(same again)

ORIGINATION 45
LAST LISTENED TO yesterday
CHANCE OF WAKING TO IT good
RATING

Dull, dull, dull. Just like last saturday. Bloody hammering neighbour.

New Birth - Grandaddy (Part 1)

ORIGINATION 45
LAST LISTENED TO in the past few days
CHANCE OF WAKING TO IT good
RATING

Another funk 45 that has been spinning around my head since the weekend. It's good.

Wolfsbane - Tears From A Fool

ORIGINATION Live Fast, Die Fast LP
LAST LISTENED TO a few weeks back
CHANCE OF WAKING TO IT confusing
RATING

After almost a week of almost nothing but funk, it came as quite a surprise this morning to wake with this in my head. Especially considering that it is the weakest of all the tunes from this, Wolfsbane's debut release. There are far better and more catchy tracks on it that i really like, why it wasn't one of those, i don't know.

Wolfsbane, for those who are unfamiliar with them, and that's much more likely to be more than less of you, where a small, hard rockin' heavy metalish crew who first hit in '89. They went on to produce three and a half albums. Their singer, Blaze Bailey, then became singer for no less than Iron Maiden during a number of years in the mid to late 90s, before Bruce Dickinson returned.

'Tears From A Fool' is the ballad from their fast, exciting and slightly scuzzy debut. As a ballad on a metal(ish) LP chances are that it'll be crap and it is, kind of. However, it has a strange appeal that is rather hard to discern. Lyrically there are more clichés than even slightly sensible writers would have considered and the old accoustic guitar strumming up to electric guitar solo is a tired formula. Tired and clichéd. Yet, and this is the puzzler, i actually quite like this song. Maybe it's just a soft spot i have for Wolfsbane. Maybe it's nostalgia, i can't tell.

What i can tell is that the song, like most of theirs, is played surprisingly well. For all that Wolfsbane played the part of a scuzzy, half-arsed, layabout metal band, they were actually really tight. Going back to their music after a number of years, i was surprised at how well played it was. There is also humour and humanity in it, traits that most metal sadly lacked. Maybe that's the appeal.

For all this track's clichés and predictability, it's pulled off convincingly and there is something quite appealing about that conviction.

Lemuria - Hunk Of Heaven

ORIGINATION Strange Games & Things
LAST LISTENED TO 9 hours ago
CHANCE OF WAKING TO IT most high
RATING

Laid back 70s soul/funk this morning. Really pretty perfect for waking too.

Lemuria where from Hawaii and recorded this in 1978. Like yestedays song, it was given a tiny release on a tiny label and it duly sank without trace, only to be discovered years later by the rare vinyl hounds. By coincidence, Jazzman records have recently re-issued it. I'm almost tempted to buy it again.

The track features primarily the vocal talents of Sharon ‘Terea’ Robinson who sings the refrain 'I just want a big old hunk of heaven' so many times that it can't fail to stick in your head. She's backed by a lovely combination of percussion, funky moog (think Stevie Wonder) and funky bass. In fact, there's a vibe real close to some of Wonder's best funky grooves of the early 70s here. Only with more percussion. This is really that good. I only needed to hear it once yesterday and it was running round in my head for hours and i was quite happy that it was.

Sugar Hill - Slow Down

ORIGINATION 45
LAST LISTENED TO yesterday
CHANCE OF WAKING TO IT fairly good
RATING

'Slow Down' is a juicy slab of rare funk. It was recorded some time in the mid seventies by a group who were all under 21 years of age. Even younger still was the singer, who was 14 when she recorded this!

For a funk tune it's taken at a pretty fast tempo (perhaps due to the youthful energy) and it's held at that speed by the kind of funky drums and bongos you'd hope for. Along with this, there are some nice organ melodies and a short but sweet guitar solo. On top the vocals are very assured, espscially considering the singer's age.

The track, like so many funk tunes of this ilk, was given a release on a tiny record label and then quickly vanished. In the late 90s, with the interest in funk 45s exploding, it became one of a vast number of sought-after rarities. Luckily, it was re-issued by another small label in 2002 to far greater exposure but this company sadly folded not long after, so it's become a bit of a rarity again. Enjoy.

DJ Kool, Biz Markie, Doug Fresh - Let Me Clear My Throat

ORIGINATION um, dunno
LAST LISTENED TO no idea
CHANCE OF WAKING TO IT curiously good
RATING

A top piece of hip hop but one, sadly, that i know very little about. What i do know is that DJ Kool put together this track out of some timeless breaks, including the famous sax used by The 45 Kings. The reason for me waking to it today is that one of these breaks is from Kool & The Gang's 'Hollywood Swinging', which is the b-side of 'Funky Stuff' and that was one of a marathon run of 45s that Craig and i converted to mp3s yesterday.

Both Biz Markie and Doug E Fresh where guests on this when it was recorded live in a Philadelphia club in 1996 with a very lively crowd. It is party hip hop of the first order.

Metallica - Master Of Puppets

ORIGINATION Master Of Puppets LP
LAST LISTENED TO some time in the past few months
CHANCE OF WAKING TO IT okish
RATING

Argh! I can't put up with this so early on a sunday morning. Don't get me wrong, i do like this. It's arguably one of the best songs from their best album, but i's not at all what i want to hear in my head at a quarter to ten on a sunday morning. I mean, there's not even any milk in the fridge. This morning has gone all wrong, i should just go back to bad now.

AARGHH! I have now put it on. It really is too much for this time of day.

(same again)

ORIGINATION Almost In Love LP
LAST LISTENED TO all day yesterday
CHANCE OF WAKING TO IT still astronomically high
RATING

Yes, really. For two mornings in a row i have woke to the same song. Elvis' Clean Up Your Own Back Yard was again in my head this morning. Which is really rather fortunate as i have no time this morning to pontificate.

Elvis - Clean Up Your Own Back Yard

ORIGINATION Almost In Love LP
LAST LISTENED TO last night
CHANCE OF WAKING TO IT astronomically high
RATING

I can remember thinking before going to bed last night, that listening to this Elvis LP late at night almost guaranteed i was going to wake to it. It's nice to be proved correct on occasion.

This track was recorded in 1968, around the time of Elvis' NBC television special. This was a period of heightened musical quality for the man, after many years of languishing in Hollywood.

'Clean Up…' opens with some slide guitar before a bass refrain starts off a groove that will run through the whole song. The drummer soon kicks in, sounding like he may have been listening to a little laid-back James Brown before the recording, although doesn't quite reach that level. He's backed by some understated rhythm piano, before Elvis come in. A soufull brass section gives Elvis a little call-and-response action before things are topped off with some female choir backing. All in all it's a funky, laid-back vibe in a country-tinged Southern soul style.

Elvis was hardly ever less than great in his recordings. Even when he was recording utter dross (and, lord, there a lot of that), Elvis was always convincing. Here he plays it mean and laid back. Whether this was due to the backing music or because of it is largely irrelevant: the music and singing marry perfectly.

Lyrics were often where Elvis' output in the preceding years often fell flat. Thankfully here the lyrics are a little more robust, essentially pointing out man's foibles and suggesting that they sort themselves out before speaking out about others. To begin with a few specific men are mentioned (a preacher, a drugstore owner, an armchair quarterback), before the lyics move on to this closer:

"When you get right down to the nitty-gritty
Isn't it a pity that in this big city
Not a one a'little bitty man'll admit
He could have been a little bit wrong"

Which seems to me to be a rather broader attack on men in general. Elvis, of course, pulls it off perfectly, to the extent that the inherent irony of the whole song, and the last verse in particular, is unnoticeable. It's a great tune recorded by a man at the peak of his powers. It's just a shame that after his escape from one trashy city, another was to claim him after this.

Georgie Fame - St. James Infirmary

ORIGINATION The Third Face Of Fame LP
LAST LISTENED TO at least more than six months ago
CHANCE OF WAKING TO IT not much
RATING

Maybe i'm just a bit cranky this morning (well more so than usual), but this track just isn't quite doing it for me. Don't get me wrong, it's not a bad song. It's a pretty good version of this everyone-gives-it-a-go blues standard. If fact musically it's a hard to fault. There is an eighteen piece band playing on this and it includes some pretty big names from the British jazz scene of the time (including Ronnie Scott and John McLaughlin).

No, what's not doing for me is Mr. Fame himself. Being that he was primarily an organ player, it comes as no surprise that his voice lacks a certain something. It is, in fact, just a little too nasal and a bit whiny. Which is a real shame, because i do quite like this track. I only wish that Georgie-boy could be a little bit more convincing. He sounds far too lounge-tastic for this kind of blues.

Sadly, the rest of this 1968 LP is similarly unconvincing. A quick scan of the liner notes reveals the problem: the whole LP was planned by others whilst Fame was on tour of the US and doesn't appear to feature him playing his organ anywhere. Wrong, wrong, wrong. This is somewhat akin to having an instrumental Elvis album. I ask you.