ROCKY HORROR PICTURE SHOW - Soundtrack 1975

 HALLOWEEN

This isn't an album review, just the best soundtrack that exists in the history of ever ! 

The Rocky Horror Show music was written by Richard O'Brien, born in England, emigrated with his family to New Zealand aged 10, then returned to England as an adult. In 2011 he became a New Zealand citizen and went back to live in Katikati. 

Growing from an idea Richard had in London one winter in the early 70's, the production started at a 60 seat experimental theatre and ended up being a Broadway show, movie and album and achieving cult status around the world. 

I could give all the technical details, behind-the-scenes anecdotes and tid-bits of gossip and scandal, but why? Everyone who knows The Rocky Horror Show has their own memories and stories of seeing it and listening to it and getting drunk and dancing the 'Time Warp'. 

At this time of year there are Riff-Raffs and Sweet Transvestites going to Halloween parties hosted by Brad and Janet dress-alikes. The DVD's on many bookshelves (and maybe even an old VHS tape) the vinyls and the CD's are being dusted off for another airing as thousands of people take a jump to the left and then a step to the right.

Even now, in the middle of a pandemic, there are theatres showing the movie. Forty-five years after it was released it is the longest running movie in film history, drawing in audiences who interact with the characters, dress up, throw things and squirt water-pistols. 

The music is still so well-known that it is currently being used in a political version for the Democratic party in the 2020 elections. Jack Black at his demonic best. (see link below) 

Do you have a Rocky Horror story? Did you dress up? Did you interact with the movie? Did you build a creature? Let's know in the comments. Although we didn't catch Frank-n-Furter on stage, Tracy and I did see Tim Curry live in 2005 playing King Arthur in the original Broadway cast of 'Spamalot' - so there.

Over At The Frankenstein Place

Time Warp (Political version - Tenacious D & guests)

MICHAEL JACKSON - Thriller 1982

 

COUNTDOWN TO HALLOWEEN

For a long time, Michael Jackson was a source of annoyance to me. I used to work with a guy called Ben, around the same time Jacko had his song by the same name, all about a rat !! I'd come in to work, see Ben and immediately get stuck with the earworm.
"Hi Ben" .. 'the two of us need look no more' DAMN!
Then just as I'd get rid of the song in my head, I'd run into Ben again.
"Hi Ben" .. 'the two of us need look no more' DAMN! DAMN!

If it wasn't for the Halloween theme I maybe wouldn't have reviewed this album, but on reflection that would have been remiss of me.

Michael Jackson has gone in and out of favour, he's been massive and then plummeted into ridicule, idolised and maligned. From the 'King of Pop' to 'Whacko Jacko'. Whichever version you settle on, it has to be acknowledged that he was a major talent and influence on music throughout his life and this album made a massive contribution to that legacy. There are 9 songs on the album and 7 were released as singles with 5 of them reaching #1 somewhere in the world. 'Billie Jean' made it to the top spot in 7 countries.

Even though it's become THE Halloween song, looking at the timing of both the 'Thriller' album and the single of the same name, neither were released to coincide with Halloween, so it seems the association was not planned. It's amazing to think that it's almost 40 years since the song came out and the video a year later.

Yesterday I reviewed the Alice Cooper album 'Welcome To My Nightmare' and these two albums have one thing in common. Vincent Price. He is possibly more well-known for his work on 'Thriller' than his intro to Alice's 'Black Widow' but both recordings benefit from his uniquely spooky narration.

The writer of the track 'Thriller' as well as 2 other songs on the album, 'Baby Be Mine' and 'The Lady In My Life' was Rod Temperton, an English songwriter who wrote 'Boogie Nights' for his band at the time, Heatwave and 'Give Me The Night' for George Benson. He'd previously written 'Off The Wall' and 'Rock With You' for MJ.

Apart from the title track, this album really does have some strong performances by Michael with the obvious stars being 'Beat It' and 'Billie Jean'. His duet with Paul McCartney, 'The Girl Is Mine' despite getting it's fair share of criticism, is not a bad song. It followed on the heels of a couple of other collaborations the previous year, 'Say, Say, Say' and 'The Man', both of which were on McCartney's album 'Pipes of Peace'.

A few other people helped contribute to the album - the recently departed Eddie Van Halen did the guitar solo on 'Beat It', sisters Janet and La Toya Jackson did background vocals on 'P.Y.T.', founding member of 'Toto' Steve Lukather did guitar on three tracks and then of course there was McCartney and Vincent Price as mentioned.

So, Michael Jackson, Halloween, Thriller. Trick or Treat. 

Thriller

ALICE COOPER - Welcome To My Nightmare 1975

 

COUNTDOWN TO HALLOWEEN

I mentioned this album back in September when I reviewed Alice's 'Lace and Whisky' LP, but now, because of Halloween, here's a proper look. I'll start by repeating what I wrote the last time ..

"In 1975 Alice released his 'Welcome to My Nightmare' album, followed by a promotional world tour. Well, I say world tour. What actually happened was after touring MOST of the world, the Australian Labour and Immigration Minister banned Alice from bringing the show to Australia and so the New Zealand leg was also put on hold. It wasn't until 16 months later on 14th March 1977 that Alice set foot on an Australian stage (Perth) to begin the Oceania part of the long awaited tour and it was 4th April '77 - the very last performance of 'Welcome To My Nightmare' at Western Springs in Auckland when I finally got to see men dressed as giant spiders climbing an enormous web, dancers in a graveyard projected onto a screen that then split and allowed the live figures onto the stage and Alice singing that he was 'No More Mr. Nice Guy', there were 'Billion Dollar Babies' and 'Only Women Bleed'. Songs from the named 'Welcome .. ' album as well as back catalogue stuff."

Spiders, skeletons, dead people, graveyards and the young lad Steven. This is a concept album which easily led to a whole theatrical production, a concert movie and a TV movie. The theme is that we get to share in the horrors of Stevens sleeping mind - 'Welcome To My Nightmare'.

If the subject matter doesn't qualify this album to be included in the Halloween section, then one of it's guest performers certainly does. After being welcomed to Stevens nightmare we get to know one of his fears .. spiders. 'Devil's Food' gives a glimpse, but then at the 1:45 mark there's a monologue by none other than the creepiest voice in horror movie land - Vincent Price. Years before he gave us the chills in Michael Jackson's 'Thriller', Vincent was doing his thing on this album, playing the part of The Curator with a 2 minute lead in to the following track 'The Black Widow'. He got a bigger part in the TV movie 'The Nightmare' when he played 'The Spirit of the Nightmare'.

'Only Women Bleed' was the hit from the album, but the title was shortened to 'Only Women' for the single release. It was thought the original title referred to menstruation, but it was written about a woman in an abusive marriage.
'Cold Ethyl' is just odd.
"One thing
No lie
Ethyl's frigid as an eskimo pie
She's cool in bed
Well she oughta be 'cause Ethyl's dead"

OK, got it, thanks Alice.

To be honest, this isn't a great album. It's barely a good album. As I mentioned above I saw the live concert and I got the LP, but it was probably 75% novelty value, the same way I bought the album 'They're Coming To Take Me Away, Ha-Haaa!' by Napoleon XIV with such classic songs as 'Photogenic, Schizophrenic You' and 'I Live In A Split Level Head'.

Anyway, back to Alice. This was his first solo album after the band broke up and to an extent it shows. It was a bit gutless and cliché filled but is probably the best known of Alice's works alongside 'School's Out'.

In the spirit of the season, here it is. I'm not including any video links, I'll leave it up to you to decide if it's worth the effort.

This, and previous posts are on my blog -

https://smell-of-vinyl.blogspot.com/ 

NICK CAVE & THE BAD SEEDS - Murder Ballads 1996

 

COUNTDOWN TO HALLOWEEN

This is like the audio-book of the worst horror story you've ever come across. Most copies had the obligatory "Parental Advisory Explicit Lyrics" sticker on the cover, but seriously, it also needed to be sprinkled with holy water, surrounded by garlic and have Max von Sydow put on his Father Merrin robes and perform an exorcism over it. Did little Kylie Minogue know what she was getting into when Elisa Day took the pseudonym 'The Wild Rose' and sang along with Nick about 'Where The Wild Roses Grow'? Though it deals with the seduction of a young woman and her ultimate murder it is probably the mildest track on the album.
"On the third day he took me to the river
He showed me the roses and we kissed
And the last thing I heard was a muttered word
As he knelt above me with a rock in his fist"
It was released as a single along with another album track 'Henry Lee', a duet with PJ Harvey.

'Stagger Lee' is an old American folk song published in 1911 and recorded for the first time in 1923. It was based on a real murder by 'Stag' Lee Shelton and the song has been called 'Stagger Lee', 'Stagolee' and sometimes 'Stack-a-Lee', but trust me gentle reader, none of the previous versions recorded by every man and his dog come anywhere near this one. It's not really a cover to be honest, it's a rewrite taking the narrative deeper and darker and far grosser than anything that came before it.

'The Curse of Millhaven' has the story of a 14 year old girl serial-killer. In a perverse twist, Nick gathers a group of people to sing along on the track and refers to them as 'The Moron Tabernacle Choir'. (yes, MORON)

I'll skip over the rest of the album and go to the last track, a cover of Bob Dylan's 'Death Is Not The End'. Someone wrote that it is "like the equivalent of hearing 'Mr. Sandman' play at the end of the movie Halloween where you’re kind of relieved but still freaked the fuck out." Backing singers on the track are once again Kylie Minogue and PJ Harvey, but also include Shane MacGowan.

Nick Cave himself said about this album ..  "I was kind of aware that people would go and buy the Murder Ballads album and listen to it and wonder 'What the fuck have I bought this for?' because the Kylie song wasn't any true indication of what the record was actually like."

If you have a mind to listen, go ahead, but keep the lights on and don't answer the phone - the call could be coming from INSIDE the house.

Where The Wild Roses Grow

Stagger Lee (EXPLICIT LYRICS)

JOE COCKER - Cocker Happy 1971

 

Yes, it's called 'Cocker Happy', stop sniggering in the back !!

Joe is one of those singers who splits the room - there are many who thought he was great on the radio but couldn't bear him on the telly. To say his movements were individually expressive is possibly being kind, they could be slightly uncomfortable to watch but it certainly helped him get the message across.

Let's just dispel one story before we go any further. Joe Cocker is NOT related to Pulp singer/songwriter Jarvis Cocker. OK, on with the show.

The compilation here was only released in Australia, New Zealand and Spain, so I was lucky to be able to get it. There have been many more anthologies since to keep pace with the releases after 1971, but there are already at least 7 or 8 classics out of the 12 tracks on this LP.

As with most of his songs, this album reflects Joe's use of other people's works, either the writing and/or the recording, then reinterpreting them in his own distinctive style.

The album starts with one of my favourites. Cue the piano .. 5 seconds in and there's a guitar .. 8 seconds and .. MORE COWBELL !! It can only be the magnificent 'Hitchcock Railway'. Joe did this in 1969, just one year after it was recorded and released by José Feliciano, but who remembers that version? This is fast, furious and fun.

There are two Lennon/McCartney songs here .. obviously the 1968 single 'With A Little Help From My Friends' has to be there. It is probably THE song that Joe is known for above all others. It was on his first album, it was sung by him at Woodstock and it was liked so much by McCartney that Joe was encouraged to record 'She Came In Through The Bathroom Window' the following year.

'Marjorine', 'She's So Good To Me' and 'Something's Coming On' are all co-written by Joe. Apart from 'Marjorine' which was an early single release, the other two are really just fillers - although 'She's So Good To Me' can almost stand up on it's own.

Leon Russell, Joe's partner in crime through many projects, not the least of which was the infamous 'Mad Dogs and Englishmen' concerts, album and film, penned the brilliant 'Delta Lady' sung tongue in cheek by Joe. Full of all sorts of sexual reference and innuendo 'Delta Lady' by Joe was Leon's first major hit as a songwriter. The original lyric was "I'm over here in England" but because Joe WAS English he sang "when I'm home again in England".

'Feelin' Alright' was and is always one of my go-to Joe songs and I'm ashamed to say that it was many years before I discovered it was actually a Dave Mason composition recorded by Traffic on their eponymous 1968 album. Both versions are great and I have a new found appreciation for the original, although Joe's will never fade.

There's a cover of the Lovin' Spoonful track 'Darling Be Home Soon' from a 1966 movie soundtrack and also Joe's unique take on the 1967 Box Tops hit 'The Letter'. All in all, I credit myself with making a very wise purchase back in 1971.

I can't end any Joe Cocker review without mentioning the elephant in the room. His later song 'You Are So Beautiful' to me - is horrible. I'll just leave that there. It runs just over 'Up Where We Belong' on the cringeworthy chart. Fortunately the good outweighed the bad and 'Midnight Rider', 'Many Rivers To Cross' and the Randy Newman masterpiece 'You Can Leave Your Hat On' make up for the odd dud here and there.

Joe should be in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, but he isn't. He's been put forward, but not selected. One theory is because, although he has a major body of work and has made a massive contribution, ultimately the majority of the stuff was not his own. I don't think that should stop him being included but there we are. Maybe one day.

In the meantime, this Yorkshire lad from Sheffield with the "gritty voice, spasmodic body movements and distinctive versions of popular songs" left an indelible mark on my musical history.

Hitchcock Railway

With a Little Help From My Friends

Delta Lady

SIMON & GARFUNKEL - Bridge Over Troubled Water 1970

Harrogate, Jan/Feb 1970. I was a switchboard operator at Central Taxis working the night shift. I was filling my airwaves with stuff like ...
"Gray 3, pickup at the Montpellier Club to Pennypot"
"Gray 5, Brian, are you still on the rank?"
Meanwhile, Simon and Garfunkel were filling their radio waves with the newly released, soon to be classic, 5 minute soaring gospel inspired single 'Bridge Over Troubled Water' from the album of the same name.

Three months later I was back in Australia heading to my favourite record shop in Mount Isa to spend some of my first pay packet after getting my old job back. This is one of the albums I bought.

Some songs are excellent, some are brilliant and the ones that aren't as good are still amazing. Ten tracks, ten gems.

Art wanted Paul to sing the solo on 'Bridge ..' but Paul convinced Art to do it. Art's ethereal haunting vocals make grown men cry, but later, when Paul would see Art alone on stage getting all the applause and credit he says he regrets not doing it himself. One bit of controversy was the line 'Sail on silver girl' which paranoid puritans thought was a reference to drugs and needles but was written about Paul's future wife who'd got upset about finding some grey hairs.

'El Condor Pasa' was a bit of a hint as to where Paul Simon's music would go in later years, the world influences of albums like 'Graceland' and 'Rhythm of the Saints', but this early track led to a court case. Paul heard the instrumental of a tune called 'Paso Del Condor' played by Los Incas in Paris. They were an Andean folk group and incorrectly told him it was a traditional folk song. After writing English lyrics and recording it he was sued by Daniel Robles whose father had written the song in 1913 and taken copyright in the US in 1933. It was all basically a genuine misunderstanding and things were settled amicably.   

My second favourite track on the album is the beautiful 'The Only Living Boy In New York', with it's choir of angelic harmonies, all done by multiple overdubs of the two of them in an echo-chamber singing "aaahhh" and "here I am". When they were getting stuff together for this album, Art Garfunkel was also making the movie "Catch-22" and had to leave for filming. Paul was left in New York and wrote this song about their separation. I love the opening verse where he says ..
"Tom, get your plane right on time
I know your part'll go fine
Fly down to Mexico
Do-n-do-d-do-n-do and here I am,
The only living boy in New York"
making a direct reference back to their 1950's personas Tom and Jerry and noting that Tom (Art Garfunkel) was the one going away.

'Bridge ...' is the song that claims the spotlight, but for me the masterpiece of this album, and indeed probably my all time favourite S&G song from their complete catalogue together, is 'The Boxer'.

I love everything about it. The story in the lyrics, the atmosphere, the New York City winters and the whores on Seventh Avenue, the places where the ragged people go all creating vivid images. The music, an opening guitar lick, tubas, flutes, harmonicas, chopping staccato bursts and crashing drums after every 'lie la lie' chorus. This song took over 100 hours to record, part of it in a church for the acoustics and part of it in a corridor in front of an elevator in the Columbia office building to get the sound for those crashing drums.

For the purist, there was one more verse to the song that didn't get recorded on this album but has been sung live in concert by both S&G and by Paul on his own -
"Now the years are rolling by me
They are rockin' evenly.
I am older than I once was,
And younger than I'll be.
That's not unusual;
No, it isn't strange:
After changes upon changes
We are more or less the same;
After changes we are more or less the same."

After this album was released, Simon and Garfunkel went their separate ways. The last track on the album, 'Song For The Asking' seems to hold a promise that they would always be there for each other, but as history shows, that wasn't really the case.
"Here is my song for the asking
Ask me and I will play
So sweetly, I'll make you smile"

They did get together a couple of times afterwards, but it wasn't until they did the 1981 concert in Central Park and released the live album that they started working together for any extended period. A world tour was organised and I went to see them on 18 Feb 1983 when they played Western Springs in Auckland, NZ. Sadly they spent a lot of the tour not speaking to each other and basically from then until now, apart from little bursts of daylight along the way, they've never really regained the friendship they once had.

I would be surprised if Simon and Garfunkel, together or alone, were not on everyone's playlist. Their total body of work is immense and varied with worldwide appeal and their songs have been covered by many artists in many styles. The Bangles took their 'Hazy Shade of Winter' to new heights and The Tennors made 'The Only Living Boy ... ' into a rocksteady version called 'Weather Report'.

Simon and Garfunkel. There's something there for everyone.

The Boxer - album version

The Boxer - (Central Park) with extra verse

 

CARLY SIMON - No Secrets 1972

 

Here's another 1972 album. Seems like every second album I owned and am reviewing came from 1972. I really was making up for lost time. After being in the army and only buying the odd one or two LP's, here I was back in the world and able to buy, store and play music at my leisure.

'No Secrets' was Carly's 3rd studio album and I bought it on the tails of the single 'You're So Vain'. I could probably write this whole post about that one song, there's so much mystery and legend around it, but it's all been said before without any real firm conclusion as to who it was really was about.

Before all that though, just a bit of background. Carly was the daughter of Richard L. Simon, which meant nothing to me until I found out he was co-founder of Simon & Schuster, at one time the third largest publishing house in the US. In the early 60's Carly and her sister Lucy recorded 3 albums under the name of The Simon Sisters. Lucy left to get married and in 1968 Carly was briefly lead singer for the New York group Elephant's Memory. I only know of them from 2 songs they did on the Midnight Cowboy movie soundtrack, but Carly had left by then.

Her first album, the 1971 eponymous 'Carly Simon' had the single 'That's the Way I've Always Heard It Should Be' and her second album 'Anticipation' gave us the single of the same name. The story goes that she wrote that song in 15 minutes as she waited for Cat Stevens to pick her up for a date!

'No Secrets' really was a major album for Carly. If the background players are anything to go by, it was always destined to be big. When you have people like Bonnie Bramlett (from Delaney & Bonnie), Paul and Linda McCartney and James Taylor as backup singers and Klaus Voorman, Ray Cooper and Nicky Hopkins among the musicians, you're 90% there.

It made sense for James Taylor to appear, they were married just a few weeks before the album was released and one of the tracks, 'Night Owl' was written by him. A couple of other tracks of note (IMHO) are 'The Right Thing To Do' and 'We Have No Secrets'.

Recording the background vocals for 'You're So Vain', Carly had Harry Nilsson in the studio. Mick Jagger came in, Harry realised they had a better connection so he backed away. The end result is that Mick has uncredited vocals on the chorus. Talking of that chorus, it was used almost 30 years later by Nine Inch Nails on their song 'Starfu**ers'. How's that for longevity and crossover.

Not all the reviews of the album and specifically that song, were pleasant. One commentator, Robert Christgau, wrote rather scathingly "if a horse could sing in a monotone, the horse would sound like Carly Simon, only a horse wouldn't rhyme 'yacht', 'apricot', and 'gavotte'. Is that some kind of joke?" Oh boy, harsh Robert.  

Carly's following album, 1974's 'Hotcakes' had a duet with James Taylor, 'Mockingbird' and also had the single 'Haven't Got Time For the Pain' and in 1977 she did the theme song 'Nobody Does it Better' for the Bond movie 'The Spy Who Loved Me'. After that I pretty much lost track of her, which basically means for me, her best work was in the 70's.

You're So Vain

B-52's - Cosmic Thing 1989

 

My two favourite pastimes, music and computing, came together in the early 90's. I'd returned to New Zealand and was managing a computer outlet. Windows based PC's were still coming into their own so we also carried the Amiga range, a highly under-rated family of machines, ahead of their time. Having the chance to take these things apart revealed hidden secrets. Somebody within the Amiga organization was a B-52's fan. Check out the photo of various motherboards, all with B-52's references stamped on them. My worlds collided. 

Back to the music. Getting together for a jam session after drinking at a Chinese restaurant in 1976 the 5 founding members of The B-52's, Cindy Wilson and her brother Ricky, Kate Pierson, Keith Strickland and the very distinctive voice of poet Fred Schneider played their first concert for friends at a party in 1977. By 1978 they had recorded their first single, 'Rock Lobster' and performed at New Yorks CBGB's, joining a list of acts who trod the same stage - The Ramones (review July 14 2020), Blondie (review July 21 2020), Talking Heads (review Aug 29 2020) and Patti Smith (review June 4 2020).

'Rock Lobster' hit well with the college and underground set and became one of their mainstay songs. As well as the music the thing that set it apart - and many of their other songs too - was Fred Schneider's delivery. A local New Jersey lad (Newark, then Belleville) he used a technique known as "sprechgesang" translated as "spoken singing". As a poet he often recited his poetry over a guitar, so he developed this distinctive style. That song was released in a slightly different version on their debut eponymous album 'The B-52's" in 1979. 

Three more albums and a dozen or so singles over the following 10 years kept them in the public eye but didn't make any massive waves and in fact they were fading a bit. Sadly in 1985 their guitarist and founding member Ricky Wilson died of AIDS aged just 32 and the band - unofficially - broke up, or more specifically agreed 'to part ways indefinitely'. Then in 1988 they started to hang out together again and began writing new songs. Now down to a 4 pce band they soon had enough material for an album. With the likes of Nile Rodgers and Don Was producing, they put out this LP, 'Cosmic Thing' in early 1989.

Starting off as a slow-boiler with the release of 'Channel Z' as the first single, it was when 'Love Shack' came out in June that the single and album really took off. The single got to #3 in the US, #2 in the UK and #1 in New Zealand, Australia and Ireland, with the album hitting #1 in NZ and Oz and within the top ten in the US and UK.

Not quite reaching the same heights, but charting well were 'Roam' and 'Deadbeat Club' from the same album. In performance terms the group became so popular that they had a backing band and went from playing in theatres to arenas and stadiums.

My good lady superfan wife has this as one of her go-to-feel-good albums and gives it a "Tracy Rating" of 8/10, only because she loves 2 tracks ever so slightly less than she loves the other 8.

On a grammatical note, in 2008 the band dropped the apostrophe from 52's and became just The B-52s. Still performing with the 4 remaining members of the original line-up, The B-52s are survivors where many have fallen by the wayside.

"You're what?
Tin roof
Rusted!"

Love Shack

Rock Lobster

HOUSEMARTINS - Get Everything !!! 1986-88

Back in May 2020 there was a Facebook Album Challenge going around and I mentioned The Housemartins. Since then I've started this series of reviews and an album blog, so the lads from Hull deserve a longer write-up. 

There's a good reason why this post features 3 albums. They only released 2 studio LPs, "London 0 Hull 4" in 1986 and "The People Who Grinned Themselves To Death" in 1987. They followed those with a 1988 double album compilation "Now That's What I Call Quite Good" that included demos, b-sides and non-album tracks. You need all three titles. Trust me, get them all. The 2 initial albums have tracks not included on the compilation and vice-versa.

In the Album Challenge I told the story of my first encounter with The Housemartins. It was 1988 and I was in Kundiawa, Papua New Guinea. Less than 20 ex-pats in town and I was managing a staff of 60+ and only about 5 of them spoke fluent English. Some guy had rigged a way we could watch one Australian TV channel - the ABC. They did a weekly music programme called 'Rage'. One night I was watching and they played about 6 Housemartin videos in a row. It had to be one of the most surreal experiences of my life in the Highlands of PNG.

As soon as I was able I bought everything I could find, which of course were these 3 LP's.

The first album line-up was Paul Heaton, Stan Cullimore, Hugh Whitaker and Norman Cook. Paul and Stan had been together since '83 when they were a duo, busking around the traps. By their second album Hugh, the drummer, had been replaced by Dave Hemingway. I've got to mention the videos showing that change-over, it really reflects the humour injected into their harsh social and political songs.

At the end of the video 'Think For a Minute' from the first album, after a hilarious dance sequence Paul tells Hugh that it's over and leads him away. The credits say "Hugh Whitaker is available for weddings, parties & private functions."

The video for 'Five Get Over Excited' from the second album starts with Hugh getting a bag over his head in an alleyway. We then see only 3 members of the band playing with no drummer, until Dave Hemingway climbs up and takes over. It's refreshing to see a smooth transition between band members instead of the usual acrimonious in-fighting that happens.

Then there's the music. Paul and Stan were the songwriters for both albums and the social and political comment I mentioned comes through. Sometimes classed as 'jangle pop' the music accompanying the lyrics can detract the casual listener from the deeper meaning. In 'Sheep' it's easy to detect the mob mentality when Paul sings 'it's sheep we're up against', and 'Build' on one hand seems to decry the destruction of habitat in favour of development, but the music video may also relate to walls around ourselves ..

"Down with sticks and up with bricks,
In with boots and up with roots,
It's in with suits and new recruits,
It's build..."  

'Happy Hour' is joyous. A fast paced tap along song that just makes you smile - however - listen closely and put it in context of time and place. It's about the almost misogynous attitudes and sexism of those 80's yuppy city boys. The video was more graphic in showing the meaning behind the music with a great blend of live action and claymation. For the eagle-eyed there's also a cameo of Phil Jupitus reading a newspaper as the lads dance into the pub. Phil, a bit of a celebrity in England, was at one time a support act for The Housemartins when he recited poetry under the name Porky the Poet. He became their press officer and compere for a while too.

As a bit of extra trivia (you know how I love that) another band classed as 'jangle pop', The Barenaked Ladies, sang a bit of 'Happy Hour' at the end of their song 'Hello City' from the album 'Gordon'.

The Housemartins only #1 'Caravan of Love' didn't appear on their first two albums, we had to wait for the 'Now That's What I Call Quite Good' compilation to come out or buy the single. 'Caravan of Love' was an a cappella version of the Isley-Jasper-Isley song and caused a bit of mixed feeling among Housemartin fans. Personally I thought it was brilliant and they continued the a cappella style when they did a version of 'He Ain't Heavy, He's My Brother' on a Capitol Radio session featured on the compilation.   

So many great songs. The ones I've already mentioned, plus 'I Can't Put My Finger On It', 'Me and the Farmer', 'You Better Be Doubtful' .. get them, play them, enjoy them.

Even though the band only lasted a couple of years, the members didn't fade away. Paul Heaton and Dave Hemingway formed The Beautiful South (to be reviewed) followed by solo work, and lately he's paired up again with Beautiful South member Jaqui Abbott. Norman Cook went on to form Beats International but then became massive when he took the stage name Fatboy Slim (to be reviewed).

I'm attaching 4 video links to this review .. I could put in all 9 but start with these and work your way up.

Enjoy

CARAVAN OF LOVE

SHEEP

BUILD

HAPPY HOUR

 

10cc and GODLEY & CREME - Changing Faces 1987

 

"I want to be a boss
I want to be a big boss
I want to boss the world around
I want to be the biggest boss
That ever bossed the world around"

10cc was made up of two very strong songwriting teams, Eric Stewart & Graham Gouldman along with Kevin Godley & (Laurence) Lol Creme. All four members of the group had solid backgrounds in music, all having been involved in other groups of varying levels of success and/or writing material that everyone knows. Graham Gouldman particularly had a string of songwriting hits with stuff like 'Heart Full of Soul', 'Evil Hearted You' and 'For Your Love' for The Yardbirds, 'Look Through Any Window' and 'Bus Stop' for The Hollies and 'No Milk Today', and 'Listen People' for Herman's Hermits. Eric Stewart was in Wayne Fontana & The Mindbenders and when Fontana left and they were just The Mindbenders he was with them on 'Groovy Kind of Love'.

Kevin, Lol and Eric first made their mark when, as Hotlegs, they got to #2 in the UK and #22 in the US with 'Neanderthal Man'. Follow-up songs made no impression, but when Graham Gouldman joined and they changed the band's name to 10cc things got a whole lot better.

The meaning behind the band's new name is relatively well know. Or is it??! The myth is that the average male ejaculate is 9cc, and that these being big healthy Manchester lads, they were 1cc better. Unfortunately, Jonathan King (yes, 'Everyone's Gone to the Moon' and many other things - THAT Jonathan King) was the one who signed them up and gave them the name. He said it came to him in a dream when he saw a hoarding  that said "10cc The Best Group in the World".

Gouldman and Stewart were good on writing pop songs, Godley and Creme did the 'push the envelope' stuff. Maybe a good stark example is shown on the first two tracks of their 'Original Soundtrack' album. The second song is the Stewart/Gouldman chart topper 'I'm Not in Love', a typical pop ballad love song distinctive for it's backing of multi-layered vocals. In contrast, the first track is the Godley/Creme 9 minute 3-part mini-operetta 'Une Nuit a Paris'. That song is thought to have been an influence on "Bohemian Rhapsody" by Queen and the song's melody can be heard in the overture to Andrew Lloyd Webber's 1986 musical 'Phantom of the Opera'.

The first 10cc album I bought was 'How Dare You!' in 1976 and I loved every track. Riding on the back of the two singles from the album, 'Art For Art's Sake' and 'I'm Mandy, Fly Me', there was the driving weirdness of the Godley/Creme influenced 'I Wanna Rule the World' mirrored by another Godley/Creme composition, the theatrical pathos of 'Don't Hang Up'. The other tracks were far from fillers, each had it's own reason to be there. 

Then the following year I bought their next album, 'Deceptive Bends'. Three singles were taken from this album, but the only one that resonated with me was 'The Things We Do For Love'. Something was different, something had changed. That 'something' was Godley and Creme. Between the above 2 albums, Godley and Creme left the band to go their own way.

The first song of theirs I came across was the 1979 single 'An Englishman in New York', not to be confused with Sting's 1987 song of the same name. It's a weird pastiche of images based on their first visit to the Big Apple. 1981's 'Wedding Bells' is an almost Motowny rollalong song - she wants to get married, he wants "to have some fun" and has the desperate verse ..
"Oh I'd do it but the pleasure isn't worth the pain
We'd run out of track before we got on the train
Can't you hear the sound of heartstrings snappin' under the strain
Of those wedding bells".

'Cry' is a great song made even better by the amazing (for it's time) video that accompanied it. A whole series of morphing faces, full screen, lip-synching the song, although they used more of a soft-wipe technique than a true morph. My last post mentioned Trevor Horn doing work with Frankie Goes to Hollywood. He was also instrumental in getting this song off the ground. Godley and Creme had bits of it but were stuck. He heard it and together they came up with the finished product.

After achieving critical acclaim for the video, and having interest in that area, Godley and Creme went on to direct over 50 more music videos in the 80's alone. The Police, Frankie Goes to Hollywood, Duran Duran, Sting, Lou Reed, Peter Gabriel & Kate Bush, the list goes on.

10cc didn't fade away after Kevin and Lol left, getting another UK #1 in 1978 with the reggae based 'Dreadlock Holiday' although after that I pretty much lost interest.

This compilation album has the best of both worlds, 16 tracks dividing itself into 10 by 10cc and 6 by G&C. There's a couple more deep 10cc songs I'd like to see on here .. 'Don't Hang Up' for one, but the G&C tracks give a broad stroke of their popular work, along with the lesser known goodies like 'Save a Mountain For Me' and 'Snack Attack' and the cinematic 'Under Your Thumb'.

All in all, a good mix for the casual listener and enough meat to satisfy those among us who want a bit more than mainstream. 

I Wanna Rule The World

Wedding Bells

FRANKIE GOES TO HOLLYWOOD - Welcome to the Pleasuredome 1984

 "In Xanadu did Kublai Khan
A pleasure dome erect"

"In 1984 did Frankie a pleasuredome release" and life was never quite the same. The songs, the album and the group made one of the biggest impacts on music and life since the rumour that Paul was dead or Jerry Lee Lewis had married his 14 year old cousin.

'Relax' was released in 1983 as a single and music video. The video was banned by the BBC and MTV which probably only helped boost it's slow move on the charts into a run for the top, staying 5 weeks at #1 in the UK. Next came 'Two Tribes' and 'Power of Love' in 1984 and then in October of the same year, the album dropped. Songs of homosexuality, bondage, war, masturbation and orgasms - and you could almost dance to it! The double LP entered the UK Albums Chart in the #1 spot because it already had pre-release advance sales of over 1 million copies.

Even though the album was fantastically successful there was some criticism. Those 3 previously released singles were on the album, but they had all been re-recorded and remixed. The main reason appeared to lie with the producer, Trevor Horn. Seems his involvement included replacing some of the band's own work with session musicians and even sometimes playing bits himself. He was possibly reliving his earlier years when he was co-writer of the song 'Video Killed the Radio Star' and one half of The Buggles, the duo who sang it.

On the vinyl version the first side of the first disk, apart from a couple of minutes at the beginning, is taken up with the title track 'Welcome to the Pleasuredome'. Starting off with animal and bird noises the song picks up in tempo and beat and after a couple of 'Who-ha's' Holly Johnson sets out on his almost 14 minute slightly misunderstood marathon of a song. Inspired by Coleridge's 'Kubla Khan' the song was accused of glorifying debauchery, but has been defended as being about the dangers of it.

'Relax' is next, possibly the only song about ejaculation since Max Romeo's 1968 cheeky little number 'Wet Dream'. As well as being a solid driving singalong song it also generated double it's weight in T-shirts. They were everywhere.

I tend to lump 'War (...and Hide)' and 'Two Tribes (For the Victims of Ravishment)' together which is totally wrong and totally unfair, but there it is. 'War' is the Edwin Starr song given lots of percussive backing and a Ronald Reagan voice-over. 'Two Tribes' gets it's title from a Mad Max 2 quote “For reasons long forgotten, two mighty warrior tribes went to war”. Like Mad Max, the theme of the song is 'working for the black gas'. After 'Two Tribes' there's a 30 second chat from Prince Charles where he talks about orgasms. If it's ever credited it's called 'Tag' (unlisted track).

In the interests of full disclosure, it's not really Prince Charles, anymore than it's Ronald Reagan in 'War'. It is in fact none other than Chris Barrie, better known to millions as either Rimmer on Red Dwarf, Brittas on the Brittas Empire or one of voice actors on Spitting Image. He returns at the end of the album as Reagan on the track 'Bang' to tell us that "Frankie say - no more".

The other criticism was the inclusion of cover versions of songs rather than original material. In fairness, apart from Edwin Starr's 'War' 3 of the 4 covers run consecutively on side 3 so if you are offended by them they can easily be skipped. Personally, I like them. 'Ferry (Go)' is just a sub 2 minute dream segment of Gerry and the Pacemakers 'Ferry 'Cross the Mersey' ending in a broad Scouse conversation ..
Him: "I'm sorry I've left me cards at 'ome"
Her: "Well you're late as well. That's three times on the run." .... and after a bit more banter there's a sudden 'HA!' and the band break into Springsteens 'Born to Run'. Four frenetic minutes later there's a 180 degree shift and the strains of 'San Jose (The Way)' drift along .. it's the Dionne Warwick classic 'Do You Know the Way to San Jose'.

Those last three covers have been described as "what happens when a band decides to release a double album and doesn’t have enough material to fill it" but you'll need to decide for yourselves.

A few more tracks and we get to their other UK #1 hit 'The Power of Love'. As with a lot of their music, there were a multitude of re-mixes and extended versions. That's apparent by their compilation albums. They only released 2 studio albums but there were at least 12 compilations. On some versions of the song Chris Barrie comes back and works his impersonation magic.

As a last little tidbit of trivia, the video for 'Two Tribes' was directed by Godley & Creme, ex-10cc members who famously directed the video of Peter Gabriel and Kate Bush singing 'Don't Give Up'.

On the whole I like this album. It has life, humour and variety. Play the songs, wear the T-shirt.

"Frankie Says Relax"

Relax

CREEDENCE CLEARWATER REVIVAL - Willy and the Poor Boys 1969

 

It was only a few days ago that I wrote about the skiffle influence on todays music, saying how a group could be formed around a guitar, a washboard and a tea-chest bass. Here it is in all it's glory on this album cover. CCR standing on a street in West Oakland with, as stated in a 1974 Rolling Stone article "gut-bucket bass, washboard, ol’ git’ar an’ mouf harp". This was going to be some sort of concept album based on the characters in the photo, CCR in their alter-egos of Willie and the Poor Boys. The opening song 'Down on the Corner' seems to add to the theme by mentioning what the visual tells us ..

'Down on the corner
Out in the street
Willy and the Poor Boys are playin'
Bring a nickel, tap your feet
Rooster hits the washboard and people just got to smile
Blinky thumps the gut bass and solos for a while
Poor Boy twangs the rhythm out on his kalamazoo
And Willy goes into a dance and doubles on kazoo'

Ultimately that's all there was to it. The concept of a concept was abandoned and what we got instead was a selection of damn good stand alone songs. One of them was the result of this album photo shoot. The band were playing around with the instruments and came up with something they liked. When they got back into the studio they cleaned it up and recorded it as 'Poorboy Shuffle'.

1969 was a massive year for CCR. They toured the country, played the Atlanta Pop Festival, did a midnight set at Woodstock and recorded and released 3 albums between January and November. They also put out and promoted 8 singles from those albums. Surprisingly they never hit #1 in the US with any of those songs but have the dubious honour of getting 3 #2's in this one year.

'Willy and the Poor Boys' has a mix of songs and influences. 'Fortunate Son' is a classic protest song that still holds it's own even today. 'Effigy' was a specific direct hit against Nixon and 'Don't Look Now' has the plight of the working class. A couple of covers, 'Cotton Fields' and 'The Midnight Special' of Leadbelly fame and the rousing story of a farmer finding a UFO in 'It Came Out of the Sky'. Throw in a couple of instrumentals and you've got a great piece of vinyl in your hands.

The reason for their success and prolific output was ultimately the reason for their breakup - John Fogerty. A major talent, writer, arranger, producer, musician, lead vocalist, John essentially WAS Creedence Clearwater Revival but his leadership in all things wasn't appreciated all the time by all the band. He was criticized for driving them too hard, for putting great songs on BOTH sides of the single releases and not allowing the others any major input. It wasn't until their 1972 album 'Mardi Gras' that Stu Cook and Doug Clifford got to record some of their compositions and take lead vocals, but by then it really was too late. Tom Fogerty, John's brother, had left the band in 1971 and the remaining trio were not getting on at all. The other two resented John's dominance and John resented the fact that they wanted more control after he had basically done all the work to get them where they were.

It had to end, and so it did, in October 1972.

Bitter feuds, legal troubles, family disharmony and petty squabbles pretty much took over for many years. John went on to have a very successful solo career but one of the weirdest lawsuits against him was brought by Fantasy Records. Fantasy owned the rights to many CCR songs and when John recorded 'The Old Man Down the Road' for his solo 'Centerfield' album for Asylum Records, Fantasy claimed it was a re-write of 'Run Through the Jungle' which they owned. So they were basically suing John Fogerty for plagarizing himself!

As well as their original songs, in their heyday CCR did some very credible covers. 'I Put a Spell on You', the Screamin' Jay Hawkins classic. A memorable 11 minute version of 'I Heard it Through the Grapevine', their first high seller 'Suzie Q' and even 'Hello Mary Lou', the Gene Pitney song he wrote for Ricky Nelson.

Everybody knows CCR's music, if not from their 7 studio albums then certainly from radio play, and anyone with even the most rudimentary collection will probably have one of their 40 plus compilations. That being the case, and just to balance the books, I've put 2 links at the end of this review to CCR songs done by other people. The Reels are an Australian group who had hits doing covers and their 1986 version of 'Bad Moon Rising' is well worth a listen. The second clip is the classic live Ike & Tina Turner rendition of 'Proud Mary' from their brilliant double album 'What You Hear Is What You Get' from 1971. It starts off nice and easy .......

Creedence Clearwater Revival. Good old rock in the middle of flower power.

The Reels - Bad Moon Rising

Ike & Tina Turner - Proud Mary

LICK THE TINS - Blind Man on a Flying Horse 1986

 

I've been doing a run of mainstream artists for the past week or two, so it's time for something that's barely in the stream.

In 1990, between leaving and returning to Papua New Guinea, due to personal circumstances I spent the year living the life of a single man in Fremantle, Western Australia. I fell in with a group of people who drank at Irish pubs (I don't remember stealing that pint glass mug from Fenians) and we went from our local Clancy's to anywhere playing live music. That's how I heard about and bought this album.

Lick the Tins came from relative obscurity, released a single followed by an album, then a couple more singles FROM the album, then they quietly faded back into relative obscurity. This 1986 LP contains almost their entire output, although the 1991 re-release had 6 bonus tracks. They were mainly b-sides or 12" mixes.

Simon Ryan and Ronan Heenan had been in 'The Almost Brothers', another combo practically unknown but who remarkably had a song on the 1980 Radio One playlist. The group broke up but Simon and Ronan met up again a few years later in London. Ronan brought in his friend, Alison Marr who he used to busk with in the London Underground. Ronan and Alison were both from Northern Ireland, he trained as a vet and she was a reporter. Simon was a graphic designer at Stiff Records. Between the three of them they wanted to combine a love of rock and blues with Irish traditional folk.

Simon heard Alison singing a Celtic version of the Elvis song 'Can't Help Falling in Love', accompanying herself on the pennywhistle while Ronan played guitar. He thought it was worth making a demo. He took the demo to his mates at Stiff Records who "told him that he should not consider giving up his day job, and should get on with designing sleeves."

Fortunately the demo did get heard by Bob Barnes who was a partner in Sedition Records. He got them to re-record the song in a studio and it was released as a single. With Aiden McCroary initially on bass then keyboards and Chris Hayes taking over bass plus a couple of random violin players, they got an album together. Simon Ryan not only played the drums on the album, he also took the advice of his friends at Stiff Records and designed the cover.

'Belle of Belfast City' and 'In the Middle of the Night' were also put out as singles but didn't manage to make an impression. A few years later Van Morrison & The Chieftains released 'I'll Tell Me Ma' as a single (same song, alternate title).

One of the album tracks is Hendrix's 'Hey Joe' which last for two and a half minutes, the first 2 mins is Irish reels and the last 30 seconds mentions Joe. I love it !!

After critical acclaim but commercial disaster, the group played clubs and colleges for a while but eventually broke up a year later. That's a shame, they could have been better than their 5 minutes of fame.

Can't Help Falling in Love

Hey Joe

U2 - Rattle and Hum 1988

 

There's a British TV show called 'Gogglebox', a simple premise where we watch people watching TV. The show has spread to other countries who do their own version and one of those countries is Ireland. Through the power of the dark recesses of the internet, we watch and enjoy 'Gogglebox Ireland'. Every week, in between a couple of segments, they play the opening bars of 'Sweetest Thing' by U2. Every week the earworm burrows a little deeper until now I've finally cracked and selected U2 as review of the day.

In the interests of full disclosure, U2 are not my favourite band. In fact they don't come close. Even so, like most groups or artists there are usually things in their catalogues that are the exceptions that prove the rule.

My good lady wife Tracy on the other hand is a dyed-in-the-wool fan, so much so that she made multiple trips from Brooklyn to East Rutherford New Jersey to see them in concert on at least 3 of their 5 shows in May 1987. The shows were the 1st leg of the Joshua Tree tour and 6 live recordings from parts of the tour, 9 studio tracks and 2 clips of other performers became the hybrid album 'Rattle and Hum'.

Probably the most powerful and notable live track on the album is taken from their Madison Square Garden show. The opening couple of bars of  'I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For' begin, Bono comes in with the vocal, singing the first verse. When he gets to the second verse there's a background of rhythmic clapping. The chorus has a two line repetition. He sings the first and then, for the second a heavenly choir takes over, singing responses and accompaniments until the 2 minute mark. At that point, the full band kicks in, the volume and pace increase and The New Voices of Freedom go into full gospel mode. It really is a moving performance. The 'Rattle and Hum' movie shows the rehearsal for that number. After the rehearsal U2 went for a walk around Harlem and spotted Satan and Adam, a blues duo of street performers. Both the movie and this album have a 40 second clip of them playing 'Freedom For My People'.

The other 'other artist' clip on this album is Jimi Hendrix doing a 43 second burst of 'Star Spangled Banner' taken from his 1969 Woodstock performance.

There's a couple of covers too. It surprised me that they would open this album with a live version of The Beatles 'Helter Skelter'. It just seemed odd that U2, who were now on the threshold of super-stardom and had released an album based on a tour, chose to begin with a song by another super-stardom group.

The next live track was Dylan's 'All Along the Watchtower', which should have satisfied my need to include Bob in almost every review, however, digging deeper I found more. The studio cut of 'Hawkmoon 269' features Dylan on Hammond organ and the track 'Love Rescue Me' was not only co-written by Bob but he also does backing vocals. Mind you, he wasn't the only guest performer of note. B.B. King did vocals and guitar on 'When Love Comes To Town' and Brian Eno was playing keyboard on 'Heartland'. Van Dyke Parks was brought in for the string arrangement on 'All I Want Is You'. 

It would be remiss not to mention 'Angel of Harlem', not only because it's a good song but also because it's an homage to the legendary Billie Holiday.

Just as a side note, although not included on this album, I have a bootleg from one of the shows Tracy went to in New Jersey on May 15 1987 and U2 do a short version of Dylan's 'Maggie's Farm'. Yeah !

So, after giving them a second chance, there's enough on this album (and a few others in the pile) to satisfy even a reluctant listener like me, although they didn't do themselves any favours in 2014 when 'Songs of Innocence' was force fed onto my iTunes related devices.

U2 - for me, an acquired taste but one that is becoming more pallatable.

U2 + Gospel Choir - I still haven't found what I'm looking for

Angel of Harlem

THE MANHATTAN TRANSFER - The Manhattan Transfer 1975

 

As a kid in the 50's I was brought up listening to the radio. Family Favourites, The Billy Cotton Band Show, Workers Playtime. Songs of the 30's, 40's and 50's. Along with that I'd spend hours in my Gt-grandmothers attic playing old 78's on her wind-up gramophone. I grew up with mainstream jazz, big band and swing music as well as the crooners and swooners.

I bought this album in New Zealand when it was released in '75. I then got 'Coming Out' in '76 and 'Pastiche' in '78. There was something about The Manhattan Transfer that really appealed to me. After the heavy metal and the psychedelia and the self-indulgent concept albums these songs were a breath of fresh air. Harmonies, melodies, music that was new and nostalgic at the same time.

I saw Manhattan Transfer in concert. I know it was in Auckland. I know it was in the late 70's or early 80's. I can find no record of it anywhere. Ah well, sometimes I forget what I had for breakfast.

This featured album was actually the second Manhattan Transfer LP, but the first one, 'Jukin', was so different as to not be included in any anthology or even on their official website. To be fair, it only contained one original member, Tim Hauser, and had one song 'Java Jive' that carried over to the later version of Manhattan Transfer, but that's where the similarities ended. The new re-energised group was a 4 member marriage of perfectly syncronised voices - Tim Hauser, Laurel Massé, Alan Paul and Janis Siegel. Together they created music that had fallen by the wayside and was overdue for a comeback.

'Operator' and 'Tuxedo Junction' were both released as singles from this eponymous album. They charted moderately well but didn't make waves. In fact their only #1, 'Chanson D'amour', came from the 'Coming Out' album in '77. Regardless of chart placing, The Manhattan Transfer made an impact. By the time they did 'Coming Out' they had guests queuing up to play with them. Dr. John on piano, Ringo Starr on drums, 30 musicians sitting in on the sessions providing perfect music to accompany perfect voices.

After the release of 'Pastiche' the group suffered what could have been a major set-back when Laurel Massé was badly injured in a car accident in 1978 and decided to leave. Laurels voice was pure and distinctive but her replacement, Cheryl Bentyne, fitted into the frame without missing a beat, bringing her jazz background into the mix. Some of the later tracks they did with Cheryl were among my favourites .. 'Trickle Trickle', 'The Boy From New York City', 'Route 66'.

Between 1980 and 1992 The Manhattan Transfer won 11 Grammy's and were inducted into the Vocal Group Hall of Fame in 1998.

In 2014 founder member Tim Hauser passed away and Trist Curless stepped in to continue performing with Cheryl, Alan and Janis.

If you missed them the first time around, listen to the links below and enjoy a bit of music the way it was, is, and thanks to The Manhattan Transfer, will always be.

Operator

Tuxedo Junction

Java Jive

GERRY RAFFERTY & STEALERS WHEEL - Collected 2019

 "Clowns to the left of me,
Jokers to the right, here I am,
Stuck in the middle with you"

Gerry Rafferty came in a few different versions. The Humblebums, then solo, Stealers Wheel and then another run going solo. This double vinyl album has 23 tracks covering 2 Gerry versions. The 3-CD set of the same name has 54 tracks and 3 Gerry versions. Both issues have solo work and Stealers Wheel releases, but the CD set has 6 songs he did as part of The Humblebums.

Trivia question .. who was the other Humblebum? Yes, of course, The Big Yin himself, Billy Connolly. Connolly and Tam Harvey formed the Humblebums in 1965 and Gerry joined in 1969. Harvey left soon after and Gerry and Billy continued as a duo until 1971. 'Shoeshine Boy' was one of their few single releases, well worth a listen.

After the Humblebums split, Gerry released his first solo album 'Can I Have My Money Back'. Along with the title track, which is a fun ditty, the music on the album was good but commercially it went nowhere. Luckily Gerry met Joe Egan, a Scottish singer / songwriter who did background vocals on this production. Joe made the point that perhaps Gerry's music would be better if it came from a band rather than a solo act. Gerry agreed and the two of them formed Stealers Wheel in 1972.

To say they had a turbulent line-up is a bit of an understatement. Initially Rafferty and Egan got Roger Brown, Rab Noakes and Ian Campbell to make up the 5-pce band. Before they recorded their eponymous album those 3 had left and were replaced by Paul Pilnick, Tony Williams and Rod Coombes. After the album came out, Rafferty and Williams left and were replaced by Luther Grosvenor and DeLisle Harper.

When 'Stuck in the Middle With You' became a hit, Rafferty came back and everyone else left except for Egan, so Stealers Wheel once again became a duo of just Gerry Rafferty and Joe Egan. That lasted until 1975 when they disbanded for good. PHEW !!

The UK music paper described 'Stuck in the Middle ..' as "a sort of cross between white label Beatles and punk Dylan yet with a unique Celtic flavour that has marked all their work". See, I got a Dylan mention in there.

Because of legal wranglings after the break-up of Stealers Wheel, Gerry couldn't release anything for three years. Once the dust had settled he went back into the studio and recorded his second solo album 'City to City' which included the monster hit 'Baker Street'. Even then, the disputes didn't end. 'Baker Street' has one of the most recognisable distinctive riffs in music, the saxophone solo played by Raphael Ravenscroft. For years there has been disagreement about who was responsible for that. Raphael says he wasn't given a piece of music so he used an old blues riff. Gerry on the other hand says he wrote the song with that part in mind as an instrumental. He tried guitar but didn't like it so he sang it to Raphael who then played it on an alto sax.

Gerry released 8 more albums after 'City to City' but neither the albums or any of his other singles ever achieved the same as Stealers 'Stuck in the Middle ..' or his own 'Baker Street', which is a shame, there were some great songs buried in there. 'Right Down the Line' did make #1 in the US but did nothing anywhere else. 'Get It Right Next Time' didn't get into any top ten but it is a standard radio play. 

In 1983 he took lead vocals on the Mark Knopfler track 'The Way It Always Starts' from the "Local Hero" soundtrack - one of my favourite soundtracks of all time.

I suppose if you wanted to be particularly critical and slightly cruel it could be said that Gerry Rafferty has the distinction of being a two-time one-hit wonder. That may or may not be accurate but it dismisses a very large and on the whole, passable and occasionally brilliant body of work. In his music he gave this advice ..

"Out on the street I was talkin' to a man
He said "there's so much of this life of mine that I don't understand"
You shouldn't worry I said that ain't no crime
Cause if you get it wrong you'll get it right next time, next time."

Sadly, after a long struggle with alcoholism and later depression, Gerry passed away from liver failure in 2011 aged 63. 

Can I have My Money Back

Baker Street

Stuck in the Middle With You

VAN HALEN - MCMLXXXIV 1984 / JOHNNY NASH - I Can See Clearly Now 1972

 

Eddie Van Halen 1955 - 2020

Johnny Nash 1940 - 2020

Two music legends, two totally opposite music genres, two artists who left us on the same day, Oct 6 2020.

Strange bedfellows to put together in one post I agree, neither of whom I intended to review but neither could be allowed to pass without acknowledgement. So, these are not reviews, just a way of saying thanks.

I never really 'got into' Eddie Van Halen past the single 'Jump'. Didn't delve into the album tracks and I listened more to David Lee Roth's solo work than Eddie Van Halens guitar, but there is no dispute as to the impact he and his eponymous band made on the music of the 80's.

'1984' is perhaps the best known album, not only for the the tracks that came from it and entered the charts - 'Jump', 'I'll Wait', 'Panama' and 'Hot For Teacher', but also the distinctive cover of a child with a pack of (candy) cigarettes. In a reversal of the usual sensitivities, the cover was OK in the US, but in the UK a sticker was placed over the cigarette in the child's hand and the pack sitting in front of him. 

I bought Johnny Nash's album in 1972 on the strength of the title track and was not disappointed with the rest of the songs. A few more Nash originals and some Bob Marley covers for a slightly sanitized but catchy and enjoyable reggae based selection.

Van Halen sang ..

"I'm hot for teacher

I got it bad, so bad,

I'm hot for teacher, whoa"

and Johnny Nash sang ..

"Groove it

Here I am

Come rub it 'pon me belly

like guava jelly"

Both (tongue in cheek) looking for love in their own way. Thanks Eddie and Johnny.

Jump

I Can See Clearly Now

POLICE - Synchronicity 1983

 

Although Police seem to have always been around and their output appears prolific, this was in fact only their fifth, but final album. Did they save the best for last? You'd need to ask a deep-seated Police fan, (such as my wife Tracy) but going on the statistics it certainly looks that way. If nothing else it generated the best selling single of 1983 with 'Every Breath You Take'.

Let's fixate on that song for a minute. As everyone knows, it's not the lovey-dovey refrain it was mistakenly taken for by many people, some of whom played it at their wedding! It is in fact a creepy, dark, sadistic little ditty about a stalker. Glad we cleared that up.

Perhaps Sting was influenced by his surroundings - he wrote the song whilst sitting at the same desk in Jamaica where Ian Fleming wrote his James Bond books. I'm not saying James Bond was a sadistic stalker, but maybe something in the air gave Sting a bit of a sinister twist in his lyrics. He used the line "Every breath you take and every move you make" but very similar words had been done before from a first person point of view. In 'Every Breath I Take', the 1961 song by Carole King and Gerry Goffin, Gene Pitney sang .. 

"Oh ah, ev'ry little breath I take
Ev'ry little step I make"
and in 1973's 'D'yer Maker' by Led Zeppelin they came out with
"Every breath I take, oh oh oh oh
Oh, every move I make" 

It's pretty well documented that the 3 members of the group had a mutual dislike for each other by the time they made this album, and for most of the tracks they recorded in separate rooms. During the recording of 'Every Breath .. ' Sting and Stewart actually had a punch-up. That sort of adds passion to the music.

I mentioned Stewart Copeland once before - for a while he was drummer for Curved Air and was married to their lead singer Sonja Kristina 1982-1991 (see my review 18 Jun 2020).

Apart from 'Every Breath ..' 3 more singles came from the album, 'Wrapped Around Your Finger', 'Synchronicity II' and 'King of Pain'. In this household though, one of the favourites is 'Tea In The Sahara'. For those looking for meaning, the song and lyrics were based on a book that Sting liked, 'The Sheltering Sky' by Paul Bowles. The first part of the book is called 'Tea In The Sahara' and Stings lyrics closely follow the theme. 

After 'Synchronicity' the band members went their separate ways, all following solo projects with varying degrees of success. In June 1986 they did get together to play 3 shows for Amnesty International at Giants Stadium in New Jersey, just a mile or three from where I'm sitting writing this post. The following month in July 1986 they tried to do another album, but Stewart fell off a horse and broke his collarbone so couldn't play the drums and the plan to record fell by the wayside and basically, so did the band.

Thirty years later they appeared together again on the 2007 Grammy Awards and played 'Roxanne', which led to a limited Police Reunion Tour from May 2007 until August 2008, the third highest grossing tour of all time.

Sting has been the most successful of the three, releasing a large catalogue of solo music works, taking acting roles as well as his involvement in human rights and social and political activism. The stories of his dabbling in tantric sex techniques is an article for another day.

Tea in the Sahara

Every Breath You Take

VAN MORRISON, LONNIE DONEGAN, CHRIS BARBER - The Skiffle Sessions Live in Belfast 2000

 

Without skiffle there may well have been no Beatles, Stones, Bee Gees, Who, Faces, Hollies .. the list goes on. Individual members, or even most members of those bands at some time in their early musical lives had been a part of a skiffle group. Perhaps the best known among them were The Quarrymen, who's lineup had John Lennon and Eric Griffiths on guitars, Pete Shotton on washboard and Bill Smith on tea-chest bass. Later as people came and went Paul McCartney and George Harrison joined and stayed .. and the rest was history. 

Skiffle groups popped up all over England in the 1950's mainly because of the instruments involved. If just one person could get hold of a guitar and another could sneak a washboard from their Mum, a bass could be made from a tea chest with a broom handle and string. For very little outlay you had a band. In the early days the repertoire consisted of songs made popular by Lonnie Donegan, Englands greatest proponent of skiffle music. He was the only skiffle act to really make it to the charts. He had over 30 top 30 singles, three #1's and he was the first British singer to have two US top 10's. He was also Britain's most successful recording artist before the Beatles.

The skiffle craze was relatively short-lived though with rock and roll taking over the radio and the ever growing airwaves of television. Lonnie ended up doing novelty songs like 'Does Your Chewing Gum Lose It's Flavour' and 'My Old Man's a Dustman'.

Fast forward to 1997 when Van Morrison had the idea of recording an album of skiffle music with Dr. John. He wanted to pay homage to all the musicians who started their careers playing skiffle, and the list included himself and his early band The Sputniks. As he says on the album sleeve notes "We had a washboard, guitar, tea-chest bass and a type of kazoo called the zobo."

Lonnie Donegan had played with the Chris Barber Jazz Band back in the early 50's when he had his first hit with 'Rock Island Line' so after talking to Lonnie it was decided that the 3 of them, Van, Lonnie and Chris, would get together and record an album of live performances. Dr. John made it in on a few of the songs and the end result was this album of classic tracks.

The shows used on the album were recorded on 20 and 21 November 1998 at Whitla Hall in Belfast. When the record was reviewed in The Times in early 1999 they used what is possibly my all-time favourite description of any music, anywhere at any time. They wrote .. "If real ale could sing this is how it would sound .."

To me it sounds great. A lot of the songs were done by Lonnie back in the day, but to hear them in this setting, with these people is a long-awaited pleasure. 

Lonnie takes a solo to start the album with 'It Takes a Worried Man'. Van joins him for 'Lost John' then brings Dr. John in on 'Goin' Home'  with Chris Barbers trombone startling the song. After a couple more tracks, Lonnie let's loose on his 1957 hit 'Don't You Rock Me Daddy-O' with Alan "Sticky" Wicket going twenty to the dozen on the washboard to keep a frenetic pace. This leads in to the slower, gently rocking 'Alabamy Bound' with Van and Lonnie (eventually) getting together after a slow start by Van. Nick Payne blows just enough harmonica to make it ever so slightly heart-achy (as any good harmonica player does.) This song was actually the 'b' side to the '... Daddy-O' single.

'Midnight Special' rolls along like the train it's based on with Van and Lonnie sharing the dominant lead. After a few more classics written by the likes of Woody Guthrie and Lead Belly the band gets foot-tapping with 'Railroad Bill' and 'Mule Skinner Blues' . ("good morning captain"). After 'The Ballad of Jesse James' the show ends with a fitting song .. 'I Wanna Go Home'. If the title is unfamiliar it's probably better known by the Beach Boys version, 'Sloop John B'.

This album is bittersweet. It brought Lonnie Donegan back for a new found group of fans rediscovering the music that formed their parents lives. Sadly Lonnie only had a brief time to enjoy it as he passed in 2002 aged 71 years. We're fortunate that this album became part of his legacy with no small thanks to Van for arranging it and Chris and Dr. John for adding to the experience.

The vinyl may be hard to find. You can get the CD or listen to the full album on YouTube.

It Takes a Worried Man

Midnight Special

Alabamy Bound

SEX PISTOLS - The Great Rock 'n' Roll Swindle 1979

 

I was living in New Zealand when 'Punk' became a thing. There were punk groups and a representation of punk culture but nothing that seemed to take over any noticeable areas of life. I remember we had a friend who embraced it, but she came from a rich family so it didn't really seem the same. Years later I was reminded of her when I heard Pulp sing 'Common People' ..

"But still you'll never get it right

'Cause when you're laid in bed at night

Watching roaches climb the wall

If you called your Dad he could stop it all, yeah"

Certainly by 1979 when 'The Great Rock 'n' Roll Swindle' came out I couldn't have been more polar opposite to the non-conformist, anti-corporatism, anti-consumerism ethos. I was middle-management, driving to work in my company car wearing a 3-piece suit and arranging a mortgage for my first house.

That didn't stop me taking a musical interest though. It was impossible to ignore the impact that 'Never Mind the Bollocks, Here's the Sex Pistols' had. It stirred controversy, interest, shock and horror and despite all it stood for, it made some people a lot of money. Songs of anarchy, abortion, the Queen, the Berlin Wall .. didn't matter who you were, there was enough offence to go around and find something for you to object to. Unless, that is, this is exactly what you had been waiting for. That's probably why the album sold in such numbers and reached #1 in the charts. It was overdue, inevitable and in most people's minds, fleeting. Grab it while you can.

Malcolm McLaren had been supplying the New York Dolls with stage wear and renamed his outlet SEX. Through the outlet he got to know Paul Cook and Steve Jones, brought in Glen Matlock and John Lyndon (Johnny Rotten) and became the manager of The Sex Pistols.

Malcolm was the driving force behind the movie 'The Great Rock 'n' Roll Swindle' which took the form of a 'mockumentary' with a loose storyline and basically Malcolms version of the rise and fall of the band. That version became hotly disputed later and mis-management, money and reputations (such as they were) became central to years of court cases.

Between 'Bollocks ..' and the movie and soundtrack John Lyndon had left the band and Sid Vicious replaced Glen Matlock, but Sid's guitar skills weren't up to par so Glen was asked to play on part of the 'Bollocks ..' when it came to the movie and soundtrack Lyndon and Matlock were only seen in archive footage.

The band and McLaren all had character names in the film. McLaren was 'The Embezzler', Johnny Rotten 'The Collaborator', Sid Vicious 'The Gimmick' and they even roped in notorious Great Train Robber Ronnie Biggs, who had been hiding in various countries since his escape from prison. He was named 'The Exile'.

Before the movie was released in 1980 the soundtrack double album came out. What we got was a mishmash of Sex Pistol songs from the 'Bollocks ..' days, a string of cover versions, a few more originals and a mix of old and new vocals. The band only lasted just over 2 years, had one studio album and 4 singles, so cover songs were inevitable. The choice of those songs though was quite bizarre.

'Rock Around the Clock' 'C'mon Everybody' and 'Johnny B Goode' went way back. 'Watcha Gonna Do About It?' by the Small Faces, 'Substitute' by The Who and '(I'm Not Your) Steppin' Stone' by Paul Revere then later The Monkees were strange but not unreasonable choices, but wait for it.

How did they justify the Max Bygraves song 'You Need Hands' performed by Malcolm McLaren? Whose idea was it to go with 'My Way' and then to end the album with the schoolboy classic 'Friggin' in the Riggin'. 

The Sex Pistols are a major part of musical (and social) history. Love them, hate them, be totally confused by them, but do not ignore them.

Do not write off Malcolm McLaren as solely 'The Embezzler' either. He went on to create and develop 2 of my favourite albums, 'Duck Rock' (see my review 6 Jun 2020) and 'Paris' (see my review 7 Jun 2020).

C'mon Everybody

Anarchy In The U.K

SINÉAD O'CONNOR - The Lion and the Cobra 1987 - I Do Not Want What I Haven't Got 1990

                                

Sinéad's entry into music came through a series of unfortunate events. Her parents split up and Sinéad went to live with her father and his new wife. By the age of 15 she was getting into trouble, skipping school and shoplifting, so was sent to one of the notorious Magdalene Laundries for 18 months. Through there she met a volunteer who was the sister of Paul Byrne, the drummer for the band 'In Tua Nua' (see my review 23 Sept 2020). Although they felt she was too young to join the group, this meeting led to Sinéad forming a band with Colm Farrelly and others, 'Ton Ton Macoute'. She didn't record anything with them during her short time as part of the group, but it got her some attention from people like The Edge and U2's former head of Mother Records, Fachtna O'Ceallaigh. She was eventually signed to Ensign Records.

The first two albums by Sinéad Marie Bernadette O'Connor were a powerful introduction to an artist who would become as famous for her controversy as for her music. That's a shame because her music has guts and thought and passion and stands on it's own merits.

Her debut album 'The Lion and the Cobra' came out in 1987 and was recorded while Sinéad was 20 years old and pregnant. Three singles were taken from the album, 'Troy', 'Drink Before the War' and the more successful of the three, 'Mandinka'. Within the year Sinéad had hit the US market with her first TV appearance on 'Late Night With David Letterman' singing 'Mandinka' live. Cropped hair, Doc Martens, kick-ass vocals and boundless energy, nobody was going to forget this performance in a hurry. It may have been that her appearance was a little TOO much for the American audiences. When the album was released in the States, a different cover photo was used to make her look a little calmer than the original European one. The European cover was truer to the album though - there were songs of protest and war, as well as reflection such as 'Never Get Old'. That song has a spoken introduction by Enya (see my review 9 Aug 2020) where she recites Psalm 91:13 in Gaelic and the translation includes the album title ..
"You will tread upon the lion and the cobra
You will trample the great lion and the serpent." 

The album and 'Mandinka' took her to the 1989 Grammy Awards where her nomination for Best Female Rock Vocal Performance cemented her name into music history. 

Then came her second album 'I Do Not Want What I Haven't Got' with what was one of the biggest selling singles in the world for 1990, her cover of Prince's 'Nothing Compares 2 U'. That song swept to #1 in every market through the US, UK, Europe and Australasia. For anyone who hadn't already seen or heard Sinéad O'Connor there was now no excuse and no escape. The video of that song, close up on her beautiful face going through every emotion until a single tear rolls down her cheek, became forever burned into everyone's memory.

Three other songs from the album were released as singles but came nowhere close to the success of 'Nothing Compares 2 U'. 

'I Am Stretched On Your Grave' starts with and maintains a basic percussion throughout until breaking out fuller instrumentation towards the end. The vocal Sinéad brings makes it seem nothing like a 17th century Irish poem set to the tune of a hymn. Her fight for justice comes through in 'Black Boys on Mopeds' where, without mentioning his name, she sings about the 1983 death of a young black man in London. Margaret Thatcher certainly gets called out in the song though.

In September '92 she released her 3rd album which was a total departure from the previous two and left many people puzzled and somewhat disappointed. 'Am I Not Your Girl' was just cover versions of mainly 30's - 70's standards, things like 'Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered', 'Secret Love', 'Scarlet Ribbons' etc.

To be honest, it didn't really matter as things turned out. One month later, October 1992, Sinéad walked out onto the stage of Saturday Night Live and sang a version of Bob Marley's 'War' to protest the sexual abuse of children in the Catholic Church. In rehearsals she held up a photo of a refugee child, but in the live performance, depending on your point of view she famously, notoriously, bravely, defiantly, recklessly or heroically held up and then tore up a photo of Pope John Paul II.

After that the attention was no longer on her third album of standard covers.

Enough has been written about Sinéads continuing struggle with abuse, injustice, mental health and the state of the world. I'll leave those aspects to more learned people. As far as her music is concerned she has run the gamut through the years. Her acoustic bare-bones version of Nirvanas 'All Apologies' on her 'Universal Mother' album is mesmerizing. 'Sean-Nós Nua' has her taking traditional Irish songs and singing them, as the title translates, in "new old-style". From there she heads into 'Throw Down Your Arms', a reggae album produced by Robbie Shakespeare and Sly Dunbar. 'Theology' takes such disparate tracks as Lloyd Webbers 'I Don't Know How To Love Him' and 'Rivers of Babylon' famously recorded by Boney M.

I'm starting on a more recent journey with Sinéad O'Connor, having just got her two latest albums, albeit from 2012 and 2014. 'How About I Be Me (and You Be You)?' and 'I'm Not Bossy, I'm the Boss' are so far proving to be a pleasure. A rediscovery of a talent missing in action for too long.

Seemingly following in the footsteps of Cat Stevens, Sinéad has recently gone through some name changes. In 2017 she became known as Magda Davitt, but then in 2018 after converting to Islam she took the name Shuhada Sadaqat. Professionally though she still performs and records as Sinéad O'Connor. And long may she do so.

Mandinka (Grammys)

Nothing Compares 2U (Official video)

Nothing Compares 2 U (live 2019)