Episode 102 – Eric Clapton: The Later Years Part 2

In this, the second show looking at the later career of Eric Clapton, I am joined once again by author Andrew Wild.

Andrew has written books on musicians/bands such as The Beatles, Dire Straits as well as Crosby, Stills & Nash. His books can be on Amazon via this link. https://www.amazon.co.uk/Andrew-Wild/e/B0868S3NDL?ref=sr_ntt_srch_lnk_1&qid=1619853917&sr=8-1

  • Ships In The Night – Jack Bruce
  • A Wonderful World (Italian Language Version) – Zucchero
  • The Calling – Santana
  • Contre Vents Et Marees – Francoise Hardy
  • Creepin’ – The Crusaders
  • Never Without You – Ringo Starr
  • Dirty City – Steve Winwood
  • And So Is Love (Directors Cut Version) – Kate Bush
  • Madame X – Robbie Robertson
  • Dive – Ed Sheeran
  • Everything You Need – Doyla Bramhall II
  • Yo So Quiero – Pedrito Martinez

Various Artists – Under the Influence Vol.3

Here on the third volume of my Under The Influence Series, the theme is once again 60’s soul but we have moved later into the decade with some songs coming from the early 70’s.

Disc 1

  1. Sweet Soul Music – Arthur Conley
  2. In The Midnight Hour – Wilson Pickett
  3. Do The Funky Chicken – Rufus Thomas
  4. I Got You (I Feel Good) – James Brown
  5. A Certain Girl – Ernie K-Doe
  6. Mojo Hannah – Little Esther Phillips
  7. See Saw – Don Covay & The Goodtimers
  8. I’ve Never Found A Girl (To Love Me Like You Do) – Eddie Floyd
  9. Walk On By – Dionne Warwick
  10. I’d Rather Go Blind – Etta James
  11. I Was Made To Love Her – Stevie Wonder
  12. 25 Miles – Edwin Starr
  13. Ain’t To Proud To Beg – The Temptations
  14. Memphis Soul Stew – King Curtis
  15. (Love Is Like A) Heatwave – Martha & The Vandellas
  16. Shop Around – The Miracle
  17. I Thank You – Sam & Dave
  18. You Can’t Hurry Love – The Supremes
  19. Land Of 1000 Dances – Wilson Pickett
  20. Respect – Aretha Franklin
  21. Mr. Pitiful – Otis Redding
  22. Heaven Must Have Have Sent You – The Elgins
  23. Wonderful World – Sam Cooke
  24. Loving You Is Sweeter Than Ever – The Four Tops
  25. Lonely Lover – Marvin Gaye
  26. You’re No Good –  Betty Everette
  27. Under The Boardwalk – The Drifters
  28. You Don’t Miss Your Water – William Bell
  29. I Don’t Know What You’re Got (But It’s Not Me) Parts 1 & 2

Disc 2

  1. Feeling Good – Nina Simone
  2. Papa’s Got A Brand New Bag Pt.1 – James Brown
  3. Last Night – The Mar-Kets
  4. Green Onions – Booker T & The MG’s
  5. Walking The Dog – Rufus Thomas
  6. B-A-B-Y – Carla Thomas
  7. Soul Finger – The Bar-Kays
  8. Soul Man – Sam & Dave
  9. Who’s Making Love – Johnnie Taylor
  10. Respect – Otis Redding
  11. Mustang Sally – Wilson Pickett
  12. Private Number – Judy Clay & William Bell
  13. Can’t See You When I Want To – David Porter
  14. Piece Of My Heart – Erma Franklin
  15. Harlem Shuffle – Bob & Earl
  16. When A Man Loves A Woman – Percy Sledge
  17. Oh No Not My Baby – Maxine Brown
  18. Stop Her On Sight (SOS) – Edwin Starr
  19. (I Know) I’m Losing You – The Temptations
  20. Road Runner – Junior Walker & The All Stars
  21. Dancing In The Street – Martha & The Vandellas
  22. Reach Out, I’ll Be There – The Four Tops
  23. Stand By Me – Ben E. King
  24. For Once In My Life – Stevie Wonder
  25. I Get The Sweetest Feeling – Jackie Wilson
  26. Tracks Of My Tears – The Miracles
  27. Abraham, Martin & John – Marvin Gaye
  28. Stay With Me (Baby) – Lorraine Ellison

Various Artists – Psychedelic Pernambuco Vol.1

I have a real soft spot for music that came out in the Psychedelic Years of 1966-1969, and when I first getting into ‘it’, I only thought that this sort of music was produced in the UK and USA. A little digging though on the surface, it wasn’t hard to discover that the rest of the world wasn’t that far behind. I covered this topic in Episode 80 and 81 of the my podcast under the title of ‘Mundo Psych’. Those shows only scratched the service of what there was, and so this month I present Volume 1 in a more comprehensive look at this genre from around the world. 

Some of these songs could be argued to be bordering on Progressive Rock, but this works well as a compilation and a genre label is pretty loose anyway. 

Disc 1

  1. Same – McCully Workshop Inc.
  2. I Wonder Who – Aguaturbia
  3. Hang Out – The Kaleidoscope (Mexico)
  4. Hop Dedik – Erol Buyukburc
  5. Dark Thoughts – New Dawn
  6. People – Ladies W.C.
  7. Turkuz Turku Cagiririz (Sur Efem Atini) – Mahzar Ve Faut
  8. Quero Companheira – Rubinho E Mauro Assumpção
  9. Sweet Sixteen – Ros Sereysothea
  10. A Madman’s Cry – Otis Waygood
  11. Lenon Blues – Three Souls In My Mind
  12. Run & Hide – Speed, Glue & Shinki
  13. Yesterday – Lightyears Away – Astral Navigation
  14. Magic Colours – Teddy Robin & The Playboys
  15. En Medio De La Lluvia – La Revolución De Emiliano Zapata
  16. Glória Ao Rei Nos Confins Do Além – Os Mutantes
  17. Así Serás – Congreso
  18. Spring – Kim Jung Mi
  19. The Evening Sun – Shin Jung-Hyeon & There Men
  20. Foto De Primera Comunión – Los Jaivas

Disc 2

  1. Toward The Sunlight – Kim Jung Mi
  2. Hermano Perro – Almendra
  3. Sniffin’ & Snortin’ Part 2 (Vitamin C) – Speed, Glue & Shinki
  4. Inferno No Mundo – Bango
  5. Sen Varson – Bulent Ortacgil & Benimle Oynar Misin
  6. Walderez Walderea – Flavio Kurt
  7. Inento N°.2 – Antorcha
  8. Tatli Dillum – Cem Karaca & Kardaslar Apaslar
  9. E.V.O.L. – Aguaturbia
  10. Planetario – Geraldo Azevedo
  11. Parque Industrial – Gal Costa, Gilberto Gil, Os Mutantes & Caetano Veloso
  12. Cuando Era Nio – Los Ovnis
  13. Vous – Michel Pagliaro
  14. Une Petite Fille – Empreintes
  15. No Mundo Da Lua – Rubinho E Mauro Assumpçao
  16. Valley Of Sadness – The Third Eye
  17. Los Pajaros – Kissing Spell
  18. Beautiful Rivers & Mountains – Shin Joong Hyun & The Men
  19. Michael Of Hair – Tokedashita Garasu Baku
  20. Towards The Sunlight (Reprise) – Kim Jung Mi

Some of these songs have had a bit of an edit in places. A intro taken off here, and outro edited down there. The biggest edit is to Kim Jung Mi’s song ‘Towards The Sunlight’. I took the coda from the song and used is as the last song on Disc 2. It sounded better there than as the end of the opening song.

The title for this compilation comes from a CD released back in 2011 of the same name. It was a Various Artists disc looking at the music scene in Pernambuco, and area in northeast Brazil that had its own thriving music scene outside of the hubs of Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro. The cover is also adapted from that compilation as well. 

The Who – Who’s Missing

1968 was an interesting year for The Who. I covered this in a lot more detail last month in my post, ‘Who’s For Tennis’ so see that to find out more. Since I posted that post (and a further what-if release from John Entwistle), the Super Deluxe Box Set version of ‘The Who Sell Out’ dropped through the door. What was evident from the booklet contained within was that main songwriter Peter Townshend struggled to have enough material for the albums they actually did release. This might explain why John Entwistle has three songs on the LP. Entwistle would only have this amount of material on a Who album on 1978’s ‘Who Are You’ and 1982’s ‘It’s Hard’.  With Townshend consumed by producing ‘Tommy’ which would not see the light of day until 1969, did this box set give me enough material for an album for release in 1968 that would not cross over with the two other what-is records I put out last month?  

Well, the Entwhistle record would never have seen the light of day in reality, but ‘Who’s For Tennis’ might have been, even if it was not in the configuration that I proposed. That means, none of the covers from that album could be used. That leaves about 15 tunes that could be placed on some vinyl. Some of these did see the light of day in 1968 so I thought I would continue to use these as singles in this fantasy time line. ‘Magic Bus’ and ‘Dogs’ are the A-Sides, but the B-Sides are a little different. ‘Call Me Lightning’ was used as an A-Side in the US, but this is B-side material of the highest order. It sounds like it was from earlier in the 60s, which is exactly when it was written. If you are really interested, a video was shot for ‘Call Me Lightning’ in an abandoned warehouse in the USA which the rest of the band chases a robotic Keith Moon about. Watching this, I feel that it took one whole day to think up the concept and film it. Videos were different in the 60s. Anyway, I digress.

In the UK, ‘Dogs’ was the A-Side to ‘Call Me Lightnings’ B-Side. ‘Dogs’ a curious beast. It sounds nothing like any other Who song, and I thought it was a piss take when I first heard it. It might well have been, but I was surprised this was released back in the day, let alone be an A-Side. The final single would have been an exclusive for the US Market. ‘Little Billy’s Doing Fine’ and ‘Kids! Do You Want Kids’ were written on belief of the American Cancer Society and were designed to warn against the dangers of smoking. Neither saw the light of day in 1968, and ‘Kids! Do You Want Kids’ was never recorded by The Who. The version here is Pete Townshend demo recording. 

As for the album, The Who did not have enough material to release a complete studio album. What they did have was a live recording recorded at the Filmore East in April of 1968. The plan for these recording was to release a live album, but when playing back the tapes, it was found that only some of the first night had been successfully recorded. The second night had been recorded completely but these would stay in the archive until 2018 when the tapes were dusted down and released. What if these live recordings were used in conjunctive with the studio cuts that were in the can?

A half live/half studio album is still a rarity in this day and age, let alone the 1960s. The inspiration for this set was ‘Wheels on Fire’ and the soon to be released ‘Goodbye’, by Cream.  Both of these records had live and studio cuts on them. This would follow the template of ‘Goodbye’ though, as this is only a single album. Listening to it, it sounds exactly what it is. An album made up of outtakes with live tracks thrown in to make up the time. It does work reasonably well, though, even though the edit between ‘C’Mon Everybody’ and ‘Boris The Spider’ is a bit sharp. It is doubtful that an album like this would have been released by The Who, especially as their records at the time were not selling that well compared to the previous years. It was their live work, especially in the USA that kept the band going until ‘Tommy’ was unleashed in 1969.  

Side A

  1. Fortune Teller (Live)
  2. Tattoo (Live)
  3. Little Billy (Live)
  4. I Can’t Explain (Live)
  5. Happy Jack (Live)
  6. I’m A Boy (Live)
  7. My Way (Live)
  8. C’Mon Everybody (Live)
  9. Boris The Spider (Live)

Side B

  1. Glittering Girl
  2. Inside Outside (Demo)
  3. Jaguar (Original Mono Mix)
  4. Girl’s Eyes
  5. Glow Girl
  6. Melancholia
  7. Faith In Something Bigger
  8. Signal 30 (Sodding About)
  9. Rael Naïve (Full Coda)

Singles 

  1. Magic Bus (UK Single Mix)
  2. Facts Of Life (aka Birds & Bees)
  1. Dogs (Single Mix)
  2. Call Me Lightning (Single Mix)
  1. Little Billy’s Doing Fine
  2. Kids! Do You Want Kids (Demo)

The cover is adapted from the Bootleg LP, ‘Little Billy Relaxes At The Filmore’. I chose the title ‘Who’s Missing’ (which would later be used for a couple of compilation albums in the 1980’s) because it accurately describes the contents within. 

Episode 101 – Eric Clapton: The Later Years Part 1

After 100 shows, I thought that it would be a while before I produced another podcast but this just goes to show you how wrong you can be. Following on from my shows looking at the early career of Eric Clapton, I am joined by author Andrew Wild for this, the first of two shows looking at the years 1973 onwards.

Andrew has written books on musicians/bands such as The Beatles, Dire Straits as well as Crosby, Stills & Nash. His books can be on Amazon via this link. https://www.amazon.co.uk/Andrew-Wild/e/B0868S3NDL?ref=sr_ntt_srch_lnk_1&qid=1619853917&sr=8-1

  • Sally Simpson (Tommy OST – The Who
  • Catfish – Bob Dylan
  • Ol’ Ben Lucas – Kinky Friedman
  • April Fool – Pete Townsend & Ronnie Lane
  • Lost in Austin – Marc Benno 
  • Hate You – Danny Douma
  • Leave The Candle – Gary Brooker
  • The Roof Is Leaking (Demo) – Phil Collins
  • Jenny Fey – Corey Hart 
  • 4:41AM (Sexual Revolution) – Roger Waters
  • The Beat of the Night – Bob Geldof 
  • Labyrinth – Liano Boyd
  • Cloud Nine – George Harrison

Tom Jones – Praise & Blame (Expanded Edition)

With a new Tom Jones having dropped onto my doorstep (six years after his previous effort, which is far too long in my opinion considering the albums that went into making this this playlist were absolutely fantastic), I thought it was time to offer up a playlist of the great mans work. Now, Mr Jones has been a recording artist since 1964 and like any artist that has been recording as long as he has, there are going to be some duds in there with the gold. But what gold I would have had to choose from. His stellar A-Sides such as ‘Green, Grass of Home’, ‘Delilah’ and the immortal ‘It’s Not Unusual’. I could have looked deep cuts such as his first single ‘Chills & Fever’ or an overlooked B-Side such as ‘Looking Out My Window’ with a drum break that has been sampled numerous times. There was the resurrection of his career in the late 80s as well as the classic ‘Reload’ album for 1999. Even records from the wilderness years of the mid to late 70s have their nuggets included, but it is with the albums that Jones has released since 2010 that have inspired this playlist. 

2010 saw Jones leave the hair and beard dye at home, and come back with an album of blues and gospel songs called ‘Praise & Blame’ Before the album came out, David Sharpe, who was the Vice-President of Jones’ record label thought the album was a joke and wanted “to get my money back”. Showing that the people who run record labels don’t necessarily know a good thing when they hear it, the LP reached Number 2 in the UK album charts and make headway in other markets around the world. Jones seems to be in his element. The production is stripped back and it allows the songs to breath as well showing the power in Jones’ voice has not diminished over time. He followed this up this up with ‘Spirit In The Room’, which cast its net a bit wider when it came to the songs as this included material from his contemporaries such as Paul Simon, Paul McCartney and Leonard Cohen. A third album in this style followed in 2015 in the shape of ‘Long Lost Suitcase’ and it is from these three that this playlist comes from. I do hope we do not have to wait another six years for the next Tom Jones album.

  1. What Good Am I?
  2. Burning Hell
  3. Lord Help
  4. Take My Love (I Want To Give it)
  5. Honey, Honey (With Imelda May)
  6. Love & Blessings
  7. Soul Of A Man
  8. Elvis Presley Blues
  9. Did Trouble Me
  10. Opportunity To Cry
  11. He Was  A Friend of Mine
  12. Tower Of Song
  13. Run On
  14. Don’t Knock
  15. I Wish You Would
  16. Factory Girl
  17. Ain’t No Grave
  18. Didn’t It Rain
  19. All Blues Hail Mary
  20. If I Give My Soul
  21. Charlie Darwin
  22. Strange Things

I picked the title for this playlist as “Praise & Blame’ because it was a great cover and sums up perfectly the music contained within. The cover is the same as the original LP. 

Deutschland 89 – Original Soundtrack

And so I come to the last soundtrack album for the Deutschland series. All three of these television series has been really good, blending fact and fiction brilliantly. I would highly recommend watching all of them. 

This soundtrack is a bit different from the previous two because whoever did the music for series 3, did it differently. Whereas series 1 & 2 used (mostly) contemporary tunes, this series used quite a lot of music from the 21st Century. Some songs were used in more than one show so these two factors made compiling this LP a bit tricker than previous efforts as I only look to use songs from or before the period the show is set. I cannot even be sure that at least one, or more of these songs comes form the early 90s because some of them are very obscure. 

As with all of the other soundtracks, I had to start by using ‘Major Tom (Coming Home)’ by Peter Schilling. It is the song used on the opening credits and as I would have K-Tel releasing this record, they would want to make the most of this songs license. This is followed by ‘Alle Vögel Sind Schon Da’ by Botho-Lucas-Chor. Roughly translating to ‘All The Birds Are Already There’, the Botho-Lucas-Chor were one of the most famous German vocal ensembles groups of the 1960s and 70s. We also have a couple of classical pieces on Side A with Max Reger’s ‘Andante in De Major’ and ‘Quando Parli’. I have not been able to find out much about this second piece and this could even have been produced after 1989, but it does fit into the overall sound so I kept it in. In-between this two classical pieces is ‘Sag’ Mir, Wo Du Stehst ‘ by Naiv. I have not been able to find out anything about this band and like ‘Quando Parli’, I have not been able to confirm if this piece was recorded after 1989. We finish off Side A with ‘Lied Die Partei’ which translates as ‘The Party Is Always Right’ and was used but the East German Communist Party (SED) as the official party song. 

Side B starts of with the B-52s and ‘Roam’, the other major hit from their ‘Cosmic Thing’ album (the other being ‘Love Shack’). Bert Sommer was the second lead vocalist in The Left Banke, as well as appearing in the musical ‘Hair’ in 1969 along with the original Woodstock Festival where he performed the song ’Jennifer’. We then have an early 60s recording of Mass In B Minor, BMV 232: Kyrie Elesion (Chorus) by the Robert Shaw Orchestra & Chorus. I included the whole of this section because it actually brought the run time of the album up to respectable length for an LP, and also because it would have been a disgrace to edit this down. The album finishes off with ‘I’m Gonna Lose You’ by Simply Red which originally appeared on the soundtrack to the film, ‘Frantic’. 

So there we have it, the last of the Deutschland soundtracks. This one was a bit different from the previous three, but it still holds together as a soundtrack. The sleeve for this was adapted from the publicity material posted on line when the series was released. 

Side A

  1. Major Tom (Coming Home) – Peter Schilling
  2. Alle Vögel Sind Schon Da – Botho Lucas
  3. Andante in D Major – Stuttgart Chamber Orchestra
  4. Sag’ Mir, Wo Du Stehst – Naiv
  5. Quando Parli – Giovanni Battista Bononcini
  6. Lied Die Partei – Ernst Busch

Side B

  1. Roam – The B-52’s
  2. Jennifer – Bert Sommer
  3. Mass In B Minor, BMV 232: Kyrie Elesion (Chorus) – Robert Shaw Orchestra And Chorus
  4. I’m Gonna Lose You – Simply Red

This playlist was impossible to recreate using Spotify.