Harmonica Day

 

Welcome to the last round of featuring songs that didn't leave out the harmonica. Let's start with an old song by Ewan MacCall which has been covered by many artists over the years. One of the finest versions is by The Pogues.

At the start of his career, there was hardly a single photo of Neil Young in which he wasn’t seen playing a harmonica.

It’s hard to believe that ‘Tangled Up In Blue’ is already 50 years old and still sounds as fresh as it did back then.

I’ve never really been into Canned Heat’s blues rock/boogie, but this song had to be included in this series.

The same goes for the pop-rockers Supertramp.

Next week will probably feature a series focusing on hand clapping.

Monday's Long Song

 

While doing my research for Harmonica Day, I couldn't help but listen to Bob Dylan's old songs again. “Desolation Row” was released in 1965 and once again showcases Dylan’s penchant for surreal lyrics. To this day, many have attempted to interpret it, yet no one has found the definitive explanation. For me, it is simply a description of a place where urban chaos reigns, a chaos that cannot be resolved. Lifelessness, depression, murder, and loneliness all converge there. Or simply one of his best songs.

Bob Dylan - Desolation Row

The Drums Have Gone Silent

 

This morning, I received the sad news that Sly Dunbar has also passed away. This marks the end of the legendary rhythm section that played with almost every musician who needed a reggae rhythm in the 1980s. Both had enhanced numerous songs with their own drumming and bass playing. Here are a few examples of their work.

RIP Sly

Singles Released This Week Years Ago

Welcome to our weekly trip down memory lane and to hits and songs that haven't been played in a long time.

Enjoy

1968: Manfred Mann

1972: America

 1973: Steely Dan

1975: Minnie Riperton

1959: The Coasters

1981: John Lennon

1982: The Go-Go's

1964: The Trashmen

1966: The 13th Floor Elevators

1969: Glen Campell

1969: Donovan

1972: Todd Rundgren

1980: Bob Dylan

1994: Beck

Singles Released This Week Years Ago

 

This will be the last post of this series for a couple of weeks because leave today for my annual trip to Sri Lanka. Probably I will find the time to post a few blogs but I can't promise. Until then, I wish you all good health, a merry Christmas with your loved ones, and a happy New Year. See you again in mid-January.

1965: The Mamas & The Papas

1967: John Fred & His Playboy Band

1966: Cream

1983: Bob Dylan

1989: The Smithereens

1971: Sly & The Family Stone

1963: Lesley Gore

1969: The Kinks

1972: David Bowie

1974: Stevie Wonder

1975: George Harrison

Singles Released This Week Years Ago

 

Another eclectic journey through decades of chart hits and long time not played songs for your pleasure.

1976: Stevie Wonder

1965: Crispian St. Peters

1976: Flamin Groovies

1982: The Kinks

1984: Tears For Fears

1964: The Righteous Brothers

1966: The Monkees

1975: Bob Dylan

1975: Blues Brothers

1980: The Clash

1978: The Records

Singles Released This Week Years Ago

 

Another week another journey through decades of music. Today some well known and some tracks we might have forgotten.

1966: The Four Tops

1968: The Rascals

1997: Foo Fighters

1983: The Motels

1965: The McCoys

1965: The Barbarians

1965: Barry McGuire

1971: The Doors

1979: Bob Dylan

1982: Africa Bambaataa and The Soul Sonic Force

1984: Depeche Mode

´1961: The Dovells

1967: Sam and Dave

1971: Janis Joplin

1976: The Stills-Young Band

1984: Sade

1978: The Jam

Singles Released This Week Years Ago

 

This week, we take another look back at the 70's, plus a few older and newer songs.

1965: Bob Dylan

1972: Uriah Heep

1972: Mott The Hoople

1972: Randy Newman

1977: Thin Lizzy

1991: Metallica

1971: Rod Stewart

1964: Martha and the Vandellas

1970: Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young

1989: Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers

1980: David Bowie

1959: The Coasters

1971: Cher

1973: The Velvet Underground

1987: M|A|R|R|S

Red Hot And Blue

 

As announced last week, a small series of songs with Red, Hot or Blue in their titles starts today. As always, the selection is eclectic and, apart from the color, has no further context.

Let's start with Nick Cave and a song from Peaky Blinders a British drama series set in Birmingham around 100 years ago. The song fits perfectly with the gloomy mood that this series exudes.

Nick Cave - Red Right Hand

The next one is a song from my very younger days when glam was all around and Marc Bolan was on his highest level.

T. Rex - Hot Love

We finish today with a song Bob Dylan released 1975 on his great Blood On The Tracks album. One of the songs and stories by him I love most.

Bob Dylan - Tangled Up In Blue

Singles Released This Week Years Ago

 

Another sentimental musical journey into times long gone by.

1976: Thin Lizzy

1969: Bob Dylan

1967: Pink Floyd

1969: Simon and Garfunkel

1986: Peter Gabriel

1972: Alice Cooper

1974: Paper Lace

1976: Steve Miller Band

1978: Elvis Costello and the Attractions

1979: Rickie Lee Jones

Singles Released This Week Years Ago

 

When I started this series, I didn't really have any great expectations as to which songs would appear on these pages. In the meantime, I really enjoy listening to these songs again after many years or even just watching the videos.

1972: At the height of glam rock, you can't get past Gary Glitter and I thought long and hard about whether I should give a pederast a forum.

1978: Warren Zevon released his masterpiece Werewolfes Of London

1979: Frank Zappa released Bobby Brown and his reckoning with the American dream so bluntly that it was banned in the United States.

1969: A Song from The Who's rock opera Tommy. Still nice watching Elton John playing pinball.

1965: A classic song by Them with the very young Van Morrison.

1970: The movie Easy Rider started when the when the main characters bought drugs for their journey and accompanied this with a song by Steppenwolf.

1965: Bob Dylan and a rare video

1962: A little bit of soul by Arthur Alexander. Willy DeVille made a fantastic cover of this song.

1979: The Pointer Sisters were successful with Bruce Springsteen's Fire. But I prefer the version by Robert Gordon with the great Chris Spedding on guitar.

1979: This year's one hit wonder

Singles Released This Week Years Ago

 

Another week and another foray through the releases of new songs from the last 60 years. There wasn't much of note, but enough to fill this post.

1977 - David Bowie released Low, probably his best album from this decade and Sound and Vision was one of the highlights from this album.

1958 - Doo Wop is not the thing I listen often but I like this song by The Monotones without any reason.

1980 - The Clash released Train In Vain from their epochal album London Calling. Still fascinating.

1966 - From his album Blonde On Blonde Bob Dylan released One Of Us Must Know one of the best songs from this album.

1967 - A classic pop song by The Turtles was released.

1972 - Dr. Hook appeared on the scene with a one of the best songs about lost love.

1966 - The Walker Brothers released their masterpiece. Scott Walker's voice is still thrilling.

1980 - Talking Heads released Fear Of Music and showed on this song why they were one of the best bands from this time.

Monday's Long Song

 

I recently listened to Fairport Convention's second album Unhalfbricking again and realized that I've never given this band the credit they deserve on this blog. 

In 1974, I watched a World Cup match at the home of Andreas, a school friend (I can't remember exactly which one, but I suspect it was one of the Dutch team, who played the best football at the time and who we will play again tonight). Afterwards, we retired to his older brother's room, who even then had exceptional taste in music. Whilst we were still listening to glam rock, he was already playing Velvet Underground and, in total contrast, Fairport Convention.

I was so impressed by this music that I bought this record. FC was the product of the very young Richard Thompson on guitar and Sandy Denny, who sadly died far too young, with her clear and expressive voice. 

The album contains many songs by Bob Dylan, taken from his Basement Tapes and introduced to the band at the time, as well as his own songs. These include A Sailor's Life, a traditional on which Thompson shows what an exceptional guitarist he is. At just under 12 minutes, it was an extremely long song even for its time, but with its gently driving rhythm it never gets boring. 

Fairport Convention - A Sailor's Life

The Wild, The Innocent And The E-Street Shuffle

 

I bought my first long-playing records around 1974, after I had earned some money with my first holiday job. To be honest, I bought three albums on recommendation. Yessongs and Dylan's Before The Flood because at the time I thought live albums showed the artists unvarnished and with a double or triple album I would have got more for the money I spent. I also bought Bruce Springsteen's second album.

Springsteen wasn't the boss back then and was largely unknown. I actually only bought the album on the recommendation of the salesman in the record shop, but I have never regretted it. The album is now over 50 years old and I still listen to it from time to time. It has none of Yes's overblown organ sound but a lot of Dylan, especially the gift of telling stories in the songs. 

For me, his quieter and atmospherically dense songs have always been in the foreground and here he has collected many of his best and most melancholic songs. With Rosalita he laid the foundation for his later status. A record that has stayed with me throughout Springsteen's career and shows what he was all about. A poet from New Jersey who dreamed his dream of rock ‘n’ roll.

Sixty Five

 

Today I turn 65 and another year has passed far too quickly and I reflect on everything that has happened in these years. We are getting older and that is inevitable. And transience is a theme that crops up in every genre of music, from rock n' roll to country and blues. And songs that have dealt with getting older, the past and everything in between. It's impossible to pick a favourite, especially when you consider how much choice is out there. That's why I limited myself to the songs that came to me spontaneously and that have stayed with me over the years.

Leopard Skin

 

Until the early 80s, all I knew about Cologne was that they had a good football team and several carnival bands. That changed abruptly when German bands started singing in their native language. The Cologne band BAP rose to fame in the wake of this scene. I saw them back then in a small club in Stuttgart and thought they were pretty decent for a local band playing mainstream. At that time, the peace movement was very popular. Wolfgang Niedecken, the founder of BAP, emerged as the political conscience of an entire generation that demonstrated against the stationing of Pershings in Germany and the phasing out of nuclear energy. I could identify with many of their ideas and goals at the time, but at the same time my ambivalent relationship with Cologne developed. The reason for this was that people from Cologne have an inflated sense of self-worth and fundamentally reject everything that doesn't come from Cologne or consider it inferior. I have always found it difficult to come to terms with this attitude. But back to the music. Many of BAP's songs have long since become popular favourites. Most of them aren't even that bad, but the bottom line is that they are often banal. In 1995, Niedecken, who considers himself an avowed fan of Bob Dylan, released an album on which he performs Dylan songs in Cologne dialect. And I recently listened to this record again and thought that every artist can probably produce a highlight once in their life. All the cover versions are superbly performed and arranged, but the way Dylan's lyrics have been translated into German is sensational. They were not translated word for word, but the poetry of the songs was brought out - even if it is often difficult for me as a South German to understand. All in all, My Back Pages, Jokerman and Absolutely Sweet Marie in these versions are classics that I always return to

Monday's Long Song

 

During my holiday I listened often to Cat Power's latest album Sings Dylan and discovered the beauty of this record. I can't explain why this album didn't appear in my end of the year list. Probably because I didn't listen intently to this versions of songs I knew for ages. The story of this record is shortly told. Chan Marshall was invited to play a concert in London's Royal Albert Hall and she decided to play the full set of Dylan's concert in Manchester where he was named as Judas because he played the second half of the set in an electric style. From this day on Dylan was free and released of the chains of pure folk music. Marshall did cover versions on several records before and made them a part of her own. And so it is on this live album. Without question she has an extraordinary voice that fits to Dylan's songs but seldom heard this songs in that emphatic and soulful way. 

The Days Of Vine And Roses

 

Back then in 1982 popular music was ruled by electronic sounds and across the Atlantic ocean many bands returned to the guitar sound of the 60's/70's. Hüsker Dü, The Replacements, Rain Parade and REM interpreted their musical history in a very new and great way. Another band that played in this league were The Dream Syndicate, formed in the early 80's in Los Angeles and set with their first albums trademarks in American alternative music. Steve Wynn was the mastermind of the band which combined the energy of punk with music inspired by CCR, Crazy Horse and yes, Bob Dylan because Tell Me When It's Over has a lot of fragments of Stuck Inside Of Mobile... Their first album is still one of those that I always come back to and at every time it is a great pleasure for me to listen to their guitar sound and Wynn's voice that is sometimes very close to Lou Reed.

The Dream Syndicate - Tell Me When It's Over

The Dream Syndicate - Definetely Clean

The Dream Syndicate - Halloween

Monday's Long Song

 

Let's start into a new month with a song that came back to my memory during the last week. Bob Dylan released Hurricane in 1975 on his album desire. t addresses the arrest and conviction of boxer Rubin "Hurricane" Carter. In the song, Dylan criticized the investigation into the Carter case and its racist acts. Carter and a man named John Artis were convicted of three counts of murder. This had occurred in 1966 at the Lafayette Grill in Paterson, New Jersey. After it was widely reported that the crime apparently had racist backgrounds (the victims were white, Carter and Artis black), Carter and Artis were found guilty of murder and sentenced to life imprisonment. In the following years, the case became more and more a controversial issue. Thus, the lawfulness of the investigation and the testimony of an alleged eyewitness were questioned. Carter asserted his innocence in his biography, which eventually led to Bob Dylan's contact. Dylan and his prominent associates reached a further investigation. In the third instance, Carter was finally acquitted. Listening to this song makes me thinking that less things changed in the United States during the last decades. Desire is one of those albums by Bob Dylan from the 70's that didn't the recognition it should not only for introducing a violin into his sound but just because there were so many great songs on it.

Bob Dylan - Hurricane

2021 - Short

 

I featured the other days albums that impressed me much and was played often at my place and I thought it was the time to write down the best songs of this year. Many of them you can find on the long posts and I have to admit that I am not the one that is able to finish the list because there were so many songs I heard the first time this year that made me happy once or several times. Other songs crossed my attention weeks later when I listened to them on my yearly playlist on Spotify where I collect new songs year by year. Looking at this playlist I find more than 200 songs and the more I think about it I can't decide which one would reach a top ten. So here are some songs, subjective of course and not showing the full range of music I listened too but still worth to be named when you look back on this year.