Unsung Heroes 6 : Dr John

I am not really sure whether someone who has been in the business for 60 years and has recorded with just about everyone qualifies as an unsung hero, but I am always surprised by how few people know of (and appreciate) Dr John.  I first became aware of him when I heard Right Place Wrong Time and Such a Night on American Top 40 in what must have been 1974. It was so different to everything else at the time. However I did not buy that then.  I waited a few years.

The next time I came across him was when he played Such A Night on the The Last Waltz which for me was definitely one of the highlights of that great movie.   As is usual for me I took a rather circuitous route into the good Dr's music starting first with Dr John's Gumbo the first of his tribute albums to his home town of New Orleans. This was also my first real introduction to some of the sound of New Orleans that now makes up so much of my music collection and lead me to searching out music by Professor Longhair and Huey "Piano" Smith.



Over the years I slowly acquired more and more music by Dr John and now have about 20 albums. In addition to that I probably have at least another 20 where he contributes, vocals, piano or production.  I will highlight a few that I particularly like.

They are not all good but many of them are just excellent.  The next one that really caught my attention was one recorded about 20 years later and was indeed his next tribute to New Orleans the excellent Goin' Back To New Orleans. This album rocks more than Gumbo and really has a mardi gras feel to it as evidenced by the Indian costume he wears on the cover. There are some great classic and non classic songs on this album. The perennial Careless Love and also songs like Cabbage Head and How Come my Dog Don't Bark When You Come Around?



Rolling Stone Magazine recognises Dr John's first album Gris Gris as one of the most important albums of all time fusing New Orlean's voodoo, funk and second line jazz with rock.  It is not an easy listen and one track I Walk on Guilded Splinters has been  covered by many people including Paul Weller and Cher!! I particularly like Cher's version which was recorded at Muscle Shoals with the Swampers. Maybe the best thing she has ever done?




In later life he has recorded a number of solid albums.  I enjoy In a sentimental mood for its selection of songs included great big band versions of Making Whoopee (with Ricki Lee Jones on whose debut album he played) and Accentuate the Positive.








I eventually picked up a copy of In the Right Place and wonder why I waited so long.  The mixture of great songs, playing by the Meters and Allen Toussaint's production.  The closest thing to a hit album he has ever had! Highly recommended.







After Hurricane Katrina he recorded The City that Care Forgot which was probably his most political set where he attacked the politics of neglect that followed the Katrina.  On that album he was assited by Eric Clapton - playing with a bit of fire in his belly for once and Willie Nelson.  I finally managed to see him at the Auckland Town Hall when he toured following this album.

Two years ago he teamed up with Dan Auerbach from the Black Keys and recorded Locked Down.  On that album he swapped his piano for an organ and together produced what, at 72 may be the best and funkiest album of his career.  It not only sold better than his more recent albums but earned him new fans and a Grammy for best R'n'B album.  While many late career comeback albums are rated more for nostalgia than quality this really is a stunning album worth investigation.  The title track  does not sound like a pensioner trading on his past but some one still providing vital music.

Obscure Favourites 1 : Til The Night is Gone : Tribute to Doc Pomus

My collection is full of records and CDs that no one I know has heard of but when I play them always get people asking who or what is that?  So this new series will highlight some of those albums.

I bought this album mainly because it had tracks by some of my favourite artists at the time (and still now).  Those involved included Dylan, Los Lobos, John Hiatt,The Band and Dr John.  I knew some of the songs but I did not really know anything about Doc Pomus.  So I started to read about him and was impressed by the range of songs he wrote.  He had Polio as a child but that did not stop him first becoming a blues singer (on crutches) and then later becoming a Brill Building songwriter in the 50's.

There are some great versions on the album but Shawn Colvin's Viva Las Vegas gained a lot of attention when it appeared on the closing credits of (maybe my all time favourite movie) The Big Lebowski.   Here is the full track listing

1. Lonely Avenue - Los Lobos

2. Boogie Woogie Country Girl - Bob Dylan

3. Viva Las Vegas - Shawn Colvin

4. A Mess Of Blues - John Hiatt

5. This Magic Moment - Lou Reed

6. Blinded By Love - B.B. King

7. Young Blood - The Band

8. There Must Be A Better World Somewhere - Irma Thomas

9. Turn Me Loose - Dion

10. I Count The Tears - Roseanne Cash

11. I'm On A Roll - Dr. John

12. Still In Love - Solomon Burke

13. Sweets For My Sweet - Brian Wilson

14. Save The Last Dance For Me - Aaron Neville

The Dr John song made me realisd that an old Dr John album I had , City Lights, was in fact a collaboration with Doc so  rekindled my interest in that and I also checked out a new singer's albums of Doc's songs Johnny Adams' The Real Me.

Both of those albums are well worth checking out.

Journey Through The Past 19 : Microdisney, The Clock Comes Down the Stairs

This album one of my favourite covers.  I bought it solely because of the cover sometime in the 1980s.  It was on sale.  I knew nothing about the band at all and pieced together what I know following it.  My LP is in storage in Christchurch and I have been trying to get a copy of it on CD for sometime.  However I never wanted to pay the money the CD was fetching on eBay.  And then this year it was re-released so I got a copy from Amazon UK - and their debut which I had never heard.

So in the last week I plugged the CD in the car and have been listening to it on repeat.  It's not as good as I remember having a dated 80's feel to it BUT there are some outstanding tracks - in particular AND, Goodbye it's 1987, Horses Overboard and Genius. 

Microdisney was a group of politicised Irishmen in London writing and performing extremely caustic songs with lush arrangements so you could find yourself  humming along to very nasty lyrics.  Part of the attraction. 

I have about four of their albums but this one and Crooked Mile are my favourites.  

The band eventually imploded and the lead singer formed a new band Fatima Mansions where he abandoned all pretense at nice arrangements and went for all out aggression.  They opened for U2 on a european tour and apparently completely alienated the U2 audience who would have preferred their politics less intense.  I think their Viva Dead Ponies is magnificent with Blues For Ceausescu being an highlight with the chant of Die/Fuck Ceausescu stating things pretty plainly.

 

Unsung Heroes 5 : Dirk Hamilton

To people like me a good record store is a bit like a good pub.  A place where you see familiar faces either behind the counter or hogging the H bin that you are sure holds the gem you are looking for.

Today there are really just about only good record stores left - as the big impersonal chains have gone to that big retailer in the sky after being pummeled by iTunes, Spotify and Amazon, leaving behind stores run by enthusiasts.   The people behind the counters in good stores are always informed and opinionated and need to be - frequently they can be opinionated arseholes like Jack Black in this clip .  Mind you Jack is SO RIGHT.

There is always good music playing (ie music you either have already or want).  One such record store in Wellington was Colin Morris on Lambton Quay. An added advantage was that it was on the way (with only a little deviation) between Uni and the Railway Station.

In 1978 I bought a lot of records from that store.  Especially on a Friday night after a few beers and Dicky Barretts and a feed of oysters at the California Steakhouse.  Sadly all three institutions have now gone. Anyway one time in 78 I walked in and Colin was playing this album by a guy called Dirk Hamilton, whom I had never heard of.

Dirk Hamilton : Meet Me at the Crux

It immediately grabbed my intention and after listening to three or four tracks and talking to Colin about the similarities between what I was hearing and Van Morrison and Springsteen I walked with the record in hand. It is a great record - most of which stands the test of time.  In particular Billboard on the Moon, Meet me at the Crux, How do you Fight Fire (is "In the Land of the Lizard, under the bubbling mud"  a reference to NZ?) and my favourite Every Inch a Moon.

Two years later came Thug of Love - the last of his big label albums.  It took me a while to get into this album but it is now my go to album of Dirk's.  Strong songs throughout including Colder than the Mexican Snow, Moses and me, I will acquiesce, Change in child's hand and ... well all of them really.

Years later when Oasis released a song called Acquiesce (one of their better ones). They claimed it was the first time Acquiesce had been used in a song title to which I wanted to reply in terms they could understand "Fuck You, You C##ts!  Dirk was there first!!!"

By now I was hooked and found that he had released two earlier albums that had never made it to New Zealand.  It was before ebay and the internet so what to do.......  That's right send your brother off on a world wide trip to search out copies.  He did well and did find a copy of one of them, the improbably titled You Can Sing on the Left or Bark on the Right .  (I never told him that he was an inadvertent drug smuggler as when I opened up the gatefold cover a few grains of dope fell out - which probably tells you a little about this folky album!)  To me there is joyfulness about this album that was not as obvious in the following two albums.  All the same it is a solid second album signally where he was heading.  I particularly liked the songs The Sweet Forever, Grow a Rose, Wasn't that one night good, Little Big Time Man and When She Kiss Ya like she love love you (You know she do).

Listening to that album again as I write this what strikes me about his writing are his honest and simple observations on life and his nice turns of phrase which are clever without being too clever.   While he has frequently been compared to Van Morrison it is this simplicity that differentiates him.

Eventually I picked up his earlier album Alias I through ebay. But after reading about his retirement after Thug of Love I thought that was it.

Then one day I googled Dirk Hamilton and found out that he was back in the saddle so to speak.  Apparently he found out he was "big in Italy" and that rekindled something.  

After about 10 years away from the business he returned and has been releasing albums reasonably regularly ever since.  Eventually the first four albums were also released on CD with excellent booklet style packaging.

I have since bought many of his recent albums, either coming across them unexpectedly in record stores (I always check out the H bins) or directly from Dirk from his website.  All are solid albums but as is often the case while I enjoy them none of them connect with me in the way that the first two I heard did.  However I can recommend his live "The Relative Health of Your Horse Outside" "Sufferupachuckle" and "The Ghost of Van Gogh".

Interestingly some of the people in his current band were on that first record I heard almost forty years ago.  I think that tells you something about the guy.  So I have promised myself that one day, when in the states on business or some kind of musical odyssey I will look him up.  He seems like the kind of guy I would enjoy a beer with.

Unsung Heroes 4 : Josh Ritter

If you have not heard Josh Ritter and like thoughtful well written songs I highly recommend him.

He was another discovery through an Uncut Magazine Giveaway CD. The track was Wings off the album Hello Starling.  I really enjoyed the song and noted the name so when I saw the album on sale I picked it up. I enjoyed the album which had a few of songs  I really enjoyed including Kathleen, Snow is Gone and You Don't Make it Easy Babe.  Apparently the album sold well in Ireland and he became a bit of star there.

Fast forward a couple of years and another magazine CD has a new song by Ritter called Wolves from his 2006 album The Animal Years.  This time I decided it was worth the investment of buying a new CD and I did not regret it.  If anything this is a stronger set including songs such as Girl in the War, Monster Ballads, Lillian Egypt, and Thin Blue Flame.

This album was full of religious imagery and when it was released comparisons were made with Dylan.  He had certainly stepped his songwriting up a level and I was keen to hear his next release and fortunately he was on roll and I did not have to wait long.

His next album was the livelier The Historical Conquests of Josh Ritter.  It was immediately more accessible with three excellent songs to kick it off, the eccentric To the Dogs or Whoever, Minds Eye and then Right Moves.   However there really weren't any bad songs on that one either.  

There was a little time before his next release 2010's So Runs The World Away.  This was another solid albums with standout tracks being The Curse, Change of Time, Ratting Locks and Lantern.

It was after this album that I found myself in Boulder Colorado at a course at the same time Josh was playing at the Chautauqua complex where I had actually stayed on my previous trip to Boulder.  So I organised what was a very international group (from Australia, Taiwan, Italy and the US) to go and see him. I did not really know what to expect from him live but we were treated to what can only be described as one of the happiest concerts I have ever been to.  He basically smiled for two hours solid and everyone around me wanted to both know what drugs he was on and wanted some too!!!

Between 2010 and 2013 he wrote a book, released an excellent EP, had a marriage breakup and started a new relationship and his latest album Beast in its Tracks reflects that passage of time with noticeably more sombre and bitter songs with also some songs of hope. I am not sure I will come back to this album as much as I do his others but I am still looking forward to his next one.  

Journey Through The Past 18 : Little Feat

Doctor Rock on Radio Pictures loved Little Feat almost as much as he loved The Rolling Stones and continued to push them at a time when Punk and New Wave were more popular.  He managed to do this while still maintaining his street credibility.  I was more into the UK new wave stuff at the time and so at the time most of their stuff past me by. So I was a late comer to really appreciating their music.

But I still remember watching the excellent Long Distance Love Clip in 1979 (doesn't Lowell George look mischievous).  I think it was on one of our TV watching raids on Rock Hall.


Little Feat were the like a cooler and funkier version of The Doobie Brothers (particularly after the Doobies whimped out mid career).  They produced a few great albums including Dixie Chicken, Sailin Shoes and Feats Don't Fail me Now.



However in 1978 they produced one of the best live albums of all time.   Waiting for Columbus really showed off their ability to conjure up New Orlean's funk - helped in no small part by being augmented by the Tower of Power horn section.   This is the album I would recommend to anyone to start with - and is one of my all time favourite albums. The sound of a band playing together and off each other.

Hard to think that it was all about to fall apart as Lowell George, frustrated with an increasing jazzy approach would leave to make music on his own and die soon after of a heart attack.  I was one of the few that liked his solo album - so much I will write about that later!

While Little Feat continue  to play together till now - they were never really the same after Lowell George left as they lost both their main songwriter, singer and guitarist

Someone told me that one of the members (Paul Barrere?) now lives in Tauranga when not touring.

Listening to this and looking forward to his latest

Jan and I have been listening to Ray La Montagne since his debut Trouble 10 years ago in 2004.  I picked that one up at Borders in Palo Alto as it was playing in store and featured in the recommended section.  I was on a two week course at Stanford at the time two weeks of hard work and hard partying.  

Have since picked up all his releases which have all been worthwhile. This is great document of his work up to 2011.  He certainly looks like he would have fit in with The Band in 1969 or on the goldfields 120 years earlier.

About two weeks ago I read some advance publicity for his new lp Supernova. It is produced by Dan Auerbach from the Black Keys who did a great job with Dr John's latest so I have high hopes.  God Willin' and the Creek Don't Rise  out of the rack and play it again and remind myself why I liked it so much. It released in 2010 and immediately became my favourite of his four releases at the time.  To me it was both a bit funkier and a bit more country at the same time.  Repo Man was an immediate favourite as was the title track and New York City's Killing Me.


It really does not matter too much where you jump into his catalogue.  They are all good.

Now looking forward to the arrival of the new one! 

Journey Through The Past 17 : Paranoia and Alienation - Building the Bowie Collection Space Oddity to Alladin Sane

In 1974 most of the lps I bought were by David Bowie. In addition to the two released that year (David Live and Diamond Dogs) I had a lot of back tracking to do.  I therefore  used my hard earned baby sitting and pocket money to buy Space Oddity, The Man Who Sold the World, Hunky Dory, Ziggy Stardust and Alladin Sane.  Back then new releases cost $5.75 and the standard rate for baby sitting was $5 ($10 for an over- nighter). So I tended to count each night of babysitting as a new lp.



I can no longer remember the order I bought these in (although I am pretty sure I bought Alladin Sane first.  I still play three of these albums pretty regularly generally giving Space Oddity a bit of a miss with only the title track and Conversation Piece really holding any interest for me now.  Conversation Piece was a bonus bonus track on the Ryko Reissue in the 90s. If you have not heard it and like Bowie do recommend you check it out - Bowie himself revisited it in 2002 as part of the aborted Toy recordings.  In some respects it is not too different in tone and style to Where Are We Now?  from his latest album.




All the remaining albums in this post; The Man Who Sold the World, Hunky Dory, Ziggy Stardust and Alladin Sane are all excellent albums and I believe do stand up artistically 40 years later. The musicianship and production are consistent as Bowie developed his sound.  While he would miss Mick Ronson on later albums - the piano work of Mike Garson became a consistent feature from 1973 until today.



The Man Who Sold The World and Aladdin Sane both share the sense of paranoia and alienation that permeates much of Bowie's more interesting and dare I say it better work.  While most commentators focus on Bowie's Chameleon like approach to his image, they overlook the consistency of the themes to his music whether produced acoustic as on Hunky Dory, almost Heavy Metal as on The Man Who Sold the World, with the Glam Flash of Ziggy, Alladin Sane and Diamond Dogs, the plastic soul of Young Americans, the funk of Station to Station, the electronica/post punk of Low, Heroes and Lodger, the Snarl of Scary Monsters, the dance of Let's Dance and Tonight, the weirdness of Outside 1, The beats of Earthling and the later day return of Heathens, Reality and The Next Day - the two things you can count on with Bowie are PARANOIA and ALIENATION.

That itself could be a topic for a blog - but if you have not noticed it before check out songs like;



All the Madmen,
After All,
Watch That Man,
Time,
Panic in Detroit,
Drive in Saturday,
Let's Dance
Candidate,
I'm Afraid of Americans,
Station to Station,
Loving the Alien,
Blackout,
Heroes,
Look Back in Anger
Quicksand,
We are the dead,
Seven years in Tibet and of course
Space Oddity and Ashes to Ashes.

Journey through the past 16 : Dumb Rock is not always Dumb Music : Slade

Sure they could not spell.  Sure their music was dumb but it has lasted well and been covered many times.  In my third and fourth form years they were frequently on the charts with loud dumb songs.  Cum on Feel the Noize, Skweeze me Pleeze me and Mama Weer all Crazee Now.

While their songs titles sounded dumb  I am reminded of the Mark Twain quote  “I didn't have time to write a short letter, so I wrote a long one instead.” as I believe it takes skill and care to write good dumb songs.

At the same time they were good musicians playing it down and they even had a violin solo on Coz I Luv U!

I bought Sladest a greatest hits package in December 1973 - it's in storage now and I remember it as being absurdly thin - a result of the oil crisis - and more like a wobble board than a record. A few years ago I bought the updated greatest hits on CD - it had tracks released after 1973 including Merry Xmas Everybody. Apparently they earn 500K pounds each year from the royalties.

I do remember playing them load on my first stereo and it mattered not one iota - playing them now at that volume does not work so well on my new stereo which has been tuned and paired to really show off acoustic music.

Also I always felt a certain kinship with them as they were from Wolverhampton my Dad's hometown.

I Don't Know Much About Jazz but I like ........ Paris Blues by Horace Silver

Like much of my Jazz I was introduced to Horace Silver by Chris when he played me Song for my Father the album that Silver is best known for.  The "song" itself has lived on in rock music with the opening being lifted by Steely Dan for Rikki Don't Lose that Number, and it also being raided by Stevie Wonder for Don't You Worry 'Bout a Thing.

However the first Horace Silver I bought was Paris Blues - which I bought in a sale at Borders in Auckland for $7!  A real bargain.  A lively live set recorded in Paris featuring the wonderful and wonderfully titled Filthy McNasty - a good place to start listening to Mr Silver

Journey Through The Past 15 : Big Star No 1 Record : The Start of American Power pop?

One of the things about people who are collect music like I do is that we love to be able to say "Oh xyx, I knew them years ago when they released their first album / single /  fan cassette".

There may be a few bands I can make that claim for but Big Star and their 1972 No 1 Record are not one of them. I did not hear them until at least 25 years later despite earlier urging by The Coat who tried to introduce me through Alex Chilton's idiosyncratic solo work.  Therefore like many people perhaps the first song that I really became aware of them was hearing Cheap Trick's cover of In the Street as the theme to That 70's Show.

It is sometime also hard to understand why some bands become popular while others write and record as good if not better songs and miss the boat.  For Big Star their counter would have been The Raspberries who enjoyed a string of hits in the early 70's while Big Star languished.  Now it is Big Star who are revered and who have award winning movies made about them while The Raspberries (undeservedly in my opinion) are now almost forgotten.

Big Star came together in Memphis after Alex Chilton left The Box Tops (who had their first hit with The Letter when Alex was only 15).  After leaving he formed Big Star with and shared writing with Chris Bell.

They recorded  three albums in total but the third was released much later after the band had split

My introduction to Big Star proper was the twofer CD Big Star and Radio City - two great albums put together. So many good songs. Thirteen, The Ballad of El Goodo, Don't Lie to Me are just a few.

Are you ready for the Country 2 : Kris Kristofferson

What a terrific collection of songs!  The first time I can actually remember hearing him sing was when Why Me?  made the 2ZM top 20 countdown some time in 1973.   However I would have known his songs earlier especially Bobbie McGee, Help Me Make it through the Night and For The Good Times.  For The Good Times by Perry Como was well known in our house as it is one of Mum's favourite songs. 

Kristofferson is an interesting character, a Rhodes Scholar, a graduate in English literature, an Airforce Helicopter Pilot, an instigator of one of California's key Rugby clubs.  He was to take up a lecturing position at West Point when he decided to be a musician instead and headed to Nashville.  He was the janitor at the recording studio when Dylan was recording Like a Rolling Stone and supposedly hawked Sunday Morning Coming Down  to Johnny Cash by landing a helicopter on Cash's front lawn.   

Sunday Morning Coming Down is certainly one of my favourite songs - the lyrics are so well constructed you can almost feel the hangover in the first verse 

Well I woke up Sunday morning,

With no way to hold my head that didn't hurt.
And the beer I had for breakfast wasn't bad,
So I had one more for dessert.
Then I fumbled through my closet for my clothes,
And found my cleanest dirty shirt.
An' I shaved my face and combed my hair,
An' stumbled down the stairs to meet the day.

I'd smoked my brain the night before,
On cigarettes and songs I'd been pickin'.
But I lit my first and watched a small kid,
Cussin' at a can that he was kicking.
Then I crossed the empty street,
'n caught the Sunday smell of someone fryin' chicken.
And it took me back to somethin',
That I'd lost somehow, somewhere along the way.

On the Sunday morning sidewalk,
Wishing, Lord, that I was stoned.
'Cos there's something in a Sunday,
Makes a body feel alone.
And there's nothin' short of dyin',
Half as lonesome as the sound,
On the sleepin' city sidewalks:
Sunday mornin' comin' down.

In the park I saw a daddy,
With a laughin' little girl who he was swingin'.
And I stopped beside a Sunday school,
And listened to the song they were singin'.
Then I headed back for home,
And somewhere far away a lonely bell was ringin'.
And it echoed through the canyons, 
Like the disappearing dreams of yesterday.

On the Sunday morning sidewalk,
Wishing, Lord, that I was stoned.
'Cos there's something in a Sunday,
Makes a body feel alone.
And there's nothin' short of dyin',
Half as lonesome as the sound,
On the sleepin' city sidewalks:
Sunday mornin' comin' down.

I do not have any of Kristofferson's original lps but I do have this great collection. It is never far from the stereo particular Side 4 with Sunday Morning, the Silver Tongued Devil and Jesus was a Capricorn. 

Journey Through The Past 14 : Randy Newman : Sail Away

I first became aware of Randy Newman as a songwriter with Joe Cocker's cover of Guilty on I can stand a little rain which I wrote about here.  I then started to search out his albums which weren't that easy to find in 1975.

Sail Away was the first album of his I bought, second hand from Silvio's in Cuba Street.  I still have it and it is still in excellent condition even though over the years it has had a lot of play.

A terrific selection of musicians make up the band including Ry Cooder and Jim Keltner.

Not quite as caustic as the follow Good Old Boys up it still had a few items of biting commentary notably the title song, God's Song (That's why I love Mankind) and Political Science.  It also has the oddball Simon Smith and the Amazing Dancing Bear (I first heard that on the Alan Price Show - The Price To Play) and You Can Leave Your Hat On which Joe Cocker made his own, turning Newman's sadistic, sleezy and almost nasty song into something almost sexy.

Filled with good one liners that, much to my family's disgust come out from me at the most inappropriate and annoying times.   Lines like "In America you get food to eat, don't have to run through the jungle or skuff up your feet",  "Outrageous, Alarming, Courageous, Charming", "We may not be perfect but heaven knows we try"

The lyrics Political Science still seem relevant 40 years later,

No one likes us-I don't know why

We may not be perfect, but heaven knows we try

But all around, even our old friends put us down

Let's drop the big one and see what happens

We give them money-but are they grateful?

No, they're spiteful and they're hateful

They don't respect us-so let's surprise them

We'll drop the big one and pulverize them

Asia's crowded and Europe's too old

Africa is far too hot

And Canada's too cold

And South America stole our name

Let's drop the big one

There'll be no one left to blame us

We'll save Australia

Don't wanna hurt no kangaroo

We'll build an All American amusement park there

They got surfin', too

Boom goes London and boom Paris

More room for you and more room for me

And every city the whole world round

Will just be another American town

Oh, how peaceful it will be

We'll set everybody free

You'll wear a Japanese kimono babe

And there'll be Italian shoes for me

They all hate us anyhow

So let's drop the big one now

Let's drop the big one now

Journey Through The Past 13 : The Rolling Stones - Rolled Gold and Beggars Banquet through Exile on Main Street

My first real contact with the Stones' music was hearing Angie on the radio in 1973. That should have been enough to turn me off the Stones for life - fortunately it wasn't.

Before that my earliest recollection of hearing anything about them is Dad reading out a Sunday Times Story about the murder that occurred while the Stones played at the Altamont Festival.  For some reason I remember that well, we had stopped in Taihape on what must have been  a break driving to or from our Christmas Holiday in 1969.  To me Dad usually only read out things from a newspaper when the articles aligned with his world view which in this case must have been something to do with the decadence of the Stones and the associated breakdown in civilization.

Such was the impact of Angie and the equally awful title single off the next album It's Only Rock and Roll that I did not really dig my toes into their music for another 4 or 5 years when I eventually bought Rolled Gold a great collection of singles from the early 60s through to Wild Horses in 1971.

Terry bought a copy of a mixture of live and studio tracks called Gimme Shelter.  That was an inconsistent collection which appeared to have no thematic base to it.  It did however have a great live version of Midnight Rambler.  That lead me to picking up a copy of Let It Bleed and my growing appreciation of how good the Stones were.  I guess what made Let it Bleed so good was that you could almost hear the band working out what their next steps would be as they grappled with the increasingly erratic Brian Jones.  Tracks like Gimme Shelter, You Can't Always Get What You Want and Midnight Rambler really took them well and truly away from a singles band and I think was one of early landmarks of album rock.

I had been lent a copy of Beggar's Banquet when I was about 15 and I did not connect with it at the time, apart from Sympathy for The Devil.   If you like the song and have not read The Master and Margarita I strongly suggest that you give it a go - it shows how Jagger was really trying to update that book in song.  I still find the rhythm for that song engrossing - and was probably Jones' last significant contribution as he introduced the drumming and percussion of The Master Musicians of Joujouka that he picked up on an ill fated trip to Morocco where his relationship with Keith Richards probably effectively came to an end.
.

Sticky Fingers and Exile on Main Street are now the two Stones' albums I play the most.  I find Sticky Fingers their most complete work as I find myself only skipping over Sister Morphine. It has two of my favourite Stones' tracks in Sway and Bitch.  However you can't argue with the grace of Wild Horses, the swagger of Brown Sugar and the power of what seems to me to be the Santana influenced jamming of Can't You Hear Me Knocking?

I eventually picked up a copy of Exile on Mainstreet in the early 90s.  I was immediately impressed at its breadth and how cohesive it is even thought there is not what I would call a single standout song. Somehow its sloppy, drugged out feel holds it all together.

So slowly but surely I became a Stones' fan.  I never forgave them for Angie though. 

I don't know much about Jazz but I like .......... Dexter Gordon's Go

Go is another CD that Chris persuaded me to buy on the you pay for it, I'll copy it and then you can have it deal. How could I resist such a sweet deal?

I particularly enjoy the lively version of Love for Sale which certainly has a bit more life than Chet Baker's.  Nice listening when you have  a sunrise like this after an almost perfect view of the lunar eclipse the night before!!

My Long Journey Into Sound 1 : 1960 - 1975 The Radiogram

The first records I heard were played through a walnut Radiogram.  It had a Garrard Turntable that you could pile up both 45s and lps on a stacker mechanism.  It had this dinky little arm thing that could detect the size of the record and so when different records dropped it would line the needle up correctly.  Simple effective technology.

It could also play 78s, 45s, 33s and something called 16s which I still have never even seen.   After a bit of searching on the net the closest I could get to what our Radiogram looked like is the photo below - although this one is a bit more modern.

For as long as I can remember until I started buying records the radiogram had the same records in it.

An eclectic mix of Mantovani 10"s, The Dean Martin 45 Volare, some Mario Lanza, Doris Day's Que Sera Sera/Sentimental Journey 45, Sea Shanties by the Robert Shaw Chorale, Some Kingston Trio, Where are you by Sinatra,  A pile of old 78's including more Mantovani and one that really intrigued me even then Charlie Chaplin's Theme from Limelight.

We also had the great Bonanza Pondarosa Party Record which somehow seems to be the sole survivor from that era.


Many of the records were not the original pressings and covers but ones from the World Record Club with different covers to the original and a pink whirly label.


The Radiogram was a big piece of furniture and so doubled as a sideboard with vases and other ornaments frequently stored on top of it.  To play something you had to take whatever was on top off and then carefully place the records on  the turntable in what was something of a well. It kind of made playing music difficult and in the whole time we had it I can not remember Mum and Dad ever buying a new record.





Rightly or wrongly I then concluded that most of the records probably came with it.

Journey Through The Past 12 : Rod Stewart : Every Picture Tells A Story

Every Picture Tells A Story is the only proper Rod Stewart album I own.  I do not think I will buy any more as I also have the excellent Storyteller 4cd/7lp set in both formats (both bought for incredibly cheap prices). I was always an admirer rather than a fan, thought he was an occasional exceptional writer, a superb interpretive singer but not someone that quite did it for me.

I first heard him singing Maggie May on 20 Solid Gold Hits Vol 1 probably the only song on that album still worth a spin or 3 minutes of your time.  At school Atlantic Crossing (now I know it was recorded in Muscle Shoals I should probably give it another go) and Tonight's the Night were ubiquitous and that may have been part of the reason I resisted.  Eventually I relented and got this record.

A terrific collection of both original and cover songs played more or less by The Faces at a time when he could not make up his mind whether he was a solo artist or a Face.

Along with Maggie May you get Tomorrow is Long Time, Mandolin Wind and perhaps the definitive version of Tim Hardin's Reason To Believe reviving an almost forgotten song.  Stewart became excellent at picking out forgotten or overlooked gems of songs and repeated the feat a few times notably with Danny Whitten's I don't want to talk about it, Cat Stevens' The First Cut is The Deepest and years later even covering The Faces own Ooh La La.

I don't know much about Jazz but I like ....... John Coltrane's A Love Supreme

A while ago I asked my son Chris who his favourite musician was and without hesitation be said Coltrane.

So in another example of the Son teaching the father I started listening or listening closer.

A Love Supreme is his most revered work and from my limited exposure to his work, which includes Blue Train, Giant Steps and the recently released Carnegie Hall Set he did with Thelonious Monk.

Playing it now I have decided that it is better late night Jazz than early morning.  But that may be that I am still getting over this bad headcold! 

Journey Through The Past 11 : Joe Cocker : I Can Stand A Little Rain

Terry gave me I Can Stand A Little Rain for my 14th Birthday.  It remains a favourite album and definitely MY favourite Joe Cocker album apart from greatest hits collections.

A great selection of songs (the only bum note being Joe's own shot at writing).  It also introduced me to songwriters like Allen Toussaint, Jimmy Webb and Randy Newman (although I later found out I did in fact already know many of their songs). While You are So Beautiful got overplayed,  played again after some years it regains its original simple attraction.  However the highlights for me include
Harry Nilsson's Don't Forget me
Randy Newman's Guilty
Allen Toussaint's Performance and
Jimmy Webb's The Moon's a harsh mistress (although I think Glen Campbell's version may be even better)

So if I did not say thank you sufficiently at the time Terry - thanks for this great album.

My Long Journey into Sound 2 : My First Stereo 1975 to 1980

Until Christmas 1975 the radiogram had become almost my own personal Jukebox. However as I bought more and more records its clunky mechanisms, heavy tonearm and old needles were doing more and more damage to my new records.  This got particularly bad as the oil shock hit and records became thinner and thinner.  So I made my case to Mum that we needed an upgrade to the music system.  I must have done a pretty good job as I got my own system for Christmas 1974.

Dad had tracked down a second hand stereo separates system for what I was told was $100 at the time.  At the time I think it was the most expensive gift any of us had received.  I was rapt and remain forever thankful as that was a huge investment at the time.  

However it quickly became apparent that the new machine was incompatible with a family of the six who were then still living in a 1100 sq ft 3 bedroom house.

I soon persuaded Mum and Dad to let me set it up in the family caravan which was was parked adjacent to the house with an extension cord poking through from the laundry window.  By that stage the caravan was not being used as much as it had been.  The practicalities of the six of us fitting into seemed to limit its use to being the extra bedroom when my Grandmother came to stay.

So there I was out of the house and free to play as much air guitar as I wanted!