I made the finishing touches to the soundtrack to next Tuesday's walk talk today and I've found myself softening the playlist up a little (with St Etienne's gorgeous Side Streets from Tales from Turnpike House), adding some English satire and whimsy (The Kinks, "Motorway food is the worst in the world", Black Box Recorder, "the English Motorway System is beautiful and strange / it's been there forever, it's never going to change"), mixing in some country goth strangeness (The Handsome Family's Your Great Journey and Jim White's Perfect Day to Chase Tornados), some primal Stones ("I don't want to walk and talk about Jesus / I just want to see his face"), a Nashville knees-up (Robert Plant and Alison Krauss's Gone Gone Gone) and one piece of crystalline English folk (The Owl Service's version of North Country Maid).
Tonight in an empty church hall I pumped up the P.A. to test the maximum effect of my recording of motorway spectres underneath the Ouse Bridge. And, as the perfect lead-in to what might be a satisfactorily chilling section of next week's presentation, I've added in The Gun Club's genuinely scary Ghosts on the Highway, a psychobilly gem.
Thanks to those who have spiced up the previousposts on this topic with your suggestions. I can't help noting that all of us who have created lists on this subject are of a certain age and gender... but hey, that's what we've always done, and we do it very well...
john davies
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