Various Artists – Leather Jackets And Diesel Smoke
Righteous Records
CD/DL
Out now
New double CD set in Righteous Records’ the “Lux & Ivy” series, mixing Rockabilly, Country and Kitsch to varying degrees. Ian Canty writes…
For this fresh episode in the by now well-established Lux & Ivy series, Righteous Records eschew an overriding theme for once and instead group together a disparate band of out there 50s and 60s snapshots of North American culture. The more cynical among us may wonder if The Cramps’ royalties actually ran to being able to buy their own industrial estate in order to provide storage for this apparently gargantuan vinyl stack. But what can’t be doubt if the pure fun that the scouring through these collections of the good, bad and just plain nuts provide. Crucially, the vast majority of the contributions here ring true as stuff Lux & Ivy may well have dug.
Popular Kansas Rock & Rollers Conny And The Bellhops smash through a wild Shot Rod (engineered by Elvis’ guitarist Scotty Moore) to get Leather Jackets And Diesel Smoke’s party started, with Tyrone Schmidling’s ultra-basic but classic Rockabilly hoe-down You’re Gone, I’m Left taking us further inwards. Part one of Rat-A-Ma-Cue, an atypical 1960 waxing by C&W singer Pat Patterson, comes next and the concluding half is also included on disc two of this set. Twangin’ Machine, a guitar instro by The Acccidentals, keeps this hot start going and then Dean Beard And The Crew Cuts kick up a sleazy sax ruckus with Rakin’ And Scrapin’
Verve Records released the speedy Pop of Teenie Weenie Jeanie by Chuck & Gary in 1958, but coming next is the queasy schmaltz of The Devil’s Old Suitcase by Pam Thum which is best avoided. The R&B grit of Junior Lightning & The Empires restores some sense of order with their flipside of their Ragged And Hungry 45 Somebody Changed The Lock and then Monkey On The Moon by Gene Hall propels us with Boogie Woogie to the stratosphere. Jazz Exotica seasons The Blasts’ similarly space-themed Canaveral Rock, with the prolific Country singer Bonny Guitar aka Bonnie Buckingham giving her item Johnny Vagabond some prime six string plucking allied an assured voice performance.
Linda Green’s nonsense song Honey Buggie is a charmingly daft piece of daft early 1960s Pop and the guitar mayhem of Texas band The Raiders’ wild Hocus Pocus really hits the spot. Donnie James’ energetic Walk Baby Walk emerged on the obscure Abbey imprint based in Hollywood and it is followed by a trio of muscle car cash-ins, led by the cool of A Hot-Rodders Dream by Ray Burden. Doo Wop influences Tall Tonio And The Mell-Dees’ Hot-Rod-Car and as a contrast, the driving C&W of Hot Rod Race by Charlie Ryan completes the three. Ryan specialised in this kind of thing, also scoring a hit with Hot Rod Lincoln.
Novelty record Chilli Dippin’ Baby by Joyce Poynter comes next, with R&B Dance marvel Charlie Chan by The Sounds then truly impressing with its sense of brio. This very enjoyable first disc is curtailed by a neat early Garage/Rock & Roll instrumental groover Big Bowl Of Soul by The Huntsmen and Sweetie Jones’ sorrowful Soul ballad I’ve Been Wrong.
Original Rocker Ronnie Pearson’s super debut blast Hot Shot kicks off disc two of Leather Jackets And Diesel Smoke in style and The Cat’s Were Jumpin’, a Georgia recorded 45 by John Worthan, acts as a neat enough follow up. You Don’t Love Me by Willie Cobb is probably better known as the basis of Dawn Penn’s belated UK hit single No, No, No, with James “Rube” Gallagher keeping the energy level high with his up-tempo B side Ford & Shaker.
Teen Machine shows Surf Rock pioneers The Gamblers had that guitar instrumental sound down to pat back in 1961 and Sandy Nelson’s edgy sax-enhanced power surge The City is its perfect partner. Next we veer slightly towards Jazz/Soundtracks with The Big Sound Of Don Ralke and their number Zooba, with teen actress Lada Edmund’s manic Pop novelty Foxy sporting Garage Punk organ hints a good few years before that style truly emerged.
Next we swerve into Exotica with a selection from Elisabeth Waldo’s LP Realm Of The Incas called Incan Festival Dance and a percussion excursion Bongosera by Grupo Afro-Cubano. An album titled Folk Songs For Far Out Folk would seem to be prime fodder for Lux & Ivy and thus the windy strangeness of Foggy, Foggy Dew by Fred Katz turns up here. The stop-start Bluegrass item Oh Death by John Reedy And His Stone Mountain Trio is also made for The Cramps’ pair, with the extraordinary 1955 B side by Pearl Reeves & The Concords I’m Not Ashamed being R&B attitude done just right.
Leather Jacket Cowboy by Pepper Pots picks up the Blues/Jazz baton in an instrumental mode and the car motif comes back again with the advent of Texas C&W veteran Doye O’Dell’s speedy Diesel Smoke, Mike Page’s story of betrayal Long Black Shiny Car and a storming Women In Cadillacs by Connecticut R&B merchants The Nite Riders. The mutant Country/Rockabilly sound of Bill Flagg’s Go Cat Go bottles all the excitement of 50s Americana into one small package and Hank Blackman And The Killers’ Itchy Koo is one cool keyboard-led Doo Wop thriller. This set draws to a close with the oddball C&W Pop of Vancie Flowers’ Wet Back.
This swoop through USA’s 50s and 60s back pages that is Leather Jackets And Diesel Smoke reveals itself along the way as being one of the best in the Lux & Ivy series. There are only a couple of tunes which jar and the good stuff is very good indeed. Though selections from the vinyl stack must be dwindling a bit by now, there is still plenty of life on offer here.
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2CD set in the Joe Meek’s Tea Chest Tapes series, this time focussing on Liverpool Beat band The Cryin’ Shames, who scored Meek his UK last hit with Please Stay in 1966. This collection also includes the 45 by their later incarnation Paul & Ritchie And The Crying Shames and couple of tracks by band member Derek Cleary’s act Friendly Persuasion. Ian Canty writes…
With advent of Merseybeat, Liverpool quickly became awash with Beat groups attempting to emulate The Beatles’ world conquering success. One of these outfits was the unflatteringly named The Bumblies, a six piece aggregation. They were led by vocalists Paul “Charlie” Crane and Joey Kneen, who were joined by a rhythm section of George Robinson and Charlie Gallagher, plus Phil Roberts on keys and guitarist John Bennett. The latter was replaced by teen hotshot Ritchie Routledge in time for their recording debut, leaving his band The Aztecs to join up. At the end of 1965 they auditioned for Joe Meek, and the results of this session can be found on the first disc of Please Stay.
Joe was impressed with the band, but not their name. They were rechristened The Cryin’ Shames and their first single Please Stay, a cover version cut at Meek’s insistence over the band’s own material, was issued in early 1966. Although a good example of Meek’s style, Please Stay itself shows why the producer was being left behind as the 1960s wore on. The customary queasy strings, reverb and ponderous pacing is substantially improved by a soulful vocal performance by Crane. But what would have been a cracking 7 inch back in 1963 must have sounded well behind the times come the dawn of 1966, but it was a UK chart success despite any misgivings.
The single’s reverse What’s News Pussycat is a fairly raucous R&B stomper though that demonstrated more of what The Cryin’ Shames were all about. Follow up Nobody Waved Goodbye asserts itself as a creamy, quality Pop ballad that doesn’t come over quite as dated as Please Stay, but somehow it stiffed as a single. But again the flip is the better of the two for me, a feel-good swinger in the form of You. Derek Cleary came in on bass for Robinson on this 45.
The name change to Paul & Ritchie And The Crying Shames came about when Crane and Ritchie bought in four new musicians. Their sole release was September In The Rain/Come On Back. Again outside material was used on the A side, with the band being allowed to write the flip. To be fair September In The Rain, with some cool organ frills, is the best of the three singles the band cut. It is a pity perhaps the finest effort they ever came up with, a feedback-enhanced and brilliant Come On Back, was relegated to making up the numbers, rather than being given its own chance to make waves on the UK Hit Parade.
Next on this first disc we have the aforementioned audition selection dating from when The Cryin’ Shames were still called The Bumblies. This ensues with a version of Bob Dylan’s She Belongs To Me. The same writer provides Mr Tambourine Man, which is given a treatment that is fairly close to The Byrds’ hit single reading and Van Morrsion’s Garage stomper Gloria is given a zesty performance. The touching voice and organ only take of Please Stay easily tops the 45 edit for me.
Following on is an album length selection of The Cryin’ Shames’ recordings with Meek that was readied for release but didn’t in the end make it to the shops. This section leans on heavily on other writers’ material and begins with I’ll Keep Holding On, the much covered R&B number Reg King’s band The Action famously did wonders with. The Shames do a creditable job though and along with Land Of 1,000 Dances seems to prove that they had what it took to kick up a rumpus live. Another take of Gloria and a nicely fuzz-laden No Good Without You proves that The Cryin’ Shames knew their Garage Mod feet movers.
In 1964 LPs crammed with covers and a few self-penned efforts were the norm. But by 1966 the lack of group efforts was a concern, with Only You and Wanna Be Loved being the songs that could have been Cryin’ Shames’ originals – but even in the expansive and informative liner notes that come with this set, there is still some doubt whether this is actually the case. Even so Only You is a case of blue-eyed Soul testifying that cuts the mustard and a rhythmic Wanna Be Loved is a reasonable attempt at danceable R&B.
They do a good job Trade Martin’s Take Me For A Little While and an energetic You’re A Wonderful One brings to an end the ill-fated Cryin’ Shames LP. Three more of the bands recordings conclude this disc. Let Me In adds a brass section, as does a dramatic and novel Breakout. Stringed-up MOR Soul ballad Feels Like Loving puts the full stop here on a disc that shows The Cryin’ Shames definitely had potential, even if it wasn’t always used to its best purpose.
Disc two is where Meek fanatics will really get their hit, as we are in the realms of alternate versions. Three further edits of Please Stay opens this selection box up. The Overdubs Only Take 2 edit is just lovely and I am bound to say each of these three I would take over the single cut. Then What’s News Pussycat is presented as an instrumental and also with an extended fade. Four Nobody Waved Goodbye alternates show the often painstaking development process well with the laidback instrumentation impressing and You’s Take 2 ensues with a studio count in, before some smart keyboard and guitar work takes centre stage.
Let Me In them gets a trio of different mixes, all of which come with plenty of percussive drive. There’s an endearing moment when Paul/Charlie Crane breaks down into giggles on Phase 1 Take 3 and the studio natter in the background is a vital touch of detail. Breakout in this guise has a rough guide vocal added to the backing track, something which produces an odd but not unpleasant effect.
We then get another take of the Paul & Ritchie And The Crying Shames’ 45 September In the Rain, which sounds really good in this form. Then The Cryin’ Shames return for two stellar goes at Come Back and the first version of I’ll Keep Holding On.
After that we have two cuts by Derek Cleary’s post-Cryin’ Shames outfit Friendly Persuasion. The End Of The World is pretty naff to be honest, but Cleary’s own Come On has a lot more hammer. Paul & Ritchie And The Crying Shames visited The BBC in the late summer of 1966 and cut a three track session, leading off with The Who’s Circles. Brian Matthew’s tones are heard at the outset of a lively cover of Sam Cooke’s Shake and the band’s single A side is given a run out. Finally we get a pair of The Cryin’ Shames tracks performed live at a date in France also during 1966. Please Stay inevitably features, but the take of Gloria gives one an idea of their rowdy on-stage prowess.
On Please Stay one can sense the power of The Cryin’ Shames and possibly also some frustration of being fed through the Joe Meek process too. I, like a lot of people, love that eerie Meek sound, but Joe’s distrust of the band’s own tunes seems counterproductive. There is proof here that The Shames could come up with their own hot material. Maybe they were short of songs, but the B sides of the three singles point to some talent in the field of composition.
The first disc of this set houses what could have been The Cryin’ Shames debut LP, which though respectable is thick with covers. Perhaps giving them their head at the early stage with a single A side would have resulted more original tunes? Plus an album that was truer to the band and also one that could appeal to the UK record buying public of 1966? We shall never know, but Please Stay is another pleasingly thorough delve into Meek’s tape archive and one shows The Cryin’ Shames strengths in tough R&B stompers as well as more reserved, soulful numbers.
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Glad – A New Tomorrow The Glad And New Breed Recordings
Now Sounds Records
CD/DL
Out now
New collection featuring the 1969 album Feelin’ Glad by the Sacramento outfit Glad, the mono mixes of their single sides and recordings cut under their previous name The New Breed. Ian Canty writes…
Before Glad, there was The New Breed. The four singles they made under this earlier moniker come at the end of A New Tomorrow, but chronologically it makes sense to look this previous incarnation of Glad from the get-go.
Coming straight outta Sacramento, The New Breed’s genesis was in an early 1960s acoustic Folk trio of consisting of Tim Schmit, Ron Flogel and Tom Phillips. They gradually moved over towards electric guitars when being turned onto Surf Rock and subsequently became The Contenders with the addition of drummer George Hullin. They soon gained a manager in local promoter Gary Schiro and moved into the Beat era with gusto. In 1965 they amended their name to The New Breed and went about building an enviable reputation on stage for harmony singing allied to pure Pop power. During October of the same year, they issued their first waxing on the Diplomacy label that was based in Los Angeles.
The New Breed made their vinyl bow with the single Green Eye’d Woman, an attractive and punchy effort endowed with a natural swagger. I’m In Love on the flipside was a catchy number never actually recorded by The Beatles, but was written by Lennon/McCartney and stamped with their customary gift for melody. This 45 was a big local hit and paved the way for the April 1966 follow up I’ve Been Wrong Before/You’d Better Leave Me Be. The A side was a Randy Newman cover in ballad mode and came with a similar laidback flip.
Possibly the highlight of this set for me is the excellent third 45 Want Ad Reader, a snazzy and tuneful Garage Punker I was delighted to discover. It’s ace and brings home the fact that when The New Breed wanted to cut something tougher, it was well within their capabilities. A stoned R&B feel colours instrumental B side One More For The Good Guys. Like its reverse, this number was written by The New Breed and Snack Bar aka DJ John Hyde, who had assisted the band since their first record as their producer.
Final New Breed 7 inch Fine With Me came out in the early Spring of 1967. Though not without its own charm, the MOR leanings were for me a bit of a comedown after Want Ad Reader’s pugilistic promise. Bringing The New Breed sides to an end is The Sound Of Music, an up-tempo band original that has slight hints of the Country Rock sound they would pursue further in their later guise.
A New Breed album of songs all seeming with the word woman in the title was cut back in 1966, but remained in the can when the idea was deemed a non-starter. Newly ensconced in LA, as 1967 went on the band were belatedly kickstarted into the new Psychedelic era. This was mainly by being bawled out by Fillmore boss Billy Graham for their neat appearance after a date at the venue went south. Legal issues meant that Hyde was replaced as their producer by Erik Wangberg at Terry Melcher’s insistence, when the latter’s Equinox imprint picked up the band. This deal was on the proviso that they changed their name, but they rebuffed Melcher’s suggestion of The Never Mind to plump for Glad instead.
February 1968 saw the band commence work on the 12 track album Feelin’ Glad, which starts off this collection, although it was over a year before it saw release. This record begins with the fresh and chilled sound of this set’s title track A New Tomorrow, which is stacked with appeal and made for Glad’s second single release. The band’s harmonies really pay off on Say What You Mean, pretty much Sunshine Pop perfection that was also unsurprisingly issued as Glad’s debut 45 and soon afterwards Pickin’ Up The Pieces Rocks with purpose.
Mann and Weil’s teen takeover anthem Shape Of Things To Come gets a lively workout, with Sweet Melinda giving the album second side a cool start. Ron Flogel, Glad’s main songwriter, wrote or co-wrote 10 of the 12 numbers included on LP and really comes into his own here. The easy feel to Let’s Play Make Believe is joyful and the Country/Folk Rock style comes to prominence on No Ma, It’s Can’t Be. Apparently the layering on of strings etc by Wangberg was much to Glad’s chagrin, but the outside additions work fairly well on Two Worlds and Johnny Silver’s Ride, heralded by dubbed-in live audience effects, is a groovy bit of Pop/Rock that was a natural 45. The album resolves itself with the simple but pleasing acoustic sound of Silly Girl and a brief reprise of A New Tomorrow.
A New Tomorrow is completed by eight mono mixes of Glad’s single sides. Say What You Mean and A New Tomorrow come over as a gems in their own right in this format and Pickin’ Up The Pieces positively roars out of the traps. Love Needs The World, the flipside of Johnny Silver’s Ride, is beautifully realised. Perhaps Let’s Play Make Believe was their weakest 45 outing, but I cannot deny that the Country Rock affectations were just right for the time.
Glad fizzled out after the LP’s belated issue. Tim Schmit made the biggest splash out of all the former band members, pretty much following A New Tomorrow’s Country Rock leanings by joining Poco for a successful eight year period. After that in 1977 he hooked up The Eagles for the Hotel California tour. It’s an odd fact that each time he replaced Randy Meisner, having been turned down by Poco initially in Meisner’s favour. With Tim gone to Poco, Andrew Samuels was recruited in his place and the remaining members became Redwing. It’s heartening to read in the liner notes that all the members of Glad remain good friends to the present day.
This new set has a lot going for it. The Feelin’ Glad album is a strong collection and the mono singles different enough to be worthwhile. The New Breed 45s contain one absolute pearl in Want Ad Reader, but the seven other efforts aren’t slouches either. Glad/The New Breed were unlucky not to score wider success with their work during the latter part of the 1960s and the proof is here in oodles.
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Subtitled “Post-Punk Britain 1977-1981”, this new 5CD includes contributions from Siouxsie And The Banshees, Joy Division, PIL and The Clash. Ian Canty writes…
Despite still being a huge fan of the inspiring, tearaway music that made up 1977 UK Punk, I have to concede its single biggest impact was the impulse toward making one’s own statement without compromise. Make your art and if record companies, music press etc weren’t interested, well sod them and do it yourself. This opened up a whole new range of possibilities, a fresh space to work in with no limit to what you might attempt and also one that was no longer fashion-based and/or London-centric. It set in motion a spirit which is just as relevant if not more so today.
It wasn’t just about the music of course, but Moving Away From The Pulsebeat looks sonic efforts that delved into different areas after 1977’s high tide. One thing that is important to remember though, in an age where Post Punk seems to automatically mean “good”, that for every Pop Group there was there the “Play For Today” dramatics of Toyah and for every Magazine there was the likes of the lumpy Prag Vec. All are featured at some point across these five discs, but luckily enough the quality level is for the most part fairly high on the first part of this set.
The Soft Boys’ Wading Through A Ventilator is at once an odd and an apt place to start. Coming at us from early Punk label Raw was super sped-up Psychedelia, courtesy of Robyn Hitchcock and Co. This shows how much had changed in a matter of months, as even at the beginning of 1977 people would have been less receptive. Rough Trade announced themselves as not just a shop with the thrilling French Electro Punk of Metal Urbain’s Paris Maquis and loveable Solihull scamps The Swell Maps’ Rather imprint debuted with Read About Seymour, a 45 that had their track here Black Velvet on the flip.
I had almost forgotten just how bracing it was to witness early Subway Sect on vinyl for the first time. Hearing Don’t Split It afresh made me recall how I manage to find the Nobody’s Scared single in the early 1980s second-hand and was utterly blown away by its breath-taking, spidery rush. Buzzcocks’ timeless, looping title track still feels utterly modern and a little later on comes Hong Kong Garden, the first record I went into a shop and purchased. I remember being at puzzled and then invigorated by the B side Voices and that mystery is retained here.
Labels sprang up all over the UK, with Edinburgh’s Fast Product coming quickly out of the traps with the clipped, anthemic New Wave of All Time Low by 2.3 and Gang Of Four’s debut EP. The souped-up and shaken R&B fizzer Armalite Rifle is extracted from that record for this disc. The majors wanted a piece of these strange new bands too though, with Swindon’s XTC and Howard Devoto’s Magazine both signing to Virgin and being represented by a manic Existential and the Give Me Everything 45 respectively. However Alternative TV didn’t want any part of of the commercial merry-go-round, issuing the excellent but already over a year old Life on their own Deptford Fun City near the end of 1978.
With Everybody’s On Revolver Tonight Ed Ball’s O Level captured the times with pinpoint accuracy. But elsewhere new paths were being forged by the experimental buzzsaw of Strontium by The Crazies, a short-lived outfit from Adrian Borland of The Outsiders pre-The Sound and paranoid synth-chill meets thrashy guitar on Listen To The Sirens by Gary Numan’s Tubeway Army.
The final three items on this initial section showed the spread of music out from narrow Tin Pan Alley confines out into the provinces. The 60s Garage weirdness of Camera Camera by Teardrop Explodes came from Liverpool’s Zoo. Bristol’s bustling scene yielded Stay Awake by Glaxo Babies on Heartbeat, something that in its more downbeat Punk/Dub moments might just have a sliver of what Portishead hit on a decade later. Finally the sound of Belfast is heralded by SLF and an edgy and atypical Closed Groove.
Disc two starts in Bristol too, with The Pop Group’s incredible debut 45 She Is Beyond Good And Evil. Scars’ Fast Product single Adultery continues this hot start and then a charming Adventures Close To Home was an early sign of the unique magic of The Raincoats. Essential Logic will always be dear to my heart and the bright kick of Wake Up I found a source of constant joy, with Joy Division’s insistent bass monster Disorder following on. A few years back I was lucky enough to see the Cult Figures and Disco Zombies on the same bill and they are represented here by the crunchy zing of Playing With Toys and Greenland, a fuzzy but cool ride.
It is often forgotten these days what a vital band Brum’s Au Pairs were in the aftermath of Punk. A spikey You makes the case better than most and a few tracks on The Slits’ Ping Pong Affair finds them in Funk/Punk experimental mode, but very accessible and enjoyable as well. S.U. S. by The Ruts retains the blazing fire all these years on. sure they were more a Punk band than anything else but are always good to hear.
Soon there is a rum piece of sequencing though, where The Associates, Art Attacks and Human League follow each other. All are worthwhile of course; Billy Mackenzie and Alan Rankine’s creation Mona Property Girls is strange and wonderful like most of their output, but the excellent Rat City that follows by The Art Attacks seems like it belongs to another world. The icy electronica of Path Of Least Resistance, which comes next, is another sharp turn and the disc concludes with Essential Bop’s rhythm-driven sparkler Chronicle and the Marmite sound of Killing Joke and Nervous System from their first EP.
The third disc of this sets starts with PIL’s Poptones, proving that John Lydon’s latter-day deluded ramblings can’t really put a dent in what he did back when he mattered. But any momentum gained by it and Scritti Politti’s endearingly slapdash Hegemony is then stymied by Tabletalk, a run of the mill Adam And The Ants number. Having said that, John Cooper Clarke’s material made with The Invisible Girls has always fascinated me and Sleepwalk is full of unusual twists, with The Fall’s Fiery Jack deftly building a head of steam and packing a fearsome punch.
Co-Optimist by Again Again from Portsmouth does an odd but creditable trick in crossing scratchy Post Punk and Psych Pop and although I won’t argue that A Forest was an excellent single, perhaps something less known out of The Cure’s back pages could have made the cut here? The Flowers’ Ballad Of Miss Demeanour is an impressively tight number with hints of The Slits and the mighty Cravats are typically fantastic on the paranoid creep of Who’s In Here With Me. Artery’s tune Unbalanced is neat weirdo Pop and The Puppet by Echo & The Bunnymen offers plenty of proof of their potency at this point in time. There’s some fine offerings on this disc, but not as many as on the first two and humdrum items are easier to come by into the bargain.
Talking of the erstwhile Johnny Rotten, it has been rumoured that The Jam’s muscular album Scrape Away was brickbat aimed firmly in his sarky direction. Throbbing Gristle pioneered “out there” Electro more than being Post Punk per se and the pulses and synth squeals of Something Came Over Me bear that out, with Theatre Of Hate’s first single Original Sin still coming over as a true statement of intent. Leeds’s own Girls At Our Best on shone only briefly but so brightly, as is evidenced on the blinding It’s Fashion and neighbours Sisters Of Mercy grants us the brisk march of Watch, a long distance from their Goth future.
Normal Hawaiians, hailing from Orpington, were fronted by Guy Smith, who previously sang with the local Punk band The Tarts back in 1977. Their gritty, off key Jazz Punker The Beat Goes On makes a good mark. After leaving The Wall Ian Lowery formed Ski Patrol with Nick Clift and others and they crop up here with the well-judged slow build of Agent Orange. On a different planet than You Spin Me Round, the alluring, swirly strangeness of I’m Falling is a tantalising glimpse of what Pete Burns’ Dead Or Alive could do on a good day.
I’ve always enjoyed 4AD band In Camera’s PIL homages and Fragments Of Fear, which features here, is no exception, but a thrashy, Buzzcocks-style Where Are My Hormones by Avant Gardeners is really a trip back to 1977. After that this disc kind of tails off, though the crazed mayhem of Virgin Prunes’ Twenty Tens is worthy of your attention.
After a couple of so-so platters, the final section of Moving Away From The Pulsebeat delivers better, though it is a stretch to call Robert Wyatt’s marvellous Born Again Cretin Post Punk just because it was on C81. I’m always up for hearing a blast of Young Marble Giants, even if the bouncing bass instrumental of Click Talk misses Alison Statton’s beautiful vocal stylings. Proof that The Nightingales were inspired from the off comes with Seconds and the Dub Punk Funk of Another Baby’s Face by 23 Skiddo broods along smartly.
Edinburgh’s Josef K are a band I have always loved since getting The Only Fun In Town LP back in 1981 and Pictures is an ample serving of their edgy guitar-led charm, with You’re Welcome by The Undertones being a delicate late-period treat. The Fire Engines’ Meat Whiplash is Psychedelic where you wouldn’t expect it, but for the most part an energy-filled blast and Jah Wobble, recently given his PIL marching orders, sets about the eerie, experimental Nocturnal (Edit). The manic pacing of Ludus’ Mother’s Hour adds to the air of otherworldliness that the band operated under and Blackpool’s Section 25 come up trumps on the assertive, rhythmic thud of Je Veux Ton Amour.
Being the height of hipness possibly impacted negatively on Rip, Rig And Panic, as their records stand up to scrutiny today. The unbridled brio of Go, Go, Go! is a simple of hit of pure elation. The bland name The Reflections hid Mark Perry and Karl Blake, kicking up a gritty fuss on Tightrope Walker and fellow Punk old hands The Outcasts fizz through Programme Love. I’m not going to mention THAT TV show again, it’s enough to say that It Goes Waap! by The Higsons is still a whole heap of fun all these years on and John Robb’s Membranes close things out with the chant-tastic All The Roads Lead To Norway.
Moving Away From The Pulsebeat has a lot of top rate sounds contained on it, but arguably it could have lost a disc or even two and had a better impact. The first two and the fifth are for the vast majority first rate, but towards the middle of this set it loses focus and piles on more than a few inconsequential entries. But perhaps in doing that, Moving Away From The Pulsebeat manages to capture UK Post Punk in all its multifaceted, varied glory.
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37 track collection of the single sides from Sunderland Punk trio The Toy Dolls, including three versions of their UK hit single Nellie The Elephant. Ian Canty writes…
As far as I am concerned, the best way to experience The Toy Dolls is via the single. Over the course of an album, their brand of humour can wear a pretty thin to be honest, so all things considered this collection does make a lot of sense. The Sunderland band has been led by Michael “Olga” Algar from 1979 to the present day and they have developed a considerable fanbase over that time. This new set, that compiles all there single tracks bar the live Wipe Out, would presumably be of interest to them.
Logically enough we begin with the band’s 1980 debut 45 Tommy Kowey’s Car/She Goes To Finos on the G.B.H. label. It’s a good single and catchy too. The flipside is at a notably slower tempo than than later versions. Tommy Kowey’s Car was recut for their follow up EP and 50s oldie Teenager In Love is combined with one of the band’s early anthems I’ve Got Asthma, the latter of which somehow ended up on the Strength Thru Oi! album. Of the four tracks, She’s A Worky Ticket is a suitably manic R&B Punker and possibly the pick of this extended play.
She’s A Worky Ticket, along with Everybody Jitterbug, made up their next release, a one-off for EMI Records/Zonophone that someone in their A&R department must have thought had some hit potential. It wasn’t to be as Toy Dolls’ brief commercial breakthrough would have to wait a couple more years. This fleeting success would be obtained by a fresh version of their next 45, 1982’s Nellie The Elephant. For this disc The Toy Dolls’ moved imprints again, this time to Volume. The title track of their debut album, the addictive Dig That Groove Baby, sat on the B side.
New material then loomed into earshot on 1983’s Cheerio And Toodle Pip/H.O!. This was an up-tempo and purposeful release and one that featured the first appearance in the band of Bonny Baz, aka Baz Warne now of The Stranglers. These early items find the band less mannered than later on and are all the better for it. I’ve no idea what the next 45 Alfie From The Bronx is about, but it’s a reasonable effort and comes with the Jilted John-style Hanky Panky on the reverse.
Unfortunately the next single We’re Mad is all their worst instincts rolled into one and this makes for a long near-five minutes. I did like the Punked up version of Rupert The Bear which was one of two flipsides though. This first disc ends with the Nellie The Elephant/Fisticuffs In Frederick Street single that reached the UK Top 5 in 1984 and to be fair offered a measure of daft fun as an alternative to the more po-faced waxings of the time.
Moving onto disc two we begin with another recording of She Goes To Finos, a record that just managed to keep them out of being true one hit wonders by making number 93 in the UK charts. On the B side was Spiders In The Dressing Room, an old number from Dig That Groove Baby and added to the 12 inch version of the single was Come Back Jacky, a fairly energetic offering. Next James Bond (Lives Down Our Street) only charted in the Indies though, perhaps because it wasn’t really as strong an idea or melody to make it as a 45. The two tracks on the reverse aren’t that impressive either.
1986’s Geordie’s Gone To Jail however was an improvement with a good “mob chorus” refrain and is also included in a Japanese version. The buzzsaw Yul Brynner Was A Skinhead had a very limited release as a giveaway with the Beat Of The Street magazine and a re-recording of I’ve Got Asthma was the B side of the seemingly lost live version of Wipeout. After a creditable run of tracks, Turtle Crazy is just plain awful, a desperate attempt to cash-in on the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles craze. The band’s nadir really and a passable cover of The Small Faces’ Lazy Sunday Afternoon doesn’t do quite enough to redress the balance.
Sod The Neighbours, bar some guitar showing off, ups the ante a little though and Cloughie Is A Bootboy at least quite well observed. Unfortunately a naff go at the Ricky Martin hit Livin’ la Vida Loca takes things immediately back down again and a couple of so so flipsides ends this set.
Of this set the first disc is by far the superior and on the whole enjoyable. Disc two begins fairly well, before really tailing off with the advent of Turtle Crazy. The earlier recordings retain a freshness that the latter tracks simply don’t have, probably because nearer to their inception Toys Dolls didn’t lean hard into Olga’s “We’re Mad” character/worldview quite so much. Toy Dolls – The Singles is really one for confirmed fans looking for the rarer tracks featured. Perhaps anyone else who likes breakneck, daft Punk Rock might quite enjoy it, right up to the middle of disc two when the quality level really drops off.
You can obtain Toy Dolls – The Singles by clicking here
Nina Simone – Blackbird The Colpix Recordings (1959-1963)
SoulMusic
8CD/DL
Out now
Expansive 8CD set that includes all of the albums Jazz/R&B legend Nina Simone recorded for the label, plus bonus tracks. Ian Canty writes…
When Tyron North Carolina local Eunice Kathleen Waymon became Nina Simone, it was with the express purpose of performing on the Atlantic City nightclub scene. She came from a family very involved with the Methodist church and she didn’t want her mother in particular to find out just what she was doing, hence the name change. Nina had been something of a child prodigy on the piano, playing from an early age and giving her first classical performance while she was still at school. She had applied for a place at the prestigious Curtis Institute in Philadelphia, but was unsuccessful and as a result Simone gravitated to work in the nightclubs as part of a busy schedule of jobs designed to pay for private music tuition.
Now singing as well as playing piano, Nina quickly became a hit on the live circuit and in early 1959 cut her debut album Little Girl Blue for Bethlehem record label. Success was almost immediate, as she scored a US Top 20 hit on 45 with I Loves You Porgy, a version of which is among the bonus tracks on disc one of this set.
Blackbird The Colpix Recordings joins Nina’s career logically enough at the point where she had signed for the New York imprint. She made her bow for Colpix with the follow up to the Little Girl Blue LP, The Amazing Nina Simone, which starts off this set. Even at this relatively early stage in her recording career, she cuts it as a highly accomplished presence and this rare combination of poise, style and aptitude was crucial in her making an impact.
Simone’s assured and delicately judged delivery was already highly developed and her talents are applied here to a range of songs from Jazz ballads, to Gospel, to Blues and most work beautifully. Starting off with the sad but graceful Blue Prelude, there are in truth a few dog-eared standards present, but Nina’s voices things with such elan and brightness it doesn’t really matter. Benny Goodman’s Stompin’ At The Savoy gets a classy, big band shot of vigour and a fast moving You’ve Been Gone Too Long ably demonstrates Simone’s mastery of R&B raunch.
A gorgeous That’s Him Over There is conclusive proof that Nina was highly adept in reading an emotional slowie, with an ebullient Theme From Middle Of The Night later ramming home the fact. The Bluesy Willow Weep For Me and an orchestrated Solitaire puts the full stop off a satisfying opening Colpix compendium. Along with the LP, there are five bonus items added to this disc, with the lush hit I Loves You Porgy and a touching Spring Is Here standing out.
1959 also brought Nina Simone At Town Hall, which was recorded at the Manhattan venue and makes up the bulk of disc two here. Her piano skills are well deployed in the live setting, like on opening track Black Is The Color My True Love’s Hair and an easy-going Exactly Like You that follows in its wake. The stripped-down format, with sensitive accompaniment by the rhythm section of Jimmy Bond and Albert Heath, works very well to focus on Nina’s vocal craft and keyboard skills, both of which have the indelible mark of a maestro.
She shines on piano on Under The Lowest and the early flourishes and rolls of You Can Have Him. A two part rendering of George Gershwin’s Summertime constructs a finely-drawn air of drama, with a nippy Return Home thriving due to some nimble bass work. Nina sounds thoroughly at home on stage and it was no surprise that Colpix often went back to the well of live recordings for her albums. Wild Is The Wind is probably better known in the UK through David Bowie’s version, but listening to Nina’s take it is hard not to think of this as the definitive cut. Two bonuses in the form of single edits of Under The Lowest and You Can Have Him ends this disc.
The format of …At Town Hall, clearly paid off, so it was no real shock that another live selection followed in 1960. Caught at the famed Newport Jazz Festival, this set found Simone backed by guitarist Al Schackman, Bobby Hamilton on drums and Chris White playing the bass. The fine Blues of a brilliantly sung Trouble In Mind and a dreamy Blues For Porgy kicks things off in real style. There’s hints of the Soul Music to come amid the frantic pulse of Little Liza Jane and the self-composed pairing of the percussive Exotica of Flo Me La and a riffing Nina’s Blues fit in comfortably alongside the Cole Porter tune You’d Be So Nice To Come Home To.
Only consisting of seven numbers, Nina Simone At Newport is presented here with a further five bonus tracks. Among them are Nobody Loves You When You’re Down And Out and Trouble In Mind, both of which were minor hits on the US charts as singles. A doom-laden Since My Love Has Gone is a showstopper and the upbeat guitar shuffle of In The Evening By The Moonlight passes muster too.
In contrast to the three albums of 1959, 1961 only saw Forbidden Fruit released. This 10 track collection has been billed as a studio LP on the net, but is really an up close and personal live artefact. This is immediately apparent on an electric Rags And Old Iron, which ends with applause. Then there’s a segue into the late night Jazz of No Good Man and Gin House Blues again has a little feel of R&B’s transformation into Soul. A tender I’ll Look Around is just heart-breaking, while a hard-edged Work Song packs a punch. Just Say I Love Him features some sparkling guitar work and a very satisfying LP is rounded off by Hoagy Carmichael’s Memphis In June and the title track, where Nina fronts up a comic tale rooted in Gospel Blues.
10 bonus offerings appear on this disc. This section begins with an earthy Gimme A Pigfoot, which along with a few others here featured on the Nina Simone With Strings album released in 1966 some time after Nina had left the label. Dexterous piano enlivens a cool version of Try A Little Tenderness and Lonesome Valley is powered by more of the Rock & Roll beat than what has preceded it. Ira Gershwin and Kurt Weill provide the structure for an emotion-wracked My Ship and the exotic percussion, guitar and whistle of Od Yesh Homa provides a refreshing change in emphasis. Simone goes back to what got her a hit on Porgy I Is Your Woman Now, which closes out this disc.
Nina Simone returned to the NY live scene for Nina At The Village Gate, issued in early 1962. Opening up with some Jazz loose riffing, Just In Time then settles into a steady pulse and Nina in full seductive voice and lyrical piano mode. A few years before The Animals scored the hit version, she takes House Of The Rising Sun and makes it totally hers. A passionate Brown Baby signals Nina’s deep connection to the civil rights movement, something that was of vital importance to her, with the bare-bones elegance of If He Changed My Name and an extended Gospel rave-up take of Children Go Where I Send You completing another solid outing.
Two Israeli songs start the quartet of extras here. Eretz Zavat Chalav U’Dvash and Vaynikehu, the former with guest player Montego Joe on dumbek, are both lively and rhythmic outings, with the latter being solely instrumental. The busy Sinner Man and a rendering of another soon to be UK Beat band hit You’ll Never Walk Alone aren’t bad either.
For her next album, a true studio set, Simone dipped into Duke Ellington’s songbook. Nina Simone Sings Ellington! debuted later in 1962 and the combination of the Duke and Nina was for the most part inspired. Do Nothing ‘Till You Hear From Me is prime Jazz Pop and a languid I Got It Bad, also released as a 45, drifts along marvellously. The Blues is invoked for Hey, Buddy Bolden and Something To Live For is delivered with customary aplomb.
On the second side of the original vinyl LP Nina imbues Solitude with slow and steady purpose and a soaring vocal styling, with a sinuous The Gal From Joe’s being stacked full of cool. I think it has all the ingredients of a successful single for 1962, if only it was released on 45 at the time. The instrumental Satin Doll will be familiar to anyone who has seen Police Squad! and Nina Sings Ellington gets a upbeat finale in a fast version It Don’t Mean A Thing (If It Ain’t Got That Swing).
There were two singles around the time of the above LP and three tracks from them are added to this disc. Come On Back Jack didn’t make the charts, but arguably deserved more, as it is a dynamic R&B creation. Its flipside, a fiery cover of the Sam Cooke number Chain Gang (Work Song), is also present. I Got It Bad’s reverse, the slow and suggestive I Want A Little Sugar In My Bowl, comes over as a good Jazz/Blues ballad that makes a feature of dropping out to just vocals.
Despite not having much success in the US charts, Simone remained a firm favourite on the live circuit and Colpix issued excerpts from her debut at the prestigious Carnegie Hall as her next collection in 1963. Gian Carlo Menotti’s Black Swan offers something a little out there, as it is taken from its operatic roots and shifted towards a meditative, hypnotic groove with some near-Psychedelic testifying four years early.
It’s a very different record from Nina’s other live efforts in this set, as Nina Simone At Carnegie Hall finds her fulfilling her childhood dream of playing a classical concert in such a venue. As this is the case, the Blues is mostly side-lined here for the likes of piano exploration on the Theme From Samson And Delilah. A sweetly performed If You Knew follows.
The Exotica-tinged Theme From Sayonara is another curve ball, with a sparkling Twelfth Of Never being the first of two tunes made famous by Johnny Mathias. A take of Will I Find My Love Today, recording in 1957 by JM, comes next and the LP is concluded by a medley of piano and vocal tour de force The Other Woman and Folk oldie Cotton Eyed Joe. Two further tracks taped at the Carnegie, in the form of the audience participation-enhanced, Gospel-inclined Will I Find A Resting Place and another jumping version of Little Liza Jane, are added here.
For the last album of this set, eight other tunes played at the Carnegie Hall with Folk leanings were put out as the self-explanatory Folksy Nine LP. Twelfth Of Never was included again, but as it was on the Carnegie Hall record it isn’t duplicated on this disc. A relaxed, keyboard-enhanced boogie cut of Huddie Ledbetter’s Silver City Bound gets Folksy Nina underway and the acapella intro to When I Was A Young Girl is one to treasure.
Both Lass Of The Low Country and The Young Knight find Nina digging deep into the Folk archive, with the pair being flavoured by a restless acoustic guitar. The LP closes with two songs that could be termed lullabies. Mighty Lak A Rose segues into Hush Little Baby and forms into a suitably dream-like whole.
Yet another Carnegie Hall cut in a lengthy but stunning Work Song is the first of two bonus efforts and I liked the musical vamping at the end of it very much too. Lastly we get the wobbly yet sultry sound of the title track Blackbird, which sat on the reverse of the 1963 45 release of Little Liza Jane.
This set comes with each album housed in evocative mini-sleeves and a wealth of information is contained in the liner notes. It’s been put together with love for the subject, there is no doubt. Nina Simone’s years at Colpix perhaps weren’t her most commercially successful, but were marked by excellence all the way along. For me she really hit her peak around the time of the Forbidden Fruit album. From there this set is more of less a constant delight, with her voice and keyboard talents being given the ideal opportunity to be utilized to their best effect. As a study of the early part of Nina Simone’s recording career, it is difficult to see Blackbird The Colpix Recordings being topped.
Get a copy of Nina Simone – Blackbird The Colpix Recordings (1959-1963) by clicking here
New solo album by Dallas-based musician Tommy Hale, recorded in the UK with the assistance of personnel from the band The Snakes, plus guitarist Nick Beere. This 10 track record comes nearly a decade on from his well-received Magnificent Bastard LP. Ian Canty writes…
Coming to us from the wonderfully named Holiday Disaster record label, Texas native Tommy Hale welcomes us his new long player All At Sea with Hideaway. This initial effort forms itself into an entrancing introduction for the uninitiated, being a layered and dynamic sound that has guitar jangle underpinned by buried backing vocals on an attractively droning Rock & Roll structure. From their we segue into World Won’t Wait, where a “My Sharona” boogie rhythm is paired with clear keyboard lines. Much like its predecessor, this high-energy tune readily lodges in the memory, but next Let’s Start A Fire is more of a slow burning, epic tale of remorse embellished with touches of Country Rock.
Americana is used in the PR handout that accompanied this promo, but Tommy’s work on All At Sea is more multifaceted, a case of adding the appropriate dash than full immersion in that millieu. The elegant, fresh but tense intro to Esperanza brought to mind for me the more ornate offerings from early 1980s Elvis Costello and while Hale’s viewpoint is inevitably more US-centric, the fine detail in the storytelling on display bears out the comparison. Beauty In Darkness then emerges on a downbeat foot, but the beautifully realised musical landscape and dreamlike, eerie undertow soon makes it stand out.
On the second half of the LP Now You Know takes us back to the driving, sparky Pop Rock that informed All At Sea’s opening salvo. An insistently catchy number powered by a tonne of vim and some incisive guitar playing, it sets the scene nicely for for the acoustic swing of Radio Towers, which comes next with a serving of touching and wistful nostalgia. The hard-hitting R&R punch of How The Story Goes comes in its wake, an infectious melody that includes a brief weird out Psych section to slow the tempo just for a moment. I really liked the explosive guitar playing and the bass that anchors this piece, simply inspired playing that adds greatly to the end product.
A sad look back over times gone by in Last Town Before The Border is the most Country-tinged of all the songs featured on this LP. A far as C&W tropes go, we get pedal steel and the song’s character drinking to forget what he was drinking about, but this is realised with a love for the form and a honesty that can’t be denied. Finally we arrive at the title track of All At Sea. What we end with is all about relaxed pace and the canny deployment of instrumentation that goes to build real atmosphere, The drum sound here is a work of art and the restraint is a crucial point in providing the album with a fitting climax.
All At Sea is a confident, addictive and excellently performed showcase for Tommy Hale’s songwriting to truly shine. Credit also must be given to producer Simon George Moor, who expertly manages the sonic palette and makes it dovetail perfectly with Hale’s sharp tales of loss, regret and salvation. There’s always hope in Tommy’s world, despite the fallibility of the human condition and that is ultimately what makes All At Sea work. The finely drawn portraits of the songs are allied to natty music and it all goes together like a dream.
Tommy Hale’s website is here and he is on Facebook here
Subtitled “Music From Laurel Canyon 1967 – 1975”, this new 3CD set follows US music in LA from the Summer Of Love to the mid-1970s and includes The Doors, Tim Buckley, Little Feat and many others. Ian Canty writes…
As the 1960s wore on the focus for the US post-Summer Of Love music scene moved from Haight-Ashbury westwards, in particular to Los Angeles. The enclave of Laurel Canyon was particularly key, with many influential artists making it their home. Having both the LA club scene right on its doorstep and easy access to the record company offices, the Hollywood Hill were perfectly positioned to allow a step back to a more blissed-out setting from the frenetic action on Sunset Strip when required.
The comparatively sedate surroundings had a profound result in most of the music made in the Canyon. This was on the whole a less edgy proposition to what had come from the East Coast, as although the trippy but tuneful elements of Psychedelia were present, the excesses of Acid Rock were mainly eschewed in the pursuit of melody. But there were exceptions to this general rule, as we shall find out during the course of this new 3CD set.
I See You Live On Love Street works its way chronologically through the years, starting on disc one in the high Psych times of 1967 and 1968. The swinging Barque Pop stylings of The Association’s version of Come On In provide a suitably bright introduction. Then Paul Revere And The Raiders, who had been knocking around since the late 1950s and had somehow managed to reinvent themselves through each successive phase of Rock & Roll’s development, supply plenty of crunch and weirdness on album track Tighter. There is no denying that Arthur Lee’s Love presented an altogether hipper proposition, with their number The Good Humour Man He Sees Everything Like This being a masterwork of measured and subtle beauty.
US television’s attempt to recreate A Hard Day’s Night The Monkees yielded all sorts of unexpected pleasures during their career and a stately As We Go Along was a knockout flipside to the equally ace Porpoise Song. Things continue in a mellow frame of mind, with Little Feat’s Lowell George in his previous band The Factory offering an evocative “free your mind” anthem Smile, Let Your Life Begin. Jim Morrison sharply depicts Laurel Canyon’s Hippy milieu on The Doors’ Love Street, the song which gives this compilation its title and Elektra labelmates Clear Light furnish us with a Folk Rock charmer in How Many Nights Have Passed.
Toting possibly the very best US Psych band name of all time, The Peanut Butter Conspiracy’s hyperactive Floating Dream is a gem and Ruth Friedman, who wrote Windy aka the theme to The Today programme which will be always linked in Blighty to a sweary Steve Jones launching The Pistols’ rise to national infamy, has a gutsy, satisfying and sadly unissued at the time Halfway There featured. Session aggregation The Holy Mackerel construct a cool Wildflowers and Barry McGuire’s daft but gently disarming Secret Saucer Man comes over as more elegantly chilled Toytown Pop than anything else.
Mamas And Papas were perhaps the archetypal Laurel Canyon denizens, but were on the way out at the time of Mansions from their Papas & The Mamas LP. The lyrical thrust of well-off Pop stars bemoaning their lot doesn’t really draw out much in the terms of sympathy, but their undeniable vocal talents just about manage to make it work. Neil Young’s Buffalo Springfield were another key act based in the area and the Country affectations of A Child’s Claim To Fame was a clear marker of the future. This sound is immediate picked up by the hazy drift of Train Leaves Here This Mornin’ by Dillard & Clark, an act with strong linked to The Byrds, who follow on not much later with lazily-paced You Don’t Miss Your Water.
The sweeping Pop perfection of The Millennium on Blight is a big contrast is sound and although the deranged electric Blues of Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band was a world away from the more reserved local acts, they lived in the area at the time of a jangly Call On Me, their track here. A disc that does a fine job in summing up the formative years in Laurel Canyon’s music scene concludes with an ice-cool trio of I Had A Dream Last Night by The MFQ, Steve Noonan’s Shadow Dream Song and the magnificence of Judy Collins’ soaring Hello, Hooray.
For disc two the timeline moves forward to 1969 to 1971. I have to admit I approached the latter two selections on this disc with trepidation, as we move towards the becalmed singer/songwriter mode for the most part, which is not really my thing. It is apt though that we start with the acoustic chug of Stephen Stills’ Love The One You’re With, a real Laurel Canyon anthem. Buffalo Springfield off-shoot Poco’s Pickin’ Up The Pieces is next. This is just the kind of easy-going Hippy Country which I can take of leave to be honest, but then Tim Buckley ups the quality with Buzzin’ Fly, a hypnotic beauty.
A dreamlike Kingswood Manor by Hoyt Axton has a delicately judged musical backing providing the canvas for a dark tale of insanity.Next Gram Parsons’ Flying Burrito Brothers do a fine job in making Psych and C&W work in tandem on a trippy Christina’s Tune (Devil In Disguise), with the gentle strum of Lady-O, one of The Turtles’ last entries on the Billboard singles chart, following soon afterwards. Jimmy Webb celebrates a fellow songsmith on a lovely P.F. Sloan and Glen Campbell metes out just the right formula of bluster and emotion to a melodramatic Where’s The Playground Susie.
Bluebird by Susan Carter makes full use of a brass section and upfront percussion to form itself in a strange, multifaceted piece of weird Soul Music and this is followed by a reconstituted Love with skittering I Still Wonder. Frank Zappa’s distaste for the Hippy aesthetic make him seem an odd choice for this set and the oddball chamber music of Peaches En Regalia is certainly different. Wanted Dead Or Alive, the title track of Warren Zevon’s debut LP, was an early sign of his unique talents, but I’ll never understand why Cherry Red continually have to include the talentless and awful Kim Fowley on every US boxset they put together.
We’re back in Byrds territory for Gene Clark’s feelgood White Light and a sensitive, barely moving Traction In The Rain by David Crosby. Ex-Association singer Russ Giguere gives us a lively Brother Speed, with the disc finishing with the combo of ex-Traffic man Dave Mason and Mama Cass on a groovy Too Much Truth, Too Much Love.
By the time J.D Souther’s Some People Call It Music kicks in at the start of the final disc of I See You Live On Love Street, we’re firmly in the relaxed Soft Rock era of the early 1970s. The “open house” of the late 60s Laurel Canyon had become “behind close doors” after the Manson murders. The upshot of this is that some of the music feels likewise solitary.
Little Feat’s chiming near-Power Pop item Easy To Slip has a freewheeling charm of its own, but from there we really are taken into sensitive/confessional songwriter territory by the contributions of Linda Ronstadt and Julie Sill. They feature with Birds and Crayon Angels respectively. These two are tastefully performed and realised, but a quartet of ultimately unexciting offerings are completed by Nilsson and Carly Simon and what follows in their wake did cause my attention to wander, which is never a good sign.
Gram Parsons could always pull the Folk/Country thang off though, as a mournful How Much I’ve Lied testifies and Rosebud’s bombastic Flying To Morning at least makes an impression. One of Crabby Appleton’s less spritely numbers, the jaunty Paper To Write On, stands out in this company and Dan Fogelberg at least puts a bit of life into Anyway I Love You. David Blue opens up his tune Outlaw Man with some stinging guitar, which serves to liven up things and The Souther Hillman Furay Band Rock convincingly on a flowing Fallin’ In Love. Finally Fleetwood Mac put the full stop on this collection with Say You Love Me, an inoffensive Pop Rock item.
Despite it being a case of diminishing returns for me personally the longer I See You Live On Love Street went on, I can’t argue that this feels like a faithful aural portrait of what went down in Laurel Canyon from the late 1960s to the middle of the 1970s. People who dig the singer/songwriter stuff on the latter discs will find much to enjoy here, but for me the first disc that documents the early years is the best.
Find a copy of Various Artists – I See You Live On Love Street by clicking here
New 11 track album by Marc Valentine, the follow up to his 2022 debut LP Future Obscure. On this record he is joined by the other members of his band Last Great Dreamers and noted solo artist Carol Hodge, who is also part of Crass vocalist Steve Ignorant’s band. Ian Canty writes…
Marc Valentine may be quite a new name to me, but he has quite a track record. He is probably best know as the singer/guitarist of 1990’s Rockers Last Great Dreamers and previously issued his debut solo collection Future Obscure back in 2022. The positive reception that record was afforded meant that a follow up was always on the cards and here it is, entitled Basement Sparks.
On this record he receives assistance from Last Great Dreamers’ rhythm section Steve Fielding and Denley Slade, star guitarist Richard Davies and backing vocalist Emily Ewing. Each get a chance to shine, but in some ways producer Dave Draper is Marc’s key co-conspirator on the record. As well as providing a spot-on sonic landscape for Valentine’s tunes to prosper in, he also plays guitar and keyboards on Basement Sparks.
We get underway here with Complicated Sometimes and this opening statement provides a bright and thoroughly convincing introduction to the delights of Basement Sparks. Like all great powerful Pop Music the guitars soar, the hook connects and the lyric is filled with pinpoint imagery i.e. “the television stays awake all night”. A Punky Tyrannical Wrecks comes hot on its heels, with a thumping rhythm tattoo until it slows to an eerie Psych section. From there it surges onwards towards a dynamic conclusion.
Next a vital pulse triggers Skeleton Key. This number is a little less intense than what has gone before, but still comes imbued with a strong sense of purpose. “The ghost of your love” refrain is as catchy as hell and there is real punch to the instrumentation, a testament to the abilities of Fielding, Slade and Davies.
Eve Of Distraction, away from the pun of the title, comes at a mid-pace tempo that lets the song flourish and the rock-solid drums of Denley Slade stand out. A little touch of Garage keys enlivens the intro to I Wanna Be Alone and Richard Davies’ guitar work here is special, coming over in just the right crunch to melody ratio. Then Valentine strips things right back to just keys and vocals for the start of a more reflective 3AM Anderson Drive, a real “end of the gig”/showstopping pure Pop moment that is completed with the accomplishment of a master. I suppose that Marc’s past stands him in good stead to judge what works, but he really excels himself here.
We’re into the second half of Basement Sparks and Strange Weather’s rolling vitality comes with a wry send-up of Valentine’s own Rock & Roll image in the line “And my shades were all cracked…”. You Are One Of Us Now follows with an edgy and irrepressible New Wave feel and Opening Chase Theme just rattles with spiky attitude and serves up another tasty hook. Repeat Offender comes flying out of the traps, cast on a simple but very effective musical formula that lets the song breathe.
This sets up nicely the closing missive of the LP, Ballad Of Watt. On this effort Marc is joined by the very talented Carol Hodge on piano and vocals and it offers a neat change of pace, relying on Carol’s subtle keyboards to help build something that comes over as a truly epic set closer. A neat ending to a satisfying and imaginative album.
Basement Sparks is, in summary, an impressive achievement in high energy, tuneful Pop/Rock, one that importantly uses restraint and taste to vary what is on offer. In other hands this LP may have been solid enough collection of noisy but catchy songs, but Valentine achieves something greater by producing an album where the songs fit together, but also would sound fine in isolation pumping out of a radio. As we come out of a very damp Winter, Basement Sparks is the ideal sound to take us towards the Summer 2024.
Marc Valentine is on Facebook here and his website is here
Various Artists – Do The Strum! Girl Groups And Pop Chanteuses (1960 -1966)
Cherry Red Records
3CD/DL
Released 22 March 2024
Another entry in Cherry Red’s series taken from the Joe Meek Tea Chest Tapes, this 3CD set includes singles by from Glenda Collins, The Honeycombs and Carol Jones as well as many obscurities. Ian Canty writes…
The Joe Meek story is a complex one of huge success, then a big fall from grace that resulted finally in tragedy. Like his US equivalent Phil Spector, his musical legacy will always be tarnished by the circumstances that it ended in. But as primarily a music site, we can only seek to assess what is presented to us here, a group of recordings made by UK female acts in the early to mid-1960s.
Much like most sets in this series, we start off on disc one with tracks that were released at the time, before moving onto B-sides and rarer material on the other two platters. Hungarian 1950s hitmaker Eve Boswell kicks off Do The Strum! with a kicking beat on Sur Le Pont D’Avignon, which was only released in Italy in 1961. The flipside Around The Corner serves the same purpose opening up for disc two. Jazz singer Yolanda may have been out of her comfort zone on the MOR Pop of With This Kiss, but she does a fair job and despite the fact though the slightly crazed sounding Boy With The Eyes Of Blue by Carol Jones was actually produced by Johnny Keating for single release, Meek’s trademark heavy reverb is well in earshot on the demo version included here.
Exotica is at the heart of the kitsch in Pat Reader’s Cha Cha On The Moon, a pleasing if barmy effort. Glenda Collins had her own very creditable collection Baby It Hurts released last year (click here to read about this). She had to be on here too, being perhaps the female vocalist most readily identified with Joe Meek, recording eight singles with the producer with the top sides all featured on this disc. Somehow she never managed to turn sterling performances like top quality torch song I Lost My Heart At The Fairground and the wonderous guitar freak-out If You’ve Got To Pick A Baby into UK hit singles. The former is in fact as neat a summation of Meek’s gift for creating an intriguingly overblown, dramatic sound allied to a racing rhythm as he ever did, but all her work included on this first disc is full of verve. She even managing to inject brio into naff oldie Lollipop.
Corrie actress Jenny Moss’ R&B-flavoured Hobbies is bright enough and Powercut by trio The Cameos is a well performed Folk Rock/Beat tune. A typically wonky Meek piano crops up on My Friend Bobby, a 1963 offering by Pamela Blue, which was part of The Leader Of The Pack style “death discs” trend of the early 60s. Gunilla Thorn, originally hailing from Sweden, soon provides us with the proto-Toytown Popper Merry-Go-Round.
The Sharades were formerly The Breakaways and do an entertaining take on the US chart single Dumb Head, with Kim Roberts’ excellent I’ll Prove It being a feisty retort to the Brian Poole disc Do You Love Me?. Even a little a Garage Punk organ work is thrown into the mix. Quintet Flip & The Dateliners look a bunch of cool cats on the photo included with the liner notes and their unusual, laidback My Johnny Doesn’t Come Around Anymore seems to bare out the image.
Aussie Judy Cannon was luckless in that her management vetoed her releasing a couple of future hits, instead plumping for a finger-snapping The Very First Day I Met You. After a crunchy and enjoyable Thou Shalt Not Steal by Glenda Collins we have The Honeycombs. They of course hit big with Have I The Right and female drummer Honey Lantree takes the mic for a sultry Something I’ve Got To Tell You, which Glenda also versions later on. This disc ends with the Collins track It’s Hard To Believe It, one of Meek’s daffy space musings and despite a couple of duds, most of what is present on this platter is both refreshing and joyful.
Moving onto disc two which covers the years from 1960 to 1963, we start off with some flipsides of material from the first platter. A bright Cinderella Jones by Carol Jones is the pick of these for me, but after this we have two offerings by a singer even the dyed-in-wool Joe Meek experts behind this boxset could not identify. The Results are mixed. The brassy R&B sound Say Baby is better than the routine run through Johnny Oh that follows.
Geraldine Hales aka Gerry Harlow didn’t feature on disc one, but on here the sparky title track flows nicely in her hands and although Billie Davis never officially released anything produced by Meek, she would make waves in the 1963 with her successful cover of Tell Him. She is represented by five tracks on this disc. Merry Go Round and Mr Right were songs Meek also tried with Gunilla Thorn and Gerry Harlow/Kim Roberts and the other versions are also on this set, but Don’t Knock On My Door has some hints as to why she became a highly rated Soul singer during the latter part of the 60s.
Next I Feel So Good and Nice Wasn’t It are equipped with customary gusto by Glenda Collins and Jenny Moss returns with four numbers, with only a stamping Keep Away From My Baby’s Door and the piano and vocal demo of Every Little Kiss standing out. Five Kim Roberts tunes follow, commencing with the daft For Loving Me This Way. The comparatively restrained production of A Girl In The Crowd works wonders and a Beat-enhanced Everytime also scores highly. The Cameos impress on a breezy trio of tunes including the elegant Where E’re You Walk and an alternate, fresh-sounding take of Hey There Stranger by Pamela Blue signs off disc two of this set.
Disc three moves the timeline along to the years 1964 to 1966, by the end of which Meek was definitely seen as yesterday’s man. We begin here with half a dozen creditable Gunilla Thorn numbers. The flip of here sole Meek produced single Go On Then has plenty of tough guitar highlighted as a nod to the Beat phenomenon that was running wild at the time and an unusual treatment of Blueberry Hill is also good fun. The relentless and Punky Come On thrills and shows Thorn as a proper talent too.
The Halos, who may have been twin sisters, remain unidentified. They were paired with one of Meek’s regular backing outfits The Saints for a version 50s Pop hit When and Don’t Ever Change. But perhaps you can hear why they didn’t make it to release at the time, as the vocals don’t stand out and the material wasn’t exactly ideal for the changing times of the Beat/Mod era. Lea And Chess also still reside in the unknown file and their two numbers, the Yuletide-themed Little Star and A Long Time Ago, are both accomplished performances.
He Didn’t Fool Me was the B side to Valerie Masters’ Christmas Calling 45 and is much the superior of the pair and The Sharades return for a further three neat offerings, with Boy Trouble and Loneliness having that classic “Girl Group” sound and the subtle fuzz on Aren’t You Glad You’re You is a total delight. Then Flip And The Dateliners take centre stage for five tunes that prove what an interesting band they were. Bye Bye Baby Bunting comes with real groove and attitude, the smooth Soul of Mama Didn’t lie is an ace and period piece The Mod has plenty of groovy guitar thrown in.
Flip herself then eschews The Dateliners for The Riot Squad on a cut of It’s Hard To Believe, the same song done by Glenda Collins on disc one. Another artist with scant information known about her on this set is one June Harris, who at least got to release the Standback single for CBS later. The MOR Ma I Miss Your Apple Pie must have sounded hopelessly antiquated back in 1965/66 and Remember Your Love Belongs To Me also shows that June wasn’t really being furnished with top notch tuneage.
A quartet of Glenda Collins efforts up the quality though, starting with the driving, slightly wonky sonics of Been Invited To A Party. My Heart Didn’t Lie reveals itself as a cool Beat ballad and Don’t Let It Rain On Sunday ends Collins’ contributions to Do The Strum! on a touching note. Of Denise Scott And The Soundsmen’s pair the Folk Rock of Your Love Keeps Me Going shows the changing times and we end things with a couple good numbers by Diane And The Javelins, with my pick being the watery production sound of Who’s The Girl.
Do The Strum! represents a considerable upgrade on the Let’s Go! Joe Meek Girls set from 2007. You can tell that an awful lot of research and hard work has gone into this sharply-designed set and it really pays off. Although it is obvious this collection aimed at the confirmed Meek nuts who will be in hog heaven here, there is more than enough featured here to entice anyone with a liking for early to mid UK 1960s Pop. A constantly diverting and listenable set.
Copies of Various Artists – Do The Strum! Girl Groups And Pop Chanteuses (1960 -1966) are available by clicking here
slicing through the static 