From the Vaults

Elton John: Madman Across the Water (1970)

24 Jul 2012 | <1 min read | 1

During the sessions for his excellent country-rock album Tumbleweed Connection (an Essential Elsewhere album, see here), Elton John recorded this nine minute version of the menacing and moody Madman Across the Water, but wasn't satisfied with it. He subsequently re-recorded it, and it became the title track to his next album. But this version isn't without interest, notably because it... > Read more

Not Sensibles: I'm in Love with Margaret Thatcher (1979)

19 Jul 2012 | <1 min read

In Giles Smith's hilarious book Lost in Music, he tells of forming a band with his brother. His mum suggest they call themselves . . . the Smiths. Cue laughter from the boys, comments like who would name a band that and so on. Not Sensibles out of Burnley, England got their name when guitarist Sage Harley's dad heard about him forming a band and - because none of them could play with any... > Read more

The Savage: Gimme Some Lovin' (1966?)

18 Jul 2012 | <1 min read

No, this is not the Spencer Davis Group sped up but a Japanese group (person?) which appeared on the '91 album Slitherama; Psychedelic Tokyo 1966-1969, the third volume of Japanese garage bands on the Planet X label. And other than my copy came on white vinyl there is nothing more I can tell you about the album or the artists (who also included The Outcast, the Spiders, the Mops, the Jaguars... > Read more

The Church: The Unguarded Moment (2004)

17 Jul 2012 | 1 min read

Just as John Lennon borowed, plagiarised and stole from early black r'n'b artists for riffs and chords on songs like I Feel Fine and Revolution, so too various phases of the Beatles' work has been plundered and remade by everyone from the Merseybeats and ELO through the Jam and on to Oasis ("I'm surprised Paul McCartney hasn't sued me," said Noel Gallagher) and beyond. Some of the... > Read more

Graeme Gash: Watching Television (1981)

16 Jul 2012 | 1 min read | 6

Posting a From the Vaults song off the Waves album of 1975 (here) was almost more trouble than it was worth. There was so much off-line (ie. e-mail) traffic along the lines of, "Loved that album, why isn't it on CD?") that I even formulated a standard reply. It went along the lines of "Thanks for your interest, but I don't know why it isn't. It should be". Someone... > Read more

Mr Lee Grant: Tabatha Twitchit (1968)

11 Jul 2012 | 1 min read

New Zealand's Mr Lee Grant enjoyed a short but high profile career in the late Sixties on the back of his big voice (and distinctive hairstyle which was very Mary Quant). But Grant's voice wasn't big and rounded like his peers Tom Jones, PJ Proby, Englebert Humperdink etc, and nor did he have an emotional range like Scott Walker or Roy Orbison. Because he came up through the television... > Read more

Bob Dylan: George Jackson (1971)

9 Jul 2012 | 2 min read | 2

Even before he plugged in an electric guitar and changed the landscape of rock possibilties in the mid Sixties, Bob Dylan had left behind overtly political music and his "protest" period. As the reluctant "spokesman for a generation" however many people's eyes still turned to him for inspiration and, worse, guidance. Even friends like Joan Baez urged him to make some... > Read more

Donovan: Season of the Witch (1966)

5 Jul 2012 | 1 min read

When the world was getting very mellow in the mid Sixties, Donovan -- who would subsequently sing Mellow Yellow and had already embarked on a folkadelic path --recorded the dark side of the changing world in this prescient single which seemed, in retrospect, to anticipate Charles Manson and Neil Young's Revolution Blues. It would be a year before George Harrison went to San Francisco and... > Read more

Unknown Artist: Celebrate Dayton (1990)

4 Jul 2012 | 1 min read | 1

These days when cities want to "put themselves on the map" they tend to get behind big spectacle events (which almost invariably run over budget, don't make the promised returns and gouge rate payers for decades afterwards). However in 1990, Dayton in the Miami Valley had another idea. Put out an album in which the city's history and achievements were enumerated and have the story... > Read more

Dion: Lonely Teenager (1960)

3 Jul 2012 | 1 min read

Marketing unhappiness to teenagers isn't exactly hard or innovative. Just obvious really. And so way before grunge angst and the miserablism of Morrissey there were songs which aimed straight at a teenager's heart . . . and wallet. Dion -- who is still recording today, but as a very different artist -- must be one of the luckiest men in show business. With his band the Belmonts back in the... > Read more

The Wailers: And I Love Her (1965)

27 Jun 2012 | <1 min read

Although Bob Marley came to prominence in, and dominated, the Seventies, we often forget he was an exact contemporary of the Beatles in the Sixties. When they were in Abbey Road recording Can't Buy Me Love, the Waliers were in Studio One in Kingston asking the rude boys and razor gangs running wild in the streets to Simmer Down. Marley, Peter Tosh and Bunny Livingstone were also... > Read more

Howard Morrison: Howie the Maori/Ruby, Don't Take Your Love to Town (1982)

21 Jun 2012 | 1 min read

The late Sir Howard Morrison was a complex character. He was a master of self-placement in the public domain (at Michael Jackson's side when the singer visited) and although some skewered him for snuggling up to politicians and dignitaries, he was also a populist and popular figure, and someone who throughout his life quietly -- and sometimes overtly -- advanced various Maori causes. He... > Read more

Unknown soprano: The Goodness of Chairman Mao is Deeper Than the Sea (1967)

20 Jun 2012 | <1 min read

While there is doubtless some historic or artistic merit in many of tracks posted at From the Vaults, sometimes we pick them just because we can. There may well be artistic merit of some kind in this song and there is certainly historic significance. Whether that's enough to make anyone want to listen is another matter. Yes, the old record is scratchy and yes, Chinese sopranos can be an... > Read more

Coast: Why; A Peace Medley (1970)

18 Jun 2012 | 1 min read

The war in Vietnam threw up hundreds of songs -- taking about every political position imaginable -- but this track is interesting as an early example of a musical montage. Not a "song" as such but a medley of vocal samples (including one from American Vice President Spiro Agnew), sound effects and hooks from anti-war songs by Neil Young and the Plastic Ono Band, this piece... > Read more

Bob Dylan:Belle Isle (1970)

14 Jun 2012 | 1 min read | 1

Because of the length and breadth of his catalogue, it is hardly surprising Bob Dylan should have appeared at From the Vaults from time to time (see here), not always with great, lost songs either. A few are real duds. His myth-destroying Self Portrait double album of 1970 is one of those oddities you can return to and find the oddball rubbing shoulders with the truly awful and... > Read more

Bike: Save My Life (1996)

11 Jun 2012 | 1 min read | 2

Unless you actually know Andrew Brough, he is one of the great lost figures in recent New Zealand rock. One of the songwriters in Straitjacket Fits alongside Shayne Carter, he jumped/was pushed in 1992 after their second album Melt and briefly re-emerged in the mid Nineties when he seemed to get the wind behind him with Bike which became a vehicle for his distinctive, melodic songwriting.... > Read more

John Giorno: Suicide Sutra (1973)

7 Jun 2012 | 1 min read

An important warning before you listen: Do not push play if you are suicidal, off your medication or are having a really hard time of it right now. Especially don't push play if you have access to a firearm. This disturbing piece was written by New York poet John Giorno (born 1936) and appeared as a piece on his Dial-A-Poem phoneline which he founded in the late Sixties. People could ring... > Read more

The Inhalers: Nico on a Bike (1990)

6 Jun 2012 | 3 min read | 1

When Nigel Beckford of Wellington got in touch two years ago about the album by the band Sven Olsen's Brutal Canadian Love Saga, he opened a door into a very strange and wonderful world. That album Songs From the Bottom of a Hilltop went into our Best of Elsewhere 2010 list and has, as expected, become a collector's item. There were only 400 pressed and it was an elaborate package of two... > Read more

Screamin' Jay Hawkins: Monkberry Moon Delight (1972)

4 Jun 2012 | 1 min read | 1

With Paul and Linda McCartney's Ram album being given the reissue treatment -- and album critically derided on release in '71 but a longtime Essential Elsewhere album and now picking up highly favourable reviews -- it is timely to post this track by the great Screamin' Jay Hawkins (who is interviewed here). Throughout his career McCartney to that point had drawn on interesting source... > Read more

Johnny Cash: The Chicken in Black (1984)

3 Jun 2012 | <1 min read

Fortunately for Johnny Cash he didn't die around the time he hit rock bottom in the mid Eighties. If he'd gone then -- before his career resurrection through the American Recordings and the Walk the Line film -- he might not have been remembered as the man-mountain solid rock of country, the troubled man of faith or the middle-finger rabble-rousing guy of that famous photo. Imagine if The... > Read more