Aquarium Drunkard update on THE OCCULT

 

Aquarium Drunkard has featured heavily on the Occult . . . . . . . . this week . . . . . . 

The Lasting Allure of Thought Forms- Aquarium Drunkard

and of course given my attitude to things religious and even spiritual (all products of the brain and what we might identify as 'mind' IMHO) then this is all as much nonsense as any religious belief systems but considerably more interesting at times . . . . . . . Satanists especially are the products of Abrahamic religious beliefs from Christianity to Judaism and others But also mentioned frequently in film studios as I found out several times across the years at art schools with the author of the hilariously entertaining 'Hollywood Babylon' I & II from Kenneth Anger and his Scorpio Rising homoerotic mystical tosh

I found Annie Besant intriguing and the Theosophy movement with the connections to artists Kandinsky, Mondrian et al . . . . . . . 

Category: Videodrome

(Welcome to Videodrome. A recurring column plumbing the depths of vintage and contemporary cinema – from cult, exploitation, trash and grindhouse to sci-fi, horror, noir, documentary and beyond.)

Scorpio Rising

Kenneth Anger - Scorpio Rising - Videodrome

Interesting reads both . . . . . . . 

The Lovin' Spoonful - Henry Thomas! +

 HENRY THOMAS!

The Lovin' Spoonful

Hums of The Lovin' Spoonful

A favourite track and it suited my mood as its sunny and warm for once this year . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 

and then, like you do, I found this on YouTube. . . . . . . . Dave Bomberg and Johnny accompanying Donovan on 'Travelling Light'

so while we're about it . . . . . . . . 

Johnny Flynn - New Album (with Robert MacFarlane)

 JOHNNY FLYNN

has a new album out

with Robert MacFarlane

                     

PREORDER HERE STREAM GODS AND MONSTERS HERE

LOST IN THE CEDAR WOOD AN ALBUM BY JOHNNY FLYNN AND ROBERT MACFARLANE OUT ON 14 MAY 2021 PREORDER HERE

THE FIRST SONG GODS AND MONSTERS OUT NOW LISTEN HERE

THE FIRST SONG

GODS AND MONSTERS

OUT NOW

LISTEN HERE

ANTIFA and The Battle of Cable Street

 CABLE STREET

I found this celebration of the riots of Cable street and wanted to post this . . . . . . . . . 

I object to the term 'Antifa' apart from being lazy language and a portmanteau at its worse, it allows for redefinition, disambiguation and misleading re-interpretations. The world wars were the common man's success against the Fascists of Germany, Italy and elsewhere, the Nazis in the Second World War of course and current usage allows for right wing pressure groups like Trump and his cretinous followers for Antifa to be mislabeled as urban terrorists. Amongst many ani-facist movements we celebrate the common man overcoming the fascists of Mosley's British Union of Fascists and Cable Street. What Anitfa is not is an organisation, a movement or website it is merely the people standing up to the rise of Fascism

Uncredited Photographer     Anti-fascist Community Members and Street Barricade Set Up to Block A Fascist March, Cable Street, East London     Oct. 4, 1936

Today is the 83rd anniversary of the Battle of Cable Street.  The Battle of Cable Street took place in the Whitechapel district of East London.  That community was heavily populated by working class Jewish immigrants from Eastern Europe and their British-born children, as well as Irish immigrants who mainly worked on the local docks.  In Oct of 1936, Oswald Mosley, mini-fuhrer of the British Union of Fascists announced that he and his blackshirts would hold a march through this community, calling for it to be “cleansed” of Jews.  Members of the Jewish community, union members, the largely Irish dockworkers and members of anarchist, socialist and communist groups vowed to stop the fascists.  Between 2- and 3,000 fascists marched, protected by 7,000 cops.  They were met by somewhere between 50- and 100,000 anti-fascist demonstrators.  Needless to say, the police, protecting the fascists, rioted, attempting to tear down the barricades the community had erected so as to allow the fascists to continue their march.  Police used their truncheons to beat anti-fascists demonstrators.  The community responded by pelting the police and fascists with rubbish, dumping chamber pots on them from windows, and fighting back with their fists.  Eventually, the police and the fascists withdrew.  The Battle of Cable Street was won by the anti-fascists, and it is today commemorated as a great victory by unions and leftists in the UK.

Robert Wyatt - Rock Bottom & Shleep - URBAN ASPIRINES

A really nice entry for Robert Wyatt from Urban Aspirines on the back of the reissue of Robert Wyatt: Rock Bottom 1974 (1998 Edition) + Shleep 1997 (his seventh solo album)

I love the way the re-issues are placed centrally in a mini-biography by Urban and this is no exception

Robert Wyatt (born Robert Wyatt-Ellidge, 28 January 1945) is an English retired musician. A founding member of the influential Canterbury scene bands Soft Machine and Matching Mole, he was initially a kit drummer and singer before becoming paraplegic following an accidental fall from a window in 1973, which led him to abandon band work, explore other instruments, and begin a forty-year solo career . . . . . . . . . . 

Brian Eno and Robert

Urban Aspirines - Robert Wyatt - Rock Bottom & Shleep

The First portable pocket record player!!

PORTABLE RECORD PLAYER 

- The MIKIPHONE 

Oh you thought the Walkman was the first portable sounds player? Walkman TPS-L2, The iPod, the Nano? Which? Now you just listen to your telephone!

How about this portable gramophone from 1924 play your "vinyl" on the hop!

The Mikiphone pocket phonograph was designed by Hungarian brothers Miklós and Étienne Vadász, and mass produced under licence by Masison Paillard of Saint Croix, Switzerland.

Formed by a consortium of local watch makers in 1814, Paillard began making music boxes from about 1860. Just before the turn of the century, the company added cylinder phonographs to its catalogue, switching to disc gramophones in 1905. In 1913, Paillard developed an electric AC gramophone motor, and from 1927 the company built electric amplifiers for gramophones, and later radio equipment. Somewhere between those two developments, Paillard made around 180,000 of the Vadász brothers’ Mikiphones.

Kate Rusby - Singy Songy Session #22

 KATE RUSBY

& Damien O'Kane

SINGY SONGY SESSION #22

Kate's Singy Songy Session here on her facebook page . . . .

Yes I know! Start the week with Kate and hubby singing a track from her album 'Hand Me Down' and this is Cyndi Lauper's 'True Colours' which nearly brought a tear to mine eye!! Superbly accompanied on peerless guitar by Damien ( how DOES he do that!?) and that voice will start your week with a heart felt classic!

Kate on her Facebook page Says:

Ha ha!! Here's Surprise Singy Songy Session #22 In celebration of our special world premiere, in 13 sleeps, available worldwide, full band peformance of HAND ME DOWN!! I truly can't wait! Join us if you're free, united in music once again there will be lots of colour and so many smiles!!

Please share, share and share again!! Whoo hoo.

Not forgetting as she says that she is to play the whole album live with full band 

Kate Rusby - 'Hand Me Down' - Live stream and concert tickets here

 

Kathleen Brennan - Tom Waits

 KATHLEEN BRENNAN

TOM WAITS

Tom Waits on Kathleen Brennan, his key creative collaborator who has co-written most of Waits songs since the 80s: 

“We’ve been working together since Swordfish… I’m the prospector, she’s the cook. She says, “you bring it home, I’ll cook it up.” I think we sharpen each other like knives. She has a fearless imagination. She writes lyrics that are like dreams. And she puts the heart into all things. She’s my true love. There’s no one I trust more with music, or life. And she’s got great rhythm, and finds melodies that are so intriguing and strange. 

“Most of the significant changes I went through musically and as a person began when we met. She’s the person by which I measure all others. She’s who you want with you in a foxhole. She doesn’t like the limelight, but she is an incandescent presence on everything we work on together.”

Brennan is notoriously publicity shy, but deserves more recognition.*

Brennan and Waits met in 1979 when Waits made his acting debut in 'Paradise Alley' and then during the filming of the Francis Ford Coppola film 'One from the Heart' still a favourite film and top soundtrack for me. Waits was composing the original soundtrack for the film, while Brennan worked at the film's studio, American Zoetrope, as a script analyst

They married in 1980.

*from the brilliant Floyd The Barber https://mouse-trap-replica.tumblr.com 

Nelson Algren birthday 'Walk on The Wild Side' - Lou Reed

 "WALK ON THE WILD SIDE"

It’s the birthday of Nelson Algren (1909). Born Nelson Algren Abraham to working-class parents in Detroit, he grew up in Chicago’s immigrant neighborhoods. He wrote his first story, “So Help Me,” during the Great Depression while he was working at a gas station in Texas. His life — and work — changed dramatically after he was caught stealing a typewriter and spent five months in jail. His later novels and stories would feature the down-and-out, the loser, and the rejected. He became known as a writer of Chicago. He wrote, “People ask me why I don’t write about nature or the suburbs. If a writer could write the truth about one Chicago street, that would be a good life’s work.”

In A Walk on the Wild Side (1956), set in the world of pimps and prostitutes in New Orleans, Algren gives his three rules for life: “Never play cards with a man called Doc. Never eat at a place called Mom’s. Never sleep with a woman whose troubles are worse than your own.” The novel is, in many ways, about the contempt of a nation for its dispossessed, and in it he wrote, “When we get more houses than we can live in, more cars than we can ride in, more food than we can eat ourselves, the only way of getting richer is by cutting off those who don’t have enough.”

Nelson Algren, who said, “A certain ruthlessness and a sense of alienation from society is as essential to creative writing as it is to armed robbery.”

No wonder Lou Reed thought it a good title for a song and clearly he had read Algren's classic novel.

Live at Farm Aid 1985

Groupies - Julia Dreyer 'Girl Freiberg'

 GROUPIES

An occasional series

JULIA DREYER

From the brilliant and always fascinating Art From The Future

Pigpen McKernan and Girl Freiberg in San Francisco, 1967

Pigpen McKernan and Girl Freiberg in San Francisco, 1967

Girl (real name Julia Dreyer) was a Bay Area groupie and the first wife of David Freiberg from Quicksilver Messenger Service and Jefferson Starship who inspired no less than 6 classic rock songs in the late 1960s and 1970s:

• ‘Girl with No Name’ by the Byrds
• ‘Light Your Windows’ by QMS
• ‘Quicksilver Girl’ by Steve Miller Band
• ‘Girl from Mill Valley’ by Jeff Beck Group
• ‘Quicksilver Princess’ by the Doobie Bros
• ‘Jane’ by Jefferson Starship

Rather than be jealous or heartbroken, David now brags about how many famous songs are dedicated to his former wife, lol. Girl was also best friends with fellow NorCal groupie Martha Wax, who is the subject of the Jefferson Airplane songs ‘Martha’ and ‘Come Up the Years.’

The Lovin' Spoonful - Do You Believe in Magic? Moulin Rouge Nightclub 1965

THE LOVIN' SPOONFUL

The Lovin' Spoonful perform "Do You Believe In Magic" and "You Didn't Have to Be So Nice" from the film, The Big T.N.T. Show, (1965) Directed by Larry Peerce. The song "Do You Believe In Magic" was composed by John Sebastian, and the song "You Didn't Have to Be So Nice" was composed by Steve Boone and John Sebastian. Filmed before a live audience at the then Moulin Rouge nightclub, Hollywood, California, U.S.A.

I have mentioned The Lovin' Spoonful many times before and their innocent good time music I claimed for my own as a youngster (14) after my dear older brother Steve was listening to The Beatles and Bob Dylan (well admittedly both of them wore off on me of course) and needed something/somebody who was my own and I loved the zany, wacky, exotic, exuberance of The Lovin' Spoonful especially 'Hums' (still a favourite album) and this first song especially at the time. As a youngster this was what I wanted to happen with my life . . . . . . . . Then I saw the Doors at the Roundhouse in London and something happened! But that's another story!!! 

Check the video here I love the fluffed intro and them starting again . . . . . .good old Zal! (Although now no longer with us and he had his career severely curtailed by being forced into snitching on his pals or face serious jail time for dope and no one likes a grass. The honour amongst thieves schtick means you are as good as dead but Zal was certainly pressured) . . . . . for anther time perhaps . . . here the signs of Spring and the sheer joie de vivre of their sound is a harbinger of better times to come

Good Day Sunshine we can but hope for a Summer in The City! 

Kate Rusby Newsletter . . . . & Shop

Just a Friday note to myself (in my lovely new HAND ME DOWN notebook) to remember to sign up to my newsletter as it’s the best, most reliable way to hear about everything we’re up to!! Then even I know what I’m up to!!!

Kate's Notebook here - Pure Records

Who's coming?

https://live.katerusby.com/

#KateRusby #HandMeDown

Emily Barker and Frank Turner - Evening of Duets 8th April 2021

NEWS

Emily says: Hello I hope you're safe and well. On Saturday 19th August 2006, as with every Saturday back then, bands, fans and friends gathered inside the sweaty darkness of the Windmill in Brixton, South London, as part of the regular "Sadder Days" night, organised by alt-country heroes The Tailors. That particular night, I played a set with The Red Clay Halo, and a singer called Frank Turner was in the crowd. If memory serves me correctly, Frank came up to me after the show and offered me a tour support. He remembers it differently, and doesn't think he was popular enough even to share the stage back then. One of us is definitely right - we're just not sure who! Either way, a bond was formed; a collaboration and a friendship started that's now nearly old enough to buy us both a drink. Over the years, you might have seen us perform 'Fields of June' or 'Old Flames' together, but for the first time, I'm proud to announce that Frank and I will be live streaming a full show together, sharing an entire set of duets ranging from country classics to glam pop, alongside some rare originals and the debut of a brand new song written by us both. It would have been a huge missed opportunity not to call it the Barker-Turner Overdrive, and so we have! And on Thursday 8th April, we will be performing a special set with full production from the beloved Tunbridge Wells Forum. We'll be online at 1pm PDT / 4pm EDT / 9pm BST / 10pm CEST sharp. Tickets are available here, and on sale now. We'll be playing our songs accompanied by some amazing musicians: Matt Nasir, Lukas Drinkwater, Jess Guise, and one of the UK's finest string quartets, Carducci Strings (with arrangements by Joe Duddell). We very much hope you'll join us for the 'Barker-Turner Overdrive - an evening of duets' because (sorry) you ain't seen nothin' yet! RESERVE YOUR SEAT

Bob Dylan from International Times

Restless Farewell

 I.T posted this on their Facebook page this morning . . . . I had quite forgotten what a staggeringly beautiful and brilliant song this is . . . . . . 

WRITTEN BY: BOB DYLAN 

Oh all the money that in my whole life I did spend
Be it mine right or wrongfully
I let it slip gladly past the hands of my friends
To tie up the time most forcefully
But the bottles are done
We’ve killed each one
And the table’s full and overflowed
And the corner sign
Says it’s closing time
So I’ll bid farewell and be down the road

Oh ev’ry girl that ever I’ve touched
I did not do it harmfully
And ev’ry girl that ever I’ve hurt
I did not do it knowin’ly
But to remain as friends
And make amends
You need the time and stay behind
And since my feet are now fast
And point away from the past
I’ll bid farewell and be down the line

Oh ev’ry foe that ever I faced
The cause was there before we came
And ev’ry cause that ever I fought
I fought it full without regret or shame
But the dark does die
As the curtain is drawn and somebody’s eyes
Must meet the dawn
And if I see the day
I’d only have to stay
So I’ll bid farewell in the night and be gone

Oh, ev’ry thought that’s strung a knot in my mind
I might go insane if it couldn’t be sprung
But it’s not to stand naked under unknowin’ eyes
It’s for myself and my friends my stories are sung
But the time ain’t tall, yet on time you depend
And no word is possessed by no special friend
And though the line is cut
It ain’t quite the end
I’ll just bid farewell till we meet again

Oh a false clock tries to tick out my time
To disgrace, distract, and bother me
And the dirt of gossip blows into my face
And the dust of rumors covers me
But if the arrow is straight
And the point is slick
It can pierce through dust no matter how thick
So I’ll make my stand
And remain as I am
And bid farewell and not give a damn

Copyright © 1964, 1966 by Warner Bros. Inc.; renewed 1992, 1994 by Special Rider Music

Interesting note here on Restless Farewell by Tony Attwood

HOW BIZARRE! - OMC - ONE HIT WONDERS

HOW BIZARRE! 

An occasional series of random one hit wonders and this especially for my old pal Phil Munday (One Man Went To Moan) mostly because of his extraordinary mixtapes collection given me across the years . . . did it ('they' - ED!) ever include this one? 

“How Bizarre” is a song by New Zealand musical group OMC [Otara Millionaires Club]. It was released in late 1995 as the lead single from their only album  and went on to top the charts of at least five countries: Australia, Austria, Canada, Ireland, and New Zealand.  Later in the year the single went to number 5 in the UK Singles Chart[5] and number one in countries across Europe and much of the rest of the world.

In the United States, "How Bizarre" spent 32 weeks on Billboard's Mainstream Top 40 chart, peaking at number one in August 1997 due to the large amount of radio play it received. This made OMC the first New Zealand artist to reach the number one spot on a Billboard chart.[6] The song never charted on the regular Billboard Hot 100 as it was not released as a commercially available single the US, which was a chart-eligibility requirement at the time. It also became a BMI-certified "million airplay" song two years in a row.

Music & Media wrote about the song: “Polynesian pop with a twist. Pauly Fuemana has a gravelly, deep voice and a major rap attitude. The Spanish guitar, trumpet and the sweet female background vocals create a radio friendly mood.”

John Fahey '67 - Aquarium Drunkard

 

AD have posted a great link to a YouTube concert of John Fahey the mercurial and uniquely gifted guitarist, they say:

John Fahey: resurrected once again. This 1967 soundboard recording, discovered among lost readings by beatnik poets Allen Ginsberg and Gary Snyder, is the oldest recorded solo concert from the acoustic guitar innovator.

John Fahey - Live 1967 - Aquarium Drunkard