Cocktails and Records

The Byrds
Triad

I have a bit of a love-hate relationship with this song. I love the tune and its quaint capturing of 60s ‘free-love’ sleeziness, but I hate what it says about singer David Crosby. If there is a song which says ’slime bucket’ (or wistful thinking chancer) anymore than this does, then I’ve yet to find it.

Maybe the rest of the band agreed. ‘Triad’ was left off The Notorious Byrd Brothers LP and Crosby fired soon after. Still, The Notorious Byrd Brothers, with or without ‘Triad’ is one of the best albums ever and Jefferson Airplane rescued the song with a more sassy version on Crown of Creation a year later.

‘Triad’, The Byrds, outake from The Notorious Byrd Brothers, Columbia, 1967. Reissued 1997.

Letta Mbulu
Mahlalela

I first heard this excellently funky track about two years ago through one of those free CDs* that come with Songlines magazine. I can’t find the issue it came with and I am really struggling to find out more about Letta Mbulu. All I know is that she comes from Soweto in South Africa, this tune might well be produced by Hugh Masekela, her back catalogue is ‘currently unavailable’ and she knows a groove when she hears it.

Oh, and she Wikipedia tells me she is responsible for the Swahili chant in Michael Jackson’s single ‘Liberian Girl’.

‘Mahlalela’, Letta Mbulu, 1970

*yes, I’ve clocked the irony of the free CD after my last post…

The Go-Betweens
Bachelor Kisses
Man O’Sand to Girl O’Sea

I went to see ex-Go-Between Robert Forster play last Friday. Although I’ve seen him solo before and the gig was very good, something wasn’t quite right. Grant McLennan, the other half of the Go-Betweens crack songwriting team, went off to tune heaven two years ago now and his melodic balance to Robert’s angularity was just… missed.

So to commemorate that empty space on the stage, here are two classic tunes from the bands 1984 album Spring Hill Fair. Could have picked any of them though really.

‘Bachelor Kisses’, The Go-Betweens (Grant McLennan)

‘Man O’Sand to Girl O’Sea’, The Go-Betweens (Robert Forster)

Ace
How Long

Staying with the MOR theme of late, this weeks song is by UK band Ace. I’ve only recently managed to acquire this track, largely because I have spent at least ten years labouring under the impression that it was by someone else (Little River Band if you’re interested, because Glenn Shorrock does sound a bit like Ace singer Paul Carrack if you’re not listening properly).

Anyway, How Long was Ace’s debut single from 1974 and I don’t think that they ever topped it. They were out-classed/out-MORed by Steely Dan, Boz Scaggs and the Eagles and by the late 70s the band had fallen apart - leaving Paul Carrack free to record with the likes of Squeeze, Roger Waters, Roxy Music and The Smiths before he completely lost the plot and shamelessly helped inflict Mike and the Mechanics on the world.

But lets forget that - How Long was ace. Sorry.

‘How Long’, Ace from Five-a-Side, 1974

King Curtis
Memphis Soul Stew

I’ve never really liked stew very much - it’s just a boring soupy mix of off-cuts and left-overs as far as I’m concerned.

Except when it comes to King Curtis’ Memphis Soul Stew that is.

So that’s a half a teacup of bass, a pound of fat-back drums, 4 tablespoons of boiling Memphis guitars, a pinch of organ, and of course, half a pint of Curtis’ own ripper horn playing.

‘Memphis Soul Stew’, King Curtis, 1967*

*with extra poor sound quality, sorry.

They Might Be Giants
Anna Ng

For some strange reason this song has been trapped in my head for the past few days. And for some even stranger reason, rather than just playing the actual record, I decided to look it up on youtube.

And I’m glad that I did - what a clip! It’s just so ridiculously mid to late 80s indie/college radio looking. This style deserves a genre of its own I think:

1. pointless surrealism e.g. fish swimming upside down
2. random use of black and white, slow motion and extreme close-ups to indicate artiness
3. bizarre ‘dance’ moves
4. band members looking moody
5. type used as a graphic device by flashing unreadable/irrelevant words across the screen
6. any existing intelligent and relevant subtext only known to the band and the director
7. top, top tune

See also: REM, The Church, New Order, The Pixies, Throwing Muses, 10,000 Maniacs <insert your own favourite late 80s star indie act here> etc. etc.

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