Playlist 06.08.12

I'm not sure there are many lyrics about Olympic gold medals, but please let's not bring Spandau Ballet into this. Instead I've settled on an amazing song by Freakwater, called 'Louisville Lip'. This recording appeared on the 1998 album 'Springtime' and it finds the alt band from Chicago fixating on a particular award.

Cassius Clay won the Light Heavyweight gold in Rome in 1960. But when he returned home, he found the same old prejudice in the American south. The champ was refused food in a white-only establishment. So according to legend, the disgusted boxer threw his medal into the Ohio River.

'Louisville Lip' imagines the fate of that award, somewhere in the silt under the Second Street Bridge. Has the ribbon rotted and is the metal tarnished? Or was it actual gold? It's a peculiar song that imagines the journey from injustice to deliverance. The hand becomes a fist. Clay becomes Ali. And in Atlanta, in the 1996 Olympics, Mohammad Ali receives his replacement medal and a severely overdue apology.

The Style Council - My Ever Changing Moods (Polydor)

Kraftwerk - Tour De France (EMI)

Frank Turner - If Ever I Stray (Xtra Mile)

Ben Glover - Whatever Happens Will (white)

Ben Glover - Rampart Street (live)

Opossom - Girl (Fire)

So So Sailors - So Broken Hearted (No Dancing)

Animal Collective - Today's Supernatural (Domino)

Friends - I'm His Girl (Lucky Numbers)

Opossom - Getaway Tonight (Fire)

Elvis Costello - This Year's Girl (Demon)

The Lost Brothers - Bird In A Cage (Bird Dog)

Antony And the Johnsons - Cut The World (Rough Trade)

The Mighty Shamrocks - Cowgirls (Good Vibrations)

Freakwater - Louisville Lip (Thrill Jockey)

Mercury Rev - Little Rhymes (V2)

The Lost Brothers - Now that The Night Has Come (Bird Dog)

Antony And the Johnsons - You Are My Sister (Rough Trade)

Stubborn Heart - Need Someone (4ad)

Duke Special - Condition (Adventures In Gramophone)

Sparks - Beat The Clock (Repertoire)