With Christmas parties in full swing and blizzards, freezing fog and ice descending on all parts of the UK, missions home are becoming ever more sketchy for the seasonal reveller. If you're unlucky enough to be stranded in a car, airport or wheelie bin, take comfort in the knowledge that even rock deities aren't immune to the odd wayward, drunken loss of navigation.
Watts 103rd Street Rhythm Band (they of 'Express Yourself' fame), released their third album 'In the Jungle, Babe' during 1969, including a handful of covers and some loose instrumental jams. This one is a breezy brass and ivory number suitable for those times when an air guitar won't quite satisfy and what's really needed is an air trumpet.
Alternative Christmas sound alert, with West Coast stoner rock outfit Wooden Shjips turning the whimsy of 'O, Tannenbaum' into a lilting psych instrumental. This tune along with a crazy cover of Auld Land Syne were released last Christmas on tape to friends and family of the band and have just recently been redistributed for wider yuletide moshing. One to wrap the presents to with the aid of mulled cider and a fatty.
Lewd, grinding funk-rock from the original, slug-tached Sheik Yerbouti off the 1973 album 'Overnite Sensation'. It's testament to Zappa's subversive brilliance during his lifetime that there should be so many honors bestowed upon his memory. There's a monumental bust of his head erected in Vilnius, Lithuania and a fossil discovery named after him - Spygori zappania - by American paleontologists who stated his: " mission paralleled that of the earliest paleontologists: to challenge conventional and traditional beliefs when such beliefs lacked roots in logic and reason". Annual get togethers such as the 'Zappanale' in the German city of Bad Doberan and a Zappa Day held in his birthplace Baltimore ensure some of the younger generations get exposed to the bizarre genius.
Funkadelic's first album made a frayed and wide-eyed entrance into the world in 1970, melding deep, rhythmical patterns into lengthy funk jams. 'I Bet You' is a remake of an earlier version of the song by The Parliaments, also covered by the Jackson 5 and sampled by the Beastie Boys.
Given the perishingly cold and snowy conditions in the UK at present, a bit of ambient German electronica seems in order. Krautrock adventurists Roedelius and Moebius ditched the urban sprawl in '76 to go and make expansive analogue soundscapes in a cottage in the forest. The whole album is a masterpiece in restrained layering, and offers an ideal soundtrack to driving in blizzard conditions. There's something in the fabric of this tune that might actually be constructed out of melting icicles.
T-Bone Walker was one of the most innovative and boundary pushing jump blues guitarists of all time, believed by some biographers to be the first musician ever to perform with an electric guitar. This is a boogie blues off his "The Blues Of T-Bone Walker' compilation, as sampled by Mr Scruff for 'Get A Move On'.
Rasping guitar and organ duel taken from Buffalo Springfield's last album released in 1968. Stephen Stills was doing most of the work at this point after numerous line-up changes and itchy feet amongst the ranks. The album cover sort of says it all really, with Neil Young collaged on to the photo and looking in completely the opposite direction. They all look bloody miserable, but the songs carry some weight as a result.
Full moon special an evening late and obscured by fog. This is the opener to Hurley's second LP Armchair Boogie from 1971, lovingly re-issued by the mighty Mississippi Records out of Seattle. The album name gives away the kind of unhurried, benign and wistful material to be heard inside.
It only takes a cursory glance at Darondo's knuckles to see that he means business. Coming on like the musically gifted sibling of B.A. Baracus, this title track off his re-issued album 'Let My People Go' is a taught, muscular, downtempo serving of heavy funk and soul. Get to it sucker!
One of the standout cuts from Del Shannon's 'lost' psychedelic album 'The Further Adventures Of Charles Westover' goes under the quivering scalpel of Gallic edit maestro Pilooski. This tune comes from one of the limited run Dark & Lovely releases, sharing vinyl space with re-rubs of the Pointer Sisters and Danny Gold. The original is given extra ballast in the form of added kick drum, enhanced handclaps and other dancefloor-friendly sprinkles of magic. Gemini sounds like a total babe.
A little soul-tinged, country blues groover from the eclectic and wide-eyed Casual Records label, whose 'Country Got Soul' compilations are worth tracking down. Also check out The Gourds covering Snoop Dogg's hood anthem 'Gin And Juice' in a redneck banjo stylee, perfect for turning the average house party into a ghetto barn dance at the drop of a straw hat.
A staple of Mason's solo performances recorded live at The Troubadour in 1972, post-Traffic days. Dave is something of an un-credited gun for hire having featured on the Stones' 'Beggars Banquet' album and George Harrison's 'All Things Must Pass' solo set. He also briefly joined Derek And The Dominoes before they recorded, and much later had a spell with Fleetwood Mac in the 1990s. Check out his unfettered style in an earlier post here too on 'Welcome To The Canteen'.
The Yardbirds were responsible for launching the careers of three of the greatest rock guitarists ever in the shape of Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck and Jimmy Page. This track comes from the December 1965 BBC sessions during Jeff Beck's tenure as resident axe man. The juxtaposition of the suit from the BBC's rod-up-his-arse introduction and that knuckle-whitening fuzz and distortion is an entertaining bonus. Like a local parish priest introducing a chainsaw sculpting competition.
An instrumental hammond funk-rock tune from the Fritz The Cat soundtrack. Fritz The Cat was and in all likeliness will remain the only cat on the face of the planet to have demonstrated a sense of humour. There's an interesting piece on the sociobiology of humour in cats and dogs by James Gorman, that's worth a read if you have a moment.
Taken from one of the best vinyl releases of 2010, this edit of Sunderland Brothers & Quiver's 'Dark Powers' lops out the distinctly cheesey bridge and chorus parts of the original to leave this brooding disco-rock gem. An edit that has skillfully breathed new life into unlikely source material.
...with gasoline!" One for the bonfire starters here. This track was recently employed by Tarantino to soundtrack the nazi cinema blaze-up in Inglorious Basterds. The film 'Cat People' is an erotic horror flick that verges on soft porn on a number of occasions, which is no bad thing when Nastassja Kinski is involved.
Anyone who has seen the Woodstock film (and if you haven't, why not?) will have the musical gymnastics of Ten Years After firmly lodged in their brain's musical highlights file. Their explosive version of I'm Going Home put them firmly on the white blues revival map and Alvin Lee is to many people right up there with the best guitarists of all time. This is a slow, building blues that lurches like a rabid, slavering hound, with Alvin scowling and baying for attention, needing love so bad because otherwise he might have to COOK and perform other domestic duties that seem so alien its comical.
The insistent pounding of ancient feet underpin this meandering re-rub from Thomas Bullock, the man involved with variously excellent projects such as Rub 'n Tug, Map Of Africa and Laughing Light Of Plenty. A Mountain Of One are Mo Morris, Leo Elstob and Zeb Jameson who together produce cosmically inclined, dubbed-out rock and pop. Basically its a remix project made in heaven and a modern psychedelic bundle of joy, with a well judged dose of cod mysticism thrown in for good measure.
With shop window displays turning the lurid colour of squeezy cheeze and more cheap tat on sale than you can shake a sweatshop-produced witch's broomstick at, its hard to ignore the fact that Halloween is upon us. Rather than rant on about the rise of this mawkish, consumerist, Americanization of the calendar, we may as well embrace it, if only to dust off records like the 'Monster Mash' and the immortal Ray Parker Jr and get ragingly drunk. Here's a derailed ghost train ride through the darker corners of the psyche, featuring pagan howls, fire-stoking guitar, siren samples etc. courtesy of Quiet Village - AKA Joel Martin and Matt Edwards, whose Fragments Of Fear mixtapes are a must have for Halloween party kitchen atmos.
A decent cover of the country rock standard immortalised by Ronnie 'The Hawk' Hawkins in his performance during The Band's 'Last Waltz' motion picture. "I walk forty seven miles of barb wire, use a cobra snake for a necktie, got a brand new house on the roadside made out of rattlesnake hide." A hit of badass bragging that is unlikely to win the affections of the fairer sex hailing from outside the southern states of America or the Australian outback.
Crosby's first solo album featured contributions from an all-star cast including Jerry Garcia, Graham Nash, Neil Young, Joni Mitchell, Phil Lesh and Paul Kantner - filling the famous Topanga Canyon with cosmic vibes and orgiastic sighs. Trying to think of an equivalent geographical hub of American creativity nowadays and the only thing that springs to mind is Silicon Valley - just up the road in California state. Big Dave was more into microdots than microchips at the time, as the album title suggests.
Often covered, never bettered - Dr. John AKA The Night Tripper stirs a big wooden spoon into his hypnotic voodoo gumbo and ladles out a burbling portion for the masses. Prepare to have your heart melt like butter and st-st-stutter to this winding, fire engulfing masterpiece.
In 1977 Al Green departed from his famed Hi Rhythm Section band and long time producer Willie Mitchell, tried his hand at lead guitar and penned songs for 'The Belle Album'. The album was well received by critics but never sold in nearly the same volumes as earlier works, despite being arguably his most assured work since 'Call Me'. 'Georgia Boy' is a sweet piece of down-home country soul with a loose bluesy jam feel that gets right underneath the skin and demands repeated listens.
Psychedelic, self-help, lounge-jazz invented and laid to rest in the duration of one song. D.R. Hooker rocks a brave look post-Manson that is half cultish troubadour, half prophet. Hard to tell whether he's addressing himself or someone else in this song. They're selling hippie wigs in Woolworths man.
Big Bill was evidently a sharp dresser and couldn't abide his threads being torn to pieces by horny mamas clamoring to see if his bedroom skills were as nimble as his musical ones. A nice problem to have one might imagine.
Cale-era Velvets with a barrage of kinetic rock 'n roll - Foggy Notion was one of the tracks off their unreleased album for MGM Records, due for release in 1969, but only reaching the light of day in the '80s. Doug Yule cuts particularly loose on lead guitar, 'metronomic' Mo tucker looks after percussion whilst Reed sings about calamine lotion.
Astro-travelling closer to the sought after US69 LP 'Yesterday's Folks' on the Buddah Records label, a gem that successfully melds psych moods with funk, jazz and eastern flavours without being a convoluted crock of shit. This one is ideal fodder for star-gazing, meteorite-spotting and quiching out in gardens. Check the title track for tough breaks, breezy reed pieces and tongue-in-cheek vocals. In fact check out the rest of the album, its a real grower.
This psychedelic groover is taken from the compilation pictured above, ominously titled 'The World Ends' - the latest installment on the always-excellent Soundway re-issue label. The material is sourced from Nigeria in the '70s when musicians were absorbing the psychedelic rock and funk sounds of the West and wringing them back out in their own viscous incarnations. The backdrop was one of intense political strife and upheaval following internal power struggles and the fallout of the Biafran War. This is a feral six-minute taster of the kind of musical responses being posted to the unrest and the West, that manages to reference James Brown, Hendrix and Fela Kuti whilst retaining its own beguiling individuality. Compilation alert!
Lifted from their 'Nancy & Lee' comp/album from 1968, a package of timeless, haunting and elusive songs. 'Some Velvet Morning' will be known to many, the video of which presents Nancy as the very human incarnation of the goddess Phaedra. Hazlewood was a psychedelic cowboy and pop hit master, who rocked the fat slug tash like only a few in history have successfully managed (mainly cricketers as it happens).
Continuing the funk rock theme from yesterday, with added filth and fiddles from the man like Papa John Creach. This album is worth the entry price for the sleeve alone, but the musical contents are a smutty, oily bonus from this erstwhile contributor to the Hot Tuna lineup (as featured in an August post) and all round string-groping legend.
The sleaze and smog emanating from the City Of Angels clearly rubbed off on Tim Buckley in a good way. This is six minutes plus of him yelping and pining for some big mama to hop on his Johnson, backed up by a driving bassline, choppy, hard-assed percussion, grooved hammond organ and tricksy guitar inflections. This lascivious funk rock sprawl is an agreeable change from his early, earnest folk-rock efforts. Music for an open-topped tan Sedan barrelling down the freeway with an accommodating chick riding shotgun.
Well are you? Or were you? More west coast psych/garage rock fare from the preposterously named Chocolate Watchband, which can't help but stir memories of Spinal Tap during their Flower People phase. CW's 'No Way Out' album is full of good flavours though - lots of bluesy psychedelia in songs like 'Milk Cow Blues' and 'Gone And Passes By'. The mind boggles as to the scenes that might've taken place at the 'love-in' - there's probably reams of footage of it on a super-8 camera in the attic of a hippie-turned-goat farmer in Cornwall somewhere.
We have Link Wray to thank for the invention of the power chord, as flexed in early hits like the titanic 'Rumble', which laid the foundation stones for, erm, rock music basically. We also have to thank him for the brilliantly lo-fi output he made during the early 70's. This tune is lifted off his down-home, 3-track recorded, self-titled album, which was executed in the space of 3 days in a chicken shed. It gives a taste of the scratchy, charm-filled brilliance that permeates the whole album and others of the period such as 'Beans And Fatback' and 'Mordicai Jones'. This kit can't come recommended more highly for fans of blues/country rock in the vein of Exile On Main St. etc.
Most of what you'd probably like to know about this brilliant delta blues & country singer can be found at the MJH Museum site. It looks like the coolest museum on earth.
Bit of a departure from the usual rock-based fare this morning, but as yours truly will be going under the knife of a somewhat cavalier doctor for a knee injury later today, this psychedelic dub mood piece sort of captures the feeling of unfocussed tension in the air chez moi. Sly & Robbie get cooking on this cut from the irritatingly rare and hard to find 'Disco Dub' LP from 1979. On the bright side my doctor didn't have a bone through his nose and a goat's head cup full of bat's blood last time i visited.
A snippet of Hammond-funk rock from the son of Johnny Otis off his first solo LP 'Here Comes Shuggie Otis'. He used to wear fake moustaches and sunglasses to get into clubs aged 12 and played bass on Zappa's iconic, parp-march 'Peaches En Regalia'. He also wrote 'Strawberry Letter 23' as covered by Brothers Johnson, and obviously had fret skills to burn.
Let's hope Mickey found peace in the garden of his mind shortly after committing this to the tapes, because the general vibe is anything but tranquil in this short, de-railed steam train trip through garage psychedelia wilderness. In fact his mind sounds more like a quagmire than a garden, but there's plenty of hidden paths and water features of interest nontheless.
Once heard a quote from someone saying that Neil Young was a crap guitarist and that he always sounded like there was a solo in there somewhere but he just couldn't get it out. This says bollocks. Anyone fortunate enough to catch the be-gripped legend performing live on his Chrome Dreams UK tour will have had this track etched indelibly on their subconscious. Searing heat from a man that just won't stop doing it for the love of music, unlike some of his rock dinosaur contemporaries out to fund their latest island or personalised range of grooming products.
Unusual take on the Beatles' original acid anthem 'Tomorrow Never Knows' by this fleeting supergroup comprised of Eno, Phil Manzanera and others. The band only played 3 live gigs in total and its a real bonus that the bassist Bill MacCormick had the foresight to bring a tape recorder to one of the rehearsals. The results are a 'live album' including this cover which craps all over anything Roxy Music happened to be spewing out at a similar time. Also of interest might be Dweezil Zappa's cover of 'Tomorrow Never Knows' which takes things into cosmic, ambient techno territories!? What won't be of interest (except for poor comedy value) is the Phil Collins cover, which is total bilge.
Gene Clarke is buried in Tipton, Missouri - his headstone simply reads: "Harold Eugene Clarke - No Other". He was the underrated mastermind behind much of The Byrds' best output. His solo album from 1974 was way ahead of its time, fusing gospel and choral elements with country, folk and psychedelia to produce a heady and intoxicating sound. This is a great taster for an album that rewards and grows on you with each listen.
Disorientating, fuzzed-out rock from one of the original psychedelic bands of the West Coast scene. Primal Scream covered the 13th's song 'Slip Inside This House' on the seminal 'Screamadelica' album, whilst other bands as diverse as Spacemen 3 and ZZ Top have acknowledged the Elevators' influence. This tune is a mumbling, wrangling lick-fest topped with lyrics about escaping to the country (or something like that) all wrapped up in a metallic cloud of reverb and general garage juice. Unleash the freaks.
Mystical band name? Check. Voice of an angel? Check. Not one but two of the greatest finger-picking style guitarists the UK has ever produced? Double check. Pentangle had it all and their kaleidoscopic brand of folk rock really broke with the stuffy traditional 'folk purists' and went off in new and exciting directions. The five sides of the band really cook on this one. The interplay between Bert Jansch and John Renbourn is telepathic, Jacqui McShee's voice is as illuminating as ever, Danny Thompson plods erratically and jazzicly on upright bass whilst Terry Cox does things with his drums that sound like they should be easily replicated but really aren't. A good live version off French TV from 1972 shows the band in all their jumpered and greasy-locked finery
In the wake of moderate and stratospheric success with Buffalo Springfield and CSNY respectively, came this brilliant solo album from Stills in 1970. The pink giraffe on the cover might be seen as a surreal nod towards the degeneration that was to come, like some foreboding projection of Stills' coked-up subconscious. Just at that moment though, he remained in control of all his faculties - most notably his guitar playing finesse, which has always been right up there in people's estimations.
An obscure and quite beautiful blues harmonica duet from 1969. Screw played at the famous Hyde Park extravaganza alongside The Rolling Stones, King Crimson etc. etc. but never really turned that exposure into record sales and success. Perhaps it was their distinctly leftfield approach to the blues mixed with middle and far-eastern flavours that put paid to widespread acclaim. That and their incredibly ropey barnets. Middle England's answer to the duelling banjos from Deliverance done with more facial hair and less menace.
Parliament/Funkadelic lead guitarist Hazel is up there with the best of them. This is a tune off his solo album 'Game, Dames And Guitar Thangs' from 1977. Funk rock special of the day.
The man hardly needs an introduction, so this is more just a personal favourite from the Jeff Beck archives. There's actually a point in this tune when, with the right amount of booze in the system and the volume cranked to the proverbial '11', it might actually be possible to levitate or even fly.
.jpg)
