Back to schooldays (Rick Nelson) (LP 2066 - 2073)

Gary Brooker  Echoes In The Night (Vinyl, Mercury Records, 1985) ***  

Rick Nelson  Playing To Win (Vinyl, Capitol Records, 1981) ***  

Donovan  Barabajagal (Vinyl, Epic Records, 1969) *** 

Donovan  Open Road (Vinyl, Epic Records, 1970) *****  

Arlo Guthrie  Running Down The Road (Vinyl, Reprise Records, 1969) *** 

Harpers Bizarre  Feelin' Groovy (Vinyl, Warner Bros. Records, 1967) *** 

Various  Individual (Vinyl, CBS Records, 1979) *** 

XTC  English Settlement (Vinyl, Virgin Records, 1982) ***** 

Genre: Prog/ pop rock/ folk rock/ baroque pop/ jazz fusion/ pop rock to finish.

Places I remember: Brooker - Passionate About Vinyl (Waipawa)/Harper's Bizarre - Southbound Records/ rest are all  Real Groovy (Auckland). Didn't buy anything at the new Flying Nun shop on K Rd but it was great to visit. It's opposite St Kevin's Arcade - lots of memories centre on that place!

Fab, and all the other pimply hyperboles: Barabajagal (Donovan)

Gear costume: Senses Working Overtime (XTC)

Active compensatory factors: While on our way to see Tim Finn play in Auckland last weekend, I was able to stop off at a few record shops. These nine albums* have come from that journey up north and, in a nod to schooldays with GK, a trek down Symonds St., K. Road, and Queen St. with Kevy.

Gary Brooker's third solo album has been on my want list for a while. While Gary's voice is in fine form, it's a typical eighties production with these pesky synths all over most of the tracks. Grrrr. 

Eric Clapton and Rory Gallagher appear (on different tracks) but I'm blowed if I can hear them. Rory apparently plays slide guitar. I'll need to put headphones on and really listen for him.

Highlights: Missing Person; Echoes In The Night.

Despite the terrible cover, Rick Nelson had a mini-revival in 1981 with this Jack Nitzsche produced rock album. Sounds like he means it too. Tragically he would die four years later in a plane crash. A phenomenal talent, gone far too soon. 

Highlights: Almost Saturday Night (yes, the John Fogerty song); Do The Best You Can (yes, the Ry Cooder song) - this one in particular suits his laid back vocal style.

Donovan in 1969 was trying to have another commercial breakthrough with Mickie Most again at the producer's desk. The title song - Barabajagal, with the Jeff Beck Group, is pop perfection and a real highlight. 

Unfortunately, the rest of the album is quite uneven, unlike his next album.

Briefly, like Bowie with Tin Machine, Donovan next tried to operate in a band setting - Open Road is the name of the band and the name of this record (my copy has no name on the cover as in the image next door - instead there are tiny, hard to find, names on the photos).

Unlike Tin Machine, I think Open Roads works brilliantly. It's a full band sound, very 1970 in its production - that's a good thing! Donovan sounds great (as normal) and the arrangements are thoughtful, inventive and lovely! 

Highlights: Song For John; Celtic Rock

Staying in the folk rock genre (although it could also be fairly judged as country rock at times) is the next one - Arlo Guthrie's second album (after Alice's Restaurant). Ever since that enthusiastic gush at Woodstock, I have a soft spot for Arlo and I now have more of his albums than I do Woody Guthrie ones!

This one has involvement from various Byrds, Ry Cooder and Van Dyke Parks (co-producing). As well as the instrumental Living In The Country, a Pete Seeger song, it has Coming In To Los Angeles - as clear highlights. 

Harpers Bizarre (no apostrophe) hold a strange hold over my imagination. They seem utterly unique to me - out of time almost.

Just look at that cover for a second. See what I mean. This was 1967. The summer of love. Sgt Pepper. LSD. Satanic Majesties Request. And these guys look and sound like they have stepped off a Disney soundstage, or out of a lecture at a fifties ivy league preppy college to pose for a yearbook photo.

That Van Dyke Parks is involved is no surprise, he plays piano on his California soft pop composition - Come To The Sunshine (along with Paul Simon's Feelin' Groovy, a true highlight), but I'm sure he was also listening closely to these arrangements by Leon Russell, Randy Newman, Perry Botkin.

The various artists Individual double set is basically a jazz fusion sampler from CBS. I figured $10, it was worth a punt.

It's damn fine! There is this Nu Yerk type salesman huckster type doing the introductions to the rikids and he's unintentionally hilarious.

It features big hitters like John McLaughlin, George Duke, Herbie Hancock, Chick Corea, Richard Tee, Hubert laws and more. Love it!

Highlights: Tony Williams' Hip Skip.

My recollecting of XTC albums continues with a new copy of English Settlement being the latest addition.

This one was lost in my house move and it's taken me a while to realise it. 

I love this album - along with White Music it is my favourite XTC album. They had come a long way in only a few years and this more pastoral pop version of XTC was music to my ears. 

Too many highlights to list - each track is wonderfully fresh and inventive so it gets the five star rating from me.

Where do they all belong? *Only one double up from my trip - the John Lodge solo album (Natural Avenue). It cost $10 from Real Groovy - so not the end of the world. The one I have already has a better cover and is a UK pressing (as opposed to American so I'll keep that one and store the other). 

The Rick Nelson is a tricky one to locate - he could go in the rock'n'roll section but most of the albums I have are in the country rock genre (the Stone Canyon Band) so I've slotted this one in there.

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.

The world goes on (Barclay James Harvest) (LP 2008 -2013)

Various  Central Park Music Festival (Vinyl, Capitol Records, 1968) *** 

Herman's Hermits  There's A Kind Of A Hush All Over The World (Vinyl, Columbia Records, 1967) *** 

Roy Harper  In Between Every Line (Vinyl, EMI Records, 1986) ****

Poco  Poco (Vinyl, Epic Records, 1970) *****

Barclay James Harvest  Octoberon (Vinyl, Polydor Records, 1976) ***

XTC  Drums and Wires (Vinyl, Virgin Records, 1976) ****

Genre: In this order - Jazz/ pop/ folk rock/ country rock/ prog rock/ alt-pop

Places I remember: Little Red Bookstore Friday August 10, 2023

Fab, and all the other pimply hyperboles: No Milk Today (Herman's Hermits)

Gear costume: Nobody's Fool/ El Tonto De Nadie Regresa (Poco); Making Plans For Nigel (XTC)

Active compensatory factors: After a full on week at school, last Friday I stopped off on the way home, to the Little Red Bookstore in Hastings.

Steven Wilson says that he now buys records in clusters and I'm the same. In our youth we would obsess for weeks over what album to save up for and then read everything we could get our hands on for background details (was it good? Who was on it? What label? What genre? and so on - all the minutiae that would mean either a purchase or not). These days I can afford to buy a few at a time and take a knowledgeable punt - years are important, producers, band line ups, covers, labels, types of instruments...

Anyway, I came away with these albums. BTW, I put a few back from the $5 bin because of the record quality. I really wanted a John Barry compilation of his themes but it was in a terrible, unplayable state. The first two on the list were also in that $5 bin but are in the very good quality category.

The Central Park Music Festival album is from 1968 - one listen to Lou Rawls' pre song raps will immediately tell you that. Apart from Lou sockin' it to em (dig) we have Maxine Brown ramping the crowd up and asking the musical question who's got soul? with great effect and The Ramsey Lewis Trio take over proceedings on side two. Hurrah. 

The trio's three songs. including a great Hang On Sloopy, steel the show for my money.

Hermit's Hermits were an interesting band - a charismatic singer, good production, excellent singles made for the teen pop market. They weren't noted as an album band though, and I couldn't name any of the band apart from Peter Noone. There's A Kind Of A Hush is a good solid effort however, although even here the hits are the stand out tracks. No Milk Today is peerless!

The Roy Harper is a double album, comprising of live tracks. The first side is made up of one track with Harper accompanying himself: One Of These Days In England. That's a sign of how uncompromising Harper is, and the song becomes an intensely mad outpouring of emotion. It's quite visceral in parts, and beautifully bucolic in others. The rest of the concert is superb also with a band approach also featured. The Harper/Dave Gilmour songs are stunning as well!  

Poco's second album is a classic, with inventive song structures and beautiful playing. They created vastly influential country rock ripples via those early albums. I've highlighted a composite track that takes up the bulk of side two. It's a brilliant non-compromising song suite that heads into almost jazz rock directions. It's as barking mad brilliant as the title suggests.

Barclay James Harvest's Octoberon is a laid back progressive rock addition to their catalogue that doesn't break any new ground and is firmly in their signature style. That's fine, and what I expect from BJH. They are not a band who are going to stretch too much out of their comfort zone. Fans pretty much know that going in!

Finally, XTC. For some stupid reason I think I must have sold off all of my XTC albums many years ago. I can't believe that I did that because I loved their albums. Actually, I've just remembered they were in the albums I lost in a house move!!

Now I am engaged in a retrieval exercise - trying to buy them back. Starting with this classic album. It sounds amazingly in the pocket sonically and very very familiar. I've since writing this found the five star White Music. Now to find the rest without spending a fortune.

Where do they all belong? They have all fitted snuggly into all the relevant genres, with Central Park Music Festival heading into the Festivals section.

Electricity still lingers (XTC) #432-434

XTC Science Friction/ She's So Square (Virgin, VS 188, 1977)
XTC Statue Of Liberty/ Hang On To The Night (Virgin, VS 201, 1978)
XTC Generals And Majors/ The Somnambulist (Virgin, VS 365, 1980)

These blokes wrote some stunning singles. Here are three with not even a Making Plans For Nigel in sight.

The clever clogs' one two sucker punch of Science Friction and Statue Of Liberty got me with room to spare at the end of the seventies.

Really what's not to like? Pop hooks, neo punk attitude, great harmonies, two great writers (Andy Partridge and Colin Moulding), spikey rhythms and excellent funny (as in quirky) songs! 

'We're never boring' - that's XTC's motto!

Hidden gems: She's So Square and Hang On To The Night could have been singles in their own write, even though they didn't even make the parent albums (bonus items since inevitably) - an overflowing of ideas typifies both of them. The Somnambulist is an electronic experimental mood piece - not my cuppa. 

Circled so fine like a velvet palace (Hot Tuna)

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