Primal Scream - Movin' On Up

ORIGINATION Screamadelica
RECORDED IN 1991
LAST LISTENED TO last night
RATING ★★★★★

It is one of my favourite starts to an album, a guitar riff that I will never confuse for anything else, signalling so much goodness to come. I would have first came across it in the year of its release. I'd have heard it in an indie disco and, knowing who I was back then, may well have sneered at it somewhat. In all likelihood, it was Loaded from the same album that I first came to know. However, two events changed my relationship to Movin' On Up.

To begin with, in the summer of '92 I saw Primal Sceam play a headline set at the Glastonbury festival, at the end of a brilliant sunny day. It was a magical night and even though I may have been perhaps a little tiddly, I remember that I really enjoyed their set, which shook my then particular, silly music clique snobbishness. Once I was home, I am sure I would have sought out the album. The second event happened two summers later, when I was in hospital. I was really quite ill, had dropped in weight to near eight stone and had been on a drip for days, only vaguely conscious. About four or five days into my stay, I was getting better and was at last properly with it, when I realised that I had not listened to any music in almost a week. I recall quite clearly lying in a bed, the only occupant in a strangely circular ward, when I slipped my headphones on and pressed play on my personal stereo. I did not bother to check what was in it, I needed music that badly. Screamadelica was the tape in the machine. As Movin' On Up began to play, I felt relief and joy flood through me and I wept. It moved me in a way almost no song had until that point and for that it will forever remain precious to me.

On Friday I went to see Primal Scream perform Screamadelica in Glasgow. They opened, naturally, with Movin' On Up. As Bobby Gillespie started singing, the audience, breaking from an immense cheer, as one sang along loud enough to near drown him out. It was the beginning to a brilliant gig.

Waking with this in my head the next morning was very much a foregone conclusion. It is a song that I can find not one flaw in, from the perfectly-paced beginning, though Bobby G's slightly off singing and the slide guitar licks, to the gospel choir and the guitar solo. It was a great start to the day.

Barry McGuire - Eve Of Destruction

ORIGINATION 45
RECORDED IN 1965
LAST LISTENED TO March 2010
RATING ★★★★★

I guess all the recent signs and portents in the world have infected my brain. I can't think of any other reason why this classic protest song would appear in my head this morning. It'll be that sinking feeling I get wherever I see a picture of our 'elected' leaders and read about how they're trying to destroy all that we hold dear in society. Happy joy!

Iggy & The Stooges - Search And Destroy

ORIGINATION Raw Power CD
LAST LISTENED TO last night
CHANCE OF WAKING TO IT detonate for me
RATING ★★★★★

I do love The Stooges and this is one of their best. No question. From nine seconds in when James Williamson's first blistering guitar spits in, to Iggy's higher-pitch-than-normal vocals, to the very last bars, it does not let go for one second. It grabs you by the throat and pulls you along for the crazed ride, for three and a half minutes of pure adrenaline rush. There is little else like it and there is only one way to listen to it and that is a speaker cabinet-rattling volume. The neighbours can go take a hike.

Sadly, these days the world we live in intrudes on the cosy memory of revolutions past. Yesterday's artist is today's salesperson. Would that it were not. So now most times when I listen to The Stooges, I can't help but picture Iggy's face on the back of a bus, hawking insurance. I'm so lucky that I do not own a television.

"Here's the deal, folks, you do a commercial, you're off the artistic roll call forever. End of story. Okay? You're another corporate fucking shill, you're another whore at the capitalist gang bang and if you do a commercial, there's a price on your head, everything you say is suspect and every word that comes out of your mouth is now like a turd falling into my drink…" - Bill Hicks

The Doors - Love Street

ORIGINATION Waiting For The Sun CD
LAST LISTENED TO early December 2010
CHANCE OF WAKING TO IT low
RATING ★★★★★

I've been listening to the Doors for twenty years, which is not as long as some have, but long enough. For what it's worth, their debut was the very first CD I bought. Today's song is from their third album, when their initial rush of inspiration was beginning to run thin. It is one of the lightest songs on the album and is neither strong lyrically nor musically. Doors-lite. For all that, it is as indelibly etched onto my brain as most of the rest of their catalogue.

Kiss - God Gave Rock And Roll To You

ORIGINATION Bill & Ted's Bogus Journey
LAST LISTENED TO mayber once about seven years ago
CHANCE OF WAKING TO IT teeny
RATING

I've never been a fan of Kiss. Actually, to be more honest i've just never been too interested. Ok, to be fair there was a brief interest in my days of youth when they were doing their Crazy Nights guff, but that didn't last. Through the joys of the intarwub i have of late found some of their 'classic' works and there have been a few moments of okness. Nothing that has ever really done it for me though.

God Gave Rock And Roll To You i know purely from Bill & Ted's Bogus Journey and once in a while the song's pompous nonsense is moderately enjoyable. I guess pompous nonsense were really Kiss's bywords. At least they are in my head.

Track down a copy of this behemoth, listen to it a few times and then get rid of it. Heaven forbid anyone should think you're a Kiss fan. We all know about Kiss fans.

Further Kiss songs:
Crazy Nights



MEIN GOTT!
Having just looked through the archive, i have noticed that it was Kiss that got me started on this blog some time ago. And, after many months away, it's them that got me at it again. That's not right. What is it about Kiss that makes me want to tell the world i have them in my head. Oh dear hod. That has left a truly disgusting thought in my head of Kiss in my head. I feel sick. Got i hate them now.

It's a purging thing, isn't it? By sharing this crap with the world, it gets it out of my head and i can continue with my day in a normal fashion.

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.

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…

The Who - Baba O'Reilly

ORIGINATION Who's Next
LAST LISTENED TO yesterday
CHANCE OF WAKING TO IT durn good
RATING

It begins with an arpeggiated synth, before a piano and then some excellent open-hat drums break in. For me that's what makes the song: the piano and the rock steady, flashing beats over the burbling synth. Townsend is not particularly evident and why Daltry is banging on about 'a teenage wasteland' holds almost no interest to me whatsoever. To be fair it does sound good, whatever it may mean. In a nutshell: drums, piano, synth.

The Who - Substitute

ORIGINATION Meaty, Beaty, Big & Bouncy
LAST LISTENED TO some time ago
CHANCE OF WAKING TO IT little
RATING

The Who are a band that i've just never got into. I can't explain why, i just haven't. Don't get me wrong, though, there are some songs of theirs that i really like, although i'd guess that it's mostly the obvious ones. This tune, however, i neither particularly like or dislike. It just is. The best thing i can think to write is that the line 'i was born with a plastic spoon in my mouth' has always stuck in my mind.

The Jimi Hendrix Experience - Little Miss Strange

ORIGINATION Electric Ladyland
LAST LISTENED TO during the week
CHANCE OF WAKING TO IT poor
RATING

Little Miss Strange is my least liked Hendrix track bar none. This is mostly because it sounds nothing like a Hendrix tune, for which there is a very good reason: Noel Redding.

Redding was the bass player for the Experience. By '68, he was not happy with his place in the band, especially with the erratic schedule, party atmosphere and multiple takes involved in the recording of Electric Ladyland. Hendrix would often vanish for days on end, when he was supposed to be in the studio and it was during one of these occasions that Redding brought in Little Miss Strange. It became the only new composition on the album that was not written by Hendrix. Further, Redding not only wrote the song and played the bass on it, but he also sings and plays the guitar, with Hendrix's only apparent input was some overdubs on the near-complete track. Consequently, the song stands out nastily on this great album and is the only part that really shows its age.

In the mid '90s, a documentary about the making of this album laid bare much of this. It also shows that Redding still has an axe to grind. He only ever refers to Jimi as 'Hendrix' and he insists that their version of All Along The Watchtower is not as good as Dylan's original (even though i am pretty sure that Dylan himself doesn't). Little Miss Strange was, apparently, only included on the album as a sop to the disgruntled bass player. I am sure i'm not the only one who wishes it hadn't been.

It's a tune that the skip button on CD players was invented for and is lucky to get two stars.

The Rolling Stones - All Down The Line

ORIGINATION Exile On Main Street
LAST LISTENED TO yesterday
CHANCE OF WAKING TO IT pretty good
RATING

It's quite a good song, isn't it? And the album is, of course, rather good too. Famously so. The thing here, though, is that i have never listened to any of the tracks individually. I've only ever listened to the album as a whole. A bit odd, but that's just how it is. Which means for me that, due to the overall high quality of all the tunes, no one stands out above the others. Bits of tunes stand out, sometimes. This is the case for All Down The Line. It has some nice backing vocals and good brass support. Which is all i remember about the song. It's good, but it's not great. Am i being unfair? I hope not.

The Rolling Stones - You Can't Always Get What You Want

ORIGINATION Let It Bleed
LAST LISTENED TO yesterday
CHANCE OF WAKING TO IT mucho high
RATING

This is not my favourite Stones song and it probably never will be. But as a song it is perfectly realised. The slow build up through the gradual addition of instruments is nothing short of perfection. It seems rather pointless to describe fully the whole of this build up, as it is so well known. Instead i will single out a few particular moments that stand out.

First up is the crystal-clear diction of the choir at the opening, which never fails to bring a smile to my lips. This is followed wonderfully with a bare guitar, the sheer simplicity of which almost gives the impression of the song drawing breath before its climb. It also works as a great contrast to the very proper choir. The organ embellishments after the line 'I went down to the Chelsea Drug Store' are restrained but add a lovely touch of soul. Later, with the choir returning for just a few bars in anticipation of the climax, the song just steps up a gear, showing its power and depth. Then there are the piano rolls near the climax and finally the climax itself, particularly Charlie kicking into double time on the fade. Just wonderful.

Today i also noticed for the first time the quietly-mixed bongos that appear a few minutes in, which mesh with the drums to add just one more texture to this complex weave. This depth of layers is just one more great thing about the song.

As i wrote to being with, this is not my favourite Stones song. Only Gimme Shelter or Sympathy For The Devil will ever be that. This song, however, will never be less than third best.

And i've not even mentioned the resignation-to-redemption truth of the lyrics, that the music echoes and which drives home the utter correctness of the song's message: you can't always get what you want, but sometimes, if you try, you might get what you need.

The Rolling Stones - You Got The Silver

ORIGINATION Let It Bleed
LAST LISTENED TO a few days ago
CHANCE OF WAKING TO IT pretty high
RATING

This week was Let It Bleed week. It was on a fairly continuous rotation in the mornings. Funnily enough, You Got The Silver is my least favourite track on the album. Not that that is saying much as in my opinion, Let It Bleed is one of the best Stones albums. It opens on Gimme Shelter (which would probably make my all-time top ten tracks by anyone ever, most days) and ends on You Can't Always Get What You Want, which is not just damned good advice, but also a bloody good song.

You Got The Silver is one of those rare outgings when Keith gets to sings (in fact, it was the first tiime he got a song to himself). His voice is really not all that bad, but you do get the feeling that this is a car with one wheel off. It's the Stones, but not really. Also, i've never been hugely keen on their country-ish style songs, such as this one. It's just a matter of taste, i do realise.

Given all that, i do still like the track. The vocals, for all their roughness, actually fit the down-to-earth feel of the tune. In some ways you can almost hear Jagger singing them, as Richard's phrasing and style clearly echo the singer's. The real star is Richard's slide guitar work, which is really quite pretty, especially over-dubbed on his accoustic strumming. The song is also quite short, building to a satisfying climax that is over and done before you really notice.

The Groundhogs - Split (Part Two)

ORIGINATION Split
LAST LISTENED TO yesterday
CHANCE OF WAKING TO IT reasonable
RATING

The Groundhogs were formed in the mid-'60s, playing mostly as a power-trio led by guitarist and vocalist Tony McPhee. They began playing the blues, but moved into psychedelia and later towards prog. This type of music was quite popular around the band's creative high point at the start of the '70s. They managed to score three hit albums in the UK, but that was as far as it went, as commercially and critically they were judged to be not quite as good as the competition.

Split was one of their most successful albums and on it The Groundhogs were living in the land between blue rock and psychedelia. Evidenced especially in the first side, which contained four tracks named Split - Part One, Two, Three and Four. Of these four tracks, Split - Part Two is the strongest (although not nearly as strong as Cherry Red on the B-side). All three players are in top form here, playing good material that makes great use of their trio grouping. McPhee's guitar is clearly the star of the piece, however there is a beefy presence from both the bass and drums, which are doing more than just supporting the front man.

Lyrically the Split side of the album deals with schizophrenia, which is a topic that can easily fall into cliché. However, the style of playing (and writing) here means that, frankly, it's not all too clear what they're on about. This may or may not be the point. The only obvious reference, other than the disjointed music, is the final vocal on this track – a cry of 'I must get help before I go insane'. The kind of thing i can really do without first thing in the morning.