Be Excellent To Each Other

This is fuckin' awesome.

Remember all that source music in The Wire? Well it's on CD now. Or at least the best cuts are. And they've chosen some amazing stuff for it. The Pogues get a welcome inclusion and there's three different covers of Tom Wait's 'Down In the Hole' including his original. There's also a lot of Baltimore club-rap, with mixed but mainly excellent results. The soundtrack has had a fair bit of thought put into it - it's all about Baltimore now and not in the past, which means that we don't get the nostalgic escape of Randy Newman's Baltimore.

Highlights include Analyze by Sharpshooters, which has ludicrous but amusing invective and Rod Lee's Dance the Pain Away. Also tops is Solomon Burke's Fast Train. A lot of the music jogs the memory, as does the choice cuts of dialogue between tracks. The favourites are here, Omar's "All in the game, yo," with its haunting laughter and the immortal explanation of chess via the metaphor of the bigger game played around them.

I love Nonesuch compilations precisely because they bring me stuff I'd never normally buy. But they're so trustworthy, like the Motown label of old, that I can buy blind. At least with the library's budget money. The Wire: All The Pieces Matter is a must buy for anyone with a love of the show. The disc includes a very glossy photo packed booklet with three very interesting essays from George Pelecanos, David Simon and a local hip-hop critic. Do yourself a favour and buy.

http://www.amazon.com/Wire-Pieces-Matte ... B000YDOOT6

Bonus! Found this amusing article about a real life New York drugs gang discussing a series 5 episode of the Wire, and their feelings as to its authenticity.

http://freakonomics.blogs.nytimes.com/2 ... -the-wire/

Do you have a list of who performs the 'Down in the Hole' theme for each series? I'd be interested in knowing, but am uber-careful about googling for anything Wire-based as I haven't seen the final series yet (but it's out in December! Woohoo!)

Hmm, no I don't. I'll have a looksie for you though. I do know that Tom Waits does the last series though.

Didn't the Neville Brothers do a series?

Anyway - great recommendation. Ordered. Cheers, Pete.

That reminds me that their dad is called Neville Neville (put on your dress, Neville Neville, your face is a mess, Neville Neville, how could they know, hot tramp I love you so...). And that makes me smile. Thanks, Curiosity.

I met all three of them whilst working in a Manchester hotel. They were at some industry gathering or other, and their dad's company had a table there. I sniggered every time I walked past, though I was also upset that Phil Neville's missus was an absolute stunner (and I believe an ex of David Beckham's... talk about trading down!).

The evening was made complete with dodgy disco tunes beign played, including "I am the music man". This song was played, and everyone was instructed to join in the actions. As such, I have seen both Neville's stood atop their chairs, playing an imaginary trombone. Oh, for a camera at that time...

Apologies for going off topic.

Season 1:
The Blind Boys of Alabama
Season 2:
Tom Waits
Season 3:
The Neville Brothers
Season 4:
DoMaJe
Season 5:
Steve Earle

Thankee, sir.