I’m not going to argue with the top two, except maybe for the order. But I would perhaps make a case for the inclusion of Big Hits (High Tide and Green Grass)
The Rolling Stones – every album ranked!
When worlds collide
In Australia, Kerri-Anne Kennerley is the sort of effervescent B-list personality who inhabits morning TV shows, womens magazines and infomercials. She is the definition of a non-threatening, bland TV hostess. Which makes it rather surprising when I discovered today that a) she was part of the New York Studio 54 scene in the late 70s, b) she was married at the time to classic-era Stones producer Jimmy Miller, and c) she almost offed said husband with a rifle after suffering abuse at his hands for years.
This is like a dalek appearing on Game of Thrones, or David Brent showing up in Breaking Bad: they inhabit different realities in my head and I can’t assimilate them.
Any other examples? Here’s one to kick it off. In rural France in the fifties, WFGH Samuel Beckett used to give the young Andre the Giant a lift to school each morning. Apparently, they used to talk about cricket.
Stones Blue and Lonesome deluxe
Blue and Lonesome Deluxe cd with 72 page book and post cards available on Amazon as part of a 3 for £20 offer. Currently retailing at £34.00. Other options are limited but worth a look.
Rock music’s most significant summer?
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We’re very keen round these parts to discuss “the greatest year in rock music”, whichever that may be on a particular day according to a particular person.
After reading extensive discussions about Lord Hepworth’s année de choix, I decided to check out 1971 in detail, which led me to compile my own chronology, which I then felt need expansion to encompass a couple of key years on either side. So I have ended up chronicling the half-decade from 1969 – the year the “Sixties” died, in more ways than one – to 1973, when Pink Floyd finally arrived on the Dark Side and Bowie killed Ziggy.
In the process of so doing, it became apparent that this was indeed a tumultuous period in the development of rock, pop and soul – even, perhaps, THE most tumultuous. The rise of Led Zeppelin to juggernaut status; the transmogrification of the post-Jones Stones; the redistribution of Cream’s constituent elements; the emergence of the solo singer-songwriter as a real force in popular music; not to mention the prolonged and painful dissolution of The Beatles and the reappearance of Dylan…
Moreover, I had the amazing realisation that many significant events which we normally view as » Continue Reading.
Erroneous sonic cliches
I’m sitting here (not) studying for an exam later this week. Blagged a day off work and all. On my iPhone at the moment are tracks by John Lennon, George Harrison, Jeff Beck, Jimi Hendrix and the Beatles (very Classic Rock, I know).
In a desperate effort not to actually learn anything pertinent, my brain has expanded upon a Hepworthian theory that it has previously toyed with: The classic/cliched sound of many artists is not the sound associated wih their most successful or lauded period. Some examples for consideration:
> The ‘classic’ Hendrix guitar sound, the one that has people instantly thinking ‘Jimi’ is a mildly overdriven strat sound, with or without fuzz, fed through a univibe pedal to give that swirling, underwater vibe. Think ‘Band of Gypsies’ In fact, think of nothing but Band of Gypsies, as that was the only place he used this sound, barring posthumous releases, and it’s hardly considered his defining work. It’s the sound that Robin Trower built a career on and numerous guitar effects pedals try to recreate, and Hendrix only used it for a few messy months before he died.
>The classic George Harrison guitar sound is the sound from » Continue Reading.
