Showing posts with label Robert Wyatt. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Robert Wyatt. Show all posts

Friday, April 2, 2021

Dave Gilmour - ..and on guitar Vol. 2 (2004) **UPDATE**

The plan was to finish the '...and on guitar' series on a high with a double disc offering from Dave Gilmour, which follows on very nicely from the first volume. There was one track that I couldn't fit on there as it was too long, and so Supertramp's 'Brother Where You Bound' opens this volume, and is then followed by Gilmour's absolutely stunning contribution to Berlin's 'Pink And Velvet', which I'd never heard before, but must count as one of the very best pieces of work that he's ever done. Add in his contributions to pop songs by Sam Brown, Pete Cetera, Paul McCartney, Elton John and Ringo Starr, as well as more progressive tracks from Phil Manzanera, Rabbit, and Robert Wyatt, and you have a superb collection to round off the series. But as it turns out it's not the end, as a passing suggestion from Maybe The Devil, Maybe The Lord has encouraged me to put together one more collection, and this could well be how it will be in future. Any suggestions will be welcomed for possible additions, but to keep in the spirit of the series it would ideally be a guitarist who has released two or three albums on his own, or with a band, and who has also played guest guitar on other artist's albums. Session guitarists who have never released an album of their own would be outside the scope of what I was aiming for, so let's see if I've missed any that I really should have included.   
A comment by AEC has prompted me to update this post, as they suggested that I could have included Rod Stewart's remake of his 'In A Broken Dream' with Dave Gilmour and John Paul Jones. Although it wasn't actually released until 2009, as part of 'The Rod Stewart Sessions', the recording date of 1992 would slot quite nicely into the second disc on this set, and to be honest it does deserve to be there, as it contains some spellbinding guitar-work from Gilmour. If you've already got this one then just download the last four tracks again to replace in the folder, and the tags will then all be updated.    
01 Brother Where You Bound (from 'Brother Where You Bound' by Supertramp 1985)
02 Bound To Be (from 'The Dream Academy' by The Dream Academy' 1985)
03 Pink And Velvet (from 'Count Three And Pray' by Berlin 1986)
04 Persona (from 'Persona' by Liona Boyd 1986)
05 Immaculate Eyes (from 'She' by Dalbello 1987)
06 This Feeling (from 'Stop!' by Sam Brown 1988)
07 Conquest (from 'Dream Jungle' by Rabbit 1988)

Disc Two
01 You Never Listen To Me (from 'One More Story' by Peter Cetera 1988)
02 Run Straight Down (from 'Transverse City' by Warren Zevon 1989)
03 We Got Married (from 'Flowers in the Dirt' by Paul McCartney 1989)
04 Como El Agua (from 'Roé' by Roé 1990)
05 Waiting For The Sunshine (from 'Growing Up In Public' by Jimmy Nail 1992)
06 Understanding Women (from 'The One' by Elton John 1992)
07 In A Broken Dream (from 'The Rod Stewart Sessions 1971-1998', recorded 1992)
08 I Think Therefore I Rock 'n' Roll (from 'Ringo Rama' by Ringo Starr 2003)
09 Forest (from 'Cuckooland' by Robert Wyatt 2003)
10 Sacred Days (from '6PM' by Phil Manzanera 2004)

For MAC users
Press command+shift+period (to show hidden files) and a grayed out folder '...and on guitar" will appear and the mp3s will be inside. Either drag those to another folder OR rename the folder without any periods at the beginning. Press command+shift+period to once again hide the hidden files.

Sunday, December 27, 2020

Jimi Hendrix - ...and on guitar (1970)

Considering the many, many hours of Jimi Hendrix recordings that exists, including both studio and live tapes, it's surprising at just how little there is of him collaborating with other artists in the later years of his career. There's the famed bootleg of him jamming with members of Traffic, and one album from Irish psyche-poppers Eire Apparent, for which he acted as producer and played guitar, but apart from those his guest appearances were limited to helping out friends Robert Wyatt, Arthur Lee and Stephen Stills, doing a favour for Paul McCartney, and appearing with a stellar cast of mates on two sessions, for Lighting Rod and Timothy Leary. 
Eire Apparent (a pun on their Irish heritage) hailed from Northern Ireland, and launched the careers of both Henry McCullough and Ernie Graham, but their main claim to fame is getting Hendrix to act as producer and play guitar on their sole album 'Sunrise' in 1968. The link is that both artists were managed by ex-Animals bassist Chas Chandler, and at one point both were signed to Track Records, for whom Eire Apparent recorded one single. Following this the band were sent to tour America, firstly with The Animals, and then later with Soft Machine and The Jimi Hendrix Experience, and while in Los Angeles they recorded songs for their debut album 'Sunrise', with Hendrix producing and playing on the record. 'Sunrise' went the way of a lot of albums of the late 60's, selling a moderate number at the time, but being re-discovered in the 80's as a 'lost classic', and original copies now go for large sums, helped quite a bit by the Hendrix connection. 
Also is 1968, Roger McGough and Mike McGear were members of hit Liverpool art/rock/poetry band The Scaffold, and fancied doing a duo album of their own stuff. They roped in Mike's brother Paul McCartney to produce it, and between them they managed to engage the services of Hendrix to provide guitar on two of the more song-orientated tracks, both of them mid-to-late 60's pop/psyche offerings.
At the end of the tour, on which Eire Apparent supported Hendrix and The Soft Machine, The Experience gave Robert Wyatt access to their recording studios after hours, so that he could record some demos, and Hendrix added guitar to one of them, 'Slow Walkin' Talk'. 
In 1969, The Last Poet's member Lighting Rod was perfecting one of the earliest example of rapping, and wanted to record his outlandish tale of the prostitute 'Doriella Du Fontaine', so persuaded Buddy Miles and Hendrix to improvise in the studio with him. They recorded a basic 8 minute take which was eventually released as a 12" single in 1984, together with an edited four minute instrumental version of the track.
In 1970, Hendrix provided guitar on one song from Stephen Stills' debut solo album. The pair had known each other for years, and there's an hour-long jam session of the two of them in Stills' basement in 1968 available on Youtube, and during the sessions for the album the pair also recorded a jam called 'White Nigger', which Stills later turned into 'High And Dry' for his Manassas project. This was actually a re-acquaintance of the two in a recording studio, as the previous year Hendrix had invited Stills to a session at New York’s Record Plant, and it was there that Stills performed the Joni Mitchell song 'Woodstock' for the first time, a year before it would appear on Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young's album ‘Déjà vu’. Stills and Hendrix then recorded a version of the song, along with a take on Stills' '$20 Fine', both with Stills on vocals. 
Also in 1970, Hendrix was invited by Love's Arthur Lee to contribute to his band's album 'False Start'. Hendrix returned to Olympic Studios, the recording facility where he'd recorded 'Are You Experienced' and 'Axis: Bold As Love', and he and percussionist Remi Kabaka joined Love in recording 'The Everlasting First'. The three musicians recorded sixteen takes before a basic track met Lee's approval, and they also taped two takes of Hendrix's own 'Ezy Rider', before they took part in an extended instrumental jam session, later titled 'Loon', before departing. This album doesn't aim to include everything that Hendrix was involved in outside The Experience or Band Of Gypsys, but it's more of an overview of his collaborations, so I've picked just two songs from Eire Apparent's album, on which his guitar-playing is particularly up-front, along with the two 'McGough & McGear' songs, three with Stephen Stills, the Robert Wyatt demo, and the recording with Love. The Timothy Leary recording is nice to hear once, but doesn't really warrant repeated plays, so if you want to hear it you can do so here. I  haven't included the Love versions of 'Ezy Rider', as Hendrix sings on them and so they just sound like normal Hendrix out-takes, and 'Loon' is just a ten-minute jam, and I've also omitted '$20 Dollar Fine' which is available on the 'Both Sides Of The Sky' album. If you like the two Eire Apparent tracks then do check out their album as it really is excellent stuff.  



Track listing

01 The Clown (from 'Sunrise' by Eire Apparent 1968)
02 Mr. Guy Fawkes (from 'Sunrise' by Eire Apparent 1968)
03 So Much (from 'McGough & McGear' by McGough & McGear 1968)
04 Ex Art Student (from 'McGough & McGear' by McGough & McGear 1968)
05 Doriella Du Fontaine (by Lightning Rod 1969)
06 Old Times Good Times (from 'Stephen Stills' by Stephen Stills 1970)
07 White Nigger ('Stephen Stills' out-take 1970)
08 Woodstock (out-take with Stephen Stills 1969)
09 Slow Walkin' Talk (from ''68' by Robert Wyatt 1968)
10 The Everlasting First (from 'False Start' by Love 1970)



Now that this has turned into a series, I've updated the artwork on this post to match the others, although I've left the original cover in the file. If you want this cover then just right-click and save it from the post.


Robert Wyatt - The Unknown Zone (2009)

Throughout the early years of the new century Robert Wyatt continued to help out musicians who came to him for help with their music, as well as friends who just wanted to play with him, including Paul Weller on a duet of the Warren/Dublin classic 'September In The Rain', which was added to the 1997 Japanese re-release of Wyatt's 'Shleep' album. 'Afghanistan's A Country....' and DondestA' are reworkings of two Wyatt compositions by Jean-Michel Marchetti for the companion CD to his book 'M4W', while 'Flies' is Wyatt's contribution to the Various Artists compilation 'Plague Songs', consisting of music based around the twelve plagues of Egypt, with Wyatt and Brian Eno interpreting the plague of flies. The title track was recorded by Wyatt, Brian Eno and Phil Manzanera, following a jam session that occurred when the three of them had dinner after recording sessions for Wyatt's 'Cuckooland' album, and the resulting track was offered as a free download in 2009. We close with two songs from an artist previously unknown to me, Monica Vasconcelos, but after hearing these tracks I will be searching out more from her. If there's one thing that strikes you about these two albums it's the sheer variety of music that Wyatt has made during his career, starting with the psychedelic Soft Machine, the jazz-rock of Matching Mole, forays into the charts with 'I'm A Believer' and 'Yesterday Man', his own superlative singer/songwriter efforts on 'Rock Bottom' and 'Ruth Is Stranger Than Richard' among others, the definitive recording of 'Elvis Costello's 'Shipbuilding', and now all of this music with other musicians, young and old. He truly is a renaissance man in the field of music, and you can see why he's held in such high esteem by his peers. The cover of this one is based on an acrylic painting by Sian Superman of Raw Art.



Track listing

01 September In The Rain (...with Paul Weller, from the Japanese release of 'Shleep' 1997)
02 Afghanistan's A Country....... (...with Jean-Michel Marchetti, from 'M4W' 2003)
03 DondestA (...with Jean-Michel Marchetti, from 'M4W' 2003)
04 The Unknown Zone (...with Brian Eno and Phil Manzanera, free download 2009)
05 The Plague Of Flies (...with Brian Eno, from 'Plague Songs' 2006) 
06 Before We Knew (...with Annie Whitehead, from 'The Gathering' 2000)
07 Out Of The Doldrums (...with Monica Vasconcelos, from 'Hih' 2008)
08 Still In The Dark (...with Monica Vasconcelos, from 'Hih' 2008)


Robert Wyatt - Was A Friend (2000)

Robert Wyatt first garnered notice as drummer for the Soft Machine, the most legitimately jazz-inspired English rock band of its day, sharing stages with among others Jimi Hendrix and Syd Barrett's Pink Floyd. After leaving Soft Machine he formed his own band Matching Mole (named after the French for Soft Machine - machine molle), and released a couple of well-respected albums in 1972. In 1973 tragedy struck, when he fell three stories from an open window and broke his back, confining him to a wheelchair for the rest of his life. A recuperating Wyatt determined to press forward and the event, by his own account, provided a catalyst both for personal maturity and a deepening of his approach to music. He released what he considers his first proper solo album, 'Rock Bottom', in 1974 and followed with releases of his own music every five or ten years. Throughout his career Wyatt has collaborated with other musicians extensively, and he continues to do so until this day, though at a slower pace than past years, and a large number of these collaborations were collected together on the 'Different Every Time Volume 2 - Benign Dictatorships' CD in 2014. However, this really only scratched the surface of the work that he has recorded with other artists, as none of the tracks on this album, and a following companion set, are on 'Different Every Time', just showing the huge number of artists who have clamoured to work with him over the years. We start with his contribution to Morgan Fisher's 'Miniatures' album, where artists offered pieces which only lasted about one minute, and then jump forward over a decade to 1993, when he collaborated with both Ultramarine on their album from that year, and also with Evan Parker on a track for the various artists compilation album 'Paul Haines, Darn It'. Three pieces with Millennium from 1995 close the disc, and slotted in there is also his work on Hugh Hopper's 'Was A Friend', which Hopper recorded in 1993 and then passed to Wyatt to add lyrics. Wyatt didn't feel like it, and so declined, leaving Hopper to add vocals by John Atkinson and release it under a different title on his 'Hooligan Romantic's album. Two years later Wyatt finally came up with some lyrics and a new melody line and recorded the song for Hopper's 'Parabolic Versions' release in 2000. The cover is based on 'A Robert Wyatt Construction Kit' by John O'Rourke.



Track listing

01 Rangers In The Night (...with Morgan Fisher, from 'Miniatures' 1980)
02 Curtsy (...with Evan Parker, from 'Paul Haines, Darn It' 1993)
03 Kingdom (...with Ultramarine, from 'United Kingdoms' 1993)
04 Happy Land (...with Ultramarine, from 'United Kingdoms' 1993)
05 Free Will And Testament (...with Kramer, from 'A Remark Hugh Made' 1994)
06 Was A Friend (...with Hugh Hopper, from 'Parabolic Versions' 2000)
07 Igor Mortis (...with Millennium, from 'A Civilised Word' 1995)
08 Erup Peru (...with Millennium, from 'A Civilised Word' 1995)
09 Another Great Victory (...with Millennium, from 'A Civilised Word' 1995)