DAY 149.
The Rolling Stones...........................Let It Bleed   (1969)







God, I forgot how much I loved this album.

I had it on vinyl back in the day but have lost it on my travels, who knows where it is now? Following on from the excellent Beggars Banquet, this album carries on where it left off, as in my opinion they were playing the music they all loved and and this comes shining through I feel on all the tracks.


The first track Gimme Shelter, with Richards opening riff and the background "ooohing" gets me every time if that doesn't make the hairs on your arms stand up yer daid.

We then go into a superb cover of the Robert Johnson classic "Love In Vain" if their is a better cover of this blues number I've yet to hear it (let me know if you've heard better)


The surprise package was "Country Honk" we've all heard "Honky Tonk Woman" but this is a stripped back version that I really enjoyed.

"Live With Me" wasn't bad but one of the weaker tracks I feel, the title track "Let It Bleed"  now if anybody can write the lyrics "Yeah, we all need someone we can cream on,and if you want to, well you can cream on me" and not make it sound like a line from "Ernie (the fastest milkman in the west)" then I take my hat off to them.


Now for me at least the best track on the album, definitely one of my all time favourite "Stones" tracks "Midnight Rambler" this is one hell of a song, and it's got the moothy in it, bonus!  All joking aside, a tempo shifting, bluesy classic.


Keith Richards grabs the mike for "You Got The Silver" which being kind i would say was different in an interesting way, then "Monkey Man," probably a bit harsh to call it a filler but can't say I particularly liked it.


And last but certainly not least "You Can't Always Get What You Want" I've heard people call this "pretentious" but not for me, I think it's another Jagger/Richards classic, and personally I love the bits with the London Bach Choir.


Anyways, if "Let It Bleed" isn't in your collection I think like me that needs corrected, this for me is The Stones best album and one that everyone should listen to at least once.



Bits & Bobs about the tracks;


Gimme Shelter


This is about the political and social unrest at the time. There was the war in Vietnam, race riots, and Charles Manson. Mick Jagger sings of needing shelter from this "Storm."


 
Keith Richards wrote most of this song. He strummed the opening on an electric-acoustic guitar modeled after a Chuck Berry favorite.


 
Merry Clayton is the female vocalist. She is a gospel singer who did backup vocals for a number of artists, including Ray Charles. She had a regular role on the '80s TV show Cagney and Lacey, and played a maid in the movie Maid To Order.




Clayton is featured in the 2013 film 20 Feet from Stardom, where she talks about her appearance on this song. The Stones were recording late at night in Los Angeles when they decided to use a female vocalist to sing with Jagger on the track. Clayton, who was pregnant at the time, got the call and was retrieved for the session. She showed up with curlers in her hair wearing silk pajamas, and Jagger explained to her that she's be singing the line, "Rape, murder, it's just a shot away."




She did a take of her line, then decided to "blow them out of this room" on the next take. This time, she delivered a chilling vocal an octave higher, her voice cracking on "murder." This can be heard at about the 3:04 mark, and you can hear an impressed Mick Jagger in the background saying "Whoo!"


 
The Rolling Stones didn't release this song as a single, so it never charted. Merry Clayton, who sang backup on the track, recorded her own version of the song which was released as a single, making #73 US in the summer of 1970.


 
Jagger: "That song was written during the Vietnam War and so it's very much about the awareness that war is always present; it was very present in life at that point. Mary Clayton who did the backing vocals, was a background singer who was known to one of the producers. Suddenly, we wanted someone to sing in the middle of the night. And she was around. She came with her curlers in, straight from bed, and had to sing this really odd lyric. For her it was a little odd - for anyone, in the middle of the night, to sing this one verse I would have been odd. She was great."


 
"Gimme Shelter" is the title of the movie that documented The Stones 1969 tour, including the Altamont concert where a fan was stabbed by a Hells Angels security guard. The movie was rush released in 1970 to come out before the Woodstock documentary. It was released on video in 1992, and re-released in theaters in 2000 for the 30th anniversary. George Lucas of Star Wars fame was on the crew for the movie.


 
The Stones recorded this using old, worn out Triumph amplifiers to get a distinctive sound.


 
This has been covered by the Goo Goo Dolls, Grand Funk Railroad, and the Sisters of Mercy (who swapped the locations the words "kiss" and "shot" - "War, children, it's just a kiss away" and "Love, sister, it's just a shot away"). Patti Smith recorded it for her 2007 album Twelve.


 
Academy Award-winning director Martin Scorsese has used this song in three of his films: Goodfellas, Casino and The Departed.


 
Keith Richards stated in his memoir Life (2010): "I wrote 'Gimmie Shelter' on a stormy day, sitting in Robert Fraser's apartment in Mount Street. Anita (Pallenberg) was shooting Performance at the time, not far away... It was just a terrible f--king day and it was storming out there. I was sitting there in Mount Street and there was this incredible storm over London, so I got into that mode, just looking out of Robert's window and looking at all these people with their umbrellas being blown out of their grasp and running like hell. And the idea came to me... My thought was storms on other people's minds, not mine. It just happened to hit the moment."


 Love In Vain


This is a reworked version Robert Johnson's blues classic. Prolific in the 1930s, Johnson was one of Keith Richards' inspirations.


 
The Stones recorded this with more of a country feel than the original blues version, which was more dreary and depressing.


 
Keith Richards: "For a time we thought the songs that were on that first album were the only recordings Robert Johnson had made, and then suddenly around '67 or '68 up comes this second bootleg collection that included 'Love in Vain.'




'Love in Vain' was such a beautiful song. Mick and I both loved it, and at the time I was working and playing around with Gram Parsons, and I started searching around for a different way to present it, because if we were going to record it there was no point in trying to copy the Robert Johnson style or ways and styles. We took it a little bit more country, a little bit more formalized, and Mick felt comfortable with that."


 
Mick Jagger: "We changed the arrangement quite a lot from Robert Johnson's. We put in extra chords that aren't there on the Robert Johnson version. Made it more country. And that's another strange song, because it's very poignant. Robert Johnson was a wonderful lyric writer, and his songs are quite often about love, but they're desolate."


 
With Brian Jones unavailable due to drug problems, Ry Cooder was brought in to play mandolin.


 
The Stones' record label at the time, ABKCO Music, lost the rights to this in 2000 when a court ruled that this, along with "Stop Breakin' Down," were the property of Robert Johnson's estate. The Stones thought the copyright on the song had expired.


 
 
The Stones performed this song at the 2007 Isle of Wight festival with Paolo Nutini, who was just 20 years old at the time and enjoying breakthrough success from his debut album These Streets. The band rehearsed it with Nutini in a Travelodge hotel room before the show, leaving quite an impression on the young Scottish singer.


Country Honk
This is a Country version of "Honky Tonk Women," which was released as a single a few months earlier. Says Keith Richards: "On Let It Bleed, we put that other version of Honky Tonk Women on because that's how the song was originally written, as a real Hank Williams/Jimmie Rodgers, '30s Country song. And it got turned around to this other song by Mick Taylor, who got into a completely different feel, throwing it off the wall completely."


 
This is based on Hank Williams' "Honky Tonk Blues."


 
Mick Taylor, who took over lead guitar when Brian Jones died, recorded with The Stones for the first time on this album.


 
Taylor: "My part on Country Honk wasn't on a regular guitar; it was on one of those cheap little Selmer Hawaiian guitars, which I played on my lap in regular tuning."


 
Byron Berline played fiddle. He was recorded on a Hollywood sidewalk, which accounts for the car horns in the background.



Live With Me


Along with "Country Honk," this was one of two songs new guitarist Mick Taylor played on Let It Bleed. He and Keith Richards produced a distinctive 2 lead guitar sound.


 
This marked the first appearance of Bobby Keys, who played sax on this and many other Stones songs. He had toured in the past with Buddy Holly and Bobby Vee, and went on the road with The Stones from 1969-1974. Keith Richards and Bobby Keys were born on the same day: December 18, 1943.


 
This song was a harbinger of what was to come for The Stones. The guitar and sax style would appear on their next few albums.


 
Leon Russell and Nicky Hopkins both played piano on this track. Russell also helped arrange the sax section


 
The racy lyrics were a reason the London Bach Choir, who sang on "You Cant Always Get What You Want," asked that they not be associated with the album.


 
The album cover for Let It Bleed featured a cake, and was designed by a famous UK TV cook named Delia Smith (let's be 'avin' you). She said in Bill Wyman's book Rolling With The Stones: "I was working then as a jobbing home economist with a food photographer who shot for commercials and magazines. I'd cook anything they needed. One day they said they wanted a cake for a Rolling Stones record cover, it was just another job at the time. They wanted it to be very over-the-top and as gaudy as I could make it."


 
This was the first song lead guitarist Mick Taylor worked on with the Stones. He said in 2000: "'Live with Me,' very appropriately named because once I joined The Stones, it was like living with a family for the next five or six years. It was an interesting session, actually, because they were putting the finishing touches on Let It Bleed and the first track I played on was 'Live with Me.' We did that live, and the second thing I did was I overdubbed my guitar part on 'Honky Tonk Women.'"


 
Bobby Keys: "Both the horns AND Mick Taylor made their debut on the same album on the same track. At the time a lot of people overlooked the fact that it wasn't just Mick (Taylor) joining the band, that was the whole period where the horns joined too. And they all left at the same time."


Let It Bleed
Keith Richards' fingers began to bleed as he played acoustic guitar for hours while Mick Jagger worked with an engineer on the drum track. The title came from Keith's desire to record his track. At least that's the story the band tells. Here's an alternate meaning: The phrase "Let It Bleed" is intravenous drug user slang for successfully finding a vein. The syringe plunger is pulled back and if blood appears, is called letting it bleed.


 
This was the first Stones song to also be the album title.


 
Ian Stewart, often considered "The sixth Stone," played the piano. This was his only appearance on Let It Bleed.


 
There are many references to sex and drugs in the lyrics to this track - an example of the Stones writing about what they knew.


 
This was recorded around the same time as The Beatles Let It Be, but the similar titles were just a coincidence.


 
The Stones recorded this after the death of Brian Jones, and Mick Taylor had yet to join the band. As a result, Keith Richards played both acoustic and slide electric guitar, and Bill Wyman played bass and autoharp. Autoharp is a string instrument with a series of chord bars attached to dampers which, when pressed, mute all but the desired chord. An autoharp is not really a harp - it's a zither.


 
The English TV cook and author Delia Smith baked the cake on the album sleeve before she became famous. She got the gig through being a friend of the photographer, Don McAllester. In 1971, two years after the release of Let It Bleed, Delia Smith's first cookery book, How To Cheat At Cooking, was launched and by the end of the decade she'd become the UK's best known TV cook.



Midnight Rambler


In this song, Mick Jagger takes on the persona of killer who is stalking his victim. This character calls himself the "midnight rambler" and he seems to relish his notoriety - much like many real-life serial killers.




A likely inspiration for the lyric is the case of the Boston Strangler. Thirteen women were found dead (many had been sexually assaulted) in and around Boston from 1962-1964. Most of the victims had been strangled and were found with their nylon stockings tied in a bow around their necks.




In 1965, Albert DeSalvo, who was serving time in a mental institution on rape charges, confessed to the murders and was later sentenced to life in prison. There was no clear physical evidence that DeSalvo committed the crimes, however, and his confession has been questioned, with some forensic experts stating that there may have been multiple killers. DeSalvo died in prison in 1973; new evidence has come up in the case from time to time.




As for the song, while the lyrics do not directly relate to the case, Jagger implies it when he sings, "Well you heard about the Boston..." before an instrumental stab cuts him off.


 
The Stones played this in 1969 and throughout the '70s at their concerts, and when they did, it was a showstopper. Mick Jagger created a morbid atmosphere as he took the role of the killer, spastically whipping the floor toward the end of the song as the audience would scream along.




These performances were enhanced by a custom light rig that their lighting director, Chip Monck, created for the band's 1969 US tour. This was the first lighting system to travel with a rock band, and The Stones used it to great effect on this song. At the climax, the lights would shine red on Jagger in a very theatrical moment.


 
Mick Jagger: "That's a song Keith and I really wrote together. We were on a holiday in Italy. In this very beautiful hill town, Positano, for a few nights. Why we should write such a dark song in this beautiful, sunny place, I really don't know. We wrote everything there - the tempo changes, everything. And I'm playing the harmonica in these little cafés, and there's Keith with the guitar."


 
Brian Jones is credited on percussion. Even though he died before this album was released, a few of the songs were recorded during the Beggar's Banquet sessions in 1968. "Midnight Rambler" was one of them.



Mick Taylor added an extra guitar to the live performances of this. The live version can be heard on Get Yer Ya-Yas Out.


 
When Mick Jagger performed this in character on stage, it was good preparation for his acting career. In 1970, he appeared in two films: Ned Kelly and Performance. He would later appear in Freejack (1992) and The Man from Elysian Fields (2001).


 
Keith Richards: "When we did Midnight Rambler, nobody went in there with the idea of doing a blues opera, basically. Or a blues in four parts. That's just the way it turned out. I think that's the strength of the Stones or any good band. You can give them a song half raw and they'll cook it."



You Got The Silver

This was the first time Keith Richards sang the entire lead vocal. He shared vocals with Mick Jagger on "Salt Of The Earth."


 
Richards wrote this about his then-girlfriend, Anita Pallenberg. She was going out with Brian Jones before taking up with Richards.


 
Brian Jones played the autoharp, which is a string instrument with a series of chord bars attached to dampers to isolate the desired chord. Jones played many unusual instruments for The Stones, and this was one of the last songs he contributed to. Stung out on drugs, he rarely showed up to the Let It Bleed sessions, and was not always functional when he did.


 
This was the only song on Let It Bleed that Jones got credit for helping to write. It was recorded a year earlier, when he could still contribute.


 
The Stones did record a version with Jagger singing lead, but decided to release the one with Richards singing.


  
Nicky Hopkins played piano and organ on this. He played with The Stones on albums from Between The Buttons through Black And Blue. Along with Ian Stewart and Billy Preston, Hopkins was one of the 3 major contributors on keyboards for The Stones. Preston usually played on Soulful, Gospel-type numbers where an organ was required, Stewart played boogie-woogie on fast songs, and Hopkins played on the ballads. Hopkins also played with The Beatles and Jeff Beck.



Monkey Man


The lyrics don't seem to make much sense, but they are probably about heroin or a bad acid trip.


 
Nicky Hopkins was featured on piano. He and Ian Stewart made significant contributions to The Stones on keyboards, but were never credited with being official members of the group. Hopkins and Stewart both toured with the band as well.


 
Most of the album was recorded after the death of Brian Jones and before his replacement by Mick Taylor. On this song, Keith Richards played electric and slide electric guitar. Bill Wyman played bass and also provided vibes. Producer Jimmy Miller assisted drummer Charlie Watts on tambourine.


 
The Stones performed this on their 1994-1995 Voodoo Lounge tour.


 
This song was used in the 1990 movie Goodfellas in a scene where the gangsters are trafficking cocaine. The film was directed by Martin Scorsese, who directed the 2008 Rolling Stones documentary Shine a Light.




You Can't Always Get What You Want



There are two theories as to the identity of "Mr. Jimmy," who appears in the third verse. It could be a reference to Jimmy Miller, who was The Stones' producer at the time, but it might also refer to Jimmy Hutmaker, a local character that wandered the business district in Excelsior, Minnesota, a trendy artist community outside Minneapolis near Lake Minnetonka. Hutmaker, who is known as "Mr. Jimmy," had some disabilities but seemed mentally sharp most days, although he would talk to himself a lot. He walked miles every day and was cared for by the local shop owners until his death on October 3, 2007.
The Stones performed in Excelsior on their first US tour in 1964, and were not well received. Mick Jagger went into a local drugstore to get a Cherry Coke. Back then a cherry coke was a coke with real cherries in it and drug store soda fountains were the place you usually found them. The store didn't have cherry cokes and Mr. Jimmy, standing in line behind Jagger, commented, "Well, you can't always get what you want." Mr. Jimmy was at the Stones next show in Minneapolis. Legend has it that Jagger sent a limo to pick him up, but it is more likely that a local businessman worked it out so he could go.


 
The chorus of children is the London Bach Choir. Their 60 voices were double-tracked to make it sound like there were even more of them.


 
The London Bach Choir tried to have their name removed from the album when they found out it was called Let It Bleed and contained "Midnight Rambler," a song about a serial killer.


 
The lyrics are about how hard it is to find happiness. No matter what you have, you always want more.


 
The "Chelsea Drugstore" was in Chelsea; the King's Road, in fact, which "Swung" just as much as Carnaby Street in its day. But it wasn't a drug store (not officially anyway), it was a pub. Stanley Kubrick filmed part of A Clockwork Orange there. But the most devastating fact about the Chelsea Drugstore is that the place is now a McDonald's.


 
This was released as the B-side of "Honky Tonk Women." The version on this single is shorter than the one on the album. It was released July 3, 1969, the day after Brian Jones died.


 
A version without the choir appears on Rock and Roll Circus, a British TV special The Stones taped in 1968, but never aired. Featuring music and circus performers, it was released on video in 1995.


 
The Stones first recorded this in 1968 as part of the Beggars Banquet sessions. It didn't make the cut for that album, so it was revived for Let It Bleed.


 
Al Kooper was brought in to play the organ and French horn. These instruments would have been played by Brian Jones, but he was having severe drug problems and was unavailable. That's Kooper playing the long horn note at the beginning.


 
This was used in the movie The Big Chill. It plays at Alex' funeral.


 
One of the backup singers was Doris Troy, who had a hit in 1963 called "Just One Look."


 
Marrianne Faithful, who was Mick Jagger's girlfriend, claimed that her drug use was the inspiration for this song.


 
Mick Jagger explained: "It's a good song, even if I say so myself. It's got a very sing-along chorus, and people can identify with it: No one gets what they always want. It's got a very good melody. It's got very good orchestral touches that Jack Nitzsche helped with. So it's got all the ingredients."


 
The band's drummer, Charlie Watts, did not play on this track for the simple reason he was technically unable to figure out the beat for this unusual groove and rhythm. Their producer, Jimmy Miller, played on it instead. Watts eventually modified a way of playing along to it as shown in the Rock And Roll Circus video. Miller was very particular about drumming. He also played on "Happy" and contributed cowbell to "Honky Tonk Women."




In an interview with NPR, Al Kooper said he observed Jimmy Miller and Charlie Watts working on the drum piece. Watts wasn't getting it quick enough so Miller said, "Here, let me show you." At that point Watts said, "Why don't you play it then" and walked out. Miller stayed and the song was cut.


 
Donald Trump used this song throughout his campaign when he ran for (and won) the Republican nomination in 2016. The Stones issued a statement asking him to stop using their music, but not only did Trump ignore the request, he used the song as the capper to the Republican National Convention, having it played after his acceptance speech amidst the balloons and confetti.

The song seems an odd choice, perhaps suggesting to Republicans who didn't support him that they couldn't get the candidate they want, but they're getting the one they need.

Perhaps these lines resonated with Trump as he took shots from the party throughout the campaign and even at the convention:

We went down to the demonstration
To get your fair share of abuse
Singing, "We're gonna vent our frustration
If we don't we're gonna blow a 50-amp fuse"

Frustration was a common theme in Trump's message, as he promised to address the needs of the common man who felt disenfranchised by government and a rigged system.

 
Following Donald Trump's victory speech after being named America's 45th President, the newly elected leader walked off stage to this song.




Mick Jagger was not impressed, tweeting: "Just was watching the news... maybe they'll ask me to sing 'You Can't Always Get What You Want' at the inauguration, ha!"









 

No in any fit state to post last night, also didn't look at any social media yesterday for obvious reasons, I did listen to Nick Drake last night and was pleasantly surprised, but that may have been the mood I was in or being pissed, will revisit it tonight along with today's album.

I'm thinking you are more of a singer/lyrics than guitar fan, arabchanter, so you'll like these last two better than I ever did.

But "Dusty in Memphis" is good, right enough. Just a Little Lovin is a great opening song, Windmills of Your Mind is a fine number too, and Son of a Preacher Man eclipses both.

shedboy wrote:

Dusty springfield on stage amsterdam with the Raveonettes 4/5 years ago for one song -ode to LA.  what a voice.  Anyway thats my weird music taste but im still no over yesterday especially as i missed it.
Will listen to these later on - still in the huff

SRYB

  Never saw Dusty live, so suitably jealous shedboy, The Raveonettes, is that thon Scandinavian duo ?
Heard a couple of tracks by them if so, thought they were pretty good!

shedboy wrote:

make that nearly 10 years ago - oh my ehm gettin auld

It comes to us all my friend, I prefer to call it experienced 
 

DAY 152.
Elvis Presley............................From Elvis In Memphis   (1969)







Elvis booked sessions at American Sound Studios,  A.S.S. was run by top producer Chips Moman and employed a crew of legendary session musicians (among them Dan Penn, Tommy Cogbill and Reggie Young)


Elvis had not recorded in Memphis for 14 years but the sessions, with their easy-going Southern humour and the warm local ambience, meant he enjoyed himself immensely.


An America unhinged by war and assassinations wanted Elvis back as it's rock icon ( he'd been making those god awful movies,) and the Memphis sessions established his relevance again.

Nick Drake - Five Leaves Left - 9/10

A wonderful,unique and original artist.

Tragic that he died so young.

arabchanter wrote:

DAY 152.
Elvis Presley............................From Elvis In Memphis   (1969)






"From Elvis In Memphis" is the third album of his so far in this book, and got to admit my least favourite.  Allegedly this was his big come back album, but for me this album fares badly compared to the other two.


There is no mistaking the "Kings" unique vocals which most people love, but I've always felt that not writing his own music, somehow led to some ropey choices when choosing tracklists.

Case in point this album, which for me didn't have any structure/flow or to be honest, a lot of thought gone into choices.

It's like, it's the "King" It's going to sell anyway, "here ken what jist put a load o' sangs in a hat, and we'll get Elvis's monkey to pick a dozen"

As you have probably sussed, this album wont be getting added to my collection, nothing against Elvis's singing but  the content of the album for me left a lot to be desired.



Bits & Bobs;

In Mogadishu, Somalia, owing to strict Islamic laws, Elvis impersonators are required to have beards.
(can you picture it, this world is so fucked up it's hilarious at times)



A man of macabre tastes, Elvis enjoyed regular visits to Memphis morgue to look at the corpses.Presley was first introduced to amphetamines while serving in the army. He instantly became “practically evangelical about their benefits”.



A persistent rumour suggests Elvis’ famous sexual magnetism was achieved, in part, through the use of props. A boyhood friend claims he used a cardboard tube to “look to the girls up front like he had one helluva thing there inside his pants”.



Before signing Elvis, manager Colonel Tom Parker achieved minor success with a touring act, Colonel Parker’s Dancing Chickens. How did he get the chickens to dance? He made them stand on a red-hot plate

Is this where the other Colonel (Sanders) got his idea for KFC?



In December 1970, Presley met President Nixon at the White House. Presley had initiated the meeting with a six-page letter to the President, in which he had spelt out his desire to be made a “Federal Agent-at-Large” in the Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs.


During his meeting with Nixon, Presley denounced The Beatles as being ‘un-American’ for their open drug-taking and anti-Vietnam politics. The President is said to have given Presley a ‘Special Agent’ badge.


When Elvis met President Nixon on December 21, 1970, he brought a number of gifts – including a Colt 45 pistol.

Elvis owned at least 40 firearms, including M-16s and a Thomson sub-machinegun.



One girlfriend, Peggy Lipton, claims that Elvis was “virtually impotent”, attributing this to his rampant drug use.




As a teenager, Elvis’ favourite hang-out was Beale Street, Memphis, legendary birthplace of the blues. Decades later, in 1997, the body of drowned singer-songwriter Jeff Buckley washed up at the foot of Beale Street.




Early in his career Elvis adopted a chimpanzee called Scatter, who he trained to look up women’s skirts.
Then to pick sangs oot a hat.



Drugs found in Elvis’ system when he died include the painkillers Morphine and Demerol; the antihistamine Chloropheniramine; the tranquilizers Placidyl and Valium. Plus Codeine, Ethinamate, Quaaludes, and an unidentified barbituate.




Presley’s entourage – ‘the Memphis mafia’ – all sported identical diamond and gold rings with TCB stamped on them, an acronym for “Taking care of business.” By way of tribute, Liam Gallagher has the same initials tattooed on his right arm.




His 1973 live concert broadcast, Aloha From Hawaii, is the most watched broadcast by an individual entertainer in television history. It has been watched by an estimated 1.5 billion people.




In 1960, Elvis weighed just over 12 stone. When he died, in 1977, he weighed 19 stone.




Elvis Presley recorded over 600 songs – but didn’t write any of them.




Elvis once ate nothing but meatloaf, tomatoes, and mashed potato for two years.




Some of Elvis’s bejewelled jumpsuits weighed more than two stone.
No wonder he sweated like a blind lesbian in a fish shop!



Was Elvis a prude in the bedroom? Natalie Wood, who dated him briefly in 1956, claimed that his mother’s influence had “wrecked everything”. “God it was awful,” she told her sister. “He can sing but he can’t do much else.”




Presley’s wife Priscilla had an affair with a mutual friend (and karate instructor) Mike Stone. When he found out, Presley inquired about having Stone killed – but changed his mind later the same night.




At Elvis’ funeral, outside the gates of Graceland, a car ploughed into a group of fans, killing two women and critically injuring a third.




Elvis was a distant cousin of President Jimmy Carter, and was a direct descendant of Abraham Lincoln’s great-great grandfather, Isaiah Harrison.




In 1973, Led Zeppelin’s Robert Plant and John Paul Jones met Elvis in Las Vegas. As a gesture of goodwill, Presley swapped his $5000 gold watch with Jones’ cheap Mickey Mouse one.




After Presley’s funeral on August 18, 1977, there was a public viewing of the casket in the foyer of Graceland. Over 30,000 fans were let in.




Towards the end of Elvis’ life, the kitchen at Gracelands was kept open 24 hours a day. Their busiest time was 4.30am, when Elvis would frequently get a craving for burgers and peanut butter and banana sandwiches.




In his grim final days, if he was lucid at all, Elvis would sit in his hotel room in Las Vegas and recite his favourite Monty Python sketches.





In 1973, the year of his divorce from Priscilla, Elvis twice overdosed on barbiturates, spending three days in a coma in his hotel suite after the first incident.




Elvis’ tombstone reads Elvis Aaron Presley, but his middle name was actually spelt ‘Aron’. His parents chose this unusual spelling in honour of his stillborn twin, who was to be called Jesse Garon Presley.

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Great read.

Not an Elvis fan really but still i find him an iconic figure.

Watched a documentary on him few years back and i felt sorry for him.

His global fame ultimately chewed him up and spat him out.

A tragic (but ironically much more empathatic) figure in his last couple of years.
 

DAY 153.
The Velvet Underground.....................The Velvet Underground    (1969)









The Velvet Undergrounds self titled third album was created in a comparatively relaxed atmosphere. There were fewer extremes in the lyrics or the bands sound, in part due to John Cale having left the band, but also because their usual equipment had been stolen in the airport on the way to the L.A. studios where it was recorded.


They had been booted up to the MGM label, but the record company promoted the album poorly and it was lost to the general public.


Lou Reed looking a bit too straight for my liking on the album cover, as are the rest of the band  (looking for a new market?)

Last edited by arabchanter (09/1/2018 1:09 pm)

PatReilly wrote:

arabchanter wrote:

Lou Reed looking a bit too straight for my liking on the album cover, as are the rest of the band  (looking for a new market?)

Some of my friends are straight, and they are no harm if you don't bother them.
 

Maybe should have said "looking a bit too square, for my liking"
 

DAY 153.
The Velvet Underground.....................The Velvet Underground    (1969)








Gonna have to stop doing this, I've made up my mind about an album after listening to it, then I play it again as I post my thoughts, and it changes my initial thoughts (maybe like some of you boys mentioned about "Pet Sounds")


I never disliked this on first hearing, there is a couple of great tracks in my opinion "Pale Blue Eyes" seemingly about an ex girlfriend of Reeds, is a beautiful but simplistic love song but that's the beauty of it, and for me is the stand out track, Reeds lyricism at it's best.

A lot has been said about Lou Reed punting John Cale, but I think The Velvet Underground wanted to show they weren't all about drugs, sex and avant- garde experimentation (well they were but you know what I mean) and could do mellow, and put Reeds underrated songwriting to the fore.


The only fault I found on the album was the track  "The Murder Mystery" at 08:55 I found it a tad too long, about 08:55 too much, for me it spoiled the album (but I wouldn't be surprised if it was Pats favourite track)



I also particularly liked "After Hours" sung by drummer Mo Tucker who also later sang " I'm Sticking With You" another quirky but enjoyable song, and "Candy Says" was really good too, I don't know if this is the same Candy that is mentioned in "Walk On The Wild Side" but would be surprised if it wasn't.


So, "The Velvet Underground" do I like it enough to buy? still not sure, before the second playing I would have said no, but after playing it again I think I'll hold fire for now, but chances are It will be bought at sometime this year.



Bits & Bobs;



Before work on their third album started, Cale was eased out of the band in September 1968, and was replaced by Doug Yule of Boston group the Grass Menagerie, who had been a close associate of the band. Yule, a native New Yorker, had originally met the Velvets at his apartment in Boston which he happened to be renting from the Velvets' road manager, Hans Onsager, who worked closely with the Velvets managerSteve Sesnick. Sterling Morrison was a frequent house guest at Yule's apartment when the band performed at the Boston Tea Party, and mentioned to Lou Reed that Yule was practicing guitar and was improving quickly.[23] It was following this discussion that led to Yule's invitation to join the Velvets shortly before two upcoming shows in Cleveland, OH at the club La Cave.[24] Yule would handle bass and organ duties in the band, and would contribute vocals as well. After several months of shows in the US, the band recorded their third album The Velvet Underground'. The album was soon recorded in late 1968 at TTG Studios in Hollywood, California, and was released in March 1969. The cover photograph was taken by Billy Name. The LP sleeve was designed by Dick Smith, then a staff artist at MGM/Verve. Released on March 12, 1969, the album failed to make Billboard's Top 200 album chart.


 The harsh, abrasive tendencies on the first two records were almost entirely absent on their third album. This resulted in a gentler sound influenced by folk music, prescient of the songwriting style that would soon form Reed's solo career. While Reed had covered a vast range of lyrical subjects on the first two Velvet Underground albums, the lyrical themes of the third album were more "intimate" in nature. Reed's songwriting also covered new emotional ground as well, as heard in the songs "Pale Blue Eyes", "Jesus", "Beginning to See the Light", and "I'm Set Free". The personal tone of the album's subject matter resulted in Reed's desire to create a "closet" mix that boosted the vocals to the forefront, while reducing the album's instrumentation. The second (and more widely distributed) mix is the stereo mix done by MGM/Verve staff recording engineer Val Valentin. Another factor in the change of sound was the band's Vox amplifiers and assorted fuzzboxes rumored to have been stolen from an airport while they were on tour. In addition, Reed and Morrison had purchased matching Fender 12-string electric guitars. Doug Yule plays down the influence of the new equipment, however.


 Morrison's ringing guitar parts and Yule's melodic bass guitar and harmony vocals are featured prominently on the album. Reed's songs and singing are subdued and confessional in nature, and he shared lead vocals with Yule, particularly when his own voice would fail under stress. Doug Yule sang the lead vocal on "Candy Says" (about the Warhol superstar Candy Darling), which opens the LP, and a rare Maureen Tucker lead vocal is featured on "After Hours", which closes the album. It is a song that Reed said was so innocent and pure he could not sing it himself. The album also features the experimental track "The Murder Mystery", which featured all four band members (Reed, Yule, Tucker and Morrison) reading different lyrics against each other (to a jarring effect), as well as the ballad "Pale Blue Eyes", which would soon be covered by many artists including R.E.M., The Killers, and many more. Despite the album's poor commercial debut upon release in 1969, the album's influence can now be heard in many later indie rock and lo-fi recording





Pale Blue Eyes




"Pale Blue Eyes," written by Lou Reed, is the fourth track from side A of The Velvet Underground, the group's third album. Lou Reed is quoted about this album: "I really didn’t think we should make another White Light/White Heat. I thought it would be a terrible mistake, and I really believed that. I thought we had to demonstrate the other side of us. Otherwise, we would become this one-dimensional thing, and that had to be avoided at all costs." "Pale Blue Eyes" is practically the exhibit-A of this statement. It's calm, relaxing, almost a lullaby. And it's simply a sweet love tune, as opposed to the violent lyrics and drug-soaked imagery of previous efforts.



Guitarist Sterling Morrison is often quoted as calling this album "the closet mix" because it sounds like it was recorded in a closet. But really, the mix actually does songs like "Pale Blue Eyes" justice. It sounds more private and intimate, tailored to the subject matter.


 
 Sterling Morrison gives his take on this period of the band's history: "[John] Cale's departure allowed Lou Reed's sensitive, meaningful side to hold sway. Why do you think 'Pale Blue Eyes' happened on the third album, with Cale out of there? That's a song about Lou's old girlfriend in Syracuse [University]. I said, 'Lou, if I wrote a song like that, I wouldn't make you play it.' My position on that album was one of acquiescence."


 
Orange Juice frontman Edwyn Collins and Bourgie Bourgie vocalist Paul Quinn recorded a duet version, which peaked at #72 in the UK in August 1984. The Glasgow pair were classmates between the ages of 11 and 15.




 

For me, that's the least appealing VU album, and "The Murder Mystery" is no better or worse than other songs on it. But the whole album is a good deal better than that Quicksilver Messenger Service stuff: never liked them.

Long songs, short songs, it doesn't really matter to me. I do like guitar bands better than those which have an emphasis on the singer/singing, and I generally favour European music over the artists from the other side of the pond.

To my shame, generally I have an irrational dislike of Americans, which often includes their musicians. Having gone to many concerts over the years, only Hall & Oates and Todd Rundgren, and of course DEVO come to mind as Americans I've made an effort to see.

I'm hoping for some albums I really like soon!

DAY 154.
Quicksilver Messenger Service............Happy Trails    (1969)






This one is going to be short, Quicksilver Messenger Service must have been taken over by Yodel!

They certainly failed to deliver, and if they even try to attempt to re-deliver, this listeners door wont be getting answered, I listened to the first side I'd imagine they'd call it the love side as all the tracks have the word love in them.

And here's the thing, supposedly six tracks written by five different people, twenty five minutes of wanky guitar playing, that for me didn't change very much between tracks, and could easily have been one of those one song, on one side albums.


Side two was just more of the same, so all in all Quicksilver can stay on their "Happy Trails" as long as that trail doesn't pass my hoose.



Bits & Bobs;  (with no endorsement)

Quicksilver Messenger Service was one of the vintage acid-rock San Francisco bands of the late 1960s. Its early shows and albums (featuring the heavily tremoloed guitar work of John Cipollina, plus that of second guitarist Gary Duncan) contributed some of the best-remembered instrumental jam music of the period. But as the '60s ended, Quicksilver's popularity waned, and it never achieved the national popularity of its San Francisco contemporaries, Jefferson Airplane and the Grateful Dead.


 The group formed in 1965 with Gary Duncan, John Cipollina (whose godfather was classical pianist Jose Iturbi), David Freiberg, Greg Elmore, and Jim Murray. Its original guitarist was to have been Dino Valenti (a Greenwich Village folksinger and, under the name "Chester A. Powers," writer of "Hey Joe" and the Youngbloods' hit "Get Together"). But Valenti was arrested on a drug charge and jailed for 18 months.


 In December 1965 the quintet began playing the local circuit, but soon after, Murray left to study the sitar. Quicksilver recorded its debut as a quartet in December 1967, and it came out in May 1968, featuring jams like the 12-minute "The Fool." The band also provided two songs for the soundtrack of Revolution, out that year, and in late 1968 QMS recorded its part-live second LP, Happy Trails the group's only gold album. In January 1969 Valenti got Duncan to move to New York and form a group with him; British session keyboardist Nicky Hopkins took Duncan's place and was prominently featured on Shady Grove.


 In early 1970 Duncan returned, bringing Valenti with him. Valenti finally joined Quicksilver three years late (though his "Dino's Song" appears on the debut LP). The new sextet issued Just for Love, and "Fresh Air" received substantial FM airplay, helping to make the LP one of its biggest sellers



 Hopkins left just before the release of What About Me, and some of the tracks featured his replacement, Mark Naftalin, formerly of the Paul Butterfield Blues Band. Cipollina also left around this time; he later formed Copperhead with early Quicksilverite Jim Murray. During 1971 Freiberg left. That year he was jailed for marijuana possession; in 1972 he began a 12-year hitch with Jefferson Airplane/Starship. The remaining Quicksilver threesome —Duncan, Elmore, and Valenti —produced two more LPs, Quicksilver and Comin' Thru, with Mark Ryan (bass) and keyboardist Chuck Steales, but these sparked little public interest. Though the band didn't break up, it was virtually inactive from 1972 to 1975. That year, Valenti, Duncan, and Elmore recorded Solid Silver with bassist Skip Olsen and keyboardist W. Michael Lewis (and with Cipollina and Freiberg making cameos). Quicksilver then disbanded.


 Duncan put together another configuration in 1987 to record Peace by Piece, but the LP went nowhere, and Quicksilver called it a day once again. John Cipollina, whose younger brother Mario found fame in the '80s as bassist for Huey Lewis and the News, continued to perform with a variety of bands, including the Welsh group Man and the Dinosaurs. A longtime sufferer of severe emphysema, he died in 1989 at age 45. Duncan returned again in the mid-1990s with another incarnation of Quicksilver. Valenti died in 1994 following surgery.