Going to talk about an entire album this week as Stax have reissued this. It's from the Stax package tour of Europe in '67 (there are two live compilations available from the tour featuring the likes of Carla Thomas, Sam and Dave, and Booker T and the MGs). Otis Redding is one of the outstanding live performers of all time in my opinion, I can't think of anyone that puts as much emotion into a song as he does in Try a little tenderness. The album features what I believe are the complete sets from the London and Paris (I think I just about prefer the London one...) The Norwegian gig was videoed, see the clips below.
It's sad to think that something like 7 months after these recordings were made Otis died in an aeroplane crash, truly taken from us at the peak of his powers. Given that his biggest hit, Sittin' On the Dock of the Bay, was recorded shortly before his death it is amazing to think what he might have achieved had he lived.
... it has been for new albums. So far I've bought the new Mogwai, the re-issue of Otis Redding "Live in Europe", the new TV on the Radio and the new one from Brightback Morning Light. Go and sell your firstborn to raise funds for a visit to HMV, and I'll be blogging on all 4 albums later in the week.
Woop woop!!! What's that sound? It's the freebie alert here at tightwad towers, that's what that sound is. Full Time Hobby (home to Malcolm Middleton, Fujiya and Miyagi and Sufjan Stevens and others) are giving away a free MP3 sampler featuring Malcolm Middleton, Fujiya and Miyagi and Sufjan Stevens and others. Click Here and sign up to their mailing list.
Tunng - Take Fujiya & Miyagi - Dishwasher Micah P. Hinson - Tell Me It Ain't So White Denim - Mess Your Hair Up Malcolm Middleton - A Brighter Beat The Accidental - Illuminated Red The Hold Steady - Your Little Hoodrat Friend Sufjan Stevens - She Is Viva Voce - Lesson No. 1 Autolux - Turnstile Blues
You know it makes sense. So many onemoredown approved acts gratis!
It was always tough for female soul singers to get noticed - with Aretha Franklin and Diana Ross dominating airplay, many excellent artistes never got the attention they deserved. Bettye Swann is one such singer. Starting out on Money Records, she managed one bona fide hit "Make me yours" in 1967. A year later she moved on to Capitol where her most successful single was "Don't Touch Me" in 1969.
In 1970 she moved to Atlantic, and her output became more influenced by the "Philly Sound". My favourite example of this stage in her career is "Kiss my love goodbye". Dealing with the classic theme of a girl who walks out on her man after catching him cheating on her, Bettye's vocal is subtly restrained, allowing the strings to drive the song.
Momma didn't raise no fool:
Unfortunatley there doesn't seem to be a collection of her Atlantic output currently available, so you'll need to search out compilations with songs from this period on.
Like, I suppose, pretty much any music fan who had a large music collection in 2005 I am engaged in a never ending quest to rip it all into iTunes (I know there are other music players, but I own a mac... what do you expect me to use).
Tonight I dug out my copy of Cold Water Music by Aim. It's pretty much the perfect soundtrack to a lousy Friday night in... Actually it's a pretty damn fine album all round. Lazy hip-hop beats, incisive raps, horror film samples, what more could you want?
The title track sets the scene perfectly with a claustrophobic tune that brings to mind a late night journey on the London underground - with just the merest hint of fear mixed in.
There are a few notable guest vocalists roped in for the album, including Kate Rogers on Sail, a song in which a former lover "could have saved my soul" but didn't...
And of course the albums obsession with fear and death is taken to an extreme conclusion with the Halloween sampling Demonique...
Legendary producer and writer Norman Whitfield died overnight aged 67. He was involved with many of Motown's classics, notably co-writing "I heard it through the grapevine" with Marvin Gaye and "War" for Edwin Starr.
For me it is his work with the Temptations that stands out, particularly the "psychedelic soul" era around 1970. Taking cues from funk and 60s rock, Whitfield and the Temps produced hits including Papa was a Rolling Stone and Just My Imagination (Running away with me). Whitfield co-wrote most of those songs with Barrett Strong of course before taking the producers chair as they moved into the studio.
He left Motown in the early 70s, setting up his own label where he worked with Rose Royce, writing and producing Car Wash for the film of the same name.
The first in what I hope will be a regular series talking about some of my favourite soul cuts...
Where Otis Redding and Al Green (almost) always got the girl, O.V Wright deals in heartbreak and failed romance. Just look at some of his song titles: "You're gonna make me cry", "When you took your love from me", "Heartaches, Heartaches"... I could go on. This song, talking about how his love has left him with nothing but a nickel and a nail is typical of his 1960s output on Back Beat records where he had the good fortune to be produced by legendary producer, Willie Mitchell (best known for his work with Al Green). Mitchell was later to take him to Hi Records in the mid 1970s. His work at Hi was, in common with many soul acts of the time, a lot "smoother" sounding, but he is best remembered for his earlier, rawer work.
Unfortunately his personal life was as troubled as in his songs and he was imprisoned for drugs offences in the early 1970s. He never really kicked the habit and died from a drug-induced heart attack in 1980.
Bit of a geeky post this one, sorry! Apple released iTunes 8 last night at an event where the main news was the launch of the new iPods. The usual fanfare and hypefest ensued nobody will be surprised to know. Quite how Apple have got to the point where a new product launch is broadcast as headline news by serious news sources is surely the greatest marketing story of the age. But I digress; amongst the new features on iTunes is the ability to create "Genius Playlists" - by using a database at iTunes central (or wherever) it can suggest a playlist based on any given song. Well almost any given song - it didn't like "Batcat" by Mogwai which is strange given that I bought it from the iTunes store!
Anyway I've been pretty impressed so far. Here is what it came up with this evening...
1) Hoover Dam - Sugar This was my choice for the starting point. I've been listening to a lot of early 90s American alt-rock lately. For those not in the know, Sugar was what Bob Mould did after Hüsker Dü. They released one classic album Copper Blue which contains this song and was album of the year in NME in 1992.
2) The Silence Between Us - Bob Mould Not a great jump there really. This is off a sampler for Anti records who put out Mould's recent album, Distirct line. You have to pick and choose with his solo output as he does wonder quite far from the template established with his previous bands, but this is definitely a return the the alt-rock sound he is best known for.
3) The Lung - Dinosaur Jr. Another classic album, Dinosaur Jr's second - You're living all over me - is the source for this song. Most of their back catalogue has been reissued relatively recently in remastered form and is well worth looking out for.
4) Sitting Still - R.E.M. Surely they need no introduction? This is from their debut album on IRS, Murmur. A few years ago I listened to all their albums in order and it's fascinating to see the progression. There isn't a bad one from Murmur to New Adventures in Hi-Fi, although they did lose their way a bit after that.
5) Gold Soundz - Pavement Another classic album, this is from the Desert Origins reissue of Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain (although it did appear on the original).
6) Academy Fight Song - Mission of Burma From the reissue of the EP Signals, Calls and Marches, this wasn't on the original release but made it onto the 97 and 08 reissues...
7) Almost Ready - Dinosaur Jr Back to Dinosaur Jr, this is from last year's LP, Beyond. This was the album where the original line-up reconvened after Lou Barlow had left to do his Sebadoh thing for much of the 90s. Not quite a return to the scuzzy sound of You're Living All Over Me, it still sounds better than most of the pretenders to the alt-rock crown.
8) Cherry Coloured Funk - Cocteau Twins A short diversion from the fuzzed-up guitar sounds so far, this is from the Twins 1990 classic Heaven or Las Vegas.
9) Get Ready for Love - Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds I just can't seem to get away from Nick Cave on this blog - even random selections include him! This is probably the rockiest song on the Abbotoir Blues disc of the double album with The Lyre of Orpheus and is probably a bit of a pointer as the direction Nick would take with the Grinderman album, and his next bad seeds album, Dig, Lazarus Dig!
10) Mahgeeta - My Morning Jacket My Morning Jacket really came to attention here in the UK with Z, but this is from it's predecessor It Still Moves. A lot of people prefer this to Z, I'm not totally convinced...
The next 10: 11) Apartment Story - The National 12) Mr Tough - Yo la Tengo 13) I Could Be Dreaming - Belle and Sebastian 14) Man on the Moon - Sugar 15) Rattled by the Rush - Pavement 16) Respectable Street - XTC 17) Tarpit - Dinosaur Jr 18) Constructive Summer - The Hold Steady 19) Incinerate - Sonic Youth 20) Catapult - REM
Given that I have more Sonic Youth than any of the other bands on the list in my iTunes library, it's a bit of a surprise that I had to wait til song 19 to hear some... But as I said, I like this feature and may blog on it again (I'm quite lazy like that!)
So recently I took part in the Latitude forum CD Swap. You'll be pleased to know I received 3 excellent CDs this year, I hope mine found favour. Here are some “liner notes” for mine...
1) There She Goes, My Beautiful World – Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds. No surprise to find Nick Cave popping up on any CD I put together – he's now got to the stage where I'm willing to part with my money for anything he does be it Bad Seeds, Grinderman, Films or Books. This is off the double album Lyre of Orpheus/Abattoir Blues which was my album of the year back when it cam out.
This is from his later performance:
2) Life in Jail - Islands The second Islands album didn't grab me in the same way that the first did, but it's really grown on me. The little twists and turns that marked their debut out are less overt on “Arms Way” than “Return to the sea” but that may not be a bad thing.
This the “crunk section” (whatever that means) done live
3) Sipping on the Sweet Nectar – Jens Lekman Great album, and an engaging performer live, surely there's room for him at Latitude 2009? I definitely want to see him again, in a show less blighted by sound problems...
Anyway here's the video...
4) After All – The Frank and Walters One of the most underrated bands of the pre-britpop era, this is one of my favourite jukebox pics as the lunchtime crowd in the Morris will tell you (through gritted teeth perhaps!). Anyway I think they're still going, although perhaps with different haircuts?
TOTP '93:
5) Jaguar Pirates – Jaguar Love From one of the oldest songs on the album to one of the newest, this is from the recently released debut album from Jaguar Love. I'm not entirely convinced by the album, but I really like the energy of this song.
Live at the 100 club,
6) If the News Makes You Sad, Don't Watch It – Broken Records One of the best new bands of the festival circuit this year, I saw them twice at Great Escape and Latitude, and they were excellent both times. If there is any justice they will go on to big things.
Live at Belladrum:
7) The Mending of the Gown – Sunset Rubdown Another of the highlights of Great Escape for me, this is great fun live. Definitely a band I would love to see again.
Live:
8) Rainy Night in Soho – The Pogues Easily the oldest song on the album, this is where the melancholy-meets-hope ethos of the Pogues comes closest to perfection. They're one of my favourite bands and despite being a tad erratic live I'm deeply tempted to go and see them at Christmas in London (wonder which song they'll do???). One of my all time favourite festival memories was seeing them at the Fleadh a few years ago (2002 if memory serves); the best atmosphere for any band at any festival I've been to.If you're at a loose end, look for the rest of the youtube clips from the show below; it's easy to forget just how many great songs they did.
Live at the Town & Country Club:
9) Doin' The Boom Boom – Eli “Paperboy” Reed and the True Loves One of the highlights of Latitude, there has been a glut of acts doing 60s style soul in the 00s... This lot do it better than any in my opinion. I seldom venture onto the dancefloor, so any band that can keep me there for as long as them deserve a special mention!
Here's them doing it live...
10) The Homeless and The Humingbirds – Alaska In Winter One of my favourite albums of last year, this is such a good song to lay back and relax to after a bad day at work. recommended live if you get the chance...
The video:
11) I Want You Around – Gideon Conn A new discovery at this year's Latitude, I caught his set after giving up on a very flat British Sea Power. Very laid back indie/hip-hop track, perfect for a summer festival (well I think so anyway).
Live:
(I love the way the cameraman is swaying to the music!)
12) Winter – The Dodos This is from one of my favourite albums of the year so far, Visiter (their spelling, not mine). It's the drums that make it stand out from the crowd for me, love the insistent rhythm. If I had any say in the matter, they'd be headlining the Sunrise arena at Latitude next year...
The video:
13) Breaxxbaxx – Land of Talk Saw these guys supporting Besnard Lakes at London Water Rats and they rocked. It's not easy for a support act to catch the ear, but they managed it. Apparently there's a new album coming in the autumn, this is from their debut, Applause, Cheer, Boo, Hiss
14) Take Me To The Riot - Stars Another Canadian band, Stars are of my favourite live acts of the last 12 months (seen them twice). This song is something of a live favourite, and comes from their most recent album, In Our Bedroom After The War. Definitely worth buying the album, and seeing them next time they tour.
The Video:
15) Blue Plastic Bags – Malcolm Middleton Another highlight of this year's Latitude, Malcolm Middleton has had an interesting year, what with all the news interest in his attempt at the Christmas No.1! This is from his most recent album, Sleight of Heart which didn't entirely convince me compared to it's predecessor. Live, however, this song was a lot stronger. Couldn't find it on Youtube, sorry!
16) Walk in The Park – Oh No! Oh My! I have to confess to knowing very little about these guys. I read about them somewhere on the interwebs (I forget where) and downloaded a couple of songs and that's as far as I got. I really must track down the album sometime.
Anyway here's them live.
17) The Dandy Cowboys - Soko Another highlight from this year's Latitude, Soko's set was delightfully chaotic. The only French singer on the CD, this is from what I believe is her debut EP, “Soko not Sokute”.
Not sure what's going on here!
18) Chaviach – Derwyddon Dr Gonzo Continuing with the Latitude 2008 theme, this band were an unexpected highlight of the Friday. Apparently this song is knocking Chavs which is probably something we can all relate to! Definitely hope they're invited back next year.
A brief taster...
19) I Wish I Was Someone Better – Blood Red Shoes Another live highlight of 2008 when I saw them in London, this is probably my favourite song of theirs. It's a long time since I danced as energetically as at that gig!
Live:
20) Barney (...and me) – The Boo Radleys From one of my all time favourite albums, Giant Steps, I just had to include this song. The Boo Radleys are massively underrated in my opinion, and this is just a brilliant, brilliant song. If any band of this era were to reform and play Latitude next year, it should be this lot... Anyway I'm planning a more in-depth post on Giant Steps at some point.
Couldn't find Barney (...and me) on youtube, but here's another from Giant Steps, Lazarus, at Glasto '94
Live in London and Paris
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