i go to sleep

imogen cunningham (1883 - 1976): the unmade bed, 1957.

Proof once more that sometimes the best songs recorded are those first fragmentary exercises in plucking substance out of the ether.

Better remembered as a 1981 hit for Chrissie Hynde - Davies' then wife - and The Pretenders, the original unreleased demo from sixteen years earlier leaves it completely in the shadow of his unmade bed.

Recorded around the time of "Kinda Kinks", this is possibly my all time favourite Raymond Davies composition.

▼ THE KINKS: I GO TO SLEEP (Bonus, Unreleased Demo) from "Kinda Kinks" CD Reissue (PYE/Castle) 1998 (UK)

REMASTERED, BONUS TRACKS

kit lambert's hall of the mountain king

the who on target.

From "The Who Sell Out" sessions, which featured collaboration with John 'Speedy' Keene - of Thunderclap Newman - on the track "Armenia City in the Sky".

This manic jam on "Hall of the Mountain King" from Edvard Greig's "Peer Guint Suite", first performed in 1876, was produced by
Kit Lambert at London's Kingsway Studios sometime between may and december, 1967, but didn't make it onto the album. Ultimately, it just didn't conform to the LP's conceptual remit but it was finally reinstated as a bonus track on the remastered CD reissue in 1995.



The faux 'Radio London' jingles which sequence those tracks on the original release were actually produced by PAMS Productions in Dallas, Texas, and prompted a series of law-suits at the time since PAMS - responsible for literally thousands of radio station stings throughout the 60's and 70's - alleged the commercials were reproduced without consent.

▼ THE WHO: HALL OF THE MOUNTAIN KING from "The Who Sell Out (Sessions)" CD Reissue (MCA/Polydor) 1995 (UK)

REMASTERED, BONUS TRACKS

sibling whispers #5: soul food & a place to eat

untitled anthropometry (ant 100) by yves klein.

Brothers and sisters, ladies and gentlemen; here is a site not to be missed.

The "Voice of Angels", the glass armonica.

If you are in need of repair and your soul hungers for a soothing touch, you really must reach out and shake The Singing Hand. I guarantee you will not be disappointed. Sweet dreams.

and if that don't work...

FACT 40: live at the moonlight club, London; 3rd april, 1980.

Hey man, you shouldn't do that... don't you know you'll stain the carpet.

"...previously unused studio material and a live recording of Joy Division's last concert. Originally planned for release in August, it was eventually released on October 8th 1981."

Probably not as strung out and rarefied as the Velvets, this version nonetheless brooks no bail.

▼ JOY DIVISION: SISTER RAY from "Still" LP (Factory) 1981 (UK)

STILL

what the world needs now...

the cat is in his hat, the confession's in the bag.

This post is partly inspired by Matt's latest on Perceptions. Delusions. This Burt Bacharach / Hal David song is pretty much what I imagine cops in the early 70s might have listened to over a martini or two when they came home to an empty apartment after a hard shift on the beat.

Probably, I'm nowhere near the mark.

▼ BURT BACHARACH: WHAT THE WORLD NEEDS NOW IS LOVE from "The Bell That Couldn't Jingle b/w What The World Needs Now..." 45 (A&M) 1968 (US)

▼ TOM CLAY & THE BLACKBERRIES: WHAT THE WORLD NEEDS NOW IS LOVE / ABRAHAM, MARTIN & JOHN (MEDLEY) from "What The World Needs Now... / Abraham, Martin & John (Medley)" 45 (MoWest) 1971 (US)

BURT BACHARACH CLASSICS

not so breaking news: swan fungus in the shit

swan fungus threatens to escalate.

I hadn't checked in on Swan Fungus for a little while, so I was dismayed to learn of this development. Hopefully, this situation might still be amicably resolved...

breaking news: stabbing at t in the park

detail from hieronymus bosch's 'last judgement' (triptych, centre panel), 1482.

Apparently a 22 year old man is fighting for his life after being stabbed at T in the Park. Read about it here.

This just substantiates my denouncement of this event, I feel. On a far more ironic note, folks, at least Altamont fielded a better soundtrack. And it was free.

Police are searching for a man with "mullet style" hair in connection with the incident. I kid you not.

Mad dogs and (non) englishmen.

television personalities: 14th floor redux

stairwell to heaven.
Note the complete absence of graffiti in this picture, clearly demarcating a better 'class' of stairwell.

Of all those not inconsiderable penalties incurred at the expense of one's health - physical or otherwise - as the result of living in a multi-storey block, perhaps the one which rankles most is the lack of facility to take the stairs.

I mention this having just partaken of an especially deep bath, and being startled once again by my thickening midriff.

Certainly, the very act of settling sardine like - as opposed to standing, like any sane person, under a refreshing shower - merely accentuates the problem. What is mentally stored as one's self image, taut and youthful, is immediately dispelled as cruel falsehood. Ha! Ha! Ha!, is the none too gentle truth. When was the last time you wearily huffed and puffed your way through a self-imposed regime of stomach crunches ? What happened to the mind cleansing routine of karmic yoga ?

It is not that I'm rigorously opposed to taking the long way down. I have done it on several occasions - in both directions - despite the fact that the journey covers over twenty floors, and proves quickly exhausting. The worst of it is the stench of piss in the gloomy stairwell which prevents one from stopping to catch one's breath. The sticky slap of one's soles on the stairs.

The stomach turning spectre of the human sized lump of excrement blocking one's path.

I have done the "stairs" on several occasions. Mostly when the power to the lifts has gone down. Once when a murder in those same lifts caused yellow police tape to cordon off the easier route for several long hours.

At least we didn't dip our toes in spilled blood.

This last was not so unpleasant. I was visiting another (identical) tower block with my son, and the stairwell there was considerably better maintained. There were no ill met inebriates or intravenous users hunched on a landing half way up, either. All the lights were on and nobody was at home.

This song by Dan Treacy is not altogether new. I posted it previously over on Art decade. I happen to like it very much, so don't expect any apologies from me for going over the same old ground.

Should you happen to chance on this post, Dan, I hope you are in good health and no longer dwelling in such conditions.

▼ TELEVISION PERSONALITIES: 14th FLOOR from "14th Floor b/w Oxford St. W1" 45 (Overground) 1978 (UK)

PART TIME PUNKS

goin' back to miami, part iv: end titles

ratso and the cowboy.

Closing our brief Florida Fantasy season, here's the great John Barry, renowned Golden Globe and five-time Academy Award winner.

Best remembered by Harry Nilsson's rendition of Fred Neil's coach-tripping "Everybody's Talkin'", the soundtrack to Midnight Cowboy is crammed full of superb supporting instrumentalisations and mini mind movies to sleaze on.

Released in the same year that 1967's flower child spectators at Altamont Speedway ultimately crashed and burned, Barry presents an entirely breezier take on an era where New Yorkers frozen on the seamier side dream of honeymooning in the Sunshine State.

▼ JOHN BARRY: FLORIDA FANTASY from "Midnight Cowboy" LP (Capitol) 1969 (US)

MIDNIGHT COWBOY ON CD

wedding song

one to tie the knot two.

Well, well... It would appear today is a big day for Emmett.

Let me be the first in the global village to toast him and his new wife. Hip, Hip Hooray!

▼ BOB DYLAN (featuring THE BAND): WEDDING SONG from
"Planet Waves" LP (Columbia) 1974 (US)

PLANET WAVES

pink fairies: down and out in neverneverland

peter pan needn't apply; wendy really ought to bring a chaperone.

Exploding onto the UK scene in 1970 out of the still smouldering ashes of The Deviants and The Pretty Things, Pink Fairies were the darlings of Ladbroke Grove and the underground free press.

Sex Pistols' Johnny Rotten had not one bad word to say of the Fairies, something of an achievement given his zeal to rubbish anything outwith his small coterie built around Finchley, Fullham and the Kings Road. If The Stooges and MC5 were progenitors of punk in the U.S., then Pink Fairies were sperm donors who refused to fuck about.

They also could turn it down a notch too, to great effect, on quieter tracks like "Heavenly Man" which - to my mind - recalls the best of the Twink's ex-band, The Pretty Things, and dare I say it, the Pink Floyd.

Paul Rudolph (guitar, vocals); Sandy Sanderson (bass); Russel Hunter (drums); and the effervescent "Twink" (John Alder) on drums and vocals.

If you can't groove to this LP, you're already dead.

This is much more my cup of tea, down in the park or otherwise. Maybe I should've led off today's preceding post with 'twinks' in the park...

▼ PINK FAIRIES: DO IT from "NeverNeverLand" LP (Polydor) 1971 (UK)

▼ PINK FAIRIES: HEAVENLY MAN from "NeverNeverLand" LP (Polydor) 1971 (UK)

▼ PINK FAIRIES: WAR GIRL from "NeverNeverLand" LP (Polydor) 1971 (UK)

REMASTERED - BUY IT

t in the park

twats in the park.

I'm not a fan of music festivals, I must confess. There is something about queuing up in the rain to file into a huge open space flanked by portable toilets waiting to throw up their effluent which sets my teeth
on edge.

Would you bed down on a concrete stable floor on minimum wages just to muck out for R.E.M. and the Verve ?

This weekend's 'T' in the Park festival in Balado, Kinross-Shire, Scotland is no exception. Rest assured, I shall not be there.

For a hilariously scathing - in the main - account of 1985's Live Aid fiasco, head over to Any Major Dude With Half A Heart. You won't be disappointed. And you can reLIVE it from the comfort of your very own sagging chair in front of your monitor.

Hunching curmudgeonly crab-like over a table in some dimly lit venue is infinitely more my style.

I do like Tennents' Lager, though.

And they've banned consuming alcohol in public spaces, too. What is the world coming to ?

goin' back to miami, part iii: moving to florida

is it in my eye ?

Continuing our Florida Fantasy theme spread over the last couple of days, here's Gibby Haynes and fellow upstarts stirring things up in the mid-eighties on their second studio EP.

"The EP was originally released on Touch and Go. It was also included with CD editions of Rembrandt Pussyhorse in the U.S. and Psychic... Powerless... Another Man's Sac in the U.K. Rembrandt Pussyhorse and Cream Corn... were again packaged as a single album when they were reissued on Latino Buggerveil in 1999."

Smear it all over.

▼ BUTTHOLE SURFERS: MOVING TO FLORIDA from "Cream Corn From The Socket Of Davis" EP (Touch & Go) 1985 (US)

BUY CREAM CORN

goin' back to miami, part ii: ex-con on the loose

i am a fugitive from a chain gang, twice.

I was just listening to some Fugs when this sprang to mind. If my memory serves me well, this wonderful song is "borrowed" from a post on the splendid Record Robot and is a vanity press release by the rather wonderfully named ex-con, Floyd McLellan.

Mike, from RR, originally went on record:

"It appears to be a self produced vanity project, recorded in San Diego, CA in 1978, and I anticipated that it would be quite bad, in a good way. Turns out it's not bad at all. Ol' Floyd is best off when giving a recitation over fine backing tracks rather than actually singing, the title track being the best example of this. Where one might think this 12 minute tour de force could not be topped, one would once again be surprised by this better than one might expect record album."

I hope Mike at Record Robot isn't pissed off I cribbed from his old post. Or Floyd, for that matter. This is just too good not to share.

Corny as the Green Giant in places - largely due to its orchestral incidental music, like a low budget made-for-tv "Cool Hand Luke" - but there's little doubting the veracity of Floyd's account.

Thank god, for once, for vanity imprints.

If anybody out there has any insightful observations to make regarding this one, please add your tuppence worth to the mix.

▼ FLOYD McCLELLAN: I AM AN EX-CONVICT FROM A FLORIDA CHAIN GANG from "I Am An Ex-Convict From a Florida Chain Gang" LP (Sagitario) 1978 (US)

OUT OF PRINT

andy warhol: silks for druella

cowboys & indians: john wayne by andy warhol. silk screen, 1986.

I was never a big fan of Marion - let it be said - but at least Andy done good with the Velvet Underground. Credit where credit's due, motherf@ckers.

method man & redman

how high ?

Hip-Hop is not something you will normally see on this site.

In Wu-Tanger, Method Man's case I am quite prepared to make an exception. Written by Erick Sermon.

▼ METHOD MAN: HOW HIGH ? (REMIX) from "Blackout!" CD
(Def Jam) 1999 (US)

EAST SIDE!

the red krayola

detail from jan van eyck's, giovanni arnolfini and his wife, 1434. Tempera on wood.
Texan, Mayo Thompson is very much a maverick genius in the same mould as Roky Erickson of the 13th Floor Elevators. The Red Krayola's sound - oringinally Red Crayola until a threatened law suit - is a much more proto-punk experiment, however, than the Elevators' psychotropic blend of Buddy Holly on mescalin and testosterone fueled dance-floor delinquency.
Mayo later briefly formed part of Ohio's Pere Ubu. Moving to London sometime in 1976, he became involved with Geoff Travis's distribution business at the mighty Rough Trade Records.

Written by Steve Cunningham; Tommy Smith; and Mayo Thompson.

This is a love affair I've never tired of.

▼ THE RED KRAYOLA: THE JEWELS OF THE MADONNA from "God Bless The Red Krayola and All Who Sail With It" LP (International Artists) 1968 (US)

REISSUED ON CD

sibling whispers #4: sites to see

If you haven't already checked it out, gentlebear is a very nice new site indeed. We got Brooklyn in the house!

ogden's nut gone flake

immediately arresting cover art.

Released in 1968 on the Immediate label, "Ogden's Nut Gone Flake" saw the Small Faces move consciously away from their core mod fan base into a trippy conceptual territory more comfortably occupied by the early Pink Floyd, The Who, or even Donovan.

While "The Piper At The Gates Of Dawn" is not strictly speaking a concept album proper, and the Who's 'opera', "Tommy" would not be released until the following year, "Ogden's Nut Gone Flake" clearly showcases similar elements of social observation dressed up in psychedelic frippery. The primary difference is that where Syd Barrett drew on a rich fairy tale tradition steeped, with equal measure, in the charming and grotesque, the Small Faces opt for vaudevillian music hall shtick.

That's not to say there aren't great moments of rythym driven rock on the first side of this album - in particular the outstanding "Afterglow (Of Your Love)" - but the entirety of the second side is made over to the tale of Hapiness Stan, narrated by British comedian, Stanley Unwin, and is a huge departure for the band more commonly associated with pop classics like "All Or Nothing" or the later "Tin Soldier".

Personally speaking, I could well do without the Mockney knees-up of "Lazy Sunday". For many Small Faces fans, however, that 45 culled from this album - a huge hit for the group - remains an enduring favourite.

On the second track which follows here, it sounds like the Small Faces have been reading Bertholt Brecht's "Baal", or at least listening to the Kurt Weill adaptation.

▼ SMALL FACES: OGDEN'S NUT GONE FLAKE from "Ogden's Nut Gone Flake" LP (Immediate) 1968 (UK)

▼ SMALL FACES: MAD JOHN from "Ogden's Nut Gone Flake" LP (Immediate) 1968 (UK)

REMASTERED

sibling whispers #3: jon's place

A comment I left over at Jon's place.

(Check out the original great commentary sparring between Jon and Mr. Beer N. Hockey on Dope City Free Press which prompted Jon's post.)

I imagine writers in the pre micro chip era would have pawned their false teeth just to be able to publish their shit at the push of a button, and have it instantaneously transmitted half way round the globe and back without ever seeing a rejection slip drop through the mail.

Seriously.

And then they would sit back and uncap a cold one and think,
"Wait a minute. Where's my fucking advance ?"

There's always a drawback. Always something to get pissed about.

Well, at least I'm rid of Silliman.

My site was beginning to look like the yellow pages in my minds eye, all one way traffic and collegiate boards clinking champagne glasses on the Obama Campaign Trail at the other end.

I post "fuck y'all" on my site and try not to think I must look embittered and complaining.

That's the good thing about blogging. You watch the new eat up the old. It's a seamless ream of virtual paper running away from yesterday.

the killer

don't let the sun go down on me.*

Written by Dave "Curly" Williams and Sunny David in a fusion of race
for music's sake, this song was recorded by The Commodores; Big Maybelle; Delores Frederick; and Sunny David himself (in the guise of Roy Hall) long before the killer tracked it down and nailed it straight through the heart.

Lewis was originally from Louisiana, schooled in Texas, and by connecting with Sun Records forever associated with Memphis, Tennessee.

Shake it.

* Note what appears to be tiny traces of amphetamine sulphate, or possibly cocaine, in the lower right hand side of the picture. No wonder there was a whole lot of shakin' going on.

▼ JERRY LEE LEWIS: WHOLE LOT OF SHAKIN' GOING ON from "Whole Lot Of Shakin' Going On b/w It'll Be Me" 45 (Sun) 1957 (US)

THE KILLER

goin' back to miami, part i: wayne cochran

progenitor of the rob tyner look ? or lux interior, possibly.

I first came across this one on the excellent bubblegum machine, which appears to have gone into permanent stasis.

Cochran, The White Knight of Soul, was born in Thomaston, Georgia in 1939.

From Andrew Hamilton, All Music Guide:

"The outlandish Wayne Cochran - wild outfits, high snow-white pompadour - and his musical odyssey began in 1955 with his first band. By 1963, after a move to Macon, GA, and numerous personnel changes, the outfit became known as Wayne Cochran & the C.C. Riders ("Cochran's Circuit Riders"). Inspired by James Brown and his relentless touring schedule, Cochran purchased an old bus and hit the road. The group took its high-octane show all over the South and Midwest before settling in Miami for an extended stay as the house band at the Barn (aka "the House of Soul")."

It would be nice to imagine that Cochran bumped buses with Ken Kesey and the Merry Pranksters. Who knows ? God knows how intimidating that bouffant would be on acid.

After years on the road peppered with numerous stop-offs to 'cut the rug', Cochran gave it all up for the Lord and established his own ministry in 1981.

His parishioners must be having some kind of a ball.

▼ WAYNE COCHRAN & THE C.C. RIDERS: GOIN' BACK TO MIAMI from "Goin' Back To Miami" 45 (Mercury) 1967 (US)

WHITE KNIGHT OF SOUL
WAYNE COCHRAN ON BLOGORAMA! MIAMI VISION

sibling whispers #2: mullets

mullet versus mulatto

Ridiculous hairstyles. Well, I thought it was kind of funny, but everyone else was no doubt laughing about this last year.

communiqué #10: sausage links & finks

To those sites aware that I have linked and, for whatever reason, avoided reciprocating... fuck y'all! I can't be doing with that shit.

The time has come to clean up my backyard.

sibling whispers #1: sea monkey conspiracy

elsewhere: mick farren exposes the sea monkey conspiracy.

Have you been deceived ? Hit back now! It's never too late!

mink deville

los cholas y los españoles dan un paseo.

this one is inspired by Jon's recent plugging of Willy DeVille, and also his respect for Sandow Birk; BFP; and les cholas everywhere.

Cadillac Walk was written by John 'Moon' Martin. The LP was produced by Jack Nitzche. Old School!

"Hey babe, you got awfully long fingers... D'ya play the piano ?"

▼ MINK DEVILLE: SPANISH STROLL from "Cabretta" LP (Capitol) 1977 (US)
▼ MINK DEVILLE: CADILLAC WALK from "Cabretta" LP (Capitol) 1977 (US)

CADILLAC WALK

communiqué #9: breaking news!

flowers #1 by ib, SibLINGSHOT ON THE BLEACHERS.

Important and exciting breaking news over on Art Decade.
Love is definitely in the air !

nb: the continuity in today's flower theme is entirely coincidental...
But it's also a helluv'an excuse to break out the vino this early in the day! Wishing I could be there, dudes and dudettes. Cheers!

Written by Ellie Greenwich and produced, of course, by the fabulous if not entirely sane, Phil Spector.

▼ THE RONETTES: CHAPEL OF LOVE (STEREO) from "Presenting The Fabulous Ronettes Featuring Veronica" LP (Philles) 1964 (US)

BACK TO MONO

flowers of romance

flowers #2 by ib, SibLINGSHOT ON THE BLEACHERS.
I originally photographed these flowers in front of a rain swept window about ten years ago, when my son's mother was pregnant with him. The image is one of a series of four.

Now in the summer / I could be happy or in distress /
Depending on the company / On the veranda /
Talk of the future or reminisce / Behind the dialogue /
We're in a mess /
Whatever I intended / I sent you flowers /
You wanted chocolates instead / The flowers of romance /
The flowers of romance /
I've got binoculars / On top of boxhill / I could be Nero /
Fly the eagle / Start all over again /
I can't depend on these so-called friends /
It's a pity you need to bend /
I'll take the furniture / Start all over again
Written by John Lydon and Keith Levene. With Martin Atkins*.

Primal Drumming.

▼ PUBLIC IMAGE LTD: FLOWERS OF ROMANCE from "The Flowers Of Romance" LP (Virgin) 1981 (UK)
▼ PUBLIC IMAGE LTD: UNDER THE HOUSE * from "The Flowers Of Romance" LP (Virgin) 1981 (UK)

BOTANY UP THE AMAZON

steely dan

we've got young skinny girls... here at the western world.

Steely Dan are one of those American bands - or more accurately, pairings - which provoke attitudes of ambivalence. More properly still, you either love 'em or loathe them.

Personally, I go with the former.

I've always had a secret hankering after their smacky jazz noodling. That nodding out lethargic fuzz which somehow recalls syndicated 70's tv shows like 'Taxi' or 'Hill Street Blues' as much as jaundiced memories of Donald Fagen and Walter Becker stumbling over their leads.

This first appeared on 1978's "Greatest Hits", a bit of a misnomer since it was previously unreleased and the only song over four sides of vinyl which couldn't then be found on any other album. The rest of those numbers included are solid representations from everything they recorded between 1972 and it's release. I'll go out on a limb though, and advise that you should really purchase all their previous releases regardless.

And why stop there ? Steely Dan are FM magic; no static at all.

With a clean nod to Any Major Dude with Half a Heart for somehow noticing my 'minor' strop.

Produced by Gary Katz.

▼ STEELY DAN: HERE AT THE WESTERN WORLD from "Greatest Hits" 2 x LP (ABC) 1978 (US)

CITIZEN STEELY DAN

piss factory

mer records # 601.

Written by Patti Smith in collaboration with Richard Sohl. Performed with Richard Sohl on piano, and Lenny Kaye on guitar.

The flip side boasted Tom Verlaine on lead guitar, and what a 'version' it was.

▼ PATTI SMITH: PISS FACTORY from "Hey Joe (Version) b/w Piss Factory" 45 (Mer) 1974 (US)

OUT OF PRINT

my white bicycle

a farthing for your thoughts, dear boy.

Rosa rides a mountain bike. She takes it everywhere rather than use the subway or file onto a bus.

I like to watch her ass as she pedals off.

▼ TOMORROW: MY WHITE BICYCLE from "Tomorrow" LP (Parlophone) 1967 (UK)

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

TOMORROW REVISITED

PIPER DELUXE

communiqué #8: rational debate

wyatt earp or deputy dawg ; the sheriff hits the trail.
Or, as my friend Gus asked, who are the brain police ?

This communique is prompted by the Web Sheriff's visitation here last week, and by Brendan's post concerning a web survey which is currently being conducted over on The Rising Storm. I have posted much of the following as a comment on The Rising Storm - though I've edited it since - and feel the issues raised by this 'visit' are certainly worth exploring rather than adopting a head-in-the-sand response.

As Brendan would appear to concede (and pardon me, B, if I'm misreading your intent) the blogging community is increasingly under pressure in putting up files for evaluation ; we're not talking wholesale deliberate piracy in hosting entire albums whether out of print or not here, the issue is in promoting artists by featuring selected tracks and, in many instances, providing links to commercial stockists as per this site; The Rising Storm; and a whole host of others. It is not, nor has been from the inception of SibLINGSHOT ON THE BLEACHERS, my intention to deny artists their inalienable right to financially benefit from their output. Quite the contrary, in my defence.

If the survival of sites is dependent solely on having music industry approved material foisted on them, the gig is up. So far as I am concerned, it is the provision of out of print or poorly circulated material on blogs thus far which has led directly to users on the web having an impact on what is picked up and put back into distribution.

It helps rekindle the buzz.

If sufficient demand can be demonstrated - as I believe it already has to a great extent - then distributors can be sure of making profit. That means increased cash flow to artists who have suffered in the past from their material being inaccessible, and - of course - revenue for the industry as a whole. In this scenario there are no losers.

If material is purchased on the back of direct links to commercial outlets or by recourse to independent sellers, then surely that is justification enough to stymie litigative threat ?

In this instance, I was visited by the "Web Sheriff" - a UK based body safeguarding copyright material - and politely advised to remove all links to a specific file. I was quite happy to comply with said request, in accordance with this site's disclaimer, and removed the link in question immediately. Further contact on a seemingly quite friendly and equanimous note was made here the following day.

This in itself seemed to me quite reasonable and courteous, if not regrettable in that the post under censure provided a direct link to Amazon where the newly remastered product could be purchased and given, too, the track in question was over forty years old.
Be that as it may, I would far sooner be approached in this manner where an issue has arisen, than inadvertently provoke a storm out of all proportion, a rattling of sabres, as has seen to be threatened elsewhere.

The “Web Sheriff” has made his position quite clear. Debate, I feel, is to be welcomed rather than shunned.

I'd relish some feedback here. Maybe I'm just rattled; it could be I'm shooting myself in the foot. Damn!

Am I alone in finding the words "All The Best for the W'end" vaguely chilling ? I keep on hearing Johnny Cash's foreboding "25 Minutes to Go" whistling round the bend.

Or maybe I'm just paranoid. One can never be too sure.

▼ FLAMIN' GROOVIES: SHAKE SOME ACTION * from "Shake Some Action" LP (Sire) 1976 (US)

* thanks to Emmett from Art Decade for providing the inspiration for this selection added after the fact.

SHAKE SOME AMAZON

death in the neoclassical style

detail from "la mort de marat" by jaques-louis david, 1793.

the sun is shining

veterans of experience.

Actually, the sun is far from shining here this morning. It's dull and overcast and my head is still thumping from the inescapable cacophony of yesterday's Orange Walk and the faintly unnerving sounds of random violence and confrontation late into the night.

And this track written by Mick Collins from Detroit, Michigan doesn't really cut the mustard as vintage music to retire too, either. I am slipping, brothers and sisters.

▼ THE DIRTBOMBS: THE SUN IS SHINING from "Dangerous Magical Noise" CD (In The Red) 2003 (US)

DANGEROUS MAGICAL NOISE

ian dury

blockhead design by barney bubbles.

Ian Dury arrived on Stiff Records with the anthemic 45 "Sex & Drugs & Rock & Roll", but it was the album "New Boots and Panties!!" recorded with guitarist Chaz Jankel and former members of Radio Caroline's Loving Awareness Band - Charley Charles; Norman Watt-Roy; Mickey Gallagher; John Turnbull; and Davey Payne - which cemented his status as blockhead extraordinaire.

Harrow born college art teacher, Dury had previous experience with Payne in their former shared musical venture onto the pub circuit, Kilburn and the High Roads, formed in 1971 following the death of Dury's idol, Gene Vincent.

Like Vincent, Dury also suffered from physical disability; not as the result of injuries sustained in a car crash, but from polio contracted at age seven at the height of Britain's post-war (1949) Polio Epidemic.

He never made any bones about contending with disability, and it's testimony to his acute self-belief that he wasn't simply content to take a back seat as a lyricist but determined to prove himself as frontman of an eight-piece band, putting his infirmity solidly in the spotlight.

"New Boots and Panties!!" is a masterstroke of convoluted word play and in your face comedic aggression. Hostility lurks around every twisting corner, but there is also gentle softly-spoken humanity in abundance. Much of the humour is peculiarly British - more than just London centric or English, specifically - and it's partly down to this that he and his fellow Blockheads found early favour in university halls of residence and student nurses quarters alike.

You don't have to be a mechanic to work it out, but it helps.

I love this LP. There is nowhere near as much funk finery on display here as on later singles and albums, but it always keeps me coming back. A lot of it reminds me of travelling on nearly deserted motorway sections late at night in drizzling rain. And that's a recommendation.

▼ IAN DURY: MY OLD MAN from "New Boots And Panties!!" LP (Stiff) 1977 (UK)

▼ IAN DURY: CLEVOR TREVER from "New Boots And Panties!!" LP (Stiff) 1977 (UK)

2 x CD DELUXE EDITION ON AMAZON

jackson pollock

jackson pollock's lavender mist: number 1, 1950.

I first saw lavender mist in the flesh at the Tate Gallery, London when I was fifteen years old and trying hard to put together a portfolio good enough to get into Art School. The magazine and fine art prints I had seen of Pollock's work before then didn't do his paintings any justice. None at all.

I entered the gallery and his 7' x 9' canvas stopped me dead in my tracks. It was just like walking into a wall.

A brick wall on which some angry primate genius had been let loose with paint and a utensil other than an academy sanctioned brush.

I say primate for good reason.

There was nothing remotely primitive either in the intent or the execution so far as I could see. It simply looked as though some huge but agile ape had been let out its cage. I sank into one of those padded benches they leave dotted about the place as if intended for the infirm and stared at that painting for the better part of an hour. The party of school kids I was with, some good friends among them, wandered off and left me alone to grapple with my response and I didn't meet up with them again until we were all back out on the street.

The Provisional IRA staged a terrorist campaign in England's capital that summer and three of us were dressed in camouflage fatigues and paramilitary boots, which didn't sit at all well with either the Tate's security staff or the police patrolling the pavement. Neither did our pronounced accents, which - to the untrained ear - appeared to sound every inch as cosily cosmopolitan as Gerry Adams'. This wasn't that many years after publicans were censured for displaying signs reading "No Irish, No Blacks, No Dogs". Put our dress code down to juvenile naivety as opposed to delinquency.

If you have gotten this far with only prose for comfort and are possibly wondering what song or group I have chosen to illustrate this post, forget it.

Most of the time music works for me, but sometimes you have to go with silence.

the return of riz ortolani

ray milland in deep in the pyjama girl case.

From wiki:

"The Pyjama Girl Case is a soundtrack album from director Flavio Mogherini's 1977 giallo genre movie by the same name, based on one of Australia's most known unsolved murder mysteries... The film's original Italian title is La Ragazza Dal Pigiama Giallo, translated as The Girl In The Yellow Pyjama. The album includes the instrumental soundtrack score by composer Ritz Ortolani as well as two tracks with vocals by French singer Amanda Lear. The album remains unreleased on compact disc."

Thanks to Nate's now sadly defunct 7 Black Notes via Bret on Egg City Radio, who many will still remember used to curate the sublime Post-Punk Junk.

For a more detailed synopsis on Mogherini's film, with great supporting forensic evidence see Moon In The Gutter.

Apologies for the fidelity, but this is an historical document. Not Riz at his best, certainly, but it helps put his finest in context.

▼ RIZ ORTOLANI: "LA RAGAZZA DAL PIGIAMI GIALLO (featuring AMANDA LEAR)" from "The Pyjama Girl Case" LP (Cinevox) 1978 (Italy)

OUT OF PRINT

garôta de ipanema

the girl from ipanema.

Written in 1962 by Antonio Carlos Jobim; Vinicius DeMoraes; with additional English lyrics by Norman Gimbel.

The first version - the original great pairing - is by Stan Getz & João Gilberto, recorded live at the Carnegie Hall in October, 1964, featuring Astrud Gilberto on vocals.

The second cut is a collaboration between Sinatra and Jobim for their joint 1967 album, recorded sometime between January 30th and February 1st of the same year in down town Hollywood. Produced by Sonny Burke.

▼ STAN GETZ & JOÃO GILBERTO: GARÔTA DE IPANEMA from "Getz/Gilberto #2" LP (Verve) 1964 (Brazil)

▼ FRANK SINATRA & ANTONIO CARLOS JOBIM: GARÔTA DE IPANEMA from "Francis Albert Sinatra & Antonio Carlos Jobim" LP (Reprise) 1967 (US)

GETZ/GILBERTO #2 REMASTERED

SINATRA & JOBIM REMASTERED

hotter than july

"flag" by jasper johns, 1954-55.

Released in 1960, the soundtrack to Leonard Bernstein & Stephen Sondheim's smash "West Side Story" - originally launched on Broadway in 1957 - spent an unprecedented 54 weeks at #1 on Billboard's album charts, giving it the longest run on the top spot of
any album in recording history.

It was the only musical I could stand to watch as a pre-adolescent.

The newsagents at the top of the street where I sometimes spent weekends with my cousins and aunt and uncle was called "Broadway". Any hint of reflected glamour it may once have clung to had long since vacated. Even the boxes of continental chocolates on the long shelves were by then covered in a fine film of dust.

▼ RITA MORENO & GEORGE CHAKIRIS: AMERICA from "West Side Story" LP (columbia) 1961 (US)

WEST SIDE!

knockin' on heaven's door

when the sheriff comes to town, you gotta be quick... or draw.
Billy Ficca; Fred Smith; Richard Lloyd; and Tom Verlaine, recorded live in 1978 and not to be confused with Mike's presentation of the group performing at My Father's Place, Roslyn, NY, in the same year. Engineered by Wayne Vican. Produced by Steve Ralbovsky. Original liner notes by Robert Christagau and John Piccarella.
▼ TELEVISION: KNOCKIN' ON HEAVEN'S DOOR from "The Blow-Up" Cassette (ROIR) 1982 (US)
REMASTERED

a girl named sandoz

sandoz, sandoz... my mind has wings.

Eric Burdon's move stateside to Haight-Ashbury in 1966 spawned a monumental sea change in both lyricism and target market, often with painfully pretentious repercussions ; but I can forgive our Eric a lot of things.

Strange things, indeed.

Media darlings, Billy Corgan and chums tripped out on this b-movie re-run a quarter of a century later while recording a session for the John Peel Show aired on september 13th 1991, hot on the heels of "Gish" - their only Peel session - featuring two other outstanding tracks - "Siva" and "Smiley".

Written by Eric Burdon and John Weider.

LSD 25, for the unitiated, was first synthesised by Albert Hoffman on April 19th, 1943, at his Sandoz laboratory in Basle, Switzerland. So now you know the Swiss are responsible for more than ridiculously expensive chocolate and cuckoo clocks.

▼ ERIC BURDON & THE ANIMALS: A GIRL NAMED SANDOZ from "When I Was Young b/w A Girl Named Sandoz" 45 (MGM) 1967 (UK/US)

▼ SMASHING PUMPKINS: A GIRL NAMED SANDOZ from "Peel Sessions" EP (Hut) 1991 (US)

THE BEST OF THE ANIMALS

PUMPKIN PEEL SESSIONS

missa luba: gloria in excelsis deo

gloria in excelsis deo.

Well, the intention was to lead today with an extended celebration of Van's "Gloria", but following yesterday's (very courteous, admittedly) visitation by the "web sheriff" it would seem that's no longer on the agenda.

Of all those covers of this wonderful song, my own favourite is perhaps Patti Smith's from 1975's "Horses", but the Doors also did a mean live version, as did the Human Beinz in Japan, and the Blues Magoos on 1967's "Electric Comic Book".

Anyway, it's all a little immaterial in light of recent events, so stepping onto safer ground like a missionary navigating righteously hostile territories, let's instead turn our attention to 1963's remarkable Philip's release, "Missa Luba", featuring Les Troubadours du Roi Baudouin.

You might recall that the featured rendition of David Fanshawe's chorale was used to good effect in Lindsay Anderson's anti class didactic, "If..." in 1968. A european mass sung in a Congolese flavour, it was directed by Father Guido Haazen, who was presumably engaged in the Congo on a crusade to save souls and instil his little piece of dove winged heaven in the heartland of Africa.

▼ LES TROUBADOURS DU ROI BAUDOUIN: MISSA LUBA (SANCTUS) from "Missa Luba" LP (Philips) 1963 (France)

▼ MUUNGANO NATIONAL CHOIR, KENYA: MISSA LUBA (GLORIA) from "Missa Luba" CD (Philips) 1990 (France)

REISSUED

communiqué #7: no comment

no fucking comment.

Now, I don't wish to sound menopausal here, but I can't help but noticing once again that the ratio of hits/downloads to comments doesn't quite equate. Surely everyone dropping in cannot be so tongue-tied as to purse their lips in distaste at the mere prospect of communication ? Or are you just being rude ?

Listen up, brothers and sisters. If you like what you find here, loosen your lips and sink some ships. I'm not asking for your hand in marriage.

the four tops

reach out to me.

I ain't going nowhere.

Produced and written by Motown Dream Team, Holland-Dozier-Holland.

▼ THE FOUR TOPS: REACH OUT (I'LL BE THERE) from "Reach Out" LP (Motown) 1967 (US)

DOUBLE YOUR FOUR FOR THE PRICE OF ONE