Go Home Productions -- "Shannon Stone" (2007)

We started dancing

And love put us into a groove

But now he's with somebody new

I wish I could explain to you how I found today's featured track, but I can't.  It's a mystery to me.

It all started when I was looking for Julian Cope songs on Freegal a couple of weeks ago.  Exactly why I was looking for Julian Cope songs on Freegal is a question I simply can't answer.

Julian Cope

It's possible that I was looking for Jules Shear songs on Freegal and confused the two performers.  But I can't imagine why I would have been looking for Jules Shear songs either, so going down that path just takes us all the way 'round the mulberry bush back to where we began, doesn't it?

(For some reason -- not necessarily a good reason -- I am reminded of the famous Groucho Marx line in the 1930 Marx Brothers movie, Animal Crackers: "One morning, I shot an elephant in my pajamas.  How he got in my pajamas, I don't know.")

To make a long story short (not my usual practice), I ended up on Soundcloud listening to a Go Home Productions mashup that incorporates samples of Julian Cope's 1987 UK hit single, "Trampolene." 

Mashups are like potato chips -- you can't stop after just one.  That mashup eventually led me to this one, which opens with a snippet from a Jim Morrison poem titled "Stoned Immaculate," which was set to music on the last Doors studio album, An American Prayer.  (That album was released in 1978, seven years after Morrison died.)

(Get it?)

But most of "Shannon Stone" -- you get the joke behind the title, don't you? -- is a combination of "Let the Music Play," the 1983 hit by freestyle/dance-pop queen Shannon with the instrumental track of "Gimme Shelter," which is arguably the best Rolling Stones' song ever.

At first blush, these two songs couldn't be more dissimilar.  Pairing Shannon's glitzy, drum-machine-propelled post-disco dance-pop hit with the gritty yet spaced-out guitar of Keith Richards and the drums of Charlie Watts sounds like the ultimate apples-and-oranges combination.

But it works, boys and girls -- you can't believe how well it works.  You could almost believe that some genius dreamed up both songs at the same time, intending all along that they be combined into one integrated whole.

What inspired the producer of this mashup to pair up these two tracks?  I have no friggin' idea.  It's unfathomable to me that anyone would ever think to put Shannon together with the Stones. 

Charlie Watts and Keith Richards

It wasn't hard to make the tempos of the two tracks match up.  The tempo of the resulting mix is about 120 beats per minute, which is almost exactly the original tempo of "Gimme Shelter."  I think the producer may have sped up "Let the Music Play" just a bit -- it's original tempo is closer to 116 beats per second. 

The chord structure of the two songs isn't the same, but they mesh very nicely.

The two dissimilar halves of "Shannon Stone" fit so well together that you would think you're listening to a live performance.



It reminds me a little bit of watching the Doors perform "Touch Me" on The Ed Sullivan Show, which took Jim Morrison and his mates pounding away like crazy with a dozen-plus middle-aged guys in suits playing violins, saxophones, trumpets, and trombones.  

Go Home Productions (or "GHP") is really just Mark Vidler, an English producer, DJ, and all-around audio-video whiz.  After producing hundreds of traditional mashups, he's now making mashups that not only mix the music of different artists but also video of those artists performing.

Mark Vidler

We're going to feature several other GHP mashups in upcoming 2 or 3 lines posts.    So if you didn't like this one, there's probably no point in you checking back in for the next couple of weeks.

I had never heard of Shannon until I listened to this mashup, but she was a big deal.  "Let the Music play" could be a Madonna song -- Madonna's first hit single, "Holiday," was released at about the same time.

Here's "Let the Music Play":

And here's the instrumental track to "Gimme Shelter," which is as good as anything Keef and Charlie and the boys ever did:



Here's "Shannon Stone":

Click here and scroll down to download "Shannon Stone" and the entire This Was Pop (2002-2007) album for free.

Shannon (Marty Wilde) -- "Abergavenny" (1969)

A chase in the hills up to Abergavenny

I've got to get there and fast

If you can't go

Then I promise to show you a photograph

A British friend of mine sent me this photograph a couple of weeks ago:

"Y Fenni" is the Welsh name for Abergavenny, which is a town of some 14,000 souls in southeastern Wales, just a few miles from the English border.  My friend, who lives about three hours north of Abergavenny, took this picture from her car when she was passing the local train station.

Do any of you remember the jaunty little British pop single "Abergavenny," which was a minor hit in the U.S. in 1969?  It peaked at #47 on the Billboard pop charts, but I vividly remember hearing it on the radio in my hometown (Joplin, Missouri) -- so I assume it got a fair amount of airplay despite the fact that it never cracked the top 40.

"Abergavenny" was sung by the veteran British pop star, Marty Wilde, but the song was released in the U.S. under the name "Shannon," a pseudonym for Wilde.  I have no idea why Mr. Wilde wouldn't want the record released under his real name in America -- perhaps there was some legal nastiness afoot.  (There usually is.)

Marty Wilde with Julie Andrews

Wilde's first single (a cover of the Jimmie Rodgers hit, "Honeycomb") was released in 1957, and he had several top ten hits over the next several years.  It looks like his career went straight downhill after the Beatles and other "British Invasion" groups took over the pop charts.  His only significant post-1962 hit was "Abergavenny."

He wrote and produced a number of 1980s hits for his daughter Kim Wilde, including "Kids in America."  (See the next 2 or 3 lines for more about that great record.)

Abergavenny got its start as a town in early Norman times -- that was over 1000 years ago.  Because it is located so close to the Wales-England border, it was often embroiled in the battles between the two countries in the 12th and 13th centuries.  King Edward I of England invaded Wales and defeated the Welsh army at the Battle of Orewin Bridge in late 1282.

This plaque marks where Llywelyn, the leader of the Welsh forces, was killed that day:

Wales has been subject to English rule ever since (except for brief periods of rebellion, the last of which ended in 1415), but the formal annexation of Wales to England was not legally perfected until 1543.

About 10% of Abergavenny residents speak Welsh, which looks devilishly difficult in print.  For example, one of the local schools is called Ysgol Gymraeg y Fenni.  The local Welsh-language society is named Cymdelthas Cymreigyddion y Fenni.

Abergavenny Castle dates from 1090

You can tell that Welshmen settled the area to the west of Philadelphia (now known as the "Main Line") from the town names: Bala Cynwyd, Gladwyne, and Bryn Mawr, just to name a few.

"Abergavenny" is a cheery little flibbertigibbet of a record.  (That's a Middle English word, not a Welsh one.)  It has the feel of a 1930s-era English music-hall song.  It reminds me a little of "Penny Lane," but is wholly unironic.

Here's a brief video of Kim Wilde watching a taped performance of "Abergavenny" by her father:

Here's "Abergavenny":

Click here to buy the song from Amazon: