Show some love for Richard Hawley

Richard Hawley was born into the wrong times. The one-time Pulp sideman’s heart resides with the torchsong singers of the ’50s and ’60s, with Scott Walker and his Belgian archetype, Jacques Brel.

While the likes of Rod Stewart and Robbie Williams issue campish karaoke homages (or chash cows, you decide) to the Rat Pack, Hawley has crafted an original sound that is at once nostalgic and contemporary. His songs are originals, often of such musical depth and quality that one yearns for the Capitol-years Sinatra to cover them. Curse the human cycle of ageing and death for denying us the opportunity to hear Sinatra (or “Frank”, if you're Bono) sing the title track of 2005’s Coles Corner. In absence of this option, one might wish to encourage Scott Walker to abandon the unlistenable din he is noq creating in favour of covering some Hawley — the utterly gorgeous "Valentine" from the exquisite new album, Lady’s Bridges, suggests itself. And, oh, to have heard Johnny Cash singing “Dark Road”, also from Lady’s Bridges.

This does not imply that Hawley’s delivery is deficient. He has a soothing baritone which hints at torment and darkness. At times, the vocals are a little too dispassionate even as the lyrics are eloquent, as though Hawley was a mere observer of his life. But even when he does passion (such as on the lovely "Baby You’re My Light" from 2001’s Late Night Final), Otis Redding at his most incendiary he is not.

On Lady’s Bridges, Hawley sticks to the formula of his previous albums, but is more cohesive than its predecessors (including the excellent Coles Corner), with not one poor track. By rights, this should be background-type music. This it cannot be, because the songs pull the listener in by force of their personality. Listening to this set is rather like enjoying a luxurious bubblebath by candlelight, as the warmth of the water, the comfort of the foam, and the calmness of the dim light envelope you.

Richard Hawley - Valentine.mp3 (from Lady's Bridges, 2007)
Richard Hawley - Dark Road.mp3 (from Lady's Bridges, 2007)
Richard Hawley - Coles Corner.mp3 (from Coles Corner, 2005)
Richard Hawley - Just Like The Rain.mp3 (from Coles Corner, 2005)
Richard Hawley - The Only Road.mp3 (from Lowedges, 2003)
Richard Hawley - The Night Is Made For Us.mp3 (from Lowedges, 2003)
Richard Hawley - Baby You're My Light.mp3 (from Late Night Final, 2001)
Richard Hawley - Long Black Train.mp3 (from Late Night Final, 2001)

Jacko, Yoshi & the Heartbreak Hotel

Danny Baker's 1980 article for the NME about Michael Jackson, and his brothers, titled “The great Greenland mystery”, may well be my favourite piece of music writing ever. The subject matter lends itself to the bizarre, of course. For the most part of this pretty lengthy article, the Jackson angle is at once central and peripheral, sometimes at the same time.

The best example of that is an account of a press conference in LA, held to promote The Jackson’s Triumph album (the one with the soaring “can You Feel It”). From experience I know that his portrayal of these events is hilariously accurate. Especially so in the context of entertainment writing, as I experienced during a brief excursion into the field in the early '90s.

Here then the pertinent excerpts from Baker’s classic and very, very funny article (followed by a few Jacko tracks for your pleasure):

I LOVE press conferences. Nobody says anything for the first ten minutes and then, when someone does, questions fly about in little spurts. In the gaps, hungry hacks eye up and down their comrades' columns to see if someone is going to ask a question a split second before they open their own cake-holes, thus shutting down their own effort in its first syllable.

Then there's the all-out strain to see who can project the best image of the seen-it-all pressman. Never admit it's your first PC. Also sort out where the majors are present. No one wants to admit they're from the Basildon Non-Ferrous Metals Weekly when you're sandwiched between the Times and the Telegraph.

It's wonderful to spot potential questioners. You can see their lips moving as they run over and over the question, ironing it out a full quarter -hour before popping it. And worse! If some bastard creep gets in your query first, they usually get approving nods from all around and you feel like screeching 'But I was going to ask that!'

[pre-PC preparations]

Then there's the well-used but still fresh-looking note-pad that on every page has the standard four lines of shorthand at the top. You have to rattle a pencil around your teeth — never chew it! — until you get an 'idea'. Then you add another half line of shorthand culminating in finally slamming your notebook shut with a disturbing air of confidence. Then you just sit back, arms folded, surveying the lesser hacks who've yet to complete the preliminaries.
[...]
"Once the artists enter you're treated to a stampede of photographers -- forming tight bundles like mating-crazed frogs. [...] All the smudges yell 'This way please Cecil' even though Cecil never does. They usually nick a glance from somebody else's successful bid.
Before photographers do all this, they pick straws to see who will be the one who goes around behind the artists and takes a shot or two of All The Other Photographers Taking Photos of Cecil. The runner-up gets to be the essential smudge who stands firm snapping away after the others have retreated. He carries this on until a bouncer leads him away.
[...]
If you meet someone you know at a press conference, you always ask each other what you're doing here. The you both decide 'It's a giggle', the subject is only fit to be sent up, and ask who was that berk who asked such and such a question halfway through. Then you destroy the berk's paper.

Michael Jackson and his brothers have entered, "all sporting huge jamtart sized sunglasses".

The questions are real tat. 'Ven fill hue be wisiting Sweden, Michael?' 'Are you a close family, Michael? (to which the family Michael showed a keen drollery in snapping back 'No Sir'), 'Can you give us information about your new record?'
It was pretty bleak until this one poor wretched Japanese looking bloke committed the cardinal sin of any press conference — he tried to crack a joke. Oh, but he did. Y'see there's a track on their new LP called "Heartbreak Hotel" and this bloke — who had little command of English anyway — thought he had cooked up a real zinger.

'Ah, Michael', he stuttered, seizing his chance. 'Ah if you had not been a hit with your LP, ah, would you have gone to, ah, Heartbreak Hotel?'

In the ensuing silence, the wind blew, crickets chirped and you could hear the guy swallow hard as the apologetic grin froze on his chops. It turns out nobody understood him. Tito asks him to repeat the 'question'.

'Ah, Michael, i-if your LP had n-not been success...w-would you have, ah, have gone t-to Heartbreak Hotel?'

By now most of us hacks have caught on to what's being said and the less valiant turn away and clear their throats. The guy is still grinning although he has stopped blinking by now and is wobbling perceptibly.

A Jacksons aide steps in. 'Er, Yoshi, what do you mean?'
'Ah Michael. If your album h-h-had not been su-su-success wouldyouhavegonetoHeartbreakHotel?'

Michael shakes his head and Jackie tries. 'OK, I got Heartbreak Hotel but that was on our LP — what's it got to do with Michael?'

Poor Yoshi is drenched in flop-sweat. He is darting his eyes around looking for an ally. His neck has gone to semolina and his palms perspire like the Boulder dam.

'I-I-I'm playing with words you see.'
Nobody sees and Yoshi's grasp of the lingo falls an inch short of the word 'joke'.
'P-P-Playing with words … words.'

The eyes of the world are burrowing deep inside that tweed jacket of his. He's trembling like a sapling in monsoon and smoke is starting to belch out of his ears. Then — a voice at the back ends the torture.

'I think the guy's trying to make a funny.'
'Yis! Yis! That's it!' babbles the released spirit. 'I'm making funny! Funny!'

As he begins to appeal for clemency, the final cruel blow sounds. Amidst the unnecessary sighing the aide says: 'Hey Yoshi. This is a press conference, man. Save the funnies, huh?'

The dumb questions resumed but I couldn't take my eyes from the broken Japanese. Ruined, he never heard another word all afternoon. Today, I suspect he sits in a bathchair in some far off sanatorium, grey haired and twitching, mumbling to anyone who will listen: 'The words. Playing with words you see…is funny…'

The Jacksons - Can You Feel It.mp3
The Jacksons - Blame It On The Boogie.mp3
The Jackson 5 - I Want You Back (Remix).mp3
Michael Jackson - Don’t Stop Till You Get Enough (Demo).mp3
Michael Jackson - Billy Jean (Demo).mp3

Time travel: 1975

When Nat "King" Cole sang about those hazy, lazy days of summer, he might have had in mind my nostalgic memories of the summer of 1975 (or perhaps not, as Nat didn't know me, having died before I was born). I wonder whether I'm alone in remembering the weather of my childhood only in extremes: beautiful sunny days or lovely snow suitable for sled riding, plus some of those rainy days when it is actually fun to stay indoors. This picture of the nine-year-old Dude is a summer photo, taken upon arrival in Blåvand, Denmark. I am Any Major King of Style here, sporting the quintessential German high-fashion look: sandals and socks (preferably dark), too short shorts, and anugly t-shirt (depicting a theme for the US bicentennial celebrations a year later). Don't try that at home, kids.


Sweet Sensations - Sad Sweet Dreamer.mp3
Cheese ahoy? I doubt this song gets much airplay even on retro radio stations. Yet, it truly evokes the '70s. And doesn't it sound a bit like lovechild of the Jackson 5 and Partridge Family conceived to the Sound of Philadelphia. Don't confuse this British/Jamaican band with the US girl-band of the '80s.

Hello - New York Groove.mp3
Everything about this song is still great. Especially the way they grunt the word "groove" in the chorus. I cannot remember whether other Hello songs were any good. Their image wasn't aided by their rather insipid name and style of dress, which set up the group as a but of a teenybopper act. Which they were. But this song deserves better than to be regarded as a mid-'70s teen. It is a slice of pop perfection. Kiss guitarist Ace Frehley covered it on his contribution to the four simultaneously released Kiss solo albums in 1980. His version wasn't bad, just redundant. Because who needs alternative versions of a song that is perfect?

Steve Harley & Cockney Rebel - Come Up And See Me.mp3
Another perfect song. Steve Harley's periodically stuttering, spluttering and sneering delivery are complemented by a great tune, infectious hooks and an exciting arrangement, with sudden stops and those "oowooh-la-la-la" backing vocals. The song was produced by Alan Parsons, who was not only a '70s prog-rock bore, but also served music history as sound engineer on Beatles' recordings.

Leonard Cohen - Lover Lover Lover.mp3
Obvious question: doesn't Len really belong at the bottom of this post, in the section most readers ignore? Well, no, because "Lover Lover Lover" was an unlikely German hit in 1974/75, in a rare exhibition of sophistication in the charts. And what a fine song it is, too. The lyrics are classic Cohen: I asked my father, I said: 'Father change my name.' The one I'm using now, it's covered up with fear and filth and cowardice and shame... He said: 'I locked you in this body, I meant it as a kind of trial. You can use it for a weapon, or to make some woman smile.'

Barry White - You're The First, My Last, My Everything.mp3
The sunny sound of the '70s. Because of this song and "Love's Theme", and the Philly sound (the TSOP theme received much airplay in Germany), I associate strings in soul music with my childhood summers. It is a shame that Barry White's legacy is laced with an overgenerous portion of corn. Granted, some of the luuurve lyrics are a bit hackneyed. But go beyond the comedy of White as the Luurvewhale, and appreciate the luscious arrangements, the sometimes quite intricate melodies, and White's instructive vocal performance. Check out lesser-known tracks, such as "Playing Your Game", a lover-funk number that oozes sexiness in ways quite different from the better-known hits. And, of course, listen to Love Unlimited to really pick up the genius of Barry White.

Albert Hammond - Down By The River.mp3
Strokes guy's dad was one of the prolific songwriters in the 1970s, writing hits for himself and for others, including the Hollies' gorgeous "The Air That I Breathe", making him Gibraltar's biggest musical export ever (from a tiny pool, admittedly). Hammond was more popular in West Germany than in Britain. This single unaccountably didn't even chart in the UK, but was everywhere in Germany. As was "The Free Electric Band" and "It Never Rains In Southern California". Hammond for all intents and purposes packed in his recording career to write hits in the '80s, including such horrors as Whitney Houston's "One Moment In Time" and Tina Turner's "I Don't Want To Lose You". What a long way to drop from the heights of the lovable folk-pop of "Down By The River".

Billy Swan - I Can Help.mp3
Originally an Elvis song. You have to love a country song with such a groovy organ. The teasing interludes before the song kicks off for its fade out are genius. In truth, this song owes as much to soul as it does to Nashville. In the early 1960s, Billy Swan (his real name) supplemented his songwriting income by working as a janitor at Nashville's Columbia Studios. When he quit that job, a young country hopeful named Kris Kristofferson succeeded him. Swan would later join KK's backing band.

I Santo California - Torneró.mp3
The holidaymakers' import hit from sunny Italy in 1975. I really like this song. But I do have a soft spot for some Italian pop, supplementing my great love for Italy. I have no idea how desperately uncool it may be to like songs by Umberto Tozzi ("Ti Amo", "Gloria"), but I do. "Mama Leone" by Bino, dreadful song by a dreadful singer, but I like it. Yet, I despise the music of Eros Ramazzotti. There was a German version of "Torneró", possibly by I Santo California themselves, but the melody is so essentially Italian pop, it requires the sound of the Italian language. I wonder how many thirtysomethings throughout Europe owe their life to "Torneró"?

Van McCoy - The Hustle.mp3
Tune! Disco guitars, strings, flute, horns, a killer bassline and nice ladies and commanding gentlemen inviting us to do The Hustle. Do it! Van McCoy was previously a record label boss and producer (his clients included Gladys Knight, the Drifters, and the Shirelles). McCoy died of heart failure in 1979, at the age of 39.

Carl Douglas - Kung Fu Fighting.mp3
The song is a cliché now, but it still gets very drunk people dancing very stupidly at parties, usually accompanied by poorly conceived karate-style moves. Oh dear. Kung Fu became a bit of a fashion in the mid-70s when the US TV series by that name became syndicated internationally. Carl Douglas cashed in on that with his quite funky novelty hit.


And if I was in 1975 as I am now, my favourite album of the year would have been:




Pink Floyd - Wish You Were Here.mp3










I will now programme Any Major Time Machine to return us to good old 2007, but will go back to the '70s next month.

1966-70 1971 1972 1973 1974

And travel to the '80s with Any Major Time Machine!

Superstars of the future

On Wednesday I attended Any Minor Dude's school's Music Evening. Normally I would dread these things, despite all the loving efforts made by the teachers and pupils at entertaining the assembled parents and the occasional grandparent. Wednesday night's event was, however, very enjoyable. The hall was beautifully set up, and some of the paintings by the pupils on display were quite artistic.

I was well up for the evening, because my son and his friend Thabo were in the line-up, schedulled to appear towards the end of the programme. Until then we had to sit through a series of periodically ropey but brief piano recitals of things like "Yankee Doodle Dandy", and obligingly applaud these kids, because for them it was a big evening. One must not be churlish, but appreciate the dedicated hours of rehearsing that went into their performances. Besides, our default expectation at such events must lean towards the ropey by virtue of the performers still learning the art of making music. They were doing their very best, and that in itself merits our indulgence.

In between there was some promising talent. A prodigious little Grade 1 boy playing piano, first solo then with his equally talented sister; the pint-sized drummer who has the Keith Moon deal already figured out; a Grade 7 kid playing with admirable fluency what seems to be a fairly complex piece of classical music which I didn't recognise.

But I don't think that it is just parental prejudice that impels me to claim that my son Michael and Thabo were the most impressive performers of the night — because they wrote their own song; music and lyrics. Michael on acoustic guitar, Thabo on vocals. And lovely it was, too. The song had structure and a very good, quite haunting melody, beautifully sung by Thabo, who still has a high voice, with a soulful timbre. The lyrics weren't quite Dylan, but they were entirely suitable for the song, making good use of repetitious lines. Michael's accompaniment was well-judged, conveying the melancholy of the song. Some of the chords were pretty complex, but he pulled it off.

The music teacher told the audience only after their performance that the boys had written the song themselves, causing a few gasps of delighted surprise and a second round of rapturous applause. I might have torn the corners of my lips from grinning uncontrollably.

The boys aren't 13 yet, but knocked out a decent song in a day. As they did for the school's talent show in June, which they won. Then Michael borrowed a few chords from a System Of A Down song (still, adapting SOAD for acoustic guitar and applying them to a different tune requires some talent).

Alas, last night Michael told me he doesn't plan to become a musician; he wants to become a lawyer. Perhaps he could set up a band of rock-god lawyers, and see if the record companies can fuck them over.

Time travel: 1973

By 1973 I could read, thanks to my Grade 1 teacher, Frau Thailer. When we returned to school for Grade 2, Frau Thailer was gone. A bit of a free thinker who probably was well into the Spirit of '68, Frau Thailer had given us sex-ed lessons, telling us that the male organ was not called a "Pipi", but a "penis", explaining in non-lurid but sufficiently clear terms how babies are made. Clearly her explanations were not so graphic for us 6-7 year-olds as to persuade us to attempt practical application of what we had learned (even at 9, we still entertained the idea that French kissing could lead to pregnancy), but some of the parents complained. So Frau Thailer, to our confused consternation, was fired. Her replacement, the older and more conservative Frau Froese, was very nice indeed, and took a particular liking to me. Still, the treatment Frau Thailer had received was the first instance of my developing an attitude against The Man.

Being able to read was a revelation for me. Towards the end of 1973 I started buying Fix & Foxi comics, until my elder brother persuaded me that Rolf Kauka's creations were for idiots, and that the smart choice resided with Disney. And so I became an avid reader of the weekly Micky Maus comics, and of the TV guide, a very well produced weekly called HörZu, with sported pictures of all my favourite TV programmes. I would cut these out (an activity we should have stuck with the day my brother was knocked over by a car, breaking his thigh). Each day was colour-coded, and to this day I tend to see the days of the week according to that code (Monday-yellow; Tuesday-green; Wednesday-blue; Thursday-pink; Friday-purple; Saturday-red; Sunday-orange).

I lost a little enthusiasm for music in 1973. I still watched the Hitparade, but began to realise that the German Schlager was in fact banal (not that I could define my criticism in such terms at the time). Far better to listen to my brother tune into Radio Luxemburg on medium wave at night, making out the presenters speaking in a foreign language (English) and hearing music I had not heard before, all of it overwhelmed by loud crackling and whistling.

Les Humphries Singers - Mama Loo.mp3
No song could represent my slow shift from Schlager to proper pop as well as this one. The band was essentially a German product, though multi-racial and led by an Englishman, which was accommodated within the Schlager community despite being pop and singing in English. In 1976 they even were Germany's representative at the Eurovision Song Contest. The Les Humphries Singers were an obvious outgrowth of the hippie culture, cultivating the Hair feel and presaging Jesus Christ Superstar. I imagined they were all hash-smoking hippies living in a commune (there's that great German term, Haschbrüder). I have no idea what a "Mama Loo" is -- possibly not a place where mothers conduct ablutions -- but the song has an entirely attractive energy.

Mungo Jerry - Alright Alright Alright.mp3
Sadly remembered mostly as a bit of a novelty act for "In The Summertime" (first ever 12" single, fact fans), Mungo Jerry had a string of hits in Germany, including the lovely "Lady Rose" and this song. "Mighty Man" should have been a huge hit, too, but it seems the record-buying public on the early '70s disagrees with me on that point. Dorset later wrote the disco hit "Feels Like I'm In Love" for Kelly Marie, originally written for Elvis Presley, who had the bad grace to die before recording it (presumably not in disco style). My elder brother was particularly partial to Mungo Jerry, I suppose because of Ray Dorset's idiosyncratic vocals. I find these appealing even now -- before I wrote this entry I was boogieing like a bell bottomed loon before composing myself sufficiently to string together these words.

The Sweet - Ballroom Blitz.mp3
1973 was the year for glam rock, and "Ballroom Blitz" is one of the great glam anthems. Considering that just a year before, The Sweet had perpetrated novelty records ("Poppa Joe", "Little Willy" et al), "Ballroom Blitz" and the equally great "Blockbuster" represented a steep musical curve (they in fact did have a clue just what to do). For the next few years, The Sweet would churn out some excellent songs, but their two big 1973 hits will always be seen as the zenith. Personally, I prefer "The Six Teens", "Fox On The Run" and especially "Teenage Rampage". German teen mag Bravo would proceed to fuel a rivalry between the teen fans of Sweet and the Bay City Rollers (surely Sweet's real "rivals" should have been Slade). Oddly, both groups started fading at around the same time, but it seems that in the long run the guys with the make-up won that particular battle: how many 40-odd-year-olds do you know who prefer BCR over Sweet?

Rex Gildo - Fiesta Mexicana.mp3
One of two Schlager hits in this lot, just to prove that I had not entirely given up on the genre. This is the quintessential Schlager classic. During an "ironic" Schlager revival in the '90s, "Fiesta Mexicana" was one of the iconic tracks. The "hossa! hossa! hossa!" shouts were absolute genius (if not Spanish at all), and if played in a culturally appropriate setting aided by liberal provision of refreshments, I think I might well party to this song without displaying any embarrassment whatsoever. The singer, known to his mom as Ludwig Hirtreiter (which, I grant you, is not a very rock 'n roll name), was a teenage actor in the '50s before becoming a singing star in the '60s. He was also one of the poor people who had to live their sexuality in secret, marrying his cousin as a beard. He committed suicide in October 1999, at the age of 60. His legacy was apparent already in his lifetime. German cult singer Guildo Horn, who represented Germany in the 1998 Eurovision Song Contest with the ironic Schlager "Guildo hat Euch lieb" (which is an excellent song), borrowed his moniker from Gildo, at least phonetically.

Gilbert O'Sullivan - Get Down.mp3
I've stated the case for Gilbert O'Sullivan in 1972. I don't know if he was popular just among the teenagers in our area, but everybody on our street was singing "Get Down" in 1973. Or words we made up to the melody. I do hope the song is about a misbehaving dog. If not, then we might have to credit Gilbert with having established with the Stones the protoype for the kind of misogyny in contemporary hip hop that is so blithely accepted (though not by Chris Rock, "love rap, can't defend it"). Gilbert O'Sullivan as the original hoe-badmindin' playa (or whatever the lingo is, what do I know)? I rather have him down as a struggling dogtrainer as the real inspiration for Ben Folds' astonishing version of "Bitches Ain't Shit".

David Cassidy - Daydreamer.mp3
Partridge Family - C'mon Get Happy.mp3
The Partridge Family (or Die Partridge Familie) began being broadcast in West Germany in 1972. By 1973, it created a bit of a mania. My favourite character was Danny, the kid with the red hair, played by the poster boy for child stars gone bad, Danny Bonaduce. All the girls, of course, loved David Cassidy. He was an impossibly good-looking bastard. Even today you will find women of a certain age still harbouring a crush on David Cassidy. "Daydreamer" is a time capsule sort of song, to be dug out as an anthropological artefact representing 1973.


Bernd Clüver - Der Junge mit der Mundharmonika
I have little to say about the song or the artist. Clüver is not in any way interesting (I mean, he later covered Smokie's hypnotically bad "Mexican Girl"!), a seemingly decent kind of chap, but just not worth expending precious blogprint on. The song is not much more fascinating either. It certainly is one of the better examples of the Schlager genre, though. To start with, it's not about love, fiestas or exotic places, but about a boy's lonely dreams in the pursuit of musical recognition (or something like that). And the melody is quite...pleasant. Or not as cheesy as most other Schlager hits. With my more discerning tastes developing in 1973, I can see why I liked this song better than the banalities performed by Cindy & Bert, Jürgen Marcus or the dreaded Heino.

Lobo - I'd Love You To Want Me.mp3
Many, many years before The O.C. and Grey's Anatomy, Lobo (a one-time sidekick of the great Gram Parsons) scored a huge hit in Germany on the back of featured in a TV show. "I'd Love You To Want Me" played in the background of an episode of the hugely popular police detective series Der Kommissar (and now you know the cultural inspiration behind the title of Falco's huge 1982 hit), which just about every German watched on Friday nights. Not too much later, by the slow standards of the German charts at the time, it was a #1, well into 1974. Well, it might have been a big hit anyway, seeing as it was massive in the US (#2 on the Billboard charts; the label on the cover is fibbing) and #5 in Britain. But why spoil a good story with the facts? The Kommissar as a proto-O.C. sounds much better.


TV shows I loved in 1973 (both re-runs at the time):
Daktari.mp3
Pippi Langstrumpf.mp3


And if I was in 1973 as I am now, my favourite album of the year would have been:




Stevie Wonder -
Don't You Worry 'Bout a Thing.mp3

Stevie Wonder - Golden Lady.mp3

Time travel: 1972

1972 was the year I became conscious. By that I mean that from age six onwards I have more of a narrative memory than from the time before. 1972 was the year I started school (getting one of those huge cylindrical things filled with sweets), became interested in the news (I remember following the Munich massacre), TV was great (Star Trek, Hitparade, Partridge Family, Sergeant Percy, Der Bastian), and I kicked off my fascination with the English language, thanks to the transmission of US episodes of Sesame Street (shown in West Germany to test whether parents would accept such a revolutionary TV concept). My love affair with the English language would not find expression for another five years, but Big Bird, Oscar and Ernie (and Gordon and Susan and Bob) sowed a seed. And I was in Kiel during the sailing segment of the Olympic Games. Sounds grandiose, but I don't remember seeing any sailing boats, only the hotel and my mother buying me a book about Sammy the seal.

1972 was a happy year. I wish I could go back there with Dr Ronald Mallet's time machine and revisit what I'm sure was a sunny year. Trouble is, I'd not be six anymore, and see 1972 for the wretched year it most probably was.


Sweet - Poppa Joe.mp3
My mother bought the single, but my little brother and I played it to death. Usually after having our bath, or so my memory tells me. At the time I had no interest in the performers' identity (and the characters on the cover were not so impressive as to remember their collective name). So when the far superior "Blockbuster" and "Ballroom Blitz" came out, the songs registered, but not the group's name. Before too long, I would become obsessive about such things.

Chicago - Saturday In The Park.mp3
I grew up with the Peter Cetera incarnation of Chicago, the soft rockers who gave us "If You Leave Me Now". I was obviously oblivious of the jazz influenced group which could rock as hard as anyone (just listen to "25 or 6 To 4"). Then, in the late '80s, I played a greatest hits compilation. On came "Saturday In The Park", and it was1972 all over again. I don't know why this might have been so; the song evidently was not a big hit in West Germany and my mother certainly didn't have the record. But somebody perhaps did: a sister, a neighbour (probably not my granny). And it is a great song, a good reply to those officers of the Taste Police who seek to smear Chicago's entire heritage by invoking only the Cetera years.

Tony Christie - (Is This The Way To) Amarillo.mp3
If I was I living in Britain, the revival of this song a couple of years ago would have diluted my happy memories of early 1972. It is a guilty pleasure kind of song. There is a notion that you cannot like "Amarillo" unless you do so "ironically". The thing is, those people who returned "Amarillo" to #1 in Britain did so under the collective cloak of irony when they really bought the idiot's version because they actually liked it. That is a coward's way of giving musical approval. So, without irony and without qualification other than the influence of nostalgia, I declare my affection for this song.

Daniel Boone - Beautiful Sunday.mp3
This is another chance discovery which beamed me back to my childhood. Finding it by total fluke a couple of years ago was like digging out a forgotten childhood toy. Like the silver Matchbox Maserati I used to have. When I played "Beautiful Sunday", South African-born Any Major Wife came rushing into the study, exclaiming: "When did I last hear this song?"

Dr Hook & the Medicine Show - Sylvia's Mother.mp3
I remember my elder brother making up his own German lyrics for "Sylvia's Mother", and he wasn't too far off the real thing. The tearful vocals are so convincing, few people understood the song as the piss-take it was intended to be. While writing this, I googled the lyrics. Now I know the good Doctor is addressing Mrs Avery. Will I still sing Mrs Apricot next time the song plays?

Gilbert O'Sullivan - Ooh-Wakka-Doo-Wakka-Day.mp3
Ah, Gilbert O'Sullivan. Elton John Lite. Well, let me fire off another mortar shell into the trenches of the Taste Police when I declare that I like O'Sullivan. Some of his songs I like for sentimental reasons (like this song, which cannot be admired for its innovative excellence), others I like because they are damn good songs ("Alone Again Naturally"). Hmmm, this sounds like I have albums by the guy in my collection, which I don't. Taste Police, hold fire!

Ulli Martin - Ich träume mit offenen Augen von Dir.mp3
The token Schlager for 1972. I might have added Vicky Leandros' plaintive "Ich hab' die Liebe geseh'n", but doubt anyone really needs it. I don't know if anyone needs Ulli Martin's epic either. And Udo Jürgens already had his shot in 1966-70, so no "Platz in der Sonne" for you. So Ulli it is by dint of confusing the not-yet-six-year-old me. Translated, the sing-title means "I'm dreaming of you with open eyes". How can you dream, ergo sleep, with open eyes? I could make no sense of Ulli's extraordinary claim.

Wayne Newton - Daddy Don't You Walk So Fast.mp3
This is a terrible song. If it's corn you crave, this could be your overdose. Even the vocals are terrible. And I didn't even know Wayne Newton's appalling warblings in 1972. So why am I including it here? Because I owned the German-language version of it, perpetrated by a Cuban singer named Roberto Blanco, who in the '70s filled the role of token black in the German entertainment industry. So the melody evokes 1972.

Mouth & McNeal - How Do You Do.mp3
I know there was a German version of this, because it featured on the German-language only Hitparade, but cannot recall who performed it. Possibly by Mouth & McNeal themselves, seeing as they were Dutch, and their compatriots enjoyed much success in Germany (as German Schlager singers did in the Netherlands). This is the English version. It is a record very much of its age, of course, but given the choice between Tony Orlando and Mouth & McNeal, what would you have chosen, and aren't you grateful I went for this?

Sammy Davis Jr - The Candy Man.mp3
You have to love this song. Especially when you're six and, as Jerry Seinfeld once explained, your life revolves around the pursuit for sweets. Granted, this is not the finest musical moment in the proud career of the great Sammy Davis Jr (that came with "I've Gotta Be Me" a few years previously), but it nonetheless caused many people, and advertising execs, happiness.

TV shows I loved in 1972:
Sesame Street.mp3
Bonanza.mp3
Skippy, The Bush Kangaroo.mp3
Star Trek (Raumschiff Enterprise).mp3


And if I was in 1972 as I am now, my favourite album of the year would have been:




David Bowie - Sufragette City.mp3

David Bowie - Ziggy Stardust (demo).mp3

Blog rolled

We interrupt this transmission to note the fact that this blog has been blog rolled in The Guardian today, as was Mr Agreeable (who, I hope, takes greater delight in having featured in my Music For Bloggers series).

Now Any Minor Dude wants to be featured in The Guardian's blog roll, too. Hey, let's show the little dude some love and click on his link.

Time travel: 1971

I have mentioned that I was a music fan even as a toddler. In 1971 I progressed from being a turntable (see here) to DJ. On my fifth birthday (around the time the photo here of my brother, left, and me was taken), I received a portable turntable, one similar to that pictured, where the speaker doubled as a lid. A few months later I bought my first record.

1971 was also the year when I began selecting which TV programmes to watch. Bonanza was a particular favourite of mine, and I fervently watched the Hitparade, presented monthly on Saturday evenings by the fast-talking Dieter Thomas Heck. The Hitparade featured only German-language Schlager, sung live to a backing track. Invariably, male singers -- many of them with anglicised stagenames like Chris Roberts, Ricky Shayne or Freddy Quinn -- would be presented with flowers by blushing teenage fans who'd run up to them mid-performance.

Danyel Gerard - Butterfly.mp3
My passion for the Hitparade was cemented during the long weeks when Danyel Gerard's "Butterfly" topped the charts. The song itself was fantastic -- I cannot say if it's really any good, it still speaks to Any Major 5-year-old -- but better yet, Danyel Gerard looked cool as fuck to us, with his floppy hat, beard, engaging smile and guitar. Look at him in this video, apparently having a cigarette burning while singing his song (as ever, smoking is not cool, kids, unless Danyel Gerard does it).

Aretha Franklin - Spanish Harlem.mp3
The beauty of pop-oriented German radio was that it took into account no genre, so you might have easily heard Danyel Gerard followed by Janis Joplin followed by Middle Of The Road followed by Aretha Franklin. "Spanish Harlem" is my earliest memory of soul music, though at the time I had no idea what that was, of course. Or even that Ms Franklin was black.

José Feliciano - Che Sera.mp3
German radio not only hopped genres, but languages as well. While German and English language hits predominated (with many English hits being covered by a Schlager singer in German, thus duplicating a melody on the playlist), there was plenty of scope for the odd Italian, French or Spanish hit. Inexplicably demand for Dutch-language hits was non-existent. And so it was that José Feliciano's Spanish-language hit "Che Sera" became one of the big German hits of 1971. It's a pretty little song, but somehow is rarely listed as being among his best. I think these lists are very mistaken.

Wolfgang - Der Trödler Abraham.mp3
Some years ago, my Munich-based sister-in-law gave me a CD of Schlager hits from 1971/72, as a joke present I hasten to add (after we reminisced about the Hitparade and all that). Some songs I remembered well (if not happily), some I didn't know at all. And one I had forgotten about, but recognised instantly. It was one of the revelatory moments that inspired me to createa series of "Soundtrack of my Life" CD-Rs, selecting songs only on basis of recreating the feeling of that particular year, a nostalgia trip. Which is also the point of this series. My elder brother later mentioned to me that he remembers me being a huge fan of "Der Trödler Abraham". No wonder it transported me right back to 1971.

Middle Of The Road - Soley Soley.mp3
If you really want to kick off an impassioned argument about early '70s music, don't posit the notion that Clapton was a better guitar player than Hendrix (yawn!), but extol the virtues of acts that the Taste Police have condemned without the right to appeal. One such act is Middle Of The Road. Which is a little odd, when the Taste Police has eagerly (and rightly) rehabilitated the Sweet. Middle Of The Road command no place in the history books of popular music on strength of innovation or talent. But, by Jove, they knew how to produce catchy pop songs. Don't hate MOTR for their music, hate them for inspiring Bono to become a musician. Ole' Blue Shades once revealed that when he watched MOTR performing "Chirpy Chirpy Cheep Cheep" on Top Of The Pops, he decided that if that lot could be musicians, then he had a fighting chance to make it big. Paul Hewson made it big indeed -- but he has never produced as catchy a song as "Chirpy Chirpy Cheep Cheep", "Bottom's Up" or "Soley Soley".

Pop Tops - Mamy Blue.mp3
Los Pop Tops were the Spain-based Ray Gomez collective. Their "Mamy Blue" became one of the huge hits on late '71 and early '72, covered with German lyrics by one Ricky Shayne (a grinning herbert whom I never liked) as well as by others in different European languages. I have heard that the Pop Tops' version was in itself a cover of a French-Canadian hit. Guitarist Gomez, a Frenchman, was only 18 when "Mamy Blue" became a hit; some of his sidekicks looked twice his age. Our man proceeded to collaborate with the likes of John Lennon, Bill Bruford, Stanley Clark, George Duke, Chaka Khan and Tori Amos. I'll take on the Taste Police, and claim that this is a very good song. And for your fix of early '70s tight pants and afros, watch the video.

Roy Black & Anita - Schön ist es auf der Welt zu sein
In a comment to the first installment of this series, Jörg of the excellent Not-Rock-On blog recalls that the first single he bought probably was by Ricky Shayne. I responded that I could not remember mine. Well, I poured over all German chart hits from 1970-72, noting the singles I had owned. The earliest such hit was this song (the second-earliest was Mireille Mathieu's "Akropolis Adieu", which I know was not the first single I bought). So, the Roy Black and Anita song it is. Roy Black (real name Gerd Höllerich) was a bit of a heart-throb in the '60s, but his star was on the wane by 1971. Indeed, this duet with 10-year-old Anita was his last big hit. Roy Black died in 1999 (some are whispering of suicide). Anita Hegerland grew up to marry and divorce Mike Oldfield, and is still making music in her native Norway. Any Major Dude With Half A Heart now listens to better music and writes a superb music blog.


And if I was in 1971 as I am now, my favourite album of the year would have been:




Gil Scott-Heron - The Needle's Eye.mp3

Gil Scott-Heron - The Revolution Will Not Be Televised.mp3

Time travel: 1966-70

Having revisited the '80s, Any Major Time Machine is now zapping to the late '60s and the '70s. I'll relive my formative years through the medium of music. As with the '80s series, the songs are selected not for quality, but because they can evoke memories of a particular time, much the way a smell can. This means that the quality of songs will evolve as I grew older.

The first installment covers the years 1966, the year of my birth, to 1970. Thereafter we'll take it one year at a time. By all accounts, I was a music nut as a toddler (see Any Major Toddler on the sidebar), pretending to be one of those record players where you can stack ten singles on a spindle. When the song is finished, the arm moves back, and the next record drops to be played. So I used to run around with the left index finger in the air, the right hand imitating the rotation of the record on the turntable, crooning a song (usually child-star Heintje, of whom I was a huge fan, apparently). Then the song would finish, I'd go "klack", as in the next record dropping, and spin the platters again.

The music I remember from those days is mostly the the stuff my mother and sister used to own. I got into the German Hitparade and then Illja Richter's Disco as of, roughly, 1971.

The Peels - Juanita Banana.mp3
Possibly the best novelty record ever, released in 1966. The label of the single had some sort of kung fu motif, which I liked immensely. The eponymous heroine Juanita Banana is a banana grower's daughter singing "Caro Nome" from Verdi's Rigoletto (yeah, I looked it up). The song itself is pretty funny, especially when the punchline involving Juanita's father comes in. I suppose the title was a play on the popular Chiquitita banana label.

Manfred Mann - Ha! Ha! Said The Clown.mp3
I still have my mother's copy of the single, and still regard it as a great tune. One would imagine that a toddler might have been attracted to this song by the idea of sung laughter and clowns. In fact, I loved the intro: a brief flute chord, two bass drum beats, and straight into the chorus. A killer tune from 1967 (video here). The kid on the cover looks either pissed off or petrified. She used to fascinate me.

Adriano Celentano - Azzuro.mp3
Neither my mother nor sister owned this record. In fact, I was unaware of this song, released in 1968, until a few years ago, when I heard it by chance. It instantly transported me back to the hazy times when I was barely conscious of life. Eerie.


Chris Andrews - Pretty Belinda.mp3
Another single I still have. I loved the trumpets, and really liked the name Belinda. Andrews had a big UK hit with "Yesterday Man" in 1966, but the catchier (though not better) "Pretty Belinda" (1969) didn't chart at all there. In Germany, Andrews is more likely to be remembered for "Pretty Belinda".

Gilbert Bécaud - Nathalie.mp3
This is the French original of the 1969 hit; I grew up with Bécaud's German version. Ethnic stereotyping was standard in European pop before globalisation took proper effect. This song is about a Russian girl, so there is a Cosack Dance interlude, obviously. Happily, "Monsieur 100,000 Volts" was such a fine exponent of the chanson, it's all rather good.

Alexandra - Mein Freund der Baum.mp3
And talking of stereotyping Russians, German singer Alexandra was the daughter of Russian immigrants. Naturally, the record company forced her to adopt the whole slavic image. Alexandra, with her smokey voice, had greater sophistication than to croon ethnically-hued Schlager, as this self-penned track shows (video here). Alas, with her career in hiatus in 1969 -- the year this song was released -- the singer died at 27 in a car crash in northern Germany.

Udo Jürgens - Es wird Nacht, Senorita.mp3
Senorita = Spanish guitar and handclaps, of course. I am not a fervent apologist for the German Schlager -- what I like, I usually enjoy only for reasons of nostalgia. But this is a cracking song. Udo Jürgens, at the time my sister's favourite singer (until Peter Maffay usurped Udo's place in her heart in 1970; and she's remained a devoted fan ever since), gives a great vocal performance, and the lyrics, of an itinerant chap trying to seduce his young hostess, are quite suggestive for its time. Olé, as the last word of the song has it.

Simon & Garfunkel - El Condor Pasa.mp3
This played everywhere in the summer of 1970, though I'm pretty sure it was a different version that played in our house. I associate this with summer and running from our garden into the living room, dripping wet from some form of waterplay or other.

Edwin Hawkins Singers - Oh Happy Day.mp3
This was a hit in the US in 1969, but in Germany only in 1970, as far as I can tell. I have similar memories of "Oh Happy Day" as I have of "El Condor Pasa", of loads of kids running around and adults happily socialising. The Edwin Hawkins Singers were a gospel choir, but I suspect their one big hit owed more to the musical Hair than religious sentiment.

Daliah Lavi - Oh, Wann kommst Du.mp3
Another Schlager I like on its own merits. Daliah Lavi was an Israeli actress who became a popular singing star in the Germany of the early '70s. Blessed with an exotic beauty and a strong, smokey voice, Lavi naturally appealed to a German audience that loved exotic beauties and foreign accents. In fact, if you rocked any foreign accent, the German audience would love you -- as long you were an entertainer (if you were exotic and spoke funny they might call you derogatory names).

Legendary TV star Rudi Carell, a Dutchman, was once asked why he didn't get rid of his accent. He replied that the thick accent was a key to his success. I employed the same principle when I worked as a waiter in London: I would speak to German customers, notoriously bad tippers, in mangled and heavily accented German. They'd find my pathetic attempts at speaking German adorable, and reward me accordingly. So here's a truth for aspiring waiters: the profession (as opposed to the jobbing variety) is a form of entertainment. Silver service, flambées, stylish wine pouring...it's all a show. As is putting on funny accents or telling big stories about escaping from East Germany over the Hungarian border in a hidden compartment of a Trabant and now saving up tips to "buy" one's family out of tyrannical communism. I earned my generous tip, and the patron went home with a good story which they could recount at home. They were entertained as much as the exotic and heavily accented Daliah Lavi entertained her audience.

And if I was in 1970 as I am now, my favourite album of the year would have been:



Van Morrison - Into The Mystic.mp3

Most and least popular Top 20s

Call me anal (and here we welcome and immediately say farewell to the accidental visitors from Google) and Hi-Fidelityish, but when I check if links are still alive, I make a note of how many times a file has been downloaded, partly to know what kind of music you, dear reader, have great or little interest in. I suspect that some of the least downloaded songs were overlooked first time around, and some of the most popular leeched (I mean, fucking Hinder!). Or is German right-wing singer Heino really more sought after than Crowded House's finest song delivered in its ultimate interpretation?

Looking at the least downloaded songs (of those posted before August 4):
20. Bongo Maffin - Mari Ye Phepha 62 (South African kwaito group; try it)
18. Kate Walsh - Is This It 61* (Her other song was DLed 193 times. Did they all buy the CD afterwards?)
18. Richard Cheese - She Hates Me 61 (That is actually a really funny take)
17. Johnny Cash - I Hung My Head 59* (It's because it was a Sting song, right?)
16. Edie Brickell - Circle Of Friends 58 (Oh, OK then)
14. Spratch - Two Lives Lost 57 (For an unsigned alt.rock act from South Africa, 57 DLs is very good)
14. Kylie Minogue & Jason Donovan - Especially For You 57 (This I really don't mind)
13. Evan Dando - If I Could Talk I'd Tell You (live) 51 (ex-Lemonhead singer cruelly snubbed)
12. Ben Folds - Fred Jones Pt 2 51 (such a great song, so neglected)
1o. Beauty Shop - Paper Hearts For Josie 47 (Dig alt.country? Then get this now)
10. Casette - A.I. 49 (SA band; songs sounds a bit like Death Cab For Cutie)
9. Wet Wet Wet - Temptation (live) 48 (I feel a 'Pissing off the Taste Police' coming on)
8. Beauty Shop - Desperate Cry For Help 47 (OK then, Beauty Shop aren't big 'round here)
7. Dirty Skirts - Set Me Alight 45 (SA act, sound a bit like The Killers)
6. Crowded House - When You Come (live) 43* (Only the best Crowded House song...)
5. A.C. Newman - On The Table 41 (I can only assume that everyone has this already)
3. Kevin Devine - Probably (acoustic) 39 (I don't understand you people; really)
3. Alexi Murdoch - Orange Sky 39* (excellent song, by an artist who's also at #14 in our top 20...)
2. MarcAlex - Quick Quick 38 (SA bubblegum pop from 1989. It's rubbish. Don't download it.)
1. The Antlers - Stairs To The Attic 35 (I'm shocked by this. Great Indie song from a fine album. DL it!)

* Four songs came from the same apparently unpopular post...

Here then the top 20 downloads from this blog. Spot the leeched tracks:
1. Earth, Wind & Fire - Reasons 814 Originally from this post
2. Brandi Carlile - The Story 306 Originally from this post
2. It's Immaterial - Driving Away From Home 306 Originally from this post
4. Mat Kearney - All I Need 289 Originally from this post
5. Bill Withers - Lovely Day (Sunshine Mix) 282 Originally from this post
6. The Fray - How To Save A Life 279 Originally from this post
7. Strawberry Switchblade - Since Yesterday 271 Originally from this post
8. Paul Anka - Smells Like Teen Spirit 269 Originally from this post
9. Crowded House - Nobody Wants To 268 Originally from this post
10. Dexys Midnight Runners - Geno 265 Originally from this post
11. Ram Jam - Black Betty 264 Originally from this post
12. Tim Curry - I Do The Rock 263 Originally from this post
13. Prince - Starfish And Coffee 254 Originally from this post
14. Alexi Murdoch - Home 250 Originally from this post
15. Hinder - Lips Of An Angel 244 Originally from this post
16. Malcolm McLaren - Double Dutch 235 Originally from this post
17. Ben Folds & Rufus Wainwright - Careless Whispers 232 Originally from this post
18. Donald Fagen - I.G.Y. 230 Originally from this post
19. Mindy Smith - Angel Dove 229 Originally from this post
20. Curtis Mayfield - Do Be Down 227 Originally from this post

On the point of leeching: The main point of MP3 blogging, as I see it, is to share great music with others (and/or to illustrate a post with music), hopefully so that people will discover a new artist or song and buy their CDs. So I don't mind if the music I share is distributed far and wide. However, if somebody wants to use a link from this blog, it would be nice to get a credit and a link on that site (even if the ID3 tags of each file here identifies this blog as the source).

That Elvis guy...

Having been notified that it is a legal requirement as an MP3 blogger (law abiding folks, us) to mark the 30th anniversary of Elvis Presley's death on August 16, I hereby wish to fulfill my contractual obligation.

See, I can't be described as much of an Elvis fan. Oh, I did manage to bang together a decent CD-R comp of the man's music, and at one point I was enough of a fan to investigate his output beyond greatest hits samplers. I like a lot of Elvis songs — but I'm more liable to dig out "Highway To Hell" than any Elvis album of any era.

In a year's time, I'll be the same age as Elvis was when he died. I used to think Vegas Elvis was an old codger (unlike me in a year's time, of course). In a way, that drug-addled bloatmonster was an old codger. The colonel, Dr Nikopoulous and the Memphis Mafia had aged the man beyond his years.

Better to remember Elvis in glorious monochrome (though you may colour in the jacket pink), when he was supposedly the "King of Rock 'n Roll". He wasn't really the king, of course. The Man crowned him king because the real king was a screaming queen. Still, Elvis was very good. All the usual classics — "Heartbreak Hotel", "Hound Dog", "Don't Be Cruel", "Jailhouse Rock", "All Shook Up", "King Creole" — are regarded thus for good reasons. At one point, I owned the original German 7" singles of "Jailhouse Rock" and "Hound Dog" — I'd have framed them now if I hadn't lost them. From the former, here's the b-side, plus the brilliant "(Let Me Be ) Your Teddy Bear", both from 1957.
Elvis Presley - Treat Me Nice.mp3
Elvis Presley - (Let Me Be ) Your Teddy Bear.mp3

I imagine that people who grew up in the '60s look at post-army Elvis movies and feel the same contempt I feel for the '80s when I see Dynasty: everything that's wrong with an era. Yet even then, Elvis put out some great songs. His vocal performance on "In The Ghetto" is quite impressive, and songs like "His Latest Flame", "Viva Las Vegas", "Suspicious Minds" or "Return To Sender" are rightly seen as classics. But then there were also perversions such as "It's Now Or Never" (O Sole Mio) and "Wooden Heart". And that's just among the hit singles.
Elvis Presley - Viva Las Vegas.mp3

The 1968 TV special put Elvis back in stride. His movie career fizzled out, and he became a proper live performer again, at least for a few years (he was schedulled to start another tour the day after his death). One live performance, at the Las Vegas Intercontinental in August 1969, yielded the classic laughing performance of "Are You Lonesome Tonight". As Elvis is crooning the song, a backing singer, from the soul group Sweet Inspirations, goes into soprano mode, causing our man to pack up laughing while gamely trying to continue the song. The back-up singer's name was Cissy Houston. The back-up singer's daughter is Whitney. How Elvis might have laughed at "I Will Always Love You"...
Elvis Presley - Are You Lonesome Tonight (laughing version).mp3

I can't claim to be familiar with Elvis ’70s output. I know there were a gospel album or two, and "The Wonder Of You". I suppose Elvis was too busy playing Vegas, popping pills, shooting TVs and hanging with Richard Nixon to produce memorable music. A few weeks before his death, RCA released Moody Blue (which I had, perhaps still have, on blue vinyl). It is a decent album, even if his version of "My Way" was redundant. Its lead single, "Way Down" is a cracker.
Elvis Presley - Way Down.mp3

Elvis Presley, the usurper of the throne who died on a throne, inspired a series of "tribute" abominations. Quick off the trigger was a Dutch goon calling himself Danny Mirror, who for the purposes of his "tribute" sounded like a proto-Elvis impersonator. Within a couple of weeks of Elvis' death, His "I Remember Elvis Presley" was a big hit in Europe. Of course you'd remember Elvis Presley, Danny, his body was barely cold before you hit the cash-in button. This is one for collectors of novelty records and one hit wonders, and connoisseurs of "worst songs ever written" only. Or I may be wrong: "I Remember Elvis Presley by Danny Mirror has 81 listeners at Last.fm," it said on Google last night. 81 listeners. WTF?
Danny Mirror - I Remember Elvis Presley.mp3

Pissing off the Taste Police with Neil Diamond

Forget the smoothie housewives' favourite with the lamé jacket, blow-dry and black-dye coiffure, hairy chest, cowboy boots and glittering name prone to singing lame songs about forever living in blue jeans and nauseating duets with Barbra Streisand. The pre-crooner Neil Diamond should be ranked as a pop legend. Alas, the Lamé & Steisand cheesiness robbed this great songwriter of credibility and respect.

It's an injustice. Divorce Lamé Neil from his earlier incarnation as the writer and performer of songs that should be regarded as classics, and revisit his back catalogue. You will find works of near-genius there. Then, if you will, listen to his 2005 album 12 Songs, produced by Rick Rubin, to discover that the man has lost nothing, even in his 60s.

The fact that Diamond ranks third in the all-time bestselling Billboard Charts list — after Elton John and Babs — should neither impress (I mean, look who's second) nor repel. With Neil Diamond there is no need to analyse socio-musical effect. With Neil Diamond, there is only the music. And among the seaweed, there are many oysters, most bearing pearls.

How many people thought that the most popular song from the very good Pulp Fiction soundtrack was an Urge Overkill original? I bear no ill will towards the cover version of Neil Diamond's superior 1967 original; in fact, I rather like it. But the success of "Girl, You'll Be A Woman Soon" did not help rehabilitate Diamond reputation. It should have had people scurrying towards the far superior original.
Neil Diamond - Girl, You'll Be A Woman Soon.mp3

Perhaps the best-known Neil Diamond songs is "Sweet Caroline" (1969). Even the branches of the Taste Police which despised the man would acknowledge that it is a cracking song, while possibly playing it for "ironic" effect. No need for irony, this is one of the great pop songs, with its memorable keyboard intro, the restrained verse, the soaring chorus, and especially the phrasing of the line that ends with the climactic "...touching me, touching you", drenched with sexual desire.
Neil Diamond - Sweet Caroline.mp3

Imagine Leonard Cohen and Burt Bacharach -- two of the finest songwriters in a decade chockful with genius songwriters -- writing a song together: the result might be something as excellent like the autobiographical "Brooklyn Roads" (1968). And that places Neil Diamond right up there with the great songwriters of the 1960s.
Neil Diamond - Brooklyn Roads.mp3

Neil Diamond's "I'm A Believer" is generally regarded as a Monkees song, and his country song "Red, Red Wine" (1967) is usually associated with reggae-karaoke combo UB40 (whose cover version was based on that by Tony Tribe released in 1969). It's time to reclaim these songs for our man.
Neil Diamond - Red Red Wine (live).mp3

The great songwriter was keen to record cover versions himself. His 1971 album Stones, with its great title song, includes covers of songs by Leonard Cohen, Joni Mitchell, Roger Miller, Jacques Brel and Randy Newman. A couple of years earlier, while still in his Tin Pan Alley phase, Diamond recorded the standard "Mr Bojangles", doing a very good job of it, though not eclipsing Sammy Davis Jr's definitive interpretation.
Neil Diamond - Mr Bojangles.mp3

At what point did Neil Diamond jump the shark? It was more case of gently climbing on top of the shark, and sliding down on the other side. In his pomp, Diamond released semi-schlock like "Song Sung Blue", which set the scene for the lamé period. The pretentious, but actually not altogether bad, Jonathan Seagull Livingstone came out at around the same time as the outstanding live set Hot August Night, in which Diamond rocked and sang songs blue in equal measures (the air-wanking-lion cover itself was remarkable). The difficulty with Lamé Neil is that even during that period, he wrote some very good songs. There is nothing wrong with a song such as "America" from the awful 1980 film version of The Jazz Singer, other than its revolting arrangement (and its association with Michael Dukakis' disastrous 1988 presidential campaign). Even "Beautiful Noise", a lamé song drenched liberally in lamé oil, is at its base a pretty good song. It just needs to be re-recorded (without some clown going crazy on his newfangled synthethizer).
Neil Diamond - Beautiful Noise.mp3

By 2005, few people really expected to hear from Neil Diamond again (nostalgia appearances and his obituary aside). Then Rick Rubin did for ND what he had previously done for Johnny Cash: give a supposedly superannuated singer another shot at delivering a credible work of art. Unlike Cash, Diamond came up with a set of original tracks to make up the stunning 12 Songs, an album of immediate intimacy and depth in beauty. I hope that ND will leave it at that, concluding his long career with a set of restrained songs that don't hit you in the face, as the Sweet Carolines, but creep under your skin and touch your soul.
Neil Diamond - Save Me A Saturday Night.mp3

The Songbirds: Vol 4

The final installment of the Songbirds, for now (there are still a few more who need bigging up, but we'll do that later in the curriculum). So, I've featured 20 Songbirds; add your own favourites, and here should be abundant material for a brilliant mix-tape (or double CD-R).

Deb Talan
Deb Talan is one half of the Weepies, whom I utterly love, their silly name notwithstanding. Steve Tannen and Deb Talan were acoustic folk-musicians in their own right and fans of one another before they met. When they did, they became the Weepies (and a couple, or so I've heard). The two Weepies albums are great, with just enough of an edge to offset their inherent and appealing twee cuteness. Talan's solo stuff (which -- shame on the world -- is not easy to find) is much in the same vein as the Weepies. Check out these excellent recordings of Talan live solo and the Weepies in concert (both endorsed by the artists), from 2003 and 2004 respectively. The latter yielded the Pablo Neruda-inspired "Cherry Trees" file below (edited by your friendly blogger to improve the soundlevels), a song that follows the slightly edgy "Tell Your Story Walking" on Deb's 2001 sophomore album Sincerely. "Forgiven", from her 2000 label debut Something Burning, is poetry accompanied by an acoustic guitar, a track that becomes more astonishing with every listen. And I am in love with Talan's little giggle at the end of "Cherry Trees".
Deb Talan - Forgiven.mp3
Deb Talan - Tell Your Story Walking.mp3
The Weepies - Cherry Trees (live).mp3 (previously uploaded)
The Weepies- Gotta Have You.mp3 (previously uploaded)

Brooke Fraser
New Zealand's second biggest selling artist (after Haley Westrena), Brooke Fraser is a huge talent in the singer-songwriter mould with a fine line in attractive melodies and intelligent lyrics. On her second album, Albertine, the rugby All Black's daughter is introspective about her Christian faith. Happily, her religious musings are not of the saccharine worship variety -- God and Jesus are not even mentioned -- nor even obliquely about her spirituality. Without listening too closely, "Deciphering Me" or "Shadowfeet", both from Albertine, could be straightforward love songs. "Without You", a quite lovely love song from her 2004 debut What To Do With Daylight, has a bit of a Norah Jones vibe going on -- if the tryptophanatic Jones was a bit more interesting. Admirably, the CD booklet for Albertine lists a range of NGOs, with contact details, that work on issues such as human rights, development, abuse of women and children and human trafficking.
Brooke Fraser - Shadowfeet.mp3
Brooke Fraser - Without You.mp3
Brooke Fraser - Deciphering Me.mp3 (previously uploaded)

Emilíana Torrini
The name gives it away that Torrini comes from Iceland. Well, her full name actually does: Emilíana Torrini Davíðsdóttir, the offspring of Icelandic and Italian parents. Featured frequently on Grey's Anatomy (great supporters of the Songbirds -- don't let anyone say that TV exposure undermines an artist's credibility), Torrini has build up a decent amount of buzz, being mentioned as a bit of an insiders' tip to the Eva Cassidy Consensus (see here). Her sound is gentle and quiet and militantly acoustic. Yet, beneath the fragile layer of etherealism there is an appealing depth which might require a few repeat listens -- but these are richly rewarding. Catch videos of Torrini's live performances on her excellent website.
Emilíana Torrini - Sunny Road.mp3
Emilíana Torrini - Serenade.mp3
Emilíana Torrini - Nothing Brings Me Down.mp3 (previously uploaded)


Maria Taylor
Azure Ray singer Maria Taylor's debut solo album, 11:11, was an eclectic bag of tricks, incorporating folk-rock, electronica and even torchsong. Her new album, Lynn Teeter Flower, is a more cohesive, but not without surprises. One of Bright Eyes supremo Connor Oberst's favourites (they have guested on each other's albums), Taylor's sound is too layered, too crafted, too good to break into the mainstream. But it will establish her as a leading performer in the genre.
Maria Taylor - Nature Song.mp3
Maria Taylor - Lost Time.mp3
Maria Taylor - No Stars.mp3

Jenny Lewis
It is fitting to conclude this series of female singers with one of the best: Jenny Lewis, best known as lead singer of the wonderful (and sometimes frustrating) Rilo Kiley. Where Rilo Kiley have what might be described as an Indie-folk sound (hear the sing-along outro of "With Arms Outstretched"), Jenny Lewis' 2005 solo album Rabbit Furcoat, with the Watson Twins, was pure alt.country, and deplorably featured a cover of a Traveling bloody Wilburys song, the horrid "Handle With Care". Jenny has one of the sexiest voices in music today. This is evident on "It's A Hit" and the fantastic (and easy-to-find) "Portions For Foxes", both from RK's More Adventurous album in 2004. Read this excellent interview with Jenny; I particularly like her line about not dropping favourite artists when they become successful or receive exposure in the mainstream (see the entry on Torrini).
Rilo Kiley - With Arms Outstretched.mp3
Rilo Kiley - It's A Hit.mp3
Jenny Lewis with the Watson Twins - You Are What You Love.mp3

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