Thursday 23 September 2010

sneaking notes out of the prison #1

Out you go...

x

THE DAMNED - NEAT NEAT NEAT

THROBBING GRISTLE - HOT ON THE HEELS OF LOVE



THE RAINCOATS - SHOUTING OUT LOUD



RICHARD HELL & THE VOIDOIDS - LOVE COMES IN SPURTS


LAID BACK - WHITE HORSE

TOM TOM CLUB - WORDY RAPPINGHOOD



JONATHAN FIRE-EATER - GIVE ME DAUGHTERS


DEERHOOF - MILKMAN



THE PARAGONS - GOT TO GET AWAY



THE PHANTOM - LOVE ME



FELA KUTI - WATER GET NO ENEMY



ROBERT WYATT - AT LAST I AM FREE



SUN RA - NUCLEAR WAR

Sunday 5 September 2010

40 Records Floating Round My Head Today

Right - to make up for the total lack of posts recently, today i'll give you a kind of 40 records, mainly R&B,Soul, Gospel(where my head is at this week) and a bit of post punk and psych pop.  Naturally it's selective of what i can find on youtube.  No particular order to them.  I've tried to write a little about each of the artists, which should be helpful, but don't take anything i should say as gospel - i've only the net as my backing source!  Also, writing doesn't come easy to me - so there's bound to by groggy syntax amidst the rumbling.  But, enjoy yourself, won't you? xxxx

THE SENSATIONAL NIGHTINGALES - BURYING GROUND



A popular 50s Gospel Group.  The storming lead in the chorus gets me every time.  The singer of Julius "June" Cheeks was a big influence on the hollering of Wilson Pickett(who'll appear here later)

SWAN SILVERTONES - MY ROCK



More 50s Gospel - The Swan Silvertones i believe one of the earliest gospel groups to add drums to the recordings, which i believe must have caused a stir at the time (rhythm causes dancing which causes diarroea of the morals, apparently).  About half way through the song goes up a gear and the effect is quite incredible.  You can hear Soul being born in these recordings. Play it Ray Charles' "I Got A Woman", you'll hear the differences but also the enormous similarities.  Originally released on Specialty label, who released a lot of gospel (Soul Stirrers, Dixie Hummingbirds, Gospel Harmonettes) and a lot of rock and roll & R'n'b (Little Richard, Larry Williams).

BO DIDDLEY - HEY BO DIDDLEY / BO DIDDLEY



Bo Diddley, to my left ear at least, still sounds like the future.  I literally cannot get enough of the man.  The Chess Recordings he made are something else.  I promise an enormous post of his stuff one of these days.  For now, here's some great footage from the sixties at the time where virtually every british R&B worshipped the ground he walked on.  I love the way he dances - can someone teach me how to do it?


MISSISSIPPI FRED MCDOWELL - SHAKE 'EM ON DOWN



Fred McDowell poses us to think of how many great and unique delta bluesmen were probably active in the 30s and 40s that went unrecorded.  God knows, for example, how good Ike Zinnerman was (who turned Robert Johnson from a laughing stock to one of the most loved prewar bluesmen, and perhaps most enigmatic, too).  Fred McDowell was never recorded until 1959, when he was discovered by Alan Lomax.  So incredible is the fact that he sounds little like his peers, having a fully formed guitar playing style of his own - in the same way that Bo Diddley did.  He wasn't scared of playing Electric either, but would constantly tell everybody he didn't "play no rock n' roll".  I love the way his voice really sits in the cracks of the scale (ie - you couldn't play this on a piano -now a lot of people who try to "recreate" the blues and kick the word "authenticity" around with a fervour you might expect from someone screaming for other types of "purity" are actually singing into a normal "blues" scale, which is a total misconception of the music, in my opinion)  This live recording from the sixties, and whether he likes it or not, it rocks. 

SISTER ROSETTA THARPE - UP ABOVE MY HEAD


"The Original Soul Sister" Rosetta started recording 78s in 1938 and became a huge star in the gospel record market.  By the early sixties, much of her original audience had turned their back on her - why? Maybe it was the fact she made secular r&b records, played in nightclubs and concert halls as well as churches, and maybe it's THAT guitar.  It's too rock n' roll.  It's like Gospel Chuck Berry! What get's more life affirming than this?!  A true pioneer. evidently (too) before her time.   In the 60s she found most of her success on the European blues touring circuit, and i guess this was where she was filmed here. 

FRANCE GALL - BABY POP


My Gainsbourg obsession continues.  This was another hit he wrote for France Gall. 


BOB LANDERS - CHEROKEE DANCE



From "The Land Of A 1000 Dances", perhaps my favourite dance craze record.  I still can't get over the fact how strange it is.  Listen to the vocal.  It's a voice even Tom Waits would die for.  There's a rumour going round that Bob Landers had throat cancer and sadly died soon after recording the record.  It's such an obscure record we'll probably never know for sure.  Listen next to the back singers - i'd love to know what they THOUGHT when they were told to sing along to this.  And lastly, check out the "guitar".   It's a ONE-STRING GUITAR (a unitar), played by a Willie Joe Duncan.  The instrumental break is mind boggingly beautiful.  It sounds like The Kills'* early records.  But this was released on Specialty Records in 1956.  I love the fact that music can be so confusing and not make sense in a world where everything is constantly somehow making MORE sense.  Glorious.  Now somebody build my a unitar.

* 2000s indie rock duo featuring member of perrenially unsuccessful britpoppers Scarfo, who i heard was (or still is) Kate Moss' boyfriend - who'd have ever dreamt that one up?

FRANCOIS & THE ATLAS MOUNTAINS - BE WATER


A new record? Oh my word! I have had the pleasure to play with Francois many times this summer - and he's one of my favourite popsters of the moment.  This is from his most recent album , and was my anthem of the sunny months.  If you get a chance, check him and his fantastic band out live and move, move,move around. 


CHUCK BERRY - JAGUAR & THUNDERBIRD



"In January 1962 Berry was sentenced to three years in prison for offenses under the Mann Act when he had transported a 14-year-old girl across state lines"*

This song was released in 1960, months after Chuck Berry was arrested and charged under the Mann Act.  Now listen to the song.  Make the connections and your own conclusions.  Does this man have one sick sense of humour(?)
* From Wikipedia

ROY MONTRELL - (EVERY TIME I HEAR THAT) MELLOW SAXOPHONE



Another Specialty Recording.  Roy Montrell was a session musician who worked with many american R & B artists.  This is one of his very few solo records.  What i never understand about this song is this.  What is at all MELLOW about that Saxophone?

JOE TEX - THE LOVE YOU SAVE ( MAY BE YOUR OWN )



Most famous for Atlantic Soul Hit "Show Me", Joe Tex was one hell of a singer-songwriter.  A lot of his songs follow this pattern - semi-spoken moral lessons from somebody who's learned the hard way.  Pay attention.

THE IMPRESSIONS -  ISLE OF SIRENS



An early song from the hand of Curtis Mayfield.  This was recorded twice, once by Jerry Butler(who once led The Impressions, but then left for a solo career) and the Impressions themselves(with Curtis Mayfield at the helm).  This is the latter version, i think.  One of the strangest soul records out there.

SUICIDE - GHOST RIDER



M.I.A. fans might be interested to know that this is where the riff to "Born Free" comes from.  Like Bo Diddley, postpunk duo Suicide sound more like the future than the past to me.  Watch Alan Vega(the singer) in this video.  One of the most compelling performers i've ever seen.  And even now, well in his seventies, and sadly with a dodgy hip he has lost little of his magic.  Suicide's debut album is essential listening, if you don't have it, get it now.  Everyone has to hear "Frankie Teardrop" - as good an urban folk ballad as you're ever gonna find.

THE CHAMBERS BROTHERS -  TIME HAS COME TODAY



The Chamber Brothers took their roots in gospel and folk to somewhere completely uncharted here.  Pushed along by the cultural upheavals the rocked the sixties, they ended up here.  An 11 minute psychedelic opus.  This hit the Billboard top 20 in 1968. 

LORD EXECUTOR - 7 SKELETONS FOUND IN THE YARD



I love the fact that a lot of Calypso tunes are kind of newspaper reports set to music.  We perhaps forget these days the importance in the past of music being used in this manner.  It's a great way of passing around the news.  This tune was recorded by one of the masters of Calypso, Lord Executor sometime during the thirties - I found the lyrics online on the blog http://rattengift.livejournal.com/

"Hideous discoveries and monstrous crime

Always happen at the Christmastime
Hideous discoveries and monstrous crime
Always happen at the Christmastime
For the old year murders and atrocity
Was the New Year's serious calamity
What shocked Trinidad
Those seven skeletons that the workmen found in that yard
What marred the Christmas festivity
Was the New Year double catastrophe
When a man and a woman on the ground was found
With blood stains upon the ground
The husband was arrested but they were too late
For the poison he drank sent him to the Gate
That shock Trinidad
Those seven skeletons that the workmen found in that yard

In St. James the population went wild
When in the Savannah they found a child
The hair was auburn and complexion pink
Which placed the watchman in the mood to think
"How can a mother despise and scorn
A little angel that she has borne?"
That was more sad
Than the seven skeletons that the workmen found in that yard
A lorry was speeding to Port of Spain
When it knock down the cyclist into the drain
It was going as fast as a lightning flash
When the cyclist received the lash
The mother cried out in sorrows and pain
"I am not going to see my boy child again!"
That is more sad
Than the seven skeletons that the workmen found in that yard
While the workmen they were digging the ground
The grinning skulls of human beings they found
Feet together and head east and west
Number Five was a watchman among the rest
Number Six had the hands and the feet on the chest
And number Seven the mysterious guest
That shocked Trinidad
Those seven skeletons that the workmen found in that yard"


WILLIE TELL AND THE OVERTURES - THE KICK BACK



This is a much sought-after funk record, released on Chess.  When you hear the drum break, you'll know why.  It was also confusingly released under two names on two different labels (As the Buena Vistas on Marquee).  A little more information can be found here

MILLENIUM - PRELUDE



Talking of drum breaks - this is a strange record.   This sounds so nineties it's crazy(like something DJ Shadow would sample).   Strangely, it's not the work of some seventies funk band. It's the work of a sixties sunshine pop group.  The groups leader, Curt Boettcher, worked with the likes of The Association, Sagittarius & Gary Usher.  The 1968 album this track is from ("Begin"), is no masterpiece, but it's starts strongly with this.

NANCY WILSON - YOU GOT YOUR TROUBLES



A northern soul favourite.  This was the b-side to Nancy Wilson's version of Stevie Wonder's "Uptight (Everything's Alright)

SILVER APPLES - PROGRAM



The Silver Apples were a landmark band.  Hugely influential, they were one of the first groups to bring electronic music towards rock n' roll.  This track is from the first album in 1968.   If you've never heard the Silver Apples, it's going to be a bit like Moses bringing the tablets down the mountain.  Their first two albums are absolutely indispensible.

KOKOMO ARNOLD - THE TWELVES



One of my favourite songs were the subject matter is, urm, sex.  Great slide playing, too.

PEANUTS WILSON - CAST IRON ARM



"Don't mess with me cuz I got a cast iron arm!" Don't worry, i believe you.  I'll leave you alone.

CALYPSO MAMA - COURTHOUSE SCANDAL



A great calypso record.  Know nothing about it though.
THEM - MYSTIC EYES



Whatever you think of Van Morrison (let alone what he probably thinks of you - i don't know if he likes anyone!), he recorded at least a few interesting records.  His period with Them (his Belfast based R&B from the mid-late sixties) includes some of the finest British R & B - just witness the classic "Gloria" if you want some evidence.  Check out this song.  The video is pretty strange.

EASYBEATS - FRIDAY ON MY MIND



"Monday I have Friday On My Mind".  Never have words rung so true when i cart myself back into work for another shift.  A bit of optimism in a song is surely as good for you as a vegetable.  Without sounding like a stuffy musicologist - i've just noticed that C / E chord interval change is perhaps the most optimistic pairing of them all(that's the chords of the chorus - ie "it's gonna happen in the city" bit).  The Easybeats were an Aussie beat band, and i believe this was their only hit in the U.K.  Wikipedia tells me that this was voted "Best Australian Song Ever" by the music industry of their native land.  I love the lyric"Even my old man looks good".  Ha.


THE ROLLING STONES - THATS HOW STRONG MY LOVE IS


I'm a huge Stones fan.  Think a lot of their sixties albums are not given enough credit for being pretty good albums for the time.  The different UK/US versions don't help matters*  They did record some great R & B - f*ck the purists.  This cover of a song originally recorded by southern soul singer O.V. Wright, who was in turn covered by Otis Redding**, whose version the Stones are covering here.  Jaggers vocal here is outstanding.  Can be found on either versions of the Stone's album "Out Of Our Heads"

* To get an idea of what i mean - take a look at the Beatles discography and check out the tracklistings of their American albums. A complete mess!

** Otis heard O.V.'s version and liked it, so recorded it himself - leaving O.V.'s version sadly in the dust.  In the fifties and sixties - different versions of the same song were big business.  People would hear a song on the radio and then look for the song at their local record store.  If single A was originally released on a small label, but distribution was poor, you'd probably take home single B - the same song but by a different artist but release on a large label who had the punch to get records in the shops quicker and more widespread some of the smaller ones.  There was also big business in getting white artists too cover black records - you could use Elvis as an example, but one of the worst has to be Pat Boone, who made a killing out of watering down black R & B records by releasing them for the conservative pop market.  And unlike Elvis' versions, they certainly don't stand up - they're wimpy.  Back to the song - O.V. Wright's version is fantastic, and quite different.  Check it out.

NINA SIMONE - SINNERMAN



Nina Simone was so many things - a jazz singer, a blues singer, a folk singer, a soul singer, a classical pianist.  Musically she embraced all contradictions.  Though this is an arrangement of an old folk song.  Despite a quite modern arrangement, Nina plugs into something many, many years before even Thomas Edison was concieved.  It's a shamanic tour-de-force of an artist with so many artistic peaks that i can scarcely believe this exists.  "Power!"  She's generating electricity here.  Over a mammoth ten minutes.  It's a good ten minutes well spent.  Better than going window shopping on a Sunday, or buying lottery tickets.  Hearing this feels like winning the lottery, without spending the quid or two.  I believe the piano break was used on a car advert recently.  This song is well placed at the end of David Lynch's Inland Empire - after two hours of being freaked out and perplexed as to what in the blazes is going on, its a merciful release. 

THE MOVE - I CAN HEAR THE GRASS GROW



I love The Move.  Roy Wood, if you can get past the tinsel, was one of the finest songwriters in sixties Britain.  Virtually all the Move's earliest material (see their self titled first album -  my favourite album by theirs) were written about madness, and had a certain playfulness that i don't feel was too contrived, no matter that the Move were a bunch of rowdy brummies who prefered booze to LSD, and often say that they simply jumped onto the psychedelic bandwagon because it was cool.  Roy Wood is a quintessential eccentric, his songs playful, clever and incredibly catchy. This songs had a bit of a renaissance in recent years, since it was covered by The Fall.  Luckily there's quite a bit of footage of the Move in action - because they were certainly the band to see in London for a while.  See that tremendous front-line.  Virtually everybody in the band could sing, and they could pretty much play every style(They'd cover doo wop, r&b and west coast psyche classics in their sets).  After a burst of early success, bad business decisions on part of their management, the band lost much of their initial momentum.   Despite the fact that youtube is full of posting up videos of people talking to cats, and crap footage from people mobile phones, it's great for stuff like this, ain't it?

*He's the beardy glam rocker with star shaped glasses who sang "I Wish It Could Be Christmas Every Day"


UNITED STATES OF AMERICA - GARDEN OF EARTHLY DELIGHTS



If only Sophie Ellis Bextor sounded more like this.  Like the Silver Apples, The United States Of America were one of few sixties bands who successfully managed to merge rock with electronics.  The band's resident genius was Joseph Byrd, who'd studied avant garde composition with John Cage and had been sufficiently taken with the "crazy times" to bring the esoteric to the familiar.   This is taken from their 1968 self titled(and only) album.


T-REX - THE GROOVER



Woah! I think this is a bit of a neglected classic.  The follow up single to "Twentieth Century Boy", and his last Top 10 hit in the UK, "The Groover" flopped(comparatively) on release and marked the end of T-Rex's three year run of top 3 hits(including 4 number ones).  Despite the fact it's definately formulaic(the production and arrangement is not too different to TCB), it rocks harder than anything else i think he did. Note typically inane Bolan lyrics to die for ("I'm the groover, cause i move right in, yeah") and guitar widdling that extends through virtually the ENTIRE song (The cocaine, no doubt)



FRANKIE LEE SIMS - WALKIN' WITH FRANKIE




One of my favourite fifties electric blues 78s, and not exactly a blues record.  When you hear that insistent rhythm, the call and response of the horns, and hear Frankie pining "Oh Lord Oh Lord", you'll hear that it's a gospel tune pulled into a jukejoint to ease the troubles of the heart.  Frankie Lee Sims released hardly any records during his lifetime, which is unfortunate, as a lot of his sides are killer ("Lucy Mae Blues", She Likes To Boogie Real Low") - the drummer on this track (Jimmy Mullins) also in the same session laid down a tantalising quartet of tracks on vocals, which were released under the name "Mercy Baby" - which is also utterly essential.  Maybe i'll post them here, later.

WILSON PICKETT - LAND OF A THOUSAND DANCES



Oh wow.  How i wish i could've been there at this. I've not seen an audience go so wild since my teenage years at Reading watching Sick Of It All.  Even the police are enjoying it.  Thanks so much who put this up on Youtube.  It really gets the wildness of this tune.  I dj it sometimes and the trick is to play it really, really damn loud.  From that point on, body movement is involuntary.


HARRY NILSSON - ONE



I believe i read once that the Beatles said that Nilsson's Aerial Ballet was their favourite album in 1968.  Could one get a better compliment?  1968 saw the release of Electric Ladyland, Beggars Banquet, Music From The Big Pink, White Light White Heat, Village Green Preservation Society, The Notorious Blues Brothers to name but a few.  That's a BIG compliment - or maybe they were flattered by Nilsson's genius cover of "You Can't Do That" from his first album?  Whatever, Nilsson is today not perhaps given the credit he deserved as a songwriter.  The two songs you are mostly likely to know by Nilsson ( "Without You" & Everybody's Talkin' ) are actually covers.  Although i take nothing away from Nilsson as a performer of other people's work - it's sad recurring theme in my blog that nobody ever seems to get the due until they are dead.  I'm not sure if Nilsson's yet got the credit he deserves - he's remembered for his three big hits: the above two and strangely "Coconut (ie the "Put-de-Lime-in-de Coconut" song) He's also infamous for getting sloshed a lot with John Lennon during his "Lost Weekend" period.  I hope albums like "Pandaemonium Shadow Show" and "Aeriel Ballet" get the acclaim they deserve.  This is from the latter album, and perhaps Nilsson's most covered song.

ETTA JAMES - TOUGH LOVER



One of my favourite R&B singers.  If she loved you, you'd really know about it.  And if she hated you, you'd really know about it too.  She had a remarkable range and a tremendous voice to boot. Like many singers of her age, she learned her skills in Church singing gospel.  In 1954 she had an enormous hit with "The Wallflower" aka "Roll With Me Henry", which she recorded with Richard Berry(writer of "Louie Louie") at the tender age of 15. 

This was recorded in Cosimo Matassa's studio in 1957 in New Orleans.  Loads of great records were waxed here - scores of Fats Domino's hits, Little Richard's "Tutti Fruitti", "Let The Good Times Roll" by Shirley and Lee to name but a few.  The house band contained such New Orleans luminaries as Lee Allen, Dave Bartholomew and session drummer extraordinaire Earl Palmer.  I'd be there in a flash if i had a time machine.  Anyhow, though this wasn't a big hit - it's about as good as a Little Richard-styled rocker you'll find out there.  Like Roy Montrell's "Every Time I Hear That Mellow Saxophone(also recorded with similar crew at Cosimos), the grooves this band could lay down are awe inspiring. 

CHARLES SHEFFIELD - IT'S YOUR VOODOO WORKING



Obscure R&B classic from 1961.

LITTLE WILLIE JOHN - IT ONLY HURTS A LITTLE WHILE



One of the most important singers in black music history.  James Brown said that Willie John was the only singer he ever come across that he admitted was better than him.  Elvis, Sam Cooke, Al Green and The Band have all acknowledged his influence.  He was covered by the Beatles. He recorded the original version of that oft-covered standard "Fever" (Which Peggy Lee & Elvis Presley made into a massive hit) in 1956, before he was even twenty years old.  Willie may have been just over 5ft tall but he had the voice that the size of an opera house.  The fact he was so young, and that he could put so much bitter experience and heartache into a song meant he must have grown up fast. Willie liked a drink and had a terrible temper, and the combination of both got him into all sorts of trouble.  By 1963, his record sales had slowed, he'd been dropped by his label, and was struggled on the club circuit.  Things came to a head one night when John was involved in a bar room brawl and fatally stabbed a man to death.  He was found guilty of manslaughter and sent to prison, where he died mysterious circumstances in 1968.  This song was probably recorded in his final year with his record label King, and released in 1964*

*(yes, after he was dropped.  Labels were not below doing such things)


   
BOBBY MARCHAN - YOU CAN'T STOP HER



I'm a big fan of New Orleans R&B star Huey "Piano" Smith (who recorded the immortal "Don't You Just Know It".  The lead singer in his band The Clowns was a cross-dressing entertainer by the name of Bobby Marchan.  This track is one of his "solo" outings from 1960.  It's infectious as bird flu at an aviary.  The drummer really is fantastic here - i wonder if this is Earl Palmer?

CALVIN BOZE - SAFRONIA B



Boozy R&B from 1950. 

FRANKIE FORD - ROBERTA


I've just mentioned Huey "Piano" Smith above.  In ____ Huey had a dilemma - he'd recorded this great backing track for a song about a sea cruise but Bobby Marchan's vocals didn't sound quite right.  Producer Johnny Vincent suggests bringing in a young white singer from Louisiana called Frankie Ford to overdub a vocal over the original take.  As the cliche goes - "The rest is history".  "Sea Cruise" was a massive New Orleans R&B hit in 1959.  A great record indeed, but this here is the B-Side.  Must've been great back in the day buying singles and finding quality songs on the b-side.  In some cases, the b-side became the a-side, because DJs prefered it.  In the nineties when i grew up singles were generally backed with horrible remixes. 
SHIRLEY & LEE - I FEEL GOOD



More New Orleans R&B, recorded at Cosimos.  Shirley Goodman and Leonard Lee were a singing duo who had many hits for Aladdin Records in the 1950s.  This is their most induring song, sexy and fun.  Listen to Earl Palmer's kickass drum breaks in the instrumental break.  


LONNIE DONEGAN - CUMBERLAND GAP



I've already featured Lonnie Donegan in my blog, but he's back here now.  The 1957 U.K. number one is something of a hotwired rollercoaster, and proof that the British music could(though not often) kick a** in the fifties before the rise of the Beatles (who always stated how important Lonnie was to their development)  Despite the fact that it's based (loosely) on an American folk song, it sounds quintessentially British ("Two old ladies sitting in the sand, each one wishing that the other was a man"). 

ESTHER PHILLIPS - AND I LOVE HIM



Mentioning the Beatles, i like this cover a lot.  A 1965 hit on Atlantic.

JIMMY LIGGINS - DRUNK



Jimmy Liggins was Joe Liggins' brother, R&B pianist/bandleader who had several big hits in the 40s and 50s.  Originally a professional boxer called "Kid Zulu", he got the music bug from his brother and became a bandleader himself.  This was his last big hit.  Also check out "I Ain't Drunk", the follow up record. 


THE ORIGINAL GOSPEL HARMONETTES - 99 AND A HALF WON'T DO



Dorothy Love Coates, leader of the Gospel Harmonettes, was one of the greatest gospel voices of her generation.  Unlike many others, she stuck to church music.  It is tantalising to think of what she might have achieved in the pop market.  Wilson Pickett later took the title to the secular world.   Another thing i love about gospel music is the biblical imagery in some of the lyrics.  Verses about John the Baptist's head on a platter are pretty striking, even to an athiest.

Friday 27 August 2010

And finally...

...if time is kind i get a chance to update this hive of inactivity.  Sorry i've not posted for so long but I've been incredibly busy.  Here's some songs for you.

Serge Gainsbourg - Initials BB



I recently Johann Sfar's "Gainsbourg" Biopic.  Thought it was somewhere between OK and Good, but i hope it reveals the wonderful oeuvre of Gainsbourg's music to the english speaking world.  This paean to Brigitte Bardot is one of my faves.  The arrangement and production is so ace - i think the chorus is nicked by Dvorak(a lot of gainsbourg's music was inspired by classical tunes).  This is taken from French TV.

Sly & The Family Stone - Dance To The Music / Music Lover



I recently encountered a great bootleg of sixties seventies S&FS shows and i think this version is on there.  I also had great time dancing to this tune whilst in Berlin.  Unbeatable.

Eddie & Ernie - Bullets Don't Have Eyes



This is one of my favourite soul tunes.  Eddie & Ernie were a soul singing duo based in Phoenix, Arizona.  They also wrote "Outcast" which is one of my favourite tunes by The Animals.The intro would make a great sample.  Not released at the time - and why not? Reissued on a compilation called "Lost Friends", which contains most of the duos work. 

Public Image Limited - Poptones/Careering



This always makes me smile.  PIL's performance is from American Bandstand, 1980.  True rock history.  Unbelievable that this ended up on prime time TV.  If you know of John Lydon from his antics with The Sex Pistols and selling cheese, you only know half of the story.  Pil, to me, maybe not to history, are the more significant half...well, the early stuff.  Both these tracks are off Metal Box, their second album(and last with the classic lineup of Keith Levene, Lydon, Martin Atkins and Jah Wobble) and one of the most groundbreaking albums of its time.  I still can't believe the record was made in 1979.  It still sounds like the future.  Get it now.

Bhundu Boys - Manhenga



Another incredibly groundbreaking group, this time from Zimbabwe.  This is on the album "Shabhini" which is by far their best album, which can be found on the "Shed Sessions" Double CD.

E.S.G. - Dance



These girls from the Bronx are kind of some weird mirror opposite of PIL in some respects.  They're minimal disco music is something entirely their own but it's been imitated much since, never bettered.  Great Saturday night music, whatever planet you're on. 

Bettye Lavette - Let Me Down Easy



A sucker punch of Southern Soul which i heard on a Mississippi Records cassette. 

Shirley Ellis - The Name Game



Fun tongue twisting number,famous on the Northern Soul Circuit.  Shirley also recorded two other stone classics "The Clapping Song" and "Soul Time"...maybe they'll appear here later...

Rosco Gordon - Booted



Rosco Gordon isn't a well known name outside the world of R&B collectors - but he was very influential in the field of Jamaican Ska.  This homicidal number dates from 1952, recorded by Sam Phillips in Memphis and was released on Chess Records.

Alemayehu Eshete - Tchero Adari Negn


Ethiopian Funk next.  From the awesome Ethiopiques Series.

That's all for now.( x

Thursday 3 June 2010

Random Rumble Rubble #1 (no videos)

Various bits and pieces with a vague summer theme/feel.  Very vague mind.  Enjoy.

ZOMBIES - CARE OF CELL 44



BYRDS - HAVE YOU SEEN HER FACE?



JACK NITZSCHE - LONELY SURFER


GINNY ARNELL - DUMB HEAD



JAN & DEAN - SURF CITY



DIANA RAY - PLEASE DON'T TALK TO THE LIFEGUARD



THE PARAGONS - ON THE BEACH



BLUES BUSTER - LITTLE VILMA



SUGAR BOY CRAWFORD - JOCK-A-MO




THE PARAGONS - ON THE BEACH




THE LEFT BANKE - SOMETHING ON MY MIND



DAVE DEE, DOZY, BEAKY, MICK & TITCH - WE'VE GOT A GOOD THING GOIN'



MAMAS & PAPAS - MONDAY MONDAY



VASHTI BUNYAN - 17 PINK SUGAR ELEPHANTS



IKETTES - (HE'S GONNA BE) FINE FINE FINE



GENE PITNEY - SHE'S A HEARTBREAKER



QUESTION MARK & THE MYSTERIANS - 96 TEARS



PINK FLOYD - LUCIFER SAM



DAVID HEMMINGS - BACK STREET MIRROR



BEAU BRUMMELS - I'M A SLEEPER



HOPETOWN LEWIS - TAKE IT EASY



LOVE - QUE VIDA



ROGER NICHOLS & A SMALL CIRCLE OF FRIENDS - KINDA WASTED WITHOUT YOU

Wednesday 2 June 2010

Ten Unsung Songwriters In No Particular Order - #6 Otis Blackwell




SOUNDS LIKE - The unsung king of pop?

Otis Blackwell, as a songwriter, has sold almost 200 million records worldworld wide, but he's hardly a household name. Chances are you own at least one of his records yourself.

FOR MORE TRY THESE:  Otis does have some recordings out there, but by no means do these sound quite as good as the artists who original did them. Unfortunately, there is no retrospective of his songs in their original recordings available. 

LITTLE WILLIE JOHN - FEVER
Everybody knows the Peggy Lee version - but the original by Little Willie John kicks even bigger ass.  A key record in the development of r&b and soul music.



DEREK MARTIN - DADDY ROLLIN' STONE
This was Otis Blackwell's very first "hit" song, in 1952.  This version was recorded in 1962 by jamaican singer Derek Martin.




ELVIS PRESLEY - DON'T BE CRUEL
Blackwell wrote three mega hits for Elvis, "All Shook Up", "Return To Sender" and this classic.




JERRY LEE LEWIS - GREAT BALLS OF FIRE
I think in the very first post of this blog i posted some Jerry Lee.  Good excuse for two more!



JERRY LEE LEWIS - BREATHLESS



JIMMY JONES - HANDYMAN

Unsung Songwriters In No Particular Order - #5 Jackson C. Frank

SOUNDS LIKE:  Obviously he wasn't the first singersongwriter - but his stark melancholic work sets a precedent.


American Songwriter Jackson C. Frank released one eponymously titled album during his lifetime in 1965.  It has however got to be one of the most influential singer songwriter albums of the Sixties.  Simon & Garfunkel recorded "Blues Run The Game (Paul Simon actually produced this album)", Sandy Denny(who for a while was Frank's girlfriend) covered "Milk & Honey, Bert Jansch has covered so many of his songs live over the years and Nick Drake recorded no less than three of his songs on the home recordings that were recently released). 

FOR MORE, GET THIS - Like others in this blog(Townes Van Zandt, Judee Sill), Jackson had a troubled life.  I've decided to avoid bringing up their heartbreaking stories here and concentrate on their music.  Jackson never released another record in his lifetime, although this current compilation collects his Jackson C Frank record and adds an extra CD of later demos.  If these demos don't bring a tear to your eyes, then perhaps nothing will.    

Here's 4 songs from the fantastic Jackson C Frank album.

BLUES RUN THE GAME - Jackson C. Frank's most famous song, due to it being covered by Simon & Garfunkel.



MY NAME IS CARNIVAL



MILK AND HONEY



I WANT TO BE ALONE (DIALOGUE)

Monday 24 May 2010

10 unsung songwriters in no particular order #4 - Michael Hurley

Sounds like:  A great night somewhere under the stars.  Like Townes, i'm totally confused as to why Hurley(or "Snock", as he's nicknamed) isn't on the cover of Uncut every other week. Let's put it this way, my Michael Hurley compilations i've made for people have been the most-loved.  Snock is still out there, so if you EVER get the chance to see him - do not miss it!

For more, get this:  Virtually all of Hurley's albums have their fair share of delights.  Armchair Boogie, Long Journey, Hifi Snock Uptown, First Songs, are all great.  The b*tch is they are pretty hard to get hold of - you can get LPs and some Cd-rs from Honest Johns and Hurley's website respectively.  Somebody please sort this out!  There's also a new Hurley album out, with the band Ida, which sounds lovely. PS - Hurley's artwork for his albums is always great.


THE WEREWOLF
Probably Snock's most famous song.  It should be a standard.  From his second LP, Armchair Boogie.



BE KIND TO ME
Again, from Armchair Boogie.  Puts me in a good place.



TROUBLED WATERS
I can't get off Armchair Boogie! It's too good!  This song was covered by Cat Power, i believe...



SLURF SONG
From Snock's collaboration with some of the Holy Modal Rounders in 1976, "Have Moicy".  My favourite song about food, ever.



HOG OF THE FORSAKEN
From the album "Long Journey".

10 Unsung Songwriters In No Particular Order #3 Townes Van Zandt

Sounds like : The best thing you never heard.  Townes is, without doubt, one of the greatest songwriters to have ever graced this old rock, but, relatively unknown.  I scratch my head in confusion.  I hate all notions of authenticity being applied to music, but this is, in my head at least, true country music.  Don't let that put you off. 

For More, Get this:  Townes left a lot of music behind, but frankly his discography is a bit of a mess.  A lot of songs were rerecorded on consecutive albums, drowned in strings, cheesy country music and even choirs.  The best introduction to his work is the 2-cd Live At The Old Quarter, Houston, Texas.   Recorded in 1973, this contains solo versions of many of his greatest songs.  Very wonderful.  In terms of studio recordings, i'd possibly start with Our Mother The Mountain, as some of the arrangements (The title track, Kathleen) work well.  For the adventurous, and the bargain hunters of you, you might want to pick up the 4-cd Texas Troubadour from Play.Com - which compiles a lot of his key studio recordings from the late sixties & early seventies - for a bargain £9.99! 

WAITING ROUND TO DIE
Incredible footage from the film Heartworn Highways


TECUMSEH VALLEY
How much i wish i could write a song quite as good as this.  Truly heartbreaking. 


OUR MOTHER THE MOUNTAIN (NO VIDEO)
....and this one.  One of the first townes songs i heard.  I must've fell over. 



IF I NEEDED YOU
I covered this song once.  Beautiful.

Ten Unsung Songwriters in no particular order #2 Judee Sill

Sounds like: Female Symphonies To God. Joni Mitchell meets Brian Wilson in Catholic church, perhaps.
For More, Get this:  There's three albums (one posthumous) - but the arrangements and productions on the first two are a very acquired taste.  Perhaps the best place to start, i think, is the BBC Recordings/Live In Concert CD, which has Sill playing songs from both her albums,accompanying herself on piano and guitar.

JESUS WAS A CROSSMAKER
(no video unfortunately, just a live recording of the song)



THE KISS
(Live from the Old Grey Whistle Test)
 

THE LAMB RAN AWAY WITH THE CROWN
(Rare live footage from 1973)

Ten Unsung Songwriters In No Particular Order - #1 JAKE THACKRAY

Sounds like: George Brassens if he was born in Otley. 
Listen More, Get This: Jake In A Box (4CD Box Set, pretty much complete recordings).  You can download the mp3s of the box dead cheap(£7.49), but there's also lots of very cheap compilations which serve as decent introductions. 


ON AGAIN, ON AGAIN



THE LAST WILL & TESTAMENT OF JAKE THACKRAY



BROTHER GORILLA
Not strictly his song(written by George Brassens), but i love it.