Cocktails and Records

The Incredible String Band
Way Back in the 1960s

This site is going relatively quiet for a week or two as I head up to sunny Scotland* for a week or so. To celebrate here’s a tune from Scotland’s (other) finest - The Incredible String Band. In this track, ‘Way Back in the 1960s’, the String Band veer away from their usual hippy folk nonsense and dip their toes into the worlds of ‘humour’ and ‘irony’. To mixed results.

‘Way Back in the 1960s’, The Incredible String Band from The 5000 Spirits or The Layers of the Onion, 1967

* If you say it often enough it might happen…

Minnie Riperton
Reasons

Earlier in the year I was at Gilles Peterson’s Worldwide Awards, queuing at the bar, when this song come on. It seemed vaguely familar, but over the bar noise I couldn’t figure out what it was. Bits of the tune managed to stick in my head, annoyingly unidentified until this very week when Gilles played it again on Worldwide (albeit an unneccessary re-edit by Theo Parrish) and I realised immediately who it was. Minnie Riperton. Of course! I went and dug it out from my CD collection and haven’t stopped playing it since.

‘Reasons’, Minnie Riperton (from Perfect Angel, 1974 or Les Fleurs: The Minnie Riperton Anthology, EMI, 2001)

For more great early 70s soul this week, check out Ann Peebles round at Roman Empress’

??
Incense and Peppermint

No, this track isn’t by some band called ‘??’; I really don’t know who it is. I taped this fantastic (and I think, superior) version of the Strawberry Alarm Clock psych classic off a late night radio programme about 13 years ago, missed the back announcement and have wondered who it was ever since. So if anyone reading this does know, please put me out of my misery.

‘Incense and Peppermint’

Railroad Gin
A Matter of Time

Fans of 70s MOR might like this little played, but still fab tune by Queensland band Railroad Gin.

I never knew much about this group other than that ‘A Matter of Time’ was a minor hit in Australia in 1974. However, thanks to a site called Revolution Rock: Oral History of Brisbane Music, 1942 - Present I now also know that the success of the song led to the band being asked to ‘write and perform a Rock Mass – a concept favoured by the then Anglican Dean of Brisbane, Ian George.’ So the band enlisted the aid of the Queensland Youth Orchestra and wrote some new material ‘especially for the Rock Mass format.’ The main influences for the Mass were Jethro Tull, Santana and Chicago.

A Rock Mass in the style of Jethro Tull, Santana and Chicago? I kind of wish that I didn’t know that now.

‘A Matter of Time’, Railroad Gin, Polydor, 1974

Young Tiger
I was there (at the Coronation)

Let’s take a trip back to 1953 this week with this summery calypso number celebrating Queen Elizabeth II’s Coronation. In the song, Young Tiger (aka the somewhat less excitingly named George Browne) describes watching the Coronation from Marble Arch - seeing the golden coach with Her Majesty looking ‘really divine’ and the Duke of Edinburgh, all ‘dignified and neat’. The song perfectly captures the excitment of those more patriotic times.

However, Young Tiger must have been psychic as the song was apparently recorded on 22 April 1953 and the Coronation didn’t take place till two months later on 2 June…

‘I was there (at the Coronation)’, Young Tiger, 1953 from London is the Place for Me: Trinidadian Calypso in London, 1950-1956, Honest Jons, 2002

Nicole Willis and the Soul Investigators
Holdin’ On

Classic sounding nothern soul? Recorded in the last few years? Accompanied by storming live gigs? By a bunch of Finns (ok, and an exiled American singer)?

No?

Then check this out.

‘Holdin’ On’ [3.28MB], Nicole Willis and the Soul Investigators from Keep Reachin’ Up, Timmion, 2005

Felt and Elizabeth Fraser
Primitive Painters

Inspired by Five Centre’s recent post about duets, I was reminded of this fantastic number by Felt. The song’s probably not a duet in the traditional sense, but with Liz Fraser’s vocal contribution it may as well be, she’s so central to it.

I suspect that Liz Fraser’s appearance on ‘Primitive Painters’ came part and parcel with the fact that her Cocteau Twins partner Robin Guthrie was producing the rest of the album, Ignite the Seven Cannons. Felt were already capable of writing soaring, compelling indie classics which were stuffed to the gills with pretentious, impenetrable lyrics without needing any help from the Cocteau Twins - but hey, I’m not complaining.

‘Primitive Painters’ [5.49MB], Felt, Cherry Red Records, 1985

Hall & Oates
She’s Gone

A little while back Bob Lefsetz was raving about how great Daryl Hall and John Oates were. And he’s right, they recorded some top singles - ‘Maneater’, ‘Say it isn’t So’, ‘Kiss on my List’, ‘Out of Touch’, ‘I Can’t Go for That’ amongst others.

‘She’s Gone’ is one of my favourites. It wasn’t a huge hit at the time (No. 42 in the UK charts), but it’s just so damn soulful. I’ve put this track on mix tapes for ‘cool’ people in the past and they’ve been shocked, never realising that this was boring old, terminally unhip Hall & Oates.

If you’re a fan, I’d also recommend checking out Live from Daryl’s House, Daryl Hall’s web show for some great sessions with Nick Lowe and KT Tunstall in particular.

‘She’s Gone’ from Abandoned Luncheonette, Hall & Oates, 1976