Five Things I Have Learned This Week #15

1 — Dario G has died. I’m not sure how much that means to people these days…he’s unlikely to get the Economist backpage. But for anyone who grew up in the ’90s, there were two inescapable Dario G tracks that echo around my head.

Playing rugby as a 16-year old in 1998, we would pump out “Carnival de Paris ” before a match and feel like we were Gregor Townsend. This was sport, elevated past the David Sole era of moderately miserable (though successful) existence towards the optimism of the Windows 95 world. We have discussed before how perfect the world was in the period 1995–2000 and we don’t need to go into it again. This was our golden age.

2 — Dario G was three men originally, but Paul Spencer carried the flag after his bandmates left to pursue other projects. They’re named, wonderfully, after the manager of the Crewe Alexandria football team, Dario Gradi. (The “G” was also included as a reference to the Jazz saxophinist Kenny G .)

In 2002, Gradi was one of just two managers in the entire football league who had held their positions since before 1990. The other was Alex Ferguson. By the time he retired, he was the longest serving manager in the league, completing 24 years in charge at Crewe.

Sadly, his time at Crewe is overshadowed by his employment of a paedophile, who was later sent to prison for 36 years. It would be amiss not to mention this. Although having delved into the archives he seems more naive than culpable, safeguarding is a verb we must now understand.

3 — There are remixes of Dario G tunes, which feels odd. You can’t double a double , and you can’t triple a triple. Can you remix a remix?

As usual, my musical knowledge lets me down here. Sunchyme, Dario G’s biggest hit, uses a sample from “Life in a Northern Town ” by The Dream Academy as the main chorus. Le’ts be clear — it’s better. A million times better. There are many instances of song writers who don’t know what they’ve created before a better performer makes their song perfect.

Think of “All Along the Watchtower”, a song written by Bob Dylan, but only really perfected by Jimi Hendrix. Or “Nothing Compares to You”, the song that made Sinead O’Conner famous, but was written by Prince. When Trent Reznor heard Johnny Cash’s version of Hurt , a tune he had written for his band Nine Inch Nails, he said: “that song isn’t mine anymore”.

Life in a Northern Town is fine…there’s a folksy vibe, some twinging guitars…wind. But let’s be really, really clear — Dario G’s version is better. And not just better, but worth The Dream Academy writing their track just so it could be sampled, even if you never hear it. Or as Alan Partridge would say, “Dream Academy, the band Dario G could have been ”.

4 — Another reason to absolutely doubt my musical knowledge is that I am at war with Spotify’s track counters. They’re wrong. Or you are…or possibly both.

Dario G’s best track is “Carnival de Paris”. That’s just a fact. But Spotify insists “Sunchyme” has 52m listens to CdP’s 18m. This is the same frustration I have with Jazzy Jeff/Will Smith. When I heard that their “mega hit — Summertime” was their biggest track, I thought — nonsense, “Boom! Shake the Room” is surely the better, and longer lived, tune. And therefore the most played.

But no — Spotify agrees with the press; Summertime outscores BStR 3:1. Really?! Perhaps I grew up two years too late…but Summertime does kinda suck. If you want lazy BBQ tracks, hit up Mungo Jerry or The Lovin’ Spoonful , even if they do rhyme ‘Outside’ with ‘Outside’.

5 — What I love most about Dario G is that I think he’s a closet Scot. Taking Carnaval de Paris as a representative sample, after the trumpet solo intro, he goes heavy into percussion that sounds remarkably like something you might hear at the Edinburgh Military Tattoo . (I know that lot are technically Swiss, but culturally — they’re a pipe band without the pipes.) Precision drumming stays with you for the whole track.

And then, AND THEN — just as some funky jazz piano is kicking in (with half a bar of very random Chinese chords), comes a bagpipe solo. As Dario himself once said: “Has anyone else ever had a bagpipe SOLO in a top 5 record?”

Dario — we will miss you.