Uptown Top Ranking : Best record ever?

btw, how do you spell new york?

I certainly can't tell you wheter y're rt or wrong, but there's an excellent Trojan comp of Joe Gibbs productions called Uptown Top Ranking that includes it.

Furthermore, isn't the case that, due to the rules wrt live performance at the time (no backing tapes*), they were backed by the BBC band? Which gave a bizarre Ronnie Hazlehurst feel to the arrangement and possibly contributed to its demise at the hands of "Figaro" the following week (Feb 11 '78).

I was 9 at the time and thought it was tuneless rubbish.

(* - this can't be true however, as countless bands mimed throughout the 70s. So what was the precise ruling?).

So they used to switch tapes. Allegedly.

Obviously A&D weren't familiar with behind the scenes shenanigans alluded to above, so they had to make do with the BBC ork's feeble attempt at reggae.

I loved the record at the time. Can't stand it now tho'.

(hang on I think I have an old "one hit wonders" type doco on tape with the TOTP performance of "Uptown Top Ranking" which I could compare to the actual record)

Actually take as long as you like as I am just off to my sistah's birfday party hurrah!!

Very confusing. Tape-swapping HW alludes most certainly went on - so much of TOTP2 sounds just like the rekkids. Rules (in so far as we can establish there were any) changed again in late 80s... all that baloney with Sting and Phil Collins showing the young upstarts a thing or two with their awful (but REAL and LIVE and AKCHEWAL) singing. Sice Booradley told me a story of how he HAD to sing live on TOTP cos, well, they were an indie band and indie bands were expected to do that kind of thing by '95. If he'd been in K-Klass or N-Joi he'd have got away with 180 seconds of vague mouthing. V-Mouth.

Sorry to Dr.C for dragging this thread away from its fine and worthy original subject.

The prog also tells us that the song was a blatant rip off of a number called "Three Piece Suit an' t'ing" by Trinity. And that the follow up was called "Puppy Dog Song". Ahhhh....

What are you doing trawling the interweb at this time of the morning, Mister Williams?

"Oo is it tomorrer, Sid?"

"It's that David Soul innit? Or is it that Diana Ross bird again?"

"'ave you had a word with Ronnie about fitting in an extra tea break yet?"

Today's examples (I'm told) :

"Nothing much on Telly, just Winter Olympics, Snooker an' ting" "Pass me the hammer an' ting" "I'll just nip out and get a paper an' ting"

I HAVE TO STOP!!

They also do a truly frightening version of "Sheena is a punk rocker" and a really gay and unkind renditon of "Love is the drug"

I like UTR a lot, and it is a great vocal performance. But "the purity of the idea"? I'm not sure what this means, particularly in the context of the Jamaican re-use / recycling of rhythm tracks and toasting ideas & styles. ]

Thinking about it a bit, I think what appeals to me about UTR and a lot of other DJ music is the *impurity* of the idea, the constant scramble to re-use, re-combine and re-state excitingly and profitably. I'm tempted to say this is true of every sort of pop but that the structure of the Jamaican music industry lays the whole thing bare, offers it explicitly as part of the enjoyment.

Wasn't UTR the only reggae record which got the thumbs up from Tone 'n' Jules in "The Boy Looked at Johnny"? How do we feel about that?

(did you get my email tim?)

And No! TBLAJ is trivvick! It proves once and for all that TOM ROBINSON BAND is the greatest punk rock thing. Which is surely the appropriate wrong conclusion (ie much funnier and punkah-er than my personal correct conclusion [whatever that is currently]).

I always hated the bit where just b4 the show they give iggy pop laxatives instead of ludes (maan): but now i realise i like it a lot

So earnest! The gap between X-RS and TRB is no so great.

Except of course we should accept that X-Ray Spex consists wholly and completely of the first single, and that they (it) are uber punkah-er- ist. Lora Logic = all-time queen of the world, obv.

Darn. I knew I shouldn't have mentioned TBLAT. I really wanted TP (or someone) to tell me why / how UTR had a 'purity of idea'

Final single = Highly Inflammable shurely? (Was WIW the b-side? Can't remember). All that worrying about realness and identity and not being plasticky.

I remember thinking (e.g.) WIW (also the lyric about fluorescent foam etc etc that Tone & Jules quote) was revelling in the mass cultureness of itself but now it feels / sounds / reads like so much brown rice fretfulness / earnestness.

"Wake Up" by Essential Logic is the record they should have made.

i think you're right about the attitude >> poly was saying "here are some horrible things" but we the listeners were hearing (and feeling) "here are some fantastic things"

A RUBBER BUN!!

Also I thought bright orange vinyl! Fantastic! Now I have it on CD it's even shinier and smaller and plastickier (even comes in a plastic box) but nowhere near as much fun, and I really don't know why.

OH and you are all mentalists, the best X Ray Spex single is OBVIOUSLY 'day-glo' its on orange for god sakes.

Whats funny about this thread, and reading the history of the production of the song is that I thought A&D were indeed stric'ly roots because the single was on the same lable and Dennis Brown's fantabulous 'Money in my Pocket'.

What was lightning records really? Who else was on it?

Can't remember whether they did any non-reggae stuff.

BUt, best XRS single was, of course, IIIIIDENTITEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!

Incomplete Lightning lists at this v useful site.

My view proved by Logic, har.

Oh and what the hell is that thing which seems to be in Scots Gaelic? LIG 553 .

can i also just mention the brilliantly nonsensical term "pre-release"?

The 1978 world cup has been excised from my menory like the pen thing in MIB that Will Smith used.

I have 5 UTR versions : A+D/Trinity/Aitken/Mighty Diamonds/Dillinger (not sure about the last one)

First song played by Steve Lamacq after John Peel died, fact fans.

-_-

I know about the Jay Tees' "Buck Town Corner" which kind of hits the same spot for me, but I could listen to this stuff all day long.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zyK8mcuUIGI&feature=related

so, uh, what else sounds like this?

http://www.discogs.com/Various-Feel-Like-Jumping-The-Best-Of-Studio-One-Women/release/552599

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pJazLyUfzNs

I brought my "Uptown Top Ranking" 7" to a vegan potluck last week and all these ppl were like "yo this is awesome what is this"

Could be better but yeah, could be.

Is that 'wreck a buddy' song upthread intentionally referencing the 'little drummer boy' song?

Kept expecting the sisters to start doing the parapapa parapapa bit.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fUHYnOTJ_uk&feature=related

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qXnT3LFTc-s

The 'Best of Studio One Women' comp upthread is spot on for people looking for similar stuff.

this is the best song ever, but the full LP is kind of disappointing.

Love this song, but never heard "Three Piece Suit" until a few months ago, so that's getting played a lot more as of right now.

Is that 'wreck a buddy' song upthread intentionally referencing the 'little drummer boy' song?

yep

"ow"

Proto-ranking

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EEKQrMISQFc

nice!