DAVID BOWIE & BING CROSBY - Peace on Earth / Little Drummer Boy 1982

 As it's Christmas I thought I'd do a little animation for this post instead of the usual photos.

I don't have this record, but a friend of mine does and I was able to photograph it recently and hopefully may get my hands on it one day.

Recorded in 1977 for a TV Christmas Special, 'Bing Crosby's Merrie Olde Christmas', this collaboration was only available as a bootleg for the first 5 years of it's life, released as a "partly unofficial" 45rpm by B&B Records in 1978 backed with Bowie's 'Heroes' from the same TV show.

RCA eventually issued a commercial release in 1982 in a couple of formats, the normal 7" single and this one, a 12" limited edition mono picture disc. Side 1 was the full unedited version of 'Peace on Earth / Little Drummer Boy' with the introductory dialogue. Side 2 was Bowie doing 'Fantastic Voyage'. Unusually the label was oversized, a full 7" label on the middle of the 12" disc. 

The reason the track is a combination of 2 different songs is because, to quote Bowie,  "I hate this song. Is there something else I could sing?" In a frantic effort to come up with something, musical supervisors Ian Fraser and Larry Grossman along with scriptwriter Alan Kohan huddled around a piano in the basement of the studio and wrote 'Peace on Earth' in an hour. Bowie sang that as a counterpoint to Bing.

There are stories of the weirdness of this whole TV show and recording, but in the spirit of Christmas I'll leave that for anyone to look up if you're interested. In the meantime, this is my wife Tracy's favourite Christmas song and so regardless of the circumstances, let's just be happy it exists.

BO HANSSON - Music Inspired By Lord Of The Rings 1972 (original Swedish 1970)

 

Thirty years before Howard Shore composed the musical score for Peter Jackson's 'Lord of the Rings' trilogy of movies, Bo Hansson had been there, done that and bought the T-shirt.

In the mid 70's I'd moved to New Zealand and was living in a house (almost a squat, but surprisingly legal) with many rooms and many people. At one point, 2 Swedish guys drifted through. Sitting at the kitchen table together having breakfast I noticed one of them was reading the Swedish language version of 'Lord of the Rings' - 'Sagan Om Ringen' - literally 'The Saga of the Ring'. I was reading the English version at the time so it piqued my interest.

I asked to look at his copy, turned to the chapter containing the songs of Tom Bombadil and even though the words were Swedish they still seemed to rhyme. Odd. My new friend then told me of a Swedish musician named Bo Hansson who had done a prog rock album based on his interpretation of the book(s). Being an avid collector of not only mainstream music but also the odd and obscure I had to find it. Fortunately after it's release the album was most popular in England and Australasia, so it had been marketed locally in NZ. Originally the Swedish version was titled the same as the book but when it was put out by Charisma, Tolkein and his publishers jumped in with a few conditions. They insisted the title be "inspired" by LOTR and they also squashed the idea of Hansson using voices on some tracks, forcing the whole album to be instrumental. 

The bottom line is that this is Prog Rock with a loose theme. If you can find any relationship between the music and the story you have better insight than I do, but as an album of the genre it fits right in. Bo played multiple instruments on the recording including organ, guitar, bass and Moog synthesizer. I suppose he may have set the scene for later works by people like Mike Oldfield, Rick Wakeman and Keith Emerson although some have said his music has a more 'jazz' feel to it, whereas others have likened it to Pink Floyds early stuff. 

The nearest thing to a single release from the album was a promo that Charisma issued of 'The Black Riders & Flight to the Ford'.

If you're used to the light whimsical strains of Howard Shore's music about 'The Shire' and 'Bag End' or the pageantry and almost Gregorian chants of 'Khazad-dûm' be warned - this is nothing like that ! 

The Black Riders & Flight to the Ford

SIMPLY RED - Picture Book 1985

From one ginger to another, like Mick Hucknell for most of my life I've been simply red. Because of the perversity of Australian humour where they nickname bald men 'Curly', throughout my time in the Australian Army my red hair prompted everyone to call me 'Bluey'. In Micks case, before he was Simply Red he was part of a punk outfit called Frantic Elevators. After they collapsed in 1984 Mick got together a band of sorts and started using his nickname of 'Red' in the groups name .. 'Red and the Dancing Dead' (not very catchy), 'Just Red' and eventually 'Simply Red'. One thing he did bring with him from the Frantic Elevators was a song he had written back around 1977 and recorded with them in 1982. 'Holding Back the Years' became one of the most successful and popular songs of this Simply Red debut album, "Picture Book". 

The story goes that Mick got the idea for the song from his early life - his mother left the family when he was only three years old - and that maybe accounts for the lyrics ..
"Strangled by the wishes of pater
hoping for the arms of mater"

Whatever the deep-seated meaning, it really is a great song. The writing credits are shared between Mick and Neil Moss, but Mick is quoted as saying Neil didn't co-write that song but was included because of all the other songs they did write together.

The music video clip of the Simply Red version of the song was set in and around Whitby and the North Yorkshire Moors.

8 out of the 10 tracks on the album were written or co-written by Mick. The two exceptions are 'Money's Too Tight To Mention' and 'Heaven'. The original 'Money's Too Tight ...' (sometimes stylised as "Money$") was done as a soul-disco-funk song in 1982 by The Valentine Brothers and was a minor hit in it's own right. It gained a whole new audience when Simply Red got hold of it. It was also one of five tracks released as singles from the album. 'Come To My Aid', 'Jericho' and 'Open The Red Box' were the others.  Oddly, one of my favourites from the album, 'Sad Old Red' just got lost on side one.

The other cover is the Talking Heads song 'Heaven' from their 1979 album 'Fear of Music'. Mick, in line with one of the descriptions of his style, gives the song much more "blue-eyed soul" than David Byrne did.

This is/was a very powerful debut album. It holds up well today, great vocals, incredible brass from Tim Kellett and guests Ian Dickson and Ronnie Ross and an unexpected sophistication from an ex-punk singer with a sensitive side. 

It's easy to reduce Simply Red to two or three songs, but take the time to sit and listen to this album from beginning to end. It's all still there.

Frantic Elevators - Holding Back The Years 1982

Simply Red - Money's Too Tight To Mention

HENRY FIOL - Creativo 1991

 

I don't expect anyone reading this to actually own this album. It's not my usual demographic. I've included it for a totally different reason - the family connection.

Tracy's uncle, Frank Gimpaya, is a photographer of some renown. Walking around the East Village in Manhattan recently he noticed an exhibition of Latino music albums. After a few minutes of wandering around the gallery, a glimmer of recognition crossed his face. Moving in for a closer look he realised that he had taken the photos of Henry Fiol that appeared on the front and back of this album sleeve.

After making it known to the staff that he was the photographer he was given celebrity status, the album was taken off the wall and Frank was allowed to reunite with his artwork 30 years after the event. As for Henry himself, here's a bit of info.

"Henry Fiol (born January 16, 1947) is an American singer, songwriter, bandleader and painter. He is known for his traditional approach to son cubano and other Cuban music styles, and he is considered a "cult favorite" among Latin music fans. He studied fine arts at Hunter College and became a teacher before starting his career as a musician in 1969. During the LP era he painted all his record covers himself, developing a distinctive red-and-black visual style, both in clothing and in covers."

As noted, because of his own artistic background Henry created many of his own album covers, so that makes Franks contribution even more memorable.

This album is available in it's entirety on YouTube along with other examples of Henry's work.

EVA CASSIDY - Songbird 1998

As we get closer to Christmas, TV's everywhere will be showing the old stand-bys. At some point you'll either watch or actively avoid "Love Actually". If nothing else, the scene where Laura Linney's character Sarah finally has a moment with Karl is worth it just for the soundtrack. The hauntingly beautiful voice of the late Eva Cassidy gives a rendition of Christine McVie's "Songbird" that will bring a tear to the coldest soul.

Eva only released 2 albums in her lifetime. The first, 1992's "The Other Side" was duets and solos with Chuck Brown, a 'Go-go funk' musician. Singing a range of styles from 'Let the Good Times Roll' to 'You Don't Know Me' Eva really stretched her wings. Taking 'God Bless the Child' and 'Over the Rainbow' as her solos, this was the only studio album of Eva's that was released while she was alive. Her only other recording was "Live at Blues Alley". Had it not been for Eva's tenacity this record would never have seen the light of day. She couldn't get any major record labels interested enough to back her, so she cashed in her pension savings from her day jobs and self-funded the recording of this show. The actual recording was meant to be over two nights but due to technical problems the first nights tapes couldn't be used. Twelve songs from the show were used on the album, but in 2015 the whole show was released on a 2-CD 1 DVD set called "Nightbird".

Her third album, which was in fact her first solo studio recording, was released in September 1997. Tragically, Eva had passed away a year earlier in November '96 from melanoma at the too young age of 33. 

This featured album, "Songbird" is a compilation of those 3 albums, but it too almost didn't get made. After her death her 'Blues Alley' album was recommended by a local folk singer to one of her record company execs. He put together and released this compilation but it did nothing for almost two years. Eventually a producer on Terry Wogan's BBC radio show suggested it to him and after playing the album it went on to sell over 100,000 copies within a few months.

Posthumously Eva's fame grew and grew, being praised by critics and fellow musicians alike. This album is truly representative of Eva's "lack" of style. I mean that in the best possible way. It was one of the reasons she found it difficult to get a recording contract. She refused to be pinned into one genre. As I said at the beginning of this post, Eva stretched her wings, singing what she wanted, when she wanted, how she wanted. 

I've never particularly liked Sting. His voice tends to annoy me, but I will forgive him everything for one reason. He wrote 'Fields of Gold' and Eva recorded it. It begins this album and takes the song to an other-worldly place. The traditional 'Wade in the Water' has bounce and joy and then the mood changes again for the classic Johnny Mercer song 'Autumn Leaves'. Another traditional song 'Wayfaring Stranger' gets a smoky club feeling before the title track of this compilation 'Songbird'. If this doesn't make every nerve-ending tingle, you are dead inside.

Do you want some gospel, along with swirling organ. Pete Seeger's 'Oh, I Had a Golden Thread' covers it. Ending the album with 'Over the Rainbow' is made even more poignant knowing that Eva had already passed when it was released. An amazing talent gone too soon.

Fields of Gold

Songbird

SANDIE SHAW - Love Me, Please Love Me 1967

 

                           

Here's another departure from the 'Vinyl' part of 'Vinyl Vault' ... I used to have this album on tape. Not cassette but the old school real stuff. At one point in the late 60's - early 70s, I can't quite remember, I decided to give some of my vinyl albums to a friend in exchange for a reel-to-reel tape deck and some tapes. This was one of them. I can't recall the model of deck I had but it looked something like the one pictured.

The exchange experiment was a failure, I didn't keep up any form of tape collection and soon went back to buying more vinyl, but this album was worth a listen and it was intriguing.

Sandie Shaw hit the ground running - in bare feet I might add - in 1964 with her version of '(There's) Always Something There to Remind Me'. In '63 Dionne Warwick did a demo of this Bacharach/David song, it was recorded in the US by Lou Johnson but then Sandie took it to #1 in 3 countries and charted in 9, with another two chart hits in a French language version. That wasn't unusual for her, she recorded quite a few of her singles not only in French but also German and Spanish so she created a bigger European audience.

Those singles came in a flood from '64 through '67 with 'Girl Don't Come', 'Long Live Love', 'Message Understood' and 'You've Not Changed' to name a few. In March '67 the unlikely but massive Eurovision hit 'Puppet on a String' saw Sandie on the world stage - literally. Despite it's popularity and success, Sandie is quoted as saying she totally hated the song .. "from the very first oompah to the final bang on the bass drum. I was repelled by its sexist drivel."

After all those commercial hits, this album may seem out of place. It's mainly covers of well-known songs by writers of standards, the likes of Cole Porter, Sammy Cahn and Jaques Brel. It's the Jaques Brel track 'Ne Me Quitte Pas' that drew me in. As she did with some of her earlier hits, Sandie sings in French (Rod McKuen did a popular English version of this song 'If You Go Away') but Sandie sticks to the original. There are a couple of Chris Andrews compositions - he wrote a lot of stuff for Sandie, but it's the classics that resonate, the smoky late-nightness of 'Time After Time' and the bounce of 'I Get a Kick Out of You'. It's a reflection on the change in attitudes when Sandie sings the words to 'Yes My Darling Daughter' and they can make us catch our breath ..

"What if he’ll persist, mama darling, doing things he hadn’t oughta

Mama, what should be my answer? Yes, my darling daughter"

REALLY !! That was then, this is now.

Any 60s compilation worthy of the name will contain one or more of Sandies songs, but the 'hit parade' tracks are only a part of her catalogue. Doing a deep dive can pay dividends. Just make sure you don't invest in the reel-to-reel version.

(There's) Always Something There to Remind Me

Ne Me Quitte Pas

JOHN SEBASTIAN & ARLEN ROTH – Explore The Spoonful Songbook 2021

One thing the internet provides us - rabbit holes. You start looking for one thing and get sidetracked and before you know it you're a long way from home and finding things you knew little or nothing about. 

A while ago someone on the Bob Dylan group posted a link to a Dylan cover done by the MonaLisa Twins. I checked them out and found that they were originally from Austria, living in Liverpool and amongst other things had a 2 year residency at The Cavern doing Beatles and assorted 60's covers. They've been recording since 2007 and on their 2017 album 'Orange' they had John Sebastian playing blues harp. On a recent post they wrote "We had the absolute pleasure of singing on John Sebastian’s & Arlen Roth’s latest album!...."

So from 6 degrees of separation (or 3 or 4) I found my way to this new album of old music. And what a treat. This is a bit premature - I've listened to this album but I don't have the physical vinyl. Yet. Regardless, it's worth a mention for a number of reasons. In the interest of full disclosure though I have to say that the vinyl album contains 12 tracks whereas the CD has 14. On the vinyl copy 3 tracks are instrumentals, 'Daydream', 'Rain on the Roof' and 'You Didn't Have To Be So Nice'. The CD adds 2 more instrumentals 'Younger Girl' and 'Do You Believe in Magic'.

Some may think that's a bit of a liberty, taking away the vocals from so many popular songs, but the instrumentals stand up on their own, in no small part thanks to the brilliance of guitarist Arlen Roth. Arlen also does vocals on 'Nashville Cats' and, keeping it in the family, his daughter Lexie takes lead on 'Didn't Want to Have to do it'. Maria Muldaur (of 'Midnight at the Oasis' fame) comes in on 'Stories We Could Tell' and her husband Geoff Muldaur chimes in on 'Jug Band Music' and 'Did You Ever Have To Make Up Your Mind'.

The inclusion of the MonaLisa Twins came from someone sending John a clip from 2015 of them doing a version of 'Daydream'. From there, as mentioned above he played on one of their albums and then he invited them to sing on this one. You can see them working together on the video clip for 'Waiting For The Waiter' - a nice blues number.

John's voice is an older voice. He's 77 now, not the kid from 1966 who gave us 'Hums of the Lovin' Spoonful' (Vinyl Vault 9 August 2021) but he's mellowed the songs to suit and he brings another quality to the tracks we've known for so long. Alongside Geoff Muldaur he rolls along to 'Jug Band Music' like a guy in a rocker just singing along to an old tune to pass the time. And it's great.

Look for this album wherever you can .. vinyl, CD or digital .. drop the needle, press the button or load the file, then close your eyes and let it wash over you. You'll feel better for it.

Jug Band Music

Waiting For The Waiter

AVERAGE WHITE BAND - AWB 1974

 

There are some instrumental tracks that cross-over into everyday listening but have specific genre roots. These are often the ones that tease people - they know the tune, they hum along but they can never think of the title. Chuck Mangione's smooth jazz 'Feels So Good' is one that comes to mind, the R&B 'Green Onions' and 'Time Is Tight' by Booker T. & The MG's and one from this album by AWB, the Funk/Soul earworm of 'Pick Up The Pieces'.

Average White Band - abbreviated to AWB for a while before reverting back to the full name - are perhaps the most unlikely funk group to appear in the 70's. Earth, Wind and Fire, Sly & The Family Stone, Parliament - Funkadelic etc. took black influenced R&B and soul and made a new style of predominately African-American music called Funk. 

Exporting the music around the world it came to the attention of some Scottish guys in London. Some of them had played together in Scotland but had all made it to London separately. Reuniting in 1972 after bumping into each other at a 'Traffic' concert, the six main members,  Alan Gorrie, Malcolm "Molly" Duncan, Owen "Onnie" McIntyre, Michael Rosen, Roger Ball and Robbie McIntosh formed AWB. Hamish Stuart replaced Michael Rosen and the line-up was ready to go.

I think it's funny that they met up at a 'Traffic' show, because as soon as the vocal kicks in on side 1 track 1, 'You've Got It' my mind immediately went to Steve Winwood. Apart from the "funky" intro, the voice could have been plucked directly off 'The Low Spark of High Heeled Boys' or any Winwood led track.

Going back to Sly Stone, one of my favourite Sly albums, 1971s 'There's a Riot Goin' On' (Vinyl Vault 22 July 2020) is due for a 50th Anniversary re-release in December 2021. There's quite a lot about this AWB album that reminds me of Sly et al .. it stays very true to the meaning of funk.

This was AWB's second album, the first "Show Your Hand' did nothing, but had a new lease of life after this album proved popular. It was re-issued in '75 with a fresh cover, different opening track and new title "Put It Where You Want It".

After 'Pick Up The Pieces' AWB received a nod from James Brown. One version is that he was a bit annoyed that AWB used a bass riff from his song 'Hot Pants Road' so he got his backing group, the JB's, to record 'Pick Up The Pieces One By One' under the pseudonym A.A.B.B. (Above Average Black Band). The other version is that it was done as a sincere tribute to their honest approach to funk, with a wordplay on the band's name.

The third album also contained another of their most well known single releases, the title track 'Cut The Cake'. Sadly, between the two recordings, their drummer Robbie McIntosh died of a heroin overdose. Members of the group were at a party in L.A. in 1974 when both McIntosh and Alan Gorrie OD'd, but amazingly none other than Cher kept Gorrie awake and aware until the medics arrived.

Average White Band is more than the sum of their parts. Go beyond the two well known tracks and dig into their albums. Far from being 'Average' they are a force to be reckoned with.

Pick Up The Pieces

Cut The Cake

BILLY IDOL - Billy Idol 1982 (1983 reissue)

In the 1950's Elvis Presley curled his lip and the world went wild. Everyone imitated him, including the squeaky clean Cliff Richard in his attempt to look like a bad boy singing 'Move It'. Who knew that by the early 80's that curl would turn into a full blown sneer on the face of William Michael Albert Broad .. A.K.A. Billy Idol.

The lip curl wasn't new and neither was Billy. He'd been around for a while, not as a solo artist but as co-founder and lead singer of Generation X. They were moderately popular, skirting the lower listings of the charts with their 3 studio albums and a few singles, but after releasing the 'Kiss Me Deadly' LP which failed to make a mark they broke up. With only a few exceptions all their songs were written by Billy and fellow co-founder Tony James. The only single from that album was the groups version of 'Dancing With Myself'.

Billy left the group and the country and moved to New York in 1981. To this day he holds dual British and American citizenship. His first US recording was a 1981 EP 'Don't Stop' - two of the tracks were the Tommy James cover 'Mony Mony' and a remix of Gen X's 'Dancing With Myself'. Billys mate Steve Jones of The Sex Pistols played guitar on the track.

Then came this album. 

This copy came to me through marriage. It was in Tracy's collection and has it's own claim to fame. It's a bit of a hybrid. The original album was released in 1982 with a different cover and the track 'Congo Man' closing out side 2. In 1983 it was reissued with this cover and 'Congo Man' was replaced with 'Dancing With Myself'. This copy is the 1983 reissue however it is described as "Vinyl, LP, Album, Reissue, 2nd Cover, Original Track List". So, reissue, new cover, old tracklist. Hybrid.

Although this copy of the album didn't have 'Dancing ...' on it, there were two other stand-outs. Tracks 2 and 3 were 'White Wedding" and one of my favourites, 'Hot In The City'. All three of those songs were released as singles, none of them blew the lid off anything, although 'White Wedding' did get to US Rock #4. Nowadays of course, they are staple tracks on any radio station worth it's salt.

There's a few great anecdotes attached to Billy, firstly on how he got his name. 

On a school report he was described as being 'idle'. He wanted to incorporate that into a stage name but he was concerned that it would be a conflict with Monty Python's Eric Idle, so he changed the spelling to Billy Idol. 

When he was recording this debut eponymous album in Los Angeles he rented a bungalow at the Chatea Marmont Hotel. He woke up in the middle of the night and realised there was nothing left to drink, so he totally trashed the room. When the police arrived, Billy, who was reportedly still naked, gave himself up. Turns out the police weren't even there for him - John Belushi had died in the same hotel that night and the police had come to investigate.

'Rebel Yell' got it's name from a brand of bourbon he was swigging one night with Mick Jagger, Ron Woods and Keith Richards. 

Billy is still out there doing his 'Rebel Yell' and singing about 'Sweet Sixteen', 'Eyes Without a Face' and 'Flesh For Fantasy' and I'm pretty sure the trademark curled lip sneer has become more of a smirk these days.

Just one thing about the videos I've linked to. Can something be punk, rock, glam, new wave and camp all at the same time? I think so.

Dancing With Myself

Hot In The City

Alternate Take - BOB DYLAN - Carnegie Chapter Hall 4 Nov 1961

 OK, a word before we start. The recording(s) I have of this concert are not vinyl, which is why I've placed it in the 'Alternate Take' category. In fact apart from one song, none of it is official. It is however a milestone - exactly 60 years to the day that Bob Dylan made "His First New York Concert" appearance. Arriving in New York in January '61 Bob started playing around the clubs - Gerdes Folk City, Cafe Wha!, Gaslight Café. Reviewed at Gerdes by critic Robert Sheldon he was signed to Columbia by John Hammond. On 29 September he made it to the recording studios, not for his own work but playing harmonica on a Carolyn Hester album. A few weeks later Izzy Young promoted him for a concert at the Carnegie Chapter Hall, a part of the main Carnegie Hall building. Although it is capable of holding up to 200 people, only 53 seats were sold - at $2 each !!

Dylan sang 22 songs, mainly traditional, some Woody Guthrie and a bit of Leadbelly and Bukka White, but importantly there were also some of his own compositions. 'Song to Woody', his homage to the aforementioned Woody Guthrie and his tongue in cheek autobiographical 'Talkin' New York'.

Out of those 22 songs, 7 have never been circulated and the remaining 15 are on a variety of incomplete recordings. The first 7 are on the unofficial 'Dylan's Root(s)' and 'Hard Times in NYC'. More appear on the 'Bob Dylan Live at Carnegie Chapter Hall, 1961 [SOUNDBOARD RECORDING]' boot with one track 'This Land is Your Land' included on the official 'Bootleg Series Vol.7 - No Direction Home'.

Two weeks after this concert, Bob was back in the studio recording his first album, the eponymous 'Bob Dylan' produced by John Hammond. Both 'Song to Woody' and 'Talkin' New York' appeared on this album and although it's probably more folklore than fact, John Hammond is famously quoted as saying the album cost a total of $402 to record.

Today is a landmark day in the history of Bob Dylan and his followers. Just two days ago, now aged 80, Bob started touring again. To be honest he never really stopped. Held up by the pandemic, after an unexpected hiatus, 'The Rough and Rowdy Ways' tour is on the road.

Bob Dylan Live at Carnegie Chapter Hall, 1961 [SOUNDBOARD RECORDING]

J.D. SOUTHER - You're Only Lonely 1979

Today is John David Southers 76th birthday so it's fitting to give him a re-run. I posted about him briefly before I started the Vinyl Vault blog so it's only right that I expand my first entry and include it on the V V page too.

J.D. Souther is the guy you've never heard of but you know him well. In his early career he teamed with Glenn Frey (Eagles) and performed as a duo - "Longbranch Pennywhistle", releasing their only album in 1970. He went solo for his 1972 eponymous album, then joined with Chris Hillman and Richie Furay as the "Souther-Hillman-Furay Band". Going back to solo work as a singer he is also widely known as a song-writer. Amongst the ones everybody knows he co-wrote ..
Eagles - 'Best of My Love', 'Heartache Tonight', 'New Kid in Town' and more ..
Linda Ronstandt - 'Faithless Love', 'Heart Like a Wheel', 'White Rhythm and Blues' etc
w/ James Taylor - 'Her Town Too'

He famously performed and did the vocal arrangements on the video "Roy Orbison and Friends: A Black and White Night", a stunning video and soundtrack showcasing not only Roy Orbison but also a whole raft of incredible musicians.

It's hard to pick a favourite from JD's work - I have 4 albums on vinyl and 3 more digital, but I think this one, 'You're Only Lonely' would have to be my go-to. The title track sets the scene for JD's gentle laid-back style and he follows through with the heart-wrenching 'Last In Love' and his definitive version of the song he gave to Linda Ronstandt - 'White Rhythm and Blues'
"All I need is black roses
White rhythm and blues
And somebody who cares when you lose
Black roses, white rhythm and blues"

That's not to say he's locked into tear-jerkers. He turns to rockabilly and solid C&W, even foot-stomping goodtime music. 'Til the Bars Burn Down' and 'The Moon Turned Blue' offer a change of pace and mood evoking sawdust floors and 'Fifteen Bucks' took a collaboration of 6 people to write !!

The guests who came along for the ride on this album are impressive. Glenn Frey co-wrote a couple of the tracks and played guitar. Don Henley took vocals, Phil Everly did harmony on 'White Rhythm and Blues', Jackson Browne popped up on the title track. John Sebastian (Lovin' Spoonful), Don Felder (The Eagles) and Kenny Edwards, founding member of Linda Ronstands old group The Stone Poneys were all there. The sound was filled out by some of the best session musicians in the business.

When you're in the mood for some country rock, JD is the one to call. If you can't dig out the vinyl you should look for his 2011 CD 'Natural History' - it's new recordings of some of his great songs. 

Her Town Too

White Rhythm and Blues

PAUL WILLIAMS - Here Comes Inspiration 1974

This is one of those albums who's history has been lost in the mists of time. I can't remember exactly when in 1974 I bought it or why, but at the time I enjoyed it - an oasis of middle-of-the-road pleasant music during a year when I also bought other albums of various genres - T. Rex 'Zinc Alloy and the Hidden Riders of Tomorrow', Nilsson's 'Pussy Cats', Gram Parson's 'Grievous Angel' and Cat Stevens 'Buddha and the Chocolate Box' etc., etc.

Paul Williams is a prolific singer/songwriter, but I'm sure many only know his name by association with covers of his work. I've seen one reviewer (Charles Donovan) describe his voice as "a weak, bleating non-instrument" which I think is very unfair. It's a distinctive voice and as with some other singer/songwriters it may not be the best in the world but it is the only one that can translate the words into music with original feeling. 

Paul has written such a broad range of material that he really defies categorizing. Many of his songs were picked up and made popular by 'adult contemporary' artists along the lines of -
The Carpenters .. 'Rainy Days and Mondays', 'We've Only Just Begun', 'I Won't Last a Day Without You'
Three Dog Night .. 'An Old Fashioned Love Song', 'Family of Man', 'Out In the Country' as well as Helen Reddy with 'You and Me Against the World' and Barbra Streisand's 'Evergreen' from "A Star is Born".

Some of his other work though spans a wide and diverse range of styles and artists. The soundtracks to the 1974 movie "Phantom of the Paradise" (in which he also acted) and the joyous 1976 "Bugsy Malone" starring a young Jodie Foster. How could anyone forget Kermit the Frog singing 'Rainbow Connection' or the lyrics to the cheesy long running TV show "The Love Boat".

Even his very early work was taken by artists who were polar opposites. 'Fill Your Heart' was co-written by Paul and Biff Rose and it was recorded on Biff's first album, but two other artists also covered it. One - on one end of the spectrum - was Tiny Tim on his album 'God Bless Tiny Tim'. The other - as far from Tiny Tim as possible - was David Bowie on his 'Hunky Dory' album. Talk about the odd couple !!

Even more remarkable was Paul's contribution in 2012 to the Daft Punk album 'Random Access Memory'. He co-wrote 'Beyond' and also co-wrote and sang on 'Touch'. In 2014 he and Nile Rodgers spoke about Daft Punk at the Grammies. Paul related a story about them .."Back when I was drinking, I would imagine things that weren't there and I'd get frightened. Then I got sober and two robots called and asked me to make an album."  

I like this 'Here Comes Inspiration' album for a number of reasons. It has Paul's own versions of some of his classic songs .. 'You and Me Against the World', 'Rainy Days & Mondays' but also has a bit of fun too. The opening track, just 54 seconds long, mentions a couple of Paul's contemporaries, Randy Newman and Harry Nilsson. The track is called 'Nilsson Sings Newman' which was actually the title of a Nilsson album from 1970.
"You don't like Schumann
Or Randy Newman
And Nilsson's not your cup of tea
You say Van Heusen is the shirt worth choosin'
But you're still undecided about me"

Two tracks later he tends to disparage himself again on 'You Know Me' with a comparison to Cole Porter and a comment about his own height (he's 5'2") ..
"Sentimental fellow
Sometimes overmellow
Writing verses no one plans to do
I know I'm no Cole Porter
I'm noticeably shorter
Do I deserve to have someone like you".

Singer, songwriter, actor and author, Paul turned 81 in September 2021. You'll hear his music everywhere you go but just occasionally do yourself a favour and listen to him doing it himself. It's not the best voice, certainly not the worst, but it's honest.

In the Beginning

You and Me Against the World

CARAVAN - Canterbury Tales: The Best of.. 1976

This double album in all it's typical 70's gatefold glory just fell into my lap quite recently. I have to admit I had never heard of Caravan, didn't know their songs, didn't know the members of the group - nothing. They never really made it, falling into the void of 'also-rans'. No commercial singles and although they released quite a catalogue the best they did was #50 on the album charts.

Because of that, it was very strange playing the tracks all these years later. This is a compilation so some songs are over 50 years old. I've never been adverse to a bit of prog rock and I've written about it in Vinyl Vault before, bands like ELP, Magna Carta and my favourites, Curved Air (Vinyl Vault 18 Jun 2020). However, playing what is effectively brand new 50 year old prog rock is a different kettle of fish. It's strangely familiar but still unknown, potentially pretentious but at the same time you have to push aside 2021 and listen with 1970's ears. That way it is fresh and experimental and does what it says on the tin. Prog rock may be a bit of a wide brush for Caravan. Due to them being from the Canterbury area they're also termed as part of the "Canterbury Scene" which although predominantly prog rock also blended psychedelia, rock and jazz into the mix.

The two opening tracks are almost mainstream - 'If I Could Do It All Over Again, I'd Do It All Over You' and the very pleasant 'Aristocracy'. Then there's the typical slightly self-indulgent prog-rockyness of track 3 on side 1. It's an 18 minute combination of three titles - 'Can't Be Long Now / For Richard / Warlock'. If you thought that was a marathon, strap yourself in for ALL of side 2. This is a 22+ minute opus of 9 individual titles. They're spelled out on the gatefold but I've given it the short title of 'Nine Feet Underground'.

Side 3 opens with an odd bit of cheeky-chappy stuff, 'Golf Girl'. It's about cups of tea and has a trombone that is the equivalent of someone blowing raspberries while a piccolo attempts to imitate Ian Anderson's Jethro Tull flute playing.

'Hoedown' almost is.

Once again there's a 4 title combination that takes 12½ minutes to close out this side of the album, called 'The Love in Your Eye' for brevity. The last side of this double album starts with 'Memory Lain, Hugh' then drops straight into 'Headloss' with a drastic change of style and tempo, switching gears to an almost Top of the Pops foot-tapper. Not expected but a bit of light relief after the intensity ?? eccentricity ?? of some previous tracks. 'Virgin on the Ridiculous' is taken from a live show in 1973 at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane. It's quite heavily orchestrated but still cuts into sort of 'Yes-light' breaks, as does the last track 'The Dog, The Dog, He's at it Again'. The lyrics of that last song seem blatant and obvious but I think I need to listen and re-read a few times, there could/should be a deeper meaning.

This is the 1976 pressing of the double vinyl album, not to be confused with the 1994 2-CD release of the same name. Oddly the CD version had 10 more tracks than the vinyl, but 4 of the original vinyl tracks were left off, so of the 21 tracks on the 1994 set only 7 appeared on the 1976 release. Got that ?? Good.

So that's Caravan. It took me 50 years but I got there and some of it was worth the wait. 

If I Could Do It All Over Again, I'd Do It All Over You

Aristocracy

BEE GEES - Odessa 1969

 This was a double album presented in a plush red flocked cover with the text embossed in gold lettering. As you can see by the photo, that's clearly not the copy I have. 

Mine is a single disc sampler with commentary, no separators and a continuous mix. The cover clearly states "Promotional LP for record department in-store-play". There are five songs on each side giving 10 selections from a total of 17 tracks on the full commercial release. To add to the unusual quality of this album, there is a hand-written notation on the cover which reads 

"To Pete, from the Gibb Brothers Thanx for all your help". So far, the identities of 'Pete' and the writer of the message are unknown. Through a series of connections, in fact 3 degrees of separation, I managed to get a photo of the cover and inscription to Dick Ashby, 1960s road manager and then decades as personal manager to the Bee Gees. His comment in part was "The hand written message does not appear to be that of either Barry, Robin or Maurice. Having said all that if this is indeed a genuine Atco Records sampler I imagine it would be very rare indeed".

The sixties promoted the idea of 'concept' albums, either albums with a common musical or narrative theme running through them. Think of stuff like The Small Faces 'Ogdens Nut Gone Flake', or Moody Blues 'Days of Future Passed' and of course 'Tommy' by The Who, the rock opera phase.

Starting life under the name 'An American Opera', which was later changed to 'Masterpeace', the double set of 'Odessa' was meant to be a concept album about a fictional ship, The Veronica, set in 1899.  It didn't end up that way, but it did scuttle the group for a while. The whole concept thing got a bit disjointed, too many points of view, too many cooks spoiling the broth. Even though the inside of the gatefold album featured an illustration of a sea tragedy with a child being thrown down to a lifeboat, the album as a whole was no longer built around the storyline. There were also disputes about the actual songs, particularly which one would be released as a single from the album. Robin wanted his vocal on 'Lamplight' to be the one, but it was relegated to a b-side on the back of Barry's vocal on 'First of May'. Passions were so high that Robin left the group for a couple of years and recorded a solo album.

To be honest, back in the day I always leaned towards Robins vocals anyway. Things like 'I Can't See Nobody', 'Massachusetts' and - from my favourite album "Idea" (Vinyl Vault 2 July 2020) 'Indian Gin and Whisky Dry' and 'I Started a Joke'.

After an album is released it's pretty common for a re-release to include extra tracks, demos, alternate mixes etc. That did happen to Odessa in 2009 when a 3-CD set was released. Oddly though, in 1976, 7 years after the 1969 double album, RSO Records issued a single-disc version which cut 7 tracks from the original, the contentious 'Lamplight' was one of them. 

The title track 'Odessa (City on the Black Sea)' is a 7+ minute loose story of a man adrift on an iceberg after a shipwreck, which holds to the original idea. After that the rest of the album travels (IMHO) into various disparate directions and styles. There's the countryfied 'Marley Purt Drive' and the strange homage to Thomas Edison on 'Edison' telling us about electric lights and cylinder music players. There are 3 instrumentals, reminiscent of the aforementioned Moody Blues stuff, although 2 of them were amongst the tracks dropped for the 1976 single-disc release.

Waiting until the penultimate track on the 4th side of the original double album here's Barry with the lush ballad 'First of May', pulling at heart strings and spreading a thick layer of nostalgia. The album ends with one of the subsequently cut instrumentals 'The British Opera', full of orchestration and ethereal 'ooh's and aah's'.

Although I don't have the vinyl of the original album I do have the digital version. I find it a bit confusing, a bit hit and miss, particularly coming after 'Idea', but the saving grace is that it also came before disco !!

Odessa (City on the Black Sea)

First of May

EURYTHMICS - Sweet Dreams (Are Made Of This) 1983

 In the early 80's I had a home-recorded cassette version of a song called 'Jennifer' that I loved. Played it to death. Never really bothered to find out who sang it. It never occurred to me it could be The Eurythmics.

"Jennifer with your orange hair
Jennifer with your green eyes
Jennifer in your dress of deepest purple
Jennifer, where are you tonight?
Underneath the water
Underneath the water
Underneath the water"

That's it - that's pretty much the whole song, but it's ethereal, enigmatic, surreal, hypnotic. Well, it is to me. If I'd bothered to look I would have seen that on the album cover and on the video clip for 'Sweet Dreams' Annie Lennox had orange hair !!

In 1986 I took a contract to work in the Highlands of Papua New Guinea. Entertainment was scarce, at the time there was no radio, an unreliable one channel satellite TV signal from Australia and a bunch of knock-off, bootlegged dodgy cassettes. Then, one day, I came across this tape shown in the photo. A genuine, commercial licensed version of a real album - and not only that, it had 'Jennifer' on it !! It was quite a while later when I managed to pick up an old copy on vinyl and not long after that, their 'Greatest Hits' arrived on CD and that opened up almost 9 years worth of good stuff.

Annie Lennox and Dave Stewart had been working together before they became The Eurythmics. In 1976 they were part of a punk band called The Catch and later they had a couple of songs on the charts as part of a 4-piece group called The Tourists. In 1979 The Tourists did a cover of Dusty Springfield's 'I Only Want To Be With You' that made it to #4 in the UK.

This is the second Eurythmics album, their first, 'In The Garden' sank into oblivion but with the release of this one in 1983, two things happened. The Eurythmics became a worldwide phenomenon and people who previously didn't know began to hear the word 'androgyny'. Annie Lennox's distinctive look in the music video for 'Sweet Dreams' combining cropped hair and men's clothing seemed to be the polar opposite to seeing Boy George in full performance mode.

The first song on the album, 'Love is a Stranger', although initially nowhere near as popular as the title track, has been re-released twice and now ranks as one of their well-known staples. The album as a whole is still very early electronic pop, new wave and bits of R&B sneaking in. It was a promise of things to come, particularly the power and range of Annie's voice. If I could break ranks from the Vinyl world, I'd certainly recommend getting either 'Greatest Hits' or the later 'Ultimate Collection' on CD. All the singles released between '83 and '90 are worth collecting. I still get chills when I hear the opening of 'There Must Be An Angel (playing with my heart)'. Don't stop there, do yourself a favour and get Annie's solo album 'Medusa' - the hits just keep on coming.

I have to mention a Dave Stewart instrumental composition he did in 1989 for the Dutch movie 'De Kassière'. He brought in saxophonist Candy Dulfer and together they released 'Lily Was Here'. Prior to that, Candy hadn't released anything, but the success of the single led to her album 'Saxuality' the following year. If you're into smooth jazz, search it out.   

The Tourists 1979 I Only Want To Be With You

Sweet Dreams (Are Made Of This)

Jennifer

NIRVANA - In Utero 1993 (Limited Edition, Clear)

 

I saw Dave Grohl on The Graham Norton Show recently and it prompted me to take this album out for a ride. 'In Utero' sold close to 5 million copies but I'm fortunate to own one of only 15,000 special limited editions pressed on clear vinyl. The photos show the very slight blue/green hue the album has. 

This is the band's 3rd and last studio album, the second to feature Dave Grohl. Their previous release, 'Nevermind' had sold at last count over 30 million copies and has one of the most instantly recognisable covers in music album artwork. Controversially the photo used of the naked baby boy swimming after a dollar bill is the subject of long on-going legal action. On the plus side, that album gave us 'Smells Like Teen Spirit' and 'Come As You Are' among others.

This album though was a bit more .. um .. inaccessible ?? .. is that the right word? Certainly in it's original form the record company didn't even think it was commercial enough to sell. Producer Steve Albini had created a much more basic, raw sound than their previous work and after the studio raised concerns he refused to do anything to make it more .. again, what's the word .. acceptable ?? Anyhooow, R.E.M. producer Scott Litt was brought in to tweak stuff and he also remixed the singles 'Heart-Shaped Box' and 'All Apologies'.

'All Apologies' almost became Kurt Cobains swan song. It was the #1 charting track from the album and after Kurt's death in 1994 'Unplugged' was released and the clip of Kurt singing 'All Apologies' is the one most frequently associated with the video and album. Pity really, 'cos he does a great version of Bowie's 'The Man Who Sold The World'.

In 2014 the surviving members of Nirvana were at the 29th Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction with a twist. They invited four female singers to cover the band's songs - Joan Jett, who sang 'Smells Like Teen Spirit', St. Vincent did 'Lithium', Kim Gordon from Sonic Youth sang 'Aneurysm' and to top it off, Lorde did a strong, grungie heartfelt version of the main track from this album, 'All Apologies'. Lorde was just getting her feet on the ground, what a massive endorsement this was.

Nirvana came and went, but their shockwaves are still rippling in ever-outward circles.

All Apologies

Lorde and Nirvana 'All Apologies'

MORRISSEY - California Son 2019

In the world of music, things change. Sometimes it's evolution, a natural progression of art and skill. Pink Floyds journey from early experimental works such as 'The Piper at the Gates of Dawn' through 'Meddle' to the glory that is 'Dark Side of the Moon'. 

Sometimes it's environment and exposure. The Beatles were masters of the 3 minute pop song, then Dylan got them stoned and they teased us with 'Revolver' then hit us with 'Sgt. Pepper'.

For years Rod Stewart was the lad, even when he threw a ballad in the mix, he was always going to come back with a punchy raw gut-rocker to let you know he was still there, still doing it. In the other column of the ledger there are 5 albums of The Great American Songbook.

All of that is great and all of that is exactly how things should have happened.
Then there's this. In culinary terms, this is deep fried Mars Bars, it's a slice of cheese on Christmas cake, it's balsamic vinegar on strawberries. It shouldn't work - but it does.

There's no denying that Morrissey has a good voice. It's distinctive, there's a quality and he can carry a tune. That's just as well, because there's a wide variety of tunes he's picked to carry. It pleases me to say that he does a very commendable version of Dylan's 'Only a Pawn in Their Game'. He doesn't try to be clever or too "Morrissey", he just delivers. Sticking with the protesty controvertial stuff he does Phil Ochs 'Days of Decision', Buffy Saint-Marie's 'Suffer the Little Children' and Joni Mitchell's 'Don't Interrupt the Sorrow'.

There's the plaintive lyrics of 'Lenny's Tune' by Tim Hardin, originally titled and recorded by Nico as 'Eulogy For Lenny Bruce'. It's a hard song to hear, harder to sing, but plays well here. Likewise, unexpectedly Melanie Safka's music makes an appearance. Taken from her album 'Gather Me'. Morrissey picked the dark, brooding 'Some Say I Got Devil'. Knowing Morrissey perhaps it was the obvious choice, on the same album Melanie recorded 'Brand New Key' so he was hardly likely to pick that.

Or was he ???

Back to this 'California Son' album, all of a sudden we're listening to Morrissey singing the Gary Puckett & The Union Gap staple 'Lady Willpower' ! Where did that come from? Almost as quirky as the Laura Nyro penned 'Wedding Bell Blues'. But wait, there's more. If you're in any doubt as to the coverage Morrissey gives to nostalgia just listen to his version of the Roy Orbison classic 'It's Over'. Who'da thunk it !! 

Morrissey is too controversial to just sit back and think about why he chose these songs. Whatever reasons you come up with can be argued and built up or destroyed. Don't think of the politics, the protests or the appeal to baby boomers. If you can, just let the music wash over you and try to reconcile the sounds with the same guy who brought you 'Girlfriend in a Coma'.

Has he changed? No, it's still Morrissey, but which version - the hypocrite, the enigma, the miserable cold hearted older guy looking to gain some favour? It doesn't matter, sit back, enjoy and take the whole thing at face value.

Suffer the Little Children

Wedding Bell Blues

CARS - Heartbeat City 1984

If this album had only one good song on it, and that song was 'Drive', it would still be a classic record belonging in every collection. It's one of the most beautiful, poignant ballads of the 1980's. Written by Rik Ocasek and sung by bass player Ben Orr, it's just one of 6 single releases from this 10 track album. There aren't many studio albums that have 60% of their tracks on regular airplay, much less all of those 6 charting somewhere in the world and two of them making #1 in the US. It's almost a 'Greatest Hits' collection without meaning to be.

It's also the soundtrack to my wife Tracy's lost summer of teenage angst and a love that might have been - but that's another story.

When I wrote recently about Dr. Hook I said people tend to get a mental picture of Ray Sawyer wearing an eyepatch. When people think of The Cars, Ric Okasek springs to mind as 'the face' of the group. Apart from being co-lead singer and major songwriter for the band (sometimes with keyboard player Greg Hawkes) he was also perhaps the most distinctive in appearance. Standing 6'4" tall, long face, large ears, gaunt look and often with dark glasses, he stood out in a crowd. As I mentioned, Ric was co-lead singer, sharing duties with his fellow founding member Ben Orr. They usually took solo lead on different songs and only rarely took lead duet. On this album, only one track, 'It's Not the Night' lists both of them out front.  

First cab off the rank (nice little 'Car' reference there) from the album is 'Hello Again' - instantly identified from the opening with that "swooshing" intro to the word 'Hello'. It's worth looking for the music video of this track, it was produced by Andy Warhol and features him as a bartender. The song is supposedly about a guy who can't find happiness and ends up back where he came from. I don't get that at all, but, enjoy.

'Magic' is just that - a magically jaunty piece with another distinctive opening - almost like a 60's sci-fi effect. Singing about being with his girl, Ric Okasek uses phrases like "I see you under the midnight" which he described as "manipulated contradictions". Who knew.

'Drive' is nothing short of a perfect, beautiful melancholy song with electronics replacing violins to create that heart-wrenching backdrop. The song got a massive boost from the 1985 Live Aid broadcast, where not only did Ben Orr perform it from the Philadelphia stage, it was also used as the background soundtrack to clips of the Ethiopian famine, which of course was the whole reason for the event. Here's a couple of trivia bits - the official music video was produced by the actor Timothy Hutton when he was just 23 years old - and after Princess Diana was killed some songs were taken off radio XFM in the UK in case they upset people. One of those songs was 'Drive'.   

Both 'Magic' and another track off this milestone album 'You Might Think' got to #1 on the US Rock charts with 'Drive' reaching #3. The title track 'Heartbeat City', 'Why Can't I Have You' and the previously mentioned 'Hello Again' rounded out the 6 charting singles.

After just one more major single 'Tonight She Comes' the band never really regained their star power. Through breakups, solo careers, brief reunitings and subsequently the passing of both lead singers, Benjamin Orr in 2000 and Ric Okasek in 2019, The Cars remain a late 70's - 80's band with a legacy of great music, unique videos and a lasting spot on any playlist worth it's salt.

On a personal note - and this is just because the sound is of it's time - whenever I hear The Cars my mind links to Talking Heads, Elvis Costello, Roxy Music et al .. a paradox that sounds can be generic and unique at the same time.

Drive

Hello Again

EDNASWAP - Chicken (EP) 1996

The whole reason for this post is to recognise the original version of a song. I got this EP along with 9 more 45's sealed in a lucky dip brown paper bag for $5.

Today the Australian singer Natalie Imbruglia released her sixth studio album 'Firebird.'  In other news, Ednaswap disbanded 22 years ago.

What does one have to do with the other? Well, Scott Cutler, Anne Preven and record producer Phil Thornalley wrote the song 'Torn'. Scott and Anne then formed the group Ednaswap along with Paul McCartney's ex-lead guitarist Rusty Anderson and a couple of others.

Their song 'Torn' was covered by many artists and was first recorded in 1993 by Lis Sørensen under the title "Braendt (Burned)" with Danish lyrics. Ednaswap did the first English version on their 1995 album but it got no traction. In 1996 it was again released, this time in English by Norwegian Trine Rein. 

By 1994, after TV commercials and a role in the Australian soap 'Neighbours', Natalie Imbruglia had moved to London and in '97 the abovementioned Phil Thornalley got her to record a demo of 'Torn'. Partly based on that demo she got a record contract and started on her first album, with Phil as one of the producers. The single of 'Torn' was released before the album and unlike the previous versions, this one took off. Charting pretty much everywhere it was one of the most played songs of '97 putting Imbruglia firmly on the map. Unfortunately, it did diddly-squat for Ednaswap. 

After releasing it on their first album, then on this EP 'Chicken' Ednaswap also included 'Torn' for a third time on their 1997 album 'Wacko Magneto' but once again it failed to make any impact. Three studio albums and an EP later, by 1999 Ednaswap decided to call it a day. 

Scott Cutler and Anne Previn went on to write and produce, separately and together. Previn has worked and written for many artists including Sinéad O'Connor, Miley Cyrus, Pixie Lott, Katy Perry .. the list goes on.

A very odd bit of trivia - in 2010 the newly formed group One Direction sang 'Torn' as their first song on the UK version of The X Factor.

Ednaswap

Natalie Imbruglia

CHICAGO - Chicago 1970 (known retroactively as Chicago II)

This is Chicago's second album (which is why it has the unofficial title Chicago II) but as their first was recorded under their original long name - Chicago Transit Authority - this was the first with their new shortened moniker. Their next album though was called Chicago III and they carried on with Roman numeral titling for many of their subsequent releases. 

I could probably write the whole post about just one song on this album.

Who knew, straight away, what '25 or 6 to 4' meant? Be honest, did it make sense? - was it enigmatic? - did you care?

I never gave it a lot of thought except it was possibly to do with time, but I didn't pin it down until years later when I came across this explanation from Robert Lamm, the guy who wrote it. He was living in the Hollywood Hills where he could look out over the city. He reckons the song is about actually writing a song and he just put down what he saw .. "'waiting for the break of day, searching for something to say, flashing lights against the sky' - there was a neon sign across the city. That song came from the fact that it was 25 or 6 to 4 a.m. in the morning when I looked at my watch."

OK, we can all sleep easy in our beds now, another of life's mysteries solved.

Peter Cetera, one of three vocalists in the group, took centre stage on this track under very trying circumstances. The band had been to a baseball game where their team beat the hometown team. Peter got into an altercation with 4 marines. His broken jaw was still wired when he sang lead. There's no mistaking this song, right from the strong distinctive opening. It hits the ground running with a Peter Cetera bass riff that's instantly recognisable and then the brass comes in strongly to lead into the first couple of verses. At around the 2 minute mark here's Terry Kath with an electric guitar full of fuzz and wah-wah giving it what for over the next minute and a half, then playing a frenetic background to the brass and vocals again. It's a great song, it's almost raw and experimental and deserves it's place in music history.

Oddly, their next single release coming 6 months later, 'Does Anybody Really Know What Time It Is?' was taken from their earlier album when they were still Chicago Transit Authority. It has that same full-throated brass sound though, a style that was making it's mark with others such as Blood, Sweat & Tears and later Earth Wind & Fire and one of my favourites, Average White Band.

Rock and roll and brass kept them going for a while, with some great songs and great airplay. 'Saturday in the Park', 'Another Rainy Day in New York City' and one that Tracy loves to direct at me, 'Just You 'n' Me'. You have to know the song .. we were listening in the car one day, Chicago were singing ..
You are my love in my life
And you are my inspiration
Just you and me
Simple and free"
and without missing a beat she said .. "I'll be free" - which by process of elimination left me being simple !!

In 1978 the band experienced a major blow. Terry Kath, founder member, guitarist and vocalist, met a tragic end. He had a history of drug and alcohol abuse and a collection of guns, not a good mix. Messing about one evening in January '78 he first picked up an empty .38 revolver and put it to his head and pulled the trigger. Then he grabbed a 9mm pistol with no clip in and put that to his temple. His last words were, "What do you think I’m gonna do? Blow my brains out?" - and then he blew his brains out. There was a live round in the chamber.

The group didn't stop, although they did almost disband, but many critics feel they lost that edge, the experimentation, and certainly in later years their style changed to middle of the road adult contemporary and even the brass was pushed to the back.

Regardless of change, the 1970's catalogue of Chicago music holds it's own and is well worth revisiting.

25 or 6 to 4

Dr. HOOK AND THE MEDICINE SHOW - Sloppy Seconds 1972

"We got all the friends that money can buy
So we never have to be alone
And we keep gettin' richer but we can't get our picture
On the cover of the Rollin' Stone"

Funny thing was, when they were featured on the cover of The Rolling Stone, it wasn't a photograph, it was a caricature. So close !!

The band got together in Union City, New Jersey (remember Blondie singing about 'Union City Blue' Vinyl Vault 21 July 2020). Not one of them is a doctor, and nobody is called Hook. Ray Sawyer lost an eye in a car accident so always wore an eyepatch and that was what inspired the name. Originally "Dr. Hook and the Medicine Show: Tonic for the Soul", they shortened the name to Dr. Hook in 1975. The story goes that whenever they were asked which one was Dr. Hook they pointed to the bus driver.

I can't talk about Dr. Hook without putting Shel Silverstein into the frame. He's so important he's almost an uncredited member of the band. In fact I could almost let Shel take over the whole post. Famous as a children's author and prolific songwriter he definitely had two sides to his genius. There was that part for the children and then a darker, biting side for the grown-ups, more often than not referencing the use of herbal tobacco! I could listen to him reciting 'The Smoke-Off' over and over again.
"Beware of being the roller when there's nothing left to roll".

Everyone knows something of his work. He did many so-called 'novelty' songs - 'A Boy Named Sue' made famous by Johnny Cash, 'Put Another Log On the Fire' done by Bill & Boyd, the Irish Rovers song 'The Unicorn'. But there was seriously good stuff in there too - Waylon Jennings or even better Kris Kristoffersons version of 'The Taker'. and my favourite, the absolutely gut-wrenchingly brilliant 'Ballad of Lucy Jordan' done by Hook in 1974 but brought to life in 1979 by Marianne Faithfull. (Vinyl Vault 7 June 2020).

In 1970 Dr. Hook had done demo tapes which were heard by the musical director of a planned movie where all the songs had been written by Shel. The band ended up doing two songs on the soundtrack, the movie didn't do well, but they got a recording contract out of it. 

Shel was further responsible for kick-starting Dr. Hook by writing 10 of the 11 songs on their debut eponymous album in 1972 including their first hit 'Sylvia's Mother'. That song was pretty much autobiographical - Shel had tried to get in touch with an old flame called Sylvia but got her mother on the phone instead. In 1974 during a live performance in the Netherlands, Dr. Hook did a parody version of that song called 'Sylvia's Father'
"Sylvia's Father said, Sylvia's packing,
She's gonna be leaving today,
Sylvia's Father said, Sylvia's pregnant,
And you went and made her that way,
Sylvia's father said 'You Mother****er,
I swear I'll kill you someday' ..."

This featured album, 'Sloppy Seconds' was entirely written by Shel and contains not only 'The Cover of the Rolling Stone' but a couple of others of note. 'Queen of the Silver Dollar' is one I go back to and 'Freakin' at the Freakers Ball' pretty much sums up Shel's 'dark side' ...
"White ones, black ones, yellow ones, red ones
Necrophiliacs looking for dead ones
The greatest of the sadists and the masochists too
Screaming please hit me and I'll hit you" ...
probably politically incorrect these days.

The band continued to use some of Shel's songs on later albums - 'I Got Stoned and I Missed It', 'Everybody's Making It Big But Me' but their charting songs started to come from other directions. They totally went away from the 'novelty' stuff and in 1975 released the 1959 Sam Cooke classic 'Only Sixteen'. 

One more Shel song they did release as a single was 'A Couple More Years'. It didn't do anything, but in 1986, Bob Dylan sang it in the movie "Hearts of Fire". At the end of the song he says to the girl he sang it to .. "I wrote that for you. Never finished it." which of course is bullsh*t, but there we are.

By the mid to late 70's the band had become darlings of the soft rock stations pumping out solid songs that continue to get airplay today. 'A Little Bit More', 'Sharing the Night Together', 'When You're in Love With a Beautiful Woman' and on and on.

The band broke up officially in 1985 but a couple of offshoots kept going for a while. Ray Sawyer (of eyepatch fame) toured as 'Ray Sawyer of Dr. Hook' and the other vocalist Dennis Locorriere did concerts as 'Voice of Dr. Hook'.

Sadly Ray Sawyer passed away in 2018 at the age of 81.

Whether you like the early fun stuff or the later lovey-dovey stuff, Dr. Hook has something in their library for everyone and even those who dismiss them as too light and silly still secretly sing along when their music comes on the radio.

Cover of the Rolling Stone

The Smoke Off - Shel Silverstein

STEVIE NICKS - Bella Donna 1981

 Stevie Nicks turned 73 in May this year. Just let that sink in. I can't come to terms with it.

Known primarily for her work with Fleetwood Mac, there are more strings to Stevie's bow than that. I first heard of her in 1974 when I moved to New Zealand. A friend had the album "Buckingham Nicks" which, obviously, was a release by Lindsay Buckingham and Stevie Nicks. They'd met in High School and sang together at school functions. A couple of years later when Lindsay was playing guitar for a band called Fritz he called Stevie and asked her to join. They ended up doing openings for some of the legendary groups of the time, Big Brother and the Holding Company (think Janis Joplin), Grace Slick and Jefferson Airplane and the man himself, Jimi Hendrix. 

In 1973 they recorded and released their eponymous album and it pretty much sank like a stone. A couple of radio stations picked it up but generally it was ignored and deleted from the record label catalogue. To this day, it's only ever been available on vinyl, no CD re-releases have been issued. There are however bootleg CD versions available (of which I have one) and as well as tracks from the original album they include some live recordings from concerts they did trying to promote the LP. One of those live recordings is Stevie singing a very early version of her song 'Rhiannon'. 

Due to the failure of the album their manager released them from their contract and they both went back to "ordinary" jobs. Despite that, the album became a lifeline for them. 

As happens sometimes, serendipity steps in. Mick Fleetwood was in the Sound City studios in Los Angeles when he heard one of their tracks being played, 'Frozen Love'. He got John and Christine McVie and together they arranged to meet Lindsay and Stevie at a restaurant. Lindsay turned up but they had to wait for Stevie, she was finishing her shift as a waitress at another theme restaurant and when she arrived for the meeting she was still wearing a flapper costume.

The pair of them were invited to join Fleetwood Mac in 1974. When Mac released their 1975 album 'Fleetwood Mac' (the second eponymous album after the 1968 album of the same name so this one is referred to as The White Album) 6 of the 11 tracks were written or co-written by Buckingham and/or Nicks. The aforementioned 'Rhiannon' written by Stevie became one of the stand out songs and another Stevie composition 'Crystal' was also included. 'Crystal' had been one of the songs released on the Buckinham Nicks album.  

And so to 'Bella Donna'. This was Stevie's first solo album but she certainly gathered some talented friends around her. There are two duets on the album, 'Stop Draggin' My Heart Around' written by Tom Petty and performed with him and 'Leather and Lace' a Stevie song recorded with Don Henley of Eagles fame. Those two tracks along with the 'Edge of Seventeen' and 'After the Glitter Fades' were all released as singles between 1981/2. Playing acoustic guitar on 6 of the 10 tracks was none other than our old Vinyl Vault friend Davey Johnstone. Apart from being the long time guitarist for Elton John I've previously mentioned Davey's work with Joan Armatrading (Vinyl Vault 20 July 2021) and as part of the Harrogate linked 70's group Magna Carta (Vinyl Vault 29 July 2021).

'Edge of Seventeen' is a bit like 'In-a-Gadda-Da-Vida' - not in any musical sense, but in it's title. Due to mishearing 'In a Garden of Eden' we got the Iron Butterfly song (Vinyl Vault 6 June 2021). Likewise, when talking to Tom Petty's wife Jane, Jane said that her and Tom met 'at the age of seventeen'. Because of Jane's strong accent, Stevie heard it as 'edge of seventeen' and the phrase stuck. She used it as the title of a song inspired by the death of both John Lennon and shortly after, the death of her uncle.

'Leather and Lace' started as a song Waylon Jennings asked Stevie to write, to be a duet for Waylon and his wife Jessi Colter. Stevie's ex lover and friend Don Henley helped her with the song and after finding out that Waylon and Jessi were splitting up, Stevie and Don recorded the album version.

'Think About It' is one of those personal songs that happen along the way. Christine McVie was going through a break-up with hubby and fellow Fleetwood Mac member John McVie at the same time as Stevie and Lindsay were splitting up, so the song became some sort of therapy for the two women. Fortunately it also ended up being a great song.

Stevie has released 8 solo albums to date, we had to wait until 1994's 'Street Angel' before we got the inevitable Bob Dylan cover. She does a creditable version of 'Just Like a Woman'.

One of Fleetwood Macs biggest fans, and in particular a devotee of Stevie's, is Lorde (Vinyl Vault 31 July 2020, 21 August 2021). Perhaps the best compliment that Lorde could have hoped to get was when Stevie said, in front of an Auckland crowd "if she had been my age, and lived our age, she probably would have been the third girl in Fleetwood Mac".

'Rhiannon' was about an old Welsh witch. Despite the rumours, her fashion and her stage presence, Stephanie Lynn Nicks is NOT a witch. But there's still time.

Edge of Seventeen

PINK FLOYD - Wish You Were Here 1975

"The band is just fantastic
That is really what I think
Oh by the way, which one's pink?"

Well, as yesterday was Roger Waters' birthday, we'll let him be pink. It's only fair, he wrote the track these lines come from (although he didn't sing them - read on). What isn't fair I suppose is that I've included a bootleg double vinyl in the photograph. It's a recording I have of a show at the Anaheim Stadium in California in May 1977. 'California Stockyard' has live performances of the 'Wish You Were Here' album plus tracks from 'Animals'. I just thought it was an interesting juxtaposition with the original studio album. Because it's a bootleg, the actual records have grubby, rough, plain unprinted labels, one of which is on the turntable. The only way to identify them is from the run-out matrix numbers.

'Dark Side of the Moon' was always going to be a hard act to follow and two years after DSOTM came this, their ninth studio album. This one was sporting another cover design by Hipgnosis, this time depicting two businessmen shaking hands, one of them on fire, illustrating the concept of 'getting burned' in business (and music). 

I remember buying this album and playing it for the first time. I'd bought it blind, hadn't heard any of it, didn't know what to expect. There were only 2 tracks on side 1 and 3 on side 2. I sat through 13 minutes of 'Shine on You Crazy Diamond, Parts I-V' without getting the significance at first. When you figure out that it is basically about the tragic figure of Syd Barrett, founding member of the group from 1964/5 it takes on it's real meaning. Much the way that The Beatles 'Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds' gave the acronym "LSD" so too "Shine on You crazy Diamond' gives us "SYD". By 1967 Syd sadly began to unravel, just standing on stage with his arms by his side during live concerts, or playing the same note over again, becoming more and more distant. Dave Gilmour was brought into the group to supplement Syd's lack of performance but eventually in January 1968 when the rest of the band were going to perform at Southampton University, they all agreed not to pick Syd up on the way.

'Welcome to the Machine' is pretty self-explanatory. The machine of the music industry thinly veiled in it's treatment of Syd.

As hinted at above, the song 'Have a Cigar' which featured the line "oh by the way, which one's pink?" was a Roger Waters composition and he was meant to sing it, but he'd pretty much exhausted his voice by this time. David Gilmour did a version but didn't really like it so they got their friend, folk singer Roy Harper to do it. Roy was recording at the same studio and he actually volunteered to sing the song. Rejected at first, he eventually did the version that appears on the album. Roy was friends with many artists, on their album Led Zepplin III there was a song 'Hats Off To (Roy) Harper' (Vinyl Vault - Led Zepplin 9 September 2020). 

I did say I bought this album blind, without hearing any of it. When I got to the title track 'Wish You Were Here' I was intrigued. It started with an old radio going through various broadcasts before being tuned in to an acoustic guitar. It's a lot quieter than the previous track so my inclination was to turn it up - then at the 58 second mark a studio guitar comes in louder and fully rounded and literally sent shivers down my spine. This is a brilliant, beautiful song full of questions, one of them being Tracy's absolute favourite of all Pink Floyds lines ..
"Did you exchange
A walk on part in the war
For a lead role in a cage?" 

When Wyclef Jean did his version of this song he acknowledged Pink Floyd in a couple of ways, in the rap part of the song where he sings ..
"Critics don't mistake this for just any cover tune
I'ma take y'all to the dark side of the moon" ...
followed by
... "My brother tune me into rock
Put me up on Pink Floyd, a band from the British blocks"

The last track on the album is 'Shine on You Crazy Diamond, Parts VI-IX' a 12+ minute instrumental leaving you with Pink Floyd doing what they do best - letting the music take you where YOU want to go.

This whole album is about Syd Barrett in one way or another and yet there is a poignant and unusual footnote to it. When the album was in it's final stages, Syd came into the studio. According to quotes from the Pink Floyd autobiography 'A Saucerful of Secrets' by Nicholas Schaffner, David Gilmour didn't even recognise him. He was wearing a white trenchcoat with white shoes, he'd shaved his eyebrows and he was bald and overweight. He was allowed to stay, although his offer to rejoin the group was rejected and as it turned out, that was the last time any of the members of Pink Floyd saw him. Syd (Roger Keith Barrett) passed away in 2006 aged 60.

This isn't my favourite Pink Floyd album, but it's one I go back to often. There are gems here, not just diamonds.

Wish You Were Here