Sunday 24 April 2011

Coke, Crisps, Refreshers and Fleas The Size of Rats - let's have a listen to 'Diamond Dogs'

Watersmeet forever!!!

A few nights ago (Good Friday 2011 to be precise) I could not sleep for love nor money (or even a bit of both) so I ended up reaching for the ever faithful ipod and instead of the soporific tranquility of Brian Eno's 'Thursday Afternoon' which usually does the trick, I felt awake and jittery enough to listen to Bowie's 'Diamond Dogs'. I got through the whole album, still couldn't sleep and then lay there conceiving the blog I am about to write. As this is the first chance I have had to sit down and get the thing written, I hope it comes across as well as it did in my head at 3am the other morning..............

I am pretty convinced that I became the person I am today - at least in terms of how I love music and how music affects me - on a particular night in 1974 when I was a mere 9 years old. Mum and Dad went out for the evening and the usual list of babysitters must have been so unanimously out of action that the job eventually fell with my brother Brian and a few of his friends. Our folks left Brian with a list of do's and dont's, vague bedtimes for us all and the price of a Chinese takwaway for all. The 'Chinese take away' the boys went and bought consisted of a bottle of Teachers, 40 cigarettes and enough Coke, crisps and sweets to keep the rest of us happy and also quiet. To complete the picture, the two brothers from up the road arrived with a copy of the recently released 'Diamond Dogs' which was played, over and over, on Dad's old radiogram for the entire evening. I don't remember there being any respectful, silent appreciation of the album - it was just kind of happening in the background, but as the older boys got more and more hammered on Whiskey and I got more and more charged on the sugar and inevitably deadly additives in cheap 1970s sweets I became more and more transfixed with what I was hearing. Quite content to stand in a corner out of the way, chopping Townsend-like at my makeshift tennis racquet guitar, I couldn't quite believe that music could have such a physical affect on a human being, as goosebumps rose on my arms, my scalp tingled and my chest hurt (it wasn't the three packs of Refreshers I had scoffed either) Not only was I transfixed by the album, I was also terrified by it as well, particularly the howl that kicks it all off and the terrifying imagery in the spoken 'Future Legend' that follows, as 'fleas the size of rats' suck on 'rats the size of cats' - In fact, for at least a year afterwards, I played 'Diamond Dogs' with numbing regularity, but everytime carefully placed the needle far enough over to miss out 'Future Legend' completely. I'm sure my brothers and my sister will remember just how scared I was of an album I enjoyed so much.

So the evening in question came to a not too sticky end. We managed to tidy up, get our comatose babysitter into bed and his friends off home - in fact we even managed to somehow muster up a chow mein and a couple of spring rolls from somewhere, just to make the deception complete. (Sorry Mum and Dad - it was all Brian's fault of course) and eventually Brian got his own copy of the album, only for me to comandeer it and play it until I wore the vinyl out.

'Diamond Dogs' is an exceptional album, possibly Bowie's best (very close though - my jury is still out on what is my actual favourite, if indeed I even have one) Whilst is misses a lead guitarist of the calibre of, say Mick Ronson or Earl Slick (at that time, past and present Bowie guitarists respectively) as Bowie himself opted to play all the guitars on the album, you do still have the wonderful avant guard piano of Mike Garson and some excellent sax playing from Bowie himself who also brings in Moog and Mellotron synthesizers to great and eerie effect. Aside from the chilling 'Future Legend' you get the (very Stones like) glam shuffle of the title track and the lead off single 'Rebel Rebel', the US Cop Show funk of '1984', the rousing ballad 'When You Rock and Roll With Me' and the dark and sinister 'We Are The Dead' - which is one of my favourite Bowie lyrics (it wasnt until years later when I bought a CD release with printed lyrics that I realised that what I thought was him singing 'funky bumps' is actually 'fuck-me pumps'). The real moment of magic on the album comes with the ten minute medley 'Sweet Thing / Candidate / Sweet Thing Reprise' - a beautiful and melancholy construction in which Bowie compares casual sex to 'putting pain in a stranger' and invites his friend / lover to 'buy some drugs and watch a band and jump in the river holding hands'. The whole show ends with the eerie Mellotron 'choir' that introduces the prayer like appeal to a higher God of 'Big Brother' (this 'choir' effect would be used to similar grand effect a decade later on XTC's 'Deliver Us From The Elements' and a further decade later on Radiohead's 'Exit Music') and ends with the quirky, almost funky, 5/4 shuffle; 'Chant Of The Ever Circling Skeletal Family' and the repeated echo to fade of 'Bro...bro.....bro....bro.....' which to me, did and still does sound like 'Brian, Brian, Brian, Brian' - When you consider the circumstances under which I first encountered this incredible album and then nurtured a love for it that holds strong to this day, that seems quite fitting to me. Cheers Hedge!

By the way - if you are one of the kind few to read this blog, please do add yourself as a follower and also you might care to read a lot of the comments added to past entries by my fine friend, the excellent and accomplished musician, poet, performance artist and psychoanalyst to the living dead, Mr Andy Warner, aka Drew Crow Star - I really do appreciate the comments he has added and have no reservation in saying that what he writes is a damn sight better than what I produce. Your good health, My Lord.

More to follow?

Col

Thursday 21 April 2011

'The Sun Machine Is Coming Down' or "Mum, what's a phallus?" - Bowie's Space Oddity album revisited.....

'Space Oddity' (originally released with the imaginative title 'David Bowie') is Bowie's second album, released in 1969, still a good few years before the megastardom that came with 'Ziggy Stardust' I wont go into all the biographical stuff. If interested, why not read THE best Bowie biography of them all; 'Strange Fascination' written by my good friend David Buckley - I'll add a link to his marvellous website at the end of this blog. (Was that okay David? Great. £20.00 should do the trick. No problem. Any time)

As you should all know by now (all five of you that read this anyway!) I always write about albums in terms of my own experience and impression of them. And so it came to pass that I first heard 'Space Oddity' the album in the dull summer of 1977. I had just finished my first year at secondary school, adolescence was kicking in and to make matters worse I was carrying a huge pre-pubescent torch for a friend of my life long and therefore long suffering friend Rachel. I dont remember much about this object of my affections now, other than she wore paisley headscarves and at the age 12 already had the demanour of an angry librarian who you have just told that you've dropped your books in a muddy puddle. It never came to anything you understand. Poor Rachel, she had to put up with a lot growing up two doors down the road from me, and I'm sure she did her best to fight my cause with the wonderful Headscarf Harridan. Thanks Rach!

The more I have gained in years, the more I regard 'S.O.' as a guilty but quite intense pleasure. Listening to it earlier this evening for a pre blog reappraisal I was relieved to find that I still love it to bits, still sing along with all the words and even still get a bit excited at the end of the lengthy hippy indulgence of 'Cygnet Committee' - a song that completely blew me away when I first heard it. The album is in places, let's be honest, as cheesy as a great big overripe Brie and with all its late 1960s fey folkiness it does sound at times like it was conceived, performed and recorded by Trevor and Simon's legendary early 1990s kids TV pastiche 'Singing Corner' but this all adds to its undoubted charm I'm sure.

Back in 1977 I hadn't read a single Bowie biography and had no real regard or concern for any chronology in his work so as far as I was concerned he had always been a big famous rock star and hadnt spent the whole of the 1960s in vain pursuit of a hit single or two. He was also, of course, light years away from the loved up hippy folk rock of Space Oddity by 1977 and was about to release 'Heroes'. I cared not.

Of course things get underway with the title track, about which I cannot say any more really and I expect if you are reading this then you may well have heard it a few times already. This is followed by the easy going bo diddley jam of 'Unwashed and Somewhat Slightly Dazed' which (honestly) prompted me to ask "Mum, what's a phallus?" because of the line 'I'm a phallus in pigtails'. 'Letter To Hermione' and 'An Occasional Dream' are (in my opinion) two of Bowie's most enduring love songs. Terribly dated of course, and there is still that urge to shout 'swing your pants' from time to time but I still reckon they are very sweet and slightly melancholy songs. 'Cygnet Committee' clocks in at just under 10 minutes and is Bowie's passionate rant against the hippy principles. It is a bit cringe inducing with hindsight, but I still love it and just a few hours ago I was relieved to still find myself bellowing out 'I want to livvvaaaah' at the end, the goosebumps rising on my arms once more. Bowie's ode to 'Janine' (a name given such a bad press in the aftermath of Spinal Tap and Eastenders) is a little more lively and the strange but beautiful 'The Wild Eyed Boy From Freecloud' sounds like something from an avant garde late 1960s stage show. Possibly that was the intention at the time? One of my favourite songs on the album is the Dylanesque 'God Knows I'm Good' - a genuinely sad tale of a poor and skint old dear reduced to pilfering from a supermarket (a tin of 'Stewing Steak' no less) and getting caught in the process. I was very moved indeed. Still am. The poor old woman. Someone give her a shilling to pay for it and let's let bygones be bygones you bastards!!! And so to the final song, the hippy anthem that never was, and none other than Bowie's own 'Hey Jude' (if I say so myself) - 'Memory Of A Free Festival' Actually, its great. OK there's the grimace inducing, posh Cambridge spoken intro ("errm, maybe I should announce it") and some pretty hairy hippy imagery ("We talked with tall Venuisans passing through") but so what. Just as I did (quietly) as a 12 year old, headscarf fixated, pre-teen oik back in 1977, I found myself singing (loudly); 'The Sun Machine is coming down and we're gonna have a party' over and over again earlier this evening with great passion, and feeling all the better for the experience.

As an early Bowie album this is indeed 'rugged and naive' but to me it is still incredible nonetheless.

More to follow.....

Col

PS Visit David Buckley's website here;
http://www.david-buckley.com/
He is a seriously good rock writer, a thoroughly decent bloke and I do hope to have the chance to get inebriated with him in person at some stage in the very near future.

Friday 1 April 2011

Let's have a listen to 'Music In A Dolls House' by Family

There are times when only the unlikely combination of a bacon sarnie and a large whiskey will do. But as I doubt there is the makings of either in the kitchen at the moment and a lightning trip over to Chorleywood is not practical at this moment in time, a coffee and a couple of the ‘toffee pennies’ – you know, the ones that can remove fillings, or even teeth if you are not careful - from the Quality Streets left over from Christmas will have to do. For someone who claims to have such a broad and varied taste in music, there are still quite a few bands that I only know one song by. If I mention Blue Oyster Cult, Bachman Turner Overdrive, Boston and Golden Earring (to name but a few) I wonder if you could possibly guess which songs they might be? And there’s me getting all irate when people say the only song they know by The Vapors is ‘Turning Japanese’ – talk about double standards. Up until recently, the same applied to Family (their 1973 chart hit ‘Burlesque’, another favourite of my brother Brian, being the song in question) until I read somewhere or another that The Beatles had intended to call what became their eponymous 1968 double (‘The White Album’) ‘A Dolls’ House’, then discovered that Family had beaten them to it with their debut, ‘Music In A Dolls’ House’ This incredible feat of inadvertantly putting one over on the musically omnipotent Fab Four was reason enough for me to want to investigate ‘MIADH’ for myself a few years back. Thankfully good old Milton Keynes library had a lonesome and distinctly under borrowed looking copy in stock. Job done. MIADH is, dare I say it, quintessentially 'British Rock From 1968', in that it blends left over remnants of psychedelia, embryonic progressive rock, back to basics blues rock, folkie ballads and some oddball humour into an addictive and hugely enjoyable 35 minutes or so. Prominent throughout are the distinctive trademark wobbly vibrato vocals of Roger Chapman, backed by the striking falsetto of multi instrumentalist Jim King. As for content, it’s one great big (but massively enjoyable and strangely cohesive) mess of differing themes and styles. Sit back and enjoy the eccentric tally ho and gallop of the opener ‘The Chase’, the beautiful string backed ballad ‘Mellowing Grey’ and the shuffling boogie of ‘Old Songs New Songs’. Jig around a bit to the funky / bluesy ‘Hey Mr Policeman’, the power house rock- reminiscent of late Small Faces – of ‘Winter’ and the dreamlike tick / tock of ‘Breeze’. The psychedelic phased drums and mellotrons of the mini epic ‘3xTime’ close the album, but not before you get a short raucous blast of ‘God Save The Queen’ – and that’s only half of what is on offer here. Both Jim King and bassist Ric Grech (who went to join Clapton, Baker and Winwood in ‘Blind Faith’) left the band one year later after the band released their follow up, the more mature but equally impressive ‘Family Entertainment’, but the band continued, developed and went from strength to strength. Family continued to produce some fine records well into the 1970s (I have since caught up with most of their back catalogue and would recommend ‘Family Entertainment’ and ‘Bandstand’ for further listening) but would never again produce something quite so whacky and wonderful as ‘MIADH’, without doubt one of the great British albums of the late 1960s. More to follow.......

Wednesday 30 March 2011

Let's have a game of 'Random Ten'........ please?

Be happy people, if you can. And remember to spell 'happy' with a Little H.


Here we go with a little more of my blog and it's time for a game of ‘Random 10’ – its easy to play. All you need is a collection of music on a pc or portable device and a random or shuffle button. So as not to appear in any way technically prejudiced, you can play this with a stack of CDs, tapes, or vinyl, but in that case you would also benefit from a blindfold, a willing accomplice and a vivid imagination (suggested instructions and rules could be supplied on request. Yes, I do need to get out more) Whether or not this makes for quality blogging material who knows, but I propose to hit ‘shuffle songs’ play through the first ten songs it throws at me and write just a little about each. One very strict rule – no skipping, ignoring or starting again – if it decides to throw a 40 minute Brian Eno ambient experiment into the mix then…… well it will be a long evening I suppose. OK then, here goes….


1. King Crimson – Lady Of The Dancing Water. ‘Uh-oh’ - King Crimson – could be in for a long night after all – no, wait, its under three minutes. Yes, very nice little acoustic number with some very pleasant flute and (what?) trumpet added in. The sound of a misty and mystical medieval glade, without the bad smells and murderous marauding pillagers. From Lizard (1970)


2. Sapphire Thinkers – Please Understand – Ah, this is good. Sun drenched, harmony filled US psych-pop that’s just edgy enough to avoid being too twee. Yet another excellent discovery thanks to the marvellous Psychedelic Lion website / blogspot (http://psychedeliclion.blogspot.com/ ) Taken from From Within (1969)


3. Echo And The Bunnymen – Monkeys – Suitably dramatic stuff from their 1980 debut Crocodiles – all echoey guitars and trademark Ian McCulloch histrionics. I was a few years late jumping on this particular bandwagon, after spending a fortnight in Ibiza in the summer or 1984, where ‘The Killing Moon’ was played nightly at the local disco. Crocodiles was given to me later that same year as a pressie for my 20th Birthday. What wouldn’t I give to go back and have 1984 all over again? Certainly not my ipod that’s for sure.......


4. Tears For Fears – Watch Me Bleed – One of the great pop bands of the 1980s, although I would never have admitted that at the time of course. This is a fairly likeable, but hardly classic track from their debut album The Hurting (1983). Hints at greatness on their debut would be fully realised on the excellent follow up ‘Songs From The Big Chair’ then overdone to the point of bloated excess on their third and final album of the decade ‘The Seeds Of Love’ The older I get the more I am willing to concede that the 1980s was a great decade for British pop music. Right on.


5. Kings Of Leon – Camaro – I’m still not completely sure about Kings of Leon. Certainly one of the better bands to emerge in the last decade and this is one of their better songs. Good rocking pace, incredible bass and top notch idioosyncratic lyrics about hot chicks in cool cars. From ‘Because of The Times’ their third album released in 2007


6. Elliott Smith – Christian Brothers. Starts with the line ‘No bad dream fucker’s gonna boss me around’ – excellent. I got into the music of the late Elliott Smith a few years ago when I heard his superb album ‘Figure 8’ from 2000. This song is taken from his eponymous second album released in 1995 and is fairly standard Smith – intense, breathy vocals over acoustic guitar and lo-fi backing. I’m still getting to know the rest of his back catalogue and I’m sure there will be much of a similar calibre to ‘Figure 8’ to be found.


7. Oasis – (As Long As They’ve Got) Cigarettes In Hell – I often forget how great Oasis were. And they recorded some cracking b-sides too. This is typically Beatle-ish, complete with a plodding Hey Jude / I Am The Walrus rhythm, Strawberry Fields mellotron and an excellent vocal from Noel, who usually sang at least one b-side per single. This was one of the b-sides on the ‘Go Let It Out’ CD single and to me is yet another heady reminder of the complete insanity that was the fine summer of 2000.


8. Frank Sinatra - The Gal That Got Away / It Never Entered My Head – From The Reprise Collection box set. Sounds like a live medley from later in his career. I’m still getting my head round Sinatra and hoping that it’s not too much longer before I am able to listen to and enjoy his stuff at other times of the day than 2am when I’m feeling sorry for myself and can’t sleep, but for now that will do nicely.


9. The Beatles – Mr Moonlight (Live At The Star Club, Hamburg 1960) – Somewhat inevitable that something by this lot would turn up in a random 10 – shame it had to be this one really. Archive Beatle recordings are priceless historical artefacts of course, but in truth they usually sound like a big old heap of turd. I think I have played the Hamburg Live album only once all the way through and this is a reminder of why. I’m sure the all-night, amphetamine fuelled marathon gigs played to pissed up German sailors were incredible if you were there of course. Let’s hope we get a decent finale.......


10. Blur – Till The Cows Come Home – Oh yes – that will do nicely. Blur’s brilliant 1993 single ‘For Tomorrow’ was the first CD single I bought, having left it quite late to get hold of something to play them on. Remember when you bought ‘Part 1’ of the CD single in a funky package with space to put ‘Part 2’ in that would be released the following week? So I got the box with the aeroplane on and both parts of the single to fit in it. This is one of the b-sides from ‘Part 2’ and is a fair indication of the Union Jack, Knees Up Muvva Brown, Best Of British path that Blur were to tread with their next few albums, which saw them enjoy the peak of their commercial and critical success.


So there you have it. Not such a bad bunch at all. If you feel inclined to play this at home, why not send me your ‘Random 10’ lists along with your comments, get a guest spot in the blog and save me all the hard work! Otherwise, I will return soon and there will most definitely be.......... more to follow.

Thursday 24 March 2011

Hats Off To Led Zep 3............

It’s taken quite a few years to come to this conclusion, but ‘Led Zep 3’ is probably my favourite Led Zeppelin album and therefore deserves the questionable immortality an entry in the blog.
Up until the Summer of 1979, when a friend at school lent me his copy of Led Zep 4 (the one with ‘Stairway’ on it of course) in order to try and broaden my horizons beyond The Beatles, Bowie and The Jam, Led Zep (in my opinion at the time) belonged to an older generation altogether, namely the greatcoat and granny specs wearing prefects of the Sixth Form at the all boys Catholic school I was attending at the time - basically 17 year old oiks given some degree of authority by teachers who preferred to spend cold break times in the staff room drinking coffee and chain smoking their Embassy Regal. Said prefects would admonish The Jam, Clash, Pistols and Stranglers in favour of the ‘real music’ they listened to; Led Zep, Deep Purple, Genesis, Floyd, Mike Oldfield, hell, probably even a bit of Gentle Giant and Van Der Graaf Generator too. Although this did lead to some puerile but still vaguely amusing playground urban myths being created by us ‘punk’ kids concerning these so called figures of authority indulging in meticulously choreographed and impeccably timed acts of self abuse to the accompaniment of the whole of ‘Supper’s Ready’ by Genesis, somewhere between finishing their physics homework and supper being, indeed, ready.
But Led Zep 4 weaved its magic nonetheless – specifically I recall over the weekend of the 1979 FA Cup Final (as a Spurs fan I will still begrudgingly admit it was a thriller of a final) In fact ‘When The Levee Breaks’ is as inextricably linked to Arsenal’s admirable comeback against Man Utd in my head as REM’s ‘Murmur’ album is to the 1986 all Merseyside final. Strange. But True.
This opened my eyes and ears to this so called ‘older boys’ music – although I would never have admitted this to the ‘prefects’ of course and I was to be converted to Led Zep instantly (with Floyd, Genesis, King Crimson etc etc etc to follow), slowly acquiring their back catalogue over the next few years. I finally got around to buying a copy of ‘3’ on one of the many trips to the record stall at the indoor market in Watford sometime in the early 1980s – a nice original pressing too with the revolving wheel in the front of the sleeve, from the £1.00 box. I suppose my initial reaction was much the same as that of a lot of contemporary critics when the album was first released in 1970, ie a bit of a let down, way too acoustic and folky, but with perseverance it grew and grew over the years until my £1.00 second hand album became a CD and ultimately an intangible computer file stored on a small and extremely precious little gadget I take with me everywhere I go.
One of the most endearing qualities of ‘3’ is the variety within. For those who like their Zeppelin super heavy (and who doesn’t after all) there is the rampant Nordic plunder and pillage of ‘The Immigrant Song’ the jubilant ‘Celebration Day’ and the more ‘traditional’ Led Zep sound of ‘Out On The Tiles’. You also have the beautiful and melodic ‘Tangerine’ the plaintive ‘That’s The Way’ and of course the incredible ‘Since I’ve Been Loving You’ – I’m a bit wary of the lengthy slow blues work out, but this is just incredible in its performance and delivery and possibly my favourite Zeppelin track of them all. But perhaps most of all it is the acoustic / folky stuff that initially met with, well, if not sneers and derision then at least some scepticism, that ultimately makes the album so special. There are the sinister eastern flavoured strings on ‘Friends’, the urgent, mandolin driven gallop of ‘Gallows Pole’ and the foot tapping hoedown of ‘Bron Y Awr Stomp’. Wrap this all up with the sheer insanity of ‘Hats Off To Roy Harper’ that concludes the proceedings and the package is complete.
As tranquil as it is intense, Led Zeppelin 3 is a perfect accompaniment to the (hopefully) warmer, sunnier days to come. Well worth revisiting if you haven’t heard it in ages, equally well worth investigating if you have never heard it at all. After all, why should the prefects have all the fun.
More to follow………..

Wednesday 23 March 2011

Typical me really. My New Years resolution for 2010 was to write and maintain a daily blog. It started brightly in January and had dried up by the middle of February, barring the odd return; the last being my ecstatic retrospective review of Paul Weller's 'Heliocentric' written during my enthusiastic catch up on his back catalogue early last summer. All the old entries are still there as I log on this evening for the first time since last summer; some are interesting snapshots of where my mind was at just over a year ago, there are some interesting reviews and a few things I will still stand by, but much of it reeks of desperation, when I began to realise that it is not easy to even try to be interesting, amusing and thought provoking on a daily basis and also began to run out of ideas (my tirade against my ineptitude at online fantasy football games and my detailed tour round my 'fittie folder' are particularly awful) In the end the best advice I received was from one of the two (yes, two) followers of the blog, my beloved brother Brian, who suggested I was at my best when reviewing or just rambling on about music, movies, TV shows or books. If Brian was politely saying 'this is because the rest of the stuff is pure shite' (which I'm sure he was, without trying to in any way offend) then it was advice well received and well heeded - apart from what I'm writing now of course.

So, a little over a year down the line I suddenly have a thought. 'Why not kick a bit of life back into old Arthur and get the blog going again?' I'm hardly in a good place to be starting to blog again really; I need to keep the momentum going on my search for permanent employment that will go some way towards paying the bills and I am two hefty assignments and a full on exam away from completing the latest module of my degree course (Open University, English Literature and Language) - so many excuses really. I wouldn't have dared to so much as open the blog page during the first ten miserable weeks of this year when I was completely out of work (something those close to me will be painfully aware of from my constant griping) but at least for now I have some temping work which I am enjoying, so purely as a means to relax of an evening and share a few thoughts with anyone who cares to read, then why not - I'll give it another go.

I'll leave it at that for now (sorry Brian - I will heed your advice from now on) except to say that if you do read this, or any future blog posts, please do get in touch with ideas; music, movies, books, TV or (day I say it) anything that you think might benefit from, or be totally destroyed by The Thoughts of Chairman Arthur. You have been warned.

Coming soon I strongly suspect; Led Zep III, Wolf Creek and Stephen King's 'Full Dark No Stars'.

So having got all that off my chest I'm quite looking forward to getting this going again and with some allowance for excitement I can say for the first time in a long time....... more to follow.