Hot spot (Dinah Lee) (LP 4900 - 4904)

Dinah Lee  The Sound of Dinah Lee (Vinyl, Viking Records, 1965) ****  

Loggins & Messina  Full Sail (Vinyl, Columbia Records, 1973) *** 

Loggins & Messina  Mother Lode (Vinyl, Columbia Records, 1974) **** 

John Mayall  Bottom Line (Vinyl, DJM Records, 1979) ** 

Don McLean Homeless Brother (Vinyl, United Artists Records, 1974) ***

Genre: Pop, country rock, blues rock, folk rock, NZ Music

Places I remember: Brian Smith Collection, The Little Red Bookshop, JB Hi Fi, Vinyl Room, Vinyl Vault Plus

Fab, and all the other pimply hyperboles: You Need a Man/ Coming To You (Full Sail)

Gear costume: La La Love You (Homeless Brother) 

They loom large in his legend (The Album Collection playlists): Part 1; Part 2; Part 3; Part 4; Part 5; Part 6; Part 7; Part 8

Active compensatory factors: Since picking up Dinah Lee's debut album I've been keen to find a copy of her second. The new vinyl shop in Waipukurau (Vinyl Vault Plus) came to the party with a near mint copy for $20! It's as great as the debut, with Dinah in irrepressible form. Highlights are many, right from the first track - What Kind of Love Is This, with Dinah belting out great vocals throughout.

Loggins & Messina is a duo act that I've enjoyed hearing on the radio over the years but I have never bothered to buy any of their albums. A recent chance hearing of You Need A Man/Coming To You on a Spotify playlist made me sit up and pay attention. It's a wonderfully playful joined-up song with some great jazzy breaks, plus that patented Loggins & Messina vocal interplay. A winner! Joy upon joy to find that it's on Full Sail!

The rest of the album has a good mix of ballads, 60's pastiche, jazz, and pop songs - all done with those cool vocals. What's not to like?

Mother Lode is, if anything, even better. It has the pair sounding even more confident and relaxed in their abilities to my ears. That figures given that the personnel was the same as their previous albums (this would be the last time though). The warm tones and mid-tempo songs give the album a cohesiveness missing from Full Sail.  

John Mayall's Bottom Line is a mostly subdued offering (apart from the embarrassing attempt at Prince-like bawdiness on I'm Gonna Do it). His version of the Allman Brothers' Band song Revival is just a poor decision. I only paid $4 for this dud at the Little Red Bookshop so I'm not too bothered. A disappointing way for the great man to end the seventies, though.  

Don McLean's Homeless Brother album was his fifth studio album. I avoided it at the time because I thought it was a dour folk album. Ha! I was wrong. One listen to La La Love You will correct that impression.

Although the hobo theme suggested in the title and cover does creep through the album (the title song for instance), it turns out to be quite a varied album. His version of George Harrison's Sunshine Life For Me (on the Ringo album) is a lovely addition.

Where do they all belong? The Mod World of Dinah Lee is next on my list, as well as other Loggins & Messina albums.

Wolf party (Old Man Pine) (LP 4210 - 4214)

Jackie DeShannon  For You (Vinyl, IR Imperial Records, 1967) *** 

John Mayall  Primal Solos (Vinyl, Decca Records, 1977) ***  

Old Man Pine  Swamp Stomps (Vinyl, Swampton Sounds Records, 2024) *** 

James Taylor  Flag (Vinyl, CBS Records, 1979) *** 

Dinah Lee  Introducing Dinah Lee (Vinyl, Viking Records, 1964) **** 

Genres: Pop, blues, NZ music, rock 

Places I remember: Vinyl Countdown, A Records (Flag) - both in Nu Plimf.

Fab, and all the other pimply hyperboles: Happy Blue Beat (Dinah Lee)

Gear costume: Hallelujah, I Love Him So (Dinah Lee)

They loom large in his legend (The Album Collection playlists): Part 1; Part 2; Part 3; Part 4; Part 5; Part 6

Active compensatory factors: These acquisitions came from a recent Christmas holidays' trip to New Plymouth. A Records is a relatively new shop in the Fitzroy area. It's got a great ambience and a variety of genres, but doesn't yet have enough quantity. I took about 15 minutes to check through all the vinyl, whereas at VC it took me an hour just to go through the sale bins.

That's where I got most of these records for $2 to $5, aside from Old Man's Pine which was $30 in the NZ section. A few needed a clean, but all of the above are in very good to excellent condition. Amazing, given that the oldest one (Dinah Lee) is 61 years old.

Jackie DeShannon's For You is from 1967. It has her performing orchestrated adult contemporary pop songs. This copy is in mint condition, ex of Radio NZ's National Programme - their stamp is on the back cover. Someone has loved this album for almost 60 years and it wound up in the sale bin at Vinyl Countdown. Lucky me!

It's not her typical pop style and the lush orchestration took a while to adjust to, but when I did, I heard a quality artist challenging herself in a positive way.

Primal Solos is an archive compilation of historic interest - so the quality varies. Side 1 of the John Mayall album has Clapton, Bruce (pre-Cream) and Hughie Flint on drums, live in London 1966. Side two are live recordings from 1968 with Mick Taylor (pre-Rolling Stones) playing some superb guitar. Well worth $5.

Old Man Pine are a band from Palmerston North. I have their impressive debut album, Swamp Stomps is their second effort. It has a great opening track (Bad Self Proud) and an excellent surf rock instrumental (Serf Tango) and while the rest doesn't quite reach those high standards on first listen, it's still local good-time boogie rock like the debut.

Flag is an album I had glossed over in my James Taylor collection until seeing it for $15 at A Records. Side one is the electric side where JT attempts to update his image and sound. It kinda works too, but then side 2 is back to his usual warm acoustic approach, although he is pretty damning of his relationship with Carly during B.S.U.R. (S.U.C.S.I.M.I.M.). Bad form JT!

It's a pretty good JT album and does contain his version of Up on the Roof, a redo of Rainy Day Man, an interesting version of Daytripper, and Millworker. So, plenty to feel positive about. It didn't sell especially well, and critics were unimpressed - probably why it's taken me until now to own a copy.

Dinah Lee's Do the Bluebeat from 1964 (her third single, and on Introducing) was the first song and single that I can remember seeing and listening to. I was 7, but I distinctly remember seeing the single playing on our radiogram. It was love at first listen!

It's a lively record (and the best of this bunch) - thanks to backing from fellow New Zealanders, Max Merritt & His Meteors. It's 1964 so The Beatles get a mention on You Don't Talk About Love and in the liner notes she is referred to as a 'beatle chick' (sic). At the time Dinah was 19! 

She has a very mature voice - just have a listen to Don't You Know Yockomo - her first single and also included on this debut album. Extraordinary. She's now 82 and still around - my first crush!

Where do they all belong? Apart from those albums I also picked up some compilations of Steppenwolf (The Best of Steppenwolf: Reborn To Be Wild), Barclay James Harvest (Early Morning Onwards); an original version of Donovan's What's Bin Did and What's Bin Hid); and a southern rock jam album we'll eventually get too (Volunteer Jam)

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

1. The Exponents – Like She Said (1994)/ Nameless Girl (1992)
2. Blerta - Dance All Around The World (1972)/ Joy Joy (1972)
3. Dragon – Young Years (1989)/ Rain (1984)
4. John Hanlon - Higher Trails (1975)/ Wind Songs (1975)
5. Crowded House - Private Universe (1994)/ Weather With You (1991)
6. Split Enz - Six Months In A Leaky Boat  (1982)/ Split Ends - One Two Nine (1973)
7. Max Merritt and The Meteors - Slippin’ Away (1976)/ Let it Slide (1976)
8. Headband - The Laws Must Change (1971)/ Good Morning Mr Rock N Roll (1971)
9. Citizen Band - My Pohutakawa (1978)/ The Ladder Song (1978)
10. 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.