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The Thirties and Forties – The land before Rock n Roll time

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Mixcloud nerd here. I’ve finally started doing 30s and 40s pop compilations roughly 1936 to 1952. When I say pop, it’s everything from Glenn Miller to Dizzy Gillespie to Hank Williams to Charles Trenet to Duke E and Count B, and covers swing, bebop, country and western and novelty.

It’s so ill served as so many compilations are slathered in “living sound” reverb, or rechanneled into stereo, or even worse, have flabby 70s re-recordings.

I’ve sourced the dry originals as far as I can and it’s fun stuff. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated as I’m a 60s bod and unfortunately my dad isn’t here to put me right. He’d definitely wince at my following a cool bop record with Woody Woodpecker.

Dua Lipa goes psychedelic? Or possibly not

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Read a corporate announcement that her next album will be “informed by 1970s-era psychedelia”. What’s that when it’s at home? Starry Eyed and Laughing mid 70s had a certain jingle jangle, but the 1970s were too busy being glam/pub/reggae/funk/punk to be harking back to 1967-69. It’s like saying 1950s-era disco.

Lesser Spotted Sixties

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Some folks here might enjoy my mixcloud of songs from the “Beatle” years of 1963 to 1969. I’ve chosen 4 lesser known songs from each year and intercut it with ads and clips, drawing from as many genres as I have in my collection – with a just few hits thrown in. Tony Blackburn’s “60s Gold” it is definitely not. Any suggestions of lesser known gems would be greatly appreciated.

Fuzz-Tone

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Occasionally I do a mix on a piece of music technology. Seems that “fuzz”, started in Nashville with a broken amplifier, and it was Country artists that first adopted it, which led to the first pedal, Maestro FZ-1 Fuzz-Tone. My mix moves from Nashville to London with The Rolling Stones and Beatles, and later Hendrix with the Fuzzface. Along the way we also hear fuzzy sounds from Diana Dors, Burt Bacharach, Nancy Sinatra, Zsa Zsa Gabor, Andy Williams, Aphrodite’s Child with Vangelis and Demis Roussos.

Out of the Vox

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Here’s my mix of 60s sounds featuring the Vox Continental, with most of the famous examples from the Animals and ? and the Mysterions, and many surprises including J-Pop, Status Quo, and Billy Gibbons from ZZ Top.

The Vox is a poppier cousin to the Hammond which can be rather pompous at times. You have to have pretty nimble fingers to play the Vox, whereas the Hammond sounds epic what ever you do. Hold one key down and you sound like Vanilla Fudge, do a downwards glissando and you sound like Jimmy Smith. The Vox sound was revived in the late 70s with punk/new wave. However, that’s for Part 2.

Vince Bell’s Magic Coral Electric Sitar

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I had a lot of fun putting together this silly, groovy and sometimes unhinged mix of sitar-boosted pop, soul, and country music from the 60s and 70s, so I thought I would share. The title is awful and there is in fact, plenty of sitar, but I couldn’t resist.

Extended Play, plus a question

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When people ask me what’s my favourite album, I often tell them it’s EPs that I like – this is usually followed by blank stares. For me they are just perfect – four or five songs making a very happy 10-12 min listen. I’ve put a couple of examples of EPs with exclusive content ie: none of these tracks appeared in another format. The first one was easy, featuring Beatles Stones Kinks and Who. The second one digs deeper with The Big Three, Lulu, Spencer Davis Group and the Artwoods. the Big Three one is tremendous because it captures the sweaty atmosphere of the cavern. I’ll be doing the double Magical Mystery Tour in a later mix

My question is – what EPs are there from the 70s? I’ve got Jethro Tull’s Life’s a Long Song and Thin Lizzy’s New Day. Any others from the 70s?

Music to not make love to (during lockdown?)

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When I googled “Music for love making”, my 59 year old self had a shock. No longer Barry White and the Isleys – it’s Justin Bieber, Ed Sheeran and more Justin Bieber. How times have moved on.

More interesting would be the very worst music for love making. I would say National Anthems are probably pretty bad, but I think Flight of the Bumblebee is probably the least appropiate.

And James Last arranged it for trumpets, in harmony – from the days when violin players looked like innkeepers, not supermodels.

To the Ents Officer

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This letter to Graham Parkes, who I presume was the Ents officer of Queen’s College Oxford from 1969 has a rather interesting list of bands and prices, free on the 24th June. So what bands would you book for the 24th?

Me, I like the popsters so it would be Timebox, Bonzos, Vanity Fare and definitely the Flirtations featuring Pearly Gates. So my bill would be £750, which is about £10500 in today’s money.

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Lesser Known 1970s

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Hopefully this might be of interest to people here who like music from the 1970s. I’ve always wanted to hear music from that time, but not the “gold” stuff you hear on the Now that’s compilations. So each mix compiles 3 songs from each year from 1970 to 1976, comprising of album tracks, A and B sides, and the occasional lesser known hit. My tastes are quite bubblegum, so expect Bowie, Zappa and Fairport rubbing shoulders with Abba, Cliff and Benny Hill. So far I’ve compiled 66 hour long mixes for all to enjoy.