From the wonderful

John Cale :: Fragments of a Rainy Season

John Cale is well-known as a man of many talents — producer / arranger / multi-instrumentalist / singer / songwriter / possessor of an insane scream, to name just a few. But one listen to his essential 1992 live album Fragments of a Rainy Season (just reissued/re-jigged by Domino Records) may be enough to convince you that his greatest skills are those of a live solo performer. With just acoustic piano and guitar, Cale delivers a devastating, note-perfect recital of his finest work, from well-loved favorites like “Child’s Christmas In Wales” and “Fear Is A Man’s Best Friend” to deeper cuts like the rollicking “Darling I Need You” and his gorgeous Warhol tribute “Style It Takes.” There’s also, of course, his stark rendition of “Hallelujah,” which as far as I’m concerned is the only cover of this Leonard Cohen tune. Inarguable!”
The new reissue reworks the running order of the original and adds some worthy bonus material (some with strings + pedal steel backing — dig the horror show “Heartbreak Hotel,” or the pounding “Waiting For The Man”) … but however you experience Fragments, you’re in for a treat. This is Cale at his unadorned best, raging against the dying of the light ’til the end.  words / t wilcox

Always worth a visit . . . Aquarium Drunkard

JOHN CALE

John Cale - Fragments . . . . 

RACE and RACISM - some notes and observations . . . . 

Shawn Corey Carter "Jay Zee"

So on one music blog I visit I stated that I thought Jay Z (Shawn Corey Carter?) husband of Beyoncé, was ugly and someone said "Well that's just racist!" and I said 'why?' and they said 'well it suggests you don't understand what stands as handsome or good looks outside your own white race and the wide nose and thick lips of the black person is beyond your frame of reference'

Sidney Poitier

Harry Belafonte

So I said 'what, you mean I can find people like Harry Belfonte or Sidney Poiter handsome but if I say that Jay Z is ugly that's racist?!' so he said that's the typical white man's reply they always say Belafonte or Poitier it's a cliche, so who else? '

Jay Z

Stepn Fetchit

Denzel Washington

So I said, you mean like 'Dorothy Dandridge? . .  I liked her. Gorgeous!   Or Hattie McDaniel from Gone with The Wind , the dancer Josephine Baker? I have always enjoyed the work (and appearance if you will) of Scatman Cruthers, or do you know the comedy character of Stepn Fetchit, a more contentious figure I grant you. But let's say Furry Lewis, JellyRoll Morton or Blind Willie McTell, If I think of early music? Actors of today, say Morgan Freeman, Samuel L Jackson I admire very much although I haven't found Lawrence Fishbourne quite so handsome, he is a good actor I think but in terms of good looks it would have to be the wonderful Denzil Washington.

Dorothy Dandridge

Pam Grier

What about 'Jackie Brown' actor Pam Grier who I adore or more contemporary say Sophie Okenedo and Jaye Griffiths

Jaye Griffiths

both British actors I have enjoyed.  Adrian Lester too if you are looking for handsome British black men I like. Fine fine actor. I am very fond for example of the work of (and appearance of) breathtakingly beautiful Thandie Newton, the stunning Lisa Bonnet, Halle Berry, Rhianna, the glamour model Sylvia Bayo is very nice naked and has a wonderful figure, some sportswoman like Denise Lewis I have always thought her gorgeous and now there is the lovely Jessica Ennis Hill, I like her!  But perhaps I have found women of colour more interesting than men maybe but that is gender preference rather than race if I found Tracy Chapman, Tina Turner, Queen Latifah, Alicia Keyes, Mary J Blige, Tanita Tikarem ( and her brother Ramon), attractive. 

Thandie Newton

Lisa Bonnet

Ramon Tikarem

Adrian Lester

Pauline Black

For more menfolk of colour there's Jimi Hendrix say or Bob Marley who maybe go without saying but what about Mighty Sparrow, Peter Tosh, Ken Boothe, or Shaggy, Buju Banton or the awesome Lauren Hill, Pauline Black I had a massive crush on as a youngster.

Idris Elba

Jimmy Cliff, Toots Hibbert, let's go back a bit to some blues musicians yes? Josh White was a great early influence a very handsome man as were Big Bill Broonzy, John Lee Hooker or Leadbelly quite scary but a strong face, Sonny Terry & Brownie McGhee not exactly handsome men but one of them is blind and they are both great musicians of great character revealed in their faces, Mississippi John Hurt another early favourite, Taj Mahal too. Nearly forgot the legendary Chiwetel Ejiofor, Idris Elba
and David Harewood (all British also BTW) How about Keb Mo, Robert Cray or Lenny Kravitz all fantastically handsome and talented men but I can go back to Little Richard, Allen Toussaint, Little Willie John, and more up to date with Prince, Michael Jackson (paradoxically, perhaps ironically here, only when he was black?!) and Quincy Jones, or the members of New Orleans band of brothers the Neville Brothers and the Meters and Professor Longhair though not conventionally handsome had a character that belied his looks, all of them are or were better looking than Shawn Carter!!!!

Norah Jones

'Shall I keep going?' I might have to put my thinking cap on if we are to be truly 'racist' and find even more people of colour I have admired! I haven't touched on artists yet like John Michel Basquiat or even Asians like Anish Kapoor, actors like Nitin Ganatra or Himesh Patel, Meera Syal, Sanjeev Bhaskar,  Sunetra Sarker who I think is lovely. Not to mention musicians like the incandescently beautiful daughters of Ravi Shankar, Anoushka or Norah Jones. 

Chiwetel Ejiofor

 

Norah Jones

Prof Longhair

The only snag with coming up with more than the 70+ people of colour I have found attractive I have mentioned here without breaking sweat and not yet yet resorting to Google is that it is a bit racist to think like this and I have the eyes of a child in this regard and view people as to whether I am attracted to them, admire them or worship them (Marley, Hendrix, Longhair) irrespective of the colour of their skin!

Mr James Marshall Hendrix

As Captain Beefheart always said . . . . . "Everybody's coloured  . . . . otherwise you wouldn't be able to see 'em"

John Lee Hooker

P.S I realise this is somewhat crass and doesn't include the struggle of the black people to face inherent racism from slavery right through to the struggles of today but it is just one man's observations that I acknowledge there are great black people working in the arts and music today and I like/love and enjoy loads of them. Am I a racist? -  the answer is, according to my black friends, that because I am white I must be . . . . . . . . . . . 

Henry Roeland Byrd - 'Professor Longhair' the MASTER

CHRISTMAS 2016

YULETIDE WASSNAMES!

May as well make a start with some Seasonal Nonsense as I usually do . . . . . . . .

these will raise a smile . . . .from Big O where else?!

A BEATLES COMPLETE COLLECTION

Big O says : 

THE BEATLES
Complete Christmas Collection 1963-1969 [Yellow Dog YD031, 1CD]
All seven Christmas messages plus bonus outtakes. Originally sourced from flexi discs. Very good studio soundboard.

all music says - 

From 1963 until 1969 the Beatles  put together single-sided flexi discs with a Christmas message that were distributed to their fan club members. All seven of these were included in a 12″ LP and sent as a final farewell to members in 1970. Various bootlegs of that limited LP have been floating around for years, and with assorted outtake material and rehearsal chatter included, plus the complete acetate of “Christmas Time (Is Here Again),” that is what has been assembled here in this festive boot from Yellow Dog Records. Aside from “Christmas Time,” which is a pretty good holiday song by any standards, nothing reaches serious artistic heights, but the sheer zany joy of the Beatles  is pretty irresistible as they joke and pun their way through short skits and fractured Christmas carols.
By 1965 everything gets drenched in reverb and quick edits, and tape loops by 1967 make these recordings in their own way as experimental as any of the group’s serious material. John Lennon’s genius for wordplay is rampant everywhere, and odd horn blasts and snippets of songs dart in and out. By 1969 the four Beatles were recording their holiday messages separately, and the sequence was edited together for unity, and yes, Yoko is there, too. As a sort of alternate history of the Beatles told through holiday tidings, The Complete Christmas Collection is fascinating and fun, and makes one wish that it could have gone on forever.

+ + + + +

This is great fun and worth listening all the way through for those who haven't heard these before in which case I must say if you haven't heard any of these then I really don't know here you bin but it's worth revisiting old favourites . . . . . . .  

Also they posted this which is later but has a missing Beatles fan club message from the first lot . . . . 

THE BEATLES - Introducing Martha!

Aaah these take me back and of course we miss George and John . . . so much

Lyle Lovett

Lyle Lovett and His Small Band - Austin Texas 1996

Largely because I just post every Lyle Lovett ROIO of any quality every time I find one, here's a late addition to the day. This just in from the wonderful Midnight Cafe

Just eight tracks from Waterloo Records but none the worse for that as he covers several of my favourite songs not least 'Private Conversation' which has always fascinated me.

TV MEWSIC!

Reflecting that I come across quite a lot of music via background or theme music for tv programmes caused me to think back . . . . . . The advertisement on the Beeb for their new series 'Close To The Enemy' which I haven't seen yet has a clip from the Icelandic band Kaleo and in researching it find it has been used all over the place on adverts and US tv programmes too. Overkill? How did they make the decision to sell it's performance across the globe. Does it work that it is used multiple time?
I discovered a lot of really fine fine music and ended up following some for ever. Emily Barker and her theme for the Wallender series with Ken Branagh had me ending up following her and buying albums and keeping up with everything she does. The really biggest event for me was finding Wilful Missing via 'Waterloo Road' (I know!?) now this is interesting as I don't know who was responsible for this but (for me and my taste) this was exptraordinary. I wouldn't have followed Waterloo Road much but found it on and suddenly sat up at the song used (Constitution Failed) and have followed them and bought all their stuff ever since. Waterloo Road used four Wilful Missing tracks and this of course made me check the programme out again despite not caring for it too much the music and soundtrack caused me to return. Their track ‘DIY’ was used in episode 2 of series 7, and both ‘Cry For The City’ and ‘Constitution Failed’ featured in episode 12 of the same series,  then their ‘Blue Poetry’ was included as the final song in episode 13. Someone on the production team was obviously a fan 



Kaleo - Way Down We Go
the version on the tele . . . used for the new crime thriller 'Close To The Enemy' but has been used a heck of a lot on 'Orange is The New Black' in the USA and adverts for hair products too. . . . . Google reports "Multiple television placements including Orange is the New Black, Blindspot, Suits, Vinyl, Grey's Anatomy, Empire, The Leftovers, Frequency, Frontier and more"
Lead singer has an astonishing voice blues growl for one so young and handsome, he sounds almost like some Southern Blues grower about 55 years old but it's a nice track I reckon




I think I found the work of Emily McGuire this way too though can't quite track her song 'Start Over Again' back yet but highly recommend checking her out too. She's on her fifth album . . . . . .


Another is the wonderful Stephen Fretwell who's song 'Run' was used as the theme for all the Gavin and Stacey comedy series so more people than just me must have searched him out (I hope) doesn't seem to have been THAT prolific but has done some wonderful stuff . . . . . . .



Click this link for the TV version from 'Close To The Enemy'
http://smarturl.it/KaleoAB



I can go back earlier too. Being a fan of the fantastic series 'The Sopranos' and everything about it, the cast especially and the writing but also the soundtrack and especially the theme, imagine my shock to discover the band behind the theme 'Woke Up This Morning' as a British band based and formed in Brixton London..... Alabama 3 for me have never quite matched up to the promise of this single but it ensured I did keep an eye on them ever since hearing the theme song over and over every week. Another of my early TV theme favourites was 'Early Doors' TV comedy which used the wonderful Roddy Frame song 'Small World' which I knew before but the principle still stands I reckon . . . . . hearing it every week made me sit up and smile and I ended up following Roddy even more and buying his albums including live performances from him direct



It works and this strikes me as a 21st Century device . . . . . gone are the days when we just watched Top of The Pops and found American bands like The Lovin' Spoonful or home spun acts like Dusty Springfield here we merely turn on the TV and find Icelandic bands taking over the airwaves

CSNY

This DVD eight track session was never meant for release and serves as a taster for this bootleg of the guys in their absolute PRIME!

CSNY 1974 live 4 discs of it!

From a blogger who I don't often share stuff from . . . . the mighty Plain & Fancy

As they say . . . 

Five words pretty much say it all. Crosby. Stills. Nash. And Young. For the past 45 years, they’ve come to represent the epitome of the traveling troubadour, singer/songwriter ideal, the final remnants of sixties optimism, the last embers of hippie idealism, and a musical legacy that’s left its impact on every band and every artist that’s ever aspired to some kind of Americana achievement.
As if any further proof was needed, here it is: CSNY 1974, a stunning box set boasting three CDs and one DVD (a single CD distillation is also available as well; both are from Rhino). Included are 40 songs and eight videos culled from the quartet’s highly touted 1974 tour, a point in their combined careers that found them in their prime, at least as far as their regal reputation was concerned. The remarkable vibe emanating from that epic journey stays intact, on par with memories of the music, which in every sense remains just as passionate and powerful now. Indeed, the 40 years between past and present practically disappear. No dusty historical document this, but rather a fresh reminder of why this band remains the finest so-called “Super Group” in all of rock history.

 By Lee Zimmerman (visit the blog for Lee's complete text)

Let your freak flag fly and revisit this . . . . . 

Peace out . . . . 

FRANK! BEING . . . WELL, FRANK

Not always been the greatest Zappa fan but adored him for his support (discovery?) of Captain Beefheart, his workshops discovering great musicians his own undoubted mastery and virtuosity of the guitar but his arrogance at times rankled. His again undoubted ability to question authority and things worthy of suspicion  None of us can be THAT smug if we smoke the dreaded nicotine weed tobacco . . . . . will forgive most things because of Bongo Fury, Hot Rats and aiding Trout Mask Replica

Scientology, how about that? You hold on to the tin cans and then this guy asks you a bunch of questions, and if you pay enough money you get to join the master race. How's that for a religion?

-- Frank Zappa, to a concert audience at the Rockpile, Toronto, May 1969

My best advice to anyone who wants to raise a happy, mentally healthy child is: Keep him or her as far away from a church as you can.

-- Frank Zappa

The other factor that people forget about the southern region is the amount of intermarriage that has already occurred there, and so there are certain genetic defects come to the fore when you have a large intermarriage population. That means regression.... And in fact Utah is another state, which is basically owned by the Mormon church, which also has a lot of intermarriage. And because this type of intermarriage there is a large proportion of blind people in Utah. That's why when you go across the street, instead of just a stop light that you can see, they have stop lights that make a cuckoo noise to tell you when to cross the street -- that's true!

-- Frank Zappa, Arf Society interview, quoted from The Way I See It, Barry

The whole foundation of Christianity is based on the idea that intellectualism is the work of the Devil. Remember the apple on the tree? Okay, it was the Tree of Knowledge. "You eat this apple, you're going to be as smart as God. We can't have that."

-- Frank Zappa

As a significant influence on yours truly, The Doors stand at number one in terms of bands from the time the first album I was hooked with the poetry and the sound and I still enjoy them today. So here's a link I wouldn't have been without . . . . . . . the New York set at The Felt Forum is worth it alone . . .

The Doors at Willard's

On this day in music history . . . .  

Largely just because I feel like being cheered up . . . . . Jackie Wilson will do that
 . . . . . as may Rita Hayworth and Fred Astaire . . . . . Rita said the only way she could keep up with Astaire was by having had dance lessons south of the border at age 13!

On this day in music history: December 15, 1958 - “Lonely Teardrops” by Jackie Wilson hits #1 on the Billboard R&B singles chart for 5 weeks, also peaking at #7 on the Hot 100 on February 9, 1959. Written by Berry Gordy, Jr., Tyran Carlo and Gwen Gordy, it is the first chart topping single for the R&B vocal icon from Detroit, MI. Having first established himself as the lead singer of Billy Ward & The Dominoes following the departure of Clyde McPhatter to join The Drifters in 1953, Jackie Wilson enjoys some success with the group before leaving for a solo career in 1957. Signing with Chicago based Brunswick Records, Wilson has hits right out of the box with the single “Reet Petite” and the follow up “To Be Loved”, both written by fellow Detroit natives Berry Gordy, Jr. and Roquel Billy Davis (aka “Tyran Carlo”). Friends since childhood, Gordy and Davis write “Lonely Teardrops” with Berry’s older sister Gwen. While coming up with song ideas for Wilson, Berry writes down the phrase “my eyes are crying”. Feeling that the line is “too common”, he changes it to “my heart is crying…”, after that, the rest of the song quickly falls into place. Recording a demo of the finished song, Gordy flies to New York City, and plays it for Jackie’s producer and arranger Dick Jacobs, who senses it’s a hit immediately. The track is cut live in the studio with Wilson singing with the orchestra, and is completed in a few takes. Released as a single on November 17, 1958, “Lonely Teardrops” is an instant smash, racing to the top of the R&B singles chart within a months time, then crossing over and hitting the top ten on the pop chart shortly after. “Teardrops” gives Jackie Wilson his first million selling single, becoming his signature song. Berry Gordy takes part of his earnings from the song to start his own label Motown Records in January of 1959. “Lonely Teardrops” also entails some sad irony when it becomes the last song Wilson ever performs on stage. While performing on Dick Clark’s “Good Ol’ Rock and Roll Revue” at The Latin Casino in Cherry Hill, NJ on September 29, 1975, the singer suffers a heart attack and collapses after singing the lyric “my heart is crying”. People initially think it is part of the act until the band leader notices Wilson is not breathing. Paramedics are able to revive him, but the singer slips into a coma, and remains in a semi comatose state for the last nine years of his life. Committed to a nursing home full time, Dick Clark pays for Wilson’s medical care until the singer’s passing in January of 1984. A month later at the 26th Annual Grammy Awards, pop music superstar Michael Jackson acknowledges Jackie Wilson as a major influence, and dedicates one of his Grammy wins that evening to the late singer. Wilson’s original recording of “Lonely Teardrops” is inducted into the Grammy Hall Of Fame in 1999.