The Afterword

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The Lady In The Van

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Year: 2015 Director: Nicholas Hytner

My daughter’s current boyfriend is from Leeds while I, in case it had escaped your notice, hail from the mighty steel city of Sheffield. Last time I saw said boyfriend we played a kind of Yorkshire Top Trumps, each trying to outdo the other with the artistic and cultural achievements of our respective cities.

The entire county of Yorkshire doesn’t have a football team worthy of the name, so we quickly skip past sport and move straight onto music and the arts. My opening gambit of Def Leppard, Arctic Monkeys and Joe Cocker looks strong and is met with the frankly feeble response of Kaiser Chiefs, Jake Thackray and (snigger) Jimmy Savile. Actually that last one may have been my suggestion, thrown in with the intention of queering the boyfriend’s pitch, so to speak. But then, just when I think it’s in the bag for the Steel City, the bf plays his trump card – Alan Bennett – and suddenly it’s all over. That’s game set and match to Leeds, then. I can’t name anyone from Sheffield (not even Michael Palin) to match the great humorist/author/playwright. No one comes close for me.

From all » Continue Reading.

Is This The Most Afterword T-Shirt Ever?

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Today I received this impossibly cool shirt in the post and it occurred to me just how “Afterword” it is. The debut John Martyn album from 1967 sold tiny amounts on release (just a few hundred copies by all accounts) but went on to become a folk/prog landmark.

These days you’d need to take out a second mortgage to buy an original pink label Island pressing and now it’s on a t-shirt fer chrissakes.

So, since it’s been a while since we did a t-shirt thread, has anyone got anything cooler or more Afterword than this?

http://i.imgur.com/izfJefF.jpg

I’m Gonna Wave My Freak Flag High

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White collared conservative flashing down the street Pointing their plastic finger at me They’re hoping soon my kind will drop and die But I’m gonna wave my freak flag high, high Wave on, wave on Fall mountains, just don’t fall on me Go ahead on Mr. Business man, you can’t dress like me

Jimi Hendrix If Six Was Nine

When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child; but when I became a man, I put away childish things. For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part, but then I shall know just as I also am known.

The Bible (1 Corinthians 13)

Jimi may have been playing fast and loose with the subjunctive mood in the title of that first song, but it got me thinking about something bob said the other day about when it’s time to put away the jeans and trainers and act your age.

Now read on….. —->

http://i.imgur.com/sqdrrfx.jpg

Play Me An Old Fashioned Love Song

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Just an old-fashioned love song One I’m sure they wrote for you and me Just an old-fashioned love song Comin’ down in three-part harmony

So sang the Three Dog Night in 1971.

Today I heard the song Beeswing by Richard Thompson and was reminded that, not only is it a mighty song in its own right, but it’s also one of the most wonderful, tear-inducing love songs I can think of. Beeswing has it all: Wonderful lyrics that I can totally identify with, a melody to die for and guitar playing we bedroom strummers (oo-er) can only dream of.

It’s the perfect love song, isn’t it?

Unless you know better.

Remembering John Renbourn

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In early 2015 the great folk guitarist John Renbourn died. Along with Bert Jansch and Davey Graham, Renbourn was at the very forefront of the 60s acoustic folk blues revolution, a movement which influenced a entire generation of guitarists, in rock as well as folk.

Back on the old blog I wrote the piece below, which sadly disappeared into the ether following the big Afterword crash. With the first anniversary of Renbourn’s death not too far away, I hope you don’t mind if I present a slightly re-worked version of that essay.

Come with me now as we travel back in time and re-visit… (Get on with it! Ed)

http://i.imgur.com/4KbaUEr.jpg

Farewell Robert Stigwood

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Farewell Robert Stigwood who died yesterday aged 81.

It was a game of two halves for Stigwood. He came from Adelaide, South Australia in 1954 to London where he worked with Joe Meek, Larry Parnes and others before forming his own production company.

Stigwood was also supposedly the man Don Arden’s heavies dangled out of a first floor window for trying to poach Arden’s band the Small Faces

The first record I’ve found with his “RS” logo was by soap star turned pop crooner John Leyton who spent 15 weeks at number one with the Joe Meek produced Johnny Remember Me

After that he managed The Graham Bond Organisation featuring Ginger Baker and Jack Bruce. This lead to Cream being signed to Stigwood’s own Reaction label with its wonderful mod-tastic label design.

He lured the Who away from Brunswick for one Reaction album (A Quick One) and a handful of singles.

At one point Stigwood managed both The Bee Gees and Cream which lead to claims of neglect from both bands.

http://i.imgur.com/hfQj7Hl.png

He’s Making A List, He’s Checking It Twice

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Over on Uncle Wheaty’s Uncut magazine “200 Greatest Albums of All Time” thread, people are getting hot under the collar re. the pointlessness (or otherwise) of lists in general.

But without lists the music magazine industry (certainly the Dad Rock arm) would grind to a halt. No matter how much we may snort with derision when another yawn-inducing inventory pops up, we all secretly enjoy reading them and feel smug when our favourites are right up there with a bullet, or feign indifference when something we wouldn’t give house-room to is showered with plaudits.

Now read on…

http://i.imgur.com/tSVuxOz.jpg

The Great Pet Sounds Deception

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I see from the Uncut 200 Greatest Albums of All Time thread that the ubiquitous Pet Sounds continues to bestride the Best Album polls like a pop/psych Colossus.

Not everyone is in full agreement however, There follows a essay I wrote for the old blog which was sadly lost following the 48 Crash.

I hope it doesn’t cause too much offence to Beach Boys fans.

Now read on…

http://i.imgur.com/OYkduHx.jpg

Monday He Had Friday On His Mind – Farewell Stevie Wright

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They only really had the one big hit in Britain, but what a song it was. Friday On My Mind was in my view the best song to come out of Australia during the 60s.

The Easybeats were huge down under of course scoring a Beatles-rivalling string of hits between 1964 – 1969.

None of the band was born in Australia and Stevie Wright originally hailed from Leeds. Now he’s dead aged 68 following a lifetime of substance abuse which turned him into a basket case in recent years.

Let’s remember Stevie in happier times

http://i.imgur.com/U268hm3.jpg http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-12-28/easybeats-frontman-stevie-wright-dies-aged-68/7055924

(Reader’s Voice) Oh no! It’s The Beano Album Thread Revisited.

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Young Johnny Concheroo must be the luckiest boy in all of Afterword Town. That’s because he is the proud owner of an object that is both precious and magical. A totemic artefact you might say. In fact, in the history of 60s British blues it’s right up there with the black cat bone, the mojo hand, gris-gris, and even, dare I say it, the mythical John the Conqueror root.

Yes, young Johnny now has a copy of the actual Beano comic which appears on the cover of the seminal 1966 LP Blues Breakers: John Mayall with Eric Clapton (aka The Beano Album.

But let’s stop talking in this ridiculous third person fashion for a moment and cut to the chase. Yes, it arrived today, not very well packed I must say, but thankfully undamaged. I’m talking about issue #1242 of The Beano comic, with the cover date May 12, 1966. So what? you may say. What’s so special about a tatty old kids’ comic? Ah, but this is not just any old comic, it’s the very same issue of The Beano that Eric Clapton is pretending to read on the cover of the aforementioned LP

I’ve had a » Continue Reading.

Happy Birthday To You, And You And To You Too

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Who knew? The song Happy Birthday To You, the most recognised song in the English language, written back in 1893 (the melody, at least) has been under copyright all these years and in theory we should have paid royalties every time we sang it.

Until now that is.

A US high court judge has ruled that Happy Birthday should be in the public domain and free from copyright.

So, light those candles and sing away!

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/northamerica/usa/12042710/Happy-Birthday-copyright-case-settled-after-court-ruling.html

The Beatles Meet Billy

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On the Beatles’ “1” DVD the Hey Jude clip from the David Frost Show appears to run quite a bit longer than usual and right at the end it features a strange bespectacled character who I don’t recall seeing in the clip before. He is clearly much older than the assembled crowd of youngsters and dressed in a curious fashion.

His name is Billy and Macca speaks at length about him in the DVD commentary, but allow me to add a few memories of my own.

Strange Bedfellows – Unlikely Guests On Pop TV Shows

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I stumbled across this today and when my jaw was safely back off the ground I just had to post it here. It’s a clip from Peter Cook and Dudley Moore’s “Not Only But Also” TV show dating from 1965.

But here’s the thing. One of the guests was none other than the great bluesman T-Bone Walker. Imagine that – T-Bone Walker. One of the all-time great blues guitarists and the man who gave us the classic Stormy Monday Blues. The man who was doing all that playing behind the head stuff a decade or more before Hendrix, appearing on a light entertainment BBC TV show (albeit a very good one). It’s almost like B.B.King popping up on the Morecambe and Wise Show or Elmore James guesting on Benny Hill, or… well, you get the picture,

So, what other ill-matched or unlikely guests can we come up with?

Stay with the clip, by the way. T-Bone comes on and vamps along with Pete & Dud’s 1965 comedy hit Goodbye-ee. Which is even more bizarre. He must have been thinking :”How the hell did I get here?”