Welcome to the RPM 7DS...(shorthand for Seven Day Soundtrack, don't you know)....week ending Friday 11th December 2020. Let's turn on the virtual hi-fi and tune in to this weeks musical selection; over, then, to....................
"..........3 I’ve bought this week."
Love Lies Lost by Helen Terry -
"Here are my selections for this week. All pretty random but the third track makes the cut in response to Philip's Beatles cover track selections from last week which I thought were excellent choices. I've been fudging through some of my rarely visited albums this week.
I'm already fed up with the usual Christmas music. I only really like 3 christmas ones and even then once a year for each is more than enough. Best wishes to everyone as ever."
Give Me Strength by Eric Clapton - "I came across a box set of Clapton that I've had for many years which comprised specially marked pressings of "Backless", "Slowhand" and "461 Ocean Boulevard" by RSO. I was reminded how good this particular track was (and still is) so thought I'd give it a spin."
We Gotta Get Out Of This Place by Claire Hamill - "This track comes from an LP that was part of a bunch of albums that my brother-in-law gave me before he left for his retirement in Thailand. This track was included on her third album called "Stage Door Johnnies" issued in 1974 on the Konk label and produced by Ray Davies."
She Said She Said performed by Lone Star - "I'm not suggesting that this particular Beatles cover is better than the original. It differs in so many ways and I am using this (from their eponymous first album) to replace the track from their second album that I was originally going to submit ("The Bells of Berlin" from the album "Firing On All Six". Lone Star were a short-lived Welsh band who, it is said, suffered from the rise of punk which is a pity because I thought at the time that they were a very competent outfit. It's a lot longer than the original but bands of that period didn't tend to 'do an Adam Faith' and try to lay down a track shorter than two minutes every time."
"Hi RPMers........hope you are all well........and got ya new vinyl records ordered with Santa!!! Here’s my 3."
Into The White by Pixies -
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zCyNn73Fghs
Unfair by Pavement -
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IUrBZWLkp9E
Don't Fight It, Feel It by Primal Scream -
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jwbpar_bMHI
"This week I’m looking back to my oldest 45s and thinking how my tastes have changed. Best regards to all RPMers. Keep safe."
The Night You Became17 by Jimmie Rodgers (1959) - "I didn’t even have a record player until I was 13, so I reckon someone gave me this record. Named after the Country Music Hall of Fame singer (also known as the Singing Brakeman). Was an American musician/ singer/ writer/ film star in 1950s and 1960s. In December 1967 he was stopped in his car and attacked by a policeman with a metal bar and left for dead. Later it was claimed that it was Mafia influenced and involved Rodgers' record label. He eventually recovered but left the music business."
Just Let Me Dream by Pat Boone (1961) - "American singer, composer, actor, writer TV personality. Pop star in 50s and 60s. Did his last concert in 2018 aged 84 and still around."
Take Good Care of My Baby by Bobby Vee (1961) - "This was my first real crush on a pop star and I think my very first purchase. Bobby Vee always had the ‘boy next door’ look that Mothers liked . If I remember rightly Bobby Vee became better known when he took over the star role in a concert that Buddy Holly was booked for. Unfortunately Holly died in a plane crash on his way to the venue. The fickle finger of fate again!"
"Hi RPMers, Hope you're all fit and well. Here's a sample of what I've been listening to this week. Keep safe."
The Wizard by Black Sabbath -
To The Brink by I Am Kloot -
Band Of Gold by Freda Payne -
Under The Boardwalk by The Drifters - "This was played on Radio 4s Desert Island Discs this week and had me dancing round the kitchen with Tessy Collie."
Burnin' Train by Bruce Springsteen - "Yes, I had it before, but, as I like this song a lot, I'm having it again."
"In a week during which I realised that an hour spent in Sainsbury’s, with it’s selection of super compressed Christmas Musak, is, for me, the equivalent of a month spent in purgatory, a big thanks to Alan for the mention of Geeshi Wiley last time, it quite pulled me up short. I dug deep.
At the point when other guys were putting up posters of Debbie Harry and Chrissy Hind, I had a thing about female rural blues singers. Well, in truth not so much a thing as a big old vinyl album that came out on Smithsonian Folkways. It had one of those big old cardboard covers that would put the MDF sold by B&Q to shame.
It was called something snappy like ‘Female Rural Blues Singers From The Mississippi Hill Country including Como, Tunica, Senatoba, and Holly Springs.’ I bought it in Dillon’s records, I still have it somewhere… On that weighty Disc I was introduced to Geeshi Wiley and lots of other fabulous music and it lead me to an even greater interest in the entrancing music of Mississippi Hill Country that I had first encountered on John Lomax’s rural field recordings series for SF. Where I first heard Mississippi Fred McDowell, who had been discovered pretty muchby accident by Lomax and his then girlfriend Shirley Collins, whom he had taken on a field recording trip to the Deep South! In her autobiograpy there is a lovely description of the 'share cropper' Fred McDowell, still dressed in his overalls having worked all day in the fields, stepping from woodland into the firelight, carrying his guitar….
Some years ago I determined to work out how to play her masterpiece ‘Last Kind Words’ and as I did I realised that it was the first Blues I had ever heard which included a Major Seventh chord! (F). I don’t know if I have ever heard another other than by the likes of Joe Pass in quite a different genre! (Just in case you are interested there is one quite early on in ‘Strawberry Fields’ too. I also used to do a cover of ‘Pick Poor Robin Clean’ which she also recorded, however I haven’t dared do it for years due to the casual racist terminology used in the chorus. Shame really as it has a great sequence of double stops… "
Rolling Log Blues by Lottie Kimbrough -
Bullying Well by Rosa Lee Hill (Married to Napoleon Strickland) -
"And just in case you guys thought that it was only Denis Wilson that recorded lying down…"
Picnic with Napoleon Strickland & Como Drum Corp -
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fwvGlBymhGs
"Greetings RPM collaborators. I trust that you, like me, have had a good week and listened to some great music. This week I have some happy pop, some new Braziliana, and a nod to the recently deceased Harold Budd."
Five Years Time by Noah and the Whale -
Manto da Noite by Luedji Luna (from Bom Mesmo É Estar Debaixo D’Água (It’s Really Good to be Underwater).....)
Failing Light by Harold Budd (with Brian Eno) from Ambient 2: The Plateaux of Mirror -
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q9K40Q0mVB0&list=PLr5xDtZVpd6TW3VMHQtXaVwJa06NQYJ8j
"This week I have gone mostly Canadian, and have included a bonus track if I'm allowed to get away with it. "Mostly" because the first group were only 4/5ths Canadian."
Up On Cripple Creek by The Band - "This version features a lead vocal by their Arkansas-born drummer, from "The Last Waltz." So good they could just call themselves The Band."
Sundown by Gordon Lightfoot - "One of his best songs I think, along with The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald and If You Could read My Mind."
Theme Song from Due South by Jay Semko - "This was my favourite TV show of the 1990s. Mountie Benton Fraser first went to Chicago to... but that's not important right now."
Bonus Track - Ride Forever by Paul Gross as Benton Fraser in Due South - "Gives a flavour of the show... gotta love the Mountie chorus! And look out for Leslie Neilson as Benton's father's old Mountie partner, Buck Frobisher."
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wu4krJJkkIs&list=PLySGnZFWfVLqH0HXAdjkargxefE5XlvRF
"This week was the 40th remembrance of John Lennon's brutal murder. There was a very interesting article in the Daily Mail (Tory rag, I know, but I've always believed in knowing what the 'enemy' are thinking/planning!!) with Andy Peebles, the last person to interview Lennon just hours before he was murdered, where he disclosed that Chapman had, in fact, been a 'regular' outside of the Dakota Building for several weeks, requesting autographs to sell on, to which Lennon good humouredly acquiesced. Peebles has, apparently, suffered something similar to PTSD ever since, a condition which was probably exacerbated when Yoko Ono ceased contact with him as soon as he left the BBC.... shameful if true."
John Lennon- Strawberry Fields Forever'. (unreleased demo from 'Sweetest Apples 1967-1970') - "Here's Lennon with the Beatles finest ever recording in a rare demo which I have on one of those friendly bootleg CD's from the late eighties/early nineties."
Refugees by Van Der Graaf Generator ('The least we can do is wave to each other' album, released February 1970. Charisma label) - "Here's a surprising video I found this week for a track from one of my all time favourite albums. I had been lucky enough to see the band (though barely remembered through the mists of time and, err, other stuff!!) in early 1969 and for years I had thought it had been a gig at a college in Rotherham. However, checking the VDGG gig listing didn't throw anything up and so, 'Doctor' Watson mode invoked, I set about doing a check of all the gigs from around that time. I found a band gig mentioned at Sheffield University Lower Refectory for the 8th March which was at odds with one mentioned for Reading University, featuring Pink Floyd with VDGG supporting. The 'proof' was an Agency listing, not Reading University's own and a quick internet search revealed a copy of the Reading Rag Mag which showed Pink Floyd supported by the Pretty Things and The Gods (or god-awfuls as we called 'em). All the info was sent to the VDGG site, a quick check with organist Hugh Banton was made and he confirmed two things... he hates Pink Floyd and the band never supported them!! Job done, mind at ease and VDGG website amended!!! I really should get out more!!!!!!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZIKCddzN37Q&feature=youtu.be
Some Velvet Morning by Lee Hazlewood and Nancy Sinatra (From 'Nancy and Lee' album, released mid 1968. Reprise label) - "Strange to think that, at the same time I was going to see VDGG, I would also be buying this album, but this track should provide the reason why. There's Billy Strange's fantastic orchestration, the (in)famous 'Wrecking Crew' as the studio band, Nancy's dreamiest vocal ever, Lee's 'psychedelic cowboy' baritone, all topped off with the unusual subject matter (the doomed love affair between Phaedra and Hippolytus).... and then there's the 'quick fire' repeated outro. Most unsettling and one which would probably have warranted its inclusion should I ever get around to writing another 'Psychedelic' article. The song was written as a 'filler' for Nancy's 1967 'Movin' with Nancy' TV special and was never intended for release as a single. Hazlewood was initially reluctant to release it but relented in early 1968 and was rewarded with a Top 30 US chart listing. The actual TV Special unexpectedly featured 'Dad' and, as you can probably guess, the hard core of the Rat Pack in Dean Martin and Sammy Davis Junior. Whether Dad ever heard Hazlewoods frustrated exhortations to Nancy (allegedly to “Sing like a 14-year-old girl who f**ks truck drivers”) when he initially took over her recording sessions at Dads request is not known but, if that's what Lee requested, he certainly got the required results. Nancy's early albums ('These Boots....' How does that grab you' etc) should find a place in any collection of sixties 'pop' but here.... it's a much darker Nancy. The song has been covered by many artists including Vanilla Fudge, Rowland S Howard and Lydia Lunch, Primal Scream, Thin White Rope and My Dying Bride, and that's quite a list of 'doomsters'!
"Stay safe everyone........... now that we've 'got Covid on the run' all we've got to worry about is Brexit!!! 20% on food prices, a shortage of imported food and medical supplies, the Government paying farmers to produce less cattle whilst Arla (milk manufacturers) warns of a shortage of milk, all being offset by Boris's promise to reduce VAT on dishwashers!!
You couldn't make it up!!!!"
"Hi folks.........No theme - just music I've enjoyed hearing this week. Stay safe, well and warm and take care all, till next time "
Congo Man by the Congos -
The Aphorist by Protomartyr - "Thanks for the introduction Iggy Pop. So, Jimi Hendirx would have been 78 recently, imagine if he was your grandad? Imagine if Iggy Pop was your grandad? Or dad in my case, as he could be. I often imagine this..longingly.."
Children of the Echo by Jarv Is - "....and Jarvis Cocker would be the cool, quirky cousin in my alternative family. Christmas gatherings would never be the same."
"Here's my mix of 3 taken from what I've been playing this week.........."
Right To Decide by Hawkwind - "Thought you all might be getting withdrawal symptoms due to lack of HW over the past weeks.....but fear not! There's a new release celebrating the bands 50th year of existence in the form of a triple live LP going by the original title of Hawkwind 50: Live. Recorded on dates from last years 50th anniversary tour, it's not a classic, but it is a solid and very acceptable document of how the band currently sound."
See That My Grave Is Kept Clean performed by Bob Dylan - "Found on Bob's 1st album, this for me is one of the best versions of this old blues classic."
Bonus Track: See That My Grave is Kept Clean by Blind Lemon Jefferson - "Just thought you'd like to compare Dylan's rendition to the original (?) 1928 recording by Blind Lemon Jefferson..........in fact, Jefferson recorded this song twice, first under the pseudonym Deacon L. J. Bates, and then, due to it's success, it was re-recorded and released again in 1928 under his own name. The following year Jefferson died; December 1929."
Power of Prayer by Bruce Springsteen - "Still really enjoying Bruce's new LP.....this is the album that I've played the most this week, so here's another favourite song from it."