Intel and dreams (Nada Surf) (LP 3408 - 3411)

John Lennon  Telecasts (Vinyl, Bootleg, no date) *** 

Nada Surf  Moon Mirror (Vinyl, New West Records, 2024) ****  

Mike Nesmith  Mike Nesmith Presents The Wichita Train Whistle Sings (Vinyl, Dot Records, 1968) * 

Mike Nesmith and his Second National Band  Tantamount To Treason Volume One (Vinyl, RCA Records, 1972) ****

Genre: Pop/ rock 

Places I remember: Amoeba Music, Music store in San Luis Obispo, Wax Trax Records

Fab, and all the other pimply hyperboles: In Front Of Me Now (Nada Surf)

Gear costume: Wax Minute (Mike Nesmith) 

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

Active compensatory factors: The last installment of my American haul (the P to Z albums will come up in the countdown in due course).

I owned a copy of the Lennon bootleg Telecasts but lost it in a house move. It's a compilation of material from John's TV appearances. Given its bootleg status, the sound quality is variable, but mostly very good. 

The Mike Douglas Show material with Chuck Berry is not well performed but the rest is interesting (even if the Dick Cavett Show stuff is sped up a bit). Regardless of all that, it's good to have a copy back in the Lennon collection.

I listened to Nada Surf's Moon Mirror (their latest album) when I re-listened to their albums for my entry on them a while back (here if you want to catch up). I was immediately impressed and put it on my list. 

I was thrilled to find a cheap new copy in a store in San Luis Obispo (I forget its name - most of the stores I went into there had a huge number of CDs and only a few bins of secondhand albums - which is weirdly where I found this brand new copy).

It's an excellent example of their melodic power pop approach.

I managed to find both of the Nez albums going cheap in Wax Trax Records in Denver. Cheap is $US14.00 for the two. Unbelievable!

Wichita Train Whistle Sings is his first solo album, made while he was still a Monkee. It has interesting, instrumental versions of Monkee's songs, but is still strictly for completists/ obsessives.

Tantamount To Treason Volume 1 (there was never a volume 2) was his fifth solo album. It sets out a different sound - more psychedelic crooner than country hick (of the previous 3 before this one), and points toward his future releases. As a transitional record, it has feet in both the past and future.

Where do they all belong? Back to the regular countdown for the next post - a couple of Yoko Ono posts upcoming.

Rock around the clock (Nilsson) (LP 3356)

Harry Nilsson  Pussy Cats (Vinyl, RCA Records, 1974) ***  

Genre: Pop rock 

Places I remember: Real Groovy Records (my first copy was lost in a house move that also claimed my Yoko collection, Lennon's Roots, and many others. A sad, mad day! Nevermind, this is a U.S. pressing with better packaging).

Fab, and all the other pimply hyperboles: Mucho Mungo/Mt. Elga

Gear costume: Rock Around The Clock 

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

Active compensatory factors: John Lennon gets a kind of quasi co-billing on the cover of Nilsson's tenth studio album - both a 'Produced by John Lennon' credit and a picture.

This collaboration came about during the time John was with May Pang (I don't like his trivial reference to a 'lost weekend').

Her book (Loving John) paints a different picture to the sensational headline version much loved by the press, but this album is still a pretty shambolic fifty-fifty collection of cover songs and Nilsson originals (one of which - Mucho Mungo/Mt Elga is a co-write with JL). With drugs*, booze and Keith Moon on board it must have been hard to focus on actual music.

* The cover also includes a 'joke' reference to drugs under the table with children's letter blocks "D" and "S" on either side of a rug under a table.

Nilsson damaged his vocal cords during the sessions and neglected to mention it, so the resulting album is largely about hearing his voice getting progressively rougher. The AllMusic critic says, 'the backing remains appealingly professional and slick. It doesn't quite jibe, and it's certainly incoherent, but that's its charm'. And that about sums it up.

Where do they all belong? Without John Lennon and Ringo's involvement I wouldn't have bothered to buy this, and it's the only Nilsson album in my collection apart from a Ringo/ Nilsson film soundtrack collaboration.

Another footnote: from Wikipedia - 'After the first night of recording, March 28, Paul McCartney and Stevie Wonder popped into the studio unexpectedly. Bootleg recordings from the session were later released as the album A Toot and a Snore in '74. It is the only known instance of Lennon and McCartney recording together since the break-up of the Beatles'. It's pretty hard to listen to, but of historic value.

Come together (The Beatles) (LP 2106)

John Lennon  Live In New York City (Vinyl, Parlophone Records, 1986) ****  

Genre: Beatle related pop 

Places I remember: Marbecks Records

Fab, and all the other pimply hyperboles: Come Together

Gear costume: Imagine 

Active compensatory factors: This is John's last full concert, also known as the One To One benefit concert for Willowbrook School in New York.

Elephant's Memory are billed as Plastic Ono Elephants Memory for the occasion.  

It's all pretty sloppy, but essential, if you know what I mean.

 

John sounds nervous or apologetic, the band are not in sparkling form (as they could be in the studio), Yoko takes a back seat...but it's still mesmerizing. It's John and Yoko's last concert together so there's an added poignancy.

John remains the centre of my attention throughout the concert. These days you can see the whole concert on youtube but back in 1972 only the people at the concert could experience the splendor of John Lennon live.

It's also good to finally have an official version of the concert, rather than the many bootleg versions out there. Although having a full version with other acts that appeared at Madison Square Garden with the Lennons would be nice.

Where do they all belong? As a final concert - it's historic.

Watching the wheels (John Lennon) (LP 2055 - 2062)

John Lennon and Yoko Ono  Double Fantasy (Vinyl and CD, Geffen Records (vinyl), Capitol Records (CD), 1980 (vinyl) 2000 (CD) ***  

John Lennon and Yoko Ono  Double Fantasy Stripped Down (CD, Capitol Records (CD), 2010) ***  

John Lennon and Yoko Ono  Milk And Honey (Vinyl and CD, Polygram Records (vinyl), EMI Records (CD), 1983 (vinyl) 2001 (CD) ****  

John Lennon and Yoko Ono  Heart Play - Unfinished Dialogue (Vinyl, Polygram Records, 1983) *  

John Lennon   Bedism (CD, Dressed To Kill, 1999 *    

John Lennon  In My Life (Triple CD, Dressed To Kill 1998) *  

John Lennon   Testimony (CD, Live Gold Productions 1990) *

John & Yoko Lennon   The Interview (Double cassette tape, BBC Productions, 1990) *   

Genre: Beatle pop/rock 

Places I remember: Marbecks Records for the vinyl, JB Hi-Fi for the CDs. Cassette tape from music shop in Cambridge.

Fab, and all the other pimply hyperboles: Beautiful Boy

Gear costume: Grow Old With Me

Active compensatory factors: Early in December 1980 I was working at Marbecks Records in the Queen's Arcade in downtown Auckland, as I was on my varsity break. 

I'd just got home and the phone rang - I went to my parents' bedroom to answer the call - it was my friend Greg Knowles. He said John Lennon had been shot in New York and was dead. I sagged to the floor in shock.

I was numb for days. I observed Yoko's call for silence on a bus ride into Queen Street.

Of course I'd bought Double Fantasy on release day, nabbed a spare poster from work (it's still on my music room wall) and bought the Playboy with the interview in it from the Queen's Arcade magazine shop.

I watched as the album climbed the charts, I bought all the singles and I listened to the album throughout that Christmas period.

Full disclosure: I don't play these albums these days. Two reasons - it's profoundly painful hearing them and thinking about those events and what could have been (Grow Old With Me tears me up every time), and secondly - he and Yoko made better records that I prefer to remember him by.

That said, after listening to them again for this blog review, they've actually aged reasonably well - especially the Lennon songs. Yoko was going for state of the art 1980 production and that means they are anchored more in time. Lennon didn't appear to care so his songs aren't of a specific time. They are laid back and sparse.

Watching The Wheels captures what he needed to say brilliantly. Only Lennon could get away with that one.

I continued to collect the stuff Yoko released in the aftermath of John's murder, but that was hard too. Same reasons, plus it somehow didn't seem the same - a kind of morbid fascination didn't sit right and a whiff of that is still attached to Milk And Honey (although John was clearly back in prolific mode) and Heart Play.

John on Milk and Honey sounds looser than Double Fantasy, sounds a bit more casually happy. I suppose because he didn't have the luxury of time to finesse them more. Boogie babe!

Yoko's songs do have the time to sound more produced, but that also means they are more of their time again.

Before I get to the interview discs/tapes: Double Fantasy Stripped Down. It's actually a double CD package - the original album and the 'new' version. 

Overall I prefer the original version. The stripped down one feels more like high quality demo recordings. I guess it's what you're used to. I also prefer the Let It Be version that was released, even with the Spector embellishments, because that's what I heard for years.

Heart Play is an album of interviews done in 1980. The other CDs and cassette listed above are all interview albums. I've listened to them once - strictly for collectors 0nly. They are especially painful to listen to post murder.

Where do they all belong? My decision not to include compilations on this collection countdown means I won't include all of the various collections that have come out since 1983 as Yoko determines to keep John's memory alive.

Be-bop-a-lula (John Lennon's version) (LP 2028 - 2029)

John Lennon  Walls And Bridges (Vinyl and CD, Apple Records, 1974) ****  

John Lennon  Rock'n'Roll (Vinyl and CD, Apple Records, 1975) ****  

Genre: Beatle pop/rock 

Places I remember: DJ Records (Otahuhu); Marbecks Records; Chaldon Books and Records (Caterham on the Hill) for the vinyl copies; CDs from a variety of places.

Fab, and all the other pimply hyperboles: Be-Bop-A-Lula (Rock'n'Roll)

Gear costume: #9 Dream (Walls and Bridges)

Active compensatory factors: Walls and Bridges was the unlikely decent album produced while chaos reigned in those mid seventies years before his reconciliation with Yoko.

It had hit singles, dream pop brilliance, an instrumental, self-pity, vitriol, bravado aplenty, love songs to May and Yoko, and those great Lennon vocals. It even had young Julian featuring on one track. 

He threw it all in with gay abandon and somehow it worked a treat. Yes, I'm a huge Lennon fan, but I still really like this album. And #9 Dream is a superb song.

I also love his Rock'n'Roll album. It's truly heartfelt - yes, I know he was in a bind and had to sort out the Morris Levy situation and the Spector sessions were mad, but nevertheless he doesn't phone these covers in. Again - brilliance will out and out of chaos came a terrific album.

His love for the material shines through time and time again, and it rocks like crazy. There's also a great variety on show. I could go on gushing but you get the idea. He signed off in 1975 for a few house husband years on a true peak.

Where do they all belong? In the ever expanding Lennon catalogue (bonus features, compilations, new remasters and so on). I still need to find a replacement copy of Roots (lost in a house move a few years ago).

Sand and foam (Donovan) (LP 2014 - 2027 )

Donovan  Wear Your Love Like Heaven (Vinyl, Epic Records, 1967) ****  (A)

Donovan  Mellow Yellow (Vinyl, Epic Records, 1967) ****  (A)

Donovan  Donovan P. Leitch (Vinyl, Janus Records, 1970) **** (A)

Donovan  Slow Down World (Vinyl, Epic Records, 1976) ***  (A)

Donovan  Donovan (Vinyl, Rak, 1977) *** (B) 

Justin Hayward  Night Flight (Vinyl, Decca, 1980) *** (B) 

Slade  Old New Borrowed And Blue (Vinyl, Polydor, 1974) *** (B) 

John Lennon  Rock'n'Roll (Vinyl, Apple Records, 1974) ***** (B) 

Hamilton County Bluegrass Band  Orange Blossom Special (Vinyl, HMV, 1983) **** (B) 

Hamilton County Bluegrass Band  HBCC These Old Hands (CD, Self produced, 2016) **** (B) 

XTC  White Music (Vinyl, Virgin Records, 1978) ***** (A) 

XTC  Black Sea (Vinyl, Virgin Records, 1980) **** (C) 

XTC  Wasp Star (Apple Venus Volume 2) (CD, Idea Records, 2000) ***** (B) 

Hawkwind  Doremi Fasol Latido (Vinyl, United Artists Records, 1973) *** (D) 

Genres: (in order) Folk rock; prog; pop/rock; Beatle pop; New Zealand/ Country; Pop/rock; prog.

Places I remember: A) Real Groovy Records (Auckland)/B) Tron Records (Hamilton)/ C) Passionate About Vinyl (Waipawa)/ D) My Music (Taupo)

Fab, and all the other pimply hyperboles: Wear Your Love Like Heaven (Donovan)

Gear costume: This Is Pop (XTC - White Music)

Active compensatory factors: This entry combines last week's record collecting via on-line purchases (Real Groovy) and then my trip to Hamilton for work included a visit to Rocky at Tron Records - a fine little record and CD shop just outside the CBD. Plus some stop offs in Taupo and then, finally, Waipawa on Saturday

Having listened to Steven Wilson and Tim Bowness' The Album Years podcast, I needed to expand my Donovan collection because they raved about his 1967 album A Gift From A Flower To A Garden with gay abandon. Back in 1967 it was released as a double but also as two individual albums:  Wear Your Love Like Heaven and For Little Ones. 

The first song is the title track which has been a continual earworm all week. It's a peach of a song. The rest of the album is not quite replicating that audacious peak but it's close.

The title track, Mellow Yellow, is where I first became aware of Donovan. NZ's pirate radio station - Radio Hauraki, started operations in 1966 and I can distinctly remember hearing this song appearing often on their playlist. It really captured my 10 year old imagination at the time. 

Again - that first song somewhat overshadows the album. That said, it's full of Donovan's lovely voice and hippy philosophy and this time features a wider musical palette. Session musicians like Jimmy Page, John Paul Jones, Phil Seaman, Big Jim Sullivan are joined by John McLaughlin and Paul McCartney as well.

The sound is fuller, but nothing detracts from Donovan's fine playing and songs. A lovely album that captures 1967's hazy days well. 

The Donovan P Leitch double album from 1970 is a compilation of tracks from his 1965 albums. I love this period of folk songs delivered in simple settings (mainly acoustic guitar and some harmonica) with Donovan's smooth, beautiful voice. Search Donovan on this blog to find a fullsomer review of the source albums.

On the surface, not a lot had changed by 1976 and Slow Down World. Donovan is still singing songs about flowers, silk, and incense on the first song, but it quickly becomes clear that Donovan in 1976 felt the need to warn us to slow down.

Cryin' Shame details the things that are bothering him, and there are a lot! Apart from relationships gone bad, religious fundamentalism and the evils of the government, he also lists sex in the cinema and fear in the school! Maybe it was the pace of change for the worse that he's warning us about.

Then there's the scary Black Widow. Yikes. What was happening in Donovan's world that he wrote that song?

His contract with Epic ended with Slow Down World, and he was on Mickie Most's Rak label for his next one - Donovan, in 1977.

It was his (last) big push to recapture his sixties mass adulation and I like it. But it didn't do the trick for him commercially. 

Justin Hayward is another sixties musician aiming to remain relevant in the eighties. I find his solo albums to be tricky things. With John Lodge and in the context of The Moody Blues the man is peerless! Even without them, he is never without melodies and that voice, but the solo role finds him a little exposed at times.

Like Donovan's late seventies albums, Night Flight from 1980 is like punk never happened. These guys just keep doing what they do - gotta admire that, right? So, we have some typical catchy songs, but also some out of character synth based dance moves and some love songs - not really his typical subject matter. It's a good, brave album, but not essential.

Slade is a band that I've loved since Slade Alive destroyed me in 1972. Of course I bought and loved Slayed? next and then, in 1974, came Old New Borrowed And Blue and I was disappointed because they had moved away from their trademark sound. That included piano! Whaat?? Each track also sounded different sonically. As a teenager I was yet to develop a more mature, sophisticated appreciation for a band's need to develop. So I sold it.

Fast forward many years later and I have long since bought a replacement CD, and then, this week, I finally decided to regain a vinyl copy, having become a Slade completist of late. An attempt at recapturing my youth? You bet.

It still sounds like lesser Slade to my ears, but lesser Slade is still a million miles better than zillions of other bands.

The John Lennon record is a rarity that I found in Tron Records for Noel Forth, an old friend in Australia. Noel's been after my Apple Records orange label copy of this album to complete his collection of oranges so I've been looking for one for him for a while now. Success at Tron! Go Rocky!!

While at Tron, Rocky gave me the Hamilton County Bluegrass Band compilation called Orange Blossom Special after we had a discussion about Colleen Trenwith and when she'd passed away (it was in 2021). Thanks Rocky - it's found a good home alongside all of my other HCBB records - only Kersbrook Cottage evades my grasp!

The second HCBB album is a CD copy of an album made by the 2016 version of the band with next generation players and friends joining Paul Trenwith and Alan Rhodes - the two originals. Colleen also makes an appearance through the magic of digital recording.

The 2016 version is terrific, by the way. The familiar country/bluegrass tropes are all delivered effortlessly and Pam Findlay's vocals are a very welcome addition. Song selection is spot on as always.

The re-collecting of my missing XTC albums continued this week with three additions, two of which I didn't actually have in the collection previously (Black Sea and Wasp Star).

White Music is a five star classic - every song a work of genius. I'm so glad to have that back in the collection. I'm not that fussed with the title though. White Noise would have been better - even though this is brilliant pop (This Is Pop has been an earworm all week) rather than any kind of incoherent industrial noise. White Music is kind of appropriate if you ignore the jingoistic aspect that wasn't intended.

Special mention needs to go to the extraordinarily brilliant deconstruction of Dylan's All Along The Watchtower. What an amazing piece of art-rock! Totally inspired. And Set Myself On Fire is such a confident song for a band's debut album. What a giant band they had with both Andy Partridge AND Colin Moulding writing these songs. Another Lennon and McCartney situation with them egging each other onwards and complementing each other marvelously.

Their fourth album, Black Sea, came along after Drums And Wires and I have no idea why I didn't buy it back in 1980 as it was fantastically successful commercially and I'd bought the previous three records without a second thought. Stupid, but I suspect I wasn't as keen on the new singles from it compared to previous ones.

To my ears back then there was a slightly more mainstream sound to Generals And Majors and Towers Of London which I guess I was worried would translate to a greater extent to the album. Baseless fears. It's a great album - still experimental in an art-rock fashion and a grower. I'm glad I eventually caught up with it! 

I'm even later to the charms of Wasp Star. What a stunning album! Easily a 5 star classic. How did I miss this first time around? 

The guys (just Moulding and Partridge by 2000) have molded (pardon the pun) into a less abrasive duo. Partridge always appeared to be the one with the spikier ideas and sounds but by Wasp Star he's as melodic as Moulding. I love this album!

Another album that Wilson and Bowness discussed in passing, and waxed lyrical about on their podcast was Hawkwind's Hall Of The Mountain Grill. They were obviously discussing 1974 at the time. So I saw a copy in My Music (Taupo) on my home from Hamilton.

When I got home and put the album on the turntable I noticed that it was actually their previous record, 1973's Doremi Fasol Latido inside the Mountain Grill sleeve. Hilarious! A cosmic joke.

Hawkwind were not something I explored in my teenage years - they seemed too tripped out on acid for me to take a punt. I'm not sure I missed too much. This is pretty incomprehensible stuff but fun all the same! I'll be hanging on to it and contacting My Music to see if they actually have the other disc [I subsequently have, and they do - another trip to Taupo needed at some stage].

As well as all those records and CDs I also managed to find three singles by The Chills at a second hand shop in Woodville last weekend while Jacky looked for cushion covers.

All three were in good to very good condition, all dressed in their original picture sleeves and they cost $1.50 each. Great find I'd say! 

Where do they all belong? A few more Donovan albums to collect - For Little Ones and Sunshine Superman being two. I don't have anything post 1977 but I'd be keen if I come across any. Donovan is a great talent with a terrific catalogue. 

Kersbrook Cottage by the Hamilton County Bluegrass Band remains on my list and I'm slowly reclaiming my XTC collection, but still more albums to get than those I've found so far.

One day (at a time) (John Lennon) (LP 1073)

John Lennon  Mind Games (Vinyl and CD copies, Apple Records, 1973) *****  

Genre: Beatle pop, Apple Records

Places I remember: My first copy - a NZ pressing, came from DJ Records in Otahuhu, others have come from Chaldon Books and Records (UK pressings), JB Hi Fi and Real Groovy.
.
Fab, and all the other pimply hyperboles: Meat City

Gear costume: Tight A$

Active compensatory factors: I remember buying this (and Ringo) so clearly - sitting in the car in Otahuhu and poring over the album notes and images. I loved it before even getting it home.

I wasn't disappointed when I placed it on my Garrard SP25 Mk 3 turntable. In fact I loved it more than my other Lennon albums to that point (and I really loved each one). I'm not sure why - maybe the love songs, maybe the messages to Yoko, maybe the hard edge to Meat City (that single with Move Over Ms L on the B side is awesomeness personified).

At the time, I didn't know the details of his personal life and the breakup with Yoko. All seemed well on the strength of these love songs to her (Move Over Ms L excepted), plus the music papers (Sounds) concentrated on music back in the day and not celebrity gossip.

I know it's not regarded highly these days, but back in 1973 there was no other album that I loved more. Of all his albums this is the one where I seek out different pressings, even budget versions. In my world, there is something magical about Mind Games.

Where do they all belong? Walls And Bridges and Rock 'n' Roll up next.

New York City (John Lennon, Yoko Ono) (LP 1049 - 1050)

John & Yoko/ Plastic Ono Band with Elephant's Memory  Sometime In New York City (Vinyl and CD, Apple Records, 1974) ****  

John Lennon with Frank Zappa  The Fillmore Tapes (CD, Master of Orange, Bootleg) ****  

Genre: Pop, rock, Apple Records

Places I remember: DJ Records (for the vinyl); Real Groovy Records (CD) for the 2010 double CD version.

Fab, and all the other pimply hyperboles: New York City

Gear costume: Well (baby please don't go)

Active compensatory factors: After Imagine I was really keen for more Lennon and so the vinyl version was bought on release in 1972. Dad brought it home for me from Otahuhu's DJ Records.

I had Zappa's Fillmore East live album from 1971 so I was familiar with him and the art work which SINYC takes as a source material for the second (live) album in this package.

I genuinely loved this record in 1972. I pored over the artwork and I loved many of the songs on the studio set: John Sinclair; The Luck Of The Irish; We're All Water; Woman is the Nigger Of The World; and New York City were often on my teenage turntable.

Then there's the live stuff - a relentlessly intense Cold Turkey is amazing and I loved the Zappa side. John and Yoko just slot right into the Zappa universe.

The second of these albums, The Fillmore Tapes, is for collectors only I suspect. It's a bootleg and features three different versions of the Fillmore tapes. First up is a non edited version direct from the mixing board (it sounds terrible), then Zappa's mix and finally Lennon's original mix (from SINYC).

The Zappa mix is also available on his album Playground Psychotics. I like his version as it pushes the music more to the fore (it would though wouldn't it), but overall the Lennon mix is better.

BTW The Wikipedia entry for this collaboration effort between Lennon and Ono is fantastic.

Where do they all belong? On to some Mind Games next in the Lennon countdown.

Everybody seems to think I'm lazy (the Beatles) (LP 1020)

John Lennon Plastic Ono Band   Imagine (Vinyl and CD, Apple Records, 1971) ****  

Genre: Beatle pop/rock, Apple Records

Places I remember: George Courts (K Rd); JB Hi Fi (CD); HMV (Oxford Street) - special edition

Fab, and all the other pimply hyperboles: Jealous Guy

Gear costume: Imagine 

Active compensatory factors: For a self-confessed lazy sod (I'm Only Sleeping, Watching The Wheels) he was certainly a busy musician. He didn't slow down at all when The Beatles wound up activities after they's passed the audition on the rooftop's final live performance.

Instead things kept going at a frenetic pace. Every year from 1968 onwards: solo albums; Yoko 'sister' albums; cameos; production for others; peace activities; agitation activities; art shows; films...it just boggles the mind how much this lazy sod was capable of doing up until the house-hubbie years starting in 1975.

Imagine (the song) is where I first sat up and took notice of solo Lennon. As a Fab, he'd mesmerized and captured my whole imagination on The Ed Sullivan Show (my eyes just kept going back to him!),  but the weird Lennon/Ono album phase and first true solo album in 197o had passed me by.

Then I bought Solid Gold Hits Vol 2. The one with Imagine on it. That did it. I had to have the album!

I played it so much in 1971/1972 that I wore out the grooves a tad.

The album has all the best and all the worst of John Lennon on display - he was, like many of us, a contradiction, an enigma, But, unlike many of us, he was also a true genius.

So, we get the sublime (the title track's love for mankind) and the petty (How Do I sleep's laceration of Macca). We get the tender (How?, Oh My Love) and the brutal (I Don't Want To Be A Soldier). We get the self-obsessed examination (Jealous Guy) and the deep consideration for others (Oh Yoko). We get the depressed and unsubtle (It's So Hard) and the wide eyed and hopeful (Imagine). We get the playful (Crippled Inside), and we get the plain and serious (Gimme Some Truth).

He was complicated, and that's why I love him and his work so much. That's why so many gravitated to him.

The musicians are brilliant too; something not often acknowledged was his ability to spot talent and keep loyal friends onboard (he discovered Paul McCartney after all). So, say hello to Klaus Voormann, Alan White, George Harrison, Jim Keltner, Nicky Hopkins. All appear again and again on his solo albums.

Sidebar: Given the use of the genius word, you may be wondering about the 4 stars. I have to deduct a star for the last two songs on side 1. I've just never liked them much and they seem to jar.

Where do they all belong? The political New York double album is up next.

Costafine Town (Splinter) (LP 986 - 988)

Splinter  The Place I Love (Vinyl, Dark Horse Records, 1974) ****

Splinter  Harder To Live (Vinyl, Dark Horse Records, 1975) ***  

Splinter  Two Man Band (Vinyl, Dark Horse Records, 1977) ** 

Genre: pop/ rock; Dark Horse Records 

Places I remember: George Courts' music bar (K Road); Marbeck's Records; Taste Records

Fab, and all the other pimply hyperboles: Costafine Town (The Place I Love)

Gear costume: Somebody's City (The Place I Love); Half Way There (Harder To Live)

Active compensatory factors: Splinter is a duo (Bill Elliott and Bob Purvis) with solid gold Beatle connections. Bill Elliott had already appeared on an Apple Records' single as Bill Elliott and The Plastic Oz Band doing a couple of Lennon songs.

After Apple Records folded George maintained his interest in Splinter - signing them to Dark Horse Records and he was all over the debut album - producing and playing loads of instruments. Somebody's City sounds like an outtake from All Things Must Pass (it's that good).

George drafted in a stellar crew of mates to play on the album - Alvin Lee, Billy Preston, Jim Keltner, Klaus Voormann and Willie Weeks. So - it sounds great. Bill and Bob contribute some memorable songs and sing well.  Costafine Town was a huge hit and deservedly so.

Second album, Harder To Live, follows the same blue print - snappy arrangements, nice harmony vocals, same George Harrison/Beatles lite sound, but limited participation from George this time (he only appears on one track). 

Although Half Way There is an excellent song, with a country/folk leanings, there was no big hit on this one.

Two Man Band, the third and final Dark Horse album for Splinter, was a good effort without being especially memorable. The presence of strings on a few tracks doesn't help but it's a melodic set of songs without any hit song being apparent. Still, if you want a pleasant soft rock album for those chill moments of an evening you could do a lot worse.

Where do they all belong? I haven't bothered with the albums after Two Man Band as they weren't on Dark Horse Records, nor did they get widespread distribution.