From the Vaults
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The Monkees: Can You Dig It? (1968)
19 Dec 2013 | 1 min read
Just as Bob Dylan tried to demolish the myths which had built up around him with his Self Portrait album in 1970, so too the Monkees tried -- with even greater success than Dylan -- to shake off the pop image they had when they released their movie Head in '68. Helmed by Bob Rafelson (who co-produced it with Jack Nicholson), Head was a surreal, fragmented, Pythonesque series of skits,... > Read more
Big Joe Turner: Honey Hush (1953)
5 Dec 2013 | <1 min read
When white artists discovered the vast catalogue of black rhythm and blues and began to cover many of the songs -- thus giving birth to rock'n'roll in the mid Fifites -- it was to Big Joe Turner that many went. Bill Haley had a decent sized hit with his cover of Turner's Shake Rattle and Roll, and Johnny Burnette picked up on Honey Hush, a song which starts off good humoured but ends with a... > Read more
Blind Blake: He's in the Jailhouse Now (1927)
30 Oct 2013 | 1 min read
As with many blues artists of his era -- he died in 1934 in his late 30s - not too much is known about the early life of Arthur "Blind" Blake. And at the time of this writing there remains just the one photo of him. What we do know though is he accomplished a lot of firsts: it seems he was the first to mention "rock" in a song (West Coast Blues from '26); his song Come... > Read more
The Beatles: Ooh! My Soul (1963)
28 Oct 2013 | 1 min read
In a week the second installment of Beatles' sessions for the BBC will be released. And we might say belatedly because the first double CD came out in 1994. The Beatles made 275 recordings of 88 different songs for the BBC between 1962 and '65, an astonishing output and which reminds you again -- after those thousands of hours in Hamburg and the Cavern-- just how hard-working they... > Read more
Jonny Yen: Stage Struck and Take A Look At My Life (1979)
20 Oct 2013 | 1 min read | 2
Do ya ken Jonny Yen? The other day at a long lunch the discussion was of obscure New Zealand artists and my friend -- who knows the dark corners and strange recesses of New Zealand pop and rock -- was telling me about some remarkable bands of the prog-rock era, most of whom I had never heard of. However we both knew of Aellian Blade from '79 who were signed to WEA. I recalled that they... > Read more
Jimmie Rodgers: TB Blues (1931)
17 Sep 2013 | 2 min read | 1
Jerry Lee Lewis once said there were only three stylists in country music: Al Jolson, Jimmie Rodgers and, of course, Jerry Lee Lewis. Rodgers -- known as The Singing Brakeman after his time on the railroads -- brought black blues and yodeling into country music and created a sound which was at once unique, and created a template for others to draw upon. He had picked up the blues -- and... > Read more
Johnny Cash: Peace in the Valley (date unknown)
14 Sep 2013 | <1 min read
Johnny Cash died 10 years ago and, as expected, there have been tributes and considerations of his long, diverse career. And of course his position as a Mt Rushmore-like figure in American music and cultural life. Let's just say Johnny was one of the Big Ones, and while we could skate through those American Recordings with Rick Rubin to find him covering material by Soundgarden, Tom... > Read more
Johnny Guitar Watson: Funk Beyond the Call of Duty (1977)
4 Sep 2013 | 1 min read
By the time Johnny Guitar Watson made the album of which this was the title track, he was 42, had been on about 15 different labels and had really paid his dues: he'd started recording at 17, been something of an r'n'b star in the Fifties and by the Seventies had edged his way to streetcorner funk. He pioneered feedback on Space Guitar in '54, was the original Gangster of Love (in 1958, a... > Read more
The Sound Symposium: It Ain't Me Babe (1969)
3 Sep 2013 | 1 min read
In his liner essay to the new Bob Dylan Bootleg Series collection Another Self Portrait, the writer Greil Marcus makes a disparaging comment about the string arrangement on the original version of Copper Kettle which appeared on Dylan's Self Portrait collection in 1970. He jibes that while the song stood out on that album, the strings sounded like The Longines Symphonette Society Does... > Read more
Roy Hall: Whole Lotta Shakin Goin On (1955)
29 Aug 2013 | 1 min read
The origins of some songs are lost, but often a definitive version will stand out. So it is with Whole Lotta Shakin Goin On which exists in the minds of most as the Jerry Lee Lewis hit in '57. Most would even think that Lewis wrote it. He didn't, although his whipped-up version is almost a different song than the one which existed previously. Roy Hall always insisted that he co-wrote it... > Read more
Bob Dylan: Day of the Locusts (1970)
26 Aug 2013 | 2 min read | 1
In anticipation of the forthcoming set in Bob Dylan's on-going Bootleg Series -- Another Self Portriat which collects material from 1969-71 -- it has been interesting to re-explore not just the songs from this era, but what Dylan was saying about his life at this time. In his autobiographical Chronicles Vol 1 (can we expect Vol 2 soon, this one is almost a decade old now) he writes about he... > Read more
Dierks Bentley: What Was I Thinkin' (2003)
23 Aug 2013 | 4 min read
One of the features of country music which make it a great soundtrack when driving is that the songs often tell stories. Sometimes those narratives are maudlin and sentimental, sometimes they really hit a spot in the heart -- and sometimes they are just kinda dumb fun. Like this one. In '04 while driving across the Southern states, this song by Bentley -- his major label debut single... > Read more
The Incredible String Band: No Sleep Blues (1967)
21 Aug 2013 | 1 min read
In a recent interview with Elsewhere the great producer Joe Boyd spoke about the Incredible String Band whom he had worked with -- until they got into Scientology and then things went rather odd in the ISB camp. From hippies to thrusting self-interested capitalists. Just like that. And the music went a bit lousy too. Boyd also noted that although had great success at the time, these... > Read more
The Buggs: Liverpool Drag (1964)
20 Aug 2013 | 1 min read | 1
Elsewhere takes no end of cheap delight in unearthing various Beatles tributes (by dogs, by the soon-to-be Cher), copyists, weird cover versions and so on. But to find the Buggs' sole album for a mere $5 in a secondhand record shop was a discovery of the first order. This group from Liverpool cashed in on the Beatles songs (they cover I Want to Hold Your Hand and She Loves You) but also... > Read more
Flesh D-Vice: Legend of Lugosi (1989)
14 Aug 2013 | 1 min read
This is just here for those of us old enough -- and perhaps dumb enough -- to remember the sheer visceral power and life-threatening live shows that this band (from Palmerston North? I will stand corrected) delivered. They were in . . . yoooooooour face. I have a few blurry and rather damaged memories of Flesh D-Vice . . . one of them most certainly involves a jug (for overseas... > Read more
Legend of Lugosi
Bob Dylan: Pretty Saro (1970)
11 Aug 2013 | 1 min read | 2
Perhaps this is cheating because this song/clip (below) doesn't come from Elsewhere's voluminous Vaults, but from Dylan's own. In about 10 days Dylan will release another installment in his Bootleg Series (for comments on some previous ones see here) and this one is more interesting and anticipated than most. That's because he is releasing songs from around his Self Portrait double... > Read more
Atlanta Rhythm Section: Imaginary Lover (1979)
6 Aug 2013 | <1 min read | 1
There's no real reason for this particular installment of From the Vaults other than the sheer silliness of it. The trick here is to look at the video clip first before you play the sample track: what you get is singer Ronnie Hammond up front of the Atlanta Rhythm Section who were a band of seasoned session musicians pulled together producer/songwriter Barry Buie in Atlanta in the early... > Read more
Tom Verlaine: Souvenir from a Dream (1978)
2 Aug 2013 | 1 min read
After the exceptional Television fell apart in '78 following their classic debut Marquee Moon and the lesser Adventure, guitarist/singer and writer Tom Verlaine dropped from sight for a year. During that time he quietly went about recording his self-titled debut album in two and three day sessions. With a core of Television bassist Fred Smith and Patti Smith's drummer Jay Dee Daugherty... > Read more
NRA: Bruce McLaren (1991)
30 Jul 2013 | 1 min read | 1
The ferocious NRA (Not Really Anything) were one of those Flying Nun bands of the late Eighties/early Nineties that you either got, or steered well clear of. Live, they were not for the faint-hearted so it was perhaps no surprise they should record this salute to New Zealand's famous racing car driver and the thrill of speed and twisted metal. They seem to have disappeared from... > Read more
Bob Dylan: That's All Right Mama (1962)
29 Jul 2013 | 2 min read | 3
It's possible only obsessive Dylanologists and those with far too much time on their hands would know the full story behind those many outtake albums (and bootlegs) which have emerged over the years and collect studio sessions from The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan album. That was the Dylan album from '62 which famously had him and his girlfriend Suze Rotolo on the cover. He was a folkie back... > Read more