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The wind and the rain, the clouds low, the people in the streets in macs, wrapped up, heads covered, cowering, necks disappearing into shoulders. It was summer in Penzance alright, perhaps this will deter the holidaymakers from coming down as the country opens up. I also heard today that the quarantine for travellers coming from abroad is going to be abandoned from next week, unless you are American of course. Oh yes and de Pfeffel’s dad has decided to break the current rules and fly to Greece, I wonder if he’s eloped with Domino Crumby?

The government is really on fire at the moment, bad negotiations with the EU and in this time of economic crisis de Pfeffel has declared (ha, get it?) that a no deal Brexit would be good. Really? Unlike most of the good people here, I will be able to escape to my wife’s country if I need to, I wonder where England will be in two years? As we have not been together long enough (4 years next week) and despite being married we cannot stay in this country anyway even if we wanted to. The visa applications, the proof of income, sporadic as a musician, the guarantee that money will flow, it’s all too much. We are hoping to be on the road for the next 5 years, let’s see if the virus lets us do that.

I was also reading today about the concept that Thumper and The Repugnants are trying it on with voter suppression and if they still lose, calling it rigged. Conspiracy theory? Well, it won’t be long till we find out. There’s different ideals, different approaches, people are different, but at the moment we are seeing something unprecedented in America as the regime is trying to stop Obamacare in the middle of a pandemic and the latest scandal about the bounty on soldiers in Afghanistan, it just seems to wash off these people’s backs like water friendly vaseline in a Russian hotel room. I never imagined that the conservatives could be so willing to throw their principles out of the window on such a large scale. Of course we only hear what we want to hear, we only stand up for our own side or do we? Wasn’t there once a time when a difference of opinion was met with compromise? We may disagree on god and abortion, but racism, misogyny, dictatorship, denial and lies are not the best policy whose ever side you’re on. You might not agree with Reagan or Bush, Obama or Clinton, but you might agree that they weren’t monsters – then there’s Putin, president for life.

So trying to find solace somewhere away from all this nonsense, as promised today the picture we have posted is the tree hugging picture. As you can see the tree is definitely reciprocating despite social distancing. It seems that the cure for messing with nature comes from nature. See, even if you mess with nature it still tries to help.

Franz Kafka was born today in 1883. I’ve read The Trial and Metamorphosis and seen the film of The Castle with Austrian actor Maximilian Schell (Academy Award winner in 1961 for Judgement in Nuremberg). I’ve also seen Metamorphosis live on stage on Broadway in 1989 with Gregor Samsa played by Mikhail Baryshnikov in his ‘breakthrough’ performance as an actor. Baryshnikov had defected to Canada in 1974, a sensation in international intrigue and the world of ballet. I remember vividly him acting the part of the cockroach. If they put that play on again they might fill that role easily.

Also today my fave bass player Andy Fraser was born. He was discovered by Blues legend Alexis Corner after being introduced to her dad by daughter Sappho. At 15 he was playing with John Mayall and in 1968 was a founder member of Free. He co-wrote All Right Now and lots of great Free songs. He was also a classically trained piano player. He formed Sharks with Chris Spedding after Free and then the Andy Fraser Band. He died in 2015 aged 62 (yikes). Unique, inventive, talented, a true original.

Music today started with the debut album from Dutch legends Focus. Their first album, Focus plays Focus, was released in the Netherlands in September 1970 and is the only album with the original lineup of Thijs van Leer, vocals, keys and flute, Jan Akkerman, guitars, Martin Dresden, bass, trumpet, vocals, and Hans Cleuver, drums, vocals. All but Akkerman are credited with vocals. For some reason this debut is always classed as Progressive and never as Psychedelic Progressive, but to me the vocal tracks have a sixties Psychedelic turn. Outside the Netherlands the album was released in 1971 as In And Out Of Focus with an extra track, House Of The King (perhaps on the European version outside the Netherlands, but not on my American or Australian copy?). The vocal tracks are what set this album apart from the later Focus albums and you can hear the influence of Martin Dresden who was gone by the second album. Melodic songs, nice melodies, always great guitar from Akkerman.

Later that same year with two new members, Cyril Havermans on bass and Pierre van der Linden on drums, Focus unleashed Focus II, better known as Moving Waves. It contained Hocus Pocus, that was the song that made the world take note, the single charting at No. 20 and the album reaching No. 2 in the UK charts (No. 8 in the US, No. 4 at home). Van Leer’s yodel, playful keys and Akkerman’s ice slicing guitar sound, with van der Linden’s drum breaks, succeeded in that impossible task of gaining attention with a catchy instrumental. The album though was a definite entry into the world of Progressive Rock. All the elements were there, a classically trained flautist who also played organ and Mellotron, odd timings, a creative guitar player and sympathetic drummer and bassist. What’s not to like?

They were already at it with the shorter Progressive tracks on Side 1 with Le Clochard (the beggar) and Janis. At first the third and title track sounds so like early ELP with the piano and the character of the voice, you have to check the album cover to make sure it’s really Focus. The side ends with Focus II, another lovely instrumental. On Side 2 it’s the suite (Eruption), how do they even imagine all these changes? It’s a wonderful journey with van Leer and Akkerman exchanging melodic tones over van Leer’s original visionary concept. At one point I expect to see Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor stride in to a vast arena where Pierre van der Linden will perform the rite for the soul of the volcano. Yes, this really should have been a soundtrack, a grandiose celebration of something spectacular with a cast of thousands.

That’s it, I can’t escape Focus tonight, those first two albums were so enjoyable. So next came the double album Focus 3, released in 1972, opening Side 1 with van Leer’s slightly mad Round Goes The Gossip before reclining on a faraway beach to Akkerman’s Love Remembered. And then they did it again with another classic instrumental single, Sylvia. It’s another van Leer composition yet with beautiful Akkerman guitar lines that van Leer must have written on the keys as they are the main theme. The song reached No. 4 in the UK chart. Carnival Fugue ended Side 1 and showed off van Leer’s knowledge of ancient music.

For Focus 3 there was another change in personnel and Cyril Havermans was replaced by Bert Ruiter on the bass guitar. Three albums, three bass players, two drummers, what was going on in the Focus camp? Musically they were on fire with van Leer’s classical and compositional skills and Akkerman’s exquisite guitar playing, every track was a journey. Side 2 opens with the title track written by van Leer, but the side is shared with an Akkerman/Ruiter composition, Answers?Questions? Questions? Answers?. Still one wonders how the opening track is a van Leer composition when it’s the guitar lines that make the difference. Did he write the melodies on the keys and play them to Akkerman or is the composition in the chord changes with Akkerman making up these great lead and memorable melodic guitar parts?

Side 3 is one long track, Anonymous II, credited to the whole band. I suppose sections might have been credited to each member, but one imagines that it all came out of a jam. This reminds me of why I love bootlegs, moments of brilliance captured in an unguarded moment, but never followed through on an official release. If you ever want to contribute anything to the archive, any seventies bootleg always works.

Side 4 continues with the Anonymus II conclusion and then the album ends with two Akkerman compositions, Elspeth Of Nottingham, and you suddenly hear how van Leer and Akkerman were on the same page in regards to influences and appreciation of music of the distant past. Lastly it’s House Of The King again and this reminds me that on the first album there’s also a track called Anonymous (credited just to van Leer), which I suppose is why Anonymous II is so called. Focus 3 reached No. 6 in the UK chart and No. 35 in the US.

Their fourth studio album was Hamburger Concerto (1974), which has those wacky fellows finding a classical theme and then calling sections of the suite on Side 2, Rare, Medium and Well Done. Notably they again changed their drummer and welcomed ex Stone The Crows man Colin Allen. At this point Focus seemed to be functioning with Akkerman and van Leer comfortably creative, but before this album they’d released Focus Live At The Rainbow (1973) but were meant to release a studio album. Disagreements in the band shelved it and it came out later as Ship Of Memories. It seems like for all their creativity there were always tensions within the band. It wouldn’t be long before Akkerman would leave, making one more album, Mother Focus, in 1975 and embarking on a solo career. Focus replaced him with Philip Catherine and Eef Albers and then they made Focus Con Proby! Yep, Focus with PJ Proby, but that weirdness is for another day.

I’ve actually seen Focus twice in recent years, only Thijs left. Song Of The Day has to be Sylvia/Hocus Pocus from The Old Grey Whistle Test Christmas 1972. This performance is what made the single Sylvia a UK hit in 1973.

The other day I was walking through the park and a fly flew directly into my throat, straight to the back. I immediately gagged and was furiously clearing my throat trying to expel it from my body. What a way to go for the fly! The creatures were out today, so were the animals. We saw the abusive woman again with the two dogs, seems like she’s calmed down, she passed three or four people on the other side of the road without one F bomb. When she F bombed us it was the beginning of the pandemic and at that point nobody knew if their days were numbered or not. Now as we look back on 40,000+ deaths in England and coming up to 130,000 in the US I guess we found out how serious it is and if we were prudent to be careful. With 500,000 dead in the world and outbreaks everywhere one wonders how Saturday’s opening here in England is going to go? Does it mean that the tourists will be hitting Cornwall and bringing the plague to a place where it hasn’t actually felt like we are all going to die (apart from the occasional woman freaking out). With the lockdown, the people in the shops and the street have been enforcing the distancing, sure, but we are off the beaten track here and it feels like it, when the summer tourists arrive though, Penzance and St Ives, Newquay and many spots in Cornwall are usually heaving. So fingers crossed that the sunshine doesn’t bring the infected into our midst, but I do understand that you gotta get out of Brum.

Today, Olivia cancelled the air tickets we have for the USA. We were supposed to fly to New York on August 13th and then on to Dallas. We got an email from our cool booking agent Joady in Minneapolis today and she suggested to plan for autumn 2021 for touring there. Well, we’ll certainly have some records out by then, but we’ll probably think of singles beforehand as we get into this year’s autumn and start campaigns for the different albums as we find release dates.

Down at the sea today the water was iron blue with patches of deep green. There were hardly any waves and the seagulls were washing their feathers in the calm waters. Sometimes a bird would fly just above the surface, at the limit of how low it could go as if its wings had sensors that told it the exact distance from the water. On the beach a man was walking his two dogs, encouraging them into the water, there were two young lads spinning stones into the sea and an older couple standing on the prom were surrounded with the aroma of marijuana. There were lots of small dead jellyfish on the stones and Olivia was trying to get a close-up of their fascinating construction as she did on the way down to the beach with cobwebs in the sunlight on the gardens’ gates. We left the beach by the skate park which has become busy again, but today every kid seemed to be 12, but everyone looks young when you’re 62.

Last night our toaster blew up like they used to in eighties videos, sparks and everything. So we thought we’d check out the supermarket by the sea and see if we could buy one. They had microwaves and kettles and all sorts but no toasters, so Olivia found one online, a lovely powder blue that we bought for midnight to 4AM snacking. On the way back we decided to try some tree hugging (photo tomorrow). It was lovely, the tree was so responsive and that contact with nature gave us some good vibes. We saw five cats on the way back to the studio, we stroked some of them and admired the others.

Earlier at the local shops I ran into local Sean and his bike. Sean is cool, mellow, and I talked with him for a bit about the universe. I noticed a girl looking lost as we were talking. I asked her if she needed any help? “Yes,” she said. She was looking for a pasty shop, well, she’d missed it by 5 minutes. I asked her where she was from. She was Norwegian and was most surprised when I started speaking to her in Swedish. She went on her way and I found my way to the studio. On the subject of languages, I did my French lesson today and found myself top of the Sapphire league. There are two of us that are up there with loads of points. I learned some new words, understood some grammar a little better, but there’s a long way to go – you have to start somewhere.

Dare was briefly in the studio today continuing with some drum editing before I get in there and start playing the bass and the guitars on Ahad’s album, probably next week. We were both looking forward to the football tonight because Liverpool the champions were playing Man City, last year’s champions and the other best team in the land. They hammered Liverpool 4-0! So that was something of a let down. (Dare’s team Everton won this week.) All my plans for continuing to get the archive straightened up were thrown into disarray with trips to the shops, distractions, pasties, seagulls, sunshine, football and somehow the free day turned into not getting much done at all.

Music today is the long overdue Sly And The Family Stone, starting with the third album. Life (1969) did not do as well as expected after the hit from the previous album Dance To The Music even though the reviews were good. I just didn’t have that mega single that was the title track, it reached No. 9 in 1968. They would have to wait for future hits, but they were coming. This funky Psychedelic Soul album has its own cool title track and one of my Sly favourites, M’lady.

Stand, the fourth album, released in 1969, managed what none of the previous albums did and that is reach the US Top 20. It’s packed with great tracks, probably best known is Everyday People that went to No. 1 on the Billboard chart. These middle four Sly albums are must-haves, groundbreaking influential in leading the pack into Psychedelic Soul – The Temptations, The Undisputed Truth and even The Supremes with Reflections (if you remember that song). Sing A Simple Song was recorded by The Temptations, Diana Ross and The Jackson 5. If you haven’t heard the 14-minute jam, Sex Machine, your life needs it. This is the thing with taste, I love this track but if you don’t, you have the 2.20 Everyday People before it. I personally love the groovy jams as much as the classic singles.

The dark, groundbreaking There’s A Riot Goin’ On (1971), titled in answer to Marvin Gaye’s What’s Goin’ On (also 1971, released 6 months earlier), was a change of direction. This wasn’t uptempo dancey Psychedelic Soul, this was troubled pessimistic, narcotic, dark, black, drug music. It made The Velvet Underground sound lightweight. It was fraught with tension, drummer Greg Errico left the band (lots of drum machine on this record). Sly got involved with the Black Panthers, Mafia figures, bad drugs and watched the band eat itself alive from the inside. Somehow it had hits and the classic Family Affair reached No. 1 on the Billboard charts. The rhythm, the melody, the vocal, wow, what a track. It’s an absolute classic album, it cost a fortune to make and Sly was at the height of his drug use and unreliability, but the album…essential.

By the time Sly was in the studio for Fresh (1973) it wasn’t just Greg Errico that was gone (replaced with Andy Newmark). Bassist Larry Graham was also gone, replaced by Rusty Allen. Allen’s bass drives the track If You Want Me To Stay which was a hit reaching No. 12 on the Billboard Chart and even No. 40 in the UK. It’s another American No. 1 album, more accessible than its predecessor and frankly another great Sly album. Que Sera Sera, sung by Rose and Sly, what’s not to like?

Song Of The Day is Sly’s No. 1 single from 1971, Family Affair.

Somehow July arrived and walking up to Dare’s house today I could feel the sun baking on my neck. There was the sound of drilling beyond the block of flats to my left and I got the feeling that everything was normal. There was a woman behind a hedge, gardening, women pushing prams and people taking their dogs for a walk on the rec at the top of town. It was what I call a ‘Doctor Who day’ where everything seems normal, but there’s something else going on. This is the insidious nature of the virus, only attacking a certain part of the population (the most vulnerable), but at the same time killing someone who is young and healthy. Then, slowly disappearing, giving millions of people a false sense of security and then suddenly reappearing, confirming the suspicious and the careful that it was never going away. What is going on in America? President Cramp and Mike Tripe are saying it’s fine whilst it’s spreading like crazy? Why won’t their own people stop them doing this? I don’t get it. If your husband or wife starts running around the house swinging a machete, you take it off them.

That sense of security is easy to feel around these parts especially here and as most places in England are opening up from Saturday, trepidation is being replaced with hope. But there’s spikes here too and with Britain’s awful numbers in comparison with Germany one wonders if it’s all going to start all over again. Shouldn’t we be dreading the onset of winter if spikes are happening in the summer? It looks like Lufthansa is finally noticing that some people had bought tickets way in advance for international trips that we can no longer take. Olivia and I have tickets to the USA on August 13th but it seems that we can now cancel them and have until the end of January 2021 to re-book. So, we will re-book to come to play in America next year in support of all these albums that we will be putting out, we hope. Who knows where we will be in a year? Will there be a vaccine? Will the pandemic be worse? Will President Plank be gone? We are still trying to plan but the three things that matter the most to us at this stage remain closed. They are: The leisure centre with its pool and gym, the venues so that we can play live and last but not least the place where followers of this blog are liable to be most excited to hear about, the belt shop!

I had no studio or sessions today so it was time to get into the archive and record the records that are getting played in here on the website and bring out the record cleaning machine so I can clean some records and put some records away. I’ll be continuing and doing this all day tomorrow. I’ve been trying to find some time to introduce Ace Zarathustra’s Eclectic Train Wrecks, that would be my radio show should I have the time to become Ace the DJ. I play records here, but it’s only me that gets to hear them. So at this point the only way possible to make my musical choices available for public consumption is to make Spotify playlists. And then that wouldn’t mean albums, it would mean tracks. The ‘train wrecks’ comes from a term used in American radio circles to denote a situation when the continuity doesn’t work between two tracks. Like say Doris Day into Black Sabbath or Type O Negative into Celine Dion. Ace is my Starbucks name and Zarathustra sounds like I am from space.

I find that the eclecticism does usually confound. I do like to jump around and mess with musical styles so a theme might be leading somewhere but could equally go off the rails as stay on course. When I did my radio show in New York I played all kinds of things but there would be trains of thought, spur of the moment connections, there wouldn’t exactly be no planning and it wouldn’t be totally random but there might be some jumping around. For example I had a show of just Welsh bands and then the next show was themeless. What makes the idea of variation odd is not necessarily the different music but the sonic differences between music from different eras. Flying Lotus sounds pretty strange next to The Kinks. But then maybe you noticed the photo in one of the previous blogs of Vera Lynn with Dave Brock from Hawkwind? Anything can happen. On the other hand I could possibly play Bowie all day or some unhip contemporary Pop songstress. Then there’s the Progressive issue, I’d be as happy playing a two minute song by The Box Tops as I would a side of Yes. It’s whatever the mood takes and you can’t ever make everyone happy, it’s taste and no one can claim it because no one has everyone’s circumstances and influences.

So my question is do you have Spotify? Would you listen to playlists? Let me know. Also I don’t want playlists to be agonising with a huge pressure to come up with faultless choices. ABBA might appear with Nick Cave or Gwen Stefani next to Patti Smith. Sadly, I don’t have a radio station with a staff or a budget or loads of time so we’ll see how often I get the playlist made, perhaps weekly for two hours. I might start by posting the New York songs I played, but unfortunately I won’t be able to introduce the songs and tell you stories or interesting facts which originally accompanied those choices so maybe not. But then, interjecting DJs isn’t everybody’s cup of tea, some people hate the DJ talking.

Music today was me randomly picking an interesting album and that happened to be Dreams’ debut, released in 1970. It was more music in the area of Rock with horns, but not as successful as Blood, Sweat & Tears and Chicago even though they also had good songs and incorporated the brass in an interesting way. Although they didn’t become successful in their own right, some of their members did become well-known, John Abercrombie became a prolific Jazz guitarist, The Brecker Brothers were successful with their own band and as sessioneers – Michael played sax and flute, Randy, trumpet and flugelhorn and then there’s Billy Cobham, the drummer’s drummer. This album is a mostly forgotten jazzy, fusiony classic, if you like that kind of thing. If you are interested in some nerdy facts, the band was formed by Jeff Kent (?) and bassist Doug Lubhan who was asked to join The Doors but declined due to his membership of the band Clear Light who made one album in 1967. But he did play bass on Strange Days (1967), Waiting For The Sun (1968) and The Soft Parade (1969). Guitarist Bob Mann went on to be an in demand session player and played on Mountain’s Twin Peaks.

Colours released two albums in the late sixties, their self-titled debut (1968) on Dot and Atmosphere (1969). Colours were some kind English Beatlesy, sixties-inspired orchestral Pop group, Where Is She particularly stands out as a Lennon influence. They allegedly had a hit with Brother Lou’s Love Colony reaching the Billboard Charts in 1968, but I can’t figure out how to search to see if it’s true. It seemed at first that they were essentially a vehicle for songwriters Jack Dalton and Gary Montgomery and by the second album they were the only two credited musicians. But Colours did have one member, bassist Carl Radle, who went on to play with Delaney and Bonney, Derek and The Dominoes, J.J. Cale and Eric Clapton. Drummer Chuck Blackwell played with Leon Russell, Joe Cocker, Taj Mahal and Freddie King. Dalton and Montgomery wrote songs for The Turtles, The Outsiders and Spiral Starecase.

The Collectors were a Canadian sixties Psychedelic Pop band who released their first, self-titled, album in 1968. They only made two albums, the second was a collaboration with prominent Canadian playwright George Ryga. They wrote the music for his stage play Grass and Wild Strawberries (1969). When singer Howie Vickers left, guitarist Bill Henderson took over on lead vocals and they became Chilliwack who went to be a successful band in the seventies and eighties.

The Collage were a sixties band who made just one album, released in 1968. Donna, Jodie, Jerry and Don were a cross between The Free Design and The Mamas And The Papas. It’s what you call sunshine Pop and despite their short tenure they managed to find famous sessioneers from The Wrecking Crew, Larry Knetchel and Hal Blaine, to play bass and drums. If you feel like donning a head band and skipping through a field, this is the music for you.

Song Of The Day is Felice (MOAT, 2013), because Felice lived in another century like the sixties is to now, she was to then.

 

Felice

Felice
Throw all your flowers down
Scatter them on the ground
And take the boat to Cádiz

The night’s
Mischief has ended now
They won’t find you in the crowd
So make sure that you leave

And you must go
With the southerly wind
In your hair
If you stay here
There’s only despair for you
Only a prayer for you
You must leave

Felice
You are too beautiful
It will make you sorrowful
Bring you down to your knees

Felice
They won’t find you innocent
He worked for the government
And he could do as he pleased

So you must go
Tie up your hair in a bun
Leave the past
For the future to come
Now you’re on the run
Make good speed

Felice
They’ll never catch you now
But murder still haunts your brow
And your soul still looks for relief

Felice
You must get on with your life
They never found the knife
Just that you were a tease

Now you are free
Look in the mirror to find
If there’s any lies
To remind you of
What really happened on
That dark street

(Willson-Piper / Röhlcke)
MOAT – MOAT (2013)

Today’s sizzling, sensational piece of news is that whilst talking with Craig in Atlanta during a thunderstorm, a blistering bolt of lightning came down and hit his front porch, knocking out the computer and the internet – but happily not his partner who from what I understand was out there. He managed to get half a message back to me via his cell phone that they were alive! Result! Sessions that end in death are never good. I’ve never been in Penzance when there’s been a thunderstorm. It must be something to do with the climate, how the land lies, the sea, they do have thunderstorms in Cornwall but seemingly not here. Where Olivia comes from in the Rheinland, thunderstorms are rife and huge and amazing. I remember as a kid in the north of England my Dad and I would watch the thunderstorms and lightning come towards us as we sat in anticipation. He told me if you count between the lightning and the thunder, you can tell how many miles away the thunderstorm is, I don’t know if it’s true but I still believe it. Thankfully he didn’t indoctrinate me with stories of a god, that’s something where influence should have no bearing. He also told me that when the sun was at a certain angle he could tell the time with the tattoo he had of a watch around his wrist. My father had two tattoos, the second on his arm was a hammer and sickle. He was hassled about it if he was at the swimming baths in the sixties and began to cover it with a plaster to save the aggravation. He told me he got the tattoo in the war and said that if you think this was radical you have to remember that the Russians and the British were allies/comrades and you should have seen the tattoos some of the Russian pilots got of Union Jacks emblazoned on their chests.

I almost played bass on one of Ahad’s tracks today as Dare was in the studio sorting out drum takes. But I had sessions with Noelle in Montreal and Chris in New Jersey so I postponed it so I wouldn’t be rushing to get it done. Everyone has been moving forward with their songs and it’s great to see they are as mad and as enthusiastic as me when it comes to creating and listening to music. It’s been a philosophical few days on the sessions as the important balance between the math and the magic has been discussed. You can search for the muse in the mist, you can find the muse, but the muse is not a tape recorder, a compressor or a fuzz box, it’s not accuracy and experience, that’s you and your tools and your skills, it’s a collaboration between her, you and the functioning of the technology. The practical things are just as important as is the bed and the soft pillows in which to woo and rest the muse’s head. You have to be good at or at least aware of a lot of things and then have fine friends good at the things you can’t do to realize your goal. Then there’s the cost, financial and emotional, equally committed to reach a place which may be a lonely journey to an empty room, or a busy room that exacerbates loneliness. And this is why you have to satisfy yourself first in case the audience either demands something of you that you don’t want to give or ignores you completely.

French today was interesting because I found myself successfully understanding everything with the pronunciation and the grammar and I also found myself completely unaffected by the fact that a couple of days ago I listened to part of a French radio station and the announcer started with a monologue of which I understood nothing. I guess a 26-day streak on Duolingo and schoolboy French doesn’t make you a polyglot. I’m pretty satisfied with what I’ve learnt – how to say owl (chouette), how to conjugate some verbs, masculine and feminine, spellings and better pronunciation. Aujourd’hui Duolingo, demain le monde!

Olivia and I ran down to the prom today in between sessions just to breathe in the sea air. Just five minutes of this revitalises you, clears your head. Today on a cloudy day and on a choppy sea one of those awesome great black-backed gulls sat floating on the waves like a toy and as if it was personal leisure time. The idea of animals doing things for fun, enjoying themselves, is rather nice I think. You see it most in happy dogs, but I’m sure there is such a thing as a cheerful pigeon. You’ve seen those big cats, bears or dolphins, looking like they are having a really great time and like us perhaps they get depressed, miserable, don’t feel like chasing after the ball.

Music today was inspired by a trip to the greengrocers, but not by a vegetable, so not Green Day or Steve Hillage’s Green or REM’s Green or The Smithereens’ Green Thoughts, or Greenslade or even Candlewick Green or even Hughie Green, but by a song that was being played on the radio – Romeo. You had to be around in England in 1977 to remember this band and this song and you can’t confuse them with the American band of the same (dumb) name, Mr Big. How can two bands think that this is a good name? (Well in the case of the English Mr Big, it was their manager who made them do it, they were actually called Burnt Oak before.) I have two of their albums that were released in the UK and the US compilation of those two albums. There was a third album, Seppuku, that remains elusive.

Their first album Sweet Silence (1975) is a great mixture of Queen, Heavy Metal Kids and Bon Scott, part Glam, part seventies, part Rock. In fact Mr Big were Queen’s support on the A Night At The Opera tour. I can imagine they were a big success. Lead singer, guitar player and songwriter Dicken (aka Jeff Pain) screeched his way through this album but had the vision to put in the quiet bits, the dynamics, the album is full of ideas for a Rock album by a band that might have easily been a New Wave band if they’d been born a little later as is evident on Zambia, the opening track on Side 2. It’s a band you never hear about, never see their albums, isn’t on Spotify, well their hit is and some other bits but not the albums I have.

Mr Big were missed, despite the hit, they were missed and Dicken should really have been a big rock star. Of course he nearly was, or he was for 5 minutes when they had their big hit Romeo that reached No. 4 in the UK charts in 1977. It was co-written with Edward Carter who was also credited on the second album as lead singer, so not sure what was going on there except listening to the song I realized that they are both singing it. The US album Photographic Smile released in 1976 was a compilation of the two UK albums. The back cover of the album is quite disturbing, but I’ll let you find out why.

Unfortunately it all happened for Mr Big in 1977 as New Wave and Punk were taking hold and although they managed this one hit, they were fighting a losing battle. The self-titled album that the single came from was out of step with the times (rather like The Doctors Of Madness), if you didn’t fit in it didn’t really matter how good you were. The other problem is that this album, post Glam, isn’t as good as the first one, it tries and almost succeeds with Vampire and Can We Live/Angel Of My Life but it’s inconsistent, when it’s good it’s great. I bet the lads in Queen loved them.

They made this elusive third album, Seppuku (1978), that I’ve never seen and then broke up. I’d like to find that album because they made it with Ian Hunter! But they regrouped and Dicken and bassist Pete Crowther reappeared in 1980 as Broken Home with Pete Barnacle on drums and Rory Willson (double L!) on guitar and guess what, it’s great. It sounds great, good songs, Dicken’s unmistakable voice has something Sting-like about it, but only in as much as it’s clear, pure and high. It’s produced by Mutt Lange and if you don’t know who he is, this from Wikipedia:

He has produced albums for, or otherwise worked with, artists such as AC/DC, Def Leppard, The Boomtown Rats, Foreigner, Michael Bolton, The Cars, Bryan Adams, Huey Lewis and the News, Billy Ocean, Celine Dion, Britney Spears, The Corrs, Maroon 5, Lady Gaga, Nickelback, and Muse. He also wrote and produced songs with his then-wife, Canadian singer Shania Twain. Her 1997 album Come On Over, which he produced, is the best-selling country music album, the best-selling studio album by a female act, the best-selling album of the 1990s, and the 9th best-selling album in the United States.

Broken Home (Dicken and Crowther) made one more album in 1981 with Greg Walsh (brother of Peter Walsh who produced Heyday). Destroyed by the sounds of the day, that is, a horrible drum machine that may have worked for Heaven 17, but this attempt at musical modernisation at the hands of the fickle zeitgeist was suicidal…and that was that. It’s a damn shame because Dicken had it. In the nineties Mr Big reformed, Dicken without Crowther but with Carter, and released an album, Rainbow Bridge, in 1996. Like REM didn’t know Steve Hillage, Fairport Convention’s Peel sessions didn’t know my ex band and Pink Floyd didn’t know Medicine Head, although the story goes that Floyd changed the name of their album to Eclipse but when they realised that Medicine Head’s album had slid into obscurity they resurrected the title. It also seems like Dicken didn’t know Jimi Hendrix?

Song Of The Day is Romeo by Mr Big because you might have never heard it or if you did it was a long, long time ago. You may recognise part of the same video idea in Bohemian Rhapsody.

 

Romeo

I am the morning, you are the light
You make the morning such a beautiful thing
I am the green grass, you are the rain
Fall on me, make me grow
No-one will ever know
Fall on me make me grow again

I am the spirit, you are the light
You make the sun shine brighter, you make me smile
I am the water, you are the rose
Oh lady of the land
Come to me take my hand
Until tomorrow I’m your man

Step back in time dear Romeo she said
Step back in time please take me to your bed
Step back in time dear Romeo
My Juliet and take me home

I am the darkness, you are the night
You make the darkness such a beautiful thing
I am the mountain, you are the snow
Fall on me make me grow
No-one will ever know
Fall on me make me grow again

Step back in time dear Romeo she said
Step back in time please take me to your bed
Step back in time dear Romeo
My Juliet and take me
Step back in time dear Romeo she said
Step back in time dear now
Step back in time dear Romeo she said
Step back in time please take me to your bed
Step back in time dear Romeo
My Juliet and take me
Step back in time dear Romeo she said
Step back in time please take me to your bed
Step back in time dear Romeo
My Juliet and take me
Step back in time dear Romeo she said
Step back in time please take me to your bed
Step back in time dear Romeo
My Juliet and take me home

Today I was running into lots of lovely locals that I know, if you spend enough time in a town, you get to know people, obviously. But people are different, I’m one of those people that says hello to strangers, exchanges the time of the day, “Afternoon, lovely day”. This can lead to conversation and conversation can lead to interesting revelations, new angles, new ideas, what could be wrong with that? Then there’s always the danger of not being able to escape, but it might be worth it for every other fruitful exchange. The social distancing and the lockdown has had people craving communication, human connection, engaging in conversation, sharing stories, having fun together, sharing a drink. It seems that in America the desire to do these things has turned into an issue of freedom. I was talking to Salim tonight in Texas where the pandemic numbers have seriously risen and he was telling me that in Austin people were protesting about wearing masks. It’s like trying to stop a screaming child run out into the road.

Here in Penzance, mask wearing is sporadic, most people don’t wear one, but then we were never ordered to. Is it the being told? What happened to erring on the side of caution? Especially if you don’t know for sure what actually is the truth. You can’t guess at the truth. You either know it or you don’t, suspecting you are right isn’t knowing the truth. We are lucky to be in this little town by the sea where the pandemic has barely been to visit and it looks like we’ll have to stay here for a good while longer. The thing about being a musician is that we are always in lockdown when we’re in the studio and at the moment I am always in the studio, working on musical projects in person or online. The other interesting thing about being a musician is the huge difference between writing and recording in the studio and travelling and performing live – it’s chalk and cheese.

Walking around town you can hear the seagull chicks and their high-pitched squeaking as they wait for the parents to bring the shopping. Sometimes you can’t see them as they are up on high roofs, but there’s a couple of buildings near the Morrab Gardens where the roofs are low and you see them waiting. They’re not really cute, they’re ugly grey nagging fluff balls and sometimes you see the parents say, “alright, already”. They grow so quickly, soon they’ll be almost full size with feathers instead of fluff, able to fly but still hassling the parents. At some point their baby feathers begin to change and they turn into adults and so life continues. You might be surprised to know that the herring gulls have a lifespan of around 30 years!

I had a sesh with Terje in Norway today, always interesting to talk to a man who reads, creates, teaches and lives above the Arctic circle. After that I spoke to Ahad about what we had done with our drummer Ed on his album and tried to express how it all went, but after 13 songs recorded in 3 days, they all tended to blur into one. We’ll get back into assessing the basic shape, the drums and the bass in the coming days and send Ahad the latest. Then, it’s the guitars. After that the vocals and who knows what quarantine and this damned pandemic will allow us to do and when.

Last but not least, two interesting stories in the news today from America, one that the Supreme Court had stopped the Louisiana abortion law and two that Tramp might pull out of the race if the polls point to a disastrous result. It seems to me that if things start to go wrong for him, it’s about time as he seems to escape every scandal like a slippery eel. The fact Justice John Roberts, a G. W. Bush nominated conservative judge has voted with the liberals on the gay rights in the workplace issue, the DACA issue and now the abortion issue, is a victory for common sense, in my humble opinion. One other thought on Tramp, isn’t he going to be in big trouble when he doesn’t have the benefit of office to protect him?

Music today was a bit of a smash and grab. I have a whole lot of records to put away, records that had been hiding in a shelf because they needed listening to to authenticate their genre. So I picked up the first Chango album (1975). It’s Salsa Rock a la early Santana. If you like early Santana you will like this. I read a dumb review of it on AllMusic, calling it good, but plagiarism. Every era has bands that sound like their era, every genre has bands that sound alike within their genre, it doesn’t mean it’s plagiarism. Did you ever listen to Metal bands? Punk bands? Reggae bands? Jazz, Blues, really it’s nuts to call it plagiarism. It’s great, it’s like Santana and it’s great. The only reason the reviewer called it plagiarism is because there were fewer bands in this genre.

This led me to the first Blood, Sweat & Tears album, Child Is Father To The Man (1968), with its disconcerting cover art. The band was formed after The Blues Project members Al Kooper and Steve Katz formed a band that had horns and incorporated Jazz, Blues, Soul, Psychedelia, Rock, you name it. It’s a great debut album but Al Kooper left after its release as Katz and drummer Colomby wanted to get a stronger lead singer. Kooper had famously played on the legendary Dylan sessions and went on to make solo albums and produce. They could not however have guessed that after his departure and with the inclusion of David Clayton-Thomas on vocals that they would become absolutely massive, but that’s another story. This album that includes Tim Buckley’s Morning Glory, Nilsson’s Without Her and Randy Newman’s Just One Smile plus six Al Kooper songs is an absolute must have for your collection.

Blood, Sweat & Tears led me to the debut album by Chicago, Transit Authority (1969). It’s another classic incorporating brass into a rock band. Sometimes jazzy, sometimes Psychedelic, sometimes soulful, sometimes Rock. It features Terry Kath on guitar, allegedly Jimi Hendrix’ favourite guitarist. (Wait till you hear Free Form Guitar.) It’s a double album, as was Chicago II (1970) and Chicago III (1971). Their fourth album was a quadruple album, Live at Carnegie Hall (1971). It wasn’t until their fifth album, Chicago V (1972), that they released a single album. The debut features the classic single Does Anybody Know What Time It Is? that reached No. 7 on the US charts. Interestingly it wasn’t released as a single until two songs from their second album, Make Me Smile (No. 9) and the brilliant 25 Or 6 To 4 (No. 4) had become hits. This album also features Steve Winwood and Spencer Davis’ I’m A Man…and there’s Side 4, an amazing debut album. On a sad note allegedly Terry Kath’s last words were, “What do you think I’m going to do? Blow my brains out? Don’t worry. It’s not loaded…” before accidentally shooting himself.

Al Kooper and Mike Bloomfield had played together on Dylan’s Highway 61 Revisited. Kooper had left Blood, Sweat & Tears and Bloomfield was leaving Electric Flag. Kooper booked two days at the studio and invited Bloomfield down to jam. Day 1 went swimmingly with three tracks credited to the two of them, one to Curtis Mayfield and another to Mort Shuman and Jerry Ragovoy (Ragovoy wrote Time Is On My Side made famous by The Stones and Piece Of My Heart made famous by Janis Joplin). Shuman co-wrote Sha-La-La-La-Lee for The Small Faces and Little Children for Billy J. Kramer. He co-wrote Here I Go Again with Clive Westlake for The Hollies. He also did the translations of the Brel songs recorded in English by Scott Walker.

So it was a successful day in the studio but the next day Bloomfield failed to show up. So he called Stephen Stills who had just left Buffalo Springfield and that’s why this album has Bloomfield on one side and Stills on the other. They recorded Dylan’s It Takes A Lot To Laugh, It Takes A Train To Cry, Donovan’s Season Of The Witch, Bluesman Wille Cobbs’ You Don’t Love Me and Harvey Brooks’ (the bass player on the album) Harvey’s Tune. You may wonder who Harvey Brooks is. Well look here and be impressed. Both he and Barry Goldberg were members of the Electric Flag at the time. The drummer was session man Fast Eddie Hoh. The album did extremely well much to the disappointment of Mike Bloomfield who had apparently put a lot of faith and work into the debut Electric Flag album, A Long Time Comin’ (1968). It was recorded over six months and reached No. 31. Super Session was recorded over two days and reached No. 12 going gold.

Song Of The Day may very well have appeared before, but New Scientist from Noctorum’s Honey Mink Forever (2011) seems appropriate today in the wake of Blood, Sweat & Tears and Chicago’s Transit Authority, that is, me doing Psychedelic solos on my 1966 Rickenbacker with jazzers.

 

(Willson-Piper / Mason / Bowie / Hadley)
Noctorum – Honey Mink Forever (2011)