baby lemonade

"While the sessions for Barrett ran more smoothly, it didn't prevent Syd's by-now characteristically bizarre behavior from coming through. On June 6, 1970, Syd gave his one and only solo performance, backed by David Gilmour and Jerry Shirley, and baffled the audience (including Gilmour and Shirley) when he abruptly took off his guitar during the fourth number and walked off stage."

Recorded at Abbey Road Studios, 26 February - 17 July 1970. Produced by David Gilmour and Richard Wright.

▼ SYD BARRETT: BABY LEMONADE from "Barrett" LP (Harvest EMI) 1970 (UK)

▼ SYD BARRETT: LOVE SONG from "Barrett" LP (Harvest EMI) 1970 (UK)

PURCHASE BARRETT

a radio with guts / a tv, a lamp; shoes and socks

"it was on the 2nd floor on Coronado Street
I used to get drunk
and throw the radio through the window
while it was playing, and, of course,
it would break the glass in the window
and the radio would sit there on the roof
still playing
and I'd tell my woman,
"Ah, what a marvelous radio!"
the next morning I'd take the window
off the hinges
and carry it down the street
to the glass man
who would put in another pane.
I kept throwing that radio through the window
each time I got drunk
and it would sit there on the roof
still playing-
a magic radio
a radio with guts,
and each morning I'd take the window
back to the glass man.
I don't remember how it ended exactly
though I do remember
we finally moved out.
there was a woman downstairs who worked in
the garden in her bathing suit,
she really dug with that trowel
and she put her behind up in the air
and I used to sit in the window
and watch the sun shine all over that thing
while the music played."

- A Radio With Guts, Charles Bukowski.



taking out the trash in san pedro.

PURCHASE PLAY THE PIANO DRUNK (BLACK SPARROW PRESS)

While I think a radio
with guts
deserving of a purple heart,
or even a pirate
iPod which skips
and dies,
I could not dream of walking it
to the window.
Living a kind of life here
on the 22nd floor.

Even when drunk in charge
of a reception.

Have you seen the price of glass
lately ?
And who would pay the cost
of burying a passerby,
anyway ?

The drunk downstairs
threw his tv through the glass
one night.
Followed by the table,
a lamp,
his shoes and socks.

They were all still there below
by morning.
A tidy jumble embedded in
the courtyard.

Except for the socks.
One hanging on a tree growing
plastic bags,
the other on the fence.

I wanted to slit his belly.
That homicidal imbecile.

Those old farts
in their sunlit skid row apartments,
their bungalows,
listening to the sirens
playing under or over the radio,
and partaking of beer after beer,
really had it
Made.

- A TV, A Lamp; Shoes And Socks, ib.

▼ BEBO VALDES TRIO CON CACHAO Y PATATO: LAMENTO CUBANA from "El Arte Del Sabor" CD (Blue Note) 2002 (Cuba)

PURCHASE EL ARTE DEL SABOR

pj proby: somewhere

james marcus smith, born houston, texas, november 6th, 1938.

Buccaneering brigand. Pioneer of the original living Davy Crockett cut.

From Wiki:

"Proby grew up in a banking family where his father was the VP of the Second National Bank in Houston, Texas. He was educated at San Marcos Military Academy, Culver Naval Academy and Western Military Academy. After graduation he moved to California to become a motion picture actor and recording artist. Given the stage name Jett Powers by top Hollywood agents Gabey, Lutz, Heller and Loeb, he took acting and singing lessons, and appeared in movies with small roles. Two singles "Go, Girl, Go", and "Loud Perfume", were released on an independent label, but were not noticed. In 1962 he began writing songs and recording demos, for artists such as Elvis Presley and Johnny Cash."

70 this year, Proby has resided in the UK since 1971.

"In July 2007, Proby was arrested on suspicion of a £50,000 benefit fraud. The Department of Work and Pensions are believed to be looking into whether the singer has undeclared concert earnings. He is alleged to have collected benefits whilst still performing around the country. Proby has denied the allegations saying: "I don't know anything about any benefit fraud. There is nothing in these allegations whatsoever." "

This is Proby's classic take on Leonard Bernstein & Stephen Sondheim's smash from "West Side Story", which scored a highly respectable #6 hit on the British singles chart and reached #7 on the Australian singles chart in 1964.

Ride out the credit crunch, swashbuckling banker's boy. A comeback is surely just around the corner.

▼ PJ PROBY: SOMEWHERE from "Somewhere" 45 (Liberty) 1964 (US)

PURCHASE THE BEST OF PJ PROBY REMASTERED

héctor lavoe: mi gente

born héctor juan pérez martínez, september 30, 1946 in ponce, puerto rico; died june 29, 1993 in the bronx, new york city.



From Wiki:

"The first thing he did in New York was visit El Barrio, New York's "Spanish Harlem." Héctor was disappointed in the condition of El Barrio which contrasted with his vision of "fancy Cadillacs, tall marble skyscrapers and tree-lined streets." Hector stayed at his sister's apartment in The Bronx instead."

Lavoe quickly secured his position as lead vocalist with Orquesta New York; Kako All-Stars; and Johnny Pacheco. In 1967, he met and auditioned for Salsa superstar, Willie Colón.

'Pacheco, co-owner of Fania Records and its recording musical director, arranged for Lavoe to record with Willie Colón on his first album El Malo. Willie never officially asked Lavoe to join his band, but after the recording, Willie said to him, "On Saturday we start at 10 p.m. at El Tropicoro Club." '



Under tutelage of Colón, Lavoe developed a drug habit which was to eventually undermine his success as a functioning entertainer. Despite seeking guidance and assistance through his involvement with Santería, Lavoe continued to be plagued by spiritual and emotional tragedies. He died from complications arising from AIDS in a charity hospital in NYC. His body - and that of his son, who had died six years earlier, in 1987 - was later exhumed from its plot in Saint Raymond's Cemetery, the Bronx, and reinterred in his native Ponce at his family's request.

This song, perhaps more than any other Lavoe's signature, was written by Johnny Pacheco.

▼ HÉCTOR LAVOE: MI GENTE from "La Voz" LP (Fania) 1975 (US)

PURCHASE HÉCTOR LAVOE: LA VOZ
FANIA RECORDS OFFICIAL WEBSITE

p-i-x-i-e-s

there is a god. design by vaughn oliver.

In Boston, we trussed. Every second on this album counts. Thrice.

▼ PIXIES: BREAK MY BODY from "Surfer Rosa" LP (4AD) 1988 (US)

▼ PIXIES: RIVER EUPHRATES from "Surfer Rosa" LP (4AD) 1988 (US)

PURCHASE SURFER ROSA (HA! YOU CAN'T: SHE'S MINE)

george jones: tears of a clown

george glenn jones at 77. born saratoga, texas, 12/09/31.



hey. what's in that trumpet, ya f@ckin' lush.

Okay. I know. I need to stop cribbing from WFMU. Thank you, Listener Greg G. I don't recall having heard this particular maudlin dirge previously. What fun!

Let's join in and lighten the load; George Jones celebrated his 77th birthday last week. With a bang.

Written by Curly Putman; Ron Hellard; and Bucky Jones. Produced by Billy Sherrill.

All children intuitively grasp that circus clowns are stumbling alcoholic depressives. It's like a family Christmas reunion with those relatives you didn't even know existed. I could have sworn the biggest circus in the world was in Russia, but apparently that accolade - for permanent circus, at least - goes to Las Vegas Boulevard, Las Vegas, Nevada. After you've laughed yourself half witless at the spectacle of a trio of juiced divorcees falling over their feet and burning to death in a staged automobile accident, you can swap your ringside seat for one in front of the rows of one armed bandits in your hotel casino.

And once you've plugged in the last of those tokens, brothers and sisters, you better just pray that long-shot accumulator comes in.

George Jones, eh ? Even more of a gas than Merle Haggard. On acid.

I'll wager his grandparents were Scottish.

▼ GEORGE JONES: WINO THE CLOWN from "Jones Country" LP (Epic) 1983 (US)

PURCHASE THE ESSENTIAL GEORGE JONES: THE SPIRIT OF COUNTRY BOX SET

stormcock

surfing an ill wind. with flagrant disregard for omens.



"The judge sits on his great assize
Twelve men wise with swollen thighs
Who never ever told no lies
Whose minds were ever such a size
Whose lives were ever such a prize
Whose brains bred answers just like flies
Whose answers stalked their thoughts like spies
Whose lead ball through the courtroom flies
To rip a hole clean between two eyes
That never ever wore disguise
And never ever saw blue skies
Who quickly lived now slowly dies
Who closed unopened otherwise."

- Roy Harper.

' The album's title, Stormcock, is an old English name for the Mistle Thrush. The male of this species "...sings its loud melodious song from a tree, rooftop or other elevated perch, often during bad weather or at night" '

Produced by Peter Jenner. Engineered by John Barrett; Peter Bown; John Leckie; Phil McDonald; Alan Parsons; Nick Webb.

▼ ROY HARPER: HORS D'OEUVRES from "Stormcock" LP (Harvest EMI) 1971 (UK)

PURCHASE STORMCOCK
ROY HARPER OFFICIAL WEBSITE

hotlegs, 1970 BC

fossil hominid skulls.

I mentioned Hotlegs previously in relation to Throbbing Gristle, odd as it may seem.

"Fresh from the breakup of the Mindbenders, guitarist Eric Stewart and songwriter Graham Gouldman opened their own Strawberry Studios in Stockport, England. Joined by Lol Creme and Kevin Godley, but temporarily shedding Gouldman, who promptly relocated to New York, the gang were experimenting with drum sounds when a passing record company executive spotted a hit amongst the hitting..."

"Kevin Godley, in a 1976 interview, said the album included the songs and ideas that he and Lol Creme had intended recording in 1969 with entrepreneur Giorgio Gomelsky. Gomelsky had named the duo Frabjoy and Runcible Spoon, wanting to fashion them in the style of Simon and Garfunkel."

Written by Eric Stewart, Lol Creme and Kevin Godley. Far from essential, but interesting, and it finally provided me with the excuse to post a picture of skulls; courtesy of The Dutch Perpspective after much fruitless web trawling.

Earlier this evening I was obliged to humanely dispose of one of my son's pet sharks after finding it gasping for oxygen on the gravel at the bottom of its aquarium.

Apparently putting semiconscious fish into a freezer compartment to euthanise it is not advised, nor could I very well flush it down the toilet or leave it to slowly drown. The most humane method, it seems - bar having access to 'ornamental' fish anaesthesia, which I'd neglected to purchase - is to hold the stricken fish and sever its spine directly behind the head with a sharp knife. This I finally did. Sharks - even fairly small tropical varieties - are quite muscular and wriggle wildly even in an extremely weakened condition. Thankfully, I managed to dispatch it neatly without accidentally lopping off a fingertip or two in the process.

I do not relish playing God. But the creature was clearly suffering.

Let me say, too, I hate that 'ornamental' fish crap. Like they're somehow less than real. Even keeping fish is fraught with peril.

Now I'm worrying that I did, or didn't do, the right thing. Which is less respect than I give those animals I eat, of course.

I still have the original 7", incidentally.

Did I mention Throbbing Gristle ?

▼ HOTLEGS: NEANDERTHAL MAN from "Thinks: School Stinks" LP (Fontana) 1971 (UK)

PURCHASE THINKS: SCHOOL STINKS

lady jane and the frog prince

jane birkin by serge gainsbourg.

Possibly the most seductive -30 minutes from the maestro of art sleaze. Impeccable.

Conducted and arranged by Jean-Claude Vannier.

▼ SERGE GAINSBOURG: CARGO CULTE from "Histoire De Melody Nelson" LP (Philips) 1971 (France)

PURCHASE HISTOIRE DE MELODY NELSON REMASTERED

doctor βaker

▼ THE BETA BAND: DR. BAKER from "Los Amigos Del Beta Bandidos" EP (Regal Recordings) 1998 (UK)

PURCHASE THE THREE E.P.'s
THE BETA BAND OFFICIAL SITE

crossword

I have a habit
of breathing a word.
Nothing crypic. Or
Reverential.

strictly lower case.

It seems to offend thee,
doing,
happentstance. Werse

when writ
chapter

invest.

horny boy: the ghosts

shamans stones and
smoakin' bones.

Arga Warga, brooders. Arga warga.

"Horny Boy rung Widders Bell
Stoal His Fathers Ham as wel
Bernt his Arse and Forkt a Stoan
Done It Over broak a boan
Out of Good Shoar vackt his wayt
Scratcht Sams Itch for No. 8
Gone to senter next to see
Cambry coming 3 times 3

Sharna Pax and get the Poal
When the Ardship of Cambry
comes out of the hoal."

- Riddley Walker, Russell Hoban.

"He wer crookit he wer Badstock
He wer not boath sides the same
Which the knowing brung the doing
And the doing brung the shame."

- Riddley Walker, Russell Hoban.

Russell Hoban hails from Lansdale, Pennsylvania.
The Ghosts continue to haunt Glasgow.

You ars varied walcum, brooders. Give us your love.

▼ THE GHOSTS: STICKLEBACK (b) from "The Lost Album" TEAC demos (Maryjane) 1992 (UK)

▼ THE GHOSTS: STICKLEBACK (ORIGINAL LIVE VERSION)* from "The Lost Album" TEAC demos (Maryjane) 1992 (UK)

* The original and still the best.

GHOSTS OF GHOSTS
BUY RIDDLEY WALKER

paint box

DB 8310. a continental imprint. spain perhaps ?



"Last night I had too much to drink
Sitting in a club with so many fools
Playing to rules
Trying to impress but feeling rather empty
I had another drink
Drink - a - drink - a - drink - a - drink

What a way to spend that evening
They all turn up with their friends
Playing the game
But in the scene I should have been
Far away
Away - away - away - away - away

Getting up, I feel as if
I'm remembering this scene
before I open the door to an empty room
Then I forget."

- rick wright.

I read it on Raiding The Vinyl Archive first. I still haven't seen the news; read a paper, or watched anything breaking on tv. I'm slow to catch on.

Released November 18, 1967. Written and sung by Richard Wright.

Sergeant Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band gains a keyboard player.

Drop John and Aunty. Arga Warga. Zigger Zagger.

▼ PINK FLOYD: PAINT BOX from "Apples And Oranges b/w Paint Box" 45 (Columbia EMI) 1967 (UK)

PURCHASE PIPER AT THE GATES OF DAWN DELUXE EDITION

kentish town, 1965

bank holiday bankruptcy. punks in parkas.

Signed to EMI Parlophone by George Martin, North London boys, The Action failed to chart in two years with the label, debuting with the 45 "Land Of 1,000 Dances b/w In My Lonely Room" in 1965. Always popular with the mod hard core split between The Who and Small Faces, this group deserved to fly much, much higher during their short career.

By 1967 they found themselves out of contract and recorded a vast number of demo material under manager, Georgio Gomelsky, before evolving into psychedelic outfit, Mighty Baby, who were also subsequently largely ignored.

Alan "Bam" King (guitar); Reg King (vocals); Mike Evans (bass);
Roger Powell (drums); Martin Stone (guitar); Ian Whiteman (keyboards).

For a more detailed autopsy see Bruce Eder's entry on the group in All Music Guide.

Like all truly great unreleased songs, one listen to this retrospective is enough to convince you that you've surely heard much of it before.

▼ THE ACTION: BRAIN from "Rolled Gold (Demos 1967-1968)" CD (Reaction) 2002 (UK)

▼ THE ACTION: STRANGE ROADS from "Rolled Gold (Demos 1967-1968)" CD (Reaction) 2002 (UK)

PURCHASE ROLLED GOLD: THE ACTION

trees

On Sunday I bumped into an elderly neighbour I had not seen in a while. I was on the way back into the decrepit foyer of the building I live in after purchasing a pack of cigarettes and a twin-roll of toilet tissue. I waved over and she started crossing a small rectangle of dog fouled grass to speak to me. I hurried onto her side of the path before she misplaced her footing and trod in shit.

I knew what was on her mind. Rosa had spoken with her a couple of hours earlier and had passed along the news.

Betty has lived in these flats longer than most. She is a tough old bird.

She is not easily intimidated. By wandering packs of youths high on crack, or the barrel-chested terriers they travel with. She lived in the tenements long before they demolished them in shame to erect the tall concrete pillars which have stood in their place since the mid-seventies. Our building is the last man standing after a more recent civil bout of conscience baiting. They want to pull them down again to rebuild on a smaller scale. Tenements. Much like those earlier ones. The writing is on the wall.

"How are you doing ?" I asked her. "I haven't seen you in quite a while."

"I'm just out after an operation," she said. "Bowel cancer. They got it all. Cut it right out."

Rosa had told me all this previously, of course. I didn't want it to appear that we'd been gossiping. She had told me too that the district nurse had only seen her twice to check on the wound. A different sort of cut altogether.

"That's good," I said. "You're looking pretty well, all things considered."

She looked ashen. Not white, but grey and pinched. As one would expect.

When I first moved into these flats about ten years ago, there were photographs of young girls smiling on the walls opposite the lifts. The old tenements. Secured to the walls with masonry bolts through the thick plexiglass protecting them. These were Betty's personal photographs. They took them down after vandals smashed the frames and tried to deface them. Stupid spotty faced youths in Burberry baseball caps and leisure suits.

"Oh, aye," she said. "The nurse is pleased with the way everything's healing. Nice and clean, so it is."

"That's good. Have you got somebody to help you get the shopping in, and that ?"

"Oh, aye. My daughter's just on her way up to see me. She'll make sure I'm alright."

She must have been down there waiting for two or three hours now. At least it was not raining.

"It's good to get a bit of fresh air. It's good to get out and about."

"Yes," I said. Not knowing what else to say.

"Take it easy. Don't overdo things." I said.

"No, no. No chance of that. My daughter'll be here soon, anyhow."

She grimaced and pulled her coat tight about her and started off haltingly. There were torn plastic bags on the branches of the few trees remaining. Those shreds of plastic will still be there well into October.

"Goodbye, son."

▼ NORMA WATERSON: RIVER MAN (NICK DRAKE) from "The Very Thought Of You" CD (Hannibal) 1999 (UK)

▼ TILL BRÖNNER: RIVER MAN (NICK DRAKE) from "Oceana" CD (Verve) 2006 (US)

PURCHASE THE VERY THOUGHT OF YOU
PURCHASE OCEANA

communiqué #18: back in business

vergina sun.

It's official. Art Decade is back in business.

To celebrate, here's a slice of Glasgow's own wandering sun, Donovan Philips Leitch. Casting light backwards across the Atlantic.

As per usual, due to those odd contractual anomalies as a result of Mickie Most marketing Donovan in tandem in the US and UK on different labels, this LP was released first in the USA as two separate albums - "Wear Your Love Like Heaven" and the acoustic "For Little Ones" in 1967 - before being issued in the UK as a double album in April the following year, as was Donovan's original intention.

In spite of Most being credited with production on this one, Donovan himself appears to have pulled the rabbit out the hat almost wholly unaided. With a bit of help from Al Kooper, seemingly.

Has autumn begun to bite yet in New York City ?

▼ DONOVAN: SUN from "A Gift From A Flower To A Garden" LP (Epic / PYE) 1967 (UK)

PURCHASE A GIFT FROM A FLOWER TO A GARDEN

apology

I shed
my skin more readily
than I do
a grievance. Or
a grudge.

It is not
an attractive
characteristic,
I know.

I concede that much.
I concur.

But,
coming out my hole
like
invertebrates, generally,
tasting the air,
I do my best to let
it
slide.

the king and the rubber room

not nashville, but close.



"ready, waiting" by john collier, 2007.

If you are experiencing playback problems, brothers and sisters, let me advise you - once again - that this appears to be an unannounced server maintenance issue. They have my money, people. I find it generally disconcerting when I am given no forewarning.

I get agitated, frankly.

This one has much more to do with the Memphis connection, and less to do with the obvious.

The first is a Johnny Cash composition, unreleased until it was well past timely; 25 years later. The second is not the more famous Madison Square 'live" single, but the afternoon matinee performance recorded on the same day: 6th October, 1972.

Written, of course, by the late Mickey Newbury. Only released in 1997, belatedly, on the RCA label.

▼ PORTER WAGONER: COMMITTED TO PARKVIEW from "Wagonmaster" CD (Anti) 2007 (US)

▼ ELVIS PRESLEY: AN AMERICAN TRILOGY from "Elvis: An Afternoon In The Garden" CD (RCA Victor) 1997 (US)

PURCHASE THE WAGONMASTER
PURCHASE ELVIS: AN AFTERNOON IN THE GARDEN

the guess who: undun

From Winnipeg, Manitoba; the first Canadian group to score a No. 1 in the USA. For Mr. & Mrs. Beer N. Hockey.

Written by Randy Bachman.

▼ THE GUESS WHO: UNDUN from "Canned Wheat" LP (Nimbus 9 / Buddha) 1969 (US)

PURCHASE CANNED WHEAT

sepultura: blood-rooted

team sepultura.



Formed in the affluent industrial capital of Minas Gerais, Belo Horizonte, in 1984, this is the last Sepultura album to feature original singer, Max Cavalera, who left in December, 1996 (to be replaced by American boy, Derrick Green) after the rest of the band unanimously jettisoned Gloria Cavalera - his wife - from her fiendishly manipulative role as manager.

Yet another Latin American coup, but bloodless in spite of the hype.

Featuring Max Cavalera on vocals and rhythm guitar; Andreas Kisser, lead guitar; Paulo Jr. on bass; and Igor Cavalera on drums.

Ludicrously juvenile, and just as heavy on the macho posturing as on the pedal, this is nonetheless some kind of fun. The album is a mixed bag of previously unreleased studio takes, b-sides, remixes and some genuinely thrilling live recordings. Thrash Metal from the other side of the border.

Stick with the Sabbath cover and you will be rewarded with some uncharacteristically noodly guitar. It's really quite delightful. No kidding.

▼ SEPULTURA: ROOTS BLOODY ROOTS (DEMO VERSION) from "Blood-Rooted" CD (Roadrunner) 1997 (Brazil)

▼ SEPULTURA: SYMPTOM OF THE UNIVERSE from "Blood-Rooted" CD (Roadrunner) 1997 (Brazil)

PURCHASE BLOOD-ROOTED

sabbath bloody sabbath

black box detail.



mapledurham watermill, 1970.

It is Sunday. Again. The yawning begins in earnest.

Four from Messers Iommi, Butler, Ward and Osbourne. A group seriously underrated and consistently maligned by many people who should know better.

In my absence yesterday I whiled away an hour or two playing Running-With-Scissors' "Postal 2". Outdated, but still big fun.

Between 1970 and 1975 Black Sabbath produced some brilliant stuff. The last one here featured prominently in Emmet's superb Christmas mix tape from 2007. Great song from a good album, housed in quite possibly the worse sleeve design of all time. Almost as skull crushingly entertaining as Motörhead and Brazillian stormtroopers, Sepultura.

Different Strokes. Do it for Gary Coleman.

Do It Over for the Ardship of Cambry. And the Bernt Arse pack.

▼ BLACK SABBATH: SLEEPING VILLAGE / A BIT OF FINGER from "Black Sabbath" LP (Vertigo) 1970 (UK)

▼ BLACK SABBATH: PARANOID from "Paranoid" LP (Vertigo) 1970 (UK)

▼ BLACK SABBATH: PLANET CARAVAN from "Paranoid" LP (Vertigo) 1970 (UK)

▼ BLACK SABBATH: SYMPTOM OF THE UNIVERSE from "Sabotage" LP (NEMS) 1975 (UK)

PURCHASE BLACK BOX: THE COMPLETE ORIGINAL BLACK SABBATH (1970-1978)

trust me

▼ STERLING HOLLOWAY: TRUST IN ME (THE PYTHON'S SONG) from "Jungle Book" LP (Walt Disney) 1967 (US)

▼ PEGGY LEE: THE SIAMESE CAT SONG / WHAT'S GOING ON DOWN THERE ? from "Lady And The Tramp" LP (Walt Disney) 1955 (US)

PURCHASE JUNGLE BOOK SOUNDTRACK
PURCHASE THE LADY AND THE TRAMP SOUNDTRACK

f@ck

This internet thing is a good thing. Twice.
Trust me.

It's freed the slaves in us.

To look up porn when we want to jack off. Or
fondle our collective limpness when we just
can't get
it

up.

Anymore.

It's allowed me to talk
though.
To speak to other people halfway
round the world, or
bend.

like me.

So. Even if you would rather dismiss
my nuisance blinking.
there are
100,000 more

keyboards. stroking

././ ...

the cork is out,
the bottle is full
of

smoke.

"do you live in a town ?"

hutchestontown area c, gorbals. architecture by sir basil spence.



gorbals, circa 1977. photographers unknown. ballater street ?

I don't know. This may possibly be prompted by Beer N. Hockey's babbling on rivers. Or my own post yesterday on Vince Guaraldi and Peanuts. Anyway. I wanted to share some local colour.

Narrated by one-time BBC newsreader, Sir Richard Baker with musical accompaniment by the great Johnny Pearson. From an era when Britain was more proud of its council high rise developments. And new towns.

St. Mungo is the patron saint of Glasgow. Incidentally.

"The bird that never flew.
The tree that never grew.
The bell that never rang.
The fish that never swam."

- Let Glasgow Flourish.

For those visitors outwith the British Isles - or with a vague interest in animism - Mary was a little girl, Mungo her dog, and Midge a pet mouse. They lived in a multi-storey block of flats. Long before I did.

In an undisclosed location not a million miles from London.

▼ JOHNNY PEARSON: MARY, MUNGO & MIDGE (OPENING THEME) from "Mary, Mungo & Midge" BBC TV (BBC) 1971 (UK)

▼ JOHNNY PEARSON: MARY, MUNGO & MIDGE (CLOSING THEME) from "Mary, Mungo & Midge" BBC TV (BBC) 1971 (UK)

hello and hasta la vista and a glasgow kiss

Just this morning after dropping my son off at school I witnessed a fight. That it was immediately preceded by much shouting and hurling of threats is usually enough to convince me that such an event will probably not escalate into serious violence.

It was too public, in addition. Scores of people looked on impatiently to see if anything juicy might materialize out of it. An entertaining scrap of a story to later trade with work colleagues over lunch. I met Rosa coming in the opposite direction and, since she had to queue to withdraw money from a cash dispenser, it provided me with the perfect pretext to stop, look and listen.

The confrontation appeared to be prompted by an incident involving both parties' children. Neither of whom were present by this point. Possibly, those kids had exchanged blows earlier. Or one of their parents had said something out of turn.

This in itself is sometimes enough to ignite a major incident. A couple of months ago a child's father was concussed with a claw-hammer outside his daughter's school. The young man wielding the offending instrument - a parent himself - did not pause in cycling past the playground to reassure himself that serious injury had been done. Vengeance was dispensed. The hoods were up and identities protected.

After a fashion.

Anyway, the exchange of insults this morning reached a more dramatic conclusion than I expected. One woman kneed the other into the street and fell on her with fists and feet. Somebody in the queue for cash behind me laughed. The victorious woman's partner stood above the bloodied party and jabbed his finger at her lying prone in the road. His face was marked with intersecting lines of scar tissue.

Open razors are still very popular in Glasgow, although carpet knives are more frequently the weapons of choice. They can easily be folded away, of course, and are less awkward to attempt to explain away.

I know him and his wife vaguely. To nod to at least. He walks a pit-bull regularly, and his wife sometimes says hello. Despite appearances, neither of them have struck me as being unpleasant in the past. Or best avoided. There are far worse out there. More indiscriminate offenders.

The fracas drew to a close without a blade being drawn. That much was evident, and I dare say some people were disappointed.

There will be repercussions, though. No doubt.

"Tell your man I'm goin' to fuckin' do him an' a'!"

And turning to his wife. "And don't fuckin' get me out my bed for fuckin' pish like that again."

My apologies if I've labored the event. Maybe you too were hoping for a more visceral denouement.

I'd like to say hi to Frankie C. in passing, now back in business and regaling the world with much sober restraint and aplomb. Let's end this with something upbeat.

Written by Randy Bachman; Burton Cummings; Jim Kale; and Garry Peterson. The Guess Who.

▼ BUTTHOLE SURFERS: AMERICAN WOMAN from "Rembrandt Pussyhorse" LP (Touch & Go) 1986 (US)

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vince guaraldi: joe cool

"Born in San Francisco on July 17, 1928, Vince Guaraldi graduated from Lincoln High School and then San Francisco State College. Guaraldi was already performing while in college in such venues as the Black Hawk and Jackson's Nook, sometimes with the Chubby Jackson/Bill Harris band, other times in combos with Sonny Criss and Bill Harris. He did minor gigs as well, such as weddings. Guaraldi's first recorded work can be heard on "Vibratharpe," a 1953 release by the Cal Tjader Trio."



WS 1747.

Produced, Written and arranged by Vince Guaraldi. Featuring Carl Burnett on drums; Stanley Gilbert on bass; and Eddie Duran on electric guitar. With Vince Guaraldi on piano and electric harpsichord.

If you're hankering after a funkier "Joe Cool" helping of 70's Guaraldi, check out this older post of Mike's on Art Decade.

For those of you alienated by the Schmaltz - sorry, Schulz - tough.

▼ VINCE GUARALDI TRIO: LINUS AND LUCY from "A Boy Named Charlie Brown" LP (Columbia) 1969 (US)

▼ VINCE GUARALDI TRIO: RED BARON from "Oh, Good Grief!" LP (Warner Bros.) 1968 (US)

▼ VINCE GUARALDI TRIO: PEPPERMINT PATTY from "Oh, Good Grief!" LP (Warner Bros.) 1968 (US)

VINCE GUARALDI ON AMAZON

green fingers #2: maybe tomorrow

a younger green.



blue note BST - 84373.

Written by A. Bergman; N. Bergman; Q. Jones. Produced by George Butler, engineered by Rudy Van Gelder.

Accompanied by Chuck Rainey: bass; Ray Armando: congas; Idris Muhammad: drums; Harold Cardwell: drums, percussion; Emanuel Riggins: electric piano; Billy Wooten: vibraphone.

From Celebrity Rock Guitars:

"Grant Green was born in St. Louis on June 6, 1931‡, learned his instrument in grade school from his guitar-playing father and was playing professionally by the age of thirteen with a gospel group. He worked gigs in his home town and in East St. Louis, IL, until he moved to New York in 1960 at the suggestion of Lou Donaldson.

Sadly, drug problems interrupted his career in the '60s, and undoubtedly contributed to the illness he suffered in the late '70s. Green was hospitalized in 1978 and died a year later. Despite some rather uneven LPs near the end of his career, the great body of his work represents marvelous soul-jazz, bebop, and blues."

Thanks to My Jazz World for the vinyl rip and for turning me on to this LP in the first instance.

‡ Or 1935, according to other sources.

▼ GRANT GREEN: MAYBE TOMORROW from "Visions" LP (Blue Note) 1971

GRANT GREEN ON AMAZON
GRANT GREEN DISCOGRAPHY

the air that i breathe

photograph by bruce davidson.

Written by Albert Hammond and Mike Hazelwood. Originally recorded by Phil Everly, and later plagiarized by Radiohead. Quality cheese.

Excuse me while I put out that cigarette.

▼ THE HOLLIES: THE AIR THAT I BREATHE from "The Air That I Breathe b/w No More Riders" 45 (Polydor) 1974 (UK)

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blue rondo a la turk

'nancy' by emmet gowin; virginia, usa, 1969.

9/8 time, alternating 4/4. If that sort of thing turns you on.

Dave Brubeck: piano; Paul Desmond: saxophone; Eugene Wright: bass; Joe Morello: drums. California sophistication, and a big influence on Vince Guaraldi by the sound of it.

You've come a long way, Charlie Brown.

From Wiki:

"The zeybek or zeybeği is a Turkish, Turkmen, or Afshar folk dance, named after Zeybeks. All zeybek dances have a common characteristic form, but the positioning of the arms and body differ according to the different regions. The rhythm is also very characteristic, a rhythmic pattern of a slow nine beats: 9/4 = 2+2+2+3 beats or 3+2+2+2 with occasional variations."

Composed by Dave Brubeck, with a nominally 'Arabic' nod to Mozart, and recorded during one of three sessions between June and August, 1959. Did Mozart ever play big with Linus or was it just Ludwig Van ?

▼ THE DAVE BRUBECK QUARTET: BLUE RONDO A LA TURK from "Time Out" LP (Columbia) 1959 (US)

BUY TIME OUT

fast 4: being boiled

fast 4A.



fast 4B.

"Okay, ready; let's do it."

From Wiki:

"...The Human League put out a demo tape to record companies under their new name. The tape contained versions of "Being Boiled", "Toyota City" and "Circus of Death". One label, Bob Last’s Edinburgh based independent Fast Records responded and the band were signed."

"Listen to the voice of Buddha
saying stop your sericulture
Little people like your offspring
boiled alive for some god's stocking
Buddhas watching Buddhas waiting."

John Lydon dismissed this outfit as nothing more than "trendy hippies".

Fair enough. But I rather liked it.

And so began a career which was to end disastrously in oceans of smeared kohl eye-liner and disco pregnancies.

▼ THE HUMAN LEAGUE: BEING BOILED (MONO) from "Being Boiled b/w Circus Of Death" 45 (Fast Product) 1978 (UK)

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PREVIOUSLY: FAST TOURISTS RUN FROM MAO

industrial IR0003

industrial records IR0003.



Genesis P-Orridge: bass, violin, vocals
Cosey Fanni Tutti: guitars, cornet)
Peter Christopherson: tapes, found sounds, horns
Chris Carter: synthesizer

Quite an interesting one, this. The debut 45 by Throbbing Gristle received a fair degree of publicity through certain 'glamour' magazines circulating newsagent top shelves at that time. Chiefly "Fiesta", a periodical renowned for its popular 'Readers' Wives' content, which engaged artist Connie Jude as its in-house illustrator. This may well have been as a result of members of the band - or those close to them - being in the employ of the pornographic industry at the time, though this is of course mere conjecture.

Given the heavy S&M themes propagated by Malcolm McLaren and even Vivien Westwood in his Kings Road shop, the bondage model adopted by punk rock found a natural bedfellow in London's Soho as early as 1976, with photographers and art directors keen to trade on its provocative imagery. Just as with the Beat Generation, pornographers and artists collaborated gladly in seedy studios at the dark end of a two-way street; a means to generate and sustain a mutually beneficial market.

From their web site:

"Industrial Records began as an investigation. The 4 members of Throbbing Gristle wanted to investigate to what extent you could mutate and collage sound, present complex non entertaining noises to a popular culture situation and convince and convert. We wanted to re-invest Rock music with content, motivation and risk. Our records were documents of attitudes and experiences and observations by us and other determinedly individual outsiders. Fashion was an enemy, style irrelevant."

Their motives were deemed suspect by many, the collective's courting of negative publicity spurious at best. The sleeve image to the single's b-side, above, attests to the more obvious methods employed to agitate and provoke.

"United" itself is atypical of TG's generally abrasive experimental output. As a song with a formal structure and arrangement, it might have been recorded by 10CC fore-runners, The Hotlegs. Had Industrial Records succeeded in generating more commercial airplay from this release, it is worth speculating as to what degree of controversy a Top 40 'hit' may have aroused.

From Wiki:

"Throbbing Gristle's confrontational live performances and use of often disturbing imagery, including pornography and photographs of Nazi concentration camps, gave the group a notorious reputation. However the group always maintained that their mission was to challenge and explore the darker and obsessive sides of the human condition rather than to make attractive music. Throbbing Gristle pioneered the use of pre-recorded tape-based 'samples', and made extensive use of special effects to produce a distinctive, highly distorted background, usually accompanied by lyrics or spoken-word performances by Genesis P-Orridge."

I recently re-purchased "The Second Annual Report" from 1977 on CD, but I'm pleased to still have this 45 on original vinyl. A valued artifact of early Industrial Noise.

▼ THROBBING GRISTLE: UNITED (MONO) from "United b/w Zyclon B Zombie" 45 (Industrial Records) 1978 (UK)

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...loose

jim motherf@cking osterburg. born april 21st, 1947. taurus.

Don't give me no bull.

Originally mixed by Don Gallucci - the full unfolded drama of which may be relived (or reviled) on the deluxe Rhino edition of the Stooges' second long player, the impacted fall-out from the casual heat of this album cannot be exaggerated. This is the the sound of disaffected youth reaching out to snag the wrinkled throat of intellectual didactic and commercially sponsored rectitude.

And I don't just mean Johnny Carson.

F@ck Rolling Stone. F@ck Sonny Barger. The Stooges delivered on a blue collar promise to f@ck them all.

Forget at your peril, brothers and sisters, that Iggy's idol was one James Morrison. The Stooges were the bad neighbours on your block, but they were by no means the simple dope smoking draft dodgers of populist fantasy ; these boys genuinely could not give a shit.

You want a piece of me, motherf@cker ? Come and get it. I can hurt myself a lot worse than your half-assed lieutenants ever could. F@ck Oakland. This is Detroit City, and if Detroit don't like me they might as well go suck my dick as well. Hells Angels ? You ain't Lee Marvin; you're Lee Marvin's f@cking dad. And f@ck your old lady 'cause she can't f@ck for shit.

This is it. Punk rock. No faking. No shit. Just down and out dirty rock n' f@cking roll, little doll.

You wanna f@ck me over, shit for brains ?

Best bring that motherf@ckin' tyre iron.

F@ck all your f@ckin' hierarchies.

Step right up, brothers and sisters. Give me your best shot.

And, most of all, f@ck MTV.

▼ THE STOOGES: LOOSE from "Fun House" LP (Elektra) 1970 (US)

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and she feeds you tea and oranges

françoise hardy.

"Now Suzanne takes your hand
And she leads you to the river
She is wearing rags and feathers
From Salvation Army counters
And the sun pours down like honey
On our lady of the harbour
And she shows you where to look
Among the garbage and the flowers
There are heroes in the seaweed
There are children in the morning
They are leaning out for love
And they will lean that way forever
While Suzanne holds the mirror
And you want to travel with her
And you want to travel blind
And you know that you can trust her
For she's touched your perfect body
with her mind."

- Suzanne, Leonard Cohen, 1967.

Arranged by John Cameron.

Thanks to a major Vitamin-C boost, this cold may finally be receding.

Ah, look out, 'cuz I'm...

▼ FRANÇOISE HARDY: SUZANNE (FRENCH VERSION) from "Comment Te Dire Adieu" LP (Reprise) 1968 (France)

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birth of the cool

photograph by mary ellen mark.



capitol CDP 94550.

A jazz standard from the saintly Miles Davis. "Birth Of The Cool" predates the best of Miles by a good decade or so, in my opinion, but this is - as they say - 'dope'.

Recorded from a session in NYC on March 9th, 1950, with J.J. Johnson on trombone; Gunther Schuller on french horn; Bill Barber on tuba; Lee Konitz on alto saxophone; Gerry Mulligan on baritone saxophone; Al McKibbon on bass; and Max Roach on drums. Written by Chummy MacGregor and Johnny Mercer. Produced by Gil Evans.

Reissued on Blue Note.

▼ MILES DAVIS: MOON DREAMS from "Birth Of The Cool" LP (Capitol) 1950 (US)

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