Released August 1965
THE PAUL SIMON SONGBOOK
Paul Simon
The early Simon and Garfunkel canon is rather tangled. This follows the duo's Wednesday Morning 3 A.M. during Simon's time in Europe playing small venues. Most of the songs turn up on other S&G albums, but here they are more raw. That might be because the recording could be better, but it adds something nonetheless. 'A Simple Desultory Philippic (or How I Was Robert McNamara'd into Submission)' really is a full-on Dylan parody but 'A Church Is Burning' seems to be a more subtle tribute to the Bobster. I also didn't know that Billy Bragg had cheekily nicked the first two lines of 'Leaves That Are Green' for 'A New England' until I listened to this today.
Post Status: Not yet, but the full Simon and Garfunkel run-through, paired and solo must be considered.
I Am A Rock
Leaves That Are Green
A Church Is Burning
April Come She Will
The Sound Of Silence
A Most Peculiar Man
He Was My Brother
Kathy's Song
The Side Of A Hill
A Simple Desultory Philippic (or How I Was Robert McNamara'd into Submission)
Flowers Never Bend With The Rain
Patterns
Released: August 1975
CAUGHT IN THE ACT
Recorded: February 1975
Grand Funk Railroad
About two thirds through this album, Grand Funk Railroad play their song 'We're An American Band'. As statements of the bleedin' obvious go, it takes some beating. In fact, as purveyors of s's of the b.o. Grand Funk Railroad are clearly world champs. At the end of 'Heartbreaker' they inform the crowd "Thanks. That's Heartbreaker". Well we kinda guessed guys, because every third lyric seems to be "Heartbreaker". Also the lyrics to 'Rock 'N Roll Soul' go "The name of this song is Rock 'N' Roll Soul'. GFR's raison d'etre appears to follow the advice of Tap keyboard player Viv Savage. "Have a good time, all the time. That's my philosophy Marty", and the fans know it, expect it, want it and have a high old time enjoying it when they deliver. It's easy to try and attribute the invention of something to any band, but it's possible that GFR had nailed crowd-pleasing stadium rock at an early point in it's history. They're quite up front about it too. They get down to business straightaway with 'Footstompin' Music' (the b.o. again) and the opening lyric is "Come on everybody, we're gonna have a good time". Another trick they have up their sleeve is to cleverly play on their name in their choice of songs, so we have their own 'The Railroad' (their slow ballad) but also 'The Loco-Motion', a song whose vibrancy even Lou Reed would struggle to dampen down. It sort of seems that sometimes they are simply running the gamut of Rock and Roll cliche, kind of like a generic rock and roll band tribute act. There's an extended drum solo on T.N.U.C. (Oh dear, I was looking it up on Google, but before I could delve deeper, as it were, I suddenly got it without their help) and 'Shinin' On' has that hazy shimmery rockabilly opening so effectively appropriated by the Sex Pistols a couple of years later on Pretty Vatnac. Even the artwork is a rip-off tribute to the Deep Purple In Concert album. Of course, needless to say, I loved it all.
Band Bantz: Inside Looking Out is dedicated to "Everyone out there who is putting that funky smell into the air". There's loads more, mostly along the lines of checking in on everyone that they are feeling alright.
Heckles and Coughs: They finish with a bit of a hamfisted version of the Stones' 'Gimme Shelter' and the crowd are clearly going berserk at this stage. They are present throughout. Band and fans in perfect synch in their determination to Have A Good Time.
Post Status: https://andysrockodysseys.blogspot.com/2018/03/classic-live-albums-part-4-1974-1976.html
Footstompin' Music
Rock 'N Roll Soul
I'm Your Captain/Closer To Home
Heartbreaker
Some Kind Of Wonderful
The Loco-Motion
Black Licorice
The Railroad
We're An American Band
T.N.U.C.
Inside Looking Out
Gimme Shelter
Released August 1985
THE ROSE OF ENGLAND
Nick Lowe
I know the title track from the Oyster Band's 1987 release Wide Blue Yonder, which is a terrific album by a terrific band. This is all quite terrific too. Lowe can do catchy, likeable pop-rock n roll and make it seem effortless. It also has 'I Knew The Bride (When She Used to Rock and Roll)' at a more pedestrian pace than Dave Edmunds and a cover of Moon Mulligan's '7 Nights To Rock', which Bruce has also been known to knock out in live performances.
Post Status: Yup. Lowe would be good fun, possibly combined with Dave Edmunds.
Darlin' Angel Eyes
She Don't Love Nobody
7 Nights To Rock
Long Walk Back
The Rose Of England
Lucky Dog
I Knew The Bride (When She Used to Rock and Roll)
Indoor Fireworks
Hope To God (I'm Right)
I Can Be The One You Love
Everyone
Bo Bo Skediddle
Released 1st August 1980
THE AFFECTIONATE PUNCHThe Associates
Bowie's output was so diverse that it's quite easy to identify acts that are clearly influenced by him but which sound completely different, especially in the early eighties. For example the Psychedelic Furs' Richard Butler went for the understated South London murmur for his vocal style, whereas The Associates' Billy McKenzie's voice swooped and dived to an extreme degree. Funnily enough, both bands are only really remembered for one song each, 'Pretty In Pink' and 'Party Fears Two', but The Associates edge it for me as 'Party Fears Two' managed to team maybe the most catchy pop hook ever with the most bizarre pop vocal ever.
That song came on the second album, Sulk so it's not on here. To underline the Bowie connection there is a 2005 reissue CD version of The Affectionate Punch that includes 'Boys Keep Swinging' as a bonus track. It's nowhere near as good as the original.
Post Status: Well, they just qualify with 4 albums, but there's no rush.
The Affectionate Punch
Amused As Always
Logan Time
Paper House
Transport To Central
A Matter Of Gender
Even Dogs In The Wild
Would I...Bounce Back
Deeply Concerned
A
FUTURE BLUES
Canned Heat
Canned Heat live up to their name. All their recordings sound to me like they were carried out in a sealed metal box with a good fug going. This is mostly characteristic laid-back blues, but 'Skat' sees them going an a jazz direction.
Post Status: Unlikely
Sugar Bee
Shake It And Break It
That's All Right Mama
Skat
Let's Work Together
London Blues
So Sad (The World's In A Tangle)
Future Blues
 |
RITCHIE BLACKMORE'S RAINBOW
Rainbow
Ritchie Blackmore isn't shy about lending his name to a project, so we have this and his madrigal stuff on Blackmore's Night reaching back down the ages. He didn't stray that far from his Deep Purple comfort zone with this though. Ronnie James Dio is an adequately enthusiastic Gillan replacement and the songs hardly break new ground, but it's acceptable mid-seventies heavy rock from bang slap in the middle of the seventies.
Post Status: I might get sidetracked when I tackle Deep Purple
Man On The Silver Mountain
Self Portrait
Black Sheep Of The Family
Catch The Rainbow
Snake Charmer
Temple Of The King
If You Don't Like Rock n Roll
Sixteenth Century Greensleeves
Still I'm Sad
 |
RUM, SODOMY AND THE LASH
The Pogues
It probably deserves to be called a masterpiece. It's only when you look down the songwriting credits that you realize that Shane MacGowan managed to produce a bunch of songs that really sounded like traditional folk standards and then put the shine on them with his drunken-brawl of a delivery.
Post Status: A full run through of the MacGowan back catalogue definitely appeals.
The Sick Bed of Cuchulainn
The Old Main Drag
The Wild Cats Of Kilkenny
I'm A Man You Don't Meet Every Day
A Pair Of Brown Eyes
Sally MacLennane
Dirty Old Town
Jesse James
Navigator
Billy's Bones
The Gentleman Soldier
And The Band Played Waltzing Matilda
HELP!
The Beatles
HELP! (1965)
So far in my efforts as a Ringo apologist, every time I have tried to point out a piece of great drumming, I have been shot down with "Well, actually, that was someone else you see". But now the defense offers Exhibit C, one 'Ticket To Ride'. I asked my muso son to identify the time signature and he said 4:4 but with changes of tempo, that sounds complex to me. Also, Wikipedia offers no further drummers on the album, so I think I am on safe ground. Doesn't excuse his singing though. This time he goes a little bit country on 'Act Naturally', which comes across as a kind of comedy offering, rather like the Barron Knights doing 'Lucille'.
I was suffering from some kind of virus as I was listening to this album earlier in the week and considered using the sofa time to do the write up. The lyric "Help me if you can I'm feeling down" couldn't have been more apt. McCartney's bass actually acts as backing vocalist on the title track, providing the "down, down, down"'s that many people probably think are actually sung. Lennon shows his Dylan influences on 'You've Got To Hide Your Love Away'; love the folky ending. I think I'd place 'I Need You' as my favourite song on the album, those guitar strums at the end of each line are compelling. It's a Harrison song and his songwriting seems to be easily on the same level as the other two, but he hardly ever got a look-in. Was he just very sporadic? Or was his stuff largely squeezed out? The other one of his on here, 'You Like Me Too Much' is also pretty much perfect and there's a taste of Simon and Garfunkel. Maddeningly though it REALLY reminds me of a much more recent song.
'You're Going To Lose That Girl' has an odd sentiment doesn't it. Half the time it sounds like friendly advice is being offered, at others naked threats. After 'Act Naturally' the tone changes quite a lot, the move from immediate pop to sophisticated melodies begins to take hold. The Spanish guitar at the start of the skiffley 'I've Just Seen A Face' is rather incongruous, also it seems like another dashed off S&G pastiche (although I'm not convinced they were all that prominent at the time).
Macca chucks in 'Yesterday' at the end. Is it really the most played song in the world? You hardly ever hear it. Apparently he wrote it in a dream. In one way the album follows the established pattern, they finish with a rock n' roll standard, 'Dizzy MIss Lizzy', which presumably is part of the set that also includes 'Good Golly Miss Molly' and (my personal favourite 'Lawdy Miss Clawdy'). Don't really remember much about the movie, something about Ringo's ring I think. Seen it once and didn't pay attention. Point of clarification for those of you in the US, apparently the version over there had quite a different track listing with a number of instrumentals and is more closely aligned to the film. Oh, and it doesn't spell HELP in semaphore on the cover.
Post Status: https://andysrockodysseys.blogspot.com/2016/05/the-beatles-please-please-let-it-be-me.html
Help!
The Night Before
You've Got To Hide Your Love Away
I Need You
Another Girl
You're Going To Lose That Girl
Ticket To Ride
Act Naturally
You're Going To Lose That Girl
Ticket To Ride
It's Only Love
You Like Me Too Much
Tell Me What You See
I've Just Seen A Face
Yesterday
Dizzy Miss Lizzy
BEN FOLDS FIVE
Ben Folds Five
My interest is only really piqued by the recommendation by Tim Minchin in his song 'Rock n Roll Nerd', but I'm glad I took the time. Put Billy Joel and Minchin himself into the musical blender and you get something close to this. There is layer upon layer of confusion associated with the name for me. Originally, I just thought it was a slightly elaborate band name, like Sixpence None The Richer, British Sea Power or Ned's Atomic Dustbin, but then I learned that Ben Folds is a person and not a poker player to boot. Then it is discovered that there aren't five of them but three, they just thought Ben Folds Three didn't sound right. But it's nice, listenable, complex and interesting. Sort of rock-jazz fusion without the tedium implied by either.
Jackson Cannery
Philosophy
Julianne
Where's Summer B?
Alice Childress
Underground
Sports and Wine
Uncle Walter
Best Imitation Of Myself
Video
The Last Polka
Boxing
WEASELS RIPPED MY FLESH
Frank Zappa and The Mothers Of Invention.
I'll just give you the track list. No more needs to be said.
Post Status: Where would I even start?
Didja Get Any Onya
Directly From My Heart To You
Prelude To The Afternoon Of A Sexually Aroused Gas Mask
Toads Of The Short Forest
Get A Little
The Eric Dolphy Memorial Barbecue
Dwarf Nebula Processional March and Dwarf Nebula
My Guitar Wants To Kill Your Mama
Oh No
The Orange County Lumber Truck
Weasels Ripped My Flesh
OLD WAYS
Neil Young
A bit of a flop probably because country music didn't reallty float MTVs boat in 1985, but it's good and there's Willie and Waylon backing him up as well, so it's made from sturdy materials.
Post Status. Him and Bob, the Banquos at my feast table.
The Wayward Wind
Get Back To The Country
Are There Any More Real Cowboys?
Once An Angel
Misfits
California Sunset
Old Ways
My Boy
Bound For Glory
Where Is The Highway Tonight?
BOSSANOVA
The Pixies
Straight in with an instrumental for Cecilia Ann (which is kind of like the Shadows if they'd started 30 years later) before getting down to some serious shouty stuff in 'Rock Music'. Things eventually calm down for 'Velouria' which is in a similar vein to 'Wave of Mutilation' from Doolittle. I was listening to 'All Over The World' while walking into work. It features some rather irritating loud-hailer speech in the background and I was convinced it was coming from my surroundings rather than the record. 'Dig For Fire' is great, but probably far too commercial for the hardcore fans.
'Stormy Weather' is interesting since it has a quite subtle change of pace halfway through. I reckon the time signature probably changes a couple of time actually. The closer is 'Havalina'. Quite a reflective piece of guitar pop with ethereal vocals. Very pleasant after everything that's gone before. I'm glad I'm coming to the end. It's been interesting, but I've been in an alternative American guitar rock rut for too long now. Let's see what their 2013 comeback is like and then move on to something a little more mainstream.
Post Status: https://andysrockodysseys.blogspot.com/2014/06/pixies-from-pilgrim-to-cindy.html Still not sure what possessed me to do them.
Cecilia Ann
Rock Music
Velouria
Allison
Is She Weird
Ana
All Over The World
Dig For Fire
Down To The Well
The Happening
Blown Away
Hang Wire
Stormy Weather
Havalina
HAWKWIND
Hawkwind
"Not this band again. Crap! What about some Hawkwind or Marillion!"
Thus spake Neil from The Young Ones as the BBC played the national anthem at closedown (yes, once upon a time, TV stopped in the evening and started up again the next day), and to be honest it left me feeling conflicted. Was my favourtite band at the time the sort that was liked by unhygienic student hippies? Maybe Hawkwind would offer more of the same and I should check them out? I borrowed 1982's 'Choose Your Masques' from the public library and while I liked it well enough, I didn't fall in love.
It's space-rock, which is code for lots of multi-instrumental noodling with a heavy dose of electronic instruments. This meanders a bit and is mostly a load of freeform mucking about, but it's interesting enough. Dave Brock has the advantage of having a clearly English delivery with his estuary accent
Hurry On Sundown
The Reason Is?
Be Yourself
Paranoia (Pt. 1)
Paranoia (Pt. 2)
Seeing It As You Really Are
Mirror Of Illusion
ATLANTIC CROSSING
Rod Stewart
Go into any second hand vinyl shop and I guarantee you'll find at least one dog-eared copy of this. My mum and dad even had it in their house, albeit a CD version in a cardboard sleeve that they got free with the Mail on Sunday and which they almost certainly never listened to.
Cartoon Rod is androgynous on the cover, in silver flared jumpotard, striding to conquer America (or maybe to dodge Harold Wilson's supertax). It contains three songs that have served him, and his accountant, well down the years, 'I Don't Want To Talk About It'. 'This Old Heart Of Mine' and the ultra-tedious 'Sailing'.
Wikipedia reckons that it has a structure of fast songs on side 1 and slow songs on side 2 as a result of a suggestion by Rod's leggy blonde companion du jour, Britt Ekland, however it makes no mention of whether she wanted the band to wear masks based on their star signs or her opinion of recording in Dobly.
Post Status: I'm currently struggling my way through Elton, the problem being that he is more of a performer than a storyteller. I fear Rod would be the same.
Three Time Loser
Alright For An Hour
All In The Name Of Rock n Roll
Drift Away
Stone Cold Sober
I Don't Want To Talk About It
It's Not The Spotlight
This Old Heart Of Mine
Still Love You
Sailing
ERIC CLAPTON
Eric Clapton
The first time I heard Layla I was blown away, but for me Clapton's high points are islands in a fairly bland sea. The epitome of all those suburban English boys wishing they'd been brought up in the Mississippi Delta. This sets the pattern. Obviously it's well done and listenable, but it's not exciting.
Post Status: I'm not tempted for reasons explained above.
Slunky
Bad Boy
Lonesome And A Long Way Home
After Midnight
Easy Now
Blues Power
Bottle of Red Wine
Lovin' You Lovin' Me
Told You For The Last Time
Don't Know Why
Let It Rain
STAGE FRIGHT
The Band
There's something oddly authentic about The Band that for example yesterday's anniversary celebrant, Eric Clapton can't achieve. Maybe it's because they're mainly Canadian and they walk a line between blues and country to produce something unique and rather melancholy that seems to characterize the whole North American experience. This is great, worth sticking on while sipping a whisky before you go to bed.
Post Status: A branching journey through the members various projects would be rewarding.
Strawberry Wine
Sleeping
Time To Kill
Just Another Whistle Stop
All La Glory
The Shape I'm In
The W. S. Walcott Medicine Show
Daniel And The Sacred Harp
Stage Fright
The Rumor
DARYL HALL AND JOHN OATES
Hall and Oates
I mean, wow. That album cover is a gift for the flippantly irreverent music blogger. Daryl Hall resembles Boy George's old mucker Marilyn and John Oates defies any description at all. Poor old H&A, they are ripe for piss-taking, as a sketch involving Simon Pegg and Kevin Eldon from 'Big Train' shows in which they seek to resolve the issues of a South London sink estate. Eldon as Oates is clearly being pulled along on a trolley.
The album is fine. What you'd expect, polished pop-rock that didn't change all that much throughout their career. 'Ennui On The Mountain' is quite the song title mind you.
Post Status: I think it might be a slog for me.
Camellia
Sara Smile
Alone Too Long
Out Of Me, Out Of You
Nothing At All
Gino (The Manager)
(You Know) It Doesn't Matter Any More
Ennui On The Mountain
Grounds For Separation
Soldering
What's Important To Me
Ice
DRAMA
Yes
I have to admit that I expected Drama to be a massive disappointment. No Anderson. No Wakeman and some fairly crappy artwork. But then I started listening to it and realized that not only is it the Yes album I know best, but it's actually really, really good. A bit of background. I bought this as a birthday present for my brother (possibly around the time of release - but I can't be sure). I think he was a bit nonplussed at first (he admitted as much to me the other day when we were listening to it in the car) but he did also tell me it was the best present I ever gave him and we are in agreement that it is a great album. But it didn't look good before you put it on the turntable. Anderson and Wakeman had been replaced by an entire band, Trevor Horn and Geoff Downes of The Buggles, and it cannot be denied that Horn on vocals sounds like he is just doing (an admittedly very good) Anderson impression. If it amounts to a Yes pastiche, then it is a well executed one and the songs do stand up.
'Machine Messiah' features instruments making whining engine noises and some pretty grand keyboard cascades. Bro says that Squire's bass is 'burbling'. It's as good an adjective as any I guess. Next we have micro-track 'Man In A White Car', which I could've sworn was a full-blown song. It certainly seems like it could have been worked up into something utterly pompous. 'Does It Really Happen' is full on classic Yes. Complex bass, complex drums, complex bloody everything, and yet all resolving into a meaningful whole. I've never been to a Yes concert, but Bro is a veteran and tells me that air-drumming is the done thing.
As a whole Drama tends toward a kind of staccato vocal style from Horn which works well with the high pitched delivery. 'Into The Lens' always puzzled me when I was young. The whole "I am a camera. Camera camera" thing was a little odd to me. I listen to it now however and can appreciate the genius of its apparent stupidity. 'Run Through The Light' sees Horn trying on a bit of Sting styling on his vocal. They still find plenty of time for instrumental flights of fancy. Last track is 'Tempus Fugit', which is really more of the same, but there's nothing wrong with that. Against all odds this is a very satisfying album,
Roger Dean is back at the cover designer's easel, but it's not one of his best. I never liked those cats. This is all followed by a bit of mucking around with a new band called Cinema involving Squire, White, Kaye, Anderson and Trevor Rabin, which then morphed back into Yes-sans-Howe who went off to form Asia. Anyway, Asia are a band for another day and the upshot of all this from a Yes POV is 90125.
Machine Messiah
White Car
Does It Really Happen
Into The Lens
Run Through The Light
Tempus Fugit
CLOSE TO YOU
The Carpenters
The Carpenters are a slightly odd proposition. Some folks would probably bracket them in the ludicrous concept of 'guilty pleasure' because they attract the easy listening label, but her voice and and his arrangements are extraordinary. This includes the title track (with additional bracketed '(They Long To Be)') and newlyweds favourite 'We've Only Just Begun'. There's the other Bacharach and David song, 'I'll Never Fall In Love Again' too. The covers are a mixed bag. Tim Hardin's 'Reason To Believe' works, The Beatles' 'Help' does not - they mangle it badly. The freeform jazz of 'Another Song' is a bit weird too.
Quite often my mental associations with songs reach back to classic British comedy moments and '(They Long To Be) Close To You' will forever raise memories of Steve Coogan's Alan Partridge giving it a go. Clip below.
Post Status: Oh yes. I should say I'll get round to them.
We've Only Just Begun
Love Is Surrender
Maybe It's You
Reason To Believe
Help
(They Long To Be) Close to You
Baby It's You
I'll Never Fall In Love Again
Crescent Noon
Mr. Gulder
I Kept On Loving You
Another Song
Released 20th August 1990
LIBERTY
Duran Duran
Reputedly a bit of a dog, but it starts promisingly enough with some Joel-esque piano in the intro to 'Violence Of Summer (Love's Taking Over)'. There ARE some rather odd electronic noises about halfway through that sound like a flock of seagulls (the chip-pinching seaside nuisances, not the ridiculous eighties band). The closing 'Chi-na-na-na' is a bit weird too.
Two songs in and I think I can see where it's all going wrong. Rhodes is being indulged and the keyboard/synth effects are too prominent. Good things to say about the title track is a nice little falling electronic scale. The middle guitar break sounds like it was recorded in a sealed tin box. I thought the song was alright actually. 'Hothead' has a distorted guitar intro riff and is overlaid with American reportage clips. I think it's supposed to be 'funky' or even an attempt to be like Gil Scott Heron, although I must admit I am now way beyond the borders of stuff I know anything about. Conclusion: Not Very Good.
'Serious' then veers over to light and poppy. It's like....er...dunno, but it IS like something. Suggestions are welcome. Not the worst thing on the album. 'All Along The Water' has a mystifying lyric "all along the water baby, take me to your water baby". It's all choppy electronica and rather tedious. 'My Antarctica' might almost be world music inspired, it has one of those kind of open-expanse soundscapes. I thought it was OK, but Le Bon really struggles with the odd high note. It also peters out in a disappointing fashion. More spoken word sampling for 'First Impressions', isolated guitar jabs and a fairly basic beat combine to produce something really quite dull. A piece of poodle-rock with absolutely no bite at all.
Ooooh dear, there's 'scratching' on 'Read My Lips', except it probably isn't, just a simulation of ruining a perfectly good vinyl record produced by one of Nick's toys. It's sort of grungy, but please see Tin Machine (1) for a good example of how to subvert that knd of stuff. 'Can You Deal With It' comes next and Simon's opening gambit is "There must be somebody, who'll make love to me?". The backing is like a nasty video game track. SleB sounds even more desperate than usual, if that's possible. 'Venice Drowning' has a rhythm like 'Walk The Dinosaur' and could definitely do with a bit of "Boom boom shaka laka laka boom, boom boom shaka laka boom boom". Also, the lyric "Divine blasphemer tempting, Holy beads of jism, With the scarlet catechism" is unacceptable on so many levels.
Finally, 'Downtown'. Before I listen I think, could it be? Do they dare even approach the Petula Clark classic? It therefore comes as something of a relief that it is just another substandard composition of their own.The cover is BORING!
Violence Of Summer (Love's Taking Over)
Liberty
Hothead
Serious
All Along The Water
My Antarctica
First Impression
Read My Lips
Can You Deal With It
Venice Drowning
Downtown
GRAFFITI BRIDGE
Prince
It's taken me a long time to get around to writing this one, although I have been listening to it for a couple of weeks now and it's a great album. The problem is, it's a movie soundtrack and I was already a little weary of Prince's directorial efforts, so I was very tempted to skip the visuals and just crack on. But, the film is a sequel to Purple Rain, and no matter how non-committal Wikipedia might be about whether it's a true sequel or not, it does feature the same characters and locations and takes place after the original movie, so it meets some pretty important criteria. It's unfair to Prince as well to criticize his directing skills, to my untutored eye it looks just fine, his problem is gossamer thin plots and appalling dialogue. In fact the plot is so not-there in this one that it really qualifies as a 90 minute performance/concert video - and in that sense it's really very good.
So, plot. Morris is staging a takeover of all the clubs at Seven Corners, these consist of Pandemonium, which seems to be his own base of operations, Melody Cool, run by Mavis Staples with her son, Tevin Campbell, in attendance, and The Clinton Club, run by a character called George Clinton and played by...George Clinton as a kind of interpretation of...George Clinton. You'd think they just wanted George Clinton in the film. Finally there is the Glam Slam run by our hero, The Kid. Morris seems to have Clinton and Melody well wrapped up, but of course it's his old rival The Kid who is holding out. Meanwhile an Angel called Aura has come down from heaven to do some kind of business between Morris and The Kid involving seducing both of them. I really didn't follow that bit.
The titular bridge looks like it's made out of fibreglass, but apparently really does exist, it's where Aura hangs out while playing the two rivals against each other.
Eventually there's a band performance-off between Morris's Time and The Kid's New Power Generation for the soul of the Glam Slam, however the actual decision making process on the winner seems to just be for Morris and Jerome to hold their nerve, tell The Kid he was crap and they win! They kiss and make up at the end of course and the neighbourhood continues to be able to support 4 similar nightclubs all adjacent each other.
The album follows the track order of the plot, so the excellent 'New Power Generation' introduces the Kid and his band while 'Release It' is used for the usual precision synchronized Time dance routine. It's quite a nice contrast really, Prince and his guys are presented as organically gyrating groovers, while Morris and Jerome are all camp control. There's collaborations with all the main guest stars, George is brought in for 'We Can Funk', Tevin wears a too-big suit and draws a crowd outside Melody Cool for 'Round and Round' and Mavis does 'Melody Cool' as a signature song as she's giving Morris the musical V-signs.
Best known song is probably 'Thieves In The Temple' which really does very little to drive the plot along, but I'd say this is about the most consistently high quality record I've listened to so far. The collaborations and a few Time songs help.
Can't Stop This Feeling I Got
New Power Generation
Release It
The Question Of U
Elephants and Flowers
Round And Round
We Can Funk
Joy In Repetition
Love Machine
Tick, Tick, Bang
Shake
Thieves In The Temple
The Latest Fashion
Melody Cool
Still Would Stand All Time
Graffiti Bridge
New Power Generation - Pt. II
LIVERPOOL SOUND COLLAGE
Paul McCartney
I am currently a full-time homeworker due to the viral apocalypse. When I'm not squinting at a view of someone else's powerpoint presentation on my laptop, I often listen to the radio, but between 12:00 and 2:00 pm, I need an alternative to the cavalcade of Little Englanders phoning up the Jeremy Vine Show. At these times I often turn to whatever the next anniversary album is. It'll tell you how awful the the Vine show is by how very much more interesting this mashed up collection of beats, old vocal recordings and on the street interviews are, although you wouldn't listen to it very often I guess. Macca collaborates with Peter Blake, Youth, Super Furry Animals and his old band (mainly through the archive recordings available to him. 'Made Up' encapsulates it best, properly giving a sense of the city as Paul asks passers by what they think of The Beatles and the local chip shops.
Post Status: I didn't include this in the post-Beatles marathon, not really a full on McCartney studio album after all.
Plastic Beetle
Peter Blake 2000
Real Gone Dub Made In Manifest In The Vortex
Made Up
Free Now
NIGHTINGALES AND BOMBERS
Manfred Mann's Earth Band
Everyone knows that they covered Bruce Springsteen's 'Blinded By The Light' but I wasn't aware of the covers of the further Greetings From Asbury Park, NJ, 'Spirit In The Night' and 'For You'. They spread them out over their career too. Spirit(s) In The Night was on this in 1975, Blinded... was on '76s 'The Roaring Silence' and 'For You' was held in reserve until 1980's Chance.
They're an interesting band though. The storytelling Springsteen covers are mixed with some quite proggy stuff as well. When you consider the Mann himself started out doing stuff like 'Doo Wah Diddy' you can't accuse him of being stuck in a musical rut.
Post Status: Could be worth a punt.
Spirits In The Night (sic)
Countdown
Time Is Right
Crossfade
Visionary Mountains
Nightingales and Bombers
Fat Nelly
As Above So Below
Quit Your Low Down Ways
WILD CAT
The Tygers Of Pan Tang
Intrigued by the name really, and there's a slight whiff of ludicrousness about their reputation. I'm sure they've graced the Toledo Sports Arena at some point, which seems to be the touchstone for middling shows by middling rock bands 😉.
This is their debut and it's pretty standard NWOBHM stuff. Forgettable but accomplished at least. I reckon there is probably a better song out there for every title in the tracklist and if they'd been smart they would have called it Wyld Cat.
Post Status: Snowball in hell
Euthanasia
Slave To Freedom
Don't Touch Me There
Money
Killers
Firetown
Wild Catz
Suzie Smiled
Badger Badger
Insanity
BORN TO RUN
Bruce Springsteen
No-one will ever tell you that Born To Run is Bruce Springsteen's greatest album, by virtue of the fact that it certainly is his best but, to prove your Brucebore credentials, you have to choose another one. It marks the transition from stories of youthful friendship and misdemeanours to ones of impending adulthood and responsibility and shows him at his most poetic (Thunder Road) bombastic (Born To Run), epic (Jungleland), nostalgic (10th Avenue Freeze Out) and bleak (Meeting Across The River). He does oversing Backstreets though.
Just as an FYI, I think Darkness On The Edge Of Town is the best.
What do I say about 'Thunder Road' and 'Born To Run'? The first was the moment when he snared me. He did an interview for Whistle Test when promoting the Live 1975-1985 box set and spoke about hearing the performance of 'Thunder Road' that opens that collection. He said it sounded like a beginning, and that's what it is. A young man tearing up his past failures and reaching for something better. As a manifesto for a 17-year old it can't be beaten. And 'Born To Run'? I believe he plays it at every concert now, but I also recall that he seemed to be getting tired of it in the mid-eighties. When I first saw him live at Villa Park in 1988 on the Tunnel Of Love tour he was doing an acoustic version.
These songs are epic but much more focussed than what has gone before. I do think he makes a meal of 'Backstreets', but that echoey piano intro merging into the organ is great. What else? '10th Avenue Freeze Out' is also a pillar of the encore sets now as a tribute to Clarence Clemons and 'Night' and 'She's The One' will never disappoint in a live show.
But buried there on Side 2, just before everything is wound up with 'Jungleland' is 'Meeting Across The River'. Born To Run has a reputation as being this joyous outburst of rebellion and exuberant appetite for life, but 'Meeting...' is about as bleak as Bruce has ever been. A mournful tale of dodgy dealings with unsavoury characters and protagonists taking one last, life-threatening gamble.
Jungleland is a rather more romantic portrayal of life in the grey areas, tempered by the suggestion that the streetfights are musical, rather like a Jersey version of West Side Story. The album cover picture shows genius in its simple complexity and symmetry. Multiracial. Clarence is flamboyant and exotic. Bruce is rough and ready. And they are clearly bezzie mates.
Post Status: There are two - my very first post: https://andysrockodysseys.blogspot.com/2014/02/bruce-springsteen-from-e-street-to-high.html and a much more considered follow up: https://andysrockodysseys.blogspot.com/2017/02/bruce-springsteen-revisited.html
Thunder Road
10th Avenue Freeze Out
Night
Backstreets
Born To Run
She's The One
Meeting Across The River
Jungleland
Released 27th August 1980
The B52s
Fred declaims and Kate belts them out. That's all you need to know. Not sure the B52s changed their formula, I mean 'Love Shack' from 12 years later wouldn't be out of place on here. You'd have to be quite hard-hearted not to get some joy from it.
Post Status: Probably not for a while yet.
Party Out Of Bounds
Dirty Black Road
Runnin' Around
Give Me Back My Man
Private Idaho
Devil In My Car
Quiche Lorraine
Strobe Light
53 Miles West of Venus
SOUTHPAW GRAMMAR
Morrissey
What are we supposed to think of Morrissey these days? I just can't keep up with whether he is still a gladiolus wielding people's poet or a horribly out of touch undesirable closet racist. He's still capable of artistic brilliance I think. Things might have been clearer in 1995 although this is a bit leftfield by his standards, you don't really expect spectacular drum solos or 9 minute semi-instrumentals from him after all. I always like 'Dagenham Dave' - "I love Karen, I love Sharon on the windowscreen, with never the need to fight or question a single thing". Not much has changed for your average West Ham fan over the past 25 years.
Post Status: Here's The Smiths: https://andysrockodysseys.blogspot.com/2017/04/the-smiths.html
The Teachers Are Afraid of The Pupils
Reader Meet Author
The Boy Racer
The Operation
Dagenham Dave
Do Your Best And Don't Worry
Best Friend On The Payroll
Southpaw
Released 29th August 1980
A
Jethro Tull
It didn’t look promising. Rubbish title and rubbish artwork. Also the background reading suggests that this is one of those ‘contractual obligation’ albums that rarely produce something worthwhile. There is a marked stylistic shift as Tull embrace the electronic revolution of the early eighties. Ask Neil Young fans if they think Transformer Man marked the zenith of his achievement. But against the odds this ranks as ‘fairly outstanding’ on the Rock Odyssey scale. What got me onside was ‘Black Sunday’.
Let me take you on a journey through how my mind occasionally works, especially when listening to a song that I really enjoy. ‘Black Sunday’ is a fairly epic affair. You could definitely see it being used in a musical (and Anderson has produced one based on the life of the band’s eponymous agricultural inventor which might well feature it for all I know). But since it is essentially a Paso Doble, I find myself fantasising about the upcoming (at time of writing) performance of ex hopeless shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer, but actually seemingly decent bloke, Ed Balls on Strictly Come Dancing. I would stage it with Balls in city gent rig, bowler hat and umbrella and all, while his unfortunate partner is done up to suggest his broadsheet newspaper (in lieu of a cloak motif) whom Ed would manhandle around the dancefloor. Never mind the obligatory one minute thirty seconds performance either, I’d get Ed putting in the full six and a half minutes. The lyrical themes of disillusionment with the modern world would work well too.
For the rest of it, there’s plenty more modern day angst to keep you going. ‘Protect And Survive’ reminds us that if you were a teenager at the time, you thought there was a decent chance you’d soon be nuked into oblivion. Some of the electronic music is a bit tinny and of its time but it’s a much better album than I had any right to expect.
Crossfire
Flyingdale Flyer
Working John, Working Joe
Black Sunday
Protect and Survive
Batteries Not Included
Uniform
4WD (Low Ratio)
The Pine Marten's Jig
And Further On
HIGHWAY 61 REVISITED
Bob Dylan
It's been qute an epic month. Nearly 30 albums of varying importance and quality. So to finish off it feels right to have true classic to discover for the first time (for me). Number 4 on Rolling Stone's Greatest 500 albums of all time, beaten only by Revolver, Pet Sounds and Sergeant Pepper, and the RS list is about as definitive a one as is likely to exist.
I guess this set the pattern for all the New Bob Dylan's that came after. If they could emulate this in some way, then they got the tag. One listen isn't enough, it's lyrically dense, but from the familiarity of 'Like A Rolling Stone' through the biblical imagery of the title track and the climax in 'Desolation Row' it clearly is the essence of Bob Dylan
Post Status: It will happen.
Like A Rolling Stone
Tombstone Blues
It Takes A Lot To Laugh, It Takes a Train to Cry
From A Buick 6
Ballad Of A Thin Man
Queen Jane Approximately
Highway 61 Revisited
Just Like Tom Thumb's Blues
Desolation Row
0 Yorumlar