#AnimalAugust and Album Covers

Today I will start the #AnimalAugust sequence , which is basically every post will feature animal related music in band name, song , record label or something else.

Apropos of nothing I was looking at album covers on the internet last night and there are various lists of album covers. Like many things because we are no probably into the seventieth year of album cover design , there are lot of examples good and bad, and was shocked to see glaring omissions and seemingly bland inclusions.

Some of my favourite album covers are a lot more that the front cover (I'm thinking Barney Bubbles and Storm Thorgerson / Hipgnosis ) and sometimes you do get a single striking image but a lot seem to be covers that are just there because the artist is very successful and famous.

Here are some list for you to peruse:

• Billboard Top 50 Album Covers
• Udiscover Top 100 Album Covers
• Udicover 25 Most Iconic Albums
• Google Search

I do buy vinyl albums mainly for the covers, or some uniqueness about them, but my preferred vinyl listen is probably reggae , although I also like electro disco , and finally got a copy of "En-Tact" by The Shamen which can be picked up very reasonably on Discogs  .

Some of the iconic covers that stand out for me are the first Elvis Presley album which influenced "London Calling" by The Clash , Andy Warhol usually gets two mentions for "The Velvet Underground and Nico"  the front cover of which only features Warhol's name, and "Sticky Fingers" by The Rolling Stones , both quite complex designs although deserving of their place in any list.

At the bottom this post will be twelve of my favourite album covers which you can click through to Amazon to check out although it may go through to the digital copy, there should be links to the vinyl copy.

Sometimes Picture discs can look good , I'm thinking the mandala effect on "Air Conditioning" by Curved Air, and there are some with zoetropic designs which look impressive under the right conditions , plus the laser etched 3D holograms which are  often impressive, first seen on Jack White's "Lazaretto" I believe.

Then you have the Vertigo Swirl which is simple and hypnotic and worth buying any piece of vinyl so you can sit and watch it.

Vinyl , because it is bigger gives more options for creativity.

If you would prefer to support your local record shop check out these in Newcastle from this post here:

• RPM
• Reflex
• Beatdown
• Beyond Vinyl
• Vinyl Guru
• 586

So we come to the first #AnimalAugust song which will be "Fireball" by Ducks Deluxe , they also do a cracking version of Sonny Curtis' "I Fought The Law".

2222

Yes , this is post number 2222 , probably the next significant number will be 2345, but this is one of the goals I mentioned in a recent post. I have now got 98 positive reviews on Discogs so still two off the century there. I added a few more CDs one of which was a BEF box set with is going for around fifty mounds so it must be quite rare, but I am never going to play it again so I can make some room.

I'm slightly worried that the lockdown will hamper my walking although I have kept up my steps so far and likely to be ok for March , but April may be a different kettle of fish. I have been out and am surprised at the number of people who seem to go out of their way to stop social distancing, managing to take up the width of a Supermarket aisle on their own, so it just means finding another way round.

So it is quite late on this Wednesday , so I doubt anyone will read this, but given our current situations here's another one for it, "Clampdown" by The Clash.

Thank you and good night.

Before Bed

This is post 1977. There can only be one song, can't there. Is this going to be the shortest post I've ever done?

Well not quite because this was my first ever blog post, and it was fairly short maybe about fifty words (I can't be bothered to count but you can do it yourself.

1977 was the year that punk really got underway. but it started way before that. The Bok sent demos to John Peel , Stiff Records and Rabid Records in Manchester. John Peel said we were primitive , Stiff sent a rejection letter , but Rabid wanted us. It was only when Rabid asked which studio we had recorded it that it dawned on us the reason for Peel's reaction. We'd never seen a studio and recorded direct to 2 track cassette. The single was decided, people stopped talking to be because the bassist said we were going to be on Top of The Pops , then Rabid went bust and the band split.

We formed on a Tuesday and played our first gig on the following Saturday, and it that time we managed to write and learn songs for something like a one hour set, including "Waiting For The Man" , "Gloria", "The Passenger" , "Egyptian Reggae" , "Shot By Both Sides" and the demos on the link above.

One of my favourite guitarists was Ollie Halsall who recommended learning with heavy gauge strings and playing with light gauge strings. What this didn't take into account was the fact that in the heat of the gig they went out of tune almost immediately. After a gig one guy said he was impressed with my in song tuning.

Anyway 1977 was the year of The Roxy , any number of punk bands , many still around now, and off course "1977" by The Clash , the "B" side of "White Riot".

"No Elvis, Beatles or Rolling Stones

 In 1977"

Absolutely brilliant and The rolling Stones are still going but The Clash aren't , two trully great bands

Post 101 - When I First Heard Joe Strummer

I just realised that  this is post 101 this year and I can't let this go by without it's Joe Strummer and George Orwell connections. I've probably done this before (follow the related tags) but what the hell. I've now started to wonder whether I will hit 50 posts this month, it means three posts today and three tomorrow but the #AprilSongs sequence will account for two of those, and this will account for another one so it looks like I might almost match last years #August50 where I did 54 posts , but that is definitely going to stay as my highest number of monthly posts.

Anyway back to the point of this post, I first heard Joe Strummer singing the song "Keys To YOur Heart" with his band the 101ers when John Peel played it. It appeared on the excellent Chiswick Records which was similar to Stiff (when Indie meant Indie) in being independent and similar to Stiff featuring New Wave, Punk and Pub Rock with others in it's eclectic spread, but I bought the record straight away. While not as attack minded as The Clash it is still a great rock record.

The band took their name from George Orwell's "1984" where Room 101 was where you were subjected to your greatest fear. I remember that scaring me as a kid when I saw the fifties BBC adaptation with Peter Cushing (you can watch it here) with the rat cage helmet contraption.

So that is how I first got into the music of Joe Strummer.

#TenAlbumsInTenDays #4 - #2 - The Last Post - Carbon Silicon

My initial plan was to choose albums from this decade, but I've gone back to the last decade for this one, but I'm still in the most recent century and millenium. When I heard "The News" from "THe Last Post" it was one of the most exhilarating and hopeful songs I'd heard though it was released at a time when things were improving and looking great.

The album was a collaboration between Mick Jones (The Clash,Big Audio Dynamite) and Tony James (Sigue Sigue Sputnik which I always thought was Zigue Zigue Sputnik) but that's just me showing my musical ignorance.

So I know this is just a short post on today's #TenAlbumsInTenDays post but it is another excuse to share "The News", though I also love "The Magic Suitcase" as well, but it's a great album well worth a listen.

So it's Monday morning , time for work, and I hope you have a great one.

Pans and Pots

I haven't a clue what brought this into my head, but why do I think "Pots and Pans" rather than "Pans and Pots"? The logically alphabetical phrase would be "Pans and Pots" but I always think "Pots and Pans" which may hark back to "Shake, Rattle and Roll" by Bill Haley and His Comets.

I'm surprised that Bill Haley has not appeared on any of my previous posts (he mave have done, but he doesn't have a label until now), he was an unlikely figureheahead in the aerly Rock'n'Roll movevent, being a middle aged, balding, Western Swing artist. I must say I am still impressed every time I hear the guitar solo in "Rock Around The Clock" , a song featured in the film "Blackboard Jungle"  which caused teenagers to rip out cinema seats and riot. It was hardly "God Save The Queen" or "White Riot" was it now?

So here's another prime example of me going off on a tangent, start talking about how a phrase is said and finish up with punk and riots, which is no mean feat in around 200 words.

So the obvious song to include is the Bill Haley song that started this , "Shake, Rattle and Roll". I know it's only Thursday but the weather outside is beautiful if cold.

Stay Free

I thought Iknew Newcastle, well the record shops in Newcastle. Today I was in Kazbat's Den talking Donna Summer, Giorhio Moroder, Human League , Black Sabbath and the las who was in tere said his favourite record shop in Newcastle was Stay Free. I'd just been to Beyond Vinyla and this week I discovered 586.

"Where's Stay Free"?" Quoth I
"Opposite Haymarket Metro, down the alley next to Boots, in The Antique Centre" Quoth He (Roughly)

So I wandered off across down before it got swamped with Blaydon Racers and Ed Sheeran fans. (I love Ed Sheeran as a person but find his music leaves me unmoved)

Anyway I tracked down Stay Free and wandered upstairs , also seeing signs for Meli Cafe which I visited briefly, and was well impressed with the warm welcome, interesting Greek Menu and incredible vies of Northumberland Street. I will be revisiting soon.

Then I wandered into the Antiques Centre and straight into Stay Free which has a great selection of Vinyl , so great wall displays and is most reasonably priced. A record shop is good if you walk in and can immediately find somthing to buy, I managed to get two items . A 12" single of "Boops" by Sly and Robbie and "Should I Stay or Should I Go" by The Clash backed by "Rush" by Big Audio Dynamite II.

Tony the owner is great to talk to, and knows his stuff and is very helpful and the couple of customers who dropped in liked it too. This is another gem of a record shop I have found so below is my up to date list of record shops in Newcastle:

• RPM
• Reflex
• Beatdown
• Long Play Cafe / Empire Records
• Beyond Vinyl
• Vinyl Guru
• 586
• Stay Free

plus spectial mention to Oxfam at Jesmond ( I used to work there briefly and the manager Katie knows her stuff , Pop Recs in Sunderlan and there are record shops in Durham, Hexham and Gosforth,  and if you are pushed HMV is not bad for a high street shop.

Please comment with any I've missed.

So really there's only one song isn't there?

Sunday Night

It's 9PM Sunday Night , knowing that tomorrow is work again.  As an added task I now am trying to walk 5 miles a day as well. Given that it means I can listen to what I want, walk where I want and when I want it's probably a good way to exercise. Today I decided to walk into town , then decided to walk back and ending up doing about eight miles. From May 1st I'm going to do the million step challenge , that's one million steps (500 Miles) i three months. There is a Diabetes UK 1 Million Step Challenge to raise money for research into diabetes here but I won't be taking part in it as my diabetes is self inflicted (several people have pointed out that diabetics are overweight and if they would just lose it they'd be be fine) . I don't let it bother me, I am to busy enjoying life.

The weather at the moment is wonderful and we have a couple of short weeks coming up, so opportunity to lie in and enjoy not having to get up for work.

I managed to miss a celebration of the release of the first Clash album , forty years ago yesterday,  and I remember it was dismembered and re assembled for the American market, so I ended up buying two copies of it. Although there are lot's of brilliant songs on there my favourite is still "London's Burning" but I'm sure there will be lot's of other favourites on there.

Anyway I could have chosen The Proclaimers "500 Miles" but I will go with "London's Burning".
Enjoy your Sunday night my friends.

Staying Positive - #ALifeInNumbers #48

I'm staying positive and will likely have a rant on And Annoyingly over the weekend. This morning we learned of the loss of Leonard Cohen, but he will live on in his writing and music and my belief in the evolutionary process makes me feel he will be progressing in one form or another, and no doubt his record company will have a treasure trove of unreleased material.

Anyway we are at the the weekend (well almost) and this is time for the good and sensible people to regroup and realise they can actually do good, and make a world actually worth living in. The thing is not to give up and very often you find something new to work towards.

Stay Cool

Anyway we come to number 48 of #ALifeInNumbers and it's "48 Hours" by The Clash from their first album, one and a half minutes to blow any cobwebs away. Incidentally The Clash and Leonard Cohen are still label mates, they may have departed this mortal coil (well Leonard and Joe) , but Mick Jones still produces some great music, and actually I am going to include "The News" by Carbon/Silicon because it's an incredibly positive way to start the day.

Stay positive and find good things this weekend my friends.

A Brush With Eastenders #ALifeInNumbers #13

I know I'm rattling of a few of these at the moment, 13 had a few more possibilities than 12 including "13" by Big Star and Johnny Cash , "Broken Heart (Thirteen Valleys)" by Big Country but I have gone for "V13" by Big Audio Dynamite (Mick Jones' post Clash combo) from the album "10 Upping Street" (not the greatest title Mick), but an album full of great songs including the excellent "V13". I love the use of soundbites in the Big Audio Dynamite songs, some of my other favourites being "Medicine Show" and "Bottom Line" from the first album, "This Is", and "Dial A Hitman" from "10 Upping Street" which is very funny but I don't know if they took that from a film or just recorded it themselves. It also contains the great couplet:

"We're The Band That Couldn't Shoot Straight

But We Aim To Please"

The other thing about "V13" is that wen it hits the coda it let's in the "Eastenders" Theme which is a fun touch.

I'm currently going down with a cold, nose dripping and throat feels like I've swallowed a pack of rusty razor blades making it difficult to talk or swallow, so Doctor Mikey's treatment id chocolate, ice cream and paracetamol, and we shall see how that goes.

I hope your Sunday is going wonderfully.

Autumn Equinox and Here Comes The Rain

Thursday or Friday was the Autumn Equinox, this means the nights will be longer than the days. Yesterday looked as though it was going to rain, but didn't but it was very grey. Last night there was a huge downpour although it's fine now. The good thing about rain at night is that your don't have to water your garden (which I mowed yesterday).

The less good thing is that grey skies tend to make grey moods in me, sunshine does lift my spirits. I have LED lights in my house which apparently cat more natural light, but I prefer normal daylight.

Gorilla

The thing is that I am lucky in that I live in a wonderful place, with lots of wonderful friends , with lots of opportunity to do things should I so choose. Yesterday I spent most of the day in the house, reading , watching catch up TV, listening to music, playing guitar and messing about with Garageband and taking delivery of a vinyl version of Status Quo's Piledriver which I had purchased for it's Vertigo Swirl label (see here) I love the 3D optical illusion you get watching it , which is why I bought it. I wrote a blog post about it here



Today's music will be Garageland by The Clash for the simple reason that mentioning Garageband reminded me of it.
 
Anyway I think today is a good day for doing something to lift your spirits and make yourself feel happy. It may be having a bar of chocolate , a glass of wine or enjoying time with people you like and giving big hugs. Stay positive

The Millenium Post - #50 - 2006 - Raconteurs - Steady As She Goes

This is the thousandth post , that's one thousand times I've written something to put on here. On thousand times something has fallen out of my brain to fall through my fingertips via my computer keyboard to hit the screen for you to read  now. I've tried blogging by phone , I believe there is one post that I put on completely via voice input on one of my phones. Since I started this I've learned lots , met lots of new friends , been all around this country but essentially not left the UK shoreline apart from the odd trip to Ireland. I do like writing and sometimes it meanders aimlessly but sometimes great things come out of it. Sometimes it's a one liner an observation or something more. I take inspiration from lots of things . The letters A F J K L are special and inspirational to me.

1000

I've have 97 thousand page views that means every thing I write gets seen my nearly a hundred people and maybe robots. The most read piece is an appalling piece about Lion Poo . The one I would linke to be high up is the one with the Christopher Lee video , the now sadly missed great man.

I know this is a bit of a retrospective and I need to look forward as well as back . I have never stood still and always want to experience new thing sand meet new people , but also enjoy being unpressured.

I started this blog of with travel in mind hence the Seven Days In motif , but it soon became a way of recording and remembering things that caught my mind and someone pointed out that they thought it was Seven Day Sin knowing my reputation (some reputation of which I am totally unaware, I was brought up by Jesuits and  I am a very good person)

Anyway I think there was a band called called Seven Day Sin but I cant find any trace of them any more

The song that I am going to choose for the Millennium Post is The Clash's White Man In Hammersmith Palais , just because I love it so much. This isn't part of the Oddysey that comes in Part 2 put this is a truly monumental song.

So that's it

1000

What next , will I hit ten thousand ? Probably not , but I am determined to keep writing and have an absolutely brilliant time.

Right that's the main part of the post here's the next installment in The Odyssey:


This is proof that that there is always brilliant music around whatever the year is. It may scare you that this is almost ten years old . So year 50 in 2006 brings us to Steady As She Goes By The Raconteurs. Brilliant stuff.

Have a brilliant Sunday afternoon everyone.

Today Will Be Brilliant

OK I've had very little sleep and my eyes hurt a bit but I am going to make sure that today will be absolutely brilliant. I don't know what's going to happen , but there are so many opportunities everyday that we often don't take and I'm just going to grab me some.

The amazing thing about last night is that all I ate were two nectarines , so it was hardly going to give me a sugar  rush that would keep me awake.

Anyway being up at this time means I can let these words fall out of my head through the keyboard on to the printed screen to reside forever on the world wide web in the cloud or whatever.

Stand By Me

If you see me say hello , and smile at every opportunity , it gives you the same rush as eating chocolate. Keep cool , I home the sun shines and we get a summers day , but friends can make the sunshine and that's the sort of thing that is worth getting up for (especially of you can't sleep).

Gone are the days when I could survive of three hours a night sleep , but I am sure tonight I will sleep perfectly. Here we go no

And what better way to start the day than with one of my favourite Clash songs "Train In Vain"

The Genius of Simple

When I was at primary school my headmistress Mrs Walsh told us that a genius who could see and explain things very simply. She gave the example of a guy who went to a match company and said he could save them a great deal of money for actually stopping doing something.

In those days match boxes were sandpapered on two sides. He posited that people always checked for where they were goig to strike the match , so the boxes only needed one strip of sand
paper instead of two. At a stroke halving the company's sandpaper bill. It does sound obvious, but until he came along no one had thought about.

Genius at Work

I am currently reading Stephen Hawking's "A Brief History Of Time" , and there is no down in my mind that the guy is probably in the genius category. The book is less than two hundred pages, but is packed with content and not a word is wasted , which means it is slow going , but his style of writing comes across with a "Go On, You CAN Get This!"  message.

That's a long probably unconnected intro to what this post is actually about . I may have blogged about this or touched on this before but it is really about musical genius. If someone were to ask for an example , Jimi Hendrix , Brian Wilson , Lennon and McCartney are probably goig to come over in responses and there's no doubt that these  were musical Genii . I would add Joni Mitchell , PJ Harvey , Kate Bush and Sandy Denny to that list as well , but it's annoying that music is seen as a boy thing. Girls are good too.

The problem is that most of the music that these artists produced was complex, and taken to extremes by bands like King Crimson , Emerson Lake & Palmer and Yes. One of the main ironies was that of Yes's initially simplest constructs "And You And I" is a lovely melody set to basically three acoustic chords , but by the time it's finihed it hits ten minutes with lots of additional bombast. I still love it though , and it was released , uncut as a seven inch single.


Ok we're here , real genius is to do something musically so simple that anyone can do it. Songs with three chords or less. The Velvet Underground's first album didn't initially sell many copies but everyone who bought it formed a band. The descening G riff from "I'm Waiting For The Man" can be heard in "White Riot " by the clash, "In The City" by The Jam and "Holidays In The Sun" by The Sex Pistols. The inspired Jonathan Richman , who's "Roadrunner" is only two chords  "D" and "A" which any one can learn on a guitar in minutes. Van Morrison's Gloria and The Who's "I Can't Explain" are more examples of easy to play songs , along with The Kingsmen's "Louie Louie" a staple of any garage band's repertoire , and The Kinks "You Really Got Me" and  "All Day, and All Of The Night" also fall into this area.

Another example of genius is the one note guitar solo. If you can make one note sound good you are a true genius. To this day I am only aware of two examples of this "I'm A Hog For You Baby" by The Coasters and "Tommy Gun" by The Clash. To do that , is inspired genius.

So I've bookended this post with those two songs , sitting an Amazon MP3 selection in the middle for you to sample. Love to hear your thoughts on this , and sorry this one has gone on a bit

Busy Doing Nothing - What Goes On In Your Mind?

The intention was to really not do much this weekend , but I've ended up to doing work , shopping, making beds , and am going to write another two posts on my music blog here due to the fact that I've been to two excellent gigs this week, one for the opening of The Old Fox in Felling with Rigid Digits and the other for a Nick Cave tribute gig and the Tyneside Bar and cafe featuring my friends Jon Lee, Sheena Revolta and Bethany Elen Coyle, though obviously I don't need to say anything about them here otherwise I'd be repeating myself, although repeating yourself is a good way of filling up the page , that's if you you feel you have to fill up the page, which I don't as I'm not being paid for this, just doing it ofr myself and maybe for. your entertainment.

VU

It's funny how when you maybe don't want to do much, you sometimes find lots of things to do, like I set up a Facebook  Your One Song page to see what peoples' favourite song will be if they only had a choice of one! I would hate to only be able to listen to a single song but, the thought of minimalising the Desert Island Discs concept appealed to me. It's like while I have the utmost respect for guitarists who can play complex tunes in complex times with complex solos, I have have a great deal of respect for the one note guitar solos and single (ok maybe two or three) chord songs because that enables ANYBODY to get up and play a song.



Examples are "I'm A Hog For You Baby" by The Coasters, "Tommy Gun" and "White Riot" by The Clash , "Roadrunner" by Jonathan Richman and "Gloria" by Them - there's an instant set list for any band.

Anyway the music I've choset for this post post is "What Goes On" by The Velvet Underground, which The Bok covered for their first gig in the seventies, the band formed on Wednesday, first gig on the Saturday and we'd written half a dozen songs by then!

Anyway I've got a lot of stuff done so far, two more blog posts to go and then I may sit down and watch some catch up TV. Hope you are having a brilliant weekend .

How Bad Were The Eighties Really?

I've just finished Danny Baker's series of shows on the seventies , eighties and nineties and the eighties usually come in for extremely harsh treatment due to New Romantics and A Flock of Seagulls hair styles. But Baker's show opened with The Clash playing Should I Stay or Should I Go at Shea Stadium , New York. The program was only half an hour long and while Prefab Sprout and The Pretenders are not exactly my cup of tea (although when both bands are good they are very very good and Prefab Sprout's last album is an absolute beauty) , the quality of the music never faltered , finding space for Ivor Cutler's Shoplifters before having the great man introduce The Smiths Boy With The Thorn In His Side. The show closed with New Order playing The Hacienda.


This post seemed to be getting fairly monoparagraphic so I thought I'd insert a break.

Incidentally a friend from Facebook had mentioned the Fall's I Am Curious Oranj in various  orange related posts last week, and then Danny Baker played Big New Prinz in situ with the dancers / ballet for which the music was commissioned.


When you add bands like The Cure , Sisters of Mercy, Bauhaus  you have to admit there were a lot of great bands round in the eighties. As I've said before 95% is always rubbish , it's up to you to track down the good stuff. I've probably mentioned more bands in this post than any other previous post but there is a lot of great music round all the time, find and enjoy.