Music is the wine that fills the cup of silence - ROBERT FRIPP.
Information is not knowledge;
knowledge is not wisdom;
wisdom is not truth;
truth is not beauty;
beauty is not love;
love is not music;
MUSIC IS THE BEST - FRANK ZAPPA.
I think we're a little happier when we have a little music in our lives - STEVE JOBS.
Music in the soul can be heard by the universe - LAO TZU.
Rock and Roll is fire, man. FIRE. - DAVID BRIGGS.
Music grips you, gets into your soul -
GEORGE MARTIN
.38 Special Hold On Loosely (edited version)/ Throw Out The Line(A&M, K 8251, 1980) Good ole wide-eyed southern boys .38 Special, with Donnie Van Zant on guitar/vocals, play a similar brand of southern rock music to Lynyrd Skynyrd (who have featured Donnie's two brothers on vocals - Ronnie who died tragically in that plane crash and Johnny). This was their first hit and, fun fact, in an act of serendipity it was the 13th video played on MTV's very first broadcast day in 1981. Why do I own this obscure single from some GOW-ES boys? Listen to those first 10 seconds and then picture me smiling growing to a shit eating grin, air guitar working overtime. Yes - it's that trio of guitars (from Don Barnes, Jeff Carlisi and Donnie) that does it to me. Doesn't hurt that Barnes' vocals are smooth as molasses on this song. Hidden gem: The B side - also from the parent album (Wide-Eyed Southern Boys) is another excellent slab of melodic guitar rock from Donnie and the boys.
Television Ain't That Nothin'/ Glory(Elektra, E 45 516, 1978) By no stretch of the imagination were Television pop stars, singles artists or in it for the glory. This single comes from their second album Adventure, which suffers from a text book case of second album syndrome. Marquee Moon was a revelation and a joy from start to finish; Adventure is anything but by comparison. How to follow up that awesome debut? Go for more concise songs that shy away from the nervy jagged spark of Marque Moon? Well - okay, but it didn't work guys! So what's the deal with this single? In short it's a pale imitation of Marque Moon's guitar adventurism. Three seconds after playing it, all I can remember is Tom Verlaine's plaintive cry of 'Ain't that nothin'. The band called it a day after this. Richard Lloyd went on to release a wonderful solo album (Alchemy) in 1979 and Tom Verlaine also had a solo career before they reconvened the band (unsuccessfully) in the nineties. Marquee Moon casts a giant shadow! Hidden gem: Glory contravenes the trade description act! It ain't nothin' of the sort!
Mick Taylor Leather Jacket/ Slow Blues(CBS, BA 222569, 1979)
Mick has many claims to fame - surviving life with Keef in The Rolling Stones is definitely one. His previous roles, as a Bluesbreaker for John Mayall and as the brilliant guitar replacement for Brian Jones in The Rolling Stones, didn't really translate into a brilliant solo career. Pretty sure there have been only two studio solo albums since leaving the Stones. Mainly he seems to enjoy the sideman role. This is a pretty cool solo single though. Leather Jacket is catchy and he sings well, as well as playing some tasteful guitar, keyboards and bass guitar! Hidden gem: I suspect this is where his heart really lies: great slow blues guitar. This is also off that first 1979 solo album called Mick Taylor: an under rated joy!
Talking Heads Take Me To The River (edit)/ Thank You For Sending me An Angel (version) (Sire, SRE 1013, 1978) Talking Heads Psycho Killer/ Psycho Killer (accoustic version sic) (Sire, SRE 1013, 1979 sic) A few weird things going on here - Psycho Killer appeared on the album 77, which was released in 1977, so why it took NZ two years to release it, I don't know; the B side can't spell acoustic; and Take Me To The River chops a minute and a half off the album version...why?? Bizarre. An apt word for this smarty pants brigade. Smarty pants in a good way though! But I'm getting ahead of myself here, Talking Heads were the band du jour for all us white middle class hipsters attending our first year at Auckland University in 1977. I am normally suspicious of the hip new thing so it actually took a weekend live in course on American poetry run by my friend Roger Horrocks to win me over. Someone brought the record along and it was played during that weekend. Sorted. 77 is full of spiky tension, jerky rhythm and nervousness (David Byrne's voice is utterly distinctive). Psycho Killer is all of that and more. Don't touch me, I'm a real live wire! Take Me To The River is the opposite of all that - it's all about the groove (Al Green - the song's co-creator, is the master of groove). Needless to say it was a big hit in NZ in 1978. Clearly the band wanted to send a signal! Say one thing once - why say it again? Hidden gems: The acoustic version of Psycho Killer (NOT to be confused with the Stop Making Sense version below) is okay but it escapes me why they put this on the B side - there must be a reason...Thank You etc is not that exciting and the reason I never actually bought the difficult second album (More Songs About Buildings And Food) in the first place.
The Swingers One Good Reason/ All Over Town (Ripper Records, RIP 002, 1980) The Swingers Counting The Beat/ One Good Reason (Ripper Records, RIP 012, 1981) Three posts in a row on kiwi rock! Nice. Phil Judd is an interesting character to say the least. He was a founding member of NZ's favourite sons - Split Ends/Enz but finally left in 1978 after 6 years. The Swingers existed for even less time, from 1979 to 1983. Life since then has been lived in Australia where he got into strife with the law in the late 2000s. A problematic private life has also been mixed in with infrequent musical adventures. These two singles, however, contain his most poptastic work without a doubt. Weirdly (sensing a theme yet) they came about after Phil flirted with two of NZ's seminal punk bands - The Suburban Reptiles and The Enemy (with Chris Knox). The man could write a catchy chorus that's fer sure. Gimmie one good reason not to love these singles or 5 6 7 8 9. Hidden gems: The B side version of One Good Reason is a re-recorded one; I prefer the original spark on the earlier one. All Over Town is another ace slice of kiwi pop from Phil.
Suzanne Sunshine Through A Prism/ Willie And Laura May Jones (Polydor, 2069 020, 1972) Suzanne You Really Got A Hold On Me/ You Could Be Right This Time (Ring O'Records, 2017 111, 1978) Suzanne may lust have given Adele the idea - just the first name love, that's all you need. In this case Suzanne is Suzanne Donaldson (later Lynch) so you can see why she went with the first name only. Suzanne started her New Zealand show biz career with her sister Judy in The Chicks but in 1969 she went solo and had loads of local success before working with Cat Stevens in the UK as a backup vocalist. Sunshine came from Shade Smith - you'll remember him from my entries on The Rumour. He wrote some great tunes and Sunshine is one of them.
Suzanne's rendition of the Smokey Robinson song has a couple of Fabs connections. It was of course covered by The Beatles and Ring O'Records was Ringo Starr's brief record company from 1975 to 1978. This single was one of only 17 singles released by the label. Hidden gems: Suzanne didn't write her own material (are you listening Zuni?) so she chose songs from others. These two B sides aren't clever choices from my p.o.v. (whaddaIknow right?). Let's just say Tony Joe White and someone calling themselves Cerney are probably hard sells for a Nu Zild girl.
Streettalk Leaving The Country/ Falling To Pieces (Asylum, Z 10007, 1978) Streettalk She's Done It Again/ Long Night Blues (WEA, Z 10021, 1980) I first heard Streettalk on Radio Hauraki in the mid seventies. Barry Jenkins, a.k.a. Dr Rock, played a recording of Hammond Gamble and the boys playing a wonderful live in Albert Park version of Crossroads. A new guitar hero had arrived. American whiz kids Chris Hillman (yes - that Chris Hillman) and then Kim Fowley (okay - no longer kids) knew quality when they heard it. They got involved - Chris did the first single - Leaving The Country, Kim produced the first album, and then finally a sympatico Nu Zilder, Bruce Lynch, gave the boys a more honest sound on the second album - Battleground Of Fun. Unfortunately, early on, that wonderful raw guitar sound of Hammonds never quite made it to vinyl as producers produced and knocked the edges off the band. Having said that I still love these singles (and Battleground Of Fun). Leaving The Country rips into things in a patented Streettalk way with guitars to the fore. Mike Caen's She's Done It Again is at the poppy end of the Streettalk spectrum. It's a better production - more in yer face and it drives onwards but not a kiwi classic by any stretch. Both A sides were single only releases, although Leaving The Country eventually found a home in a rerecorded version on BOF. Hidden gems: Both B sides are rarities in that they never made any of the albums, Hammond later included Long Night Blues on a live album. Falling To Pieces is okay but 'gem' would be stretching things. Long Night Blues is much better - Hammond gives it some welly and the song is much better for it.
