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