Nineties Nu-Soul Queens ...

For the weekend: a look back at those new '90s music divas  with their funky grooves that got us going then - line them up:
Des'Ree, Macy Gray (we wore out her first album), Erykah Badu, Angie Stone, Adeva (I met her up close at Crash club on millennium night and she really is that fierce), Ultra Nate, Rosie Gaines, Donna Allen and Joyce Sims (love that "All'N'All" megamix), and Regina Belle ("You got the love") from the late 80s ....  they still sound terrific now. 

A week of lists: 30+ albums to love

"The Sunday Times" had another of their fascinating lists yesterday: 100 albums to love,. I suppose I could run to 100, but here’s the top of my list ….

• Marvin Gaye  - LETS GET IT ON (for "Distant Lover")
• Stevie Wonder – INNERVISIONS
• Aretha Franklin – LADY SOUL (for "Good To Me As I Am To You" with Eric Clapton)
• Dusty Springfield – DUSTY IN MEMPHIS
• Joni Mitchell – BLUE / COURT AND SPARK / WILD THINGS RUN FAST
• Carole King – TAPESTRY
• Joan Armatrading – BACK TO THE NIGHT
• Annie Lennox - DIVA (we wore it out)
• The Beatles – ABBEY ROAD
• The Rolling Stones – LET IT BLEED
• The Band – MUSIC FROM BIG PINK (this one takes me back to my hippie years in the late Sixties)
• Talking Heads – STOP MAKING SENSE
• Roxy Music – FLESH & BLOOD
• Nina Simone – NINA AT TOWN HALL
• Miles Davis - IN A SILENT WAY (I can get lost in this)
• Pet Shop Boys – ACTUALLY
• Billie Ray Martin – DEADLINE FOR MY MEMORIES ("Running Around Town")
• Fleetwood Mac – RUMOURS
• Supertramp – BREAKFAST IN AMERICA
• Pink Floyd – WISH YOU WERE HERE
• Massive Attack – BLUE LINES
• Frank Ocean – CHANNEL ORANGE
• Bob Dylan – BLOOD ON THE TRACKS
• Tim Buckley – GREETINGS FROM L.A.
• The Doors – STRANGE DAYS
• Grace Jones – NIGHTCLUBBING / LIVING MY LIFE
• Roberta Flack – FIRST TAKE
• Donny Hathaway – DONNY HATHAWAY (for that killer version of "A Song For You")
• Blondie – PARALLEL LINES
• Neil Young – HARVEST (for "Old Man")
• George Michael – OLDER (THE essential gay album)
• Paul Simon - STILL CRAZY AFTER ALL THESE YEARS 
• Stevie Winwood - ARC OF A DIVER
• Elton John - TUMBLEWEED CONNECTION
• Tom Rush - THE CIRCLE GAME (so very 1968, with those early Joni & James Taylor songs)
• The Moody Blues - DAYS OF FUTURE PASSED (another dippy hippie daydream)
• Nat King Cole - NAT KING COLE SINGS/GEORGE SHEARING PLAYS
• Frank Sinatra - SONGS FOR SWINGING LOVERS
• Barbra Streisand – THE SECOND BARBRA STREISAND ALBUM

No room for my essential dance music: A Man Called Adam, Groove Armada, Global Underground, Murk, Danny Tenaglia, Space Ibiza etc. 

Brian sings Joni

One of our favourite singers Brian Kennedy sings Joni Mitchell songs on a recent CD (which I had to acquire on eBay from Australia) A LOVE LETTER TO JONI. 

Great to hear a (gay) man singing "Night Ride Home", "A Strange Boy", "Michael From Mountains", "Free Man in Paris", "You Turn Me On I'm A Radio", "Amelia", "River", "A Case Of You" etc.

Other Joni songs that would work well in this context would include "Be Cool", "Man to Man", "Night in the City", "Chelsea Morning", "Car On A Hill", "Talk To Me", "Barangrill" etc. 

Good to hear Brian is well again after cancer treatment, and it was enjoyable hearing him on Michael Ball's radio show last week. He has a new 2 CD compilation out too. His "On Song" CDs are good too on current and old Irish songs I know well, he has of course also toured extensively with Van Morrison. His Joni tribute disk is as good as Ian Shaw's Joni disk DRAWN TO ALL THINGS, or Herbie Hancock's THE JONI LETTERS, or George Michael's great version of "Edith and the Kingpin".  

Two other CDs I had to get recently (not being on Spotify, Martin!) are a brilliant new recording of Tchaikovsky's PATHETIQUE by Seymon Bychkov, and, on its way to me, Daniel Hope's FOR SEASONS, a new take on Vivaldi's "Four Seasons" and with songs for each month - Weill's "September Song" for instance. Can't wait to hear it. 

Pets headline Brighton Pride !

I was delighted to see that The Pet Shop Boys were the main act at this year's Brighton Pride here on Saturday 5th August, doing a full 90 minute show.

Much as I like The Pets - still going strong after 30+ years - and their innovative, stylish shows, on reflection we will be giving it a miss - it would not be a good venue for us to see them, as they will attract a huge crowd and one may well be stuck in the middle of a throng, unable to move. Now that we are getting on a bit, comfort is a necessity, I demand a seat and a good view. 

Thankfully I have seen the Pets several time before, as per label - their Savoy Theatre residency in 1997, London Pride that year, and on tour in Brighton in 1999 and also at The Tower Of London in 2006 etc. I am sure they will have other tour dates lined up too. 

But good luck for Brighton on Pride Day. I could always play their Glastonbury or O2 concert dvds instead ,,, Years and Years are terrific too...

Brighton Pride is one of the UK's main Pride events, I have been to several and know the city well having lived there for several years, on the south coast in Sussex. Its a great day out for everyone and events and clubbing continue all weekend.  

RIP, continued ...

Chuck Berry (1926-2017), aged 90. Indeed one of the pioneers of rock'n'roll whose electric rhythm'n'blues guitar paved the way for those who followed, like The Beatles and The Rolling Stones who covered his songs, like "Roll Over Beethoven" in their early days. His guitar licks, duck walk, brash self-confidence, and those songs about teenage life: cars, girls, dance parties created it all. There was always though, as per some lurid reports, a touch of sleaze about Chuck, but he kept on going decade after decade, Who is left from that era? Little Richard, Jerry Lee Lewis, Fats Domino ....

Joni Sledge (1957-2017), aged 60. One of the Sledge Sisters who were huge disco stars in the late 70s and early 80s. We know and love those songs: "We Are Family", "He's The Greatest Dancer", "Lost in Music" indeed,

Robert Osborne (1932-2017), aged 84. Film historian, writer and television presenter, We did not really know him here in the UK, but Osborne was the face of and host for TCM - American version - with his informed and affectionate comments on Turner Classic Movies and all the seasons and stars he interviewed. I got some of his introductions and interviews on disks sent from friends in New York. We could have done with him over here, 

For the weekend ....

Two timeless classics, nuff said.

The return of the man who fell to earth ...

Its back, in a new print, to commemorate its 40th anniversary. Is it really that long since that hot summer of 1976, when we loved TAXI DRIVER and Nick Roeg's THE MAN WHO FELL TO EARTH .....  

A maverick film director, an emaciated rock star (who it seemed lived on Corn Flakes, milk and small mountains of cocaine) and who had never acted in a full-length film before - both in an inhospitable location in North America and New Mexico, plus a script heavy on allegory from a novel considered unfilmable - but somehow it all came together in another Roeg masterpiece, following his success with DON'T LOOK NOW. 

THE MAN WHO ... is now considered a cult classic, up there almost with 2001 A SPACE ODYSSEY in its prescience on how we live now: information overload, digital cameras, endless television channels, machines that play music on shuffle, sinister worldwide corporations, surveillance, drought, global warming - its all here, and it should look terrific in a new print. Also of course Bowie dying this year adds extra resonance ... here he is the alien (great special effects from that pre-CGI age) who comes seeking water for his dying planet but get seduced by Earth's alcohol and human relationships, as that corporation seeks to take over his patents for new gadgets, leading to some razor-sharp images and cutting. It will be fascinating to see it again at this remove. There is also that fascinating documentary CRACKED ACTOR which the BBC made on Bowie at the time and during the filming. That should be included in the new package too. 

PSB ROH

Rave reviews for The Pets at The Royal Opera House, we did not get tickets in time though for their 4-night season - but at least they are doing a Tour next year, so may catch it then. We had already of course seen their great residency at The Savoy in 1997 - was that 19 years ago? scary .... and their 1999 tour (with that Zaha Hadid set) in Brighton; and their 2006 concert at The Tower Of London, plus a few of their Pride appearances.

After 30 years (42 Top 30 singles since 1985) the Boys are still going strong, still doing great concerts (check the dvds for ther O2 and Glastonbury sets), the recent albums have been great again, they were in the 2012 London Olympics parade,  plus their musical CLOSER TO HEAVEN, their soundtrack for BATTLESHIP POTEMKIN, their ballet and those inventive videos and singles with all those great remixes. THE POP KIDS are still SUPER. POP ART  indeed. 
As James Hall said in "The Telegraph": The show encompasses high culture, club culture, theatre, cinema, political satire and a mind-bending laser show. Oh, and dozens of dancers in fluorescent inflatable sumo suits throwing shapes as though their lives depended on it ... This is no Greatest Hits set, a third of the 23-song set is taken from this year's SUPER and 2013's ELECTRIC, both produced by Madonna producer Stuart Price and both up-tempo celebrations of dance culture ... The setting is extraordindary, from the stalls one could look up to see five tiers of people dancing among the lasers and the gilded balconies, the Opera House recast as a temple to hedonism. Below, the orchestra pit became a rave cave. Call it incongruous, call it bonkers, call it wonderfully eccentric - this show is all of these." 2017 here we come !  

Cleo, Shakespeare & all that jazz

400 years today since Shakespeare died (aged 52 in 1616) - lots of celebrations here in the UK, including an all-star marathon on The Bard on BBC tonight, while the BFI is mounting a two-part retrospective. I am sure my 6 different HAMLETs and 4 MACBETHs will get an airing too, then there's Orson's CHIMES AT MIDNIGHT ...

One Shakespeare artefact which may be overlooked now is this 1964 album by Cleo Laine. I had it at the time when I was just a teenager, so it was great to download the tracks again a while back (the album itself or the CD had not been available for a long time)\. Cleo has always been one of our favourite vocalists - her concerts with husband Johnny Dankworth were always great value as they certainly delivered and exceeded expectations. We saw them several times in the '70s and '80s, and I loved several of her other albums, particularly WOMAN TALK, another '60s classic. 

Cleo wraps her delicious tones and immaculate phrasing around those timeless words from the plays and sonnets - she swings, she hits the high and low notes as only she can. An Amazon review puts it: "A perfect marriage of words set to music, melody and jazz invention. Singing and playing of the very highest calibre. This recording has greatly improved my life". 

This is the track listing: 

1. If Music Be The Food Of Love / 2. O Mistress Mine  / 3. Duet Of Sonnets / 4. Winter / 5. My Love Is As A Fever / 6. It Was A Lover And His Lass / 7. Dunsinane Blues / 8. Take All My Loves / 9. Blow, Blow Thou Winter Wind / 10. Shall I Compare Thee / 11. Witches, Fair And Foul / 12. Fear No More /  13. Sigh No More, Ladies / 14. The Compleat Works. 

In the wake of so many obituaries lately, that first verse of "Fear No More" is so apt:
"Fear no more the heat o' the sun
Nor the furious winter's rages.
Thou thy worldly task hast done,
Home art gone, and ta'en thy wages.
Golden lads and lasses all must,
As chimney sweepers, come to dust."

1971: Golden year for music?

A new tome on the key albums of 1971 should be worth investigating - as long as it is not as heavy as that recent book on 1966 (which I reviewed a while back). The author here, music jounalist David Hepworth, makes a good case for 1971 being a golden year, and looking at the key albums of that year I tend to agree - I was 25 then and deeply into music as vinyl record albums were entering their golden period.

Music fans of course will have their own golden period (that 1964-67 period was terrific for me too) - that time of their first immersion into pop culture, for younger people it may be the punk or disco years of the late 70s, but that singer-songwriter was at its peak in the early '70s as music by black artists like Marvin Gaye, Stevie Wonder, Aretha Franklin, Roberta Flack and Sly Stone evolved and caught the changing times. Led Zeppelin and The Who also released some of their best work - the Zepps were not for me, but I loved The Who's WHO'S NEXT - and of course The Doors L A WOMAN (having seen them at that all-nighter in 1968, as mentioned before) then there were The Rolling Stones ... and Jeff Beck and Eric Clapton did some great stuff too and Rod and Elton were at their early best. Joni and Carole dominated the year too with their enduring albums - Carole is even doing TAPESTRY in full at a concert in London's Hyde Park this July, 45 years after recording the album ...

How about this lot all from 1971:  A golden year indeed! I had them all at the time .... and a lot still now. One could say in 1971 rock was still inventing itself, we did not realise how lucky we were to be living through it at the ideal age - but we do now. Of course the next year 1972 brought us Stevie Wonder's TALKING BOOK and seeing and meeting Joni again - see label - and '73 ushered in Pink Floyd's DARK SIDE OF THE MOON as the long-playing vinyl album took over the world - see Music-1 label. 

• Marvin Gaye – Whats Going On
• Sly & Family Stone – There’s A Riot Going On
• Carole King – Tapestry
• Joni Mitchell – Blue
• James Taylor - Mud Slide Slim
• David Bowie – Hunky Dory
• Rolling Stones – Sticky Fingers
• Doors – LA Woman
• John Lennon – Imagine
• Janis Joplin – Pearl
• Carly Simon - First album 
• Elton John – Madman Across The Water
• Rod Stewart – Every Picture Tells A Story
• Cat Stevens – Teaser and the  Firecat
• Nilsson – Nilsson Schmilsson
• Traffic – Low Spark of High Heel Boys
• Jeff Beck – Rough and Ready
• Van Morrison – Tupelo Honey
• Led Zeppelin IV
• Who – Who’s Next
• Emerson Lake & Palmer – Pictures at an Exhibition
• The Band – Cahoots
• Barbra Streisand – Stoney End, Barbara Joan Streisand

When albums ruled the world

There seems to have been a surge of interest/affection in the vinyl long playing album - BBC4 here has been waxing lyrical on the great era of the long playing record, covering the rock album, the pop album, the r&b album - basically mid-60s to mid 80s, with lots of interviews with disk jockeys and musicians and highlighting all those albums we loved and grew up with, they became part of our life really in that golden era of the 70s, when stadium rock and the singer-songwriters held sway, before the arrival of punk and disco.  Here I am in my flared jeans in what must be 1978: my current albums at the ready: Joni Mitchell and Joan Armatrading !

How very '70s!

The Beatles of course revolutionised music, not only with their singles but also their early albums which we just had to have. Their 1963 PLEASE PLEASE ME album, which was recorded in 12 hours, is being re-created tonight on BBC by current groups.
The soundtracks to HELP! and A HARD DAYS NIGHT were essential with all their new songs, and of course RUBBER SOUL and REVOLVER. Prior to that best-sellers were soundtrack albums like THE SOUND OF MUSIC. Then of course in that magic year 1967 (when I was 21) came SGT PEPPER LONELY HEARTS CLUB BAND followed by THE WHITE ALBUM and ABBEY ROAD ... Tom Rush's THE CIRCLE GAME, the early '70s saw those early Joni Mitchell albums like BLUE, Carole King's TAPESTRY, Carly Simon's NO SECRETS, James Taylor's SWEET BABY JAMES and MUD SLIDE SLIM, Neil Young's HARVEST and AFTER THE GOLD RUSH, Santana's CARAVANSERAI among others.

Then it was Pink Floyd and DARK SIDE OF THE MOON and WISH YOU WERE HERE - how we loved those sounds ...  The Eagles hit that country rock sound with DESPERADO and of course HOTEL CALIFORNIA, and Fleetwood Mac with RUMOURS in 1977 .... later albums we had to have were Joni's latest, those Joan Armatradings, and SATURDAY NIGHT FEVER, and of course Mike Oldfield's TUBULAR BELLS, and Supertramp's BREAKFAST IN AMERICA.

Plus of course those early Elton and Rod Stewart's, David Bowie and Roxy Music, Paul Simon. Aretha's Atlantic albums like LADY SOUL and that stunning live album at the Fillimore, Donny Hathaway, Marvin Gaye, Stevie Wonder, Al Green all re-defined soul music in vinyl albums we practically played out, then of course show albums, those Streisand LPs.
Also by the end of the '70s those first 12" singles came along, with disco extended mixes: Grace Jones' "La Vie En Rose" with "I Need A Man", Blondie's "Atomic" etc. More vinyl piled up ... The pleasure of actually handling the vinyl and putting the needle on the groove is something one just does not get with CDs which soon piled up too all over the place as of course, by the mid-'80s, one bought them all again on the new magic format, as we did with the new albums by George Michael, Sting etc. Then in the '80s/'90s clubbing took over with house and garage music taking over from high-energy; ecstasy and club beats ruled ...

Packaged in gatefold sleeves that were works of art in themselves, with all those lyrics,  the '70s LP was a playground for musicians to think outside the grooves of 3 minute singles, and helped create the soundtrack of a generation, which produced Bob Dylan, Paul Simon, The Doors etc. I remember being 20 in 1966 and playing Dylan's early stuff like "Corrina Corrina" and "Oxford Town" and Simon's "I Am a Rock" over and over, and dashing for the latest Stones's single like "Satisfaction" or The Who's "The Magic Bus", those early Fleetwood Mac singles like "Need Your Love So Bad", Chicken Shack's "I'd Rather Go Blind", Canned Heat, Leon Russell, Little Feat, Blood Sweat & Tears, The Moody Blues - that "Nights in White Satin" album DAYS OF FUTURE PASSED ... The Soft Machine, the albums my hippie pals liked - The Band MUSIC FROM BIG PINK etc. as we headed off to see The Doors and Jefferson Airplane at The Roundhouse, along with Stevie Winwood and Traffic, Cream, Clapton, The Who etc. 

One of these BB4 programmes interviewed Grace Slick of Jefferson Airplane - she is now a grey-haired old lady! Of course others who did not fare so well were Janis Joplin, Tim Buckley, Tim Hardin ... we liked their albums as well.

Fleetwood Mac's RUMOURS is now re-released in a de luxe edition and it brings it all back - its marvellous to hear it all again. Its very sound ("Go Your Own Way", "You Make Loving Fun", "Don't Stop") with those winsome melodies and West Coast harmonies defined the era, like the Lovin Spoonful and The Mamas and the Papas a decade before them. Californication indeed! It remains one of pop's great touchstones, and is the high-water mark of America's '70s rock culture, along with THE EAGLES GREATEST HITS, then there were all those other groups like Foreigner ... that whole L.A. coke-fuelled hedonism.  Fleetwood Mac have of course reformed for the reformation tour - thats where the money is these days, so many groups are re-grouping ...

Even David Bowie is coming back with that new album after the teasing taster single.

There's also that nice little box of Joni Mitchell's first 10 studio albums, as mentioned here before, with those miniture gatefold sleeves ....

Petula Clark too has a new album out at 80 with a stunning new slower version of "Downtown" - that anthem from when I was 18 and new in London: "Downtown - its all waiting for you" - and it was ...

I also now have a new discovery to go and listen to: Frank Ocean's Grammy winning "Channel Orange" ... so really, music is better than ever, even if stores like HMV go to the wall - but we now buy our music (and movies) differently than even 10 years ago ... when I was shopping in HMV every week.

 
High-tech late '70s: left: stereo, early vhs recorder, 3-channel tv, audio & vhs tapes, and albums, albums  ... and right, in the '80s: cds, cassette decks for making mix-tapes, and satellite tv, in Portsmouth! - 
and I loved my clunky yellow Sports Walkman, much sexier than the ordinary one!

Now, everything is on the iPod, and HD multi-channel bigger and flatter televisions were unimaginable even ten years ago !