Vauxhall to Lambeth Bridge

And so back to the river. Julie Driscoll's lovely song from the Streetnoise LP she made with Brian Auger in 1969 captures that special sense of escape and reflection that can be found while walking by the banks of the Thames. There would many years later be another song about walking along by the banks of the Thames, thinking, searching.

That part of the embankment Julie sings about, the stretch Vauxhall to Lambeth Bridge, is perhaps one of the better sections of the river to walk quietly along now that there's on the South Bank the Millennium Wheel and the Tate Modern. I love that line: "I think of you as I watch Big Ben and I see he's crying too ..."

Scandal in a Brixton Market

It would be rude to leave the Brixton area without playing this song, the title track off the 1969 Pama set. The same record that features Laurel's Run Powell Run. The first side of the record features performances by Girlie, and I would dearly love to know more about her. Her contribution to this track is astonishing, and perfectly the cacophony of a market incident. Quite what the scandal was ... well, have a listen and see if you can work out what the Scandal in a Brixton Market was all about. Or better still, leave it to your imagination ...

Tighten Up ...

Prevailing punk psychogeography places The Clash to the west of town but Mick Jones was from south of the river. A fact he captures perfectly in the title track of Big Audio Dynamite's Tighten Up Vol. 88 with a great set of lyrics about growing up down Brixton way.

While The Clash may be a national institution Mick has yet to receive proper recognition for what he did B.A.D.-wise. And scattered through their various guises are some of the best London songs ever. Tighten Up is a lovely example of this. With lots of colourful local details. And it's the first posting here referring to London's bus network. Sing Michael sing ...

Difficult Fun

No mention of songs about south London would be worthy of holding up its head in public without Slits' Difficult Fun. Taken from their second and greatest LP, Return of the Giant Slits, the opening words to this song would be a fitting epitaph for my tombstone one day ...

"He's south of the river, he's restless and unsatisfied

He's searching forever for better but finds nothing ..."

South of the river ...

There is a bit of a theme developing here. Brixton. Deptford. We're definitely south of the river. And that's where you'll find Mica Paris in her song of the same name from her great Contribution LP. When it came out in 1991ish it seemed Mica might just be a cool soul star from south London, bridging the gap from Soul II Soul to Massive Attack/Young Disciples. Contribution had an appearance from Rakim and songwriting credits by Prince. And for a long time I had a signed photo of Mica on my wall, but ...

Rumour has it that somewhere buried in the vaults there's an LP Mica made with the 23 Skidoo guys. Mmm. And another one the Skidoo crew made with Sonique, though a couple of those tracks were released. Maybe it's better not to hear it, and instead enjoy the idea of the thing, but I do love the idea of the Mica paris/23 Skidoo collaboration.

In the meantime you'll find me south of the river. We can talk all night ... sing it Mica.

SingingFool.com - Mica Paris - South Of The River - Music Video

Deptford Fun City

A blog about London songs would struggle to avoid Saint Etienne. But the administrators here have decided they are currently ineligible to participate while serving a three match ban for ungentlemanly conduct.

You see there was this film Saint Etienne put together about London called Finisterre, which is brilliant and no home should be without a copy. And yet the poor person who helped put the script together has been living in mortal terror ever since it appeared on general release. For there's a scene where they're record shopping, and buy singles by Subway Sect and ATV because they sung songs about London. That took the writer by surprise. It wasn't what he'd written. And while he was a massive fan of Subway Sect and ATV he wasn't at all sure they sang about London that much. So for years he lived in fear of being accosted by pedants, and armed himself with the covers of the first two Subway Sect singles just in case. Look, he would say, London ...

But now he's a lot more relaxed about things because he's got one of those newfangled MP3 contraptions and with a bit of technical nous can readily repel challenges by shuffling through to this song Mark Perry (the true star of Finisterre) sings on ATV's wonderful Strange Kicks about his very own Fun City SE8. That's Deptford to you if you weren't brought up to recite south London postcodes. The sequence you see goes in alphabetical order from SE2 to SE18 ... SE2 being Abbey Wood, SE7 Charlton, SE8 Deptford, SE9 Eltham, through to SE18 Woolwich. You get the idea. It gets confusing after that with lots of imposters ... but enough of that. Let's have a bit of a knees-up with Mark and Alex (Postcard producer) Fergusson down Fun City SE8. Come on and join the fun ...

Black London Blues

There can't be too many LPs given over entirely to songs about London. There can't be too many blues LPs about London life. So Ram John Holder's Black London Blues is a very special record indeed. It's as rare as anything, and has yet to be salvaged, but if you use your imagination then you'll find a way to hear it.

Released on London independent Beacon (check out the Let's Copp A Groove collection on RPM)at the end of the '60s, it gives an insight into immigrant life in London, and indeed the life of many who were not well-off. Ram John would go on to become a much-loved actor, best known for his Porkpie character in the TV sitcom Desmond's, which also led to a spin-off series.

My personal favourite of the tracks on Black London Blues is Wimpy Bar Blues, which refers to the Edgware Road with a lovely account of Ram John whiling away the hours. It's easy to think of another song that mentions the Edgware Road and to imagine Kevin Rowland and his girl sitting at a nearby table holding hands ...

In the meantime we're heading south ...

Tomorrow's ace faces advertised today ...

I suppose there is a kind of irony in starting a blog about London songs when I have never felt so out of love with London. Though I suspect that has more to do with modern life generally than London specifically. So it's appropriate to flash back to the punk era when people were busy singing about being bored and disaffected when life had hardly been more exciting.

There is an enduring mythology that a lot of songs from the punk era were smart, sharp blasts about city life, but when you stop and think about it was that really the case? Well, certainly Generation X could claim to fit the bill nicely. Listen to their first LP, produced by the great Martin Rushent, and nearly every song has some passing reference to London life. And Kiss Me Deadly is a perfect example of this. The way it starts: "The Greyhound's rockin' out tonight. So maximum rockabilly. When two punks choose to risk the subway for a tube to Piccadilly ..."

This blog is dedicated to the type of person who has been concerned for over 30 years about which subway, which tube line Billy was singing about. Was it the subway at Elephant & Castle? That's on the Bakerloo line after all ...