The Friday Music Shuffle (1.11.24)

Hi kids and welcome to the Friday Music Shuffle. Here’s what happens.

I set my music device to ‘shuffle’ and it chooses ten songs from my collection and I tell you what it’s chosen. To listen to the music, just click on the title.

I hope you find summat, as we say in Bristol, that you like.

1. Hawkeye by The Alan Parsons Project. A rather nice instrumental from 1985’s Vulture Culture LP. Not sure if it’s about a character in M*A*S*H or the tennis line-calling device.
2. Mamma Mia by ABBA. There must be a reason there have been 317 million views on YouTube? Oh yes, it’s brilliant. I still love the blonde one in Abba. Benny, isn’t it?
3. My Kind Of Love by Emeli Sandé. Good grief. The album from which this song came, Our Version Of Events, was released in 2012. How can it be that long ago? Anyway, it’s still great.
4. 2001 Also Sprach Zarathustra by Deodato. Simply magnificent reimagining of Richard Strauss’s classic, featuring Stanley Clarke on bass and Billy Cobham on drums. Released in 1973. I read that it reached number seven in the UK charts.
5. Schooldays by Gentle Giant. Back to 1972 we go for some classic prog rock from the criminally underrated Gentle Giant, a joint from the excellent Three Friends long player. Inevitably, being prog rock it’s over seven minutes of prog joy.
6. Breakdown by Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers. Great track from the band’s eponymously titled first album released in 1976. The record is all killer, no filler.
7. Bad Motor Scooter (Live) by Chickenfoot. Sensational live version of the Montrose classic. Sammy Hagar, Joe Satriani, Michael Anthony and Chad Smith can surely rock better than almost anyone.
8. TVC 15 by David Bowie. Good grief, 1976 for this belter from the excellent Station To Station.
9. Footstompin’ Music by Grand Funk Railroad. Opening track from 1971’s E Pluribus Funk, which attracted me to the band in the first place. I still have the seven incher, so to speak.
10. What You Waiting For by Franz Ferdinand. A decent cover of the Gwen Stefani tune. This recording taken from a Radio 1 Live Lounge performance.

This week’s Desert Island Disc is 2001 Also Sprach Zarathustra by Deodato.

Thanks for being here. Have a good week till next week.