CjK Guest Post – Summer Cover #4
Two bars and you’re straight into this fabulous 1968 version of Bob Dylan’s’ All along the watchtower. The song initially appeared on Dylan’s 1967 album John Wesley Harding.
It is an mystery what the lyrics are about. The song also ends in an enigmatic hanging way with ‘None of them along the line/Know what any of it is worth’ Jimi certainly did not; dying of a drugs overdose aged 28.
Jimi Hendrix:
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*Artist #693
CjK Guest Post – Summer Cover #3
Let’s be clear, Glen Campbell nailed the definitive version of “Wichita Lineman” a song written by American songwriter Jimmy Webb when he recorded it in 1968. It was much played, covered and has entered adult easy listening heaven.British music journalist Stuart Maconie called it “the greatest pop song ever composed”.
It is not clear why REM recorded this version but it was probably homage to Jimmy Webb, who was inspired by lost love to write this classic.
R.E.M.:
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CjK Guest Post – Summer Cover #2
Punk was at its height in 1978 when The Stranglers released the ‘Black and White‘ album. Anarchy was the order of the day. Here the Stranglers were thumbing there noses at Burt Bacharach and Hal David syrupy love songs, and turned it into a guitar driven rant, with an admittedly a long slightly indulgent solo.
Of course they also recorded ‘Golden Brown’ a syrupy love song to heroin. It is not recorded what Burt Bacharach made of this version but I suspect its not going into his desert island discs…
The Stranglers:
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CjK Guest Post – Summer Cover #1
Summertime from Gershwin’s Porgy and Best, which has been covered on a number of occasions, might have been the obvious choice for a summer time cover to kick off ‘summer covers’.
Jimmy Somerville’s reedy voice, recorded in 1984, seems to nail this version of It Ain’t Necessarily So from the same musical. The song was controversial in appearing to openly challenge biblical stories. The video could not be farther from the stage version of the show.
Bronski Beat:
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/DAGuest Blogger Dom Ayliffe has his finger on the pulse of the dance scene…
Russ Chimes is one of my favourite music producers. I’ve seen him bring his brand of 80’s inspired up-tempo electro dance to grateful club revellers on dance floors large and small, from London to Ibiza. He’s a guy who really knows how to use the tools in his belt to work a beat under your skin and get you moving. A master craftsman of the remix and second to none, in my opinion, at working up to a multi-layered, high-energy ‘drop’ that makes you feel as if you’re dancing on the wings of an aircraft taking off.
I also think this video has a really cinematic and creative vibe about it. ‘Memento’ meets ‘Drive’. This is part 2 of 3 – check out 1 and 3 if you like what you see and hear.
Russ Chimes:
/DA
*Artist #618
A friend (thanks Maggie) sent me this song a couple of days ago and I haven’t been able to stop listening to it or hearing it in my minds ear since.
I know very little about the song or artist other than I really like it and intend to try to find out more. It is taken from an Eccentric Soul collection which was released by Chicago Label The Numero Group.
I’m not sure I can put it any better than the person who uploaded the YouTube video: “rehearsal for I’ll Never Cry for Another Boy, sounds nothing like the version that was released, but what it lacks in gloss it makes up for in what can only be called sheer magic.”
/RjK
*Artist #616
Guest blogger Jimmy T highlights some silky smooth Neo-Soul
Raphael Saddiq is the inventor of Gospeldelic, and Stevie Wonder is a genius. In this track they team up to brilliant effect, I have never had the chance to listen to the full album in which this song appears, probably because this song is so good that I can never get beyond it.
I think that because he is blind Stevie manages to express more through his music than is possible otherwise. He is a legend in the truest sense of the word.
Raphael Saadiq:
/JT
*Artist #614
Don’t let anyone tell you John Maus is good live. He’s not. His abject, anguished karaoke routine is down there with the worst live acts I have ever seen. But his 2011 album, We Must Become the Pitiless Censors of Ourselves, is worthy of your attention. Its dark, vaguely deranged, yet joyful sound turns a half-hour commute into a seaside ghost train, and leaves you better than it found you.
This video, for one of its floatier moments – Keep Pushing On, might hurt your eyes. Full-screen it to be sure.
John Maus:
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*Artist #613
Guest blogger Rory McD takes us forward by taking us back
It felt right to add to the new site with a return to the past. And there are few who do it better than Harvey Phillip Spector. His brilliance as a producer was always tempered by the fact that he was a complete loon. I buried myself in his biography some year’s back as it traced his course from trembling dropout to maniacal studio whizz.
I like this song because it hangs somewhere in the balance between the two sides of his personality. The most delicate and innocent arrangement cushions some truly sinister lyrics. An unnerving reveal of the artists personality, in three minutes of pure honey.
Phil Spector back in the day:
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*Artist #609