Showing posts with label Simon and Garfunkel. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Simon and Garfunkel. Show all posts

Wednesday 17 April 2019

Rock Samplers


I've been meaning to write this, as I discovered, or got access to a lot of great music from the loss leader rock samplers in the late sixties and early seventies. I have been looking on Discogs and a lot of them can be picked up at very reasonable prices.

While I am semi tempted by some of them , the reality is that I have all the music digitally and the reason that these albums were put out was to tempt you to actually buy the albums. THe prices were as little as 50p with some of the double albums maybe hitting £1.99.

Sometimes these albums contained previously unreleased songs such as "New Age of Atlantic" which contained "Hey,Hey, What Can I Do" a stunning Led Zeppelin non-album song (although it did appear on later compilations, and a take of Simon and Garfunkel's "America" by Yes, ten minutes of it.

I'm going to put up ten covers of some compilations that I either have or have had, I still have a copy of the Island compilation "Nice Enough To Eat" which I loved so much I put together my own CD compilation so I could listen to it digitally as well, but the vinyl copy is downstairs and that will always be part of my collection.


Another favourite was the United Artists double compilation "All Good Clean Fun" which also had a booklet with it, but I have forgotten what was in it so need to track that down at some pome point.

The were many double sets such as Island's "El Pea" and "Bumpers", Vertigo's "Suck It And See". Harvest's "Picnic:A Breath of Fresh Air" (containing the , at the time, Pink Floyd rarity "Embryo")

Many of these are now available digitally and there and now often free digital downloads available to tempt you to buy more, but these all hold a lot of fond memories for me. The images link to Amazon but you can probably track them down on Discogs.

These are just a very small sample and you will probably have your own favourites but delving into these can bring some wonderful music into your life.

Wednesday 10 April 2019

#AprilSongs #10 Wednesday Morning 3AM


It's looking cold out this morning, well it is April, and the weather is British. As it's Wednesday the #AprilSongs installment is "Wednesday Morning 3AM" the slightly subversive title track from Simon and Garfunkel's 1965 debut album. I  have always loved Simon and Garfunkel even though Paul Simon stole Martin Carthy's arrangement of "Scarborough Fair" and they produced a remarkable body of work, with Simon producing an amazing body of work after they split.

Art Garfunkel is a wonderful interpretive singer but reliant on other songwriters, but I suppose you could say the same of Rod Stewart.

I recently bought an ebook on how to get lots of readers for your blog and essentially it said don't write for yourself, write for a target audience so that may explain why my readers have dropped to single figures, as essentially it's a diary which features things that catch my attention. I'm not going to change and am quite happy that this blog enables me to go back and find things that I remember recording and sometimes find things that I forgot about recording. So it is doing the job that I want.

So off we go to work once more,

Saturday 21 July 2018

Flexibly Free

Back in the sixties and seventies music was often promoted by giving away vinyl flexidiscs. These were'nt meant to last but were meant to give you a taster of something so you would buy the actual single or album and generate income for the artist and definitely the record company.

The thing is sometimes these flexidiscs contained exclusive music (at the time), I'm thinking Alice Cooper's "Slick Black Limousine" which was promoting "Billion Dollar Babies" and the interludes on the promo for the Rolling Stones' "Exile on Main Street". These were both NME freebies as it was my music mag of choice at the time. Both these were committed to cassette as soon as I got them, but were lost way back. They may be worth something now.

I recently bought a couple of flexidiscsfor Long Play Cafe / Empire Records in The Grainger Market and was surprised that the Adam and The Ants one had no track name on , but is their take on The Village People's "YMCA" called apparently "IMCA". Because the flexidiscs slip you need to put a couple of coins to stop the vinyl slipping.  The other was by Hazel O'Connor and you can see the details here. LAter sounds actually started giving away vinyl EPs.

But in the sixties we started getting loss leader compilations. At first I thought these would be very expensive, but they were very cheap and full of amazing music. Again these often contained music you couldn't get anywhere else, I'm thinking "America", Yes' ten minute take on the Siman and Garfunkel song and Led Zeppelin's "Hey,HeyWhat Can I Do" on the "Age of Atlantic" samplers.

The first one that I bought was Island's "Nice Enough To Eat" which introduced me to Nick Drake, Fairport Convention, King Crimson and many more.

In the disgital age Amazon used to give free downloads but that seems to have stopped but often artists make music available to download for free in exchange for an email address.

I suppose music is still effectively free to listen to on the radio and Youtube, but I do like to have the music and make sure the artist gets something from me.

Well I am looking out at the blue sky and sunshine and think its time to wake the neighbours by mowing my overgrown jungle of a lawn.

Today Fiona and Helen are doing a 26 Mile walk for MacMillan which you can track here and donate here.

Have a most enjoyable day

Thursday 12 July 2018

How Long Would It Take This Blog To Die?


Pretty depressing title, and I am so glad when people read my posts but if I don't keep posting then readers just disappear. I am as guilty as anybody, I have several friends who run blogs that I don't really follow, just dip into them now and then. Sometimes I will post something that catches people's eyes for some reason  and they will get a couple of hundred views.

If I don't post on Facebook then I get very little interaction, and hate relying so much on Facebook, but maybe I am just not a very interesting or even adequate writer, and unless I am writing about something that people are interested in then no one will read it, I wouldn't.

The reality is I will keep writing because I have some great friends who read and like what I put down in words, and also, as I have said before, this is a sort of diary whee I can store things that I may want to revisit in th efuture.

This week I have been feeling lethargic and as though my mind and body are wading through treacle. My walking has really dropped off, although I am still hitting my targets, just. Work is remarkably difficult, it's not that I can't do it, it's just that the simplest of tasks seem to became incredibly cumbersome. I have managed to get through a decent amount of work though I feel it's still a fight.

I am suffering from hay fever symptoms and life seems to be continually draining limbs, making walking  a chore.

The very fact that I have managed to write this shows that I am dealing with things but I probably just need a day in bed. I will keep posting but sorry this is not overly optimisticbut I am sure that I will feel much better soon.

I think Disturbed's take on Simon and Garfunkel's "Sound of Silence" is appropriate for my current mood, or my mood as was. Even writing this has lifted me although I still feel very tired, but it may also be this oppressive weather that has a lot to do with it.

Find something that puts a smile on your face and do that. It is a good thing to do.

Sunday 20 November 2016

The Finale - #ALifeInNumbers #59


Well it's here, the finale, the last #ALifeInNumbers. I had decided on Smoke (EFS 59) by Can from the album "Flow Motion" but it's blocked in this country on Youtube and I do apologise to anybody who can't see any of the videos on here. It's a great piece well worth tracking down and would have been a great finale piece.

I was going to wait til tomorrow, but for some reason I am aching badly and my blood sugar was dropping rapidly, but I am OK and will be in a warm bed soon.

So the second song, and I don't know how I missed this is, of course, Simon and Garfunkel's "59th Street Bridge Song (Feeling Groovy)" , I mean what a song to finish on. I was looking through my Simon and Garfunkel box set and was surprised that they only made five albums, plus the soundtrack to The Graduate which is effectively a compilation, plus their Greatest Hits.

So it's now late on Sunday night so I will quietly sign off this sequence, and I hope you have enjoyed it. Sleep well my lovely friends and I will find something else to keep my fingers going tomorrow.