Monday, April 21, 2008

May I Have a Scarf, Please?



Nikki Sudden - Live on WMFU, NYC (1/18/02) Part 1
Nikki Sudden - Live on WMFU, NYC (1/18/02) Part 2

Oh, Nikki. I did cry, when I read you were gone. No more Nikki Sudden in the world, ever again, except for the songs left behind. I'm a sad romantic at heart and I'd like nothing more than a radio station that plays hopelessly romantic real music, like Johnny Thunders' and Nikki's and Jonathan Richman's (yeah - Jonathan!) all day, every day. These guys can break my heart, tear me apart and put me back together again in one song. Fuck Dylan.

How to categorize this one is the only reason I haven't posted it before. Nikki's star rose during the 80s and beyond, but this is by far the most recent recording I've posted. But it's the only live Nikki I have that plays. Got a few more earlier ones but they are screwed up and I can't share them. Welcome, again, to the world of bootlegs. I've got dozens of shows I've wanted to share with you, but the damn CDR medium is a fickle storage fiend and my archive is deteriorating as it sits in its little boxes and booklets and nooks and crannies. Or maybe they play fine on a stereo but won't rip without digi-noise regardless of software used. I went through ten shows last night and wasn't able to find one that didn't have flaws now.

Fortunately, this one came out great. Nikki sounds fantastic! The only drawback is the demented, infatuated DJ. You'll want to find some way, some horrible and drastic way, to keep her from talking by the end of the broadcast, trust me. After a couple of listens to this, I'm pretty sure Nikki wanted to as well, as much of a gentleman as he tried to be with her.

This one's for my brother Mike, who turned me onto Nikki and The Swell Maps and The Jacobites and a helluva lot more. Thanks, Mike!

If you don't own, if you've never heard (!) Robespierre's Velvet Basement, then immediately buy shit!

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Now playing: Robyn Hitchcock And The Egyptians - Never Stop Bleeding
via FoxyTunes

6 comments:

Nuzz Prowlin' Wolf said...

Great post for a great guy, met him once, he was a well humble bloke from my memories, maan that DJ, what was she on, must have done Nikkis head in a bit. Top post.

gomonkeygo said...

Yeah, I've heard from other folk that met him through his MySpace page and say the same thing. I found out about his MySpace a week before he died. I was just too nervous to chat him up - stupid me. (What the hell do you say, really - "I think you're great! I love your songs!" and so on).

Anyway, glad you liked it. I think there's an album or too over on my old blog still if you need them.

Peteykins said...

It is shocking, isn't it? And his brother, Epic Soundtracks, too! Sometimes the world really is unfair.

But! We still have all those Swell Maps recordings to console ourselves with.

gomonkeygo said...

Thanks for the comment. Wish I could've met Nikki - everyone I've talked to who has just speaks so well and highly of him. Sounds like he was a true gentleman.

Anonymous said...

hi all
i was a good nikki s friend,house host and "driver" to every show he played in greece from 2005 till he sadly passed away.
yes,nikki was a rock n roll gentlemen
ready to share anything he had,a true romantic heart so much missed these days...and,oh,how it hurts everytime i hear again all of his great releases...
"to know him was to love him"
thanks for this post pal.

gomonkeygo said...

Over the last few years, here and in private, I've heard so many wonderful things about Nikki from so many people. We really lost someone special, I think, in losing Nikki.

Thank you for sharing words and your time with me. I appreciate it.