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.