Unsung Heroes 12 : Richard Thompson

I first consciously heard Richard Thompson's guitar work on a Fairport Convention double lp compilation. I may have heard him earlier as he was also a go to session guitarist for a small clique of British Artists in the 70s.  Then again on the outstanding 1982 breakup album (that wasn't) Shoot Out The Lights.

Since then he has easily been my favourite British guitarist.  Folk rather than blues or rock based and he has a distinctive style and tone because of that.  It has been said (and by me) that Mark Knopfler owes him a big debt.

I have already written about his excellent lastest album here.

His lyrics are always thoughtful, frequently maudlin or caustic and frequently funny.  He has told some great stories over the years.   I also think he is also one of the few 60's artists (Dylan, Young)  that is still capable of producing essential music as his his latest Electric which I have written about earlier.

After leaving Fairport Convention he released what was one of the worst selling albums of all time Henry the Human Fly which I have never owned but regret not picking up that second hand vinyl when I had the chance in Boulder one day.  After that he then recorded a great series of albums with his then wife, Linda. Bookended with the above album and the also great I want to see the Bright Lights tonight they never sold that well but all had some songs worth checking out.

Over the years he has produced so many good albums that recommending where to start is always difficult. However my picks in addition to Shoot Out The Lights would be; Rumor and Sigh,  I Want to See the Bright Lights tonight, Pour Down like Silver and Across a crowded room.

Over the years he has written and recorded songs that have been recorded by many others and songs that, in my opinion deserve a wider audience.  Songs like;
Don't Renege on Our Love
Walking on a Wire
Dimming of the Day Probably his most covered song with Bonnie Raitt, David Gilmour and Alison Krause all giving it a go
Keep Your Distance - covered by Buddy and Judy Miller
A heart needs a home
When the spell is broken
Can't Win
1952 Vincent Black Lightning 
Beat the Retreat - which itself became the title of a tribute album in 1994.
Bees wing
Just the Motion

I don't know much about Jazz but I like ......................Cassandra Wilson

My first Cassandra Wilson CD was New Moon Daughter and that was about 18 years ago!!!  While I had other Jazz CDs and records (Django, Billie and Ella mainly) this was really the start of my foray into appreciating Jazz.

I bought it as it was playing in a small CD store in Pasadena and I liked her interpretation of Billie Holiday's Strange Fruit.  A husky voiced jazz singer and a great ability to select and arrange well known songs in a new way bringing new emotional depth to songs not necessarily associated with Jazz.  Other outstanding tracks on that album include Neil Young's Harvest Moon and Son House's Death Letter.

Since then I have picked up albums by her pretty regularly and now have a nice collection of some of the best jazz vocals of the last 20 years.


I immediately bought Blue Light til Dawn the album immediately before New Moon Daughter and was again impressed by the song selection with great versions of songs by Robert Johnson (whom she seems to have a special connection with) and Van Morrison - a sublime version of Tupelo Honey, and one of my favourite soul songs,  I Can't Stand The Rain.

Another favourite album is Belly of The Sun, with a mix of originals and classics like Wichita Lineman, You Gotta Move and The Weight.

Other albums she has explored Miles Davis music, what has become known as the Great American Songbook and even Country.  An artist not afraid to steer her own path.

A big regret is I have missed all her New Zealand shows as I have been either in the wrong city on business or living elsewhere.

One day I'll get there ...........

Favourites : Peter Case : Peter Case and The Man With The Blue Post Modern Fragmented Neo-Traditionalist Guitar

As I have mentioned earlier I picked up Peter Case's debut solo album  because it was produced by T Bone Burnett. The fact that it had a version of The Pogues "Pair of Brown Eyes" helped as well.  I bought the second (with the long name) because I enjoyed the first one because I enjoyed the first one, it was produced by T Bone Burnett and it had some Los Lobos players on it.

At the time I did not know anything about Peter Case.  Did not know that he had been in semi legendary US powerpop bands The Nerves and The Plimsouls.  Did not know that at the time of his first album he was married to Victoria Williams (whom years later Jan, Chris and I saw put on a shabby show at the Kings Arms Tavern).

Over the years I have picked up a few other CDs by Peter Case and also excellent collections by The Plimsouls and The Nerves.  However it is these two albums that I find the most satisfying.  They are excellent collections of what at the time was called roots rock and is now called Americana.

Songs like Two Angels, Walk in the Woods, Entella Hotel,Poor Old Tom, hold the two albums together well and set the scene for an interesting but probably not very profitable career.  

Unsung Heroes 11 : Bo Ramsey : Country Blues Guitar Hero

I first heard about Bo Ramsey in an article in an early edition of Real Groove Magazine.  The Real Groovy record store in Auckland at that stage had branched out into become both a record label (being an import imprint for some obscure artists who would not have had releases in New Zealand otherwise) and a concert promoter of the same artists.

He sounded like someone worth checking out and I managed to pick up a copy of the album Down to Bastrop around the same time.  Bo has a style that crosses country and blues boundaries and yet manages to produce something that is at the same time stylistically unique.  His sound is characterised by his atmospheric and understated guitar playing and vocal style. The album has a number of excellent songs on it including the title track, Back No More and

An interesting side to the same story is that another singer that Real Groovy was promoting about the same time was Lucinda Williams.  The manager at Real Groovy gave Lucinda a few CDs while she was there and among them was Down to Bastrop.  She liked the sound and when she got back to the US she looked up Bo and he ended up making important contributions to both he Car Wheels on a Gravel Road and Essence albums.

In addition to Lucinda Bo also provides critical support to Greg Brown another distinctive Iowan. He has also helped his son Benson out on the excellent albums by The Pines.

Over the years I have picked up quite a few albums by Bo including his album of blues standards Stranger Blues, a great mix of songs done with the normal Bo style.  All his albums are worth checking out - especially once you hook into his unmistakable and distinctive groove.  Sidetrack Lounge from his In The Weeds album is a favourite that captures that well.

 

Journey Through The Past 28 : Paul Simon - There Goes Rhymin' Simon - My first "real" Album

I received There Goes Rhymin' Simon for my thirteenth birthday.  I had been hanging out for David Bowie's Alladin Sane but the Music Centre in the Wainui Mall was out of copies and they told me the warehouse was out as well.  So I "settled" for this album.  Not a bad settle and of course I ended up with both anyway.

Like many people at the time Paul Simon made a pilgrimage to Southern Alabama to get the inspiration, feeling and sound that seemed to be flowing out of the Tennessee River and Muscle Shoals.  He even has a photo of the Studio posted on the inside cover of the album.  It was the first time I had heard of that place and I wonder whether my time spent pawing over that first album ingrained something of the Muscle Shoals vibe into my music taste.  Who knows?

While many people do not rate it, perhaps for sentimental reasons, I still enjoy it.  It spawned three hit singles and another enduring classic in American Tune.  The three singles were Kodachrome (banned because he said crap in the opening line - how times have changed),  Take Me to the Mardi Gras and Loves Me Like a Rock.

It has never been cool to like Paul Simon with the exception maybe of when he produced Graceland.  I think that is partly because of how carefully he crafts songs (check out this) or perhaps because his voice is not a rock'n'roll voice, or maybe because your mother liked him as well (as opposed to that horrible sounding Bob Dylan).  However I have enjoyed most of his music, he seems to have a nice balance of experimentation and audience focus.  He does not always get it right - but when he does he produces some essential music. There are misses (Capeman anyone?) but many more hits.

He is still capable f coming up with outstanding material and I can also strongly recommend his latest album So Beautiful or So What.

Favourites : Television

I remember buying Marquee Moon in 1978.  I was coming back from Uni for that long journey home - walk down from Mount Vic, visit record store, train, bus and 25 minute walk up the valley to home.  Typically an hour an a half.

In the record shop I heard that Keith Moon had died and was feeling pretty sad - I could not imagine The Who, without that manic and yet perfect drumming. Little did I know they would be going almost 40 years later.  The record store had a sale and I picked up three albums that I still really enjoy. Talking Heads 77 and the first two Television albums Marquee Moon and Adventure,

At the time I knew little about either band other than that along with The Ramones and Blondie they were a key part of the new New York "Punk Scene".   I had heard only one song on the three albums (Psycho Killer) and so it was a bit of a punt.

They all quickly became favourites and played often and loud.  At the time Grease was the word amongst my Wainui friends and these albums seemed further proof to them that I had no taste. The rhythms, vocals and angular guitar playing were unusual and to some unfathomable.  The fact that Television had guitar solos and songs over 10 minutes long was also not in line with conventional punk thinking.   Buying Adventure and Marquee Moon at same the time also meant that I did not have the expectations of Adventure that those who had started with Marquee Moon experienced.  I immediately enjoyed both albums but in the end gravitated  to the sheer brilliance of Marquee Moon.

Television when at their best are the best two guitar attack to have ever existing.  Tom Verlaine's guitar almost perfectly balanced by Richard Lloyd's.   Verlaine playing the lyrical and angular solo's with Lloyd coming in with the more aggressive, punchy and even conventional stylings. All backed by with a tight rhythm section.  The songs are unusual as well - not conventional and characterised by Verlaine's nasal almost non singing.  Here is a very early version of Marquee Moon from 1975 lacking the polish that they would get later and at the time Richard Hell would have been playing with them. The only decent clip I have come across from the band at their peak would be this version of Foxhole from 1978.

They broke up in late 78 and may even been over by the time I bought their albums that day.

However that was not the end of the story with both Verlaine and Lloyd recording excellent solo albums with and without the rhythm section, reforming in 1992 to record the self titled Television which is not as good as either the solo albums or their earlier work but does have a few good tracks but little of the sparkle and wit of the earlier albums.

Over the years I have collected a few bootleg and love albums - most notably the early demos of Marquee Moon recorded with Brian Eno, Live albums and the demo's for Adventure.  I have both vinyl and CD versions of one of their last live shows at the Old Waldorf in San Francisco.

Last year I made the pilgrimage with the boys to finally see Television play live in Auckland.  While I enjoyed the night - they were well beyond their peak and while Jimmy Ripp substituted well for Richard Lloyd the songs lacked the urgency that they need to really shine.

Dusting Off the Old Collection

I made my first trip to Christchurch in almost a year this last weekend.  It was good to catch up with friends and family. 

When we left Christchurch just over six years ago in terms of listening I was focussed more on CDs and the portability that my iPod provided.  New releases weren’t generally available on vinyl and what was available was very expensive and hard to find.  My turntable also needed an upgrade.  Doing that wasn’t the thing to do before heading off overseas and carting 600 lps across the globe did not seem a sensible thing to do either.

I couldn't part with them either suspecting it would be large regret.  So I bundled them away in boxes and put them in storage - for a time when I felt retrieving them would be worthwhile. 

So having rediscovered the glory of vinyl while in Singapore it was good to get back and be able to browse through the collection.  This time I had time to sift through and I was able to pick out a few (OK a lot) of my old favourites and bring them back home to Fiji.  

So after buying a few new ones as well I loaded up my suitcase to a carefully planned 23.2 kg and headed home - forgoing Jan's customary two bottles of wine.

So the collection in Fiji just got a bit larger with albums by Bowie, Dylan, Warren Zevon, Tom Verlaine, Steve Forbet, Dexy’s Midnight Runners, Chuck E Weiss, Alberta Hunter, Dirk Hamilton, Tom Petty, Paul Simon, Muddy Waters, Neil Young, Django Rheinhardt, Talking Heads, The Clash, Hank Williams Junior, Otis Redding, Van Morrison and Toy Love.  

I stopped after sorting through two of the boxes and I know there are more treasures to unearth on future trips. So I am looking forward to getting back and breaking out some John  Hiatt, Drs of Madness, Microdisney, more Bowie, Dylan and other highlights.

I have started playing through them - it will take a while - and have been delighted with the condition they are in.  I must have looked after them in the past!

I am sure they will be the subject of a number of blogs in the coming weeks.

Journey Through The Past 27 : Toy Love - My Pick for Best New Zealand Album

I could easily make the case that this is New Zealand's best album of all time.  Toy Love only existed for a little over two short years.  In that time they made two great pop/punk/new wave singles played some great gigs - I am pleased to say that I saw them 4 or 5 times - and released this great album.  They also kicked off what was to be known as the Dunedin or Flying Nun sound.  Even though they never recorded for the label.

This summary of the band;s history from Pitchfork is as good a summary as what you will get of the band. I first became aware of them when they released the great double A side single Rebel/Squeeze.  After that I bought the next single and also this great slab of black vinyl.

I find it sad that the band were never happy with the finished sound of this record, recorded with Todd Hunter from Dragon in Australia. They claimed it was too clean and poppy and not rough enough.

However sometimes you have to disagree with the artist and they need to accept that they are WRONG. This is a great and historic album and perhaps the best ever by a NZ band.  I always felt it seemed to have an infatuation with, if not a theme of death with tracks like Death Rehearsal, Pull Down the Shades and Swimming Pool   However there are other great songs in there as well with Bride of Frankenstein and  I don't Mind.

Chris Knox's love of 60's pop shines through in terms of melodies and the underlying arrangements, In NZ he went on to almost icon status with his media commentaries, cartoons and of course Tall Dwarfs - writing one of NZ's favourite songs in Not Given Lightly.  But Toy Love is where it all began. 

Recent Additions : Robert Ellis : The Lights from the Chemical Plant

The Lights From The Chemical Factory got solid reviews in a few places so I decided to give it a go. The title enough is enough to interest me with its sense of eerie foreboding.  It arrived this week as an impressive double 12" 45 RPM vinyl - in a gatefold cover with a nice large booklet with lyrics and other information.  I especially like the large booklet as it means I can and do read  it.  Like the old days.  The 45RPM means the sound quality is another step up. All good but what is the music like?

I am pleased to say that after having given it the once through the music is as impressive as its packaging.

Starting with TV Song , through to other highlights including Bottle of Wine, Houston and Only Lies.  There is even a nice cover of Paul Simon's Still Crazy After All These Years.

Some people have called this country, I think based on the fact he is based in Nashville, but I think Ellis has much more in common with the better 1970s singer songwriters.

Another artist, who along with the likes of Jason Isbell, Josh Ritter and  Laura Marling - make a clear case for musicians of today making music every bit as potent as those of 40 years ago.

Journey Through the past 26 : Frank Sinatra : Where are you?

Frank Sinatra's Where Are You was always in the Radiogram at home.  Not sure I ever listened to it when I was growing up but when I saw a copy in immaculate condition for just $8 my sentimental side thought that would be nice to have.

When I finally listened to it I noted that in some respects it is a companion to his classic in the wee small hours in that it is an album that focuses on breakup, heartache and loneliness in the way only Frank can.  Song titles like The Night we Called it a Day, I'm a fool to want you and Baby Won't you Please come Home say it all really

Glad I bought it and finally listened to it.

Connections 8 : Muscle Shoals (Fame and Muscle Shoals Sound Studio)

The Muscle Shoals Story has now been told a few times.  Most recently in a documentary movie that I finally saw tonight.  I will be honest I was very nearly put off by the fact that Bono is interviewed thoughout - WTF why does he have to appear on any music documentary!!

If you get a chance try and watch it because apart from the Bono blight it is an excellent story of a critical place in and piece of music history.

Muscle Shoals Alabama is a place that has been in my music collection right from the start. The first LP I ever owned was partly recorded in a place called Muscle Shoals Sound Studio.  It was Paul Simon's There Goes Rhymin' Simon and I got it for my 13th birthday (disappointingly the Music Centre in the Wainui Mall had at the time run out of copies of David Bowie's Alladin Sane).

Two small studios, Fame and the Muscle Shoals Sound Studio, in two nondescript buildings in a small town of some 10,000 people on the banks of the Tennessee River over about a ten to 15 year period created some of the best popular music ever recorded.  The backing band from Fame, established under Rick Hall at Fame left to build their own studio and eventually became the go to studio band for singers and bands from around the world. The singers that started it all, Percy Sledge and Arthur Alexander, were local guys almost off the street and the mix of black singers and white musicians was unusual (other than at Stax in Memphis) and created a distinctive funky sound.

Initially I found that I was frequently picking up albums that had the same musicians on them - David Hood, Roger Hawkins, Barry Beckett, Spooner Oldham, Jimmy Johnson, Barry Beckett, Eddie Hinton and David Briggs.   Along with the Stax team that were contemporaries up the road in Memphis they have the ability to make almost any music not only listenable but attention grabbing.  There is a magic there that does not come often. I frequently buy albums just because they have some or all of these people on them or were recorded in the Shoals.   I have not counted but I would guess I have 30-40 albums that have a direct link to the Shoals.

Both studios are still open and also have museums attached where some of the original band take tours.  One day soon I will get there.

The list of bands, people and music that can be traced to Muscle Shoals is impressive.

• Arthur Alexander who had songs covered by the Beatles and Stones
• Percy Sledge
• Wilson Picket recorded all his hits
• Lynyrd Skynryd  - the original Freebird was recorded at Fame
• Rod Stewarts Atlantic Crossing
• Bobby Gentry
• Leon Russell
• The Allman Brothers Band
• Bob Seger
• Traffic
• Dan Penn - check out his Fame Studios Demos
• Candi Staton
• The Staples : Be Altitude (Respect Yourself)
• Aretha Franklin recorded her breakthrough single there
• The Rolling Stones recorded Wild Horses and Brown Sugar there
• Boz Scaggs
• Cher recorded her first solo album there 

Journey through the past 25 : Gram Parsons : Grievous Angel

Gram Parsons is often credited with inventing Country Rock although he hated the term and preferred the label Cosmic American Music.  He did this first with the Byrds and their Sweetheart of The Rodeo album, then with The Flying Burrito Brothers, finally solo with Emmylou Harris at his side.

His credentials are further enhanced by having helped The Rolling Stones and in particular Keith find their country side.  He claimed to have helped write Wild Horses and his own cover almost beat The Stones' version to release. The icing on the cake in terms of setting his credentials, however would have to be his early hatred of The Eagles, a band he must have considered to be his and the Devil's spawn which may explain that his citing of them as a "plastic dry fuck".

I enjoy the albums he did with The Byrds and The Burritos but Grievous a Angel is this one I keep coming back to.  Grievous Angel was his final album before dying of a drug overdose at 26.  The album is a mixture of covers and old and new Parsons' songs.  The pairing of Parsons' and Emmylou Harris vocals is spellbinding bringing magic to Hickory Wind, In My Hour of Darkness, and Love Hurts in particular.  I particularly enjoy the latter played very loud on a good stereo - it can be breathtaking.

Parsons' death of a drug overdose and the events that followed  are now legendary.  They include the theft of his coffin and body and an aborted attempt at cremation in the desert at Joshua Tree in California.  They have been memorialised in both Film with Grand Theft Parsons and song with Emmylou's magnificent homage Boulder to Birmingham.

Hot New Wellington Band : Available for Bookings : Strangers with Candy

Very proud of Sam - not sure how he fits it all in - starting his career, futsal, photography, getting fit and two new bands - here are some demos from his covers band Strangers with Candy - they have a distinct 60's beat group flavour.

Hopefully I will get to see and hear them play when I am in Wellington at the end of the month.

Journey Through The Past 24 : The Box Tops : White Memphis Soul Boys

I have both this greatest hits set on CD and their debut on vinyl.  When ever I listen to either I am always impressed by the quality and soulfulness of the band and left wondering about lost opportunities and why the band has not been rediscovered on the golden oldies radio stations.

A Memphis band of young precocious teenagers lead by 16 year old Alex Chilton they hit it big straight away with The Letter and then Cry Like a Baby, Neon Rainbow, Soul Deep and I Met Her in a Church. For a little over a year in from 1967 to 1968 they were seldom not on the charts.

Of course this was before I became infatuated with music and I really was not aware of them until I started to investigate originals of Joe Cockers' hits in the early 70s.

While they were a fully fledged band they did not play all the instruments on some of the tracks with seasoned Memphis Studio Musicians Tommy Cogbill and Reggie Young supplementing and giving muscle to the team.   They are particularly noticeable on their cover of

Dan Penn was the producer for the first album and Cogbill and Chips Moman from American Studios took over for the follow ups.

A few years after Alex Chilton left the band he went on to form masterful Big Star.

Favourites : Anders Osborne

I bought my first Anders Osborne CD, Black Eyed Galaxy, about 3 years ago and he has quickly become a new favourite.  I bought is because it came up as a recommended purchase on Amazon, where his music gets generally positive reviews with enough disagreement to make it sound interesting.  Reading about him on the web I noted he had also been in the excellent TV series Treme so that enough to hit the add to your cart button.

If you are looking for hints as to what he sounds like, think Neil Young with a New Orleans Blues or a more bluesy Little Feat .  Black Eyed Galaxy's main theme seems to be about his struggles with heroin and staying clean.  This version of Mind of Junkie really summarises the whole album to me.  Impassioned intelligent music played well.  The title song and Black Tar continue that theme but towards the end of the album he delivers four more positive songs in Tracking My Roots, Louisiana Gold, Dancing in the Wind and Higher Ground. This is an impressive album which blends old songs and styles while offering a fresh taste.


Since then I have picked up a few more CDs the best of which is Living Room. However as his music has been playing in the car for the last two days I think I am about to add to my collection.

Last week when talking to Sam on the phone and I asked what he was listening to he said Anders Osborne. When I said I could not remember him ripping the CD when he was last hear he said he did not.  He heard something he liked in a music store and it turned out to be Mr Osborne.  He bought it and then remembered that last Christmas when he was postman for my Amazon deliveries one of them was Peace, the latest CD.

Damn Right I've Got the Blues : A Night Out in Chicago - or The Night The Chicago Died!

In early 2011 I had a business trip to Chicago and of course I was keen to check out some blues.  So I emailed ahead to some of the people I was meeting asking for advice on where to go and who was playing. Fortunately I found a kindred spirit who checked out some options and offered to show me around.  So after a big American burger and a few beers we went along to a concert to commemorate the 100th Anniversary of Robert Johnson's birth.  It was called Blues at the Crossroads and the concert was at the Chicago Orchestra Hall and I felt quite lucky to have been there that night.

A band from Colorado underpinned the night as a selection of bands played a selection of Robert Johnson songs.  Blues legends Hubert Sumlin and David "honeyboy" Edwards came in in their own right supported by Cedric Burnside and Lightnin' Malcolm.  At the time Sumlin was 80 and was hooked to an oxygen machine as he played and Edwards was 95 and played sitting down.  They played about 10 songs between them or a little under half the night.  Amazing.  By the end of the year both had died so I felt doubly lucky to have seen these two legends.  Sumlin was of course Howling Wolf's guitarist and Edwards claims to have been with Robert Johnson on the night he was murdered.  Here he is playing Sweet Home Chicago and here is an interview with him about Johnson.

After the show we headed to Buddy Guy's blues bar where the man himself was holding court at the end of the bar. After I bought my beer I was about to go over and say hi when he seemed to disappear - a lost chance - but I did get to see him live a few years later when he played a great set in Singapore.  At any rate we finished a good night listening to a local band and staggered back to the hotel.

Cedric Burnside and Lightnin' Malcolm provided the backing for the two legends and interchanged instruments all night.  Cedric has blues blood in him being raised by his grandfather RL Burnside.  I bought their album 2  Man Wrecking Crew shortly after the show and it is a good mixture of blues with some modern beats in it as well.

Favourites : The Mendoza Line : Lost in the Revelry

Lost in Revelry is a lo-fi alternative country music masterpiece by The Mendoza Line.  A band that named itself after a baseball statistic indicating unacceptable batting.

I bought it in Melbourne at the same time I bought Calexico's Feast of Wire - certainly one of my best days of music buying.

The Mendoza Line was a New York based band out of Georgia.  By 2000 the mainstays were soon to be husband and wife Shannon McArdle and Tim Bracy.

I had heard the desperately depressing Triple Bill of Shame on a best of 2002 CD as the album, despite being pretty obscure made quite a few best of lists that year. The album kicks off with the excellent and similarly downbeat A Damn Good Disguise.  While one of the next tracks Something Dark hints at an even darker theme it is actually somewhat lighter with McArdle humourously considering options in response to her partner's infidelity.

They save the best to almost the end, the incredibly nasty The Queen of England a misogynists view of love.

So, you thought you were in love

Just 'Cause I bought you pancakes

Call it an honest mistake

But for God's sake don't call it love

So, you thought you were turned on

Just 'cause I got you wasted

And you over-appraised it

When you told your friend you were in love

And you recognize, of course

That all this is just a sham

And I'm not an artist

That's no one's idea of a man

You were a little engine that might

Might all these little things right

But if I don't see you tonight

Say hi to the Queen of England

So you thought we should've stayed friends

But I didn't think so

But you wouldn't take no for an answer

You kept on asking why

So I said I wanted you

But I didn't mean it

I just liked to see if

I could say those things

And look you in the eye

And you recognize, of course

That all this is just a sham

He's not an artist

And I'm no one's idea of a man

You were a little engine that could

Make all these awful things good

But you never said you would

Help out the Queen of England

You recognize, of course

That all this is just for laughs

'Cause I've been his lover

And he don't really talk like that

You were the little engine that cracked

That isn't blood on the tracks

Should you want your innocence back

Go ask the Queen of England

Should you want your innocence back

Go ask the Queen of England

Journey Through The Past 23 : Eddie Hinton : Very Extremely Dangerous and Hard Luck Guy

I first heard of Eddie Hinton after reading about him in Say It One More Time for the Broken Hearted which I bought for about two quid at a discount book store in Soho.  At the time I was just really getting into Dan Penn's music and I noted many references to Dan in the bibliography.   So the combination of the price and those references were enough for me to pick up the book.

One of the "characters" that Barney rated highly in the book was a guitarist called Eddie Hinton whose song We Got It made it into Barney's top 20 Country Soul songs.

Eddie was one of the session guitarists at the Muscle Shoals Studio and had grown up with the likes of Duane Allman  and apparently taught Otis Redding guitar. It may have been that Otis also taught Eddie a few singing tricks as Eddie sang like a white Otis.   Eddie wrote a few songs for Otis but his best known song would have to be the Dusty Springfield/UB40 classic Breakfast In Bed.

By the time I had heard of him he had already died after a long struggle with drugs, psychological and health
problems.  The first CD of his I bought was a posthumous release curated by Dan Penn.  He took a lot of demos and half finished songHard Luck Guy  sounds like a well conceived full album.
s and like Jake and Elwood got the band back together to finish them off in a very sympathetic style. As a result

Threre are some terrific songs on the album standouts for me are the title track, Can't beat the Kid (covered by John Hammond in the 70s), Three Hundred Pounds of Hongry and Sad Song  (Covered by Otis) and I Can't be Me

After the "success" of this CD three more CD's of demos were released of diminishing returns although the first one Dear Y'all - The Songwriting Sessions would be a very good addition to anyone's collection.  So I was hooked and then managed to seek out some older albums by Eddie the pick of which would be Very Extremely Dangerous.

This is really a great lost album, recorded live at the Muscle Shoals Studio it has a real energy about it. The Swampers seem energised by the fact they are playing and recording for one of their own.  In addition to We Got It there are a bunch of essential Eddie songs,some of which were co-written with Dan, including Shoot the Moon, You Got Me Singing, Yeah Man and I Got the Feeling.  As it seems to be so often the case the album sank on the back of Capricorn records struggling financially and folding around the time of its release.  I feel lucky that I have been able to replace my CD of this album with a great vinyl copy in a respectably battered sleeve.

Damn Right I've Got The Blues : Freddie King - One of the Three Kings of the Blues

When I was about 12 or 13 I was going to school in Lower Hutt by bus.  It was a long trip - including the walk to the bus stop to and from home it took about an hour an half depending on traffic.  However it always seemed to be the highlight of the day, catching up with friends from other schools I made on the bus. There were a few of us from Wainui and after school we would frequently decide to the lengthen the trip home and walk to the rather optimistically titled Transportation Centre.   Really just a small bus stop!

We did not do that every day - but we did it most Thursdays.  One of the reasons we did this was to collect the pamphlet that 2ZM would put out each week showing the top 20 songs.  It always seemed a big deal as we would have the jump on the official countdown on later that night.  At that stage the top DJs on ZM were the then irreverent Paul Holmes and Lloyd Scott. I kept those pamphlets for years and they probably eventually disappeared in the fire.

The pamphlet always advertised one or two albums. One that they seemed intent on pushing was Freddie King's Getting Ready and it seemed it was on the pamphlet for about a year.  I always liked that cover.  I still do not own that album itself (which I will rectify some day) but I do have most of the songs collected over a few compilation CDs.

I have both King of The Blues and The Best of The Shelter Years and they are both excellent.  The former being a double CD covering his entire career and the latter covering the last 3 lps he made with Shelter records.


I have a few Clapton CDs with different bands and while he has never been shy of touting his influences and he does cite King as a key influence.  When you hear King's Walking By Myself you really get the picture of how much King really influenced Clapton.   On that song it is not just the guitar but the vocals that if it was not for the passion in both the singing and the guitar work you would swear it was indeed Clapton.

Other standout tracks are I'd rather be blind, Going Down, Woman Across The River and I'm Ready.   Then of course there is his version of Key to the Highway.

There are of course two other Kings of the Blues,  BB King and Albert King.  I have albums by both of them but to me the King of the Blues is always Freddie.  If you have not heard him check him out.  I suspect you will find it hard to back to Clapton afterwards.

Favourites : Little Band o Gold : The Promised Land - A Swamp Pop Journey

I bought this CD around lunchtime on a Friday in February 2011 in Christchurch and saw the band play later that night.  The venue, a recently renovated warehouse has probably now been demolished.  It was between quakes.  That night they played Los Lobos' Shakin' Shakin' Shakes to recognise Christchurch's resilience.  They also played a bunch of Bobby Charles covers as well as most of the album.  Jan, Sam and I had a great night and Jan then took the CD put it in the car CD player and it never left it for the rest of the holiday.

The band is kind of a Louisiana  cross generational supergroup built around Warren Storm, Steve Riley, C.C Adcock; and David Egan.

I had not heard of Warren Storm until I started to read the band's publicity at the time.  A bit of a legend and at that time he would have been about 72!  In fact it looked to me that he actually had the drum sticks taped to his hands to help him control them.  Interestingly not long after getting back to Singapore I was in the House of Turntables and the owner had a copy of a Warren Storm Acetate on one of his turntables and was stunned when I mentioned that I had recently seen him singing and playing only weeks before.  I offered to buy it but he was not interested.   

This is a very good album and a great introduction to Swamp Rock or Louisiana rock. Checkout Spoonbread and I Don't Wanna Know.

Journey Through The Past 22 : The Pretty Things : Parachute

Until I started to write this blog post I had fallen for the misinformation that this album was Rolling Stone Album of the Year in 1970. It did not that is just another rock'n'roll myth - it did not even make the list.  BUT IT SHOULD HAVE.  One of my favourite albums of all time.

The follow up to their equally overlooked and now reappraised SF Sorrow rock opera. It was released to good reviews and miserable sales.

I to listen to The Pretty Things as a result of Bowie's Pin Ups Album  where he covered Rosalyn and Don't Bring Me Down.  Shopping at Wellington's then second hand record mecca Silvio's in Cuba St just up from the mall I slowly picked up original pressings of almost all their albums.

From their start as a great pub/garage/British r'n'b band to experimenting in the psychedelic sounds of the late 60s through SF Sorrow to this their masterpiece.  I actually have three vinyl versions of this.  A double with SF Sorrow, the original NZ version and an immaculate condition UK vinyl version with a fold out cover.  unfortunately they are all in storage in Christchurch so I am listening to the original Edsel CD release.  Parachute was recorded in Abbey Road Studios by Norman "Hurricane" Smith.

An interesting mix of acoustic almost pastoral music of The opening sequence (live 35 years later)  and Grass, the heavy rock of Miss Fay Regrets and Cries from the Midnight Circus all with a focus on achieving harmony filled rock.  The highlights to me though have always been their clever retelling of the Easy Rider movie in Sickle Clowns, She's a Lover and the closing title track.

It is hard to understand why this would not have received the same sales and similar accolades of the pompous nonsense that other were putting out at the time.

The Pretty Things continued after this and have released  good albums in the last ten years but they never really topped this.

Listening to this at the moment : Nancy and Lee

I knew some of the songs of course but Chris was a fan of Some Velvet Morning with its double meaning depending on your own inclination.  "Some Velvet Morning when I'm straight, I'm gonna open up your gate, and maybe tell you about Phaedra and how she gave me life"   It's either a crude and simple metaphor for sex in the morning or its talking of a wider metaphysical awakening.  However with the electricity between Nancy and Lee (and Lee's voice) there can be little doubt that its about SEX, or is it.

A few weeks ago Jan and I were checking into a hotel behind some people and when they gave their names she said Phaedra - I wanted to ask her if she was named for the song! But I never did.

When we were across in NZ for the Springsteen Concert I picked up both an excellent vinyl version of this album but also a Nancy Sinatra greatest hits which played non stop in the car for the time in Auckland.

It is a great album - Covers of Jackson (made famous by Johnny and June), My Elusive Dream, a steamy and almost desperate version of You've Lost that Loving Feeling and originals Ladybird, Summer Wine and I've Been Down So Long it Looks Like Up to Me.

Favourites : Late Dylan - Time Out Of Mind, Love and Theft and Modern Times

I have been reading this book for the last week.  An interesting look at the inside world of the Dylan crazies.

The book deals with those obsessive fans that need to collect anything connected with Dylan, or the live show and recording addicts and those that dedicate themselves to lyrical analysis.  I am not an obsessive Dylan fan but I do count Highway 61 Revisted, Blood on the Tracks and Oh Mercy as three of my favourite albums and I have about 50 records, CDs or Videos (including duplicates on different media).

I found the section of the book devoted to those that dedicate themselves to analysing every last song most interesting.  It is that section that has had me grabbing Dylan off the shelf and playing and listening anew.  Interestingly the section is not devoted to the early classic Dylan but that Dylan recorded since 1997 now referred to as Late Dylan which is interesting as that started 17 years ago!!  So I am wondering what they call his current out put VERY Late Dylan?

In a lot of respects the lyrics of his song Mixed Up Confusion come to mind.

I got mixed up confusionMan, it’s a-killin’ me
Well, there’s too many people
And they’re all too hard to please

What is particularly interesting to me about this section is how one obsessive Dylanologist started identifying that Dylan had lifted whole lines and sections of his lyrics from old and new books, poems and even tour guides. Some have called Dylan on this and claimed Plagiarism as a result.  However others have been able to identify that Dylan seems to be actually calling up even wider themes than what the songs by themselves suggest or imply.  It seems that Dylan is really trying to stitch together themes within his songs and beyond into the books and poems he is quoting from all while creating some sort of magical mystery tour.  If this is true (and the case is put pretty credibly) then Dylan has once again challenged the music world order by twisting the usual norms. Something he has done time and again throughout his career.

So to the music and to me his late period peak is Time Out Of Mind, Love and Theft and Modern Times. While I have the follow up CDs Together Through Life and Tempest they have never captured my imagination in the same way.

Of these, while Modern Times for some reason captured the collective imagination and became Dylan's biggest selling album ever and is solid it is Time Out of Mind that I enjoy the most of the three.

At the time it was claimed that Dylan wrote it after a near brush with death after a heart infection left him hospitalised for a week. Like most Dylan stories this was bs - it had actually been recorded before that. Whatever the reasons there are some great songs on the album - from the opener Love Sick (which I saw the White Stripes cover,   Trying to Get to Heaven (which Bowie recorded and never released around the time of Heathen), Cold Irons Bound, Not Dark Yet and Til I fell in love with her.


Love and Theft and Modern Times both had good songs but increasingly to me they all started to sound the same.  We had a family trip to see Dylan when he toured Modern Times and like a lot of people we left a little dissappointed.  The old songs had been rearranged to suit his voice and band and while I am usually a great believer in this on live songs - they all sounded the same and frequently it was two versus in before you could pick what song it was.

However in the meantime I can and do listen and enjoy to his music often.