Welcome to the RPM Record Club Seven Day Soundtrack, week ending Friday 1st April 2022. No fooling about here......straight on with the music; over to, and welcome back to...

Jean -

"I’m getting in the mood for my Bonamassa concert on the 23^rd so it’s 3 tracks from him. Have a good week everyone."

Piers -

"This week... I am still listening to blues! Anyone remember 'the progressive blues experiment' back in the mid 60s? (I loved it!) Well, I think that this is truly experimental progressive blues for the 2020s!

Just the one choice! Three from what I think is a really fascinating album; Loren Connors' — Blues: The "Dark Paintings" of Mark Rothko

www.youtube.com/watch?v=UIbLYoNpjzUA

John -

"Hi RPMers, Hope you're all keeping safe and well. I tested positive for Covid-19 earlier this week and as a consequence I've spent most of the past three days in bed. I feel slightly better today but with 'flu-like symptoms and a total lack of energy, I haven't listened to a great deal of music... although these three tracks caught my ear at some point..."

Philip -

"I know John is a big fan of The Coral: he might be interested to know that James Skelly and Nick Power will be presenting an acoustic set at The Apex on 23rd September.

Meanwhile, despite the cold weather, here's a celebration of Spring blossoms, starting with more JJ Cale.

Best wishes to everyone."

Jayne -

"Hi RPMers. Thank you for the music….thinking of you….keep keeping safe."

Tony -

Nina -

"Hey folks...Hope you're well. Enjoyed last week's 7DS selection as ever. Thanks for featuring poetry again, Tim.

Alan; couldn't agree more re hideously corrupt & gallingly insensitive BoJo & crew. Just when you think they can't possibly stoop any lower...

Thanks all for the Desert island albums too + Tim for curating; listening my way through your recommendations. It's a bumper RPM Mystery album bonanza!

Perfect partner for persistent push of packing & loose ends tying - I'm leaving Norfolk on 4th April. All visitors to Newlyn, Penzance very welcome."

Alan -

"As Toyah once lisped, 'It'h a mithstery, it's a mithstery....' and, this week here's three tracks with mystery contributors. First up, although the recording artist may be unknown (he certainly was to me!!), it's the lyricists who are now much better known, and that'll be followed by two records featuring vocalists who have disguised their true identity..."

Vera Lamonte by Barry Booth (from 'Diversions' LP released April 1968. PYE label, This from CD rerelease 2002. Sanctuary label) - "Cast your mind back to a pre 'The Masked Singer' time........ way, way back to the fifties and early sixties when a panel show called 'What's my line' aired every week on BBC. Each week a 'celebrity' guest would be wheeled on to face the blindfolded panelists (Gilbert Harding, David Nixon, Barbara Kelly and Isobel Barnett were the regular team) who, through judicious questioning would endeavor to identify the guest and their 'line' of work. Here we have a fairly unknown person, who had been a member of no hit wonders the Sons of the Piltdown Men ( a UK version of the sax honking US hitters The Piltdown Men), whose main claim to fame was appearing down the bill on 1963's Beatles/Gerry and the Pacemakers screamfest. Barry was later employed to produce incidental music for various TV programs, including The Five O Clock Club where he worked alongside Alexis Korner and composed several advertising jingles with Korner before becoming a 'jobbing musician' for the BBC. In 1967, he was asked to team up with two of the BBC's thrusting young writers to produce some witty musical criticisms for the new, trendy, left wing 'Late Night Line Up' show. The newcomers had already supplied comedy material for 'The Frost Report' and 'The Late Show' as well as contributing to the cancelled sexual revolution musical 'The Love Show' before Booth enquired if they could help with lyrics for some demos he had been asked to supply to various publishers. Four tracks were recorded and, fortunately for all concerned, a copy landed on the desk of pop supremo Tony Hatch at PYE who recognised a uniquely 'English' talent similar to Ray Davies, Giles, Giles and Fripp and early Bowie and offered a recording contract to Booth. The trio set to work in December 1967, along with stalwarts Terry Cox and Herbie Flowers and, by April, they had completed fourteen tracks which were issued as the 'Diversions' album. Miles Kingston gave the album a glowing review in the Punch magazine, Kenny Everett invited Booth onto his Sunday morning radio show and even John Peel played tracks from it on his Top Gear late night show. Unsurprisingly, the world wasn't quite ready for the arcane witticisms that Booth and his lyricists were proffering in an age dominated by the Beatles, Hendrix, Cream etc and Booth returned to arranging and producing music for the BBC, ITV and artists ranging from Topol to Rolf Harris, Kenneth Williams to Roy Orbison as well as Bert Jansch, John Renbourn and Pentangle before progressing to conducting symphony orchestras around the world. And our itinerant lyricists? Well, Messrs. Michael Palin and Terry Jones didn't do too bad in the intervening years either!!!"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rGHPv-KXGos

Christine performed by Miss X (7" single released December 1963. Ember label) - "Looking at the composers again here for a moment, one name is familiar (Leslie Bricusse) whilst the other is less so. The label shows Count Jaime-De-Mora Y Aragon (misspelled on some issues as 'Jaine') as the partner in crime on this track and, indeed, there was a person of that name back in 1963. The Count was in fact a member of the Spanish aristocracy who was the brother of Queen Fabiola of Belgium and, additionally, he appeared in over 30 films including Vittorio De Sicca's 'The Last Judgement' in 1961 and, in 1973, he appeared alongside a young Timothy Bottoms and Maggie Smith in Alan Pakula's 'Love and pain and the whole damn thing'. Some sites attribute the co-write of the single to the Count whilst others (probably correctly) say it's the work of John Barry who used the pseudonym fearing the consequences of being involved in the disc. So, what would cause such a scandal? Well, six years later, Jane Birkin and Serge Gainsbourg would cause international outrage by recording what may or not been a carnal interlude in the studio with 'Je t'aime moi non plus' (Serge had already 'performed' the song with Brigette Bardot in 1967 but the disc was pulled at the last moment after pressure from her then husband Gunther Sachs) so, just imagine what an outrage a 'suggestive' song which alluded to Christine Keeler at the very height of the Profumo Scandal might have caused in late '63. John Barry seems to have 'lifted' the melody from 'Whatever Lola wants' but Bricusse has fun with the lyrics, utilising various sighs, giggles, cigarettes being lit and suggestive phrases aplenty. This was all too much for the BEEB and, unsurprisingly, it received a blanket ban from being broadcast. However, that didn't stop the disc from 'climaxing' its chart run at a respectable number 37, although how the record buyers actually heard the disc at the time is another mystery to me. So, on to Miss X..... who she?? Well, she was born in London in 1932 to Jewish parents who changed their family name from Ogus to............ well, in a minute, and began her career singing and tap dancing with her brother in the London Underground during the Blitz. After the war they continued as a pair but Miss X also appeared on stage in 'South Pacific' and 'Guys and Dolls' and films including Billy Fury's forgettable 'I've gotta horse' before moving on to a more successful TV career in the sixties and seventies on Morecambe and Wise, The Benny Hill Show, Z Cars and others. She released her first single, a cover of 'Baby, it's cold outside' as a duet with........ Oliver Reed (!!!) in 1962 and these two discs are pretty much the extent of her 'pop' career. She continued to appear alongside her brother until they were estranged in 1977 for over twenty years and it took their mutual friend Sammy Davis Jnr to arranged a reconciliation whilst he was literally on his death bed. So, just who was Miss X? Who else but......... Joyce Blair!!!! A great single and my copy bears the penciled information 'Mumbles 6th December 1963' which was probably written on the centre label by its original owner noting where and when he purchased this salacious 2 minutes 50 seconds of ecstatic pleasure...... and the b-side? Another suggestive ditty entitled 'S-E-X'!!!"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RHBy-bAMlO0

Stormy Monday Blues performed by Little Joe Cook (7" single released 6th August 1965. Sue label. This from 'Buzz with the fuzz' compilation released 1987. Decal label.) "I've left out the artist from the info above just in case you want to prolong the suspense.......... but here's a track which, for some reason, I totally overlooked when I did the 'Can blue men sing....' and/or 'It's a mod, mod....' articles. This is John Henry Deighton who must have thought he was never gonna make it big, until he hit number one in 1966. He started out as the leader of the John Henry Skiffle Group in 1957, progressed to the Johnny Burns Rhythm and Blues Group in '58 before founding the group with whom he became one of the finest r&b outfits in the UK during the mid-sixties. There were a couple of singles on Decca in 1963/4 (including his first attempt to broach the charts under a pseudonym... The Beezers) before he signed with Columbia for a run of five singles. After he had his final single pulled for its drug connotations and disparaging remarks about the boys in blue, May 1965 saw 'Little Joe/John Henry' demoeing this T-Bone Walker standard in a tiny London studio and, somehow, a copy found its way to the Sue label boss Guy Stevens who issued the disc under the LJC nomenclature without the artists knowledge. Due to the length of the single (over 6 minutes), it was originally released as a double sider and immediately joined its predecessor as a favourite in London's mod clubs. Whilst drowning his sorrows in one of those clubs LJC found himself in discussion with Andrew Loog Oldham who offered him a contract with his soon come Immediate label and it was there, with the help of the Small Faces and the Rolling Stones, that success finally came a knocking with seven of his first nine releases reaching the top fifty, including his only number one with the Stones 'Out of time'. Yep, this is Chris Farlowe and the Thunderbirds with perhaps their most authentic 'blues' outing............. a great record and a truly great performance."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f_fjjaRWFn8

"RIP to Taylor Hawkins, perhaps rock's greatest drummer of the last 25 years.... as a very frustrated drummer it was mesmerising to watch him play."

Jackie -

Dave -

"Hi RPMers, hope all is well . Looking forward to checking out your picks..."

Tim -

"Here's three for you; two brought to mind by the time of year, one by trying to learn another tune...."

'Til Next Time...