Goo Goo G'Joob

Some things are meant to be (Elvis)

2012-02-10T21:33:00.000-08:00

I discovered a great new NZ band on my recent trip back to Nu Zild.

Like The more famous Phoenix Foundation, Family Cactus come from the capital city - Wellington. My daughter won't be surprised that such great music is coming from the windy city. Actually she introduced me to PF so it's my turn to tell her (and you) about FC.

Sunlight filters through - I feel my head is drifting (Fourmyula)

2012-02-07T04:45:00.000-08:00

The Exponents – Like She Said (1994)/ Nameless Girl (1992)

Blerta - Dance All Around The World (1972)/ Joy Joy (1972)

Dragon – Young Years (1989)/ Rain (1984)

John Hanlon - Higher Trails (1975)/ Wind Songs (1975)

Crowded House - Private Universe (1994)/ Weather With You (1991)

Split Enz - Six Months In A Leaky Boat (1982)/ Split Ends - One Two Nine (1973)

Max Merritt and The Meteors - Slippin’ Away (1976)/ Let it Slide (1976)

Headband - The Laws Must Change (1971)/ Good Morning Mr Rock N Roll (1971)

Citizen Band - My Pohutakawa (1978)/ The Ladder Song (1978)

Fourmyula - Nature (1969)/ Lady Scorpio (1969)

Tenth and final entry in the Wozza countdown of the 10 best Nu Zild bands and their two best songs is the song widely acclaimed to be the best NZ song OF ALL TIME.

It's a song that has always been part of my consciousness. Prior to 1969 I was aware of music sure (Beatles on Ed Sullivan; Radio Hauraki; my parents' jazz collection) but I was not aware of any indigenous NZ music. I loved Dinah Lee’s song Do The Blue Beat in 1964 but I had no idea she was a kiwi.

The Fourmyula changed all that with a song so good it has eclipsed everything else they did. Even knowledgeable music lovers would be hard pressed to name another of their songs. It’s not so much that they were one hit wonders – more that the song has since taken on a load of additional cultural baggage that has given it a life of its own.

This ends my run down on some of my favourite kiwi music moments. There is nothing that compares to the music of your youth and I was fortunate to grow up in NZ. My ears slowly become accepting of the local music – for my money – a lot of it was far superior to much of the pop pap I was hearing on the radio.

Some other great bands could have made this list as they were also a huge part of this fabric:

Hello Sailor
Th’ Dudes
The Datsuns
Herbs
Muttonbirds
Zed
Swingers
Supergroove
Phoenix Foundation

New NZ bands keep coming and keep adding to a rich history. Next post – a recent discovery of just such a group – Family Cactus.

Hey Lord, would ya look out for her tonight and make sure that she's gonna be alright until she's home in here with me (Billy Joel)

2012-02-04T07:48:00.000-08:00

The Exponents – Like She Said (1994)/ Nameless Girl (1992)

Blerta - Dance All Around The World (1972)/ Joy Joy (1972)

Dragon – Young Years (1989)/ Rain (1984)

John Hanlon - Higher Trails (1975)/ Wind Songs (1975)

Crowded House - Private Universe (1994)/ Weather With You (1991)

Split Enz - Six Months In A Leaky Boat (1982)/ Split Ends - One Two Nine (1973)

Max Merritt and The Meteors - Slippin’ Away (1976)/ Let it Slide (1976)

Headband - The Laws Must Change (1971)/ Good Morning Mr Rock N Roll (1971)

Citizen Band - My Pohutakawa (1978)/ The Ladder Song (1978)

Ninth in the Wozza countdown of the 10 best Nu Zild bands and their two best songs is the Chunn brothers'supergroup from the seventies called Citizen Band (a sponsorship deal with Citizen watches was a cunning plan).

Super because Geoff and Mike were from the Enz; Clark and Eccles were from Space Waltz.

I can't remember if I formed an attachment to CB via collecting discs on the Mandrill Records label or after hearing the I Feel Good single which has Good Morning Citizen AND My Pohutakawa on the B side. Or maybe it was the Citizen Band live at Westlake Girls' cassette that Greg or Kevy gave me (not sure who it was - both had an attachment to CB; Greg might remember - he's younger than me and has a much sharper memory. I believe he even belonged to the CB fan club but that could be just idle speculation).

However way it happened - it happened and we all fell for the Brent Eccles Muldoon impressions, the twangy guitar of Greg Clark, the gifted Geoff Chunn songs and the humour from Mike Chunn.

All came together on their first album in particular and on this early single mentioned above (the redone LP version of My Pohutakawa does not improve on the single version in my humble opinion).

The band flamed out after two studio albums and a dull live album. If they'd asked I would have supplied the Live At Westlake Girls' tape - now that one had the goods!

[Sorry - nothing on youtube for either of these two songs.]

Long as I have you by my side there's a roof above and good walls all around (Billy Joel)

2012-02-01T02:39:00.000-08:00

The Exponents – Like She Said (1994)/ Nameless Girl (1992)

Blerta - Dance All Around The World (1972)/ Joy Joy (1972)

Dragon – Young Years (1989)/ Rain (1984)

John Hanlon - Higher Trails (1975)/ Wind Songs (1975)

Crowded House - Private Universe (1994)/ Weather With You (1991)

Split Enz - Six Months In A Leaky Boat (1982)/ Split Ends - One Two Nine (1973)

Max Merritt and The Meteors - Slippin’ Away (1976)/ Let it Slide (1976)

Headband - The Laws Must Change (1971)/ Good Morning Mr Rock N Roll (1971)

At number eight in the Wozza countdown of the 10 best Nu Zild bands and their two best songs is the mighty Headband (grooving).

I have Led Zeppelin to thank for introducing me to Headband. When they toured NZ in 1972 Robert Plant and Jimmy Page raved about a local band whose album they loved - Happen Out by Headband.

By 1972 I was a huge Led Zep fan so if they said it was a great album, then I had to have it. At the time I was only vaguely aware of a NZ rock music scene. I'd watched C'Mon and Happen Inn - two local TV shows - but they were largely made up of locals rehashing the hits of the day or singers with strange voices like Mr. Lee Grant or Bunny Walters. Not my cup of tea.

So Happen Out was a major wake up call for me. And the biggest wake up call of all was the lengthy wig out that was Headband's version of the John Mayall song, The Laws Must Change.

The sound is amazing. It still feels like the band have just walked into your living room, picked up their instruments and gone to work. Jimmy Hill, on drums, is in particularly awesome form and Billy Kristian's guitar work is great throughout. Then factor in the grizzled veteran Tommy Adderley on harp and vocals and you have the recipe for greatness.

Good Morning Mr Rock'n'Roll is a great call to arms (similar to Zep's Rock'n'Roll, also from 1971).

I know it's a cliche but they don't make bands like Headband any more, more's the pity.

So sad, so sad, sometimes she feels so sad (Paul and Linda McCartney)

2012-01-29T07:55:00.000-08:00

The Exponents – Like She Said (1994)/ Nameless Girl (1992)

Blerta - Dance All Around The World (1972)/ Joy Joy (1972)

Dragon – Young Years (1989)/ Rain (1984)

John Hanlon - Higher Trails (1975)/ Wind Songs (1975)

Crowded House - Private Universe (1994)/ Weather With You (1991)

Split Enz - Six Months In A Leaky Boat (1982)/ Split Ends - One Two Nine (1973)

Max Merritt and The Meteors - Slippin’ Away (1976)/ Let it Slide (1976)

Seventh in the Wozza countdown of the 10 best Nu Zild bands and their two best songs is a real veteran of the music scene in both NZ and across the ditch.

Max formed the Meteors before I was even born and he's still a member!! Although he's had a rare kind of illness that has laid him up recently, he was still able to perform in 2007 when inducted into the Australian Hall Of Fame.

What did they sing that night? What else but Slippin' Away.

The song is a classic and Max's vocal is a deft less is more masterclass.

Ah c'mon all you lads (Split Enz)

2012-01-25T22:27:00.000-08:00

The Exponents – Like She Said (1994)/ Nameless Girl (1992)

Blerta - Dance All Around The World (1972)/ Joy Joy (1972)

Dragon – Young Years (1989)/ Rain (1984)

John Hanlon - Higher Trails (1975)/ Wind Songs (1975)

Crowded House - Private Universe (1994)/ Weather With You (1991)

Split Enz - Six Months In A Leaky Boat (1982)/ Split Ends - One Two Nine (1973)

Sixth in the Wozza countdown of the 10 best Nu Zild bands and their two best songs is the mighty Split Ends who then became the even more mighty Split Enz.

One of the great things about NZ music is how accessible the bands are to the public at large.

My mate Greg wrote recently to tell me that he remembers hearing Dragon rehearsing from their house near his place in Mt Eden when he was a teenager. He also reminded me that people could book John Hanlon to appear in their living rooms with his guitar and voice.

The band who played at the Mt Albert Grammar school ball in 1976 was Th' Dudes - a great NZ band who may have made my top 10 (you'll have to wait and see). I remember the night well!

And then there was Split Ends, as they were called when they started out: a people's band if ever there was one. The Finn's of Te Awamutu - there you have it - as down home as you can get!

I have a single in my collection at home in Nu Zild that is very special to me. It is Split Ends One Two Nine on the EMI label. You'll notice it was the B side (to Sweet Talking Spoon Song, a good but to my ears, an inferior song to the wonderful One Two Nine).

It was given to me in 1973 by a school friend from Mt Albert Grammar - a fellow member of Senior Five - Michael Budd. I can remember the day he gave it me very clearly.

I was living with the rest of my family in Asquith Ave in Mt Albert at the time, close to another mate (Peter Cahill) while we were waiting for our new home in Mt Roskill to be built. I loved living so close to all my friends (Mike lived in Ponsonby) and so close to the school.

One day during the summer holidays Mike came round to our place in his little Morris Minor (called a Morrie Thousand or Morrie Thou' for short) after work. He was working at the local Heards’ sweet factory.

He had a pile of singles with him: One Two Nine by a group called Split Ends. Seems some members of the group were also working at the Heards factory - supplementing a non-existent income I guess - and they had given Mike some singles to give to his friends. I still have the copy he gave me as I mentioned.

This was fantastic because I knew the song from the TV show - a NZ Opportunity Knocks style show called New Faces. We all loved this show - an early precursor to the X Factor, Turkmenistan's Got Talent rubbish we have now.

At the time it was one of the rare chances we had to see some pop bands on TV. I can remember seeing bands like Split Ends and Space Waltz and solo artists like John Hanlon and Shona Laing from that show especially.

Regardless of my rose tinted memories, it’s a great great song – done in an endearingly flippant kind of tone. I can remember being slightly disappointed with their first album (Mental Notes) because it was much darker and dense in its sound compared to the fun One Two Nine.

Six Months… comes from a vastly different period for the band; much more straight forwardly poppy thanks to Nil Fun being a member (see my previous post for his adventures after the end of the Enz).

It’s probably become a larger than intended touchstone for ex-pats because of the New Zealand references (Aotearoa, rugged individual) and the succinct explanation for our country’s isolation (tyranny of distance).

I include it also to celebrate the patriotic feel that I always have when I live outside the country. Even when I visited NZ at Christmas I felt more positive about the place. Much more positive.

Here’s my top ten of NZ positivity

· The music industry is fantastic.

· Isolation can be a blessing.

· Being laid back is better than over thinking things.

· Pohutakawa blooms are amazing.

· The All Blacks won the world cup.

· The proximity of the sea and swimming beaches is a real plus.

· The film industry is exciting.

· JB Hi Fi has a great CD and DVD selection at reasonable prices.

· My habibi and the immediate fandamly are (mostly) there.

· And, of course, some of my favourite people are NZers.

Close my eyes, she's somehow closer now (Beach Boys)

2012-01-23T05:04:00.000-08:00

The Exponents – Like She Said (1994)/ Nameless Girl (1992)
Blerta - Dance All Around The World (1972)/ Joy Joy (1972)
Dragon – Young Years (1989)/ Rain (1984)
John Hanlon - Higher Trails (1975)/ Wind Songs (1975)
Crowded House - Private Universe (1994)/ Weather With You (1991)

Fifth in the Wozza countdown of the 10 best Nu Zild bands and their two best songs is Crowded House - something of an inevitability (say it as Smith from the Matrix - it's good).

Nil Fun is surely a Beatles acolyte, like me. The difference between the two of us is that Neil is a genius writer, singer, musician and I am practicing five basic guitar chords, but that’s by the by.

A genius? You ask. Yes – a genius. He can churn out hummable instantly loveable chewns for fun, in his sleep, with his fretting hand tied behind his back.

Picking two great songs from Crowded House is a very tough job (unlike Berta, say, who only had two great songs to my mind).

I’ve stuck by Weather With You because I use that philosophy a lot in day to day life. It’s like Emerson’s great quote – Though we travel the world over to find the beautiful, we must carry it with us or we find it not. Neil’s version is even more succinct – you always take the weather with you.

And Private Universe edges out the more obvious pop songs (Don’t Dream It’s Over, Four Seasons In One Day, Distant Sun and loads of others) because it’s a proper mature Beatle song.

The lyric touches on the personal and the universal (private and universe). Neil evokes a Strawberry Fields style sepia coloured childhood domesticity in the song (in his own apple tree, dinner on the table, talking to birds) but he also touches on the cosmic quest for meaning - I have all I want, is that simple enough? A whole lot more I'm thinking of.

The music is otherworldly. There is longing and hope and there at the end are the Polynesian rhythms which take over from the drums. A magical aural experience in its own write (sic).

Macca would have been delighted if he’d written this song!

Me minus you is such a lonely ride (Peaches and Herb)

2012-01-19T04:45:00.000-08:00

The Exponents – Like She Said (1994)/ Nameless Girl (1992)
Blerta - Dance All Around The World (1972)/ Joy Joy (1972)
Dragon – Young Years (1989)/ Rain (1984)
John Hanlon - Higher Trails (1975)/ Wind Songs (1975)

Next in the Wozza countdown of the 10 best Nu Zild bands and their two best songs is not a band at all.

John Hanlon is a singer/songwriter (still going strong I believe) who had a real knack for catchy toons in the seventies.

He was interesting because he often wrote songs with a NZ flavour and he was entertaining. His lyrics often seemed to contain NZ content - one lyric was about 'heading out of Auckland'. Quite a revelation, at least to me at the time.

Higher Trails was on the soundtrack of a great little documentary film called Off The Edge about a couple of American skiers/ hang glider pilots who climb/ski Mount Cook (I'm pretty sure it was Mt Cook) and then launch themselves off it.

They glide down to the strains of Higher Trails. Fantastic.

I know that I just need you like, I've never done before (The Fabs)

2012-01-17T04:26:00.000-08:00

The Exponents – Like She Said (1994)/ Nameless Girl (1992)

Blerta - Dance All Around The World (1972)/ Joy Joy (1972)

Dragon – Young Years (1989)/ Rain (1984)

Third in the Wozza countdown of the 10 best Nu Zild bands and their two best songs is the best from the reconstituted Dragon. Actually I think it was maybe just the Hunter brothers on Young Years but I could be wrong. They are certainly the only members to grace the video.

The album they did in 1989 (Bondi Road) is a great album pure and simple, even though its faux aussie title is annoying. In fact the way Australia tries to claim our NZ bands as their own when they get some aussie exposure is also damned annoying.

The Hunter brothers (bass player Todd and the great singer/frontman Marc) are definitely kiwis so for my money they are a Nu Zild band!

Unfortunately Dragon's manager and members developed a reckless reputation for drugs and debauchery (just check out the emaciated and heroin addicted Paul Hewson on the Rain video) - resulting in a number of drug related deaths and Marc Hunter's death from a smoking related cancer in 1998.

How they managed to make such outstanding music is something of a mystery. But make it they did.

They were true love written in stone (James Taylor)

2012-01-14T03:14:00.000-08:00

The Exponents – Like She Said (1994)/ Nameless Girl (1992)
Blerta - Dance All Around The World (1972)/ Joy Joy (1972)

Best group

Bruno of Blerta

Hugh Romney, a.k.a. Wavy Gravy

The band was Nu Zild's own version of the Hog farm. A loose congregation of talented and individual artists who grouped themselves into an alternative kind of commune.

Bruno Lawrence (drummer, actor and the B.L. of Blerta) was our own Wavy Gravy character (even with the same look).

Blerta toured around NZ in a big red communal bus like Ken Kesey's Merry Pranksters and were experimental in their approach to their art (and life I guess). Blerta alumni included names like Corben Simpson, Beaver, Geoff Murphy and Bruno; all became big names in NZ film and music.

My introduction to the song Dance All Around The World was via the Loxene Golden Disc for 1972. A brilliant album of NZ music that in itself had a huge impact on NZ music in general and me in particular. Dance... stood out with its hippy consciousness, phased drums and dramatic spoken section. Joy Joy was more of a straight rock number but was played with skill and the risque lyric was an added bonus for a schoolboy such as myself.

Sidebar: I would have included a clip of the mighty Blerta doing Dance..except the pathetic EMI have not released the clip for viewers in my part of the world. What do they think will happen? Blerta are a tiny little obscure NZ outfit from 40 years ago; surely their video presents no financial risk to a huge company like EMI.

Truely pathetic - no wonder the dinosaur record companies are undergoing a slow death!

Aotearoa, rugged individual, glisten like a pearl, at the bottom of the world (Split Enz)

2012-01-11T02:07:00.000-08:00

Time for another top five selection.

As I recently headed back to New Zealand for the Christmas break it seems appropriate that I come up with my top five kiwi songs and it’s going to be a very idiosyncratic list. For a start I can’t limit it to five so I considered a top 10, but then for every song that I included I knew that that group had done equally brilliant stuff on other tracks so it’s ballooned out to a top 10 and an alternative top 10.

Phew – complicated cos I’m going with 1A and 1B for each group! HA!!

I'm also going to reveal my ten top NZ acts and their two songs slowly over the course of the next ten postings so that we can savour each one. First up...

The Exponents – Like She Said (1994)/ Nameless Girl (1992)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cCtUX14ZgHI&feature=related

I've chosen a few other Exponents (aka Dance Exponents) songs to fill in for the absence of Nameless Girl. And don't forget to check out two of their excellent albums Grassy Knoll and Something Beginning With C. Each is great - Grassy Knoll for it's grungy guitar sound and Something... for it's sloppy at home feel and for the rampant Beatles inspired vocal harmony work (think Yes It Is and Beatles For Sale era stuff).

We're faithful, we all believe, we all believe it (Pearl Jam)

2012-01-08T00:27:00.000-08:00

Adam gave me a copy of Pearl Jam's Twenty DVD while I was back in NZ recently. My children know my tastes well!

I've been a pretty loyal fan since day one when the unbelievably great Ten came along. It seemed they arrived fully formed (I love it when bands appear this way - like The Doors - with a different sound/attitude/style right off the bat).

I also love it when, as a fan, I can get in on a good thing right from the start. Maybe that's why I have continued to buy every studio album released by the band over the last twenty years (even when the quality control was a tad wayward).

I even have a sizeable collection of the live albums and Stone Gossard's fantastic solo album, Bayleaf (although I'm not that enamoured by Eddie's solo stuff away from the band for some reason).

The Twenty film is an excellent primer on both the band and the Seattle music scene that spawned them. It's also a pretty good insight into Cameron Crowe who was a Rolling Stone journalist before becoming a film maker of some renown (Jerry Maguire is one of my favourite films and its also gave Tom Cruise AND Renee Zellwiger their best roles ever).

I liked Eddie Vedder before I watched the film. Now I like him a lot more! What a guy - a fantastic voice I knew about, but a sensitive soul with a brain is pretty rare in rock circles.

The other revelation is Stone Gossard. The cool name, the cool music - yes, but who knew he was so funny, so personable, so anchored, so nerdy (the glasses and goofy grin? It could be me!!!). I loved the tour of his house where he finds his Grammy award in a dark corner of his basement!

The film has some great moments but the version of Better Man when the crowd takes over the singing is especially affecting.

I went down on 31st street to pick up a jug of alcohol (Rory Gallagher)

2012-01-05T22:32:00.000-08:00

First thing I did when I returned to the apartment in Al Ain after being in NZ for a few weeks was pop on a Rory Gallagher live DVD.

It's always good to meet up with old friends and as readers of this blog know, Rory is definitely that.

The DVD is a compilation of his appearances at the Montreaux Jazz festival.

The best stuff comes from 1985, by the 1990s he starts to show signs of wear and tear (noticably bloated I'm afraid, a year before he died in 1995 from an infection he picked up in hospital after getting a liver transplant).

Everybody loves Rory.

I love him for his loyalty - the great Gerry McAvoy on bass played with him from 1970 to 1991; Rory stuck by his battered Stratocaster throughout his career; he also stuck by his haircut AND the sidies even during the eighties.

I love him for his selfless dedication to his art - he never married and there were no children.

I love him for the stories - Brian May (of Queen) relates: "so these couple of kids come up, who's me and my mate, and say 'How do you get your sound Mr. Gallagher?' and he sits and tells us. So I owe Rory Gallagher my sound."

Jimi Hendrix was asked in an interview shortly after Woodstock, "So Jimi, what's it like to be the best guitarist in the world?" Jimi: "I don't know, ask Rory Gallagher".

But of course I love him best for the music. His version of Too Much Alcohol always (ALWAYS) brings a smile to my face.

When I look into your eyes (Santana)

2012-01-02T12:54:00.000-08:00

Wahoo - some major finds while on my Christmas break in Nu Zild.

For the moment my concentration is on two wonderful Santana albums from the early seventies - Borboletta (1974) and Welcome (1973).

I kinda lost track of Santana at the time after the first four albums and Borboletta was a major discovery when I found it among Keegan's vinyl collection. I've been looking for a CD version since and found it in JB Hi-Fi (currently the best reason in NZ to still go browsing through CD bins).

When I Look Into Your Eyes sounds like a song you've known all your life. It's a Santana group original though and combines all their best elements into a jazzy latin rock feel.

It feels like nothing matters in our private universe (Crowded House)

2011-12-21T22:29:00.000-08:00

Being a kiwi and being back in the Land Of The Long White Cloud (a.k.a God's own, a.k.a. Aotearoa, a.k.a. Nu Zild) makes me very nostalgic for kiwi music of my youth.

NZ is a long, long way from anything significant. Yes I know it's three hours flight time to Australia - I said 'significant'.

We are isolated and we have had to develop our own culture of films, TV and music. In short we've created our own private universe.

Some outrageously great bands and music have emerged in NZ and gone over the years. The biggies the world knows about - Split Enz and Crowded House in days gone by; Lawrence Arabia and The Phoenix Foundation are current critic faves in the UK.

A band of my youth that I love is Citizen Band. I recently found their song, My Pohutukawa, on a radio broadcast and linked it to my Facebook page. Old friends Kevy and GK wrote comments.

I reflected on this - namely that the song would mean something to only a very very few people in the world. It was an obscure B side to one of their songs and released, I think, only in NZ. Actually CB were an Auckland band and so even the rest of NZ wouldn't know about them much.

It's a great feeling knowing that KS GK and I share that experience and knowledge. It bonds us and I love that.

Citizen Band tried and failed to make it in Aussie and flamed out when original members started leaving.

My love for the band endures though and I hope Brent, Mike, Greg and Geoff dig that tex over Christmas.

Try the link and watch the boys do a note for note version of the old Larry's Rebels hit, I Feel Good.

http://www.filmarchive.org.nz/readytoroll/view.php?id=24

There's a splinter in your eye and it reads "react" (REM)

2011-12-17T01:51:00.000-08:00

Today's workout culminated with REM's glorious Harborcoat.

This song always reminds me of living in New Plymouth, NZ, in the spring and summer of 1984. Jacky and I were newly married with a baby and Harborcoat formed the soundtrack of life at the pink house in List St.

I replayed the tune a few times after it came up on shuffle and tried to figure out the lyrics again. That's part of its charm - it's indecipherable. Michael Stipe sings great but the words are in a terrific murk. About the only bits I ever get is the line I used for the title and heaven only knows what it means.

I prefer to leave it that way as the Byrdsian guitars chime and roil. It all becomes this fab stew.

And a harborcoat? The imagination has to work hard.

Denial ain't just a river in Egypt (Mark Twain)

2011-12-13T05:04:00.000-08:00

Sometimes uncool songs just stick in your brain all day long. They won't be denied.

The Scorpions is a heavy rock band from Germany (heavy metal? I don't think so but the distinctions are pretty pedantic ones) that is still going strong. Stronger than ever really. Sting in the Tail, supposedly their retirement album, is an awesome guitar rock album from a year or so ago.

The song that's got stuck in the membrane though is Wind Of Change. Their almost-but-not-quite big hair AOR radio bothering 1990 ballad. They've just done a 2011 version, pretty much a note for note copy but the guitaring sounds better, on their new album - Comeback. There goes the retirement then.

It has so many weird touches from the mannered vocal by Klaus Meine and the whistling to the Little Wing style guitar intro to the big rawk chorus. It all works though...somehow.

I'm gonna fight, in the metal night! (Dream Evil)

2011-12-11T01:53:00.000-08:00

'Tis the season of bad Christmas muzak in all the malls, tinsel, fake Christmas trees, and lots of fake snow on the shoulders of the stores' mannequins that looks like dandruff.

My apologies to Denene if she's strayed onto the music blog by accident and that sounds vaguely baahumbugish, but it looks and feels fake. To be in the middle of a desert with the malls full of festive cheer is surreal and weird, but there you go.

'Tis also the season of Christmas music posts. The Seventies Blog asked readers for their favourite Christmas songs recently.

Here were my first equals, now and for always:

John Ono Lennon and Yoko Ono Lennon - Happy Christmas (War is over)

and

Darlene Love - Christmas (Baby please come home)

I was going to add a heavy metal Christmas song but a quick search revealed what the general public would already suspect - Heavy Metal + Christmas songs = complete disaster.

A case in point - Twisted Sister? Please!

Angular banjoes sound good to me (Steely Dan)

2011-12-07T05:16:00.000-08:00

Aja is a weird song on a weird album (also called Aja) with a weird cover (right), by a weird group that isn’t really a group at all – it’s a duo comprising Walter Becker and Donald Fagen plus assorted genius session musicians.

It’s the longest song on the album and the title song so it’s important right?

Musically it’s as smooth as silk with a very jazzy feel from the sax solo, but the lyrics are just…weird.

Does it actually mean anything? Or is it just oblique for oblique’s sake?

Starts off and appears to be literally on solid ground – the hill. Maybe it’s metaphorical though. Maybe it’s Capitol Hill where People never stare, they just don’t care.

But then – whheeeeeeeeeeee – we’re off into Chinese music, banyan trees, double helix in the sky, the dude ranch and, of course, those angular banjoes.

What the hey?

A quick read on the interweb of various theories about the song shows that nobody knows anything!

So instead – kick back for 8 minutes and let your mind wander while your feet do the tapping.

Lily called another bet and drew up the Jack of Hearts (Bob Dylan)

2011-12-06T06:11:00.000-08:00

I have been a big fan of Heather Browne's blog for a long time. It's called I Am Fuel, You Are Friends (check it on my blogroll). She often writes the kinds of posts where you think - I wish I'd said that (or heard that, or seen that). She's a joy to read and steal stuff from.

She recently posted on Adam Arcuragi. I'd never heard of him before - again the joy of discovering new things is just a visit to Heather's site away. She even added this clip.

I love the song and I love the video for a lot of reasons.

I love the way music can make you smile and make you warm. Clearly this is filmed somewhere cold but the music just seems to warm everybody up.

I love the almost guerrilla filming technique used. And it's a fresh idea - no hackneyed 'we'll film it on a roof like the Beatles and U2 did' Red Hot Chili Pepper rip off stuff here.

Don't forget to check out her blog - it's exceptional.

I believe in what I'm doing (U2 from Celebration)

2011-12-04T03:52:00.000-08:00

The last copy of Q that I read had U2 on the cover. In the inside story Bono claims that U2 are 'the most loved and the most hated band on Earth'.

Now I can't claim to speak for the world (unlike Bono) but U2 is certainly a band I have had a love/non love (why would you ever hate a band?) relationship with over the years.

I seem to prefer the less bombastic corners of their oeuvre as you can sense from my top five selections. I'm thinking of Pride, Bullet The Blue Sky and all of Rattle and Hum when I say bombastic.

Often those corners shelter the love songs and more tender slithers of Bono's soul. Not just romantic love (Wild Honey) but love for lost ones (One Tree Hill), love for his universal brothers and sisters (One), and love of God (Gloria)

Gloria (1981)

The first U2 song I heard, the first U2 single I bought, and the first U2 video I saw (nothing matches your first time). I love the way Bono is throwing his rock star shapes and The Edge just looks cool.

One Tree Hill (1987)

I was born in One Tree Hill in Auckland (in a US military base hospital left there after World War 2) and I grew up and played in the shadows of an area called One Tree Hill, also known as Cornwall Park or Maungakiekie. The song is about the death of a NZ friend of Bono's. The emotions surrounding that and the location make this a rare U2 song - one that I can connect to in a personal way.

It's appropriate, then, that the video uses stills from Nu Zild in general.

Wild Honey (2000)

Bless him - Bono couldn't write a straight love song if he tried - it wouldn't work. Instead we are lucky to have fantastic songs like Wild Honey in the U2 canon. This is an example of a light touch U2 song - they don't appear to be trying too hard (and boy are they capable of THAT). This one just swings along really easily.

One (1991)

The well known stand out song from the great great Achtung Baby album. I love the way The Lighthouse Family used a fragment from One in their song I Wish. I'm a sucker for that kind of homage - like when Hootie And The Blowfish sing a fragment from Dylan's mighty Idiot Wind in Only Wanna Be With You.

New Year's Day (1983)

The live version from Red Rocks is my favourite (on the Under A Blood Red Sky album). It is so atmospheric and seemingly pessimistic - torn in two and nothing changes on New Year's Day but I prefer the optimistic view - that we can break through...we can be one. I like the way that Bono's lyrics feed back and feed forward. Interesting that New Year's Day contains ideas that he explores elsewhere such as One and With Or Without You.

She tries to understand the things that I do (Edgar Winter Group)

2011-12-01T09:33:00.000-08:00

I really really love the shuffle mode on my ppod. It spins me off into many forgotten corners of my music collection.

I was doing a workout on The Beast yesterday (our cross trainer) and I love it when a song emerges from the shuffle which is perfect for a workout and reminds me of great times.

Round and Round by The Edgar Winter Group came on and I smiled and smiled.

It's a gem from the big selling They Only Come Out At Night album released during 1972 (the one with Frankenstein on it).

I played the song three times back to back and charged into my workout.

The song always has good connotations for me and it pops up in my life when I most need it.

During the second and third listens I began to listen to the lyrics more and I focused harder on various bits while bopping on The Beast.

I tried to love her but she changes everyday
Wouldn’t be much fun if she was any other way
One day she’s warm next day she’s cold
One day she’s young and then the next day she’s old

I puzzled over this and especially the last line of this opening verse. Okay I get that the lover he's talking about can be hot or cold, but young and old? Just a convenient rhyme or something deeper?

Then I remembered a section from Hermann Hesse's novel Siddhartha when Siddhartha is talking to his old friend Govinda about the potential hidden Buddha that lives in all of us.

The world, Govinda, is not imperfect or slowly evolving along a long path to perfection. No, it is perfect at every moment, every sin already carries grace within it, all small children are potentially old men, all sucklings have death within them, all dying people - eternal life.

Intentional or not, I read the song slightly differently at this point. The lover is whole, fully evolved with (maybe) a glimpse into something deeper.

Weird how a song can do that - shapeshift after many listens and in conjunction with other stimuli (Siddhartha) take on another life.

Waking state (Anouar Brahem)

2011-11-29T22:16:00.000-08:00

I have gushed about the superb work of oud player extraordinaire Anouar Brahem before. But the music on The Astounding Eyes Of Rita is of another world.

When I make my list of the best things I've heard this year, this album will be there.

The music starts softly and slowly on the first track, The Lover Of Beirut, as if you are waking up from a dream, or just understanding that you are in a dream, or just beginning the slide into a dream.

I have no words to describe the beauty of the rest of this ethereal soulful music so I will let you in on the experience instead.

You'll never change what's been and gone (Oasis)

2011-11-27T07:50:00.000-08:00

I love reading Liam and Noel Gallagher interviews. They speak honestly and without their guard up as a whole. That is very refreshing in the world of modern entertainment.

I recently bought a book of their collected quotes called Mad For It (The wit and wisdom of the brothers Gallagher).

You'll recall I wrote about Liam's Beady Eye band a while back. Beady Eye being basically the Oasis band without the Chief.

Here's a Liam quote I love from 1994:

I tell you , when I read that
Oasis is Noel's band that
f****** sent me...it's no one's band.
Take one away and there's nowt left.

Oh dear!

Here's one of my favourite Oasis songs to remind us about what the Gallaghers United football team is capable of.

When you try your best but you don't succeed (Coldplay)

2011-11-23T04:17:00.000-08:00

Two new albums under high rotate in Casa Wozza are new releases by Snow Patrol and Coldplay.

I have been a fan of both bands from release one and word "GO".

Each have managed to get themselves offside with the music press by selling gadzillions of units. Somehow that equates to mundane music in some people's eyes.

I must admit it took me a while to actually buy Parachutes, the first Coldplay album (and Songs For Polarbears, the first Snow Patrol album).

Parachutes was extremely popular and that always makes me a little suspicious - I don't like jumping on a bandwagon and I do have some aspects of the music snob - loving bands that no one else has heard of.

But I saw the first two Coldplay CDs in Tower Records in Bangkok and relaxed. I shouldn't have worried (or listened to the music snobs). Both albums are superb.

I also go against most critics position on X and Y - their third album. It's actually my favourite album of theirs and reminds me of driving around southern England in 2006.

The new one, Mylo Xyloto, has been on high rotate since I bought it. Purely because nothing seemed to stand out for ages. With repetition has come some clarity and some finer appreciation of the work, but it's not shaping up as their best work by a long chalk.

And what a crap cover. There is a strong self destructive streak in the band that emerges from time to time and never more obviously than with this shokingly pathetic cover. What the hell were they thinking?

Ditto x10 for the latest Snow Patrol album. It's okay and better than A Hundred Million Suns which was pretty dire. Looks increasingly like the band peaked with Final Straw and Eyes Open.

Gary Lightbody has a great voice but for some reason - too much success maybe - he doesn't seen willing or able to write those great melodies that were on those two albums. A case of McCartneyitis?

I've had Fallen Empires (how very apt) on rotate in the car and so far zilch. But I will persevere and I live in hope.

Meanwhile I was thrilled to find out in a Mojo interview that Chris Martin's favourite Coldplay song (more accurately he was asked for the song he'd written that he felt proudest of) is the same as mine from X and Y - Fix You.

Something's wrong (Madonna)

2011-11-20T02:30:00.000-08:00

Dearest Madonna:

I need to send my heartfelt apologies to you, to the blogosphere's Madonna fans in general and to my favourite lead guitarist from Silent Alliance in particular for the shocking absence of Till Death Do Us Part from my list of your top five songs.

None of my vinyl has been transferred to my ipod and thereby lies the sin of omission. This is really one of my favourite songs of all time and I can't believe I left it off.

So very sorry. Hope the kids are well!

Love - Wozza

I hear you call my name and it feels like... home (Madonna)

2011-11-17T23:18:00.000-08:00

As promised in the previous post, here I am calling Madonna's name.

I've been a fan on and off of Madonna Louise Ciccone (born one year after me in August 1958) since she hit the world's stage (barnstormed it really) in 1983.

My first contact with Madonna was Live Aid and her strutting around doing Holiday. It was fantastic; like nothing I'd ever seen before.

She lost me after Like A Prayer, around Erotica time, and I came back on board for Bedtime Stories and onwards until I left again with Hard Candy.

Within that orbit I have enjoyed some wonderful songs and singalongs with Madge. Curiously I have never had the slightest inclination to be interested in her public/private life (where does she draw the distinction I wonder) like I have with Lennon, Harrison etc. It's her music and stellar writing that I love so much.

Here are my tight five:

1. Live to Tell (1986)

This was a watershed song (from True Blue). There was a new maturity to her voice and a change of tack from the tried and true (blue) with a less poppy bubblegum approach. The ballad format works too. She didn't really return to this voice until Bedtime Stories/Ray Of Light which was a shame I think.

2. Cherish (1989)

From the Like A Prayer album and we're in transition (she sings this one close to her helium mode). This is the end of the first Madonna period and before she set off on the sexually explicit stuff that isn't my preference.

My album copy is scented with patchouli oil (still - after all these years it still smells great) and this song is the aural equivalent. A fantastic little confection of a love song. There is an innocence present here that sounds genuine to me. Now that is remarkable given what we know of Madonna. Innocence and Madonna in the same sentence? Absurd right? But listen without prejudice and you'll catch the virginal.

Then you watch the video and that's all blown out of the...um...water.

3. Frozen 1998

Ray Of Light was such a great album - chockablock with cool sounds and a different approach. In many ways my favourite sequence of albums was this one, then Music and American Life and Confessions On A Dancefloor. Great music doesn't date. A lot of early 80's Madonna hasn't aged that well but those four albums will stand the test of time. She should be proud of herself. They are a remarkable achievement.

4. Papa Don't Preach 1986

This one was a bit weird. It came out during a video strike or something in the mid eighties in NZ. Suddenly you couldn't see any music videos on TV and this was death to an artist like Madonna. Her visual style has always been wound up in her music. Presentation has sometimes been at the expense of quality.

So I had to rely on a friend who owned a record shop for music videos. I remember playing this at Macleans College at lunchtime to students and it had a huge effect. The video is great and the song is so well constructed. A cautionary tale and so well captured in film.

5. Hung up 2005

2005 and me and some of my family are living in England and I was teaching in Benfleet. This song was our soundtrack in the car when I drove my daughters to school (we were all at the same place).

Every time I hear it I instantly recall the fun we had singing along!

I feel it in my leg I feel it in my shoe, tell me purty baby if you think you feel it too (Billy Thorpe & The Aztecs)

2011-11-14T22:29:00.000-08:00

The latest Rolling Stone magazine with Steve Jobs on the cover had a number of rockers writing about their favourite playlists. Mick Jagger's top 10 on reggae, Gregg Allman's top ten on blues vocals, Billy Gibbons' top ten on blues guitar and so on...you get the idea.

It was called The Playlist Special.

Magazines like to do this from time to time and I am an absolute stone cold rickem ruckem pass the ammunition all day SUCKAH for them.

Can't help it, the boy can't help it - I LOVE LISTS.

So armed with the excuse of if-it's-good-enuf-for-Rolling-Stone-it's-certainly-okay-for-me, here is the first of my Playlist Specials (an occasional series).

Wozza's Top Five (it's a short party - my knees aren't what they used to be) Party Starters

My parties have always been of the jump and jive around the room to loud music variety. The next ten songs are guaranteed to get the leg twitching and then I'm motorvatin' to the centre of the lounge and doing moves that David Byrne would relate to (if not exactly envy).

1. Let's Have A Party Billy Thorpe & The Aztecs 1974

This was a B side to a great version of Over The Rainbow. Talk about slow and fast. The version of Let's Have A Party zings along at a million miles an hour. It bears all of Billy Thorpe trademarks - terrific impassioned vocal, guitars turned up to 11, a stellar group of okkers called The Aztecs (a bit of a revolving cast around the central figure of Billy). It's impossible to sit still!

Jump to 2.40 in the youtube link below for the skinny on Billy!

2. Highway Star Deep Purple 1972

The live version on Made In Japan trumps the studio one on Machine Head but only just. Mainly because it's longer. Ritchie Blackmore is the ultimate air guitar hero. When he and Jon Lord get together to duke it out, like they do here, there is no one to touch them.

3. Model Gary Myrick & The Figures 1980

This song pretty much sums up 1980 for me - being a student, living in my parents' basement, beautiful summer sun and bopping and a jiving to the first Gary Myrick album. Amazingly Model is one of about five songs in a row that maintain a relentless energy.

4. Save Us Dream Evil 2002

Just to prove that age shall not weary me - this track on the Evil's 2002 Dragon Slayer album is a keeper for the next party. I play it a lot in the car and it's able to propel the car forward on its very own.

5. I Don't Want To Spoil The Party The Beatles 1965

Part of a party should be a good old fashioned singalong and wind down before it comes to its proper conclusion. If you haven't got The Beach Boys Party! album on hand then try this lung buster from the mighty Beatles.

When you get to this bit in particular John (and a bit of Paul) gives us 100% permission to sing along at the top of our lungs. Try it - it's very therapeutic!

Though tonight she's made me sad,
I still love her,
If I find her I'll be glad,
I still love her.

And then it's time to sit down, have a rest and dig out a chill out album!

P.S. I know what you're thinking - Holy Fulele Wozza - five bopping party songs and no Madonna?? How is that possible? To be honest I'm not quite sure myself so next list will be five of the best from The Divine Miss M (the younger).

Which side are you on? (Billy Bragg)

2011-11-13T00:31:00.000-08:00

I've posted before about my theories regarding The Beatles and The Velvet Underground being polar opposites. Musical tastes are derived from one or the other source (the Wozza theory).

The press often likes to play up a rivalry between bands.

The Beatles vs Stones line of thinking never gained much traction and was bogus anyway. Even though John and Paul gave them a really lame song to record (I Wanna Be Your Man) they still actually liked the Stones and weren't in competition with them. They were plowing different fields.

As are bands generally. They are all trying to carve out a niche for themselves.

From time to time competitions like the graphic below are set up to get music fans who are passionate about 'their band' to duke it out.

It's kinda fun if kinda pointless.

I tried the one above because it includes Nu Zild and aussie bands. It's a weird list that includes some classic bands like The Rolling Stones, Nirvana and Led Zeppelin but there are no Beatles, The Who, Oasis etc etc etc.

Anyway it pitches similar rock bands against each other. So suddenly it's Pink Floyd vs Deep Purple!! Soundgarden vs Smashing Pumpkins!! Tough calls.

In the end my quarter finalists for the above list were: Jimi Hendrix, Led Zeppelin, Rolling Stones, U2, Metallica, Tool, Bruce Springsteen, Smashing Pumpkins.

Semi finalists: Led Zep, Stones, Bruce and Tool.

Finalists: Led Zep vs Bruce.

Champ: Led Zeppelin

See - silly but fun. Give it a go.

Thunder! Lightning! Fighting! Heavy metal in the night! (Dream Evil)

2011-11-11T09:53:00.000-08:00

I really dislike pressure sales-people. But what I dislike even more is allowing myself to be pressured into buying something.

I allowed myself to be persuaded to buy a CD called Brush-Fires Of The Mind by a band called Sons Of Liberty. Dumb dumb dumb.

Why did I buy? Three reasons.

It was in the Mall of the Emirates Virgin Megastore, and the sales guy has recommended some good stuff to me before (Russell Allen's Atomic Soul and Stratovarius are two that come to mind). That's the first.

Second - Sons Of Liberty is a project by Jon Schaffer from Iced Earth. I really like Iced Earth - an American hybrid of Iron Maiden with lyrical stuff that is more philosophically interesting than the norm.

Third - The CD was in digipak form. Usually a good sign. I love Porcupine Tree and Steven Wilson's stuff. He usually goes for the upmarket digipak format.

Stupidly I, therefore, made a tenuous link to Wilson and thought - solo, digipak, trustworthy sales guy.

Mr Schaffer in action

I did have a nagging, nagging thought it was a mistake (the name and cover pic rang bells and I'd just finished a Lee Child book about the lunatic fringe militia groups in America). But 60 dirhams? What the hey, right?

Starts off fine - opening track Jekyll Island is like Iced Earth musically. That's a great thing. And to be fair, for the most part the music is excellent.

The bad stuff? It's a concept album. A heavy metal concept album...with a...message. Eeeeeeeiigggghhhhhhhh!!

Jon writes about the message inside the CD (damn you shrink wrap). I wish I'd seen this sentence before I parted with my cash:

It's crucial for all of us to learn the real history and the real agenda of the Federal Reserve System, the 3rd Central Bank of the United States.

I am not making this up!!

I've listened to the CD three times now - just to check out my initial thoughts and I know I will never listen to it ever again. Anybody want my copy?

I'm going to go back to Iced Earth and Dream Evil to try to wash the taste off.

Love, love will tear us apart again (Joy Division)

2011-11-09T01:59:00.000-08:00

Songs about break ups have been around since Eve whistled a melancholy little tune as she exited Eden.

Teenagers love to wallow in self pity and I was no exception (even if I didn't have a break up to feel melancholy about) and I'm betting that you weren't either.

Everybody has experienced the pain of unrequited love at some stage, and many have loved and lost.

Songs about such things hit a universal chord (pun intentional). Everybody who wants to tap into the universal gestalt has a song about a break up in them.

Here are my top five break up songs of all time (with five it has to be all killer, no filler):

I've kicked off with a brilliant song from a great break up album, maybe the greatest of all time - Blood On The Tracks.

Bob Dylan's If You See Her, Say Hello is a thoughtful, poignant request of a song that means a painful parting has resulted in a reflective period and then acceptance that she will live forever in his heart. Not only that - she can always visit if she's got the time.

We had a falling out
like lovers often will
and to think of how she left that night
still gives me a chill

And though our separation
it pierced me to the heart
she'll always live inside of me
we've never been apart

Love Will Tear Us Apart (Joy Division) is another extra-ordinary break up song. It's of the raw and bleak type rather than the sappier melancholy school of break up songs - why is the bedroom so cold?

The first verse is remarkable for a pop song and I'm always a sucker for the simple overuse of a conjunction in poetry or prose.

When routine bites hard,
And ambitions are low,
And resentment rides high,
But emotions won't grow,
And we're changing our ways,
Taking different roads.

http://youtu.be/qHYOXyy1ToI (for JD)

One of the greatest ever I'm leaving you songs is Jimmy Webb's By The Time I Get To Phoenix. Doesn't matter which version you listen to as the story and the sentiment behind the song stand up time and time again. The version I've included here is by Glen Campbell but only because nearly 20 minutes of Isaac Hayes is probably too long on the blog but do yourself a favour and have a listen to it on the link if you get a chance. There is nothing to equal it in all of musicdom.

http://youtu.be/9bbdJSW3pvM (for IH)
At number four is the all class representative of the idea that love-stinks-and-I'm never-doing-that-again sub-genre that is I'll Never Fall In Love Again. The kicker is always in the last verse in this type of song. Hal David's version is:

What do you get when you fall in love?
You only get lies and pain and sorrow
So for at least until tomorrow
I'll never fall in love again

Finally - the fifth song stands up (lies down?) for all those weepy pathetic excuses of songs that just simply feel sorry for themselves. Eric (All By Myself) Carmen is a masterful exponent of this type of break up song.
Boats Against The Current is also a great example of the not quite type of relationship. It hints at the desperate need to stay in a relationship long after it has become clear that each person is in a different boat rowing against the current.

Again the first verse sets the scene and largely sums up the song's intentions:
To say these songs are the tip of the break up iceberg is doing a huge disservice to icebergs but they do represent the key strands within the break up sub genre within the Love Song tradition.

I know it's over
You know it's over
We're just goin' through the motions
But we're sailin' separate oceans worlds apart
And you know it's breakin' my heart

The break up is a topic that never runs out of appeal and song writers will continue to exploit the need we have for them until the sun explodes.

I think I busted a button on my trousers, I hope they don't fall darn (Mick Jagger)

2011-11-06T06:44:00.000-08:00

You find me knee deep in a mini Stones-a-thon. A recent visit to Al Jimi's Carrefour resulted in the purchases of two DVDs - Ladies And Gentlemen, The Rolling Stones and a documentary on the making of Exile On Main Street called Stones In Exile. This is easily my favourite period of the Stones - around the early 1970s.

Unlike my Beatles' collection, my Rolling Stones collection is respectable without being anything like completist.

I only have compilations of the early pre sixty-seven material: Flowers; England's Newest Hitmakers; Big Hits (High Tides and Green Grass); Hot Rocks 1964-71. That sort of stuff.

I don't own any of the studio albums prior to 1968 but from Beggars' Banquet on I have them all except for Black and Blue (The Ron Wood debut). Was put off that one by their videos at the time starring a pimped up Jagger badly lip synching to some boring shite like Hot Stuff. Tell me I'm wrong!

The early albums sound really thin to me without the genius combination of group + brilliant producer (such as George Martin). I love the singles and that's why the compilations. My favourite song of the early period is Get Off Of My Cloud. It sums up the sixties so well.

My top 5 Stones albums are easy to assemble and I suspect they are the same as a lotta people. Needless to say they all come well before the risable Hot Stuff!

What a sequence of records. Can anyone apart from the Beatles beat this five in a row? Beggars' Banquet; Let It Bleed; Get Yer Ya-Ya's Out; Stcky Fingers; Exile On Main Street.

Exile is the business though, isn't it! Dirty, rocking, bluesy, erzatz gospel, faux country, sloppy, all in all a kick ass/ mean it maan collection of songs that was their finest hour.

How will it end? Can it be anything else but a whimper now? Keef will always be Keef but, by the same token, Jagger will never be pre Hot Stuff ever again.

Should I close my eyes and prophesize? (My Morning Jacket)

2011-11-01T08:00:00.000-07:00

Being laid up sick at home for two days means some therapeutic music choices need to be made. A sinus headache means Mastodon's The Hunter CD is naturally replaced by somewhat more soothing sounds.

Yesterday was definitely more of a Simon and Garfunkel melancholy mood experience (the previous post) but today I felt marginally better. I tried some Return To Forever but that was too jarring. I found that some Wishbone Ash was okay in the afternoon, along with Fleet Foxes, Bon Iver, Laura Marling and Feist.

But My Morning Jacket was right on the money all day long. The album is called Circuital. My knowledge of the band is very limited (I bought the CD after a glowing Mojo review).

The band appear to be big on group dynamics - the inner sleeve book is big on group rehearsal/recording long shots.

The music is eclectic and Fleet Foxy original (does that make sense?).

What I do know is that this wonderful album got me through a snotty mucus filled day!

I will ease your mind (Tom & Jerry)

2011-10-30T22:46:00.000-07:00

I maligned Art Garfunkel's albums in the previous post but his singing can not be faulted.

My two favourite moments are the version he did with Simon and James Taylor of (What a) Wonderful World. The Sam Cooke/Satchmo versions are well known but this one shows off Arthur's beautiful harmony work. The blend with James and Paul's lower registers is fantastic.

The most sublime Art G moment is, of course, Bridge Over Troubled Water. Here are three live versions to choose from (or watch all three like I've just done). First from 1969. then from 1981 and finally a duet version with Paul from 2009. It's an amazing and immortal song and it is clear that Paul Simon's lyrics/music and Art Garfunkel's voice are gifts from above.

A lifetime is so short, a new one can't be bought (The Beatles)

2011-10-30T08:50:00.000-07:00

The latest Mojo Magazine had a 'How to buy' guide on Simon and Garfunkel.

In the top 10 the readers had picked three S&G duo albums and the other seven were all Paul Simon solo albums. No solo Garfunkel which is understandable. He is a superb singer and harmony man but his solo albums stink as a rule.

I was pleased to see Hearts and Bones in the mix at number 9. It's a superb Carrie Fisher break up album. Simon tackles the subject in a self deprecating way which makes it all the more endearing. I read Carrie's blog from time to time and, she's great and all, but, whooah - she would be hard work.

I had no arguments with the number one vote - Bridge Over Troubled Water. A sublime collection.

But where oh where was There Goes Rhymin' Simon????? The best album of 1974 according to Mr Grammy. Nowhere to be seen. So Beautiful Or So What is rated better. So is Surprise.

This is a travesty, a mockery. A mockery of a travesty.

Here then is my little plug for one of the best albums of all time and the criminally insanely great 'American Tune'.

Down the street the dogs are barking (Blind Boy Grunt)

2011-10-25T23:44:00.000-07:00

I've always been interested in the way Dylan's songs have morphed over the years, depending on his band, his voice, his circumstances, the way the world changes, whatever.

Dylan's song One Too Many Mornings was first released on his The Times They Are A-Changin' album. It that context it was a strange, wistful reflection about two people who have, seemingly, drifted apart over one too many mornings.

The first focus in the song is on the sounds of the dogs barking as night approaches. Dylan is standing at his doorway. He's either leaving or considering leaving. Why else would he call it a crossroads?

He turns from the doorway and looks into the empty room (the woman's presence in the room is described in the past tense), his gaze returns to the street and those lonesome dog sounds.

It seems Dylan's unease at the situation with his lover is reciprocated - she is also at a crossroads and has maybe already vamoosed - We're both just too many mornings, an' a thousand miles behind.

I've included a couple of versions here - the David Gray one sticks pretty closely to the Dylan template and is more melancholy in its approach. The Dylan and Johnny Cash countrified one is plain weird in a good way.

The version I love the most though, and unfortunately it is not available on youtube, is the one on Hard Rain from the Rolling Thunder Revue tour.

Dylan's visceral live version is stripped of any wistful, lingering heartfelt feelings and becomes a dark brooding cathartic outpouring of emotion following the departure of Sara. It's wonderful.

The dogs in this version are apocalyptic, snarling, feral monsters that threaten the night. I love it!

The only thing you done was yesterday, since you're gone you're just another day (Winston O'Boogie)

2011-10-18T23:30:00.000-07:00

Imagine you had four sons. Imagine they were called (eldest to youngest): Richard, John, James and George.

Of course, you would love them all equally. But as they grew up they would develop distinctive personalities.

Richard would become Ritchie and, later, because he wore loads of rings he would get the nickname of Ringo. As the first and second children, Ringo and John would form a close bond.

James, as the third child would try to make his mark by being different to the other three (if they wore shoes on a hot day, he'll take his off sort of thing) and he'd eventually ask that you call him by his middle name - Paul. Paul would remain the precociously annoying third child for much of his life.

George as the youngest would take his time to carve out his niche.

You would love them all but at various times you would have your favourites.

I love all of the Beatles but John is number one. George is number two.

Paul? Never my favourite Beatle.

I can remember having big arguments at school with the Paul is better than John brigade. The guys were probably trying to wind me up. It worked. John ruled. Paul didn't.

With the benefit of hindsight I stick by my position.

Paul's career as a musician falls into four distinct, productive periods.

Pre-Beatles 1957 to 1962 (5 years) - being a sponge and learning stuff so this doesn't really count.
1 Beatles - 1963 - 1969 (7 years)
2 Paul is solo part 1 - 1970 (1 year)
3 Wings - 1971 - 1979 (9 years)
4 Paul is solo part 2 - 1980 - 2011 (31 years)

If I was to rank these in quality it would be:

7 years as a Beatle in the sixties
9 years in Wings in the seventies
1 year solo in 1970
31 years solo since 1980

That's quite a decline!!

Basically since 1980 he has fallen comparatively short in the quality and consistency stakes.

How is it he could be unbelievably superb for 7 years, pretty damn good some of the time with Wings (although there are plenty of shonky Ebony and Ivory and Broad Street moments) but then consistently poor for 31 years.

The Fireman? Please.

The only bright spots in that 31 year lack lustre period are Tug of War (1980) Flowers in the Dirt (1989). And they are wildly inconsistent within themselves.

Why?

The answers according to me:

John Lennon (Macca's most successful partner post Lennon was Elvis Costello on Flowers in the Dirt);

youthful energy, ignorance (the freedom and bravery of youth);

George Martin (Tug Of war benefits from his expertise).

But yet...but yet...I still love Macca. He was a bloody Beatle when all is said and done.

I'm going off the rails on a crazy train (Ozzy Osbourne)

2011-10-14T06:31:00.000-07:00

I am reading I Am Ozzy at the moment and how he is still alive is beyond me.

Actually how he and Keef could remember anything about their past life is also a puzzler. Praps they were hypnotised or something.

Anyway, I am enjoying the romp through his druggy, drunk, sexually promiscuous past.

Also makes me appreciate his music more, given the context it was created in.

For me, his best moment post Sabs was easily Crazy Train.

Beautiful Boys (Yoko Ono)

2011-10-09T04:30:00.000-07:00

Today (October 9) is of course John and Sean Lennon's birthday.

John was born in 1940 so he would have been 71 today.

Sean was born in 1975 so that makes him 36. Hope it's a good one, Sean.

I'd give up all my life to be in the book of heavy metal (Dream Evil)

2011-10-09T04:21:00.000-07:00

I had a look at the stats button of this blog and I was staggered to find out that the most popular blog post I'd done (and it wasn't even close) was one on DEEP PURPLE.

I checked out the post and it was a run down on my favourite Purple moments.

Coincidentally (part 1) GK's latest post was about the purps Smoke On The Water. Coincidentally (part 2) I am currently listening to Rapture Of The Deep (a DP album from 2005 I think). Coincidentally (part 3) the new Opeth album has moments that remind me more of DP than it does Opeth.

Their new album is called Heritage and is vying for first place in my affections with Damnation as my favourite Opeth album.

There are hints of DP as I said (the hammond organ/guitar mix), but there is also a return to that moody mellotron sound and the jazz/rock fusion of bands like Return to Forever. The over-riding feeling is that the erstwhile black metaller boys have clearly been listening to a lot of King Crimson lately.

It makes for a heady brew and the album is revealing more and more with each listen.

It is certainly a very different band sound compared to their metal classics like Blackwater Park, Watershed and Ghost Reveries.

Heavy Metal. Oh why do I love you so?

We've been in the middle eastern emirate of Abu Dhabi for about a year now and I've bought loads of CDs as is my vice.

Many of these fit within the broad expanses of the Heavy metal genre.

Joining my collection in New Zealand when we eventually return home will be albums by the following:

Russell Allen (of Symphony X)
Avenged Sevenfold
Black Mountain
Black Sabbath
Black Stone Cherry
Coheed and Cambria
Deep Purple
Def Leppard
Devin Townsend Project
Enchant
The Gathering
Hammerfall
Iced Earth
Iron Maiden
James LaBrie (of Dream Theater)
Lacona Coil
The Man Eating Tree
Mastodon
Steve Morse Band
Mostly Autumn
Ted Nugent
Opeth
Queens of the Stone Age
Rainbow
Riverside
Scorpions
Soundgarden
Stratovarious
Symphony X
Uriah Heep

That's quite a list for 12 months of off shore collecting.

The obsession with excessively amplified blues rock music began way back in the early seventies with Black Sabbath's Paranoid and Master Of Reality albums, Uriah Heep, Deep Purple, Led Zeppelin.

Three of the four are represented in the list above!!

What do I still like about the genre 40 something years later?

Extended guitar and organ wig out duels, screaming banshee vocals, loud pounding drums, guitar riffs, and heads down boogie action ddoes it fer me.

By the way - the DP album Rapture Of The Deep is pretty good and a worthwhile addition on the whole. No Jon Lord so there is some synthesizer as well as the organ. Steve Morse's guitar is a little restrained than usual (no heroic guitar solos on this one), and Ian Gillan is quite mannered in his vocals these days - no screaming lung busters, but quite acceptable all the same. His main problem (and the band's) is his lyrics which, with a few exceptions on Machine Head, have always been either feeble, juvenile or both.

The strengths of the band are found in Ian Paice's drumming, Roger Glover's bass and the collective distinctive, DP sound. Still crazily good after all these years, even if a little diluted in 2005.

Many trains and many miles brought you to me (Laura Marling)

2011-10-03T21:35:00.000-07:00

We had been in the Dubai Mall during my birthday last Saturday. I had bought three CDs from Virgin.

We had reached the car and I was asking Jacky which of the three she could bare to listen to on the way home (an hour and a half drive).

We have (I said) a melodic prog metal band (Stratovarius); a hard rock band (the Chickenfoot CD of the previous post); or a kind of folky female singer (Laura Marling). Pick one!

A no brainer for Jacky!

We listened in wonder to Laura's second album - I Speak Because I Can - about three times right through on the drive home.

It's a rare, rare piece of music that captures both of us. Bon Iver's first album is the only one that comes to mind immediately. So Laura is in very good company.

She is a real original. There are fragmented suggestions of iconoclasts like Dylan, Joni Mitchell, and Patti Smith at times and she is clearly linked to a long English folk song tradition but really this is a fully formed original and timeless new voice.

She has a new album out. Only 10 songs (I love the less is more stance). In an interview in Uncut she said there were three songs that she cut at the last minute because they didn't actually add anything new to the collection that wasn't present in the other 10 songs (something along those lines). Fantastic.

It's been added to the list (along with the first album).

Great (and scary) thing is that she is only 21 years old.

You've seen all the heavy groups (Grace Slick at Woodstock)

2011-10-02T00:50:00.000-07:00

Chickenfoot.

Not an auspicious name is it. Why would someone think that's a great name for a rock band?

I picked up the CD about 5 times and put it back in the racks at the Virgin Megastore in the Dubai Mall before thinking - sod it - I like the individual members so why not.

Those members? Take two guys from Van Halen who are not named Van Halen. So that would be the bassist and lead singer, Michael Anthony and Sammy Hagar. Take the drummer from Red Hot Chili Peppers (Chad Smith) and add the guitar genius that is Joe Satriani and it couldn't fail right?

Well it could.

How many 'supergroups' have bitten the dust in a cloud of too many cooks disappointment over the years? Blind Faith, UK, Them Crooked Vultures, The Firm, Velvet Revolver, Audioslave, Heaven and Hell, Dead Weather, and The Highwaymen are some that have disappointed me in the past.

I haven’t heard Super Heavy yet (Jagger’s super thing) but I don’t hold out high hopes.

On the plus side - super groups have also worked a number of times for me too – Cream, ELP, CSN&Y, Golden Smog, Traveling Wilburys, Journey and Zwan (yes really) have spun my wheels over the years.

And so to Chickenfoot. You can see why I wavered. Would this be a kind of luke warm version of Van Halen? I love Sammy Hagar's vocals but his subject matter and lyrics can be pretty juvenile at times.

The clincher was the name of the fifth member of the band – producer Andy Johns. His track record is beyond dispute.

And woe – does he make a difference. This is one super recorded effort. Clarity and power. A lost art because when I heard this CD for the first time each instrument’s power is right in your face without any clutter. I realized how much I miss this sound. It's amazing.

The verdict is out – forget the stoopid name and treat yourself to some old fashioned rawk!

http://youtu.be/pHqA6HtVU70

Every sha-la-la-la, every wo-wo-wo still shines (The Carpenters)

2011-09-03T04:08:00.000-07:00

Greg's blog talked about the radio the other day and this got me thinking about great songs that are about the radio.

I love songs about the radio. Here are my top five:

1Yesterday Once More (The Carpenters)

(keep watching for an oldies medley)

2 Overnight Sensation (The Raspberries)

(beware the long title intro)

3 Caravan (Van Morrison)

4 Crusin' Music (The Raspberries)

5 On The Radio (Donna Summer) (it was a toss up for 5th place between this and Joni's You Turn Me On, I'm a Radio which is also great from the title on down but Donna's hystrionics won the day)
Surprised that my favourite is Yesterday Once More (The Carpenters)? I was a little bit too, because, really - the Carpenters?

Never cool, always the other side of twee thanks to Richard Carpenter's hair and shocking dress sense (and vocals!), and something of a guilty pleasure.

But they had a secret weapon. Karen Carpenter's voice. A thing of beauty it was to be sure.

The Raspberries were just a great Badfinger style Beatles influenced group (with a Who obsession as well). These two songs acknowledge how much they loved the radio and specifically how much they loved hearing themselves on the radio. I like this idea that they are also music fans (same with the Carpenter's song).

Same goes with Van the man. I love this ode to the radio - turn it up indeed!

Rocking the boat and unrolling the note (Roy Harper)

2011-08-27T02:37:00.000-07:00

A work colleague asked me recently, when looking at my CD collection, what my current favourite was.

I couldn't think of any one fav at the time, maybe because I was trying to think of something current.

But then, when I thought about it afterwards, I realised that I have been playing two CDs pretty much every day since I got back from holiday.

Not only that but I've been listening to them on and off since I first heard them in the late 70s.

I'm talking about Roy Harper's Stormcock and Keith Jarrett's The Koln Concert.

I have old cassette tape copies of each one and I found CD versions of them in the UK and France on my recent holiday.

Each album has four tracks on it that link to each other thematically and musically. None of which will ever be played on the radio so they won't ever feature on Gregarious' blog of the seventies. The instrumentation is pretty sparse on each one. Jarrett is playing solo on his piano. Harper is largely singing and playing acoustic guitar. Curiously, it is the only album in their respective catalogues that does it for me too. I have tried but these two are special because they each reveal a degree of individual brilliance and passion and connectiveness that is missing in their other albums for me.

My cassette of Stormcock was recorded by me from a mate's album in the late 70s. He had a lot of Genesis and Harper albums that he wanted me to tape for him (no idea why) and of all the albums he gave me to record only Stormcock shone through with it's brilliance.

Roger Marbeck gave me a cassette recording of the Koln Concert. I never would have listened to it otherwise. Solo piano and a double album?? No way! I think it was part of a large number of cassettes he didn't want anymore. There was some good stuff in the pile but Jarrett's concert was the one that stuck.

With both albums it doesn't matter how many times I hear them, I always hear something new. I think this will continue to be the case.

Here's to the dawn of their days (Joan Baez)

2011-08-26T04:29:00.000-07:00

I have spent a large portion of today trawling through my 6 CD box set of Woodstock (40th Anniversary version). It's a glorious way to spend the day (Fridays in the Middle East being a particular slow day and Ramadan means no cafes until 8pm) .

I managed to get the set from Fives in Leigh-on-Sea for a great price. I'd seen it at The Virgin Mega-store in the Mall of the Emirates (Dubai) for 700 dirhams (about $240NZ or 120 pounds) but that seemed a lot so I thought I'd wait and see if I could get it in the UK. It's not like it wouldn't be there when I returned from holiday at 700 dirhams right?

So - we went to London and then Paris and no one had it. Not Virgin, or HMV or FOPP. They all told me it would be tough to find as it came out in 2009. If I could find one, it was listed at 75 pounds - a lot cheaper than in Dubai, so I kept looking.

Until we went to Leigh-on-Sea for a day trip. Of course Fives had one. I gave a run down of my search in vain to the lady who owns and runs Fives and she said, "You mean like that one up there?", pointing to the collection of box sets on the wall!

My heart was beating fast as I asked her how much?

"52 pounds", she replied!

And it's fantastic. Tons of tracks not on any other version and some old favourites like Sweet Sir Galahad that appeared on the Woodstock 2 double album.

I love this song (a rare Joan Baez original) and I always think that line "but oh, was I born too late?" relates to me somehow, with my fascination for an event that took place when I was 11 in Nu Zild, a country so different to 1969 America that we might as well have lived on a different planet in a different solar system!

Joan Baez is an acquired taste and her warble can irrate me at times but her singing on this song is divine.

Go to you tube via the link for a Woodstock treat.
http://youtu.be/S4y2equAIdI

or else play this one from the Smother Brothers TV show:

The shadow play (Rory Gallagher)

2011-08-24T20:24:00.000-07:00

A big celebration to note this week - the hurrah/ wahoo is for the release of Adam's new collection of music under his Bambino moniker. It's called Cold Wood Burn and you can download it here:

http://bambino1.bandcamp.com/album/cold-wood-burn-2011

I urge you to take the trouble to download and listen. Here are some review comments from an unbiased source (i.e not me)

This new release pretty much refines the trademark ‘Bambino sound’ that was established on Monitors, covering some familiar ground while exploring some new directions as well.

There is a good amount of variety in the tracks which makes for an interesting listen from start to finish. The range of vocal stylings (singing, rapping, speaking, sampled voice) give additional flavour to each track and deliver a sense of diversity that blurs the very definition of instrumental music where voice becomes simply another proponent of mood and/or melody. At first I thought this might make the changes between tracks seem a bit jarring but it’s all integrated quite seamlessly and bound together by the uniform production values. Overall there’s a lot of atmosphere, I like the deep reverbs and textures in parts.

The speaking on ‘My Brother’ is really cool, normally I cringe a bit at spoken word in a New Zealand accent but this was perfect, intense but not over worked. I love the lyrics, made especially powerful by the dissonance of the (amplified/overdriven?) keys. Great track.Probably my favourite aspect of the album has been just putting it on and letting it run, there is a style and atmosphere to it which is not only enjoyable to listen to but above all, unique.

There you have it - go take a listen!

What do you get when you fall in love? (Isaac Hayes)

2011-08-18T05:28:00.000-07:00

I'm back in Al Ain with my horde of CDs from the trip to UK and France.

I've written already about the sad, and increasing, trend for CD stores to wither and die, but I did have success as well as the disappointment of finding favourite stores closed down.

I managed to knock a few titles off my wants list: Keith Jarrett's Koln Concert and Riverside (Virgin Megastore France); Josh T Pearson and the 6 CD Woodstock box set (Fives in Leigh-on-Sea); DJ Shadow (FOPP in London) and Symphony X (HMV in Oxford St) were some of the harder to find things. Other titles that I can't get in Dubai or Abu Dhabi like the latest from Bon Iver, Wild Beasts and Fleet Foxes were also in the haul.

I'm working through the purchases and so far only one dud to report - Billy Cobham's Shabazz. And even then - maybe not a dud. When I put it on Jacky hated it so I whipped it out of the machine to try in the car sometime when she's not around.

I was amazed to find a lot of live archival CDs by bands like Jefferson Airplane on my travels. [Maybe a niche to explore. I know there is a website that just has old convert tapes to download]. One of my favourite all time albums is their 30 Seconds Over Winterland. I found a double live CD by JA at Winterland in 1972 that I've had on repeat for days.

It's not brilliantly recorded but it does shine a light on some neglected back catalogue jems from Long John Silver and Bark. It's great to hear Paul Kantner and Grace Slick soar through songs like When The Earth Moves Again (from Bark). Their voices combine so well! Amazingly Jack Cassidy gets the biggest cheer from the fans!

I'm currently grooving to Black Moses by Isaac Hayes. Another great (under rated) vocalist. The dude could really sing!!

Well it's a brimful of Asha on the 45 (Cornershop)

2011-07-28T09:05:00.000-07:00

I'm a tad depressed. I'm in London, having just been in Edinburgh. These should be the music capitals of the world right? Music stores all over the place filled with lashings of CDs and DVDs. Right? Because they always have been.

Sadly - they are not!!!

The Virgin Mega Stores are long gone. HMVs are closing down as I write - there is only one left on Oxford St. these days. The large FOPP in Edinburgh has been closed and a small one in Rose St. is a pale shadow of what it should be - mainly because FOPP has been taken over by HMV and it shows. The six Avalanche stores in Edinburgh have now become one store.

The situation is dire and will only get worse for music lovers like me who love browsing the bins.

Here's how dire: for the last two weeks, I have been looking for a new CD by Josh T Pearson that Mojo has reviewed with album-of-the-year style notices. I have also been looking for Keith Jarrett's Koln concert CD. It's a jazz landmark and I need to replace my old recorded cassette version.

I have tried everywhere - all the big and small HMVs, all the big and small FOPPs. Nada, zip, zilch, nuttin. There is only one thing I can do - go online.

And there you have the demise of record shops. Most people, these days, if they are going to buy a CD at all are going to maybe (big maybe) go to an HMV. One. Not there? Okay - let's try online. Done deal. All over rover.

Okay - enuf misery. There have been some successes and I will be returning to the desert with a lot of great finds.

And the good thing is that vinyl is still around. Imagine my delight and surprise when I entered the FOPP near Tottenham Court Rd to find a 45 by Beady Eye. Fab - I snapped that up. Okay - only 2 tracks and it cost £4 but it had to be done.

In Keswick I stumbled on a vinyl treasure trove at a collectables' shop. Not only that but there was a large number of Zappa titles - including a mint copy of 200 Motels. I don't have it, it's managed to be elusive, so it was a £30 pound bargain in my eyes. Trouble is I have to wait until I return to my belongings in NZ at some point in the future to actually play them. Before that we'll need to buy a house to unpack it in - details, details.

Tomorrow we are off to Paris. I don't hold out much hope of adding to the collection there but I am forever optimistic.

So pack your toys away...your 45s away...you're moving out today (Carole Bayer Sager)

2011-07-10T01:39:00.000-07:00

We are moving apartments in Al Ain. From one side of town to the other.

Why? Short version - we are the only people continuing on contract in our old apartment (called 'Gardens') so it's not being renewed by my company and we are being moved to a new building (called 'Yellow Jimi' coz it's in Al Jimi district and painted yellow).

It's great! I love the change of skins. It means re-evaluating my DVD and music collection that has built up since we arrived in Al Ain last November. Ultimately our stuff will need to be shipped back to Nu Zild next year so I only want to ship good stuff home.

I've decided to be tough on myself and sift out the non essentials, then bin them (this is the tough bit - I normally recycle unwanted CDs to second hand outlets but these don't exist in the UAE). I hate having to throw away CDs and books but it has to be done. The weeding out process means only the strong survive and my collection is all the better for it.

So far the list includes some Fiona Apple, Lady Gaga (her latest one stinks like yesterday's diapers), early Lacuna Coil, Drive By Truckers and others.

Inevitably there is always a 10CC album that gets binned. For some reason I buy 10CC albums at regular intervals, thinking I will love them but they turn into massive disappointments. I never learn. Mainly because I love about four of their songs (The Dean and I, Rubber Bullets and the two listed below) and I am forever optimistic that they will be able to sustain that kind of quality over an album.

Latest hopeful victim was The Original Soundtrack. Two great tracks, I'm Not In Love and Life Is A Minestrone and the rest - bleugh.

I'm not sure why. They had Graham Gouldman in the band and he'd written some staggering songs that the Yardbirds took control of - Heart Full Of Soul, For Your Love and he did quality stuff like Bus Stop and Look Through Any Window for the Hollies. Eric Stewart has a great voice and Creme and Godley are clever clogs. In the end - two clever by half (haha).

They shoulda/coulda/woulda but, for me, they did nae fulfil their potential.

Hear yer head a-banging on the door (Oasis)

2011-07-06T23:31:00.000-07:00

Liam and Noel Gallagher's band, Oasis, broke up their soap opera existence a while ago (2009) and the brothers now find themselves in opposing camps.

Liam is an iconoclastic front man (even though he sings with his hands behind his back and his head tilted up so that he's singing to the pigeons on the enormo-stadium roof) and Noel is the iconoclastic guitarist and songwriter (Liam's songs are pretty naff).

Now Liam fronts Oasis without Noel - same members but now called Beady Eye (a really naff band name) while Noel is going solo with an album coming out in October (why so long?). I bought the Beady Eye album like I've bought all the Oasis albums on release. I've only listened to it once right through so far. It's okay but the Mojo review was full of unjustified praise. It's an okay Oasis lite album (I'd slot it in about 9th equal place in my favourite Oasis album list with their last two studio albums).

(What's the Story) Morning Glory? (1995)
Heathen Chemistry (2002)
Be Here Now (1997)
Definitely Maybe (1994)
Masterplan (1998)
MTV Unplugged (Noel solo) (1996)
...There and Then (1996)
Standing on the Shoulder of Giants (2000)
Beady Eye (2011)
Dig Out Your Soul (2008)
Don't Believe the Truth (2005)

As you can tell I am inclined towards the Noel camp, although both of them can be pretty obnoxious. However, anyone who writes songs like Wonderwall and Don't Look Back In Anger gets my vote. They both make good copy though and their interviews are always worth reading.

The sibling rivalry aspect is pretty interesting. At the end of the day blood is thicker than water but you wouldn't know it from the way brothers have tiffs in bands.

Dire Straits, Creedence Clearwater Revival, The Kinks are three that immediately spring to mind. In each one a dominant song writing brother, who was the main singer (Mark Knopfler, John Fogerty, Ray Davies) outshone and clashed with the other guitarist brother (David Knopfler, Tom Fogerty, Dave Davies). Egos went into overdrive and being stuck together in a pressure cooker environment and having a baseline of sibling rivalry clearly added up to a potent brew.

In the Gallagher's case it turned ugly early on and ended in violence. Not a good recipe for sustained success.

I'm looking forward to Noel's solo album. In the meantime I'll have another listen to Beady Eye.

You introduced me, to my mind (Black Sabbath)

2011-07-05T01:00:00.000-07:00

Nothing sums up my naivety more than this track. Of course, it is obvious to me now that this song is celebrating Ozzie's love of marijuana but I was a naive young 13 year old guy when I bought the Master Of Reality album and gazed at the long haired heavy metaller young gods lounging around a tree! http://www.flickr.com/photos/bradley_loos/437742563/

The song itself was a revelation to me at that seminal time. I loved playing it loud and the guitar riff burrowed its way into my skull over repeat listenings. Perfect air guitar fodder.

I have two memories that (maybe) reveal the ignorance/naivety of my teachers and parents.

During the fifth form, I had to do a speech at school for English, and I chose to do it on my musical discoveries (by then I had a sizeable collection and it was an obvious choice of topic). I threaded up my dad's reel to reel and used Sweet Leaf as a key track. My teacher was impressed and asked me to repeat my speech - obviously he didn't get the real intent behind the lyrics either.

The other memory is of my parents dragging me out of my bedroom at 18 Korma Rd., during a party they were hosting, to play Sweet Leaf to their friends. I did so (at some volume). I guess everyone was suitably amused and I went back to my room armed with party food. My parents (and I) never indulged in drugs so this wasn't a knowing wink to anything!

The technology has moved on in the intervening years and now I can add the track to my blog. Live versions don't do it I'm afraid. Even the rough Live At Last version is a pale shadow of the behemoth that roared out of one my first (and best) ever purchases.

Rolling in the deep (Adele)

2011-06-28T22:13:00.000-07:00

I am fascinated, obsessed, forever interested in the Woodstock festival of 1969.

It all began with the trailer before a movie I watched it 1970 when I was 13. I have no idea what the actual movie was that I saw because all I could think about was the incredible new world of long hair, hippie chicks, nudity and freaky music that I had just had a tantalisin glimpse of. BTW - said trailer is no where to be found on youtube - just a corporate sell for the Blu Ray edition. Sad.

I've recently read a couple of books on the festival, got Santana's full set on CD and bought the 4 DVD director's cut edition. Woodstock definitely has legs. I for one, can't get enough.

Speaking of youtube - it has some cool clips from performances that haven't made the triple vinyl soundtrack, the Woodstock II double vinyl soundtrack, the director's cut DVD or the compilation soundtrack CDs that have appeared over the years.

Scooter and the big man bust this city in half (Scooter)

2011-06-23T00:33:00.000-07:00

1975, aged 18, in the sixth form at Mount Albert Grammar - I'm driving in my (mum's) car, I turn on the radio, I was riding alone through the drizzling rain, trying to look so hard, and a transistor blasts, I turn around the corner and things got real quiet real fast.

It's a wild song playing and I'm transfixed - turns out to be Born To Run by someone called Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band.

Aarrrgghhhh it's so good. The lyrics capture me, the driving drums get my body moving, the mid song count down hooks me, and the sax sound - always the sax sound. The Big Man on saxophone.

Clarence - you had a hold on me right from the start, a grip so tight I couldn't tear it apart.

Sadly the Big Man is no more than a plaintive saophone wail now, maybe that one at the end of Jungleland. Who'll ease the sadness, who's gonna quiet the pain?

The answer is, of course, Clarence and the Boss will quiet the pain - with their song with the funky break.

It started here:

And it ends where it begins. Thanks Clarence and so long, sometimes you just gotta walk on, walk on.

Burn me in hell but as long as it pays (10CC)

2011-06-22T01:25:00.000-07:00

Okay - so the final post in my album cover series and it's the second, best of the rest and last one on the arty farty theme. Next post - the Big Man remembered.

Aren't these covers awesome??!!

Neutral Milk Hotel - In The Aeroplane Over The Sea

King Crimson - In The Court of the Crimson King

Frank Zappa - The Grand Wazoo

My series ends with the first cover that really zapped me between the eyeballs.

Love and peace - Wozza

I close my eyes and remember the days of a blood red sky and a purple haze (Starship)

2011-06-21T00:03:00.000-07:00

The final theme centres on the arty farty world of the album cover. In practice this is a bit of a mixture of comic book art, drawings, and paintings used to sell an image - Commander Cody as a Flash Gordon type character, Conan the Barbarian style warriors used on the southern boogie band Molly Hatchet and so on.

I have many favourites in this category - here are the first 10.

By the way - the Big Man's passing will be marked in the appropriate way in a post to come soon. In the meantime suffice to say the world got a little less flamboyent and a little less exciting as a result of his passing.

Circled so fine like a velvet palace (Hot Tuna)

2011-06-18T21:47:00.000-07:00

Today's album cover theme centres on the striking typography used to register a name into a buyer's consciousness.

I feel like letting my freak flag fly (CSNY)

2011-06-16T22:42:00.000-07:00

Leading on from that weird Placibo cover - Sleeping With Ghosts - the next cover theme features similar freakily surreal worlds.

Pink Floyd - Division Bell

ELP - Brain Salad Surgery

Led Zeppelin - 4th album

Pink Floyd - Meddle

Pink Floyd - Piper At The Gates Of Dawn

Led Zeppelin - Houses Of The Holy

Paul McCartney

She sells sanctuary (The Cult)

2011-06-16T00:30:00.000-07:00

After those pastoral album covers it's natural that we introduce a human component into the frame/garden of delights, as seen in the following best of relationship covers.

Let's be clear - sex sells! The Scorpions' and Ohio Players' covers prove that on their loansome.

Placebo - Sleeping with ghosts

Let creation reveal its secrets by and by (Jackson Browne)

2011-06-14T22:32:00.000-07:00

This post's album cover round up theme is - nature. Often this means a tree (or trees) or a sylvan glade. Clouds are also a biggy, so are waves (of dreams). You can't beat a moody landscape!

I'd rather be with... (Pearl Jam)

2011-06-13T20:14:00.000-07:00

New theme today...animals. They often make for an interesting, eye catching image to sell an album. Here's my top 10.

Pink Floyd - Atom Heart Mother

Get her in the palm of your hand (10CC)

2011-06-12T21:23:00.000-07:00

The final post on the musicians taking centre stage theme.and it's my favourite category - cartoon or drawn representations of the group.

One of my favourite top 5 covers of all time is the West Bruce & Laing cover to their second album. The music is sloppy and debached (and nowhere as good as their epic first album) and the cover is a perfect complement to that. I know the cover backwards because I have stared at it for hours.

The Rolling Stones - It's Only Rock'n'Roll

Gimme in the kitchen, gimme in the hall (10CC)

2011-06-12T03:23:00.000-07:00

The theme is musicians taking centre stage or out standing in their field - location doesn't matter. I couldn't narrow the whole group shot thing down to my favourite ten so here are twenty!

Allman Brothers Band - At the Fillmore East

The Byrds (without Crosby who is replaced by...)

Ummagumma

Yes

The Who

Wings - Wildlife

Beatles - Abbey Rd

Beatles - Hey Jude

Creedence Clearwater Revival - Green River

The Doors

Gimme your love, gimme it all (10CC)

2011-06-09T01:33:00.000-07:00

Keeping with the theme of the musician taking centre stage; we move onto group shots now. First up - the close up head shots.

This kind of cover is definitely gone burger. I can't think of any group who would now do close up mug shots for a CD cover. Sends too many messages that they don't want out there in 2011. Even rampant egotists like Bono wouldn't dare, even though they want your love.

No apologies for the fab four dominance of this category - they set and maintained the standard!

Badfinger - Straight Up

The Rolling Stones - Between The Buttons

The Beatles - For Sale

The Byrds

The Fabs

The Fabs again.

Still gotta keep makin the loot (10CC)

2011-06-07T22:57:00.000-07:00

Still continuing with that first theme - the musician takes centre stage, here are my top 10 album covers using long shots.

John and Yoko's Unfinished Music No2 - Life With The Lions

Neil Young turns his back on stardom and aims for the ditch.

Yoko Ono/Plastic Ono Band

Paul (Ramon) and Linda McCartney

Frank and Don alone together.

Money talks so listen to it (10CC)

2011-06-06T21:18:00.000-07:00

Continuing with the first theme - the musician takes centre stage, here are my top 10 album covers using mid shots.

Art for art's sake, money for God's sake (10CC)

2011-06-05T23:26:00.000-07:00

My recent post on record albums remade as books has made me think about some of my favourite record covers. Sadly, the art of designing a fantastic image for a record has gone the way of record shops with the advent of, first the CD, and now the download, where no image at all is required. This is not only sad but a criminal waste of talent and imagination. Album cover art deserves to be celebrated (and a quick google search will reveal that the blogosphere hasn't forgotten it as an art form).

So I have compiled my personal favourites and blown them up as big as I can get away with. Size does matter when it comes to album cover art. But the choice is subjective so keep that in mind as you view my choices.

Rather than put them all on one post, I have gone through them all and put them into loosely themed groups. Here's the first batch called The Musician Takes Centre Stage. First installment: top ten close ups of the artist. I've attached a caption only where it's not really clear who the artist is.

Lene Marlin as a Norwegian blue.

Sssshhhh - it's Alvin Lee in fractured mood.

Grace Slick's Manhole

It started out with a kiss...(The Killers)

2011-06-01T00:31:00.000-07:00

I have just discovered these images from the graphic designer Christophe Gowans; the National published a story on him in their Arts section a few days ago.

He has used his imagination to rethink some old record albums as book covers. My personal favourite is the Robert A Zimmerman title Blood On The Tracks but they are all great.

Love and peace - Wozza

What if she twisted the truth to fit in (Lene Marlin)

2011-05-28T00:41:00.000-07:00

Success already! I tracked down another Lene Marlin CD on the weekend.

This one is from 2009 called Twist The Truth. It's very different to the first one I got a few weeks back (the comparatively lush Another Day from 2003). Clearly she wasn't having a great time in 2009. She might have called it Heaven Knows I'm Miserable Now if that wasn't ripping off Morrissey.

The first track is called Everything's Good and it's positive in it's outlook but that good humour steadily decreases during the next 8 songs until the last track (You Will Cry No More), which deals with the aftermath of a death; maybe a better title would have been from the second song, I'm not feeling well these days.

Along the way we have Lene dealing with her insecurities, scars and regrets. And there appear to be a lot of them. Definitely not yer standard pop fare. It's awesome stuff.

Her vocals are fantastic and the instruments are sparsely distributed - mostly acoustic guitar from Lene (talented), piano (again Lene), violin, dobro, cello and you get the idea. There is nothing cluttered.

Lene writes all the words and music as well. Impressive.

So - two great (different) CDs. I'm looking forward to finding the remaining two.

Fields of ghosts (Bambino)

2011-05-25T23:52:00.000-07:00

Bambino is a trip hop producer/musician that is always on high rotate in the Goo Goo G'Joob lounge. Been grooving to this one of late. Love these ethereal icy gossamer threads of sound. The vaguely disembodied ghostly voices create a perfect underlying support to the tune.

One of Bambino's best!

He got caught in the spotlight (The Band)

2011-05-21T00:16:00.000-07:00

Mark Beaumont recently posted on solo albums (featured on the Guardian's music blog). It was a really interesting post and was of the moment as I began listening to James Labrie's two solo albums. Neither of which I was aware of before I saw them at the Virgin Megastore in Dubai.

James is (I'm pretty sure the use of present tense is still right) the lead vocals man in the progressive rock outfit called Dream Theater (sic) for the uninitiated. I love Dream Theater's meaty metallic way with a prog structure. They are blessed with a fantastic guitarist and drummer (the necessary building blocks) and James has a great vocal range. So why would James do some solo albums? Maybe to branch off into another musical genre?

From the Beaumont post:

Time was, if a band's vocalist put out a solo album it meant only one thing: irreconcilable differences, singer and guitarist chewing each other's throats out over who slept with who's girlfriend, the beginning of the end of the band. Lennon released his first Plastic Ono Band single in August 1969 and the Beatles were toast within the year. Phil Collins and Bryan Ferry snuck off from their Genesis and Roxy Music motherships to build the groundwork for solo careers over some years, but ultimately it was the Other Blokes who got sidelined. And in pop the practice was even more mercenary – at least Beyoncé gave her Destiny's Child brethren a farewell album and tour after the success of Dangerously in Love proved her the golden goose of the group. No such luck, The Rest of Boyzone.

The solo album was invariably a toe-dip into the murky pool of individual success, and if the waters were found welcoming, the singer dived in. But of late there's been a shift in attitude; solo albums have become legitimate pressure valves for singers' creative steam. Inspired by autonomic US collectives such as the Wu-Tang Clan or Animal Collective – where solo projects went hand-in-hand with group releases – the past 18 months has seen a positive glut of solo albums. Brandon Flowers, Julian Casablancas, Kele Okereke, Interpol's Paul Banks and Maximo Park's Paul Smith have all put out their own records while insisting their band is merely "on a break", and in the coming months Noel Gallagher, J Mascis and ex-Rascals and Last Shadow Puppets linchpin Miles Kane join the lone ranger ranks.

But why so many singers nipping off from their bands for a crafty solo album on the side? ...the most common reason is a fear of creative inertia or an inability to stop writing during down-time. After five years and three albums of solid touring and promotion, many bands crave a hefty dose of R&R, but frontmen, it seems, get itchy.

The most cynical view of the solo album, however, remains the mercenary front-person considering the shelf-life of their band and the attention span of their audience and deciding to cut loose the dead wood while they're still popular. And that, surely, signposts the end of the band?

Beaumont didn't include James Labrie in his list but he might have. Frankly, though, I'm puzzled. I really like James' first solo album - Elements of Persuasion. Only thing is it sounds just like Dream Theater. He's drafted in some other players who sound awfully like his mates in the mothership. Why couldn't he record with them? The songs are similar - he sounds the same: no acoustic folk or jazz stylings; no urban beats or synth washes here - just great sounding prog rock.

I could add any of the solo tracks to a mix tape with Dream Theater and defy anyone to tell the difference.

That's not a bad thing, just a weird thing. Wonder what the the other guys in the band think? Or are they off doing 'their own thing' which sounds exactly like the band thing as well?

Two pressure cookers go insane (Alice Cooper)

2011-05-19T23:29:00.000-07:00

I see recently that Ringo Starr (bless him) is touring the UK again with his All Starr Band.

Rick is third from left, next to Ritchie.

This time around the band includes the amazing Rick Derringer who seems, like Mr Starkey, to be ageless. He's been around since the 60's (Hang On Snoopy), had some brilliant albums in the 70's and some key moments playing with the Winter brothers along the way.

One of my favourite albums is his All American Boy which includes, for me, his two greatest moments: Rock and Roll Hoochie Koo and Teenage Love Affair.

So much of rock and roll is about being a teenager. That seminal time in our lives when we only care about ouselves and we view the world with a chip on our shoulder. Most rock and rollers try hard to keep that spirit of teenagerhood alive in their music, well into their middle age and beyond (John Mellencamp's memorable phrase - hold onto 16 as long as you can is a constant aim of mine). I only need mention the oldest teenage gang on the planet - The Rolling Stones - to make my point convincing.

So many of my favourite songs are about that rebellious, angst ridden time; summed up by Pete Townshend's it's only teenage wasteland phrase.

Teenage Love Affair captures the essence of teenage lust, in this case lived vicariously. No way have boy-girl relationships been as easily consummated as Rick would have it. The song smacks of that teenage boy thing of bigging up sexual encounters. But who knows - guitars seem to have an aphrodisiacal effect on girls.

Another great teenage themed song is Alice Cooper's Teenage Lament '74.

Alice tells a familiar tale - trying to look cool in trendy (uncomfortable) clothes, trying to get a cool haircut and looking like a rooster instead, getting told to turn your music down (when that's one of your few ways to be independent) and wanting to get away from home but not really knowing what to do.

Like a hiding, like a shade (Lene Marlin)

2011-05-17T06:31:00.000-07:00

Lene Marlin is my most recent discovery.

I love it when I chance upon someone new and they have a sizeable back catalogue for me to track down. The last one was John Mayer (see an earlier post). Now it's Lene's turn.

She came to my notice via a sampler called Divas. A double CD - it cost me 30 dirham from Carrefour and contained one amazing stand out song - Sitting Down Here. It was good enough to bear repeat listens and then to check out the credits to see who it was by. The voice is what hooked me. Her voice is so different but, paradoxically, it is also the sort of thing I'd hear on Radio 2 if I was in the UK.

Not knowing anything about her, I thought (like I initially did with John Mayer) that she was a pop oriented singer.

Not long after these repeat listens, I started to think about tracking down an album.

I managed to locate an album in the Virgin Megastore at Dubai's Mall Of The Emirates on the weekend. Called Another Day - it turns out it's her second album (she's got four out).

I was unprepared for the greatness of the whole album. Again - like John Mayer - it turns out she has hidden melodic depths and the voice that hooked me from Sitting Down Here is not found on the second album. It's even better. Weird.

I literally can't stop listening to the album. It's especially good at night - all swirly mood pieces and ethereal sounding. With only 10 songs on it I am left wanting more so I just hit play again after it ends.

Turns out Lene is from Sweden and that seems appropriate given the aural landscape she occupies on the album.

She is really unlike anything else I've heard. Usually you can trace a female singer/songwriters' DNA back to either Joni (the pop side) or Joan (folk) or Grace (the rock chick). She's not a folkie so discount Joan. She's not a confessional writer so that's a no to Joni as well. She doesn't make any of the normal rock moves so it's a third no to Grace. If anything there are hints of Aimee Mann in her vocal delivery. But they are only hints. And her songs are not similar to Aimee's in delivery or structure. Lene is one out of the box!

Exciting. A new discovery. Now I'm on a mission to track down the other three CDs.

I fell for you like a child, oh, but the fire went wild (Johnny Cash)

2011-05-15T04:04:00.000-07:00

I was walking around the Oasis Sports resort while Jacky was at the Equestrian Centre, listening to my ipod on shuffle. I know I've said it before, but I'll say it again - I LOVE THE SHUFFLE MODE!

The next song starts up - a kind of distinctive country chicken scratch-shuffle and the words:

Don’t call my name out your window, I’m leavin'.

The voice is even more distinctive - like no other on the planet. That of Johnny Cash.

It seemed incredibly appropriate that Johnny Cash's drawl should form the soundtrack for my circumstances. A cement-mixer truck had just emerged out of the twilight murk and barrelled past me, on a closed to traffic part of the road, scraying me with so much dust that I had to lift my shirt up over my face to avoid choking. Yet all the heat and dust was batted away by Johnny and his fine fine song. So much so that I ended up with a big grin on my face. Meditate on it.

In truth, I've only been a sometime friend to J R Cash over the years. I own vinyl copies of the prison albums (San Quentin and Folsom) and that's it, apart from tracks on various samplers (where Understand Your Man on my ipod must have come from).

But he seems to have always been there in one form or another:

a copy of his Ballad of a Teenage Queen 45 (produced the year I was born) lying around my cousin's bedroom when I was very young
those prison albums
The Johnny Cash Show in the early seventies
the Levis advert using Ring of Fire
Hurt and the renaissance years
and now my own children are putting Ring Of Fire on compilations for me. Full circle.

Needless to say Jacky hates him. In Dubai on the weekend she saw me looking at the J Cash racks and was horrified. She calls it Hillbilly music and the thing is I can kind of understand where that comes from. It's music she heard growing up in her mother's house and it's therefore old and because her mother liked it it's tarred with a brush called annoying that, for her, has also touched Neil Diamond, Jim Reeves and Patsy Cline, among others.

Jacky made a remark to the salesman that was a kind of a laughed apology. But what she doesn't get is that Johnny has always been different to those other names, and that succeeding generations (like the shop assistant, and our own children) actually like the cool songs of Johnny Cash.

You hear me talkin' honey?

I'll be there for you like I've been there before (The Rembrandts)

2011-05-06T22:30:00.000-07:00

I was thinking about TV theme songs a while ago and day dreaming about how lucky The Rembrandts were. Well maybe it turned into a curse but I bet they were thrilled to betsy when some TV executive rang them up and said, "Guess what fellas - we want one of your songs to be the opening theme of our new TV show called Friends".

Maybe the Rembrants have a long and distinguished career and many hits that I know nothing about. Maybe. But I'm willing to bet not. They got saturation coverage every week for years and their song became inextricably linked to the show.

My favourite theme songs share this characteristic. They are all from the golden age (or more accurately - my childhood TV viewing years). If I just had the sound without the pictures I can tell you what show they were from no problem.

Enjoy mine (yours were?).

Can you hear us pumping on your stereo? (Supergrass)

2011-05-06T19:59:00.000-07:00

This is my 100th post on this blog. That's fairly significant I think. 100 rants about music.

What should I do to celebrate? Maybe a list of 100 somethings? Mmm no - that might be a bit of a bridge too far.

Maybe I could do a greatest hits type post of my favourite posts so far. Mmmm no again - they're all there if you want to dip into my back pages.

Instead I'd like to return to the beginning of it all and that was a post on April 13 in 2009 - just over two years ago.

Here's what I wrote:

So we (Jacky me and Samantha) were sitting in our favourite lunch place - Lush in New Plymouth's centre city - and Samantha was asking about my blogging for family/friends and why I didn't put more music posts on it and I said because a lot of wozza's place people don't read that stuff so I was limiting that from now on and Jacky (God bless her) said, "Why don't you just do a music blog and..." (I had drifted off into a distant realm). I think I said in a dreamy far away voice, "Of course - a blog just for my rants on music. But where do I start". Samantha helpfully suggested I start from the beginning!

The beginning - The beginning for me is watching the Ed Sullivan Show on New Zealand TV in maybe 1965 or 1966 (whenever NZBC got around to showing it. I was about 8 or 9) and wozza's place readers will know what effect that had on me. No surprise then that this blog is named after Lennon's walrus sound. The hooks were sharp and deep!

Actually - that wasn't, strictly speaking, the real beginning, now I come to think of it.

The real start of my musical adventures would involve my parents and their love of piano jazz and swing music. I would hear their choices around the house and gaze at the covers of the albums they owned long before The Beatles crashed my consciousness.

These would include albums by Dave Brubeck, Oscar Peterson, Errol Garner, Duke Ellington, Jimmy Smith, Glenn Miller, Woody Herman, and Frank Sinatra (my mother's favourite).

I guess what I meant, in that first post, was that the first music that was mine was the Beatles on Ed Sullivan.

In that first post I also did my own responses to the regular 'All Back To Mine' quiz in Mojo magazine. Seems timely that I do an update.
What music are you currently grooving to?
I'm still constantly buying and listening to music - right now I'm listening to my latest purchases, all of which I've picked up cheaply in the local Al Ain supermarkets: The Crowded House waifs and strays compilation Afterglow which is excellent - their cast offs are better than some band's whole careers; A compilation entitled Saturday Night Divas (Tina Turner's Steamy Windows and Lene Marlin are on there so it's pretty fine); another compilation called Metal For The Masses (Lacuna Coil, Strapping Young Lad keep Deep Purple and Scorpions company); and a Supergrass compilation of hits - Supergrass is 10. I love their chirpy Britpop fun songs.
What, if push came to shove, is your all-time favourite album?
In all my various best of lists two albums have always vied for best ever - The Beatles white album (really called 'the Beatles'), and John Lennon's 1970 solo album - 'John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band'. The shock of the invention and honesty in each makes them my favs by some distance.

What was the first record you ever bought? And where did you buy it?
I've an unreliable memory on this. I've always thought it was The Hollies single 'Hey Willie' that I bought from the record bar in 246 (a large mall in Queen St, Auckland). However this was in 1971 and I'd already got some albums before that for Christmas 1970 The Beatles 'Hey Jude' - from a record shop in Otahuhu and I also had a clutch of albums including a best of The Cowsills, a Monkees album and a Hollies album around this same time.

Which musician, other than yourself, have you ever wanted to be?
The Mojo questions are often given to musicians of course and I'm not one. However for a while there after seeing Sonny Terry and Brownie McGhee in concert (I was about 10 feet away at Nambassa) I bought a blues harp and wailled along with Sonny - desperate to be as cool as he was.

What do you sing in the shower?
I wish I could sing, but a man's gotta know his limitations.

What is your favourite Saturday night song?
Let's have a Party by Billy Thorpe and the Aztecs is the finest thing to twitch around to that I know. Don't Let Go redone by Cold Chisel on their live album is also damn good.

And your Sunday morning record?
Currently it's a good time for some Jazz (Dexter Gordon), Buddha Lounge chill music or Rumer's excellent Seasons of My Soul album (makes me long to be in England too).

You're a bad dog baby (Gilbert O'Sullivan)

2011-04-29T08:18:00.000-07:00

My friend Gregarious recently posted on Leo Sayer on his seventies blog (link on the left column) and it reminded me of the deep dislike I have always had for Leo Sayer. It also reminded me of my soft spot for Gilbert O'Sullivan.

Eh? I hear you say. But they are peas in a pod. How can you love one and dislike the other?

Seventies singer-songwriters with naff names (Gilbert? Leo?), big Richard Simmons hair, a penchant for cringe inducing songs (Oh wakka doo wakka day anyone?) and very non rock n roll images (Leo's suspenders and Gilberts sweaters with a big G on them - I rest my case).
.
But to me - one was cooler (Gilbert) than the other. Why? One reason really.

Get down.

Get Down is so stoopid and prescient it's almost early punk/ early Norwegian death metal.

Who am I trying to kid! It's a guilty pleasure (it turns up on Vol 2 after all) shared by a few saddos like me who bought the Guilty Pleasures albums).

But it's really infectious and it stays on my ipod because I feel good whenever I hear it.

Yellow River is in my blood, it's the place I love (Christie)

2011-04-26T19:26:00.000-07:00

This is the first song I really, really fell in love with. This and San Bernadino.

The video is a classic - clearly they had a sense of humour filming this on the muddy old Thames when they had 3 mins spare while on tour.And check out those mutton chops!

Yellow River's lyrics are all about the hook - which for me was this magical name/place Yellow River. Those two words in conjunction sound great. My mind was free to conjure up a town and place that this guy was trying to get back to after a war (Vietnam was topical but this harks back to an earlier conflict like the American Civil War with its allusion to 'cannon fire').

At the time (1970) I had yet to develop my cultural love affair with all things American. Maybe this, and San Bernadino, started that mythic journey into American culture for me. I developed in the seventies a fascination for what was happening in Vietnam; American films (westerns when I was growing up like Villa Rides, Eldorado and The Scalphunters); poetry (Robert Bly, Allen Ginsberg and Walt Whitman); and music (Woodstock sent me off into a delirium that still has hold of me).

I'm well and truely over the love affair with American culture now (blame Gangsta Rap, vacuous celebrities, and an endless parade of musical dross over the last two decades).

Yellow River has all the right ingrediants for me - simple story, guitars, it's short , has enough variety in it's structure, and it has a hook. Call it power pop!

_____________________________________________________

I have very few OH MY GOD moments these days, but I've JUST had one!

I went to wikipedia to find out more about Christie and was blown away. For the last 43 years I've thought they were an American band - had to be - civil war, Yellow River is an American place name - gotta be!

Nope! They were from England!! Not only that - but Jeff Christie was from bloody LEEDS. A Yorkshireman! Holy heck fire!

I'm stunned. Thanks wikipedia.

I got my own world to look through and I ain't gonna copy you (Jimi Hendrix)

2011-04-23T08:28:00.000-07:00

The guy described by Tom Moon in that last posting was, of course - James Marshall Hendrix.

Jimi is still everywhere. New product keeps on coming from Janie Hendrix and the Hendrix estate at regular intervals. His image is still everywhere - T shirts and such.

And his influence is everywhere too. When I listen to anything with an electric guitar doing somersaults I hear echoes of Jimi.

I bought the new Mojo in Dubai on the weekend and Bootsy Collins is interviewed to support his new album. Bootsy's all time top 5 leads off with the great If 6Was 9 and his new album even has a Hendrix spoken word sample on it!

My Hendrix experience began when I was about 13 with a single (Stone Free backed with If 6 Was 9) and the Live At The Isle Of Wight single vinyl album. This was music from another place. I gazed at the cover forever and made a huge poster of Hendrix based on the Filmore East cover. It was a forever part of my teenage bedroom in white NZ suburbia.

Forty years later and I'm still buying his work (the teenage bedroom posters are long, long gone).

I recently bought a Hendrix DVD - his appearances on The Dick Cavett Show - and he is sick and tired and absolutely electrifying!

I also recently bought another of the Hendrix's-final-studio-album-as-he-intended-it CDs. I've lost count of how many of these have come out but Valleys Of Neptune is as fraudulent as the others (I still love my Cry Of Love vunyl album though).

Valleys Of Neptune even contains versions of Stone Free, Hear My Train A Comin' and Red House. Although they are great their inclusion is disingenious (at best). And would Jimi have really included a version of Sunshine Of Your Love on a new studio album? I think not!

Let's call it what it is - a cash in and be up front. It STILL contains some great music, by the way. No one ever has or will match his guitar sound.

I'm goin' way down south, way down to Mexico way (The Leaves)

2011-04-15T01:49:00.000-07:00

I'm reading a collection of mini essays by Tom Moon at the moment. The writing is collected in a volume called, 1000 Recordings To Hear Before You Die. A cheery title - part of the series of 1000 things to do etc that are currently in vogue. I can recommend this one though. Tom baby writes really well.

Check this out for a description:

Inside his playing is a concentrated expression of abandon, freedom seeking, the embodiment of every psychedelic desire.

Who's he talking about do you think?

A clue is hidden in the title above.

The joint is jumpin' all around me (Rory Gallagher)

2011-04-09T07:33:00.000-07:00

My friend GK asked on his blog (seventies music) about first concert experiences and I posted a reply along the lines of - I'm more a listening guy than a watching guy. That is I prefer recorded sounds to the live concert experience. One of my earlier posts listed my favourite live albums.

I don't actually remember the first gig that I attended but I do have some that remain in my consciousness.

Hands down favourite gig for me is always going to be Rory Gallagher at the Auckland Town Hall in 1980. Even then I was a long term Rory fan (Irish Tour has always been a firm favourite) and he did not disappoint. He was touring behind his latest album - Top Priority and I'd been thrashing it to death throughout 1979 so I knew the songs and I knew the back catalogue. I was in a balcony seat and the whole place was jumping with excitement. An amazing show from a guitar genius who, you could tell, just lived and breathed music. The subsequent live album from that tour, 1980's Stage Struck, was a faithful reproduction of how exciting he was in concert.

The best of the rest:

Another top guitarist - George Thorogood - with the Delaware Destroyers. Also at the Town Hall. Same fever pitch feeling of connection with what was happening on stage.

Streettalk/ Split Enz at the old His Majesty's Theatre in the company of GK and his brother - Mike. Hammond Gamble played a fantastic version of the Rory song - A Million Miles Away and I was sold! The Enz did a terrific show as well with all the audience singing along. My memory has lumped this into one concert (with Golden Harvest) but maybe it was a series of events at the Theatre. Not sure.

Sonny Terry/Brownie McGhee at Nambassa - I was in the front few rows - close enough to see these guys sweat. Sonny and Brownie were old and gnarled (I remember them both being supported onto the stage) but they played a terrific set.

After hours/Waves - at The Old Maidment (Auckland University). GK and I went to this. An abiding memory is the pungent dope spell before we went in. It was a great concert and we were especially taken by After Hours with Geoff Chunn before Citizen Band days.

I have mixed memories of concerts at Western Springs. Pink Floyd (with Jacky) were good to great,and Rolling Stones (with friends Roger and Deirdre Marbeck) were past their peak but still sprightly enough during the Voodoo Lounge era. These were the pick of them at this venue.

We left town with the rock show (Lady Gaga)

2011-04-08T09:16:00.000-07:00

One of my old friends has started a blog on the music he loves - all from the age of his adolescence. In his case the seventies.

This is as it should be, of course. Because due to an freakish accident of birth we all have a narrow period when music of a certain type seeps into our soul and there's no shifting it. Lennon's period was 50's rockers like Elvis BTA (before the army) and Jerry Lee Lewis (for Lennon no one ever improved on Whole Lotta Shakin Goin' On). My wife is a generation younger than me and her musical connection is to the 80's (Duran Duran; Human League).

Mine is late 60's and 70's (Beatles - my earliest musical memory is watching them on the Ed Sullivan Show when it screened in NZ; Woodstock; Black Sabbath; Led Zep; Deep Purple; Rory Gallagher; Zappa; and all the other bands and soloists pictured down the left of this blog).

We all continue to love various songs and acts throughout the subsequent years, but it is those adolescent songs that act like barbs under the skin, that we can't shake - nor do we want to shake them because they rekindle some important formative memories when we hear them again years later.

Greg's seventies blog is right down my alley then and is hugely recommended. The link is in my blogroll.

My children also have their periods of musical connection. For Keegan (born 1984 so we're talking 90's) it will probably be Rammestein, Cannibal Corpse, Moby and for Adam (also 90's) the Wu Tang Clan will definitely be in the mix somewhere (even though I played him Beach Boys records when he was in the womb). Not so sure about Samantha (born 1989 so 2000's) and Jade (born 1991 so also the noughties). These latter times are download eras so everything is up for grabs. Jade is currently listening to Sinatra a lot so go figure.

Adam has put out another CD of his original music recently and it's damned good if I may add a completely impartial, objective opinion. If you are keen to sample - his nom de music is Bambino and the album is called Monitors. http://bambino1.bandcamp.com/

Love and peace - Wozza

Over the bridge of sighs to rest my eyes in shades of green (Small Faces)

2011-04-02T05:54:00.000-07:00

Well well well - what's this then? Wozza learning the guitar? Well yes - I believe it is!

Based on the theory that it's never too late to learn (rather than the maxim that you can't teach an old dog new tricks) I recently bought a guitar from a music shop in Dubai, with my son Adam's help. It was the music shop in the Dubai Mall. Sadek Music I think it's called.

It's just a basic classic guitar. I also bought, on a subsequent visit, a nifty little tuning device that I can use and an Idiot's Guide to Playing The Guitar book from the music section in that huge bookshop in the Dubai Mall.

Now the tricky bit - learning to play it!!

So far I'm doing the warm up exercises and trying to get my fingers used to where the frets are and where the strings are! It's tricky but the Eddy Ate Dynamite, Good Bye Eddie little memory device tells me where the strings are (EADGBE) from top to bottom.

I'll keep you posted on my progress via the blog - that way I have incentive to keep progressing.

Love and peace - Wozza

This should be a very dynamite show (Frank Zappa from Lumpy Gravy part 1)

2011-03-11T22:02:00.000-08:00

I've just finished reading a Zappa biography (Electric Don Quixote by Neil Slaven) which was okay for reminding about what a superb story teller Zappa was and it made me reconnect with the old albums again. It also brought me up to date to some degree with the late Zappa product - I'd kinda lost touch after Jazz From Hell.

It wasn't as jaw dropping as Ben Watson's The Negative Dialectics of Poodle Play though. Interesting that this seminal Zappa book gets no mention in the Slaven book for some reason.

Thought I'd return to the start of Zappa's musical career for this post. Here he is on The Steve Allen Show playing a bicycle! It provides a glimpse of his extraordinary genius - even at a young age before the hirsuite look developed. And not only with sounds but he's funny!!

It is the evening of the day (The Rolling Stones)

2011-03-03T00:47:00.000-08:00

A recent Uncut magazine special edition concentrated on The Rolling Stones and it took me ages to read it. Mainly because it was packed with great articles and reviews of all The Rolling Stone's albums (studio, live and compilations). Along with old interviews that were a hoot to read. It was great.

I have all of The Rolling Stone albums post Beggars Banquet on vinyl or CD. But I've never had an urge to get the earlier albums. Having read the magazine now, I've been keen to find the early albums on CD. No luck in the UAE though. The closest I could get was a couple of American albums that compiled various Stones tracks. UK's Latest Hitmakers has the awesome Route 66 and Carol and Flowers is a plain weird bunch of songs. I also found a copy of Big Hits and High Tides which is worthwhile.

I was talking about this, for some reason, to my Egyptian translator that we have work in my school. He's a guy in his thirties with a young family. He knows vaguely of the Beatles but, quite incredibly, he has never heard of The Rolling Stones. Nor even of Mick Jagger!!

How is this possible? A band who have been around since the early sixties, you would think that over the decades their story and their music has touched everybody at some point. Well no - not in the arabic world.

A few teachers at school notice my Beatles ties and ask who the figures are on them. When I say 'Beatles' a dim recollection comes into their body language. Something registers but they couldn't name a song or an album or tell me the four names (trust me - I've checked). So if the Beatles are a dim recollection - nothing else has a prayer.

The western pop world goes on unnoticed by the vast majority. Given the spread of interweb gossip and the arabs love of new technology (phones, play station, ipods etc) many of the younger generations will be more familiar with western pop.

Meanwhile, I'll continue to play Get Off Of My Cloud really loud in the car to and from work.

Love and peace - Wozza

One day you will find inexhaustable ecstacy (Amorphous Androgynous)

2011-02-23T00:20:00.000-08:00

Mojo turned me on to Amorphous Androgynous and while in London for Christmas I managed to track down a few CDs at Fopp.

AA are actually better known as The Future Sound of London. FSOL is actually two guys -Garry Cobain and Brian Dougans. Their work covers most areas of electronic music, such as ambient techno, house music, trip-hop, ambient dub, acid techno and often involves extreme experimentation.

I know them by one of their aliases: Amorphous Androgynous, a forum for their experiments with psychedelic rock sounds.

Apart from music they also make most of their own videos for their songs.

Here we go:

Guitar? Check! Microphone? Check! (John Mayer)

2011-01-03T22:25:00.000-08:00

Wow - he has it all! Including a polarising effect that I've not seen for a while.

He sings like a dream, plays guitar with style, power, feel, and grace, writes terrific songs. He can carry it off solo, in a trio, or leader of a larger band. He has definite stage presence and it doesn't hurt that he has good looks as well.

So what's not to love? Well plenty apparently if you read the gossip mags like my daughters do. They euphemistically call him 'a player'.

I had never heard of him until I caught one of his songs playing on a soundtrack. I remember asking the girls who it was and they set me straight on the name and the reputation.

I don't really care about his private life but I do know that he can play.

I first bought his album Continuum as a punt from The Warehouse in New Plymouth. I loved the songs and the voice but had no idea he could even play guitar until I caught up with his live albums. What a shock! The soulful Hendrix/Stevie Ray guitar style was so at odds with my superficial impression of him as a pretty boy pop star. Nothing could be further from the solid truth - he's talented!

I managed to pick up the last album that was missing from my Mayer collection (ironically - his first one called Room For Squares) from a shop in Dubai. It's in the pile for a listen as soon as possible.

Favourite track of his getting a high rotate in the Purdmobile is Something Missing.

Have you see her, have you heard? The way she plays there are no words. (Stone Roses)

2010-12-17T20:35:00.000-08:00

Speaking of Grateful Dead (previous post): I have often wondered why they bothered with two drummers. The Dead's songs are not that wild that they need two drummers surely? I know Hart calls himself a percussionist but that seems disingenuous. It's not like the Allman Brothers Band where one plays drums and t'other plays percussion instruments. Both Hart and Kruetzmann are playing drums in the Dead.

This got me thinking about other bands with two drummers and why they have them. The school of thought on the two drummer thing comes down to: either they exist to gain certain effects (eight limbs playing like eight limbs) or produce meatier drum sounds (eight limbs playing like four).

You either use each player to generate something totally different that comes together in a way that one drummer couldn't possibly achieve, or, you have two or more drummers playing the same thing to get an organic meaty sound that delays/EQ can't replicate. Like in a marching band.

Personally I mostly fail to see the point. Bonzo only needed one set after all. But then I watched Zappa's Roxy band and remembered he had Chester Thompson and Ralph Humphrey on drums. And they were amazing. Trouble every day from the Roxy and Elsewhere album has a HUGE drum sound. Zappa was a percussionist at heart and if it's good enough for him etc.

Chester Thompson also features on the Genesis track Home by the sea. It ends with an extended orgy of drums that puts the case for two drummers most succinctly. But the Dead?

P.S. Just heard from my son that Captain Beefheart died recently. He (my son) and I remain big fans. A sad day - the planet needs more courageous musicians like Frank and Don. Where is the like in today's crop?? Sho nuff there's no one!

It's a buck dancers choice my friend (Grateful Dead)

2010-12-15T01:29:00.000-08:00

Two purchases from Kings' Recordings were live Grateful Dead albums: Europe '72 I have in a variety of formats; I first taped a version of it way, way back in the day. I also have a fairly scratched triple vinyl copy and now a double CD set with loads of bonus tracks (including a stupendous version of Truckin').

It was one of the first things I ever heard by the Dead and it made an impression. All those long druggy noodling versions of songs on Live Dead never did it for me - instead I loved the relatively shorter, more coherent, noodling versions of songs on Europe '72.

I love the space in these versions. I'm not sure how they achieved that but it is there - a lightness of touch that is absent from Live Dead.

The second set from Kings' was Nightfall of Diamonds and picks up a set from 1989.

I love this one even more and it may well be my favourite live Dead experience (Workingman's Dead and American Beauty are the best studio sets by some distance but I also love Terrapin Station). There must be well over 50 live sets of the band that have been released over the years, and I've certainly not heard them all (who has?) but this one stands out for me from what I've heard.

On Nightfall... the band is tight as a drum (haha, and what else would you expect - they can play these songs in their sleep) and they are battle scarred (Garcia's voice on Dark Star is about shot), yet it's a magnificent collection of songs. Gotta say I love their version of Dylan's Stuck inside of Mobile with those Memphis blues again too. I turn this one up really loud in the car on the way home from work!!