Ry Cooder - ...and on guitar (1971)

Ryland Peter Cooder was born on 15 March 1947 in Los Angeles, California, growing up in Santa Monica, California, and graduating from Santa Monica High School in 1964. He began playing the guitar when he was three years old, and a year later he accidentally stuck a knife in his left eye and has had to wear a glass eye ever since. As a youngster he performed as part of a pickup trio with Bill Monroe and Doc Watson, in which he played banjo, but although the band was not a success, it did inspire him to apply banjo tunings and the three-finger roll to guitar instead. He first attracted attention playing with Captain Beefheart and his Magic Band, notably on the 1967 album 'Safe As Milk', after previously having worked with Taj Mahal and Ed Cassidy in the Rising Sons. At a warm-up gig shortly before the Monterey Pop Festival in 1967, Don Van Vliet froze, straightened his tie, then walked off the 10 ft stage and landed on manager Bob Krasnow, later claiming he had seen a girl in the audience turn into a fish, with bubbles coming from her mouth. Cooder decided that this unprofessionalism was the final straw in an already strained relationship, and that he could no longer work with Van Vliet, effectively starting his career as a session musician. In 1968 he played with Randy Newman on his '12 Songs' album, as well recording sessions with The Rolling Stones in 1968 and 1969, with his contribution on mandolin appearing on 'Let It Bleed' and his slide guitar on 'Sticky Fingers', and later teaming up with Mick Jagger, Charlie Watts, Bill Wyman, and longtime Rolling Stones sideman Nicky Hopkins to record the 'Jamming with Edward!' album. Cooder also played bottleneck guitar on the original version of Little Feat's 'Willin'', and contributed slide and bottleneck guitar to a vast array of US singer/songwriters in the early 70's, including Marc Benno, Arlo Guthrie, Scott McKenzie, Ron Elliott, Mark LeVine and Gordon Lightfoot, and in particular on the truly stunning version of the Dionne Warwick/Cilla Black classic 'Anyone Who Had A Heart' by Eve. Throughout the 70's, Cooder released a series of albums that showcased his guitar work, starting with his eponymous debut in 1970, and releasing an album every year until the late 80's. These records explored bygone musical genres and found old-time recordings which he then personalized and updated, and on his breakthrough album 'Into The Purple Valley' he chose unusual instrumentations and arrangements of blues, gospel, calypso, and country songs. During the 80's he moved into film soundtracks, and his contribution to Wim Wnders' 'Paris, Texas' is regarded as some of his best work, but for this collection we're just looking at his session-work on albums from other artists in the early 70's. As Cooder is recognised as one of the foremost exponents of the slide and bottleneck guitar, I've chosen just tracks which feature those instruments, and have still managed to fill two volumes from just four years of recordings..

Track listing

Disc One
01 Sure 'Nuff 'N' Yes I Do (from 'Safe As Milk' by Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band 1967)
02 Richard Lee (from 'Pilgrim's Progress' by Mark LeVine 1968)
03 Heavy On My Mind (from 'LA, Memphis & Tyler, Texas' by Dale Hawkins 1968)
04 Don't Talk Now (from 'Longbranch/Pennywhistle' by Longbranch/Pennywhistle 1968)
05 Smokey Joe's Cafe (from 'The Anders & Poncia Album' by Anders & Poncia 1968)
06 Struttin' Down Main Street (from 'Border Town' by Fusion 1969) 
07 Something Better (single by Marianne Faithfull 1969)
08 Soft Soundin' Music (from 'Harpers Bizarre 4' by Harpers Bizarre 1969)
09 Teach It To The Children (from 'Marc Benno' by Marc Benno 1970)
10 Natural Magic (from the soundtrack of the film 'Performance' 1970)
11 Look In The Mirror (from 'Stained Glass Morning' by Scott McKenzie 1970)
12 Deep River Runs Blue (from 'The Candlestickmaker' by Ron Elliott 1970)
13 Go Back Upstairs (from 'Salty' by Alex Richman 1970)

Disc Two
01 Let's Burn Down The Cornfield (from '12 Songs' by Randy Newman 1970)
02 Me And Bobby McGee (from 'If You Could Read My Mind' by Gordon Lightfoot 1970)
03 Anyone Who Had A Heart (from 'Take It And Smile' by Eve 1970)
04 Willin' (from 'Little Feat' by Little Feat 1970)
05 Fence Post Blues (from 'Washington County' by Arlo Guthrie 1970
06 Don't Drink The Water (from 'Don Everly' by Don Everly 1970)
07 Song For Judith (from 'Living' by Judy Collins 1971)
08 The Blues (All Night Long) (from 'Stories' by David Blue 1971)
09 Mr. Money (from 'Possum' by Possum 1971)
10 Born Under A Bad Sign (from 'Rita Coolidge' by Rita Coolidge 1971)

11 Sister Morphine (from 'Sticky Fingers' by The Rolling Stones 1971)
12 Dirty, Dirty (from 'Crazy Horse' by Crazy Horse 1971)

Thanks to whoever it as who suggested Ry Cooder (sorry I can't find your name) but it's a great addition to the series. 

search cooder aiwe

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.

Elkie Brooks - Hello Stranger (1974)

Elaine Bookbinder was born on 25 February 1945 in Salford, north west England, and raised in nearby Prestwich, coming from a musical family, with her father being a local bandleader and one of her brothers, Tony, going on to become the drummer for Billy J Kramer and the Dakotas (under the name Tony Mansfield). After leaving school in 1960, she headed for London, where she performed with the Eric Delaney Band and jazz musician Humphrey Lyttelton, for a while using the stage name Elaine Mansfield, before finally deciding on Elkie Brooks. After passing an audition, Don Arden became her manager, and he saw her as a kind of Mancunian answer to Brenda Lee, though her voice had yet to develop the husky tones she would later be known for. In 1964 she landed a recording contract with Decca, and one of the first things that label bosses did was to send her off to Belgium, to take part in the Knokke Cup, competing against the likes of Germany's Ria Bartok and the Netherlands' Rita Hovink and Trea Dobbs. Back in the UK, she recorded her fist single 'Something's Got A Hold On Me', which was issued in June 1964, but as the gospel into of the song - a cover of a two-year-old single by US soul singer Etta James - was not a sound that British record buyers were overly familiar with, the record sank. 'Nothing Left To Do But Cry' was issued as the follow-up in September, with Brooks promoting the single in earnest, including making her debut television appearance, and although it wasn't a hit, the track has gone on to become a Northern soul dance favourite. She gained further live experience by appearing on pop package tours alongside groups such as The Animals, and in late 1964 she supported The Beatles on tour, with The Yardbirds, Freddie and the Dreamers and others. 

In 1965 Decca released a version of The Temptations' 'The Way You Do The Things You Do', but when this didn't provide the hoped-for breakthrough hit she was dropped by Decca and moved to the HMV label. Her first record for the new label was 'He's Gotta Love Me' in early 1965, and it's generally considered one of her finest recordings of the period, with this being followed by a cover of the Leslie Gore tune 'All My Life' in October. In February 1966 'Baby Let Me Love You' became her final single for HMV, leaving the label after feeling that the material she recorded for them was meaningless and having no depth. Her disappointment when she joined Brian Epstein’s NEMS record label in 1969 must therefore have been palpable, with a third-placed song in that years A Song For Europe being chosen as the A-side of her first single for the label. 'Come September' was certainly a change in style, but it was better than performing in cabaret in a succession of northern clubs, which is what she'd been doing between leaving HMV and signing with NEMS. Just one further single was issued on NEMS in 1969, with 'Groovie Kinda Love' being credited to Elki And Owen And The Rim Ram Band, before she met and married Pete Gage the following year, and the two of them formed the rock-fusion band Dada. With the addition of Robert Palmer they changed their name to Vinegar Joe, and achieved a certain notoriety for the sexual chemistry they displayed in their live performances, with the band also going on to record a number of well-received albums. After Vinegar Joe split in 1974, Brooks signed with A&M Records, and in 1977 she finally scored her first international hit single with 'Pearl's A Singer', and she hasn't looked back since. To see how she got there, just listen to these early singles and hear that the talent was always there, if only the public had taken notice a little sooner.

Track listing

01 Something's Got A Hold On Me (single 1964)
02 Hello Stranger (b-side of 'Something's Got A Hold On me')
03 Nothing Left To Do But Cry (single 1964)
04 Strange Tho' It Seems (b-side of 'Nothing Left To Do But Cry')
05 The Way You Do The Things You Do (single 1965)
06 Blue Tonight (b-side of 'The Way You Do The Things You Do')
07 He's Gotta Love Me (single 1965)
08 When You Appear (b-side of 'He's Gotta Love Me')
09 All Of My Life (single 1965)
10 Can't Stop Thinking Of You (b-side of 'All Of My Life')
11 Baby Let Me Love You (single 1966)
12 Stop The Music (b-side of 'Baby Let Me Love You')
13 Groovie Kinda Love (single with Owen And The Rim Ram Band 1969)
14 Come September (single 1969)
15 Rescue Me (single 1974)
16 Lady Of The Rain (b-side of 'Rescue Me')

Ganser - Pyrrhic Victory (2016)

Ganser have been kicking around the Chicago DIY scene since around January 2014, when Nadia Garofalo and Alicia Gaines were both students at the School of the Art Institute, bonding over their shared love of The Residents, outsider communities, and transgressive filmmakers like John Waters and David Lynch. In the summer of 2015 Charlie Landsman responded to a Facebook ad, and with the addition of Brian Cundiff, the band started rehearing and recording. Songs soon started to appear on Soudcloud and Bandcamp, and in 2016 one of them alerted me to the band, and their dark-post-punk-wave sound, particularly the spikey guitars of 'Sunk', which reminded me of the much-loved The Gang Of Four. They released their debut LP 'Odd Talk' in 2018, which was full of dissonant guitar, abstract lyrical segues, bassline hooks, and drumbeat sinkers, and they followed last year with their second album 'Just Look At That Sky', both of which are available from Bandcamp. Their sound is born of bands such as Joy Division, Mission of Burma, The Birthday Party, Savages, Priests, and while there’s no shortage of outfits with similar influences, Ganser manages to craft a sound familiar and refreshing at the same time, each member adding their own twisted bent to their songs where needed. Amazingly, neither album included a single one of the songs they'd posted to Soundcloud, and so this collections of those tracks could be classed as their real debut album, and superb stuff it is too.

Track listing

01 Smelling Salts
02 Losing Light
03 Audrey
04 Battery
05 Sadwerk
06 Pyrrhic Victory

07 Sunk
08 (what are you doing here?)
09 Machine Men
10 Candor
11 Strategies For Living

Paul Simon & Art Garfunkel as Tom & Jerry - Two Teen-Agers (1967)

Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel grew up in the 1940's and 1950's in their predominantly Jewish neighborhood of Kew Gardens Hills in Queens, New York, three blocks away from one another. They attended the same schools, and were both fascinated by music, listening to the radio and being taken with rock and roll as it emerged, particularly the Everly Brothers. Simon first noticed Garfunkel singing in a fourth grade talent show, which Simon thought was a good way to attract girls. He hoped for a friendship, which started in 1953, when they appeared in a sixth grade adaptation of Alice in Wonderland, after which they formed The Peptones, a streetcorner doo-wop group with three friends, learning to harmonize along the way. In 1956 they wrote their first song, 'The Girl for Me', and then, while trying to remember the lyrics to the Everly Brothers song 'Hey Doll Baby', they wrote 'Hey Schoolgirl', which they recorded for $25 at Sanders Recording Studio in Manhattan. While recording, they were overheard by promoter Sid Prosen, who signed them to his independent label Big Records after speaking to the 15-year old's parents. Under Big Records, Simon and Garfunkel assumed the name Tom & Jerry - Garfunkel named himself Tom Graph, a reference to his interest in mathematics, and Simon chose Jerry Landis, after the surname of a girl he had dated. Their first single 'Hey Schoolgirl' was released with 'Dancin' Wild' on the b-side in 1957, and after Prosen bribed DJ Alan Freed $200 to play the single on his radio show, it attracted regular rotation on nationwide AM pop stations, leading it to sell over 100,000 copies and landing on Billboard's charts at number 49. Despite this early success, neither of their next two singles for Big Records got anywhere near the charts, and so after graduating from Forest Hills High School in 1958, the pair continued their education should a music career not unfold, with Simon studying English at Queens College, City University of New York, and Garfunkel studying architecture before switching to art history at Columbia College, Columbia University. 

While still with Big Records as a duo, Simon released a solo single 'True Or False' under the name True Taylor, which upset Garfunkel, who regarded it as a betrayal, and the emotional tension from the incident occasionally surfaced throughout their relationship. They continued recording as solo artists while together as Tom & Jerry, with Garfunkel's own 'Private World' and 'Beat Love' being released under the name of Artie Garr, while Simon recorded with the Mystics and Tico & The Triumphs, and wrote and recorded under the names Jerry Landis and Paul Kane. After graduating in 1963, Simon joined Garfunkel, who was still at Columbia University, to perform again as a duo, this time with a shared interest in folk music. By late 1963, billing themselves as Kane & Garr, they played at Gerde's Folk City, performing three new songs - 'Sparrow', 'He Was My Brother', and 'The Sound of Silence' — which attracted the attention of Columbia Records staffer Tom Wilson, and they were signed after auditioning 'The Sound Of Silence' for the label. Simon & Garfunkel's debut studio album 'Wednesday Morning, 3 A.M.' was recorded over three sessions in March 1964 and released in October, and with five compositions by Simon, it heralded a new sound on the folk circuit. Simon was adamant that they would no longer use stage names, so the record was issued under the name of Simon & Garfunkel, and Tom & Jerry were no more. In 1967 the UK label Allegro released an album of Tom & Jerry singles, but attributed them to Simon & Garfunkel, and put a contemporary photo on the cover, with this attempt to portray the record as a new Simon & Garfunkel album so incensing Simon that he took legal action to get the album withdrawn on both sides of the Atlantic. The one odd thing about the Allegro collection was the inclusion of two instrumental tracks, the mournful 'Tijuana Blues', and the jazzy 'Simon Says', which were previously unheard, but unlike any of their other recordings. This short-ish album collects all the duo's tracks recorded as Tom & Jerry, as well as the afore-mentioned 'Beat Love' by Artie Garr, and an otherwise unreleased song by Jerry Landis as a bonus. 

Track listing

01 Hey Schoolgirl (single November 1957)
02 Dancin' Wild (b-side of 'Hey Schoolgirl')
03 That's My Story (single May 1958)
04 (Pretty Baby) Don't Say Goodbye (b-side of 'That's My Story')
05 Our Song (single February 1958)
06 Two Teen-Agers (b-side of 'Our Song')
07 Baby Talk (single June 1958)
08 Lookin' At You (single May 1959)
09 I'm Lonesome (b-side of 'Lookin' At You')
10 Surrender, Please Surrender (single August 1962)
11 Fightin' Mad (b-side of 'Surrender, Please Surrender')
12 Tijuana Blues (single October 1967)
13 Simon Says (b-side of 'Tijuana Blues')
14 Flame (recorded by Jerry Landis 1961)
15 Beat Love (single by Artie Garr October 1959)

The Rolling Stones - Travelin' Man (1970)

Once 'Necrophilia' had been put to one side I was able to remove the duplicate songs that were on there from the 'Catfish' bootleg that I'd found, and I ended up with 49 minutes of music, which I've re-sequenced and given a new cover, for the second of these collections of late 60's and early 70's rarities from The Stones. Following a comment about 'Loving Sacred Loving', I've determined that both that song and 'Shades Of Orange' were actually by Bill Wyman's proteges The End rather than the Stones. I first though that he might have taken the songs to rehearsals for the Stones to try out, but comparing both versions shows that isn't the case, so I've performed a major overhaul, removing those those two tracks, re-titled it and given it a new cover. Luckily it was a lengthy album, so is still 43 minutes long even after the edit, and I've also given the title track a proper intro compared to other bootlegs of the song.  

Track listing

 

01 I Can See It (RCA Studios, Hollywood 1966)

02 Mr. Spector And Mr. Pitney Came Too (Regent Sound Studios, London 1964)

03 Cocksucker Blues (RS Mobile Recording Studio, Newbury 1970)

04 Leather Jacket (Olympic Sound Studios, London 1970)

05 Stuck Out All Alone (Olympic Sound Studios, London 1968)

06 Catfish (unknown studio or year)

07 Alladin Story (Trident Studios, London 1969)

08 And I Was A Country Boy (Olympic Sound Studios, London 1969)

09 Potted Shrimp (Olympic Sound Studios, London 1970)

10 Travelin' Man (Olympic Sound Studios, London 1970)

Kaiser Chiefs - Badges Of Honour (2008)

Nick Hodgson, Nick Baines and Simon Rix first met in the same class at St. Mary's Catholic High School, in Menston, West Yorkshire when they were around 11 years old. After leaving school in 1996, Rix and Baines left for university while Hodgson remained in the Leeds area, meeting both Andrew White and Ricky Wilson, and the three of them formed the band Runston Parva, its name a deliberate misspelling of a small East Yorkshire hamlet called Ruston Parva. After Runston Parva failed to secure a record deal, the group re-formed as Parva on the return of Rix and Baines from university, and the band were able to obtain both a record and publishing deal with Mantra Records, but following the release of an album '22', and three singles, Beggars Banquet closed the Mantra label, and Parva were dropped and left desolate and without any direction. Feeling that a band dropped by a label had a certain stigma which might prevent them being picked up by another label, they decided that they would start afresh with new songs and a new name: Kaiser Chiefs, with the name being taken from South African football club Kaizer Chiefs. In July 2004, while still relatively unknown inside the UK, the band performed at their first festival in Moscow, and in November they released their first single 'Oh, My God'/'Born To Be A Dancer'/'Caroline,Yes' on the Drowned In Sound label, followed swiftly by 'I Predict A Riot'/'Take My Temperature' on B-Unique. Their debut album 'Employment' appeared in March 2005, with the music being primarily inspired by new wave and punk rock of the late 70's and 80', and it was well received by music critics and the public alike, reaching number two in the UK albums chart. The band's second album 'Yours Truly, Angry Mob' was released in February 2007, with the track listing picked from 22 songs that they'd recorded throughout September and October 2006 at Hookend Recording Studios. The album reached number one on the UK albums chart, and contained their UK number one single 'Ruby', as well as three more songs which were later released as singles. Third album 'Off With Their Heads' was released on 20 October 2008, and following a UK arena tour in 2008/2009 and a brief rest, they released 'The Future Is Medieval' in June 2011 as a 'create-your-own album', where fans were able to choose 10 of the 20 songs to create "their album" for £7.50, before the official track listing was released a month later. In their early days they recorded much more material than was needed for their albums, as evidenced by the 22 tracks they taped for 'Yours Truly, Angry Mob', and so all of the singles from 2004 to 2008 have exclusive b-sides, which are collected here for your enjoyment. The badges on the sleeve are all taken from the covers of their singles, which was a theme that the band ran with for most of their single releases.  

Track listing

Disc One: 2004-2005
01 Oh, My God (original recording, single 2004) 
02 Born To Be A Dancer (b-side of 'Oh, My God')
03 Caroline, Yes (b-side of 'Oh, My God')
04 Take My Temperature (b-side of 'I Predict A  Riot' 2004)
05 Less Is More (b-side of 'I Predict A  Riot')
06 Wrecking Ball (b-side of 'I Predict A  Riot')
07 Sink That Ship (b-side of 'I Predict A  Riot')
08 Run Again (b-side of 'Modern Way' 2005)
09 Moon (b-side of 'Modern Way' 2005)
10 It Ain't Easy (b-side of 'Modern Way' 2005)
11 People Need Light (b-side of 'Modern Way' 2005)
12 Brightest Star (b-side of re-released 'Oh, My God' 2005)
13 Think About You (And I Like It) (b-side of re-released 'Oh, My God' 2005)
14 I Predict Some Quiet (b-side of 'You Can Have It All (Light Orchestral)' 2005) 

Disc Two: 2005-2008
01 Seventeen Cups (b-side of 'Everyday I Love You Less And Less' 2005)
02 Not Surprised (b-side of 'Everyday I Love You Less And Less' 2005)
03 Another Number (b-side of 'Everyday I Love You Less And Less' 2005)
04 The Letter Song (b-side of 'Everyday I Love You Less And Less' 2005)
05 Hard Times Sent Me (from the 'Lap Of Honour' EP 2005)
06 I Like To Fight (b-side of 'Everything Is Average Nowadays' 2007)
07 Out Of My Depth (b-side of 'Everything Is Average Nowadays' 2007)
08 Telling Me To Go (b-side of 'Love's Not A Competition (But I'm Winning)' 2007)
09 From The Neck Down (b-side of 'Ruby' 2007)
10 Admire You (b-side of 'Ruby' 2007)
11 Addicted To Drugs (Appendix I) (b-side of 'Good Days Bad Days' 2008)

12 Sooner Or Later (b-side of 'Never Miss A Beat' 2008)

'I Predict Some Quiet' was put on the b-side of their Christmas release 'You Can Have It All (Light Orchestral)' so that fans could put the record on for a couple of minutes of peace. 

You might also like '22' by Parva (2003)

Shallow Waters - Catharsis (2021)

Shallow Waters are a Manchester three-piece who are carving a sonic path through an unexplored landscape of tone, style and sound, breathing in inspiration from their Northern predecessors such as The Verve, Oasis, Joy Division, The Stone Roses and The Smiths, as well drawing influence from the Seattle grunge scene, favouring bands such as Nirvana, Pearl Jam, Alice In Chains & Soundgarden. Laced with a lustful tone and doused with a fiery Northern attitude, it's a tidal wave of sonic bliss rolling through a spiral of huge, smooth grooves. They are at their best live, taking you on a journey, from chest-pounding mountain tops to deep valleys dripping with psychedelic swells, and their off the cuff jams really evoke the sense that you’re experiencing something completely unprecedented and unique. The band's studio work parallels the strength of their live performances, with a number of songs appearing on Soundcloud over the past three years, with the most recent single coming out just a few months ago, and they have now amassed enough songs to release their debut album if they'd wanted to, so as they haven't got around to it yet, here it is. 

Track listing

01 Be My Lord
02 Concept
03 Going Nowhere Fast
04 Wake Up To What Is Real
05 Leech
06 Sex Is All That Matters Now
07 237
08 Odessa
09 Inside Out
10 Bluepine
11 The God You Know You Are
12 Catharsis

The Rolling Stones - Necrophilia (1972)

I've collected a few Rolling Stones bootlegs over the past few years, with some tracks appearing on more than one of them, and I needed to go through them and knock them into some sort of shape, but have only just got around to doing it. The easiest thing was to start with one that was already complied, which is the legendary 'Necrophilia' album from 1972, which was personally compiled by Bill Wyman, before being scrapped and replaced by 'More Hot Rocks'. Apparently it was vetoed by Allen Klein as he didn't think there were enough Jagger/Richard compositions on there, so putting profit over artistic integrity once again.   

Track listing

01 Out Of Time (Pye Studios, London 1966)
02 Don't Lie To Me (Chess Studios, Chicago 1964)
03 Have You Seen Your Mother, Baby, Standing In The Shadow (RCA Studios, Hollywood 1966)
04 Think (RCA Studios, Hollywood 1965)
05 Hear It (Regent Sound Studios, London 1964)
06 Something Just Stuck In Your Mind (Regent Sound Studios, London 1964)
07 Aftermath (Regent Sound Studios, London 1964)
08 I'd Much Rather Be With The Boys (Decca Studios, London 1965)
09 Andrew's Blues (Regent Sound Studios, London 1964) 
10 Pay Your Dues (Olympic Sound Studios, London 1968) 
11 Let The Good Times Roll (RCA Studios, Hollywood 1965)
12 Heart Of Stone (Regent Sound Studios, London 1964)
13 Each & Every Day Of The Year (Regent Sound Studios, London 1964)
14 (Walkin' Thru The) Sleepy City (Regent Sound Studios, London 1964)
15 Try A Little Harder (Regent Sound Studios, London 1964)
16 Blue Turns To Grey (Regent Sound Studios, London 1964)
17 We're Wasting Time (Regent Sound Studios, London 1964)

Andee Silver - Sterling Silver (1972)

Andrea Hilary Silverstein (aka Andee Silver) was born on 12 May 1951 in London, and is a singer and actress, best known for her acting role in the 1968 film 'The Libertine', although before that she had recorded a number of singles for HMV and Decca, with her 1964 debut 'Too Young To Go Steady' being perhaps her best-known recording. She also released the terrific 'You’re Just What I Was Looking For' in 1969, but inbetween those two stompers, a lot of her music was aimed at the foreign market. She married record producer David Pardo, who produced a number of singles for his brother Juan Pardo in the 60's, and so as he knew the Spanish music scene he tried to establish Silver in Spain and Italy by getting her to record a number of Spanish and Italian language singles, some of which were released in the UK on the Decca label. Because a lot of her songs were not specifically for the UK or American market, even though she did release the 'A Handful Of Silver' album in the UK in 1970, she is often unfairly overlooked when lists of the best UK girl singers of the 60's are compiled, but I hope that this collection shows that she deserves to be up there with the best of them.

Track listing

01 Too Young To Go Steady (single 1964)
02 Sleeping Beauty (b-side of 'Too Young To Go Steady')
03 A Boy I Used To Know (single 1964)
04 What Do You Do (b-side of 'A Boy I Used To Know')
05 Only Your Love Can Save Me (single 1966)
06 L'Amore Dice Ciao (single, theme from the film 'The Libertine' 1968)
07 Te Quiero, I Love You (single 1969)
08 You're Just What I Was Looking For Today (single 1969)
09 No Digas Nada (single 1969)
10 Qualcuno Ti Ama (Love Me) (single 1969)
11 You're Breaking My Heart (single 1970)
12 Soledades (single 1971)
13 Mina Terra (single 1972)
14 Jimmy (b-side of 'Mina Terra')
15 Non C'e Domani (single 1972) 

The Tremeloes - Suddenly You Love Me (1968)

For my second post by The Tremeloes I've extracted a number of rare recordings which have appeared over the years on expanded re-issues of their albums and their box sets. It turns out that 1968 was a very productive year for them, recording over two dozen songs, which they raided for singles and b-sides over the next couple of years, and they also used another dozen of them for their 'World Explosion' album in 1968, but that still left a number of unused songs, so by taking them and adding in a few of the singles, we can make up another album that could have been issued in 1968. 

Track listing

01 Suddenly You Love Me
02 I Miss My Baby
03 You Don't Know Like I Do
04 Reach Out I'll Be There
05 All The World To Me
06 Every Little Bit Hurts
07 No No No
08 As You Are
09 I Shall Be Released
10 I'm Gonna Try
11 Even The Bad Times Are Good
12 Show Me
13 I Take What I Want

Portishead - (Interlude) (2009)

Geoff Barrow and Beth Gibbons met during a coffee break at an Enterprise Allowance course in February 1991, and before long they were recording their first song together. They then met Adrian Utley while they were recording at the Coach House Studios in Bristol, and when Utley heard 'It Could Be Sweet' they began to exchange ideas on music. They decided to work together and they called themselves Portishead, named after the nearby town of the same name, eight miles west of Bristol. Their debut album 'Dummy' was released in 1994, with the cover featuring a still from the band's own short film 'To Kill a Dead Man', and at this point Portishead was a duo of Geoff Barrow and Beth Gibbons, with Adrian Utley, who co-produced the album with them, as well as playing on nine of the tracks and co-writing eight, only becoming an official band member shortly after its release. Despite the band's aversion to press coverage, the album was successful in both Europe and the United States (where it sold more than 150,000 copies even before the band toured there), and it received almost universal praise from critics. It spawned three singles: 'Numb', 'Sour Times' and 'Glory Box', and each of them was issued in a variety of formats, and with numerous remixes appearing on all of them. The success of the album saw the band nominated for Best British Newcomer at the 1995 Brit Awards, and the album is often considered one of the greatest trip hop albums to date, and is a milestone in the definition of the genre. After their initial success, Portishead withdrew from the spotlight for three years until their second album 'Portishead' was released in 1997, featuring a harsher, grainy sound, and once again three singles were extracted from it. Despite most of their singles just having remixes of the song as extra tracks, some of them did contain exclusive recordings, in particular the 'Theme From 'To Kill A Dead Man'' on one of the 'Numb' discs, and a bonus track on the Australian, American and Euro CD's of 'Dummy', which we in the UK never got to hear. In 1999 they collaborated with Tom Jones on his 'Reload' album, backing him on his rendition of 'Motherless Child', and in 2006 they contributed to a tribute album to Serge Gainsbourg, as well as posting a couple of 'doodles' on their My Space page the same year. It wasn't until 2008 that 'Third' finally appeared, and since then the only thing we've heard from them is a song released for Humans Rights Day to raise money for Amnesty International. Even though they released just three albums in 14 years, they were so ground-breaking that they forged a new genre of music almost single-handedly.

Track listing

01 It's A Fire (bonus track on Australian, American & Euro CD of 'Dummy' 1994)
02 Theme From 'To Kill A Dead Man' (b-side of 'Numb' 1994)
03 A Tribute To Monk & Canatella (b-side of 'Numb' 1994)
04 Mourning Air (War Child) (from the 'Help' charity compilation album 1995)
05 Untitled (from the 'Help' charity compilation EP 1995)
06 Revenge Of The Number (from 'The Rebirth Of Cool Phive' compilation 1995)
07 Cowboys (Instrumental) (b-side of 'Cowboys' 1997)
08 Motherless Child (from 'Reload' by Tom Jones 1999)
09 Interlude (from 'Trip-Hop Reconstruction' compilation 1995)
10 Requiem For Anna (from 'Monsieur Gainsbourg Revisited' 2006)
11 Key Bored 299 03 (released on MySpace 2006)
12 Greek Jam (released on MySpace 2006)
13 Chase The Tear (released 2009 to raise money for Amnesty International)

Lee Ritenour - ...and on guitar (1976)

Lee Mack Ritenour was born on 11 January 1952, in Los Angeles, and being musically precocious, he began playing the guitar when he was five years old. At eight his interest in the instrument went beyond the ordinary, and with support from his parents, they found him new and better instructors, so that by the age of 12 he was under the tutelage of Duke Miller, future head of the guitar department at the University of Southern California, and purported at the time to be the finest guitar teacher in Los Angeles. As an adolescent he played in his first group the Esquires, which was the beginning of his time in a number of teenage bands, and when he was just 15 years old John Phillips, leader of The Mamas and the Papas, heard one of his bands and then hired him to play in a studio session. Although he was talented enough at the age of 18 to become a session guitarist, he made the choice to continue his education, and enrolled into the University of Southern California, where he studied classical guitar with another musician first in his field, Christopher Parkening. He remained at the university for two and a half years, until he got the opportunity to play with Brazilian pop-jazz musician Sergio Mendes, and touring with Mendes was Ritenour’s introduction to Latin music, also developing a love of jazz from listening to guitarist Wes Montgomery. By the age of 17 he'd worked with Lena Horne and Tony Bennett, and had been noticed by jazz pianist and producer Dave Grusin. Highly recommended on the studio circuit by Grusin and others, Ritenour was working 15 to 20 sessions a week in a lucrative business during the early seventies. When he started working the studio dates, he was often asked to sound like all the other guitar players, but he wanted to go beyond that, and established an identity which was instantly recognisable. Because of the speed of his playing he was nick-named Captain Fingers, later the title of one of his albums, and so was the first choice for any jazz-fusion musician who needed some intricate guitar-work on their tracks, resulting in him featuring on a wide variety of jazz-fusion recording in the early 70's. At the same time he was also playing on records by pop and rock artists, showing his versatility in a wide variety of genres, including soul with Aretha Franklin, The Impressions, and The Four Tops, and straight-forward pop/rock with Cyndi Greco, Carly Simon and Anne Murray. For this collection I've just picked tracks from the couple of years before the release of his debut solo album 'First Course' in 1976, and I've split them between his jazz-fusion recordings and his pop/rock sessions, with the jazz-fusion part running to two volumes because of the length of some of the tracks.  

Track listing

Disc One: Some Jazz
01 Soulution (from 'Black Miracle' by Joe Henderson 1975) 
02 Haply-Happy (from 'Saudade' by Moacir Santos 1974)
03 Back At The Chicken Shack (from 'Brass Fever' by Brass Fever 1975) 
04 Razzia (from 'Before The Dawn' by Patrice Rushen 1975)
05 Chariot (from 'I Love The Blues, She Heard My Cry' by George Duke 1975)
06 Wild Rice (from 'Marching In The Streets' by Harvey Mason 1975) 
07 Happiness Is Loving You (from 'Mind Transplant' by Alphonse Mouzon 1975)
08 Fight For Freedom (from 'Skull Session' by Oliver Nelson 1975)

Disc Two: Some More Jazz
01 Keep Your Eye On The Sparrow (from 'Discovered Again!' by Dave Grusin 1976)
02 Sugar Loaf Sunrise (from 'Metamorphosis' by Wade Marcus 1976)
03 On The Case (from 'Moonshadows' by Alphonso Johnson 1976) 
04 Kickin' Back (from 'People Moving' by Azar Lawrence 1976) 
05 Sweet Summer Breeze (from 'Warm And Sonny' by Sonny Criss 1976)
06 Simbora (from 'Agora' by Paulinho Da Costa 1976)
07 Island Lady (from 'The Way I Feel' by Sonny Rollins 1976)
    
Disc Three: Some Songs
01 You (from 'Farewell Fairbanks' by Randy Edelman 1975)
02 Steamboat (from 'Smilin' Memories' by Eric Tagg 1975) 
03 Waterfall (from 'Playing Possum' by Carly Simon 1975)
04 Wish That Love Was Magic (from 'Harmony Grits' by Street Corner Symphony 1975)
05 Player In The Band (from 'Together' by Anne Murray 1975)
06 Baby Blue (from 'Get Closer' by Seals & Crofts 1976)
07 100 Different Ways (b-side of 'Nobody Likes Lovin' More Than I Do' by Lisa Hartman 1976)
08 Fantasy Woman (from 'Lovelock' by Gene Page 1976)
09 Imaginary Girl (from 'Diggin' It' by Dunn And Rubini 1976)
10 Hurly-Burly (from 'Angelo' by Angelo 1976)
11 Raining In The City (from 'I'm Easy' by Keith Carradine 1976)
12 The Dancer (from 'Nadia's Theme' by Barry De Vorzon 1976)
13 Where The Hot Wind Blows (from 'Pictures & Rhymes' by Jim Weatherly 1976)

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.

CaStLeS - Mountaineering (2016)

CaStLeS are a psychedelic pop trio from a village at the foot of Mount Snowdon, which is just 20 minutes from Portmeirion, the village in Gwynedd where the classic 60's TV series 'The Prisoner' was filmed. The three members, Dion Hamer (drums, vocals), Cynyr Hamer (vocals, synth, guitar), Calvin Thomas (bass, synth), like the area so much they interrupted their day jobs in 2016 to record a concept album about the joys of living there titled 'Fforesteering', delivering a paean to the beautiful countryside of Snowdonia. The song titles are mostly Welsh-language, including 'Ar Agor' (Open), 'Argau' (Dam) and 'Tynnu Tuag At y Diffeithwch' (Drawn Towards the Wilderness), but the music transcends language barriers. Before that I'd discovered them through their 'PartDepart' EP, and after that from a few songs that they posted on Soundcloud, some of which later turned up on 'Fforesteering', although in different forms. Their music is a blend of warped Welsh indie, 60's west coast jangle and 70's Cologne motorik, which somehow seems to work perfectly. I haven't heard anything new from the band since that 2016 album, so I fear that they've now broken up, but luckily they've left behind enough material to compile an album of songs which didn't make it to 'Fforesteering', plus early versions of some tracks that did, all of which shows that CaStLeS had a promising career ahead of them if they'd stuck it out.   

Track listing

01 Mountaineering
02 PartDepart
03 Nightingale
04 Foresteering
05 Look Through The Keyhole
06 Time Slips Away So Suddenly
07 Argua
08 Ar Agor
09 Here Comes The Moonshadow
10 Mule In The Mill
11 Amcanu