Lopez Blogs

After totally letting Mike down with my Australian choices of music last week (hey at least I left out Delta Goodrem), I thought I would shamelessly rob his post idea of some camp classics - as frankly that was pretty much what soundtracked my holiday. I do love a good drag act. Anyway what is "camp"? And who really cares? Suffice to say, there is a brilliant line in Gimme Gimme Gimme where Tom opens a camp site and on the loud speaker announces "that's camp as in pitching your tents, not camp as in 'ooo get you mother bitch'" which made me titter a little bit even as I was writing it! Anyway here are some songs especially beloved by myself and studly DazPecs when we are drunk and in a party mood:

LONDON BOYS ~ REQUIEM/LONDON NIGHTS:

I can't help but feel two things:

1. First, despite all their comparisons to Mika and the Scissters, Rongedal are actually the millenial version of ace pop-disco duo The London Boys (who were from Germany, of course).
2. Secondly, I sense (and they may well already know and love them) that if PosterGirl, Bobbypops and Troy had been blogging back in the late 80s they would have freaking adored these two songs.
3. Finally (even though I said two things), I think that the London Boys were everything that Milli Vanilli were not (ie, able to sing live and actually dance without wacking themselves in the face with dreadlocks)

Requiem is a stunning and amazing dance pop tune that often gets overlooked for anything Kylie, Jason, Lonnie, Donna, Sonia, Big Fun related from the late 80s. It starts off with a quite bassy beat that seems quite dark when matched with the pet shop boys-esque spoken lyrics. This all builds gloriously into a thumper of a chorus full of hope and potential both lyrically and musically. "You're the love of my life (my life my life) and I won't let you go now/this is a requiem for love" It really is disco tastic. And if that wasn't enough, London Nights is even frothier like a double chocolate malt milkshake, but the fresh kind not the suck so hard your cheeks cave in MacDonalds kind. Disco beats, match the ridiculously catchy chorus ("eye-ee-eye-ee-eye-ee-eye wanna get up tonight, i want to keep on loving you-oo-oo") that actually I can see Same Difference singing, were they not brother and sister (perhaps the video could make it so they are crooning to other people??). Their aces album 12 Commandments of Dance is actually quite hard to get hold of, so for an incredibly limited time you can download it here

RUTH WALLIS ~ BOOBS/QUEER THINGS:

Ruth Wallis was the Bette Midler of her day. All for smutty innuendo that actually now seems quite charming/insulting depending on how PC you are. Not many people can write such a catchy little ode to the female breast in the 50s and become a huge world wide star. Radio was even more restrictive in the states then than it is now, but other countries just loved the original Ruthiepoos. I believe it was quite pioneering for her to be a burlesque type cabaret singer in those days, and she was passionate about the quality of her songs and releases. She even had a musical called Boobs which ran for 300 performances. Drag queens all over the world perform her tunes, in particular the two below - Boobs and Queer Things, which apparently she loved seeing drag queens perform...
MP3: Ruth Wallis - Boobs
MP3: Ruth Wallis - Queer Things

5 other generally brilliant party worthy mp3 downloads:

1. Billy Flywheel ~ Around the Old Camp Fire
2. Rolf Harris ~ Court of King Carractacus
3. The Typewriter song (see video above!)
4. Copacabana Cast ~ men wanted
5. Crush ~ Jellyhead (Motiv8 Mix)

I'm sure i've missed out hundreds of others, but i think that will do for today :)