Do You Want Beans With That? (Cafe Culture)

Here in the UK, after 10 days of forelock-tugging, monarchical myth-making & the performative grief of our national broadcaster (luckily I have a TV with an off switch) I was able to raise my Victorian mourning veil to find that we now live in a Kingdom & have a new head of government whose pernicious economic policy has rewarded millionaires, leaving the millions struggling in an inflationary recession to their own devices. Meet the new bosses, same as the old bosses only worse, probably. Trickle down economics – you’ve got to be joking but it’s not funny. Feeling a strong disconnection with the country I live in it’s time to turn to Sir Raymond Douglas Davies who, after inventing Heavy Metal with “You Really Got Me”, has for over 50 years cast a sardonic but still empathic eye on the country of his birth. The title track of his 2007 record “Working Man’s Cafe” is a place that I recognise & like & Jah bless Ray Davies for writing a song about it.

Mitchell wasn’t a fan of the Cockney Hut, on that row of shops at the bottom of the high-rise flats on the Camberwell Road, now called Tony’s Cafe, you’ve passed it on the bus. He reckoned that the proprietor had a grubby thumb in the beans as he handed you the heart attack (& beans) on a plate but that didn’t bother me, I was hungry. The Hut was warm, steamy & not-too welcoming, you were left to enjoy your meal in peace which was fine by me. Just 50 yards from my work it was an ideal morning stop for beans on toast, egg on toast to soak up last night’s alcohol & help with the headache. I told my foreman that I may be 15 minutes late but he would get more work out of me if I had eaten breakfast than on an empty stomach & hungover & he bought it (I was good at my job). When Mitchell & I were both off work, lunch at the Hut, a saunter to the bookies, a couple of pints at the pub on Camberwell Green then a few frames at the snooker hall was like being in an episode of “Minder”, the popular 80s TV programme. A long good Thursday afternoon.

I could search for more food related musical selections to accompany these memories but let’s stick to Sir Raymond & his group, the Kinks. “God’s Children” is possibly one of the greatest songs ever recorded, certainly the best song to be featured in a movie about a penis transplant.

A few years & a few jobs later I was knocking the heck out of old warehouses then making them nice enough for office space in Shoreditch, East London. It’s Millennial Central round there now but back then, while the developers were still making plans, the area retained enough of its proletarian past & grimy charm to encourage a spot of instant cash-in-hand overtime if you wanted to spend the night in the Bricklayer’s Arms (oo-er!). The construction crew were a lively, mainly Irish gang & life was too hectic for making sandwiches for work. At breakfast time we all descended on Anna’s, a cafe run by a Greek married couple on Rivington St, a path from Old Street to our site on Charlotte Rd. The rush & push for tea & bacon rolls was eased when the bosses allowed a couple of us behind the counter to vaguely aim the big metal teapots at a row of empty mugs. At lunchtime the home-made Greek-English meals – not many beans in those – were nourishing & for those of us who had drunk our wages before payday (sometimes that was me) there was a line of credit that was happily paid back on Fridays. Anna would tell us that she was only staying around until the “yuppies” moved in, which they would & did. Maybe it was what we wanted to hear but I think she meant it. If I was in the area I always paid a visit to Anna’s.

There are other cafes that merit a mention here – I never got round to writing that guide to the “greasy spoons” of London. We lived just 50 yards from the Regency in Westminster, big, efficient, an Art-Deco classic that had featured in movies. Open until 8 p.m. the take out jam roly-poly (a suet-based comfort dessert) & custard was often irresistible. The Vietnamese place in the Borough where the carb-packed spaghetti bolognese & chips seemed, to me, to be an unlikely popular lunchtime selection. The owner made such a fuss of my girlfriend on the day she joined me – she loved it. At my final regular spot, just off the Walworth Road, the Chinese lady always worried if we were a no-show for a weekend breakfast & she left her station behind the counter to hug me on the day I told her I was leaving London. “It’s only a cafe” said my companion. He just didn’t get it.

Of course most of these places have gone now (the Regency abides), gentrification of humble neighbourhoods has always been a part of an evolving city. I can’t say that I’m, like Larry David, too comfortable in the coffee & chrome joints where avocado has replaced the beans on the toast though I’m too polite to order some “vanilla bullshit”, I stick with a latte, coffee with milk – it’s a thing! In my small town it’s still the mid-20th century & there are still cafes where the breakfast options occupy half of the menu, where, if you ask nicely, they will stick their thumb in the beans when they serve you.

OK let’s end with a song about British food in its multicultural glory written by Joe Strummer, another another perceptive observer of the somethings about England.

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Not Like Everybody Else (23rd April 1972)

A couple of weeks ago I checked out the Cash Box album chart from 50 years ago, made my selections from those listed between 101 – 150, dug out some old records & hit a problem. The soft rock of Loggins & Messina just didn’t seem as interesting & as engaging as it had done in 1972. It was the same with the Raiders (formerly Paul Revere & the…) & Harry Chapin. I’m an enthusiast not a critic, I don’t want to waste my, your’s, anybody’s time with music I don’t really like so, for the first time this year, I scrapped the weekend blog post. On to the chart for the 23rd of April 1972 & ah, that’s much better. One of my selections is a favourite record by a favourite group so excuse me if later it all gets a bit florid.

Philadelphian Todd Rundgren’s teenage band, the Nazz, made an impression with their Psych-Pop, now classic, “Open My Eyes”. Leaving after a second album Todd, with his own ideas about the recording process, found employment as a sound engineer/producer with Bob Dylan’s manager Albert Grossman’s Bearsville organisation, preparing a mix (Glyn Johns did one too) for the Band’s “Stage Fright” (1970). The record “Runt”, written, produced but not released under his name was a vanity project, a favour from the boss. They were both surprised when the track “We Gotta Get You A Woman” made the US Top 20 & Todd had a solo career. “Runt. The Ballad of Todd Rundgren” (1971), like the debut, failed to attract big sales but those who were listening could hear the influence of sweet New York & Philly Soul & Laura Nyro, the melodicism of the Beatles, the Hard Rock of the Yardbirds, the inspiration of Jimi Hendrix – phew! All of this was evident on the next record, no more Runt, his name on the sleeve. Todd was in control & did not want to be viewed as just another singer-songwriter.

“Something/Anything?”, #124 on this week’s chart, is a double album, four different sides of a prolific & restlessly forward-thinking artist. There were long studio sessions while Todd played all the instruments & sang all the vocals on intricate arrangements. An L.A. earthquake took him back to the East Coast to finish the record with a band. Side one, “a bouquet of ear-catching melodies” opens with the sure-fire hit “I Saw The Light” & does exactly what it says on the label. There’s more than a touch of Prog on the “cerebral” side, a “Pop Operetta” revived “Hello It’s Me” for an even bigger hit. My selection, “Couldn’t I Just Tell You”, may not have invented Power Pop but certainly raised the bar. More songs like this would have been welcome. “Something/Anything?” may. like many double albums, may be self-indulgent but it’s a major work by a major talent. If it was recorded on Ritalin & weed the follow-up “A Wizard, A True Star” (1973) employed synthesizers & acid & was as madly chaotic as a box of frogs. Todd himself called it “career suicide” though to say the album is worth sticking with is understating its appeal. He could care less anyway, keeping busy with his band Utopia, running in parallel to his solo releases, while establishing himself as a leading producer. My subscription to the “Todd Is God” society lapsed some time ago though I’ll always listen to his output when it comes my way. The early albums, well I’ll always have time for those.

When sixth form ( a college but still school really) had finished for the day me & Butch would hop into his Morris Minor & scoot over to a local record shop where his girlfriend Natalie would let us listen to the new albums we wanted to hear but couldn’t afford to buy. The song that brings to mind those two young idiots spilling out of the listening booth (remember those?) whooping with the Rock & Roll excitement of it all is “Coming Home” by Delaney & Bonnie & Friends from “On Tour With Eric Clapton” (1970). Delaney Bramlett, raised in Mississippi, moved to Los Angeles after service in the Navy hooking up with other Southern musicians in the orbit of Leon Russell. Bonnie O’Farrell’s experience as a backing singer included three days onstage with Ike & Turner as the first white Ikette. Moving West in 1967 she met Delaney & they were married later that year. Delaney & Bonnie had many “Friends”, their first record was recorded at the Stax studios with Booker T & the M.G.s & the Memphis Horns, released by the label as part of their 27 album reinvigoration it got a little lost in the crush. On “Home” & “Accept No Substitute” (both 1969) Gospel, Country & R&B coalesced into an intoxicating rootsy Southern Rock. With their killer band augmented by Clapton, Dave Mason & sometimes George Harrison they had a great live show, the set recorded at the less-than-glamourous Fairfield Halls, Croydon becoming their most successful album.

In 1970 that band, Bobby Whitlock (keyboards), Carl Radle (bass) & Jim Gordon (drums) went off with Eric to be Derek & the Dominos. Delaney & Bonnie still had plenty of friends, Little Richard, Duane Allman, Gram Parsons – it’s a long list – to help out on their records. The acoustic “Motel Shot” included “Never Ending Song of Love”, a US Top 20 entry as was their version of Dave Mason’s “Only You Know & I Know”. The latter, like the studio version of “Coming Home” was released was released by Atco along with the accompanying album “Country Life” which was withdrawn by label boss Jerry Wexler who thought it lacked quality. Columbia picked up the record, shuffled the tracks & released it as “D & B Together”, #101 on the Cash Box chart. Wexler made a tough call, audiences may have been moving towards the guitar-based Southern rockers (Allman Brothers, ZZ Top) but there’s plenty of passion & soul on the record including “Groupie (Superstar)”, later a hit for the Carpenters. While D & B were “together” professionally they were separated then divorced by the end of the year. For a while it had seemed to be a sure thing that they would be big stars but it didn’t happen. Their five albums, particularly “”Accept No Substitute” & “On Tour” still rock.

In 1965 the Kinks were one of the biggest bands in the world. The previous year “You Really Got Me” started a pretty much five year long unbroken run of UK Top 10 singles, the first three of them hitting the same in the US. Preceded by a fractious reputation an American tour was marred by poor ticket sales, in-band arguments, unsatisfactory shows & finally a punch-up before an appearance on the “Dick Cavett Show”. The American Federation of Musicians were now able to defy the invasion of the Limey Longhairs & the Kinks’ ban from performing in the US lasted four years. Ray Davies developed an idiosyncratic British sensibility, sometimes cynical, increasingly nostalgic, a catalogue of great albums & popular 45s, all embellished by the guitar of brother Dave. “Waterloo Sunset”, a perfect, pivotal moment in 1960s British music made no impression on the US charts. In the UK the now influential, still wonderful “The Kinks Are The Village Green Preservation Society” (1968) failed to match the commercial success of albums by their contemporaries but in 1970, their US ban served, “Lola” was a hit on both sides of the Atlantic. The group ended their US deal with Reprise who now had a load of great, deserving of a wider hearing, music & the label found an imaginative way to re-release it.

“The Kink Kronikles”, a new entry at #142, is not a greatest hits kollektion (sorry). Compiled by critic & big fan John Mendelsohn it’s a 28 track non-chronological selection from the group’s 1966-71 output. There are great 60s singles (“Dead End Street”, “Autumn Almanac”), the later hits (“Lola”, “Apeman”), three songs by Dave, who never released the solo album he should have done, album tracks & some hard-to-get in the US stuff. Of course there are omissions (“Big Sky”, only the title track from “Village Green”) but the selection is wide ranging & considerately assembled. My current favourite is “God’s Children”, from a fag-end of the 60s (1971 actually) Brit-com – Hywel Bennett has a penis transplant – that Ray provided the soundtrack for. It’s possibly the most uplifting song he has written & never fails to bring a smile. If I don’t want one of the classic albums then I reach for “The Kink Kronikles”, an excellent, still surprising playlist from a very creative time of a great band. God save ’em.

kauai

Sun Is Shining We’re Going Drivin’ (UK Pop Psych June 1969)

Despite the good intentions of record labels with a re-release schedule to fill there are only so many undiscovered, unappreciated at the time, “gems” to go around. There’s always a lot of good music about & it’s difficult for new talent to get a proper hearing & sometimes, y’know, these records are not that great. So, with apologies to Andwella’s Dream, Rainbow People & Pasha, all I’m sure worthy of investigation, my 3 selections from June 1969 are all by artists who enjoyed long successful careers. First up is Sheffield’s most famous gas fitter.

 

 

If ever there was a dead cert #1 record it was Joe Cocker’s “With a Little Help From My Friends”. The transformation of a familiar song, one of the ditties Lennon &  McCartney gave Ringo to sing, into a soulful tour de force, a showcase for Joe’s leather-lunged vocal, was a masterstroke by producer Denny Cordell. In the early 1960’s there were young British men listening to & studying Ray Charles. In Newcastle, Belfast & Birmingham Eric Burdon, Van Morrison  & Stevie Winwood got the message & discovered their own extraordinary voices. Joe Cocker was up to the same thing in Sheffield, Yorkshire. It took a little longer, a couple of false starts, before the world heard & saw Joe When it happened you certainly knew about it.

 

Joe had a few songs of his own but Cordell, identifying his talent as a interpreter of other people’s songs, pointed him in the direction of some very good material for his debut LP. Assembling an array of mainly British talent in the studio (Jimmy Page plays on 5 tracks) the production avoided the exaggerations of the hit single, retaining the power & audacity behind such a distinctive voice. Traffic’s “Feeling Alright” is a grand opening, two Dylan tunes “Just Like a Woman” & “I Shall Be Released” are treated with reverence. “Do I Still Figure in Your Life?”, written by Pete Dello for his group Honeybus was one that inexplicably got away in 1967. Joe does the song & himself justice on this version.

 

In August 1969 Joe rocked up at the Woodstock Festival & the US of A loved him. A tour with his Grease Band was immediately followed by a hook up with Leon Russell who had written Joe’s marvelous “Delta Lady” single. “Mad Dogs & Englishmen”, a Rock & Roll travelling show, established Joe Cocker as a major international star but the intensive workload & on-the-road excesses took a physical & mental toll. He returned to Sheffield & it was some time before he was able to record & tour again. Joe never had to go back to servicing your boiler & thankfully didn’t join the time’s lengthy Rock casualty list. He was a major talent.

 

 

For the past 5 years a new single by the Kinks had been a pretty big deal. Ever since 1964 when “You Really Got Me”, you know it, set a new standard for power chord guitar Rock most everything the group released on 7″ of vinyl had made the UK Top 10. Ray Davies was in the vanguard of a generation of British musicians who, following the lead of the Beatles, very quickly progressed from energetic imitation of their idols to expounding their own ideas about how the music should go & finding that millions were listening. The Kinks could rock but it was Ray’s mordant wit, one sharp, satirical eye on the Swinging Sixties, the other on the detail of English suburban life, that propelled an individual, consistent run of hits for which the group was best known.

 

The arrival of “Sergeant Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band” changed the game. Groups who had been judged on the success of their most recent 45 now needed an album. No problem for the Kinks, “Face to Face” (1966)  & “Something Else By the Kinks” (1967) were…look, you’ll get no objectivity here, these two records are great examples of 1960’s British Pop-Rock, up there with “Revolver”, “Aftermath” & “The Who Sell Out”. Ray was honing his songwriting talent & so was brother Dave, the LP’s both included big hit singles but they didn’t sell very well. With ” The Village Green Preservation Society” the Kinks eschewed the psychedelic flourishes of their contemporaries favouring a wistful  nostalgia, “pictures of things as they used to be”, vignettes about a past England which possibly never really existed. Of course now “Village Green” is more than well respected it’s deservedly a cherished artefact of the times. Lacking the broad strokes of “Tommy” or the expected grandeur of a Rock Opera it was in Ray’s words, “the most successful ever flop”. This time there was no hit single to help attract interest. (That would have been “Big Sky”, you hear? “Big Sky”).

 

In June 1969  “Drivin'” was our introduction to Ray’s next project. “Arthur (Or the Decline of the British Empire)” the soundtrack to a TV play that was never made. The LP was released later in the year & if anything his concept & vision is more fully realised this time around. Y’know I could name 20 or more Kinks singles without consulting the Google & “Drivin'” would not be one of them. That’s not because of any drop in quality, play it twice & hum it all day, more an indication that the group were no longer an automatic choice for the playlist on the UK’s only music radio station. On the b-side was “Mindless Child of Motherhood”, a brilliant Dave Davies track recorded for an intended solo LP that unfortunately we never heard. The Kinks may have been stuttering a little in 1969 but form is temporary while class is permanent. The next time out “Lola”, you know it, put them back where they belonged. The Kinks – God save ’em!

 

 

Down in that London on the 7th of June there was evidence of the British love of free stuff when 120,000 turned up in Hyde Park for a gig by a band yet to release a record & making their live debut. If Eric Clapton & Steve Winwood thought that their new collaboration could be a low-key affair they were wrong. Joined by drummer Ginger Baker, another former member of Cream & bassist Rick Grech who left Family to complete the line up & Blind Faith was immediately labelled a “supergroup”. An expectant audience spent a pleasant sunny afternoon in the Park but an under-rehearsed set of unfamiliar songs was not perhaps the soundtrack they anticipated.

 

The band’s eponymous debut LP is a fine example of British Rock. The extended Blues jams of Cream are avoided but so are their power & dexterity. I probably liked “Well All Right”, the Buddy Holly cover, more then than I do now. Winwood’s “Can’t Find My Way Home” & Clapton’s “Presence of the Lord”, two very good songs, are better realisations of the band’s intentions. A US arena tour opened at Madison Square Garden & Eric found in Delaney & Bonnie, the support act, a group he really wanted to play with. Blind Faith broke up, Steve Winwood went back to Traffic & recorded the sublime “John Barleycorn Must Die”. Well, that was quick, Blind Faith were not so super after all.

 

It’s 1969 OK (Brit Psych January)

One of my favourite places to hang out on the Interwebs is the Marmalade Skies website, “the home of British Psychedelia”. Their “Remember the Times” section is a month-by-month diary kept from January 1966, when David Jones changed his name to Bowie for the Lower Third’s “Can’t Help Thinking About Me”, to November 1975 & the release of “Golden Years”, the lead single from his “Station to Station” album. It’s by no means a definitive guide more a labour of love to collate information & clippings from the music press of the time. The great & the good are included alongside the not so much & every page reminds you of those you still love & those you have forgotten. Here’s three from January 1969, 50 years ago!

 

 

Dave Davies…that’s the legendary…was, in 2003, placed 91st in Rolling Stones’ 100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time. You are having a laugh! On all those great Kinks records, whether it’s the power chords of “You Really Got Me” & “Till the End of the Day”, the raga drone on “See My Friends” or the indelible introductions to “Waterloo Sunset” (“the most beautiful song in the English language” & I’m not arguing) & “Lola”, Dave found the perfect guitar sound to complement & enhance brother Ray’s lyrical social realism & satire. In the mid-60’s artists were judged by the success of the latest single release, a couple of missteps & they could be history. Ray wrote & sang the words but Dave, just 17 when the group had their first #1, made a significant contribution to the distinctive, commercial, hit-making sound of the Kinks.

 

In 1967 Dave, still only 20, wrote 3 songs for “Something Else”, the group’s 5th LP. “Death of a Clown”, a co-write with Ray, was released as a single with his name on the label & became a Europe-wide hit. The possibility of a parallel solo career was considered. His Kinks commitments, they were busy recording the first of their concept albums “The Village Green Preservation Society”, obstructed any lengthy promotional activity & the following releases,, all quality work, were less successful. When “Hold My Hand”, the fourth single, bombed Dave left the solo stuff alone, tracks for a never finished record turning up as b-sides (the splendid  “Mindless Child of Motherhood”) or bonus tracks on re-issued LPs. I’m sure that he was happy being the other Davies in the Kinks but it’s a pity that there was not more of his own songs about because he was a very talented young man. Jah bless the Kinks & Dave Davies.

 

 

The Locomotive, from Birmingham, were a strange one. Many Brum Beat faces had passed through a changing line up before keyboard player Norman Haines took the reins & the band were studio ready. Norman, like many young white boys in the Second City, took a liking to Ska & the group’s first single, a Soul ballad, had a rather clumsy version of Dandy Livingstone’s “A Message to You Rudy” on the flip side. The self-penned “Rudy’s In Love” was a much more capable attempt at Jamaican music. It received wide airplay & reached the lower reaches of the UK Top 40. The group were sent to Abbey Road studios to record an LP with young producer Gus Dudgeon but by the time they arrived in that London they were a very different proposition.

 

“Mr Armageddan” (spelling?) is a portentous slice of Hammond organ heavy proto-Prog. My 16 year old self was impressed by the record’s ambition, the music scene was changing & we thought that the simple 3 minute Pop song had had its day, it hadn’t thank goodness. Nowadays I don’t buy those “physician to the wind” lyrics but “Mr Armageddan” sits well on any compilation of early British Psych nuggets. The audience & the record label were a little confused by the drastic change of direction & the LP “We Are Everything You See” was delayed for a year. By 1970 other groups were doing this sort of thing with more subtlety or, unfortunately, in some cases even less. Locomotive broke up & anyway my ears were turned towards the new music coming from the USA. Prog Rock – “mention “The Lord of the Rings” one more time I’ll more than likely kill you” !

 

 

I bought my copy of Eric Burdon & the Animals’ “Ring of Fire” in 1973 from the Monastariki flea market in Athens back when that Greek Diagon Alley sold more fleas than cheap Hellenic souvenir gewgaws. In a musty basement I found a pile of old 45 records & a mountain of vintage glossy cinema lobby cards. I told my companion that this must be the place, I would play nice & that she could collect me back here in an hour or two, maybe three. Man, I was as happy as a clam at high water & I didn’t even get to that dark corner over there where they sold the Gremlins.

 

Eric had been around & making an impression since the British Beat Boom began. For the Animals, a Geordie R&B combo, signing a record contract & moving from Newcastle to London must have seemed a big deal. When your second single becomes the hit of 1964 & you’re met at New York’s JFK airport by a motorcade of convertibles with a model in each of them then things had definitely gotten crazy. In the following 2 years the Animals responded with a string of very good Soul-Blues Pop records. A couple of the original members had fallen by the wayside & when the others asked where all the money had gone the short, strange trip was over. Eric, quite rightly rated as a charismatic vocalist, put his name in front of a bunch of New Animals, moved to California, wore some flowers in his hair & created a brand of muscular Psychedelia that many people, including myself, found very appealing.

 

“Ring of Fire”, yes the Johnny Cash one, was taken from the double album “Love Is”, Eric’s 5th release in the 2 years since the demise of the original Animals. Not surprisingly there were no new songs left so cover versions it is then including one by new members Zoot Money & Andy Summers off of the Police. Perhaps this dramatic charge at a Country classic lacks subtlety but there are some good songs on the record particularly Traffic’s “Coloured Rain” & a splendid River Deep Mountain High”, extended into a tribute to Tina, featuring sterling work on the electric piano by Zoot. At the end of 1969 the band got out of Japan sharpish after death threats from the Yakuza & that was it for Eric Burdon & the Animals. I was a fan of the first Animals, who wasn’t? I enjoyed the zeal of the newly converted to Psychedelia second incarnation. In January 1969 my best friend & I didn’t have big record collections & “Love Is” was on heavy rotation round at our houses.

 

 

Random Notes (June 2017)

Oof ! At the start of June our government was telling us that the Leader of the Opposition would take us back to the 1970’s & was an IRA sympathiser. A new generation of voters, raised on & unconvinced by Austerity, replied “When?” & “Who?” then exercised their democratic right in favour of a politician they perceived as principled & fighting their corner. Jeremy Corbyn may not be Prime Minister but the Tories, anticipating plain sailing to an increased majority, are a sinking ship, their “strong & stable” banner in tatters. My own cynicism ( a trait I thought to be an attractive one) was refreshingly challenged by the optimistic younglings of my company. This new passion found a focus when terrorist attacks led to criticism of cuts to emergency services & a tragic fire in London exposed policies which favoured profit over respect for the rights of others to fatal effect.

 

I’m no Corbyn cultist though there is much to admire about his successful acampaign in the face of the vilification from the media. I would prefer a united Labour Party confident enough to articulate & endorse the concerns of their support rather than wait for a hopeless, rudderless, all-but minority government to run aground as they blindly attempt to negotiate the choppy waters of our exit from the EU. Whatever the outcome, something has changed.

 

That’s enough politics & certainly too many maritime metaphors. Let’s put some sounds on…

 

 

My musical month was always set to be dominated by “The Nashville Sound” the new much-anticipated (well, by me) new LP from Jason Isbell & the 400 Unit. It seems that I’m not the only one & it’s selling more copies than the previous 2 award winning collections “Southeastern” & “Something More Than Free”. Whether Jason is rocking out with the band or getting reflective with his acoustic guitar, his wife Amanda on fiddle & harmonies, his mature, assured songs hit the spot more accurately than anyone else around at the moment. That heart-wrenching line “I’m just lucky to have the work” from the title track of “Something…” is still tearing me up now here’s another 10 tracks to have around the house & to get to know.

 

This time around Isbell is stretching himself lyrically. He & his protagonists, mainly Southern American men, are living in Trump’s America, something needs to be said about the frustration & anger that brings. “Hope the High Road” & “White Man’s World” are not political with a capital P, his character studies are accurate & sympathetic. Any false steps, there is sometimes a slight lyrical clumsiness, is offset by great contributions from all the musicians involved. Hey I’m being picky here. The last 2 records have been very good company, taking their  time to reveal their full depth & qualities. “Cumberland Gap”, “If We Were Vampires” & “Tupelo” are  are already welcome guests. I look forward to becoming more familiar with the rest of “The Nashville Sound”.

 

 

I’ve been an admirer of Steve van Zandt since he was consiglieri to Bruce & the E Street Band before doing the same job for the Soprano family. Hell, I even hung around “Lilyhammer” long after it had jumped the reindeer. Now his immaculately curated Underground Garage (every show archived somewhere around here) is my Interweb radio show of choice. Little Steven’s Rock & Roll sensibility & taste sit very well with me & it only took a listen to a couple of tracks off of his new LP “Soulfire” & I was on it (new fave phrase, courtesy of the hilarious Count Arthur Strong) like a German Shepherd on chicken !

 

“Soulfire” is infused with Steve’s abiding belief in music’s redemptive quality. Older songs, 2 that he gave to Southside Johnny, are spiritedly resuscitated. “Ride the Night Away” reclaims that great opening riff to “I Found Love” a co-write for Lone Justice. Strong new songs cover similar ground, there are 2 covers, a Blues from Etta James & a spectacular version of James Brown’s “Down & Out In New York City” (from the movie “Black Caesar”). The bold, brassy Spectoresque Wall of Sound, employed by Steve & Springsteen back then, is made loud & clear by master engineer Bob Clearmountain & it’s so good to hear the Persuasions, a classic vocal group, back on record. No new ground is broken on “Soulfire”, it’s traditional American Rock done well by one of the guys who set the standard & it’s glorious.

 

 

OK, it’s not all new music round our end, it never is. This month it’s been the Kinks that have made it to to the front of the stack & stayed there. Back when the money from my paper round didn’t stretch to expensive 12″ vinyl discs record companies offered EPs, Extended Plays, 4 tracks for less than double the price of a 2 track 45. Of course the Beatles led the way with  “Twist & Shout” (1963) & “Long Tall Sally” (1964), a great collection of previously unreleased recordings. Both sold more than many hit singles. The Stones matched these with “Five By Five” (1964), new cuts from sessions at Chess studios, & “Got Live if You Want It ” (1965). EPs were mainly recycled material, a chance to buy a couple of singles you had missed. The Kinks were one group who had songs that never made the A-side but were more than album filler.

 

“Kwyet Kinks” came around in September 1965, a year when the group had 5 Top 20 hits. Their early energy had converted R&B influences into aggressive, punk Rock & Ray Davies, still  just 21 years old, was developing a more introspective songwriting style. Both Summer hits “Set Me Free” & “See My Friends” combined a wistful lyric with a distinctive, inventive guitar sound. The oh so good, oh so fine “Well Respected Man”, a first excursion into sly social commentary, was picked from the EP by offshore pirate radios & played to an audience of over 10 million as often as any new hit. The Kinks’ record label & management doubted the group’s new direction but their fans were already on it. “Wait Till the Summer Comes Along” was the first song to be solely credited to the younger Davies, guitarist Dave. It would be a couple of years before Dave made his own hit solo records but the talent is there to see on this one. The other 2 tracks “Don’t You Fret” & “Such A Shame” were not saved for “The Kink Kontroversy”, their 3rd LP.  In 1965 the Davies brothers, Pete Quaife (bass), Mick Avory (drums) & their producer Shel Talmy were mining a very productive seam.

 

The following year “Dedicated Follower of Fashion”, a sharp lampoon of Carnabetian Swinging London, was the first in a series of acutely observed, distinctively British, classic Kinks hits. Pye, never slow to capitalise on their back catalogue, released the “Dedicated Kinks” EP, the title hit, “Set Me Free”, “See My Friends” & the raucous, rocking “Till the End of the Day”. Now that sounded like value for my hard-earned to me. A good reason for a Saturday, the one day I was holding folding, visit to the local record shop.

A Christmas Story (Santa make him hurry, tell him he can take the freeway down)

Friday evenings…Man, Monday I got Friday on my mind & the weekend starts here. Business taken care of, the city that put money in my pocket becomes my adventure playground. I wanted to swing from the ropes, hang from the climbing bars, graze both knees, get down & dirty. I deserved it. First there was a tried & tested transition from work time to playtime to be undertaken. Loud. fast music because bouncing of the walls is good, a couple of spliffs to…er…keep my mind limber. I was just building the first of the bifters when the phone rang. The caller was my good friend Sally, she said she needed a favour, ” a big favour”.

Now Sally was a Mama Lioness with 3 cubs, Charlie, an 11 year old hoodlum, 5 year old George, a wrecking ball on legs & Danielle, 8, an angel in the middle. When Mum needed a favour it meant that just minutes later my life was no longer my own. There was a facade of control but all 4 of us were in on the gag. I was outnumbered & we all knew that too. Just don’t get hurt, don’t hurt each other & try to break as little of my stuff as possible. Oh, we must all laugh as much as we can too, that was a big part of the deal. When Sally needed a favour I never said “No”. I loved being part of that gang, I loved all of that family.

“A big favour. I need a man in a big, red suit with a long, white beard”. I did not mention that this Friday was in mid-December, Xmas was a-coming. I could avoid any festive folderol until Noche Buena. If you have kids I guess that the momentum starts to build soon after Halloween. “Sally…Fuck Right Off”…kneejerk I know but I had to make my position clear. My friend explained that Santa had let them down, that no-one else would do it & I was absolutely the last resort. Yep, she really sold it to me. As she spoke I kind of knew that I was going to cave in & do this thing.

When Sally picked me up she was already most appreciative. The kids looked excited. Charlie was in his Sea Scouts uniform, the flipping Sea Scouts…in Birmingham, as far from the coast as it is possible to be in the UK. The 2 youngest looked at me with admiration, understanding the lengths I was prepared to go to make an absolute idiot of myself. Danni was here with her Brownie friends, George was, I think, just along for the craic. The local Round Table, not the knights of Arthurian legend, a charitable association of businessmen had arranged this convocation of children’s groups to tour a neighbourhood & make a collection. At the heart of the procession, the star of the show, was Santa/Father Christmas. That would be me then. In a pub car park I was given the scarlet uniform & a cotton-wool beard. Did I need extra padding ? What was my motivation ? Sally Sims is a formidable woman, someone not to be crossed. She would owe me big time if I carried this off. That’s enough.

I was shown to my “sleigh”, a hastily converted old milk float. There was no red-nosed reindeer guide but there was a Rein-ge Rover (thank you & sorry). I had been given a microphone & an outsize bag of confectionery to distribute to the local cherubs. Now I do not consider myself to be the type who seeks to make a loud public display. I do place some value on subtlety & volume control. No one wants a self-effacing, reticent Santa do they ? As we approached the suburban residential streets I resolved that I had better be good for goodness sake & here’s Ho-Ho-Hoping that it would not be a Christmas calamity.

It went really well, I was great. First the curtains twitched & old people returned Santa’s wave. Cool…gimme that microphone. I want to wish those codgers a Merry Chrimbo ! The children came piling out to meet & greet the custodian of…you get me. I needed some method for this mayhem & I needed it quickly before I was torn apart by a frenzied rabble fighting to get to my sweets. So, what would the real Santa do ? He would ask them what they wanted for Xmas & whether they had been good children this year. It absolutely worked. The kids all answered, some, sweetly, did not mind, others were more specific, wanting particular toys. One of them, when asked what he wanted, replied “Everything !”. Greedy little tyke. I promised that I would do my best & that seemed to be enough. They all claimed that they had been good this year, while some were obviously lying, I took my interrogation no further. Not a single one told me that my suit was shit & my beard worse so how good was that ?

My sleigh had a cassette player &  a tape of seasonal pop hits. I am no great fan of the Xmas song & “Now That’s What I Call An Uncool Yule” was not the best selection. Still we were taking it to & shaking it in the streets with a rocking Santa singalong. I do like “A Christmas Gift for You From Phil Spector” despite its creator’s fall from grace. However when “Another Rock & Roll Christmas” by the convicted molester Gary Glitter came around I’m afraid a line had been crossed, young ears needed protection & just where was the fast forward button on this thing ? “Happy Xmas (War Is Over)” , the unrealistic claim by a former Beatle & his wife, was a sitting duck for this too confident, improvising, ironic Santa. I congratulated all those within earshot of my amplified voice on ending all conflict. I hoped their New Year would be a “good one, without any fear”. I was doing a good thing here, I knew I could get away with it.

All too soon the sweets had nearly gone. There was one last dash for cash in a local pub & we were back on the main road. My job was done here. Peace & goodwill had been spread to all in this part of North Birmingham. Danni & her friend had hitched a lift on my sleigh. I handed over the microphone & they wailed a selection of Robbie Williams songs to the passing traffic. Who put the merry into Xmas ? That would be us then.

Photos were taken in the car park. I suppose that I would have to take this beard & suit off at some time but I really did like being Santa. There was still time to get off home, stick some powder up my nose & head off in search of too much alcohol. I was having too much fun with these 3 lovely children & their Mum, who had offered to feed me back at theirs. Besides, Dad would finish work soon & we could all tell him our new story. These kids are now fine young adults. I am so glad that we were able to have times like this one & a lot of others too when it was all about as much enjoyment & laughter as possible. Hey, the day I got to be Santa…strange but true.

When There’s Things To Do Not Because You Gotta (Summer of 66)

The Summer of 1966 is a very strong contender for an inter-equinox/solstice type of deal Hall of Fame. At loosehandlebars we are often caught looking back but none of us have turned into pillars of salt because we are down with Marcel Proust, “Remembrance of things past is not necessarily the remembrance of things as they were.” No room for nostalgia here. With an unlikely cultural leap we summon “Dragnet”s Joe Friday,  “All we want are the facts, ma’am”. In that summer I was 13 years old. On the 30th of July England’s football team beat Germany’s 4 goals to 2 to become the Champions of the World. For 2 weeks in July the #1 record in the UK was “Sunny Afternoon” by the Kinks.

The charts belonged to the Beatles in the Summer of 66. When “Paperback Writer” was released in June the next double sided smash, “Eleanor Rigby”/”Yellow Submarine”, had already been recorded. For the 6 weeks of non-Fab Four omniscience the chart-toppers were Georgie Fame, Chris Farlowe, the Troggs & the Kinks. Britpop carried the swing but acts were having to raise their game because the competition was unforgiving. You were only as good as your last single & who wants yesterday’s papers…you get me ? The Kinks had got the hit single thing absolutely down. After “You Really Got Me” 11 of the next 12 45s made the Top 10 (the other reached #11). There are some great songs in that run, “Set Me Free” & “See My Friends” did not match the sales of the big guns but maybe should have. Ray Davies was developing an acerbic, more expansive (did I hear anyone say smug ?) style. “Well Respected Man” was a tentative start, “Dedicated Follower” was just original, funny & brilliant. “Sunny Afternoon” is a multi-layered satire on either the old Imperial aristocracy or the nouveau rock rich & the reaction to Government tax policy. It is a Lovin’ Spoonful song with added cynicism. It is 4 pints in a British beer garden, the dolly birds in their mini dresses. It is languid, lovely & it was everywhere.

There was no cricket season in 1966. Well not until the football was done with. This was the first & the only World Cup to be staged in Britain in my lifetime. It was the first one when TV technology & space hardware meant that the whole world (except the USA) really was watching. My friends & I kicked a ball about all day, new international heroes to admire & to emulate, before watching 2 games in the evening. The first week saw a great victory for Hungary over the champions Brazil. My Uncle Erno, a refugee from the 1956 uprising, was able to show his pride & his enthusiasm for his country for the first time since he fled…splendid. England became the World Champions at the first tournament I had watched so carefully. It seemed to be the natural order of things, Swinging London would surely always be the cultural centre of the world. I wish someone had told my 13 year old self that I should appreciate & relish England’s victory because it would NEVER bloody happen again in my life !

The Who, like the Kinks, were on an inspired run of singles & were reliant on the creativity of a single member of the group. Ray Davies & Pete Townshend were intelligent but fragile talents who did not react well to the demands of their musical partners, business associates & audience. Their respective autobiographies are a litany of complaint, dissatisfaction, even damage when they were living the dream of so many. It may have been tough, it may have been hell but man, it produced a shed load of fantastic, original, world class pop songs. “I’m A Boy” was released in August 1966, the first of a twisted, thrilling trilogy of hit singles. Pete was already beyond his smashed/blocked Mod anthem phase & this clip shows the confidence & talent of the whole band. Not yet the best rock & roll band in the world but maybe on their way. Most of Pete’s work seems to have been part of a more ambitious song cycle. It took some time before he was able to balance the rock operas & the hit singles. “Happy Jack” & “Pictures Of Lily” kept the Who in the Top 10, these strange & wonderful songs of adolescence. I was never dressed as a girl by my mother but…”I wanna play cricket on the green. Ride my bike across the stream.Cut myself and see my blood.I wanna come home all covered in mud”. I was 13 years old & so did I.

Our family holiday was 2 weeks long in 1966. We usually had a week in a caravan (I loved it) but this year we went further for longer & stayed in a B&B. Did we have more money ? I have not the slightest idea ! As the eldest of 5 I had 3 younger brothers to play with/look after. No problem, I loved them then & still do now. My parents arranged for my best friend to join us for the 2nd week as company for me. Y’know I thought that was great then but now…how cool & kind were my folks. Wink & I had a great time. On a rainy day my Dad took us to a snooker hall, a wonderful fuggy place of dim light, green baize, stale smoke. A man’s place. He paid for our game & left us alone to our Fast Eddie Felson fantasies…we loved it. In 1966 there were still illegal pirate radio stations in the UK. Our Yorkshire resort had one moored nearby so reception was loud & clear. In the evenings we took a radio to the cliffs & we listened to a lot of music. Released on the same day as “Eleanor Rigby” & its successor at # 1 was this classic.

Mod was provincial by 1966. Those sharp dressed young men of 1963 inspired by an R&B existentialism were moving from purple hearts to Gold Lebanese, to a new dandyism supplied by Carnaby St boutiques. Out here on the perimeter an army surplus parka, a scooter & a liking for Tamla Motown got you into the club. Hey, it was OK, working class kids still wanted to look sharp, there was still plenty of business for the local tailor, but the first steps from Hard Mod to Skinhead were being taken. In 1966 the Small Faces were absolutely the top Mod band in the UK. They took up permanent residence in the Top 10 with 4 singles & every day of the year they looked as great as this. Steve Marriott & Ronnie Lane learned how to write the pop/R&B belters & “All Or Nothing” was their biggest hit. They were becoming a great band but things were changing by the end of the year.

In May 1966 the Beatles played their last UK concert. There was anyway, a new generation of young girls looking for their own idols. The Small Faces were all good looking boys, they attracted screaming teenyboppers to their gigs when being heart throbs was no longer quite the thing. There was not a lot of money around, they helped themselves to the best clothes in London, living the life while the bills were sent to the manager. When the band’s parents called on Don Arden he grassed them up about the marijuana habit…oh oh. Keyboard player Ian McLagan got busted which hampered US visas at an important time. The band did get away from Arden. He sent his heavies to dangle one potential suitor from a window but they went with Stones manager Andrew Loog Oldham & his new label Immediate. Still no money but still the talent & interesting times ahead.

We were back at school when the Small Faces were at #1. In that same chart was “Land Of 1,000 Dances”, “I Can’t Turn You Loose” & “Working In A Coal Mine”. Soul Heaven…sitting on those cliffs, with my best friend, listening to Wilson Pickett shriek “1-2-3 !” that was great. There have been better summers, great places, great times & people but I doubt that there has been a better soundtrack. The day after my Dad took us to the snooker hall it rained again. He asked us what we wanted to do. We said that we wanted to go back there again. He was not too keen but we said, hey, you pay & leave us to it. It’s said that an ability to play a decent game of snooker is the sign of a misspent youth. Well we were doing the best we could back then.

And I wish I could have all that he has got (Dave Davies off of the Kinks)

Before his 18th birthday Dave Davies had played guitar on 3 records which made the Top 10 of the charts around the world. The first of these has a monstrous, instantly recognisable riff . “You Really Got Me” is, according to Rolling Stone, the 4th greatest guitar song. It is a keystone in the origins of metal, hard rock & punk. The Kinks needed a hit record, time & money were in short supply. Dave, dissatisfied with the sound he was getting, hooked a little green Elpico amp into his set-up. He sliced the speaker cone with a razor blade (as you do) & rock history was made. There is a song about it on Dave’s brand new record.

That is great stuff. “Little Green Amp”, a rifftastic reflection on the best band to come out of Muswell Hill.

Ah the mythology of the Kinks…Jimmy Page played on “Y.R.G.M.” (maybe, but not the solo), the personal animus between them so pronounced that 3 of the 4 originals could play together for just the 20 years (that fight one night in Cardiff MUST be mentioned). The sibling rivalry which strangled creativity. Ray Davies wrote over 30 of the best songs you have ever heard & his younger brother improved many of them with distinctive & sympathetic guitar accompaniment. Lazy journalism ? Not for the first time…or probably the last.

Boorish behaviour & breakdowns did not help the Kinks but a ban on working in the US hit them the hardest. Refused permits by the American Federation of Musicians for 4 years, a golden run of mature, idiosyncratic 45s were not hits in the US. “Waterloo Sunset”, once described by critic Robert Christgau as “the most beautiful song in the English language” did not bother the compilers of the Billboard Hot 200 ! In 1967, with that record heading the soundtrack of a memorable Summer, Dave Davies showed out to start a solo thing.

Dandy Dave’s first time around, “Death Of A Clown”, a dense, Dylanesque drawling bit of folk-rock was a big hit. It was taken from the Kinks LP “Something Else” & plans for a solo LP were made. “Susannah’s Still Alive” is a great follow-up but there were diminishing returns, the LP was never completed. It may have been that Dave’s confidence was affected when his songs were not as successful as his big brother’s. I think that Dave Davies is a very talented guy whose major contribution to the long history of the Kinks is to be celebrated. The solo LP that never was ? Forget about it.

You will not be surprised to learn that I have a couple of thoughts about the Kinks, their place in the hierarchy of British rock & why their songs of English tea, trains & transvestites did not sell a squillion records (the last one did but let’s not spoil the alliteration). Another time yeah but while we are in the neighbourhood it would make sense to kick back & enjoy this.

“Till The End Of the Day” is the last great garage rock-out by the Kinks before “Dedicated Follower” began a run of laconic, individual commentaries on post-war Britain. This live clip shows just what Dave brought to the sound & the spirit of the band. The way that he blows his entry into that killer solo not only doesn’t matter but makes the thing rougher & better…go on !

Dave Davies did finally complete 3 solo LPs in the early 1980s, there was a 20 year gap & with the release of “I Will Be Me” this week there are 3 more. He unfortunately suffered a stroke in 2004 but, after a couple of years, was walking, talking & playing guitar again. A recent BBC documentary showed him to be a lovely man with a dry humour about his long career. His solo records are unlikely to become as iconic as tose made with the little green amp but it’s certainly good that he is still around.