Alice 30 Songs Member S Best Selection Rar
Genciana Haggins
It seems like every time we play in a couple of specific clubs, members of
the audience REALLY want to hear "Alice" -- all i know about this song
is that it may have originated as a children's song, and that when it's
performed in these bars, the audience is supposed to shout out something
like "Alice?! Who the %$#!@ is ALICE?!" during the refrain.
Can someone help me track down a version of this song, so that our band
can get these brutal crowds on our side? Thanks in advance,
Christy Lesse
>This is a song by the band Smokey, which was revived in a dance version
>two years ago in Ireland and the UK and was originally entitled "27 Years
>Living Next Door to Alice". Being named Alice, I've been subjected to
>endless refrains of the hook "who the #?(@# is Alice? I haven't found an
>actual recorded copy of the song, but I'm sure they're around.
>Good luck finding it!>Alice FarrellA couple of years ago when on holiday in Eire we heard on a local
radio station a parody (!) of that song with the line "for 27 years
I've been living next door to Albert (who the **** is Albert?). Don't
know who was responsible, but the recording was live and hilarious.
The subject matter was, of course, the Teasoich.John Rosier
I've heard this differently - in the run up to the soccer world cup appearance by Ireland and at a crucial moment, one Alan [McLaughlin, I think] - then an unknown - was brought on for a better known
player . The refrain you mention is not about Alice, but Alan, and is how the terraces saw the substitution - until he scored.John Moulden
Singer, Percussionist, Writer, Lecturer,
Researcher, Publisher, Song Hunter
Ulstersongs Mail Order (Books and Cassettes)
You're right, John - the game in question was the Republic of
Ireland's last WC90 qualifier in Windsor park against N. Ireland :-)
Alan McLoughlin scored the equaliser - then at full-time, we had
to watch the last 6 nail-biting minutes of Spain v Denmark
which Spain won and so we qualified.
This version of the song 'Who the F*** is Alan' was on a tape
released by the Parnassus Arts Group from Dublin (I think
they're all civil servants). Pat.
It seems like every time we play in a couple of specific clubs,
members of
the audience REALLY want to hear "Alice" -- all i know about this
song
is that it may have originated as a children's song, and that when
it's
performed in these bars, the audience is supposed to shout out
something
like "Alice?! Who the %$#!@ is ALICE?!" during the refrain.
Can someone help me track down a version of this song, so that our
band
can get these brutal crowds on our side?
It amazes me that this song took off like this.
It was written by Nicky Chinn and Mike Chapman and recorded by Smokie
(maybe 1977). You'd be surprised how many songs these guys wrote.
I've heard the new version only once. I have the Smokie on tape and CD.
It's a CD I've not seen here in the U.S. It's called the greatest hits,
or the best of.
Like you I get a great reaction at gigs.
I front an Irish rock band and strangely enough, could be Smokie's
biggest fan.I can send you the words and chords, just email me from the following
site, after
you check it out.
Cheers
Damien Promise - The Indulgers - www.shamrocker.com
>Cheers.Hi Alan,
Well, for starters, we're not a good band. We're not Altan or Solas; we're
a working pub band, and it is our job to sell drinks by pleasing crowds of
drunken frat boys, ditzy bleached-blondes, and yuppies on the make. If we
get these people on our side, we're doing our job. If we play nothing but
jigs, reels & obscure ballads, the crowd gets ugly, thins out, and the
club hires someone else who IS willing to play "Alice", "The Unicorn",
"Whiskey in the Jar", etc.
We do this full-time; we don't have day-jobs to fall back on, so we don't
have the luxury of being able to pick & choose where we play; we have to
go where the money is.
The upside of doing this full time is that it gives us the chance to
continuously work on our chops, learn to do our own sound under adverse
conditions, and yes, work the crowd. I know of some amazing trad musicians
(with day jobs, of course) who are useless performers (not that trad music
is necessarily MEANT to be performed on stage anyway; to my way of looking
at it, sessions & ceilis seem more appropriate); they just don't have the
feel for setting their PA system levels, communicating with the audience,
or playing a diverse, seamless set.
Personally, i feel that it really doesn't matter what song you play; even
if it's "Take Me Home Country Roads", if you give it all you've got, both
you and the crowd can have a great time.best wishes,
Christy (not my real name)
Although Pearl Jam and Nirvana are/were sort of darker bands, they weren't as sludgy and riffy or metallic as AIC, and perhaps this is why AIC didn't necessarily get lumped into the whole "grunge" thing.
PJ and Nirvana are/were more "mass appeal," poppier bands, whereas AIC was more specifically metal-related. AIC would wind up on bills with Metallica, whereas Pearl Jam would wind up on bills with Neil Young.
I loved the "Grunge" thing. When I first heard "Smells like Teen Spirit" I knew something was about to change. For all the guys that knock grunge, you have to remeber: Poison sucked! Anything that knocked them into the dust bin of history I fully endorse.
My favorites were Soundgarden and AIC. I agree that AIC was pretty much a metal band. I think the thing going on then was "metal" bands in the biggest sense of the word had either: 1) picked up on Van Halen's style; or 2) picked up on and mixed Motorhead and Preist and Maiden and Sabbath but like Sabbath played at "78 speed" (for those that remember the old Cheech and Chong joke). Everyone copped riff from Led Zep, so they kinda wash out in this mock analysis.
Grunge went back to Sabbath's tempos, Sabbath's dark tones, and did away with the fizzy distortion sound the "sheen" or "shimmer", and the thin sounds; so for me when I heard like Metalica or Anthrax they were copping Sabbath riffs and Priest riffs, when I heard Poison or other "hair" bands (bullet boys, Warrent) they were like making me regret the future before it even happened, but Soundgarden were like channeling them-- OK not from beyond the grave but like across "the pond" I guess. So heard both Soundgarden and AIC as metalbands, AIC was more polished and modern sounding to me, but both seemed to me to go back to the source and re-envision the influence for a post "Poison" music scene.
I don't get Pearl Jam, Jeremy is a great tune, and they had a lot of great tunes, Nirvana had their share too. The rest of them -- Mudhoney etc-- never really caught my ear. To really mess things up, I'd put Jane's Addiction more in the Seattle camp than the LA camp, glam influences not withstanding. Which pairing makes more sense, Jane's and Soundgarden, or Jane's and RATT; or Jane's and AIC, or Jane's and Poison?
Poison did suck, I agree. They made one or two hits and everyone else seemed to copy them. But there were plenty of neat bands coming out of the glam influences that were not nearly as overplayed. I still like Scorpions, Skid Row, and Def Leppard, a lot (not that they're gods or anything), and believe me, there is a huge difference between that stuff (which I consider hair metal) and the crappy, thin-sounding glam metal you speak of (aka Ratt, Poison, Whitesnake, White Lion, Heart, Cinderella). However, every now and then, you can find a cool glam metal band. I like Winger a lot, though I understand how they quickly tire.
My favorites were Soundgarden and AIC. I agree that AIC was pretty much a metal band. I think the thing going on then was "metal" bands in the biggest sense of the word had either: 1) picked up on Van Halen's style; or 2) picked up on and mixed Motorhead and Preist and Maiden and Sabbath but like Sabbath played at "78 speed" (for those that remember the old Cheech and Chong joke). Everyone copped riff from Led Zep, so they kinda wash out in this mock analysis.
I did hear some really early AIC tune on a rock station here recently, and WOW it was so awfully written that it was almost inspiring to know that the band was able to later rise to the occasion and improve it's songwriting so much.
Hey Griff, I don't think it read like I was talking about Sabbath's influences but bands that picked up on Sabbath. I only mentioned Zep because I figured someone would point out that they influenced these bands too, that sabbath wasn't the only influence.
Nirvana were great. Amazing songs. AIC were great, too. Pearl Jam were totally fucking overrated (and I say that even with one of the drummers being a close friend of mine). But when you add up all the categories, SG are the hands down winners, IMESHO.
Give me the Bosstones and other ska material, punk/metal crossovers like The Living End, politico-rock like the Kennedys, man, there are a LOT of sub-genres in the punk vein I prefer to traditional "punk".
To me they were sort of industrial something or other. It was pretty unclassifiable, really. New Wave, Art School, Industrial. Synth. Ok... maybe punk too, but perhaps "New Wave" is a better term, because "New Wave" doesn't have "punk"'s antisocial connotations. With their costumes and "we are the future" trip, you could even pass Devo off as a bizarre pisstake of Kraftwerk.
I think that if one band was going to have the title of THE band from the grunge era, it would have to be Green River. "Rehab Doll/Dry as a Bone" has got to be THE best record to come out of that whole scene and Green River spawned Mudhoney, Mother Love Bone, Pearl Jam, and a few others. I don't mean to take anything away from AIC, cause "Facelift" is still one of my all time favorites, but they kept going and were still relevant even after "grunge" fizzled out, so to me, they broke out of the grunge thing after their 2nd record. My $.02.
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