Golden Wedding

Today is my folks 50th Wedding Anniversary and if Fiona had still been with us we would be enjoying a weekend of luxury at Gleneagles Hotel.

However with Fiona’s passing this was cancelled and instead I endured an afternoon of torture as Dumbarton lost 3-1 to East Stirling away from home. Now it wasn’t that we played bad it was just that Mark Peat lived up to his reputation as the best goalkeeper in the league and that Colin Brown confirmed his standing as the most constantly worst referee ever to grace a football field, he is without doubt a disgrace to his profession.

Nevertheless we are all marking the Anniversary in a smaller scale with lunch at The Boat House at Cameron House tomorrow

In the meantime here are the Cowboy Junkies with “Anniversary Song”

Finally for Fiona here is Bruce Springsteen and “She’s The One”

With her killer graces and her secret places
That no boy can fill with her hands on her hips
Oh and that smile on her lips
Because she knows that it kills me
With her soft french cream
Standing in that doorway like a dream
I wish she’d just leave me alone
Because french cream won’t soften them boots
And french kisses will not break that heart of stone
With her long hair falling
And her eyes that shine like a midnight sun
Oh-o she’s the one, she’s the one

That Thunder in your heart
At night when you’re kneeling in the dark
It says you’re never gonna leave her
But there’s this angel in her eyes
That tells such desperate lies
And all you want to do is believe her
And tonight you’ll try just one more time
To leave it all behind and to break on through
Oh she can take you, but if she wants to break you
She’s gonna find out that ain’t so easy to do
And no matter where you sleep tonight or how far you run
Oh-o she’s the one, she’s the one

Oh-o and just one kiss
She’d fill them long summer nights
With her tenderness that secret pact you made
Back when her love could save you from the bitterness
Oh she’s the one, oh she’s the one
Oh she’s the one, oh she’s the one

Bruce Springsteen To Play Glasgow?

Glasgow is awash with rumours that Tuesday will bring an announcement that Bruce Springsteem and the E Street band will play Hampden Park this summer.

If true this will be the first stadium concert I will have attended since 4th July (my birthday) 1985 when a few of us went down to see them at Wembley Stadium.

That was the second time we had seen them following a superb gig in 1981 at the Edinburgh Playhouse which had required a cold overnight camp in the streets of Edinburgh to secure tickets.

The Wembley concert required a gruelling overnight coach ride from Glasgow to London and post gig a missed last tube train to central London whch resulted in a crash on the nearest bit of green ground which in the morning turned out to be the middle of a roundabout.

I saw Springsteen for a third time in the early nineties in the antiseptic environment of the Glasgow SECC without the E Street Band , a concert best forgotten.

With the E Street Band he is one of the few performers who can turn the largest arena or stadium into the hottest juke joint this side of New Jersey and I have just finished watching his Live In New York DVD which confirms this view.

I can’t wait.

“I lost my faith I lost my wife”

Darkness On The Edge Of Town – Bruce Springsteen.

Lights out tonight
trouble in the heartland
Got a head-on collision
smashin’ in my guts, man
I’m caught in a cross fire
that I don’t understand
But there’s one thing I know for sure girl
I don’t give a damn
For the same old played out scenes
I don’t give a damn
For just the in betweens
Honey, I want the heart, I want the soul
I want control right now
you better listen to me baby
talk about a dream
Try to make it real
you wake up in the night
With a fear so real
spend your life waiting
for a moment that just don’t come
Well, don’t waste your time waiting

CHORUS
Badlands, you gotta live it everyday
Let the broken hearts stand
As the price you’ve gotta pay
We’ll keep pushin’ till it’s understood
and these badlands start treating us good

Workin’ in the fields
till you get your back burned
Workin’ ‘neath the wheels
till you get your facts learned
Baby I got my facts
learned real good right now
You better get it straight darling
Poor man wanna be rich,
rich man wanna be king
And a king ain’t satisfied
till he rules everything
I wanna go out tonight,
I wanna find out what I got

Well I believe in the love that you gave me
I believe in the faith that could save me
I believe in the hope
and I pray that some day
It may raise me above these

CHORUS

mmmmmmmm, mmmmm, mmmmmm

For the ones who had a notion,
a notion deep inside
That it ain’t no sin
to be glad you’re alive
I wanna find one face
that ain’t looking through me
I wanna find one place,
I wanna spit in the face of these badlands

Tear drops on the city
Bad Scooter searching for his groove
Seem like the whole world walking pretty
And you can’t find the room to move
Well everybody better move over, that’s all
‘Cause I’m running on the bad side
And I got my back to the wall
Tenth Avenue freeze-out, Tenth Avenue freeze-out

Well I was stranded in the jungle
Tryin’a take in all the heat they was giving
‘Til, the night is dark but the sidewalk’s bright
And lined with the light of the living
From a tenement window a transistor blasts
Turn around the corner things got real quiet real fast
I walked into a Tenth Avenue freeze-out
Tenth Avenue freeze-out
And I’m all alone, I’m all alone
And kid you better get the picture
And I’m on my own, I’m on my own
And I can’t go home

When the change was made uptown
And the Big Man joined the band
From the coastline to the city
All the little pretties raise their hands
I’m gonna sit back right easy and laugh
When Scooter and the Big Man bust this city in half, whoa,
Tenth Avenue freeze-out, Tenth Avenue freeze-out

From the new album “Working On  A Dream” here is

“Life Itself” – Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band

We met down in the valley, where the wine of love and destruction flows
There in that curve of darkness where flowers of temptation grow
I left the rest for the others it was you and nothing else
You felt so good to me baby, as good as life itself

You were life itself, rushing over me
Life itself, the wind in the black elms
Life itself, in your heart and in your eyes
I can’t make it without you

I knew you were in trouble, anyone could tell
You carried your little black book from which all your secrets fell
You squandered all your riches, your, your beauty and your wealth
Like you had no further use for, for life itself

You were life itself, rushing over me
Life itself, the wind in the black elms
Life itself, in your heart and in your eyes
I can’t make it without you

Why are things that we treasure most slip away in time
’Til to the music we grow deaf and to god’s beauty blind
Why do the things that connect us slowly pull us apart

‘Til we fall away in our own darkness
Stranger to our own hearts
And to life itself, rushing over me
Life itself, the wind in the black elms

Life itself, in your heart and in your eyes
I can’t make it without you
So here’s one for the road
Here’s one to your health

And to life itself, rushing over me
Life itself, the wind in the black elms
Life itself, in your heart and in your eyes
I can’t make it without you

Life itself
Life itself
Life itself
Life itself

 

and “The Wrestler”

Have you ever seen a one trick pony in the field so happy and free?
If you’ve ever seen a one trick pony then you’ve seen me
Have you ever seen a one-legged dog making its way down the street?
If you’ve ever seen a one-legged dog then you’ve seen me

Then you’ve seen me, I come and stand at every door
Then you’ve seen me, I always leave with less than I had before
Then you’ve seen me, bet I can make you smile when the blood, it hits the floor
Tell me, friend, can you ask for anything more?
Tell me can you ask for anything more?

Have you ever seen a scarecrow filled with nothing but dust and wheat?
If you’ve ever seen that scarecrow then you’ve seen me
Have you ever seen a one-armed man punching at nothing but the breeze?
If you’ve ever seen a one-armed man then you’ve seen me

Then you’ve seen me, I come and stand at every door
Then you’ve seen me, I always leave with less than I had before
Then you’ve seen me, bet I can make you smile when the blood, it hits the floor
Tell me, friend, can you ask for anything more?
Tell me can you ask for anything more?

These things that have comforted me, I drive away
This place that is my home I cannot stay
My only faith’s in the broken bones and bruises I display

Have you ever seen a one-legged man trying to dance his way free?
If you’ve ever seen a one-legged man then you’ve seen me

 

The Beatles – The Lost Link?

An unreleased recording of The Beatles performing ‘Revolution 1’ from The White Album has surfaced on the internet.

Fans are already calling the 10 minute-plus track, announced as take 20, the ‘holy grail’ of unreleased material.

Initially closer to the album version of ‘Revolution 1’, the track begins with John Lennon saying “take your knickers off and let’s go”.

However, roughly five minutes into the outtake an increasing level of tape loops and backwards guitar filter into the mix and the track ends closer to the separately recorded ‘Revolution 9’ with snippets of recorded dialogue, howling tape loops and the sound of Lennon and Yoko Ono talking.

The leaked version retains the line “count me out/in” from the album version, later changed to “in” when re-recorded as a B-side.

Source www.uncut.co.uk

For more information and a link to download the track click HERE

Mash Ups Go Visual

I have often liked some of the Mash Ups that I done the rounds over the last few years, the Madonna/Sex Pistols one being a particular favourite’

I have now discovered that some have taken the next step to video and audio you can find some good ones if you Google “Overdubsound”

Here are a couple of examples

The Genius of Pete Townshend

Here is Eddie Vedder of Pearl Jam’s tribute to Pete Townshend taken from the superb Mojo web Who Special which you can view in full HERE

What Pete Townshend means to me is almost unquantifiable; it’s like his music and his writing, even the pitch of his voice, are all part of my DNA. Those records – The Who’s albums, Pete’s solo work, even the demos I got a hold of as bootlegs – they were like a solid tree in the windstorm of my adolescence. It was like hurricane conditions, emotionally, and his music was the thing I could hold onto. I’m certainly not alone in having that experience. To me, it was a true lifeline.

It would be tough to argue that there was a better live band. I’d have to say the only one that comes close is maybe Fugazi. I first saw them play at San Diego Sports Arena, June 18, 1980. It was the summer after the Cincinnati show [where eleven Who fans were crushed to death during a performance at the Riverfront Coliseum], and Kenney Jones had been drumming with them for about a year… They still had the fire, they were really explosive.

People always say you should never meet your heroes, and for a while I tried to stick to that, to not meet Pete. Because he was the one guy, you know? If it went sideways, if he’d been an asshole or something, I wouldn’t have known what the meaning of my life was [laughs].

Then I went to see two shows down in Berkley, where Pete was playing solo after the Psychoderelict album came out. I was standing somewhere around fifth row, and a woman came up to me and said, I work for Pete, and he’d love to meet you after the show. And that was right as the lights went down. It was a little nerve-wracking.

The first or second song was Rough Boys, and all of a sudden he stops singing and is staring right at me, missing out a whole line or two of the song. And then he comes back in with the line, “I want to bite and kiss you” [laughs]. And I thought, This is terrifying!

And then I was brought backstage, and he couldn’t have been kinder or gentler. And at that time, I was a little wigged out, and looking back I feel bad about it, but he asked me, How are you? And that opened a whole can of worms, because I wanted to be honest with him. “I dunno Pete, this is hard right now.” And he was helpful to me then, as he’s always been helpful. And Roger too, and Entwistle was a great friend, and some of their family, the Townshend clan, Roger’s daughters… They’re like a big family, and it means so much me, to be accepted into that tight group. You can’t help but learn a lot.

Pete and Roger both called after Roskilde [nine Pearl Jam fans were crushed to death during the group's 2000 performance at the Danish festival, in a grim echo of The Who's Cincinnati tragedy]. I was apoplectic, I was in the foetal position, I was a hundred feet underwater and I didn’t know where the surface was, but they were at least able to get me up to the top without getting an embolism. I’ll never forget that.

I’ve investigated and lived through almost every line of his work. When I was 15, 16, I remember relating to the songs off The Who By Numbers, but fifteen or so years later, when I had become the same age Pete was when he wrote those songs, the resonance was so much more powerful, especially lines like “How many friends have I really got?”, off of [Who By Numbers track] However Much I Booze. (HD Edit…eh no Eddie it was from the track “How Many Friends”)

I reckon I listen to Pete’s music – in some shape or form, whether it’s solo stuff or live stuff or whatever – twenty or thirty times a week. And now it’s part of my kids’ upbringing.

Eddie Vedder was talking to MOJO’s Stevie Chick

Pete Townshend photo courtesy of Ross Halfin

Posted by Ross_Bennett at 4:00 PM GMT 18/02/2009

“How Many Friends” – The Who (1 of only 10 songs with 100+ plays on iPod)

I’m feelin’ so good right now
There’s a handsome boy tells me how I changed his past
He buys me a brandy
But could it be he’s really just after my ass?

He likes the clothes I wear
He says he likes a man who’s dressed in season
But no one else ever stares, he’s being so kind
What’s the reason?

How many friends have I really got?
You can count them on one hand.
How many friends have I really got?
How many friends have I really got?
That love me, that want me, that’ll take me as I am?

Suddenly it’s the silver screen
And a face so beautiful that I have to cry out
Everybody hears me
But I look like a fool now
With a cry and I shy out
She knows all of my friends
But it’s nice to find a woman who can stay home late
Now I think I’ve reached the end
I wonder in the dead of night – how do I rate?

How many friends have I really got?
How many friends have I really got?
How many friends have I really got?
That love me, that want me, that’ll take me as I am?

BRIDGE
It’s all like a dream you know
When you’re still up early in the morning
And you all sit together to watch the sun come through
But things don’t look so good
When you could use a bit of warning
Then you know that no one will ever speak the truth about you

How many friends have I really got?
How many friends have I really got?
How many friends have I really got?
That love me, that want me, that’ll take me as I am?

When I first signed a contract
It was more than a handshake then
I know it still is
But there’s a plain fact
We talk so much shit behind each other’s backs
I get the willies
People know nothing about their own soft gut
So how come they can sum us up
Without suffering all the hype we’ve known
How come they bum us up

How many friends have I really got?
Well, you can count ‘em on the one hand
How many friends have I really got?
How many friends have I really got?
That love me, that want me, that’ll take me as I am?

Buy The Who By Numbers for less than a fiver HERE

Goodnight Moon – Will Kimbrough

This track and picture was taken from the great site http://www.fuelfriendsblog.com/ where you can obtain your own MP3 download of a great track which reflects my current mood.

Goodnight Moon – Will Kimbrough

Goodnight moon, good night stars
Goodnight old brokedown cars
Gone away, leaving soon
Goodnight darlin’
Goodnight moon

See I don’t know where I’ll be
And I don’t know if I’ll see
Out the window of my room
Shining down
Goodnight moon

Thank you babe, I’m gonna miss you
When the night comes ’round
That’s when I long to kiss you
With the moon shining on the ground

Goodnight Moon is from the 2001 album “This” which you can buy HERE

For more information on Will Kimbrough click HERE

 

30 Years On – Rickie Lee Jones

March 1979 saw the release of the debut album by Rickie Lee Jones titled “Rickie Lee Jones”.

For me it was an oasis of calm amongst my new wave listening. Often seen only as a Tom Waits protege RLJ released one of the all time great debut albums and unfortunately it proved to be a work that to date she has not bettered.

 

You can buy the album HERE

Amazon review:-

In 1979, the inimitable Rickie Lee Jones emerged with her self-titled debut, which won her a Best New Artist Grammy, and her career was off and running. What makes Jones stand outin the crowd is her ability to gracefully combine various styles of music without creating a self-conscious hodge-podge. On this album (and throughout her career), She creates an amalgam of various influences, including funk, jazz, folk, and country music.
A born storyteller, Jones marks each song on this debut with her ability to weave an intriguing tale and craft a great melody. The opening track, “Chuck E.’s in Love” was the album’s hit, and is clearly reminiscent of Steely Dan’s work. (She would later collaborate with Steely Dan’s Walter Becker.) But just when you think you’ve got Jones labeled, she offers up “Easy Money”, an organic and delicate country-swing tune. Other songs, particularly “Coolsville”, show Jones’s introspective, melancholic side and give great depth to what remains one of her best albums.

Here is my favourite track:-

Rickie Lee Jones – Danny’s All Star Joint” MP3

………….and of course here she is with a performance of the hit single.

Who Sell Out

The forthcoming edition of Mojo appears in two collector cover editions and features an in depth look at The Who’s 1967 masterpiece “Sell Out” which receives the 2CD Deluxe Edition re-release next month.

 

 

In this issue

FREE CD! I CAN SEE FOR MILES: 15 lost gems from America’s psychedelic underground! Including: The 13th Floor Elevators, The Red Crayola, The Music Machine, The Bubble Puppy, Lost & Found, The Chocolate Watchband and many more!

THE WHO SELL OUT: Ready. Steady. Go! Join us for an in-depth journey into The Who’s maddest album ever! Pete Townshend rescues the pop song! Roger Daltrey becomes a bona-fide rock god! MOJO’s Dave Marsh presents the complete story – beans and all! PLUS! Exclusive unseen pictures from the sleeve shoot! What really happened to that can of Heinz? All is revealed in our double cover extravaganza!

NICK LOWE: Pub rocker. Pop trickster. Jesus Of Cool. The last 30 years have seen Nick Lowe turn his hand to many-a-musical mission. In this month’s MOJO interview, Mat Snow joins the suave English new-waver for a look back at a career of songwriting genius.

JOHN MARTYN: When John Martyn passed away on January 29, the world of music suffered a tragic loss that prompted an overwhelming outpouring of tributes from fellow musicians and fans alike. MOJO’s Mat Snow fondly remembers his time with the shape-shifting folk magician, while Martyn’s friend Phil Collins remembers a true “one of a kind”.

BAT FOR LASHES: Back with her second album, Natasha Kahn talks alter egos, cosmic dancing, Scott Walker duets and nervous breakdowns. MOJO’s Tom Doyle listens in.

RAY CHARLES: Beware! Genius At Work! In a MOJO exclusive Charles’ personal manager Joe Adams guides us through his intimate photo memoir celebrating the life and times of a modern musical wonder. Tom Waits, Stevie Wonder, Willie Nelson and Quincy Jones join the ride. PLUS! MOJO’s guide to Brother Ray’s essential recordings.

A-Z OF US PSYCH: Enter if you dare the freak-a-zoid parade of the American psychedelic underworld! In celebration of the forthcoming 13th Floor Elevators box set, MOJO delves into the dustiest corners of ‘60s acid-propelled weirdness. From Autosalvage to the Zachary Thaks – something strange is afoot…

LEIBER & STOLLER & RUBIN: Take the greatest producer of the last 25 years and introduce him to the two architects of modern music. What happened when Rick Rubin met songwriting legends Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller? MOJO joins the trio at a world exclusive summit to find out the answer.

REVIEWED!: U2’s No Line On The Horizon / PJ Harvey & John Parish reunite / Bill Callahan’s new masterpiece / Bat For Lashes returns/ 13th Floor Elevators: 10-disc mayhem / The Beastie Boys / Buddy Holly Memorial Collection / Tom Waits Biography / Patti Smith DVD and more!

PLUS!: Ian Dury movie revealed / B.B. King tours the UK / The Nightingales return / MOJO Rising: Melody Gardot and Joe Gideon & The Shark / The Slits in the studio / Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy speaks / Farewell Dave Dee and Lux Interior.

AND FINALLY…who says they’ll “never, ever, under any circumstances, from now until the world chokes on gas fumes, sign to a major label?” MOJO has the answer…

A superb history of the album can be found HERE

Springsteen For Glastonbury

It was announced today that Bruce Springsteen will headline this year’s Saturday bill at the Glastonbury Festival

This was the official announcement:-

“After months of rumour and speculation, Glastonbury Festival is pleased to announce that Bruce Springsteen will be the Saturday night headliner at this year’s festival.

Says Michael Eavis: “I’m so pleased that Bruce Springsteen has agreed to come to Worthy Farm for the first time. He’s one of the all-time rock legends and I’m confident that this will be one of our best shows ever. He’s also a Barack Obama supporter, which makes two headliners in a row who’ve backed the new President.”

Adds Emily Eavis: “I’m knocked out that we’ve managed to get Bruce to play. It’s the icing on the cake of this year’s bill, which I’m sure will take everyone’s breath away when we announce the full details.”

Tickets for this year’s festival have now sold out. A very limited number of cancelled tickets will go on sale at 9am on April 5th.”

Here is “The River”

This was the clip that got me hooked on The Boss “Rosalita (Come Out Tonight)”

Finally my favourite Springsteen song “Thunder Road” from the legend that was the 1975 Hammersmith Odeon show which was publicised with the famous soundbite ” I have seen the future of rock and roll and his name is Bruce Springsteen”

You can buy the new Springsteen album “Working On A Dream” HERE

From the album and the film of the same name here is “The Wrestler”

Louie Bellson

Following my recent Sunday Jazz posting on Buddy Rich it was sad to hear this week of the passing of another Big Band Drummer Louie Bellson.

Here is a tribute from www.mojo4music.com

Louie Bellson, big band drummer, composer and author, has died in Los Angeles at the age of 84. It’s understood he had been suffering from Parkinson’s Disease.

Born Luigi Paulino Alfredo Francesco Antonio Balassoni in Rock Falls, Illinois, he began playing the drums at the age of 3. By 15 he was pioneering the double bass drum configuration and would soon go on to play on over 200 albums, drumming for jazz legends such as Dizzy Gillespie, Duke Ellington, Count Basie, Benny Goodman, Oscar Peterson, Louis Armstrong and Ella Fitzgerald. He was also a successful bandleader in his own right.

…..and finally with the aformentioned Buddy Rich