The Bread And Beer Band - The Bread And Beer Band (1969)

The Bread And Beer Band was a group of England's best studio musicians, formed by Tony King (a record producer and assistant at Apple Records), and the band included Tony King, Bernie Calvert of the Hollies, Roger Pope and Caleb Quaye of Hookfoot (and Elton John's late 70's band), Jamaican percussionists Lennox Jackson and Rolfo, and Reg Dwight (aka Elton John) on piano and harpsichord. King envisioned them as a studio band along the lines of the great Motown musicians of the past, but rather than a touring, full-time outfit, it was to be a recording group and studio back-up unit that could be revised and shifted to fit the needs of each individual project that was undertaken. This instrumental album was recorded during sessions in 1968 and 1969 and included Chris Thomas as a producer, but only two tracks from the sessions were ever released, with 'Dick Barton Theme (The Devil's Gallop)' / 'Breakdown Blues' appearing as a single in 1969, featuring an original group composition on the b-side. The single received quite positive reviews, and so the band were sufficiently motivated to try to get an album released, which would have comprised reworked arrangements of popular songs of the day, with a few standards tossed in. Among the songs tampered with were Sam The Sham's 'Wooly Bully', Donovan's 'Mellow Yellow', Tim Hardin's 'If I Were A Carpenter' featuring Elton on harpsichord, and even a humorous arrangement of the 'Zorba The Greek' movie theme. As so often happened, the album was shelved, with Tony King eventually giving the master tapes to Elton as a 1976 birthday gift.

Track listing

01 Woolly Bully  
02 Mellow Yellow  
03 If I Were A Carpenter  
04 Zorba The Greek  
05 The Letter  
06 Dick Barton Theme (The Devil's Gallop)
07 Quick Joey Small  
08 Needles And Pins  
09 Billy's Bang
10 Breakdown Blues
11 God Knows (A Bit Of Freedom)  
12 Last Night  

The Band:

Tony King - producer
Bernie Calvert - guitar
Roger Pope - drums
Caleb Quaye - guitar, bass
Lennox Jackson - percussion        
Rolfo - percussion
Reg Dwight (aka Elton John) - keyboards

She Trinity - Have We Sinned? (1970)

I though that I'd completed my series of under-recognised girl singers of the 60's, but an article in the current Record Collector alerted me to a band that I'd overlooked, but who deserve to be included. The original line-up of Lady Greensleeves was Shelly Gillespie, Sue Kirby and Robin Yorke, and they formed a group together in their native Canada in the early 60's. In late 1965 they all emigrated to England, and it was there they they enlisted the services of Pauline Moran as their bassist, and then signed a management deal with Peter Grant, who put them in touch with producer Mickie Most. It was Most who re-christened them She Trinity, and he took them into the studio to record their first single, a re-interpretation of The Bobby Fuller Four's 'I Fought The Law' entitled 'He Fought The Law'. The big difference between She Trinity and the plethora of other girl groups around at the time was that they played their own instruments, which in 1966 was something of a novelty. Their second single was a cover of Lou Christie's 'Have I Sinned', but it was their next one which attracted attention, with the unwieldy title of 'The Man Who Took The Valise Off The Floor Of Grand Central Station At Noon'. Sue Kirby had left the band quite early on, and the remaining members felt that they needed a keyboard-player, so Marion "Rusty" Hill joined them, and she was later replaced in 1967 by Eileen Woodman, who stayed until the very end. Their cover of 'Yellow Submarine' was recorded by the band themselves before Most arrived at the studio, and he played it to Brian Epstein to see if he would let them release it, but Epstein was so annoyed that he rush-released The Beatles version as a single, to squash any success that the band might have had with their version. In 1967 future jazz great Barbara Thompson joined the group on flute and saxophone, and singer Beryl Marsden was also a member for a while, although she didn't record with them. In 1968 the band released a single under the pseudonym of Gilded Cage, with Maxine Silverburg as the vocalist, and this was followed a year later by a reggae version of 'My Bonnie', which the group now say was recorded against their better judgement. One last single was released under the She Trinity name, which was a re-recording of 'Hair' - the b-side to one of their Gilded Cage singles - and on the flip was the outstanding 'Climb The Tree', which was a great piece of UK psyche, although the music was actually by a band called Onyx, with Eileen Woodman singing the lead vocal. The single didn't sell that well, and in 1970 the band quietly split up, with the various members going their own ways, but luckily they have left behind a great collection of UK pop and psyche which we can enjoy today. 

Track listing

01 He Fought The Law (single 1966)
02 The Union Station Blues (b-side of 'He Fought The Law')
03 Have I Sinned (single 1966)
04 Wild Flower (b-side of 'Have I Sinned')
05 The Man Who Took The Valise Off The Floor Of Grand Central Station At Noon (single 1966)
06 Yellow Submarine (single 1966)
07 Promise Me You'll Cry (b-side of 'Yellow Submarine')
08 Across The Street (single 1967)
09 Long Long Road (For The Broken Hearts) (single as Gilded Cage 1968)
10 Baby Grumbling (b-side of 'Long Long Road (For The Broken Hearts)')
11 My Bonnie (single as Gilded Cage 1969)
12 Hair (single 1970)
13 Climb That Tree (b-side of 'Hair')

Various Artists - An Alternative Hendrix (1990)

I was listening to my New Fast Automatic Daffodils 'Peel Sessions' album the other day, and was reminded at just how great their take on 'Purple Haze' was, which in turn prompted memories of another couple of Hendrix covers by new wave/alternative bands that I'd always loved - 'All Along The Watchtower' by XTC and 'Foxy Lady' by The Cure. I wondered if there were any more punky versions of Hendrix's songs out there, and found that although there have been two tribute albums released, with 'Stone Free' in 1993 and 'If Six Was Nine' in 1990, they seemed to concentrate on more mainstream groups to contribute to them, and so I only had to borrow four songs from the latter to flesh out this collection of re-imaginings of Hendrix classics by some of my favourite new wave/alternative bands. 

Track listing

01 Purple Haze - New Fast Automatic Daffodils
02 Can You See Me - Thee Hypnotics
03 Stone Free - Supergrass
04 Are You Experienced - The Mock Turtles
05 Who Knows - Bevis Frond
06 Foxy Lady - The Cure
07 Love Or Confusion - The Screaming Trees
08 Hey Joe - Patti Smith
09 All Along The Watchtower - XTC
10 Voodoo Chile (Slight Return) - The Membranes
11 Crosstown Traffic - Richard Hell & The Voidoids

The Bluetones - The Happy Lobotomy (2006)

The years after the release of 'Luxembourg' were quiet for The Bluetones, but eventually a three-album deal was signed in late 2005 with Cooking Vinyl Records, promptly followed by the limited release of the 'Serenity Now' EP and a full UK tour, and their first eponymous album for the label spawned the single 'My Neighbour's House' in September 2006. It would be four years before the next studio album, with 'A New Athens' appearing on CIA Recordings, but it failed to chart and the writing was on the wall for them, with the band announcing that they'd split after a farewell tour in the autumn of 2011. While they were active they released nearly two dozen singles and EP's, and nearly every one of them had exclusive songs on the b-sides, so this last volume collects the tracks from the final single from the 'Luxemboug' album, plus the flips from their Cooking Vinyl singles, and altogether these four volumes contain 55 non-album tracks released in just an eleven year career.   

Track listing

01 Suffer In Silence (b-side of 'Never Going Nowhere' 2003)
02 Pram Face (b-side of 'Never Going Nowhere' 2003)
03 Choogie Monbassa (b-side of 'Never Going Nowhere' 2003)
04 Serenity Now (single 2005)
05 Autumn Tones (b-side of 'Serenity Now' 2005)
06 Mine In The Morning (b-side of 'Serenity Now' 2005)
07 The Happy Lobotomy (b-side of 'Serenity Now' 2005)
08 Untitled #6 (b-side of 'Head On A Spike' 2006)
09 Surrendered In The Living Room (b-side of 'Head On A Spike' 2006)
10 Your Psychotic Friend (b-side of 'My Neighbour's House' 2006)
11 S. Thoresby (b-side of 'My Neighbour's House' 2006)
12 The Last Song But One (b-side of 'Surrendered' 2006)
13 Wasn't I Right About You (b-side of 'Surrendered' 2006)

Bob Dylan - Talkin' Woody Guthrie Blues (1961)

Woody Guthrie was a folk hero of Bob Dylan's, and five days after arriving in New York from Minnesota in 1961, Dylan tracked him down in East Orange, New Jersey, and meet him for the first time. Guthrie was 48 at the time, and lived at Greystone Park Psychiatric hospital in Morris Plains, New Jersey, but spent his Sundays at the apartment of Robert and Sidsel Gleason, 20 miles away in East Orange. He had been in psychiatric care since September 1954, when he checked himself into Brooklyn State Hospital, as he had trouble controlling his muscles and thought he had a mental disorder. When he checked out of the hospital in May 1956, he went to Morristown, New Jersey, where he wandered the streets, homeless, and was arrested, spending a night in Morris County Jail. At his own request he was then sent to Greystone, where staffers assumed he had paranoid schizophrenia - his claims that he had written thousands of songs and published a book seemed implausible. Months later, he was diagnosed as having Huntington's disease, a hereditary disorder that causes the victim to gradually lose control of his movements. Even though his mind was sound, Guthrie's family kept him at Greystone because it was the best option, and in 1959, when the Gleasons learned Guthrie was at Greystone, they arranged to take him every Sunday, making it much easier for Guthrie's family, who lived in Brooklyn, to visit. The Gleasons let visitors come by when Guthrie was with them, and some folk singers, including Pete Seeger, Ramblin' Jack Elliott and Phil Ochs, often stopped by, and Dylan had found out where Guthrie was when he went to the family home in Brooklyn and talked to Guthrie's 13-year-old son, Arlo. He had read Guthrie's autobiography 'Bound For Glory', which detailed his travels across America, playing his songs for anyone who would listen, and as he was rarely recorded, it was up to Dylan and other folk-singers of his generation to secure his legacy and carry on his tradition. By the time Dylan visited Guthrie, he was in pretty bad shape, barely able to move or speak, let alone sing, but he loved hearing his own songs, and Dylan was happy to play them. After his visit, Dylan wrote 'Song To Woody', which he included on his first album in 1962, incorporating some of Guthrie's songs into the lyric, peppering in bits from '1913 Massacre', 'Joe Hillstrom' and 'Pastures Of Plenty', and he played the song to Guthrie at a later visit. In the Spring of 1961, Guthrie's family transferred him back to Brooklyn State Hospital, so the visits to the Gleasons' apartment ended, and in 1967 he died at age of just 55. In the early years of his career Dylan often played Guthrie's songs in concert, and some were also recorded at the Gleason's home and in his Minnesota hotel room, and through him a new generation discovered the work of the man and learned about his contributions to American  music. This album collects a dozen of these recordings from 1961, when Dylan was taking his first steps to becoming a spokesman for his generation, and was taking the lead from one of his heroes. Considering the age of the recordings they are not bad quality, although I have had to do some patching to 'I Want My Milk' to fix some bad drop-outs and volume fluctuations.  

Track listing

01 1913 Massacre  
02 Gypsy Davy 
03 (As I Go) Ramblin' Round  
04 I Want My Milk  
05 Talking Merchant Marine  
06 VD Blues 
07 Pasture Of Plenty  
08 Car Car  
09 Ain't Got No Home
10 Talking Fish Blues  
11 VD Gunner's Blues  

12 This Land Is Your Land  

All songs composed by Woody Guthrie.

Well, the experiment is over. Guitars101 have closed my account again and so none of the links will work.

OK, here's the plan. People who can use Soulseek then carry on doing that, as it's quick and easy for the people that it works for. The blog now has it's own email address, which is in the About Me section at top right, and for anyone who can't get Soulseek to work, and didn't like leaving their email in the comments, then you can now contact me directly. I'll save the posts in batches under the date of the post, and hopefully that will make them quick and easy to forward. Let's give it a try and see how it works. 

4 Non Blondes - New America (1994)

4 Non Blondes howled their way onto the charts in 1993 with 'What's Up?' and then vanished without a whisper. Formed in 1989 with Linda Perry (vocals), Shaunna Hall (guitar), Christa Hillhouse (bass), and Wanda Day (drums), 4 Non Blondes had no problems attracting major labels based on live shows and local radio support from KUSF, but the labels didn't know how to market them. After Day was replaced by Dawn Richardson, the group was eventually signed to Interscope Records and released 'Bigger, Better, Faster, More?' in 1992, but although Hall contributed guitar tracks and some songs, she left before the album was released. Dominated by Perry's high-pitched singing, 'What's Up?' was slowly added to modern rock stations and then crossed over into the mainstream, peaking at number 11 on the Billboard Top 200. The video for the song became a smash on MTV, propelling sales of the album to over six million copies worldwide. 'What's Up?' was selected as Best Song by the Bay Area Music Awards, and Perry was chosen as Best Female Vocalist, and 'Bigger, Better, Faster, More?' won for Best Album. The group toured with Neil Young, Pearl Jam, and Bob Dylan, and recorded tunes for the soundtracks to 'Wayne's World 2' and 'Airheads', however, Perry felt that the group had become too 'pop', and so she left the band, but not before they'd recorded almost enough songs for a second album, which was then shelved. Luckily the songs have leaked online, and so by adding in their soundtrack work and their contribution to a Led Zeppelin tribute album we can approximate what their second album could have sounded like if they hadn't broken up when Perry left.  

Track listing

01 Jesus
02 I'm The One
03 Knocking On My Head
04 Love Love Love / Whole Lotta Love
05 Mighty Lady
06 Mary's House
07 New America
08 Misty Mountain Hop

09 The Ladder
10 Sister Feelgood

Thanks to the stevehoffman site for the suggestion.

The Bluetones - Groovy Roussos (2003)

In 2002 the band released their fourth album 'Luxembourg', and it carried on in the style of their previous record 'Science & Nature'. 'After Hours' was released as a single, with a multitude of exclusive tracks on it's many formats, and they also recorded a number of songs for 'Luxembourg' which didn't make the final cut, and which have since surfaced on one of their singles collections. This penultimate volume includes the b-sides from the 'Mudslide' EP, the 'Luxembourg' singles, and those out-takes from the 2002 sessions. 

Track listing

01 Zero Tolerance (from the 'Mudslide EP' 2000)
02 Fock Da Brain-Hole (from the 'Mudslide EP' 2000)
03 After Hours (single 2002)
04 Reverse Cow Girl (b-side of 'After Hours' 2002)
05 Woman In Love (b-side of 'After Hours' 2002)
06 Groovy Roussos (b-side of 'After Hours' 2002)
07 Sail On Sailor (b-side of 'After Hours' 2002)
08 Ingimarsson (b-side of 'After Hours' 7" single 2002)
09 The Bluetones Big Score (previously unreleased 2002)
10 That's Life (previously unreleased 2002)
11 Freeze Dried Pop (Dumb It Up) (previously unreleased 2002)
12 Persuasion (previously unreleased 2002)
13 Move Closer (b-side of 'Fast Boy' 2003)
14 Beat On The Brat (b-side of 'Fast Boy' 2003)

Hey Bulldog - Al Lupo (2019)

Hey Bulldog are a three-piece garage rock band from Manchester, comprisong Rob Manton (guitar/vocals), Matt Parry (bass) and Ben Howarth-Lees (drums). Early single 'Al Lupo' was a garage-psych whirlwind of a song, with driving, interesting rhythms, and great guitars, and first alerted me to the band in 2018. More singles followed, all in the same garage-y vein, until the 7-minute 'No Future (Part II)' appeared in 2019, being a fabulous extended psychedelic (mostly) instrumental piece, introducing psych, blues, and rock to the mix. It is this genre blending that makes the band stand out against a sea of often repetitive bland indie that has saturated the Manchester scene in recent years, and their last single 'Death & Greed' from a year ago is their heaviest song to date. The band now have enough material for an album, and there were plans for one to be recorded last year, so while we wait for that, here's the album they could have released a year ago. 

Track listing

01 Al Lupo
02 Divide And Conquer
03 Under My Spell
04 Makin' Friends Not Millionaires
05 Numb
06 Stranger
07 No Future (Part II)
08 California
09 Death & Greed

Rick Price - The Price Is Right (1971)

Richard Price was born 10 June 1944 in Birmingham, and his first band were the Cimarrons, who were inspired by the Shadows, before moving on to the Sombreros, who later changed their name to Sight & Sound and moved in a more psychedelic direction. He began collaborating with Mike Sheridan as a songwriting partnership, and when Sheridan's Nightriders lost Roy Wood when he left them in 1966 to form The Move, Price followed him to provide bass, and stayed with the group for two years, including an unsuccessful tour of the United States. When Wood left The Move to Form Electric Light Orchestra with Jeff Lynne, Price contributed bass tracks to the early sessions for their debut album, but for reasons that are unclear none of his bass parts ended up in the final mix of the album when it was released in 1971. After leaving the Move he signed a contract with Gemini Records, and re-connecting with Mike Sheridan they recorded some songs together, which were compiled onto an album called 'This Is To Certify That', which was released in 1970. Price also recorded a solo album, 'Talking To The Flowers', in 1971, before joining former Move colleague Carl Wayne in Light Fantastic, and then forming Mongrel with future Wizzard drummers Charlie Grima and Keith Smart, leading to him re-uniting with Roy Wood when he followed Grima and Smart when they joined Wizzard. The sessions for Price's solo album produced a number of songs that weren't used, and so this collection consists of tracks that weren't considered good enough to make the final cut, and if you like these then you should check out both of the albums mentioned above, as they contain some fine late 60's pop. 

Track listing

01 Dream
02 Hey Little One
03 Take My Hand For A While
04 I Can Get Found
05 Mr Bojangles
06 Caroline
07 Turn Around
08 Love Is A Lonesome River
09 Give Me Peace
10 My Crying Time
11 Galveston
12 We Believe In Jesus
13 Top Ten Record

Well, that didn't last long. Posts still on Soulseek while I find out what's happened.

It seems that possibly I was posting so much material that the site thought it was spam, and so banned me from it. I now have my account back but they seems to have deleted all my posts, so I'm going to have to start all over again, unless they can reinstate them. Talk Talk is back for now, until I hear what they are going to do. Eventually the plan will be for all of the posts on here to be mirrored on Guitars101 with links, for the people who just can't get Soulseek to work. We'll have to see how it goes, as it will be an extremely long job transferring them all over, and it could be that I can take requests about which ones to do first.   

LATEST UPDATE

My account with Guitars101 had been approved (again) and I've managed to upload four recent posts, as that was the maximum allowed until approved. I'll get stuck in over the weekend and re-post all the ones they deleted, as it's unlikely that they will re-instate them.   

Talk Talk - A Chameleon Hour (1984)

Talk Talk began as a quartet consisting of Mark Hollis (vocals/guitar/piano), Lee Harris (drums), Paul Webb (bass guitar), and Simon Brenner (keyboards), and in their early years they were often linked to the New Romantic movement, more specifically with Duran Duran, as both bands sported a name which was a single word repeated, a Roxy Music-inspired musical direction, and shared the same record label (EMI) and producer (Colin Thurston). The band released their first single 'Mirror Man' in February 1982 to little public recognition, and this was followed by a re-recording of an old song by Hollis's previous band The Reaction, entitled 'Talk Talk', and this actally reached No.52 in the UK Charts. The band's first album 'The Party's Over' was released in July 1982, and they had their first UK Top 40 hits with the singles 'Today', and a re-release of 'Talk Talk'. Brenner left before the 1983 non-album single 'My Foolish Friend' was released in 1983, which was produced by frequent Roxy Music collaborator Rhett Davies, and this song was intended to be the first single from their second record, a concept album entitled 'A Chameleon Hour'. This would have been based on the book 'The Dice Man', but the record in its original conception was never released, although several songs, like 'Such A Shame' and 'Call In The Night Boy', did appear on their second album, and others ended up as b-sides. Hollis explained the concept of the album as being "inspired by the book 'The Dice Man', which is about decision making through dice throwing. Although they didn’t actually refer to it in the book, there's a scene when he's in a party for an hour undergoing about ten different personality changes and that idea seemed quite appropriate in terms of what we’re doing. It's a fabulous book, the idea is so appealing. I’ve just written ten times as many lyrics as I needed and thrown the dice on which ones go in. It’s ultimately wrong though, definitely immoral!". 

At this point Talk Talk was officially a trio, as Brenner was not replaced, although keyboard player Phil Ramocon, who had already played piano on the band's live shows beside Brenner, basically took up his role. However, Tim Friese-Greene was brought in to assist with the recording of 'It's My Life', and he soon became the band's producer and occasional keyboard player, as well as Hollis' frequent songwriting partner. After 'A Chameleon Hour' was abandoned, more songs were recorded and in 1984 'It's My Life' became their official second album, and with Fries-Greene on board their music became much more esoteric,with both 1986's 'The Colour Of Spring' and 1988's 'Spirit Of Eden' being rightly regarded as classic albums of the period. The band have even been credited with inventing "post-rock" in their last two albums, 'Spirit Of Eden' and 'Laughing Stock', and artists who've praised the band or cited them as an influence include Tears For Fears, Radiohead, Doves, Elbow, Shearwater, Cedric Bixler-Zavala of the Mars Volta, and Steven Wilson of Porcupine Tree. Mark Hollis died on 25 February 2019, aged 64, and the obituaries from friends and fellow musicians showed the high regard in which he was held by everyone who knew or worked with him. Hopefully you'll enjoy this reconstruction of the 'A Chameleon Hour' album, as there's only a couple of songs from 'In My Life', so a lot of the material might be unfamiliar to all but the most avid fans. 

Track listing

01 Again A Game...Again

02 Call In The Night Boy

03 My Foolish Friend

04 Renée

05 Desire

06 Why Is It So Hard?

07 For What It's Worth

08 Without You

09 Such A Shame 

Thanks to the stevehoffman site for the suggestion, and to Jules for the revised opening trio of songs.  

You may notice that 'track listing' has changed colour. I'm saying no more........