Still Crazy After All These Years

I have been listening to the first String Driven Thing album recently & when I heard they were playing at Oran Mhor we went along. I had been talking to John Mannion,(Mr Evening Times) over the last few years as he lived in the high flats at Yoker.

However, this was not the version of String Driven Thing that we walked out of on Thursday. John Mannion was not in this band. This was some kind of dodgy rock band. What a disappointment.

A few days later, we went out to the Rio Café (a good place to hang out, eat & drink coffee) as an African band were advertised to play. They were on last month apparently & we caught a piano player singer in the style of Tom Waits/Randy Newman & that was a treat.

The Bushes SCREAM While my daddy prunes!

Vinyl Compilations

The Happy Highlanders are hanging out at our neck of the woods a lot recently & this is truly terrific, although I am sure it is remarkably boring for our wives!

A recent ‘Trainspotting’ conversation concerned those cheap vinyl compilations that we nursed under our arms as we bunked off school. As now we didn’t have enough money to feed our music buying habits & we would spend any ready cash on those compilations, that were such great value for money.

I mentioned to my fellow addict that I had just got a hold of the 2 Island label compilations: ‘Nice Enough to Eat’ & ‘You Can All Join In’. As he has such a trying time recently, it was such a pleasure to see his face light up like it did, when we were 17 years old & first came across these albums.

I forgot to mention that I also had ‘Bumpers’. I am looking out for ‘Picnic’ (Harvest) & ‘Rock Machine: I Love You’ & ‘Rock Machine: Turns You On’(both on CBS) & ‘Vertigo Annual’. The last 3 I have on scratchy vinyl.

I have fond memories of others that have long been deleted & it is challenging to try & source copies of these.

On Half-Remarkable Co-incidences

If you are unsure of whether to slit your wrists or not, might I suggest you sit & watch Mike Leigh’s brilliant movie from 2002: ‘All or Nothing’. It stars if that is the term, many of his stalwart actors including Timothy Spall.

If you can stand the tragedy in his films, this one that I watched last night was totally riveting but very, very depressing at times.

However, no matter how awful your life may be at this moment in time, get yourself into this movie & your troubles will fade into insignificance.

Coincidentally, I had just obtained ‘All or nothing at all’ at the same time as I was watching this movie. This is one of the many rare albums I have by Yo Ho Wa 13.

While I was typing this I was listening to Arcesi’s ‘Reachin’ from 1968. I had to keep stopping as I couldn’t believe my ears. If you like Scott Walker & The Associates, then you must obtain this madness. A review follows:

Insane loungepsych blowout by a middleaged crooner who dropped acid in the 1960s and decided to make a psychedelic (well, sort of) LP with mindboggling results. For a professional vocalist he sings remarkably bad, though this doesn't stop him from filling every line with overwraught passion. The music varies between orchestrated extravaganzas and more rockin sounds including some fuzz - the songs aren't half-bad actually and the lyrics appropriately OTT, though it takes several plays to get past his voice. Imagine Del Shannon's "Charles Westover" LP with Father Yod on vocals and you're halfway there. Recently a 45 on Alpha with a non-LP track has been found. [PL]

Johnny Arcesi was a 1940s big band singer in the northeast. In his 50s, he moved to Los Angeles, discovered LSD and recorded this otherworldly acid lounge real people LP with Doorsy organ and his sincere crooning way out front. A must for real people aficianados, everyone else duck and cover your ears! [RM]
(From Acid Archives)

Writers Note: I am a real people person! Peace.

Blue Sky Thinking

With this miserable wet summer should we be thinking outside the box?

I have, I am imagining Sandie Shaw singing ‘These boots are made for walking’.

Sad to hear of Nancy Sinatra’s old singing partner dying this month. It took me about 40 years to finally get into Lee Hazlewood’s work. His albums were as rare or as expensive as hens teeth, but I have obtained a reasonable collection of his output.

You will perhaps recognise me from the old school photo above!

Its a Jungle Out There

Sometimes you never find the words in time or something happens and you forget to tell your children that you love them so much and that you ache with pride!

How does this camera work?

OOps!