VINYL VAULT - Alternate Take 7

 

🎶✨🎄 The Best Christmas Song Ever 🎶✨🎄

THE POGUES - Fairytale of New York 1987

There are as many stories about this song as there are about Christmas itself. Various accounts of how and when it was written, who did what and when, but it's pretty much acknowledged that the main force behind it was Shane MacGowan. Originally written as a duet with Cait O'Riordan doing the female part, she didn't feature on the final release. That was mainly due to the band's split with producer Elvis Costello, who was in a relationship and later married Cait. After Elvis left, Cait followed.

Steve Lillywhite became the Pogues new producer and while working on 'Fairytale ...' with Shane doing both male and female parts, he was encouraged to take the track back to his home studio. He did that and had his wife, Kirsty MacColl do some vocals. When he brought his edited version back to the studio it was agreed that Kirsty should sing the female lead.

The lyrics of the song contain a few words and references that have caused controversy over the years, starting back as early as '92 when 'arse' and 'faggot' were first flagged as being inappropriate for some broadcasts. The conversation still goes on today, particularly with the word 'faggot'. There is an alternative version where Kirsty sings "you're cheap and you're haggard" and that has been more universally accepted on radio and TV stations.  

Regardless of the disputed lyrics, to me the best and most poignant verse comes just before the end of the song. It's an exchange between the two characters, following the harsh and hurtful insults thrown previously. There's tenderness and caring and pathos and regret - and whether that's the way it was meant is irrelevant - that's how it comes across to me and it brings a lump to my throat every single time I hear it.

"I could have been someone
Well so could anyone
You took my dreams from me
When I first found you
I kept them with me babe
I put them with my own
Can't make it all alone
I've built my dreams around you"

Merry Christmas

Fairytale of New York

STEELY DAN - Aja - 1977 Reelin' In The Years (compilation) 1985

 

My dentist in Nutley in the late 1990s was a Steely Dan fan. I brought him some stuff he didn't have before and from then on most procedures were painless. 

In the same vein, Tracy cut her Steely Dan teeth on 'Aja', with a particular favourite being 'Deacon Blues'. By the time they recorded that album, Steely Dan had gone from being a sort of normal touring band to just the original pair of Walter Becker and Donald Fagen doing studio only work and bringing in session musicians and guests as and when needed. This is a prime example of that, using up to 40 additional people including Michael McDonald on the track 'Peg'. Michael was a real part of Steely Dan for a bit as well as being with the Doobie Brothers.

If you go back far enough, to the late 60's early 70's, one group Becker and Fagan played in called Leather Canary had Chevy Chase on drums !!

There are people around who swear blind that they don't like jazz. They don't understand it, they can't follow it, they have no patience for it. However, those same people probably have one, two or more favourite Steely Dan tracks. Jazz takes lots of forms and much of Steely Dan's work is very jazz-rock oriented, giving it a distinctive sound, instantly recognizable as their music.

When fitting their songs into a genre, they also became an early candidate for that later development, Yacht Rock. I mentioned Yacht Rock back in June 2020 when reviewing Boz Scaggs and he falls under the same heading of music with R&B, jazz and folk rock roots.

Between 1972 and 1980 Steely Dan had 17 charting singles and 7 successful albums. This 1985 compilation 'Reelin' in the Years' really is a "best of" in the truest sense of the term. From early tracks like 'Do It Again' and 'My Old School' to their most popular single 'Rikki Don't Lose That Number' right through to 'Hey Nineteen' this double album has all the classics. About the only thing missing from MY playlist would be 'FM' but if you're willing to supplement your vinyl with a CD there are later compilations that include the odd non-album single.

On a scale of one to thank-you-very-much, Steely Dan are high on my rotation. Some deeper album tracks miss the mark here and there, but the popular radio plays were, and still are, just that. Popular. Good music for those laid-back days.

Deacon Blues

Hey Nineteen

BOB DYLAN - Christmas in the Heart 2009

 

At last count I had 186 Dylan albums, official, unofficial, studio, live and box sets making a total of 4574 tracks. I could, and probably will, review many of them, but for now because of the season, here's the oddest recording Mr. Zimmerman has ever made. 

Amanda Petrsich, in her review of this album on Pitchfork.com described Dylan's voice as a "craggy, get-off-my-lawn snarl" which makes the decision to do Christmas songs even stranger. At the bottom of it though was a benevolent and charitable motive. All of Bob's royalties went to Feeding America in the USA, Crisis in the UK, and the World Food Programme.

So here it is, Bob's nod to Christmas, despite being born and raised Jewish (he converted to Christianity in the 70's). All the favourites are here - 'Do You Hear What I Hear', 'Winter Wonderland', 'Silver Bells' et al. Never one to miss an opportunity, Bob sings 'Must Be Santa' with the verse ..
"Dasher, Dancer, Prancer, Vixen
Eisenhower, Kennedy, Johnson, Nixon
Dasher, Dancer, Prancer, Vixen
Carter, Reagan, Bush and Clinton".

Bob produced quite a number of his own albums, often using the pseudonym Jack Frost. That name seems especially relevant to this one, it gives it an even more Christmassy feel.

There's not much more to say really. This is a Dylan Christmas album. It does what it says on the tin. It has festive songs in Dylan's voice. Nobody should buy this record by mistake. It should be perfectly obvious what you're going to get.

Enjoy .. I certainly did.

Here Comes Santa Claus

VINYL VAULT - Alternate Take 6

Happy Birthday Tom Waits.

I'm a bit of a Tom fan. 21 albums and a few tribute albums of his work by others. Many many favourites, but 2 stand out. From early in his career there's '(Looking for) The Heart of Saturday Night' and from more recently there's the hard, powerful 'Hell Broke Luce'. Both excellent tracks from either end of the spectrum.

(Looking for) The Heart of Saturday Night

Hell Broke Luce

VINYL VAULT - Alternate Take 5

 

We put up the tree, we hung the lights and I took out my prized audio system to play some seasonal favourites.

RICK NELSON & THE STONE CANYON BAND - Rudy the Fifth 1971

 

When Rick Nelson wrote his 1972 hit 'Garden Party' he wasn't just pulling words out of the air to write a fictitious lyric. He was angry, hurt and probably mistaken about a recent performance and wrote the song as a deliberate comment about the way he felt.

The 'Garden Party' he went to was Madison Square Garden the previous year. He'd been invited as part of a "Rock & Roll Spectacular" with other 50's stars.

"I went to a garden party
To reminisce with my old friends
A chance to share old memories
And play our songs again"

Rick (Ricky as he was back in the day) became famous not only for his music but also for appearing in the movie and TV series featuring his family, 'The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet'. Always portrayed as a clean-cut kid, by the mid 60's he got into country-rock, being an early 'California Sound' singer. By the 70's he was singing with the Stone Canyon Band and had a minor hit with a cover of Dylan's 'She Belongs To Me'. Randy Meisner left the group and went on to be a founding member of The Eagles.

So, when Rick turned up at The Garden he was no longer the clean-cut kid of his past, he was sporting long hair and a sequined outfit and that was reflected in the song ..

"When I got to the garden party
They all knew my name
No one recognized me
I didn't look the same".

The "Rock & Roll Spectacular" started off OK. Rick sang some of his old stuff, but then started on newer songs and covers he'd done for this album 'Rudy the Fifth' which was due for release. Specifically, he did his cover of Dylan's 'She Belongs To Me' then the crowd got a bit hostile when he sang the Stones 'Honky Tonk Women' .. and that also got a mention in the lyrics of 'Garden Party' ..

"I said hello to 'Mary Lou'
She belongs to me
When I sang a song about a honky-tonk
It was time to leave"

Other artists and spectators got a mention along the way .. Chuck Berry ..
"Someone opened up a closet door
And out stepped "Johnny B Goode"
Playing guitar
Like a-ringin' a bell
And lookin' like he should"

"Yoko brought her walrus" .. John and Yoko obviously. Less obvious was a reference to George Harrison .. "Mr Hughes hid in Dylan's shoes" .. George was a friend of Ricks and he used the name 'Mr. Hughes' when he was on the road.

Ultimately, Rick may have been wrong about the booing he got from the crowd - it was later reported that the police were involved with something going on at the concert and the crowd were booing their actions, but Rick took it as an attack on his performance. Maybe a lucky mistake, the song he wrote about it became his highest charting single since 1963.

The chorus of 'Garden Party' gives Rick's take on the whole thing ..

"But it's all right now
Learned my lesson well
You see, ya can't please everyone
So you got to please yourself"

He did that with the release of this album 'Rudy the Fifth', but within a few years he put the 'Y' back on his name and as Ricky Nelson he released a greatest hits album and started a comeback tour with Fats Domino. Sadly, on New Year's Eve 1985 while travelling to a concert in Dallas, Rick's plane crashed and he was killed.

I like this album. Apart from the couple of Dylan covers and the 'Honky Tonk Women', all of which are passable versions, he also does a great job of 'This Train' and 'Feel So Good (Feel So Fine)' a 1955 song by Shirley and Lee.

From the days of 'Hello Mary Lou', through a bleak time in the 60's when the 'Teen Idols' were run out of town by everything that the 60's were, to a quick burst in the 70's and a brief revival in the 80's, Rick Nelson deserves more respect than he sometimes gets. Take another listen.

Garden Party

Feel So Good (Feel So Fine)

GEORGE HARRISON & FRIENDS - Concert For Bangladesh 1971

Firstly, I have to say how sad and upset I am that my copy of this triple album disappeared somewhere along the way. I bought it, I played it, I loved it well - and now it's gone. All that's left is a photo of an empty record player and a downloaded image of what used to be. 

I do still have the CD's and the video so all is not lost.

1971 was a time when I was hearing about Ravi Shankar, George Harrison was doing some of his best work since The Beatles, Dylan was being Dylan and Leon Russell was partly in front and partly behind - performing, producing and backing everybody.

This album brought them all together. Ringo and Billy Preston jumped in and one of the best concerts ever was ready to begin. Dropping the needle on the first track, side one, 'George Harrison/Ravi Shankar Introduction' you get a taste of what's to come. George gives his opening remarks, then Ravi and Ali Akbar Khan begin working on their instruments. At the 6 minute mark they pause, the audience clap and cheer and Ravi says, quietly and cheerfully .. "Thank you. If you appreciate the tuning so much I hope you will enjoy the playing more."

There is then a 16 minute masterclass of sitar and sarod with tabla and tambura  accompaniment reinforcing the fact that, despite the upcoming popular songs from popular artists, this concert was for the people caught up in the situation in what was East Pakistan. It was important and fitting and to me, very moving, to have the music of those people open the show.

I'm not going to discuss the politics of the concert or the legal and financial wrangling that went on - let's just look at the music.

George and Ravi were the driving force behind the benefit, so after Ravi's epic performance it was George who took the stage to play the next 3 songs - 'Wah-Wah', 'My Sweet Lord' and 'Awaiting on You All'. Billy Preston gave 'That's the Way God Planned It' and Ringo bounced along with 'It Don't Come Easy' before George came back with 'Beware of Darkness' and the classic 'While My Guitar Gently Weeps'. I should mention that one of the players on stage, but not taking centre-stage, was Eric Clapton, who was there playing on the original recorded version of 'While my Guitar ..' Also, this was the first time George and Ringo had shared a stage since 1966.

Leon Russell takes the Jagger/Richards song 'Jumpin' Jack Flash' to new heights as part of a medley along with 'Youngblood' after which George plays 'Here Comes the Sun'.

Finally, on side five of a six side set, we get Bob !!! It wasn't a done deal that Dylan would even show up, much less play, but in his first concert appearance in 5 years, he came out and did a 5 song set. A photo from this show was used as the cover of his 'Greatest Hits Vol II' album. Bob gave the crowd five out of five with his selection - 'A Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall', 'It Takes a Lot to Laugh ..', 'Blowin' in the Wind', 'Mr. Tambourine Man' and 'Just Like a Woman'. That has to be worth the trip for anyone.

George returned to wrap up the concert, playing 'Something' followed by 'Bangla Desh', a song he wrote and released as a charity single four days before the concerts. I use the plural because there were two shows on the same day and this album pulls from them both.

This is a landmark recording. It deserves to be better known and played more often. I'm stuck now with the digital download, but I remember the smell and feel of the original vinyl and the magnificent 64 page booklet that came in a box that opened on the side like a precious gift.

 

JEAN-MICHEL JARRE - Oxygène 1976

 

Here's another artist who can easily divide the room. It's musical Vegemite, love it or hate it, and for me, I'll have it on toast every day of the week !!

As a kid I loved the spacey BBC Stereophonic Workshop 'Doctor Who' theme. Although classed as an early piece of electronic music it was created before commercial synthesisers. It was assembled from pieces of tape, some of just one note on a plucked string, manipulated, stretched, oscillated and generally used and abused. Pitch was altered, speeds were changed, sounds were mixed without the invention of multitrack machines.

In 1969 Gershon Kingsley recorded 'Popcorn' for his album 'Music to Moog By' and the track was subsequently rerecorded by many others. The most popular was by Hot Butter in 1972 but that same year another version was released by The Popcorn Orchestra with Jammie Jefferson - the whole thing being an alias for Jean-Michel Jarre.

Then came 1976 and this album, 'Oxygène'. This was Jean-Michels 3rd album, the first two having limited release as soundtracks. It wasn't until the middle of '77 that it was available internationally and I grabbed it as soon as I could. I was in New Zealand and I've written previously (June 28 2020 - Hall & Oates) about how myself and a friend would play at being audiophiles, testing, calibrating and generally messing about with stuff. When I got hold of this album it became not only one of my favourites to listen to, it was also one of my favourite 'test' records.

Back in the day it was always said when you were buying or testing new audio equipment, take along a record you knew well, one you could compare with how you knew it SHOULD sound against how it sounded on other setups.

This was my 'control' record. I knew the nuances, the best and the worst of it and when it was sounding the way it should sound.

The album tracks were individually titled by part number, 'Oxygène (Part I)', 'Oxygène (Part II)' etc., and the single from the album was 'Oxygène (Part IV)'. Even today when I play that track I'm taken back in time to my flat in Mt. Eden, Auckland, putting marbles under speakers to help with isolation and trying to precision balance the tone arm with adjustable counterweights .. ah, those heady days of being pretentious !!

Jean-Michel followed 'Oxygène' with another couple of albums, 'Équinoxe' and 'Les Chants Magnétiques' which I got to know from tracks included on his 1983 compilation 'The Essential Jean-Michel Jarre'. The tracks included from 'Les Chants Magnétiques' are listed as 'Magnetic Fields (Part VI)' etc, even though the literal translation is 'Magnetic Songs'. It all comes down to homophones and a play on words and French/English and to be honest I lost interest a while ago. Just let it be known that the music is excellent.

If this is new to you, listen with an open mind. 'Oxygène' is over 40 years old now and electronic music has come a long way, but this came after the early pioneers when people like Jean-Michel were becoming masters of their craft. Mostly the critics, particularly the British critics, disliked this album, but I always thought it stood on it's own two feet and didn't need to apologise.

Just for the trivia and movie buffs out there, he was married for 20 years to the English actress Charlotte Rampling between '76 and '96.

Oxygène (Part IV)

Équinoxe (Part V)

ALANIS MORISSETTE - Jagged Little Pill 1995

 

"Isn't it ironic" sang Alanis, but unfortunately, most of it wasn't. About the only line in the song that comes close is "As the plane crashed down he thought 'well, isn't this nice'..." which is sarcasm, a loose example of irony.

Having got that out of the way (the discussion went on for years) the album itself is a triumph. Twelve songs on vinyl, 13 on the CD if you include the 'hidden track' and many of them went on to be classics. 6 of them were released as singles with 4 of them reaching #1 in Canada (no surprises there).

The album took the world by storm. It was Alanis' 3rd album but her first two were Canadian releases. This was the first one with worldwide coverage and it made a massive impact. Apart from reaching #1 on the Canadian album charts it also made it to #1 in the US, UK, Australia, New Zealand and The Netherlands. In fact it topped out in 13 countries! Nominated for 9 Grammies it won 5 and at 21 years old in 1995, Alanis became the youngest artist to get Album of the Year.

Most of the tracks are autobiographical in some form or other, full of anger, angst, but by teaming with Glen Ballard to write the music, some of the lyrics are tempered  and softened to become more listenable - but if you DO listen you get a lot of rawness coming through. No punches pulled either.

In 'You Oughta Know' she gets straight to the point talking about her lovers new partner, with very direct questioning ..
"Is she perverted like me?
Would she go down on you in a theater?"

Just as a bit of trivia, Flea from Red Hot Chili Peppers plays bass on this track.

'Hand in my Pocket' seems to be a statement about multi-tasking - "'Cause I've got one hand in my pocket *And the other one is giving a high five* - *flicking a cigarette* - *giving a peace sign* - *playing the piano* - *hailing a taxi cab*" but it also has some revealing dualisms ..
"I'm sad but I'm laughing, I'm brave but I'm chicken shit".

'You Learn' has the album title in the opening few lines ... 
"I, recommend getting your heart trampled on to anyone, yeah
I, recommend walking around naked in your living room, yeah
Swallow it down (what a jagged little pill)" ...
basically talking about stuff that, to use the old adage, if it doesn't kill you it makes you stronger. Just after moving to L.A. Alanis was robbed at gunpoint and writing some of these songs helped her work through it.

This is a good (dare I say great) album and deserves to be listened to more often than I have been doing. The music of Alanis was used for the Broadway musical 'Jagged Little Pill' which opened in December 2019. Unfortunately, because of Covid-19 the show, along with the rest of Broadway, closed early in 2020. Before the closure the reviews were good and it had 15 Tony nominations.

If you get a chance, have another listen to this album. There's a reason it was #1 in 13 countries.

You Oughta Know

Hand in my Pocket