And so we face... 2019

2018 has been a bit of a year, and I have found myself listening to familiar music rather than plunging into new, challenging sounds. Jazz reappeared on my radar, but as the posts on Jazz were the least read I have written here you may not be bothered about that. A few of the new releases I did buy however...

Magic Dance: New Eyes The best AOR artist since Work Of Art this and his previous album Vanishings are worth a listen if you ever liked Toto or similar bands. I love it.

Manhattan Transfer: The Junction Their most contemporary album in many years, and first since leader Tim Hauser's passing. 

Kamasi Washington: Heaven & Earth Topped best of year polls all over the place, except the ones in the Jazz press oddly. Accessible, just confrontational enough to sound dangerous, but not as good as his previous disc 'The Epic'. Also rather derivative of 60's Miles Davis and John Coltrane. I doubt his formula will stretch to another album without the holes being obvious.

John Coltrane: Both Directions At Once Speaking of whom, Coltrane in 1963 taken from his work in progress tapes, at the peak of his powers. the interst of this is not the "lost" status of the session, but listening to Coltrane's ideas develop over the different takes of this release and as pointers to Crescent, and later albums. If you are new to this sort of Jazz, try Kamasi first and then move on to the real thing. 





My wish list on Google Music and iTunes contains lots of music from 2018 that I will get to in time. Christine and the Queens, Nolwenn Leroy, and others. I'll get back to you about those.

Musical Lucky Dips

Remember at school fetes they had a bran tub, a lucky dip, see what present comes out, well Missing Records in Glasgow was having a clearout last week. Bags of 10 unboxed CDs (or DVDs) for £1. A quick rummage and £4 later I have 50 cds (bonus bag for spending so much) to try.

When I opened the bags (about 3 seconds after I got home) they divided in to 4 categories. "Great that'll do", "not really for me", "need to listen to this" and "never heard of it". Only one disc was something I already had, Miles Davis 'On the Corner', but you can't complain about a duplication like that.

Great That'll Do...
I'm surprised at the quality of music, but I suppose if there's no sleeve it's unsaleable whatever it is.
I got, Neil Young 'Decade' (both discs). I don't know why I didn't have this already but I don't. Ditto, Queen's 'Day At The Races'  or Lou Reed's 'Transformer'. Other straight on the iPod discs are 2 Otis Redding compilations, Coleman Hawkins and Astrud Gilberto albums. The Doobie Brothers 'One Step Closer' was the follow up to Minute by Minute and had Michael McDonald steering them into the gap between Steely Dan and Supertramp, but it's really quite good and joined Fairport Convention 'Live' and Neil Young's 'Americana' on the pod pile.

Not Really For Me...
Into this pile went Iron Maiden, The Proclaimers, a disc with a picture of bagpipers and Bruce Springsteen's 'Nebraska'. All worthy I'm sure just not likely to get a play, so not worth the megabytes they would occupy on the pod. Sadly Chas & Dave also ended up here but may sneak out for one play of their hits.

Need To Listen To This...
The Doors 'Soft Parade', Frank Sinatra, I still suffer from a prejudice against him handed down from mum who wasn't keen on him. So certainly getting a play as she has proved wrong on other counts. Bad Company and Flaming Lips also went into this pot and as I have never listened to the latter but always suspected I might like them worth a go.

Never Heard Of It...
This is why you have to love a lucky dip. The chance of finding something new and great you ahve never come across before.
Fyfe Dangerfield - 'Fly Yellow Moon'. If he could make up his mind if he wanted to be Passenger or Coldplay Fyfe might turn out ok. As it's a 2010 album his moment may have passed. Best song "She Needs Me" which is ELO over the backbeat of ZZ top's Sharp Dressed Man. Worst one a karaoke cover of Always a Woman that was in a John Lewis ad apparently. Also he sounds like a character in spy film.
Fang Island - 'Major'. Very odd, sounds like Green Day playing the theme from Friends
Mike Heron - Where The Mystics Swim - yes the Incredible String Band man, and there is bits of ISB about this, but also hints of Americana, Tom Petty and Van Morrison. Mexican Girl and A Song For Robert Johnson are favourites after a couple of listens. Great album and I'm looking forwrd to getting to know it better.
Other star albums from this pile. The Horsies 'Trouble Down South' Country with chiming African guitars and Fred James '100 years of the Blues'. It will take a while to work though the pile, but following my last post about wanting to hear new rather than the same tired old stuff, this was a great way of proving my point.

Postcript:
Just played The Doors, what a load of old tosh.

Reversing Into The Future

I talk about Bill Nelson a fair bit here, that's because he is really rather good. He is our most undervalued guitarist, along with Robin Trower, and continues to expand his musical horizons with every album. Where many of his generation are seated comfortably on their past glories Bill is fighting back against the past.

Look here for my general appreciation of his work. You will find that I'm not bothered by Be Bop Deluxe, they were certainly a great band in their time, but Bill regards their work as of it's time and gone. There is a new cd box set of Sunburst Finish out now from Cherry Red, and Bill has joined in the promotional round for it, albeit somewhat reluctantly. He recently played a show in Leeds to celebrate his 70th birthday, including a live stream for those unable to get tickets. Bill felt the need to warn that there would be no Be Bop Deluxe numbers in the set as the Facebook groups that follow him are dominated by posts about that 6 or 7 year part of his career, at the expense of the subsequent 40 years. Spending your entire life talking about work you did in your early twenties must be as frustrating for others as it is for Bill, and I for one have pretty much stopped buying the likes of Mojo, Classic Rock and so on because I just want to hear about something other than the Beatles, Led Zeppelin or Pink Floyd. And that from an obsessive magazine buyer.


Now I'm all for reliving my youth, as the posts on this blog will testify, but as the fans view of what constitutes the "classic" parts of a band's legacy tends to be only a small part of the whole, usually centered somewhere from 1971 to 1974. Steely Dan actually did a "rarities" show back in 2011, as a relief from the run of identikit set lists. Yes are another offender in the same-dozen-songs-all-the-time stakes, as are many other 70s bands. Does this mean I'm alone in being bored stupid with live albums that repeat the same old stuff time and again. As live work and the CDs & DVDs that result from it are the staple of most artist's income now then how many versions of, for instance, 'Roundabout' do you need? You can pick from 2 studio and 15 different live versions. Please play something else! In career of 40 or even 50 years they must have written something else worth an airing.

So, hooray for Bill Nelson who won't revisit the past, continues to plough forward and is thanked for it by his current fans. Robin Trower too, although he hasn't departed as far from his roots as Bill, but still regularly produces new work that is the equal of much of his 70s output. Yes he still plays the fan favourites, but includes new songs and rings the changes on his back catalogue as the set list on the right shows. Try his recent album Time And Emotion for a feel of where Robin is now.

We all like a bit of familiarity, but repetition to the point of boredom must make for stale performances, jaded listeners and diminishing box office returns. Lets be adventurous and allow our artists to mature and grow, and especially to play something we haven't heard in a while, or indeed ever. The prospect of another favourite feeling they have to apologise for not playing the old stuff is not one I'm looking forward to. It's embarrassing for them and for us.

Grateful for Brent.

Every November for some years now the Grateful Dead have given away a free mp3 each day. there is a sort of competition attached to it for those who can identify every note the Dead ever played. Me I'll just collect the freebies thank you.

Writing this in November 2018 I have come to a realisation. I don't actually like the Grateful Dead much. What I do like are two Grateful Dead albums "Without A Net" a live album picked from shows in 1989 & 1990, and "In The Dark" their best selling 1987 album. Other than that I'm not bothered. Without a Net showcases the Dead's peerless ability to improvise, pushing Branford Marsalis hard on Eyes Of The World, and on the best moments of Franklin's Tower they manage to create a wall of sound that Spector would have envied, firing on all cylinders each in their own improvising bubble, while perfectly meshed together. The songs are shortish and sharp with the interminable Drums and Space segments cut out. There are enough of their best songs to make it pretty much a best of. The only songs I miss are Shakedown Street and Sugar Magnolias and maybe a couple of the songs from In The Dark. Speaking of which, it is really about four songs on that album, Touch of Grey, Hell In A Bucket, West LA Fadeaway and Throwing Stones. The rest are fairly disposable for me.

What makes the difference on these albums compared to the thousands of hours of recorded Dead that clogs up the internet? Brent Mydland. The Grateful Dead went through keyboard players the way Spinal Tap used up drummers. Brent replaced Keith Godchaux, strictly a piano player and sent the band off in new directions, ultimately bringing in digital synths, and samplers adding dense layers behind the guitars and textures that shifted the improvisations away from mundane soloing to a more collective sound.

When he passed away in July 1990 something went out. Bruce Hornsby and Vince Welnick who followed him were very much bolt on players rather than integrated into the fabric of the music as Brent was.

So The Grateful Dead; pointless noodling? Certainly. Self important? Definitely. some gold buried in the mountains of music? Seems like it.

Excuses, Excuses

  A long gap between posts I'm afraid. Brought on by the busyness of business, but there have been some goings on in music recently that I felt compelled to comment on so...

Bill Nelson

No secret that Bill is a huge favourite of mine. He is also someone who seems to reflect the ever increasing trend to stumble into the future focussed relentlessly on the past. He writes a regular journal on his website. the latest (as I write) is here. Bill is producing more and better work than he has ever done but is again being forced to revisit work that he regards as juvenalia - Be Bop Deluxe were a good band but a recent article in Shindig and doubtless the upcoming one he refers to in Classic Rock will pick over their bones and pass over the subsequent 40 years and hundreds of recordings with barely a nod. I sympathise with Bill and wish that he and other artists could be allowed the spotlight for their current work that it deserves.

I suspect (as from his comments I think Bill does as well) that the power of Facebook may have helped sell this event out in record time, and given that the Facebook groups that helped the sell out seem to have the same myopia about anything other than Be Bop Deluxe, then he may be right that there will be some disappointed fans clutching armfuls of 70s LPs to be signed. This means that many of his very loyal current following go without, me included. While I think some of the comments being expressed on the website message board are a little OTT, it would be nice for Bill to have a supportive crowd, especially if there is a question mark over him playing live again.

Over The Rhine

Another favourite. Sometime ago they did a a crowd funder covering three new albums. While I'm of the persuasion that would listen to Karin Bergquist sing a shopping list, I was pleased to see that there will be a new piano album from Linford included. I recently bought the only one of his earlier ones that I didn't have, "Unspoken Requests" and it's now a fixture on the iPod. If you don't know about Over The Rhine, catch up here. Hopefully more shows in the UK at some point. St Georges Hall in Bristol would be a great venue for them. HINT!

Steely Dan

Or the Donald Fagen band as it should really be now. While I could care less about current goings on, the hope that DF's chase for dollars will also include some expanded reissues and some more proper live albums, rather than bootleg radio shows, is on. As a side note Jazz Journal, which I read occasionally, but is very much stuck in 1966 made a comment in it's blurb for last months issue that Steely Dan had no place in a Jazz magazine. Oh come on! Surely we are past that! The irony that this comment was supporting an interview with guitarist Steve Khan (Aja, Gaucho) and that elsewhere in the magazine was a report on new interpretations of some of Donald's songs and a feature on Chris Potter, stalwart of the 90s band is clearly lost on whoever wrote that.

EMusic

I have winged about the demise of this once great service before, but have finally paused my membership to give it three months to get it's act together. Not going to happen I'm afraid but as most of my saved for later list disappeared months ago, and Frontiers Records vanished in September I struggled to use up my allocation last quarter. So bye bye EMusic, fun while it lasted.

There got that off my chest, back to work.

Kids today...

My daughter (19) listens to at least as much music as I did at that age. There is a a subtle difference however. She doesn't care about it in the same way. Partly this is about availability, the quantity of the stuff and the ease with which it can be consumed, and that is the operative word, make music as much a disposable as a plastic water bottle. Music's ability to move the majority of people faded away sometime after the turn of the century. The arrival of cheap internet connections, and zero cost streaming made it possible to plug in your headphones and never hear the same song twice. The view out of the bus window, or at the gym turns into a video soundtracked by a revolving door of rap, r&b and pop/punk bands that will get their 15 minutes but not much more. If the daughter has a favourite band it is probably Green Day, but she spends most of her time with a background of vacuous production line dance, rap and pop that must gladden Simon Cowell's heart and leaves mine cold.


What brought this grump on? I had been aware of Sleaford Mods for a while, but discounted listening to them when Mojo anointed them the next big thing a few years ago. However I drifted past a video of them on Later recently and found I should be taking notice. Reading about their most recent album English Tapas it seems they were looking to move on musically and lyrically and they have. I can take or leave most of what's gone before but "B.H.S", "Army Nights" and "Stick In A Five And Go" all have something to say about the state we are in. I'm not the first to compare them to John Cooper Clarke but I'm listening to Beasley Street as I write this and remember the effect of this in 1980 and how it helped shaped my thoughts about politics.

The fact that music doesn't shape thought and feelings as it used to is a loss, not only to the young folks who don't seem to have replaced it with anything else, but also to society which misses out on the prod to the conscience that politically aware music has given since "Strange Fruit" and “The Revolution Will Not Be Televised". That the most thought provoking current music is being made by two blokes in their forties and speaks more to me than my daughter is disheartening to say the least. Whatever your party colour, or lack of it, you are unlikely to feel that we are in a golden age of  political thought and action. The world needs to find a way to engage with my daughter's generation and music still has the potential to shift opinions and mould minds.

The best thought provoking songs

Cleaners From Venus: Living With Victoria Grey
Peter Gabriel: Biko
The Specials: Ghost Town
Neil Young: Rockin In The Free Wold
Nerina Pallot: Everybody's Gone To War
The Clash: Clampdown
Public Enemy: Hell No, We Ain't All Right
Labi Siffre; Something Inside So Strong
Frankie Goes To Hollywood: War 
B52s: Channel Z
John Cooper Clarke: Beasley Street
Sleaford Mods: B.H.S.


Yes I know, no Bob Dylan, CSNY, etc. While great songs they don't speak to me. For once I'm too young.

Real Record Shops...

It started with reading "Going For A Song: A Chronicle of the UK Record Shop" by Garth Cartwright. Yet another purchase prompted by listening to the Word In Your Ear podcast. This started me thinking about Bristol's record shops and Richard King's book Original Rockers about Revolver Records, the coolest record shop in a city stuffed with cool record shops.

I've just written a long paragraph about local bands & the live music scene, but have put that to one side for a separate article so I can stick to the point...

Which was record shops. The British Record Shop Archive lists lots, some I remember, some I don't. Living in the wilds of Hanham off to the east of Bristol, record buying was mostly about a record shop in Kingswod High Street, which I can't remember the name of, or trips to HMV in Broadmead to spend my paper round pay on whatever John Peel had played that week. My best ever record buying experience was when a boutique (clothes shop) on Hanham High Street which had tried to sell records as well for a few years gave up and sold boxes of singles for 10p and LPs for £1.50. I bought dozens, lots of punk and post punk including some that are real rarities now... I also discovered Plastic Wax Records happily still going and the world of second hand records. I can still remember buying an import Stranglers E.P. because I hadn't heard of it and literally running to buy The Ramones Rockaway Beach after it was on Radio 1.

Record shops are on the up with the "vinyl boom", and that's a good thing, even though I suspect that a good number of the discs bought are for display rather than playing. The new shops that pop up (and down again) are nothing like a "real" record buying experience though. Have you read High Fidelity? The book describes a real record shop, and that is what I loved, and indeed still do. Grubby, probably fairly disorganised, and don't bother talking to the staff who will either ignore or ridicule you. Nick Hornby and Giles Smith both had that right. The aforementioned Revolver Records was the archetype in Bristol, I went in once, and was too intimidated to go back for ages. But when I realised it was the only place to get some of the stuff I wanted I was hooked. Rival Records in Park Street with it's racks of cheap discs to flick through. Music Market in Bath a shop so small 3 people had to leave if you took a record off the rack. There was Record Fayre above a camping equipment shop which sold imports at £1.99 that were so rubbish half of them didn't have grooves deep enough for a stylus to find. 

All this may sound like I'm a vinyl fan. I'm not, it was rubbish. I don't doubt that the new 180gram collectors discs are better, but seeing people in their twenties rooting through boxes of vinyl in a charity shop recently getting all misty eyed about them reminded me of using Mark's sister's Nolans singles for airgun targets. The vinyl was useless and the music was crap. When I worked for my Dad selling 78rpm records and gramophones in the eighties the question of collectability came up all the time. How to make a Bing Crosby record collectable? Throw it away. White Christmas sold 100 million copies on 78 alone so to make it rare we'd have to fill up a lot of landfill. Same applies to vinyl,. In 1977 there were 15 million LP's & singles sold in the U.K, so questions about rarity and value are to say the least spurious. 

Does the real record shop still exist. Yes it does and here are my recommendations. 

Plastic Wax: Cheltenham Road Bristol BS6 5QU - Lots of vinyl and cds. the hours I have spent scanning the shelves since I was 14 are beyond counting. Always something new, always a bargain.

Missing Records: 247 Argyle St, Glasgow G2 8DL - Under the railway bridge hidden away. A recent discovery and one I'm still digging into. Another small shop, and there is always a Glasgow "character" on hand to liven things up. 

Musical Box: 457 W Derby Rd, Liverpool L6 4BL - Friendly owners, I made his day when I asked for Jazz cds, went out with armfuls. 

Record Collector: 233 Fulwood Rd, Sheffield S10 3BA - Closed Wednesdays as I found out. Separate cd & vinyl shops so I don't have to walk past any of that nasty black plastic. second best record shop in the world. Totally impossible to find anything, just browse and have fun.

My tip for collecting by the way is buy cds. They will come back. The special editions and longer playing times will attract people. When downloads start to die away over the next few years, and they will, cds with their currently low prices and superior digital reproduction will be the new vinyl.