What with one thing and another the last couple of years have been a bit shit for many of us. But rather than dwell on that let's try to inject a booster dose of positivity. Let us all join with The Rescues and proclaim - perhaps more in hope than expectation - that everything is going to be better next year.
Enjoy your New Year's Eve. See you on the other side.
"Everything's Gonna Be Better Next Year" - The Rescues
"Happy New Year" - Huey 'Piano' Smith & The Clowns
Part 2 of our ten tunes from 2021 plus groovy modern videos. No particular order, they are all top notch and you should spend your Christmas vouchers on them now.
"Red Temple Prayer (Two-Headed Dog)" - Margo Price (from "May the Circle Remain Unbroken: a Tribute to Roky Erickson")
"Riddim Rek Sa Niouy Mom" - Wau Wau Collectif (from "Yaral Sa Doom")
"You Don't Know" - Lizzie Loveless (from "You Don't Know")
"Haydar Haydar" - Derya Yıldırım & Grup Şimşek (from "DOST 1")
"Moving & Shaking" - Reigning Sound (from "A Little More Time with Reigning Sound")
Let's cut to the chase. We've got ten of my favourite tunes of 2021 for you - five today, five tomorrow - plus five videos each day from other folks I've enjoyed this year. Simple as that.
We'll kick things off with a track that was only officially released on Christmas Eve, although we surfers of the zeitgeist have been grooving to it for a while now. Take it away, Mr Oho.
"Doose Mam" - Alogte Oho & His Sounds of Joy (single)
"Yale St & 45" - Beth Lee (from "Waiting On You Tonight")
"Kalikandjari" Monsieur Doumani (from "Pissourin")
"Hardlytown" - Hiss Golden Messenger (from "Quietly Blowing It")
"Tihoussay Tenere" - Dag Tenere (from "Iswat")
I suppose we have to acknowledge that it is that time of year again, so here are a couple of tracks from my favourite Christmas album, Swamp Dogg's "An Awful Christmas And A Lousy New Year".
"Santa Claus Has Fallen In Love" - Swamp Dogg
"A Little Black Child At Christmas" - Swamp Dogg
If it is the true meaning of Christmas you are after, here are Diffie and Declan. Season's greetings to all our readers.
A couple of top tines from the great I Roy for you today. Both come from an excellent compilation of his early 1970s material called "Don't Check Me With No Lightweight Stuff". The compilation originally came out in 1997 and is on Blood & Fire and is out of print, but you can download it from eMusic, TaxDodge,com and presumably other sites as well.
Here are the first and last tracks on the album. Everything in between is well worth a listen as well. "Straight To The Heathen Head" may be my new favourite record in all the world.
"Sidewalk Killer" - I Roy
"Straight To The Heathen Head" - I Roy
I've only been able to find one clip of the great man in action and that is of terrible quality, so in the absence of I Roy here is Roy O instead.
I've been catching up on whose been popping in while I was away, and see we have had a couple of comments from one Kevie Kev. I don't know whether or not this is the Kevie Kev (aka Waterbed Kev) from the old school rap ensemble The Fantastic Five, but he is welcome either way.
Mr Kev belatedly asked me to select a tune for him as part of the "5000 Up" request slot we did back in October. His number of choice was 1962 and his reward is some top pop from Mozambique. Thanks Mr Kev, I hope you like it. And I hope you don't mind that I'm sharing your greatest hit with the rest of the gang.
"Alfandega" - Zaida Chongo
"All Night Long (Waterbed)" - Waterbed Kev
So our esteemed government decided to let those of us in quarantine hotels out early, on the grounds that as most of the country now has the omicron variant it no longer makes sense to lock up the few people who don't. This meant I was able to get home a bit earlier than expected.
There was a final twist though, and perhaps it was a fitting end to the whole saga. When I got back to my flat last night I discovered that the lady I asked to pop in and clean the place while I was away had locked me out. A visit from the emergency locksmith got me in but left me without a lock, so I'm now stuck here until they come back with a new one.
Here is a musical before and after of last night's events.
"Behind That Locked Door" - George Harrison
"There's No Lock Upon My Door" - David McWilliams
I'm back, but not completely.
As some of you worked out from the carefully hidden clues in my last post, I have just been to Cape Town to see some of my family. When my flight took off from London a couple of weeks ago everything was hunky dory, but by the time it landed at the other end South Africa was an international pariah.
Which is why I'm now interned in a Holiday Inn on the outskirts of Luton, with a lovely view of a brick wall and the soothing sounds of the airport flight path overhead. I am due to be released back into society a couple of days before Xmas, and normal service will resume then.
In the meantime, here is a tribute to my temporary home.
