(Top 50 Countdown!!!) 29. The Flying Machine - "Smile A Little Smile For Me"

I dunno, you can go 20 records without a Macauley, and then two come along at once: he wrote this one too. There’s a story about how McCartney wrote “Let It Be” and “The Long And Winding Road” on the same day which was, you know, a good day’s work one way or another. I’d like to see a day-by-day breakdown of which ones Macauley wrote on what day, so we could form a club and celebrate the especially good ones with a cake and prayers. Anyway, because it hadn’t been a hit in Britain (the shame!), it seems this one had escaped the Pooh Sticks house until just after we’d delivered “Million Seller” and we noticed that “I Saw The Light” has striking similarities. I could say we were so freaked out by it that we tried recalling the tapes to delete the track and excise the spookiness of it all but, well, that would’ve left the album under the contractually-obligated 35 minutes, which I’m told had already caused fisticuffs with the record company, so we didn’t. Anyway, this one: although it’s apparently called ‘sunshine pop’ these days, I’m, you know, not at all sure that the grey’s turned to blue here quite yet. Oh, and it’s not the band which James Taylor was in (“Sweet dreams and flying machines in pieces on the ground”), by the way.

"Think Bubble" is an album (LP only) of 1995 demos for an unreleased Pooh Sticks album.
See 'About Me' for details.

(Top 50 Countdown!!!) 30. The Fantastics - "Something Old, Something New"

This one is like what happens when a couple in love don’t take the turn that would’ve led to them holding hands and jumping off a cliff together. It’s nice to have a happy ending for once, and you gotta embrace it, cos there’s always The Shangri-Las waiting round the corner, right? Again, like “Hey Girl, Don’t Bother Me”, it’s a little bit soul and a little bit bubblegum all at once, but this one is a little easier to read cos it has songwriter Tony Macauley stamped all over it. For a few years, Macauley used to write a couple of hits before breakfast… more if he was having a fry-up and the bacon was slow. It was a bad day if he hadn’t written a million seller by lunchtime. Specifically, apparently, so I’m told, “The Rhythm Of Love” on “The Great White Wonder” has ‘feel’ from this one.

"Think Bubble" is an album (LP only) of 1995 demos for an unreleased Pooh Sticks album.
See 'About Me' for details.

track 2, side 1 - "My Amp"

Here's a reminder of what this “Think Bubble” thing sounds like. I’m told this is some kinda “Guitar Man” (OK, maybe) crossed with “Layla” (really? answers on a postcard…). Thing is, personally, the thing this thing reminds me most of is “1979” by Smashing Pumpkins!

"Think Bubble" is an album (LP only) of 1995 demos for an unreleased Pooh Sticks album.
See 'About Me' for details.

(Top 50 Countdown!!!) 31. The Tams - "Hey Girl Don't Bother Me"

I don’t know anything about this group, and I don’t want to know, so don’t tell me. It just seems to exist out of nowhere, half soul and half bubblegum. If there’s a whole genre of records like this well, I’m afraid to look, cos I do have other things to do, and I can’t just spend all day every day drowning in seas of unknown half-soul-half-bubblegum discographies. So it’s like ‘What? I don’t understand… what is this? Why? Who? When?’, and that kinda mystery is pretty intoxicating. It’s like clouds: they look great (we’re talking about fluffy nice ones here, not big everywhere-grey ones) but you can’t hold them. This one was pretty much always a favourite in the Pooh Sticks house, right from “Formula One Generation” anyway, to the very end. It has one of the very most beautiful middle-8’s, don’t you think? Plus, it’s got some of that teen-femme-fatale thing going on, like in “Young Girl” by The Union Gap, and that’s always good in a pop record, so I’m told. Death, guitars and girls, apparently. Look, you learn to roll with it.

"Think Bubble" is an album (LP only) of 1995 demos for an unreleased Pooh Sticks album.
See 'About Me' for details.

'Great White Wonder' multi track-sheet

Hmmmm… looks like it was decided that “Pandora’s Box” was to be the one which’d incorporate the spirit of Neil Peart: seems that it had an extra track for the “tom”. Now, if it wasn’t, you know, strictly necessary in musical terms, I’m sure it was ‘conceptually valid’ or somesuch but, well, look, I’m not going to ask. Life’s too short.

The version of “Let The Good Times Roll” here was from the ‘studio tryout’ session in 1990, which had also resulted in that “The Kids Are Alright”. Track 11 says “noise”: that was Michel’s wholly cinematic and frighteningly realistic ‘motorcycle guitar’, a feature which seems somehow to have been deemed inappropriate for the rather more light-hearted version of the song we ended up doing for “Million Seller”. Track 13 is labelled “end ac.git.”, which reminds me that the song had a long end-section based on Jonathan Richman’s “Roadrunner”: the mix of this ‘tryout’ version faded on that, but it was edited from the mix of the “Million Seller” version completely.

Meanwhile, I’m pleased to see that “I’m In You” allocated an entire track just to the tambourine.

"Think Bubble" is an album (LP only) of 1995 demos for an unreleased Pooh Sticks album.
See 'About Me' for details.

(Top 50 Countdown!!!) 32. Ohio Express - "Yummy Yummy Yummy"

The missing link between “Pushin’ Too Hard” and that “Sugar Sugar” happening up the stairs: equal parts punk-thuggy and candy-sweet. This would’ve been getting most of its Pooh Sticks spinnin’ around the time of “Multiple Orgasm”, when it’d sometimes be impossible to show up for duty and avoid a lecture about ‘postively-negative B-sides’: Super K used to issue deliberately-nothing B-sides not to get in the way of the A-side (this one used a backwards recording of a 1910 Fruitgum Company track!), and this was apparently why many singles on Fierce were one-sided. This was actually a home-recorded demo which they thought sounded good so was issued as it was and, before anyone feels like making the comparison, no, our home-recorded “Think Bubble” stuff isn’t fit to tie its licorice, I know.

"Think Bubble" is an album (LP only) of 1995 demos for an unreleased Pooh Sticks album.
See 'About Me' for details.

track 1, side 1 - "Stereo Love"

Here’s a reminder of what this “Think Bubble” thing sounds like. Apparently, this one is supposed to be The Troggs doing Pilot’s “Magic” as “Tobacco Road”. No, really.

"Think Bubble" is an album (LP only) of 1995 demos for an unreleased Pooh Sticks album.
See 'About Me' for details.