Connections 122 7/4/12 (4/7/12 US)

Hello and welcome to show 122! First things first, you can listen to the show here:-

Connections 122 7th April 2012

Again, I'm playing 'catch up' as there's quite a back log of shows to put on here, so I'm going to add notes later! This show featured Elvis Presley and an old take of a more recent standard! Enjoy!!

 A Little Less Conversation by Elvis Presley (RCA Records 1968)

 Funky Broadway by Wilson Pickett (Stax Records 1967)

 Fanfare by MFSB (Philadelphia International Records 1975)

Do It Any Way You Wanna by The People's Choice (Philadelphia International Records 1975)

Fly On A Windshield/ Broadway Melody 1974 by Genesis (The Famous Charisma Records 1974)

The Crunch by The RAH Band (RCA Records 1977)

Love Hangover by Diana Ross (Tamla Motown Records 1976)

La Vie En Rose by Grace Jones (Island Records 1977)

Do It 'Til You're Satisfied by B.T. Express (Pye Records 1973)

American Woman by The Guess Who (RCA Records 1970)

The Resurrection Shuffle by Ashton, Gardner and Dyke (Capitol Records 1971)

Suspicious Minds by Elvis Presley (RCA Records 1969)




...and that brings us to the end of yet another show. Keep connected!!

TimX











 

Connections 121 17/3/2012 (3/17/2012 US)

Hello and after a long break, welcome to show 121!! This was the last show prior to a 2 week break and I was privileged to have Turkish singer songwriter Ece Dorsay as my very special guest! In keeping with Connections, the songs still connected...just!! and I was delighted that she was able to play 5 songs live for us!

 So...first things first...you can listen to the show here...

Connections 121 17th March 2012

 Dibe Vurdum by Ece Dorsay LIVE Yes, from the tiny studio in Acik Radyo Ece played these selections absolutely live!! Since the show, some people have asked me whether it was a CD, but I promise you it was there right in front of my eyes. I asked Ece to provide me some thoughts about the song which is a luxury I don't often have (I'm still waiting for Bob Dylan to get back to me about 'Positively 4th Street,' Are you out there, Bob?! :-) )

Dibe Vurdum :
When i wrote this song, i was having a very hard time. I tried to
describe the ups and downs that we can all  have.
But there is more to it : As an artist, i wanted the song to be as
personal as it could be. I described my feelings that are
uncategorized as a woman's or man's. I think we are all unisex creatures in
our feelings but society separates us.


A very long and drawn out connection involving Columbia Pictures and Universal Pictures, which you'll have to listen to the programme for...plus the fact that Ece can sing it very well, connected us to...

Rolling In The Deep by Adele (XL Records 2010) As Ece was a guest, she got to pick most of the music...it's only fair! I didn't think I'd play Adele on Connections...ever...

but I have to say I have listened to this song through new ears as it were!! I know in the UK, last year, Adele was a staple on commercial radio when nurses were driving home!! Adele started out as a My Space contributer who went viral and then has the idiosyncrasy of naming her albums after her age! Lovely stuff...The same connection as above connected us back to...

 Kirmizi Karanlik by Ece Dorsey LIVE I was already aware of this song, via a very seductive video that was shown widely in Turkey. I had to ask Ece about the fab gear she's wearing in the vid! See the following link!

Ece Dorsay Kirmizi Karanlik 

As to the song itself, Ece had this to say...

Kirmizi Karanlik gives the name to my second album and it has great
depth and poetry in it, as far as i can say.
It describes an unusual love that a woman can have for another woman.
Not many people can relate to that but its been a great achievement to
make the video and show it on prestigious n popular Turkish Tv
channels. I guess it is a real revolution.


Spell bound, I was! The same connection that connected us to Adele, formerly on Columbia Records, connected us to another Columbia Artist...

The Confession by Laura Nyro (Columbia Records 1968)  This was my one choice for this show. In the vein of female singer songwriters, Laura is often overlooked, mainly through her tendency to 'play herself down.' This has become a latter day classic album full of songs about love, romance, death and drugs...that heady combination...Plus fantastic singing and production! A classic...The recycled connection I was using throughout the show, sure was helpful in connecting us back to...

 Sarki Soylemek Lazim by Ece Dorsay LIVE This performance created a very positive reaction from a lot of listeners who liked Ece's interpretation of this Sezen Aksu song and I was honoured to have this as an exclusive on Connections. Ece had this to say, 

Sezen Aksu : I didn't have the courage to cover a Sezen Aksu song
but my best friend who is a big Sezen fan,
really liked my version and pushed me to cover her songs. I cant
describe how thankful i am to her.

...and herein lay a different connection opportunity. Sezen Aksu worked with the bassist from Sparks, Martin Gordon and Sparks were interviewed by MTV's Steve Blame, as was...

 Luka by Suzanne Vega (A&M Records 1987) This was Ece's choice, through her respect for Suzanne as an artist and also as this is a very 'upbeat' song. When you look a little closer, the song is all about domestic abuse and the 'up' ness is a sad characteristic of subjects of domestic abuse to happily attempt to 'wash over' any irregularities that their neighbours might see or hear. A very clever song! Suzanne and Amy Winehouse both sand at the T in The Park Festival, UK...which connected us to another fantastic cover version...

No Good by Ece Dorsay LIVE As Ece says, this is a harrowing song to listen to, you somehow feel that you are encroaching into someone else's private life, especially in the aftermath of Amy's untimely death. Over to Ece...

Amy Winehouse is not easy to cover and i was afraid of not doing her
justice but i tried to sing it my own way just to remember her great
presence and as a tribute to her greatness as an artist.


This was a great cover...Don't accept the system!!


Glastonbury Festival connected Amy Winehouse to...

 Not A Pretty Girl by Ani Difranco (Righteous Babe Records 1995) I have to admit that before this show, I wasn't very familiar with Ani's work, but I enjoyed this song...especially the irony in the delivery...'I AM NOT AN ANGRY GIRL' and her own Righteous Babe Record company to boot!! As Ece points out, even her guitar playing is angry!! Bob Ezrin connected us to U2 and our last song by...

 
 Desire by Ece Dorsay (LIVE) I'm tempted to say, 'What has happened between the writing of the Joshua Tree Album, the recording of the Joshua Tree album, the tour an...the new songs...?' On this track, I was honoured to be a percussionist, possibly to Ece's detriment, but we love found objects, coffee beans and a nut tin kick ass...Over to Ece...

Desire by U2 is one of the first songs that i used to cover when i
started to play guitar. The rhythm and the melody are hard to play and
sing but somehow for me, it has been sooo easy :)

Listen for the part where Ece has to remind me it's the 'Silent part!!' ie 'Shutttup!!!'

Anyway, that brings this special show to a close and I would like to once again thank Ece for this fantastic set and for being an equally fantastic guest DJ!! My thanks also to our Technician, Mert, without whom this show would not have been possible! (Lawdy, this is sounding like an Oscars speech! I love you all!! Mwah! etc

TX  

Connections 120 10/3/2012 (3/10/2012 US)

Hello and welcome to show 120!! Somewhat delayed, there were some problems with the original transcription of the show. Many thanks go to Mert, who made firstly, a fold down stereo version of it and then a remastered super stereo version that you can hear here!!:-

Connections 120 10th March 2012

So...on with the music...

Heavy Breathing by The Bee Gees (RSO Records 1974) The Bee Gee's started out with a fanfare in the late 1960's, big time..but by the turn of the decade pressure and creative differences had started to take their toll and Barry and Robin Bee Gee fell out about who was getting chosen to sing lead and the principle song writer, it was always assumed to be Barry Bee Gee, but Robin was churning out some potential hits that were relegated to B Sides. In the early 1970's, they went through a creatively bereft period, seemingly lacking direction. Then they turned to producer Arif Mardin, who set them on course for the iconic Bee Gees we tend to remember. This was not a big selling album at the time, but Maurice Bee Gee once cited it as his favourite Bee Gees album...kinda funky!! Music photographer Dennis O'Regan connected us to Pink Floyd...but first we took a detour!!

Speak To Me /Breathe by Easy Star All Stars (Easy Star Records 2003) Reggae, baby, reggae! I think I said 1999 on the show but what's 4 years?! This is a great concept which has been extended since this album to other artistes such as the Beatles Sergeant Pepper in Reggae stylee and it sounds great! The band itself seems to be revolving door of session musicians, but to great effect. This version was effectively used in Channel 4's Nathan Barley series, the 'Breathe' part starting after a particularly challenging Geek Pie hair cut...

...and that connected us very nicely to...

Wot's Uh...The Deal? by Pink Floyd (Harvest Records 1972) Well, it's quite possibly the lamest of the Floyd album covers...Hipgnosis didn't quite deliver, a blurred still of a blok in a tree from the film (Yes! I had to look hard!) but the music was excellent, particularly interesting given that it was recorded during a 2 week hiatus from recording Dark Side Of The Moon, and is often, given the fact it is a 'soundtrack,' is oft overlooked. The music was lilting, but the song title choices were a bit wanting. As far as I know, the title of this song was lifted from a line in the film that was a cue for the song...See Emily Play, the Syd Barrett Pink Floyd song, took us very nicely to...

Always Crashing In The Same Car by David Bowie (RCA Records and Tapes 1977) Berlin Bowie pops his head up in the show every now and then!! So, Bowie went to Berlin and moved in with Iggy Pop, above a green grocer's (Quite a posh green grocer's) in former West Berlin as a way to try and get himself off cocaine...that might work...As you can imagine, it wasn't all plain sailing, and this song alludes to an occasion where Bowie was on a garage forecourt and decided against getting a couple of gallons of 4 star and instead drove his retro Mercedes Benz around in circles at very high speeds...Instant song inspiration...Bowie's work with Luther Vandross connected us to producer Gregg Diamond, who produced...

More, More, More by The Andrea True Connection (Buddah Records 1976) It's effectively porn music...but it's great! Andrea was an adult actress at a loose end in Jamaica, as she had earned some money there, and couldn't leave with it, so she called Gregg Diamond over to record a song!! Genius and an example of time put to good use!. The remixer Tom Moulton, claims he would have never touched it if he realised what it was really about...More More More meant 'Keep playing those great sounds...' right...? The loop of the hook towards the end of this song, was essentially the tune for....

Steal My Sunshine by Len (Work Records 1999) Gregg Diamond even got a co writing credit ob this one! Marc Costanzo had heard Andrea True Connection on holiday (Club 18 30?) and the bit at the end had stuck in his head. He apprached the vocals in a similar way to 'Don't You Want Me Baby' by the Human League, ie male vocal followed by female vocal...Like many of these hits, it wasn't originally intended to be a single...even be on a release at all, until it was needed to fill up the album and the master tape was under his bed or something...et voila...Gregg Diamond, today's Jack-in-The-Box connected us to...

Rock Your Baby by George McCrae (RCA Records and Tapes 1974) George could sing exceptionally high, and this was a positive boom when KC and The Sunshine Band had accidentally written a song for any of them to sing! Enter George!! Legend has it that this Disco masterpiece was laid down in 45 minutes!! George was on RCA, as was Leadbelly, who sang a version of...

Black Betty by Ram Jam (Epic Records 1977) The song really was an American working Man's song, thought to be about anything from some fairly hard core whiskey to a State Penetentiary wagon. What Ram Jam did was to turn it into a power chord jambouree that was seemingly about something a bit more bawdy...there were complaints...but with post modern irony..it rocks...The connection was via Flip Records, which were distributed by Epic, as were IRS...home to...

Black Dog by Dread Zeppelin (IRS Records 1990) 'I know! Let's do Led Zeppelin songs but to a Reggae beat...Oh look, here's a Vegas style Elvis impersonator to sing lead...' That pretty much sums it up. I think the original cover of this album did boast an image of the real Elvis, but there were objections...But hey, it sounds like something out of a strange dream, but it works!! 'I don't much like that kinda talk around here, baby...' A&M Records also distributed IRS Records, which was home to...

White Light by Gene Clark (A&M Records 1971) There was a common misconception that this album was eponymous and people could be forgiven really, because the title 'White Light' was nowhere on the livery!! Gene had been quite possibly the most productive member of The Byrds in their heyday, but his shyness and the fact that Roger McGuinn exuded the Dylanesque vibe that Management seemed to favour  made him very unhappy and branch out into his own recordings. These were never really promoted at the time, and sold very few but are now regarded as classics. Session guitar player Sneaky Pete Kleinow connected us back to ...

I've Gotta Get A Message To You by The Bee Gees (Polydor Records 1968) A cheery number all about a bloke who's on Death Row and trying to get in tough with his wife...This was a Robin Gibb song and goes on this week's show as a get well soon message to him!

and that completes today's show...I hope you enjoyed!!

Spread the love!

TimX

Connections 119 3/3/2012 (3/3/2012 US!)

Hello and welcome to show 119, which was dedicated to Davy Jones, the man, because of whom David Bowie became Bowie, who sadly passed away this week.

Firstly, you can listen to the show here:-

Connections 119 3rd March 2012

So...on with the music...

You Told Me by The Monkees (Colgems/ RCA Records 1967) With the count in aping The Beatles' Taxman, this was like the Beatles but with banjos!! The Monkees were of course, put together by some slick thinking tv producers, capitalising on The Beatles 'feel' but in the process set the seeds for something that had never been seen on TV before. Davy Jones being Mancunian seemed to add to the surreality in amongst the American cast. The down side of this sudden burst of fame was that their contracts sold their names and likenesses down the road, and their first two albums were The Monkees voices but the music wasn't played by them. 'Headquarters' was their first album with them playing their own instruments and having the creative rights to make something they wanted...Some say this unleashed ego's and lead to their demise eventually..but a fine, fine album. The Monkees also sang...

  I'm A Believer by EMF featuring Reeves and Mortimer (Parlophone Records 1995) I suppose this is a collaboration that even 10 years before, you just couldn't make up! This is a Yorkshire comedian, who's strange ideas put him somewhere between vaudeville and alternative comedy...a new age Eric Morecambe! Then a Solicitor, Bob Mortimer, saw him one night in a club and gave up the office life to join him!! Then one day, with an early 90's, trainers up to the knees, curtain haired indie band they do a Lambeth Walk esque cover of this Monkees classic...genius!! Parlophone Records took us nicely to...

 I Should Be So Lucky By Kylie Minogue (PWL Records 1988) No...not that one...

Confide In Me By Kylie Minogue (Mushroom Records 1994) This was a real career crossroads for Kylie, having been released from her contract with Stock, Aitken and Waterman, and throughout the mid 1990's she dabbled in quite a few different things, before deciding that she was a dance diva after all!! After the SAW productions we were used to, this Brother's in Rhythm production was a refreshing change...Thinking person's Kylie!! Kylie sang 'When All Is Said and Done in Hyde Park with Benny Anderson in 2009, which takes us nicely to...

 Lay All Your Love On Me by ABBA (Epic Records 1980) I never really understood 12" singles to be quite honest, but this was an early example of one...they were literally extended grooves, usually with longer instrumental breaks intended for getting down on it at discotheques...Epic took ABBA by surprise with their release of it as a single, and so there wasn't a proper video to it, rather a montage of previous videos. The song only got to a mere number 7 in the UK, which prompted people to think their career was waning...but it's just a number! ABBA's Polar Studios connected us to...

Traveling Riverside Blues by Led Zeppelin (Atlantic Records 1996 (Recorded 1969)) With the release of The Beatles At The BBC in 1994, there was a huge chocolate laxative result on the BBC vaults releasing their wares. This is a cracking cover of a Robert Johnson song from the 1930's and was originally on John Peel's 'Top Gear' programme. The recording was mused about for many years until this CD came to fruition. Jimmy Page's brother in arms as a session man (He lent him his giutars and everything!) was...

Daydream Believer by Lord Sitar (Columbia Records 1969) Lord Sitar was none other than session man Big Jim Sullivan. The thing was that he was contracted at the time to Polydor Records, so his name had to be changed to something suitably silly! This album is a nice curio. At the time, sitars were very much in vogue and this pre dated Ananda Shankar slightly (See Show 110). Some pundits said some songs worked better than others with the sitar treatment, but as this show has a Monkees theme, I think he does this show justice! Big Jim frequently played with...

Ah! Melody by Serge Gainsbourg (Philips Records 1971) Get Jean Claude Vannier on the orchestration and record an album with rich arrangements with some leading session musicians and get Serge rapping in French seductively about crashing his Rolls Royce into a young English girl on a bicycle and voila! you have an instant classic, with a running time of just under 28 minutes! Effective, efficient...that's Gainsbourg! Serge and Jean Claude connect us nicely to...

C'est Le Vie Qui Veut Ca by Jane Birkin (Fontana records 1973) When she wasn't busy being the muse for stretchy stylish bags you can take on aeroplanes...a la...

...she was recorded albums penned by Serge that were easily as sordid as Histoire.., with Jean Claude Vannier's orchestration being a little more understated than on Serge's work. Quite a scarey cover, you wouldn't want to get the wrong side of Jane...Another staple session musician who worked with Jane was...

Night Rider by Alan Hawkshaw (EMI Records 1972) ...And all because the lady loves...Alan has been a leading session musician throughout his career as well as making some iconic tunes used in TV. This piece was the accompaniment for an ad where a sweaty palmed skier took a lady a box of chocolates!! You never actually saw if she got them, come to think of it, perhaps there's a mountain of boxes waiting for her somewhere...they might have gone past the sell by date now though...can you recycle chocolate, I suppose that could work...? Alan worked with David Bowie, who worked with...

Children Of The Revolution by T Rex featuring Elton John and Ringo Starr (Recorded for Apple Films 1972) This is a fantastic variation of Children of The Revolution...E volving rather than RE volving!! In my mind, better than the original, it was recorded in Apple Studios, no 3 Saville Row in the same room as the Beatles recorded much of Let It Be. Ringo was the director of photography for the film, which goes some way to explaining all this. They even filmed a tea party sequence at John Lennon's former home, Tittenhurst Park. Elton himself connects us to...

Idol by Elton John (Rocket Records 1976) Dark Elton. This was his second double album and one that to this day he claims is his favourite. With good reason. The delivery of this song reminds me very much of the sort of material George Michael was recording some 14 years later. This song I believe was in part based on Elvis, whom Elton had met around that time, which had given him cause for concern. Elton said after this album that he was packing it all in....for about a year...David Crosby and Graham Nash sang on this album who were affiliated to Stephen Stills, who was a mate of Peter Tork, who was in...

 
Daddy's Song by The Monkees (Colgems/ RCA Records 1968) Supernatural, perhaps...boloney...perhaps not... This is from quite possibly one of the most surreal psychedelic films you will ever see. Davy Jones appeared bouncing around in a variety of suits to the Harry Nilsson song. The original album cover was metallic so you could look into it and see your own head...RIP Davy Jones... :-(

..and the mysterious guest in Ece Dorsay's show, Daginlik Oda, which follows mine each week on Acik Radyo can be heard here!

Daginlik Oda 3rd March 2012

You might recognise the guest ;-)