Hello again and since the last time we spoke we’ve seen Jurgen’s Reds get off to a flyer and also lost a true musical legend. Whilst all this has been going on I’ve been listening to some of the best music ever made. Here’s how it went….
Week 26
12th August 2018
Bossanova
Pixies
Sunday afternoon, the first day of the footy season was upon us and this was the soundtrack for my walk up to Anfield to witness Jurgens Reds put 4 past the not-so-Happy Hammers to go top of the league.
Pixies are a band I’ve only ever heard good things about but personally never managed to listen to any of their stuff, so I was looking forward to seeing what this had in store for me and I had high hopes of it becoming a new favourite of mine.
Formed in Boston, Massachusetts in 1986, Pixies got their name after guitarist Joey Santiago flicked through a dictionary and took a shine to the word and especially it’s definition – “mischievous little elves”.
They’re widely regarded as one of the most influential Alternative Rock bands of all time with the likes of Blur, Nirvana, Radiohead and Weezer all citing them as an influence.
Released in August 1990, this is the third album from the band and according to some critics it’s weaker than their previous two efforts. If that’s the case then I can’t wait until we have to give them a listen because this particular record was everything I was hoping for.
Singer/songwriter Black Francis (later to be known as the solo singer/songwriter Frank Black) and his band give us a collection of songs crammed full of fuzzy guitars with loads of reverb and it was easier to get into than I was expecting.
The band have always enjoyed more success in Europe and in the UK especially, as oppposed to the moderate sales they achieved in their homeland and apparantly the lead single off here, “Velouria” was a bit of a “Madchester” anthem back in the day, although admittedly I’d never heard it until now.
The next song on the album, “Allison” is a quirky little tune dedicated to the Jazz artist Mose Allison but sadly, despite my best efforts, I just couldn’t think of any lyrics to adopt it as a song for LFCs new Brazilian No.1. Watch this space!
My favourite song on this album though would have to be the superb “Dig For Fire”, and it’s a track that Black Francis said was his homage to David Byrne and Talking Heads. It’s easy to see where he’s coming from with that shout. Have a listen to it and you could well imagine this could have been written by the great man himself.
This album and that song in particular is one I’ve since listened to a good few times this week and it gets better with every listen.
BOSSanova even.
My Rating: ☆☆☆☆
Listen To: Dig For Fire
The Cribs
Men’s Needs, Women’s Needs, Whatever
There was a period during the latter part of the last decade when you couldn’t get away from The Cribs. Whether it was one or all of the band appearing regularly on the likes of Soccer AM or Never Mind The Buzzcocks, or hearing any one of their tunes appearing in shows such as The Inbetweeners, they were everywhere.
Formed in 2001 in Wakefield, West Yorkshire, The Cribs are twins Gary and Ryan Jarman, and their younger brother Ross. This is the likable trio’s 2007 third album, and their first major-label release after signing for Warner Bros a few months previous.
In their early days they were touted as a British equivalent to The Strokes and I can certainly hear similarities here to Julian Casablancas and his boys whilst at the same time capturing the zeitgeist of the Indie scene in this country in much the same way as The Libertines, Maximo Park or Franz Ferdinand also did around this time, and it was actually FF’s main protagonist Alex Kapranos who produced this very album.
Songs like “Our Bovine Public”, “Girls Like Mystery”, “I’m A Realist”, and the fantastic “Man’s Needs” have become synonymous with that era and are seen by many as “Lo-Fi Anthems”.
There’s even an appearance on here by Sonic Youth’s Lee Ranaldo who recites one of his spoken-word poems over the three brothers playing the song “Be Safe”. One of many highlights on an album I hadn’t listened to in a very long time.
Personally, this is the first album I ever heard by The Cribs. I was introduced to it (and them) by my good friend Carl Kav when we worked together in a bed shop back in 2007.
We had free reign of the CD player in the shop and took turns over what we listened to. One of the only few positives we had from working in that Godforsaken town called Birkenhead.
Good times.
Great album, this. A modern classic.
My Rating: ☆☆☆☆☆
Listen To: Men’s Needs
Tina Turner
Private Dancer
Whenever I hear a Tina Turner song it does nothing but remind me of being a kid in family parties and watching my ma and my aunties giving it loads to “Simply The Best” at the end of the night. I’ve never been a fan and in all honesty I wasn’t particularly looking forward to giving this a listen.
Yet only a few hours previous to writing these words, the world lost another female musical icon, the Queen of Soul, Aretha Franklin. It made me realise we should appreciate these legends whilst they’re still with us. Tina will be 79 years old this November so hopefully she can stick around for a few years yet.
This album was Tina’s fifth solo release after her escape from Ike Turner and their stormy – often violent- relationship, and it marked a turnaround in fortunes and what has since been labelled “The Greatest Comeback In Music History”.
After achieving only minor success as a solo artist prior to this albums release, by the end of 1984 she had managed to win a handful of Grammys, achieved her first US No.1, and had cemented her place as one of the biggest selling artists on the planet.
She is still to this day the artist that has sold more concert tickets than anyone, ever!
Reading up on this album I was surprised to learn that the title track on here was actually written by none other than Mark Knopfler of Dire Straits. He even recorded a version of it but wasn’t happy with the end result insisting that its theme of a prostitute disillusioned with her line of work wasn’t suitable for a male vocalist. Ever the perfectionist, he apparently hated Tina’s version aswell, calling Jeff Becks guitar solo, “The second worst solo in history….”.
I wonder what he thinks is the first one?
There’s also a couple of slightly iffy covers on here, namely the David Bowie track “1984” and a slowed-down ballad version of The Beatles classic “Help!” which I’ve disliked since I was a kid and still do to this day.
Arguably the most well known of all the songs on here is “What’s Love Got To Do With It?” and it was this single that done the business for Tina at that years Grammy Awards, winning “Record Of The Year”, “Song Of The Year” and “Best Female Pop Vocal”.
It’s a song that has become synonymous with her down the years but believe it or not we may never have had the pleasure of it, if a certain Cliff Richard had taken the song when offered it a few years earlier by British songwriting duo Terry Britten and Graham Lyle.
Doesnt bare thinking about does it?
Donna Summer was also keen on it at one point but never ended up doing anything with it, but 80’s Eurovision skirt-rippers Bucks Fizz DID actually record a version of it. I had to have a listen on Spotify didnt I? Yes, it really is as bad as you can imagine.
My favourite song on here though would have to be Tina’s truly rasping cover of Al Green’s “Let’s Stay Together”, recorded with – and produced by – Martyn Ware and Ian Craig Marsh of Heaven 17.
In my opinion you would be hard-pushed to find a better opening minute by any female singer ever. Have a listen to it on headphones and if it doesn’t make the hairs on your neck stand up you are dead inside!
Hit and miss this album I’m afraid. Sorry Mum.
My Rating: ☆☆☆
Listen To: Let’s Stay Together
Bo Diddley
Go Bo Diddley
“Bo….you don’t know Diddley!”
Anyone else remember that Nike advert years ago with Ian Rush in? Just me then? Sound.
Released in July 1959, this is the second album from a fella who is quite simply one of the most important and influential musicians of all time.
From Elvis, to The Beatles and The Stones, all the way to The Clash and Elvis Costello, they’ve all named this man here as a major influence on their sound, and I think it says it all that his nickname is “The Originator”.
Born in McCoomb, Mississippi in 1929, Ellis Otha Bates as he was christened, didn’t actually begin playing the guitar until the age of 18 when he was inspired by the great John Lee Hooker.
The origins of his stage name are somewhat unclear, with some saying he chose it after the “Diddley Bow”, a homemade single-stringed instrument played mainly on the farms of the Deep South, whilst other stories say it was actually the name he was known by whilst he was a young Golden Gloves boxer.
On first listen I was surprised that I didn’t know a single song on this record. Considering it contains some of the most famous Blues/Rock and Roll songs ever recorded I thought I may have knew at least one. Although the intro on “The Clock Strikes Twelve” is arguably the greatest and most copied Blues riff of all time!
I have to say though, I found this album one of the most enjoyable and coolest sounding records I’ve listened to in ages. The obvious connection is The Rolling Stones and one song in particular “You Don’t Love Me” with Billy Boy Arnold on harmonica reminded me of their version of “Not Fade Away”, but to be honest, any of the songs on here could be held up alongside any of the The Stones early recordings, you can tell just how much of an influence Bo was on Jagger and Co.
Diddley went on to record a total of 24 studio albums and collaborated with numerous artists in a career spanning over 50 years before suffering from heart failure in 2008, aged 79. He even played a pawnbroker in the Eddie Murphy film, “Trading Places”.
I did not know that!
Cracking album this. I hope a few more of his are on The Playlist soon.
My Rating: ☆☆☆☆
Listen To: You Don’t Love Me
John Lennon
John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band
Spookily, on the day that John’s killer Mark Chapman was denied parole from prison for the tenth time, this was the album that The Playlist randomly selected for us to listen to!
You may remember us listening to John’s “Imagine” album way back in Week 20 of these Diaries, and here we have the 1970 predecessor to that particular record, and John’s first proper solo album after the demise of The Beatles.
Recorded at both Abbey Road and also John’s Tittenhurst home in Ascot, it was simultaneously released alongside Yoko’s solo album of the same name, recorded at the same time, using the same studios and musicians . Even the covers are near enough identical, with the only difference being the couple swapping places in the photo on their respective albums.
Unfortunately thats where the similarites end I’m afraid. I curiously had a little listen to Yoko’s effort previous to writing these words – purely for research purposes you understand- and whilst I love dear old Mrs. L, it has to be said that she is absolutely round the fucking twist and I can’t believe how anyone would willingly want to listen to it. Whether it’s “Art” or “Avant-Garde” or whatever it may be, just take my word for it and steer clear!
Anyway, I digress, it’s John’s album we’re here to talk about and as I stated in Week 20, this my favourite of all his solo work. I feel it catches him at his most vulnerable yet honest period of his life.
It was during this period that both he and Yoko were partaking in a form of trauma-based psychotherapy known as Primal Therapy under the guidance of American psychotherapist Arthur Janov based on his “Primal Sream” book, whereby the patient was supposed to rid himself or herself of any suppressed childhood traumas by screaming to ease the pain.
Speaking about this period of John’s life, Janov later said, “The level of his pain was enormous … He was almost completely nonfunctional. He couldn’t leave the house, he could hardly leave his room. … This was someone the whole world adored, and it didn’t change a thing. At the centre of all that fame and wealth and adulation was just a lonely little kid“.
John uses some of these techniques on this album, none more so than on the closing bars of the first song, the painfully honest, “Mother”, in which he sings about the loss of both of his parents.
John’s dad Alf abandoned him as a toddler and his mother Julia left him to be raised by his Aunt Mimi at her home on Menlove Avenue. Julia was later hit by a car and killed by an off duty police officer as she was crossing the road just around the corner from Mimi’s house. Even more tragic is that it was just around the time she and John – who was now 17 – were becoming close again. It’s John’s repeated screaming of the line “Mama don’t go, Daddy come home” at the end of this track that still sends a shiver down the spine after all these years.
Compare this to the final track on here, “My Mummys Dead” which is John singing in a flat, monotone voice in an almost emotionless state that makes it probably the most uncomfortable song to listen to on the whole album.
One of the bitterest tracks on here, and another favourite of mine is “Working Class Hero”, a political song about the difference in social classes and someone being born into the working classes having to conform to the ideologies of the middle classes in order to progress in life.
Lennon takes a dig at anyone who dares to become a part of the system before finally admitting to the listener that the song is in fact a mea culper and a criticism of himself, with the line, “If you want to be a hero then just follow me”, admitting to us his guilt.
From the bleakness of that song to the beautiful simplicity that is “Love”. With Phil Spector on piano, and Johns delicate vocals its the song that my wife Emma walked down the aisle to on our wedding day nearly five years ago so for obvious reasons holds a special place in both our hearts.
After the anger, grief and bitterness of a lot of this record, the penultimate song on here finds Lennon in a reflective philosophical mood with “God”.
He lists all kinds of various entities and celebrities that he tells us he no longer believes in, from Jesus to Elvis, Buddha to Beatles, before accepting that “The Dream” that he and so many of his peers lived for in the Sixties was indeed “Over” and it was time to move on to pastures new.
Nine months later he wrote “Imagine”.
Yep, this is definitely my favourite of all John’s solo albums. In my opinion it’s his finest hour.
A must own.
My Rating: ☆☆☆☆☆
Listen To: Mother
Van Morrison
Moondance
Not been a bad week this has it!
It seems like a lifetime ago that we had the pleasure of listening to Van’s iconic “Astral Weeks” album way back in only the second week of these Diaries, and we’re blessed to be able to give the 1970 follow up to that masterpiece the once over, here.
Frustrated by the lack of commercial success of “Astral Weeks”, Van and his wife relocated to Woodstock, New York as he strived to create a more accessible, radio-friendly sound for his next release.
After quitting drugs during this period because they stopped his productivity, Van used his music and his songs to talk about natural wonders and also the cosmic wonder of the universe as his way of getting high.
None more so than the first song on here, “And It Stoned Me”, which he based on an actual childhood event in his life when, as a 12 year old kid in Ireland he took a drink from a stream and it’s total purity stopped him in his tracks, giving him a moment of utter quietude.
In the song, Van compares this moment to the first time he listened to one of his heroes, the legendary American Jazz pianist Jelly Roll Morton and it’s since become a favourite amongst his many legions of fans – myself included.
The most well known song on here will undoubtedly be the Jazz-infused title-track and Van singing about an Autumnal romance. On writing it he later stated that he wanted to write a “Sophisticated song that Frank Sinatra would be able to sing.”, yet strangely, it wasn’t actually released as a single until 1977, a full seven and a half years after its appearance here. It’s this song more than any other that Van has played live at all of his gigs.
Another favourite is “Caravan”, which is all about the joys of lazing around with someone you love whilst listening to the radio and spontaneously finding a song you both really dig. Although if you want to see the ultimate version of this tune then go on to YouTube and treat yourself to him performing it live with The Band on the Scorsese directed concert film “The Last Waltz”, if only for Van’s maroon jumpsuit and his attempt at a high-kick. He’s never looked or sounded better.
Go ‘ed Van!
For me though the best song on here, and quite possibly my favourite Van song of all time is “Into The Mystic”, which wouldn’t have sounded out of place if it had appeared on “Astral Weeks”. It’s actual meaning has been left open to interpretation due to Vans use of homophones in his lyrics. When asked about it he explained, “Originally I wrote it as ‘Into the Misty’. But later I thought that it had something of an ethereal feeling to it so I called it ‘Into the Mystic’. That song is kind of funny because when it came time to send the lyrics into Warner Bros, I couldn’t figure out what to send them. Because really the song has two sets of lyrics. For example, there’s ‘I was born before the wind’ and ‘I was borne before the wind’, and also ‘Also younger than the son, Ere the bonny boat was one’ and ‘All so younger than the son, Ere the bonny boat was won’ … I guess the song is just about being part of the universe.”
The songs final refrain of “Too late to stop now…” has become synonymous with Vans live shows, and it later became the title of his 1974 Live album. I’m sure we’ll be talking about that one in the not too distant future.
As for this album?
“Turn it up….Cos you know….It’s got soul”
My Rating: ☆☆☆☆☆
Listen To: Into The Mystic
Run DMC
Raising Hell
The last album of this week’s entry and it’s from one of the most iconic and influential acts of the 1980’s.
Run DMC were formed in Queens, New York in 1981 by Joseph Simmons (DJ Run), Darryll McDaniels (DMC) and Jason Mizell (Jam Master Jay) and this is their breakthrough third album released in 1986.
Following on from their appearance at Live Aid in 1985 – in which they were the only Hip-Hop act to appear on the whole bill – they teamed up with legendary Def Jam producer Rick Rubin who incorporated more Rock influenced samples into their sound, namely the intro to The Knacks “My Sharona” on the single ” It’s Tricky” that they used without the band’s permission and were later sued by them as a result.
Blazing a trail for the rest of Hip-Hop to follow was the success they had with the single “My Adidas” which led to the first ever endorsement deal between a music act and a sportswear company, being paid a whopping 1.6 million dollars by the brand with the three stripes.
Speaking about it to MTV years later, DMC said, “It was a song that was about our sneakers, but it was bigger than just talking about how many pairs of sneakers we had. It came from the place of people would look at the b-boys, the b-girls and go, ‘Oh, those are the people that cause all the problems in here.’ And, ‘Those young people are nothing but troublemakers and those young people don’t know nothing.’ So they was judging the book by its cover, without seeing what was inside of it.”
On influencing a whole new culture of sportswear being worn casually by kids on the street, Run said, “There were guys that wore Kangol hats and sneakers with no shoestrings. It was a very street thing to wear, extremely rough. They couldn’t wear shoelaces in jail and we took it as a fashion statement. The reason they couldn’t have shoelaces in jail was because they might hang themselves. That’s why DMC says ‘My Adidas only bring good news and they are not used as felon shoes.”
Undoubtedly the most famous song on this album can only be the fantastic Rock/Rap crossover featuring a duet with Aerosmith and a now legendary cover of their song “Walk This Way” including one of the most iconic videos of all time for the MTV Generation.
The idea for the collaboration stemmed from Rick Rubin playing a copy of the Aerosmith album “Toys In The Attic” in the studio and Run DMC freestyling over it. At the time they didn’t even know who Aerosmith were and it was down to Rubin – a massive Rock fan – to explain who it was.
The rest is history and not only did the end result catapult Run DMC into mainstream stardom it also revitalised the career of Aerosmith whose members had been battling drug and alcohol addictions.
A true era-defining album this. Another must own.
My Rating: ☆☆☆☆☆
Listen To: Walk This Way
Thats it for another week. Thanks for reading. To listen to any of the albums listed just click on the link under each entry. I hope you find something new that you love.
The Great Album Diaries 
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