A few good times in my life
Let's take another journey into the past and listen to classic and forgotten songs.
1968: Love
1973: Stevie Wonder
1967: Spencer Davis Group
1971: Marvin Gaye
1971: Grateful Dead
1973: Elton John
1982: Joan Jet and the Blackhearts
1984: Echo and the Bunnymen
1965: Wayne Fontana & the Mindbenders
1965: The Temptations
1977: Climax Blues Band
1982: Haircut One Hundred
1968: Blue Cheer
1978: Eruption
1970: Creedence Clearwater Revival
2009: The XX
1963: The Cascades
1983: Eurythmics
1967: Cream
Another round with songs that have Saturday in the title. We start with the Leyton Buzzards, a former pub rock band that adapted new wave in 1979, Sadly they were a one-hit wonder but their second single Saturday Night (Beneath The Plastic Palm Trees) a paean to the first wave of skin and ska culture in late 60's Britain made them unforgetable.
These days arrived the news that London based collective Rude Audio will release a collaboration with Welsh musician Dan Wainwright called Psychedelic Science. They only released an appetizer from their forthcoming album Fire On The Mountain, but what I heard was more than I expected. Both artists were featured on this pages during the last years and they released a lot of outstanding music for me. Now they changed they musical style and combined Grateful Dead's Westcoast sound with British reggae. The result is nothing more or less a very big surprise that made me happy. I listened to this song the first time and can't stop to play it once again. This are some words they made when they released this album:
Inspired by radio play and club support from the likes of Don Letts and - bless his cotton socks and may he RIP - Andrew Weatherall and rooted in our love of US psychedelia, especially the Dead and Jefferson Airplane, we decided to buckle down and create a massive dub lp, steeped in mycological and herbal goodness, that would appeal to the head(s) and the feet and work in clubs, back rooms and bedrooms. We were joined by Ken Kesey's right hand man on the Acid Test, Ken Babbs and psychedelic and spiritual guru, Mr Ram Dass, for part of the trip.
In 1971, now over 50 years ago, David Crosby released his first solo album. I found this again when I made safety copy on my external drive and I couldn't resist listening to it once again. This album is one of those from the early 70's that is still worth to listen from time to time not only for one that always liked his voice. It has this kind of westcoast sound based on blues and filled with great harmonies. As far as I know many artists from associated bands like Jefferson Airplane, Grateful Dead and CSN&Y supported him on this album. This is retro sound of course but I think there were less musicians today who are able to make records like these.
David Crosby - Music Is Love
David Crosby - Tamalpais High (At About 3)
From time to time I come back to a series of live performances in German television I started a couple of years ago. The recent days I found a clip from an appearance by The Byrds in 1971. It is an almost 14 minutes long version of Eight Miles High but frankly speaking it has nothing more in common with the original than a few chords but shows a side of the band that is seldom heard. This version is like The Byrds jamming with Little Feat and or Grateful Dead. What makes this song great is to listen to the superb bass played by Skip Battin and the guitar picking by Clarence White. It is a kind of stuff they don't do in this days anymore.
Uschi Nerke, the little lady appearing at the start of the songs tells the story behind the song: five years before, 8 Miles High had been banned from US radio. The song they're performing is a new version from the album Untitled.
