When I was a lot younger, and used to make compilations on cassette tapes --- later CDs, when recordable discs became available --- and before things like ipods and playlists were words in the dictionary, I often would select an artiste I particularly liked and make a compilation of
every, single song of theirs that I had, up to that point, and in alphabetical order. I used to call these “The compleat, alphabetical [insert artiste name]”, and not suprisingly they would run to maybe five or six tapes, the longest available tape at the time being a 120-minute. Why the odd spelling of complete? I don't know: I used to see it on books and such, and I think it's an old English version of the word, but I just liked it: sounds more authoritative, I think. Anyway, back to the C120 tapes: these were notorious for suddenly failing, either getting tangled and stuck in your cassette deck (ruining both) or acquiring “dropouts” (see my guide to twentieth century technology”, way back in the depths of this journal) and so I usually used C90 tapes, which as their name implies allowed you to fit 90 minutes of music --- 45 per side --- on each.
Typically, I could fit about eighteen to twenty tracks per side, but then if some of the songs were longer that would obviously bring that figure down. I don't do these tapes anymore, having no use now for a cassette deck and being one of those poor sods who listens more to playlists than albums --- why go to the trouble of compiling your own collection when Apple can do it for you, eh? But in memory of those old tapes I would like now to introduce a new section to the journal, announced recently by Stacey-Lynn's NewsFoxes.
In this section I will attempt to feature every single track from every album by the artiste concerned. I will try to run these weekly, concentrating on one letter each week, and as the series goes on I may add other artistes to run concurrently, as twenty-six weeks is a long time and I may wish to feature (an)other artiste(s) in the meantime. It could of course happen that the band in question may release a new album during the time I'm featuring them, which will knock my running order out of whack, but we'll deal with that as it happens. I may also inadvertently miss unreleased/rarity items, though I'll be doing my best to make sure all the tracks are covered.
Any song beginning with a definite or indefinite article (a, an, the, those etc) will be listed under its first proper noun or verb, so that were I running the Waterboys, “A bang on the ear” would feature under B for bang, not A for a, and “The whole of the moon” under W for Whole not T for the, and so on. Anything beginning with parentheses will use the first word, as long as that first word is not a definite or indefinite article, ie “(Seemingly) Non-stop Summer” by a-ha will be under S, while a song, should it exist, called “(The hour of) nine wolves” --- it could happen! --- would go under H for hour not T for the, and so on. Similarly, any title beginning with a number, like “100 nights”, will be filed under its alphabetical equivalent, ie O for “one” (hundred). Confused? Good. Let's go then.
First up, one of my very favourite bands, progressive rock favourites Marillion. From their debut in 1983 under frontman and vocalist Fish's leadership, Marillion went on to spearhead what I guess could almost be called the NWOBPR --- the New Wave of British Progressive Rock, along with bands like IQ, Twelfth Night, Pallas and Pendragon --- which built on the influence of “older” prog-rock bands like Genesis, Rush and Yes, updating the sound for the eighties while still staying basically true to the core values and themes of the music.
(An) Accidental man (This strange engine)
Afraid of sunlight (Afraid of sunlight)
Afraid of sunrise (Afraid of sunlight)
After me (Seasons end)
Alone again in the lap of luxury (Brave)
Angelina (Marbles)
(The) Answering machine (Radiation)
Assassing (Fugazi)
Asylum satellite #1 (Happiness is the road Vol II: The hard shoulder)