From the Vaults

Toni Basil: Nobody (1982)

6 Mar 2023 | <1 min read

Is there a more annoying song than Toni Basil's inanely catchy Mickey ("Oh Mickey you're so fine . . . hey Mickey" etc)? It's the kind of song you wake up with banging around inside your head and you spend the rest of the day wondering what you did in a previous lifetime to deserve such hellish punishment. It is in there with Racey's Some Girls ("some girls will, some... > Read more

Lewis: Like to See You Again (1983)

19 Feb 2023 | 1 min read

The story behind the obscure album L'Amour by a man known only as Lewis is as odd and out-of-sych as the cover photos. In '83 the handsome, well-groomed Lewis turned up at a rundown punk studio in LA, arriving in a white Mercedes convertible with his pretty surfer-girl girlfriend. He said he wanted to record an atmospheric album -- which he did -- and then he disappeared leaving barely... > Read more

Lightnin' Hopkins: Automobile (1949)

12 Feb 2023 | <1 min read

Bob Dylan aficionados should get a copy of this on 33 1/3rpm record and play it at 45, or at about 40rpm. And lo! It sounds perilously close in many ways -- an inspiration if nothing else -- for Bob's Leopard-Skin Pill Box Hat. Dylan had seen the great Lightin' Hopkins on television a few years before he [Dylan] arrived in New York to haunt the downtown folk clubs and soak up... > Read more

The Legendary Stardust Cowboy: I Took a Trip on a Gemini Spaceship (1968)

5 Feb 2023 | 1 min read

Norman Odam – still alive at 75 – isn't a household name, unless your household is attuned to outsider artists like Jandek, the Shaggs, Daniel Johnston, Roky Erickson, Hasil Adkins and the like. But as The Legendary Stardust Cowboy – the name he appeared under – he might just be familiar to David Bowie fans, because it from him that Bowie borrowed the... > Read more

Teddy Bennett: The Life I Live (1962)

29 Jan 2023 | 2 min read

Unlike his lesser peer Ronnie Sundin who is reasonably well known in New Zealand rock'n'roll circles but a very limited talent, Teddy Bennett is harder to find information about. In fact, Elsewhere is prepared to admit that until lunch with a friend who had found a copy of Bennett's 1961 album -- the unpromisingly titled Where Were You On Our Wedding Day -- we'd never heard of him.... > Read more

Cracker: Movie Star (1993)

22 Jan 2023 | 1 min read

In some liner notes to the 1994 triple-CD box set compilation of tracks from the Virgin label, Martin Aston said of the American band Cracker “with their confidently ramshackle boho-pop they could be the Next Likely To from across the water”. However despite the critical and commercial success of their Kerosene Hat album – on which this was a track – there were... > Read more

Neil Young and the Bluenotes: This Note's For You (1988)

15 Jan 2023 | 1 min read

An artist, sportsperson or public figure who doesn't accept, let alone solicit, corporate money these days is a rarity, possibly even considered somewhat odd -- and maybe even suspect. But back when people like Michael Jackson and Madonna were lining up for Pepsi/Coke dollars and rap stars were schilling for shoes, Neil Young stepped out and said, "Ain't singin' for Pepsi, ain't... > Read more

The Beatles: 12 Bar Original (1965)

2 Jan 2023 | <1 min read | 1

On November 4 1965 when the Beatles were rushing to finish the Rubber Soul album they polished up a piece Lennon-McCartney had written more than two years previous and handed it to Ringo. It was What Goes On and Ringo was even given a co-credit for whatever contribution he made. That same day however they recorded this lengthy piece, their first instrumental during their EMI years and... > Read more

The Fab Four: Jingle Bells

24 Dec 2022 | <1 min read

There are a lot of Christmas albums out there. But every now and again one comes along and you think . . . Yeah, why not? It's a bit of a wheeze but these guys make a fine fist of taking Tomorrow Never Knows into the Yuletide season. Enjoy. And enjoy Christmas. (Thanks for this Fred, another album in my massive pile of Beatle-related albums!) . For more... > Read more

Superman is Dead: Kuta Rock City (2003)

19 Dec 2022 | <1 min read

Those who head to Bali for some r'n'r and an escape from stress (as I did, see here) will probably come back with the memory of quiet ambient gamelan music which drifted from speakers in the restaurant or by the pool. Lovely. There is however a whole lot of other music in Bali, not the least of it coming from this long-running post-punk trio whose rock credentials probably aren't... > Read more

Dread Zeppelin: All I Want for Christmas is My Two Front Teeth (1990)

18 Dec 2022 | <1 min read

Christmas is upon us. And in the spirit of the day here is one of the funniest bands ever. Whoever thought pulling together reggae rhythms and Led Zeppelin riffery was an odd fish . . . but then they went one step beyond and fronted the band with an Elvis impersonator. This was classic rock-comedy . . . and their shows were hilarious. For this B-side however they went even... > Read more

Girlschool: Tush (1981)

12 Dec 2022 | <1 min read

In the catalogue of hard rocking women, Girlschool out of Britain deserve to be counted in there alongside Joan Jett, the Runaways and a few select others. They arrived as part of the New Wave of British Heavy Metal in the late Seventies alongside Saxon, Tank, Iron Maiden and others, but were most often associated with Motorhead as their mainman Lemmy was a great supporter of Girlschool.... > Read more

Cheryl Lynn: Got To Be Real (1978)

5 Dec 2022 | <1 min read

If it weren't for Madonna's hit Vogue most people outside of New York wouldn't have known of this posturing late Eighties style which seemed to come with more attitude-dance than seemed healthy. Narcissism isn't pleasant at any time. But the music was something else and no musical style should be held to account because if its followers (or even its practitoners). The... > Read more

Otis Blackwell: Daddy Rollin' Stone (1953)

28 Nov 2022 | <1 min read

Otis Blackwell is best known as a songwriter, and he was one the most prominent and best in the rock'n'roll era. Among his classics were Fever, All Shook Up, Don't Be Cruel, Great Balls of Fire, Return to Sender . . . But he was, at the start of his career, a performer himself and the slinky Daddy Rollin' Stone was his single which influenced the likes of Leiber and Stoller.... > Read more

Professor Longhair: Her Mind is Gone (1980)

14 Nov 2022 | 1 min read

There are dozens of places you can start on a discovery of the genius of New Orleans' legendary pianist/arranger and songwriter Professor Longhair, the man Allen Toussaint called "the Bach of Rock". Dr John said Longhair "put the funk into music, he's the father of the stuff" and producer Jerry Wexler acclaimed him as "a seminal force, a guru, the original creator... > Read more

The Stardusters: Rock Around the Island (1956)

7 Nov 2022 | <1 min read

Written by the American Ken Darby who also penned Love Me Tender, this engaging slice of pop captures the spirit of the Pacific (Hawaiian music was still enormously popular at the time and Bill Wolfgramm on steel guitar here was a master practitioner) and also the new fangled sound of rock'n'roll beaming in from the States. And a little smidgen of country music. The Stardusters were a... > Read more

Joe Tex: I Gotcha (1972)

31 Oct 2022 | <1 min read

You could never say Joe Tex didn't live an interesting life, if being shot at by James Brown (who said Tex was copying his moves) constitutes something "interesting". Things weren't always quite so high profile and dangerous, none of his singles in his first decade caught the public's imagination but in the mid Sixties (after Brown had covered his Baby You're Right) he started to... > Read more

Dr Timothy Leary: from The Psychedelic Experience (1966)

28 Oct 2022 | 1 min read

The famed, some would say notorious, clinical psychologist at Harvard Timothy Leary had a colourful, some would say multi-coloured, life. As an advocate for the benefits of consciousness altering drugs, notably LSD, he became a key figure in the counter-culture of the late Sixties. These days he's been reduced to his injunction to “turn on, tune, drop out” but... > Read more

The Waterboys: I Can See Elvis (2014)

23 Oct 2022 | 1 min read

Name-checking Elvis, Memphis and Jesus in alt.country songs has been such as cliché as to be meaningless and mostly just a cheap reference for some kind of credibility. Singing about a girl in blue jeans in a pick-up who loves Elvis means . . . what exactly? But every now and again someone comes up with an Elvis reference which places The King in a new context and uses him as a cipher to... > Read more

Kyu Sakamoto: Sukiyaki (1963)

16 Oct 2022 | 1 min read

It wasn't really the name of the song that Sakamoto recorded, but that hardly mattered. When this catchy piece of MOR pop from Japan made it to the West it enjoyed enormous success. Sakamoto, who was 22, was the first and last Japanese artist to top the Billboard charts. It was also his first and last international success. Back home of course he wasn't a one-hit wonder, he was a... > Read more