What are you listening to

[Feldon]

Mark Knopfler music with extra anchovies.

 

[Feldon]

I was going to post a favorite Christmas song of mine, Snoopy’s Christmas by The Royal Guardsmen. But then I thought that it is now so old that many might not know the first of the Snoopy songs of the late 1960s on which it was based.

So first, for context, here’s the original Snoopy vs. The Red Baron - the imagined exploits of the canine hero in the long-running comic strip ‘Peanuts’, that programmed my young mind for adulthood (probably explains a lot). Great song with a driving, infectious beat.



I remember as a kid getting unintentionally high on Airfix plastic glue when assembling construction kits of Fokker triplanes and Sopwith Camels, while waiting expectantly for this song to come on the radio.

I also remember as a kid when crumpled old men with glassy eyes would come to school on Remembrance Day (11th November) to talk about the Great War of 1914-18. They told us they were ordinary civilians just like us, not soldiers. I remember one of them who looked up at the ceiling, and the teacher and the whole class followed his gaze, as he raised his shaky arms and recalled seeing these wondrous new flying machines that buzzed and crackled in the sky above the trenches in France. I didn’t understand his awe and fear and wonder until I got older.

Anyway, here’s the band in person playing Snoopy’s Christmas (starts with a few intro bars of the great old German Christmas song O Tannenbaum).



Despite the differences between forum members (which can be the heart of a good forum) during the year, I wish a very happy Christmas to you all. Especially those of you estranged from your kids and other loved ones for whatever reason at this time of year. I raise a beer to you all.

 

[Feldon]

Bit of new year’s eve entertainment from 35 years ago.

Crowded House in full concert in ABC TV’s Melbourne studios broadcast in the first hours of 1987 (not 1986 as stated in the video title and blurb).

There’s a time-stamped playlist pinned below the video if you want to pick out a few tunes. But the whole thing is good - guitar, keyboard, bass, drums, vocals.

Neil Finn at his best with a great band playing their own stuff from a time when you didn’t need a social media profile to be listened to. The music was all that really mattered.

 

[Feldon]

So sad about this.
There are other huge Bat tracks out there that he and Steinman gave us.
But this is just for Meat.
Thank you for what you did. You were the the soundtrack of my life for years. And still are.
And you proved the multi-million dollar corporate music industry didn't know jack shit. And still doesn't.

 

[Feldon]

About the same time (1977-8) as Meat Loaf released Bat Out Of Hell, Blondie released Plastic Letters which had this song, Detroit 442. Here’s Deborah Harry singing it - perhaps best viewed by a dashboard light.

 

[YAPN]

(if Link works)
Deborah Harry with her dad's band, from an album by Iggy Pop.

 

[Feldon]

That old rooster Rod Stewart is back touring in the US. He just turned 77 but still strutting his stuff, melting women’s hearts with a voice that sounds like a walk down a gravel driveway. He's been going ever since the ‘60s, and was once in The Kinks until the drummer said he didn’t like his voice and he got chucked out. And he's got seven kids after eight different relationships. After one of his divorces he said, “Instead of getting married again, I'm just going to find a woman I don't like and give her a house."

Here he is a few years ago flirting around with a matchstick gorgeous Amy Belle as they sing I Don’t Want To Talk About It. Great orchestral backing too.

 

[Feldon]

Rest in peace to one of the god-mothers of rock and roll, Ronnie Spector. Born Veronica Bennett, she died last month aged 78. I spent some time over the weekend listening to her over a beer or two and reading about her place in music history. What a great singer she was.

She came on the scene as a contrast to the cute ‘girl next door’ image of other female vocalists of the time. She had a loud and cheeky New York attitude, pouted, shook her hips and paraded herself around the stage in tight fitting clothes. Wild shit in the early '60s. She had a big bee-hive hairdo and a bigger, unique voice. With her sister and cousin she formed the trio the Ronettes, and they could work the TV cameras and loosen up an audience with a carefree happiness in their performance. Her mixed African-Cherokee heritage and heavy eye-liner gave her an exotic look, like Cleopatra.

She married her producer Phil Spector and he recorded her using his new ‘Wall of Sound’ studio technique, with backing by the famous session musicians who later became known as the Wrecking Crew. Her most popular song was Be My Baby released in 1963 (the song’s opening intro drum phrase played by Hal Blaine became a musical landmark. He said: "I was supposed to play the snare on the second beat as well as the fourth, but I dropped a stick. Being the faker I was in those days, I left the mistake in and it became: ‘Bum-ba-bum-BOOM!’ ”. It sounded so good that the drum phrase was later copied by many others in many other songs).



The Ronettes toured with the Beatles and Stones, and in 2007 a slightly ‘over-relaxed’ Keith Richards inducted the Ronettes into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

 

[Feldon]

A new Sultans of Swing cover, this rendition by Mary Spender and Josh Turner.

So clean and uncluttered. Just two voices, two Fenders, seven minutes, and one take. Superb.

 

[Feldon]

The great Bill Withers died about this time last year. I’ve been meaning to go through his back catalogue and did it today while painting the bathroom (I’m too old for this shit but tell my wife). And doing it drinking the worst extract brew I’ve ever made. But it’s all I’ve got at the mo. So bitter; seriously terrible; don’t know what I did wrong. I’ll persevere as a self-imposed punishment (never tipped one yet).

Anyway, what an anchor of the music world Bill Withers was. His Aint No Sunshine shows how great music can be made so simply. No fancy double/triple tracking (or worse electronic witchery). Just his soulful voice singing and him playing along with an oh so cool backing band. And check these guys out! (all old men, or dead, by now) - the cheesy drummer and the kicked back bass player. So much fake cool around these days - these dudes were the real deal.

Can someone pick me up and drop me off in 1972. I’ll be waiting out the front.

 

[Feldon]

A revealing interview with veteran music journo and author Bill DeMain. Just released. He talks about Paul McCartney’s long stay at a farm near Nashville in 1974 with his wife Linda and their young kids and his band Wings, and in particular the recording of the epic track Junior’s Farm.



And here’s that great song with its thumping bass and with the brilliant Jimmy McCulloch playing lead on his debut with the band (sadly he would die just five years later of an OD at the age of 26)

Take me down Jimmy! ...

 

[Feldon]

The above interview mentions the time Paul McCartney dropped into the Sound Shop Studio in Nashville and asked the sound engineer Ernie Winfrey if he could record rock & roll. “Sure” was the answer, and thus Junior’s Farm was recorded (but maybe some of them country folks involved felt just a little bit dirty).

Here’s a short interview with Ernie Winfrey describing the time Wings recorded in his studio in 1974. He also tells the tale of young guitarist Jimmy McCulloch turning up pissed and angry one night and hurling a bottle at the control room window. No harm done, but a great song was born in those sessions.

(fast forward 35 seconds to skip the intro)

 

[Feldon]

Interview with Suzi Quatro a few days ago by none other than UK political provocateur and head Brexiteer, Nigel Farage. Suzi Q is intelligent, grounded and candid and still performing after all these years. About to do a show at the Royal Albert Hall in London. A real stayer.

(Nigel Farage has a weekly TV chat show on a UK streaming TV channel. Called Talking Pints he talks to people over a pint of beer. And for old Nige it’s not tokenism - he actually gets it in. For a chatter box he’s a pretty good probing interviewer too. Seems to be able to relax his guests, ask the right sort of questions at the right time, and then shut up and let them answer.)

 

[raybies]

 

[Feldon]

Interested in some cool background music to fill out a long hot brew day? Maybe try this. Smooth Blues - eight hours of instrumental rock infused blues/jazz tracks played by an ensemble of musicians on guitar and piano. In contrast to their brilliant music they go by the one plain collective name of Brian Grey.

(and plenty of other long form recordings in a similar genre on the same channel, eg. Slow Blues, Electric Blues, Dirty Blues, Smokey Blues)

 

[YAPN]

I play this whenever I see Peter Dutton talk about war

 

[CapnClunks]

last year we had quite a thread going on grumpies about music people are listening to and everyone had a good go at paying everyone one else out for there music.
mind you i think i copped most the flack.
no tangent i don't drive a valiant or where flannies.
(what happened to our mate tangent anyway)

anyway you all know iam a led zepplin freak.
but i can't pick a best zep tune its impossible.
but i think my vote for all time greatest tune goes to the stones for sympathy for the devil.
iam also a big jimi fan but couldn't pick a favourite there.

as far as modern music goes no one will ever beat Alice in Chains.

beside those bands the only others in my playlist are zakk wylde's black label society, ozzy, black sabbath and Rush.

of course i got a reasonble collection of deicide and canibal corpse and the like along with all the metal stuff you could imagine.

Whats in your playlist?
jayse

Pantera
Opeth
Slayer
Random 90's pub music, nivana, red hot chilies, pearl jam
Classical and opera oddly enough

 

[Feldon]

RIP Dennis Waterman, singer and actor in movies and popular TV shows like The Sweeny, Minder, and New Tricks. He has died peacefully at home aged 74.

Here he is with the great slap bass theme from Minder, I Could Be So Good For You (co-written by the second of his three wives, Patricia Maynard)

As Arthur Daley would say, “Well done son”.

 

[DU99]

 

[Feldon]

Paul McCartney and his band of the last 20 years is back touring again. First time post-Covid, and he’s called it the ‘Got Back Tour’.

In recent weeks he’s been playing venues in California and there are quite a few full concert videos shot by audience members popping up on YouTube. Some are dreadful - bad sound, shaky video. This one was shot at a concert in Oakland on 5 May. It looks like it’s been shot on an up-market phone camera and mike and is quite good considering.

And the video time bar at the bottom has been segmented with each song time-stamped so you can pick out what you like (just hover your pointer over it). There’s a good run of classics starting at 1hr 28 min with Something and continues through some of the Beatles’ later stuff and Wings tracks.

Don’t be put off by the concert’s opening track Can’t But Me Love which Paul’s voice struggles with. That’s just a sad observation, not a criticism. He turns 80 next month. I’ll be lucky if I can hum along at that age. His voice loosens up as the concert progresses.

It is great to see and hear the great man still performing. It won’t last forever. Love it live while you can.



(This video might be taken down by the YouTube bots pretty soon, so download it while you can).