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AC/DC, ‘Back in Black, 1980. None. None more black…
#lockdown #vinyl #albumcover #webilicious #classicalbum #mojo
Max and Eden showing of their Women who Rock wall!!!
Max: "this was a tough theme."
Eden: "really... almost impossible."
Me: "what do you mean, this should have been easy and fun and empowering!"
Max: "oh it was... one of my favorites that way!"
Me: "I'm confused!!!"
Eden: "There were soooo many amazing girls and women doing amazing things in all walks of life, we couldn't narrow it down enough. So we went with rock music."
Max: "But we still couldn't cover them all!" ;-)
24th January 2019 at the Art School, Glasgow.
Festival Club, Celtic Connections Festival, www.celticconnections.com/.
Country: Britain - Scotland. Style: Indie Pop.
Lineup: Colin MacIntyre (v/g), Bernard Butler (g), Fiona Shannon (keyboard), Hannah Fisher (fiddle), Sorren Maclean (bass g), Andrew Samson (d).
Colin MacIntyre released his first single in 2000, and has now made eight albums, mostly under the name Mull Historical Society. This gig featured music from his album "Wakelines", and the band included guitarist Bernard Butler who produced it. Amongst the others on stage were Sorren Maclean and Hannah Fisher (both like MacIntyre from Mull) who also play traditional music. I took photos of them performing with Lorne McDougall in 2014: www.flickr.com/photos/kmlivemusic/albums/72157640491939975/.
More information: mullhistoricalsociety.com/, www.facebook.com/mullhistorical.
Vinyl Distraction cont.
Lou Reed, ‘Walk on the Wild Side’, 1972. This song drew me in when I saw it in a film clip of Uncle Lou on ‘Top of the Pops’ in 1972. I didn’t know who it was, or what (it wasn’t Bolan, Slade etc. that was for sure), and it wasn’t until seeing Hot Gossip doing a dance routine to it on the ‘Kenny Everett Show’ five years later that I found out. From there I made the link to Bowie, Velvet Underground, John Cale, Nico etc. I ordered the single from Boots, Andover. You could do that in those days. Record companies would keep hits in the catalogue, and you could order them. So, this is my copy, after the event, although I notice my brother tried to claim it by adding an extra stroke to my initial. Cheeky sod.
The Replacement refuse to give up the floor in a long night of hard rock.
Date: December 18, 2015
Time: 9:48 p.m.
Bob Dylan. I love Bob, me. ‘Blonde on Blonde’ and ‘Highway 61 Revisited’ from his ‘60s output are worthy of repeated visits. OK, that voice puts a lot of people off, but the melodies and words make it worth the effort. ‘Blood on the Tracks’ is the masterpiece, the one I’d take to the island.
They say that when men hit 33, they have their ‘Christ phase’. That’s the age Jesus died. Men question what it’s all about and attempt to do something meaningful, worthwhile, mature. Bob was 33, divorced, the Sixties well and truly over, Vietnam still dragging on, Watergate crushing any remaining illusion that America was land of the free, home of the brave. So, Bob comes up with his greatest set of ‘story’ songs. Songs of love, loss, growing old. Great lyrics and some of his best ever tunes.
‘Tangled Up in Blue’ kicks it off. This song alone makes it all worthwhile. ‘Simple Twist of Fate’ slows it down with gentle strum and light touch. ‘You’re a Big Girl’ with gorgeous picking and yearning vocal. ‘Idiot Wind’ with swirling organ and maliciously funny put-down lyrics. ‘You’re Gonna Make me Lonesome When you Go’, slow bass and jangly guitar with happy-sad tune. ‘Meet me in the Morning’ lurching bluesily with weary picking and high hat. ‘If You See Her, Say Hello’, acoustic guitars and heartbreak. ‘Shelter from the Storm’ should be played at every wedding on the planet, by law. ‘Buckets of Rain’ ends the album with gorgeous guitar and bubbling bass sending us off with a smile on our faces.
An album for grown-ups, of all ages.
The Cars, ‘My Best Friend’s Girl’, 1978. The first picture disc single in the UK, which helped get this to Number 3 in the UK charts. The Cars were power-pop and benefited from punk and New Wave making ‘edgy’ guitars cool. Drummer David Robinson had played with the original Modern Lovers and knew a thing about a tight, chugging pop riff. Clean, crisp, tight and snappy. Cheesy keyboard. Fab lead guitar break. Hand claps. It’s Pop music!
Thin Lizzy, ‘The Rocker’, 1973. Fronted by Phil Lynott, a black man from Dublin who played Rock. Not an everyday thing even now and certainly not then. He looked beyond cool. Early hit for the 3-piece version of the band. A swaggering strut. Big riff, big drums, solid bass, guitar solo, breakdowns and Lynott’s rock howl. You’ll feel like a rocker too after listening…
Beach Boys, ‘20/20’, 1969. Having a late heatwave at the time of writing so let’s have some California sunshine. This is an odds-and-sods collection bringing together some singles and outtakes and tunes that were going to be used on ‘Smile’. ‘Smile’ was to be the follow up to ‘Pet Sounds’ but that was before Brian Wilson and the world heard ‘Sgt Pepper’, which shot Brian’s confidence and the album was shelved for 40 years.
It’s a righteous set of tunes and miles away from ‘Surfin’ USA’. ‘Do It Again’ kicks it off, the last truly great Beach Boys’ single. ‘I Can Hear Music’ channels Phil Spector (not least coz he co-wrote it) with trademark harmonies and happy strum. ‘Bluebirds Over the Mountain’ all funky guitar and percussion and harmonies, obvs. ‘Be With Me’ written and sung by drummer Dennis, lush with horns and melancholy. ‘All I Want To Do’ a boogie shuffle with rockin’ guitar and drums and Stax horns. ‘The Nearest Faraway Place’ piano led instrumental with strings veering into MOR territory but manages to keep its cool. ‘Cotton Fields’ is an old Leadbelly tune with a singalong ‘Barbara Ann’ feel. ‘I Went to Sleep’ is dreamy and woozy with harmonies again. ‘Time To Get Alone’ waltz rhythm and harmonies. ‘Never Learn Not to Love’ starts off creepy and feels off-kilter all the way through, which is fitting as it’s based on ‘Cease to Exist’ written by Charles Manson who’d been a friend of Dennis for a short while (before the Tate killings, obvs). Shiver. ‘Our Prayer’ is short but beautiful, just voices. Jawdropping. ‘Cabin Essence’ is the whole ‘Smile’ album in miniature. Eerie, old world, harmonies, layered, melancholy, obtuse lyrics, weird instrumentation, a banjo even. It’s weird but beautiful.
Endless summer…
Peter Doherty @ HMV Institute Birmingham
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The Great Loo Roll Crisis of 2020 cont.
More vinyl distraction, while you’re waiting…
Mercury Rev, ‘Deserter's Songs’, 1998. The Rev were on the verge of splitting up before recording this album. They retreated to The Catskills Mountains, to get it together in the country, man. They decided to do whatever they wanted, expecting nothing. The album became a big indie hit in the UK and Europe. Who knew? Certainly not the band. In some ways, not least the vocals, it sounds like the Flaming Lips, though not as demented and certainly not as deranged as earlier Rev albums.
‘Holes’ kicks it off, with big drums, strings, horn, melancholy tune. ‘Tonite It Shows’ is gentle pluck and Mellotron and castanets and prettiness. ‘Endlessly’, voices and high pitch saw(?), acoustic guitar, clarinet and just lovely. ’I Collect Coins’ slow, piano, echo, ghosts. ‘Opus 40’ almost like a raggedy ‘Our House’ with Levon ‘The Band’ Helm on drums. Gorgeous. ‘Hudson Line’ brushed drums and saxophone from Garth ‘The Band’ Hudson. ‘The Happy End (The Drunk Room)’ Kurt Weill feel and spacey eeriness. ‘Goddess On A Highway’, the single, with singalong melody and big guitar bursts. Nice. ‘The Funny Bird’ big and bold, with effected vocals and shades of Neil Young. ‘Pick Up If You’re There’ sounds like something off Side 2 of Bowie’s ‘Low’. ‘Delta Sun Bottleneck Stomp’ sees us off into the sunset with a happy stomping drum and melody.
Accessible but still wildly off kilter. Great live band too.
AC/DC, ‘If You Want Blood You’ve Got It’, 1978. Back in 1978, BBC TV had a series called ‘Rock Comes to College’ that showed rock gigs from UK colleges. Hence the name. Well done Marketing Department. One week my brother and I sat down to watch the Sensational Alex Harvey Band. But, Alex had died that week. We tuned in to see who the replacement was. It was AC/DC live in Colchester. Kinnel! What we saw was a rampaging animal of a live beast, like a faster, angrier Status Quo with the Boogie Meter set to 11.
Apart from anything else it was the first time we’d seen modern guitar technology. Angus Young, dressed as a schoolboy, was carried around the venue on Bon Scott’s shoulders, playing his guitar, wireless. And we could still hear it! Howd he do dat?! Reader, I bought the album.
This is a live album recorded at the famed Glasgow Apollo. If they don’t like you in Glasgow, they let you know it. This crowd absolutely adore the band. You can hear screams, stomping, clapping, cheering, singing all the way through. The band, although from Australia, all had Scottish roots, so it was like a homecoming for them too. If you like AC/DC, you’ll know why it’s good. If you don’t, fair enough. If you just don’t know, seek this out. It’s a tight, explosive set of songs drenched in Seventies denim, sweat and beer. Unpretentious, heads down, no nonsense mindless boogie. With a capital ’B’. Angus Young’s Gibson SG axe shredding is a wonder to hear. Things were grim back then. This was joyous release. As the band sing; ‘Let there be rock!’ Great cover too.
Rod Stewart, ‘You Wear It Well’, 1972. Rod The Mod went Mega in 1972. He had two careers going, one as a solo artist and another as singer with The Faces (most of whom played on his solo stuff). The Faces were the biggest live act in the States then (after Led Zeppelin). Their down-to-earth, laddish, drunken fun and love of football made them the People’s Band and Rod the original ‘boy-next-door’ star. ‘Maggie May’ had been a hit already and the same formula works here – a folky-bluesy tune with Rod’s rough gruff voice full of weary ache. Football terrace singalong chorus, mournful fiddle, melancholy chords. Rod got even bigger during the 1970s, but he moved away from what made him great IMHO. ‘Do Ya Think I’m Sexy’ and ‘Hot Legs’ anyone?
Alexis Korner's Blues Incorporated, ‘R&B from the Marquee’, 1962. Reckoned to be the first UK rock album. Alexis and Cyril Davies had been playing blues since the 1950s, setting up the Ealing Blues Club where nippers like Mick n Keef learned their craft. Alexis had a revolving-door policy, the music more important than a ‘career’ and making it, maaan. Thus, in its time, the band had Charlie Watts, Graham Bond, Ginger Baker, Jack Bruce, Art Wood (brother of Ronnie), Dick Heckstall-Smith, Long John Baldry (who gave Elton John his first break) and a host of others pass through before going off and creating the Sixties rock scene.
The band had a regular residency at the Marquee club, influencing and entertaining hundreds of kids who ran with the exciting ‘new’ sound of black American R&B. This LP was actually recorded at Decca studios and consisted of their stage set. It’s a swinging, tight collection, even if it sometimes lacks the bite vocally of the originals they covered, such as Muddy Waters’ ‘I Wanna Put a Tiger in Your Tank’. Musically, it’s on the money: the band could all play. Pianos pound, drums shuffle and rimshot, bass walks nimbly, harp wails, guitar breaks sting and ripple. It sounds authentic. When you hear, say, Pat Boone’s cover of ‘Tutti Frutti’, you hear how badly songs can be killed by skinny white guys. Blues Incorporated venerated and respected the music they played.
The Butterfly Effect. Without Korner and Davies playing for the love of the music then the word might not have spread, guitars would have lain untouched, and the likes of Freddie & the Dreamers would be the only Sound of the Sixties, not the Rolling Stones et al.
Rolling Stones, ‘Let’s Spend the Night Together’, 1967. Summer of Love hit from the boys. They had to sing ‘time’ instead of ‘night’ on the Ed Sullivan Show’ because, you know, it suggested…. SEX! Shock, horror, moral outrage. All that good stuff that shifts newspapers. Rocking piano, snappy drums, twanging bass, chugging riff, Mick yearning. Choon!
The Replacements, ‘Sorry Ma, Forgot to Take Out the Trash’, 1981. The Mats were big on the US College circuit. Loud, fast and snotty, with a 13-year-old bass player and shredding lead guitar breaks from his brother. This album’s 40 years old now but timeless. The sound of the suburbs. A garage band playing with all the vim and vigour of youth, for fun; “I hate music/too many notes!” When Grunge broke, I thought it’s just the Replacements slowed down, but po-faced and joyless in comparison.
The Great Loo Roll Crisis of 2020 cont.
More vinyl distraction, while you’re waiting…
Beach Boys, ‘Smile’, 2011. This is a curio on CD. ‘Smile’ was supposed to be released in 1967 but everyone went ‘Sgt Pepper’ mad so the album got shelved. Brian Wilson, the band’s writer and resident genius wrote the whole thing. Bits of it dribbled out onto other albums over the years, but it wasn’t until 2011 that a version was released with outtakes. Some of it is fragments of songs but it all holds together somehow. It’s got everything that ‘Pet Sounds’ had, but with knobs on and even more experimentation. The studio used like an instrument to get all the sounds Brian heard in his head captured, with a lot of help from the Wrecking Crew. If there’s a theme it’s the creation of America.
‘Our Prayer’ starts it off, gorgeous a cappella harmonising, leading into ‘Gee’ doo-wopping and tack piano. ‘Heroes & Villains’ follows, which in the context of the album fits perfectly. ‘Do You Like Worms (Roll Plymouth Rock) has fat bass and voices, ‘Heroes & Villain’ refrain, Native American lyrics, rolling drums. ‘I’m in Great Shape’ and ‘Barnyard’ are short blipverts, full of strangeness. ‘My Only Sunshine’ with cello and weary ache. ‘Cabin Essence’ strange but, in context, works. ‘Wonderful’ harpsicord and stupidly pretty. ‘Look (Song for Children)’ an instrumental with trumpet, bass pumping, piano chords, triangle. ‘Child is Father of The Man’ more layered harmonies and piano. ‘Surf’s Up’, which just has to be heard to be believed – ‘culminated ruins domino’ anyone? An extraordinary song. ‘I Wanna be Around’ lazy supper club by the beach feel and workshop sounds. ‘Vega-Tables’ keeps the oddness going, with crunched vegetables in the mix (some supposedly chewed by Macca into the mic). ‘Holidays’, xylophone (?) and flute and jauntiness. ‘Wind Chimes’, just lovely. ‘The Elements’ deranged noises. Books have been written about it. ‘Love to Say Dada’ tripped out voices and melody. The whole thing ends with ‘Good Vibrations’, the first thing recorded for the album but had a life of its own.
Brian grew up with boogie-woogie, doo-wop and Gershwin. This is his version of the American Songbook. Funny and heart-breaking in equal measure. The more you hear it, the more incredible it sounds. AND he was deaf in one ear. Who knows what would’ve happened if it actually had been released properly in 1967?
Ry Cooder, ‘Paradise & Lunch’, 1974. Ry Cooder is the original ethno-musicologist. He loves old-time music. A gifted guitarist, especially on slide, he coulda had a full-on Rock career – he played with Captain Beefheart when he was 18 – but he ploughed his own furrow. He’s best known for his soundtrack for ‘Paris, Texas’ To be honest, you could pick any Cooder album and get the same feel and deal, (bit like JJ Cale). This album is cover versions of old jazz, blues and folk standards, decades before ‘O Brother, Where Art Thou?’.
‘Tamp ‘Em Up Solid’ swinging and gentle with vocal harmonising and jazzy picking. ‘Tattler’ gorgeous fluid guitar with smooth choir and strings. ‘Married Man’s A Fool’ joyous slide and blues licks. ‘Jesus On The Mainline’ gospel work song with weary trumpets. ‘It’s All Over Now’ reggae-fying Bobby Womack’s evergreen. ‘Fool For a Cigarette/Feelin’ Good’ smooth acoustic picking. ‘If Walls Could Talk’ slow and bluesy and gospel inflection. ‘Mexican Divorce’ latin tinged and melancholy. ‘Ditty Wah Ditty’ has Earl Hines on piano and you could be in a juke joint way down South or a 1920’s Speakeasy.
It’s 30 degrees today and too hot to do anything: this is the perfect accompaniment…