Warning: The following article contains links to some material that may contain strong language. Reader’s discretion is advised.

Right, another week, another ridiculously long article that I’m going to attempt to keep short. Of course, you and I both know that will never happen. As a quick rundown of what we’re doing, last week I spoke of Watch Dogs: Legion‘s pitiful soundtrack. It never really felt like it was either trying to say something or give an overarching feeling of London. In my version, I tried to blend a bit of fun/stupid with the political themes the game has, alongside that essence of London. I am back again to talk about some more inclusions I have for the over 17-hour long playlist that I’ve spent far too much time listening to already.

As I said last week, I opted to use Spotify as the home of the playlist for several reasons, but most importantly ease of use. If you do enjoy anything from this playlist and end up exploring more of some artists, support them. Spotify is dreadful for royalty payments, so if you can buy t-shirts or something, do so. The touring industry is in the ditch right now along with royalties in many respects. Platforms such as this are contributing to the missing revenue from elsewhere. That said, here is the link to the entire playlist of the official soundtrack and my lengthy addition, accumulating to over 17-hours of music.

David Bowie – “Rebel Rebel”

Known for being a bit… different, what is seen as Bowie’s final stand as the flashy and artistic singer is very much a song as much about one’s own self-expression as an artist as it is trans-positive. “Rebel Rebel, put on your dress” and “She’s not sure if you’re a boy or a girl” could/would give one the impression of such a background, especially in the modern-day. The trouble with that is those that grew up with Bowie during this time might simply yell, “it’s not about them transvestites, it’s about Bowie wearing make-up, you idiot.” As much as it is that, the principal of what we take away from music is what we as listeners imprint on a song as much as artists do.

I closed last week’s article with a piece about The Kinks’ “Lola,” a trans-positive song predating this. Here is an explanation on how it is important to the game’s main selling point. My Ded_Sec member shown in the screenshot above and in that section is a man called Joel Young. He is a 60-year-old investor from Scarborough, with a three lions tattoo on his inner thigh, and I often dress him in skirts, the closest you can get to kilts, and stilettoes (sometimes boots). Other than his obvious voice, his wife, and general stature (or being rude), you can’t tell if he’s “a boy or a girl” sometimes.

10cc – “Dreadlock Holiday”

There are only a handful of ways I could say, “the Windrush generation were screwed, yet did so much for British culture.” Coming from soft-rock/pop band 10cc, “Dreadlock Holiday”‘s backstory is much like any song: Complicated. Some of the experiences spoken about happened, mostly. However, they may not have occurred entirely where they are said to have, or completely as described. Coming from a trip to Barbados, observing others interacting with the locals, and one conversation with a Jamaican. The latter of the song’s puzzling backstory is the baseline for the call and response hook, “No, I love it.”

“Don’t like Jamaica, I love her” summarizes exactly what I’ve done with such an Afro-Caribbean based-soundtrack in places, echoing very much some of Dave’s “Black.” People as white as Casper the Ghost, such as myself, often are picking and choosing which bits we like, “They take our features when they want and have their fun with it.” Sadly, part of me wants to say that’s what some of this song happens to be. It seems like it is not intentionally playing on race out of malice, but is using it where it seems useful. Maybe I’m wrong, and i’m reading too much into an otherwise fun and brilliant song.

David Jordan – “Sun Goes Down”

A product of its time (2008), as David Jordan’s only top-40 charting song from his only album of note, it feels like I should be calling him a “one-hit-wonder.” Though, unlike most one-hit-wonders, “Sun Goes Down” does something semi-different and interesting, all while sounding like a majority of what you’d hear around 2008. Maybe I’m just an old man unable to hear the difference and quality in the music of the youth, I don’t know. I think the reason it even sits in the memory of people is not only its pounding beat of stomping and frantic fiddles, but Jordan’s pure charisma that has never been given time to showcase itself properly.

Queen – “I Want To Break Free”

Oh, now there is only one queen I will respect (Ok, Liz X is great too), and that’s because he’s true royalty. This is charisma unleashed and given every bit of what it deserves. Freddie Mercury is perfection at its best and I’ll never hear a bad word said about the man. An immigrant born to Parsi-Indian parents with a voice and stage presence that rivals that bloke in a dusty old book called “The Bible;” he alongside Brian May, Roger Taylor, and John Deacon superseded everything else. That was until America didn’t understand something and got their homophobia on.

In the UK, it is understood that the music video was a parody of the long-running soap opera, Coronation Street. In the US, MTV viewers saw four men in drag and decided to start burning Queen albums, like that’s an appropriate response to what May claimed some would say during a promo tour for the song, “No, we can’t play this. We can’t possibly play this. You know, it looks homosexual.” They were perfectly fine with the gay man singing about relationships in “Bohemian Rhapsody” I see, but when it is men dressing as women, it is “a bit too gay.” As if dressing as a woman and being gay are exclusively intertwined. Also, it should be illegal to do any vacuuming (or dusting) without singing along.

The Jam – “Going Underground”

I’ll talk more about it later, and call me weird if you must, I’ve always thought of “Town Called Malice” set against the background of Manchester. I don’t know why either. However, The Jam’s other major hit “Going Underground” would be hard not to include for its obvious connection with the Underground and its popularity over the band’s other hit “Down in the Tube Station At Midnight.” Though, thematically it also fits as some of its general ideas cover the political apathy of the late 70s into the early 80s, and the rise of Thatcherism. What kind of idiot would you be not to include something so great but on the nose as this in a game about that very topic and setting.

Amateur Transplants – “London Underground”

I would be remiss to not instantly talk about Amateur Transplants’ parody/cover version of “Going Underground” about the tube strikes. As a very sweary, angry, and funny tirade against public sector transport going on strike, it is hilariously everyone’s internal monologue when there is a strike, hence its popularity in 2006. “They are all greedy c–ts, I want to shoot them all with a rifle,” is only something that could be taken as a joke in the UK more than the US. I might have some mamsie pamsie busy-body emailing me later about “it’s not nice to say that about public transport workers,” to which I’d ask why it is that those I know in public transport laugh at this and find it funny.

Is it entirely “politically correct?” No, of course not. However, that’s the point, it is saying “who needs more than 30K a year” and “a four-year-old could do this job.” It is about the ‘selfish’ nature of both ends: One going on strike typically when it rains, and the other side with the busy city-types who may earn 50-60K in offices but have to now walk to work. To not understand this you’d have to go your entire life without public transport or… be stupid.

Billy Bragg – “A New England”

Kirsty MacColl commented on Bragg’s version, “I always thought ‘A New England’ would be great […] Billy does it in a very rough way, and it’s like a busker doing a really good Beatles song.” While she’d New Wave pop it up, making it very 80s, the stripped-down busker version is London in-a-nutshell. To put it simply, it is a song about a bloke loving someone but not truly loving anyone; They need to look for other people.

It is the quintessential Billy Bragg song… and I couldn’t get Bill Bailey’s “Unisex Chip Shop” on Spotify, which is itself a homage to this style. In another interview about MacColl’s version, she noted: “[Bragg’s] version was just the skeleton of the song, so I wanted to dress it up.” Personally, the fact it isn’t dressed to dazzle makes it exactly what every (left-leaning) 21-22-year-old man falling out of love feels. It is exactly what it should be, and I’m using it as a brief moment from (kinda) modern thumping pop elsewhere.

The Specials – “Ghost Town”

To imagine a world without 2-tone and Neville Staple would be a world I don’t want to live in; The Specials’ “Ghost Town” is fantastic. Summarizing the 80s economic downturn leading to shops being shuttered, the anger of people, and the downright desperate nature of those at the bottom, it is urban decay as heard in music. You can’t get the image of dark, dingey, and horrible conditions, surrounded by sirens and poverty out of your head with the melancholy of “All the clubs have been closed down.” Aching for the good old days: “Do you remember the good old days before the Ghost town? We danced and sang, and the music played in a de boomtown.“

Quincy Jones (sung by Michael Cain) – “Get a Bloomin’ Move On! (Self Preservation Society)”

Right, hear me out here, I know it would never get cleared legally for several reasons, but COME ON! Wash your German bands and your boat race, I’ve got some things to say about this piece from the original version The Italian Job. Put together by the Legendary Quincy Jones, whom I’ve argued with people is better than some kid called Kanye West (never heard of him!), a slightly remixed or easier to give radio-play version might be needed. Though, quite frankly, it is just funny to have this much cockney in one song. Plus I prefer it to “Three Lions” which is on the game’s actual soundtrack.

Not many other songs do feature, “jump in the jam jar gonna get straight.” To which my American editor is currently asking himself “what?” That’s why I want it, it is a novelty, it is weird, and wonderfully chaotic. This is like my option to include The Wurzels last time. Though the aforementioned legal issues would have stopped this ever happening, not to mention, it is very 60s without a way of transcending that. So come on “Put on your dickie dirt and your Peckham rye.”

Madness – “Our House”

There is no better example of London and homely feels than Madness and “Our House.” It is the image of all those rows and rows of brick houses built for mass housing around World War II, the flat-looking attached ones you’ll have seen in Life on Mars (the good one) or Coronation Street. Every one of them is filled with a family of four or five, the mother doing all the work, the dad getting ready for work, the kids bickering. “Sister’s sighing in her sleep, brother’s got a date to keep” after a busy week, with a later verse being an ode to the mum keeping it together. I love Madness, and you’ll hear more about that soon.

Wiley – “Bow E3”

It feels a little weird talking about Bow E3 when it is just on the other side of Limehouse, which is the line where the map cuts off on the East side. However, I felt I needed to include something that’s very grime, and I’ll talk about Dizzie Rascle at some point, but Wiley’s “Bow E3” just felt right. I can’t rightfully tell you why, it just does. With Wiley telling you how Bow E3 he is, referencing sections of the area throughout, he sounds like he’s simply talking about his area with a smile on his face. There is a love for London, particularly his postcode.

Electric Light Orchestra – “Last Train to London”

I could play host to half of ELO and Supertramp’s discographies, but I had to have “Last Train to London” if nothing else. Though the incomparable Jeff Lynne has stated, “[there was] a certain period when it seemed we spent years on trains going back and forth from Birmingham to the various TV and radio stations in London.” I’m sure anyone could also see it a bit like a funky love song, telling the story of a teenager or 20-something noticing the time. The chorus line, in particular, “But I really want tonight to last forever / I really wanna be with you,” is aching with that “I need to get home” thing.

Ok, so it is a bit on-the-nose as it has London in the title, but between that bass line that’s neverending in the verse it is perfect. The chorus riff lets the lyrics take over the focal point, as Lynne sings about having to leave, there is nothing better. There is nothing like this anywhere else in the actual soundtrack, which is a shame because this is the type of late-70s disco-influenced dad-rock you tap a car’s steering wheel along to as you dance in your seat. Fading out with the bass-driven verse, like a train going to the line into the night. It is a fabulous point to end this week’s article.

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