Connections

Welcome to Connections, the programme that brings music together like a game of dominoes. The simple rule is that each song played on the show has to 'connect' to the next one in some way...The science stops there...

You can listen to the programme LIVE at www.acikradyo.co.tr and on good old fashioned radio on 94.9FM in the Istanbul area at 17:00 Istanbul time every Saturday. (That's 15:00 GMT, 10:00 EST (Where it's a sort of breakfast show) and 03:00 Sunday NZST (Where it's a through night jam) In addition, I'm steadily adding the archived programmes that date back to October 2009, so there's plenty to keep you going...

Tuesday 28 February 2012

Connections 92 27/8/2011 (8/27/2011 US)

Hello and welcome to show 92! We're back into August '11 now...Still a long way to go with the archive, so excuse, as ever, the hap hazard order of these entries!! If you're looking for another date, please see the dates of each entry on the right.

You can listen to Connections 92 here:-

Connections 92 27th August 2011

So anyways...on with the music!
I Feel The Earth Move by Carole king (Ode Records 1971)

 Dedicated To The One I Love by The Mamas and The Papas (Dunhill Records 1966)
Sweet Child O' Mine by Guns 'n' Roses (Geffen Records 1967)

The Losing End (When You're On) by Neil Young (Reprise Records 1969)

Hard Times Are Over by Yoko Ono and John Lennon (Geffen Records 1980)
Substitute by The Who (Reaction Records 1966)
(Love Is Like A ) Heat Wave by Martha and The Vandellas (Gordy Records 1963)
I Met A Little Girl by Marvin Gaye (Tamla Records 1978)
Don't Talk To Me About Love by Altered Images (Epic Records 1983)

You Spin Me Round (Like A Record) by Dead Or Alive (Epic Records 1984)
Reason To Believe by Rod Stewart (Mercury Records 1971)
So Far Away by Carole King (Ode Records 1971)

...and that wraps it up for another show...hope you enjoyed!

Keep Connected!

TimX

Sunday 26 February 2012

Connections 118 25/2/2012 (2/25/2012 US)

Hello and welcome to show 118!! Firstly, you can listen to the show here:-

Connections 118 25th February 2012

This week's show inadvertently turned into a semi reggae fest, aided by an in studio discotheque situation that developed...I hope that spirit travels by audio!! So, it's all about the music...

Up Around The Bend by Creedence Clearwater Revival (Fantasy/Liberty Records 1970) This shadowy 'Cosmo character referred to in the title of the album was Doug Clifford. The rehearsal schedule was supposed to be like a factory, but the direction came from John Fogerty...so maybe this was a blame shift!! You'd expect a band from El Cerrito, California in the late 60's to be all, 'You only need a cloth house if you got love..,' and 'Vegetable rights and peace,' but none of it!! Southern fried R&B in 11 herbs and spices all the way!! When this was recorded, all was not going too well in the Creedence camp, but it doesn't show!!. Creedence Clearwater Revival featured in the soundtrack to 1980's feelgood flick, 'One Crazy Summer,' as did...

 Beethoven (I Love To Listen To) by The Eurythmics (RCA Records and Tapes 1987) The Eurythmics in the early 1980's were famed for some 'big' sounding tunes, see Thorn in my Side, There Must Be An Angel et al but it seems by their 'Savage' album released in 1987, they were tired of this and opted for a minimalist approach using a Synclavier sampling machine and mixing this with some slightly feminist lyrics and voila!! The Eurythmics own favourite Eurythmics album! This song regrettably is not normally included in the European Greatest Hits set, a shame really, 'cos it's ace! The whole album was released as a video as well as an audio album...see http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rbuMXyzouJQ&ob=av2e
 which demonstrate's Annie Lennox's abilities to transform her persona...I always thought in this video, she was trying to ape Wendy Craig...
 ....She's a muse and two thirds...
 David A Stewart, 50% of The Eurythmics has produced work, very recently by...

 Bye Bye Blackbird by Ringo Starr (Apple Records 1970) I wonder if they left that pub painted like that?! I think nowadays, they'd airbrush the telegraph wires out! This album was the first 'straight' album by an ex Beatle (George had done a soundtrack and an avant garde album, John had done a shed load of avante garde and a live album) and was recorded around the end of 1969, before the Beatles had officially broken up. Conspiracist's love it, as on this track, there is a banjo. Now this could be A.N. Other session musician...BUT both John and Paul could play banjo and alas, studio records don't actually say who it was...It's nice to think it was John I guess~~~~~~Ringo doesn't really talk about it, so I guess we'll never know...The Orchestra on this track was arranged and conducted by a Bee Gee...

 Emotion by Samantha Sang (Private Stock Records 1978) So what exactly DID Samantha sing?? This sounds fab! It's a song written by the Bee Gee's and featuring them too...A Bee Gee's song that never was. They actually recorded it about 10 or so years ago, but it wasn't half as good as this! Play it, and immediately your room turns into a set for Saturday Night Fever...I wonder if it's catching...Samantha Sang sang another song, 'Nothing in The World Like Love,' which was penned by...

 It must Be Love by Labi Siffre (Album Pye International Records 1972) God bless Labi Siffre! His work is sampled on some of the most unlikely work...try Eminem...this song was little known at the time it was released, but was covered a few years later by our next artists...To this day, Labi is a peot and you can follow him on Twitter...some very profound stuff there...

 The prince by Madness (2 Tone Records 1979) Actually, I think this version was the re recorded the same year for the album, 'One Step Beyond,' as the single was rush released when they really didn't have any money and there was superflous sax hum on it.... Either way, it inspires dancing!! It would seem that Madness had something of a chaotic genesis, meeting at a party in some bloke's garden or something. The lead singer, Suggs, was allegedly chucked out because he was watching Chelsea instead of rehearsing too much..there's rock n' roll...The Prince...and even the name of the group, derived from...
 Madness by Prince Buster (Blue Beat Records 1963) This bloke's a living legend! In Jamaica, the advent of Rap came from folk who were known as 'Toasters,' who did the 'My Lords, Ladies and Gentlemen..' bit, but to sounds generated by a sound system...making it fit to the rhythm and rhyme! The Prince came from this background and even ran a record shop there that is still run by his family today. That's not just existing...that's living!! Cecil Bustamente Campbell, as is his full name, had a cameo in the film, 'The Harder They Come, ' which boasted a soundtrack by...

 The Harder They Come by Jimmy Cliff (Island Records 1972) We are not worthy...Jimmy Cliff may not be given the same reverence to Bob Marley...as I've often said, unfortunately, death is a great career move in music, which might go some way to explaining this anomally. This was really the album and film that turned the World on to reggae big time. It really is all killer no filler. The Jimmy Cliff compositions weren't necessarily written for the film, but who cares...reggae baby, reggae...We go back to Prince Buster now, who had a little known album called The Ten Commandments in 1967, which was on RCA Records and Tapes...

 Snowbird by Elvis Presley (RCA Records and Tapes 1971) It was bound to happen, sooner or later...The way that Elvis recorded was with a live band, and they would record a whole batch of songs that would be separated into an album...certainly this was the case at this stage of his career, but in this batch of about 35 tunes, the guys upstairs noted a good number were of a Country genre. So this was one of the few Elvis 'concept' albums...not quite Elvis sings Dark Side of The Moon, but you get the drift! The album even had a song, 'I'm 10,000 Years Old,' interspersed through it...how very prog!! Great song too...RCA again, connected us to something quite different...

 I Want Candy by Bow Wow Wow (RCA Records and Tapes 1982) Bow Wow Wow were managed by The Sex Pistol's former Manager Malcolm McLaren, who had a line in trendy clothes and far out music. With Bow Wow Wow, he'd given  them some albums of World music to inspire them. To what extent this material was plagiarised is a matter for debate, but the rhythm really suits this Strangeloves song (for their version, see Show 110). The video was one of the earliest on MTV in the days when there really weren't that many made, so despite it getting to number 46 in Argentina or something, it is a track very much synonymous with the MTV generation! Bow Wow Wow were a group who were originally in...

 Ant Rap by Adam and The Ants (CBS Records 1981) Stuart Leslie Goddard decided one day that taking the name of an insect was a good career move and it worked!! Adam started life with the core of musicians that became Bow Wow Wow (They were robbed from him by Malcolm McLaren) and indeed their sound very much echoes those World rhythms. Malcolm was all about enduring images as a sort of gimmick and Adam and The Ants spawned a generation of kids who ran around school playgrounds with white masking tape over their respective noses! Put some wax on the tracks and slide on outta here...The song 'Johnny B. Goode links us nicely to ...
 The Wild Side Of Life by Status Quo (Vertigo Records 1976) A song in great country tradition by Hank Thompson from 1952, has that most country of themes of the Lady quitting her domestic life and hitting the town big time! Status Quo were, by 1976 famed for their 12 bar blues approach to their songs that made an old psychedelic outfit a well needed boot in the ass, and very popular they were too...Keep on rockin'!! John Fogerty wrote another song from around the same time of the 'Quo's...

 Fortunate Son by Creedence Clearwater Revival (Liberty/ Fantasy Records 1969) Not just getting down, but getting down on it! Regrettably Fantasy Records was not a giant organisation and sold all the rights to the Creedence Catalogue, so this song for example, turned up in a jeans ad! Someone did care enough to ask John about it and he expressed his disdain (John to this day has a policy of 'No Creedence Songs') and the Jeans company promptly removed it! Rock on!

...and that's about it for another week, what you doing in your bed at night, you should be dancing...yeah! Stay cool and spread the love! 

TimX

Wednesday 22 February 2012

Connections 93 3/9/2011 (9/3/2011 US)

Hello and welcome to show 93! This was the first show that was recorded live, hence the theme music!

You can listen to the show here:-

Connections 93 3rd September 2011

...and so on to the music...

 American Pie by Don McLean (United Artists Records 1971)
She Bop by Cyndi Lauper (Epic Records 1984)
Annie's Song by John Denver (RCA Records and Tapes 1974)
Absolutely Free by Frank Zappa and The Mothers of Invention (Verve Records 1968)
Guitar Man By Bread (Elektra Records 1972)
Love Cats by The Cure (Fiction Records 1983)


LA Woman by The Doors (Elektra Records 1971)


 The Candy Man by Sammy Davis Jnr (MGM Records 1971)


White Light/ White Heat by The Velvet Underground (Verve Records 1968)
Vincent by Don McLean (United Artists Records 1972)

...and that completes another show...hope you enjoyed!

Keep connected!

TimX

Monday 20 February 2012

Connections 94 10/9/2011 (9/10/2011 US)

Hello and welcome to show 94! As I've mentioned many times, the shows are currently not in any particular order, giving them that 'lived in look' whilst I upload the back log! You can see the dates clearly though on the right hand side of the blog for the show you are looking for. As has been the case, I have just put artist and song details on for now, so I can update it later.

You can hear the show here:-

Connections 94 10th September 2011

So...on with the music...
The Payback by James Brown (Polydor Records 1973) 
Little Ole Country Boy by Parliament (Invictus Records 1970)
Groove Is In The Heart by Dee Lite (Elektra Records 1970)

Bring Down The Birds by Herbie Hancock (MGM Records 1966)
This Guy's In Love With You by Herb Alpert (A&M Records 1968)
Flight 2 by Angelo & Eighteen (Rak Records 1972)
That's The Way by Led Zeppelin (Atlantic Records 1970)
Smells Like Teen Spirit by 2Cellos (Sony Masterwworks 2011)
Sinfonia to Cantata No 29 by Wendy Carlos (Columbia records 1968)

Strom by Kraftwerk (Philips Records 1972)

It's A Man's, Man's, Mans World by James Brown and The Famous Flames (King Records 1966)

...and there we have it. Hope you've enjoyed...spread the love!

TimX