Welcome to the RPM Seven Day Soundtrack, week ending Friday 25th February 2022. Music is very much required to lift our spirits this week; over to.....

Nina -

"Hi folks, thanks as ever for the music, which I greatly enjoyed listening to at Treyarnon YHA after all the high pitched, hyper half term "little darlings"/rug rats & their noise oblivious, wine quaffing parents finally went to bed.

Hope you all survived storms Dudley, Eunice and Franklin - sounds like a benign, geriatric bowls team, but they packed a collective punch especially here in Kernow.

Take care, all. Cheers!"

Philip -

"Four observations this week:

1. General: I wonder if the Tories have allowed sufficient time for their Russian donors to move their assets? (OK, call me a cynic...).

2. To Jean: That 10-album challenge is a toughie! Each time I come up with a list of 10 I think "Oh no, I've left this, that and the other out." Still working on it- listening to lots of old favourites. Interestingly (or not) they all seem to come from the period 1969 to 1975. I suppose this must mean something.

3. To Nina: This week I've watched a contender for weirdest Western of all time. (And yes I've seen "Johnny Guitar" and even "Cowboys and Aliens").

The film in question is Jim Jarmusch's "Dead Man." Black and white, loads of overt symbolism, critiques of American society and capitalism, a "spiritual quest" that is never understood by the person being led on said quest, a cannibalistic bounty hunter, marshals named "Lee" and "Marvin," and- get this- Iggy Pop as a transvestite trapper called Sally!

4. To Alan: You can't possibly know what an inspiration you have been to me this week... but you might be about to find out!

OK- now to the music."

"Best wishes to everyone."

Alan -

"Delivery of a single a couple of weeks ago had me playing quite a few tracks by sixties girl singers. Here's that single and a couple of other goodies which found their place on the decks."

Love Not Have I by Carol Deene - (7" single, released 13th January 1967. Columbia label)

"The song which prompted this week's threesome (oooerrr Missus!!!!) and what a strange one it is from this Donny lass. The intro puts me in mind of the Yardbirds 'Still I'm sad' and, perhaps, the Beatles 'I am the walrus'. The song had been written by 15 year old Maura Nolan and recorded by her and friend Barbara Fiorda as Charlotte and Emily under the guidance of famed Four Seasons producer Bob Crewe, and a fine folk-rock disc it is too which unfortunately didn't gain a release over here.. There had been minor successes for Carol with cover versions of bouncy US hits 'Sad Movies', 'Norman', 'Johnny get angry' and the theme from the UK film 'Some People', which centred around the forming of a pop group at a Bristol youth club starring Kenneth More, Ray Brooks and an early appearance by David Hemmings. But, over the next five years there was only the turntable hit of 'James (hold the ladder steady)' and so it was surprising that EMI showed great loyalty to Carol who went on to record a further ten singles during that period with absolutely no success. That loyalty seemed to end in late 1966 when Carol was involved in a serious car accident which resulted in a broken jaw, a fractured leg and extensive facial injuries. There were just a couple of singles after 'Love not have I' before Carol retired to the Northern club scene (barring the occasional recording comebacks of course), suffered a second car accident and, finally, forsook the beautiful South Yorkshire (as did I!!) for a slightly warmer life running a radio station in Spain with her husband.""

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x_Dx7iQulTY

'Till The Night Begins To Die by Sandie Shaw (from 'Me' LP, released November 1965. PYE label.) - "Taken from her second album, which hardly qualifies under the 'All killer, no filler' label, there are several highlights amongst the regular (for the sixties) twelve tracks.Half of the tracks are either composed or part composed by her then regular song supplier Chris Andrews and there's two 'standards', 'When I fall in love' and Lionel Barts 'Do you mind' (well, not really a standard but....) suitably updated in tempo and style. Amongst the remainder is this oddity in a couple of ways. Firstly, it's a remarkably mature Sandie Shaw composition (her first one to be recorded) and, secondly, it is distinctly downbeat in its subject matter. There were other maudlin excursions during her career, from this album's 'Down Dismal Ways' to 1966's excellent 'Run' (see Week 11/2020) and on to the decade closing 'Reviewing the situation' album which included the Stones 'Sympathy for the devil'. Hardly 'Puppet on a string' or Monsieur Dupont' territory!! This warning to a (possible) one night stand concludes with:

"When the rain clouds in the distance roar

And the wind holds tight the sky

At that moment I'll fall in love with you

Till the night begins to die"

At a quick glance, it looks like this was Sandie's sole recorded composition until 1983's 'Choose Life', written and recorded to publicize the World Peace Exposition in London in March 1983. This was followed by 1988's 'Hello Angel' which included contributions from Morrisey, The Smiths and JAMC brothers Jim and William Reid. Since then there's only been 1994's 'Nothing less than brilliant', which included re-recordings of some of her sixties hits, before she virtually retired from music to concentrate as a psychotherapist."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UciTk28N0fY

Roundabout by Sharon Tandy- (from the 'From Mexico with love' EP, recorded 1968, released March 2011. Acid Jazz label) "Here's a bit of an oddity from the late South African soultress. Acid Jazz have released a lot of goodies by Ms Tandy, as a duet with Tony Head, solo and backed by good friends and label mates (Les) Fleur de Lys. Sharon moved to the UK in 1964 following her appearance in SA's first pop film 'Africa Shakes', produced and co-written by Frank Fenter. The film was also notable for being the first SA film to feature a multi-racial cast. Fenter had moved to the UK in 1958 and began a bit part acting career before becoming a booking agent handling the Rolling Stones, Animals and Manfred Mann. He then moved over to music publishing and became head of Liberty/Imperial in the UK. He was headhunted by Atlantic who installed him as managing director of their UK division and it was here that he was instrumental in not only bringing over the legendary 1967 'Hit the road Stax' tour, he was also responsible for Atlantics move towards rock in the late 60's when he recommended Ahmet Ertegun sign King Crimson, Yes and Led Zep to the label. 1965 had seen Sharon marry Fenter and in 1966 she relocated to the Stax Studios in Memphis to record tracks with Booker T and the MG's before appearing as the opening act on the 'Hit the road Stax' tour. Despite the pedigree and quality of her records, nothing seemed to click with an audience quite satisfied to accept Sandie, Dusty, Julie and Lulu et al, whether solo, with the equally fine vocalist Tony Head (late of Dave Anthony's Moods) or ably supported by LFDL. Her lack of commercial success, and a marital breakup, saw her return to SA in 1970 where she scored several major hits over the next six years. She retired form music until there was interest shown here in the UK in 2004 when her records began to attract the interest of mod era collectors via their inclusion on several compilations. A sell out gig at the 100 Club followed but, unfortunately, any further progress was halted when she contracted a serious illness, passing away in 2015. 'Roundabout' was unreleased until the 'From Mexico....' EP and is unusual in that it is co-written by her regular songwriter Graham Dee and legendary crooner (and South African by birth) Dennis Lotis!!! Following his early singing and acting career in the 50's and 60's, Lotis had semi-retired (although he still appeared at prestige concerts such as the Cannes Festival), initially to Field Dalling before moving to Stiffkey and eventually performing a sell out finale at the Mundesley Festival in August 2005."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tGBchW40W9U

John -

"Hi RPMers, My choices this week are dedicated to my late friend and band-mate Les. He sadly died a few weeks ago and these three tracks were played at his funeral which we attended on Wednesday. All three songs were in the repertoire of The A13 Allstars, the band led by Les for over twenty years. I joined them just over six years ago and my time with them was both enjoyable and rewarding - a lovely bunch of people.

R.I.P Les."

Tony -

"I've rounded up 3 tracks quickly this week having started to agonise over 10 desert island disks. I've managed to whittle it down to several dozen so far.

It was my birthday yesterday, three quarters of the way to a telegram from whoever's on the throne if and when | get there and provided somebody quickly stuffs Adolf Putin down the toilet and pulls the chain. So, I thought I'd act my age and pick a few oldies but goodies from when I supplemented my love of rock'n'roll with jazz, big band and singers who never made it into the ridiculous lists that they used to come up with on the old steam radio e.g. the hundred best ever female vocalists.

Best wishes to all - we'll meet again, don't know where, don't know when.....(but hopefully next Friday as usual."

Jayne -

"Let’s be careful out there…"

Jackie -

"RIP Gary Brooker, writer of one of the 60s most iconic songs..."

Dave -

"Hi RPMers, hope all good with you. The Desert island disc idea is great! But picking 10 albums is harder than I thought!! Here’s 3 from me..."

Tim -

"Three from my week's listening..."

'Til Next Time...