Sklugoo Speaks

I don't know if you've noticed, but Sklugoo is a little obsessive and compulsive. All the labels have to be right. The first series all had one-word titles; the second had two words so guess how many words are in each of the titles of the fifth series. Yup: five. So when he saw that this episode was originally conceived as The Must Hear Show he had to find a better word. Essential is that word, although, on reflection, Compulsive might have been better. Still, what is done has been gone and done.

Are these popular songs? Sklugoo guesses so (in some circles). Are these good songs? Pff. What is good? Are these some of Sklugoo's favourite songs from over the years? Heck yeah! And if you have any respect for a small, green meditating frog then you gotta get with the programme.

Tune in, listen up and wind down to this setlist:

1. The Jam - Start!
2. Grandmaster Flash & The Furious Five - The Message
3. The Smiths - This Charming Man
4. Lloyd Cole And The Commotions - Rattlesnakes
5. The Fall - Cruiser's Creek
6. Prince & The Revolution - Kiss
7. MARRS - Pump Up The Volume
8. Dinosaur Jr - Freak Scene
9. Soul II Soul - Back To Life (However Do You Want Me)
10. Primal Scream - Loaded
11. Jane Siberry & KD Lang - Calling All Angels
12. Radiohead - Creep
13. Beck - Loser
14. TLC - Waterfalls
15. Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds ft. Kylie Minogue - Where The Wild Roses Grow
16. Fugees - Ready or Not
17. Blur - Song 2
18. Massive Attack - Teardrop
19. Aimee Mann - Save Me
20. Eminem ft. Dido - Stan
21. Alicia Keys - Fallin'
22. Elvis Presley - A Little Less Conversation
23. The White Stripes - Seven Nation Army
24. Arcade Fire - Rebellion (Lies)
25. Coldplay - Fix You.

Goth Music is what they did back when rock became too tame and punk a little too scarey. So thinks Sklugoo, your favourite small, green meditating frog, and so it must be so.

This show is all about that kind of music and features such luminaries as Sklugoo chatting up a storm and a whole slew of people singing songs and playing guitars and drums as fiercely as their young bones would allow. What's not to enjoy?

Enough chat, here's the setlist for the show:

1. The Cult - She Sells Sanctuary
2. The Sisters of Mercy - This Corrosion
3. The Cramps - The Way I Walk
4. Spear Of Destiny - Liberator
5. Bauhaus - Ziggy Stardust
6. The Mission - Wasteland
7. Sigue Sigue Sputnik - Love Missile F1-11
8. Killing Joke - Love Like Blood
9. Billy Idol - White Wedding
10. Sex Gang Children - Sebastiane
11. Public Image Ltd - Rise
12. The Damned - Grimly Fiendish
13. The Stranglers - Peaches
14. The Cure - The Holy Hour
15. The Danse Society - Heaven Is Waiting
16. Love and Rockets - So Alive
17. Paradise Lost - How Soon Is Now?
18. The Jesus And Mary Chain - Just Like Honey
19. Alien Sex Fiend - I Walk The Line
20. Xmal Deutschland - Mondlicht
21. Siouxsie And The Banshees - Christine.

Just when you thought Sklugoo could deliver no more wonderful music (and chat (don't forget the chat)) into your lives he remembers that he didn't just record 8 episodes of this series, he recorded 12!

This one is, as is says on the label, about ambient music. I'd tell you what that is but I'm guessing that you're smart and know already.

If, on the other hand, you've never come across this lovely, laid-back genre then consider this to be your introduction.

Here's the setlist for your reading (and listening) pleasure:

1. Portishead - Roads
2. John Williams - Jaws (Main theme)
3. Kate Bush - Running Up That Hill
4. Oneohtrix Point Never - Black Snow
5. Coldplay - Trouble
6. James Blake - Radio Silence
7. Ella Fitzgerald & Louis Armstrong - Summertime
8. Bruce Springsteen - State Trooper
9. This Mortal Coil - Song To The Siren
10. The Cure - A Forest
11. The Smiths - How Soon Is Now?
12. Tears For Fears - Mad World
13. Echo & the Bunnymen - The Killing Moon
14. Faithless - Insomnia
15. Björk - Possibly Maybe
16. Ex:Re - Romance
17. Usher - Crash.

Hope you enjoy. Heck, skip that; I'm convinced of it!

You wouldn't think Sklugoo could be moody could you, what with him having such a bright and sunny smile plastered across his green and lovely face?

Well, he's not.

But these songs are.

Not that you won't love them, because you will. They will warm the cockles of your heart to such an extent that you'll want to peck away at this episode as if you're a blackbird that's found a mince pie in the back garden.

Yeah, I know - it doesn't make that much sense to Sklugoo either, but it keeps the flow of conversation moving on.

Here's the setlist for your delectation:

1. Audrey Hepburn - Moon River
2. Nina Simone - Strange Fruit
3. Japan - Ghosts
4. Erik Satie - Gymnopédie No.1
5. Arcade Fire - Neighborhood #1 (Tunnels)
6. The Rolling Stones - Far Away Eyes
7. Massive Attack - Teardrop
8. Enya - Boadicea
9. Dream Academy - Life In A Northern Town
10. Nine Inch Nails - Hurt
11. Japan - Nightporter
12. David Sylvian - River Man
13. Nick Drake - River Man
14. Brian Eno - Deep Blue Day
15. Air - La Femme D'Argent
16. The Stranglers - Golden Brown
17. Roberta Flack - Killing Me Softly With His Song
18. The Velvet Underground
19. The Beatles - I Am The Walrus
20. Amy Winehouse - Back To Black.

Sklugoo does music. You gotta have gotten the gist of this by now this being the seventh episode of the series.

This is a set that ... sigh ... it's music that will mellow you out if you're a little too hyper and cheer you up if you're way, way down in the dumps, so what's not to love?

It starts with that piece of music you might have heard from The Matrix called ... but why bother telling you when you have the whole setlist at your fingertips here:

1. Jefferson Airplane -White Rabbit
2. Cowboy Junkies - Blue Moon Revisited (Song For Elvis)
3. Chris Isaak - Wicked Game
4. Dire Straits - Private Investigations
5. Fleetwood Mac - Albatross
6. Robert Plant - Big Log
7. Jace Everett - Bad Things
8. Bauhaus - She's In Parties
9. Shakespears Sister - Stay
10. Roberta Flack - The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face
11. Ultravox - Vienna
12. Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark - Stanlow
13. Leonard Cohen - Suzanne
14. John Murphy - In the House, in a Heartbeat
15. Snow Patrol - Chasing Cars
16. Sigur Ros - Svefn-g-englar
17. Radiohead - Everything In Its Right Place
18. Ella Fitzgerald - Ev'ry time We Say Goodbye.

There was a wedding. There were no songs at the actual wedding but afterwards, they decided that there were songs that should have been played at the wedding. These are those songs:

1. Ben E. King - Stand By Me
2. Bryan Adams - (Everything I Do) I Do It For You
3. Commodores - Three Times A Lady
4. Dan Hill - Sometimes When We Touch
5. David Gray - Sail Away
6. Dolly Parton - I Will Always Love You
7. Edie Brickell - Good Times
8. Elvis Presley - (Let Me Be Your) Teddy Bear
9. Eric Clapton - Wonderful Tonight
10. Joe Cocker - You Are So Beautiful
11. Joe Cocker & Jennifer Warnes - Up Where We Belong
12. Louis Armstrong - What A Wonderful World
13. Michael Bolton - How Am I Supposed To Live Without You
14. Morris Albert - Feelings
15. Nat King Cole - When I Fall In Love
16. Norah Jones - Come Away With Me
17. Peggy Lee - Fever
18. Percy Sledge - When a Man Loves a Woman
19. Sam Cooke - What A Wonderful World
20. The Stylistics - You Make Me Feel Brand New
21. Syreeta - Harmour Love
22. Wet Wet Wet - Love Is All Around.

If you are of a certain age. Or your parents are. Or your grandparents are. If so, play them to yourself or your parents or your grandparents.

Then meditate for a bit on the meaning of love.

This is Sklugoo. I'm meditating (obviously) so I'm getting Robert C Day to do my voice. He's not quite a disciple. The chickens are enough in that department. I let him have his own choice of music.

The songs all have the word Day in their titles or in their subjects. I understood that Robert C Day put a lot of time into thinking about them. In my opinion, that time would have been better spent meditating.

That said, here's the playlist:

1. Rudimental - These Days (ft. Jess Glynne, Macklemore & Dan Caplen)
2. The Beatles - Yesterday
3. Stan Freberg - Banana Boat (Day-O)
4. The Boomtown Rats - I Don't Like Mondays
5. The Bangles - Manic Monday
6. The Rolling Stones - Ruby Tuesday
7. The Undertones - Wednesday Week
8. Simon & Garfunkel - Wednesday Morning 3 A.M.
9. Jess Glynne - Thursday
10. The Cure - Friday I'm In Love
11. Sam Fender - Saturday
12. The Saturdays - What About Us
13. U2 - Sunday Bloody Sunday
14. Blondie - Sunday Girl
15. Morrissey - Everyday Is Like Sunday
16. Dermot Kennedy - Better Days
17. KSI – Holiday
18. Riton and Nightcrawlers - Friday (ft. Mufasa & Hypeman)
19. Europa (Jax Jones & Martin Solveig) - All Day and Night (ft. Madison Beer)
20. Blancmange - The Day Before You Came
21. The Strokes - Someday
22. Radiohead - Daydreaming
23. Gorillaz - Tomorrow Comes Today
24. Coldplay - Daylight
25. Tame Impala - Lost in Yesterday
26. The Sugarcubes - Birthday

As always in this series, if you hear Five Towns Radio then beep it out in your head. Or don't.

Sklugoo brings you music. Sklugoo brings you life. Sklugoo brings you a very confused introduction to Five Towns Radio (ignore that part) and a very harmonious comparison between the top songs of 2022 and 1982.

Confused? You won't be after you've listened to Sklugoo prattling on while these delicious bumps of music play around him like ... maypole dancers or something like that. Forget about that; just enjoy!

Here's the track listing for the second episode in the epic fifth series of Sklugoo Speaks:

1. Madness - It Must Be Love
2. ACRAZE - Do It To It (ft. Cherish)
3. Dollar - Mirror Mirror
4. ArrDee - Flowers (Say My Name)
5. Altered Images - I Could Be Happy
6. The Weeknd - Sacrifice
7. The Human League - Being Boiled 1978
8. SwitchOTR - Coming For You (ft. A1 x J1)
9. Foreigner - Waiting for a Girl Like You
10. Jessica Darrow - Surface Pressure (From "Encanto")
11. Meat Loaf - Dead Ringer for Love
12. D-Block Europe - Overseas (ft. Central Cee)
13. Jon and Vangelis - I'll Find My Way Home
14. Fireboy DML & Ed Sheeran - Peru
15. The Human League - Don't You Want Me
16. Sam Fender - Seventeen Going Under
17. Kool & The Gang - Get Down On It
18. Lauren Spencer Smith - Fingers Crossed
19. Shakin' Stevens - Oh Julie
20. We Don't Talk About Bruno (From "Encanto")
21. Kraftwerk - The Model
22. Adele - Easy On Me
23. Bucks Fizz - The Land of Make Believe
24. Gayle - ABCDEFU

This is episode one of an twelve-part series composed entirely of my radio shows. They are full of great music tracks with Sklugoo (pretending to be Robert C Day) or maybe Robert C Day (pretending to be Sklugoo) waffling on between them.

Don't be put off by any references to Five Towns Radio. At that time, Sklugoo (or Robert) was just confused about why he was doing what he was doing. He's no less confused now, but at least you get to get the benefit.

Because there's such a variety of music in this episode, I will give you a track listing. Feel free to fast-forward the songs if you want to hear my waffle, and vice versa if you want the music.

Here are the twenty-three (or so) songs in order of play:

1. Nina Simone - Feeling Good
2. Meghan Trainor - All About That Bass
3. ABBA - Super Trouper
4. Imogen Heap - Hide And Seek
5. Laurie Anderson - O Superman
6. The Streets - Dry Your Eyes
7. Baz Luhrmann - Everybody's Free To Wear Sunscreen
8. Self Esteem - I Do This All The Time
9. Robin Thicke - Blurred Lines (ft. T.I. & Pharrell)
10. Talking Heads - Psycho Killer
11. Selena Gomez - Bad Liar
12. The Police - Every Breath You Take
13. Selena Gomez, Marshmello - Wolves
14. Robert C Day - Numb Fingertips
15. CamelPhat & Elderbrook - Cola
16. Kideko & George Kwali - Crank It (Woah!) feat. Nadia Rose & Sweetie Irie
17. Kungs vs Cookin’ on 3 Burners - This Girl
18. Ex:Re - Romance
19. Laura Marling - Soothing
20. Wet Leg - Chaise Longue
21. Sam Fender - Seventeen Going Under
22. Ed Sheeran - Shivers
23. Usher - Crash.

This was something I recorded while eating chewing gum. It was rejected from the Green Champions Podcast and so I thought I'd put it here instead. Beware - it contains tasteless comments (this time about Chinese foot-binding and those people who put rings around their necks to make them long) and has really poor sound quality - so nothing new there. If you don't like these things then don't listen. If you do then you have given away your right to complain.