Prince - ...and on guitar (2015)

Prince Rogers Nelson was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota, on June 7, 1958, the son of jazz singer Mattie Della and pianist and songwriter John Lewis Nelson, and both he and his sister Tyka developed a keen interest in music, which was encouraged by their father, writing his first song 'Funk Machine' on his father's piano when he was seven. When he was 10 his parents divorced, with his mother remarrying to Hayward Baker, with whom she had a son named Omarr. Prince had a fraught relationship with Omarr, to the extent that it caused him to repeatedly switch homes, sometimes living with his father and sometimes with his mother and stepfather. After a brief period of living with his father, who bought him his first guitar, Prince moved into the basement of his neighbours, the Anderson family, after his father kicked him out, and it was there that he befriended the Anderson's son, Andre, who later collaborated with Prince and became known as André Cymone. In 1973 Prince met songwriter and producer Jimmy Jam, and impressed him with his musical talent, early mastery of a wide range of instruments, and work ethic. In 1975, Pepe Willie, the husband of Prince's cousin Shauntel, formed the band 94 East with Marcy Ingvoldstad and Kristie Lazenberry, hiring André Cymone and Prince to record tracks. Willie wrote the songs, and Prince contributed guitar tracks, with Prince and Willie co-writing one song, 'Just Another Sucker'. The band recorded some songs which have since been re-issued as an album many times under different titles, including 'Minneapolis Genius – The Historic 1977 Recordings'. 

In 1976, Prince created a demo tape with producer Chris Moon, but he was unable to secure a recording contract, so Moon brought the tape to Owen Husney, a Minneapolis businessman, who signed the 19 year-old Prince to a management contract, and helped him create a demo at Sound 80 Studios in Minneapolis, which generated interest from Warner Bros. Records, A&M Records, and Columbia Records. With the help of Husney, Prince signed a recording contract with Warner Bros, who gave him creative control for three albums, and let him retain his publishing rights. Husney and Prince then left Minneapolis and moved to Sausalito, California, where Prince's first album 'For You' was recorded and released in 1978, with Prince writing, producing, arranging, composing, and playing all 27 instruments on the recording, except for the song 'Soft and Wet', whose lyrics were co-written with Moon. In 1979, Prince created a band with André Cymone on bass, Dez Dickerson on guitar, Gayle Chapman and Doctor Fink on keyboards, and Bobby Z. on drums, and released the 'Prince' album that year, and despite the record company thinking he needed more time to develop, the album hit the top five spot on the Billboard R&B/Black Albums chart, and the single 'I Wanna Be Your Lover' sold over a million copies. 

The same year he made the first of what was to become many guest appearances, although the following decade was to be particularly busy for him, and it was to be 1989 before he really started regularly guesting on other artist's albums. In 1980 he released the album 'Dirty Mind', which contained sexually explicit material, following this the next year with 'Controversy'. In 1981, Prince formed a side project band called The Time, who released four albums between 1981 and 1990, with Prince writing and performing most of the instrumentation and backing vocals, and at the same time releasing his own four-million selling album '1999', along with a string of hit singles, being the start of his world-domination over the next two decades. When he was asked to contribute to records by other musicians, it wasn't always by famous artists, and even into the 90's he was adding his guitar to tracks by Eric Leeds and Diamond And Pearl, as well as Kid Creole & The Coconuts and Mavis Staples. Similarly, in the 2000's he was guesting with Common and Rhonda Smith, as well as Stevie Wonder. In 2004 he was inducted into the Rock 'n' Roll Hall Of Fame, playing in the all-star band's version of 'While My Guitar Gently Weeps', alongside Tom Petty, Stevie Winwood, Jeff Lynne and others, and performing a stunning, un-rehearsed guitar solo at the end of the song. Other guest appearance were fairly sparse after that, with his final one before his death in 2016 being on Judith Hill's 'Back In Time' album. Although it might seem that more music has been released since his death than there was while he was alive, these guest appearance are generally over-looked as they tended not to be with the superstars that he hung out with, but lesser-known artists who would appreciate his contribution to their music. 

Track listing

Disc One
01 Fast Freddie The Roller Disco King (single by The Imperials 1979)
02 Got To Be Something Here (from 'The Lewis Connection' by Lewis Connection 1979)
03 Love Song (from 'Like A Prayer' by Madonna 1989) 
04 The Sex Of It (from 'Private Waters In The Great Divide' by Kid Creole 1990)
05 The Dopamine Rush (from 'Times Squared' by Eric Leeds 1991) 
06 51 Hours (single by Diamond And Pearl 1992)
07 Melody Cool (from 'The Voice' by Mavis Staples 1993)
08 Why Should I Love You (from 'The Red Shoes' by Kate Bush 1993) 

Disc Two
01 Star *69 (PS With Love) (from 'Electric Circus' by Common 2002)
02 Purple House (from 'Power Of Soul: A Tribute To Jimi Hendrix' 2004)
03 So What The Fuss (from 'A Time 2 Love' by Stevie Wonder 2005) 
04 While My Guitar Gently Weeps (from Rock 'n' Roll Hall Of Fame induction concert 2004) 
05 Time (from 'RS2' by Rhonda Smith 2006)
06 Raise Up (from 'Raise Up' by Larry Graham & Graham Central Station 2012) 
07 Givin' Em What They Love (from 'The Electric Lady' by Janelle Monáe 2013)
08 All Day, All Night  (from 'Back In Time' by Judith Hill 2015)

Various Artists - Glass Piano - A Tribute to Philip Glass (2017)

I'm a huge fan of the American composer and pianist Philip Glass, having first discovered him from his 'Glassworks' and 'The Photographer' albums in the 80's. I love repetition in music, which is why Krautrock is another favourite genre of mine, and over the years I've collected around 30 of his albums on vinyl, CD and digitally, covering his ensemble pieces, film soundtracks, operas, classical works, and collaborations with artists such as David Bowie and Ravi Shankar. I'll be the first to admit that he is very much an acquired taste, and you either love him or just don't get it, but I can play a piece such as 'Music In Twelve Parts', which is bascially just a couple of notes repeated over 40 minutes, and really get something out of it. In 1989 he released his 'Solo Piano' album, which comprised seven tracks, five of which were titled 'Metamorphosis One - Five', and which were inspired by the 1915 novella 'The Metamorphosis' by Franz Kafka. While all pieces were composed in 1988, some were written for a staging of 'Metamorphosis', while others were for the 1988 documentary film 'The Thin Blue Line', directed by Errol Morris. 'Mad Rush' was written in 1979 and is based on an earlier organ piece, and the title of the final composition is a reference to Allen Ginsberg's 1966 poem 'Wichita Vortex Sutra', and was composed, in collaboration with Ginsberg, for both a reading and recording of the poem. Some of the pieces on the album might be familiar to you, even if you didn't know who they are by, as 'Metamorphosis One' is played in an episode of 'Battlestar Galactica' by Kara "Starbuck" Thrace, and is also used in the series finale of 'Person Of Interest'. 'Metamorphosis Two' formed the basis of one of the main musical themes in the film 'The Hours', and is also the song that Pearl Jam use as their introduction music to concerts. Many pianists have recorded this music subsequently, and so as a way of easing you into the music of this exceptional and prolific composer, I've assembled interpretations by other artists of all seven tracks from 'Solo Piano'. 
Sia's 'Breathe Me', as used in the TV series 'Six Feet Under', takes portions of a replayed 'Metamorphosis One' as its piano bed, while world-famous harpist Lavinia Meijer has covered Glass's music before, and here gives a stunning interpretation of 'Metamorphosis Two'. You wouldn’t necessarily think that Dev Hynes, a guy known for sensual and well-mannered R&B, would be first choice to nail a cover of 'Metamorphosis Three', but Blood Orange did just that live on Sirius XMU. Bruce Brubaker is one of the most well-regarded interpreters of Philip Glass's discography, and in 2015 he released an album of Glass covers, some of which were electronic reimaginings, and the Biblo remix of 'Metamorphosis Four' is a sparse, haunting take on it. Some fans have even programmed Glass's music on Garage Band, in order to teach a novice how to play it, and Synthesia's take on 'Metamorphosis Five' is a good example. As 'Mad Rush' was based on one of Glass's own earlier organ pieces, then it's fitting for Adrian Foster to attempt it on a church organ, and to close the album we have Branka Parlic, a concert pianist known for re-imagining the works of minimalist composers, with her interpretation of 'Wichita Vortex Sutra'. It's a lovely end to this tribute to one of the most influential composers of the 20th Century, and while I know this post won't be for everyone, I hope you trust this blog enough by now to know that I wouldn't post anything that doesn't have some merit in the world of music.   

Track listing

01 Metamorphosis One - Sia ('Breathe Me')
02 Metamorphosis Two - Lavinia Meijer
03 Metamorphosis Three - Dev Hynes/Blood Orange
04 Metamorphosis Four - Bruce Brubaker (Biblo Remix)
05 Metamorphosis Five - Synthesia
06 Mad Rush - Adrian Foster

07 Wichita Vortex Sutra - Branka Parlic

Selections chosen by Andrew Winistorfer of Vinyl Me, Please magazine.

If you are completely unfamiliar with the work of Philip Glass, then your best introduction is these two beautiful pieces from his 'Glassworks' album, 'Rubric' and 'Facades'.

search   various aiwe

Lesley Duncan - Just For The Boy (1970)

Lesley Duncan was born in Stockton-on-Tees on August 12 1943 into a musical family, with her mother playing piano in clubs while her grandfather sang in the chapel choir. Lesley quit school just before her fifteenth birthday and soon after left home, traveling around the country and working various jobs, including waitressing in Scarborough and mother's helper in Wimbledon, and while waitressing in London in 1963, her brother Jimmy approached her with a few songs he had written, and invited Lesley to join him as songwriters. She and Jimmy walked into publishers Francis, Day & Hunter and sang their songs unaccompanied, and the pair were given a contract for a year with Jimmy receiving ten pounds a week and Lesley seven pounds. She had never sung publicly anywhere but made demo recordings of her songs and her manager took one of them to Parlophone, who signed her to a recording contract on the strength of her demo, and with no audition. The demo was 'I Want A Steady Guy', which became her first single, while the second Parlophone release, 'Tell Him'/'You Kissed Me Boy', was credited to Lesley and Jimmy, even though Jimmy had nothing to do with the writing of them. During this period, she also appeared in the 1963 film 'What A Crazy World' with Joe Brown, Marty Wilde, Alan Klein and Susan Maughan. She left Parlophone due to difficulties with producer Ron Richards, as she had wanted to record a cover of Doris Troy's 'Just One Look', as she was sure of its hit potential, but was told it would never be a hit. A few weeks later Richards produced the single for The Hollies, and it reached number two in the UK Charts. She then moved to Mercury Records, and her first self-composed single for them, 'When My Baby Cries' was later covered by other artists. 

Three more Mercury releases followed, with the final 'Hey Boy' including Dusty Springfield and Madeline Bell on backing vocals, and with the addition of Kiki Dee, all four of them would eventually feature as backing vocalists on an endless number of recordings. Following her time with Mercury, she had a brief period with RCA, releasing two singles, 'Lullaby'/'I Love You, I Love You' and the Goffin/King standard 'A Road To Nowhere', backed with her own 'Love Song', which became one of her most famous songs, with over 160 recorded versions of it. While working on sessions with Elton John for his 'Tumbleweed Connection' album, he asked to do one of her songs, and she suggested 'Love Song', which he recorded with Duncan playing acoustic guitar and singing backing vocals. Around 1971 she moved to CBS and released her first album, which was in a much more folky, introspective style than her 60's singles, and was the beginning of the second phase of her career, along the way becoming one of the UK's best-loved and most respected singer/songwriters. As so often happens, this acclaim didn't materialise until after her untimely death at the age of 66, with her albums much more popular now than they were on their release. To show that her song-writing talent was there right from the beginning, I've collected most of those 60's singles, including the original take of 'Love Song' complete with sound effects, for an album that celebrates the start of her burgeoning career.    

Track listing

01 I Want A Steady Guy (Lesley Duncan) ‎(single 1963)
02 Moving Away (Len Praverman) (b-side of 'I Want A Steady Guy')
03 You Kissed Me Boy (Jimmy & Lesley Duncan) (single 1964)
04 When My Baby Cries ‎(Lesley Duncan) (single 1964)
05 Did It Hurt? (Lesley Duncan) (b-side of 'When My Baby Cries')
06 Only The Lonely And Me (Lesley Duncan) (single 1964)
07 Just For The Boy ‎(Koppolman/Rubin) (single 1965)
08 See That Guy (Lesley Duncan) (b-side of 'Just For The Boy')
09 Run To Love (Lesley Duncan) (single 1965) 
10 Hey Boy ‎(Lesley Duncan) (single 1966)
11 I Go To Sleep (Ray Davies) (b-side of 'Hey Boy')
12 Lullaby (Lesley Duncan) (single 1968)
13 I Love You, I Love You (Lesley Duncan) (b-side of 'Lullaby') ‎
14 Sing Children Sing (Lesley Duncan) (single 1969)
15 Exactly Who You Are (Lesley Duncan) (b-side of 'Sing Children Sing')
16 A Road To Nowhere (Goffin/King) (single 1969)
17 Love Song (Lesley Duncan) (single 1970)

Parkville - The Peculiar Aftermath (2020)

Parkville are a folk-pop trio from Victoria’s Dandenong Ranges, with Liam, Michael and Dylan starting out in 2016 busking on the streets of Melbourne, with a driving Mumford & Sons-style backbone embellished with rich three-part vocal harmonies and soaring violin riffs. Their first EP was released in 2108, and received Australia-wide airplay throughout the year, leading to the release of two more singles in 2019, with 'Rooks' and 'Walkabout' catching the attention of critics who praised the bands vibrance and energy, and their eclectic instrumental arrangements. 'The Softest Murder' EP emerged in late 2019, including those two earlier singles, while 'Holly' was released last Christmas, bolstering their catalogue to now have enough songs to make up their debut album. I'm glad that Parkville are still around, as a number of bands from this series have now ceased to exist, so watch out for an actual album from these guys at some point.  

Track listing

01 Brother
02 Into The Sun
03 All My Years
04 Chicago
05 Shoes
06 Clearer
07 Brando
08 Shining
09 Reflections
10 The Peculiar Aftermath
11 Walkabout
12 Rooks
13 Come Around
14 Holly

The Verve - Original Insanity (1997)

Even though there had been enough left-over music from the 'Urban Hymns' sessions to provide b-sides for all the singles taken from it (see previous post), back in 2017 some additional songs that weren't included in the deluxe 20th anniversary edition of 'Urban Hymns' made their way onto YouTube. All of the tracks (uploaded between September 2nd - 5th 2017) appear to have been recorded during the same sessions that resulted in 'Urban Hymns', and it was speculated that one of the band members didn't want them included. A note on one of the video's descriptions stated that the uploader 'got this a while back from a friend who works at distribution at UMC', the label that put out the reissue. There were 11 songs in total, many of them long-speculated unreleased songs including 'All Ways Are Maybes', 'Wednesday Madness', 'Jalfrezi', 'Original Insanity', 'King Riff 2', 'Tina Turner', and 'Sweet & Sour'. There’s also a studio version of 'Oh Sister', and alternate mixes and early demos of 'This Time', 'Neon Wilderness', and 'Sonnet'. I grabbed them as soon as I saw them, although I believe that they are still up on Youtube, but here they are compiled into an album for your listening pleasure.

Track listing 

01 Sweet & Sour
02 Wednesday Madness
03 Neon Wilderness (Idea)
04 Jalfrezi
05 This Time (BeatNick Mix)
06 Tina Turner
07 Oh Sister
08 Sonnet (Acoustic Demo)
09 Original Insanity
10 All Ways Are Maybes
11 King Riff 2

Alvin Lee - ...and on guitar (1992)

Graham Anthony Barnes (aka Alvin Lee) was born on 19 December 1944, and began playing guitar at the age of 13. In 1960 he and Leo Lyons formed the core of the band he was most associated with, Ten Years After, after firstly being influenced by his parents' collection of jazz and blues records, but mostly being inspired by the advent of rock and roll. The band's big break came in 1969, when their performance at the Woodstock Festival was captured on film, and his lightning-fast playing helped catapult him to stardom, and soon the band was playing arenas and stadiums around the globe after the film brought Lee's music to a worldwide audience. Ten Years After released ten albums together, but by 1973 Lee was feeling limited by the band's style, with Columbia Records steering them into a pop direction following a radio hit with 'I'd Love To Change The World, while Lee preferred blues-rock, and so he left the band after their second Columbia LP. Along with American Christian rock pioneer Mylon LeFevre, and guests George Harrison, Steve Winwood, Ronnie Wood and Mick Fleetwood, he recorded and released 'On The Road To Freedom', which was acclaimed as being at the forefront of country rock. Also in 1973, he sat in on the Jerry Lee Lewis double album 'The Session...Recorded in London', and a year later, in response to a dare, he formed Alvin Lee & Company to play a show at the Rainbow Theatre in London, and released it as the double live album 'In Flight'. After guesting on records by George Harrison and Splinter in 1974, he played guitar on a couple of tracks on Bo Diddley's 'The 20th Anniversary of Rock 'n' Roll', and he finished the 70's with an outfit called Ten Years Later, with Tom Compton on drums and Mick Hawksworth on bass, releasing two albums and touring extensively throughout Europe and the United States. The 1980's brought another change in Lee's direction, with two albums that were collaborations with Rare Bird's Steve Gould, and a tour for which the former John Mayall and Rolling Stones guitarist Mick Taylor joined his band, and guest appearances ceased for most of that decade, only appearing on Roger Chapman's 'Techno-Prisoners' in 1987. Lee died on 6 March 2013 in Spain, as a result of unforeseen complications following a routine surgical procedure to correct an atrial arrhythmia. He was 68.

Track listing

01 Movin' On Down The Line (from 'The Session' by Jerry Lee Lewis 1973)
02 Gravy Train (from 'The Place I Love' by Splinter 1974)
03 Ding Dong Ding Dong (from 'Dark Horse' by George Harrison 1974)
04 Royal Majesty (from 'Anniversary Special: Volume One' by The Earl Scruggs Revue 1975)
05 Cat Dance (from 'Peter And The Wolf' Various Artists album 1975)
06 Kill My Body (from 'The 20th Anniversary Of Rock & Roll' by Bo Diddley 1976)
07 Wild Again (from 'Techno-Prisoners' by Roger Chapman 1987)
08 No Limit (from 'Guitar Speak' Various Artists album 1988)
09 I Love New York (from 'The Taiga Symphony' by Valeria 1991)
10 Jane (From 'Rockeye' by The Outfield 1992)

Mighty Baby - Day Of The Soup (1971)

Mighty Baby formed in January 1969 from the ashes of The Action, and released their debut, eponymous album at the end of that year. It was a collection of psychedelic rock songs, recorded the previous year, and was released on the small independent 'Head' record label in the UK, and on Chess in the United States. Over the course of 1970 several members of the band became Muslims, and their second album reflected the spiritual journey they had embarked on, with 'Jug Of Love' sounding little like its predecessor. Sessions for their third album commenced in 1970, with instrumental demos being recorded, but the band broke up in 1971, and the recordings for the provisionally titled 'Day Of The Soup' were shelved by the record company. The tracks have recently surfaced as part of a retrospective box set, along with some other rarities, like 'Winter Passes', which a composition that was used by Ian Whiteman as part of the requirements for his master’s degree in architecture, and features piano by the composer joined by Martin Stone on slide guitar, and vocal harmonies by Alan King and Whiteman. The main part of the album is the four-part 'Now You Don't', with Part 1 featuring an exotic mix of flute, tablas, organ, bass, drums and wah wah guitar with Mike Evans' bass line especially notable. Part 2 is dominated by waves of wah wah guitar by Stone, with Whiteman adding saxophone to the mix, while Part 3 retains Stone's wah wah, and Whiteman adds piano, organ and saxophone parts, but it is the precise time keeping of Evans and Roger Powell that comes to the fore. Part 4 shifts to an Eastern vibe with Stone's guitar and Whiteman's keys joined by Powell's tablas, and Stone’s guitar takes center stage and powers the tune to its close. Also included are two songs, 'Ancient Traveller' and 'Messages', which were included on the original acetate of that first album but which were omitted from the final version, and closing this collection is the non-album 'Devil's Whisper' single from 1971. 

Track listing

01 Ancient Traveller
02 Messages
03 Now You Don't (Part 1)
04 Now You Don't (Part 2)
05 Now You Don't (Part 3)
06 Now You Don't (Part 4)
07 Winter Passes
08 Devil's Whisper

Fire - Man In The Teapot (1968)

Fire was a late 60's psychedelic band that consisted of Dave Lambert, Bob Voice and Dick Dufall, with Paul Brett joining them to record their now classic 'Magic Shoemaker' LP at Pye Studios London in 1970. Original vinyl copies of this release have long been in the UK's top 10 of collectible vinyl, but although Fire were around for several years and managed to issue a couple of singles as well as the album, those releases were not wholly representative of the band's entire repertoire, with their classic single 'Father's Name Is Dad' being almost as famous and collectible as the album. Recent reissues and anthologies have unearthed previously unreleased recordings from 1967 to 1969, often showing a much heavier side to the band, but also, in the case of the 'Round The Gum Tree' single, which the band didn’t play on, though Dave Lambert did sing on the A-side, having a knack for the twee novelty song. Because these unheard songs span a three year period, they do cover psychedelic pop right through to extended heavy rock outings, but by taking just the songs which fit in best with the early sound of the 'Father's Name Is Dad' single and its b-side, there is a great little album hidden away in there, so here is what could have been the precursor to the 'Magic Shoemaker' if someone had had faith in them in the late 60's. Dave Lambert, of course, went on to join The Strawbs, and Paul Brett formed Sage, with Dick Dufall joining him in that band, but their first group will always be remembered as being responsible for one of the most intriguing psyche-pop albums of the 70's.  

Track listing
 
01 Treacle Toffee World
02 Happy Sound 
03 I Didn’t Know You
04 Father’s Name Is Dad
05 I've Still Got Time
06 Spare A Copper
07 Man In The Teapot
08 I Know You Inside Out
09 It's Just Love
10 I Just Can't Wait
11 Green-Legged Auntie Sally
12 Will I Find Love

Berries - Faults (2021)

Berries are a three piece rock band who have honed an engaging, punchy rock sound that’s filled with delicious melodies and naughty fuzzy riffs. The band was first formed through Holly (guitar and vocals) and Lauren (bass), who grew up together in Norfolk, played in different bands on the same bills and jammed through their shared musical influences like Jimi Hendrix, Red Hot Chili Peppers and The Subways. They didn’t get around to starting a band together until they moved to London and met Lucie (drums) who, in their words, “totally got the style straight away.” The band released their 'Lies' EP in 2019, which followed singles 'Discreetly', 'Wild Vow' and 'Faults', all of which were posted on Soundcloud, along with a number of other songs. It all went very quiet after the EP came out, and then they suddenly posted a radio edit of a new song last month, so they're still going strong, and while we wait for an album from them, I've gathered together the tracks they've posted so far to make a great album length release from this superb indie rock band.   

Track listing

01 Siren
02 Waiting
03 Never Smiled Once

04 Lights
05 Those Funny Things
06 Written In Paint
07 Wild Vow
08 Faults
09 Discreetly
10 Lies
11 Wits
12 Dangerous
13 Silent
14 Copy

The Verve - Suburban Hymns (1997)

By 1997 The Verve seemed set for crossover success, with 'A Northern Soul' putting them in the spotlight, but the band were burnt out by the usual rock'n'roll symptoms of excess and exhaustion, and mainman Richard Ashcroft rashly split the group just before 'History' began climbing the charts. As events proved, however, the band’s split was only temporary, and within weeks The Verve were back in business, albeit minus guitarist Nick McCabe, but with the addition of new guitarist/keyboardist Simon Tong, an old school friend who’d originally taught Ashcroft and bassist Simon Jones to play guitar. The band already had working versions of some emotive new songs, including 'Sonnet' and 'The Drugs Don’t Work', and instead of the exploratory jams that produced The Verve’s earlier material, these vividly and finely-honed songs were the logical extension of 'A Northern Soul's plaintive ballads 'History' and 'On Your Own', and they reflected the direction the band were pursuing as they started work on what would become 'Urban Hymns'. Sessions were protracted, cutting demos at Peter Gabriel’s Real World studios in Bath, and then with 'A Northern Soul' producer Owen Morris, before the album sessions proper commenced with producers Youth and Chris Potter at London’s Olympic Studios in Barnes. At Ashcroft’s instigation, string arranger Wil Malone was brought in and his swirling scores added a further dimension to a number of the album’s key tracks, including 'The Drugs Don’t Work' and 'Lucky Man'. During the sessions, The Verve expanded to a quintet after the estranged Nick McCabe was welcomed back into the fold, adding his inimitable magic to the guitars already precisely layered by Simon Tong. Assisted further by what Ashcroft enthusiastically refers to as the 'loose discipline' of Youth’s production methods, the band emerged from the painstaking Olympic sessions knowing they had created something that would have a lasting impact, recording much more music than could be fitted onto the album that they were aiming to make. Many of these left-over tracks later appeared as b-sides to the singles lifted from the album, and there are in fact so many of them that they can make up an album in their own right. 'Urban Hymns' has since gone on to be regarded as one of the best albums ever made, and because this music was recorded at the same time, then 'Suburban Hymns' serves as a impressive complementary album to its parent record. 

 
Track listing

01 Country Song (b-side of 'Bittersweet Symphony' 1997)
02 Echo Bass (b-side of 'Sonnet' 1997)
03 Lord I Guess I'll Never Know (b-side of 'Bittersweet Symphony' 1997)
04 Never Wanna See You Cry (b-side of 'Lucky Man' 1997)
05 So Sister (b-side of 'Sonnet' 1997)
06 MSG (b-side of 'Lucky Man' 1997)
07 The Crab (b-side of 'The Drugs Don't Work' 12" single 1997)
08 Stamped (b-side of 'Sonnet' 1997)
09 The Longest Day (b-side of 'Lucky Man' 1997)
10 Three Steps (b-side of 'The Drugs Don't Work' 1997)
11 Monte Carlo (previously unreleased 1997)
12 This Could Be My Moment (previously unreleased 1997)

Post updates

I've been playing some of the older albums that I put together over the last year (what else was there to do for the past 12 months?), and I've noticed that a few of them had little things wrong with them that detracted from a complete listening experience, so I've fixed them and the corrected files can now be downloaded to upgrade the original post.

Country Mike - Country Mike's Greatest Hits
Firstly, I've finally managed to source a stereo vinyl rip of 'Country Mike's Greatest Hits', which was the cause of some controversy when I first posted it. As every copy that I found online was a mono one, I was convinced that the album must have been issued like that, but after some heated discussions in the comments, I was assured that a stereo version must exist, and it's taken this long to find it. 

Other fixes are not as drastic as that, so if you have the following albums and want an upgraded version then you can download them now. 

Amy Winehouse - Procrastination - Long Day
Elton John - Young Man's Blues - Rock Me When He's Gone
I can't actually remember what was wrong with these two, possibly dodgy fadeouts or over-long/no gaps between the tracks, but they are now fixed.

Deep Purple - Coronarias Redig
Extra track added that was somehow missed from the original post.

Cerrone - Supernatural Paradise Of Love
I wasn't happy with a couple of the edits, so have redone the whole piece.

Misty In Roots - Salvation
Dub section of 'Rich Man' volume corrected to be the same as the vocal part.

Soulseek update

I know that there are a few people who can't seem to get Soulseek to work, but hopefully most of you are now using it regularly, and finding that it works pretty well. I've had a couple of days where my searches didn't seem to bring up any of my results, so I had to reboot and that seems to have fixed it. 
If you find that your searches don't bring up any results then do bear in mind that if no-one is downloading something when I go to bed then I do turn off the laptop, so try try again in six to seven hours and see if the searches work then. If not then leave a message and I'll try the reboot to see if that fixes it.  

I have to thank Paul over at Albums That Should Exist for turning me onto Soulseek, as not only has it been an ideal solution to sharing my music without leaving links, and risking the blog being deleted again, but I've also used it to find albums that I'd been after for a while that I hadn't been able to find online. I hope that everyone who started using it when I reinstated the blog is also using it to find other music that they want to hear from other uploaders.

If you find that you have absolutely no luck in getting Soulseek to work then leave a message in the comments with your email address and I'll send direct Yandex links, and then delete the comment to keep your email private. When I've sent the first link you will have my email address for future requests. 

Chris Spedding - ...and on guitar (1972)

Christopher John Spedding was born Peter Robinson on 17 June 1944 in Staveley, Derbyshire, and was adopted by Muriel and Jack Spedding after his father was killed in the war, and they renamed him Christopher John Spedding. In a career spanning more than 50 years, he is best known for his studio session work, although he has also had a fairly successful solo career, releasing a number of well-received albums. He started listening to rock'n'roll in the 50's, starting with Bill Haley, Buddy Holly, Elvis, Gene Vincent and Eddie Cochran, and as he'd been learning the violin since the age of 9, he started strumming it like a guitar, until he got his first real instrument when he was 13. At this time Spedding went back to Sheffield and attended Abbeydale Grammar School, where he formed a band called the Vulcans, and in 1961 he left school and moved to London, where he got a job in a music shop. At the same time he was also gigging in a C&W band around the American Air Force bases, which is where he met Frank Ricotti, with whom he started a weekly jazz club in an Islington pub. Spedding mostly played in jazz bands in the early to mid 60's, and when the British blues boom emerged in the late 60's, he disliked playing in that style so much that he only played bass until he found a guitar sound that he felt comfortable with. 

In 1967 he joined Pete Brown And His Battered Ornaments, and wrote 'Sunshades' for their 1969 'Mantle-Piece' album, as well as co-authoring a couple of other songs, and at the same time he also joined the Frank Ricotti Quartet, co-writing 'Late Into The Night' with Pete Brown for their sole 1969 album. Around this time he was much in demand as a session guitarist, with quite a few of his gigs being with jazz or jazz-based musicians, like Jack Bruce, Michael Gibbs, and Bob Downes, and in 1970 he joined Nucleus, who recorded their first album early that year, with 'Elastic Rock' including three Spedding co-writes. His renown as a jazz guitarist was such that he was voted second in the Best Jazz Guitarist category in the Melody Maker poll of 1970, and to capitalise on that he recorded his first solo album, a jazz record titled 'Songs Without Words' later that year, although it was only released in Japan at the time, and was not made more widely available until an edited version sanctioned by Spedding was released in 2015. While a member of Nuclues he continued with his session work, contributing to tracks by Julie Driscoll and Linda Hoyle, as well as jazz saxophonist extraordinaire Dick Heckstall-Smith. However, although jazz was his first love, Spedding could turn his hand to almost any style of guitar-playing, and so early 70's sessions also found him appearing on recordings by Mike d'Abo, Lesley Duncan, Harry Nilsson, Roger Cook, Elton John, and Sixto Rodriguez, who was later the subject of the 2012 documentary 'Searching For Sugar Man'. 

To show just how versatile he was, I've split this double disc set into one of his jazz recordings and one of his pop/rock recordings, and although this post finishes at 1972, his career still had much further to go, forming Sharks that year with ex-Free bassist Andy Fraser and recording two albums with them, before touring and recording with John Cale, and playing with Roy Harper's occasional backing band Trigger, notably on 1975's 'HQ' album. Between 1972 and 1976 he played in Mike Batt's novelty band The Wombles, and confirmed on the Marc Riley show on BBC Radio 6 Music that he once performed on television in a Womble suit, and in 1975 he had his first Top 20 solo hit in the UK with 'Motor Bikin'', which he promoted with television appearances on Top Of The Pops and Supersonic, dressed in leather motorcycling gear, and with greased hair. On his 1976 single 'Pogo Dancing' he was backed by UK punk band The Vibrators, but when further hits failed to materialise, he concentrated on his career as a session guitarist, appearing and recording with Bryan Ferry, Roxy Music, Elton John, Brian Eno, Jack Bruce, Nick Mason, Art Garfunkel, Typically Tropical, Katie Melua, and Ginger Baker, amongst many, many others. In 1976 he even produced three demo tracks by The Sex Pistols, and there are persistent rumours that he played guitar and bass on their debut album 'Never Mind The Bollocks, Here's The Sex Pistols', although guitarist Steve Jones emphatically denies this. Spedding's career has continued right up to the present day, releasing a live album just last year, but this is where it all started for him, adding his skill and versatility to dozens of recordings in the early 70's. 

Track listing

Disc One
01 Sunshades (from 'Mantle-Piece' by The Battered Ornaments 1969)
02 Late Into The Night (from 'Our Point Of View' by Frank Ricotti Quartet 1969)
03 Tickets To Waterfalls (from 'Songs For A Tailor' by Jack Bruce 1969)
04 Got No Home (from 'Deep Down Heavy' by Bob Downes 1970)
05 Persephone's Jive (from 'Greek Variations & Other Aegean Exercises' by Neil Ardley 1970)
06 Throb (from 'Michael Gibbs' by Michael Gibbs 1970)
07 A New Awakening (from '1969' by Julie Driscoll 1971)
08 Twisted Track (from 'Elastic Rock' by Nucleus 1970)
09 The Pirate's Dream (from 'A Story Ended' by Dick Heckstall-Smith 1972)
10 Pieces Of Me (from 'Pieces Of Me' by Linda Hoyle 1971)
11 Technology (from 'Solid Gold Cadillac' by Solid Gold Cadillac 1972)

Disc Two
01 Woman In My Life (from 'd'Abo' by Mike d'Abo 1970)
02 Philwit's Fantasies (from 'Philwit & Pegasus' by Philwit & Pegasus 1970)
03 Daffodils (from 'Loudwater House' by Tony Hazzard 1971)
04 Mr. Rubin (from 'Sing Children Sing' by Lesley Duncan 1971)
05 Hampstead Way (from 'Say No More...' by Linda Lewis 1971)
06 Climb Up On My Music (from 'Coming From Reality' by Rodriguez 1971)
07 Down (from 'Nilsson Schmilsson' by Nilsson 1971)
08 Madman Across The Water (from 'Madman Across The Water' by Elton John 1971)
09 Avalon (from 'Matthew Ellis' by Matthew Ellis 1972)
10 Penthouse Pauper (from 'Panhandle' by Panhandle 1972)
11 Virginia (from 'Queues' by Vigrass & Osborne 1972)
12 One More Time Around (from 'Vaughan Thomas' by Vaughan Thomas 1972)
13 Oh Babe (from 'Meanwhile... Back At The World' by Roger Cook 1972)
14 Bonus Track 

For a full history of the life of Chris Spedding, and a complete list of all his session work, then check out http://chrisspedding.com/session/ssn.htm

My Invisible Friend - Sleepless (2016)

My Invisible Friend are an Italian shoegaze/noise rock band with a hint of darkened Krautrock and even a tad of drone music thrown in there for good measure. Their music blasts away with noise-orientated feedback over catchy and diverse shoegaze riffs and a powerful and echoed sound that is contrasted with barely audible vocals, evoking some sort of dream pop element into the mix. They released a few songs on Soundcloud around 2015, and then issued a self-titled EP in 2016, consisting of just three tracks, but which lasted over half an hour. All three tracks are superb pieces of music, with a dream pop tune layered with all matter of reverb, echo and noise drowning out the breathy and alluring vocals, with the closing 'Sleepless' being an eighteen-minute tour-de-force. I haven't seen anything from the band since the EP came out, so I've a feeling that they are no more, but they've left behind an album's work of outstanding psychedelic/noise/drone rock which will be their legacy. 

Track Listing

01 Dear Mary
02 O.N.S.
03 Green Sight
04 Sleepless
05 Eyes
06 Endless