seems so long ago, nancy

detail from a photograph by will farrer.

▼ LEONARD COHEN: SEEMS SO LONG AGO, NANCY from "Songs From A Room" LP (Columbia) 1969 (Canada)

PURCHASE SONGS FROM A ROOM

a cowboy in sweden

out of bullets, but still firing on all cylinders.

▼ LEE HAZLEWOOD: IF IT'S MONDAY MORNING from "Requiem For An Almost Lady" LP (Viking / Reprise) 1971 (Sweden)

PURCHASE REQUIEM FOR AN ALMOST LADY
REQUIEM ON THE RISING STORM

with a little help from my friends

no go show. photograph by brad elterman, 1978.

Recorded at the Chateau d'Herouville and Hansa Studios, Berlin. Written by Iggy Pop. Mixed by Tony Visconti. Produced, arranged and recorded by David Bowie. And a bit of a debt to Mike Leander, I tend to suspect.

▼ IGGY POP: NIGHTCLUBBING from "The Idiot" LP (RCA) 1976 (US / UK)

PURCHASE THE IDIOT

vote for miles

There. That was easy, wasn't it, brothers and sisters ?

Oh, shit. Is there a doctor in the house ?

Engineered by Stan Tonkel and Russ Payne. Additional musicians include: Herbie Hancock; Chick Corea; Jack DeJohnette; John McLaughlin; Billy Hart; Collin Walcott; Dave Liebman; Badal Roy; Badal Roy; Carlos Garnett.

"It is, in fact, pretty cold everywhere, but it is a coldness of rage at the very heart’s death. If Miles seemed to be losing his capacity to feel, he only predicted what would soon begin to happen to all of us."

- Lester Bangs, revised opinion on "On The Corner", 1981.

Inspired, it now clearly seems, by it coming to my attention that a man was shot three times in London, England for having the temerity to wear a t-shirt proclaiming his support for U.S. Senator Barack Obama.

Outside a shop on the corner.

▼ MILES DAVIS: VOTE FOR MILES from "On The Corner" LP (Columbia) 1972 (US)

PURCHASE ON THE CORNER REMASTERED
LESTER BANGS: "FREE JAZZ / PUNK ROCK"; MUSICIAN MAGAZINE *

* Lester Bangs, "published by Musician Magazine towards the end of 1979, and included in neither Psychotic Reactions and Carburetor Dung (edited by Greil Marcus and published by Vintage Books in 1987) nor Mainlines, Blood Feasts and Bad Taste (edited by John Morthland and published by Anchor Books in 2003)."

mixing up the medicine

photograph by jeanloup sieff.

Like a lot of people, I spend much of my time looking out my window. Like a lot of people who live more than twenty floors above street level, I spend more time looking out my window than most.

It has not always been this way. For a period of time I lived in a basement flat, like Johnny in Dylan's "Subterranean Homesick Blues". Most of the time all I was able to see were people passing from the waist down. The view was much better in the summer. I probably have that bedsit to thank for my appreciation for a well-turned ankle. Or the development of something approaching a foot fetish.

I did not idle away my time hatching revolutionary plots. On the contrary, I whiled away the hours drinking red wine, white wine, cheap cider and the cheapest of spirits. Sometimes I banged away on a typewriter. When I was lucky, I banged away on the mattress on the floor which served as a double bed. When I was sober enough to even think about getting it up, that is.

And through it all the grind of the job. The monotony of servitude. Which seems much healthier in retrospect. And unobtainable.

Of course. The view from on high is much different. Things take on an altogether eyrie hue; events unfold in minute detail like scenes from a painting by Hieronymus Bosch. Sometimes one can't help but feel a little like a general surveying the battlefield from a distant hill. Or a refugee in waiting for the tsunami to roll in through the valley, laying waste to one and all. I have dreamed that particular recurring nightmare since I was a child. A delirium born out of I don't know what.

Another thing. I have lived in a number of apartments overlooking railway lines. Three now in succession, over the past sixteen years. Each apartment higher than the last. Why is that, exactly ? What a strange turn of events.

Edward Hopper was a master painter of lives lived furtively behind windows. I began this post fully intending to host a detail from his "Hotel by a Railroad", 1952, to illustrate that very point; but I changed my mind at the last moment and chose something else instead. I am weary of the window frame. And the drafts which creep in between it and the glass.

The east winds do not trouble me unduly. It is those gales which blow in from the west which cause me the greatest concern.

▼ BERT JANSCH & JOHN RENBOURN: EAST WIND from "Bert And John" LP (Transatlantic) 1966 (UK)

PURCHASE BERT AND JOHN

fiasco

halloween falls early this year. the alfred e. smith hammer memorial horror.

Yesterday was not a good day for me. While some Americans appear to be confused or fearful that they are slipping into Socialism by slow degree, or that Barack Obama is perhaps a communist or the son of the mad arab, Jor-El of Kal-El, I caught a programme on Channel 4 about the seemingly ever present "Muti" murders and mutilations which plague the most economically deprived rural regions in South Africa.

Muti is traditional African herbal medicine, but there is a darker side where human body parts - particularly the lips and genitalia of children - are prized as ingredients in ritual potions and talismans used to fleece the ignorant or sociopathic. There was an incident in London six years ago, too, where a young African boy's torso was recovered from the River Thames. If I remember correctly, the child's aunt was later charged in connection with his senseless slaying. Anyone who saw this episode of "Unreported World", ably presented by Ramita Navai, could not fail to have been crushed to some extent at the plight of the traumatised young boy, Fortune, as he posed awkwardly on his bicycle for the cameras while his father recounted how his son had been dragged into the bushes and mutilated at the hands of a predatory thug. All the more poignant as the father spoke in hushed English; as falteringly protective as any parent covering his child's ears.

I did not feel much like drinking or - most unusually - listening to music.

As I settled down to sleep later last night, I flipped on BBC Radio 4 - which after midnight rolls out in synch with the BBC World Service - and was treated to a forty year anniversary special on the Vietnam war's My-Lai Massacre from 1968. You are no doubt familiar by now with the awful chain of events which ignited international outrage. No matter how many times I hear a new account, there is always some freshly emerging horrific detail.

I could have simply flicked the channel, of course. It would not make much difference. Since then as international spectators we have endured countless other crises and atrocities. From the genocides in Yugoslavia and Rwanda to the ongoing madness in Darfur. It is not that nobody gives a shit, precisely. It is just that it keeps on occurring over and over again as part of the human condition.

All the more appalling then, to watch Obama and McCain exchange anecdotal pleasantries - to delighted applause - at the fiasco which was the Alfred E. Smith Memorial Foundation Dinner.

▼ CAPTAIN BEEFHEART: SKELETON MAKES GOOD from "Skeleton Breath, Scorpion Blush & Other Readings" CD (Bootleg) 1982 (US)

PURCHASE ICE CREAM FOR CROW

mccain: you'll love our fries!

exhibiting clear signs of microwave damage: agent orange.

Released in October, 1977. Still doing time. No hard labor.

Am I the only person out there who thinks this supercillious patented asshole walks the talk like door-to-door vacuum cleaner salesman cum serial philanderer and game show host, Hughie Green ?

"Yes, folks, and I mean this most sincerely...
Tonight, for my good friend, Joe the Plumber; Opportunity Knocks!"

Oh, I might like your fries. If only I could get the taste of slaughtered Colombian babies out of them. And the stench of burnt flesh.

You shameless motherf@cker. Let's go some one on one.

▼ SEX PISTOLS: LIAR from "Never Mind The Bollocks Here's The Sex Pistols" LP (Virgin) 1977 (UK)

PURCHASE NEVER MIND THE BOLLOCKS... (PRICES SLASHED!)

factotum, the thirty years war

Bukowski and his comet, carlton way, hollywood; the apartment court he lived in between 1974 and 1978. photograph by tina ewing.

▼ JOHN LENNON: GIMME SOME TRUTH from "Imagine" LP (Apple) 1971 (UK)

keeper of the sea

"tami red shoes" by doris kloster, 1995.

After a conversation with Jon regarding Burgess Meredith in an episode of "The Twilight Zone" I stumbled on this over on DJ Little Danny's splendid Office Naps. It immediately made me recall all those evocative jazz tinted themes played out on a loop on vintage American tv.

Surf, cigarettes and the smell of damp nylon and nail varnish.

And just a hint of Brian Wilson's "In My Room". Or "The Lonely Sea" ?

Ripped from vinyl by DJ Little Danny himself and shamelessly pilfered. Forgive me.

▼ BRUCE NORMAN QUARTET: KEEPER OF THE SEA from "Keeper Of The Sea" 45 (Rust Records) 1963 (US)

OUT OF PRINT

you take my money

BUY 18. looking a little the worse for wear.

Like everybody else right now, I am haemorrhageing money I can little afford while the greedy bastards out there have to downscale perhaps on their favourite vintage. I was so incensed on opening yet another bill this morning, I had to look up the correct spelling of "haemorrhage".

My son and I are forced to pogo around this freezing flat this afternoon just to keep f@cking warm. This only works in the short term, sadly.

Let me amend that a little. More accurately, I stumble about and hop once or twice like a frog in a plaster cast while my son stands to one side and laughs.

The GHA don't wish to spend any monies funding maintenance on this building - and have intentionally witheld funds for the past five years
or so - since it will be eventually coming down. Clearly, rent profits are better spent financing midweek pottery classes for their employees' creative edification; better to grease the wheels of public spending while throwing a wobbly vase. Meanwhile they continue to move new families in and nudge the balance sheet further into the black - unless they have invested that profit in an Icelandic bank, of course.

I could laugh, but the corners of my mouth are already cracked and bleeding. Stamping our feet is an altogether more sensible option.

Side A written by Brian James and Rat Scabies; side B, Brian James. Produced by Pink Floyd's Nick Mason and released in October, 1977.

▼ THE DAMNED: PROBLEM CHILD from "Problem Child b/w You Take My Money" 45 (Stiff) 1977 (UK)

▼ THE DAMNED: YOU TAKE MY MONEY from "Problem Child b/w You Take My Money" 45 (Stiff) 1977 (UK)

PURCHASE SKIP OFF SCHOOL TO SEE THE DAMNED
INTERVIEW WITH BRIAN JAMES ON PLANET MONDO
MORE DAMNED ON SIBLINGSHOT ON THE BLEACHERS

intersection on bush street (a poem for jon)

2031 bush street, san francisco, april 29, 1942. image by dorothea lange.


In the thick of my own sometimes deafening thirst
to lay at rest in punctuation; kneel between words
and seek out a little quiet time between those stops,
I would quite like to step on and off the bus.

And say hello. Exchange best wishes.
Shoot the shit as the gears change lanes.

And sit back down. Listen to the distances running.
One end of a yellow painted bridge and the other.
Eavesdrop, maybe, on a conversation,
just to make some sense of those intersecting lines.

Degrees which separate; define.
Gridlocked traffic. Ukuleles balanced late at night.

photograph courtesy of the bancroft library, berkeley, california.

shore leave

The album on which Tom Waits first began to weave his poetic tales of dissolution around properly improvised avant-garde jazz motifs, and paid a fond farewell to the "Porgy & Bess" melodrama which had served him so long and so well.

Paving the way between the cinema bistro of 1980's "Heartattack and Vine" - his last for Asylum - and the lime lit sulfur contrasts of "Rain Dogs", "Swordfishtrombones" is a major artistic departure. The first Tom Waits long-player I recall purchasing which didn't sound suspiciously like it might have been composed for architects on a wine-tasting vacation. If his soundtrack for Francis Ford Coppola's "One From The Heart" smells a little too much of pinot gris or California red, this one is more about cold gin and gut-rot.

Oh, don't get me wrong. I had enjoyed Tom Waits for some years prior to this release, but the oft touted Kerouac affair was beginning to wear as thin as fast as the average waistline of his listeners was expanding; this album leaves one in no doubt that genuine menace lurks in the shallows where your last mouthful meets the dregs.

Recorded during August 1982, Sunset Sound, Hollywood.

Sour breath and the fetid stink of perpspiration. And goodbye, Ernest Hemmingway, at last.

"I never could stand that dog."

▼ TOM WAITS: SHORE LEAVE from "Swordfishtrombones" LP (Island) 1983 (US)

▼ TOM WAITS: FRANK'S WILD YEARS from "Swordfishtrombones" LP (Island) 1983 (US)

PURCHASE SWORDFISHTROMBONES

call to arms

There is too much politics for me right now.
I have wasted too much time
huffing and puffing and pacing the floor.
Watching pie charts and bar graphs while
the contents of my glass and refrigerator
slowly dwindle and ebb away.

Often I might bellow and announce
"I don't need a vote; what I want right now
is a fucking machine gun!
A flame thrower. A midnight call to arms."

I don't really mean it, of course.
I have no use for the fist punched aloft on tv.
The cheer of a crowd as the handcuffs go on ;
the probable fifteen to life.
What I want is a sandwich. A small beer.
The sun on the ocean as my boat slips away.

Knock out the windows. The sheriff is coming.
Women and children first.

a tip of the three-cornered hat to the pirate.

chicago now #2: spiderwebbed

EFA 04950-2.



dedicated to the memory of michael f. cergizan.

dan bitney; john herdon; john macentire; douglas mccombs; bundy k. brown.

Recorded and mixed by John McEntire at Idful Music Corporation; Chicago, Illinois; November 29th - December 5th, 1993. Written by Tortoise for Wrapped in Rubber Music. Thrill Jockey Records / City Slang.

The sound of a cold fire slowly building. "Onions Wrapped In Rubber"; "Tin Cans & Twine." In a windy city buffeted by police sirens and the memory of prohibition dollars.

▼ TORTOISE: SPIDERWEBBED from "Tortoise" LP / CD (Thrill Jockey) 1994 (US)

PURCHASE TORTOISE

shang a lang

an early incarnation of the bay city rollers, circa 1971.
prior to the arrival of les mckeown in '73 on vocals and plaid.

"There are claims that the group sold 100-300 million records and generated the equivalent of £5 billion in revenue, with the band members themselves earning very little. According to BBC they sold 70 million records."

From the sublime content of the previous post, to the palpably crass and ridiculous. Produced and written by Bill Martin and Phil Coulter. Dross from the ashes of the group originally formed in Edinburgh, Scotland in 1969 with Pilot's David Paton and Billy Lyall.

Alan Longmuir (Bass guitar, accordian, piano); Leslie Richard McKeown (Lead vocals, guitar); Eric Faulkner (Guitar, violin, mandolin, bass); Derek Longmuir (Drums, congas, tambourine); Stuart 'Woody' Wood (Guitar, bass, piano, mandolin)

And if you believe the above 'official' instrumentation credits, you are obviously witless enough to buy Bush and Brown's financial bail-out.

A big influence on NYC's Ramones, however, who settled on a formula cleanly stripped back to guitar, bass, drums and vocals, and cut their cloth accordingly. An invaluable lesson certain CEOs might do well to consider as they continue to sit on in the greater scheme of things.

Without recourse to mendacious attempts at ill-fitting embroidery.

PURCHASE ROLLIN' REMASTERED

chris bell: i am the cosmos

More ethereal Beatles fare of a sort. With the accent on vulnerability.

From the excellent solo LP Big Star's Chris Bell was in the process of recording when he died behind the wheel in a road traffic accident in December, 1978. The album was not released until 1992 when Rykodisc released it posthumously with recently uncovered alternative takes - and eloquent liner notes from Chris's elder brother, David - although "I Am The Cosmos b/w You And Your Sister" was released as a 45 in Bell's own lifetime; on Chris Stamey's Car label.

It is tempting after reading Scott E. Miller's article on Bell to conclude that his departure from Big Star, prior to the release of "Radio City", in some way mirrors Syd Barrett's exit from the Pink Floyd. I don't know. It does seem wholly fair to agree with Miller - and David Bell - that Chris's depression was aggravated by his failure to convince Chilton to let him back on board.

And cruelly exacerbated by having his contributions to "Radio City" go uncredited, if indeed that is the case; most notably "Back Of A Car", which allegedly was a Chris Bell composition without any contribution from Chilton or the rest of the band.

"I know you're mine
He treats you nice
It's suicide...
I know, I tried it twice."

- Chris Bell, "Better Save Yourself".

Assuming that some of you out there may have never heard this LP, it is very hard indeed to whittle down a fragmentary selection to entice you with. Essential.



Listen to all fifteen tracks on "I Am The Cosmos" and there is little doubting Bell's skewed and shimmering talents as a performer outwith the Alex Chilton franchise which is Big Star - rightly and wrongly - a group always greater than the sum of its parts. It would be criminally unfair to compare Chilton's own post Big Star solo output with Bell's, retrospectively, and churlish even to contrast "Third / Sister Lovers" with those previous Big Star records; but, outstanding though that album is in part, punctured and emotionally drained, it remains unavoidably clear to what degree the group was diminished by Chris Bell's absence. An account of those missing in action and every inch the record of a somehow inevitable car crash in excruciating lingering detail.

In its own way, "I Am The Cosmos" is every bit a lost Big Star classic.

▼ CHRIS BELL: I AM THE COSMOS from "I Am The Cosmos" CD (Rykodisc) 1992 (UK)

▼ CHRIS BELL: BETTER SAVE YOURSELF from "I Am The Cosmos" CD (Rykodisc) 1992 (UK)

▼ CHRIS BELL: YOU AND YOUR SISTER (ACOUSTIC VERSION) [BONUS] from "I Am The Cosmos" CD (Rykodisc) 1992 (UK)

PURCHASE I AM THE COSMOS
THE SAD LIFE OF CHRIS BELL: ARTICLE BY SCOTT E. MILLER

i love my label

"i'm shrinking!..."

SEEZ 2:
"undertakers to the industry - if they're dead, we'll sign 'em".

Drums by Bob Irwin; organ by Stan Shaw. Written by Nick Lowe.

▼ NICK LOWE: I LOVE MY LABEL from "A Bunch Of Stiff" LP (Stiff) 1977 (UK)

PURCHASE JESUS OF COOL: 30th ANNIVERSARY EDITION

two card trick

I have watched them all
come and go with the aplomb
of used car dealers, circus clowns.
And the sincerity of a crooked
casino floorwalker.

Seldom a-list, naturally bent,
their faith in their ability to perform
far out strips any natural talent.

To deceive as much as inspire.

Expensive dental work,
in an atrophied smile,
does precious little to distract
from the poker chip up the sleeve.
The smell of a lie.

The race isn't fixed, that's the issue.
Everything is broken.

the last album

photograph by iain mcmillan for apple records.

As has been noted elsewhere - though where, precisely, I don't recall - if "Sgt. Pepper" was inspired in part by group experimentation with lysergic acid, then "Abbey Road" is a very public exposure to analgesics. The overall colour of this album is brown. Browner, even, than their "Old Brown Shoe".

And what a slow motion rollercoaster of an album it is. To listen to this in its fine totality is to wade through treacle with the hem on your bell-bottoms adhering to bare, unvarnished floorboards. There are brief flashes of colourful counterpoint - George's "Here Comes The Sun", for instance - but that flower is a lotus; blooming in a river of raw sewage.

Oh, and if you genuinely rate the Beatles' last album as highly as you ought to, you owe it to yourself to invest in a copy of Phil May and the Pretty Things' "Parachute", 1970, produced by Norman Smith.

Written by Lennon & McCartney. Recorded at Abbey Road Studios, 3 Abbey Road, London NW8; Olympic Studios; Trident Studios between 22nd February and 20th August 1969. Produced and orchestrated by George Martin; engineered by Geoff Emerick and Alan Parsons.

▼ THE BEATLES: I WANT YOU (SHE'S SO HEAVY) from "Abbey Road" LP (Apple) 1969 (UK)

PURCHASE ABBEY ROAD

silver & gold

red sun 2. photograph by anthony.

Caution. May contain offensively unabashed parental 'bragging'.

My kid just received "an unprecedented" three gold awards in an annual art competition and - while I don't necessarily admire those pressures competitions cultivate; in fact I am generally averse to the notion - I am immensely happy for him.

I entered a similar competition myself close to forty years ago, and won jack diddley. Nada. The panel of judges must've been particularly shit that year.

▼ NEIL YOUNG: RED SUN from "Silver & Gold" CD (2000) Reprise (US)

PURCHASE SILVER & GOLD

badass friday super strut

antonio fargas.

It's Friday afternoon. Fetch me that stick. Bitch.

Recorded at Van Gelder Studios on April and May 1973 for Creed Taylor Industries. Arranged and conducted by Eumir Deodato.

Personnel includes: Eumir Deodato (arranger, conductor, keyboards, synthesizer); Joe Temperley (baritone saxophone); Burt Collins, Jon Faddis, Victor Paz, Marvin Stamm (trumpet, flugelhorn); Jim Buffington, Brooks Tillotson (French horn); Wayne Andre, Garnett Brown, Tony Studd (trombone); Jerry Dodgion, Hubert Laws (flute); Harry Cykman, Max Ellen, Paul Gershman (violin); Alfred Brown, Emanuel Vardi (viola); Charles McCracken, George Ricci, Alan Shulman (cello); John Tropea (guitar); Stanley Clarke, John Giulino (bass); Billy Cobham, Rick Marotta (drums); Rubens Bassini, Gilmore Degap (congas, percussion).

Vice City, muthafunkers. Pass me that leather blouson; I'm steppin' out.

▼ EUMIR DEODATO: SUPER STRUT from "Deodato 2" (CTI) 1973 (US)

PURCHASE DEODATO 2

ernan roch: fish out of water

fish out of water. photographer unknown.

An obscure Mexican slice of plaintive Anglo beat. This sounds like it was recorded circa 1965, but in fact was released in 1971. This vaquero must have locked himself in a tiny room with fifty 45s and hid away for six years. Hats off to him for that. Ten gallon or not.

The recent market price for an original vinyl copy was reputedly close to $1,000. Why, looking at the FTSE 100 and Dow Jones index as the week tumbles to a close, that must now be close to 50 cents in real terms.

"I can't" ? I can. If it gets you into a sultry hispanic girl's underwear, it's good enough for me.

"Sing along...", as Ernan himself appears to suggest.

▼ ERNAN ROCH: I CAN'T from "De Ernan Roch Con Las Voces Frescas" LP [Rex] 1971 (Mexico)

PURCHASE DE ERNAN ROCH CON LAS VOCES FRESCAS

1969: ice from a song for lola

ice veils. tread lightly and you won't see the cracks.

A sliver of beautifully restrained psychedelic jazz (with distinct tones of Miles' seminal, "In A Silent Way") from the third Spirit long-player ; an album borne out of their collective contribution to the soundtrack of a 1968 art-house movie, "Model Shop", by French director, Jacques Demy.

One of three instrumentals written by keyboard player, John Locke, and allegedly improvised around the 1968 track, "Song For Lola" which can be found on the 2005 release of "Model Shop" on Sundazed.

Randy California: guitar, vocals; Mark Andes: bass; Ed Cassidy: drums; John Locke: keyboards; Jay Ferguson: vocals, percussion.

Once again, sympathetically produced by the versatile Lou Adler.

▼ SPIRIT: ICE from "Clear" LP (Ode/Epic) 1969 (US)

PURCHASE CLEAR REMASTERED + BONUS TRACKS

fly tipper

The settee lies not just at the side of the road
but in the ditch, halfway down the grassy verge
of a two seater relationship come unstuck.
Stunned and gasping as if reclining weight
just sent it backwards on a slow sliding sprawl.

Hollowed out cushions. Sad indentations still
bolstering not quite visible occupants. Ghosts.

Squat and ugly, it sits basking in 2:00 AM halogen
glare. Stoned and bleeding stuffing; invalid and in
denial. How did it get here ? How could it have
come to this ? Left for dead on the hard shoulder
where the hairpin bend turns savage tricks.

You blink and glance in the rear view mirror. Light
another cigarette and put your foot down in the rain.

day tripper ticket #65

photograph by robert anderson, 1993.

Originally released in December, 1965. A riff so strong neither Jimi Hendrix or Otis Redding could resist it.

With the Beatles there was seldom such a thing as a b-side. BBC Radio 1 playlists determined "We Can Work It Out" should be the one to incite commuters on the run up to the inevitable Christmas office party and a thousand boozy fumbles next the franking machine. Who can argue ?

After their gruelling visit to Shea Stadium in August, things could only get more interesting in the studio.

▼ THE BEATLES: DAY TRIPPER from "Day Tripper b/w We Can Work It Out" 45 (Parlophone) 1965 (UK)

▼ THE BEATLES: WE CAN WORK IT OUT from "Day Tripper b/w We Can Work It Out" 45 (Parlophone) 1965 (UK)

PURCHASE 1962 - 1966 (THE RED ALBUM)

take #2; page 24

"coincidence; eventuality; synchronicity".

Serendipity. Magick.

"We are controlling the effect of our cause."

- NØ.

"A long time ago there were pirates
Beaming in waves from the sea
But now the stations are silent
'Cos they ain't got a government license..."

- Strummer & Jones.

Produced by Mickey Foote; engineered by Simon Humphrey.

▼ THE CLASH: CAPITAL RADIO (APRIL 1, 1977) from "Capital Radio" EP (CBS Freebie) 1977 (UK)

PURCHASE SUPER BLACK MARKET CLASH
There's a joke in there somewhere.

Photograph by Robert Mapplethorpe, 1985.

laugh a minute

He was a fall guy masquerading
as a stand up comedian.
He decided to make himself
as dour as humanly possible.

Just so people might giggle and
whisper ;
"He's not as depressed a fuck
as you might think.
He's actually quite entertaining."

Poor cunt.
It never did quite work out.

Photograph of actor, Lucio Amelio by Robert Mapplethorpe, 1983.

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

got to scrape the shit right off your shoe

"Wadin' through the waste, stormy winter,
And there's not a friend to help you through.
Tryin' to stop the waves behind your eyeballs,
Drop your reds, drop your greens and blues.

Thank you for your wine, California,
Thank you for your sweet and bitter fruits.
Yes, I got the desert in my toenail
And I hid the speed inside my shoe.

But come on, come on down Sweet Virginia,
Come on, honey child, I beg of you.
Come on, come on down, you got it in ya.
Got to scrape the shit right off your shoes.

I want you to come on, come on down Sweet Virginia,
I want you come on, honey child, I beg of you...
I want you come on, honey child you got it in you.
Got to scrape that shit right off your shoes.

But come on, come on down Sweet Virginia,
Come on, come on down, I beg of you.
Come on, come on down, you got it in you.
Got to scrape that shit right off your shoes."

- jagger & richard.

"Exile is about casualties, and partying in the face of them. The party is obvious. The casualties are inevitable..."

- Lester Bangs, Creem, January 1973.

Come on, brothers and sisters. Follow the Pavlovian bouncing ball.

▼ THE ROLLING STONES: SWEET VIRGINIA from "Exile On Main Street" LP (Rolling Stones Records) 1972 (UK)

PURCHASE EXILE ON MAIN STREET

crumbs of comfort & illusion

The first LP. Recorded For EMI in London, 1956. Rock n' Roll.

Ravi Shankar: sitar; Chatar Lal: tabla; Pradjot Sen: tamboura.

▼ RAVI SHANKAR: RAGA SIMHENDRA MADHYAMAM from "Three Ragas" LP (World Pacific) 1956 (India)

PURCHASE THREE RAGAS REMASTERED

smoking in the dark cinema

"road sign". vietnam, 68-69. photograph by richard calmes.

From the last album to feature Mick Jones and Topper Headon prior to their departure; consensual and otherwise. Piano by Tymon Dogg. The working title for this - the follow-up to the triple LP, "Sandinista!" - was allegedly the more colourful "Rat Patrol from Fort Bragg".

Recorded at Ear Studios, London, September 1981; Electric Lady Studios, New York City, November 1981 - January 1982; Wessex Studios, London, April 1982. Mixed by Glyn Johns.

Know your rights. Contrary to public misconception, you have none.

▼ THE CLASH: DEATH IS A STAR from "Combat Rock" LP (CBS) 1982 (UK)

PURCHASE COMBAT ROCK

the residents: lord, it's lonely

RZ 8452.

Aah, shut the f@ck up and get your shit together.

"The Residents scripted "Vileness Fats" and started shooting this epic fantasy in 1972. It was intended to be the first full-lengh music video."

▼ THE RESIDENTS: LORD, IT'S LONELY from "Whatever Happened to Vileness Fats ?" LP (Ralph) 1984 (US)

PURCHASE WHATEVER HAPPENED TO VILENESS FATS ?

happy jack

john harrington, aka happy jack, circa 1866.

Above image courtesy of The Bancroft Library; University of California, Berkeley.

"John Harrington known as Happy Jack was arrested in this city January 8th 1866 for petit larceny stealing a watch from a man named A. Johnson and was sent to the Co Jail for six months."

▼ THE WHO: HAPPY JACK (LIVE RADIO BROADCAST, 1966: Mono) from "The BBC Sessions" LP (Polydor) 2000 (UK)

PURCHASE THE WHO: BBC SESSIONS

wo ist zu hause, mama ?

five feet high and rising.

Several years back a friend and I travelled by train to the funeral of an ex-work colleague who died suddenly at a nightspot in Glasgow. He was in his early twenties. A mere youngster.

By this juncture I was past 40 and counting.

It rained hard all the way there, and by the time we arrived at the small village where his family had arranged the funeral the streets were flooded and the route to the chapel was almost unnavigable. Every single road in and out of town was blocked off within the hour.

His death was untimely, but as a result of natural causes.

▼ JOHNNY CASH: WO IST ZU HAUSE, MAMA ? from "The Man In Black: The International Johnny Cash" CD (Bear Family) 2002 (US)

PURCHASE THE MAN IN BLACK: THE INTERNATIONAL JOHNNY CASH

shooting star

bill burroughs by robert mapplethorpe, 1981.

From a broadcast on WSB Radio, 1961, London: "A Day in the Life of a Junkie". From Ubu Web:

"One of the most in-demand titles in the Sub Rosa catalogue, a collection of extraordinary cut-up voices recorded during the mid-60s in hotel rooms in Paris, New York, London, and beyond..."

I feel like a junkie. I am hooked on devalued currency; to the act of making meaningless contributions to the flotsam and jetsam riding the ether out into space. Crash landing on a giant gas planet on the fringe of an astral belt.

My intention is to wean myself off this shit gradually. For better or worse, going cold turkey does not appear to be a realistic option.

Like the strapline goes: "in space no one can hear you scream."

▼ WILLIAM S. BURROUGHS: JUNKY RELATIONS from "Break Through In Grey Room" CD (Sub Rosa) 1994 (US)

PURCHASE BREAK THROUGH IN GREY ROOM

streets of laredo

photograph by robert doisneau.

The pigeons strut on Gorbals Street
like cowboys with rickets,
tubercular and spitting in the gutter
red-eyed and keeling
to one side.

They are, none of them, fast
on the draw. They wade through phlegm
and splintered baby rattles.
Downtown Laredo on a Saturday night.
They will kill you with
cantagion if you get close enough.

They eke out a pension
of stale bread, cigarette stubs and whiskey
sours. Hard cheese and
scraps of news on tumbleweed chip wrappers.

sincerely, i. sibling

never mind the quality, feel the width.

putting on the style.
photograph by mary ellen mark. england, 1975.

Written by Dave Edmunds. Regal Zonophone 1026.

When you need to score, remember the best shit is seldom sold by a man in a car coat on a rainy used lot; unless you carry a bigger stick.

▼ ROCKPILE: I HEAR YOU KNOCKIN' from "Rockpile" LP (Regal Zonophone) 1972 (UK)

PURCHASE THE BEST OF DAVE EDMUNDS REMASTERED

i shot a man in reno

live at folsom state prison, january 13th, 1968.

Featuring June Carter, Carl Perkins, and The Tennessee Three. "Cocaine Blues" is written by T. J. Arnall.

▼ JOHNNY CASH: FOLSOM PRISON BLUES from "At Folsom Prison" LP (Columbia) 1968 (US)

▼ JOHNNY CASH: COCAINE BLUES from "At Folsom Prison" LP (Columbia) 1968 (US)

PURCHASE AT FOLSOM PRISON REMASTERED + BONUS TRACKS

a bitter cool and rising

Raising a tumbler mouthwards:

knocking its brittle lip
none too softly against
front teeth,
he snarled a little at the impact
and pulled shortly
on his suddenly bleeding
cigarette.

Words. Letters. Nuances.

That's gratitude for you,
fuckers.
That's a week's entire quota in
the time it takes
to drain a glass.

corwood industries #0739

somewhere in houston, texas:
"you are a cowboy when you wear those boots".

A thousand copies printed. Only two sold by 1980. The fools.

"Ready for the House is the debut album by Jandek, and was released in 1978 by his own Corwood Industries label, with the catalog number #0739. The artist has said in letters that the number was meaningless."

Written and performed - quite possibly - by Sterling Richard Smith.

I like the ashtray laid out invitingly on the sofa's armrest. Unsettling.

▼ JANDEK: NAKED IN THE AFTERNOON from "Ready For The House" LP (Corwood Industries) 1978 (US)

PURCHASE READY FOR THE HOUSE
JANDEK ON CORWOOD

brüder des schattens

max schreck in f.w. murnau's original "nosferatu", 1922.

As much an excuse to feature an assemblage of images from Murnau's Expressionist silent drama, as to pay homage to Popol Vuh's contribution to Werner Herzog's 1978 remake.

Bram Stoker's estate successfully pushed the studio, Prana Films into bankruptcy after suing for copyright infringement. The court ordered the immediate destruction of all existing prints. Fortunately for posterity, the restored film in circulation today was copied from the handful of prints already in distribution.

The following selections are from Egg's 1978 French issue (as distinct from those unexpurgated cuts - four tracks in total - released in Germany on Brain Records' "Nosferatu: Brüder Des Schattens, Söehne Des Lichtes" in the same year). This album was reissued on CD in 1999 on Spalax, with a different tracklist and sequence.

Written by Florian Fricke, except for †: Al Gromer.

Florian Fricke: piano, moog; Daniel Fichelscher: guitar; Ted De Jong: tamboura; Al Gromer: sitar.

The kids have their drawing pads out, and my son is humming along to the heavily sitar laced, "Venus Principle" as he maps out helicopters exploding in the sky with robust vigour.

The purple scent of Halloween is in the air.

▼ POPOL VUH: BRÜDER DES SCHATTENS from "Nosferatu: The Vampyre" LP (EGG) 1978 (France)

▼ POPOL VUH: MANTRA i from "Nosferatu: The Vampyre" LP (EGG) 1978 (France)

▼ POPOL VUH: VENUS PRINCIPLE† from "Nosferatu: The Vampyre" LP (EGG) 1978 (France)

PURCHASE NOSFERATU: THE VAMPYRE REMASTERED

topanga windows. california, 1968

shelly duvall. photographer unknown.



Some cooling breeze of FM airtime from Los Angeles, 1968, with an eclectic psychedelic mix.

Randy California: guitar, vocals; Mark Andes: bass; Ed Cassidy: drums; John Locke: keyboards.

Produced by Lou Adler. Listen to the opening lines on "Taurus" and tell me Jimmy Page didn't listen to this. Travelling the Sunset Strip with a collective sound not far removed from The Doors, teenager California and stepfather, Mr. Skin were soon to take a more pronounced jazz detour. "Mechanical World", lifted from the album, was the single which did much to generate initial interest.

▼ SPIRIT: FRESH-GARBAGE from "Spirit" LP (Ode) 1968 (US)

▼ SPIRIT: TOPANGA WINDOWS from "Spirit" LP (Ode) 1968 (US)

▼ SPIRIT: TAURUS from "Spirit" LP (Ode) 1968 (US)

PURCHASE SPIRIT REMASTERED + BONUS TRACKS