Tuesday 17 December 2013

WHEN MAJOR TOM MET THE WILD-EYED BOY AND MR WALKER

ARTIST: David Bowie; TITLE: Space Oddity; LABEL: PHILIPS; FORMAT: 7"; Cat. No.: BF 1801; YEAR: 1969; COUNTRY: UK

Welcome back from the Vinyl Consultancy now relocated down in here sometime sunny South Devon.



Today I'm focusing on Bowie's 1969 breakthrough - yep "Space Oddity".  As I'm sure everybody's well aware it was inspired by the moon landing of that year and another Bowie's songs about alienation, a subject first tackled on "The Gospel According To Tony Day" which cropped up on the flip side to the Laughing Gnome".  This is the 2nd version Bowie recorded - the first being for the soundtrack of "Love Me Till Tuesday", although the video for that version was then married with one when the song got to the number 1 slot in 1975.  The third and probably the starkest version is the 1980 version which premiered on British TV on New Year's Eve 1979/1980 and as precursor to "Ashes to Ashes" - making you wonder if the journey Major Tom was even into space at all!  The arrangements come courtesy of cellist Paul Buckmaster - and on the fadeout there seems to a nod in the direction of Ferde GrofĂ©'s "Grand Canyon Suite".




The flip side gives you the stripped down version of "The Wild Eyed Boy From Freecloud" which I prefer to full orchestrated version of the parent LP.  Here you just have Bowie on 12 string acoustic and Paul Buckmaster on cello.  Which has the advantage of being able to hearing the lyrics a lot more clearer which being swamped by orchestration (not producer Tony Visconti's fave tune perhaps?), and when you do it's clear to hear the influence that Scott Walker has having on Bowie's writing at time.  Interestingly this one of those songs the survived into the Ziggy era - as it's part of the farewell set recorded at the Hammersmith Odeon.  It's also from Bowie's Tibetan phase - part of the cycle that began with "Silly Boy Blue" on the 1st album, and completes with "Karma Man" which saw the light of day on Decca's "world Of David Bowie"set released just after the "Space Oddity" or David Bowie "2" if you will. And which apparently originated in Bowie's mine piece which he'd toured around the UK with Lyndsey Kemp in 1968.  The song was also one on Marc Bolan's favourites as well.



That's it for 2013 - here at the Vinyl Consultancy.  See you back again sometime early 2014!  Wishing you all the best for the festive season!

 

Wednesday 22 May 2013



R.I.P. RAY MANZAREK - A QUICK TRIBUTE


Artist: THE DOORS; Title: LIGHT MY FIRE (Short Mono Version); Label: ELEKTRA; Format:7"; Cat. No.: EKSN 45014; Year: 1967; Country:UK.

Seeing as the man responsible to a large of extent of what made this seminal track from The Doors so distinctive died yesterday.  Here's a quick appreciation of what for many is their most recognizable track - namely "Light My Fire" released in 1967 and carried by the distinctive Vox organ sound of Ray Manzarek - which was borrowed from a certain Johann Sebastian Bach.  I'm discusssing the UK issued version of the 7" - which is the short version which doesn't have the showcase solos of Robby Krieger's flamenco inspired stylings (which was supposed to be feature of the track) or Ray Manzarek's  extended solo.  However unlike the US short version and subsequent UK reissues of the early and mid 70's there's no audible edit and it sounds like the groups playing the shorter cut all the way through - plus there's a bit of different in sound and playing - so I'm thinking towards this being the mono single mix.  The flip side is the sublime "The Crystal Ship" - which shows that Jim Morrison could do subtle after all!  


Thursday 9 May 2013

SOME PSYCHEDELIC FUNK/SOUL - CHESS CURIO CORNER

Artist: FUJI; Title: REVELATIONS (Pts. 1&2); Label: CADET; Format: 7"; Cat. No.: 5665; Year: 1969; Country: US.



Today's post - 1st in a while as I'm in the process of selling my house and moving down the West Country - is this curio released on Cadet in 1969 by "Revelations" by Fuji.  Which can be best described Pyschedelic Funk - and a bloody good example it is of it too.

Fuji - real name Ellington Jordan - released this gem in '69 backed by one of the 1st black rock band Black Merda - from Hendrix's hometown Seattle and songwise pretty much reflects the state of things in the States in the late 60's in cities like Detroit, which weren't great - especially so if you happened to be black.  It was planned to be part of an album but - as with a lot of these type of projects the album with the great title of 'Mary Don't Take Me On No Bad Trip' was shelved and finally saw the light of day as recently as 2005! Whether this was down to Chess' worries about alienating their traditional fan-base after the realease of Muddy Waters 'Electric Mud' I'm not sure - but it wouldn't surprise me. 

Music-wise does sound a lot like Hendrix then the fact that Fuji was friends with him certainly played a part and showed how much an influence he was having on black music in the late 60's - even influencing the likes of The Temptations and Chess label-mates Rotary Connection.

One other bit of info I did find on Fuji was that he co-wrote Etta James' anthem "I'd Rather Go Blind" - which you'd like to hope is a nice pension plan for him.

Bought this for £8 about 7 years ago - and seen it selling on Discogs for £22, and a DJ Promo copy on Popsike that went for $64.  And having played it again for the first time ages I can see why people'd want to pay that much for it - and it's a great example of that type cross-genre type of music which I'm a bit of a fan of. And as an example of Pyschedelic Funk - then look no further!

Quick thanks to whoever posted the biog info on Fuji on Discogs and Allhiphop.com - as it's always to have an idea of who these poeple are.

Sunday 20 January 2013

HAPPY BIRTHDAY FRANCOISE!



Just a quick one today! And wishing a very Happy Birthday to probably my favourite French singer of all time - yep we're talking Mlle. Francoise Madeline Hardy - and only 3 days different from my own! She's on the 17th of Jan and it's mine today!



The fluky thing is that Cherry Red through their El imprint have just issued Francoise's debut album officially here in the UK for the first time which I bought just over a week ago as an early birthday present for myself (if you can't treat yourself to a bit of FH once in a while then what else can you do!). Which as well as that album originally issued in 1962 you also get the Italian language set which came out a year later.  So it's interesting to do a compare and contrast between the two sets of songs.

And while we're on the subject of Francoise sleeve art and photos - here's a few more of one of the best pop singers of the 60's! Enjoy! And to Francoise - thank you for your wonderful music!  Merci beaucoup!

 

Thursday 17 January 2013

THE MURDER BALLAD DUETS - KYLIE, POLLY & NICK



ARTIST: Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds feat. Kylie Minogue; TITLE: Where The Wild Roses Grow; LABEL: Mute; FORMAT: CDS; CAT. NO.: CD MUTE 185; YEAR: 1995; COUNTRY: UK.
This tangentially links in the last post on Bowie - inspired by having a listen to Bowie's 'Baal' EP the other day, specifically one track 'The Drowned Girl' which got me thinking as to whether it's an influence on the Nick Cave and Kylie duet "Where The Wild Roses Grow" from the "Murder Ballads" album.  The song's a bit of good one - and for anyone used to the usual Kylie fare this must have come as something of a surprise, and which showed there was a lot more to her than the PWL pop stuff - and as you'd tend to expect, pretty much standard Nick Cave type stuff - ie  dark romanticism tinged with the usual gothic touches. And you pretty much know that the narrator of the song as voiced by Kylie isn't going to come out of it well.  The song also gave Nick Cave his biggest hit in the UK, getting as high as 11 in the Charts.  The other 2 tracks on the single are the wonderful "The Ballad of Robert Moore and Betty Coltrane" - which plays out like a scene from a Tarrantino film and a wonderful bit of black humour as well!  The final track is "The Willow Garden" sung here by Bad Seed Conway Savage.



ARTIST: Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds Feat. PJ Harvey; TITLE: Henry Lee; LABEL: Mute; FORMAT: CDS; CAT. NO.: CD MUTE 189; YEAR: 1996; COUNTRY: UK
The second single to be released from the "Murder Ballads" album is this wonderful duet with PJ Harvey.  With "Henry Lee" the boot is definitely on the other foot - as you'd tend to expect from a Polly Harvey related song from this period of her career - check her 'To Bring You My Love' LP for further info - and it's the bloke that gets it here in no uncertain terms!  The next track is Nick Cave's take on 'Froggy Went A-Courting' giving the archetypal Cave treatment - with blood and guts aplenty!  The last track is the rather brilliant "Knoxville Girl" - an Appalachian murder ballad where despite the deed being done - remorse gets the better of the narrator and he ends up behind bars after being tormented by his guilt over what he's done.  The song has it roots in an Irish murder ballad 'The Wexford Girl' which itself derives from an English one called 'The Oxford Girl' - which I think is the same one the Oyster Band did.

Thursday 10 January 2013

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MR. BOWIE - DAVID JONES IN SOME OF HIS PHASES!

Hello for 2013 - and a wishing you all a Happy-ish New Year!  First up for this year is the recent birthday boy - David Bowie and wishing you a Very Happy 66th.

This is done in roughly chronological order - so that the records are from the year that they were released - rather than in the case of the reissues from when they'd first appeared.  The reason being that as is this based on my record collection it's a question of cost - especially so in the case of Bowie's stuff from the 60's!


First up here's the sleeve for the Spanish issue of "Starman" from '72.  And more than likely Spain's introduction to Ziggy.

Next we have what's probably one of Bowie's earliest classics - "The London Boys" originally released on Deram in 1966 as the flip side to 'Rubber Band', and here reissued on Decca in 1975.  
The song deals with the darker side of the Mod Dream and showing that's it not really all it's cracked up to be - whether Bowie's putting any of himself in this character I'm not sure - and works as cautionary tale of what can happen if you get yourself into something too deep too soon! 

1978 saw Decca reissuing Bowie 1964 "Liza Jane" which had virtually zilch in the way of publicity - and unless you were a long term-fan how many people would immediately connect Davie Jones & The King Bees with Bowie?  Griping aside what's it actually like - pretty good in fact! A admirable bit of mid 60's British R'n'B - the song's one of those that been done by a lot of people down the years - and the other version that immediately springs to mind is the one Nina Simone did.  The B Side gives you a version of "Louie, Louie Go Back Home" which is no way as near as an Illustrated Record on Bowie would have you believe - OK it's got it's limitations but you can here the band giving it their all - and it is Bowie's debut after all!

The 45 for consideration is this Dutch only issue of the track from 1979's criminally neglected 'Lodger' LP - namely the Turkish/Reggae tune that is "Yassassin".  The title translates from Turkish as "Long Live" and apparantly inspired by Bowie's time in Berlin where he was living the Turkish quarter.  It's a track I like and shows that our man Mr. Jones (alongside Mr Eno) wasn't afraid of introducing non-western musical influences into his stuff! Plus you also get Hawkwind's Simon House on electric violin as well!

Here's the sleeve for the 1982 12" version of Bowie's version of the Brecht "The Alabama Song" - which confusing reuses the Ziggy era sleeve from the 1972 reissue of the 'Space Oddity' LP - whereas as anyone in the know knows that the version here is the stripped down 1980 version that acted as a primer for Bowie's return to the saga of Major Tom on 'Ashes To Ashes'.  Back to the music - "The Alabama Song" was recorded during the sessions for the 'Lodger' LP and was written by Bertolt Brecht and Kurt Weil for the 'Threepenny Opera' (also the origin point for 'Mack The Knife') and uses Brian Eno's Oblique Strategies to good effect with the drummer and bassist swapping places and shifting key changes and tempos for each verse.  Along with the stripped down version of "Space Oddity" the third track which thematically matches the other two is Bowie's version Jacques Brel's "Amsterdam".  And which despite the slagging off it gets in some quarters actually isn't that bad!

Bowie's other major bit Brecht was the 1982 drama he did for the BBC - his first major play "Baal".  The songs Bowie performed in were released as an EP and received a pretty positive response both on screen and for the music - which Bowie and producer Tony Visconti did at Hansa Tonstudios in Berlin where they'd done 'Low' and 'Heroes'.  In someways what you get with "Baal" is Bowie coming full circle. A decade after the theartrics and sexual ambivalence that brought him into the public gaze via Ziggy Stardust, here he is playing a character with at least some of those attributes on screen.  It's also pretty much the end of an era - as this would the last bit of original Bowie material that RCA would issue - before he moved over to EMI.  
And on the subject of Bowie at EMI here's the two single he did for Parlophone in 1965 reissued as a handy 10" EP by See For Miles in 1982.  Side One gives you the single released by Bowie's group of the time The Manish Boys - first up a version of Bobby Bland's "I Pity The Fool" which features a blistering guitar solo from Jimmy Page. Next up is the first Bowie song to make it onto vinyl - the distinctly Mod-flavoured "Take My Tip".  Side Two has our man billed as Davy Jones & The Lower Third - and the tracks on offer here are firstly "You've Got A Habit Of Leaving" - which if it sounds slightly Who-ish should be too surprising as it's produced by Shel Talmy who was producing both bands at the time - and again featuring a Jimmy Page solo. The proceeding are rounded off with "Baby Loves That Way" another Bowie original and somewhat typical of the period.