Oklahoma born J. J. Cale is one of these artists that always fly under the radar in terms of commercial success but is, in his own right, a hugely successful artist. I remember a couple of years ago seeing a documentary about him called To Tulsa and Back which gave some insight into the man and his easy-going almost lethargic musical style. He seems to effortlessly make the guitar talk.

The song is taken from his debut album Naturally which also contains some songs worthy of a blog post on their own - Call me the breeze , Crazy Mama etc. and is a well known song to all people via Eric Clapton but maybe this, the original, version may not be. Actually Clapton made another song penned by Cale famous called Cocaine.

It’s hard to place Cale’s music into any genre as his unique style is indifferent to categorization. I guess easy listening or slow rock or laid back country would go some to way to describe his music but his style is totally his. I think we should create a new genre called Calism or neo-folk - lord knows genres and sub-genres are a dime a dozen these days anyway.

The context of the song is basically about night life and all the shenanigans involved in those early hours as the title of the song suggests.  It’s a short song, coming in just over the two minute mark (most of the songs on the album are, apart from Clyde and Crying Eyes) and starts off with a nice riff on the piano following quickly by some mellow guitar work. You won’t get a complete feel for his guitar style but you will get a good idea of it. His voice is soft and alluring and  would make me want to buy the guy a drink if I ever met him. Check out a live version of the song and if you get a chance, do yourself a favour and get hold of the album.

Add to Digg, del.icio.us, etc.

Hide Sites

I watched Stanley Kubrick’s classic Paths of Glory (the 43rd best movie of all time, according to the IMDb top 250) the other night, and was thinking of a good anti-war song that could be written for the blog. Then, yesterday at lunchtime I called into the National Museum of Ireland to see “Soldiers & Chiefs: The Irish at War at Home and Abroad from 1550″, and got thinking about it again.

Now, Des has already written a post on Edwin Starr’s ‘War’, so that’s out. I was thinking Marvin Gaye’s ‘What’s Goin’ On’, but then I thought of another classic Kubrick film, Dr. Strangelove… (IMDb’s 25th best film of all time). Then, of course, I thought of Vera Lynn’s ‘We’ll Meet Again’.

First off, let’s talk Strangelove. I first saw this movie when I was in college, and was shocked at how Kubrick could take the Cold War, the prospect of instant world annihilation over a clash of ideologies, and make such a funny film out of it.

As the Americans file into the “War Room” and start to talk about “acceptable casualty levels”, “nuclear combat toe to toe with the Rooskies” and suchlike, you can see parallels with how George Bush Jr might have handled the whole Iraq affair. You can certainly see Rumsfeld in George S. Scott’s ‘Buck’ Turgidson character.

As the accidental global standoff reaches its conclusion (I will say no more if you haven’t seen the film, other than that it’s simultaneously hilarious and thought-provoking), we hear probably the most ironic choice of song Kubrick could come up with.

‘We’ll Meet Again’ struck a strong chord with the soldiers marching off to fight another pointless war with origins in Central Europe. As the War began to drag on into the 1940s, and especially as Hitler took the bombing campaign to the heart of Britain, many began to see the overtones of “some sunny day” as being the afterlife.

The song has been covered by Johnny Cash, The Byrds, Pete Doherty and PJ Proby, is referenced by Pink Floyd in their song ‘Vera’, and has been featured in Dennis Potter’s 1986 BBC drama The Singing Detective.

But it will always be remembered as the song that plays as the curtain falls (in all senses of the phrase) on Dr. Strangelove. [SPOILER]: Here is the ending of Dr. Strangelove with ‘We’ll Meet Again’, but if you have yet to see this amazing movie, watch this video of the song instead.

Add to Digg, del.icio.us, etc.

Hide Sites

Another anti-war song today. I do like songs that have a protest theme especially if it relates closely to how I feel about the particular topic as anyone will know if they read or have been following this blog for any length of time. Be it war , social injustice or any other relevant topic then I’m all over it like a bee to honey. Although a lot of these songs are relatively old, they nearly always seem to appear on the setlists for live music shows by various artists, when the topics are current as the Iraqi war is in this case.

There is nothing else I really know about Edwin Starr apart form the fact that he sang this song and was signed to the famous Motown Records. If your curious about the guy then you can always head over to the the ubiquitous wikipedia and look him up for yourself. Keeping with Motown tradition, Starr gives a powerful, soulful rendition with a healthy dose of horns, guitar and backing singers to assist him. The lyrics themselves are pretty straightforward but it’s how they are delievered that really sets this song apart from other anti-war songs for me. I especially love the line

“It ain’t nothing but a heartbreaker, a friend only to the undertaker”

Also for those of you into the whole Civilisation genre of games, in particular, will recognise the following quote when a society has been in a war for a long time: ‘War..Uuh..What is it good for? Absolutely nothing!‘ which is the main line of the chorus in the song. Check out a live version of the song as played on Jools Holland a number of years ago.

Add to Digg, del.icio.us, etc.

Hide Sites

I’m not sure why I haven’t yet blogged about ‘New Grass’, currently my favourite song of all time. I’ve got a draft written somewhere about ‘I Believe in You’, another Talk Talk classic. This band really were something else - from humble synth-based Duran Duran beginnings, they evolved into a group whose later output accumulates more praise and accolades by the year.

Starting with the beautiful Spirit of Eden album, completely out of time and step in 1988, Talk Talk basically redefined progressive rock and actually made it likeable. Marrying a pastoral, country feel to Satie- and Debussy-influenced minimalism, crossed with a bit of Velvet Underground noise, Talk Talk created an album that is a strong contender for best British album of the last 20 years. It got them dropped by their label, who wanted a new Colour of Spring, with its ‘Life’s What You Make It’ standard of poppiness. Instead, they were treated to an LP that didn’t kick off until well into the second minute, and then had as its first side over 20 minutes of music…

But I digress. Talk Talk made two of my favourite albums, and I knew I would write too much about them. To the ear that really listens, ‘New Grass’ can be appreciated as one of the nicest pieces of music ever committed to tape, and to me ranks up there with Beethoven, Lennon/McCartney, you name it. It’s that good.

The fact that it seems to be about God, “Christendom”, ascension to heaven, and other weighty concepts does not bother this here agnostic. Whether or not Hollis found God is immaterial - that he left us with this piece of music is. Hollis is retired now, but there is a growing legion of fans of Spirit of Eden and Laughing Stock that wish he would come back and reprise, and maybe conclude these classics. He went some with with this solo Mark Hollis album, but that was back in 1998. Plus, he’s a fellow Tottenham supporter. Really, what more could you ask? Here’s the link to the song on YouTube. No need to look at anything - just sit back and listen.

Add to Digg, del.icio.us, etc.

Hide Sites

Reading today’s Guardian, I saw a piece about Van Morrison banning the sale of alcohol at his gigs. Apparently ‘Van the Man’ doesn’t want to be disturbed while he phones in his repertoire. So, for those of you who might be sickening of the cantankerous old pudding, here’s a classic from his real heyday.

The Astral Weeks album rightly sits atop the pile of “best of the best” albums, up there with Revolver, Highway 61… and Exile on Main Street. It sold almost no copies when it came out, but now it’s almost mandatory listening. Never mind that Mojo magazine have made a living out of worshipping this type of music, it doesn’t make it any less brilliant.

The title track of Astral Weeks lays strong claim to be Morrison’s finest moment. On the surface, it’s a meditation on reincarnation, materialism, love and beauty in the world. Morrison youthful ’sense of wonder’ comes across strongly throughout this song, but on ‘Astral Weeks’ it’s yet to be tempered by the cynicism creeping into later songs such as ‘Madame George’.

Repetition of key phrases in the song leave them burned into your mind: the cyclical chanting - “To be born again”, “In another world”, “Way up in the heaven” - seem so free-wheeling and jazzy that you can almost see Van sidling up to the muse.

I can’t get the studio version of YouTube, so here’s a live version on YouTube from recently. The Van Morrison branding is all over the video, for some reason. Not sure what’s going on there. Anyway. Guess that’s what happens when you get old. Look at Bob Dylan…

Add to Digg, del.icio.us, etc.

Hide Sites

Richard Hawley belongs to a long tradition of crooners, dating back to Sinatra (In The Wee Small Hours Of The Morning) and on through Jim Morrison, Iggy Pop, Ian Curtis and Ian McCullough to Hawley’s former bandmate, Jarvis Cocker of Pulp. The Coles Corner (no apostrophe) album is a very nice listen, and the title track is a definite highlight.

The song builds like a slightly more hopeful version of the song ‘In The Wee Small Hours…‘ (that’s three mentions now for the Sinatra classic), with syrupy strings and a very Christmas feel to it. You almost expect the first words to be “Chestnuts roasting on an open fire…”. Then the song picks up a jazzy feel, with brush drums, lugubrious piano and Hawley’s deep, thoughtful voice:

“Cold city lights glowing,
The traffic of life is flowing,
Out over the rivers and on into dark.”

The lazy beat is reminiscent of Costello’s ‘Kid About It’, and is a melody that will stay for you a long time. It’s a melody to be sung at the end of the night, with the last glass of single-malt whiskey in your hand, as you empathise with the song’s narrative of a trip into town to find serendipitous love.

Here’s the video on YouTube. Another Hawley favourite of mine is ‘Born Under A Bad Sign’, also on Cole’s Corner. Get this album if you can, it’s a very soothing listen, and repeated listens will reward.

Add to Digg, del.icio.us, etc.

Hide Sites

This song was originally written by Willie Dixon , who along with Howlin Wolf was another powerhouse of the Chicago Blues scene 40 odd years ago. If you check out this wikipedia article on Willie Dixon you’ll see that he was responsible for a lot of the classical blues songs of that era including ‘Hoochie Coochie Man’ and ‘Little Red Rooster’ among many other iconic blues songs of that time.

I first heard of the song from listening to The Doors as it is covered in first album aptly called, you guessed it, The Doors as I was listening to Mr. Morrison for some time before venturing off into the wild land they call the blues. As with most covers (not all mind you) the original is by far the best but in fairness to Jim and co its a blues song not a rock song and Howlin sung the blues.

The title ‘Backdoor man’ was a term used to descibe men in times gone by having illicit affairs with married ladies, young ladies and ladies in general (different meanings for different people these days) so they had to be careful not to get caught hence the term as the first verse suggests

‘When everybody’s tryin’ to sleep
I’m somewhere making my, midnight creep
Yes in the morning, when the rooster crow
Something tell me, I got to go’

The second and third verses deal with the consequences of getting caught and the resonse of the backdoor man. Actually this song is the source of two of my favourite lines which are

‘When you come home you can eat, pork and beans
I eats mo’ chicken, any man seen‘

and these lines are actually where I prefer Morrison singing them and not the nasally, raspy voice of Howlin Wolf but that’s just me. The song is here .

Add to Digg, del.icio.us, etc.

Hide Sites

Delving into a little soul and what better way to do it than with the soul legend himself - Sam Cooke. During his brief time in this life Mr. Cooke defined a genre and left a legacy any musician would be proud of. Probably not his most famous song - that title would probably go to ‘Wonderful World’ or ‘Chain Gang’ but a great song nonetheless that was written around the height of the civl rights movement in the US, Cooke himself was a well known civil rights activist…anyway onto the song.

I don’t know about you guys but I think the guy has a very sweet, infectious voice that is rarely heard in musicians these days (at least the ones that I’ve had the pleasure of listening to), couple that opinion with the simple lyrics makes this song a winner anyday. Check it out if you get the chance. Oh it’s been a long time coming all right.

Add to Digg, del.icio.us, etc.

Hide Sites

Kind of Blue is a classic jazz album, probably the most famous of all jazz albums. ‘So What’ is the first song on Kind of Blue, and is one of Miles Davis’ more well-known and highly-regarded compositions. It is also probably the pinnacle of ‘modal jazz’, where the rhythm section could use more improvisation instead of having to stick to a rigid chord structure.

The piece starts off with some very relaxed interplay between the double bass and piano, before kicking into a melody between the former two instruments and a shuffling drumbeat heavy on cymbal. After about 90 secondsd of this, the drums do a little roll before the best cymbal bash in history, and Miles Davis’ solo enters.

Because the musicians are employing the modal scale, Miles Davis can virtually play whatever he wants. What he does play is now the epitome of what you’d call ‘cool jazz’ - laid back, easy drums, a cheeky bass line, pianos mingling in the background, and Davis’ solo so seductive and easy that you feel like you need to pour a glass of red wine and start clicking your fingers.

Some people like jazz music in the background, the perfect musical setting for a dinner party. Some people think that jazz is pretentious. I bought Kind of Blue on tape over 10 years ago, and I still love listening to it. ‘So What’ in particular will always lift your mood.

Of course, ‘So What’ quickly became a jazz standard, like the other songs on Kind of Blue. Here’s the studio version, but also check out this live version with John Coltrane - fans of The Fast Show will like the introduction by the presenter. Nice!

Add to Digg, del.icio.us, etc.

Hide Sites