Jet Set Willy / Fiddler On The Roof

If you have no idea what the above title means, then i'm afraid that i'm not going to be the one to enlighten you. It's the kind of thing you're better off not knowing. This happened because yesterday there was a short conversation about old games platforms and my old 48k came into it.

Oscar Brown, Jr. - Dat Dere

ORIGINATION 7"
LAST LISTENED TO last night
CHANCE OF WAKING TO IT pretty good
RATING

It's a nice piece of vocal jazz, all about a wee boy asking his dad endless questions. Sometimes the questions get wild, like Daddy can i have that big elephant over there. It's a touching song by a father who wants to set his kid on a good path into life, with a main melody supplied by a piano. The supporting cast features a muted trumpet that underscores the vocal lines in a few sections, and some relaxed drumming and percussion. A simple song that, unusually for jazz, has vocals instead of solos, indeed they are a direct replacement here.

Fried Eggs

Ok. I know i wrote a while back that this wasn't the place for my own stuff, but rules are made to be broken and if there is one thing in life i can be sure of, it is never to say never to anything. Apart from having a mullet. I'll never do that, i am quiet certain. Quiet at the back! I have NEVER had one. Yes, i know when it grew in back in my teen metal days it looked a bit like i did, but i didn't. Really. Ok?

Ricky and I have been working on some new songs. It's been about ten years since we first worked together, although to be fair there was a fairly large gap when we were both doing other stuff. In fact, those ten years were probably more gap than music, but i digress. We're been making new stuff and this time it's mostly us playing. We're got kit and we're loving playing it.

This tune was started last friday and finished on monday. It's working title came from being started on a friday: friday, fried day, fried eggs, see? Words are really not our strong point. Which is also why we haven't got a name for ourselves (suggestions are welcome).

So, do let us know what you think.

[repetition]

Look, it was only yesterday. No fair. Better tomorrow please.

Laura Lee - Crumbs Off My Table

ORIGINATION I'm A Good Woman - Funk Classics From Sassy Soul Sisters
LAST LISTENED TO last night
CHANCE OF WAKING TO IT screaming satellites
RATING

It's funky and it's about not getting it. You know: it. You do.

The song starts with a swelling brass and wah wah intro, which is always going to go down well. As is the great key change leading into the bridge before the first chorus. The chorus, like many of the lyrics, are suggestively colourful: You've got me hungry for your lovin' - you ain't able / All you want to give me is the crumbs off your table. Such is the manner of the song.

Sadly at a minute and a half it all unravels, when a drum and bass break cuts in. Admittedly, it does build back up over the next minute but it feels like time wasting and it's too much of a drop down, without enough of a build up either before it or after. It kills the heart of the song stone dead. Not only that, but it's also a wasted opportunity for the kind of mischievous groaning sounds that we know all funkers love to make in these breaks, especially considering the subject of the song. If you're going to make a song that is already well down the lewd path, why chicken out half way down it? The song has such promise, so it's quite a let down. Even the ever-pleasing peal of the wah wah isn't enough to rescue this.

If it was only two and a half minutes, it might've gotten an extra star. Sadly, it just goes on that minute too far.

The Beatles - Come Together

ORIGINATION Abbey Road
LAST LISTENED TO mostly quite a while ago
CHANCE OF WAKING TO IT fair
RATING

See, the thing was, i heard a sample of this yesterday and i heard it many times, so it was bound to stick. Well, sort of.

It's the Beatles at their funkiest with a chunk of lyrics knicked from Chuck Berry's You Can't Catch Me and probably the finest bass line that McCartney ever produced. I 'm writing nothing else about him now. See? No mention of frogs. Let us just forget about the last 36 years and remember the Beatles at their best.

Distraction

This morning i was a bit distracted when i woke up and i completely forgot to pay attention to the little songs in my head. I do remember that there were a lot of them and, being that i saw a big band yesterday, there's a good chance Glenn Miller was involved in it somewhere. On which subject i ask, why do big bands, in this country at least, always insist on playing Glenn Bloody Miller (and almost nothing else). It's as if none of them have ever heard of Duke Ellington of Count Basie, to name but two. Honestly. Bloody whitewash.

Ricky

Today doesn't count. What i had was a guitar riff that Ricky was playing yesterday on a song we were working on. So not only is it not even a finished song, but it is one of my own and they don't get a mention here.

Ennio Morricone - Farewell To Cheyenne

ORIGINATION Once Upon A Time In The West
LAST LISTENED TO yesterday
CHANCE OF WAKING TO IT mucho high
RATING

It's back again. It can be found here.

Office bugs

Today i woke with something i had heard from the shared music pool in the office. Not only is it a song that i don't like, but i have no idea who it is by or what it is called and i don't wish to either. In fact, i have removed it from my head already using the patented Morricone magic. It as probably by Richard Ashcroft or some such other nonse.

Nowt

I forgot to remember to forget today. Or whatever. No song number whatever.

Stevie Wonder - Isn't She Lovely

ORIGINATION no idea
LAST LISTENED TO never
CHANCE OF WAKING TO IT should be nil
RATING

No, no, no. The contrast between the extreme goodness and extreme badness of Stevie Wonder's music never ceases to amaze. This is nasty, nasty over-sweetened soul that is enough to make your teeth fall out. Don't go here.

Quiller - General Direction

ORIGINATION 7"
LAST LISTENED TO last night
CHANCE OF WAKING TO IT mighty high
RATING

This one appeared way back in January.

Honey Boy Martin - Dreader Than Dread

ORIGINATION 400% Dynamite
LAST LISTENED TO last week
CHANCE OF WAKING TO IT reasonable
RATING

I really have no idea what this is about. Being that it is rocksteady era Jamaican, there is a good chance that it is about being hard in some way. There's a few things that support this: firstly, there is the song title which could be seen as threatening and secondly the song does contain a threat that 'anyone trying to stop rude boys… will end up dead'. However, the call for unity and the meeting format of the lyrics confuse things.

In fact, that's what this is song is about: a rude boy meeting. It's all so clear now.

Incidentally, the music is a fine piece of loping rocksteady that just rolls along nicely.

Count Basie & His Orchestra - Did You See Jackie Robinson Hit That Ball?

ORIGINATION The RCA Blues & Rhythm Revue (v/a)
LAST LISTENED TO last week
CHANCE OF WAKING TO IT quite good
RATING

It's so nice to finally have the Count here. He was one of the most important band leaders of the swing era, who played with his big band for over fifty years. This song was recorded at the tail end of the swing era, when smaller (and cheaper to run) bands were taking over. Their stripped-down and more raucous sounding, this style became known as rhythm 'n' blues and was as much a child of swing as the blues.

Count Basie And His Orchestra were clearly dipping a toe into that sound with this tune. Whilst it opens with the kind of big brassy fanfare you'd expect, what happens next comes as a surprise: a vocal. We get treated to several verses about the baseball player Jackie Robinson, interspersed with the full band singing the chorus.

The song fits into the smoother end or r'n'b, apart from the short solo section. Here the big band returns to support two short solos, the second of which is taken by a fiery trumpet and is really swinging.

This is not your every day Basie number, but none the less it's a cracker.

Ennio Morricone - Farewell To Cheyenne

ORIGINATION Once Upon A Time In The West
LAST LISTENED TO yesterday
CHANCE OF WAKING TO IT high
RATING

Thanks and respect must be paid to the Ennio Morricone Experience, who are performing at this year's Edinburgh Fringe as the Spaghetti Western Orchestra. Their great performance has filled my head with Morricone for over a week now. If you get a chance you really ought to go see them.

Farewell To Cheyenne (a part of their show that can be see here) is quite a slow tune, whose rhythm is the simple clip-clop of a tired old horse combined with the homely sound of a strummed ukelele.

The main theme is played by a variety of instruments and runs through the whole piece. A piano and some kind of string instrument (the Ennios used a box, stick and string affair) come first, separated into either channel. There's a real jangly, old western saloon sound to the piano, whilst the string sounds twangy and oddly flat. It makes for a light-hearted tune that may not be what you'd expect if you're only familiar with the Dollars 'trilogy' music. However, a change of key and a whistler taking over from the string soon reminds you that it's still Morricone.

Of all his western music, this is probably the closest he ever came to sounding like western music. Or, at least, the music associated with western films before he redefined the whole genre. It's simplicity and air serve to show the range and skill of this prolific composer.

The Monkees - Last Train To Clarksville

ORIGINATION The Best Of The Monkees
LAST LISTENED TO last night
CHANCE OF WAKING TO IT annoyingly high
RATING

I'm never been too sure of the Monkees. It's manufactured pop music, which just doesn't sit right. However, i did enjoy watching their antics as a kid (on repeats, by the way) and they do appear to actually play their own instruments (for at least some of the time). So maybe they're ok and anyway, when you're listening to pop music, it doesn't pay to wave around the 'manufactured' label. You might hit Motown or Stax or even a good deal of Jamiaca, depending on which way the wind is blowing.

Anyway, Last Train To Clarksville has always been one of my preferred Monkee moments. It abounds with a variety of both guitar and vocal hooks and is driven by a simple rhythm that favours the tambourine. Basically, it is as close to being the Beatles as the Monkees ever got which is no bad thing, even if that is what the manufacturers intended. The most interesting part of the Monkees career, however, is that which happened once they broke this particular mould. But that's another story…