Regarding Killing Me Softly... When I was a teenager my parents put up with me playing progressive rock on my cobbled together hi-fi, until I got some really decent headphones bought.. My Mum was never a music lover, but she did like Perry Como tunes. Of course, he had a career in the 1940s and 50s, but then underwent a renaissance in his career during the 1970s. You couldn't turn on the music radio for 5 minutes without hearing It's Impossible. So, because I was the only one in the house with a means to replay records, I had to play her two Perry Como LPs occasionally - It's Impossible & And I Love You So. I guess even back then I was adaptable, because I ended up liking them. Luckily, Pop liked them too, as Como was from Italian stock, so that automatically made him ok, at least. So the volume could get up to realistic levels. There Mum would be in the kitchen, making dinner and humming a tune. Dad would be sat in the armchair, probably conducting. And I would be upstairs reading Lord of the Rings with my unplugged headphones on, keeping PC down to lower levels. And try as I might, I couldn't help but end up liking the old crooner's vocals. He made a particularly good job of Killing Me Softly With "Her" Song, an obvious slight lyrical rearrangement, which worked. But the song I'm going to try you with here is And I Love You So, which is... guess what? A Don McLean song. Other singers had covered it, to little success. But Como had another huge hit: My biggest problem in the end was explaining to buddies how the LP was sat on the turntable when they came by. I took some leg-pulling for that, but I think 4-5 ended up converted. I would have loved to have had a photograph of a motley crew of long haired prog rock lovers sat around listening to ballads sung by a 60 year old crooner.
R.I.P Barrie Masters, singer, great front-man and reluctant shirt-wearer with Eddie & the Hot Rods. This song was their big hit and is still a real favourite of mine. They could rock a cover or two too
So the gods have conspired to take another of my favourites for a second day. R.I.P Kim Shattuck of The Muffs and briefly The Pixies. I am truly sad today.
I was listening to a bit of The Boss on youtube the other day, and it eventually led me to re-visit Steve Earle and this absolutely splendid track
Would you bloody well believe it, but Abbey Road returned to the top of the UK Album chart this week after being reissued in a 50th anniversary edition. My £1.99 album, which I bought pre-decimalisation as a kid, so the price label that I peeled off and popped inside, still says £1/19s/10d, IIRC I knew that habit would be worthwhile in the end. The first time I did it, it was just to get rid of the sticker. By the time I bought Abbey Road the habit was already formed. I think it was my third or fourth album buy. Anyway:
I don't think I'm being too irreverent to Ginger Baker if I say that he has kicked his last drum. Indeed, he has kicked the bucket. A brilliant drummer, whose style I didn't always chime with. There are other less capable drummers [according to Baker] out there who made sounds that I enjoyed more. From Baker's era, Mitch Mitchell, for example. A musician Baker referred to as "nowhere near as good as me." And that's not to say that Mitchell was in a band [Jimi Hendrix Experience] which made better sounds overall. And Baker thought Eric was better than Jimi. Understandably, several people thought that, but then changed their minds when they heard Jimi play. One thing Baker never said was how good a bassman he had in front of him, until Jack Bruce had long gone. They had a love-hate relationship. Baker was so quick to temper that he twice tried to kill Bruce, once with a knife attack. And yet they played great jazz based blues. Here's a slightly different video to preuse: https://www.theguardian.com/music/2019/oct/06/ginger-baker-wild-and-brilliant
Incredible that Ginger lasted so long really! Here’s his best solo track, from 2005: RIP Peter Edward "Ginger" Baker (19 August 1939 – 6 October 2019)
My favourite Baker composition. Just showed that he did have a sense of humour under the skin. I notice he's singing according to the beat in his head. Yet, there are spaces for breath in the original track. Interesting. EDIT: Incidentally, I will bore anyone to death by trotting out Pressed Rat & Warthog at a moment's notice. Just give me the right circumstance and motivation, and out it pops. I know, I really am trying not to do it so much these days.
Ok, I've popped through the blues-rock section of my albums to look for something British and obscure and that Youtube has a copy of. That's not been easy and I'm slightly surprised at how mainstream Youtube can be. Anyway, Groundhogs, Hogwash, that'll have to do. Just to make sure I wanted to share this I played some of it on the major hi-fi. Even at relatively low volumes it rattled the vertical blind rail. [Must be the resonance frequency]. And yeah it'll do. Took a photo of the old cover too. Still bearing up well after something like 47 years:
Great track! I’m much the same with “Mothers Lament” from Disraeli Gears. If I’ve had enough to drink of course ........
Ah, Tony T.S. McPhee ..... great guitarist. Saw them around 71/72 or so and still have Thank Christ For The Bomb and Split (love “Cherry Red”) .......
Yes, I have Split too. Could have chosen that album instead, I suppose, but Hogwash has the better gatefold cover, imo. If it's not too much bother I might take album photos occasionally. Just to show the things in real life. After all, many listeners have seen very few LP albums covers these days. Especially inside the gatefold types - like the little booklet that comes with the Yes/Fragile album.
Or the full newspaper from “Thick As A Brick” and the really annoying foam insert in Colosseum Live, which left a sticky residue on the LPs .....