Funky Friday - Apple Bonkers

31 Beatles tunes are buried in this illustration by Paul McDonald - how many can you spot?

Because a couple of the regular threads in my cyberspace scrapbook are The Beatles and Bootleg Remixes - it seems high time for the two to come together by digging out and polishing up a selection of the shiniest Beatle boots in my cellarful of noise for an FF post..

Including a fab four from Mark Vidler/Go Home Productions (the George Martin of mashups) where Annie Lennox, Jacko, The Monkees, and Blur all get bolted on to The Beatles, and Soundhog's (the George Harrison of hybrid-pop) uptempo edit of Eleanor Rigby and Soulsearcher's - 'Just Can't Get Enough'

So as the Hamburg audiences were given to shouting... "Mak Shau!,Mak Shau!"

And if you fancy grabbing a couple of mellow moptop mashups which blend The Beat's with The Beach Boys, Mogwai and Kid Loco - just click your Cuban heels

GHP - All My Birds



GHP - Rich Girls And Boys




GHP - Daytrip To Never Never Land



Soundhog - Eleanor can't get enough




Go Home Productions - Paperback Believer


The download for Paperback Believer is available right here

Thumbs N' Roses

A couple of rock's heaviest hitters have both released new albums within the last few days:

McCartney (as The Fireman) with 'Electric Arguments'
Axl Rose (as Guns N' Roses) with 'The Chinese Democracy'.

But what would the results have sounded like if they'd put their collective noggins together for a team-up (Maxl's Metal Hammer?) Perhaps something like...

DJ Jimmi James - Sgt. Pepper´s Paradise (short version)


DJ Jimmi James - Sgt. Pepper´s Paradise (long version)



And on a similar theme... The Cult and The Beatles in

Go home productions - She Sells Tax, Man



So let me introduce to you - a couple of other G N' R connections to the bands appearing in these two metal based booties.....

Guns N' Roses covered McCartney's 'Live And Let Die' on their "The Spaghetti Incident?" album

Axl was married to Erin Everley, the daughter of one of Macca's musical heroes Don Everly.

Matt Sorum drummer for G N' R and Velvet Revolver is a former drummer of The Cult, who, had Guns N' Roses as their opening act on a US tour in the eighties.

If this post doesn't get me blog-whacked nothing will.

An Offbeat Interlude

Can you believe it - the busiest day ever on the blog last Friday with double the daily hit rate and it's all down to Brenda Lee! Of all the tunes and tracks posted and popped on the blog it's Brenda's 'Walk A Mile In My Shoes' that got picked up by Hype Machine sending a stackload of extra traffic this way. Typically it's the Torero Brass Band and this Bardot picture that draws in the drifters and anonobods - so following on from the Brenda's (is anyone called Brenda anymore?) WAMIMS cover here's a Bob Andy's reggae flavoured rework and as bonus Billy Childish's moonstomping version of the Dads Army theme which you may have seen on some recent TV ads

Bob Andy - Walk A Mile In My Shoes



Wild Billy Childish And The Blackhands - Who Do You Think You Are Kidding Mr Hitler

Funky Friday - Cocktail Shakers

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'



Peggy Lee 'Everyday People'



Brenda Lee - Walk A Mile In My Shoes




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

Give it away give it away give it away now

How do they do it? How (and why) do pedigree performers manage to give their goodies away on the the freemans? I wouldn't want to get wrapped up in the fuss, and faff of writing, recording, mixing and mastering - only to have knocked myself out for literally nothing! Well whatever my head-scratching take on it is - it happens.

The Wolfmen have come up with yet another new fruity tune, perhaps more muted and minor modal than the regular glam-garagerocking-pop but an absolute peachy treat that's almost Roxy Music meets Goldfrappish. Not only is it one of the strongest ear ticklers of the year - but it's available for free - that's right F.R.E.E - you can grab it by zipping over to the Wolfmen's HQ and just clicking on the Wolf's head

The Wolfmen - 'Nothing To Say To You'





Hugh Cornwell - 'Going To The City'



And, ex-Strangler Hugh Cornwell is offering one full album's worth of new tunes for a big fat nothing - yes, really! You can get your get hand's on Hugh's 'Hooverdam' and it will cost you not one Earth penny - s'available right here

How is it that long-serving proto-punks like these can have put in thirty years of songwriting service and still deliver top drawer tunes, while so many Indie kids and contemporary clangers fold or stick to a safe-bet formula after just a few samey albums?

Funky Friday - What You Need You Have To Borrow

The King Of Cut And Paste Pop Culture

Popular opinion would have you believe 'Young Americans' was a calculated attempt by Bowie to attract the attention of, a so far, apathetic American audience by dropping the glam rags and reinventing himelf as a seventies soul boy. Realistically it was more of a revert to type. Ziggy only lasted 18 months, and snappily suited dance fan rather than outsider-outfits has been Bowie's default career setting (Mod, Young Americans, The Thin White Duke, Lets Dance, Tin Machine...).

Dig a little deeper and you'll also find he'd started dabbling with Disco a year earlier - alongside pet projects and helping hands for Lou Reed, Iggy and The Stooges, Mott The Hoople during 1973, Bowie had also found time to write and produce one full album 'People From Good Homes' (recognise that line from a later song) for his backing vocalists The Astronettes which was dressed in a disco trim...

The Astronettes - I Am Divine




During the Young Americans sessions, Luthor Vandross (in pink above and blue below) had become an almost honorary member of the Astronettes - joining them at recording sessions, and for an appearance on the Dick Cavett show

Bowie remodeled one of Vandross's tunes 'Funky Music' as 'Fascination' for inclusion on the Young Americans album (with Vandross getting a composer credit)..

Luther Vandross - Funky Music



During his Dick Cavett set, Bowie also covered The Flares 'Footstompin', which had been given a seventies style re-riffing by Carlos Alomar. A riff, which one month later became worked up into 'Fame' by Bowie and Lennon (with Alomar getting a composer credit for his contribution).




The Flares - Foot Stompin

As well as having a magpie's eye for bright ideas and what's hot - Bowie also clonked out some cracking compositions of his own - an unreleased original being...

David Bowie - After Today



I will get the Bowie-handbrake on soon, it's just that I've been ploughing through the Tony Visconti biog' this week, and have just hit the 'Young Americans' chapter you see.

However, if you fancy more Bowie business an excellent companion to his mid-seventies period is the excellent Golden Years website

Rock 'n' Rumble

What Exactly Is A 'Morry Thou'?*

The Stranglers are live in Southend tonight, and being one of the first handful of bands I actively collected (along with the Pistols and The Damned) there's no question of not trotting along. I know Hugh Cornwell's long gone from the line up - but it's still 75% original Strangulation. The other three are present and correct: Ol' Beardy, Ol' Pudding Basin and JJ Burnell, one of the coolest punk bass cadets (actually punk bass players were typically the snappiest member of the band) - all karate moves, monkey boots, motorbikes and that thunderous rumble underpinning the 'men in black's' signature sound. It's a 'greatest hits' gig, so hopefully these B-side babies may be somewhere in the setlist...

The Stranglers - Tank




Tank - with an intro from Peter Cook


Go Buddy Go - I'm no lip reader, but even I can see, the second word in this clip clearly isn't 'boogie' or 'woogie'


*Apparently a 'morry thou' as mentioned in The Stranglers '(Get A) Grip (On Yourself)' is, well - click here to find out or here - for a picture

Polari Pop

What better way to clear out the weekend cobwebs - than a sugary slice of cut and paste pop that mashes eighties electrickery with a seventies super-grouper - in combo that's camper than Christmas.

I always suspected there was some sonic crossover between Pete Shelley's 'Homosapien' and Abba's 'Does Your Mother Know' before it was 'outed' like this ..



DJ Copycat - Does Your Homosapien Know



DJ Copycat website
well worth digging around for other winners while you're there

DJ Copycat Myspace

Freaky Friday - Trilogy Of Terror

Happy Halloween all you crypt kickers, freak-beaters and fangomaniacs. Hell comes to your house early this year with a three part posting for this week's Freaky Funky Friday including ...a seventy minute monster mix - Youtube treat - and a right ol' Carry On (plus some chilling tunes on C-Mondo too)

Mondo Mania
This years collection of Halloween themed hits and howlers (in a good way) have been alchamixed into 'Mondo Mania'. Some of the ingredients may not seem immediately obvious witch-way winners but....

'Barabajagal's mutterings and mantras about Hammer Horror herbalism, seems to suit the mood of the moment

And 'Who Do You Love's imagery of "tombstone hands, graveyard mines, "cobra snake neckties" and "chimney, a-made out of human skull" qualifies it for dead-cert selection..

Mondo Mania



After getting blog-busted last week, I was almost tempted to put the this list in the comments - but nevermind that cobblers, here's the tracklisting..

The Playboys - Whatizit
Ruth Copeland - Gimme Shelter
The Preachers - Who Do You Love
The Strangeloves - In The Nighttime
Alder Ray - My Heart Is In Danger
Carl Douglas - Sell My Soul To The Devil
Tom Jones - Chills And Fever
Tony Jackson Group - Fortune Teller
Paul's Disciples - See that My Grave Is Kept Clean
Zoot Money - The Mound Moves
Affinity - Three Sisters
Dusty Springfield - Spooky
Tony Joe White - Stud-Spider
Klaus Doldinger - Back In The Dark
Cream - Strange Brew
Donovan - Barabajagal
The Rattles - The Witch
Tom Jones - Witch Queen Of New Orleans
Georgie Fame - Seventh Son
The Coasters - Love Potion No9
The Exciters - Blowing Up My Mind
John Mayall & The Bluesbreakers - I'm Your Witchdoctor
The N'Betweens - Evil Witchman
Jimi Hendrix - Fire
The Sonics- Psycho

And why not revisit last year's mini-monster-mixes
Tunes From The Crypt and Frighty Night Is Music Night

Or Bitter Andrew's Halloween countdown, Devil Dick's spooky tunes or a trip to The Dude's Ghost Town

Video Nicey
Live from the Prancing Pony-A-Go-Go it's Georgie Fame as Gandalf the groovy and his bopping hobbits, rocking 'em dead in the Shire

Seventh Son


Frying Tonight
Why not pop on over to the Whippit Inn for a Carry On Screaming grab bag of goodies. There's everything from Lobby Cards to Locations.

Never Mind The Bollock Brothers

If you were the age to be out, about and shaking a leg (or flapping an arm) in Southend's early 80s alt.clubs and shady places like Crocs, Chesters and The Monkey House - or whatever your regional variation was - these two tunes should be more time-trippy than test driving the TARDIS, take you right back to the dry ice-age, and have your phantom senses tasting the 'snakebites and black', smelling the 'Hard Rock' hairspray (or Boots green, gunky, 'Country Born' setting gel), and perhaps feeling the itch of a black mohair jumper if you were ever a proto goth-monster or grebo-warrior...

The Bollock Brothers Horror Movies

I really must get the BB's '83 rework of the Pistols NMTB album



Red Lipstique Drac's Back

At the time, there were shifty whispers that Red Lipstique were actually the Bollock Brothers in disco disguise.




You can see more about the Southend scene (including my live pics of The Damned, The Sweet and Lords Of The New Church - and my punk top 50) at the always excellent Southend Punk site