It might well be the most bizarre music death story of the year. According to the story, Slayer guitarist Jeff Hanneman (1) died from causes related to necrotizing fasciitis, a flesh-eating disease which the musician claimed to have contracted after being bitten by a spider in a friend’s hot tub. As far as I can make out, the illness is caused not by nibbling arachnoids but by uncooked meat or accidental consumption of human faeces. And, to spoil a great rock & roll story which would find easy accommodation in Jeremy Simmond’s Encyclopedia of Dead [...]
Mention in conversation with pop music aficionados the name Jimmy Webb, and you will likely be met with approval for bringing up a respected yet generally underrated songwriter. Of course, his quintet of stone-cold, indisputable classics — "Wichita Lineman", "Galveston", "By The Time I Get To Phoenix", "MacArthur Park" and "Up Up And Away" — are well known, but many other Webb compositions are not as ubiquitous as they may deserve to be. Listen to this lot of songs and decide for yourself whether Webb’s music, beyond the [...]
On Saturday the Champions League final will be plate in London between two German clubs, Bayern Munich and Borussia Dortmund. All people of sound principles will hope for a Bayern defeat, even if they couldn’t care less about Dortmund. To mark the all-German final, here is a mix of German curiosities, some chosen because they are very good or interesting (or both), and a couple of football-themed songs at the end, selected because they are entertaining in their musical poverty. Some tracks have featured here before, but he links are long dead. I’ve also cribbed a few notes [...]
I have no idea if the first mix of The Ghetto was in any way popular; the comments seemed to indicate that it was net with indifference. Still, it is one of my favourites of the past year. The second mix has some serious soul, with S.O.U.L. paying tribute to the sounds of the ghetto, including by sampling the track that follows theirs. And after Donny Hathaway 's anthem comes Ruth McFadden 's breathtaking Ghetto Woman, produced by Gamble & Huff of Philadelphia soul fame and released on the obscure Huff Puff [...]
On 12 May, Burt Bacharach will celebrate his 85th birthday. Regular readers will know that I regard Bacharach to be in the highest echelons of songwriters. Unusually, he straddles different genres: the easy listening of Perry Como’s Magic Moments, the pure pop of Raindrops Keep Falling On My Head, the soul of Don’t Make Me Over, the cowboy song of The Man Who Shot Liberty Vance… This mix places the focus on the lesser known Bacharach songs, chronologically from his beginnings to the time of his zenith, more or less: 1954-1965. [...]
The unsung soul greats keep going. This month we lost Vince Montana (1), founder of the Salsoul Orchestra and member of Philadelphia International Records’ houseband MFSB. He played on and/or arranged an endless list of late ’60s and ’70s classics by the likes of The Delfonics, The O’Jays, Billy Paul, The Stylistics, Wilson Pickett, Harold Melvin & the Blue Notes, The Intruders, Patti LaBelle, Ronny Dyson, The Whispers, William DeVaughn, Lou Rawls and many more. I had been playing The Montana Sextet’s Heavy Vibes in my car on the day Montana died, and on a Friday [...]
Here's a mix that has been hanging on for a couple of years for completion: Songs about telephone calls. The rule was to choose songs that include some kind of conversation (or monologue) over the phone, preferably with a phone ringing or a call being disconnected. So a song like Abba's Ring Ring, which is about the notion of making a call, rather than actually making it, is excluded. One song here bends the rule, but one ought to make some allowance for the inventor of the telephone. I might loosen the rules in the follow-up mix, which is in [...]
The Any Major Soul 1967 mix received one of the most poignant comments yet. Trod wrote: “Listening to soul music takes me back to my days in Viet Nam. The good part anyway.” The incredible power of music, right there. The soul mix for 1968 includes several legends of the genre doing what they did well: Aretha Franklin, Jerry Butler, Sam & Dave, The Delfonics , The Dells, The Intruders, Clarence Carter, Marvin & Tammi, Supremes & Tempations etc. And then there are The Ohio [...]
Many people have said nice things about this blog (and sometimes they say very little; were the Swingin’ London and Saved Vol. 4 mixes really that bad?). And once in a while, a kind opinion gets amplified. So it was when this little corner of the blogosphere was featured in Playboy ’s 2013 Music Guide, published in the US version’s April edition. The Playboy 2013 Music Guide’s editor, Rob Tannenbaum, featured this halfhearted dude among such emerging luminaries as Caitlin Rose (who has [...]
The death of Margaret Thatcher is no cause for celebration. It came 35 years too late. The scars of her toxic policies (and those of her compadres in the war on the poor, such as Ronald Reagan) are with us still, and more than so now than they were in the 1980s, when they were being implemented. The global economic crisis that started in 2008 is the punishment for Thatcher, Reagan et al. Thatcher was a war-monger. She was against the poor and against the workers. She was [...]
It’s turning out to be bad year for soul singers who were overshadowed by more famous bandmates. This month we lost Bobby Rogers (1), a co-founder of The Miracles and frequent songwriting partner of Smokey Robinson, and Bobby Smith (2) of The Spinners, who took lead vocals on such hits as Could It Be I’m Falling In Love, I’ll Be There and Games People Play; often these vocals were incorrectly attributed to the more extroverted and equally marvellous Philippé Wynne, who died in 1984. From the classic 1970s line-up of one of the nicest groups in [...]
Another Easter, another mix of Christian music. This fourth volume of the Saved! series covers gospel, R&B, country and a hint of jazz in the 1950s and early '60s. Some of the artists are well-known gospel outfits (such as Claude Jeter's Swan Silvertones, The Dixie Hummingbirds, Brother Joe May, Clara Ward), others are quite obscure (such as the Friendly Brothers). Gospel groups used to be a breeding ground for later soul stars: Sam Cooke was a gospel singer, of course. On this mix we meet Johnny Taylor — who two decades later would sing about the Disco Lady — as [...]
For the second London mix (the first you'll find HERE ) we go back to the 1960s, riffing roughly on the idea of Swingin' London, with all the Carnaby Street type references. Some are obvious London songs, others refer to London suburbs or landmarks incidentally, and a couple are set in London without making a fuss about it. Since the Swingin' London vibe was a worldwide phenomenon, three songs here are in foreign language, French (Mireille Mathieu) and German (Sandie Shaw, Peggy March). As always, the mix is timed to fit on a standard CD-R, and home-brewed [...]
In Motown’s happy family it was common that the same songs would be recorded by different artists. So it is with Papa Was A Rolling Stone, written by Norman Whitfield and Barrett Strong. The Undisputed Truth, who may be remembered for their hit Smiling Faces Sometimes (which was originally recorded by the Temptations), recorded Papa Was A Rolling Stone as a single release in 1971. It did not perform well, peaking at #63 in the US charts. A year later, Whitfield gave the song to The Temptations when he produced their 1972 All Directions album on [...]
The Grim Reaper wreaked mayhem in the short month of February. He took some beloved musicians from us — people such as Cecil Womack and Donald Byrd — and at least one who entertained us with his eccentricities. It’s worth it finding the recording of the Troggs members in argument; on the notorious “Troggs Tape”, Reg Presley (picture 1) , whose rendition of Wild Thing was punk a decade before it was invented, is acting with the decorum we might associate with the genre he presaged. With his brothers, Cecil Womack [...]
Here’s a selection for the dog lovers: 26 songs about canines — and one by dogs. Excluding some of the obvious choices, they range from the happy to the spooky to the amusing to the sad. I’ve tried to keep the sad ones to a minimum; as any dog or cat owner will know, the time when a pet has to be put down is nearly as traumatic as losing a family member. As always, the mix is timed to fit on a standard CD-R. Home-bred covers are included. I borrowed the graphic for the front cover from [...]
Often Burt Bacharach had a lucky hand in producing the best known version of his compositions at the first attempt — and after 1963, he usually was the de facto producer and arranger of his songs’ first (and sometimes subsequent) recordings, even when others would get the credit. So songs like Only Love Can Break A Heart, What's New, Pussycat, Raindrops Keep Falling On My Head and This Guy’s In Love are best known in their original versions by Gene Pitney, Tom Jones, B.J. Thomas and Herb Alpert respectively. And, of course, there are all the Dionne Warwick [...]
Volume 16 in the series, and no letting up. There are still many more fine soul covers in stock. Unusually, we kick this one off with an instrumental — but what an instrumental! King Curtis ’ cover of A Whiter Shade Of Pale, which also scores the opening sequence of the film Withnail & I. That film was set in 1969, but the song was actually released only in 1971, on Curtis’ Live At Filmore West LP. We’ve had a couple of soul cover mixes of Beatles songs; the overflow will be sprinkled over the [...]
A couple of years ago I posted an intros quiz of TV themes ; the link to it is working. Here is a second volume. All are themes of US shows from the 1980s and '90s; all were broadcast throughout the world and are therefore universal. Each is 5-7 seconds in length. The answers will be posted in the comments section by Monday (so please don’t post your answers). If the pesky number 8 bugs you, go to the Contact Me tab above to request the answers, or better, message me on Facebook. If you’re [...]
It was carnage in January, as far as music deaths went. Strangely, none of the 30-odd new arrivals in music heaven (or hell) were big headline deaths. Of course, Patti Page, who died on the first day of the new year, and Patty Andrews , the last surviving Andrews Sister who passed away on the second-last day of the month, were household names back in the day, but neither passing caused much of a stir. I suppose when you are 85 and 94, your deaths are sort of expected. For funk fans, the [...]
Any Major Dude With Half A Heart
And now James Franco would like you to give him some money please
Holy living fuck the new Die Antwoord video is intense
Report : Desperados Wild Club
