A Few Quick Ones While I'm Away
I'm going on holiday tomorrow, to Italy, for three weeks. So I thought I'd do a quick post before I go, with links to a few random albums I've uploaded recently.
Mike Heron's Reputation - Mike Heron's Reputation (1974)
Disclaimer: all this is personal opnion, unfettered by facts or research. It's just how I see things this morning.
When the Incredible String Band finally broke up in 1979, following a couple of rather sad & lacklustre albums, it soon became clear how much Robin and Mike needed each other in order to create top quality music.
Freed from Mike (Paul)'s mainstream sensibility, Robin (John) lurched off into celtic myths & legends while Mike rebounded back into MOR soft rock. Not that either lost their songwriting abilities, just that Mike became a bit dull & Robin went too far into wyrdness.
However, before we lost Mike altogether he made one final great - well, very good - album. Alongside Malcolm LeMaistre (who, it could be argued, heralded the downfall of ISB before Robin brought in Gerard Dott to seal the coffin), Graham Forbes and Stan Lee (not really), Mike Heron's Reputation made one more album (the rotten 'Diamond Of Dreams') before Mike went truly solo.
ISB reformed, of course, with Clive Palmer & then without Robin, but I haven't bothered listening to the recorded concerts because somehow middle-aged blokes singing songs from 5000 Spirits and Hangman's doesn't seem right to me. And the 1st album exists - for me - in a vacuum all of its own.
I saw the ISB a few times (anyone remember Friars Aylesbury?), also Reputation a couple of times at the Marquee - but LeMaistre was always going on about his braces and pissed me off.
I hadn't heard this album in 20 years when I ripped it, probably won't for another 20 but... it's not bad. Just not great.
01 - Down On My Knees (After Memphis)
02 - Easy Street
03 - Evie
04 - Residential Boy
05 - Without Love
06 - Born To Be Gone
07 - Angels In Disguise
08 - Wine Of His Song
09 - Meanwhile The Rain
10 - One Of The Finest
11 - Singing The Dolphin Through
Martyn Bates - Letters To A Scattered Family (1990)
The other Martyn Bates post went down very well, so here's another.
01 - On The Day You Climb Down
02 - Snow Rages
03 - City, All Of Strangers
04 - Little Days
05 - Your Jewled Footsteps
06 - For Love, Waiting To Die
07 - Shuttered Nights
08 - First And Last February
09 - This One Refrain
10 - I'll Wrap Your Hopes
Fiddler's Dram - To See The Play (1978)
Fiddler's Dram, of course, had the big hit with 'Day Trip To Bangor' but that was about it for them. Cathy Lesurf joined the Albions and the rest of them metamorphosed into The Oyster Band.
This is their first album, and very good it is too. It contains the *original* version of Bangor, not the poppy version they recorded and released as a single.
01 - Jack In London City
02 - Song Of Victory & Song Of The Blackbird
03 - Day Trip To Bangor
04 - Flash Lad
05 - Ythanside
06 - Keyhole In The Door
07 - Youankis & Skraperez & Guerz Ar Gechantez
08 - Wa'ney Island Cockfight
09 - The Two Brothers
10 - Peel the Tatties & The Pig In The Kitchen & The Barony
11 - False Knight On The Road
12 - Nottingham Goose Fair
Barry Dransfield - Bowin' and Scrapin' (1984)
Here's an album that I ripped & uploaded a couple of weeks ago, and then before i had a chance to create this post i wuz beaten to it by Time-Has-Told-Me (go there when you've finished here - he's got similar tastes). I haven't compared my rip with his, it could be better or it could be worse.
01 - Rattling Roaring Willie & Metal Man
02 - Fiddler's Progress
03 - Who Knows Where The Time Goes & My Lagan Love
04 - Sheffield Hornpipe & Pet Of The Pipers
05 - Up The Aisle (Wedding March & Wedding Song & Bridi
06 - Sandy Bell's
07 - Obliged To Fiddle & Planxty Davy & Spanish Cloak
08 - Bushes And Briars & Swedish Air
09 - O'Carolan's Concerto
10 - Recitation Upon A Gentleman Sitting On A Cremona V
11 - Sally Gardens & Clonmel Races
Reggae In My Jeggae
I know next to nothing about certain genres of music, for example soul & reggae. In fact, it's fair to say that I don't really like 'black' music in general - I've wondered whether this makes me racist in some way - I don't think so.
Anyway I was working in a record shop in Kilburn in the late 70s & we had a deal with a reggae label who used to give us their choice of albums on sale or return. Some of them I liked and bought for myself, including these.
I've no idea whether these are any good or not, but they're about al the reggae I've got apart from a bit of Dennis Brown and Gregory Isaacs. And no, I'm not a big fan of Bob Marley - though I do like Linton Kwesi Johnson and (soul-wise) The Meters.
Tradition - Tell Your Friends About Dub (1978)
01 - Dub In Paradise
02 - Gambling Dub
03 - Dub Out War
04 - Never Gonna Settle Dub
05 - Reggae Music Dub
06 - Tell Your Friends About Dub
07 - Herbs Tree Dub
08 - Prediction Dub
09 - Dub Down Here
10 - Why Dub
Tradition - Movin' On (1978)
01 - Every Little Beat Of My Heart
02 - Rastafaria
03 - You Walked On By
04 - We-Wah-To Go To Zion
05 - Prediction
06 - (Africa) Our Forefather's Land
07 - You Ran Off
08 - Movin On
09 - Jamaica Land Is Zion
10 - Rainy Day
11 - Six Million Dollar Baby
The Simeons - Dub Conference In London (1978)
01 - Dub Conference In London
02 - Dub Under Contract
03 - Love Dub
04 - L T Time
05 - More Time
06 - Jah Rastafari
07 - Immortal Dub
08 - Cool Stepping
09 - Mark At The Control
Black Beard - Strictly Dub Wize (1978)
Dennis Bovell was/is the producer behind a lot of the best reggae, or so I'm told. He certainly does the music for Linton Kwesi. This is the first of his 'solo' outings - creating dub versions of other tracks. It's good (I think).
01 - Cut After Cut
02 - Rebel Chase
03 - Ites Of Dub
04 - River To Bank Rocking
05 - Tell Yuh So
06 - Strictly Dub
07 - Mint Ah Music
08 - Surrey With The Fringe On Top (Ska Be Doo Za)
09 - Ah Weh
posted by Witchseason at 9:26 am
5 Comments:
I hadn't heard any of these records and I think they all are gems - thank you very much for posting them!
LKJ!!!! Good shout!
LKJ!!!! Good shout!
Wonder no longer, your taste in reggae is fine and these are outstanding pieces from a pivotal point in the UK's scene!
I think 'Tradition in Dub' is one of the best examples of early 80's dub along side the 1st 'LKJ in Dub' (Bovell too as noted) and Aswad's 'New Chapter of Dub.'
Bovell kept making good well into the 90s producing a lot of electro-dub as techno and house were taking their nascent forms in the UK.
3 less LPs for me to rip now! Also looking forward to hearing the Simeons as well, only heard some of the tracks on comps before.
Thanks!
If you worry about being racist, you're probably not. But I don't think there's any such thing as "black music".
Lumping together, say, Robert Johnson, Miles Davis, Aretha Franklin, Richie Havens, 2 Live Crew and Little Richard as black music makes no more sense than taking Vera Lynn, Frank Sinatra, Carl Perkins, Johnny Rotten, Judy Garland, Queen, Charlotte Church, Stan Getz, Fairport Convention, Ian Dury, the Beach Boys and Captain Beefheart and calling them all "white music".
Where do you draw the boundaries anyway? Most of the classic southern soul of the 60s and 70s, performed by black singers like Otis Redding, James Carr and O.V. Wright, was backed by white session men like Steve Cropper. So is it black or white?
I do find that most rap and hip-hop music today - generally considered black genres - does not speak to me. But neither does most current "white" music. Crap is crap whatever the skin colour of the performer.
Post a Comment
<< Home