zippo magic for eskimos and UFO's

columbia 45: DB8214

more paisley pattern than you can shake a staff at

A perfect 45. Peerless, and nearly 45 years since its original release, still wholly inimitable.

Involving all the studio trickery that producer, Norman Smith could muster in the early summer of 1967, the real magic of "See Emily Play" is in the song and its performance; the otherwordliness that an allegedly resistant Syd Barrett brought to bear on the recording session.

Childhood friend, David Gilmour - invited by Barrett to those very sessions - later went on record as saying this marked the point of the tipping of the scales and the first outward manifestation of Syd's withdrawl into secrecy and detachment. Ill at ease with what he considered a betrayal on Norman's part, Barrett was appalled by the sheer weight of the production values and retreated into the corner to lay down some traditional slide guitar. Whipping out a Zippo lighter in protest. Just to demonstrate how it ought to be done.



He appeared not to acknowledge Gilmour's intrusion. Or recognize him at all.

Much of what transpired during those sessions is anecdotal and uncorroborated. No paperwork exists in EMI's archive, and the 4 Track master reel was either wiped for subsequent reuse or lost entirely. Hence, the fact "See Emily Play" remains unissued as a genuine stereo remix.

Engineer, Jeff Jarrett's recollection is of an extended, meandering piece cruelly edited down by Smith for radio play; its bridges recorded at Syd's intended pace and doctored to pander to the prevailing zeitgeist. However intriguing, Smith's creative overruling - his determination, maybe, not to be outdone by George Martin - was inspired. A little short of three minutes, he achieves more here for the Pink Floyd than The Beatles ever did over both sides of their supremely overrated "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band".

Pink Floyd performed the song on three separate occasions in July, 1967 for the BBC, broadcast live on 'Top of the Pops". While it sealed international recognition for the band, Syd seethed at his being cast as a model pop idol in the same mould as so much industry fodder.

As I touched on in 2008, when contrasting both incarnations of the Pink Floyd:

"There is only ten years between them, like warring siblings, but a lot of water under the bridge. Pink Floyd's "Animals" was their contribution to 1977's summer of contempt, and the ostracized Syd was by that time as bloated and confused as Roger Waters' mutinous vision.

Pink Floyd may not have been flavour of the month on the Kings Road in 1977, but you would have been hard pushed to find anybody with a safety pin through their nose who had a bad word to say about Syd Barrett.

Originally released on June 16, the flip side to this single would later be found too on August's "The Piper At The Gates Of Dawn", hitting the shops as the solstice celebrations faded towards autumn with the approaching equinox. Wizard. If you hadn't bought "Emily" a month or two earlier you might possibly have been in for a rude awakening since it didn't make the album. While Syd was on the throne, the Pink Floyd were still very much a singles band. Fast forward ten years and the deal couldn't have been more different."



One might speculate endlessly on Syd's mental condition till the cows come home or are ravaged by dogs. On "Atom Heart Mother" or "Animals".

Over the "Dark Side of the Moon".

Having pevaricated with the best of them, revisiting the scene of countless accidents and incidents along the way, in the end I am more inclined to believe his paranoia was less as a result of undiagnosed Schizophrenia than the impact of too many drugs on a guileless underlying personality. Much like Brian Jones, it was not the betrayal of any regal blues legacy which did for him in the end, but the brutal machinations and sibling rivalries within the family unit he once presided over. With so much personal identity invested in it, steal it away and there is scarcely anything left of substance.

Syd Barrett was a mover; no architect he. A casualty in a feudal game of chess, his emotional ruin was orchestrated with a clinical disregard for cause and effect. Far from being some unfortunate plagued by demons or rendered unfit by mental illness, he simply floundered in the attempt to assert authority outwith the Pink Floyd. Both his solo albums, "The Macap Laughs" and "Barrett", continue in the same lyrical vein he was previously applauded for, but the tone is at odds with the painstakingly crafted stadium filler the 'new' Pink Floyd would become adept at. Neither are the product of a "broken mind", or some idiot savant, no matter how difficult it may have been to tease a performance from him or polish this newer material into broadly marketable 'units'.

In an interview with Giovanni Dadomo from 1971 - unpublished until 1974 when it appeared in issue #9 of the Barrett fanzine, 'Terrapin' - our crazy diamond is strikingly coherent if noticeably weary, to the point of spent:

GD: Are you into other people's music?
SB: I don't really buy many records, there's so much around that you don't know what to listen to. All I've got at home is Bo Diddley, some Stones and Beatles stuff and old jazz records. I like Family, they do some nice things...

GD: What about the future? Are you looking forward to singing and playing again?
SB: Yes, that would be nice. I used to enjoy it, it was a gas. But so's doing nothing. It's art school laziness, really. I've got this Wembley gig and then another thing in summer.

Syd Barrett was always a raw and mercurial talent.

If the litmus test for creative flair is the calculated cynicism which would deliver "The Final Cut" just fourteen years later, I do not believe Roger Keith Barrett would have cared to participate. Let alone turn up for the exam.

Allow me to add this. There is on hell of lot of dreary motherf@ckers out there passing for 'normal'. Not one of them would I invite home or break bread with.

Syd Barrett: guitar, lead vocals;

Roger Waters: bass, vocals;

Richard Wright: keyboards, organ, vocals;

Nick Mason: drums.

Produced by Norman Smith.

Engineered by Jeff Jarrett.

▼ PINK FLOYD: SEE EMILY PLAY from "See Emily Play b/w The Scarecrow" 45 (Columbia/EMI) 1967 (UK)
▼ PINK FLOYD: SCARECROW from "See Emily Play b/w The Scarecrow" 45 (Columbia/EMI) 1967 (UK)

cross town traffic #2 & 3

Written by Chris Wood, Dave Mason, Jim Capaldi and Stevie Winwood.

Produced by Jimmy Miller.
Recorded At Olympic Sound Studios, London.

The slightly truncated, original 45 version in fabulous, vintage livery mono.

By the time the debut LP, "Mr. Fantasy" was released - sans this single and its follow-up, "Hole in my Shoe" - in December of 1967, Dave Mason had already exited the van as it stalled at the first set of lights under the weight of petty acrimony and contravening direction. Two way traffic. Mason would rejoin the group at the next service station just in time for their second serving, "Traffic".

▼ TRAFFIC: PAPER SUN (MONO) from "Paper Sun b/w Giving It To You" 45 (Island / Fontana) 1967 (UK)

damned damned damned

Written by Bryan MacLean.
Produced by Arthur Lee and Bruce Botnik.
Arranged by David Angel and Bryan MacLean.

Arthur Lee: vocals, guitar;
Johnny Echols: lead guitar;
Bryan MacLean: rhythm guitar, lead vocals;
Ken Forssi: bass.

(Or. More accurately, the alternate 45 mix only available
on Rhino's expanded 2001 release of "Forever Changes".)

▼ LOVE: ALONE AGAIN OR from "Alone Again Or b/w Bummer In The Summer" 45 (Elektra) 1967 (US)

THE FREEDOM MAN PRESENTS: JUST ANOTHER DAY IN THE LIFE

in the court of mad arthur and the sheltering lee

I have just been revisited by the Jurassic seagull of mid-winter, tapping on my window with its great carved beak. A deranged Ptrenodon wrapped up in down.

Condensation and evolutionary crumbs.

Let us hear it for Arthur Lee and Love; the Jack Holzman produced demo of " The Good Humour Man He Sees Everything Like This", and tracking session highlights for the 45 only release, "Your Mind and We Belong Together".

▼ LOVE: HUMMINGBIRDS (DEMO VERSION) from "Forever Changes (Remastered + Bonus Tracks)" CD (Elektra/Rhino) 1967 / 2001 (US)
▼ LOVE: YOUR MIND AND WE BELONG TOGETHER from "Forever Changes (Remastered + Bonus Tracks)" CD (Elektra/Rhino) 1967 / 2001 (US)

TA-DA!

Four minutes, give or take, of transcendental triumph or trash. Take your pick.

This is where I pause and wish my wife many happy returns. Pounding on the keyboard while she sulks in the kitchen; not because I forgot her birthday - I didn't - but because it is Sunday and I am pounding on the keyboard.

There is precious little to say on this LP, save that Third Bardo also covered their "My Rainbow Life" and production is credited to Rusty Evans. Oh. And the sleevenotes, compiled by David Rubinson, make for some entertaining reading.

▼ PSYCHEDELIC PSOUL: ROSE OF SMILING FACES from "Psychedelic Psoul" LP (Columbia) 1967 (US)

capricorn one

A Gerry Goffin & Carole King composition, of course, allegedly named after Pleasant Valley Way; a road in West Orange, New Jersey which stakes out a path from the heart of suburbia into the Watchung Mountains. Or so I am informed.

Produced by Douglas Farthing Hatlelid
(aka Chip Douglas).

Mike Nesmith: lead guitar;
Peter Tork: keyboards;
"Fast" Eddie Hoh: drums;
Micky Dolenz: vocals;
Chip Douglas: bass guitar.

photograph by crowolf.

Famously sporting a riff stolen from The Beatles, the 45 release - issued on July 10th, 1967 - featured in the second series of their hit tv series, and peaked at #3 in the Billboard Charts. It also appears on the group's fourth LP, "Pisces, Aquarius, Capricorn & Jones Ltd." released in November, 1967.

▼ THE MONKEES: PLEASANT VALLEY SUNDAY from "Pleasant Valley Sunday b/w Words" 45 (Colgems) 1967 (US)

the pig's whisker

london 'swings'. splice ice lollies and tizer fizz.

A Robin Williamson composition; perhaps the most outstanding of those previously unreleased demos produced by Joe Boyd, and finally issued in 1997. Much of the material here was ultimately re-recorded for 1968's magnificent "5,000 Spirits or the Layers of an Onion" and "Wee Tam & The Big Huge" - released through Elektra - but these original versions offer serious competition to their more lushly arranged definitive counterparts.

Spare and hauntingly elegant in execution, Boyd was not compelled here to contend with the exotic layering of instruments which would later play an integral part in the String Band's sound.

Also captured in these sessions is the eerie, "God Dog" - released by Shirley Collins with sister, Dolly - and "Lover Man", which Mike Heron allegedly penned for - or simply gifted to - fellow Scot, Al Stewart.

For the uninitiated, Pig's Whisker Music is the label founded by Williamson and wife, Bina to promote and distribute their joint ventures.

▼ THE INCREDIBLE STRING BAND: SEE YOUR FACE AND KNOW YOU from "The Chelsea Sessions, 1967" CD (Pig's Whisker Music) 1997 (UK)

apostle of the strung-out

Figure 3-29.–Correct way to take out a kink in wire rope.

kink |kɪŋk|
noun

a sharp twist or curve in something that is otherwise straight : a kink in the road.
• figurative a flaw or obstacle in a plan, operation, etc. : though the system is making some headway, there are still some kinks to iron out.
• a stiffness in the neck, back, etc.; crick : it takes the kinks out of stiff necks.
• figurative a quirk of character or behavior.
• informal a person with unusual sexual preferences.

I am not so much at a loose end as vaguely tied in knots. Nothing that won't ultimately unravel; maybe a kink in a length of string is nearer the mark.

Anyway. I was sitting idly keeping one eye open on the FEEDJIT stats - as one might do or even justify in such a predicament - when I chanced upon a visitor bouncing away from here to alight on Canon 2.0. Said site is essentially a "literary experiment" curated by Jorn Barger, of Robot Wisdom fame, an individual who has been kind enough to link to SibLINGSHOT ON THE BLEACHERS on occasion. Donovan and Patti Smith - dancing barefoot - spring to mind.

So. Interestingly, Jorn possesses some very sound literary tastes. None too meticulously, I found myself dipping into a list he has compiled on a number of authors up on Canon 2.0 when I happened on an entry with regard to Robert Stone. A list for the transiently listless. Stone is a writer I admire but know too little about. I had all but forgotten his name. Born in 1937 in Brooklyn, in addition to his string of successes as a novelist, he worked for a period too as a Vietnam War correspondent in 1971, an experience which culminated in the publication of "Dog Soldiers" three years later.

A solid book, but not quite as strong as his 1967 debut, "A Hall of Mirrors".

Many moons ago, my good friend Gus lent me an old paperback copy. It was a good read. It's style has been compared to that of the Beat Generation, and that is valid enough, but on balance I remember it reminded me more of Glaswegian author, Alexander Trocchi, whose incisive portrayal of heroin addiction, "Cain's Book", was famously banned in the UK on publication in 1960 after a lengthy showcase obscenity trial. Trochhi had a deeply entrenched habit. And a capacity for controversy on a par with Burroughs or Ginsberg.

Or Hubert Selby, jr.

A champion of outsiders Samuel Beckett and Henry Miller, Trocchi found an outlet amongst the pornographers of Paris in the 1950's, editing the literary magazine, "Merlin", before eventually settling in New York City where he operated a stone scow - a flat-bottomed dredger - on the filth of the Hudson river.



Anyhow. I digress.

I am glad I chanced on the Stone entry. The title for this post comes from a 1997 interview from the Salon, conducted by Dwight Garner.

I claim no credit whatsoever.

INTERVIEW WITH ROBERT STONE @ IDENTITY THEORY.COM

interview with a soapdodger, charlatan and charismatic miscreant

let me introduce you to the family: "wanna buy a f@ckin' lady bic ?"

II

One has to be careful...

when picking up the soap. In many penitentiaries, it's perhaps better not to bathe at all. If one can get away with it. An act of self-preservation well suited to those family values subsequently adhered to out on the Spahn Ranch.

Charlie don't surf, and he ain't no skateboarding toothpick.

Like Aleister Crowley, his primary addiction was in subjugating lesser egos and bending them to his prison scarred and hopelessly addled will. And unlike Crowley, he lacked the proper financial backing. Just so much dime-a-dozen cultivated theatrical shtick, picked up here and there with the indiscriminate zeal of the habitual garbage raker; the pink snouted truffling connoisseur of hand-me-down homilies. With an adequate inheritence - who knows ? - the road to the the new dawn may have been paved with gold instead of chicken bones and rats' tails.
 
To the recently paroled thirty-two year old Manson, stepping loose on Haight Ashbury in March, 1967 after serving more than fifteen years in various institutions for violations as diverse as grand theft auto and the pimping of a minor, the impressionable naiveté - if not vacuity - of so many disenfranchised flower children must have seemed a freak gift to be toyed with at leisure. Straight time can never have been realistically debated as an option.

III

"I was so smart when i was a kid,
that i learned i was dumb. Fast."

"That's beautiful."

charlies's cherry-picked band of gypsys.

A sociopath with a Rasputin complex as virulent as herpes - no Ed Bunker, certainly - a life sentence of segregation, for his own protection, ultimately reawaited him back behind the razor wire in the aftermath of Helter Skelter; ironic, given his half-assed lip service to the codes of the Aryan Brotherhood.

Foxy Loxy, king for but a day, the sky was quick to fall back in.

The following interview is culled from Daniel Hancyz's "Rebirth Movement" remixes of "Psychedelic Soul"; a double CD bootleg release of Manson's 1967 sessions recorded at Universal Studios, Hollywood which previously suffered from poor fedelity and lacklustre editing. The version of "Look At Your Game, Girl" differs significantly from that previously released on "LIE: The Love and Terror Cult" through Awareness Records.

IV

"I'll tell you what i generally do
- and this is kinda crazy -
well, we go round and visit a lot;
we go to people's houses..."

do what thou wilt.

I suspect my ruminations on garbage picking
were directly inspired by this rather fine piece.

illustration by ib.

▼ CHARLES MANSON: INTERVIEW from " Psychedelic Soul (Rebirth Movement)" Bootleg (Universal Studios) 1967/2009 (US)
▼ CHARLES MANSON: LOOK AT YOUR GAME, GIRL from " Psychedelic Soul (Rebirth Movement)" Bootleg (Universal Studios) 1967/2009 (US)

REBIRTH MOVEMENT (THE DANIEL HANCYZ REMIXES)
ED SANDERS ON THE FAMILY (LINK SUPPLIED BY JON)

it's a girl, mrs. walker

photography by david montgomery.

Original recording produced by Kit Lambert at Kingsway studios, London in October 1967.

These two, neither included on the final album remarkably - the second a Keith Moon composition - manage to sound even more like the Monkees than the Monkees. Some stellar syncopated drumming from Keith; a little Spanish Syd filtered strumming from Pete; and a fade-out on the first track which sounds suspiciously like the intro to the pompous 80's dross of "I Don't Like Mondays".

Friday, here we come.

Remixed and remastered by Andy Macpherson & Jon Astley at Revolution Studios.

▼ THE WHO: GIRL'S EYES (BONUS TRACK) from "The Who Sell Out" LP (Track / MCA) 1967 (UK)

▼ THE WHO: GLOW GIRL (BONUS TRACK) from "The Who Sell Out" LP (Track / MCA) 1967 (UK)

PURCHASE THE WHO SELL OUT REMASTERED + BONUS TRACKS

domino effect

dragon lake, siberia.

Curiously, in the aftermath of my deliberation on astral orbits, I awoke to learn that a US commercial satellite and an obsolete Russian sputnik had collided over the frozen wastes of Siberia.

Domino effect - I hear - is what the physicists fear.

You have heard this one before. Every time is like the first time; you can't bind what wants to come undone.

▼ THE INCREDIBLE STRING BAND: FIRST GIRL I LOVED from "5000 Spirits Or The Layers Of The Onion" (Elektra) 1967 (UK) [r]

PURCHASE 5000 SPIRITS

jackdaws and crows

jack•daw |ˌdʒakdɔː|
noun
a small, gray-headed crow that typically nests in tall buildings and chimneys, noted for its inquisitiveness. • Genus Corvus, family Corvidae: two species, in particular the Eurasian C. monedula.

Jackdaws are very cool birds. Ferociously intelligent but not as obviously malefic as carrion crows or ravens. I am guessing they have a lot in common with their ancestral velociraptors.

I am no ornithologist, and I am fond of domestic cats, so this is purely conjecture in the loosest sense.

A long time ago now, I lived next door to a small farm. I have witnessed firsthand the lethal work of crows hunting in packs; dropping off fence-posts and telegraph wires to worry sheep and feast on newborn lambs. They go for the eyes. Plucking them up like precious gems. Ravens, especially, have a bad reputation. In folklore they are harbingers of doom, their song the voice of the dead. In times of war they are notoriously populous. Hanging over battlefields in droves and feeding on the fallen.

Jackdaws, like magpies, have more agreeable traits. Natural thieves, they are drawn to small shiny objects - jewelry - which they covet and use to line their nests just like young women in synthetic leisurewear:

"A covetous fellow, like a jackdaw, steals what he was never made to enjoy, for the sake of hiding it."

- John Gray, "Beggars Opera", 1728.

Of course. All that glitters will eventually rust.

▼ PINK FLOYD: THE SCARECROW from "The Piper At The Gates Of Dawn" LP (Columbia EMI) 1967 (UK)

PURCHASE PIPER AT THE GATES OF DAWN DELUXE EDITION

peter's trip

Paul Beaver: synthesizer; Michael Bloomfield: guitar;
Harvey Brooks: bass; Marcus Doubleday: trumpet, flugelhorn;
Barry Goldberg: organ, piano, harpsichord;
Nick Gravenites: guitar, vocals; Bobby Notkoff: violin;
Buddy Miles: percussion; Peter Strazza: saxophone.

A cautiously representative sample from the score to the 1967 cinematic fest which was the love child of Peter Fonda and Jack Nicholson. Sidewalk was a subsidiary of Capitol, under the creative wing of Mike Curb.

There are unexpected encounters with brilliance peppered through this, like finding sparkling veins on a subway wall.

▼ THE ELECTRIC FLAG: PETER'S TRIP from "The Trip (Soundtrack)" LP (Sidewalk) 1967 (US)
▼ THE ELECTRIC FLAG: SYNESTHESIA from "The Trip (Soundtrack)" LP (Sidewalk) 1967 (US)
▼ THE ELECTRIC FLAG: GREEN & GOLD from "The Trip (Soundtrack)" LP (Sidewalk) 1967 (US)

Speaking of trips, visit this recent post on Doc 40 with its link to New Scientist, for a mindwarping exploration of the universe as hologram. Philip K. Dick would have lapped it up.

PURCHASE THE TRIP (OST)

who is watching big brother ?

oz #3: may, 1967.

"Strongly identified as part of the underground press, it was the subject of two celebrated obscenity trials, one in Australia in 1964 and the other in the UK in 1971. On both occasions the magazine's editors were acquitted on appeal after initially being found guilty and sentenced to harsh jail terms."

Edited by Richard Neville - in association with Jim Anderson and (later) Felix Davis - contributors included Germaine Greer; designer, Martin Sharp; filmmaker, Phillipe Mora; photographer, Robert Whitaker; and one Richard Branson, now chairman of Virgin Media.

cover design by martin sharp.

plan 9 from outer space

The Austin collective's second release for International Artists - the same label responsible for inflicting Mayo Thompson's fellow Texas Rangers, the Red Krayola on the record buying public - is yet more psychedelic hillbilly fare best known, perhaps, for the 8 minute plus joint Erickson and Hall opus, "Slip Inside This House", opening side 1. The first song here is penned by guitarist/producer, Stacy Sutherland; the second by Roky and Tommy.

Of course. Barack Obama slips inside the house presently, while the Texans mosey on out with their tails between their legs. And take the silverware with them before the flying saucers touch down on the western world's best maintained lawn.

Roky Erickson: vocals;

Dan Galindo: bass; Stacy Sutherland: guitar;

Tommy Hall: jug; Danny Thomas: drums

Produced by Stacy Sutherland & engineered by Frank Davis.

listen to the mekon

▼ 13th FLOOR ELEVATORS: NOBODY TO LOVE from "Easter Everywhere" LP (International Artists) 1967 (US)

▼ 13th FLOOR ELEVATORS: DUST from "Easter Everywhere" LP (International Artists) 1967 (US)

PURCHASE EASTER EVERYWHERE

the exploding inevitable

Well, well. It appears our last jaunt to the trip receptacles secured little in the way of favourable comment. Or any comment at all, in fact. Since I am nothing if not contrary, I don't for one second intend to allow that to impede us from alighting on a third trip.

Look on it as you might an especially intrusive flashback.

This one is not from the vaults of the Trip Receptacles. Rather, let's revisit Timothy Leary's notorious 1967 call to alms, "Turn On, Tune In, Drop It", fellow siblings.

Leary, of course, famously taught psychology at Harvard and from as early as 1960 advocated the unfettered use of natural hallucinogens in addition to the then perfectly legal synthesised compound, LSD. Less well known is the controversial nature of his earliest experiments; these initially targeted prison inmates as a control group well before he gained sufficient confidence to engage directly in self-experimentation.




ESP 1027.

Leary - alongside colleague, Richard Alpert - was dismissed from his faculty in May 1963 for allegedly distributing controlled substances to the student body. The official line, however, was his failure to attend contracted lectures. Undaunted by this and subsequent pressures from the FBI, Leary founded the "League For Spiritual Discovery" as a registered faith in 1966; an attempt to secure legal status for LSD as the holy sacrament underpinning their constitutional right to "freedom of religion". The government disagreed. On October 6th, 1966, LSD was effectively made illegal throughout the United States.

On January 14th, 1967, Timothy Leary made an invited appearance at the Human-Be-In in Golden Gate Park, San Francisco, with a gathering of some 30,000 individuals attendant on his word. The phrase "Turn On, Tune In, Drop Out" was officially born.

Rejoice. Engineered by David Hancock.

"All Girls Are Yours" ? If you say so, Timothy.

▼ DR. TIMOTHY LEARY: TRIP; ALL GIRLS ARE YOURS from "Turn On, Tune In, Drop Out" LP (ESP) 1967 (US)

PURCHASE TURN ON, TUNE IN, DROP OUT

more sorcery

pablo picasso.

Gabor Szabo: guitar; Jimmy Stewart: guitar; Louis Kabok: bass; Marty Morell: drums; Hal Gordon: percussion.

A huge performance from the 31 year old Sazabo, recorded live at The Jazz Workshop, Boston on April 14th-15th, 1967.

Produced by Bob Thiele; engineered by Ed Begley.

▼ GABOR SZABO: LOS MATADOROS from "More Sorcery" LP (Impulse!) 1967 (US)

PURCHASE MORE SORCERY REMASTERED

mayo: hurricane fighter plane

mayo thompson. or the bad lieutenant.

Texas calling. I am standing in line. I am on the way to a second coronary. The bitch with the smudged mascara and tobacco stained teeth sneers at me over greasy stainless steel and goes for the tried and tested cock-shrink script:

"You want mayo with that ?"

No. I want her brains - assuming she fucking has any - pooling on the slippery floor where infants skid before meeting their maker on a Friday afternoon jaunt to what will soon be affectionately known as the Tombs. Fucking imbecile. Stupid bitch.

Let's not fuck about. I have had my share of moronic paid occupation. I do not like her. In fact, I want to reach out over that stainless steel canopy and dip her fucking face in a fryer. I kid you not. I am weary of playing games. "Twister". Scissor Sisters on parole. Fuck her. Stupid, IQ challenged c*nt. I am not making this shit up. I have dressed 'poor', and paid through the nose to eat badly, for far too fucking long. I am poised on the lip of taking her down for good. Stupid bitch.

Hey. Checking my hair out in the mirror. Don't get me wrong. I'm one of the good guys. Harvey Keitel on his fucking honeymoon.

Why is it I get the impression no-one likes Richard Hell ?

▼ RED KRAYOLA: HURRICANE FIGHTER PLANE from "Epitaph For A Legend" LP (International Artists) 1980 (US)

PURCHASE EPITAPH TOR A LEGEND

twin shades of whiter than pale

both sides of the atlantic, 1967, "leaving for the coast".



Memphis boys, The Box Tops were nominated for two Grammy Awards in 1967: the first, 'Best Vocal Group Performance', for their 45, "The Letter" but also - perhaps less well remembered - 'Best Contemporary Group Performance' for their cover of Procol Harum's "A Whiter Shade Of Pale", produced by Dan Penn.

It is Chilton's vocal, though - blacker than black - which seals this performance as something worthy of serious reinvestigation.*

Alex Chilton: lead vocals and rhythm guitar; Bill Cunningham: bass and keyboards; John Evans: guitar and keyboards; Danny Smythe: drums; Gary Talley: lead guitar.

Lyrics, of course, by Keith Reid over a J.S. Bach improvisation provided by Gary Brooker and Hammond organist, Matthew Fisher. Recorded at Olympic Studios, London. Produced by Denny Cordell; engineered by Keith Grant.

Gary Brooker, voice and piano; Matthew Fisher, Hammond organ; David Knights, bass; Ray Royer, guitar and Bill Eyden, drums.

▼ PROCOL HARUM: A WHITER SHADE OF PALE from "A Whiter Shade Of Pale b/w Lime Street Blues" 45 (Regal Zonophone / Deram) 1967 (UK)

▼ THE BOX TOPS: A WHITER SHADE OF PALE from "The Letter / Neon Rainbow" LP (Bell) 1967 (US)

* For the record, on reflection that's not entirely fair to the rest of those Tops. A solid group performance with some excellent understated guitar licks and percussion.

PURCHASE PROCOL HARUM REMASTERED + BONUS TRACKS
PURCHASE THE LETTER / NEON RAINBOW

good morning...

dublin southside, 2008. photograph by barry.

"Nothing to do to save his life, call his wife in.
Nothing to say but what a day; how's your boy been ?
Nothing to do, it's up to you,
I've got nothing to say but it's O.K."

- Lennon & McCartney.

Except. Underneath Mr. Martin's shiny production excesses - admirable, though they may be - there lurks a connoisseurs' carefully barbed slice of healthy cynicism. The rusting hull of a scuppered tug.

Nasty. Thank you, John.

Don't shoot the messenger. Unless his name is Chapman.

▼ THE BEATLES: GOOD MORNING, GOOD MORNING from "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" LP (Parlophone) 1967 (UK)

PURCHASE SGT. PEPPER