MAGNA CARTA - Songs From Wasties Orchard 1971

For anyone who's read any of my previous posts you'll know there's something I often comment on - 70's music had inventive album covers. This is no exception. A card on a wooden box tells us the contents are from Wasties Orchard and true to its word, opening the foldouts reveals the fruit. 

Come for the apples, stay for the music.

Being a Yorkshireman I should have been aware of Magna Carta a long time ago, but I only stumbled across them in the late 2000's. We'd been back to my hometown of Harrogate for a visit and I was editing the video I'd taken. I wanted some background music that sounded local and found 'The Bridge at Knaresborough Town' in a Google search.

Fast forward to 2021 and thanks to ebay I now hold in my hand the vinyl version of that Chris Simpson song along with the 10 other tracks making up this wonderful album. Chris Simpson is the constant in the group, from their beginnings in 1969 through to today.

For this album the line-up consisted of Chris, original member Glen Stuart and new addition, Davey Johnstone. Just last week when I was writing about Joan Armatrading (VV July 20 2021) I mentioned Davey Johnstone along with Gus Dudgeon. They both appeared on Joan's debut LP, Davey playing multiple instruments and Gus producing the album. They make a reappearance here, Davey again playing everything that can produce a noise and Gus working his production magic. The common denominator of course is that Davey very soon left Magna Carta to become Elton John's long time guitarist and Gus produced many of Elton's early albums. Also singing on 'Songs From Wasties Orchard' are Caleb Quaye and other members of Hookfoot, who were the backing vocalists on many of those same albums Gus produced for Elton.

That gives some indication as to the respect that Magna Carta had within the industry. Gus had produced their previous album 'Seasons', Tony Visconti had played and done arranging and conducting and soon to be Yes keyboard player Rick Wakeman was on organ and piano. For 'Wasties ..' they are all mentioned in the 'Thanks to ..' column, showing their involvement once again. Through the years other musicians came and went and their names were remembered - David 'Pick' Withers (Dire Straits) - Paul 'Lee' Burgess (10cc) - Alan Thomson & Danny Thompson (Pentangle) - the list goes on.

So .. what then about the music? Well it really was all you would expect and want from a late 60's-70's group that was variously categorised as prog rock, folk, folk rock, World, you name it, they were called it. Soft, lilting ballads, along with 9-part suites (from 'Seasons') and spoken word, influences of Simon & Garfunkel and Donovan showing through with a nod to Fairport Convention et al. That's not to say the music was unoriginal, far from it. Obviously I have to start with 'The Bridge at Knaresborough Town' not only because it's what made me aware of Magna Carta, but also because it's track 1 side 1. A gentle melodic background with period language to give it that slightly other-worldly feel and thanks to Davey, a wide range of instrumentation, with perhaps the most unusual being a sitar in what is essentially an English pastoral song.

I know Knaresborough Bridge. As a kid my Dad would hire a boat and row us on the River Nidd on rare Sundays. Mother Shipton, (Ursula Southeil) born in a cave in Knaresborough in 1488 was a prophetess and one of her prophecies was that if the High Bridge fell three times it would be the end of the world. At the time of writing this, it's fallen twice already !!  

Musically, 'White Snow Dove' and 'Sunday on the River' are in a similar vein, but between them comes 'Parliament Hill' which picks up the pace a bit with more fancy fingerwork from Davey. The standout failure, wrong place, wrong time, is 'Country Jam'. Complete with hoedown fiddle and mouth-harp it sticks out from the rest of the album like three balls on a greyhound. 'Home Groan' could have gone the same way but managed to contain itself. 

'Down Along Up' and 'Good Morning Sun' are off on a tangent from the folksy feel of other tracks but they both leave you with a fresh taste in your mouth.

Overall, I think I need to get more of Magna Carta to see where they came from and where they went, but based on this album, it's a nice distraction with something for everyone.

And it's Yorkshire born and bred.

The Bridge At Knaresborough Town

Parliament Hill

THE BAND - Music From Big Pink 1968 - THE BAND - The Band 1969

 These albums go together. If you buy one, you must buy the other, simple as that. IMHO they never did better than these two initial recordings. Everything you need to know about The Band is here.

They had a previous life of course, starting out as the backing group for Ronnie Hawkins and so named, obviously, The Hawks. After leaving Hawkins they went through a few name changes - The Levon Helm Sextet, Levon and the Hawks, The Canadian Squires (wow!). When Dylan heard of them and signed them up as his backing group, they were always just referred to generically as the band, lower case even though they were essentially still The Hawks. They had the distinction of backing Dylan on his controversial 1966 tour and were famously at the Manchester Free Trade Hall on the night of May 17th. Following an acoustic first half, Dylan went into his electric set. After a rousing version of 'Ballad of a Thin Man' during the silence between songs someone in the audience shouted 'Judas'. Dylan responded "I don't believe you. You're a liar". He turned to the band and said "Play it fucking loud!" and they burst into a wild and heavy 'Like A Rolling Stone'. I must admit, I've had a recording of that show for many years, firstly on bootleg editions and then when it was released officially and I always hear it as him saying 'Get fucking loud', but I'll bow to public opinion and go with the standard quote.

Anyhooow, after the tour, fate took a hand. Dylan was injured in a motorcycle accident (subject to all sorts of conspiracy theories, right up there with the 'Paul is Dead' stuff) and he went into a long low-key period. The Hawks were playing bars and for a while were backing ... wait for it ... Tiny Tim !!. In 1967 Dylan suggested they get together and 3 members of The Hawks rented a house in Saugerties NY. Named 'Big Pink' because of the colour of the sidings the basement of this house has become a shrine to Dylan and Band fans alike. It was where the much bootlegged and much revered 'Basement Tapes' were recorded. Not officially released until 1975 when some of the tracks were published on a double album, it wasn't until 2014 that the full sessions were made available. That didn't stop some 'unauthorised' recordings circulating and some of the songs recorded at Big Pink appeared on records by a variety of people. Just think of Manfred Mann's 'Quinn the Eskimo', 'This Wheel's on Fire' by Julie Driscoll, Brian Auger and the Trinity and the Byrds version of 'You Ain't Goin' Nowhere'. 

Looking for their own identity after being tied with Hawkins and then Dylan as a backing group, the Hawks needed a new name. After "The Honkies" and "The Crackers" were rejected by their record company, they decided to go with what they'd been referred to throughout the Dylan tour and so officially became "The Band", this time in uppercase letters.

Even though they were branching out to become an entity in their own right, their association with Dylan didn't end there. When they put together their first album 'Music From Big Pink' 3 of the 11 tracks were either wholly or partly Dylan compositions. In fact Dylan offered to be on the album but then had second thoughts, letting the group do their own thing. He did get some involvement though, he painted the original artwork used for the album. Perhaps wanting to add even more of himself, he painted 6 musicians on the cover when in fact the band only had 5 members. Hmm.

When I started by saying these two albums tell you everything you need to know, I didn't mean to discourage the adventurous amongst you from digging deeper. If you want a live experience, with influential guests and a wide range of music then you can't go past the 1978 release 'The Last Waltz'. The album is a soundtrack to the documentary of the concert by Martin Scorsese. Dylan, Joni Mitchell, Van Morrison, Clapton, Dr. John .. the list goes on. It was a 'farewell' concert, but as with a lot of 'farewell' concerts, the artists tend to bounce back at some point. For The Band, this point was 17 years later in 1993 when they released 'Jericho'. They were missing Robbie Robertson from the line-up and Richard Manuel had committed suicide. Stan Stelest had been brought in on keyboards but died of a heart attack, so by the time the album was put together it was a bit of a pastiche, with some tracks featuring players who had passed. There were two or three original compositions but the majority of songs were covers, a Dylan, a Springsteen, Muddy Waters and Willie Dixon. I thought it was rather sad and a bit desperate to have a painting of the Big Pink house as the album cover. By this time Big Pink was just a memory.

This wasn't the first album of covers they'd done. 1973's 'Moondog Matinee' was ALL covers, Chuck Berry's 'Promised Land', Junior Parker's 'Mystery Train' and weirdly, an instrumental of the 'Third Man Theme'. 

Although they never had a hit single, in fact they didn't even get into the top 20 anywhere, their material is instantly recognised and enjoyed. As soon as the strains of these songs are heard, the world sings along.
"Virgil Kane is my name
And I served on the Danville train .."
or this chorus
"Up on Cripple Creek, she sends me
If I spring a leak, she mends me"
and of course
"I pulled into Nazareth, was feelin' about half past dead
I just need some place where I can lay my head".

Forget any greatest hits or best of compilations, as I said at the top .."These albums go together. If you buy one, you must buy the other, simple as that."

The Weight

The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down

JOAN ARMATRADING - Very Best of .. 1991

 Buying 'Best of' or 'Greatest Hits' or 'The Collection' albums can be regarded as cheating, because you don't get the full flavour of each song in the context of it's original release, surrounded by the other tracks. Sometimes the whole is more than the sum of it's parts. Unfortunately some artists spread their 'popular' songs over such a wide range that occassionally you have to compromise. This 'Very Best of ..' is a compromise, leaving out only one of my favourite songs - 'Water With the Wine' - from Joan's charting repertoire. I fully acknowledge that I'm missing so much by not delving into album tracks, but I'm happy with what I have.

Joan's success basically stood on a break-up. Her first performance was at Birmingham University when she was only 16. Instead of one of her own songs she sang 'Sounds of Silence', but pretty soon she was doing her own material around the local clubs. After joining the production of the stage musical 'Hair' she met Pam Nestor. Together they wrote music and by the time of their first album 'Whatever's For Us' in 1972 they had over 100 songs. The record company, Cube, ultimately felt that they would rather promote Joan as a solo artist and although Pam wrote or co-wrote 11 of the 14 tracks on the album, none of her performances were chosen for recording. In fact she barely got a mention in any credits and this was the 'break-up' that led to Joan going it alone.

This debut album couldn't have had a more prestigious start. It was primarily recorded at the Château d'Hérouville studios near Paris. At the same time as Joan was there, Cat Stevens and Elton John were recording. In fact, Elton's album 'Honky Chateau' took it's name from the place. Whether by accident or design, some of Elton's principal team also worked on Joan's tracks. Gus Dudgeon, the producer behind many of Elton's recordings, took the reins for this album, along with Elton's long time guitarist Davey Johnstone and world-renowned session percussionist Ray Cooper. Never forgetting his contribution, after Gus Dudgeon and his wife Sheila were killed in a road accident in 2002, Joan dedicated her 2003 album 'Lovers Speak' to them.  

She released a few singles between 1973 and '75 but it wasn't until 'Love and Affection' from her eponymous 1976 album was released that she had a charting song. 'Love and Affection' was her highest chart success in the UK reaching #10 (although she did get a #1 in South Africa for 'Drop the Pilot' in 1982). To me the song reminds me of Roberta Flack in the opening minute or two, but after singer/actor Clarke Peters (still using the name Pete Clarke) comes in with that bass line vocal and Jimmy Jewells saxophone wails through then the song takes a different turn. With people like Jerry Donahue and Dave Mattacks from Fairport Convention (Vinyl Vault 4 June 2021) and Kenney Jones (Faces) providing musical backup the track and the album were both destined for fame and fortune. I'll never understand how the other two tracks released as singles from this album didn't even register on the charts. 'Water With the Wine' and 'Down to Zero' are both brilliant songs - plenty of radio plays, well known but not recognised.

Fast forward to 1980 and the joyful driving celebration of being alone that was 'Me Myself I'. Always a very private person, Joan did give a bit of a clue to her inner self with this song, teasing the line "I want to have a boyfriend and a girl for laughs". In 2011 she married her girlfriend Maggie Butler in a civil union ceremony on Scotland’s Shetland Islands.

Throughout her career Joan picked some varied themes to sing about. From the 1983 album 'The Key' came one of my favourites 'Drop the Pilot' which is a pretty obscure way of saying "don't go with them, come with me". Even more obscure was her use of the word 'mahout' which, according to Songfacts.com is .. "an elephant rider, so it goes along with the idea of shedding the person who is controlling you. The word isn't completely obscure, as it shows up in Rudyard Kipling's The Jungle Book."

The other breakout song from 'The Key' was '(I Love It When You) Call Me Names'. Contrary to the popular belief at the time, this was NOT about a woman who gets beaten, it was in fact about a masochist - a guy - who likes to be abused and knocked about a bit.

Joan also used a wide palette when it came to musical styles, incorporating many genres into her work. She had her own recording studios, Bumpkin Studios and in 2007 she recorded her first album of a trilogy exploring some of those genres, where she sang and played almost all the instruments. This first album was 'Into the Blues' which, as it says on the tin, was all blues based compositions. In 2010 Joan recorded album two of the trilogy, 'This Charming Life' which was "guitar-driven rock". Finally the third of the trilogy was the 2012 "out and out jazz album" 'Starlight'. 

Apart from the countless music awards she's received, Joan was made an MBE in 2001 and a CBE in 2020.

Still going strong, Joan just released her 20th studio album, 'Consequences' in June 2021. So far, the reviews are overwhelmingly positive.

Groundbreaking, influential and multi-talented, Joan holds her place firmly in the history of music. Long may she continue to do so.

Love And Affection 1976

I Like It When We're Together 2021

ANIMALS (ORIGINAL ANIMALS) - Before We Were So Rudely Interrupted 1977

I did a previous Vinyl Vault entry about The Animals (13 July 2020) and mentioned that I'd seen them in concert in April 1967. Although the poster said 'Eric Burdon & The Animals' the small print mentioned the 'new' Animals. By 1967 Eric Burdon was the only member of the original 5 who was still there. What I saw was about the 3rd or 4th incarnation of the group. Gone was the magical hypnotic keyboard playing of Alan Price, whose stirring swirling organ had drawn me into 'House of the Rising Sun' just 3 short years before. Gone too were Chas Chandler, bassist, Hilton Valentine on guitar and John Steel on drums. I remember leaving that concert feeling a bit deflated, their performance was not as memorable as I'd hoped and I recall enjoying the support acts more.

Fast forward to 1977. After getting together for a one-off benefit concert in 1968 the original 5 Animals reformed briefly in late 1975, did a mini-tour in '76 and recorded this album in 1977. The album title is very apt - there was a 12 year 'interruption' since the last recording by this line-up. They would do it once more in 1983 for another album 'Ark' but sadly it can never happen again. Chas Chandler the original bassist, who went on to manage Slade and Jimi Hendrix, passed away in 1996 aged just 57. Guitarist Hilton Valentine died in January 2021 aged 77. 

This album though rekindles that early magic. The bluesiness, particularly on tracks like 'As The Crow Flies' and then 'Please Send Me Someone To Love' let's Eric's voice do what it does best. Alan Price gets his moments in the sun on 'Just a Little Bit' when he breaks out the organ and again with piano on the bands own composition 'Riverside County'. 'Fool' ends the album on a foot-tapping high, but the track that brought me back to this LP is the second song on side 1.

Looking for something to watch on TV, we spotted the new Netflix release 'Gunpowder Milkshake' - a mindless bang-bang shoot-em-up with ex-Doctor Who companion Karen Gillan playing Amy Pond as a serial killer. It was a couple of hours of graphic, violent entertainment that you didn't need to think about, but part way through my ears pricked up. The soundtrack burst into song. A Dylan song. A Dylan song done by The Animals - the second song on side 1 of this album - 'It's All Over Now, Baby Blue'.

No theatrics, no fancy attempts at creating anything ridiculously outlandish, just a raw solid interpretation of a great song. Eric puts his heart and feeling into his vocals and Alan makes the piano take the workload away from the others by creating atmosphere. A great version almost lost in an album that literally fell through the cracks.

Released at the height of punk and disco - two ends of the spectrum - there seemed to be nowhere for this album to sit comfortably. Add to that the lack of a promotional tour and virtually no other advertising for the album itself and it really didn't stand much of a chance. That's a shame because it's a great piece of work. Some tracks are better than others, that's always the case, but no tracks are duds. There's no filler on this album, each song stands on it's own and each song works.

'Gunpowder Milkshake' was not a memorable movie, but it pointed me back to a memorable LP. For that I give it 5 stars.

Brother Bill (The Last Clean Shirt)

It's All over Now, Baby Blue

ALAN PARSONS PROJECT - Tales Of Mystery And Imagination - Edgar Allan Poe 1976

 I bought this album after hearing '(The System of) Dr. Tarr and Professor Fether' on Radio Hauraki in Auckland and I was intrigued. I used to read a lot of gothic horror anthologies such as Poe and wondered how they put some of his other works to music.

Here's a bit of trivia. Radio Hauraki started life as a pirate radio station broadcasting from a ship in the Hauraki Gulf from 1966 but then became legitimate in the 70s. From 1983-85 one of the presenters was none other than Philip Schofield. I remember first seeing him on New Zealand TV in 1982 when he was just 19, as host of a music show called 'Shazam!'.

Back to the topic, The Alan Parsons Project - and what a project it was. Basically just two guys, Alan Parsons himself, audio engineer, producer, musician and composer and Eric Woolfson, songwriter, composer, pianist and singer. They met in the canteen of Abbey Road Studios in 1974, so that was a good start.

Due to their common musical background and contacts they knew a lot of people in the industry, so when they began making their own stuff, instead of getting together a permanent band they tended to use people best suited to the music they were producing. The Project did have a few recurring regulars, but the line-up of guest artists over the years is quite staggering. This was their first album and they brought in some great talent. The core of the session musicians was made up of members of both Pilot and Ambrosia but some of the individuals who played on certain tracks were stars in their own right. People like Francis Monkman who was a founder of Curved Air (Vinyl Vault 18 June 2020) played piano and harpsichord. Laurence Juber who played guitar with Wings for 3 years, Terry Sylvester, ex member of The Swinging Blue Jeans and The Hollies. The list goes on. 

Perhaps my favourite song on the album featured a real blast from the past. Remember 'Fire' by The Crazy World of Arthur Brown? (Vinyl Vault 5 Nov 2020) Arthur comes along and does lead vocals on the excellent track 'The Tell-Tale Heart'. If you're familiar with 'Fire' then Arthur is immediately recognisable on 'Tell-Tale Heart' as soon as he lets out the first primaeval scream !! Add the rhythmic drumming imitating a heartbeat and some wailing synth and the result is a gothic song taken from a gothic story. The lyrics follow the downward spiral of the narrator ..
"Louder and louder
Till I could tell the sound was not within my ears
You should have seen me
You would have seen my eyes grow white and cold with fear"

There's some dark lyrics in the following track too, 'The Cask of Amontillado' where Fortunato pleads for his life in alternate lines ..
"(Spare me my life only name your reward)
Part of you dies each brick I lay
(Bring back some light in the name of the Lord)
You'll feel your mind slipping away"

Going back to Arthur Brown and talking of primaeval screams, one of the guest vocalists on the later album 'Eve' was Clare Torry. Alan Parsons knew Clare from when he was the engineer on Pink Floyds 'Dark Side of the Moon'. He found Clare and she improvised the very memorable wordless vocals on 'The Great Gig in the Sky' where she treated her voice as another instrument.

Side 2 of the album is almost wholly taken up with the 16 minute opus 'The Fall of the House of Usher', which is split into 5 instrumental movements. The year after this original vinyl pressing was released Alan Parsons did a remix and one of the additions was some narration by Orson Welles. He added voice to 'A Dream Within a Dream' as well as the Prelude to 'The Fall of the House of Usher' taking that particular section from 5:52 minutes to 7:02 mins in total. Curiously, neither piece of narration is a direct quote or reference to the works they attach to.

After enjoying 'Tales Of Mystery And Imagination' I followed with the APP's next album in 1977, 'I Robot'.  Amongst the guest artists featured here were Alan Clarke (from the Hollies) and Steve Harley (Cockney Rebel). This album released 'I Wouldn't Want to be Like You' as the featured single.

Perhaps their best known charting single was 'Eye in the Sky' from the album of the same name in 1982 where, unusually, Eric Woolfson carried it through on lead vocals 

The 'Project' in it's original form sort of faded away a bit around 1990 and both the principles began solo works. Alan Parsons' first album 'Try Anything Once' stuck to the formulae of guests and included Eric Stewart (The Mindbenders) and Chris Thompson from Manfred Manns Earth Band, who did the magnificent vocals on their version of Springsteen's 'Blinded By the Light' (Vinyl Vault 30 June 2021). 

I was totally impressed by the fact that in 2004 on his solo album 'A Valid Path' not only did Parsons have Orson Welles narrating again, he also had John Cleese doing the same, but what really blew me away was that on the first track 'Return to Tunguska' he featured the pairing of David Gilmour (Pink Floyd) and the psychedelic electronic music duo Shpongle. I came across Shpongle a few years ago after listening to their album 'Tales of the Inexpressible' and particularly the track 'A New Way To Say 'Hooray!' I suppose there is a connection between the two - the track 'A New Way ...' samples a lecture by Terence McKenna where he references a Pink Floyd song 'The Gnome' from the album 'The Piper at the Gates of Dawn' so on reflection, Gilmour and Shpongle are not such strange bedfellows.

Between his work on album production and engineering for other artists and his project and solo work, Alan Parsons has been a force to be reckoned with in the music industry for decades. He deserves to be heard.

The Tell Tale Heart - Arthur Brown vocals

Cask Of Amontillado/ Doctor Tarr & Professor Fether

STEVE FORBERT - Jackrabbit Slim 1979

I think this could be the last LP I bought in Australia before going back to New Zealand or one of the first I bought when I got back in NZ. Either way I got it purely on the strength of one song, 'Romeo's Tune' which was being played to within an inch of it's life on local radio in both countries. That single got to #13 and #21 respectively in those two countries but in the US it was his only high-end charting single ('Say Goodbye to Little Jo' made it as far as #85) and in Canada it broke into the top ten. It also has the distinction of being in the 1970 list of US 'one-hit wonders'.

As with lots of albums I bought over the years, despite buying an LP full of music based on just one popular track, I lived in hope that somewhere buried on one or both sides of this piece of vinyl I would discover a hidden gem or two. It had happened many times before, even that same year, 1979. When I bought Rickie Lee Jones' eponymous album because of 'Chuck E's in Love'. I was amazed and surprised at how many other tracks became firm favourites. (see my Vinyl Vault entry for Rickie Lee on June 7, 2020). The same happened in 1982 when Laurie Anderson's 'O Superman' came on the radio, I bought the album 'Big Science' and it changed my life !!

So back to Steve Forbert. What do we have here. Well, there was 'Romeo's Tune' as a given, and as mentioned above, his #85 charting song 'Say Goodbye to Little Jo' which was an equally good song in it's own right. As to the others, there's the (possibly) autobiographical 'Make it All so Real', the singalong 'Complications' and perhaps my pick of the crop, one of his so called 'diary' songs 'January 23-30, 1978'. That song has a thought-provoking last line ..
'It's often said that life is strange, oh yes, but compared to what?'

One thing this album had in it's favour was the producer John Simon. He has a history of producing some landmark albums, Janis Joplin's 'Cheap Thrills', The Band's 'Music From Big Pink' and 'The Last Waltz' as well as working with most people you can think of.

I'm going to massively digress here. In 1968 on my way back to England from Australia I stopped over in Hong Kong for 2 days. I bought a pair of shoes, a shirt and a suit - all hand made virtually overnight. I also bought an album. It was perhaps the weirdest album I'd ever come across up to that time. It was a 1966 release by 'The Baroque Inevitable' and the front cover stated .. "Being a Recital of the Hits of the Day, Performed in the Baroque-Rockque Instrumental Style Popularized by Bach, The Beatles and Other Notables of the 17th through 20th Centuries, AD". It had 2 Dylan tracks on there, 'Rainy Day Women #12 & 35' and 'All I Really Want To Do'. That was enough to justify the purchase. The music was exactly what it said on the tin. Baroque style renditions of currently popular songs. It could have been so many things - a parody - a farce - a complete shambles - but in fact it was amazingly clever with great musicianship and unique arrangements.

The reason I've just written all that is because I just realised, while doing this post about Jackrabbit Slim, that John Simon, producer of all those amazing artists and albums, was the arranger, conductor and producer of this Baroque Inevitable curiosity. What a stretch of imagination and what a show of confidence, to be secure enough to go completely off-centre and indulge yourself in such a project. Well done John. He was also the best person to produce this album for Steve Forbert. His background allowed him to bring out the best in Steve for this one highlight release. 

Although Steve Forbert is  still releasing material, nothing has really made the same amount of impact as this 1979 LP, but he has a loyal following and continues to be recognised in the industry, in fact in 2004 his album of Jimmie Rodgers songs 'Any Old Time' was nominated for a Grammy Award in the Best Traditional Folk category.

Despite the rambling, this post was meant to be about Steve Forbert and 'Jackrabbit Slim'. Sticking true to that, listen to a couple of the links below. Enjoy.

Romeo's Tune

January 23-30, 1978

DOO WOP - Various Artists 1968 - BEST OF DOO WOP BALLADS Vol. 2 - Various Artists 1989

 For today's Vinyl Vault I didn't pick a group or an artist, instead I went for a genre.

I've had these two compilation albums kicking around for quite a while now with many more in digital format. Although the original music is predominately from the 50s the tracks, on the whole, stand up well. This then is not any sort of review or critique, it's more of a trip down memory lane, mentioning some songs that still resonate with me. 

So what is Doo Wop. Well, let's start with a quote from "The Complete Book of Doo Wop" by Gribin & Schiff. They list 5 defining points ..
1) it is vocal music made by groups
2) it features a wide range of vocal parts, "usually from bass to falsetto"
3) it includes nonsense syllables
4) there is a simple beat and low key instrumentals
5) it has simple words and music

I think we all know Doo Wop songs that have point #3, the nonsense syllables. Sing along with me to the sound of The Spaniels ..
"Doop-doo-do-doo-do,
Goodnight sweetheart well it's time to go,
Goodnight sweetheart well it's time to go,
I hate to leave you but I really must say
Goodnight, sweetheart, goodnight. .."

How about this one by the Crew-Cuts ..
"Hey, nonny, ding, dong
Alang, alang, alang
Boom ba doh, ba doo, ba doodle ay
Oh, life could be a dream
(Sh-boom)
If I could take you up in paradise up above
(Sh-boom)
If you would tell me I'm the only one that you love
Life could be a dream, sweetheart"

And the last one .. this is easy if you get the rhythm right ..
"Ba-bom-a-bom-bom
(Ba-bom-a-bom-bom)
(Ba-bom-a-bom-bom)
(Ba-dang-a-dang-dang)
(Ba-ding-a-dong-ding)"
Yes, of course, The Marcels with 'Blue Moon'.

There are literally thousands of Doo Wop songs and many that aren't quite as nonsensical as those. There's the lilting tones of The Five Keys singing 'The Glory of Love' or the string of hits by The Platters with 'Twilight Time', 'Smoke Gets in Your Eyes', 'The Great Pretender' etc.

Doo Wop did have it's controversy, particularly with a couple of songs, 'A Thousand Miles Away' and 'Daddy's Home' both co-written by James Sheppard of Shep and the Limelites. Both songs sounded very very similar and were recorded by 2 different groups under 2 different labels. The Heartbeats did 'Thousand Miles ..' in 1956 and Shep and the Limelites did 'Daddy's Home' in 1961. As is the way of these things there was legal action for copyright violation and the 'Daddy' publishers lost.

That didn't stop Cliff Richard doing a version of 'Daddy's Home' in 1981 and making it a #2 in England and a #23 in the US.

Some remakes of Doo Wop songs became more well known than the originals. It was many years before I realised that the Herman's Hermits song 'Silhouettes' from 1965 had been done in 1957 by The Rays. Likewise the Pipkins novelty song 'Yakety Yak' in 1970 was a makeover of the 1957 classic by the magnificent Coasters.

Two of my favourites come from The Manhattan Transfer who in their heyday of the mid 70s to 80s covered some great doo wop classics - 'Gloria' by The Cadillacs, 'Trickle Trickle' from the Videos and 'The Boy From New York City' originally by The Ad-Libs.

Some Doo Wop song lyrics became the basis for naming other groups. The best example is from the Silhouettes song 'Get a Job'. It comes out with the catchy refrain ..
"Yip yip yip yip yip yip yip yip
Mum mum mum mum mum mum
Get a job, sha na na na, sha na na na na"

From that emerged the rock 'n' roll doo wop group Sha Na Na. They had a meteoric rise to fame due to Jimi Hendrix seeing them at a New York club in 1969 only a few months after forming. He got them a slot at the upcoming Woodstock festival and they performed right before Hendrix's closing session. Despite it being 3 days of peace and love with a long-haired hippie population in attendance, they totally blew the crowd away and had standing ovations by singing predominately Doo Wop standards. 'Duke of Earl', 'Come Go With Me', 'Book of Love' and the song that gave them their name 'Get A Job'.

Doo Wop tracks are often used in movies. Probably the most songs in one movie goes to 'American Graffiti' just because of the time the movie is set in. Lots of doo wop, with the added voice-over of Wolfman Jack doing the DJ'ing.

One of my favourite uses of a doo wop song is in the movie 'Christine', the John Carpenter film based on the Stephen King book of a demonic, possessed car. The film is shockingly acted and poorly scripted but the star of the show, the red and white 1958 Plymouth Fury, is malevolently magnificent. When the strains of the Thurston Harris song 'Little Bitty Pretty One' can be heard in the distance during the death scene of Moochie Welch the evil is electric. Tracy dislikes the movie but still bought me a beautiful metal scale model of that iconic car.

Dig out some Doo Wop, take yourself back to street corner harmonies and simpler times. It's worth the trip.

THE TROGGS - Vintage Years 1976

 Every Christmas the world is subjected to a rewording of one of The Troggs most popular songs in the movie 'Love Actually'. Bill Nighy in the guise of aging pop star Billy Mack repeatedly screws up the words to his song 'Christmas is All Around' by using the original Troggs lyrics of 'Love is All Around'. He finally bursts in frustration with a poetic string of profanity that is worthy of The Troggs Tapes themselves (more about that later).

There is a version of The Troggs still going today, albeit without any of the four founding members. Sadly 2 of them have passed away - Reg Presley in 2013 and Ronnie Bond in 1992. Pete Staples left in '69 and Chris Britton only plays when the mood takes him.  

They haven't released anything since the '90s and to be fair, their heyday and impact on  music history was really centred on the mid '60s with their chart successes coming in '66 and '67. I suppose if you count reaching #7 in Sweden, then the 1965 track 'Lost Girl' was their first noted release. The credit for that song goes to Reginald Ball which was in fact Reg Presley's real name. When they recorded 'Wild Thing' in '66 the b-side was 'From Home' credited to R. Presley. You'd be forgiven for thinking that 'Lost Girl' and 'From Home' sound VERY similar !!

'Wild Thing' and their follow up single 'With a Girl Like You' were both recorded in about 20 minutes using studio time left over after an orchestra finished early. The producer, Larry Page, got the Troggs in and pumped out the two songs in record time.

Interestingly, 'Wild Thing' was written by a guy called Chip Taylor, real name James Wesley Voight - yep, same Voight family, he's the brother of Midnight Cowboy Jon Voight and uncle to Angelina Jolie. A couple of his other songs made waves too. 'Try (just a little bit harder)' got a belting version by Janis Joplin and the dreamy 'Angel of the Morning' made it for Merilee Rush. 

I bought all the Troggs singles when they came out and because of that, some of their b-sides became equal favourites but were never as well known. Some of them appear on this 2xLP compilation, notably '66-5-4-3-2-1' and 'Girl in Black'.

Known for their early raucous sounds like 'Wild Thing' and the screaming "OH NO" at the beginning of 'I Can't Control Myself' they showed another side with Presley's 'With A Girl Like You', 'Give It To Me', obviously 'Love is All Around' and another Chip Taylor composition 'Any Way That You Want Me'.

Now for the unofficial 'The Troggs Tapes' recorded by my friend Clive Franks - (not to be confused with the official album 'The Trogg Tapes' from 1976). I've mentioned these bootleg tapes previously when I did an Elton John review (Vinyl Vault June 15 2020). The reason they were part of that review is that Clive was Elton's sound engineer when I knew him. These tapes have become the stuff of legend and after being passed around and around for years they were ultimately released as part of an official compilation, 'Archeology' in 1992.

The tapes have been acknowledged as being an influence on the movie 'This is Spinal Tap' and were referenced in an episode of 'Father Ted'. I'll add a link to Clive's interview talking about the tapes and the recording itself is on YouTube.

Fast forward to 1975 and the release of a very eclectic mix of songs. Simply called 'The Troggs' it contained mainly covers, some almost unrecognisable. There's a totally 'out-there' rendition of the Beach Boys 'Good Vibrations', Reg Presley failing to channel Buddy Holly on 'Peggy Sue' they valiantly try to come up with something resembling Chuck Berry's 'No Particular Place To Go' - made worse because it's one of my favourite Chuck songs! After massacring the Stones 'Satisfaction' and the unbearable rendition of 'Memphis Tennessee' (why did they hurt Chuck Berry twice) they resort to butchering one of their early hits .. are you ready for this .. a reggae inspired 'Wild Thing' !! Aargh !!. Definitely one for the curio cupboard.

Early Troggs tracks are excellent. Fly-on-the-wall Trogg Tapes are hilarious. A band that, IMHO, were really of a time and a place. 

Clive Franks on 'The Troggs Tapes'

I Can't Control Myself

M.WARD - Post-War 2006

 I can't remember if I first saw Matthew Stephen Ward on Letterman or the Craig Ferguson Show .. I think it was Letterman. It was 2006 and he played 'Chinese Translation' from his latest album at the time - 'Post-War'. The song and performance were different enough to grab my attention, so I dug deeper. This was his 5th solo album but all his earlier work had passed me by.

His stuff is variously described as folk, folk rock, World, country, alternative and probably all points in-between but to me it can be summed up in one word. Indie. Not necessarily in the true context of independence of record companies, more in the way of independent of any nailed-down style or approach.

I'm sure there'll be those who disagree with me, but look at the range, from his version of Bowie's 'Let's Dance' on the 'Transfiguration of Vincent' album to 'Here Comes the Sun Again' and 'Deep Dark Well' on 'Transistor Radio'. Sprinkle with some of the other tracks from 'Post-War' like 'Eyes on the Prize' and 'Magic Trick' and you have an artist who makes his own rules.

Then there are his other projects.

One of the regular Christmas movie essentials is "Elf" starring Will Ferrell and Zoey Deschanel. In one scene Zoey is taking a shower and starts singing 'Baby It's Cold Outside' with Will joining in. On the soundtrack of the film she duets the same song with the amazing Leon Redbone. She'd been singing for a while after forming a jazz cabaret act in 2001 and in 2006 Zoey and M. Wards paths crossed. Zoey was making a movie called 'The Go-Getter' and the director wanted her and Matt to sing a duet for the end credits.

After learning that Zoey had been writing songs for years but not really performing them, and hearing some of her home demos, Matt wanted to record with her and so they formed the band 'She & Him'.

Their first album in 2008, called, oddly enough 'Volume One' had 9 of Zoeys compositions on there, as well as a few covers such as 'You Really Got a Hold on me' and the Beatles 'I Should Have Known Better'. That trend continued for Volume 2 and 3, with a couple of Christmas albums along the way. Their 2014 album 'Classics' was just that, 13 good old standards including 'Stay Awhile' made famous by the incredible Dusty Springfield (Vinyl Vault June 17 2020).

Meanwhile Matt was also putting out his solo albums, sometimes dueting on them with Zoey and others such as k.d.Lang and Lucinda Williams and as if that wasn't enough he was also part of an Indie rock band by the name of 'Masters of Folk'. They were together for 6 years from 2004 to 2010 and put out one well-received self titled album.  

With such a varied catalogue both before and after my first hearing in 2006, M. Ward deserves some attention. He may not be everyone's cup of tea, his singing voice is a tick in only one box - yes or no - there's no real middle ground, but his guitar work is worth the price of the ticket. When he's backed by equally talented musicians (look out for Rachel Blumberg playing drums on the 'Chinese Translation' video clip) then the end result is great music by an interesting artist.

Have a listen.  

Chinese Translation

She & Him - Stay Awhile