomas is another one I loved - Cymande's "The Message".  (Who I saw several years ago play in LA.) 

Energy Flashbacks

 For a bunch of months now, podcasters Nate Wilcox and Ryan Harkness have been doing this epic trek through Energy Flash, a chapter per week. It's the latest season of an ongoing series called Techno-Roll  (the name comes from the parent podcast Let It Roll). The previous candidate for in-depth extended discussion was Last Night A DJ Saved My Life by Bill Brewster and Frank Broughton. Later on they'll be doing Kit Mackintosh's Neon Screams. 

As a capper to the Energy Flash season, I had a fun chat with Nate and Ryan - about how the book came to be, my approach and slant, etc -  which you can hear here and here.  

The Totality (For Kids)

Feels unseemly to direct attention to something I've written, as we all teeter on the precipice... but here goes: a while ago, I wrote a piece on Malcolm McLaren, Sex Pistols, Situationism, punk, the notion of cultural terrorism, etc etc, for the London Review of Books,  at insane length. Which LRB expertly condensed to half its size and has now published.  It is loosely - very loosely - tethered to Paul Gorman's equally enormous biography of McLaren. 

Of course, my author's eyes see all the things missing, but no doubt, to anyone sane and impartial, it's  vastly improved by being streamlined. I expect someday I'll make the full monster available.