Dave Amitri on With The Beatles

As we approach the 60th anniversary of the release of With The Beatles just eight months after Please Please Me I’ve been listening to not only the album for the first time but also some of the music that came before. Trying to get myself in the mind of a music fan in 1963 which requires me to dismiss everything released in my lifetime and more. As luck would have it our dear friends at Nothing Is Real have a two part podcast looking back, just at November 1963 in Beatles world and it has provided the kind of history lesson I could only dreamed of having at school. It has also helped me understand the unique madness of the original and biggest pop mania. So before I get to the album let me try and set the scene as I see it with absolute acknowledgment that these gems are Steven’s and Jason’s as they microscopically followed a month in the life of The Beatles where they were touring the country in front of 120000 fans, an ever voracious press desperate for any snippet of information and increasing interest from the US.

How can » Continue Reading.

Tiggerlion on Swordfishtrombones by Tom Waits

There’s only so many albums you can make sitting on a bar stool, staring at the bottom of a glass of whisky. By 1980, Tom Waits had stretched out a good run with Asylum to a full seven albums, developing his performance character as he went along. Daniel Durchholz described his distinctive voice best; “like it was soaked in a vat of bourbon, left hanging in the smokehouse for a few months, and then taken outside and run over with a car.” He made a name for himself as a writer of intriguing songs, a great raconteur and an occasional thespian. Who could fail to be moved by Tom Traubert’s Blues as it stitches Waltzing Maltilda into its forlorn fabric? He thought The Eagles cover of Ol’ 55 had secured a good income and Bruce Springsteen’s adoption of Jersey Girl had added a little more. However, it turned out he didn’t own the publishing rights to his own songs. He wasn’t making much money at all. Disillusioned, he left Los Angeles and moved to New York.

Then, Francis Ford Coppola came knocking, the greatest film director of the time. He’d been drawn to the » Continue Reading.

Dave Amitri on Wham!

I watched the Wham! documentary on Netflix last night. It’s a remarkable tale brilliantly told. The use of George’s voice as co narrator is a stroke of genius by producer Simon Halfon.

You forget for a moment that he’s gone and imagine it’s him speaking in 2023. Even if you’re not a fan of Wham! (how that can be I’ll never understand but I’ll never judge either) but you do love music and the industry it’s a fantastic insight into how a band could make it big in the 80s but remain skint.

While it was all a laugh for the uber confident Andrew. It was very different for George. It’s still remarkable to watch him transforming before our very eyes physically and emotionally while trying to hide his sexuality from his fans and the press. Something he clearly struggled with wanting to be honest with his fans but fully understanding the consequences. Different times indeed, thank God we’ve moved on.

Both Andrew Ridgeley and George Michael had a dream and chased it. Wham! was enough for Andrew. George clearly wanted more. While they were active Wham! were and remain a joyous explosion of » Continue Reading.

Tiggerlion on Sly And The Family Stone – Fresh (30th June 1973)

Sylvester Stewart, ‘Sly Stone’, only ever wanted to make the world a better, happier place. He tried to bring people together from different backgrounds, regardless of gender, religion and colour, to dance and enjoy life. His ‘Family’ practised exactly as he preached, comprising mixed sex, mixed race and some actual relatives. His early songs are energetic testaments to the euphoric power of music. Records like Dance To The Music, Everyday People, Sing A Simple Song and Hot Fun In The Summer Time are joyful nursery rhymes in their simplicity, optimism and utopian vision. They were hugely popular, especially in America. At the same time, almost unnoticed, Sly was busy inventing Funk, along with James Brown and George Clinton, blending in Gospel, Pop, Rock, Psychedelia and Soul. It was a heady brew. Success followed success. Number one singles and a platinum selling album, Stand!, were followed by a triumphant appearance at Woodstock.

Then, the sixties dream was over, flower power mutated into armed struggle and the movement for integration fell apart. Sly found that once he left the stage, he still had to face racial bigotry. He couldn’t drink » Continue Reading.

Dave Amitri on For Your Pleasure

I was reminded recently that I was going to write about Roxy Music’s second album For Your Pleasure Having written about their eponymous first album in April last year . I got side-tracked by solo McCartney and never got back to Roxy Music despite listening to For Your Pleasure a lot. So here we are.

I re-read the Roxy Music review and it appears I was really very excited by the album, even for me. It remains a remarkable album that I return to often. For Your Pleasure had its work cut out to match it so let’s find out if there is something in it or if it’s just a remake / remodel with a bitters end. (Enough now Dave, get on with it).

It opens with Do The Strand which is a hell of a start. It must have influenced Sparks and absolutely maintains the standard set by the first album. It’s a romp of a song with Ferry’s warble spitting out some surreal lyrics while competing with an angry sax and manic keyboards for top billing.

There’s a new sensation A fabulous creation A danceable solution To » Continue Reading.

Colin H on Mahavishnu Orchestra

I thought I’d share this compact history of Mahavishnu Orchestra (Mk 1), from my book ‘Bathed in Lightning: John McLaughlin, the 60s and the Emerald Beyond’ (Jawbone Press, 2014). I noticed that it had sold out a couple of years ago and very few copies seemed to be available second-hand. Jawbone Press very kindly returned the physical rights to me (retaining the e-book, which is available from the usual places) and a few months back I had a stock of near-facsimile copies printed (with a couple of new pages at front and back), really as a public service. Should anyone want a copy and not like the idea of spending £50+ on the rare occasion someone parts with a copy on eBay, if they look hard enough it’s ‘there’ at a normal price – at my Bandcamp page. To be precise, here: https://colinharper.bandcamp.com/merch

But I’m sharing this chapter because the mighty MO ended 50 years ago this year and people need reminding that this was, I contend, the pinnacle of all music.

Chapter 14: God’s Orchestra

‘When you’re younger it’s very self-centred. You want to change the world but you realise it’s easier to conquer » Continue Reading.

Dave Amitri on The Hurting

Roland Orzabal and Curt Smith were born two months apart in 1961. They met by chance as teenagers in Bath, began writing music together, formed a mod band who were huge in Spain and then thanks to a shared interest in the work of American psychologist Arthur Janov and his Primal Therapy, settled on the name Tears For Fears and set about making their debut album The Hurting, combining their childhood experiences with the theories of Janov. All before their 21st birthdays. Nothing new there, great music has always come from young artists. The subject matter however was unusual, especially in the heady, radio, TV and video friendly early 80s. Smith was the only one who went along with Orzabal’s Janov theories. That belief in him gave Orzabal the confidence to use what he’d read and expose his deepest, darkest thoughts on his unusual childhood in an incredibly personal collection of songs. The Hurting was originally released in 1983 (the first single Suffer The Children was released in October 1981)

On 12th May 2023 to celebrate its 40th anniversary, it will be reissued as an Abbey Road Half Speed Mastered vinyl and as a » Continue Reading.

Bargepole on The Final Cut forty years on

With all the glare of publicity being focussed on the 50th anniversary of Dark Side of the Moon, it seems to have been forgotten that this week also marked the 40th anniversary of the last Floyd album to feature Roger Waters, an occasion that seems to have passed without any fanfare at all, let alone any sort of deluxe reissue. It was also the first Floyd release not to feature the keyboards of Rick Wright, whose post Wall exclusion from the band only became common knowledge when the album sleeve listed just three band members. The solemn sleeve hinted at the contents of the album. Missing in action was the inventive imagery of Hipgnosis. Gone were the satirical Scarfe sketches. Instead we have a sombre close up of an ex-serviceman’s jacket on Remembrance Day, while poppies feature prominently on the back cover.

It was certainly a divisive record for both fans and band. Originally intended as an off shoot of The Wall film, a quasi soundtrack titled Spare Bricks, it morphed into a hybrid of that concept, being supplemented with new material inspired by the Falklands conflict and Thatcher’s Britain. David Gilmour » Continue Reading.

Dave Amitri on Please Please Me

60 years ago tomorrow 22nd March 1963 The Beatles released their debut album Please Please Me. I’ve often said how I’ve only ever heard Rubber Soul out of the thirteen Beatles albums they finally made. Like everyone of my generation ( born in 1965) their ubiquity and hours of radio listening in the 70s means I know loads of their songs intimately. That said I’ve never actively chosen to listen to them so as their albums start their 60th anniversary sequence I thought why not? Also why not do it around the anniversary rather than one after the other over a year as I did with Bowie. I have no idea how this will go or even if we’ll all be around on 8th May 2030 but let’s give it a go.

So what do I know of 1963 and its popular music? A quick search of the 100 best sellers of the year shows The Beatles 1 and 2 as expected with Gerry and The Pacemakers hot on their heels. Cliff was already making movies having been a star for 5 years already which I still find extraordinary. The rest as expected. » Continue Reading.

Tiggerlion on Screaming Target by Big Youth

In 1973, Manley Augustus Buchanon, cut a spectacular figure on Lord Tippertone’s Sound System, and not just because of his prodigious height, the physical characteristic that gave him the nickname of Big Youth. His smile gleamed with red, green and gold bejeweled teeth. When he released his tam, his luxuriant, flowing dreadlocks would be greeted by a roar from the crowd. Rastafari was a fringe religion. Only outsiders sported dreadlocks. The Abyssinians were locksed but hardly any other Reggae act at the time. Of The Wailers, just Bunny had a set of locks. Bob was starting to grow his out. Dreadlocks were the mark of a rebel. Big Youth’s appearance made a clear statement and so did his verbal content. He found a new way to toast, breaking the deejay mould. Big Youth was more than an entertainer, he had a message to deliver. Not for him the standard bend-down-low, chick-a-bow. Most deejays presented a grandiloquent caricature of themselves, dominating the stage by force of an exaggerated personality. Big Youth remained true to himself. He brought roots consciousness to the dance party and he did it with wit, charm and panache, using the » Continue Reading.

Colin H on BBC sessions

I wrote the following as an introduction to the booklet for the 8CD set ‘Bert Jansch at the BBC’, which was released last year (with an edited version of this text therein). I thought it might be of interest to AWers / the world at large. The photo above – purely for convenience – is Bert Jansch and Peter Kirtley rehearsing for a BBC NI TV appearance in 1992, taken be me.

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BBC Sessions: A History

In the 1950s and 60s, any pop, folk or jazz artist in Britain was more likely to be heard on BBC radio, if at all, in the form of an exclusive session recorded for the corporation than in the form of a commercially released record. For the artist, these sessions were an opportunity to get their music heard; for the BBC, their function was to fill airtime, as long as they ticked the box of at least one of the aims of BBC founder Lord Reith: to educate, inform and entertain.

An audition panel existed to decide who was ‘entertaining’ enough to get through the door. Periodically, there would be press controversy when a virtuoso act was somehow » Continue Reading.

Dave Amitri on Venus and Mars

Here we are then. 6 months in already. Venus and Mars. This is part review, part duty and part admission of defeat. McCartney / Macca has broken me. When I did Bowie whether I liked the album or not I felt inspired, engaged, interested. A pub rock night out, an early 70s episode of Top Of The Pops, or a late night radio show in 1979. The responses were fascinating, educational and enthusiastic. Not here.

I have a new appreciation of Paul McCartney but I find his story far more interesting than his music. Maybe it’s telling that I found Wild Life so good yet the rest peaked at nice. One listen to Venus and Mars and I knew the game was up. I’ve listened again half a dozen times out of a sense of duty and any review that did form itself in my head was boring me so I didn’t want to inflict it on you all.

The title track was promising but too short why the reprise? Just do the bloody song man. Then there was a collection of songs that melded into one. Love In Song has moments. You » Continue Reading.

Dave Amitri on Band On The Run

Earlier this week I watched a clip of Paul McCartney during the recent Get Back film. He was working on The Long and Winding Road. Not only does he look amazing, beard and hair just perfect, he looks in complete control. For a moment it’s not The Beatles it’s just McCartney. There’s a look on Ringo’s face of pure wonder as Paul brings that melody and vocal together almost effortlessly. I began listening to Band On The Run after this with renewed vigour, seeing McCartney as maybe others do. Was it a mistake to take on McCartney before really investigating The Beatles? This I’ve been assured is Wings finest moment and it escapes Macca’s whimsy blight ( ©️ @H-P-Saucecraft ) so it was all set up perfectly for what came next. Less Macca more McCartney is what I’m after and with only Wildlife really hitting the spot so far I needed a big album free from whimsy blight.

Band On The Run is a big song, it’s a monster. Of course, I knew it before this but I’ve only properly listened now. I’ve really learned to » Continue Reading.