From the Vaults

Honeyboy: Bloodstains on the Wall (1953)

8 Feb 2013 | <1 min read

Not much is known about Honeyboy (Frank Patt) other than he was born in 1928 in Fostoria, Alabama -- and that this song, considered his finest outing on the Speciality label in the Fifties, sold around 50,000 copies. You can see why: Jimmy Liggins plays tense and moody guitar, Gus Jenkins offers similar low key piano . . . and the lyric about coming home to what must be a murder scene is... > Read more

Neil Young: Cocaine Eyes (1989)

5 Feb 2013 | 1 min read

Given his tendency to release as much music and as often as he can, it's increasingly hard to make the case for anything by Neil Young as being rare. His Archives Volume 1 scooped up vast tracts of early material, and when Vol 2 rolls around (no one would dare put a date on that, the first volume was spoken about for decades) then maybe songs like this one will be included. But for now... > Read more

Robin Zander: Fly Me to the Moon (2011)

4 Feb 2013 | <1 min read | 1

On the basis of recent evidence Robin Zander -- singer with the smarter-than-thou Cheap Trick -- has really lost it. Lost his cheekbones, his slim frame and, worst of all because those are forgivably inevitable with advancing years, his sense of taste. Perhaps it was having uber-brain Rick Nielsen helming Cheap Trick that allowed them to pull off three superb albums in a row -- and deliver... > Read more

Carl Perkins: Dixie Fried (1956)

31 Jan 2013 | 1 min read

Known mostly these days as the writer of Blue Suede Shoes (he sang it before Elvis' chart-topping cover), Carl Perkins was the man who was the most hillbilly cat of them all in the early rock'n'roll era. Looking like a cadaver with his sunken cheeks, and a heroic drinker, the married Carl was the Hank Williams of rockabilly . . . and Sam Phillips knew Perkins could be his next big star... > Read more

Dinah Washington: Big Long Slidin' Thing (1954)

30 Jan 2013 | <1 min read | 1

It's about a trombone player's instrument, of course. Well, of course it is . . . But the sexually voracious and seldom satisfied Washington (seven husbands, countless lovers) knows exactly what this is about and manages to milk the innuendo in her typically sassy way. Her real forte was torch songs and she crossed effortlessly between jazz, blues, pop and rhythm and blues -- and songs... > Read more

Cliff Richard: Schoolboy Crush (1958)

29 Jan 2013 | 1 min read

Although there is still some debate about which was the first rock'n'roll record, the critical consensus appears to have decided on Rocket 88 written by Ike Turner at the famous Riverside Hotel in Clarksdale, Mississippi. When it comes to the first British rock'n'roll record there is no doubt. It is Move It by Cliff Richard. Recorded at Abbey Road in July 1958 with entrepreneur Norrie... > Read more

? and the Mysterians: Can't Get Enough of You Baby (1967)

25 Jan 2013 | 1 min read

It's a common enough sentiment, but in the fast-changing world of pop "If it ain't broke, why try to fix it?" just doesn't work. That idea would have kept the Beatles singing variants of She Loves You and I Want To Hold Your Hand for a few years and in all likelihood they would have become one of those rapidly redundant pop sensations remembered only for their Ed Sullivan Show... > Read more

Alberta Hunter: You Can't Tell the Difference After Dark (c1936)

24 Jan 2013 | 1 min read

When Alberta Hunter enjoyed a career revival in the late Seventies -- when she was in her mid 80s -- people who had forgotten her were scrambling to acclaim her saucy and sassy blues, and to look back at where she had come from all those decades previous. Hunter had been born in 1895 and wrote the classic Downhearted Blues in 1922. Her peers included Bessie Smith who had a hit with... > Read more

Maurice Rocco: Darktown Strutters Ball (1945)

23 Jan 2013 | 1 min read | 1

No matter how innovative a musician can appear to be, you can almost always track down a predecessor. There usually seems to be someone who was doing something similar a little earlier, most often to no great acclaim. The impeccably attired boogie-woogie pianist Maurice Rocco from Ohio was, however, widely hailed for his lively style and he appeared in a number of movies (notably 52nd... > Read more

Pete Townshend: Behind Blue Eyes (1983)

22 Jan 2013 | <1 min read

In '83 Pete Townshend of the Who released the first of three double albums of demos, outtakes, working drawing for songs and unspecified instrumental tracks. Under the generic title Scoop -- not definitive, just scoops he said -- these were fascinating documents for anyone interested in the creative process. You could hear how some of his songs underwent major overhauls between conception... > Read more

Larry Wallis: Police Car (1977)

18 Jan 2013 | 1 min read | 3

The punk era tossed up -- threw up? -- some real oddities, few more unexpected than Wallis who was no spring chicken in the world of short haired rock'n'roll for angry 18-year olds. He'd been in the music game for over a decade and in the Sixties had been in such household names as The Entire Sioux Nation and Shagrat. To be fair, Shagrat morphed into the Pink Fairies (which had... > Read more

The Lemonheads: Hey, That's No Way to Say Goodbye (2009)

16 Jan 2013 | 1 min read

When, in 2004, I interviewed Evan Dando -- the golden boy of great promise who fronted the Lemonheads -- he was pleasingly unapologetic about having taken most drugs known to man . . . and a few only familiar to animals. He thought taking drugs, getting out of it and generally having a good time were part of the contract in rock'n'roll. But of course, these days he was clean and sober... > Read more

Rod Stewart/Long John Baldry: Up Above My Head (1964)

14 Jan 2013 | 1 min read

Serious rock writers -- or more correctly, those who want to be considered serious -- will always prefer tortured artists over those who sailed along and were seen to be be enjoying themselves. Which is why Rod Stewart's The Autobiography was either dismissed, overlooked or snidely condemned by most . . . and of course unfavourably compared with Pete Townshend's Who I Am, which is a... > Read more

Ronald Frankau: I'd Like to Have a Honeymoon with Her (1930s)

12 Dec 2012 | <1 min read

With his fruity, aristocratic tone, the London music hall comedian and actor Ronald Frankau (1894-1951) had the perfect voice for innuendo. And his choice of material included Everyone's Got Sex Appeal for Someone which, along with many of his songs and skits, was banned on British radio during the Thirties and Forties. Ironically then, he was actually best known as a broadcaster . . . but... > Read more

Dirty Red: Mother Fuyer (1947)

29 Nov 2012 | <1 min read

Blues and jazz artists often used coded language to get their lyrics past record companies and radio programmers, so you would get a song like When I'm In My Tea (by Jo-Jo Adams, 1946) about marijuana or Dope Head Blues by Victoria Spivey about cocaine. Coded sex was everywhere . . . although there is no mistaking the meaning of songs like Poon Tang (by the Treniers), Big Long Slidin' Thing... > Read more

Brian Eno and David Byrne: The Jezebel Spirit (1981)

27 Nov 2012 | 1 min read | 1

When the Brian Eno and David Byrne album My Life in the Bush of Ghosts appeared in 1981, the musical, social and cultural climate was very different. Hip-hop had yet to establish the widespread use of sampling (although of course there had been artists who had used the technique), and the idea of a beat-driven album by two intellectual boffins was something unfamiliar also. But on... > Read more

Bob Dylan: Neighborhood Bully (1983)

24 Nov 2012 | 1 min read | 4

As I write, the fragile "peace" between Israel and the Palestinians on the West Bank looks to be holding. At least, the missile attacks from both sides have stopped and some people are talking. Others are doubtless re-arming themselves while rebuilding their lives and homes. Without getting into the rights and wrongs of aggression and the usual "you started it"... > Read more

Roy Loney and the Phantom Movers: Born to be Your Fool (1979)

22 Nov 2012 | 1 min read

Some songs hook you in with a great opening line or couplet, something which just makes you want to hear more. There are plenty of them about and it's a fine rock'n'roll parlour game after a few drinks to start ticking them off. Feel free to add to these. "When you get out of the hospital, let me back into your life . . ." (Modern Lovers) "I walked 47 miles of barbed... > Read more

Push Push: Do Ya Love Me? (1991)

20 Nov 2012 | <1 min read

Much loved for their confident rock-star swagger, astonishing vocals by frontman Mikey Havoc, guitarist Silver's good looks and their Kiwi classic single Trippin', Auckland band Push Push were the pivot of the "five bands for five dollars" nights at the Powerstation which gave many now-forgotten groups their first shot on a stage before an audience. Whatever happened to Bad Boy... > Read more

The Beatles: Yes It Is (Take 2, 1965)

19 Nov 2012 | <1 min read | 1

The Beatles' b-sides were always worth hearing and Yes It Is -- a gloomy piece from an otherwise upbeat pop band and on the flipside of Ticket to Ride -- was a venture into the close harmony dark side they'd explored in Baby's in Black on their previous album Beatles for Sale. It was a melancholy side of Lennon and McCartney's increasingly mature writing which would emerge more fully on... > Read more