portrait of this blog's author - by Stephen Blackman 2008

Thursday, August 31, 2023

Dylan of The Day | BALLAD OF A THIN MAN - Bob Dylan and Tom Petty Band (1986)

 Always enjoyed (sic?) the blister of Ballad of a Thin Man and its vitriolic attack on some Billy no-mark journo who inspired it . . . . . . . . .but here it is transformed (again!?) by the live Tom Petty Band version back in ‘86. [Zippy says : 1986 Sydney Entertainment Center Sydney Australia.

Enjoy!


I did!

Wednesday, August 30, 2023

BUMP: NAT MYERS - WILLOW WITCHIN’ + ‘PRAY FOR RAIN’ and John Prine’s Last Song ‘I REMEMBER EVERYTHING’ re-imagined

 I’m in that kind of mood where we revisit new discoveries and seeing as he lately juss played at The Grand Ole Opry he is worth a view of his platters from first two last [3 akshually!] . . . . deserves a hit!


says aint available . . . taint so! clicka heeyah!


They both (all - ED) hits on my Juke Joint Box you know hear tell . . . . . . spread the word, if it floats your coracle 

This one for John Prine . . . . . I KNEW they were connected!
(John would have LOVED Nat’s work IMO)


Pray For Rain . . . . . . 

Song of the Day: WILCO - Kamera




Kamera - Wilco


We like Wilco

We like O My Soul and we like reds1981

her name is Alice

we like her . . . . .

Tuesday, August 29, 2023

Elizabeth Cotten ‎- Freight Train And Other North Carolina Folk Songs And Tunes (1958) | ZERO G SOUNDS

Mo’ Libba

Elizabeth "Libba" Cotten (1895-1987), best known for her timeless song "Freight Train," built her musical legacy on a firm foundation of late 19th- and early 20th-century African-American instrumental traditions. Through her songwriting, her quietly commanding personality, and her unique left-handed guitar and banjo styles, she inspired and influenced generations of younger artists. In 1984 Cotten was declared a National Heritage Fellow by the National Endowment for the Arts and was later recognized by the Smithsonian Institution as a "living treasure." She received a Grammy Award in 1985 when she was ninety, almost eighty years after she first began composing her own works.

Recorded in 1957 and early 1958 by Mike Seeger, "Freight Train and Other North Carolina Folk Songs and Tunes" collects the influential debut sides cut by a then-62-year-old Elizabeth Cotten; even decades after their first release, they remain a veritable primer in the art of finger-picked style guitar playing. The quaint, homespun quality of the material - much of it recorded at Cotten's home with her grandchildren looking on in silence - adds immensely to its intimacy and warmth; the sound quality varies wildly from track to track, but the amazing instrumental work shines through regardless on tracks like the opening "Wilson Rag" and the now-standard "Freight Train.”                

Freight train, freight train . . . here


Tracklist:

1Wilson Rag1:35
2Freight Train2:42
3Going Down The Road Feeling Bad2:09
4I Don't Love Nobody1:10
5Ain't Got No Honey Baby Now0:53
6Graduation March2:29
7Honey Babe Your Papa Cares For You2:11
8Vastopol2:08
9Here Old Rattler Here / Sent For My Fiddle Sent For My Bow / George Buck3:45
10Run…Run / Mama Your Son Done Gone2:15
11Sweet Bye And Bye / What A Friend We Have In Jesus3:00
12Oh Babe It Ain't No Lie4:40
13Spanish Flang Dang2:49
14When I Get Home2:21

This is nice and great quality always enjoy more Elizabeth Cotten

Indelibly etched in the collective memory she does this wonderful old song proud . . that’s because she wrote it!

Aw heck, just checked and this is still commercially available so go get it

if you wish me to remove it please get in touch before setting any web sherrifs on me. . . . . it should be in the public domain by now and heaven knows Libba won’t make anything from it!




New Album from THRILLHOUSE | SOMETHING ABOUT THIS PLACE

 and of course what happens when you keep digging in the Beehive Candy is you find endless treasures

today is no different and reveals these guys from Brighton just south of here . . . . .we like this


THRILLHOUSE : BIG TREE

From AQUARIUM DRUNKARD’s NEWSLETTER : TRUE STORIES

Word from Videodrome columnist Eric Hehr: 

ATTN LA: If you're around town and dig Talking Heads, 

go to see [True Stories September 9th at the New Beverly]. 

A lovely film worth seeing in a theater—and on 35mm!” 

After you’ve grabbed tickets, check out 

Videodrome’s look at Bryne’s “compassionate satire.”

Monday, August 28, 2023

Other Voices TOO | And Guess I’m Dumb is at it too | G.W. McLennan ‘Fingers’ (1993)

image

G.W. McLennan - Fingers (1993)

A moving piano ballad from Grant McLennan’s second solo LP 

I try to capture every minute

struggling to share the sounds so here? . . . .

another quieter reflective song about loss . . . . 


thanks as ever to Guess Im Dumb


OTHER VOICES, ANOTHER DAY :: More from the BEEHIVE | ZACH BERKMAN - ‘ALONE'

  . . . . .CANDY that is

Another posting today struck my mood of quiet contemplation today here another Summer Bank Holiday Monday and this suited it down to he ground . . . . . . . . 





Sunday, August 27, 2023

OTHER VOICES: New Artists (to me!) CARA HAMMOND - ‘AMERICA'

Nice one for a Sunday and great new voice from Wales . . . . . . . I like finding new artists and new voices and this is most often achieved by browsing Beehive Candy which is where I found this lassie and go check out what they say 


Dylan of the Day (cover) | BONNIE RAITT : It’s All Over Now Baby Blue

 Another cover and if you're going to post a cover on a Sunday who better than Bonnie?


Love everything she does and this is no exception!

Saturday, August 26, 2023

Song of The Day (Night?) | THE MAVERICKS : DANCE THE NIGHT AWAY (live 2023)

 


From their Facebook page so click on it anyway

From our recent play Mystic Lake Casino Hotel in Prior Lake, MN! ðŸŽ² You know it, you love it - LIVE From The #EnEspanol World Tour, it’s ‘DANCE THE NIGHT AWAY’ ðŸ’ƒ #TheMavericksLive


Something of a one hit wonder to me I bought Dance The Night Away when it came out but their recent live performances broadcast on the their Facebook pages are well worth following . . . . . . 


Night all . . . . . . .don’t forget to Dance The Night Away! 

ISLE OF WIGHT FESTIVAL 1970 | ALBUMS THAT SHOULD EXIST [COMPLEAT!]

 The brilliant Albums That Should Exist is on his summer holidays but has left us some real doozies dedicated to the Isle of Wight Festival of 1970 and some 18 separate sets from participants from Leonard Cohen to Free, Joni to which we went to back in the day (allegedly! it’s along story I have documented before and there are some doubts as to what we collectively recall and whether we made it at all post car crash and getting to the island Jimi we certainly didn’t see, loads of others too, Miles, Leonard Cohen and Joni and John Sebastian) and yet this includes sets I loved from Terry Reid, Rory Gallagher and Taste and of course The Doors  [This is one of the best quality versions of the set from Jim and the boys I have ever heard and I have heard many!]

 I had vinyl bootlegs of the Doors set which frankly are unplayable, I had heard of the existence of a Terry Reid Superlungs set but never found a playable copy and the one thing that Albums That Should Exist does is find superb quality versions of boots of the period.If they don’t cut the mustard Paul the proprietor is given to tweak them himself! 

Dig in people! Read what Paul says throughout the entire selection

This post is the start of something big. I've decided to post all the worthy music from the 1970 Isle of Wight Festival, and there's a heck of a lot of it. 

There were dozens and dozens of big rock festivals in the late 1960s and early 1970s. But the vast majority of them are fading from memory because there's no audio or video to help remember. The 1970 Isle of Wight Festival is an exception. Apparently, ALL of it was professionally recorded. Furthermore, because it was a five-day long festival, all the big acts had plenty of time to play, often playing the equal of a full concert they would have performed somewhere else. Many of these professional recordings have remained in the vaults. But a whole bunch of official albums from individual artists have been released over the decades. Furthermore, some or all of some of the other sets have been leaked to the public. My goal was to post all the music that had soundboard-level quality, in chronological order, with all the sonic flaws fixed. And it turns out there were many, many sonic flaws. 

The end result is nearly 20 albums, which I will post here over the next few days. I'm even posting the officially released stuff, because I think it's important to have all of this music easily accessible in one place, so one can hear the concert in its full glory. On purely musical terms, I think it's the equal of Woodstock or any other festival from that era.

The 1970 Isle of Wight Festival has had a pretty poor reputation over the years. It was the largest festival of its era, with about 600,000 to 700,000 people attending. The hope was that it would be seen as the British version of Woodstock. But there were some bad vibes, often related to conflicts between the promoters, who wanted to make money, and the audience who often expected everything to somehow be free. It didn't end up a total disaster like Altamont in 1969, but it wasn't an unabashed success and cultural milestone like Woodstock either.

The Afton Downs Isle of Wight Festival - TERRY REID 1970


Paul says:

 . . . most of the music here is from Terry Reid's set, which is complete. Around this time, Reid was seen as a very talented lead vocalist who could also write songs and play guitar. He seemed poised for stardom, but it never happened. Most famously, in 1969, Jimmy Page asked him to be the lead singer of his new band, which would later be known as Led Zeppelin. But Reid had to decline, since he was already booked as the opening act for two tours. Reid told Page to consider another singer, Robert Plant, and the rest is history.

By the way, a member of Reid's band in this concert was guitarist David Lindley, who would go on to have a long and successful music career of his own.

Although Reid's set was officially released in 2004, in my opinion his lead vocals were still low in the mix. So I boosted them using the audio editing program UVR5.

There are three more songs after Reid's set. Two of them are by the British band Gracious. I'd never heard of them prior to putting this album together, but they put out two albums, in 1970 and 1972, that are very well regarded by prog rock fans. It's a shame there are only two songs here. But they never released an official live albums, and I couldn't find any bootlegs by them, so this may be the only live versions of their songs publicly available. 

Finally, the last song is by the band Great Awakening. I looked them up, and it seems the only record they ever released was a single with a mostly instrumental version of "Amazing Grace" on the A-side. And that's the song performed here. 

Afton Downs Isle of Wight Festival - Rory Gallagher and TASTE 1970

 

Paul says:

Taste. This trio had been in existence since 1968, but at the time of the festival they were on the verge of breaking up. This ended up being one of their last concerts, but they went out with a bang. The band liked their performance so much that they released much of it as an official album a year later, called "Live at the Isle of Wight." The complete performance was eventually released in 2015. Furthermore, some filmmakers were filming parts of the festival in order to make a music documentary. They were supposed to film only one or two songs from lesser known acts like Taste in order to save on the costs of the expensive film stock, but they were so impressed with the performance that they wound up filming nearly the entire set. So that can be found on DVD. 

Despite the Taste set being released, I still thought the lead vocals were low in the mix. So I fixed that using the audio editing program UVR5.


The Afton Downs Isle of Wight Festival - THE DOORS - 1970


 Paul says:

The next musical act on August 30, 1970 of the Isle of Wight Festival were the Doors. 

It's fairly remarkable the Doors were able to play this festival. At the time, lead singer Jim Morrison was in the middle of a trial in the US, for allegedly exposing himself on stage in Miami. But apparently, they had booked this concert appearance before those troubles began, so they were granted permission to leave the US briefly to perform at the festival.

Murray Lerner, who directed "Message to Love," a music documentary about the festival, later recalled: “Jim Morrison said to me: 'I don’t think you’re going to get an image, because our lights are low. We’re not going to change it.' But in fact I got some beautiful images by looking into the light and making it look surrealistic and abstract. ... The Doors were hypnotic, but they had to leave right after their performance – they were on trial in Miami. They were let out just for that performance. So they had to leave right away."

The band's most recent album was "Morrison Hotel," released in February 1970. But they only played two songs from it, "Ship of Fools" and "Roadhouse Blues." Instead, they generally leaned on classic songs dating back to 1967. It was pretty late at night by the time the band took the stage, and Morrison later complained about how cold and windy it was. So perhaps they relied on the songs they knew best to get their through a tough situation.

The sound quality is excellent, because the whole performance has been officially released on album and DVD as "Live at the Isle of Wight Festival 1970." However, I felt the lead vocals were rather low, so I boosted them in the mix using the UVR5 audio editing program.

This album is an hour and seven minutes long.

  - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 

there are loads more to enjoy over at Albums That Should Exist and frankly any muso worth their salt would be foolish to to explore the offerings there that Paul has diligently scored and tweaked and posted there.


here's what Peter Daltrey of Fairfield Parlour / Kaleidoscope has said about the festival:

"All I remember is the view from the stage: the endless blue sky, the endless audience, the thousands camped for free on the rolling hills to the right, the heat, the clouds of red dust, Joan Baez wandering by looking stunning, the movie camera thrust in my face as I was told our set was to be cut in half, the terror, the sublime lift after the first wave of applause, the evenings in the Red Indian camp with the fires burning, the thump of distant music, crouching below the stage waiting for the nod so I could leap up and be allowed to play an acoustic 'Let the World Wash In' to half a million hippies, the leaden realization that we'd been conned and ripped off and stuffed and abused by the [festival promoters] brothers Farr, the sleepless nights of total physical and mental exhaustion, breakfast at Herbie Snowball's hotel in Shanklin -- and returning there thirty years later on a family holiday and standing across the road and looking up at the window where three decades earlier a young man once stared at the orange moon... No, I don't recall much."

Dylan of The Day : JIMI HENDRIX - LIKE A ROLLING STONE

 Jimi does Dylan . . . . . love this and remember it so well . . . . . . indelibly etched upon my eardrobes

go on click it anyway . . . . . its from Flikkbok so it works!


so let’s start the weekend with some Jimi . . . . . . . 

Friday, August 25, 2023

Playing For Change tribute to Robbie Robertson ‘ Knocking On Heaven’s Door'

 FOR ROBBIE


Mermans especially (from the DRoC and South Africa) and the Nation Steel steel player Roberto Luti from Italy



Talking Heads Live at The Kitchen (1976) - For SW

thenameofthisbandis

talkingheads:

mrd.byrneonfenderguitarandsinging, 

mrc.frantzondrumset, 

misst.weymouthonbassguitar

forsilentway

floppybootstomp


nineteenandseventysix

inthekitchen

fullset34mins27secs

newyorkcity,march13th1976.

Songs of the Day/Artist of The Day : SHARON VAN ETTEN (thanks to O My Soul)






thanks as ever to Alice over at reds . . . . . O My Soul
for posting these . . . . . . . shared by some young women over there and I think I understand why . . . . .I like these and love Sharon Van Etten 

Wednesday, August 23, 2023

Ian Dury and The Blockheads - Sight & Sound In Concert 1977 (BBC) : Partial To Your Abracadabra & Billericay Dickie

 The posting of the Guvnor recently provoked such kind and appreciative responses I thought we best have some more . . . . . . (this are bein’ mostly for that Diamond Dave!  . . . . he are a neighbour ya know!?)

This is from the first live Sight & Sound gig I taped from the radio on a BASF cassette player! (ask your grandparents) I LOVE THIS gig!

New Boots and Panties indeed 😉!

go on click it anyway!
Facebook The Blockheads’ site says


"It simply can't resist Boots and pants like this Abracadabra for all" - Ian Dury 'I'm Partial to Your Abracadabra' 1977 BBC Sight & Sound Live #iandury #blockheads
"Good Evening!" 🙂 Sight & Sound In Concert BBC '77 Billericay Dickie
gertcha click it!





Dylan of The Day : I’ll Remember You & That Lucky Old Sun and full set FARM AID 1985 (+Tom Petty Band)

With thanks to the Facebook page of The Bob Dylan Fan Club  

(www.thebobdylanfanclub.com)

 
I’ll Remember You - Tom Petty Tour 1985 (with wife to be Carolyn Dennis)


FARM AID 1985

That Lucky Old Sun - rehearsals


More Farm Aid Rehearsals

Song of The Day: DIDO : White Flag



I will go down with this ship
And I won’t put my hands up and surrender.
There will be no white flag above my door 
I’m in love, and always will be.


Tuesday, August 22, 2023

The La's: The La's 1990 (2 CD Deluxe Edition 2008) (OUT OF PRINT) - URBANASPIRINES

Here’s another beauty from Kostas over at Urbanaspirines. Always ready to explore the unusual and the unheard of ( yes even British albums and bands too) but this is a classic from my home town

Read up on them here and enjoy the classic out of print deluxe edition double version of their first album

N.B. I recall with dismay the first time reading that their hit single “There She Goes’ was about heroin, it ISN’T! (do your own homework and you will discover I am right. It is and was a love song) *








“ The La's were an English rock band from Liverpool, originally active from 1983 until 1992. Fronted by singer, songwriter and guitarist Lee Mavers, the group are best known for their hit single "There She Goes". The band was formed by Mike Badger in 1983 and Mavers joined the next year, although for most of the group's history, the frequently changing line-up revolved around the core duo of Lee Mavers (vocals, guitar) and John Power (bass, backing vocals) along with numerous other guitarists and drummers including Paul Hemmings, John "Timmo" Timson, Peter "Cammy" Cammell, Iain Templeton, John "Boo" Byrne, Chris Sharrock, Barry Sutton and Neil Mavers.  Urbanaspirines


*In an interview with Les Inrockuptibles, Mavers admits to trying heroin in 1990. The song therefore predated his experience as it was originally released in 1988. Mavers himself has also emphatically denied that the song is about heroin. 


JOHN LEE HOOKER’s Birthday (he would have been 111)* ‘BOOM BOOM’ Newport Folk Festival in 1963

 From Facebook it is worth noting that today is Maestro’s birthday!

Born 22 August 1917,  in Tutwiler, Mississippi, United States of America

John Lee Hooker performing at the Newport Folk Festival in 1963. pretty sure we have had this before but you know what? I don’t care! . . . go on click on it anyway! 🙄

JOHN LEE HOOKER’s Birthday (either 1912 or 1917 so would have been 88 or 83 when he died in his sleep in Los Altos, California*)

Sounds of the Day :: The Statler Brothers - Flowers On the Wall (Live in Denmark)

 Another ear worm of a song that we may not like but can’t stop humming! You have been warned!

Monday, August 21, 2023

The New Adult Bookstore Motel, Records & Liquor :

 Oh and BTW . . . . . . . 

That’s By The Way       (bye n bye) . . . . . . 


You really need to pop down to your local bookstore (bookshop to you limeys!) amongst the platters on the decks like John Cale circa Paris 1919, Ruth Brown RnB, to Teddy Thompson (yeah you know it, Richard’s son) there’s a whole load of new books in from Nick Drake, to David Bowie and Jack Kerouac at the end of his road! 

Jeremiah has blown a gasket and sent his bookwagon ‘round’ 

(he’s a bullfrog you know?) 



you know where that is right?

PINK FLOYD : Acetates, Demos and Live tracks (4discs!) | VOODOO WAGON

so we best start right back in with some Voodoo 

Pink Floyd - Demos, Acetates, live tracks - VOODOO WAGON

A Jeremiah Special

I should have started by saying they collection is great quality and only after listening did I appreciate how good. Even the early acetates are full and balanced well and crisp as you like. Good job, Jeremiah! Great find






 The Pink Floyd

Demos, Acetates, Live, etc
2009


Disc 1

01. Lucy Leave (EMI Disc Acetate - Early 1966)
02. I'm A King Bee (EMI Disc Acetate - Early 1966)
03. Interstellar Overdrive (Home Demo 1966)
04. Interstellar Overdrive (Studio Session September 1966 - San Francisco Soundtrack)
05. Arnold Layne (Single)
06. Candy And A Current Bun (Single)
07. Arnold Layne (Stereo Acetate February 1967)
08. Candy And A Current Bun (Stereo Acetate February 1967)
09. Interstellar Overdrive (Stereo Acetate February 1967)
10. Interstellar Overdrive
11. Nick's Boogie (Studio Session 1967 - Tonite Let's All Make Love In London)
12. See Emily Play (EMI Disc Acetate - April 1967)


Disc 2

01. See Emily Play (Single)
02. Flaming (U.S. Single)
03. Vegetable Man - Syd Barrett
04. Scream Thy Last Scream
05. Apples And Oranges (Single)
06. Paintbox (Single)
07. It Would Be So Nice (Single)
08. Julia Dream (Single)
09. Untitled Excerpt From The Committee
10. Interstellar Overdrive (Live - Rome 1968-05-05)
11. Careful With That Axe, Eugene (Stereo Single)
12. Point Me At The Sky (Single)
13. Embryo (From Picnic Sampler)
14. Biding My Time (From Relics)
15. Main Theme (From More)
16. Seabirds (From More)
17. Cymbaline (From More)
18. Heart Beat, Pig Meat (From Zabriskie Point)
19. Come In Number 51, Your Time Is Up (From Zabriskie Point)


Disc 3

01. Come In Number 51, Your Time Is Up (Stereo)
02. Crumbling Land (Stereo)
03. Heart Beat, Pig Meat (Stereo)
04. Untitled (Zabriskie Point Outtake)
05. Country Song (Zabriskie Point Outtake) 
06. Love Scene #1 (Zabriskie Point Outtake)
07. Love Scene #2 (Zabriskie Point Outtake)
08. Untitled (AKA Oenone - Zabriskie Point Outtake)
09. Untitled (AKA Fingal's Cave - Zabriskie Point Outtake)
10. Set The Controls For The Heart Of The Sun
11. A Saucerful Of Secrets (Live - Rotterdam NL 05-28-1970)
12. One Of These Days #1 (Meddle Outtake)
13. One Of These Days #2 (Meddle Outtake)


Disc 4

01. Echoes (Meddle Outtake)
02. Opening Sequence (At Pompeii Soundtrack)
03. Mademoiselle Nobs (AKA Seamus - At Pompeii Soundtrack)
04. Brain Damage (At Pompeii Soundtrack)
05. Us And Them (At Pompeii Soundtrack)
06. On The Run (At Pompeii Soundtrack)
07. Money (DSOTM Outtake)
08. Time (DSOTM Outtake)
09. Brain Damage (DSOTM Outtake)
10. Us And Them (DSOTM Outtake)
11. Here Comes Santa (Nick Mason Song Demo)
12. Shine On You Crazy Diamond (Wish You Were Here Outtake)
13. Pigs On The Wing (Animals Outtake)
14. Comfortably Numb (The Wall Demo)