I strongly suspect that several regular readers will already own this piece of ‘fuzzy felt folk’, but it seems to fit the icy weather and the glacial mood that I am in.
And shock discovery for the day: did you know that Orriel Smith now uses her exquisite soprano to record albums of er, operatic chicken impersonations?
I love this world.
‘Tiffany Glass’, Orriel Smith from ‘Now we are Ten’, Trunk Records, 2006 but originally released as a single in 1968.
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Kay Martin and Her Body Guards The Horizontal Twist
Yes, it’s time for my yearlyconcession to Christmas. May this er, sleazy little number by Kay Martin (who is apparently not featured on the cover of the album from which the track is from) put a festive spring in your stride. And if that’s not enough, you can just re-listen to last year’s selection.
Merry Christmas everyone and see you on the other side.
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So after dining with June Brown/Dot Cotton we went over to the Royal Festival Hall for a dose of hypnotic, shimmering and mind bending genius from composer/musician Steve Reich with Bang on a Can and the London Sinfonietta.
Considering that Steve Reich was responsible for one of the best gigs I have ever been to in my life at the Barbican a few years back, I approached with some trepidation – would he deliver? Could he possibly be as good as last time? Could he heck. The man is a legend.
The centrepiece of the gig was the 58 minute long ‘Music for 18 Musicians’, a pulsating experiment in phasing and rhythm. Fortunately for you, I don’t have 58 minutes of web space so I’m sharing instead one of my favourite shorter pieces by Steve Reich, ‘Electric Counterpoint’.
Steve Reich originally composed this piece for Pat Metheny in 1987 and the track is made up of 11 layered guitar parts and 2 bass (beat that 10cc). Guitarist Mark Stewart played ‘Electric Counterpoint’ on Saturday night and I cannot tell you just how good one man and 12 tracks on a hard drive can sound live.
I suspect that some readers may be put off by the thought of ‘contemporary classical’ but if you are in any way a fan of Brian Eno, Mike Oldfield, The Orb or any other ambient chancers, then you need to listen to this.
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This track is from a compilation of Stephen Duffy tunes from that decidedly odd period in his career where he insisted on being known as ‘Tin Tin’.
The self-penned liner notes tell the sorry tale of young Stephen: 19 year old manages to leave soon to be mega-famous band (Duran Duran) at precisely the wrong moment, but writes catchy song in bedroom (‘Kiss Me’), it’s good and gets him attention and Madonna likes it too, it goes to the top of the charts and he goes on Top of the Pops, he’s the next bright young thing and great things are expected with that brand spanking new three album deal (for Virgin/10), they’re wanting some more chart topping synth-pop gold and er, he comes up with this. Needless to say, the record company don’t like it. And neither do the record-buying public. In fact, they don’t seem to like anything he does. Stephen describes these early pre-Lilac Time efforts as ‘the years I tried to forget’.
And he’s right, we probably should forget most of it – except this strange little number, because it’s actually a great pop tune in a perverse kind of way.
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You all probably know this lovely tune written by Denny Laine, but I’d completely forgotten its existence till I heard it one disturbingly early morning on the radio recently. Let me tell you, Colin Blunstone’s distinctive, wistful voice combined with those fantastic string arrangements create a melancholy mood which is perfect for chilly, pre-dawn still autumn mornings. Not that I recommend that you test that out for yourself obviously.
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After too many days in internet hell, both at work and at home, I am giving in and leaving it all behind. Well, for a week or two anyway.
And what better way to mark an imminent trip to France than with a bit of 60s cool from France Gall. From her light skimming vocals to some seriously frantic skatting, this is the fab jazzy 60s pop you probably didn’t know she was capable of. Forget Eurovision and ‘Poupée de cire, poupée de son’, c’est du jazz à gogo!
Right, I’m off to Nikwax my walking boots. See you in a few weeks.
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On the weekend I found a bit of paper on the dresser with a name and song title hastily scrawled across it. This isn’t unusual as I often leave myself notes if I’ve heard something particularly good on the radio, but this time my main thoughts were ‘Lou Christie? Who?? What on earth is this?’
Thanks to the wonderful world of the internet, I tracked the song down and bang, of course remembered straight away. ‘Lightnin’ Strikes’ was on Sound of the Sixties one morning on Radio 2, a sunny Saturday morning where I sat on the edge of the bed, doing nothing, just staring delightedly out window being sucked in by that chorus.
I can’t believe that I hadn’t heard ‘Lightnin’ Strikes’ before (it was a big hit), let alone forgotten hearing it that morning.
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I’ve made a last minute switch on the song of the week, as I simply couldn’t let the death of songwriter Ellie Greenwich this past week go unremarked.
Although I was familar with many of her songs, I didn’t really know who Ellie Greenwich was until one day in the mid-90s when I was reading through the liner notes of my Phil Spector box set and realised that it was she, mostly with her songwriting partner Jeff Barry, who wrote most of my favourites: ‘Why Do Lovers Break Each Others’ Hearts?’, ‘Da Do Ron Ron’, ‘Not Too Young To Get Married’, ‘Be My Baby’, ‘I Can Hear Music’, ‘I Wish I Never Saw the Sun Shine’, ‘And Then He Kissed Me’ and of course, ‘River Deep, Moutain High’.
Although you can’t underestimate the impact of Phil Spector on any of these teenage symphonies, Ellie Greenwich and Jeff Barry’s melodies and gleeful celebration of naive, romantic cliche is pop perfection.
Having said that, she did also write one of my least favourite songs in the world ‘Chapel of Love’, a tune which to my ears sounds more like a celebration of drudgery than romance. I can easily forgive this though, especially since Ellie also produced the Neil Diamond classics ‘Cherry Cherry’, ‘Kentucky Woman’ and ‘Solitary Man’.
So this week’s song is one of Ellie Greenwich’s classics - ’Leader of the Pack’ (with live motorcycle and goofyness) -because sometimes the obvious choice really is the best choice.
And now, isn’t this so much better than most of Michael Jackson’s output?
