Blerta Dance Around The World/ Freedom St. Marys (HMV HR 466, 1972)
Iconic NZ actor Bruno Lawrence's finest musical moment came on this fantastic slice of NZ rock.
Blerta was a communal collective of wannabe Merry Pranksters/Hog Farmers. They had a musical bent and released these two great singles. The one above and:
Blerta Joy Joy/ Rain Song (EMI HR 536, 1975)
Bruno was the drummer and quasi leader in the collective (Blerta stands for Bruno Lawrence's Electric Revelation and Traveling Apparition) with Geoff Murphy and others performing along side him.
For a bunch of actors, film makers and musicians they gelled incredibly well on these tracks. Joy Joy zips by on an adrenaline rush and Dance Around The World is a NZ classic. The voice over is a trip in itself.
Hidden gems: Both B sides have their charm with a jazzy jamming kind of
vibe going on, very appropriate given the band's rationale.
Cilla Black Step Inside Love/ I Couldn't Take My Eyes Off You (Parlophone R 5674, 1968)
Dear old Cilla. Just goes to show how minimal talent can be parleyed into a lifetime career in entertainment. I bet the Brits call her a national treasure or some such tosh.
Don't get me wrong - I love the original girl made good idea of Cilla but not the media construct she has been for the last...what..forty or so years, I guess.
If you said, "Cilla Black" to someone and asked them to name one song - Step Inside Love would be it. Actually I'm struggling to think of another one.
Lennon and McCartney knew what they were about when they gave this to her. No way were they EVER going to record this themselves. Dear old George Martin produces and it screams hit without any trouble in the quality stakes.
Hidden gem: Well, no but the B side gives an idea of future directions for our Cilla.
Pat Benatar You Better Run/ Out-A-Touch (Chrysalis K 8018, 1980)
Déjà vu coming around again - ar...it's the eighties, again.
Pat Benatar is/was a rocker and a roller with a great rock chick name (Patricia Mae Andrzejewski doesn't quite have the same ring so no wonder she ditched it) with a nifty rock 'n' roll attitude. 'Was' because you can't carry all of those things into middle age (she's four years older than me so she's over 60 now). I'm sorry but you can't have the same rock attitude in black leather pants at age 60 that you had as a teenager. The men don't know but Grace Slick understands.
You Better Run is a classic slice of early eighties rock and does feature the wonderful guitarist Neil Giraldo who has appeared on all of Pat's albums. It's a cover of The Young Rascals song but Pat makes it her own. It was the second song ever on MTV and was perfectly suited to MTV's raison d'être.
Hidden gem: The B side is another great rock song. Pat sounds a little like a rock version of Blondie's Deborah Harry on this song and that can't be a bad thing.
Marty Balin Hearts/ Freeway (EMI F 8084, 1981)
Arr - the eighties.
Not a very forgiving decade to the Jefferson Airplane alumni like Starship and Marty Balin.
Marty is a colourful character: an original member of the Airplane, he's floated in and out of the Paul Kantner dominated picture during the years but the eighties was largely an unsuccessful attempt at a solo career.
In 1981, things looked okay for a start. He released his first solo album, Balin, featuring two Top 40 hits, Hearts (#8) and Atlanta Lady (#27). This was followed in 1983 by a second solo album, Lucky, along with a Japanese-only EP called There's No Shoulder. Lucky did not match the performance of Balin; it suffers from the worst kinds of eighties synth(etic) excess and his contract with EMI ended.
Hearts though is a nice melodic stab at the charts and deserved its success. Marty has such a great voice it's really unfortunate that his solo attempt coincided with the plastic decade.
Hidden gem: Freeway doesn't appear on the album Balin for some utterly bizarre reason. It's a great rocker. Hearts is a ballad so gets the A side obviously, that was what he had become known for, but Freeway is the better side. Yes it has the dreaded synths but it also has, shock horror, a GUITAR SOLO!!!!!
Alice Cooper Teenage Lament '74/ Hard Hearted Alice (Warner Bros B 7762, 1973)
Yep - I have a couple of singles out of alphabetical order. Sorry 'bout that chief.
I remembered that in a fit of enthusiasm many years ago I put a lot of singles into album sleeves. The idea was that if an A side was featured on an album I'd put the two together to create a more unified package.
I know, I know. Anal. But there you go.
Half way through the Beatles' singles run down I remembered this and went through my albums to separate the two again.
Which brings us to Alice Cooper - the man and the band and their 1973 album Muscle Of Love (both A and B side are from the album).
1973 was a stellar year in rock generally but a great one for Alice Cooper - they managed to produce the brilliant Billion Dollar Babies and Muscle Of Love.
Teenage Lament '74 is certainly an album standout but it makes an even better single.
Teenage angst: Alice gets into the teenage mind to a frightening degree in two of his biggest hits - I'm Eighteen and this song. The whole thing is a shtick but it's done in such an over the top yet tongue in cheek way that it works. Helps that the music is terrific!
Hidden gem: The B side is also from the album and a nice line in self mythology. I'm a sucker for the twice shy stuff.
The Beatles Free As A Bird/ Christmas Time (Is here Again) (Apple R 6422, 1995)
The surviving Beatles regrouped in 1995 to supply music for John's Free As A Bird and answer another of John's questions in the lyric - Can we really live without each other?
Well yes and no. Life went on after John's murder in 1980 but the world hasn't been the same without him. It certainly changed the Beatle universe in general and the lives of Paul George and Ringo (Yoko, Sean, Julian...) in particular.
Paul George and Ringo do their best with the song (in truth not one of JOL's greatest efforts) and they can't help sounding like who they are. I, for one, am happy that they did this and Real Love for the Anthology project. Obviously, with George's death there can never be a repeat of the Threetles.
George and Paul's vocals and those familiar harmonies are fantastic additions to John's lead. George's guitar and Ringo's drums: it's the bloody Beatles la.
Hidden gem: The Beatle's Christmas discs sent out each year by the fan club from 1963 until 1969 are a fantastic collection of inspired lunacy. They show the wonderful friendship the four headed beast enjoyed and they also serve to show the inner turmoils towards the end of their career together. The Christmas discs have been bootlegged a lot but it would be great to have them officially released together on an Apple album.
This one comes from 1967 and is probably the least interesting of the fan club discs, so here's the complete set. Gear! So it's over to John - NOW~!
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The Beatles 1 Watching Rainbows 2 She Came In Through The Bathroom window/ 1 Too Bad About Sorrows 2 She Said, She Said 3 Mean Mr Mustard 4 Don't Let Me Down 5 Golden Slumbers, Carry That Weight (Bootleg EP)
The Beatles Twickenham Jams: 1 Early In The Morning, Hi Ho Silver 2 Stand By Me 3 Hare Krsna Mantra/ 1 All Things Must Pass 2 A Fool Like Me 3 You Win Again (Bootleg EP)
The Beatles Intervista Con L Beatles/ Intervista Con L Beatles (Bootleg single)
In which we enter the dodgy world of the bootleg EP. I know I shouldn't, I don't really want to, but I can't help myself.
In this case the tracks on the first two EPs are the usual dire quality that afflicts the world of the bootleg. They both come from the 1969 Get Back (AKA Let It Be) sessions.
Watching Rainbows comes on rainbow coloured vinyl with a fake Apple label; Twickenham Jams comes on green vinyl.
Of much more interest to me is the intervista on blue vinyl, again with an Apple label. Its two sides contain the much bootlegged 1968 radio interview/larking about session with Kenny Everett - a great DJ whose humour is a great match with the fabs.
Hidden gems: Nope!
