Songwriters’ Circle : JOHN CALE, NICK CAVE, CHRISSIE HYNDE

John Cale, Nick Cave & Chrissie Hynde - Songwriters' Circle, Subterania Club, London, Britain, 7-9-1999

Paul says : I recently discovered a bunch of "Songwriters' Circle" albums, and I plan on posting more of them soon. Most of them are pretty hard to find, except this one. It probably gets around more due to the star line-up of John Cale (formerly of the Velvet Underground), Nick Cave, and Chrissie Hynde of the Pretenders.

By the way, I've already posted two Songwriters' Circle albums. They all follow the same format, in which three singer-songwriters are chosen and take turns singing songs in an acoustic format. Sometimes they join in a bit on each other's songs, sometimes not. Then, at the end, they usually sing a song together. 

I've already posted two such shows. Here's one with Jimmy Webb, Chip Taylor, and Nick Lowe:

https://albumsthatshouldexist.blogspot.com/2023/03/jimmy-webb-chip-taylor-nick-lowe.html

And here's one with Richard Thompson, Suzanne Vega, and Loudon Wainwright III:

https://albumsthatshouldexist.blogspot.com/2022/12/richard-thompson-suzanne-vega-loudon.html

I have figured out all of these come from a BBC TV show called "Songwriters' Circle." But the odd thing is, this show has had two brief runs. There were a bunch of shows in 1999, including the one I'm posting here. Then there was a second bunch in 2010 and 2011. There haven't been any since. All the episodes remain unreleased as audio albums, but you can often find the videos of them on YouTube.

For this show, I found out there are two versions. One ends with "The Ship Song," and goes into a BBC DJ announcing the end of the show. Another has one more song, a cover of "I'm Waiting for the Man" by the Velvet Underground. I used the shorter version for most of this concert, since I had that in better quality. But I added in the extra song from the other version.

This album is 49 minutes long.

01 talk (John Cale)
02 Dying on the Vine (John Cale)
03 talk (Chrissie Hynde)
04 Talk of the Town (Chrissie Hynde)
05 talk (Nick Cave)
06 West Country Girl (Nick Cave)
07 Thoughtless Kind (John Cale)
08 talk (Chrissie Hynde)
09 Kid (Chrissie Hynde)
10 talk (Nick Cave)
11 Henry Lee (Nick Cave)
12 talk (John Cale)
13 Fear Is a Man's Best Friend (John Cale)
14 talk (Chrissie Hynde)
15 I'll Stand by You (Chrissie Hynde)
16 talk (Nick Cave)
17 Into My Arms (Nick Cave)
18 talk (John Cale)
19 Ship of Fools (John Cale)
20 Back on the Chain Gang (Chrissie Hynde)
21 The Ship Song (Nick Cave)
22 talk (Chrissie Hynde)
23 I'm Waiting for the Man (John Cale, Nick Cave & Chrissie Hynde)

Simply put . . . . . wow! This seems rare as hen’s teeth but you may know different yet I love these three and the Songwriters’ Circle has thrown up some fascinating bedfellows!

Check this!  

John Cale - Ship Of Fools (oh you KNOW it!)

Waiting For My Man - Hynde, Cave & Cale!

Songwriters’ Circle - John Cale, Nick Cave & Chrissie Hynde complete

The Band - Katie’s Been Gone | Le Ramasseur De Mégots

Katie's Been Gone

Richard Manuel penned song by The Band

Le Ramasseur De Mégots

Jimmy Page 81!

Happy 81st birthday to Jimmy Page!

Image credit: Mirrorpix

Never the greatest fan of Jimmy post the first two Led Zeppelin albums which I still think were revolutionary but the master of the riff is little else in my humble opinion not the greatest soloist as many would have it. Still 81 is an event worth noticing and the effect that the first two album had on most of us shouldn’t be minimised. There was definitely something going on and the band as a quartet achieved something quite mystical almost (ask Robert Plant!) the sum being greater than the parts as ‘there and nothing wrong with riffing either IMHO but since there is little he has achieved outside of this and Jeff Beck and folks have wrapped up his credit quite succinctly else where. The main reason I post this here is his acknowledged debt to Lonnie Donegan and I can only agree and worshipped Lonnie early on much like Jimmy did! ‘Puttin’On The Style’indeed

Led Zeppelin at the Gladsaxe Teen Club in Gladsaxe, Denmark

March 17, 1969

"I know this is heavily circulated but this is always a very fun listen..

However I can say this video is unique in that I boosted the bass a bit.. ;)

Also instead of just downloading this from YouTube, I used the original bootleg and video, just for the sake of quality.” 

https://www.youtube.com/@LedZeppelinRarities

 

“I wanted to have my own approach to what I did. I didn’t want to … do a carbon copy of B.B. King, but I really love the blues. The blues had so much effect on me and I just wanted to make my own contribution in my own way.”

Jimmy’s story as a musician begins with the song that changed his life: Lonnie Donegan’s “Rock Island line,” a big hit in England in 1955 as performed by the Scottish-born singer. it’s an American blues to and about the Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific Railroad line. It was first recorded by John and Alan Lomax in Arkansas prison, and later made famous by the Louisiana blues legend Lead Belly. Jimmy had heard Donegan’s version many times on the radio, and even owned the record, but he wasn’t inspired to pick up the guitar until the day he heard Rod Wyatt, a kid at school, play it on his. Jimmy told Rod about the guitar he had at home, and Rob promised that if Jimmy brought it in, he’d show him how to tune it and play a few chords.

“It was a campfire guitar … but it did have all the strings on it which is pretty useful because I wouldn’t have known where to get guitar strings from. And then [Rod] showed me how to tune it up … and then I started strumming away like not quite like — not quite like Lonnie Donegan, but I was having a go.”

Donegan took the past, owned the present, and influenced a generation of great rock musicians. “He really understood all that stuff, Lonnie Donegan,” Page says. “But this is the way that he sort of, should we say, jazzed it up or skiffled it up. By the time you get to the end of this he’s really spitting it out … he keeps singing ‘Rock Island line, Rock Island’ [and] you really get this whole staccato aspect of it. It’s fantastic stuff! So many guitarist from the Sixties will all say Lonnie Donegan was [their] influence.”

From Your Song Changed My Life by Bob Boilen.

Led Zeppelin - Dazed and Confused (Live at The Royal Albert Hall 1970)

Midnight Rambler - The Rolling Stones (live) at The Marquee 1971 | Top Hat Crew's "Live Music Archives"

 The Rolling Stone at the Marquee!

The Rolling Stones - Midnight Rambler [Live] HD Marquee Club 1971

The show was an intimate, rare club appearance and very little footage has been released, until now. Part of the “From The Vault” series of live concerts from the band’s archive, The Rolling Stones From The Vault: The Marquee – Live In 1971

Top Hat Crew's "Live Music Archives"

George Jones - The Weatherman |Guess I’m Dumb

George Jones - The Weatherman (1975)

"Some fine honky tonk from the master. "

There’s trouble brewin’ in this heart of mine.

Now I struggled for the longest time with this kind of country sound with the accent and the songs and yet it grew on me and the acknowledged senior figure of Jones I appreciate and thus is great fun. YeeeeHAW!

Guess I’m just dumb too!

Bob Dylan and The Band - I Don't Believe You (She Acts Like We Never Have Met) The Last Waltz

I Don't Believe You (She Acts Like We Never Have Met)

Le Ramasseur De Mégots

Can you have too much to boogie!? John Lee Hooker knows . . . .

Too Much Boogie

Le Ramasseur De Mégots