From the Vaults

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

That's All Right Mama (take one, 1962)

Jona Lewie: You'll Always Find Me in the Kitchen at Parties (1980)

25 Jul 2013 | <1 min read

Stiff Records in the UK pulled together an unlikely roster of acts in the late Seventies from Elvis Costello to Ian Dury, Rachel Sweet to Jona Lewie, Larry Wallis to Graham Parker and Wreckless Eric. Lewie was in his early 30s when Stiff picked him up (Rachel Sweet was 17) and he'd already had his career: he'd played boogie woogie piano in jazz bands as a teenager, toured in a band which... > Read more

Scorpio Rising: Peace Frog (1992)

24 Jul 2013 | 1 min read

For a short while Scorpio Rising out of Liverpool seemed to point a new direction in British rock post-Stone Roses. They formed the year of the Stone Roses' impressive debut and had a similarly psychedelic approach to rock guitars and dance beats. After their single Watermelon and EP IF, they were in demand on the live circuit, released their album Pig Symphony and were doing all the right... > Read more

Van Morrison: On Hyndford Street (1991)

23 Jul 2013 | 1 min read

By the time Van Morrison released his double album Hymns to the Silence in '91, many of his longtime followers had moved on -- some disappointed by so many uneven albums, some just having enough Van in their lives. Over two discs, Hymns to the Silence was just too much Van, and even the most generous reviewers had to note many songs were not a patch on the Celtic soul he had previously... > Read more

John Lennon, Child of Nature (1968)

15 Jul 2013 | <1 min read

Give them credit, the Beatles were always incredibly productive and even on their holidays -- like the six weeks that Lennon and Harrison spent in Rishikesh with the Maharishi -- they were frequently writing. Not everything was a masterpiece of course, and this demo by Lennon betrays a bit too much of the hippie communing with the world around him. It was a few months after the Summer of... > Read more

World Party: You're All Invited to the Party (1990)

8 Jul 2013 | 1 min read | 1

Because he wrote She's the One which became a hit for Robbie Williams in 1999 -- and more so because he was sidelined for four years by a brain aneurysm in 2000 -- little has been heard of Karl Wallinger (who is the sole constant in World Party) since his creative peak in the mid Nineties. At that time he'd cracked the Grammy-nominated album Goodbye Jumbo and followed it up with the equally... > Read more

Ian Dury: Razzle in My Pocket (1977)

2 Jul 2013 | 1 min read | 2

With Will Birch's biography and the film of his life Sex and Drugs and Rock'n'Roll (Andy Serkis as Ian), there was something of a revival and re-appreciation of Ian Dury recently, a bit more than a decade after his death at age 57. Dury came to the punk era as someone more than a decade older than most performers, and he had considerable stage experience: his band Kilburn and the High Roads... > Read more

Ian Dury: Razzle in My Pocket

The Fleetwoods: Runaround (1960)

1 Jul 2013 | <1 min read

It was disappointing to see a blurb on the top of an article about Dudley Benson repeat the hoary line that he "bridges the gap between the pop music of Kylie Minogue" and . . . in this case . . . the waiata of Hirini Melbourne. The Kylie reference -- something I suspect Benson made some years ago -- was utterly irrelevant with regard to his exceptional new project Forest (see... > Read more

Anna Russell: Folk Songs (1952)

20 Jun 2013 | <1 min read

With her beautifully modulated tones and remarkable voice -- which went from a soprano squeal to a screech quite effortlessly -- Anna Russell was an enormously popular comedy-cum-classical act in the Fifties. She would poke fun at Wagner and contemporary classical music equally: of the latter she said it was music for the singer who was tone deaf, because in a contemporary song it's very... > Read more

Sam the Sham and the Pharoahs: Wooly Bully (1964)

19 Jun 2013 | 1 min read

When this out-of-the-blue single raced around the globe at the height of Beatlemania it sounded like a typically gimmicky hit of the period. The band name, Sam wearing a turban and the group dressed like Arabs didn't exactly deny it. You might have expected them to disappear immediately. But they didn't. They came back with a slightly sleazy slice of rough garageband rock on... > Read more

Willie Nelson: Nite Life (1962)

18 Jun 2013 | 1 min read

For many folks, Willie Nelson's wonderful album of standards Stardust, in the late Seventies, was a revelation . . . and unexpected. By then he had been so long associatied with the Outlaw movement in modern country -- and been adopted as the dope-smoking Red Headed Stranger by post-hippie adults -- that him singing standards like the title track, Blue Skies and Moonlight in Vermont... > Read more

Roger Waters: Money, demo (1972)

7 Jun 2013 | <1 min read

One of the most interesting aspects of popular music reissues is when an expanded edition of a classic album (or artist) offers working drawings of songs which became -- usually much embellished or in some later form -- massive hits. Back in the Eighties Pete Townshend of the Who began offering his double-vinyl home demo albums under the banner Scoop, the Beatles' Anthology had some... > Read more

Japan: Don't Rain on My Parade (1978)

6 Jun 2013 | <1 min read

Way back before singer David Sylvian came over all Eno, European and arty. And before bassist Mick Karn (who died in January 2011), drummer Steve Jansen and keyboard player Richard Barbieri (now in prog-rockewr Porcupine Tree) lit of out for territory which was sometimes on the border of jazz, they were in the louche, sometimes funky and new wave Japan where they dressed like the New York Dolls... > Read more

Big Boy Groves: Bucket o Blood (1962)

4 Jun 2013 | <1 min read

Most songs inviting you to club promise a great night with dancing and drinking and fun times to be had. Ervin Groves from San Diego promising nothing of the sort with this song. In fact this is one club which sounds like it would be a must to avoid because of the bodies stacking up. The mention in the opening lines to the Chicken Shack is a reference to a song by Chris Kenner called I... > Read more

Bernard Butler: Woman I Know (1998)

16 May 2013 | <1 min read

Was it Bob Dylan who said something to the effect, "amateurs borrow, professionals steal"? Not to encourage plagiarism, but Bernard Butler certainly took a leaf or two -- if not a whole chapter -- from the Book of Fleetwood Mac for this track which uses Albatross as it's starting point -- but then doesn't go too far with it. This was the opening track on Butler's solo album... > Read more

Marilyn Monroe: You'd Be Surprised (1956)

15 May 2013 | <1 min read

Although it's hardly surprising that Marilyn Monroe would sing a song as suggestive as this interest alights on who wrote it. Yep, the man also responsible for such classics as Blue Skies, White Christmas, God Bless America, There's No Business Like Show Business (from Annie Get Your Gun) and hundreds of other songs imprinted in the collective memory of Americans and large portions of the... > Read more

Eden Kane: Boys Cry (1964)

6 May 2013 | 1 min read | 3

When Peter Sarstedt had his smash hit single Where Do You Go To My Lovely? in '69 some unfairly asked . . . where did his brother Richard go? Richard, who used the stage name Eden Kane, had enjoyed some chart success in those pre-Beatle days (hence the name change, he was in there with Adam Faith, Marty Wilde, Billy Fury et al) but had largely disappeared after his one last flash, the... > Read more