In which I fail in not mentioning Syd Barrett or Kraftwerk.
I was challenged to find five songs with the word 'bike' or 'bicycle' in the title by amanda_pink.
It's been rather hard, given that it was followed in my head by the phrase 'that I like'. This immediately discounted 'Bicycle race' by Queen. The only nice thing I can say about that record is that it's been a very long time since I last heard it.
Meanwhile Kraftwerk, inventors of all that is good about modern electronic pop music and the people who define the rock/cycling interface, have yet to release anything with those words in the title. Even though there are two fine singles (one a remix, admittedly) and a cracking album about Le Tour. Annoying doesn't come into it. Boards of Canada have a stab with 'Happy cycling' (on 'Music has the right...') but though it clatters along cheerfully enough, the title's wrong and there's nothing to be done.
However. The first name that popped into my head was 'Bike-ride to the moon' by the entirely splendid Dukes of Stratosfear. You can't go wrong with rustic English psychedelia, and at the distance of some twenty years from the source, XTC in funny hats make an endearing and cosy racket.
I guess it's redundant to point out that it was probably a homage to Tomorrow's 'My white bicycle', which is a genius slab of phasing, backwards guitar and happy fun with the stereo image. What more could you ask from a song influenced by Dutch anarchists?
Hanging around a bit more in the West Country, we find Ted Milton and the rest of Blurt giving it some skronk with the rocking 'The fish needs a bike'. Blurt were recently in receipt of a bit of a critical shoeing not far from here, which isn't entirely surprising given the, um, somewhat exacting nature of the music. I think they're bloody marvellous, mind, and have done since viewing them at Pittville Pump Rooms ably (and drunkenly) supported by a worryingly young Attila the Stockbroker. (Which uk_jon may or may not remember. I wonder if I've still got my Mustaphas badge?)
'Bike' on the other hand, appears to be pre-ElectroSkronk Autechre. It's positively restrained, sounding a lot like it should have been on 'The Man-Machine'. I first came across them via the 'Artificial Intelligence' LP, where they managed to sound a lot like Black Dog/B13, rather than people feeding astronomical data into a confused sequencer.
And then there's Pink Floyd. I approach with trepidation, given there's a good chance that I'll have a terrible psychotic fugue as I flash back to a grim evening of being forced to watch The Wall while (un)suitably medicated and run amok with a large hammer...
... Actually, I think I rather like the song. Especially the second half. Pitch a canteen of cutlery down the stairs, record, play backwards. Groovy daddio! It reminds me of early Severed Heads, in a wrong-end-of-the-telescope time travel sort of a way.
Elsewhere, it appears that there intro-quiz-thing was a bit harder than I thought. Answers real soon now.
It's been rather hard, given that it was followed in my head by the phrase 'that I like'. This immediately discounted 'Bicycle race' by Queen. The only nice thing I can say about that record is that it's been a very long time since I last heard it.
Meanwhile Kraftwerk, inventors of all that is good about modern electronic pop music and the people who define the rock/cycling interface, have yet to release anything with those words in the title. Even though there are two fine singles (one a remix, admittedly) and a cracking album about Le Tour. Annoying doesn't come into it. Boards of Canada have a stab with 'Happy cycling' (on 'Music has the right...') but though it clatters along cheerfully enough, the title's wrong and there's nothing to be done.
However. The first name that popped into my head was 'Bike-ride to the moon' by the entirely splendid Dukes of Stratosfear. You can't go wrong with rustic English psychedelia, and at the distance of some twenty years from the source, XTC in funny hats make an endearing and cosy racket.
I guess it's redundant to point out that it was probably a homage to Tomorrow's 'My white bicycle', which is a genius slab of phasing, backwards guitar and happy fun with the stereo image. What more could you ask from a song influenced by Dutch anarchists?
Hanging around a bit more in the West Country, we find Ted Milton and the rest of Blurt giving it some skronk with the rocking 'The fish needs a bike'. Blurt were recently in receipt of a bit of a critical shoeing not far from here, which isn't entirely surprising given the, um, somewhat exacting nature of the music. I think they're bloody marvellous, mind, and have done since viewing them at Pittville Pump Rooms ably (and drunkenly) supported by a worryingly young Attila the Stockbroker. (Which uk_jon may or may not remember. I wonder if I've still got my Mustaphas badge?)
'Bike' on the other hand, appears to be pre-ElectroSkronk Autechre. It's positively restrained, sounding a lot like it should have been on 'The Man-Machine'. I first came across them via the 'Artificial Intelligence' LP, where they managed to sound a lot like Black Dog/B13, rather than people feeding astronomical data into a confused sequencer.
And then there's Pink Floyd. I approach with trepidation, given there's a good chance that I'll have a terrible psychotic fugue as I flash back to a grim evening of being forced to watch The Wall while (un)suitably medicated and run amok with a large hammer...
... Actually, I think I rather like the song. Especially the second half. Pitch a canteen of cutlery down the stairs, record, play backwards. Groovy daddio! It reminds me of early Severed Heads, in a wrong-end-of-the-telescope time travel sort of a way.
Elsewhere, it appears that there intro-quiz-thing was a bit harder than I thought. Answers real soon now.