DAY 186.
Neil Young........................................After The Gold Rush        (1970)








A starkly poignant album, After The Gold Rush contains some of Neil Young's most love-lorn lyrics

The cover photograph sums up the album's sentiment, a solarized photograph of the glowering singer-songwriter walking in a near-deserted street.


Will have to do the double tonight again  (sorry)  went to mates last night who was having a "Greek night" and had too much Ouzo, but it was great at the time!

 

Last edited by arabchanter (11/2/2018 11:38 am)

DAY 186.
Neil Young........................................After The Gold Rush        (1970)









I've been reading about this album and about how it's a classic, and have to disagree.


The album is alright, but in my humble opinion not a classic, if it is I'm not looking forward to hearing anymore of Mr Young's offerings, as I said the album was alright only one of the tracks really offended my ears "Oh, Lonesome Me" fair took the wind oot of my sails, have yet to hear a worse version than that.


The track After The Gold Rush for me is a classic, and side one generally was really good, conversely side two was a bit of a disappointment and didn't live up to the promise of side one.


So summing up one really good track, and the rest apart from Oh Lonesome Me were at worst passable, this album will not be getting bought for the simple reason, for me not enough decent stuff on there to warrant me parting with my hard earned.



Bits & Bobs;
Wrote some stuff about him in post #537  (if interested)





After The Gold Rush


After The Goldrush is an acoustic album that led to many other confessional singer/songwriter works in the early '70s (James Taylor, Carole King, etc.). Young had injured his back lifting a slab of polished walnut and standing up to play his electric guitar was impossible. In addition, he had dropped Crazy Horse as his backing band so he prepared an album of acoustic songs.


 

In his extensive biography on Mr. Young, author Jimmy McDonough reveals that After the Goldrush was an album loosely conceptualized around a screenplay of the same named written by child star, and Neil Young neighbor, Dean Stockwell. Apparently the only two songs on the album that are based on the as-yet-unproduced screenplay are this song and "Crippled Creek Ferry," the closing song on the album.


 

New York songwriter Patti Smith recorded a stark piano-and-vocal cover of this ecological paean for the closing track of her 2012 album Banga. Her version features a children's choir singing the chorus at the end. "'Constantine's Dream,' the song before it, is such a dark song," Smith explained to Billboard magazine. "It ends so darkly, with Columbus having a dream of the environmental apocalypse of the 21st century. Even though I fear that myself, I didn't want to end the record that way. I wanted to write a song that was more like the dawn that gave some kind of hope. Then I happened to hear 'After the Gold Rush;' I was sitting in a cafe and thought at least the two verses of Neil's song said what I wanted to say because it has a sense of optimism, but it's also at a cost. So I thought I'd just sing that, because that's what I wanted to say... And having children sing that with all their innocence and purity, I felt that brings out the danger of what he wrote."


 
The song has been covered a variety of artists, including Thom Yorke of Radiohead, The Flaming Lips, Dave Matthews & Tim Reynolds.





When Dolly Parton, Emmy Lou Harris and Linda Ronstadt recorded it in 1999 for their collaboration Trio, they got some unique insight into the song from the man who wrote it. Said Parton: "When we were doing the Trio album, I asked Linda and Emmy what it meant, and they didn't know. So we called Neil Young, and he didn't know. We asked him, flat out, what it meant, and he said, 'Hell, I don't know. I just wrote it. It just depends on what I was taking at the time. I guess every verse has something different I'd taken.'"




This wasn't first time Parton recorded the song: she included a version with Alison Krauss on her 1996 album Treasures.




In live performances, Neil replaces the flute solo with a harmonica performance. Additionally, he's amended the final line to "Look at Mother Nature on the run in the 21st century" (it was originally "in the 1970's").




Southern Man


This song is about racism in the American South. It makes references to slavery and the Ku Klux Klan.


 

Lynyrd Skynyrd wrote "Sweet Home Alabama" as a response to this song. Young is mentioned in the line "I hope Neil Young will remember, a Southern man don't need him around anyhow." Lynyrd Skynyrd were big fans of Young. "Sweet Home Alabama" was meant as a good-natured answer to this, explaining the good things about Alabama. Skynyrd lead singer Ronnie Van Zandt often wore Neil Young T-shirts while performing.
Young was quite happy with "Sweet Home Alabama." He said, "They play like they mean it, I'm proud to have my name in a song like theirs."





After the release of "Sweet Home Alabama," Neil Young wrote several songs for Lynyrd Skynyrd as means of reconciliation, including his eventual standby "Powderfinger." However, the band had their infamous plane crash before they could use the songs, and Young ended up keeping them for himself.



 
Director Jonathan Demme first cut the opening sequence of his movie Philadelphia to this song in an effort to get Young to write a song like it for the film. Young gave him "Philadelphia," which he used over the end. Bruce Springsteen's contribution, "Streets Of Philadelphia" was used over the open.



 
In the liner notes for his greatest hits album Decade, Young wrote: "This song could have been written on a civil rights march after stopping off to watch Gone With The Wind at a local theater."


 
Young summed up the alleged "feud" instigated between him and Lynyrd Skynyrd in a 1995 interview with Mojo Magazine: "Oh, they didn't really put me down! But then again, maybe they did! (laughs) But not in a way that matters. S--t, I think 'Sweet Home Alabama' is a great song. I've actually performed it live a couple of times myself."



 
In his 2012 biography Waging Heavy Peace, Neil Young apologized for "Southern Man": "I don’t like my words when I listen to it. They are accusatory and condescending, not fully thought out, and too easy to misconstrue."




Only Love Can Break Your Heart



Neil Young recorded the After The Goldrush album after the Déjà Vu tour with his band Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, a taxing trek that fractured the band. "Only Love Can Break Your Heart" was rumored to be about Steven Stills, who alienated his bandmates by referring to them as his "back-up singers" on stage, but Young later admitted it was about one of his other bandmates, Graham Nash, who was heartbroken after breaking up with Joni Mitchell.



 
This was Neil Young's first Top 40 hit as a solo artist. His commercial zenith came with "Heart Of Gold" a #1 single from his next album, Harvest.



 
Young's former bandmate Steven Stills is one of many to cover this song, releasing it on his 1984 album Right by You. Other notable covers are by Jackie DeShannon, Elkie Brooks, Rickie Lee Jones, and Florence and The Machine.


 
A version by Everlast was used in the 1999 Adam Sandler movie Big Daddy.


 
 
The English band Saint Etienne had a hit in 1990 with their cover version of this song. It peaked at #39 on the UK Singles Chart and two years later became the group's only entry in the US Billboard Hot 100, when it reached #97. Pete Wiggs of St Etienne recalled to Q magazine July 2012 regarding their version: "The official reaction from the Neil camp was, He has heard it. Not exactly ringing praise." He added: "(BBC Radio 1 DJ) Nicky Campbell once smashed our version live on air on his radio show. He was so outraged by what we'd done."


 
Young performed this on the 1970 Déjà Vu tour with Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young months before it was released. On this tour, it was common for each member to perform a solo song - they would sometimes perform each other's songs.

 

DAY 187.
Led Zeppelin................................Led Zeppelin lll   (1970)








Have just subjected my ears to over 43 minutes of this screeching noise, that voice sounds like he's getting his bollocks slowly squeezed in a mangle, I honestly try to give everyone a clean sheet, and this album was no different, but I can say without a shadow of a doubt, that was absolute gash!


I personally didn't like any of the tracks apart from maybe Immigrant Song, and as for his version of "Gallows Pole"  I'm sure "Leadbelly" must be turning in his grave,.


Short and sweet, this album will not be going in my collection.



Bits & Bobs;


Already wasted enough time on this mob, more details in post  #614 & post  #623  (if interested)



About some of the songs on the album.



Immigrant Song




The "Land of ice and snow" is Iceland, where the band played in June 1970. Robert Plant explained: "We weren't being pompous. We did come from the land of the ice and snow. We were guests of the Icelandic Government on a cultural mission. We were invited to play a concert in Reykjavik and the day before we arrived all the civil servants went on strike and the gig was going to be canceled. The university prepared a concert hall for us and it was phenomenal. The response from the kids was remarkable and we had a great time. 'Immigrant Song' was about that trip and it was the opening track on the album that was intended to be incredibly different."


 
One of the lyrics became part of Led Zeppelin lore. The line, "The hammer of the gods will drive our ships to new lands" got many of their fans referring to Zeppelin's sound as the "Hammer of the gods." The phrase was used by author Stephen Davis as the title of a book about the band.


 
Led Zeppelin meant for this song to be somewhat humorous, relating their adventures on the road to the Vikings who fought the hordes to conquer new lands. They weren't known as a funny band, so a lot of their fans took it quite seriously.


 

The hiss at the beginning is feedback from an echo unit. It was intentional.


 
Robert Plant's love of history played into the lyric, as he was thinking about explorers like Marco Polo and how they must have felt in their travels. Just as he felt pressure to top the previous album, he wondered if these explorers felt pressure to find even better lands after a big discovery.


 Until the Zeppelin boxed set was released, the fan favorite "Heh, Hey What Can I Do?" could be found only on the flip side of this single. In Japan, the single was mistakenly released with "Out On The Tiles" as the B-side. That one became a rare collectible.



 
The line, "Valhalla I am coming" refers to Norse mythology. Valhalla is a hall in Asgard where the souls of fallen warriors are taken by the "Valkyries," which are spirits of war who carry up heroes who have been slain. Only heroes are taken to Valhalla, where they will wait for their certain doom.


 
To get permission to use this song in the movie School Of Rock, the star of the movie, Jack Black, videotaped himself singing in front of a huge crowd of people, begging Led Zeppelin to let them use the song in the movie. They succeeded, and the song was featured in a scene where Black sings along to the tune when it comes on the radio in his van, which he is using to transport his students."It may seem corny, but it worked," Jack Black said on the DVD. "The moral of the story is, Don't be too proud to beg."


 
Led Zeppelin opened their live shows with this song from 1970-1972.


 
 
Trent Reznor, Atticus Ross, and Karen O covered this song for the 2011 film adaptation of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. It can be heard over the opening credits/title sequence.


 
The song soundtracks the trailer for the 2017 movie Thor: Ragnarok. The iconic opening riff kicks in while Cate Blanchett, a.k.a. Hela, the Goddess of Death, turns to the camera. The track continues to play as she wrecks havoc in Thor's world.




Bron-Y-Aur Stomp



Bron-yr-Aur is the cottage in Wales where Jimmy Page and Robert Plant wrote much of Led Zeppelin III in 1970 after a grueling US tour. The cottage had no electricity or running water, but the change of scenery provided inspiration for many songs on the album.


 
The title is spelled differently from "Bron-yr-Aur," a 2-minute instrumental on Physical Graffiti.


 
Robert Plant wrote this for his dog, Strider. He took the pooch with him to Bron-yr-Aur.


 
Plant named his dog Strider (the inspiration for this song) after Aragorn from Lord Of The Rings since one of his aliases is Strider. Lord Of The Rings references exist throughout many Led Zeppelin songs.



 
Bron-Yr-Aur means "golden breast" or "breast of gold" in Welsh. It means "breast" as in hillside of gold. It's pronounced "Bron-rar."


 
Drummer John Bonham played spoons and castanets. John Paul Jones played an acoustic 5-string fretless bass.


 
An unreleased version was known as "Jennings Farm Blues."


 
John Bonham occasionally sang with Robert Plant on this song live. This can be seen in the Earl's Court footage on the How the West Was Won DVD.


 
 
In December 2007 a vicar, the Reverend John Dale, who has owned the Bron-yr-Aur cottage since 1972 told the BBC news that he'd asked Led Zeppelin fans to stop visiting his property. He explained: "It is a beautiful place, but people must remember that it is a private house surrounded by private farmland, although there is a footpath at the top of the field behind the house."Fans from all over the world, including Japan, China and the United States, have been trekking up the hill in Gwynedd's Dyfi Valley to see the property. He said: "On the whole people are fine: they walk up and take a photo and go, but I don't want hundreds coming up here." He added that however, "We've had more than one break-in and once a photograph was taken near the fireplace and posted on the web. There have been other incidents too, with one quite amusing one where someone removed a piece of cement stuff from the house but later posted it back to us. We've resorted to painting the house name on a ruddy great boulder which I've concreted into the ground." Three house name signs have also gone missing.The Reverend was not aware of the connection with Led Zeppelin when he first bought the cottage. He was later told "some pop musicians" had stayed there.According to the vicar there is also a misconception about the links between the house and band. Despite stories to the contrary, Robert Plant never owned the cottage, although he does have a property elsewhere in mid Wales, and the band only visited it once.



Gallows Pole



This is based on an old Blues song called "Gallis Pole," which was popularized by Leadbelly. The song is considered "Traditional," meaning the author is unknown. Jimmy Page got the idea for this after hearing the version by the California folk singer Fred Gerlach. Page explained when previewing the song for Melody Maker: "He was one of the first white people on Folkways records to get involved in Leadbelly. We have completely rearranged it and changed the verse. Robert wrote a set of new lyrics. That's John Paul Jones on mandolin and bass, and I'm playing the banjo, six-string acoustic, 12-string and electric guitar. The bloke swinging on the gallows pole is saying wait for his relatives to arrive. The drumming builds nicely."


 
The lyrics are about a man trying to delay his hanging until his friends and family can rescue him. Although there are many versions of this song, Led Zeppelin's is unusual in that it ends with the hangman hanging the protagonist despite all of his bribes. Most other versions end with the hangman setting the protagonist free.


 
A similar folk song called "Slack Your Rope" was sung by an Arkansan named Jimmie Driftwood. He adapted the words from a fifteenth century British Ballad when any crime could be paid off with money right up to the last step of the gallows. In his version, the criminal is definitely a woman and her lover rides up and pays her fee.


 
This is the only Led Zeppelin song that features a banjo. Jimmy Page wrote it on a banjo he borrowed from John Paul Jones. He had never played the banjo before.



 
Jimmy Page and Robert Plant teamed up again to record this song for an MTV Unplugged set. It's featured on the The Very Best of MTV Unplugged album and the duo are listed simply as Page and Plant.


 
Jimmy Page has claimed this as his favorite song on Led Zeppelin III.  (no accounting for taste, eh?)


  This is a rare Led Zeppelin song that speeds up as it goes along, a technique Jimmy Page also used on Stairway To Heaven


 

In 1994, Page and Plant re-recorded this in Wales for their album No Quarter. On that version, Page played a hurdy-gurdy, an odd instrument resembling an organ grinder that sounds like a bagpipe.


 
This was performed only two or three times live in concert, in an electric-only version. However, a few verses of the song (especially the final one) were sometimes included in some medleys (for instance in "Communication Breakdown," or "Trampled Underfoot").




Now this, is proper




 

DAY 188.
Deep Purple................................In Rock   (1970)








A hard rock milestone, Purple's fifth set appeared as another Middle Eastern war loomed in mid-1970.

It was an apt climate to unleash what Rolling Stone summarised as " a dynamic, frenzied work, sounding like the MC5s,"  though there is more to it than that.

This was recorded by the soon to be classic, Mark ll line up;of, Ritchie Blackmore, Jon Lord, Ian Paice and new boys Ian Gillan on vocals and Roger Glover on bass.

DAY 188.
Deep Purple................................In Rock   (1970)







Hair doon my back , tartan shirt or cheesecloth, flared wranglers, The Centre Bar, Black Night & Smoke On The Water, that's what I think of when I think of Deep Purple.

This album reminded me of none of that, the opening track Speed King is about the only track I would voluntarily choose to listen to again, who thought that screeching was the best accompaniment to some decent guitary and organy music?


As I said Lord and Blackmore are very good at what they do, but there is far too much screechy stuff for my liking, and as a consequence wont be getting added to my collection.



Bits & Bobs;


Gillan sang in a production of Jesus Christ Superstar before joining the band. His powerful vocals set the standard for the role.


 
During his time apart from Deep Purple, Gillan formed the predictably titled Ian Gillan Band, which released six albums between 1978 and 1982. He was also in Black Sabbath for a short time (not with Ozzy).


 
Glover has done session and production work for Judas Priest, Nazareth, Spencer Davis, Gillan, and Rainbow. Rainbow is the group Blackmore formed when he left Deep Purple.


 
After leaving Deep Purple, Coverdale went on to stardom in the '80s hair band Whitesnake.


 
Blackmore rejected comparisons to groups like Black Sabbath. "We don't just shower the songs with heavy chords and leave it at that," he said.


 
Their highest-charting album in America was Machine Head in 1972, thanks to "Smoke On The Water." It only reached #7, but had staying power, selling over two million copies and putting the band in the same sales league with The Who and Led Zeppelin.


 
Guitar virtuoso Joe Satriani has played guitar for the band on tour.


 
Turner started his music career in a Deep Purple cover band. After Gillan's second departure, he got a chance at the real thing. He had also been a singer for Rainbow.


 
Gillan was in many bands before joining Deep Purple. They include: Wainright's Gentlemen, The Moonshiners, and the Hickies.


 
Lord was in a band with Rolling Stones guitarist Ron Wood called The Santa Barbara Machine Head. Lord also was a member of the Artwoods. The lead singer of that group was Ron Wood's brother, Art Wood.


 
One of Blackmore's previous bands was called the Roman Empire, which performed wearing gladiator outfits.


 
Deep Purple was originally signed to the Tetragrammaton label, a US-based company owned by comedian Bill Cosby.


 
They adopted the Deep Purple name following a brief Scandinavian tour, immediately after which the quintet began recording their debut album, whose sound was heavily influenced by the US band Vanilla Fudge.


 
Bolin replaced Ritchie Blackmore, who left the band in 1975. Tommy died a year later on December 4, 1976 of a drug overdose at age 25.


 
They held the Guinness Book of World Records title of the Worlds Loudest Band (117 dB) in the 1975-76 edition.



 
Deep Purple has undergone various lineup changes labeled in "Marks." Mark II was the most successful featuring Ian Gillan as singer, Richie Blackmore as guitarist, Roger Glover on bass, Ian Paice on drums, and Jon Lord on keyboards. Ian Paice is the only original member who was with every variation of the group.


 
The back cover for the Made In Japan album was a photo from a September 30, 1972 gig at the Brixton Sundown (now the Brixton O2 Academy). If you look closely, you may spot the future Def Leppard guitarist PhilCollenin the crowd.


 
Original singer Evans used the Deep Purple name to play West Coast bars in the early 1980s.


 

The first album recorded after Gillan and Glover joined was recorded with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra; it was a live album called Concerto for Group and Orchestra, with music composed by Jon Lord. Blackmore wasn't a fan. "I don't like rock musicians playing with classical orchestras," he told Cameron Crowe. "I thought it was stupid when we were doing it."


 
Deep Purple finally made the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2016 - 23 years after they were first eligible. Only the first three lineups were inducted, leaving out Bolin, Turner and Morse. Blackmore skipped the ceremony because he and the current lineup couldn't come to terms on the performance.



Speed King



Deep Purple drew inspiration from early American Rock, and the lyrics of this song are made up of bits from songs by Little Richard, Elvis Presley and Chuck Berry. The first verse borrows from Richard's songs "Good Golly Miss Molly" "Tutti Frutti" and "Lucille" The second verse is pulled from the soul classic "Rip It Up" as well as Elvis' "Hard Headed Woman" and Berry's "Some People." Deep Purple would later pay tribute to Little Richard when they named their 1987 album The House of Blue Light, after a line in "Good Golly Miss Molly."



According to Ian Gillan's autobiography, this song was called "Kneel and Pray" for some time.



Deep Purple played this song live for about 8 months before they recorded it. In concerts, it was usually their opening number. The song got bumped on September 13, 1971 when the band decided they wanted a new song to open their shows, wrote "Highway Star" on the tour bus, and performed it that night.




Hard Lovin' Man




This is vintage Purple Mark II, with Jon Lord shining on keyboards and a terrific bass line from Roger Glover.




In The Complete Deep Purple by Michael Heatley, lead guitarist Ritchie Blackmore says he devised the guitar solo to annoy one of the engineers, stating: "I got this urge and started rubbing the guitar up and down the doorway of the control room to get all that wild guitar noise. So this bloke looks at me as if I'd lost my mind."




Running to 7 minutes 10 seconds, "Hard Lovin' Man" is track 6 on the classic In Rock album. (probs 4 mins too lang)


 

Deep Purple....In Rock was another album to improve your status if it was under your arm. I liked it a lot better than most heavy rock albums, without being a huge fan.

But I'd forgotten about cheesecloth shirts, thanks arabchanter. They didnae really need ironing, as I recall. Mostly Made in India. Flirted a bit with being a hippy, but was more of a 'gribo' before jumping back to be a mod.

DAY 189.
Van Morrison...................................Moondance   (1970)









Van Morrison, if anyone has been reading the bits and bobs I write after each album, they may recall I kinda got fucked off with Mr Morrison after going to see him at Finsbury Park, to be honest I haven't listened to anything by that fat, bloated, belligerent lush since that day.


Now, I have just finished listening to Moondance and have to tell you I loved it, I'm sure I said something along the lines of, maybe I should stick to just listening to albums rather than running the risk of being bitterly disappointed with them live, so a bit of wiggle room there,.


I enjoyed all of the album, but I particularly enjoyed, Moondance,  And It Stoned Me and Brand New Day, this album I could find myself listening to in my hammock on a sunny afternoon reading a good book with a buxom wench attending to my every whim, obviously the last one is just a flight of fancy, but the rest with a few cold bottles would be just the ticket.


This album will be getting bought, but will wait for better weather first, and take my advice the album is far superior to him live, in my experience.



Bits & Bobs;
Wrote a bit about him in post  #522  (if interested)



Moondance


Van Morrison comes up with songs many different ways, sometimes a lyric or title idea sparks a song, and other times it's a melody. "Moondance" started as a Jazz saxophone instrumental, and Van played that original sax solo he wrote for the song. He told Rolling Stone magazine: "I used to play this sax number over and over, anytime I picked up my horn."


 
That Rolling Stone quote is about all you're going to get from Van regarding the song. He is notoriously fickle when it comes to speaking about his music, as he feels that the songs should speak for themselves. The liner notes to the Moondance album were written by his girlfriend Janet Planet, and instead of a traditional explanation of the recording process or a list of thank-you's these notes are a fable, telling the story of an artist in ancient times who has a great gift but keeps it to himself. When his wife gets sick, he cures her using his gift of song. She then asks, "But who will ease your pain, who will save you?"


 
The flute is a big part of this song. It was played by Collin Tilton, who replaced John Payne on the instrument for the Moondance album.


 
This song plays throughout the sex scene in the 1981 movie An American Werewolf in London (Director John Landis also asked Cat Stevens for the use of "Moonshadow" but was turned down). It was also used in a 2002 episode of the TV series The West Wing.


 
Pianist and organist Jeff Labes recalled the recording of the track to Uncut: "I remember 'Moondance' itself was a big question mark. It was jazzy, and didn't seem to belong to the pack. The first time we recorded it, it came out really well, but Van thought there must be a catch. So we did it about a dozen times, and ended up going back to the first one, He liked to sing live along with the track, because Sinatra did that. He loved having a first-take vocal. He was looking for the magic."



Crazy Love
Morrison had recently married his girlfriend Janet Planet when he wrote this rather poetic song, which is about a love that makes the bad times good and the good times better. It's a soothing love that makes you complete, and the song caught on as a way for lovers to express just these emotions. It's a very popular wedding song, just don't tell the happy couple that Morrison and Janet divorced in 1973.


 
Artists to cover this song include Brian McKnight, Ray Charles, Aaron Neville, Helen Reddy, Rod Stewart, Paul Carrack and John Anderson. Canadian vocalist Michael Bublé covered this for the title track of his 2009 album.


Into The Mystic


This is about a sailor at sea thinking about returning to his lover, who is back on land. Normally a foghorn signals danger, but in this case it means he is close to home and his love.


 
There is room for interpretation beyond the superficial meaning. It might be interpreted as expressing an understanding that life is finite (the ship sailing on its round trip) and must be lived to its fullest ("I want to rock your Gypsy soul"), and an acceptance of its inevitable end ("We will magnificently float into the mystic, when the foghorn blows I will be coming home"). When you have seen the world and loved someone, you should have no reason to fear the end because you have lived your life to the fullest.


 
The original title was "Into the Misty."


 
According to Morrison, he couldn't decide whether the first line should be "We were born before the wind" or "We were borne before the wind."


 
This was played in the 1989 Mary Stuart Masterson movie Immediate Family. She played a woman who was young and pregnant and planning to give her baby to Glenn Close and James Woods, who couldn't have a baby of their own.


 
According to a BBC survey, because of this song's cooling, soothing vibe, this is one of the most popular songs for surgeons to listen to whilst performing operations.


 
Jen Chapin, the daughter of Cat's In The Cradle singer-songwriter Harry Chapin, covered this on her 2008 CD Light of Mine.




Glad Tidings



Van Morrison said:

“Glad Tidings* is about a period of time in which I was living in New York. A friend of mine wrote a letter from London and he’d written on the envelope ‘Glad Tidings from London’. So I wrote ‘Glad Tidings from New York – and that’s where I got the idea.”The song is most recently known for appearing in All Due Respect, the season finale of season five of The Sopranos. In the review of that episode, The Star Ledger states:

“The episode’s use of Van Morrison’s ‘Glad Tidings’ as a recurring motif was a classic example of the show’s attention to detail. Moments before buckshot hit Blundetto, we hear the verse that opened with ‘And we’ll send you glad tidings from New York’ and closed with ‘Hope that you will come in right on time’.




Brand New Day


 Morrison described his inspiration for the song, on Brian Hinton’s book Celtic Crossroads: The Art of Van Morrison:


“Brand New Day” expressed a lot of hope. I was in Boston and having a hard job getting myself up spiritually…Then one day this song came on the FM station and it had this particular feeling and this particular groove and it was totally fresh. It seemed to me like things were making sense….I didn’t know who the hell the artist was. It turned out to be The Band. I looked up at the sky and the sun started to shine and all of a sudden the song just came through my head. I started to write it down, right from “When all the dark clouds roll away”….The song (on FM radio) was either “The Weight” or “I Shall Be Released”.
 

When young, I thought Van Morrison was an American, so was biased against him. But in truth I never 'got' his appeal, and always thought he was a bit of an arsehole.

The same applies to the Grateful Dead (arseholes and also real Americans), but I should give that a wee listen again.

DAY 191.
Nick Drake...........................Bryter Layter    (1970)










Bryter Layter found Nick Drake in fine form, something that his bleak myth now overshadows. This was just his second album nothing more, bruised by the indifference that met Five Leaves Left, he simply tried again.


Bryter Layter documents a time when Drake was disappointed but not yet disheartened by his lack of success. It is an ideal introduction to his music.

DAY 192
Ananda Shankar...............................Ananda Shankar   (1970)









Jimi Hendrix asked Ananda Shanker to make a record with him, "For three nights I couldn't sleep" said Ananda. "But eventually I decided that it wouldn't be my music, so I made the album alone"


The resulting record is the best example of a micro-genre that might be termed "sitar rock", where the sitar serves as exotic lead instrument in a bubblegum rock context


Ananda's moog-fried offerings of "Jumping Jack Flash" and "Light My Fire" still pack out dance floors today. 



Will do this and Nick Drake, the night. 

DAY 191.
Nick Drake...........................Bryter Layter    (1970)








Just finished listening to Bryter Layter for the third time today, I gave Mr Drake the courtesy of three spins as I liked Five Leaves Left, his debut album that much I wanted to give this one every chance.


Unfortunately I found this one a bit over orchestrated, the thing I liked about his previous offering was it felt a bit stripped down, I know it had guitar and strings but for me this only enhanced his superb lyrics and willowy voice.


Bryter Layter in my humble opinion lyrically was almost as strong as Five Leaves Left, but the horns and flute ( an instrument that wants F'kn banning imho, not because of the zombie connection, although there is that, but I don't think it enhances many songs, horrible whiney wee holey wooden thing that is) are for me just too overpowering for the "deer in the headlights" sublime vocals of Mr Drake.


This album by no stretch of the imagination is a bad album, it's probably that I was really looking forward to listening to it, and to be quite honest it left me a bit let down, I'm also not terribly interested in instrumentals on a Nick Drake album, three of them, what was that all about?


They say that after the poor sales of the previous album he was so hurt that he decided to make his next one more commercial and almost bouncy, that's where he went wrong imho, I think the lyrics were to a very high standard but the orchestration for me just didn't gel with the mood of the lyrics.



Having sold his soul to commercialism and still receiving very poor sales, I should think would take him to an even darker place than he was after his last album, leaving him an even more fragile and insular character, always searching for love and recognition but only to achieve it after his untimely death.


If you haven't listened to Nick Drake, please listen to "Five Leaves Left" first, this for me is one of the best finds of this journey so far, you can compare them for yourself and probably disagree with me, but aint that the thing with music, it makes everybody feel something and it's your personal feelings so nobody could or should tell you how to feel....................VIVA LA DIFFERENCE!


This album wont be going into my collection.



Bits & Pieces;


Wrote a bit about Nick Drake in post #587 (if interested)

Nick Drake – Bryter Layter

Nick Drake's career may come cloaked in myth and mystery, but one facet often overlooked by musical historians and cultural scholars are those shoes. Those incongruously bulky blue suede brothel creepers with banana yellow laces.


 For many years I assumed the disbanded footwear on the cover of Bryter Layter were some kind of symbol of the introverted, agoraphobic musician’s rejection of fame and its exhibitionist implications. After all, would a soft, dandy-ish sort like Drake really slip on something so commandeering? However, thanks to the premise of this feature, the story behind the unlikely shoes has been unearthed. As it turns out, the creepers in question are symbolic, but were owned by the portrait’s photographer, Nigel Waymouth.



 If legend is to be believed, Waymouth’s shoes, which were made to design by the Chelsea Cobbler, were placed in front of Drake’s feet “to add an optimistic note (blue suede shoes – dancing shoes), in an otherwise sombre photograph, that would echo the title of the album, Bryter Layter.” The post also goes on to detail its other items: the chair Drake sits on was once reportedly owned by Charles Dickens, who sat in it to write, and the small Guild guitar was one that Eric Clapton gave to his friend and flatmate Martin Sharp. Backstory aside, the other intangible elements of the image come from its awkward composition, something that I love, but is likely to infuriate design pedants, from the positioning of the portrait in the oval shape which looks a little off-kilter, to Drake’s face, largely covered in shadow. I happen to think his terrible posture and shadowy face is rather apt, given his temperament. Its colour scheme, a very 70s clash of bold hues – mauve, red and orange – are also gregarious shades that seem to complement what Melody Maker referred to, somewhat snidely, as this album’s “cocktail jazz”.


 Examining this vinyl sleeve in 2016, the artwork appears effortlessly aloof and elegant, it emanates a strange sophistication, and is a symbol of a man who shirked the spotlight, the stereotypes and the silly shoes of the 1970s.



At The Chime Of A City Clock



Beautifully melodious and yet entrenched in melancholy, lyrically simple and yet riven with meaning, At the Chime of a City Clock is classic Drake. In a sense an expansion on the opening line of Hazey Jane II, where Drake asks ‘what will happen when the world gets so crowded that you can’t look out the window in the morning’, ATCOACC is broadly concerned with vocalising that peculiar and wholly modern sense of frightening isolation that exists only amid the relentless contact of city life, where we are at once known to thousands of people and yet not known at all. In this sense, ATCOACC is just as – if not more – relevant today than it was on its 1970 release.



One Of These Things First

 A desperate song about dreams of what he could’ve been – he had potential for many things, but realized none of them.He dreams of being capable, but is stuck – doesn’t know how.


Bryter Layter



"Bryter Layter" was meant to be a little poke at BBC weather forecasters at the time, who would often refer to the weather as "cloudy now, but brighter later."  Nick added the "y's" for visual effect.



Poor Boy



The song’s essentially about a boy self-pitying, struggling for acceptance and empathy and deals with motifs of existentialism.
Nick’s mum, Molly Drake, was a singer and one of her most-known songs is "Poor Mum" where she sings about the struggles of motherhood. So “Poor Boy” could be seen as Nick’s answer to his mum’s song, taking the perspesctive of the son basically suggesting that both parents and children have their existential struggles.


Northern Sky


 Described as “the most unabashedly joyful song in [Drake’s] canon”, Northern Sky is a straight-up love song.


 Its arrangement was largely curated by John Cale of The Velvet Underground, who added parts on the piano, Hammond organ, and celeste. Drake was initially sceptical, but was won around.


 The song is often speculated to be about Linda Thompson, but there’s no real evidence for that


 


 

 DAY 192
Ananda Shankar...............................Ananda Shankar   (1970)








This'll no' take very long, surprisingly I didn't hate it, apart from the covers with their "Godspell" type chorusing with which I think he was trying to engage the western market , but for me sounded more laughable than affable.

I liked the other tracks apart from (you've guessed it)   Sagar/ The Oceon  at 13:18, just too much, when he stuck to what sounded to me, traditional Indian music I fair enjoyed it.

I probably wouldn't recognise any of the tracks again apart from the last track "Raghupati" which for no obvious reason I really, really liked.

This album wont be getting purchased, but it's worth a listen even though it will probably be the first and last listen



Bits & Bobs;



.East certainly met West on Ananda Shankar’s eponymously titled first album from 1970.

 Shankar’s father was the Indian choreographer, Uday Shankar, while his more-famous uncle was the master sitar player, Ravi Shankar. Although, Ananda also became famous for playing sitar, he did not study under his uncle, but rather studied traditional Indian music with Lalmani Misra at Banaras Hindu University. Shankar was first exposed to Western sounds when he traveled with members of his famous family, as they performed on concert stages across America during the 1960s.


 The concept for his debut album was simple, meld Western rock sounds with the traditional music of Shankar’s homeland, India. To this end, Shankar moved to Los Angeles in the 1960s and fell in with the west coast rock crowd, jamming with the likes of Jimi Hendrix and many others. This led to him forming a band for his debut album for Reprise that included session great Jerry Scheff (Elvis Presley) on bass, and Paul Lewinson on moog synthesizer, that along with Shankar’s droning on the sitar, provided an extra layer of space to the soundscapes.


 The album mixed popular rock songs of the day like The Doors’ “Light My Fire” and today’s Song Of The Day, The Rolling Stones’ “Jumping Jack Flash” with contemporary classical Indian music composed by Shankar himself. It was produced by Alex Hassilev, who was an original member of the folk group The Limeliters (along with Lou Gottlieb and Glenn Yarbrough) during the 1950s and ‘60s.


 While his version of the two rock songs do seem somewhat novel (in a very cool way) today, the classical Indian cuts on the record are the real reason to tune in, especially the 13-minute “Raghupati” which was used many years later as part of the soundtrack to the video game Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories, and the entrancing “Metamorphosis.”


 His second album, “Ananda Shankar And His Music” was a jazz-funk affair released in 1975 that has since become a much sought after record for club DJs. Shankar continued to make musical soundscapes combining his sitar playing with electronics throughout the 80s and 90s until his sudden death from a heart attack in 1999. His music was used extensively several years ago throughout the short-lived NBC situation comedy “Outsourced.”
 

All taxis in Liberty City in Grand Theft Auto Liberty City Stories have Radio Del Mundo as their default radio station.
"Raghupati" is on the playlist.






 

Last edited by arabchanter (18/2/2018 7:54 pm)

DAY 194.
Soft Machine.............................Third   (1970)









Recorded over four days, Soft Machine's Third shows a major British band at its peak, and at the same time in complete turmoil.


Prog rock would soon be huge and the rest of the group were tired of Robert Wyatt's singing,  and he was sick of their intransigent desire to get all serious and jazzy.


This next bit, fair made my heart sink;  



“Third” has four side long compositions, each weighing in at around 18 minutes each. More complex than before, and now mostly instrumental, the Softs shift dynamics between dirty feedbacks courtesy of Mike Ratledge's Lowry Organ, to gorgeous flute melodies.


Four tracks on a double F'kn album, dirty feedbacks and a bloody flute