Sorry for no' posting last night, a quick pint, turned into a impromptu boy's night oot, so was declared unfit. when I got in.

Empty hoose the night, so will get through The Beatles, The Mothers and whatever presents itself today

 

Day 134.
The Beatles.....................The Beatles (a.k.a. The White Album)     (1968)






Just finished listening to this, and have to say I still think this would make a cracking single album, as opposed to a double album that has some very indifferent tracks to say the least.

It really surprises me that a band of such immense talent would deem some of the tracks on here fit to put their name to.


What the fuck was thon "Revolution 9" a' aboot, whoever thought that was clever and arty clearly had been pocket munching the opiates of the day!


If I could, I would have;

Back in the USSR

Dear Prudence

Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da

The Continuing Story of Bungalow Bill

While My Guitar Gently Weeps

Blackbird

Rocky Raccoon

Julia

Birthday

Helter Skelter

Revolution 1

all on a single album which would be titled  "The PROPER White Album"

The rest can be bundled together, and put on an album which would be named  "The PROPER Shite Album"


Anyone who reads this will know I do have a saft spot for The Beatles, but there isn't enough tracks I like on this double album that could urge me to buy it, and as I'm buying these early albums on vinyl, I couldn't be fucked annoyed getting up to skip the tracks I don't like.

So this particular Beatles album will not be getting purchased.


Bits & Bobs;
On November 22nd 1968, The Beatles released their ninth UK album The Beatles, more commonly known as The White Album. The US release was three days later on the 25th. This was the band's first attempt at a double album, having written the bulk of the songs on their trip to India earlier that year.


 The White Album was recorded between May 30th and October 14th of 1968, with a lot of the recordings carried out with missing band members. There was quite a bit of tension during the sessions and cracks were already staring to appear in the band.


 It got so bad at one point, Ringo Starr quit temporarily, on the same day The Beatles were due to record Back in the USSR; leaving Paul McCartney to play drums on that track. Bad feelings only intensified when John Lennon started bringing Yoko Ono to sit in on the recording sessions


.Despite the bad vibes however, they still managed to cram an incredible 30 songs onto their sprawling double album. The variety of musical styles is possibly one of The White Album's greatest strengths. You have everything from ballads, rock and roll, rock, metal and everything in between. The recording sessions were so prolific that songs had to be cut from the album when it came time to selecting the tracks.



 On December 1st 1968, The White Album reached number one on the UK Albums Chart and remained there for seven straight weeks; it regained the top spot for one more week on January 26th, 1969.



 In the US the album reached number one on the US Billboard on December 28th; staying there for four straight weeks. It found the top spot once more on February 15th 1969, and held it steady for another 3 weeks.







"I wasn't interested in following up Sgt. Pepper. What I was going for was to forget about Sgt. Pepper and just get back to basic music." - John Lennon



"We ended up being more of a band again, and that's what I always love. I love being in a band." - Ringo Starr



"All the experience of what happened in India is all embodied in that album." - George Harrison



"I think it's a fine little album, and I think the fact that it's got so much on it is one of the things that's cool about it." - Paul McCartney


 “The White Album”—its official title is the decidedly simple The Beatles—was released on November 22, 1968 to an eager audience. Released almost 18 months after the seminal Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band album, the 30-song collection captured John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, and Ringo Starr indulging in a variety of musical styles. While the songwriting was evolving, and most of the songs were composed while attending a Transcendental Meditation course, the relationships between the four continued to dissolve during the recording; The Beatles officially broke up in April 1970. Here are some facts about one of the most polarizing, enigmatic records ever made.


  A BEACH BOY HELPED WITH THE BEACH BOY PARODY "BACK IN THE USSR

." Mike Love was a fellow attendee of the Maharishi’s course in Rishikesh, India. He recalled McCartney and his acoustic guitar at breakfast one morning playing what would become the first song on the 'White Album." Love suggested putting something in the song about “all the girls around Russia" McCartney listened. RINGO STARR QUIT THE BAND FOR TWO WEEKS.Starr never felt like more of an outsider within the band than during the recording of the album, and told his bandmates so. He borrowed Peter Seller's yacht and went to Sardinia.  Because he wasn’t around, McCartney played the drums on "Back In The USSR” and “Dear Prudence.” Eventually the group sent him a telegram that said he was the best rock 'n' roll drummer in the world, that they all loved him, and asked if he would please return. When he came back, he was greeted with the words “Welcome Back, Ringo” spelled out in flowers on his drum kit.


 THE PRUDENCE IN "DEAR PRUDENCE" WAS MIA FARROW’S SISTER.

 Another student of Maharishi Mahesh Yogi in early 1968 was then-20-year-old Prudence Farrow. She locked herself in her hut for three weeks because, as Lennon put it, she "was trying to find God quicker than anyone else" The song is Lennon imploring her to come out of the hut.


 THE MARTHA IN "MARTHA MY DEAR" WAS PAUL MCCARTNEY’S DOG.

 The bass player’s pet was an Old English sheepdog.  She passed away in 1981. When McCartney revealed the real subject of the song in 1997, he said his relationship with Martha was “platonic.”


 THE "JULIA" WAS JOHN LENNON’S MOTHER

. Julia Lennon left five-year-old John behind and had him live with her sister, Mimi. Mother and son got to know each other better by the time he was 17, but soon after she was fatally hit by a car. The song is for both her and Yoko Ono—the “ocean child” in “Julia” is in reference to Ono’s name, Japanese for “child of the oceon.” “Julia” is the only Beatles song that featured just Lennon on guitar and vocals.


 HARRISON’S MOTHER HELPED HIM WRITE "PIGGIES

." Harrison had trouble coming up with a lyric in the middle section of his song. Mrs. Harrison was the one who came up with, "What they need is a damn good whacking" After Charles Manson’s interpretation of the song, George claimed the line was not talking about the police, and the lyric was kept in because it rhymed with what he already had.


 MCCARTNEY GOT THE PHRASE "OB-LA-DI, OB-LA-DA" FROM A NIGERIAN CONGA PLAYER

. Jimmy Scott moved to England in the 1950s and became a working musician; at one point in his career he backed Stevie Wonder on a tour of Great Britain. One of his expressions was “Ob la di ob la da, life goes on, bra,” which McCartney loved. The Beatle claimed he sent Scott a cheque as acknowledgement  for using his expression as the basis of his song. Scott played congas on the song. According to a 2004 online poll conducted by the BBC, “Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da” is the worst song in history (obviously no' heard thon jazz gear fae earlier)



THE INSPIRATION FOR "THE CONTINUING STORY OF BUNGALOW BILL" SAID HE WOULD NEVER KILL AN ANIMAL AGAIN.


 Richard A. Cooke III was visiting his mother Nancy in Rishikesh when he shot a tiger while hidden in a tree on a wooden platform. Richard told his mother he felt bad and didn't think he would kill again He became a photographer. Lennon got the name "Bungalow Bill" by combining "Buffalo Bill" with the bungalows in the camp.



 ERIC CLAPTON PLAYS GUITAR ON "WHILE MY GUITAR GENTLY WEEPS."


 George Harrison wrote the song, and found that Lennon and McCartney weren’t taking the recording of it seriously enough. The next day Harrison convinced his friend Eric Clapton to come in and play on the track. Clapton was hesitant because no outside musicians had played on a Beatles song before, but Harrison insisted. His presence made Lennon and McCartney give it the proper amount of thought and practice. Clapton’s work isn’t officially credited on the album.


 "SAVOY TRUFFLE" WAS HARRISON MAKING FUN OF CLAPTON’S LOVE OF CHOCOLATE.

Clapton ate a lot of chocolates at the time, so much so that after he received the dental work needed from his many resulting cavities, his dentist told him to stop eating candy entirely. Harrison wrote this song to tease him


  "HAPPINESS IS A WARM GUN" IS A PLAY ON A PEANUTS BOOK.

 The 1962 Charles Schulz collection was named "Happiness is a warm puppy." A headline in a gun magazine was a variation of that. When producer George Martin showed the headline “Happiness Is a Warm Gun” to Lennon, Lennon's wheels started turning.



 "BLACKBIRD" WAS ABOUT CIVIL RIGHTS.


 “I had in mind a black woman, rather than a bird,” McCartney said “Those were the days of the civil rights movement, which all of us cared passionately about, so this was really a song from me to a black woman, experiencing these problems in the States: 'Let me encourage you to keep trying, to keep your faith, there is hope.'”The music was inspired by "Bourree in E minor" from Bach's Suite in E Minor for Lute.


  "SEXY SADIE" WAS ABOUT LENNON’S FRUSTRATIONS WITH THE MAHARISHI.


According to John Lennon, he and George—the last two Beatles that were in India—left the TM course in disgust after Mia Farrow claimed the Maharishi made sexual advances toward her. According te Deepak Chopra, the Maharishi told him that he kicked the band out for using drugs. Either way, Lennon rechristened the Maharishi Sexy Sadie," admonishing him for making a fool of everyone.


 . "HELTER SKELTER" WAS MEANT TO OUTROCK THE WHO.

McCartney read that The Who had made a song that was loud, raucous and dirty (“I Can See For Miles”), and then decided he wanted to top them. A "Helter Skelter" is a British amusement park slide, and the song was about the rise and fall of the Roman Empire


 . "REVOLUTION 9" FEATURED THE ORCHESTRAL MUSIC FROM "A DAY IN THE LIFE.

" Among the various audio snippets heard on the penultimate track was the final chord from Sibelius’ Seventh Symphony, and Lennon and Harrison whispering “There ain’t no rule for the company freaks” six times. The voice saying "Number nine" came from an examination tape made for The Royal Academy of Music


 THERE WAS A 24-HOUR RUSH TO GET THE ALBUM FINISHED.

 With Harrison set to fly out to Los Angeles with the master tapes, which he planned to hand over to Capitol Records, the group suddenly found themselves needing to work 24 hours straight to put the final mixes on songs and figure out a track listing. At 4 a.m., McCartney fell asleep at the mixing board while trying to get “Helter Skelter” just right.


 THE COVER WAS DESIGNED BY POP ARTIST RICHARD HAMILTON.


McCartney instructed him to make a design  that was as different as the busy, bright Sgt. Pepper cover as possible. Hamilton came up with the stark white cover with the band’s name embossed in small, black lettering. Originally he wanted the white record sleeve to include a coffee cup stain, and a light green smudge of an apple (the Beatles had just created their own company, Apple Corps). 




 

DAY 135.
The Mothers Of Invention................We're Only In It For The Money   (1968)



    



The Mothers Of Invention, what canna tellya "mad as a box o' frogs," some of the songs are good in parts then they go totally off kilter. Lyrically I found some of it quite interesting, then I would find myself thinking this sounds a bit like Spongebob Squarepants, I don't know if his creator was a Zappa fan but there was similarities for me in some of the parodies. Zappa for me tries a wee bit to hard to be different, if he didn't keep throwing in his madcap audio clips and weird screeching, I might have enjoyed it a tad more, but then again that wouldn't be Zappa!

Probably mentioned this the last Zappa album, but can't see any point in my life where I would think, Yep, slap some Zappa on, that'll sort me oot,

This particular Zappa album will not be getting added to my collection.


Bits & Bobs;


In 1967, California rock was concentrated in two contrasting cities. One was San Francisco,
 home of the Grateful Dead and the Jefferson Airplane, and of the then-new magazine “Rolling Stone.”
The other was Los Angeles, where lived the Beach Boys, including Brian Wilson, and the Mothers of Invention led by Frank Zappa (1940-1993). In the first two Mothers of Inventionalbums for MGM-Verve (“Freak Out!” [1966] and “Absolutely Free” [1967]), Zappa chronicledthe local “freak” scene while it thrived through 1966. After the crackdown on the music venues that freaks patronized, Zappa and the Mothers went to New York City for several performing residencies. From there, Zappa looked with distaste on the San Francisco “hippie” scene, and had concerns for the youths participating in it.

 “We’re Only In It For The Money” was what Zappa made of what he observed of the hippie scene. From the disembodied voices that begin the album to the fading last tone of the closing track, “The Chrome Plated Megaphone of Destiny,” Zappa held up a musical mirror to mock every hippie and hippie-wanna-be who migrated to San Francisco during the Summer of Love.


 “What’s the Ugliest Part of Your Body?” Zappa asks twice on the album as a doo-wop question.His answer each time was “I think it’s your mind.” Zappaappropriated without apology two ofthe most-played records of 1967, the Beatles’s album“Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band”and Jimi Hendrix’s single “ Hey Joe.

  Yet “We’re Only In It For The Money” is not ahodgepodge but rather a complete molten statement, and arguably Zappa’s first masterpiece.Zappa was 26 when he recorded this album, but for some lyrics and music he went as far back as his childhood to draw from several personal experiences. He was born in Baltimore, Maryland, in 1940, but at an early age, his family moved to California.

While attending high school, he knew other misfits like Don Van Vliet (later known as Captain Beefheart) and two brothers named Kenny and Ronnie Williams whose mother worked in a local diner. In 1964,with money earned from composing a film soundtrack, Zappa made a down payment for a recording studio that he soon called Studio Z; it was located in Cucamonga, California, and its equipment was capable of recording in five tracks.

 Mostly forgotten, yet most significant for the themes of “We’re Only In It For The Money,”were the camps in which approximately 110,000 Japanese and Japanese-American residents were interned in California, Utah, Colorado, Arizona, Idaho, Arkansas, and Wyoming during World War II.

 More recent events also shaped the album’s concept. The crackdown of the LosAngeles “freak" scene and the ascent of San Francisco’s hippie scene were already mentioned.
In 1966, Ronald Reagan was elected Governor of California in part on a vow “to clean up the mess at Berkeley,"  referring to the student protests at the University of California campus there.

 “We’re Only In It For The Money begins with engineer Gary Kellgren whispering threats to erase Zappa’s recording tapes (“Are You Hung Up?”).

“Who Needs The Peace Corps?” is a full-on mocking of how trendy San Francisco had become to young people. “

 Concentration Moon”and “Mom and Dad”describes two kinds of police enforcement on young people, the first byinternment, as was done to the Japanese-Americans, the second by violence as reported to parents. Parents are also referred to in

“Telephone Conversation,”“Bow Tie Daddy,”and “HarryYou’re A Beast/What’s the Ugliest Part of Your Body?" During the last of those songs, Zappaconfronts the parents by preaching, “All your children are poor unfortunate victims of systems beyond their control, a plague upon your ignorance and the gray despair of your ugly life." In “Absolutely Free” and “Flower Punk,” Zappa returns to bashing hippie aspirations. “FlowerPunk”was sung to the melody of “Hey Joe,” a folk song whose rock adaptation byJimi Hendrix was sold and played widely in 1967.


The collage “Hot Poop” ends side one. 

  Beginning side two is “Nasal Retentive Calliope Music” which incorporates a bit of a surf instrumental that Zappa had recorded a few years before at Studio Z, and it heralds the nostalgic songs that follow. ”Let’s Make The Water Turn Black” and“The Idiot Bastard Son” are about his high school friends Kenny and Ronnie Williams making raisin alcohol, flicking snot on a window, and urinating into pots and jars in which swimming “little creatures on display” eventually appear.  


With “Lonely Little Girl,
 ” Zappa returns to 1967, building musical momentum through “Take Your Clothes Off When You Dance” to the reprise of “What’s the Ugliest Part of Your Body?” “ Mother People” is Zappa’s assertion of himself and his rock band: ugly in appearance,undesirable socially, but unafraid to endure public opinion. “Mother People” has barely ended when “The Chrome Plated Megaphone of Destiny” cuts in with electronic crackling andscreeching. The title of this closing instrumental refers directly to the metal cones found in the hips of Barbie figure dolls, one of which is blown to produce one of the unearthly tones heard onthis track.

 In his inner album notes, Zappa explains the true intent of this track, which was togive a musical approximation of Franz Kafka’s short story“In The Penal Colony,” thereby providing an instrumental counterpart to “Concentration Moon.”

 Throughout the album, Zappa parodied the structure of the Beatles’s “ Sgt.Pepper,”contrasting their faux-live audience frame with his engineer’s recurring studio-ambient whispering, and using their reprise device. The last track, “The Chrome Plated Megaphone of Destiny,” ends with a fading tone, as did the Beatles’s “A Day in the Life, ” but on tone F# instead of the Beatles’s E.

 Zappa worked quickly on “ We’re Only In It For The Money,” but its release was delayed until March 1968. Reportedly it was due to EMI/Capitol’s objection to Zappa and Cal Schenkel’s parody of the“Sgt. Pepper” albumsleeve, which replaced the Fab Four with Zappa and his sixMothers in drag, the blue sky with a thunderstorm, and the notables behind the band with notorieties and nobodies. More serious were the alterations that Zappa had to do to the music at MGM-Verve’s request before the first release, and the additional cuts that the label imposed for the later pressings.
 For that reason, variants abound among the vinyl pressings.In 1984, Zapparemixed the album with new tracks for bass and drums, using that for the last vinyl pressings andthe first CD issues. Since 1995, the 1967 edit and mix has been used as the official release.

Two great album covers there the now. Aye some 'in-joke' stuff (shite?) on the Mothers album, and I doubt arabchanter if you'll buy Trout Mask Replica, but again, I love tracks like "She's Too Much for My Mirror".

Merry Christmas to everyone who looks in on these ramblings   

Boxing Day is one of my favourite day's of the year, on this day my other half, the kids and the doags all go to her parents for a get together with all her family.


I, on the other hand have a day of doing what the fuck I like at home, so will catch up with The Mothers, The Captain, CCR, and whatever gets thrown up tomorrow in between, leftovers,Vodka  and copious ammounts of cake/chocolate 

edit, because I've already done The Mothers, it's Neil Young I need to do along with the others.

Last edited by arabchanter (25/12/2017 9:20 pm)

DAY 139.
Crosby, Stills And Nash................................Crosby, Stills And Nash    (1969)









Hailed by the music press of the day as the ultimate supergroup, Crosby, Stills And Nash were under pressure to deliver with their debut album

Fortunately they lived up to the standards expected from them with aplomb, dishing up a collection of expertly arranged, performed, and produced songs, that hinted a whole world of influences.

 Day 138.
Creedence Clearwater Revival........................Bayou Country    (1969)








I know this is out of sync, but at just under an hour and twenty minutes I think the Captain needs to be listened to a bit later tonight.  (when I'm a bit more mellow)

'cause I think he'll be a wee bit speshul


Anyways, "Bayou Country" like previous albums, started off very well "Born On The Bayou" and "Bootleg were decent enough, "Graveyard Train " for being over 8 minutes long, almost got away with it (I think I'm a sucker fir the moothee, pun intended)  but had to go on that tad too long.

"Proud Mary" has been a song I've always loved listening to, and also drunkenly singing on more than several occasions, "Keep on Chooglin'" was seemingly the bands 9 minutes, show closer, well I'd personally be away, and have had a piss and a pint before they were finished!

To be fair it wasn't all bad, but not enough good to make me want to buy it.


Bits & Bobs;  

Tom Fogerty is John's older brother. He was four years older then the other members and was 18 while the rest were still 14. The band was originally called Tommy Fogerty and the Blue Velvets. They were also known as the Golliwogs before CCR.


 
They sold millions of records, but never had a #1 hit. They did score 5 #2 hits on the Hot 100.


 
Tom died in 1990 from respiratory failure brought on by tuberculosis.


 
For a time in the '70s, Cook and Clifford were the rhythm section for various solo artists, including Doug Sahm.

 


CCR released 3 platinum albums in 1969: Bayou Country, Green River, and Willy And The Poorboys.


 
They lost a Battle of the Bands competition once to the Count Five, who later had a hit with "Psychotic Reaction."


 
When CCR was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, Tom Fogerty's wife brought his ashes in her purse.


 
They performed at Woodstock at three in the morning, following the Grateful Dead. They were so unhappy with their performance that they forbade the use of it in the Woodstock motion picture and anything promoting the movie. They didn't want their performance on the album, either, but Fantasy Records sealed the deal by not agreeing on royalties, which made sure they were not included on the album.


 
They formed as the Blue Velvets in 1959 while John Fogerty, Doug "Cosmo" Clifford, and Stu Cook were still in Potola Junior High School (El Cerrito, California). By 1961, they were backing local artists at sock hops, county fairs, and recording studios.


 
In 1959, Tom Fogerty's first band, Spider Webb and the Insects, broke up. Tom started a solo career by asking his little brother's friends if they could back him up when he was cutting demo records. Because John didn't do much singing at the time, the Blue Velvets were primarily an instrumental band at the time of big brother Tom's request. They said yes and changed their name to Tommy Fogerty and the Blue Velvets.


 
After three failed singles on Orchestra records, Tommy Fogerty and the Blue Velvets submitted an audition tape of instrumental music to Fantasy Records in an attempt to sell the tunes to Vince Guaraldi, who had a huge hit with "Cast Your Fate to the Wind" and would later write and arrange the music for Charlie Brown specials. Co-founder of the label, Max Weiss, was impressed by their audacity and their energy and signed Tommy Fogerty and the Blue Velvets in March of 1964.


 
Weiss suggested that the group change their name as he thought that the Blue Velvets were a remnant of the '50s. The Group settled on The Visions, but by the time their first Fantasy single came out, the British Invasion was in full force and new label owner Paul Saenz changed their name to the Golliwogs (after an English doll) and put it on the first of a string of flop singles.


 
Although they were experiencing futility on the record front, they were making a name for themselves playing at parties, military bases, and clubs up and down the Pacific coast. At times the quality of the PA system was close to nonexistent, which put a strain on Tom Fogerty's lead voice. Eventually John Fogerty took on more and more of the lead, developing a shouting/screaming style that later became his trademark.


 
After a six-month hiatus (John served six months in the army; Cosmo served in the Coast Guard), Saentz decided that if the group was to become a viable option for Fantasy Records, a few changes had to me made. He had the band ditch the Golliwogs name, involve itself more with the Bay Area music scene and underground radio, and put more attention on John Fogerty.


 
They changed their name to Creedence Clearwater Revival, reportedly in honor of a friend of a friend of Tom's named Credence Nuball. The new name came from three sources: Creedence: from "credence," a belief in themselves, Clearwater: initially it came from a beer commercial, but it resonated more strongly with the burgeoning environmental movement via an anti-pollution TV commercial, Revival: from the hope to revive the band's career.


 
Starting in 1968, most of their songs were written, produced, arranged, and sung by John Fogerty. He carried a notebook full of phrases that he wanted to convert into songs, including "Bad Moon Rising," "Born on the Bayou," "Proud Mary" (the first on the list), "Up Around the Bend," and "Riverboat Queen."


 
Tensions within the group arose in 1970 as the Fogerty brothers clashed and Clifford and Clark, who were resentful that the group appeared to be a one-man show (in fact, virtually every decision involving the group was made by a majority vote of its members). Tom Fogerty left in early 1971, after the release of the group's PENDULUM LP to revive his solo career (he released three albums on Fantasy before dying in 1990. A fourth, completed in 1988, was released posthumously). CCR continued as a trio.


 
The end was near in 1972, when the group voted 2-1 to contribute equally to their next (and what proved to be their last) album, Mardi Gras. As a result, Stu Cook's "Door to Door" appeared on the disk alongside the year-old "Sweet Hitchhiker" and their cover of Ricky Nelson's "Hello Mary Lou."


 
In 1973, Fantasy Records sued the group for breach of contract as Fogerty prepared his second solo LP. The suit was settled when Fogerty and the group sold all rights to the songs and recordings to Fantasy Records and Saul Saentz. Fogerty was so embittered about this that he refused to perform any of his CCR songs until 2000. He later recorded three songs for his Centerfield LP that attracted the ire of Saentz: the Top 10 hit "Old Man Down the Road" triggered a suit by Saentz purporting that Fogerty plagiarized himself (Fogerty prevailed and won attorney's fees); "Mr. Greed" and "Zantz Kant Dance" (later "Vantz Kant Dance") triggered a defamation lawsuit by Zaentz in which the jury sided with Fogerty.


 
In 1995, over Fogerty's strenuous objections, Cook and Clifford reformed the band without him and rechristened it Creedence Clearwater Revisited. Fogerty sued his two former bandmates to prevent the use of the name and the preformance of old CCR tunes in the act. When Fogerty got the injunction, Clifford, Cook, and company toured as "Cosmo's Factory," and raised the ire of Fogerty when a promoter billed then as "Cosmo's Factory -- Former Creedence Clearwater Revival Members Stu Cook and Doug Clifford -- An Evening of CCR." The injuction was overturned on appeal.


 
When CCR was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (1993), Cook and Clifford walked out when they were informed that Fogerty would be performing CCR tunes with the house band and Bruce Springsteen and had no interest in performing with the two of them.


 
Bruce Springsteen: "Creedence wasn't the hippest band in the world, but they were the best." Springsteen covered many of CCR's songs, including "Fortunate Son", "Bad Moon Rising", "Proud Mary", "Run Through The Jungle", "Who'll Stop the Rain?", and "Travellin' Band."


 
The band (minus Tom Fogerty) reformed at a class reunion in 1983. It is the last time that the 3 surviving members of CCR played together.


 ,
 

DAY 137.
Captain Beefheart And His Magic Band....................Trout Mask Replica     (1969)




 
 



Just finished this album, I had to do it in two parts as listening to all four sides in a oner would have had the family getting me sectioned !



I got the lyrics up, and viewed them as I listened to the tracks, unadulterated fuckwittery in my humble opinion,
the ramblings of a madman, or a genius ? have a listen and let me know?


If you read the blurb and watch the video I've put up, they will try to make a case for this album, but as I don't know anything about the theory of music, it's as baffling to me as the album.


Anyways this album wont be getting added to my collection, but I have to admit I do love the album sleeve.




Bits & Bobs;

Experimental avant-garde/free-jazz artist Don Van Vliet, aka Captain Beefheart, releases Trout Mask Replica, a polyrhythmic, polytonal collection of noise that is either an unlistenable mess or a work of genius.



  Beefheart had released two albums with his Magic Band, but Trout Mask Replica is their first after signing to Frank Zappa's label, Straight Records. With complete creative freedom (the Zappa way), Beefheart moved his band into a house in Woodland Hills, California (near Los Angeles), where they worked on the album.




To many listeners, the album sounds like a disjointed jumble of sound, but it was meticulously planned. Beefheart composed every part on piano, which was notated by his drummer, John French. The musicians spent months learning and practicing their parts, which were intentionally out of sync.




Beefheart's behavior was as erratic as his music. He claimed the house was haunted and that he communicated with the spirits; he gave the band new names, like Zoot Horn Rollo (guitarist Bill Harkleroad) and Rockette Morton (bass player Mark Boston). John French became Drumbo.




The arduous preparation paid off when the band recorded the album, using very little studio time to complete it. When it is released, it gets a lot of attention thanks to the strange, merman cover, but few Americans buy it and it never makes the Billboard chart. In England, the influential DJ John Peel plays it on his Top Gear radio show, which sends it to #21 on the UK chart.




Despite the tepid reception from the public, many critics champion the album, including Lester Bangs, who writes in his Rolling Stone review: "Captain Beefheart's new album is a total success, a brilliant, stunning enlargement and clarification of his art." Such sentiments are shared by many musicians and artists of other ilk, who deem it an avant-garde feat of daring. The Simpsons creator Matt Groening and film director David Lynch both call it their favorite album. In 2011, it is entered into the National Recording Registry at the Library of Congress, deemed to be "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant" (the album Songs of the Humpback Whale is also chosen). When Mojo names their 500 top albums in 2000, they call Trout Mask Replica "The most radical-sounding record of the 1960s."



 

Right back at ye shedboy, put in a wee bit of prep for New Years, hopefully be able to keep pace on  Hogmany.  

DAY 141.
Flying Burrito Brothers....................................The Gilded Palace Of Sin   (1969)







Following their acrimonious departure from the Byrds during 1968, Chris Hillman and Gram Parsons formed The Flying Burrito Brothers, along with steel guitar maestro"Sneaky" Pete Kleinow and bass player Chris Ethridge.


The songwriting partnership of the hugely experienced Hillman and the visionary Parsons produced a perfect blueprint for country-rock, a genre in which the Burritos were pioneers.

Gotta agree Pat, hitting a bit of an average phase at the moment but hopefully some decent stuff round the corner, but to be honest I'm dreading Prog- Rock, I don't know if there is any in this book, but looking at the year, I can't think it is too far away, but hoping the writer wasn't a fan!

DAY 142.
Johnny Cash...............................Johnny Cash At San Quentin    (1969)



 


Following the success of At Folom Prison, Johnny Cash arrived at San Quentin in Febuary 1969 accompanied by a Colunbia recording team and a British television crew.


This was Cash's fourth visit to the prison (Merle Haggard witnessed an earlier gig, as an inmate) but the first without Luther Perkins, his guitarist from his Sun days, who had died a few months earlier.

Liked this Quote;


"I had that audience when all I had to do was say, " Take over!" and they would have"

Music: a welcome respite from football!

Johnny Cash is quite special, and the album above was probably the first 'popular music' that both my mum and I liked, or at least admitted to liking, in my house. In turn, my mum claimed to 'sort of like' the later CCR album, Cosmo's Factory.

In a quirk, in later life, my own children derived a bit of enjoyment out of Johnny Cash too, both in his own adaptations of classic numbers like 'Personal Jesus', and in the remixes and mash-ups which were commonplace for a time.

I don't know anybody who doesn't like Johnny Cash.