Jekyll - Midnight Swim (2020)

As I was piecing back together my other blog The Amplified Review, which was also deleted over Christmas, I realised that Blackpool alternative rockers were the only band to feature twice in the New Band Specials, and so I thought it must be about time that an album is due from them. After putting out a couple of tracks on Soundcloud in 2015, they released an eponymous EP on Fierce Panda in 2018, and followed this two years later with their 'Whispering Gallery' EP, but so far that's all we've had from them. In their early days a track like 'Cramp' displayed more than a nod to Muse, but by the time they released their EP's they'd developed a sound of their own, with shredding solos, sharp falsettos and bitter sweet tones between blistering instrumentation. They show their shoegaze swagger through  tracks like ‘Echoes’, with crashing razor sharp guitars which  lacerate through a buoyant backdrop, while ‘Midnight Swim’ is a delicate number which shows they're not all bluster. As I can't wait for the album I've put together my own from all the tracks they've issued so far, and if you end up loving them as much as I do then the album proper can't come soon enough. In the meantime check out a couple of Youtube videos they've uploaded, covering songs by Japan and Echo & The Bunnymen.

Track listing

01 Cramp

02 Unspoken

03 Plan A

04 Othello

05 The Wounds We've Ignored

06 Mania

07 I Do What I Can

08 Midnight Swim

09 So Wrong

10 The Escapist

11 Marionette

12 Echoes

Cliff Richard - Nine Times Out Of Ten (1962)

For the final collection of Cliff singles and b-sides we arrive at the beginning of the 60's, and start with a couple of songs which later appeared on the 'Expresso Bongo' EP, albeit with different recordings, and then we work our way through some big and not so big hits from 1960 to 1962, along with their b-sides. At this point in his career he was still billed as Cliff Richard and The Shadows, and the band's distinctive sound can be heard on a number of these songs, although towards the end of the album the backing was more session musicians and orchestral arrangements. I'd never really paid much attention to Cliff's recorded output of the 60's and 70's, and assumed that most of his singles were taken from his albums, and so was astonished to find that he'd released over a hundred non-album tracks in the twenty years between 1960 and 1979, and if you'd bought all his albums as they came out in the 60's and 70's you'd have very few of the songs featured on these six collections.  

Track listing

01 A Voice In The Wilderness (single 1960) 
02 Don't Be Mad At Me (b-side of 'A Voice In The Wilderness')
03 Please Don't Tease (single 1960)
04 Where Is My Heart (b-side of 'Please Don't Tease')
05 Fall In Love with You (single 1960)
06 Willie And The Hand Jive (b-side of 'Fall In Love With You')
07 Nine Times Out of Ten (single 1960)
08 Thinking Of Our Love (b-side of 'Nine Times Out Of Ten')
09 I Love You (single 1960)
10 'D' In Love (b-side of 'I Love You')
11 Theme For A Dream (single 1961)
12 Mumblin' Mosie (b-side of 'Theme For A Dream')
13 A Girl Like You (single 1961) 
14 Now's The Time To Fall In Love (b-side of 'A Girl Like You')
15 I'm Lookin' Out The Window (single 1962)
16 Since I Lost You (b-side of 'It'll Be Me' 1962)
17 Do You Want To Dance (b-side of 'I'm Lookin' Out The Window')

I've found this site http://www.cliffrichardsongs.com/cliffuksingles/index.htm invaluable in helping to compile these albums, and if you're a Cliff fan then you need to check it out as there's a wealth of information on there that you'll find fascinating.

The Waterboys - Another Kind Of Circus (1984)

In 1981 Mike Scott was working in the punk rock band Funhouse, who had recently changed their name from Another Pretty Face, and after signing to Ensign Records the group moved to London to record their music. Scott had been unsatisfied with the group's sound and so in December 1981 decided to use Redshop Studio to record some of his own songs solo, after prompting from Ensign Records to consider a solo career. With the help of a drum machine, Scott sang and played the piano and guitar on five of his songs, and the quality of the session convinced him to leave Funhouse and make further recordings at Redshop in early 1982. In spite of his label's advice of embarking on a solo career, Scott began forming a new band to work with, and recruited Anthony Thistlethwaite for the new project, which became The Waterboys, soon adding Kevin Wilkinson as drummer. In the Spring of 1982 the band recorded 'A Girl Called Johnny' which became their first single, and which was included on the following year's eponymous debut album. Tracks for the album were selected from the London recordings following aborted sessions in New York with Lenny Kaye as producer, and the songs that didn't make the cut were later added to the expanded re-issue of the album in 2019. Recording of the follow-up to 'The Waterboys' was begun before either the band's first single 'A Girl Called Johnny', or the album had been released, and comprised two recording sessions. The first was in November 1982 at Redshop Studio in London, involved Mike Scott, Anthony Thistlethwaite and Kevin Wilkinson, and the second was held in September 1983 at Rockfield Studio in Wales, included contributions from Karl Wallinger, who had joined the band that year. 'A Pagan Place' was released in June 1984, sharing a title with the book 'A Pagan Place' by Irish novelist Edna O'Brien, although Scott insists that he'd never read the book. The album was greeted with much acclaim from critics and fans alike, and when 'The Big Music' was released as a single it became a descriptor of the sound of the band's music. As with their first album, a number of songs did not make it to the final track-listing, and were added to the 2019 re-issue, so this album collects all the out-takes from the sessions for both albums, along with a b-side to the 'A Girl Called Johnny' 12" single, so settle back and enjoy some 'big music'. 

Track listing

01 Something Fantastic (previously unreleased)
02 Ready For The Monkeyhouse (b-side of 'A Boy Called Johnny' 12" single)
03 Another Kind Of Circus (previously unreleased)
04 A Boy In Black Leather (previously unreleased)
05 Jack Of Diamonds (previously unreleased)
06 Some Of My Best Friends Are Trains (previously unreleased)
07 The Late Train To Heaven (previously unreleased)
08 Love That Kills (previously unreleased)
09 The Madness Is Here Again (previously unreleased)
10 Cathy (previously unreleased)
11 Down Through The Dark Streets (previously unreleased)

Frank Zappa - ...and on guitar (1978)

Frank Vincent Zappa was born on 21 December 21 1940, in Baltimore, Maryland, and was often sick as a child, suffering from asthma, earaches and sinus problems. A doctor treated his sinusitis by inserting a pellet of radium into each of his nostrils, as at the time little was known about the potential dangers of even small amounts of therapeutic radiation, and that might explain why nasal imagery and references appear in his music and lyrics, as well as in the collage album covers created by his long-time collaborator Cal Schenkel. Zappa joined his first band at Mission Bay High School in San Diego as the drummer, and he was interested in sounds for their own sake, particularly the sounds of drums and other percussion instruments. At Antelope Valley High School, Zappa met Don Glen Vliet (who later changed his name to Don Van Vliet and adopted the stage name Captain Beefheart), and he played drums in local band the Blackouts, but he also started to develop an interest in the guitar, and in 1957 he was given his first instrument. Zappa's interest in composing and arranging flourished in his last high-school years, and by his final year he was writing, arranging and conducting avant-garde performance pieces for the school orchestra, and after he left high school he attempted to earn a living as a musician and composer. During the early 1960's, Zappa wrote and produced songs for other local artists, and in 1964 he moved into the Pal studio and began routinely working 12 hours or more per day recording and experimenting with overdubbing and audio tape manipulation. Aided by his income from film composing, Zappa took over the studio from Paul Buff, and renamed it Studio Z, although it was rarely booked for recordings by other musicians, and following a brief prison sentence for recording alleged pornographic mateiral there, he could no longer afford to pay the rent on the studio and was evicted, with the building being torm down in 1966. That was also the year that Zappa formed The Mothers, and recorded the classic 'Freak Out' album, which was to put him on the path to being one of the most influential musicians in the world. In July of that year he was asked to produce some tracks for The Animals, one of which was his own composition 'All Night Long'. The following year he played guitar on both sides of a 7" single by Tommy Flanders, and on the A-side of Barry Goldberg's 'Carry On' single. 
During the late 1960's, Zappa continued to develop the business sides of his career, and he and Herb Cohen formed the Bizarre Records and Straight Records labels, distributed by Warner Bros. Records, releasing albums by Alice Cooper, The Persuasions, and Wild Man Fischer, on whose record he also played guitar. In 1970 Zappa helped out former band-mate Jeff Simmons by producing and playing on his first proper solo album (following a collaborative film soundtrack with Randy Sterling), and the same year he composed the music for Jean-Luc Ponty's 'King Kong' album, as well as playing on the record, and afterwards asked the violinist to join The Mothers Of Invention as a permanent member. In 1971 he and the Mothers were part of John Lennon's live performance at the Fillmore East in New York City on 6 June 1971, which was taped and released the following year on John Lennon & Yoko Ono's 'Some Time In New York City' album. In 1968 The Mothers Of Invention had released a pastiche of 50's doo-wop music under the title of 'Cruising With Reuben & The Jet's', and four years later a Los Angeles band named themselves after the album, producing two records of their own, the first of which was produced by Zappa, as well on him contributing one song to it, and playing guitar on another. In 1974 he helped out former Mothers' keyboardist George Duke on his own album 'Feel', and in 1976 he managed to reform Grand Funk Railroad, who had just broken up, by telling then that he wanted to produce them, which he did on their 'Good Singin', Good Playin'' album, on which he played guitar on one track. In 1976 Zappa was in Montreal for a concert, and was asked by Robert Charlebois to participate in the recording of a track on his new album. Zappa accepted and showed up the next day in a Montreal Studio to record the solo on 'Petroleum', not only playing the end solo, but also participating in the arrangements, but then  Charlebois sat on the tapes for over a year before the album eventually appeared in 1977. After Grand Funk Railroad  broke up in 1976, band members Don Brewer, Mel Schacher, and Craig Frost formed the group Flint and released their self titled album in 1978, and because of his connection with the members from their 'Good Singin', Good Playin'' album, Zappa offered to play guitar on a couple of tracks. Obviously this is a very concise biography of Frank Vincent Zappa, just concentrating on his collaborations with other artists, but he has lived the most fascinating life, and the 'radium up the nose' story is fairly typical of the sort of thing that happened to him, so do check out his Wikipedia page while you are listening to this diverse collection of music that he's been involved with throughout the 60's and 70's.   

Track listing

01 All Night Long (from 'Animalism' by The Animals 1966)
02 Friday Night City (single by Tommy Flanders 1967)
03 Carry On (single by Barry Goldberg 1967)
04 The Circle (from 'An Evening With Wild Man Fischer' by Wild Man Fischer 1968)
05 How Would You Like To Have A Head Like That? (from 'King Kong' by Jean-Luc Ponty 1970)
06 Raye (from 'Lucille Has Messed My Mind Up' by Jeff Simmons 1970)
07 Well (Baby Please Don’t Go) (from 'Some Time In New York City' by Lennon/Ono 1972)
08 Dedicated To The One I Love (from 'For Real!' by Ruben And The Jets 1973)
09 Old Slippers (from 'Feel' by George Duke 1974)
10 Out To Get You (from 'Good Singin' Good Playin'' by Grand Funk Railroad 1976)
11 Petroleum (from 'Swing Charlebois Swing' by Robert Charlebois 1977)
12 You'll Never Be The Same (from 'Flint' by Flint 1978)

Cliff Richard - Constantly (1965)

Moving further back towards the start of his career, we have another solid collection of non-album singles and b-sides from Cliff, spanning the years 1963-1965. The one includes a rare Australian single from 1964, plus a good selection of well-known and lesser-known hits, and their flips, making for another fine album showcasing songs that could easily be overlooked.  

Track listing

01 Lucky Lips (single 1963) 
02 I Wonder (b-side of 'Lucky Lips')
03 It's All in the Game (single 1963)
04 Your Eyes Tell On You (b-side of 'It's All In The Game')
05 Don't Talk to Him (single 1963)
06 Say You're Mine (b-side of 'Don't Talk To Him')
07 I'm the Lonely One (single 1964)
08 Watch What You Do With My Baby (b-side of 'I'm The Lonely One')
09 I Only Have Eyes For You (Australian single 1964)
10 Constantly (L'Edera) (single 1964)
11 True, True Lovin' (b-side of 'Constantly')
12 The Twelfth of Never (single 1964)
13 I'm Afraid To Go Home (b-side of 'The Twelfth Of Never')
14 The Minute You're Gone (single 1965)
15 Just Another Guy (b-side of 'The Minute You're Gone')
16 On My Word (single 1965)
17 Just A Little Bit Too Late (b-side of 'On My Word')

Big Brother & The Holding Company - Misery (1968)

In September 1966, Big Brother signed a contract with Mainstream Records, and recorded four of the songs for the album 'Big Brother & the Holding Company', with the remainder of the songs being recorded in Los Angeles later in the year. Mainstream was known for its jazz records, and Big Brother was the first rock band to appear on the label, and this may have influenced the final result, since the album sounded very different from what the band expected, being acoustic and folky instead of heavy acid rock. The band's historic performance at the Monterey Pop Festival in June 1967 attracted national and international attention, and they signed a contract with Columbia Records which was able to buy out their contract from Mainstream. The band's first album for Columbia was due to be recorded during the spring and summer of 1968, and released later that year, and was eagerly anticipated after the first record had been largely ignored. Initially it was planned as a live album, with the band recording two concerts at the Grande Ballroom in Detroit, but the results were considering not good enough, and so the live album was scrapped and Columbia decided to re-record most of the songs in the studio. The album was initially named 'Sex, Dope and Cheap Thrills', but Columbia asked them to shorten it to just 'Cheap Thrills', and the group was photographed by Richard Avedon for the cover, but the pictures were not used. Dave Getz suggested that the band hire underground comic-book artist R. Crumb whom he knew through a mutual friend, and what was originally meant to be the back cover art became the classic front cover of the album. Crumb's first effort was a picture just of Joplin, but this was also rejected, and so I've resurrected it for this album. Sessions for the record produced way more material than was needed, and although some of the songs have since surfaced, they've been scattered over various posthumous Joplin anthologies, but they were finally released in one place on the deluxe 'Cheap Thrills' re-issue, and by extracting the best takes we can construct a companion record to 'Cheap Thrills' which contains some superb songs in excellent sound quality.

Track listing

01 Catch Me Daddy
02 Farewell Song
03 Flower In The Sun
04 Magic Of Love
05 Roadblock
06 Harry
07 Misery'n
08 Easy Once You Know How
09 It's A Deal
10 How Many Times

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Cheap Trick - Fan Club (1988)

In 1967, Rick Nielsen formed Fuse with Tom Peterson (later known as Tom Petersson), and when Bun E. Carlos joined on drums in 1971 they moved to Philadelphia, calling themselves Sick Man Of Europe. After a European tour in 1973 without Carlos, Nielsen and Petersson returned to Rockford and reunited with him, recruiting Randy 'Xeno' Hogan on vocals, and re-naming themselves Cheap Trick. Hogan left the band shortly after its formation and was replaced by Robin Zander, and in 1975 the band recorded a demo, and also played in warehouses, bowling alleys, and various other venues around the mid-western United States. They were signed to Epic Records in 1976, and released their eponymous debut album in early 1977, which garnered critically favourable reviews which were not reflected in its sales. Their second album 'In Color' was released later that year, and although singles 'I Want You To Want Me' and 'Southern Girls' failed to chart, the album itself had since been ranked in Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 500 greatest albums of all time. When the band toured in Japan for the first time in April 1978, they were received with a frenzy reminiscent of Beatlemania, and during the tour they recorded two concerts at the Nippon Budokan, from which ten tracks were chosen and compiled for live album entitled 'Cheap Trick At Budokan', and which was to be exclusive to Japan. The band's third studio album 'Heaven Tonight' was released in May 1978, and its first single 'Surrender' was their first US chart success, peaking at No. 62. Demand for 'Cheap Trick At Budokan' became so great that Epic Records finally released the album in the U.S., launching the band to international stardom, with the album going triple platinum in the United States. The first single from the album was the live version of 'I Want You to Want Me', which had originally flopped when extracted from the 'In Color' album in 1977, this time reaching number 7 on the Billboard Hot 100, and becoming the band's best-selling single to date. 

Their next studio album 'Dream Police' was released in 1979, with the title track and 'Voices' becoming hit singles. By 1980 Cheap Trick were an arena band, and later that year Petersson left the group to record a solo album with his wife Dagmar, being replaced by Jon Brant. In July 1981, CBS Inc. sued Cheap Trick and their manager Ken Adamany for $10 million, alleging they were attempting to coerce CBS into re-negotiating their contract and had refused to record any new material for the label since October 1980. The lawsuit was settled in early 1982 and work commenced on the next album 'One On One', followed by 'Next Position Please' in 1983, and 'Standing On The Edge' in 1985, with this last record being called their "best collection of bubblegum bazooka rock in years". Petersson rejoined the group in 1987 and helped record 1988's 'Lap Of Luxury', but the recording was a fraught time for the band, as due to the their commercial decline, Epic Records insisted that they collaborate with professional songwriters on the album. However, when 'The Flame' was issued as a single from the album it became the band's first-ever No. 1 hit, and the four following singles from the album also charted. 'Lap Of Luxury' went platinum and became recognized as the band's comeback album, with Billboard commenting that "after a long hit-less streak, Cheap Trick brings it all back home. This is the quartet's punchiest effort since its mid-'70s heyday." The band consolidated this success on subsequent albums, with their most recent being 'We're All Alright!' in 2017. This collection of b-sides, demos, out-takes and soundtrack recordings covers their most fruitful period from 1977 to 1988, and even on these left-overs you can still hear why they've been cited as one of the best power-pop bands of the 70's and 80's.  

Track listing

01 Lovin' Money (out-take 1977)
02 Fan Club (demo 1977)
03 I Was A Fool (demo 1980) 
04 Everything Works If You Let It (alternate take 1980) 
05 I Need Love (demo 1980)
06 I'm The Man (from the soundtrack of the film 'Rock & Rule' 1981)
07 Born To Raise Hell (from the soundtrack of the film 'Rock & Rule' 1981)
09 Don't Make Our Love A Crime (demo 1982)
10 All I Really Want (b-side of 'She's Tight' 1982)
11 Twisted Heart (out-take 1983)
12 A Place In France (out-take 1985)
13 Funk #9 (demo 1986)
14 Money Is The Route Of All Fun (out-take 1986)
15 Fortune Cookie (demo 1986)
16 You Want It (from the soundtrack of the film 'Say Anything' 1988)  
17 Through The Night (b-side of 'The Flame' 1988)

The Waterboys - Blues For A Fisherman (1988)

The Waterboys are a British/Irish folk rock band formed in Edinburgh in 1983 by Scottish musician Mike Scott, who has remained as the only constant member throughout the band's career. They have explored a number of different styles, but their music is mainly a mix of folk music and rock and roll. The early Waterboys sound became known as 'The Big Music' after a song on their second album 'A Pagan Place', being defined as an anthemic sound which was 'a metaphor for seeing God's signature in the world'. Before forming The Waterboys, Scott made a number of solo recordings in late 1981 and early 1982 while a member of Another Pretty Face, and during the same period he also formed the short-lived band The Red And The Black, with saxophone player Anthony Thistlethwaite. In 1983, Scott was expected to deliver a solo album to his record label Ensign Records, but he decided to start a new band, naming them The Waterboys after a line in the Lou Reed song 'The Kids', and their first released recording under that name was the single 'A Girl Called Johnny', which was a tribute to Patti Smith. The eponymous debut album followed shortly afterwards, and was compared by critics to Van Morrison and U2 in its cinematic sweep. A second album 'A Pagan Place' came out in June 1984, and 'This Is The Sea' followed in 1985, including the hit single, and their best-known song, 'The Whole Of The Moon'. 

In 1986, at the invitation of new member Steve Wickham, Scott moved to Dublin and quickly became influenced by the traditional Irish music there as well as by country and gospel, and the band's line-up changed to include Scott, Wickham and Thistlethwaite, plus Trevor Hutchinson on bass and Peter McKinney on drums. This new band spent 1986 and 1987 recording in Dublin and touring the UK, Ireland, Europe and Israel, and in 1988 Scott took the band to Spiddal in the west of Ireland where they set up a recording studio in Spiddal House to finish recording their new album. 'Fisherman's Blues' was released in October 1988, and showcased many guest musicians that had played with the band in Dublin and Spiddal. Critics and fans were split between those embracing the new influence of Irish and Scottish folk music, with others being disappointed that it wasn't a continuation of the style of 'This Is the Sea', although over the years it has been re-evaluated and become one of the band's best-loved albums. Owing to the large number of tracks that were recorded in the three years between 'This Is the Sea' and 'Fisherman's Blues', the band released a second album of songs from those sessions, with 'Too Close To Heaven' coming out in 2001, and yet even after releasing two records made up of songs from those extensive sessions, there are still enough unreleased tracks for a third album, and so here it is. I've loved the band through all their incarnations, so to me this is a perfect companion to 'Fisherman's Blues', carrying on their 'Raggle Taggle' sound for a little bit longer, but rest assured that there will be more to come from earlier periods of the band in the future. 

Track listing

01 Carolan's Welcome
02 Killing My Heart
03 You In The Sky
04 When Will I Be Married
05 Nobody 'Cept You
06 Girl Of The North Country
07 Lonesome And A Long Way From Home
08 If I Can't Have You
09 Rattle My Bones And Shiver My Soul
10 Let Me Feel Holy Again
11 Meet Me At The Station
12 The Good Ship Sirius
13 Soon As I Get Home

Jerry Garcia - ...and on guitar (1974)

Jerry Garcia's musical career is inevitably closely intertwined with The Grateful Dead, but he also spent a lot of time in the recording studio helping out fellow musician friends in session work, often adding guitar, vocals, pedal steel, sometimes banjo and piano and even producing. Artists who sought his help included the likes of Jefferson Airplane (most notably 'Surrealistic Pillow', where he was listed as their 'spiritual advisor'), and where he also played uncredited guitar on 'Today', 'Plastic Fantastic Lover' and 'Comin' Back to Me'. He also added guitar to 'The Farm' from their 'Volunteers' album, as well as helping out Tom Fogerty, David Bromberg, Robert Hunter, Paul Pena, Peter Rowan, Warren Zevon, Country Joe McDonald, Pete Sears, Ken Nordine, Ornette Coleman, Bruce Hornsby, Bob Dylan, It's a Beautiful Day, and many more. He played pedal steel guitar for fellow-San Francisco musicians New Riders Of The Purple Sage from their initial dates in 1969 through to October 1971, when increased commitments with the Dead forced him to opt out of the group, but he does appear as a band member on their debut album 'New Riders Of The Purple Sage', and produced 'Home, Home On The Road'. He contributed pedal steel guitar to the enduring hit 'Teach Your Children' by Crosby, Stills, Nash, & Young, and also played it on Brewer & Shipley's 1970 album 'Tarkio', and despite considering himself a novice on the pedal steel, he routinely ranked high in player polls. This album is just a snapshot of the many artists that he's appeared with, covering just the years 1969 to 1974, and yet it still had to be a double album. 

Track listing 

Disc One
01 The Farm (from 'Volunteers' by Jefferson Airplane 1969)
02 Oh Mommy (from 'Tarkio' by Brewer & Shipley 1970)
03 Teach Your Children (from 'Déjà vu' by Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young 1970)
04 Starship (from 'Blows Against The Empire' by Paul Kantner/Jefferson Starship 1970)
05 Soul Fever (from 'Papa John Creach' by Papa John Creach 1971)
06 What Are Their Names (from 'If I Could Only Remember My Name' by David Crosby 1971)
07 Man In The Mirror (from 'Songs For Beginners' by Graham Nash 1971)
08 Change Partners (from 'Stephen Stills 2' by Stephen Stills 1971)
09 When I Was A Boy I Watched The Wolves (from 'Sunfighter' by Kantner/Slick 1971)

10 Hickory Day (from 'Rowan Brothers' by Rowan Brothers 1972)

11 Sick And Tired (from 'Excalibur' by Tom Fogerty 1972)

12 Southbound Train (from 'Graham Nash - David Crosby' by Crosby & Nash 1972)

Disc Two
01 Looks Like Rain (from 'Ace' by Bob Weir 1972)
02 Deep, Wide And Frequent (from 'Rolling Thunder' by Mickey Hart 1972)
03 Venutian Lady (from 'New Train' by Paul Pena 1973)

04 Expressway (To Your Heart) (from 'Fire Up' by Merl Saunders 1973)
05 Walkin' (from 'Baron von Tollbooth & The Chrome Nun' by Kantner/Slick/Freiberg 1973)
06 Down In The Willow Garden (from 'Angel Clare' by Art Garfunkel 1973)
07 Tuscon, Arizona (from 'Be What You Want To' by Link Wray 1973)
08 Someone Else's Blues (from 'Wanted Dead Or Alive' by David Bromberg 1974)
09 Standing At Your Door (from 'Tales Of The Great Rum Runners' by Robert Hunter 1974)

Cliff Richard - Our Story Book (1968)

We move back another few years for the next collection of non-album singles and b-sides from Cliff, and this time the quality was so good that I didn't have to omit any out of place tracks. Once again the timespan is pretty much three years, with just the final tracks creeping into 1968, so enjoy Cliff at his very best in the mid 60's. 

Track listing

01 The Time In-Between (single 1965)
02 Look Before You Love (b-side of 'The Time In-Between')
03 Wind Me Up (Let Me Go) (single 1965)
04 The Night (b-side of 'Wind Me Up (Let Me Go)')
05 Blue Turns to Grey (single 1966)
06 Somebody Loses (b-side of 'Blue Turns To Grey')
07 Visions (single 1966)
08 What Would I Do (For The Love Of A Girl) (b-side of 'Visions') 
09 It's All Over (single 1967)                               
10 I'll Come Runnin' (single 1967) 
11 I Get The Feelin' (b-side of 'I'll Come Runnin'')
12 The Day I Met Marie (single 1967) 
13 Our Story Book (b-side of 'The Day I Met Marie')
14 All My Love (Solo Tu) (single 1967)
15 High 'n' Dry (b-side of 'Congratulations')
16 Sweet Little Jesus Boy (b-side of 'All My Love (Solo Tu)')
17 Congratulations (single 1968)

Love - Black Beauty (1973)

In July 1968, eight months after Love's third album 'Forever Changes' was released, frontman Arthur Lee disbanded the original line-up, before regrouping with a completely new troupe of musicians, recording three albums with this new line-up, 'Four Sail' and 'Out Here' in 1969, and 'False Start' in 1970. Lee found limited success and was on the verge of obscurity, but following recording sessions with Jimi Hendrix in April 1970, he forsook his folk rock roots in favour of a hard rock approach. In 1972, he released his first solo effort 'Vindicator', featuring the first songs composed in the newly adapted style, but again it did not fare well with music critics or the public. Despite Lee's self-doubt and unwillingness to tour, he decided to persevere with another new line-up, recruiting drummer Joe Blocker, Melvan Whittington on lead guitar, and Robert Rozelle on bass. With record producer Paul Rothchild at the helm, Love recorded throughout mid-1973, with the resultant album intended to be released on Buffalo Records, a small indie label founded by Hair producer Michael Butler. However, before 'Black Beauty' could be distributed the company went bankrupt, and although some songs from the recording sessions did appear on 'Reel to Real' in 1974, 'Black Beauty' itself was consigned to the vaults. Over the years poor-quality releases of the 'Black Beauty' sessions have appeared, motivating Lee to push for an official release right up until his death in 2006. With his widow Diana overseeing the project, High Moon Records remastered the original acetates of the sessions, and released it on a limited edition of 5,000 vinyl copies in 2012, which are now long gone. One critic has proclaimed 'Black Beauty' to be the great lost Love album, praising the cohesive effort of the group, and the quality of the production, and while it will never reach the heights of their trilogy of classic albums of the late 60's, it's a welcome addition to the discography of a much-loved band.

Track listing

01 Young And Able (Good And Evil)

02 Midnight Sun

03 Can't Find It

04 Walk Right In

05 Skid

06 Beep Beep

07 Stay Away

08 Lonely Pigs

09 See Myself In You

10 Product Of The Times

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Herman's Hermits - The London Look (1968)

Herman's Hermits undoubtedly had their biggest success in the early to mid 60's, and with the onset of psychedelia towards to end of the decade they started to sound a bit out of step with the emergent psyche bands of the time. They did their best to try to keep up, and released their 'psychedelic' album 'Blaze' in the US in 1967, but while it was critically acclaimed in America, it didn't even warrant a UK release at the time. Although it did contain a couple of proto-psyche songs like 'Moonshine Man', most of it wasn't really that different from some of their previous work, and so wasn't a threat to the genuine psyche bands. I think the release of the soundtrack album to the film 'Mrs. Brown, You've Got A Lovely Daughter' confirmed to many that their heart wasn't really into competing with this new style of music, although there were a few random songs scattered around on singles, b-sides, and their albums which could have held their own in a psychedelic battle of the bands. I've picked what I think are the best examples of the band trying to keep up with their peers, after The Beatles kick-started the whole thing with 'Revolver' in 1966. While some of them still have that bubblegum pop feel that they couldn't seem to shed completely, they were trying their best, and even covered Nirvana's 'Wings Of Love' in 1968, so overall this shows the band maturing and looking forward to a new direction. Unfortunately they weren't able to consolidate on this new-found maturity, as Peter Noone left the band in 1970, going on to some solo success covering David Bowie's 'Oh! You Pretty Things', while the rest of the group gamely carried on, but struggled to find success without their lead singer.       

Track listing

01 Sunshine Girl (single 1968)

02 What Is Wrong - What Is Right (b-side of 'East West' 1966)

03 A Year Ago Today (previously unreleased)

04 Daisy Chain Part I (from the film 'Mrs. Brown, You've Got A Lovely Daughter' 1968)

05 Daisy Chain Part II (from the film 'Mrs. Brown, You've Got A Lovely Daughter' 1968)

06 Don't Try To Hurt Me (b-side of 'Bidin' My Time' 1966)

07 Wild Love (from the soundtrack of the film 'Hold On!' 1966)

08 Rattler (from 'There's A Kind Of Hush All Over The World' 1967)

09 Little Miss Sorrow, Child Of Tomorrow (from 'There's A Kind Of Hush....' 1967)

10 Big Ship (previously unreleased)

11 Wings Of Love (b-side of 'Big Man' 1968)

12 London Look (b-side of 'Sleepy Joe' 1968)

13 The Colder It Gets (previously unreleased)

search hermits aiwe

Soulseek update

I've now completed uploading all the albums from the site onto Soulseek, but if there are any missing then let me know as I could easily have missed some. How are people finding it as a way of accessing the music? I know a couple of people seem to be having trouble finding the albums, and Paul has mentioned that some artists have their name blocked in the searches, so a search for The Beatles, for instance, will bring no results, but 'abbey road' will. I've added 'aiwe' to all of the folders so that it only brings up my albums and you don't have to look through hundreds of others to find them, so if 'eric clapton aiwe' doesn't work, then try 'eric aiwe' or 'clapton aiwe', and if you still have no success then try an unusual word from a song title. The 101ers, for instance, gives no results, but searching 'motor aiwe' finds them. If anyone has trouble finding the album they want then leave a comment on the post, and I'll add the album to a special folder I've added called 'help aiwe', which should be easier to find as it won't be restricted. At the moment it has a Kate Bush and Fleetwood Mac album in it for the two visitors who are having issues. 
Hopefully you will soon get used to getting the music this way, and if it stops the blog being deleted again then it will all be worth it.

For anyone who is new to Soulseek, as I was a couple of weeks ago, here is a little tutorial which hopefully will help you find the albums. 

For anyone still having problems, Gummo couldn't access the files at first, and so downloaded what looks like an earlier version called SoulseekNS from here https://soulseek.en.softonic.com/download , and I've just tested it and it seems to work OK, even though it looks a bit clunky. If you can't get anything with QT then try this NS version.  

pj