Jackson Browne - Funny You Should Ask (1967)

On 7 January 1967 Jackson Browne booked some time in the studio to make some demos of his songs for Nina Music, with the label's idea being to showcase his songs to various artists on the Elektra roster. For some reason, Nina Music pressed thirty of Jackson's songs, along with ten of fellow musician Steven Noonan's, onto two LP's, although only about 2/3 of the songs were from the 1967 recording session at Jaycino Studio in New York, with the rest coming from a Columbia session from October of the previous year. One hundred copies of this unorthodox showcase LP, packed in plain white jackets, were distributed around the music community, and for fans of the singer these records, which came to be known collectively as 'The Nina Demos', are a treasure. Comprising virtually every demo-able song in Browne's repertoire at the time, they tell an enlightening tale of an eighteen-year-old doing his conscientious best to pin down his life as well as his art. The songs don't stray too far from Browne's own experience, with a favorite, and convincing, theme being that of the earnest, motivated and optimistic young man on the threshold of discovery and growth. From the 1967 sessions we have 'Holding', where he writes of holding his door open to the wind, while 'Love Me, Lovely' advises his girl in tried-and-true folk-song style to make the most of today with him because tomorrow he's out that door. The eighteen-year-old Browne was not shy about making his points, and the best is yet to come, he informs his going-through-the-motions friend in 'You've Forgotten', while a youthful preachiness pervades 'Someday Morning', and 'Somewhere There's A Feather' reads like a teen Sermon on the Mount with its exhortation to live, learn, and love. In sharp contrast to these songs are 'Melissa' and 'It's Been Raining Here In Long Beach', the fruit of Jackson's brief stint as a ragtime writer. For this second of the two posts I've used the 1967 recordings, with this second post being a bit longer than the 1966 one, so just one extra track, being another co-write with Greg Copeland, later covered to fine effect by Nico on her 'Chelsea Girl' album. As mentioned before, this is mostly just Jackson and his guitar, so will probably appeal more to his committed fanbase rather then the casual listener, but the sound quality is excellent for the year and circumstances of recording, so it's perfect for when you're in the mood for some gentle acoustic singer/songwriting from a budding star in the making.   

Track listing 

01 Holding (Browne) 
02 Somewhere There's A Feather (Browne)  
03 I've Been Out Walking (Browne)  
04 Funny You Should Ask (Browne) 
05 Love Me, Lovely (Browne) 
06 You've Forgotten (Browne) 
07 Someday Morning (Browne) 
08 Cast Off All My Fears (Browne) 
09 In My Time (Browne) 
10 Melissa (Browne) 
11 It's Been Raining Here In Long Beach (Browne) 
12 You'll Get It In The Mail Today (Browne) 
13 Shadow Dream Song (Browne) 
14 The Light From Your Smile (Browne) 
15 The Fairest Of The Seasons (Browne/Copeland)  

Comments on the songs taken from 'The Story Of A Hold Out' by Rich Wiseman; 

Dolphin Books.

Birth Control - Nostalgia (1976)

Birth Control formed in 1966 in West Berlin from the ashes of two other bands, the Earls and the Gents, with an original line-up of Bernd Koschmidder (bass), Reinhold Sobotta (organ), Rolf Gurra (saxophone, vocals), Fritz Gröger (vocals), Reiner Borchert (guitar), Hugo Egon Balder (drums), and Klaus Orso (guitar). In those early years they played a hybrid of jazz and rock compositions, and in January 1969 the band sailed to Lebanon, playing sold-out nights in Beirut night-clubs for three months, before five members returned to Berlin, losing Borchert, who stayed behind in Lebanon and was replaced by Bruno Frenzel. By late summer 1969 the band were recording original material, and they released their first single 'October' on the Amadeo label. Their fist album soon followed for the Metronome label, bringing to the fore their penchant for humour, both both their name and with the album cover illustration. In 1970 they released their second single 'No Drugs', followed quickly by the local hit 'Hope', and apart from the song 'No Drugs', none of these tracks appeared on their albums. When their second album 'Operation' was released in 1971, some record shops refused to stock it as the cover showed the Pope together with a baby-eating monster, and so the UK issue changed this to feature two huge condoms, which resulted in a strike of the female British packers. This was the best publicity that the band could hope for, and the album  was voted the second best record of the year by the readers of Musik Express. 'Operation' was a great improvement on their debut, adding a heavy rock sound to the subtle jazzy arrangements. 1972 saw some changes to the line-up, with Sobotta leaving the band for health reasons, and being replaced by Wolfgang Neuser. They also left Ohr and signed to CBS, who released the bands third album 'Hoodoo Man' in 1972. This record became a milestone in the history of German rock, with tracks such as 'Gamma Ray' becoming a cult song of the Krautrock era, and this song was also released as a two-part single in an edited version. In 1973 they released another non-album single in 'Nostalgia', and then followed this with their fourth album 'Rebirth', which was another successful progressive heavy rock album. In 1974 Steffens left the band, and so they carried on as a quartet, releasing the 'Plastic People' album in 1975, but in 1976 'Blackdoor Possibilities' was a commercial failure due to a more mainstream sound, and the inclusion of more jazz elements. They released a few more albums on the Brain label over the next few years, but following the death of Frenzel in 1983, the group disbanded, although they did reunite in 1993 with only Noske remaining from the previous lineup. Birth Control were one of the very best, and most popular in the UK, of the German progressive rock bands of the 70's, and they left behind a number of hard to find recordings from their stand-alone singles, so here they are all gathered up in one place, to remind us of what a great band they were. 

Track listing

01 All I Want (b-side of 'No Drugs' 1970)
02 October (single 1969)
03 Freedom (b-side of 'October')
04 Hope (single 1970)
05 Rollin' (b-side of 'Hope')
06 The Work Is Done (single 1971)
07 What's Your Name (single 1972)
08 Believe In The Pill (b-side of 'What's Your Name')
09 Nostalgia (single 1973)
10 Gamma Ray parts 1&2 (single 1975)
11 Fall Down (single 1976)
12 Laugh Or Cry (b-side of 'Fall Down')

Yandex update

Yandex finally reduced my storage on Tuesday, but it did give me an option to renew it monthly rather than annually, and so I can do that until the end of the year. For now, then, things are back to normal for downloading, and hopefully by December I'll have managed to move some funds over to renew for 2023. 

Porgy And The Monarchs - Magic Music Makers (1968)

Porgy Williams and his Monarchs recorded a handful of singles in the mid-sixties on a variety of labels, with their debut appearing in 1963 on Mala Records, before moving to Musicor where they scored two singles: 'That Girl'/'If It’s For Real Baby' and 'My Heart Cries For You'/'Think Twice Before You Walk Away'. All four sides were produced by Teddy Randazzo, all four are excellent, but incredibly didn't they see any chart action at the time. Fortunately all was not lost and, almost a decade later, 'My Heart Cries For You' became a much cherished dance floor anthem in the U.K. When it was re-issued in 1975 to cash in on this popularity, the intended b-side was accidentally replaced by an otherwise unheard track 'Hey Girl (It's A Dream I've Always Had)' which had been recorded in 1968 and left in the vault. The Musicor single 'My Heart Cries For You' is probably their best known 45, where Teddy Randazzo turned a fairly mediocre middle of the road Carl Sigmun & Percy Faith ballad, recorded by many singers such as Dinah Washington, Guy Mitchell, Dean Martin, and Connie Francis, into a stomper. The 1975 resissue gave it a new lease of life, especially with the mis-pressed b-side, and as it was withdrawn once the mistake was spotted, it's also now their rarest release, changing hands at up to £100.00. 'That Girl' is probably one of the hardest to find Porgy And The Monarchs singles, and this is because both sides are in-demand items as Northern Soul dancefloor fillers. Presumably, as 'My Heart Cries For You' wasn't a success, they were dropped by Musicor and their next release appeared on Sylves, with 'That's My Girl'/'The Girl And The Boy', followed by 'Love Chain'/'Magic Music Makers' and then a reissue on Verve of 'That's My Girl' with the slightly re-titled flip of '(That) Boy And Girl', which was a strange sounding tune that starts off as if it's going to be a psych/garage tune, but then stomps along with a double-time beat. A couple of previously unreleased tracks have since appeared, with 'Congratulations' being a Bell Sound acetate that was a popular sound at Northern Soul nights in the 80's, but certainly sounds like it was recorded in the mid 60's, possibly being an unreleased Mala recording, as Mala was a Bell subsidiary. In 1968 Porgy Williams tried his hand at a solo career, and released the 'Lonely Man's Hum' single on Sylves Records, which was one of only three releases on Sylves, which was distributed by Chess. The single was re-issued in 1975 with added strings on the vocal side and an instrumental version on the flip. This post collects together all the band's recordings, plus the solo Porgy single, for a great 40-minute collection of future Northern Soul stompers from a band who managed to stay together for five years and release half a dozen fine singles, and yet still slipped between the cracks when obscure soul groups of the 60's are mentioned.   

Track listing

01 Stay (single 1963)
02 Somebody Said (I'd Cry Someday) (b-side of 'Stay')
03 That Girl (single 1965)
04 If It's For Real Baby (b-side of 'That Girl')
05 My Heart Cries For You (single 1966)
06 Think Twice Before You Walk Away (b-side of 'My Heart Cries For You')
07 That's My Girl (single 1968)
08 The Girl And The Boy (b-side of 'That's My Girl')
09 Love Chain (single 1968)
10 Magic Music Makers (b-side of 'Love Chain')
11 Hey Girl (It's A Dream I've Always Had) (b-side of 1975 re-issue of 'My Heart Cries For You')
12 Keep A Hold On Me (previously unreleased)
13 Congratulations (previously unreleased)
14 Lonely Man's Hum (single by Porgy Williams 1968) 
15 Let's Form A Committee (b-side of 'Lonely Man's Hum')

Thanks to Fredrick for the suggestion, after he heard about the band on the Dogpatch podcast.

Jackson Browne - Sing My Songs To Me (1966)

In October 1966 Jackson Browne booked some time in Columbia studios, and spent two hours recording demos of his songs for Nina Music, with the label's idea being to showcase his songs to various artists on the Elektra roster. For some reason, Nina Music pressed thirty of Jackson's songs, along with ten of fellow musician Steven Noonan's, onto two LP's, although only about a third of the songs were from the 1966 recording session, with the rest being recorded at Jaycino Studio in New York on 7 January 1967. One hundred copies of this unorthodox showcase LP, packed in plain white jackets, were distributed around the music community, and for fans of the singer these records, which came to be known collectively as 'The Nina Demos', are a treasure. Comprising virtually every demo-able song in Browne's repertoire at the time, they tell an enlightening tale of an eighteen-year-old doing his conscientious best to pin down his life as well as his art. The songs don't stray too far from Browne's own experience, with a favorite, and convincing, theme being that of the earnest, motivated and optimistic young man on the threshold of discovery and growth. From the 1966 sessions, we find that water, specifically running water, is a favorite image for more aggressive striving, and in 'We Can Be' he declares himself to be as reckless as a mountain stream, whereas in 'And I See' he juxtaposes his perception of the open door with the river running relentlessly to the ocean. He also affords a lighthearted touch on his mythic tributes to friends and lovers, such as 'The Painter' and 'Marianne', as well as 'Lavender Bassman', written in honor of Jimmy Fielder, another Paradox regular who went on to play with Blood Sweat And Tears. If there is an issue with these demos, it isn't his folk/pop-flavored melodies, which are alternately bright and catchy, and with enough surprises to keep a listener's interest. Rather, the problem is how Browne himself sounds...like a singer in search of a voice. He's mechanically proficient, and knows how to hold his notes, and he seems to have done a noble job of ridding his voice of obvious cops from other singers, but his singing reveals that he hadn't learned a far more important lesson yet...how to feel with his voice. His vocals, dragging and wooden, tend to turn his more plaintive songs into dirges, and to sabotage his upbeat tunes. In short they illustrate why Browne, for all the Nina Demo evidence of his young genius, was signed to a songwriter contract instead of recording contract with Elektra Records in 1967. He wasn't particularly happy with the demo's, as he didn't see the purpose in bunching so many of his songs on long-playing records when artists and producers were typically plugged with only one or two tunes at a time for a given recording project. In fact he was so upset with Nina's decision that he personally hunted out and destroyed nearly half of the copies. I've split the original double album into two posts, one for the 1966 recordings and one for those from 1967, with this first one being a shortish 32 minutes, and so I've fleshed it out with a couple of co-writes, one with Greg Copeland and the other with Pamela Polland. As mentioned before, this is mostly just Jackson and his guitar, so will probably appeal more to his committed fanbase rather then to the casual listener, but the sound quality is excellent for the year and circumstances of recording, so it's perfect for when you're in the mood for some gentle acoustic singer/songwriting from a budding star in the making.   

Track listing 

01 Sing My Songs To Me (Browne)  
02 Lavender Windows (Browne)  
03 The Painter (Browne)  
04 Fourth And Main (Browne)  
05 Bound For Colorado (Browne)  
06 We Can Be (Browne)  
07 And I See (Browne)  
08 Ah, But Sometimes (Browne)  
09 Marianne (Browne)  
10 Tumble Down (Browne)  
11 You Didn't Need A Cloud (Browne)  
12 Lavender Bassman (Browne)  
13 She's A Flying Thing (Browne)  

14 Gotta See A Man About A Daydream (Browne/Copeland)   

15 Time Travel Fantasy (Browne/Polland)  

Comments on the songs taken from 'The Story Of A Hold Out' by Rich Wiseman; 

Dolphin Books.

Gina Thompson - If You Only Knew (1999)

Gina Thompson was born Lugenia Thompson in Vineland, New Jersey, on 10 November 1976, and began singing at an early age, signing her first recording contract with Mercury Records shortly after graduating high school. Her first album was 'Nobody Does It Better', which was released in 1996 and was produced by Missy Elliott and P Diddy, and featured appearances by Elliott, Diddy, and Craig Mack, among others. The first single from the album, 'The Things That You Do', peaked at number 41 on the Billboard Hot 100 charts, and number 12 on Billboard's Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Singles & Tracks chart, although the follow-up 'You Bring The Sunshine' stalled at number 53 on the Hot 100. In 1996 she added background vocals for the song 'Cold Rock A Party' by MC Lyte featuring Missy Elliott and Puff Daddy, and also appeared on Lyte's 1998 album 'Seven & Seven'. Later work included 'Why Do Fools Fall in Love', a re-imagining of the 1955 Frankie Lymon & the Teenagers hit of the same name, and she also appeared on Missy Elliott's second album 'Da Real World'. By the latter part of 1998, her debut was certified Platinum by the RIAA after an estimate of one million copies were sold. Thompson's second album 'If You Only Knew' was all set to be released on 21 September  1999, on Elektra Records through Missy Elliott's The Goldmind Inc. imprint, and two singles were released in advance of the album's anticipated release date: 'Ya Di Ya', featuring Elliott, peaked at number 38 on the R&B chart, while 'Caught Up', featuring rapper Beanie Sigel, failed to chart, and so Elektra added the album to its growing list of cancellations, mainly in the urban department of the roster. After the album was shelved, Thompson asked to be released from her contract, and she left the label in 2001, continuing to perform as an independent artist, and beginning work on a third album in 2008. In July 2008 she released the song 'We Don't Talk No More (Dancehall Remix)' as the lead single for her official third studio album, 'Missing You', which appeared in February 2009. You wonder what the label were thinking after that first album went Platinum, but it's all about the money with these corporations, and one flop single can ruin a singer's career. Give this shelved album a listen and see if you think it deserved its fate. 

Track listing

01 If You Only Knew
02 Caught Up (feat Beanie Segal) 
03 Ladies' Anthem 
04 Ya Di Ya (feat Missy Elliott) 
05 It Hurts 
06 Don't Take Your Love Away 
07 Take My Number Down
08 Calling You
09 He'll Do It Again (Interlude) 
10 Up All Night (feat Jon B)
11 Turn Around 
12 Coolin' Out W/U 
13 As Long As God Allows 

Yandex files update 2

I don't really know what's going on with Yandex, as my subscription ran out on 19th July and yet I still have all the storage, so I'll carry on uploading for now. I've been corresponding with a visitor to the site who lives in Russia to see if he can help get some money to Yandex to pay for the subscription, but we had no luck today. I'm now in contact with Yandex themselves to see if they have any suggestions, but for now just keep using the site if you can't use Soulseek, and if the storage does get reduced I'll let you know how it will work.   

pj

The Fatima Mansions - Suicide Bridge (1994)

After the split of the criminally under-rated Microdisney, the band's acerbic and political frontman Cathal Coughlan surfaced with a new group and an uncompromising vision. The Fatima Mansions, named after a run-down Dublin housing estate, was to be a vehicle for his world-view, and Andrias O'Gruama (guitar), Hugh Bunker (bass), Nick Allum (drums) and Zac Woolhouse (keyboards) were enlisted for the supporting roles. Coughlan's lyrical fixations of religious bigotry, imperialism and death was spelled out in parables of increasing hysteria and black humour, while the safety of Microdisney's rock arrangements was abandoned in favour of an all-out aural assault, leading to the band becoming a cult favourite in the 90's. They introduced themselves in 1989 with the album 'Against Nature', which was lauded as a startlingly well-rounded debut, establishing a broad territory from the driving single 'Only Losers Take The Bus', to the synth-pop pastiche of '13th Century Boy', and the occasional brooding ballad like 'Wilderness On Time'. There was a new-found power and urgency in the vocal delivery, and an incisiveness to the sound, driven by Andrias's raw guitar lines. The single 'Blues For Ceausescu' followed in 1990, and took the band on to a higher level of ferocity and invention, heralding in the eighteen-track onslaught of the second album 'Viva Dead Ponies' later that same year. Meanwhile, regular gigging quickly built their reputation as an extraordinary spectacle, with Coughlan hurling his hulk around the stage like a man possessed while the band drove him on. 

In early 1991, Coughlan performed some acoustic gigs billed as 'Fatima Mansions Singular', and some of these more restrained songs emerged on 1991's 'Bertie's Brochures', including covers of Scott Walker's 'Long About Now' and Richard Thompson's 'The Great Valerio', and a barely recognizable dismemberment of R.E.M.'s 'Shiny Happy People'. Normal service was resumed with the release of Valhalla Avenue in 1992, which contained the customary doses of rancour and strident guitar riffing on tracks like 'Evil Man' and 'Go Home Bible Mike', but the album's ferocious tone did not prevent it from becoming their biggest seller yet, reaching number 52 on the UK albums chart. They even had a surprise Top 10 single later that year with a near-psychotic reworking of Bryan Adams' 'Everything I Do (I Do It For You)', although this was largely due to the Manic Street Preachers' flip-side cover of the M*A*S*H theme song 'Suicide Is Painless', with both songs coming from the NME tribute album in aid of the charity, the Spastics Society. While their uncompromising style may have ruled out any greater commercial success, their standing as a live act secured a support slot on a U2 tour, and Coughlan continued his prolific output by releasing '20 Golden Showers' in 1993 under the name Bubonique, featuring compatriot comedian Sean Hughes, followed by a new Fatima Mansions album, 'Lost In The Former West' the next year. Once again this was not for the faint-hearted, tackling international affairs with the usual rage and humour, and became the swansong for the band, as they went on hiatus while Coughlan worked on a new solo release. As well as all the superb music to be found on their albums, they also treated their fans to previously unheard tracks on the flips pf their singles, some of which never made it onto their albums either. This two-disc set gathers them all together for a double album of hard to find recordings from this uncompromising and much-missed band, made all the more poignant by Coughlan's death on 18 May 2022 after a long illness; he was just 61 years of age.

Track listing

Disc One
01 What? (b-side of 'Only Losers Take The Bus' 1989)
02 Dear Dad (from the 'Edward Not Edward' compilation 1989)
03 Blues For Ceausescu (single 1991)
04 On Suicide Bridge (b-side of 'Blues For Ceausescu')
05 Lady Godiva's Operation (from 'Heaven And Hell' tribute album to The Velvet Undeground 1991)

06 Hive (single 1991)
07 Stigmata (b-side of 'Hive')
08 The Holy Mugger (b-side of 'Hive')
09 A Singer Must Die (from 'I'm Your Fan' tribute album to Leonard Cohen 1991)
10 Paper Thin Hotel (b-side of '1000%' 1992)
11 1,000,000% (b-side of '1000%' 1992)

Disc Two
01 Everything I Do (I Do It For You) (split single 1992)
02 The Scarecrow (b-side of 'Evil Man' 1992) 
03 John The Gun (from 'Peace Together' charity album 1993)
04 As I Washed The Blood Off (b-side of 'Nite Flights' 1994)
05 Diamonds, Fur Coat, Champagne (b-side of 'Nite Flights' 1994)
06 It's So Cold.... I Think (b-side of 'Nite Flights' 1994)
07 Into Thinner Air With The Loyaliser (b-side of 'The Loyaliser' 1994)
08 Gary Numan's Porsche (b-side of 'The Loyaliser' 1994)
09 Arnie's Five (b-side of 'The Loyaliser' 1994)
10 Sleep Of The Just (b-side of 'Popemobile' 1994)

Yandex files update

This is just a heads-up for people who download the music from the blog via the Yandex hosting site. As you may know, Yandex is based in Russia, and so I had to make a decision about whether to carry on using it once countries started imposing sanctions on the country, but as I'm committed to them by the fact that they host all my albums, and I can't really start all over again with another service, even if I could find one that worked, I stayed with them. However, my subscription expires tomorrow, and because of the sanctions I can't purchase another year's storage, and I really don't know what's going to happen when that runs out. There was mention of my storage being frozen after 44 days of inaction, but I do have another subscription which doesn't expire until December, so I'm hoping that this will keep the files live.  All we can do is wait and see what happens on Wednesday, and if the files get locked then there won't be much point in updating the download list every week. I'll post another update on Thursday, once I can see what's happened. 

pj

Ayshea - Golden Oldies (1976)

Ayshea Hague was born in Highgate, London, and educated at Arts Educational School, London, training in ballet, music, drama and dance. She made her film debut at the age of nine as an uncredited extra in the 1958 film 'Tom Thumb', and at sixteen she was signed to her first record label Fontana, who released her debut single 'Eeny Meeny in 1965, and she continued to release singles throughout the rest of the decade. During the 60's she made appearances on television shows such as 'Thank Your Lucky Stars' and 'Discotheque', and in 1969 Granada TV's producer Muriel Young hired her to host her own pop show 'Lift Off With Ayshea'. The series ran for 141 episodes lasting until 1974, but in a particularly distressing accident, every episode was wiped while they were being digitally transferred, robbing us of classic performances from David Bowie, Slade, T. Rex, The Bay City Rollers and David Cassidy. After being romantically linked with Steve Winwood, Chas Chandler and Rod Stewart, she married Cat Stevens' record producer, Chris Brough (the son of ventriloquist Peter Brough), who acted as her manager and also produced her records. She was a regular on quiz shows such as 'The Golden Shot' and 'Celebrity Squares', and as an actress she appeared in 'Jason King' and had a recurring role in 'UFO', the Gerry Anderson live-action series. After starring in pantomimes and summer shows all over the UK, Ayshea then built up a large following for her live cabaret performances. In 1975, she represented Great Britain at the World Popular Song Festival in Tokyo with a song written for her by Elton John, entitled 'The Flowers Will Never Die', which was released as a single the following year, and following an engagement to Roy Wood, who had written and produced her 1973 single 'Farewell', she  married Steve Alder who had the lead role in the London stage production of the musical 'Jesus Christ Superstar'. She later moved to Los Angeles and appeared in the movies 'Gotcha' in 1985 and 'Demolition Man' in 1993, before moving back to Britain in 2000 to be close to her mother, Rose. Ayshea is perhaps better known for her TV appearances in 'Lift Off With...' and 'UFO' than as a singer, although she did release two albums in the early 70's, but her singing career spans a dozen years from 1965 to 1977, and covers a variety of genres, so here is a selection of some of her non-album songs from the singles that she released during that time. 

Track listing

01 Eeny Meeny (single 1965)
02 Keep My Love (b-side of 'Eeny Meeny')
03 Celebration Of The Year (single 1968)
04 Only Love Can Save Me Now (b-side of 'Celebration Of The Year')
05 Who's Gonna Rescue Jesus? (single 1970)
06 Flowers Are Mine (b-side of 'Who's Gonna Rescue Jesus?')
07 Both Sides Now (b-side of 'Master Jack' 1971)
08 Farewell (single 1973)
09 Don't Wait Till Tomorrow (single 1975)
10 The Flowers Will Never Die (single 1976)
11 Golden Oldie (promo single 1977)

The Chemistry Set - Sounds Like Painting (1989)

The Chemistry Set formed in 1987, with an original line up of Ashley Wood (rhythm guitar/ vocals), Paul Lake (lead guitar/vocals), Henry Taprell (bass) and Dave McLean (drums/vocals), with Neil Pond on harmonica and percussion joining them onstage and in the studio. Wood and Lake had met at secondary school in south east London and had previously played together in other bands, and they set about recording their songs for release on cassette on the Acid Tapes label in 1988. This was followed by several flexi-discs between 1988 and 1990, which received international attention, and the band were featured in fanzines in the UK, Spain, Italy, Holland, Greece, Germany, Sweden, Japan, USA, Australia and New Zealand, with some of their songs being included on various compilation albums around the world. The band gigged on the London circuit, playing venues such as The Camden Falcon and The Mean Fiddler, and built up their reputation until they were able to support Hawkwind at Brixton Academy, and tour with Robyn Hitchcock. In 1990 they released the '(Don't) Turn Away' 12" single on Imaginary Records, and followed that the next year with another 12" single 'The Candle Burns'. Around this time they recorded an album entitled 'Sounds Like Painting', but it was only ever issued as a limited edition in Spain, and so it soon became extremely hard to locate a copy outside of that country. Following the limited release of their only album, the band carried on playing and were signed to Polydor Records, but it was the worst experience of their musical careers, with the Head of A&R constantly rejecting their songs, and trying to mould them into a Brit-Pop band. With one argument with the label following another, the band had had enough after two months of fighting their corner and they called it a day, taking an extended hiatus in the mid 90's. Around 2006/2007 the band heard that their elusive 1989 album had been uploaded onto numerous blogs and downloaded over 5,000 times, and this led to the band reforming as a duo of McLean and Wood, and starting a second phase of their career. Since then they've released four albums, a number of CD/EPs, and four vinyl singles for Fruits de Mer Records, as well as seeing a remix of their version of 'See Emily Play' appear on a three-CD box-set tribute to Pink Floyd, 'The Many Faces Of Pink Floyd', in 2013. I've been a fan of this band since they started, and still have both their cassette albums from 1988, as well as the new record which came out last month, so now is the time to make that hard to find 1989 album more readily available for fans and newcomers alike, with a unique colour cover, and the addition of a 1989 recording of 'Wake Up Sometimes'.   

Track listing

01 Some People Never Learn
02 The Candleburns
03 The Look Inside
04 Acacia Gardens
05 Sittin' On Top Of The World
06 Orange Juice Sun
07 Living Alone
08 The Dreams That I Saw Yesterday
09 Minas Tirith
10 Under The Valley
11 Wake Up Sometimes

Tupac Shakur & Boot Camp Clik - One Nation (1996)

In the spring of 1996 Tupac Shakur announced that he was working on a new project called 'One Nation', which was to be an East Coast/West Coast collaboration. Although the rapper certainly had his differences with other artists, this unreleased and unfinished record was intended to show the rap industry, and perhaps the world, that rappers from opposite coasts could work together. The album's inception began with a meeting between Shakur, members of his Outlawz crew, and the Brooklyn rap collective, Boot Camp Clik, who were made up of the groups Black Moon, who were spear-headed by rapper Buckshot, Smif-N-Wessun, O.G.C. (also known as Originoo Gunn Clappaz) and the newly-formed duo Heltah Skeltah. The collective had the unique position of not being signed to a major label, but instead they had formed their own label, Duckdown Records, the previous year, which many say Shakur admired as he was trying to start a label himself. Boot Camp Clik were ferried out to California to begin work on the project, staying at Shakur’s new home in Calabasas while recording his proposed new album. A familiar face also helped ease any discomfort, with Buckshot's old friend Snoop Dogg showing up at Can-Am studios, where they were eventually joined by the aforementioned Outlawz, Daz Dillinger, Nice & Smooth’s Greg Nice, The Luniz’s Numskull, and New Jersey natives Asu and Capital LS from the group Rumpletilskinz. Grandmaster Flash and Melle Mel also supposedly stopped by at some point during Boot Camp Clik’s week-long stay in California. Those closest to Shakur say the media had spun the whole East Coast versus West Coast beef out of control, and the idea of the album was to not only end the animosity between them, but to show that they could actually work with the people he was beefing with just days prior. 'One Nation' was intended to be the first of a number of volumes, with Vol. 1 coming out on Shakur's label Makaveli, while Vol. 2 would appear on Duckdown Records. After the initial recording sessions, Boot Camp Clik and the rest of the non-L.A.-affiliated groups never recorded with Shakur again, although he did meet up with Buckshot in New York some months later at an awards show. No one knows for certain how much of the album was actually completed, with estimates ranging from just four or five songs to 70 percent of it being finished, and although unofficial versions of the project have been released over the past 20 years, none have been confirmed by Shakur's estate. To my ears this bootleg seems like one of the best reconstructions of the album, featuring contributions from all of the artists that we know recorded at the sessions, and so enjoy this joining together of East and West Coast rappers working together in harmony, and imagine what this could have kick-started had Shakur not been shot and killed just six months later.   

Track listing

01 Lets Fight (feat. Yukmouth)
02 Tattoo Tearz
03 My Own Style (feat. Greg Nice)
04 Secrets Of War
05 Where Ever You Are (feat. Big Daddy Kane)
06 They Don't Know (feat. Snoop Dogg)
07 Struggle Continues (feat. Big Syke)
08 Brothaz At Arms
09 World Wide Dime Piece (feat. Greg Nice & Snoop Dogg)
10 Military Minds
11 Thug Nigga (feat. Greg Nice)
12 Just Watching (feat. Snoop Dogg)
13 Immortal (feat. The Outlawz)
14 How Do You Want It (feat. The Outlawz)
15 Where Will I Be (feat. The Outlawz)
16 Thug Pound (feat. Tha Dogg Pound)
17 The Money (feat. Daz Dillinger)

Bridget St. John - Songs To Keep You Company (1974)

Bridget St John (born Bridget Anne Hobbs) was born on 4 October 1946 in Surrey, England, and grew up in a musical household where her mother and sisters were all accomplished pianists. She took piano lessons at her mother's behest, but she did not get along with her teacher and quit when she was 11, later studying the viola for two years and then the trumpet for two years, before she bought her first guitar with £20 that her grandmother gave her shortly before she finished high school. In 1967, she spent three months in Aix-en-Provence as part of her French studies, and during this period she met American singer-songwriter Robin Frederick, who introduced her to John Martyn when they both returned to London. He was instrumental in getting her music out to a larger audience, and a mutual friend, Pete Roche, put her in touch with John Peel, and in 1968 she recorded four songs for his 'Nightride' radio show, using Al Stewart's ReVox tape recorder. Peel and Clive Selwood originally formed Dandelion Records just to release St John's music, and her 1969 debut album 'Ask Me No Questions' was produced by Peel, and recorded in nine to ten hours. In 1970, she duetted with Kevin Ayers on 'The Oyster And The Flying Fish for his 'Shooting At The Moon record, and her own second album was released the following year, with 'Songs For The Gentle Man' being was produced by Ron Geesin. This was a significant step up from her debut, and contained string arrangements mostly by Geesin himself, particularly striking on the opening track 'A Day A Way' and 'Seagull- Sunday'. Her third album 'Thank You For...' was released in 1972, and was even more ambitious using more musicians to create a folk-rock sound. The was her last album for the Dandelion label, however, which folded due to its artists' lack of commercial success, and St John's adventurous fourth album 'Jumblequeen' was released through Chrysalis Records in 1974. St John emigrated to Greenwich Village in 1976 and virtually disappeared from the public eye for over 20 years, re-emerging in 1993 for the Strawbs 25th Anniversary festival, and three years later she rleased a 'come-back' album, 'Take The Fifth', and appeared at a Nick Drake tribute concert in New York City in 1999. John Peel was always a huge fan of her wotk, describing her as "the best lady singer-songwriter in the country", and she recorded a number of sessions for his programmes, one of which included her affectionate ditty 'Pig And Peel' dedicated to Peel and his wife Sheila, who's nickname was The Pig. This collection of rare recordings includeds a number of those sessions tracks which never appeared on any of her albums, plus a few non-album singles and their b-sides, and a lovely live take of John Martyn's 'Head And Heart from 1974.   

Track listing

01 The River (John Peel session 1969)
02 Song To Keep You Company (John Peel session 1969)
03 Night In The City (John Peel session 1969)
04 If You've Got Money (single 1970)
05 Yep (b-side of 'If You've Got Money')
06 The Leaves Of Lime (John Peel session 1970)
07 There's A Place I Know (b-side of 'Fly High' 1972)
08 Suzanne (b-side of 'Fly High' 1972)
09 Passin' Thru' (single 1973)
10 The Road Was Lonely On My Own (b-side of 'Passin' Thru')
11 Choosing You Lose One (John Peel session 1973)
12 Head And Heart (Radio 1 In Concert 1974)
13 The Present Song/Pig'n'Peel (John Peel session 1974)

50 Cent - Guess Who's Back? Again (2004)

50 Cent (Curtis James Jackson) had a troubled childhood, dealing narcotics at age 12 when his grandparents thought he was in after-school programs, as well as bringing guns and drug money to school. In the tenth grade, he was caught by metal detectors at Andrew Jackson High School, and in 1994 he was arrested for selling four vials of cocaine to an undercover police officer. He was arrested again three weeks later, when police searched his home and found heroin, ten ounces of crack cocaine, and a starting pistol, and although he was sentenced to three to nine years in prison, he served six months in a boot camp and earned his GED. In order to try to turn his life around in the late 90's, he adopted the name 50 Cent and began rapping in a friend's basement, where he used turntables to record over instrumentals, and in 1996, a friend introduced him to Jam Master Jay of Run-DMC, who was establishing Jam Master Jay Records. Jay taught him how to count bars, write choruses, structure songs, and make records, and his first appearance was on 'React' with Onyx, for their 1998 album 'Shut 'Em Down'. He credited Jam Master Jay for improving his ability to write hooks, but he left Jay in 1999, and the platinum-selling producers Trackmasters signed him to Columbia Records. They sent him to an upstate New York studio, where he produced thirty-six songs in two weeks, eighteen of which were included on his unreleased 2000 album 'Power Of The Dollar'. He continued to record, laying down over thirty songs for mixtapes to build a reputation, using the DJ circuit to his advantage by taking the hottest beats from other artists and flipping them with better hooks. His popularity increased, and in 2002 he released the mixtape 'Guess Who's Back?', and when Eminem heard it he was impressed enough to invite 50 Cent to fly to Los Angeles and introduce him to Dr. Dre. After signing a $1 million record deal, he released the mixtape 'No Mercy, No Fear', and in 2003 he issued his debut album 'Get Rich Or Die Tryin'', described by AllMusic as "probably the most hyped debut album by a rap artist in about a decade". It debuted at number one on the Billboard 200, selling 872,000 copies in its first four days, and it's lead single 'In Da Club' set a Billboard record as the most listened-to song in radio history within a week. Despite being signed to a label and having an actual record under his belt, 50 Cent carried on recording songs for his mixtapes, and in 2004 he released his next one 'Guess Who's Back? Again', featuring all new tracks from this most productive part of his career, so here it is for your enjoyment.  

Track listing

01 Intro (Shot Caller '04)
02 Here We Go
03 Doin' My Own Thing 
04 Guess Who's Back Again  
05 She Luv It
06 Die For Me
07 After My Chedda
08 G-Unit Soldier (Ride Out)
09 187 Freestyle
10 Flex Freestyle
11 No Introduction
12 As Time Goes By
13 Heaven/Hell
14 Gee's Up 
15 Gettin' Mine 
16 Bad News (Mixtape Version)
17 I'm A Soldier
18 Ching, Ching, Ching
19 Say What You Want (Outro)

David Bowie - Omikron: The Nomad Soul (1999)

In late 1998 David Bowie was offered the the chance to compose the soundtrack for the upcoming video game 'Omikron: The Nomad Soul', developed by Quantic Dream and published by Eidos Interactive. Writer and director David Cage chose Bowie over a list of other applicants including Björk, Massive Attack and Archive, and it's been suggested that Bowie was drawn to the game due to its Buddhist overtones, noting that when a character died, he or she was reincarnated. As well as composing the music, Bowie also appeared in the game as a character named Boz and, along with guitarist Reeves Gabrels and bassist Gail Ann Dorsey, as the un-named singer of an in-game band called The Dreamers, who performed gigs in the bars of Omikron City. The 'Omikron' project provided the springboard for Bowie's next album, and between late 1998 and early 1999 Bowie and Reeves Gabrels amassed a large number of songs, some of which were written for Omikron and others for a Gabrels solo album, including 'Survive', 'The Pretty Things Are Going to Hell', and 'We All Go Through'. Unlike the experimental cut-up nature of Bowie's other 1990's recordings, these tracks were written in a more conventional style reminiscent of his mid-1980's works, with demos primarily written on guitar, while 'Thursday's Child' and 'The Dreamers' were written on keyboards. At an E3 press conference in 1999, Bowie said that his main priority was to imbue the game with "emotional subtext" and regarded this as a success. In the end, 'Omikron' featured variants of every track from the 'Hours' album except 'If I'm Dreaming My Life, 'Brilliant Adventure' and 'What's Really Happening?', and including the new song 'We All Go Through'. Various instrumentals which also appeared in the game were later developed further for release as b-sides, for instance 'Awakened 2' is an instrumental version of 'No One Calls' and 'Thrust' (as heard during a rooftop fight with a demon) would become '1917'. The futuristic electronic ambient score and rock songs helmed by Bowie and Gabrels, along with electronic soundscapes from Xavier Despas, was met with near-universal acclaim, and players could hear the full vocal versions of the eight original songs at The Dreamers' secret concerts in the game. Characters in the game could buy a virtual album by The Dreamers that they could listen to in their apartments, or they could simply walk into an apartment that already has some of the music laid out in plain view or in hidden compartments. The 'hours...' album was released about five weeks earlier than the game, with 'We All Go Through' being omitted from the general issue, although it was released as a Japanese bonus track, and also as a single b-side. Some of the recordings in the game are different versions to the ones on 'hours...', and there's also a considerable amount of unique instrumental music on the soundtrack, so even if you are a fan of 'hours...' already then this will still be worth a listen.   

Track listing

01 The Journey Pt. I
02 The Journey Pt. II
03 New Angels Of Promise (Omikron)
04 The Journey Pt. III
05 Something In The Air
06 The Journey Pt. IV
07 The Pretty Things Are Going To Hell
08 The Journey Pt. V
09 Save Your Soul
10 Thursday's Child
11 A Pretty Reprise
12 Survive
13 The Journey Pt. VI
14 We All Go Through
15 The Journey Pt. VII
16 The Journey Pt. VIII
17 The Dreamers
18 The Journey Pt. IX
19 The Journey Pt. X
20 Seven

For anyone interested, here's a synopsis of the game:
The Nomad Soul is set in a futuristic city known as Omikron, which is a densely 
populated metropolis on the world of Phaenon, the second planet of the star Rad'an. At the 
start of the game, players are asked by an Omikronian police officer named Kay'l 669 to 
leave their dimension and enter Omikron within his body (therefore breaking the fourth 
wall). After doing so, players continue with the investigation of serial killings that Kay'l 
and his partner Den were originally working on, attempting to pick up where Kay'l was 
apparently stopped from investigating. The city of Omikron exists beneath an enormous 
crystal dome which was constructed to protect against the ice age that Phaenon entered after 
its sun's extinction. The city is split into four different sectors: Anekbah, Qualisar, Jaunpur and Lahoreh. Because it is forbidden for the inhabitants to leave their respective sectors, each area has developed uniquely, which is reflected by the diverging lifestyles and architecture. Common to all Omikronians, however, is the heavily oppressive and controlling government which is run by a supercomputer called "Ix". Soon after the beginning of the game's introduction, the player begins the investigation in the Anekbah sector. He uncovers information that suggests the serial killer he is looking for is in fact not human but actually a demon. When members of an apparent underground, anti-government movement contact the player and confirm his suspicions, the investigation deepens and uncovers information; one of Omikron's chief police commanders (Commandant Gandhar) is a demon pretending to be human and lures human souls into Omikron  from other dimensions by way of the Omikron video game. Kay'l 669 asking the player to help him was a trap: supposedly, if the in-game character dies, the real human playing the video  game will lose their soul forever. Despite many assassination attempts on the protagonist's life by other demons working behind the scenes, the player destroys Ganhar with supernatural weaponry. After this brief victory, the player is invited to join the mysterious anti-government movement named "The Awakened" (referring to the fact the characters have "awakened" from the lies and drugs of the government). The Awakened work in tandem with an ancient religious order who are led by Boz (played by Bowie), a mystical being that exists in purely electronic form on the computer networks of Omikron. The Awakened refer to the protagonist as the "Nomad Soul" since he has the ability to change bodies at will. The Nomad Soul learns afterwards that what is going on in Omikron is merely an extension of a thousands-of-years-old battle between mankind and demons led by the powerful Astaroth. Astaroth, who was banished to the depths of Omikron long ago, is slowly regenerating power while using demons to both collect souls and impersonate high members of the government; he believes he can eventually take complete control and move across Phaenon and the Universe beyond. Only by harnessing ancient, magical technology and by re-discovering several hidden tombs underneath Omikron's 
surface, can the Nomad Soul hope to discover how to destroy Astaroth, return to his own 
dimension, and prevent his soul from being captured by demons.

Taking a break.....

You may have noticed that I haven't posted as much on the blog as usual since I returned from my holiday, and that's because those two weeks away from it, listening some classic old albums and actually reading some books, made me realise just how much time I was spending on it at the expense of other activities. With work also being extremely busy and so being offered overtime incentives that I couldn't turn down, as well as with the better weather finally arriving in the UK, I've decided to scale back on the posts so that I can take advantage of the little spare time that I have and get out of the house and relax in the garden a bit more. I've posted five albums a week without fail for the past three years, and so it's also come to the point where ideas for the posts are drying up, so I'll just be posting one or two albums a week from now on until inspiration strikes again. I have a stockpile of a couple of dozen which I haven't managed to galvanise myself into writing notes for, so I'll work my way through them over the next few months and then see how it goes after that.   

Belinda Carlisle - Private Lives (1987)

Belinda Carlisle's first venture into music was in 1977 as drummer for the punk rock band The Germs, under the name Dottie Danger, after she was recruited into the band by Lorna Doom, whom she had met in an art class while a student at Newbury Park High School. Her time in the band was short owing to her contracting mononucleosis, and she never recorded or performed live with the band, but according to Germs guitarist Pat Smear (who later played in Nirvana and Foo Fighters), when she quit she introduced her friend, Donna Rhia, who became her replacement. Soon after leaving The Germs, she co-founded The Misfits with friends and fellow musicians Margot Olavarria, Elissa Bello, and Jane Wiedlin, later changing their name to The Go-Gos. Olavarria and Bello were soon out of the group and the new line-up included bassist-turned-guitarist Charlotte Caffey, guitarist-turned-bassist Kathy Valentine, and drummer Gina Schock. The band went on to become one of the most successful American groups of the 1980's, helping usher new wave music into popular American radio, and becoming the first and only all-female band that wrote their own music and played their own instruments to ever achieve a No. 1 album with their 'Beauty And The Beat', which featured the hits 'We Got The Beat' and 'Our Lips Are Sealed'. Two more albums followed on I.R.S. Records, including 1982's 'Vacation', which went gold, before they disbanded in 1985. Carlisle and Wiedlin both embarked on successful solo careers, and Carlisle's first solo album 'Belinda' was released in 1986, achieving Gold status in the United States and Platinum in Canada. Hit singles soon followed, with 'Mad About You' peaking at No. 3 in the United States, while Charoltte Caffey's Motown-influenced 'I Feel The Magic' and a cover of the Freda Payne classic 'Band Of Gold' also did well for her. The Lindsay Buckingham co-write 'Since You've Gone' was used only for promotion, while Susanna Hoffs co-wrote the single 'I Need A Disguise', on which she sang back-up vocals alongside Jane Wiedlin. During this time Carlisle also had songs featured on movie soundtracks, notably 'In My Wildest Dreams' from the movie 'Mannequin', 'Shot In The Dark' from the Anthony Michael Hall thriller 'Out Of Bounds', as well as 'Dancing In The City' from the Whoopi Goldberg movie 'Burglar'. In 1987 she began work on her follow-up album, and recorded demos of a number of new songs, some of which were later re-recorded for inclusion on the 'Heaven On Earth' album, while a number of them remain unreleased to this day. The album's first single, 'Heaven Is A Place On Earth', topped the single charts in the United States and the UK, and is perhaps her most famous song, while the Diane Warren-penned 'I Get Weak' peaked at No. 2 in the United States and No. 10 in the UK. The third single from the album was 'Circle In The Sand', another Top 10 hit in the United States, the UK, and Germany. Following the success of the album, Carlisle embarked on the Good Heavens world tour, which sold out Wembley Arena in London. As this was a pivotal point in her solo career, I've collected together those demo recordings, and also added in a couple of the songs from the movie soundtracks of the same period, to give an idea of how she polished these early versions of her songs to perfect what would become the album that broke her into the mainstream. The cover of Donovan's 'Wear Your Love Like Heaven' had a serious drop-out which I've managed to patch, so hopefully that isn't too noticable.   

Track listing

01 Private Lives
02 Some Hearts
03 Out Of My Hands
04 Circle In The Sand
05 Wear Your Love Like Heaven
06 Love Never Dies
07 In My Wildest Dream
08 World Without You
09 Waiting For A Star To Fall
10 Should I Let You In
11 Dancing In The City

Jan Panter - Si Si Señor (1969)

Jan Panter hailed from Finsbury Park in London, and began her short recording career in 1965 with a cover of the Mary Wells song 'My Two Arms - You = Tears' ('My Two Arms Minus You Equals Tears'), which was released on the soon-to-be-defunct Oriole label. 'Let It Be Now' came out a few months later on CBS, and a year later she was working with producer Mark Wirtz, who directed the session for the best-known of her singles, 'Scratch My Back'/'Put Yourself In My Place', with 'Scratch My Back' being more rock-orientated than most of her other recordings, and featuring some prominent fuzz-guitarwork. Following a gap of a couple of years Panter was back, this time with an out and out pop record, with 'Si Si Señor' appearing in the UK and Spain on President Records, and also being released on Columbia Records in Germany, with a b-side in the same language. One more song was recorded in 1969 but was never issued, and with that Panter's career was over, leaving behind enough music to make an album which is just shy of half an hour, but which contains some great 60's soul, pop and R'n'B. 

Track listing

01 My Two Arms - You  = Tears (single 1965)
02 Does My Heart Show ‎(b-side of 'My Two Arms - You  = Tears')
03 Let It Be Now (single 1965)
04 Stand By And Cry ‎(b-side 'Let It Be Now')
05 Scratch My Back (single 1966)
06 Put Yourself In My Place (b-side of 'Scratch My Back')

07 Stella In Lights (b-side of UK issue of 'Si Si Señor')
08 Si Si Señor (single 1969) 
09 Wenn Die Liebe Kommt (b-side of German issue of 'Si Si Señor' 1969)
10 Yours Sincerely (unreleased acetate 1969)