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 ;-)