Welcome to the RPM Record Club Seven Day Soundtrack week ending Friday 1st December 2023. This week we have a new RPMer joining the musical collective; welcome Kevin. As I'm putting this together we have snow here in North Yorkshire....so it's a weekend in front of the wood burner with a brew and some great music, I think. Over to...
"Greetings RPM faithful; here are two songs that always resonate with me at this time of year (so no apologies for selecting them again), and something new."
Hard Road by Johnny Flynn -
Killing The Blues by Rowland Sally -
Reynardine performed by You Are Wolf -
"It was great a couple of weeks ago to be reacquainted, through David's selection, with the great David Murray. My long-lost vinyl collection included " Ming's Samba," named for Mr. Murray's wife, and "Revue" by The World Saxophone Quartet- both superb modern jazz albums. This reminder set me off on a bit of a jazz kick, and as my favourite sax player is Sonny Rollins I'll start with him and after last week's dedication from Tony I'll dedicate this number (and the following one) to him."
I'm An Old Cowhand performed by Sonny Rollins - "From his 1957 album 'Way Out West'. Perhaps a comment by Mr. Rollins on the under-representation of black people in stories of the "winning" (or should that be the "whiting?") of the West? He could make any genre of music 'hip'."
Excerpt from "April In Paris" performed by The Count Basie Orchestra - "...for a fifty-second sequence in 'Blazing Saddles'. The film was released in 1974, but Count Basie's original hit recording dates back to 1956."
Blues in The Night performed by The Jimmie Lunceford Orchestra - "One of the best of the big bands. Possibly the finest version of this much recorded number."
"Best wishes everyone."
"This week is singles again but all the tracks have lovely lyrics which tell different aspects of loving relationships. Have a good week everyone."
Sexy Eyes by Dr Hook -
Make It Easy On Yourself by The Walker Brothers -
"Hello, everyone! Thanks to Piers for telling me about RPM and to Tim for admitting me. I hope you will enjoy at least some of the music I'd like to share with you all: I have certainly had great fun and made some great discoveries as I start to trawl through the enormous archive of RPM playlists.
The common thread - if there is one - seems to be that we choose music others may not have encountered before but will find interesting / stimulating / maybe even challenging?
I've got zillions of things I'm dying to share but have started with a fairly safe trio of suggestions. Apologies if I inadvertently duplicate any material which has been RPM'd before - I haven't had time to go through the entire back catalogue yet!"
"My first offering is..."
Morning Nightcap performed by Lunasa - "Lunasa are super-humanly talented musicians and this live performances showcases their talents, especially Kevin Crawford on whistle and Sean Smyth on fiddle. It also captures the exuberance and sheer joy of collective music-making which all live music should be about. I've been fortunate enough to see them play live several times and each time a joy. I'm sure that Tim, at least, should enjoy this as he included a track from the album two of the band made together in last week's playlist."
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xPjWeZx5XRI&ab_channel=shinner65
Nho Antone Escaderode by Cesaria Evora - "Cesaria Evora was a singer from Cape Verde, whose songs are mostly in the mournful/dramatic style similar to Portuguese fado, but I chose this particular song for its ebullience and the driving rhythm. Great voice and great clarinet playing."
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ygnsqR0IKdU&ab_channel=Ces%C3%A1ria%C3%89vora-Topic
Bullfrog Blues by Rory Gallagher - "I loved Rory Gallagher from my teens and first saw him play live in - of all places - West Runton Pavilion just outside Cromer. He gave me his plectrum when it was all over! You can find several live concert footage versions of this song but it was this live LP I wore the grooves out of, so went for this rendition. This was always a crowd pleasing encore. Personally, I preferred this trio lineup: when Lou Martin joined on keyboards it seemed somehow to diminish rather than augment his music. Along with Lowell George and Freddie King, he is one of the best guitarists who never really got the recognition they deserved in his lifetime."
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FR--sDDNs6o&ab_channel=RoryGallagher-Topic
"Happy December everyone!"
"Some 50 years ago, I received the first issue of a fanzine called Omaha Rainbow published by Peter O'Brien in late November 1973. The mag ran for 15 years and I contributed a couple of pieces myself. I lost touch with Peter, but reconnected with him on a music train trip 30 odd years later in Vancouver BC. As a tribute to his amazing work I have been listening to music from interviews and articles he published in those 41 issues.
Whilst none of my selections this week are directly from then, they clearly are in the same vein and are, I'm sure, inspired by one of the most featured and influential bands of the time.
Oh Happy Days!"
"First up with Peter Buck's jingle jangle guitar..."
Talk About The Passion by R.E.M. -
Next, Tony Poole and....
The Girl in a Gene Clark Song by Starry Eyed and Laughing -
"And finally..."
American Girl by Tom Petty - "Legend has it that when Roger McGuinn first heard this on his car radio, he stopped his car trying to recall when he had written it."
https://youtube.com/watch?v=SIhb-kNvL6M&si=Tx8NG_dg8Jq_X6VQ
"That's All Folks."
"Hi Everyone, here are three tracks I've listened to this week. Keep safe and warm!"
Who's Affraid Of Virginia Woolf? by Jimmy Smith -
Love Will Tear Us Apart by Joy Division -
I Can Understand It by Kokomo -
"Wotcha folks…
I was just looking back through past posts and did notice that Jayne and I didn’t manage to catch on to the first week of ‘The Isolation Room’. Strangely enough I remembered posting ‘White Punks on Dope’ by The Tubes and thought it my first post, in the first week, but no! (Not that my memory is never faultless!) it must have been quite early on though.* It still makes me laugh. What a life saver ‘TIR’ was… This site still is an essential part of my Saturday mornings but in those early days of the Covid 19 pandemic the infectious posts by our fellow arh-pea-emmers truly proved essential. Ta all!"
*(I remember that choice....To save you the sleepless nights worrying, ‘White Punks on Dope’ by The Tubes was in the 3rd week after we'd come out of isolation, edition Friday 18th Sep 2020. Isn't memory a funny thing, Piers 😉. Tim the Archivist)
"And how could I have left out The Dead when I was posting live music last week? The livest (and deadest) band of all! "
Dark Star by Grateful Dead -
"That thought lead me to spend a little time harking back to gigs that I went to in very late ’66 and early ’67. When I was out having a good time pretty much every weekend.
Here’s a clip of one of those bands that I was very fond of in those days. A reminder that the ‘60s wasn’t all about overdriven guitar solos… well not completely."
Hyde Park Raga by Third Ear Band (Live on French telly) -
"And this week I have been reviewing a lot of Neil Young. This album was a part of the soundtrack to the early part of my time spent with Jayne. I’m still very fond of it. This track has to be my first choice from it. The solo - which starts at 3mins, if not the finest, is about as fine as an overdriven guitar solo in a love song needs to be. Then again the one that cuts in at about 6.05 isn’t too slack either…. Oh well I’ll just leave the choice of which solo up to you…"
Cowgirl in the Sand by Neil Young -
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SNl13t9ZtmA
"Keep on truckin’…"
"Hi everyone. Here's my picks this week." ..
Sayonara by The Pogues -
The Body Of An America by The Pogues -
Her And I (Slow Jam II) by King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard -
"Here's my three this week. And welcome Kevin....looks like we might have some similar musical tastes..."
The Dingle Berries Set (The Hop Slide / Padraig O'Keefe's / Nessa The Mover / Trip To Dingle) performed by Lunasa - "Weird, innit? That ol' RPM coincidence thing!? Last weekend I was looking down my list of tunes to (re)learn on the tenor banjo and spotted a set we (LongShoreDrift) used to call 'Nessa' which comprised a tune composed by Brendan Larrissey entitled Nessa The Mover followed by a trad tune called Galloway Girth. Nessa The Mover we learnt from the playing of Lunasa from their album Sé, so I dug out the recording for a listen to check how I thought the tune went. A few days later Kevin's email dropped into my in-box and, low and behold, his first tune selection is performed by Lunasa. Weird, innit?"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nYZq5f9UG0I
Not a bonus track, but In case anyone's interested to hear the LongShoreDrift interpretation, it's here....
2022 by Smoke Fairies - "Another from the new Carried In Sound album which I've played more than Ozric Tentacles this week....something some folks may be all too pleased to hear 🙃."
Choose Your Goddess by Gong - "Also Gong, who have been on the back burner for a few weeks, got played a bit more than the Ozrics this week, so we'd better have another little something from their new opus as well."
Finally, this is definitely a Bonus Track....
Hendrix Birthday Bonus - "Last Monday 27th November was the 81st birthday of Jimi Hendrix. So going to mark the occasion with a bonus track.
Are You Experienced? by Jimi Hendrix -
'Til Next Time...