| Author | Message | ||
     Stuart Wilson Member Username: Stuart Post Number: 2036 Registered: 10-2006 |
Derya Yildirim & Grup Simsek – HAYDAR HAYDAR Mesmerising song from this Berlin-based Anatolian ensemble. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eM6VPAMp _ow | ||
| Randy Adams Member Username: Randy_adams Post Number: 4707 Registered: 03-2005 |
Nice song Stuart. I always appreciate a band with a female drummer! At 0:58 there is a striking image: the bold brand name of Zildjian on a cymbal. Maybe it only struck me because I grew up in a city with a very large community of the Armenian diaspora. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avedis_Zil djian_Company It's almost as if that video image was intentional. Perhaps a surreptitious acknowledgement? | ||
| Stuart Wilson Member Username: Stuart Post Number: 2037 Registered: 10-2006 |
"Since 1623"! Not many companies can say that! Stranded Horse – Le Ciment dessous nos pieds Even after checking up, still hard to believe it’s not DomA singing on this! Experimenting with some new stringed instruments, eh? I thought. But no, it’s Yann Tambour and his kora. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PnifAql0 p0o | ||
| Stuart Wilson Member Username: Stuart Post Number: 2038 Registered: 10-2006 |
The Staves – Satisfied Like a female CSN, I thought, and grinned when the radio followed it with a recent David Crosby song. Already wrongstepped by the not-DomA track above, I wondered where in the States these women came from; but they are the Stavely-Taylor sisters all the way from Watford. They make a beautiful sound, anyway. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IWwKtEOl ELY | ||
| Stuart Wilson Member Username: Stuart Post Number: 2039 Registered: 10-2006 |
Booker T & the MGs – Fuquawi Lovely scorching groove from what is apparently one of their best albums, Meltin’ Pot. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qzpFLF44 ddc | ||
| Simon Withers Member Username: Sfwithers Post Number: 699 Registered: 08-2005 |
Party Fears Two - The Associates, with the fantastic Martha Ladly (now an Associate Professor of Interaction Design) on piano This is in honour of Boris Johnson's party antics. Sorry, it wasn't a party. The BYOB invite apparently passed him by... | ||
| Simon Withers Member Username: Sfwithers Post Number: 700 Registered: 08-2005 |
Roy Harper - Sophisticated Beggar The LP was a regular on my turntable during my university years (a while back...) | ||
| Stuart Wilson Member Username: Stuart Post Number: 2040 Registered: 10-2006 |
Roy was one of those ubiquitous musical figures who settled on the very edge of my listening without ever shouldering his way towards the centre – here, from around the same period, with a song that sounds like the template for Van M’s career, is another: Dr John – Familiar Reality (Opening) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_80f0Y-S 97I | ||
| Stuart Wilson Member Username: Stuart Post Number: 2043 Registered: 10-2006 |
The Soundcarriers – Waves Addictively brisk retro-indie psychedelia. I never can resist a flute solo, if that’s what it is. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RSBPdx3h cR4 | ||
| Randy Adams Member Username: Randy_adams Post Number: 4709 Registered: 03-2005 |
I thought to myself, "OK, it's Stuart and it's psychedelia. He often points you to something good but just in case wear your Prog Shield®." That Soundcarriers track is pretty entertaining. I've done a lot of digging around in the Argentinian psych revival scene, some of which definitely rubs up against early Prog as well but usually with a heavy splatter of cosmic doom applied. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Llttemvq bEc&list=OLAK5uy_lZUaXZfjmG-YtgW-tcIfKXj Dj4uyuIBpg&index=5 Two friggin' chords! And then there's a song, sort of. Only four minutes long: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PMpCgD4c zbI&list=OLAK5uy_lZUaXZfjmG-YtgW-tcIfKXj Dj4uyuIBpg&index=3 Gotta love that guitar that willfully pushes the notes sharp every time. | ||
| Stuart Wilson Member Username: Stuart Post Number: 2044 Registered: 10-2006 |
Aimee Mann – In Mexico I'd put this in the "something good" category, Mr Adams. First song of the day, setting the bar high. Lovely stuff. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3TFZDTmW HiU | ||
| Stuart Wilson Member Username: Stuart Post Number: 2045 Registered: 10-2006 |
Ah, the Prog Shield, very nice! Obviously I did spend an ungodly amount of my adolescence with coloured felt-tips designing swirly album covers on the back of my school jotters, inevitably featuring suites with very Moorcock-derived names and lots of brackets, “The Quest for the Ruby Crown (part 1, the Forging)”, and peopled with all my favourite musicians of the moment. So it has been satisfying over the last, what, 10 years, to see a great deal of proggish stuff claw its way back into respectability. But I do try to refrain from publishing anything overtly OVER-PROG on a site like this one, and have never really checked out what may be the prog equivalent of the GBs message board (I browsed some pages on old European prog recently and, good lord, that’s a rabbit hole you might never climb out of). In the end, my life-changing intro to music was Sylvia by Focus, which is essentially a stonking tune, and stonking tunes have always been my main guideline, though I am also convinced that there is music on Focus 3 and Hamburger Concerto that is as purely beautiful as anything published over the last 500 years or so. Right, off to listen to Refugee’s one album today… | ||
| David Gagen Member Username: David_g Post Number: 501 Registered: 02-2007 |
Agree with your assessment of Hamburger Concerto, Stuart. Bit of a masterpiece in my opinion. In the early to mid 70s I was into Focus in a big way while skipping lectures at Uni. Kinda left them behind somewhere on the journey but return to them occasionally and Jan Akkerman's solo albums. | ||
| Stuart Wilson Member Username: Stuart Post Number: 2046 Registered: 10-2006 |
I remember that, David! I suspect if a GoBetweens/Jan Akkerman fan club were formed the membership would be very limited, possibly just two in fact. But great music is great music, as they say, and Jan has certainly produced his share over the years. | ||
| Stuart Wilson Member Username: Stuart Post Number: 2047 Registered: 10-2006 |
Catherine Le Forestier – Le Pays De Ton Corps Tremendous song from 1968, she had a voice of extraordinary beauty. Released 2 albums then had some sort of transformational experience in Morocco, changed her name and more or less gave up music. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ugIlVrmH lgQ | ||
| Randy Adams Member Username: Randy_adams Post Number: 4710 Registered: 03-2005 |
Stuart, I suspect my attempt at good natured humor came out more sharp elbowed than intended. I was always mostly a pop song sort of guy but I wandered into areas that won't overlap with the Go-Betweens listeners either. Back in my early teens I chased down a lot of British blues. Much of it is completely unlistenable for me now, but I do still have certain favorites that have survived, usually when there's some kind of pop discipline to them. The closest I ever came to prog was the Moody Blues--which isn't very close--and if you accept the comments of some contemporary knockers, Magazine. I remember borrowing a friend's copy of the first Emerson, Lake & Palmer album and liking "Lucky Man." The rest, not so much. I've always been wary of people who know how to play their instruments. | ||
| Stuart Wilson Member Username: Stuart Post Number: 2048 Registered: 10-2006 |
Oh no, Randy, not at all – I know there are at least two of my CD shelves which attract nothing but scorn and opprobrium from the knowledgeable visitor and all I can do is sigh and shrug. But at our age, taste is so well imbedded it makes little difference. I don’t foresee any late-life conversions to Handel or Coltrane or the Fall, say, but I guess you never know. If you’d told the younger me that I’d spend a lot of my dotage listening to French radio and French pop/rock, I’d have been slightly amazed. | ||
| Randy Adams Member Username: Randy_adams Post Number: 4711 Registered: 03-2005 |
And speaking of French pop/rock, my song of the day is by the "New Wave Johnny Hallyday": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3_trp1s8 XS4 "Pizza" was definitely not the right place for me to start exploring Bashung but a fair proportion of it holds appeal for me today, and "Vertige De L'Amour" is really a holdover from his wonderful "Roulette Russe" period anyway. I have forever gratitude to Trou for setting me on the right path. | ||
| Stuart Wilson Member Username: Stuart Post Number: 2049 Registered: 10-2006 |
Always that wonderfully inveigling mix of arrogance and fragility, something very reminiscent, even physically, of John Lennon. The poetry of the semi-abandoned child, perhaps. | ||
| Stuart Wilson Member Username: Stuart Post Number: 2050 Registered: 10-2006 |
Conor Oberst – We Are Nowhere And It's Now Another superbly angsty anthem from the master of modern plaintive. Live & later, as my preference runs. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yPRII7gF HH4 | ||
| Randy Adams Member Username: Randy_adams Post Number: 4712 Registered: 03-2005 |
That's a brilliant observation about Bashung, Stuart. I think you're onto something. In the unlikely chance you've never heard it, here's his astonishing version of "Stille Nacht" which I think virtually proves your theory: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cygZH8xC igE His vulnerable, almost desperate, homage to those emotionally withholding grandparents. | ||
| Stuart Wilson Member Username: Stuart Post Number: 2051 Registered: 10-2006 |
Bess Atwell – How Do You Leave https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tzKfeae6 16M Great to hear Robert F on the radio this morning, I can do, followed not long after by Wet Leg, Wedding Present and then the excellent voice of Bess Atwell. | ||
| Simon Withers Member Username: Sfwithers Post Number: 701 Registered: 08-2005 |
The Watersons - Bright Phoebus In honour of Norma Waterson who's died at the age of 82. https://www.theguardian.com/music/2022/j an/31/norma-waterson-celebrated-british- folk-singer-dies-aged-82 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=raFYoMre vfQ | ||
| Andrew Kerr Member Username: Andrew_k Post Number: 1468 Registered: 04-2005 |
Sad news Simon. If you never seen the '65 documentary on the family ("Travelling for a living") it's worth 40 minutes of your time... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Vrszb4w 318 It'a also very sad that Eliza Carthy had had to start a crowd funding page for her parents as they were in dire financial staits because of covid. | ||
| Stuart Wilson Member Username: Stuart Post Number: 2053 Registered: 10-2006 |
Rokia Traore – Tounka Undoubtedly the briskest pleasure of the afternoon. Starts off smooth but guitar and lute kick in and her voice takes on a rawer edge. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sz75WwCO vmE | ||
| Randy Adams Member Username: Randy_adams Post Number: 4715 Registered: 03-2005 |
Thank you for the video links, Simon and Andrew. I'd never heard of the Watersons. The documentary was exceptional and a wonderful window into its place and its era. | ||
| Stuart Wilson Member Username: Stuart Post Number: 2054 Registered: 10-2006 |
Mary Black & Emmylou Harris – The Loving Time https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=85IwyeCB A0M Catching up on this excellent series, one of the best TV musical endeavours to come out of Scotland, I fell in love with this song by an Irish writer unknown to me, Noel Brazil, whose lack of great fame can perhaps partly be explained by the way he apparently introduced some of his solo concerts: “This is going to be a painful experience for all of us, so let’s just get it over with as quickly as possible.” Excellent lyric – “It reads like a fairy-tale/and that's what it was/young man in his prime/young girl from the cross/the most perfect of strangers/and then the night closed in/and the holy ground took care of everything.” Young girl from the cross? I feel that should be capitalised, an area of Dublin or something, but googling hasn’t given me any help. | ||
| Hugh Nimmo Member Username: Hugh_nimmo Post Number: 1421 Registered: 03-2007 |
Stuart, After reading the lyrics I am left wondering if perhaps it is a story about a young catholic girl in a relationship with a protestant male. | ||
| Stuart Wilson Member Username: Stuart Post Number: 2055 Registered: 10-2006 |
The most perfect of strangers? That makes sense! I did think about a fleeing nun at one point, but that seemed unlikely. I've never heard the locution "from the cross" in that sense before. But it makes the idea of "the holy ground" as bed, or love-making, even sweeter. | ||
| Hugh Nimmo Member Username: Hugh_nimmo Post Number: 1422 Registered: 03-2007 |
I've never heard of the phrase 'from the cross' used in that context either. It was the lines 'He could not change what he was' and 'They couldn't live in the daylight' that made me wonder if the song was about a catholic / protestant relationship. I am probably miles out. | ||
| Randy Adams Member Username: Randy_adams Post Number: 4716 Registered: 03-2005 |
I assume "the holy ground" is a cemetery. Either that's where they consummated or it's a lovers' suicide story. | ||
| Pádraig Collins Member Username: Pádraig_collins Post Number: 10235 Registered: 05-2005 |
Stuart, it could be a reference to the south inner Dublin suburb of Harold's Cross. I used to live near there. Or it could be Kimmage Cross Roads, which is a bit further out in south Dublin and more working class. Phil Lynott grew up near there. Holy Ground is a place where something is deemed to be sacred. There are parts of Dingle, County Kerry and Cobh, County Cork which are called Holy Ground. There is an old folk song called Holy Ground about the Cobh area. Noel Brazil might be suggesting where they met was now a sacred territory for them. | ||
| Stuart Wilson Member Username: Stuart Post Number: 2056 Registered: 10-2006 |
Interestingly, I see that the “holy ground” in Cobh was actually the red light district, beloved of the sailors who sang the shanty with the same title! Can’t work that into Brazil’s little narrative, though. I imagined it as a graveyard reference too, at first, lovers reconciled in death etc, but not quite so tragic apparently, since they seem to simply “go their separate ways” in the end. Perhaps Mary Black asked him to compose something that would link into the shanty, which she also covers on the album. Strange how Brazil in some places is referred to as a great Irish songwriter yet doesn’t even have his own wikipedia page. | ||
| Andrew Kerr Member Username: Andrew_k Post Number: 1469 Registered: 04-2005 |
Glad that you enjoyed the Waterstones documentary Randy ! As you say it captures the era so well. Their music is a little too "traditional" for my tastes but I really like Norma's first (self titled) solo album. I first hunted down that film many years ago before it was widely available on YouTube, as I had heard it had Anne Briggs in it too. Here is Briggs filmed in '92, reunited with Bert Jansch. Unedited footage of her singing her own composition "Go Your Way". https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G2UymOLJ 1gs | ||
| fsh Member Username: Fsh Post Number: 377 Registered: 05-2005 |
The Holy Ground could be the name of a pub. | ||
| Stuart Wilson Member Username: Stuart Post Number: 2059 Registered: 10-2006 |
Two more songs from FB: he seems only recently to have started singing in German (I think), giving his voice a tone I prefer to anything I’ve heard him sing in English, when he sounds a little strangulated. Morricone again to the fore! Fai Baba - Veränderet https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oqw5zhPp rmA Fai Baba – Fotograf https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fVs-WDel 7JA | ||
| Stuart Wilson Member Username: Stuart Post Number: 2060 Registered: 10-2006 |
Aimee Mann – Robert Lowell and Sylvia Plath Another song from “Queens of the summer hotel”, which I now find to be an album based around the McLean psychiatric hospital in Massachusetts, its patients including not only Lowell and Plath but also James Taylor, Ray Charles and David Foster Wallace. More specifically, Mann is adapting the film Girl, Interrupted, which I’ve never seen. Kudos for taking on such intractable material in such a highly listenable way. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G8I8En3d WbM | ||
| Andrew Kerr Member Username: Andrew_k Post Number: 1470 Registered: 04-2005 |
Sorry, still completely obsessed. Big Thief - Red Moon https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VMD2OGlg AEg | ||
| Stuart Wilson Member Username: Stuart Post Number: 2061 Registered: 10-2006 |
Surely, Andrew, being obsessive on the GBs board means never having to say you’re sorry. Well, most of the time, anyway. | ||
| Randy Adams Member Username: Randy_adams Post Number: 4720 Registered: 03-2005 |
Lyme & Cybelle - Follow Me From 1966, this was either the first or nearly the first record I ever bought. It turns out it was Warren Zevon's first public exposure though I didn't learn that until many years later. It isn't very commercial but the local San Jose, California AM radio station KLIV never let something like that get in the way. It played this single, as well as a few of the pre-Creedence Clearwater Revival singles by the Golliwogs and a number of singles by local San Jose garage bands. At about whatever was my bedtime in the fifth grade, for a month or two KLIV would reliably play the entire 11 minutes of the Rolling Stones' closer to the Aftermath album, "Goin' Home." https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vZQMLBza SNI | ||
| Stuart Wilson Member Username: Stuart Post Number: 2065 Registered: 10-2006 |
That's great, there's something very indie ante litteram in the song, maybe especially the female non-voice sort of thing. Your taste was obviously forged very early on, Randy! | ||
| Randy Adams Member Username: Randy_adams Post Number: 4724 Registered: 03-2005 |
Being a typically half-educated American I had to look up "ante litteram." |