Live at Leeds, to me, is not even close to the best ever live album. It's just ok, but then, I've never been a big Who fan, as previously stated. That cover, too, brought no admiring glances when I was at school..... 

Soft Machine: fuckin' awful, yet a lot of very good and influential musicians played with them through time. Not so much on this album, but Robert Wyatt went on, after a terrible drunken accident left him paralysed, to have a fine solo career, and Lyn Dobson was a sought after musician who contributed, as an example, to the recently listed Bryter Layter album. 

In the past, Andy Summers (The Police) and Kevin Ayers had been Soft Machine members.

But the album stinks.

Here's another guy who liked a fiddle back in the day

Last edited by Beardy23 (20/2/2018 12:26 am)

Looked it out:



I've got some amount of junk in my house.

arabchanter wrote:

  

I loved "Rod The Mod" pre San Giro days, his version of  "Only A Hobo" is one of the best Dylan covers i've ever heard.

Couldn't agree more, but it's like Stuart Armstrong going to Celtic in a way, you cannae blame someone going for more money in a potentially short career. 

 

DAY 195.
Rod Stewart..........................Gasoline Alley    (1970)









I'd really forgotten that I actually liked Rod Stewart, and I find that quite sad, But the problem for me is being fed such drivel as, Do Ya Think I'm Sexy, You're In My Heart and F'kn Hot Legs it must have unwittingly made me wipe out all the good stuff he did, before "Smiler" or It could have been "Atlantic Crossing" both of which I found very bland, and for an audience I would never like to be part of.


Anyways back to "Gasoline Alley," the title track kicks it off in fine form with Ronnie Wood and Rod Stewart at the top of their game, and sliding into a great version of "It's All Over Now" even if if it is two or three minute too long in my humbles, (even the refs whistle went a minute before he shut the fuck up)

The Bob Dylan song "Only A Hobo" in my personal opinion is the pick of the tracks, and even with his croaky vocals, the emotions that emanates from Rodney boys gub still gives this listener the chills, absolute top track.

The funny thing with Rod Stewart is although he wrote some cracking songs, he also had this knack of being able to take someone else's song and make it his own, case in point "Country Comfort" which was a good song by Elton John, but I don't think anyone can say they prefer John's version, and if he didn't make them his own, he certainly didn't make an arse of himself covering them.


"Cut Across Shorty" and "My Way Of Giving" were also excellent, this album had more than it's fair share of "Faces" influence/sound, and all the better for it, and a big shout out for Ronnie Wood's faultless guitary bits.


Summing up, a really good album that took me back in time, but not in a dated way but more of a warm familiar "God that was good" kinda way, if I had to have a bitch, I thought the last three tracks were a bit weak, but that could be as a consequence of the earlier tracks being of such a high standard.


As I currently don't own anything by Rod Stewart, I think my collection would be missing something if I didn't have any of his early music, so this one will be going in my collection.


Bits & Bobs;

Rod Stewart once worked as a gravedigger at High Gate Cemetery, which is designated on the English Heritage Register of Parks and Garden of Special Historic Interest.


 
Rod issued his first single in 1964 under his own name - a version of Muddy Waters' "Good Morning Little Schoolgirl." He went on to join Steampacket (which contained Peter Green, Mick Fleetwood and Brian Auger) in 1965, then the Jeff Beck Group.


 
He was in a group called Shotgun Express with Peter Green and Mick Fleetwood, who would go on to form Fleetwood Mac.


 
Stewart and Ron Wood were brought in to the Small Faces in 1969 to replace Steve Marriott, who had just left the band. The Small Faces dropped the "Small" and became the Faces. Ron Wood left to join the Rolling Stones in 1976; Rod Stewart concentrated on his already much more successful solo career.





Roderick David Stewart. Born in Highgate, North London, on 10th January 1945. Rod's father Robert Joseph Stewart came from King's Port in Edinburgh, Scotland. Rod's mother, Elsie, came from Upper Holloway, North London. The Cockney girl fell for the Scot and the couple married in 1928. The Stewart clan began to appear afterwards. Rod's brothers Don and Bob and his sisters Mary and Peggy were all born in Scotland. However the family moved to London to 507 Archway Road, Highgate where after a gap of eight years, young Roddy was born. This means that Rod is the only member of the family to have been born in England, a misfortune which Rod has tended to overlook...




Rod was a beatnik during the early sixties and lived with 20 friends on a derelict houseboat in Shoreham on the Sussex coast. The locals didn't like the idea of Rod and his mates not working and sent for the police who eventually drove them out by hosing them with cold water. To make sure they didn't return, they towed the barge away and sank it! The story made the front pages of the Daily Mirror and Daily Sketch and was just one of Rod's beatnik episodes. He also attended the famous Aldermaston marches that took place in a small village in Berkshire which had been chosen as the HQ of Britain's Atomic Weapons Research Establishment. Rod's most significant break came during a long trek across Europe. He had been working with his brother Bob as a sign writer and had just quit art school when he left London and went to Paris with folk singer Wiz Jones. Whilst there, they met up with blues pianist Memphis Slim in a club and started playing together. Rod was later to play with Memphis at London's Marquee as support. Young Rod and his mate Wiz would spend most of their time busking by day and sleeping on St Tropez beach by night. That was the first time Rod had to earn a living with his guitar and voice. He had picked up guitar during his days in the Archway Road where his parents owned a newspaper shop and by the time of his continental expedition, had also learnt harmonica.



Rod got his lucky break at nineteen years old when he was invited to join Long John Baldry's Hoochie Coochie Men formed from the R&B All Stars just before their leader, Cyril Davies, died. The story goes that Baldry, who had seen Rod playing harp for the Dimensions at Ken Colyer's club in London's Oxford Street, found Rod the worse for drink on Twickenham railway station and it was there that he asked him to join his band. During the journey to Waterloo station Long John explained that he was thinking of breaking up the All Stars and forming a new band. At Waterloo, Rod took the tube back to Highgate telling himself that this might be the sort of break he'd been waiting for. It was a couple of days later he heard the unexpected news that Cyril Davies was dead.

Baldry kept his promise and contacted Rod with an offer of work and just weeks later he was on stage in his first professional band! Rod was the second vocalist and Baldry looked after his band with the concern of a loving mother. With the Dimensions, Rod's earnings as a musician had been at best sporadic, but with the Hoochie Coochie Men he became a professional on a regular wage of thirty-five pounds a week! He also regularly received individual billings in gig listings such as 'Rod The Mod' and 'The Mod's Delight'. More than often the band would perform at several different shows on the same night and their non-stop gigs would cover the whole country. Rod says the first ever professional date he played was at the Twisted Wheel in Manchester. This first date was nerve racking for Rod and he apparently got through the ordeal with the help of a little black pill!


During the early summer of 1969 Ron Wood started to rehearse with Ronnie Lane, Ian McLagan and Kenny Jones. It was fun, but all four of them knew something was missing. Ron Wood took the initiative and invited Rod to listen to some rehearsals. Rod started to turn up regularly at rehearsals and knew it was a matter of time before they would invite him to join.
With Rod having almost completed his first solo album, Kenny Jones invited Rod to join the band over a drink in a pub called The Spaniard on Hampstead Heath. At last, after months of not really being sure, Rod was an official member of the Faces. The date was 18 September 1969.

Just after the completion of An Old Raincoat Won't Ever Let You Down, the British music paper Disc confirmed that Rod had officially joined the remnants of the Small Faces along with Ronnie Wood. The Faces debut album, recorded during December 1969, appeared in the UK on 21 March 1970 and was aptly titled First Step. And that's where we leave the sixties and enter the decade in which Rod finally became a world famous singer and superstar.
In March 1970 the Faces made their first appearance on Top Of The Pops performing Flying. Rod, dressed in black satin and sporting dark glasses recalls the appearance with affection. Despite this prime appearance and a further performance on BBC2's trendy Disco 2, the single didn't chart, although the album did manage to achieve No. 45 in the UK, something Rod's debut album couldn't boast. Two more singles followed in 1970, both of them clearly illustrating the direction Rod and the band were heading. The first was Rod's cover of the Stones hit It's All Over Now - a more energetic version of the song on Gasoline Alley - and the second was the Faces Had Me A Real Good Time. Neither made any impact on the charts.By mid 1970 Rod and the Faces were building up a considerable following in the United States, borne out by the fact that Rod's second solo album Gasoline Alley reached the Top 30 and stayed in the listings for over a year. Back in Britain during the Spring, the Faces had played several gigs without achieving very much, and in the Autumn returned to the States for their first headlining tour. The Faces second album Long Player was released in March 1971 and also made the American Top 30 proving their audience was steadily growing. Even at home they were beginning to cause a stir and the album climbed to No. 31 on the charts, out-performing Rod's second solo effort Gasoline Alley which had only managed No. 62. Fans and critics were beginning to sit up and take notice as a result of their standing in America and the British music press were becoming increasingly interested, regularly featuring interviews with all members of the band. Momentum was growing fast. When Long Player was released, Record Mirror's Bill McAllister declared "The Faces are the best rock 'n' roll band in the world today." However, no one could have possibly predicted what was just around the corner!

To be continued
 

 

That's a good album, but for me some way off being the best involving Roderick. He was at his finest with The Faces, one of their albums is probably in my top ten, which changes from time to time.



Poor George, caught ripping off someone else's song for his biggest hit. I remember John Lennon showing little pity for him. I never could get into Harrison, with his godly this and hare krishna that.

Good luck listening to the last two sides!

 DAY 196.
George Harrison.....................All Things Must Pass   (1970)










Thank Fuck that's over, thon last LP, side 5&6 really was hard going, "Apple Jam!" eh, affy funny Dode, As opined so many times, surely it's only the artists themselves that particularly like, these self indulgent wankfests,


Sides 1, 2, 3 & 4, were for me, like a pretty poor Beatles double album, for a boy who thought he got a pretty bum deal from Lennon & McCartney, I found he didn't stray very far from their styles, and on that subject judging by this offering, I make them right in keeping his stuff at arms length.


Lyrically, his writing was ok, but a tad "woe is me" for this listener, most songs thinly veiled mutterings of "I feel so hard done by,"  you want to spare a thought for poor old Ringo, he ended up being a talkin' train and getting shit from "The Fat Controller"


Anyways, only a couple of tracks I'd want to listen to again, the Dylan cover "If Not For You" and "My Sweet Lord" the latter with the caveat of having to have a six months gap between listening's, there was far too much slide/pedal guitar on this album for one man to bear, I should think you would have to be an absolute Beatles fanatic to rate this a success, as I said this album for me was like a bad Beatlesque cover band, and will not be joining my record collection.



Bits & Bobs;

 
Harrison started playing guitar at age 13, but only with the help of Paul McCartney did he get good enough to play in a band. Harrison idolized Lennon and McCartney and was happy to get in the band with them. He was not a fast or slick guitarist, but meaty and tasteful, known for making every note count on his guitar parts.


 
Harrison was the youngest member of The Beatles. He was 17 when they went to Hamburg to tour in 1960, and got deported as a result.


 
In 1999, a man broke into his house in England and stabbed him in the chest. The attacker was found not guilty by reason of insanity and sent to a mental hospital. This led to tougher anti-stalking laws in England.


 
He was the first Beatle to go on a solo tour. It was his 1974 Dark Horse tour, which didn't go well because fans did not respond well to his opening act, Ravi Shankar, and ironically, he was hoarse.


 
His first solo album, All Things Must Pass, was made up mostly of songs he had written for The Beatles that did not make the cut. He had so much material he was able to make it a triple album. The second and third disks are now included on the same CD because there's more space.


 
He divorced his first wife, Pattie, in 1974. She soon started dating Eric Clapton, who she married 5 years later. Clapton and Harrison remained good friends.


 
Harrison loved gardening. "He'd garden at nighttime, he'd garden at midnight... he'd be out there squinting because he could see at midnight, you could see the moonlight and the shadows. And that was his way of not seeing any of the weeds and imperfections that plagued him during the day. So he was able to imagine what it would look like when it was done." - Dhani Harrison.



 
He organized the first major benefit concert for another country in 1971 when he put on the Concert For Bangladesh, which took place August 1st in Madison Square Garden. Guest stars included Eric Clapton and Bob Dylan.



 
He had a love of Eastern music and unusual instruments. He learned the Sitar from Indian musician Ravi Shankar


.
In 1985, he produced the movie Shanghai Surprise, starring Madonna and her then-husband, Sean Penn.


 
He was the first Beatle to come to America. His sister Louise lived in Illinois, and went to visit her in 1963. In February 1964, he returned with the other Beatles and began a very successful stay in the US.


 
George died of lung cancer at age 58. Three years earlier, he was treated for throat cancer.


 
George took up the ukulele and carried several around with him everywhere he went. He handed Tom Petty a ukulele and left about four ukes at Tom's house, saying they might need them later. Tom went on to write and record songs on the uke.


 
For a short time, he was the brother-in-law of Mick Fleetwood. His first wife Patti Boyd had a younger sister named Helen Mary who was for a time the wife of Mick Fleetwood. Helen Mary, who was nicknamed "Jenny" after one of Patti's childhood dolls, was the muse for Donovan's hit "Jennifer Juniper." After divorcing Fleetwood (and remarrying and redivorcing him), Jenny eventually married Ian Wallace (formerly a drummer in the prog rock band KingCrimson), earned a Ph.D. in psychology, and became a clinical consultant and author.


 
George met his second wife, Olivia Arias, on the phone. She worked as a assistant for his Dark Horse Records. He thought she was interesting and he looked her up with a friend of his and decided to go to L.A. to meet her. They they had a son named Dhani and got married.


 
George revealed in a 2000 press conference to promote the Beatles Anthology book that he had asked Paul McCartney to play on his new album. He joked, "I heard he's had some hits." But later that year, George signed a new deal with EMI which allowed him to re-mix all of his old albums and he spent the rest of the year re-mixing and adding newer versions of songs on All Things Must Pass for the 2001 re-release. He pushed back working on the new album until 2001, but by then he had a cancer relapse and couldn't complete it. The album was finished after George's death by Jeff Lynne and George's son Dhani and was called Brainwashed. George's working title had been "Portrait of a Leg End."


 
He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame twice: as a solo artist in 2004, and as a member of The Beatles in 1988.


 
At the time of his death, his family released a statement that read: "He left this world as he lived in it, conscious of God, fearless of death, and at peace, surrounded by family and friends. He often said, 'Everything else can wait but the search for God cannot wait, and love one another.'"


 
Sir George Martin told the Beatles when he first began working with them that they should feel free to speak up and tell him if they didn't like any of his contributions. George rose to the challenge and told Sir George Martin that he didn't like his tie.


 
"By having the money we found that money wasn't the answer. Because we had lots of material things that people sort of spend their whole life to try and get. We managed to get them at quite an early age. And it was good, really, because we learned that that wasn't it. We still lacked something. And that thing is what religion tries to give to people."--George Harrison on the Beatles' commercial success. Quoted from the documentary The Material World.



 
George first tried LSD while eating dinner with Paul McCartney and their dentist. Paul and George were unaware that the drug was in their coffee.


 
While tripping, George was inspired by an odd thought that wouldn't leave him alone--the phrase "Yogis in the Himalayas."


 
George called Ravi Shankar the only person who impressed him--and the only person who'd never tried to impress him.


 
He visited the legendary San Francisco hippie haven, the Haight-Ashbury district, during the 1960's. He was expecting counterculture gypsies and spiritual awakenings, but described the scene as being really much more related to addiction. At that point he turned inward and focused on meditation instead of hallucinogens.


 
On the dissolution of the Beatles in 1970, George remarks that the band had become creatively stifling for them, and he had no ill will toward anyone for leaving - he too wanted out.


 
Phil Spector remembers George Harrison as a very obviously spiritual person, but in an authentic earthy way. "Without the salesmanship."


 
When EMI pulled the plug on funding for The Life of Brian, George mortgaged his house and put up four million dollars so the Monty Python boys could make the film.


 
Toward the end of his life, George became much less willing to attend award banquets and such. He preferred to meditate and work in his garden.


 
During his final weeks of life, George offered to go to Boston with Ringo during because Ringo's daughter was being treated for a brain tumor.


 
A 10-foot tall pine tree planted in memory of George Harrison near Los Angeles' Griffith Observatory in 2004 lived for 10 years. Ironically it died after being infested by — wait for it — beetles.




My Sweet Lord


This was Harrison's first single as a solo artist, and it was his biggest hit. The song is about the Eastern religions he was studying.




Highly unusual for a hit song, Harrison repeats part of a Hindu mantra in the lyric when he sings, "Hare Krishna... Krishna, Krishna." When set to music, this mantra is typically part of a chant, that acts as a call to the Lord. Harrison interposes it with a Christian call to faith: "Hallelujah" - he was pointing out that "Hallelujah and Hare Krishna are quite the same thing."




In the documentary The Material World, Harrison explains: "First, it's simple. The thing about a mantra, you see... mantras are, well, they call it a mystical sound vibration encased in a syllable. It has this power within it. It's just hypnotic."


 
In 1976, Bright Tunes Music sued Harrison because this sounded too much like the 1963 Chiffons hit "He's So Fine." Bright Tunes was controlled by The Tokens, who set it up when they formed the production company that recorded "He's So Fine" - they owned the publishing rights to the song.




During the convoluted court case, Harrison explained how he composed the song: He said that in December 1969, he was playing a show in Copenhagen, Denmark, with the group Delaney and Bonnie, whose piano player was Billy Preston (who contributed to some Beatles recordings). Harrison said that he started writing the song after a press conference when he slipped away and started playing some guitar chords around the words "Hallelujah" and "Hare Krishna." He then brought the song to the band, who helped him work it out as he came up with lyrics. When he returned to London, Harrison worked on Billy Preston's album Encouraging Words. They recorded the song for the album, which was released on Apple Records later in 1970, and Harrison filed a copyright application for the melody, words and harmony of the song. Preston's version remained an album cut, and it was Harrison's single that was the huge hit and provoked the lawsuit, which was filed on February 10, 1971, while the song was still on the chart.




In further testimony, Harrison claimed he got the idea for "My Sweet Lord" from The Edwin Hawkins Singers' "Oh Happy Day" not "He's So Fine."




When the case was filed, Harrison's manager was Allen Klein, who negotiated with Bright Tunes on his behalf. The case was delayed when Bright Tunes went into receivership, and was not heard until 1976. In the meantime, Harrison and Klein parted ways in bitter fashion, and Klein began consulting Bright Tunes. Harrison offered to settle the case for $148,000 in January 1976, but the offer was rejected and the case brought to court.




The trial took place February 23-25, with various expert witnesses testifying. The key to the case was the musical pattern of the two songs, which were both based on two musical motifs: "G-E-D" and "G-A-C-A-C." "He's So Fine" repeated both motifs four times, "My Sweet Lord" repeated the first motif four times and the second motif three times. Harrison couldn't identify any other songs that used this exact pattern, and the court ruled that "the two songs are virtually identical." And while the judge felt that Harrison did not intentionally copy "My Sweet Lord," that was not a defense - thus Harrison was on the hook writing a similar song without knowing it.




Assessing damages in the case, the judge determined that "My Sweet Lord" represented 70% of the airplay of the All Things Must Pass album, and came up with a total award of about $1.6 million. However, in 1978 Allen Klein's company ABKCO purchased Bright Tunes for $587,000, which prompted Harrison to sue. In 1981, a judge decided that Klein should not profit from the judgment, and was entitled to only the $587,000 he paid for the company - all further proceeds from the case had to be remitted back to Harrison. The case dragged on until at least 1993, when various administrative matters were finally settled.




The case was a burden for Harrison, who says he tried to settle but kept getting dragged back to court by Bright Tunes. After losing the lawsuit, he became more disenfranchised with the music industry, and took some time off from recording - after his 1976 album Thirty Three & 1/3, he didn't release another until his self-titled album in 1979. He told Rolling Stone, "It's difficult to just start writing again after you've been through that. Even now when I put the radio on, every tune I hear sounds like something else."


 
This was recorded at Abbey Road studios using the same equipment The Beatles used. There were some familiar faces at the sessions who had contributed to Beatles albums, including John Lennon, Yoko Ono, Billy Preston and Eric Clapton. Bobby Whitlock was friends with Harrison and Clapton, and played keyboards on the album. When we spoke with Whitlock, he shared his thoughts:




"That whole session was great. George Harrison, what a wonderful man. All the time that I ever knew him, which was from 1969 to his passing, he was a wonderful man. He included everyone on everything he did because there was enough for all."




Whitlock adds, "All during the sessions, the door would pop open and in would spring three or four or five Hare Krishnas in their white robes and shaved heads with a pony tail coming out the top. They were all painted up, throwing rose petals and distributing peanut butter cookies."


 
This was the first #1 hit for any Beatle after the band broke up. Harrison was the first Beatle to release a solo album. He came out with Wonderwall Music, a soundtrack to the movie Wonderwall, in 1968.


 

When this song was released, the phrase "Hare Krishna" was associated with a religious group called the International Society for Krishna Consciousness, whose members would often approach passengers in airports, seeking donations and trying to solicit members. Individuals in this group became popularly known as "Hare Krishnas," with a generally negative connotation.




Artists who record chant music often face a negative reaction from listeners who don't understand the mantras. When we spoke with Krishna Das, the leading American chant musician, he explained: "'My Sweet Lord' is very clear and very beautiful, but the problem is that English has been appropriated by Western religion and it's very hard to talk about spiritual things in a song that doesn't get too 'organized religion-y,' you know? And then you get a lot of people who have a negative reaction to that as well. You can get a lot of negativity from the organized religion people. Like, 'This isn't our Jesus. This isn't the way it is.'"


 
Phil Spector produced this and sang backup. With the blessing of Harrison and John Lennon (and over the objections of Paul McCartney), Spector produced the last Beatles album, Let It Be.


 
Harrison released a new version, "My Sweet Lord 2000," when he reissued All Things Must Pass.


 
Producer Phil Spector thought "My Sweet Lord" was the commercial hit of the album, and everyone else resisted him on that. According to Phil, George and others worried about how the public might react to the religious overtones and the Hare Krishna influence.


 
After Harrison died, this was re-released in the UK, where it once again went to #1. Proceeds from the single went to the Material World Charitable Foundation, which Harrison started in 1973 to support charities that work with children and the poor.


 
George Harrison parodied "My Sweet Lord" during Eric Idle's Rutland Weekend Television Christmas special on December 26, 1975. He turned it into The Pirate Song.


 
Artists to cover this song include Aretha Franklin, Johnny Mathis, Richie Havens, Nina Simone, Peggy Lee and Julio Iglesias. The Chiffons also covered the song in 1975 amidst the plagiarism lawsuit over their song "He's So Fine."



 This was one of several '70s hits used in the 2017 movie Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2.



 

Not an S&G fan, but always think of Half Man Half Biscuit's album when they are mentioned:



And witty guys that they are, with the clever plays on words, their album of 2000 was preceded by the Scrumpy & Western star Trevor Crozier's Trouble over Bridgwater in 1977.



However, I doubt we'll see either of these far superior albums in the experts' 1001!

DAY 197.
Simon And Garfunkel............................Bridge Over Troubled Waters   (1970)




 



I can't think that there's many people who haven't heard this album, so most people reading this will have made up their minds, about what they think of it.

To tell you the truth I was a bit worried about listening to it for the first time in a good twenty years, will it sound dated? not being the type of music I listen to these day would I hate it? I remembered I liked it, or was that just my old memory playing tricks?

Well the resounding answer was no and no and no again, this for me tonight was a thoroughly enjoyable listen, after listening to 15 minute tracks, distortion, feedback, double albums, triple bloody albums and fuds, some of whom are old enough to know better, thinking their Erchie wi' their extended guitary pish, GOD, it was good to listen to some well crafted easy to listen to, great music.


I remember we had this album at home, and I'm sure most households had a copy, and it was about the only album that didn't cause an argument, even my mum and dad liked it, it's lyrically astute, and musically and vocally sublime.


Bridge Over Troubled Water has often been described as a classic, a word that I think gets used too freely in the music industry these days, but in this instance I think they've got it right, even if you don't particularly like Simon And Garfunkel, you have to take your hat off to the skill and craftsmanship that has went into every track.


Anyways, I couldn't pick a favourite track as I don't have one, this album for me comes as the whole package, no tracks vying for pole position, just the perfect blend, and if I can't blag it off my old man, I will buy it, as I think it would be remorseful of any self respecting collection not to include this classic.



Bits & Bobs;




Bridge Over Troubled Waters


Paul Simon wrote this about providing comfort to a person in need. It started as a modest gospel hymn but became more dramatic as he put it together. Speaking in the documentary The Making of Bridge Over Troubled Water, Simon said, "I have no idea where it came from. It came all of the sudden. It was one of the most shocking moments in my songwriting career. I remember thinking, 'This is considerably better than I usually write."


 
Art Garfunkel sang this alone, although he thought Simon should have sung it. Says Simon, "Many times I'm sorry I didn't do it."


 
At first, Simon thought the opening lyrics were too simple: "When you're weary, feeling small.When tears are in your eyes, I will dry them all." He later realized that it was this simplicity that helped give the song a universal appeal.


 
Simon wrote this song with just two verses, considering the song "a little hymn." Garfunkel and producer Roy Halee heard it as more epic, and convinced him to write a third verse, which Paul did in the studio (the "Sail on, Silvergirl part"). This was very unusual for Simon, as he usually took a long time writing his lyrics. Simon's "little hymn" got a grand production, and after hearing it, Paul thought it was too long, too slow and too orchestral to be a hit. Clive Davis at Columbia Records is the one who heard the commercial appeal of the song, and insisted they market it like crazy and use it as the album title.


 
This was one of the few songs to top the US and UK charts at the same time. It was #1 in the US for six weeks, #1 in the UK for three.


 
In 1971, this won five Grammy Awards: Song of the Year, Record of the Year, Best Contemporary Song, Best Engineered Record, and Best Arrangement Accompanying Vocalists. The album also won Album of the Year.


  
Paul Simon said this about the Elvis recording: "It was in his Las Vegas period and done with conventional thinking. He sang it well, but it would have been nice to hear him do it Gospel because he did so many Gospel albums and was a good white Gospel singer. It would have been nice to hear him do it that way, to take it back - as opposed to the big ending; he seemed to end everything with a karate chop and an explosion. So he didn't really add anything to the song. It's not nearly as significant as the Aretha Franklin recording. It's just a pleasure for me that Elvis Presley recorded one of my songs before he died."


 
The production was modeled on Phil Spector's "Old Man River" by The Righteous Brothers. Spector is famous for his "Wall Of Sound" production technique, and when he did "Old Man River," he kept it mostly piano through most of the song but had it end with a flourish of instruments.


 
Simon wrote this song on guitar, and it took about two days to come up with the piano part, which was played by Larry Knechtel, who later joined the soft rock group Bread. Simon, Garfunkel, Knechtel and the album's producer Roy Halee worked together to transform it into a piano piece. Knechtel, who was best known as a bass player, had a background in Gospel music and was able to come up with the Gospel piano sound they were looking for.


 
The line "Sail on, silver girl" is often reputed to refer to a needle (meaning the song is about heroin) but it actually refers to Simon's girlfriend (and later wife) Peggy Harper who found a few gray hairs and was upset. The lyric was meant as a joke - Simon calling her "Silver Girl" because of her hair.


 
Around the time he wrote this, Simon had been listening to a lot of music by the gospel group The Swan Silvertones, which he says subconsciously influenced his decision to put gospel changes in the song. A Swan Silvertones song called "Oh Mary, Don't You Weep" contains the line "bridge over deep water," which may have seeped into Simon's subconscious as well. In 1973,




Simon started writing this In 1969 at a summer house that he and Garfunkel rented on Blue Jay Way in Los Angeles (Garfunkel was in Mexico acting in the film Catch 22 at the time). It was the same house where George Harrison wrote The Beatles song "Blue Jay Way


"
The string section was arranged by Ernie Freeman. After listening to Simon's demo, he made up the arrangements for the musicians, and wrote the song title as "Like A Pitcher of Water." Simon got a kick out of how Freeman didn't even bother listening to the words, and made a framed copy of one of the music sheets with Ernie's title.


 
The song was first broadcast on November 30, 1969 (two months before the album was issued) when it appeared on CBS in a Simon & Garfunkel documentary directed by the actor Charles Grodin, whom Garfunkel met working on the movie Catch-22. The special made a strong political statement, and its sponsor, AT&T, pulled out when they saw a screening. Aired with Alberto V05 as the new sponsor, "Bridge Over Troubled Water" played under scenes of John F. Kennedy, Robert Kennedy and Martin Luther King Jr. and their funeral footage.


  
 
In 2008 it was reported that Paul Simon sued a musical clock company for using this song without permission. His lawyers claimed that Rhythm Watch Co Ltd and its subsidiary had used its tune on 40,000 clocks, making a profit of around $3.7 million.


  
Some of the top Los Angeles session players performed on this track: Joe Osborn on bass and Hal Blaine on drums. Blaine's drums were muted for most of the song, but recorded in an echo chamber for the last part of the song to get the crashing effects. Garfunkel's vocals were added last.


 
Before this song was released, Simon & Garfunkel performed it on a six-city tour in 1969 they embarked on with the session musicians who played on the album as their band. Art Garfunkel would introduce it as a new song, and by the end of each performance there would be rapturous applause. Recordings from this tour were eventually released on their Live 1969 album.


 
 
Bridge Over Troubled Water was the last album Simon & Garfunkel released before they split up. It is the biggest selling ever for Columbia Records.


 
In 2010, the Songwriters Hall of Fame honored this song with its Towering Song Award. At the ceremony, Art Garfunkel said: "Well, here we are, years later, I'm still singing it from town to town, and it's completely alive and fresh to me. There is nothing dated, or any feeling of the past - I love doing it. Thank the Lord the feeling - the goose bumps - constantly checks in every time I do it."


  
The songwriter Dan Wilson wrote: "I might be in the minority, but personally I find Art Garfunkel's voice on 'Bridge' to be disconnected, cool and distant. He sounds so calm and stoned that he's barely touchable, just floating off into the ether. And it's genius. He's not trying to add emotion to the song or compel you to feel anything. He's just soaring on the melody. The song is doing the work. I think that makes the words even more deeply moving."



El Condor Pasa


This song started out as an Andean folk melody that Paul Simon came across in 1969 when he played a week-long engagement at a theater in Paris along with the South American group Los Incas, who played an instrumental version of the song called "Paso Del Condor." Said Simon: "I used to hang around every night to hear them play that. I loved it and I would play it all the time, and then I thought, Let's put words to it."


 
The Peruvian songwriter Daniel Robles recorded this song in 1913, and copyrighted it in the United States in 1933 during his travels in America. When Simon recorded it with his added lyrics, he thought it was a traditional song, as that's what Los Incas told him. When Robles' son filed a lawsuit, Simon had to give Robles a composer credit on the song, with his estate getting those royalties.




In discussing the song, Simon always talks about it as being based on a traditional Peruvian song, and we've never heard him mention Robles. This wasn't the first time Simon got tangled over songwriting credits on traditional melodies: Simon & Garfunkel's Scarborough Fair/Canticle was based on a folk song, but his arrangement came from a singer named Martin Carthy. Simon was always clear on his influences, but legal misunderstandings were a problem in these cases.


 
Los Incas, who were the group that introduced Simon to the song, provided the instrumentation when they recorded it in Paris with Simon. Their leader, Jorge Milchberg, played a charango, which is an Andean string instrument made from the shell of an armadillo. Simon played acoustic guitar, and other members of Los Incas played flutes and percussion. When Simon brought the track to America, he added his lyrics. This was one of the easier songs to record for the Bridge Over Troubled Water album, since the backing track was already mixed together - it was just a matter of adding the vocals.


 
The title translates to English as "The Condor Passes." The lyrics Robles wrote to the song in 1913 are about returning home to his native Peru.


 
Los Incas leader Jorge Milchberg got a composer credit on this song along with Simon and Robles. Milchberg later became the head of the group Urubamba and remained friends with Simon, who toured with them and produced their first American album



The Boxer


In his 1984 Playboy interview, Simon revealed that he wrote this song when critics were writing harsh things about his music - he was the boxer. Said Simon: "I think the song was about me: everybody's beating me up, and I'm telling you now I'm going to go away if you don't stop. By that time we had encountered our first criticism. For the first few years, it was just pure praise. It took two or three years for people to realize that we weren't strange creatures that emerged from England but just two guys from Queens who used to sing rock'n'roll. And maybe we weren't real folkies at all! Maybe we weren't even hippies!"


 
This song took over 100 hours to record, with parts of it done at Columbia Records studios in both Nashville and New York City. The chorus vocals were recorded in a church: St. Paul's Chapel at Columbia University in New York. The church had a tiled dome that provided great acoustics. It was an interesting field trip for the recording crew who had to set up the equipment in the house of worship.




With all this material to work with, a standard 8-track recorder wasn't enough, so the album's producer, Roy Halee, brought Columbia boss Clive Davis into the studio to demonstrate his problem and lobby for a new, 16-track recorder. Davis, who didn't become a legendary record executive by turning down such requests, bought him the new machine.


 
Simon found inspiration for this song in The Bible, which he would sometimes read in hotels. The lines, "Workman's wages" and "Seeking out the poorer quarters" came from passages.


 
Sometimes what is put in as a placeholder lyric becomes a crucial part of the song. That was the case here, as Simon used "Lie la lie" in place of a proper chorus because he couldn't find the right words. Other examples of placeholders that worked include the "I know" chorus in "Aint No Sunshine" and Otis Redding's whistling in "(Sittin' On) The Dock Of The Bay."




In a 1990 interview with SongTalk magazine, Simon said: "I thought that 'lie la lie was a failure of songwriting. I didn't have any words! Then people said it was 'lie' but I didn't really mean that. That it was a lie. But, it's not a failure of songwriting, because people like that and they put enough meaning into it, and the rest of the song has enough power and emotion, I guess, to make it go, so it's all right. But for me, every time I sing that part, I'm a little embarrassed."




Simon added that the essentially wordless chorus gave the song more of an international appeal, as it was universal.


 
The legendary session drummer Hal Blaine created the huge drum sound with the help of producer Roy Halee, who found a spot for the drums in front of an elevator in the Columbia offices. As recounted in the 2011 Making of Bridge Over Troubled Water documentary, Blaine would pound the drums at the end of the "Lie la lie" vocals that were playing in his headphones, and at one point, an elderly security guard got a big surprise when he came out of the elevator and was startled by Blaine's thunderous drums.


 
The opening guitar lick came courtesy of the session player Fred Carter Jr., who Simon hired to play on the track. Simon would often use another guitarist to augment his sound.




The Only Living Boy In New York



Paul Simon wrote this song about his partner Art Garfunkel going to Mexico to act in a movie called Catch-22, which was directed by Mike Nichols, who gave Simon & Garfunkel a big boost when he featured their songs in his 1967 film The Graduate. Simon was also going to be in the film, but Nichols cut his part, which separated the duo. Garfunkel spent months working on the film while Simon returned to New York, where he toiled away on the Bridge Over Troubled Water album. He expresses his frustration in this song: "Here I am, the only living boy in New York."




Simon sent letters to keep in touch with Garfunkel and update him on the album's progress. Up to that point, the pair had always partnered musically and shared a bond, which was now breaking. Simon & Garfunkel split up after the album was released; Paul recorded as a solo artist, and Art pursued his acting career.


 
Regarding the lyrics, "Tom get your plane right on time. I know that your eager to fly now," before the folk duo became famous, they were known as Tom and Jerry. Tom was Art's stage name, so this line symbolizes their increasing need for musical and personal freedom.


 
In a 1990 interview with SongTalk magazine, Simon said: "I liked the 'aaahhhs,' the voices singing 'aaah.' That was the best I think that we ever did it. It was quite a lot of voices we put on, maybe twelve or fifteen voices. We sang it in the echo-chamber."


 
This song was addressed during a screening of the Simon & Garfunkel documentary Songs of America. At the screening, Garfunkel said, "I had Paul sort of waiting: 'All right, I can take this for three months. I'll write the songs, but what's the fourth month? And why is Artie in Rome a fifth month? What's Mike [Nichols] doing to Simon & Garfunkel?' And so there's Paul in the third month, still with a lot of heart, writing about, 'I'm the only living boy in [New York]. You used to be the other one."


  
The session musician Joe Osborn played an 8-string bass on this track, which the album's producer Roy Halee said was the featured musical element of the song. Years later, when Osborn tried to relearn his part to demonstrate it, he realized it was very difficult to reproduce live, as Halee spliced together various takes for the recording.



Song for the Asking


Lasting just 1:39, this is the last song on Bridge Over Troubled Water. It's a solo piece by Paul Simon; the only one on the album with just his voice. There is a note of contrition in the song, Simon explained in the Making of Bridge Over Troubled Water documentary, "That's just to say I haven't forgotten what I did. I was not an angel, that's for sure."


 Including this song at the end of the album helped balance out the voices of Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel. Unlike their previous albums, they sang separately on many of the tracks, with Garfunkel singing the majority of the title track and all the verses of "So Long, Frank Lloyd Wright." Separating their voices meant that each singer could have a distinct personality on the album, which is how the Beatles often recorded.

 

DAY 199.
Traffic........................................John Barleycorn Must Die   (1970)









The reduction of pressure after Blind Faith helped Steve Winwood overcome a writing block. Capaldi, his lyricist of choice, also contributed drums, whilw Wood brought tto the mix his facility on sax and flute   the latter adding a pastoral touch to the title track, an adaptation of a traditional folk song about the evils of alcohol. A scorn for all things commercial was conveyed by the opening 13-minute medley   of "Glad," a piano-led instrumental, and "Freedom Blues".


Understandably (I hope) got absolutely hammered after that heap of shite last night , so will do double tonight.

DAY 198.
Cat Stevens.....................................Tea For The Tillerman   (1970)








"Tea For The Tillerman" was a pretty good album, mainly guitar, piano and strings, which made for a quite melodic thirty odd minutes, lovely lyrics, and a sort of chameleon voice fitting  the varied tracks.


"Where Do the Children Play?" the opening track seemed a nice easy going track, but if you listen to the lyrics you'll find it's a protest song, asking questions about what's going to be left given all the technological advances, and what cost will it have, remember this was 1970, whether I wasn't listening (which could well be the case) or it just wasn't a thing that a boy from Fintry picked up on, I really can't remember anyone talking about it then, mind you I was only 12, but my kids have had it drummed into them from pre-school, but a great opening track.


The other stand out tracks for me were, "Wild World," "Sad Lisa" and ."Longer Boats."
"Father and Son"  is a superb song, but I hate that a boy band covered this and knocked the gloss off it for me, it's probably just me, but I sometimes put myself off of a song for the most bizarre reasons.


All in all a good album, pleasant enough but must admit I liked his earlier stuff a bit better, as a matter of fact I already have a greatest hits CD of Cat Stevens so this album wont be added to my collection


Bits & Bobs;


His birth name is Steven Demetre Georgiou. He became a Muslim and changed name to Yusuf Islam in 1977 after his brother gave him a copy of the Koran. The name comes from the prophet Joseph, who was interpreter of dreams.


 
He is a talented painter. He painted the images used on his albums Teaser And The Firecat, Tea For The Tillerman and Mona Bone Jakon.


 
Stevens was born in London. He was popular in England years before catching on in America.


 
Some radio stations boycotted his records in 1989 after he supported the call for Salman Rushdie's execution for defaming the prophet in the book The Satanic Verses. He said he was simply following The Koran.


 
He has five children.


 
In 1968, he got Tuberculosis. After a long recovery, he started writing less commercial and more introspective songs. Cat Stevens recalled to Mojo:

"I was smoking a lot. Dope as well but mostly cigarettes. So then along came this disease and I was stuck with it. It was a kind of godsend in a way for me. That period was my blossoming into who I wanted to be."


 
He would have had better UK chart position for many of his hits, but Island Records did not promote his singles much in England to encourage people to buy his albums.


 
In 1979, he auctioned off his guitars and gave the money to charity in an effort to show his devotion to Islam.


 
He negotiated the freedom of 4 English prisoners from Iraq after the Gulf War in 1990.


 
He organizes and supports Muslim schools in England.


 
In 2001, he released a boxed set containing 79 tracks, most of which he recorded before becoming a Muslim. He donated the proceeds to charity in light of the terrorist attacks on America.


 
His parents were Stavros, who was Greek, and Ingrid, who was Swedish. When he converted to the Islamic religion, he was going against his family's faith, which ticked them off.


 
Yusuf Islam explained to Uncut magazine regarding his Cat Stevens stage name: "My girlfriend at that time, Christine, said to me one day 'You look so much like a cat.' That kind of stuck. At the same time there were films around like What's New Pussycat? and Cat Ballou."




"So, yeah, it just stuck and then I just kept my first name, Steven and tagged Cat on to it."




"Where Do the Children Play?



In this anti-pollution song, Cat Stevens admits that we've progressed a long way through technological advances. However in doing so, he protests that we have destroyed much of our environment by trucks "pumping petrol gas" and by the building over and cementing of children's play areas in cities.



"Wild World"


Stevens wrote this about searching for peace and happiness in a crazy world. There was some speculation that much of the song was a message to Patti D'Arbanville, an actress he had been dating. Stevens cleared this up when he spoke about the song on The Chris Isaak Hour in 2009. Said Stevens: "I was trying to relate to my life. I was at the point where it was beginning to happen and I was myself going into the world. I'd done my career before, and I was sort of warning myself to be careful this time around, because it was happening. It was not me writing about somebody specific, although other people may have informed the song, but it was more about me. It's talking about losing touch with home and reality - home especially."


 
This was a #8 UK hit for Jimmy Cliff three months before Stevens released his version. Cliff explained to Mojo magazine July 2012 that Stevens produced his cover. "I felt an affinity with Cat Stevens," he said. "They tried to market him as a rock act and like me, he was more than that and one day I went to the publisher and he played me this demo of 'Wild World' and he told me that Steve (Cat's real name) had written it but he didn't like it. I loved it right away so he called up Steve and put me on the phone to him. Steve asked what my key was, I said and he started playing guitar down the phone, He said we have to record it together so he went in and did the track and I went in the following day, helped put on the backing voices with Doris Troy and then it was time to put my voice on and Steve directed me to sing the high notes. He was a really good producer and it was a big hit."


  
This was released as a single only in the US. Stevens' European label, Island Records, wanted to encourage people to buy the albums rather than the 45s.


 
This was one of the songs that convinced Stevens, now known as Yusuf Islam, to release a boxed set of his songs in 2001. He stopped making secular music in 1979, but came to realize that people find strength and inspiration in the songs he recorded as Cat Stevens.


 
This was Stevens' first song to chart in the US.


 
In an interview with Mojo magazine June 2009, the comment was made that lyrically this song has "an uninhibited simplicity." Stevens responded: "It was one of those chord sequences that's very common in Spanish music. I turned it around and came up with that theme- which is a recurring theme in my work- which is to do with leaving, the sadness of leaving, and the anticipation of what lies beyond. There is a criticism sometimes of my music, that it's kind of naïve, but then again that's exactly why people like it. It goes back to the pure childish approach of seeing things almost for the first time. A kid can say things like, 'Why is a cow?' You shouldn't put those words together! But if you do, then it makes you stop and think."


 
Stevens that this is, "a song about me."


 
TV presenter Jonathan King covered this after he accused the Pet Shop Boys of ripping off the song's melody for their 1987 hit "It's A Sin." He eventually dropped the claim... after the duo sued him and won.





"Longer Boats"


The simple lyrics disguise the theme. In Greek mythology, the souls of the departed were carried across the river Styx to an afterlife: heaven or hell. The passage across the river was by boat, and the pilots were Tillermen (Tea for the Tillerman). The catch is, which way were the boats going? Were they long, longer or longest boats? Stevens uses this riddle to leave uncertainty about which boat to catch.


 
The verses discuss the "price" of the trip - what gets you into heaven or keeps you out. You can believe the (virgin) Mary and the parson (Rev. CL Dodgson – from Alice, remember he told the story while boating) are committing the original sin if you want to, but I think Stevens is suggesting they are innocent, as is the flower in the second verse. It's just another name for God. Steven's believes that all religions serve this God: Christianity, Buddhism and Islam.


 
The moral of this song is, hold on to innocence, it is the "key to the door." It is a very old moral and Stevens isn't the only poet to use it in this (or any other) century. Dylan has referred to it as well, in "Shelter From The Storm" when he describes Christ's conversation on the cross, with "I offered up my innocence." Since Milton in Paradise Lost, poets have bemoaned the price that was paid when Adam took a bite out of the apple and exchanged innocence for self-knowledge. There are poets that take the opposite view: That independence and free will are better than slavery in the service of a God. Joni Mitchell – "Don't Interrupt the Sorrow," "Hissing of Summer Lawns," Peter Gabriel - "Blood of Eden," "Secret Place," Ian Anderson (Jethro Tull) – almost any song from Aqualung. Another example is "Youngstown," from The Ghost of Tom Joad by Bruce Springsteen. The ending of this song defiantly salutes common humanity (I'm taking it out of context a little, I'm sure Springsteen didn't intend it to be anti-Christian) - "When I die don't want no part of heaven, I'd not do heaven's work well, I pray the devil comes and takes me, to stand in the fiery furnaces of hell."


 

According to Q Magazine this song was inspired by an alien encounter. Stevens recounted to a journalist in 1973 lying in bed, seeing a flying saucer and being "sucked" into it. (telt yis aboot the probing, that was going on )





On The Road To Find Out



This is about a young man who wants to see the world for himself, so he sets out on a journey into the world where he can clear his mind and see what he can discover.


 
"On The Road To Find Out" was inspired by a deep spiritual emptiness in the composer's life. He was not writing about traveling in a literal sense but in finding out who he was and the purpose if any of his existence. Cat Stevens had fame and fortune thrust upon him at an early age, and like so many people in a similar position he looked at what he'd accomplished and realized it had brought him neither happiness nor peace of mind. This was one of the songs he wrote after recovering from tuberculosis, a disease that had all but been eradicated in the Western world by the time he contracted it, and which in his case was caused by personal neglect and fast living.
In 1977, he converted to Islam after several years of serious contemplation of religion. He played his final concert in November 1979 then withdrew totally from music for over two decades. In 2004, after his return as Yusuf Islam, he featured in a TV documentary where he told presenter Alan Yentob that his songs were a narrative to his life – none more so than "On The Road To Find Out."


 
The last couplet reads "...the answer lies within, so why not take a look now? Kick out the Devil's sin, pick up, pick up a good book now."
When asked about this he told Yentob that – as far as he recalled - he had originally written "pick up the Good Book now" - an obvious allusion to the Bible, but had altered it to avoid its being taken up by "Bible bashers."




"Father And Son"



This is about a Russian family where the son wants to join the revolution but his father wants him to stay home and work on the farm. Stevens made up the story, but his relationship with his own father was an influence on the song. When he appeared on The Chris Isaak Hour in 2009, Stevens said: "He was running a restaurant and I was a Pop Star, so I wasn't following the path that he laid out. But we certainly didn't have any antagonism between us. I loved him and he loved me."


 
The dialogue between father and son hints at Stevens' lonely childhood. The song contains a lyrical trick of verse and chorus sung by different people with different perspectives on the situation.


 
 
This was released as the B-side of Stevens' hit "Moonshadow."


 
The producers of the 2001 movie Moulin Rouge wanted to use this in the film and had some of the actors record it, but Stevens would not let them because the racy content of the movie clashed with his Muslim beliefs. Much of the plot was based on the song, and the script had to be rewritten when Stevens refused permission. The song "Nature Boy," sung by David Bowie, was used instead.


 
On The Flaming Lips' 2002 album Yoshimi Battles The Pink Robots, there is a song called Fight Test that sounds a lot like this. In 2003, the song was released as a single in the UK and got a lot of attention. Faced with a lawsuit, The Flaming Lips agreed to split the royalties from "Fight Test" with Stevens.



 




  

 


 

DAY 200.
The Stooges......................Fun House       (1970)








Following The Stooges widely panned debut, Elektra assigned a lowly staff producer for "Fun House." However Don Gallucci would prove to be an excellent choice; an experienced session man who had played organ on The Kingsman's "Louie Louie" aged 14, he advised The Stooges to capture their infamous live show, a riot of sinful riffage and frontman Iggy Pop's drug-addled misadventures with cream pies and broken glass, in the studio.


The Stooges set up their gear at Elektra like they were playing a club, Iggy prowling as if on stage. Sessions were bridged by parties at the wild and seedy Tropicana Motel, and the surrounding mania seeped deep into the tracks.


 

 Just a quick thank you, as we have reached 200 days I thought I would check the views to album average, and it works out at 100 views a day.


So big thank you to all who have looked in, and to everyone who has posted replies you know who you are

It would also be good to hear comments from anyone else who views, as I keep saying there's no right or wrong comment, just your opinion, and that, I would  be interested to hear! 

Last edited by arabchanter (26/2/2018 10:31 am)

Just catching up.

'Bridge Over Troubled Water' is a bloody good album with some very well crafted songs.

The title track itself for me remains timeless.

'Tea For The Tillerman' is an album i also like. Always thought Cat Stevens was a bit underated.

Not much knowledge of the Traffic or James Taylor albums but will check them out.