The latest Podrophenia is up for download. where Piley, self and Lord Hastings spin in a playlist of lockdown listens: from Peaches to Public Service Broadcasting, newbie tunes from Bob Dylan and The Damned, Southern soul from Elvis and The Everlys. And two quizzes Nut or No Nut and Rotten Film Songs. Dig in and DL below
And behold a play of the new single from m'self and Mrs Mond' (Buskr - Back in this Place out 4th December Hottwerk) as heard on Janice Long last week ...
Podrophenia the letter Y - is up for download: Chris Constantinou joins us covering his career from playing Live Aid with Adam Ant and Top of the Pops goss' - to The Mutants, The Wolfmen and his new 1000 Motels project with Rat Scabies, plus new Clash covers with @itsrudegrl
From the Podro playlist Lord Hastings, Piley and m'self spin in tracks including funky reggae, Toussaint's buried treasure and a non-skippable Yoko track also the only Roxy Music track written by their drummer. Dig in and download
"Your flashy clothes are your pride and joy " David Bowie - The London Boys
Ahead of Sunday's Bowie by the Sea bank holiday shakedown (more on that later) - expect to see a Bo' post or two in your feed of a lunchtime this week, Starting at the beginning - with a re-up from November 2008
Bowie, Bolan, Bryan Ferry, Eno (and Rod Stewart) all made the breakthough from cult undergrounders to interstellar superstars as variants on the star-spangled glitterkid theme. They may have had stars in/on their eyes, but those platform boots were firmly grounded in Mod roots. The look-sharp and look-ahead apprenticeship of Mod, with it's made to measure mix of American soul and Italian style, Ivy League look meets British dandyism - an eye for the detail and an ear for a tune, was probably why Bowie (and the other moonage mods mentioned) endured beyond the best-before date and lipstick-brickie chic of their patent leather peers.
The sixties scene was an era Bowie referenced from his earliest recordings (London Boys) and one of the motifs and influences that's remained a constant throughout his peacock career - mentions of Lennon, Beatles and Stones on various singles. Twiggy and Jagger getting name checked on Aladdin Sane (along with a Stones cover), Pin Up's set of swinging London standards and Young Americans (covering classics like 'Knock On Wood' and 'Footstomping' during live shows), and pitching in with 'Pictures of Lily' on The Who tribute album through to the slim-fit suit on 'Reality' being almost a homecoming to the Lord John look pictured above...
For some strange reason all tracks are playing - Silver Tree Top track, but DLs should be ok
David Bowie and The Lower Third - Can't Help Thinking About Me (There's a clip of Bowie on his mod days, Steve Marriot and a 1999 version of 'CHTAM'here)
David Bowie - In The Heat Of The Morning - (BBC version)
(The Last Shadow Puppets made a healthy go of 'INTHOTM')
Davie Jones and the King Bees - Louie Louie Go Home
(LLGH was the B-side of Bowie's first single "Liza Jane")
Ziggy Stardust - The Mod Who Fell To Earth
A note on the tunes....and a Bowie Bonus Can't Help Thinking About Me (1965)
The first recording to feature the newly named David 'Bowie', and almost a blueprint of Bowieness the outsider lyrics and ambiguous angst of "my head's bowed in shame" "blackened the family name" to the set piece template of semi-spoken verse and Bowie-bellow on the chorus, it's a tune that wouldn't seem out of place on any album since Scary Monsters.
In The Heat Of The Morning (1970)
For my earth pounds the BBC take of this tune is superior to the official album version, and benefits from being enhanced by the extra bounce of Alan Hawkshaw's fantastically funky keyboard coda.
The Beatstalkers (touted as the Scottish Beatles), were under Ken Pitt's management at the same time as Bowie (and also signed to Decca). They were offered first refusal on any unused Bowie compositions or offcuts, 'Silver Tree Top School For Boys' is one of these, and a Bowie penned 'Penny Lane ' sound-a-like from 1967.
I am on something of a Bowie buzz lately (two Bo' posts in two weeks) brought on by reading the Fantistico Dave Thompson book To Major Tom - a gem and a joy of a read if you're into any type of music or movement from Bowie's catchment era
Remember Sharon Tandy from Friday's post? Well she's back doing a Dusty-meets-Cher shakedown 'Hold On' (keep 'em peeled for a young DLT intro'ing the clip)
A heavier, wah-guitar, stomper versh of Hold On was later nailed by Ipsissimus, (a name I find almost impossible to pronounce) - and used as the opener on this mix o' mine..
Matt from Worksopp wrote in last week - asking do I have 'Joe Loss's version of 'Shot In The Dark'? Yes Matt, I do. It's on the Mondo iBlock, and now on the blog..
'A Shot In The Dark' is Henry Mancini's theme from the second Pink Panther film, although it's perhaps better known as a musical motif used during the Inspector sequences of the Pink Panther cartoon show. Joe Loss's take is a big-band, twang-o-ramic swinger starring a guitar-a-go-go freak out from legendary sixties session man Big Jim Sullivan(Tom Jones's guitarist and aka Lord Sitar)
And as a bonus here's Hugo Montenegro's version of Our Man Flint, a versh that almost made the recent the 'Spy' post, but was pipped by Herbie Mann's flutey tootings..
I am very tempted with new Star Trek film. But I'm not a Trekkie. Alright I had a mad buzz for the show when the BBC aired their five year mission of interplanetery hullabaloos during the seventies (or repeated them during school holidays) even going so far as tucking my school trousers into zip-up boots trying to replicate that 'Enterprise' look - but I loved all things space-shaped back then.
And some supplementary material may have been collected while sprouting from tot-to-teen - Annuals (73-78), fold-out poster mag's, Letraset Action Transfers,View Master reels, an Airfix-style model, and Mego action figures (Kirk and Scotty) - but I'm over it now. See! *Remembers he has the communicator tone for txt messages on his phone - reacts with this style of a face then faints..*
Nichelle Nichols - Feeling Good Proto-blue toother, Uhuru takes almost one full minute to get up to soul speed, but it's well worth the wait
Leonard Nimoy - The Ballad Of Bilbo Baggins Bones to Bridge. Jim, that song of Spock's isn't actually as excruciating as we'd expected - although the video could cause some sort of a reaction I guess
*Cue offstage screams of 'Cap'n,I canna take any more '*
Kirk to Enterprise. Beam down The Beasties Boys...
Midnight. A private members club on the Rue Saint-Vincent, Montmartre. In an empty Louis XVI style drawing room, a selection of spirits in cut crystal decanters have been arranged with miltary precision and placed on polished silver tray to the left hand side of a Belote table. To the right stands a single glass and a Roberts transistor radio concealing a reel-to-reel recorder.
Welcome Agent Blogger - please, fix yourself a drink and take a seat. The paperwork and 'special items' required for your new assigment 'The Omega Affair' have been prepared and primed in advance of your acceptance. In a briefcase below your chair you will find ....
A selection of continental passports - check Walther PPK (with silencer) - check Large LED downcount device - check Camera cuff-links - check The latest Interpol reports and microfiches on 'Omega'- check One Bulgari watch with piano-wire pullout - check A fountian pen Laser/communicator - check Swiss bank account details - check Bugging and tracking systems - check Poisoned stamps and cigarettes - check
Our man in Trieste 'Chester Moonlight ' will collect you at the airport and provide a pre-briefing. SCORPIO agents will no doubt attempt TO intercept any communications. So keep channel D open but scrambled.
This message will self destruct after the following tunes.....
Sounding for all the world like a Beatles For Sale outtake - I say BFS, as Lies takes the sugar rush and bubbly buzz of Beatlemania and tempers it with an early twist of bitter Lennon.
And a nugget of hi-randomness, originally employed as a backing track by Burlesque Dancers...
Do you remember Dayvilles Ice Cream Parlours? Oh those flavours.... apple strudel, cherry cola, and some minty-blue sorbet all dished up in coloured sugar cones - not the re-shaped wafer style..
Following on from Mick's bit of bubblegum blogging I've been inspired to post a pair of sweet-tooth booties, built around two Velvet Underground numbers.
Lou and Andy's band (not those two from Little Britain) may seem like the last lot on earth to ever make a Funky Friday appearance, but when the Willy Wonka of pick 'n' mix pop Mark Vidler sets to work, pure gold is often spun from the unlikeliest of ingredients...
You may have swift shrift for Christina Ag's warblings, or perhaps minimal interest in the Velvet's catalogue - but whisk them together, add sprinkles, sparkles and a dash of The Communards to the closing coda - and it's almost impossible to resist the lip-smacking sugar rush of this pure pop cocktail - something that sounds like a long lost summer single from the seventies..
And what's this - Waiting For The Man, Sugar Sugar and a splash of Basement Jaxx shaken and spun into something sweeter than candyfloss - well I never!
Until it finally closed a few years ago, my favourite local, second-hand record and bookshop (and the only place you'd get a fair price for your hand-me-down albums) was run by a genial 'Mr Pleasant' type, that would give a welcoming tap on the window whenever I passed by holding up items of interest, and keeping Beatles bits 'n' bobs back for me .
His shop was perma-stocked with an unusually healthy amount of quality goodies - framed sheet music, retro posters and promo CDs. So a bit of surpise then, when I heard the local BBC radio station dropping a reference to Mr Pleasant's shop - turns out he was none other than the Abbey Road/Decca legend Peter Eden, who'd discovered and signed Donovan after catching one of his early gigs in Southend..
He never managed a Donovan sized strike again, but had his fingers in several sixties pies - musician, manager, songwriter, A&R man and producer. A selection of which were collected for a limited edition (1000 copies) anthology of Pete Eden productions released last year - appropriately titled 'Nice'
Two of the many sixties band's to get the Eden treatment were also fellow Southenders - Crocheted Donut Ring - (whaddya mean you've never heard of them?), whose 'Get Out Your Rock and Roll Shoes' was/is one of my most played nuggets..
His shop may have gone, but Peter Eden is still alive, well and living in the Southend area with an active interest in music - in fact the last time I spotted him, he was bustling around catching some acts at the Leigh Folk Festival.
As footnote of Hi-randomness - Peter also devised,drummed (as Bongo),wrote the theme and a few songs for seventies Kiddy-cult show Animal Kwackers
Remember the 1972 smasher 'Popcorn' by Hot Butter - a track that galloped along at the speed of the space race, sounding like Donna Summer on Skylab, Cosmonaut pop and the future unfolding around your very ears.
Well, did you know it was actually a cover? A cover of a track already three years old, and taken from Gershon Kingsley's 1969 album 'Music To Moog By'...
Never one to miss a contemporary pop-trick (like the local Marching Militaire, or Brass Band that screech out refits of cinematic hits) Herp Alpert, had himself a wallop at Popcorn
Goodbye to bubbling, fat analogue sounds, sine waves and Moogadoodledoo . Hello to the soothing muted toot of the Tijuana Brass, the tropical lapping of steel drums and the soft plod of xylophonic pop...
Both varieties are below - so, why not try a taste test and see which you flavour you favour...
To walk into any packed pub with a piano, dust off the lid, roll up your sleeves, crack those knuckles - then knock out this fire-fingered piece of piano hammering magicness..
Hairy-headed, heavy-loaded, underground funk is the mood of today's FF,three walloping slabs of post-psych-freak-rock, where you can almost waft away the patchouli and incense, smell the embers slow-burning the rug, and watch the Robert Crumb or Che poster a'peeling from the smoke stained walls.
I know nothing about Colosseum apart from...
Sometimes they are classified as Jazz Rock At other times they are classified as Art Rock Fatboy Slim sampled The Kettle for something or other
And Aphrodite's Child featuring the monumental man-mass and heavyweight of light enterainment Demis Roussos and Prog-God Vangelis hammering the Hammond
If you're in the mood for more fuggy-fruggery then check out Andy Votel's Vertigo Mixed.A comp of head spinning mixing and artful editing, swirling with rocking oddities and obscurities, so good, I've never quite got to the end - it's like a guitar version of Too Many DJs
Or, why not lend an ear to Marco Pirroni's hand picked Glam Prog favourite, and a tune that inspired his signature guitar twang - it's right here...
And finally something for your third eye.. 'Tonite Let's All Make Love In London'
Community Chest - 'You've won second prize in a beauty contest. Move straight to frontman for The Commodores'
Motown has reached it's 50th birthday. It's officially middle- aged! So in celebration (or commiseration of the occasion), here's my hats off to Hitsville - where, rather than cracking out the usual classics, I'll roll out a few retreads of the Big Wheels of Motown..
Lee Moses thumps and thunders through, 'Reach Out' taking it to a new level of uptempo urgency
I'm guessing Ella was going through her 'mod' period (I've got a handful of her Beatles belters, and a Cream cover cut from the same swishery) when she cracked off this hipshaking take on 'Grapevine'
One of the musical tales rattled around at family gatherings and get-togethers involves my uncle's sixties band, shrouded in whispers of - 'Hamburg gigs', 'meeting Mick Jagger' and 'having a single out' ..
I met up with Uncle D over Christmas, stumbled into the subject of his band, and decided to do some digging. Turns out he was the singer in a sixties band - called The Habits, whose career highlights include touring with the Stones, gigging with The Yardbirds, supporting John Lee Hooker and making one single 'Need You' produced by Steve Windwood and Spencer Davis. Incredible!
Even more bizarrely the B-Side (Elbow Baby) of their only single is track 20 on a Decca compilation (The Mod Scene), given to me for Christmas 2007 by mum, which has been spinning in my kitchen ever since.
Further to this they've got a micro-entry on AMG, and the single currently has a starting price of £3.95 on ebay.
Next question for Uncle D - how do you do 'The Elbow' (as in the lyric 'do The Elbow baby')
So then boys, girls bloggers and bloggettes it's over and out from me until next year. Now, what can I sign off with until '09 ...something brassy, something swingle bells, and something santamental, I think...
A couple o' rooting tooting tunes from the ever-popular (according to the stats) Sound Of Brass,Torero Band
And this delicous downtempo DJ BC Beatleg remix...which gently folds The Jacksons and John Lennon into one luvverly bundle DJ BC - Imagine Santa There's a vid' for it too...
So chill your boots, fill your boots and see you in the space-age sounding 2009 playmates - x -
It's just a touch too early to start dishing out the tinsel tunes (we'll save that for next week), but as a winter warm-up, how about a visit from three six string Kings that put some fatback on the fretboard and bring us Cold, Funking-sense and much, much more*
As I may have mentioned before I'm a bugger for a cover version, and one area rich with glittering goodies and buried treasure is that period when traditional, torch or show style singers decided to get 'with it' and shake a well-tailored trouser leg or cocktail dress to the way out sounds of the In Crowd.
The finest selections are typically found around the tail-end of the sixties/early seventies, when, for the first time, themes of social awareness, cultural tolerance and polite political pop started to appear in the rock songbook and provided a platform for Vegas style cabaret and cocktail acts to appear hip, happening and doing old school cool with a twist of contemporary conscience ... Mel Torme - 'Games People Play'
Tom Jones & Engelbert Humperdinck (and Billy Preston)'Games People Play' - you have to wait one full minute for the tune to kick in, but it's well worth it
Well Pop pickers - it’s something a bit diff’ for this week’s Funky Friday..
Can you work out who’s who on this tricky trio of mystery tunes? Can You do it? Of course you can. The prize of an exclusive ‘Tronik Youth’ shredit of a Northern Soul Classic will go to first past the post(ish)
I ran these three nugg's past Marmite when I bumped into him on the Fenchurch Flyer earlier this week - he managed a healthy crack at it and was certainly in the right territory for all tracks...so I reckon it's doable, but will give one clue for starters. All artists are British
Now, you could go a’Googling for clues – but do you really want to live with the head-a'hanging shame of knowing you’ve had a dodgy ace up your internetty.
