Start expecting to hate, leave have a damn good time!
From his non stop party album 73. Where he also does Alice Copper, Slade, the who, Issac Hayes amongst many others
Musings on the byways of popular culture
Start expecting to hate, leave have a damn good time!
From his non stop party album 73. Where he also does Alice Copper, Slade, the who, Issac Hayes amongst many others
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Rigid Digit says
And then having a go at Two Tribes:
Beezer says
Do you know what’s wrong with that?
Absolutely nowt.
1973? If those guitars and that bass have been looked after they’ll be worth thousands. I’ve become a watcher of vintage guitar shop YouTube videos. Those things change hands for boggling amounts.
Sewer Robot says
How to be James Last: you to put on a clean whistle and stand at the front tapping your feet..? And, to think, people used to give Linda McCartney a hard time..
Mike_H says
As far as we know, Linda didn’t choose the songs, write the band arrangements, produce the recordings and hire & fire the musicians.
Sewer Robot says
‘Course not – that’s admin.,
Mike_H says
Duke Ellington also used to like standing in front of the band in a nice suit, tapping his foot. Used to usually have a tinkle on the piano first, mind you.
The Muswell Hillbilly says
I hope he wiped it down afterwards
Sewer Robot says
Arf!
Forgot to say: I actually enjoyed JL’s take on Silver Machine quite a lot – ta for posting..
Jaygee says
Like his erstwhile fellow bandleaders, Buddy Rich and James Brown, Last was notorious for issuing fines – albeit jokier ones – to negligent players.
Eagle-eyed ATMers will notice the mop head on the end of the guitarist’s axe. After the muso had played a few errant notes the previous night, Last insisted he get closer to his instrument by using it to mop up the tour bus after the following night’s gig.
Baron Harkonnen says
I let you into a little secret, @SteveT has all of James Last’s LPs.
Arch Stanton says
He’s got over 100 albums. Including 60 that made the UK top 40. That’ll be one hell of a collection.
Baron Harkonnen says
@SteveT has them all on LP, 8 Track, cassette and CD.
SteveT says
@Baron-Harkonnen Actually my mum was a big fan and probably did have quite a few although her Favourite was Mantovani. Music of the mountains. Doubt he covered Hawkwind.
Moose the Mooche says
The guitar at 1.23 is actually rather tasty.
Bath chair, tartan blanket over knees, where’s me cocoa?
retropath2 says
My Uncle George was a huge jazz buff, who loved piano jazz like Earl Hines and adored Ella, and wired his speakers throughout his house way ahead of afterword. He rated James Last enormously which probably means he was really good. But I still struggle.
Mike_H says
Good, skilled musicians and well-arranged tunes but the material he chose to do was usually pretty naff. Too naff for my taste. But then it was never intended for the likes of me. Aimed somewhere between my generation and my parents generation, I think.
Arch Stanton says
I’m amazed some hipster DJ hasn’t picked out some of the funkier stuff for a compilation album. There’s some great stuff amongst the Muzak.
fatima Xberg says
The guitar player at the front is Helmut Franke, who played in Wonderland (remember their Nugget classic “Moscow”!). Other musicians in that clip played with Embryo, Atlantis, Frumpy, Lucifer’s Friend, the Rattles, Faust and other bands from the Krautrock era. The horn section in the James Last Orchestra used to be a who’s who of German Jazz Poll regulars (who often used their orchestra fees for recording experimental albums on FMP Records).
Musicians loved their James Last jobs – he payed good money, and if you were a regular member he set up a pension fund for you. During his heydays in the early 70s James Last also owned a fully-staffed hotel in Austria, for exclusive use by his musicians and their families.
Sniffity says
The Last Resort?
But seriously folks, everything she said is true. Hansi has been the subject of discussion on this venerable site before and many admirable facts about him were raised then, so I’ll not bring them up again now.
Arch Stanton says
I’ve fallen down a James Last YouTube hole. He loved a bit of deep purple did our James. Here’s a very strange medley….
H.P. Saucecraft says
In what way is this Silver Machine not better than the original? None. None way.
fentonsteve says
First sightings of a proto-Jools Holland doing his inappropriate boogie-woogie piano there.
Moose the Mooche says
Alice Copper?
No More Mr Good Cop
(I Wanna Get) Arrested
Truncheon of Love
Ello, Ello, Ello Hooray
etc
KDH says
I went with my Dad about 4 times to see James Last, starting in 1980. Mostly in Belfast, though the last time was in the RAH. He’s highly underrated, in part down to releasing those largely terrible party albums, but a terrific arranger (and occasionally composer). His “Games That Lovers Play” from 1967 is my favourite relaxing album (I hesitate to use the term “chillout”), the classical reinterpretations are often great, and the man wrote “Happy Heart”. I grew up with his music in the house, and never developed an aversion to it. Check out Derek Watkins pedigree if you want to see the sort of calibre of musician who played with him https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Derek_Watkins_(trumpeter)
Wonder if the Pogues were fans? This isn’t a Last composition, so they may have heard it elsewhere, but it does feature on his 1971 album Polka Party:
Eyesteel says
People who agree on things tend to agree that Voodoo Party is Last’s best album – and it’s indeed riotous fun, and contains the bonkers Mr Giant Man
Black Celebration says
My embedded prejudices from the 70s inform me that Joe Loss was a cheap “British answer to” Germany’s superior bandleader, James Last. I have no idea why I think that – probably the ramblings of a long-dead relative totally wired on tea and malted milk biscuits.