I Can See You - by Paddy Summerfield c. 1986

Thursday, March 12, 2026

R.E.M. - Sitting Still [Preconstruction/Reconstruction] 1985 | jt1674

  . . . . oh yes! Needed this . . . . . a bit low here! Still . . . TURN IT UP and reconstruct it!

https://www.tumblr.com/jt1674/810881751844077569/rem-sitting-still

Nathan Abshire - Choupique Two Step (1986) | Guess I’m Dumb

 Choupique Two Step

Nathan Abshireimage

Nathan Abshire - Choupique Two Step (19?)

One of the greats of Cajun music. The song is a Cajun standard, and he recorded it several times so I’m not entirely sure about the date, though I’m thinking this was recorded in 1975 with the Balfa Brothers. Incidentally, a choupique is a trash fish plentiful in Louisiana.



I once threw a garden party where the only music was cajun and Zydeco - went down a STORM . . . . . AND THIS IS WHY!

EH TOI!

BON TON ROULET MES BRAVES!

Madness tribute to The Guvnor! What a Waste!

 Suggs introduces his band mates covering Ian Dury and Chas Smash and The Blockheads perform "What A Waste" on "Night Fever" in 2001


Suggs and Ian were pals . . . . .nuff said!

Birthdays This Week | Nearly Forgot John Cale’s Birthday! (84)


On March 9th, 1942 — John Davies Cale was born in Garnant, a coal-mining village in Carmarthenshire, Wales.



His father was a miner who spoke only English. His mother was a Welsh-speaking schoolteacher. Between those two worlds — the grit of the pit and the discipline of the classroom — something extraordinary was forged.


By age 13, Cale had already joined the National Youth Orchestra of Wales on viola. The BBC had recorded a toccata he composed as a child, comparing it to the work of Aram Khachaturian.  Then came a Leonard Bernstein scholarship to New York, and on September 9, 1963, Cale took part — alongside John Cage and others — in an 18-hour, 40-minute marathon performance of Erik Satie’s Vexations.  It was an omen. This man was never going to do anything the short way.


Through La Monte Young’s Theatre of Eternal Music, Cale explored drone-based compositions that would directly shape the sound of the Velvet Underground.  Together with Lou Reed, he helped build one of the most influential catalogs in rock history — and when Reed forced him out after White Light/White Heat, Cale simply went on to rewrite the rules of record production: he produced the debut albums of the Stooges, the Modern Lovers, and Patti Smith, and guided Nico through three of her most haunting records.  Those relentlessly pounding piano keys on “I Wanna Be Your Dog”? That was John Cale.


Then there’s the Hallelujah story — perhaps the greatest hidden-hand moment in pop music history. In 1990, Cale attended a Leonard Cohen concert at the Beacon Theatre in New York and walked away determined to reimagine the song. His stark piano arrangement for the tribute album I’m Your Fan was the version that a then-unknown Jeff Buckley picked up while cat-sitting in a New York apartment — and Buckley’s recording of Cale’s arrangement is what turned Cohen’s neglected song into a modern standard.  When Cale asked Cohen for the lyrics, Cohen faxed him fifteen pages — over 80 verses. Cale went through them and, as he put it, “just picked out the cheeky ones.” 


“I only hope that one day John will be recognized as… the Beethoven or something of his day. He knows so much about music, he’s such a great musician. He’s completely mad — but that’s because he’s Welsh.” — Lou Reed


“John Cale is a f*cking elitist. He did not like the people he was playing for. He’s Welsh, and they’re all nasty bastards.” — Nat Finkelstein


“I use cracks on the sidewalk to walk down the street. I’d always walk on the lines. I never take anything but a calculated risk, and do it because it gives me a sense of identity. Fear is a man’s best friend.” — John Cale


“White Light/White Heat,” “Vintage Violence,” “Paris 1919,” “Fear,” “Slow Dazzle,” “Helen of Troy”… and too many other masterpieces to name them all.


Happy Birthday, John. 84 years and still walking the lines. 🎻


📸 Mick Gold©️


#JohnCale #TheVelvetUnderground 

Wednesday, March 11, 2026

The Saw Doctors | Same Oul' Town with the RTÉ Concert Orchestra

 will sign off with this beauty from the brilliant actor and comedian Tommy Tiernan and his very own show  . . . . . . . do we not get this over in the UK?


The Saw Doctors | Same Oul' Town with the RTÉ Concert Orchestra 
| Live on The Tommy Tiernan Show

Stream Full Episodes: http://www.rte.ie/player

Bob Dylan : Pretty Saro The Bootleg Series, Vol. 10: Another Self Portrait

Still a favourite song from Bobby 

Pretty Saro

From Bob Dylan
 August 26, 2013: The Bootleg Series, Vol. 10: Another Self Portrait is released.



Slowing things down for the evening before signing off for the night with a favourite Bob Dylan song and had never heard it before the Bootleg Series Vol 10 came out . . . . . why? I’d have released it! Anyone?

Country Joe And The Fish: Discography 1967 - 1970 ("Country Joe" McDonald (January 1, 1942 – March 7, 2026) | URBANASPIRINES: A KOSTAS SPECIAL

 Country Joe And The Fish: Discography 1967 - 1970 

("Country Joe" McDonald (January 1, 1942 – March 7, 2026)


Didn’t think it would take Kostas long . . . . here with his usual exceptional standard of profiles one for Country Joe MacDonald who passed away this week and after his health complications took him at a youthful 84 we shall not see his like again. At once a polemicist and romantic his FISH cheer may have resonated with the crowd at Woodstock but he and The Fish were so much more the that. Electric Music for the Mind and Body you might  say! I loved that band and thank a neighbour Alan Bateman who introduced me when but a mere school boy as he did so much other SF and counter culture musics!


Kostas reminds us
Joseph Allen "Country Joe" McDonald (January 1, 1942 – March 7, 2026) was an American singer, songwriter, musician and film composer, who was the lead singer and co-founder of the 1960s psychedelic folk-rock group Country Joe and the Fish. He wrote some of the group's most well-known songs, including "Not So Sweet Martha Lorraine" and "I-Feel-Like-I'm-Fixin'-to-Die Rag", the latter a protest song against US involvement in the Vietnam War.  One of the original and most popular of the San Francisco Bay Area psychedelic bands, they were also probably the most enigmatic. Joe McDonald may have written the most in-your-face anti-war, anti-military song to come out of the '60s, but he was also one of the very few musicians on the San Francisco scene who'd served in uniform. 
                                          
 The band's name, Country Joe & the Fish, was a compromise proposed by ED Denson, an early member and the group's manager. He quoted Chinese communist leader Mao Zedong's metaphor about a revolutionary who resembled "the fish who swim in the sea of the people." There was also some thought given to the name "Country Mao & the Fish." Instead, they used "Country Joe" as a reference to McDonald, who was their singer and, as much as there was any organization to it at all, the organizer of the group, and also a reference to Joseph Stalin -- "Country Joe" was a nickname for the Soviet dictator. 








For Kostas . . . .


Still relevant; despite buying the first two Fish albums when they came out, I stuck with his solo stuff too and this alongside Quiet Days In Clichy I mentioned t’other day which we showed at college (it WAS an Art school?!) this was my pride and joy from the race vinyl sections and this little ditty still rings true today

Ain’t that the Daymned TROOTH MERKINS?

Country Joe And The Fish - Eagles Auditorium Seattle, Washington, USA Saturday, 1 Nov 1969 | Voodoo Wagon from XRay

 

Country Joe And The Fish - Eagles Auditorium Seattle, Washington, USA Saturday, 1 Nov 1969

 Country Joe McDonald - Born: January 1, 1942  

Died:  March 7, 2026

VOODOO WAGON

An Xray Special


Country Joe And The Fish

Eagles Auditorium

Seattle, Washington, USA

Saturday, 1 Nov 1969

01.  Love (02:38)
02. Sing Sing Sing  02:34
03. Silver & Gold 07:03
04.  Not So Sweet Martha Lorraine 04:06
05. Babylon 03:42
06. The Return Of Sweet Lorraine 06:16
07.  The Baby Song 04:48
08. Rockin' Round The World 07:23
09. I-Feel-Like-I'm-Fixin'-To-Die Rag 02:31
10. Ever Since You Told Me That You Love Me (I'm A Nut) 01:26
11. Gas Man 01:57
12. Crystal Blues 06:49
13. The Love Machine 23:18

Adam Faith - Cowman Milk Your Cow (sic!) | Guess I’m Dumb

 

image

Adam Faith - Cowman Milk Your Cow (1967)

"Another song for my Teen Idols Go Psych series. Adam Faith was a British teen idol in the early 60s but had next to no success in the U.S. Here he tries his hand with something “psychedelic” written by Robin and Barry Gibb, who also add backing vocals. It’s actually really quite superb, and apparently that’s Peter Green on guitar.” ?! Thanks Guess I’m! Awesome note!


We loved Adam and he just sort of preceded my earliest pop taste but then he had a hit acting role in Budgie and we all fell in love all over again. We first caught him from What Do You Want (If You Don’t Want Money) 

Covered: Neil Young, Volume 3: 1995-1999 | Albums That Should Exist

 Covered: Neil Young, Volume 3: 1995-1999

Paul reports: I had a rough start getting to Peru*, but I’m finishing my second full day here and I’m having a good time. Since Fabio from Rio wrote the notes as well as doing most of the work putting these albums together, once again, here’s Fabio:

By the mid-to-late 1990s, Neil Young was enjoying one of the most respected phases of his long career. After the grunge generation had embraced him earlier in the decade, Young reinforced that connection with the raw "Mirror Ball" album collaboration with Pearl Jam in 1995 and continued releasing strong albums that balanced electric noise with acoustic reflection. At the same time, a new wave of alternative, indie and Americana artists began rediscovering older corners of his catalog — not only the famous songs, but also deep cuts from albums like "Zuma," "Tonight's the Night," and "On the Beach." The covers collected in this volume reflect that moment: a mixture of roots musicians, indie rock artists and cult performers exploring both the best-known and the more obscure sides of Young's songwriting.

--- 

Note that Fabio wrote individual paragraphs about all the songs in this volume. To see that, please look at the Word file added to the download zip file. Thanks again to Fabio for his help putting these albums together. 


This album is an hour and three minutes long.  

01 After the Gold Rush (Dolly Parton, Linda Ronstadt & Emmylou Harris)
02 Words [Between the Lines of Age] (Lifter & Campfire Girls)
03 Wrecking Ball (Emmylou Harris)
04 Don't Cry (Kristen Barry)
05 Grey Riders (Sand Rubies)
06 Campaigner (Snares & Kites)
07 This Note's for You (Colourful Dreams)
08 Down to the Wire (Grip Weeds)
09 When You Dance I Can Really Love (Continental Drifters)
10 Expecting to Fly (Sonya Hunter)
11 Danger Bird (27)
12 Tonight's the Night (Chris Cacavas)
13 Harvest Moon (Elliott Smith)
14 Midnight on the Bay (Red House Painters)


*Check out Pauls travelogue here!