GEORGINE DARCY

You’re looking at Georgine Darcy. She had a mildly successful career in show business, but only one role of hers really matters—Miss Torso from Alfred Hitchcock’s thriller 'Rear Window' 1954 which I believe deserves inclusion in anyone's top ten films of all time…

Possibly one of the most gripping thrillers of all time and certainly  one of the best screen kisses I have ever seen between James Stewart and Grace Kelly. Beautifully scripted shot and acted throughout . . . . . . 

Francis Bacon

Francis Bacon by John Deakin

“George Melly called him a “vicious little drunk of such inventive malice and implacable bitchiness that it’s surprising he didn’t choke on his own venom”. Woolworths heiress Barbara Hutton described him as “the second nastiest man I’ve ever met”. Even Daniel Farson, his most faithful friend, introduces him in his memoir sponging money in the French House, the Soho pub popular with artists and writers.

John Deakin was, by all accounts, not an easy man to like. As well as having a tongue like a file, he was a notorious miser and leech. Francis Bacon’s description offers some insight as to why. “A very amusing man,” he said. “Very sarcastic. But he needed drink more than anything else.” Deakin was a chronic alcoholic, but Bacon was the one with the limitless bar tab: his status as a photographer is almost obscured by his role as the painter’s court fool. Descriptions of Deakin are not kind: he had the “gait of a midget wrestler”, “Mickey Mouse ears”, and his pock-marked face was “wrinkled like a bloodhound’s”. In fact, after reading these accounts, pictures of Deakin provide something of an anticlimax. He was short, sure, but not actually demonic. It’s possible his personality had such a powerful effect that it rendered impartial description impossible.”

– Gordon Comstock

Bob on Suze

&

Suze on Bob

“Right from the start I couldn’t take my eyes off her. She was the most erotic thing I’d ever seen. The air was suddenly filled with banana leaves. We started talking and my head started to spin. Cupid’s arrow had whistled past my ears before, but this time it hit me in the heart and the weight of it dragged me overboard… She had a smile that could light up a street full of people and was extremely lively, had a kind of voluptuousness—a Rodin sculpture come to life.”

– Bob Dylan

“Bob was charismatic: he was a beacon, a lighthouse, he was also a black hole. He required committed backup and protection I was unable to provide consistently, probably because I needed them myself. … I could no longer cope with all the pressure, gossip, truth and lies that living with Bob entailed. I was unable to find solid ground. I was on quicksand and very vulnerable.”

– Suze Rotolo

Nice n Blue for a Sunday

(thanks Willard's Wormholes)

BEN WATERS & THE ROLLING STONES (with Bill Wyman) “Watching The River Flow” (2011) – A Rolling Stones 21st Century Reunion

February 18, 2017 – 23:56

BEN WATERS “Watching The River Flow” (2011)Bill Wyman Rejoins The FoldFROM 2011: The big Stones news is that Bill Wymanrejoined his mates to record some music for Ben Waters’ Ian Stewart tribute album, Boogie 4 Stu. Listen below to The Stones covering Bob Dylan’s “Watching The River Flow.” The musicians are Mick Jagger (vocal/harmonica), Keith Richards (guitar), Ronnie Wood (guitar), Charlie Watts (drums), Bill Wyman (bass), Ben Waters (piano), Jools Holland (Hammond) and Willy Garnet, Don Wellor, Alex Garnet & Tom Waters (saxophones). The long, slow wind down is sublime. Get it at Amazon, HERE.

MORE BEEF!

The extraordinary 'Floppy Boot Stomp' blog has posted this morning a gem for fans of the good Captain Beefheart and his early incarnations. The Avalon Ball room set from the mid sixties is a real treat and shows the captain and his then pals in a glorious blues standard band of great accomplishment. It first cropped up on 'Grow Fins' I think and then as first half of a bootleg coupled with early Safe As Milk stuff. Here it is just the live Avalon Ballroom set and clean as a whistle it is too!

Really enjoyable for fans of the blues and early Beefheartiana! [it's a word!]Don really plays straight blues harp worthy of any master blues harp player and the band whilst playing blues standards are tight as a gnat's chuff. I have this in other formats and someone has cleaned it up a treat from my old vinyl boot

Captain Beefheart & The Magic Band - Avalon Ballroom SF 1966

Magic Band early incarnation line up & notes:

01 Down In The Bottom

02 Don't Start Me Talkin'

03 The Sun Is Shining 

04 Tupelo 

05 Somebody In My Home 

06 Old Folks' Boogie 

07 St. James Infirmary

08 Evil (Is Going On) 

09 Harp Instrumental 

Captain Beefheart - vocals and blues harp

Doug Moon - guitar 

Alex St. Clair - guitar 

Jerry Handley - bass 

Paul Blakely - drums.

“The Avalon Ballroom, 1966”. Most fans will probably be familiar with five of these tracks as they’ve appeared on the “Grow Fins” box set as well as a number of bootlegs over the years. But added to this are FOUR new tracks – “Down In The Bottom”, “Don’t Start Me To Talkin'”, “The Sun Is Shining” and “St James Infirmary” – that have never been released before. So, what we have now appears to be the entire KSAN radio broadcast … at long last!

BBC ' Where The Action Is' 1966 yes really!


Diddy Wah Diddy on American Bandstand and a phone in with Dick! Brilliant!


Final word from The Magic Band and John French on what appears to be Swedish Breakfast TV!!
They're like that in Sweden! Why it's like the Captain being on Ann and Nick! . . . . . . .

Notes from found photos . . . . an occasional series while wandering around t'interwebbie thing . . . . 

CAMILLE CLAUDEL

Camille Claudel, 1864 -1943

Camille Claudel was a French sculptor and graphic artist. I have been fasciated by women artists all my life. Often overlooked and referred to, if at all, as many an artist's muse. The story of Camille Claudel is no exception. Muse and student of Rodin and whilst there was a considerable age gap they were lovers but above all she was a great artist IN HER OWN RIGHT! Sure she was taught by the master but check out the images. They are NOT Rodin as some first thought but are by Camille. It is not a happy ending however  and clearly she was a haunted beauty with dark demons inside that finally won the day. She spent her final thirty years as an inmate in the local asylum. She deserves a film or biography. 

Camille photographed posing for Auguste Rodin

No, it's not a Rodin. This is Camille's own work 

 . . . as is this haunting figure study

  Twenty-four years Claudel’s senior, Auguste Rodin took her on as an assistant in 1884, turning her into his model and mistress by the time she was 20. Camille Claudel died on 19 October 1943, after having lived 30 years in the insane asylum at Montfavet (known then as the Asile de Montdevergues, now the modern psychiatric hospital Centre hospitalier de Montfavet).

Leo Kottke

JOHN CALE

From 'Open Culture' the 'I've Got a Secret' Show starring John Cale

Few of us today, in search of unconventional artistry, would imagine mid-20th-century CBS game shows as a promising resource. But looking back, it turns out that American television of that era — a time and place when more people were exposed to the very same media than any before or since — managed to bring a surprising number of genuine creators before its mainstream-of-the-mainstream audience. In 1960, for instance, experimental composer John Cage performed Water Walk, his piece for a bathtub, pitcher, and ice cubes, on I’ve Got a Secret.Three years later, Cage’s near-namesake John Cale took the show’s stage to play Erik Satie’s “melancholic yet deadpan, ecclesiastical yet demonic” Vexations. Though Cage didn’t make a reappearance for the occasion, he did have a connection to the music itself.

I still have this single in the picture sleeve and cherish it. It changed my life some how and was frankly the most exciting single I ever bought.

behindthegrooves:

On this day in music history: February 13, 1967 - “Strawberry Fields Forever” / “Penny Lane” by The Beatles is released. The double A-sided single is the first release to emerge from the recording sessions that yields the landmark album “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band”. The two songs based on childhood remembrances by Lennon and McCartney were originally slated to be a part of the album. The two songs are instead issued as a stand alone single, after Capitol Records in the US begins to press the band for a new release, not having issued any new Beatles records in over six months. In the US, “Penny Lane” hits number one on the Billboard Hot 100 on March 18, 1967, while “Strawberry Fields” peaks at number eight on April 1, 1967. In the UK, the single peaks at #2 behind Englebert Humperdinck’s “Release Me”. US and Canadian promotional copies of the single include an earlier mono mix of “Penny Lane” that includes a seven note trumpet coda at the end that is mixed out of all commercially released versions of the song, making the promo 45 a valuable and heavily sought after collector’s item. Both tracks make their LP debut on the US release of “Magical Mystery Tour” in November of 1967.

For anyone who doesn't have these in different forms (French, Frith, Kaiser, Thompson - Live Love Larf & Loaf  etc) this just in from the Wondrous Willard's Wormholes for 'review'

RICHARD THOMPSON The Lost Album V3 (1987-1990)

February 11, 2017 – 08:05

The Lost Album (1987-1990)
RT & Some High-Profile Pals

You’d be surprised how many Spanish copy-blogs (not using Google Translator) will re-up this like it’s an actual release or a real rarity. It’s not. The Lost Albumis, in reality, all 8 of Richard Thompson’s compositions (and a few tracks he dominates) with the two-LP con-fab, French Frith Kaiser Thompson. Strung together, Thompson’s material plays like a lost, late-80s RT album… with a cooler than average band. Threetracks are glorious Thompson workouts, long, simmering and dramatic – including extended improvinterplay with guitarist, Henry Kaiser (PLUG). “The Killing Jar” is, simply, one of Thompson’s heaviest tunes ever, while “Drowned Dog Black Night” isn’t far behind. “Tir-Nan-Darag” is a co-write with Kaiser, and there’s also the weirdest music RT has ever committed to tape, “March Of The Cosmetic Surgeons.” You’ll leave remembering the sober material, but will ponder Thompson’s bizarre mini-opera (which, actually includes opera). It took me a dozen listens, but I now believe it to be a work of genius. If you’re an RT fan, listening to this material as a single work is a treat. Compiled from French Frith Kaiser Thompson‘s Live, Love, Larf & Loaf and Invisible Means (both HERE).


Peppermint Rock (3:39)
Bird In God’s Garden / Lost And Found (5:43)
Killerman Gold Posse (1:46)
Drowned Dog Black Night (6:49)
Tir-Nan-Darag (5:24)
The Killing Jar (7:43)
Hai Sai Oji-San (2:43)
A Blind Step Away (5:39)
March Of The Cosmetic Surgeons (5:14)
Act I, Scene 2, The Clinic of Dr. Krikstein. On a podium, Center, MRS. RIPSTOCK-GEDDES is posing as Aphrodite, complete with water jug. Enter left DR. KRIKSTEIN, followed by the STUDENTS, marching Indian file to the rhythm of the music.
Loch Lomand (4:46)
Begging Bowl (3:22)