Bill Bailey - Parodies Lost (2021)

I've mentioned before on the blog that, as well as being passionate about music, I also love comedy, and have posted the odd thing here and there from Peter Cook & Dudley Moore, Ricky Gervais, and Monty Python. One of my favourite stand-ups of the last 15 years has been Bill Bailey, and not only because he's a great comic, but also because he's a brilliant musician, able to play a multitude of instruments, and to knock off a pin-sharp musical parody at the drop of a hat. I decided to collect some of my favourite pieces from his various DVD's and to segue them together into a 35-minute 'live concert', and so that's what we have here. The songs vary from unnervingly accurate take-offs of particular artists like Tom Waits, Kraftwerk, and Portishead, to usurping whole genres, such as country music (and the evils thereof), emo, prog rock, and Adele-style confessionals. He then rounds it all off with such flights of fancy as a dub reggae version of the 'Downton Abbey' theme, an instrumental based on a mobile ringtone, the BBC News theme as an acid-house rave tune, and the wisdom of George W Bush set to a drum 'n' bass backing. If you like these, and you certainly should, then the videos for most of them are on Youtube, along with excerpts from his stand-up routines, so do check them out after you've enjoyed this 'live concert' from the always inventive Bill Bailey.   

Track listing

01 Insect Nation
02 I'm Going to Kill You So I Can Ignore You In Heaven (The Evils Of Country Music)
03 Theme from Downton Abbey (Dub Reggae Version)
04 BBC News Rave
05 Leg Of Time
06 Duelling Sitars
07 Zippedee Do Dah by Portishead
08 Oblivion (The Emo Song)
09 Ring Tone Symphony
10 Old MacDonald by Tom Waits
11 Das Hokey Cokey by Kraftwerk
12 You Left Me, But I'm Not Gonna Go On About It (Song for Adele)
13 Drum 'n' Bush
14 Love Song

Keith Richards - ...and on guitar (1987)

Keith Richards didn't really have a huge amount of spare time in the 60's to play on other artist's records, as being the guitarist and songwriter in the Rolling Stones was a full-time job, but he did manage to sneak off to appear on the TV broadcast of The Beatles' 'All You Need Is Love' in 1967, and to provide bass guitar with The Dirty Mac - the all-star band who played on the 'The Rolling Stones' Rock & Roll Circus' film. While he had his bass guitar handy he helped out Billy Preston on his 'That's The Way God Planned It' album in 1969, but the first time he actually added his guitar to someone else's record was in 1974, when he was heavily involved in Ron Wood's 'I've Got My Own Album To Do', providing guitar and backing vocals on a number of songs, and even co-writing two of them with Wood. Around this time he recorded with Alexis Korner, adding guitar to his own 'Get Off My Cloud', which would eventually appear on a Korner anthology in 2003, and also in 1974 he was invited to appear at the final concert of the Faces tour of that year, adding guitar to three tracks which would later appear on a recording of the show in 2000. Between 1976 and 1977 he recorded some tracks with John Phillips, alongside band-mates Jagger, Wood and Taylor, and he also co-produced what would become the 'Pay Pack And Follow' and 'Pussycat' albums. If you've heard my Rolling Stones reggae compilation you'll know that the Stones always had a fondness for reggae, and that was mostly down to Richards, so it's no real surprise to find him adding his guitar to albums by Peter Tosh and Max Romeo. In 1979 Richards and Wood contributed guitar and backing vocals to Ian McLagan's 'Troublemaker' album, on another reggae-inspired song 'Truly', and he also played guitar on Screamin' Jay Hawkins' remake of his classic 'I Put A Spell On You' for an anthology of the famed 50's rocker. In 1985 he added guitar and backing vocals to Tom Waits' 'Rain Dogs' album, and that was the beginning of a lengthy working relationship between them, with Richards also contributing to Waits' albums 'Bone Machine' in 1992 and 'Bad As Me' in 2011. In 1987 he was one of an impressive list of guitarists who played on songs from The Neville Brothers' 'Uptown' album, and although Richards career has spanned an impressive sixty years, this collection just covers a decade of guest appearances from the mid 70's to the mid 80's, which gave him the opportunity to play on songs which he wouldn't have been able to do in his day job. From 1988 to date he's guested on another 40 or so albums from friends and colleagues, but this is where it all started.  

Track listing

01 Get Off My Cloud (from 'Musically Rich...and Famous: Anthology' by Alexis Korner 2003)
02 Act Together (from 'I've Got My Own Album To Do' by Ron Wood 1974) 
03 I'd Rather Go Blind (from 'The Faces' Final Concert' recorded 1974, released 2000)
04 Pussycat (from 'Pay Pack & Follow' by John Phillips recorded 1976–77, released 2001)
05 Stand Firm (from 'Bush Doctor' by Peter Tosh 1978)
06 Truly (from 'Troublemaker' by Ian McLagan 1979) 
07 I Put A Spell On You (from 'Portrait Of A Man: A History Of Screamin' Jay Hawkins' 1979) 
08 Bell The Cat (from 'Holding Out My Love For You' by Max Romeo 1981)
09 Big Black Mariah (from 'Rain Dogs' by Tom Waits 1985) 
10 Midnight Key (from 'Uptown' by The Neville Brothers 1987)

Happy New Year

Best wishes to everyone for 2020

Track listing

01 Happy New Year - ABBA

02 Funky New Year - The Eagles

03 Our New Year - Tori Amos

04 New Year's Prayer - Jeff Buckley

05 New Years Day - U2

06 New Year's Greetings - The Triffids

07 This Will Be Our Year - The Zombies

08 Celtic New Year - Van Morrison

09 Next Year - Foo Fighters

10 Same Old Lang Syne - Dan Fogelberg

11 New Year - Sugababes

12 New Year's Eve (Bad As Me) - Tom Waits

13 New Year's Eve's The Loneliest Night Of The Year - Trembling Bells

14 New Year's Eve - Snoop Dogg feat. Marty James

Happy New Year