Billy Joel and Axl Rose covering Live and Let Die.
Didn’t see that one coming!
Unexpected musical collaborations
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Musings on the byways of popular culture
Musings on the byways of popular culture
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Or indeed this
Was (Not Was) were masters of unexpected co-operations.
Leonard Cohen singing about Elvis’ s Rolls Royce!
Was anyone in the world waiting for a Plastric Bertrand / Leeee John duet?
I kept hoping Antoine de Caunes would appear and put an end to it all. Nice to see them both enjoying themselves. Would have been a good song for the cast of Grange Hill.
I’m up for anything Le Grande Plastique does!
Ben Folds, Joe Jackson and, erm, William Shatner, pay tribute to Pulp.
That was good…in a weird way.
There’s a whole album of it, if you’re feeling brave. Available now in your local bargain bin.
Rather than a cover, it was a full fledged collaboration
It always comes back to:
Gag reflex.
Sam Moore & Soul Brother No. 1…
The horror, the horror…
*Warning – if this isn’t already enough, I should mention that the clip contains gratuitous Ant and Dec.
Hildegard of Bingen couldn’t contribute too actively to this project due to having been dead for five centuries. But when Swedish folk rockers, Garmarna (The Vultures) interpreted her songs on their album, Hildegard Von Bingen, the results were magical.
I love Emma Härdelin’s voice and her magnificently anachronistic Superman T shirt.
And then there’s Isaac Hayes and South Park!
Completely bonkers!
Gary Numan and Bill Sharpe from Shakatak was always an unlikely one but their collaboration did actually deliver a hit. I think Sharpe was a buddy of John Peel. Curiouser and curiouser.
How about that Titan of Twang, the late, great Duane Eddie and that Steel City Sinatra, Richard Hawley?
A superb meeting of talents.
The late Toumani Diabate, the kora maestro from Mali, was a great collaborator throughout his career. But this one was a surprise. Two musicians who were very well-known in Brazil but unknown in the rest of the the world.
Rock musician and poet Arnaldo Antunes on vocals
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arnaldo_Antunes
And punk rocker Edgard Scandurra on guitar.
They produced a whole album together: A Curva da Cintura
Those of you with a good memory will remember that Toumani first came to fame playing with Danny Thompson and the two guys from flamenco band, Ketama, in a band called Songhai.
They made two albums together.
Both albums are on Spotify and very good.
Things are really kicking off between Roger Waters and Nick Cave (see yesterday’s Independent, today’s response from Rog on YouTube if interested). Is a very unexpected musical collaboration on the cards?
I recall about ten years ago David Gilmour was asked what new music he was listening to and he replied that he didn’t listen to music that much but liked Nick Cave’s recent album Push The Sky Away. (I bought it on the strength of his recommendation and agreed with him; the only Nick Cave album I’ve really liked). Perhaps that declaration is what’s really at the heart of this current feud between Rog and Nick (and not Palestine/Israel)?
Nick’s problem, it seems, is very much with Rog as opposed to his politics. (Understandable.) He doesn’t have the same problem with Brian Eno, despite Eno sharing Rog’s views on the BDS cultural boycott of Israel, saying: “Brian Eno is a different kettle of fish to Roger Waters, [who] I think is deeply damaging to the boycott movement. It’s embarrassing. Brian Eno is a different character, he’s a thoughtful individual.” Rog’s response, like a lot of his recent videos and interviews, is bizarre to the point where I wonder if he’s drunk or on drugs or medication, or going senile.
Perhaps a Nick Cave and Brian Eno unexpected collaboration could be on the cards? And leave the lunatic on the grass.
Waters has got what Trump has; narcissistic rage at the dying of his influence outside the die hards.
Googling “jazz artists on pop records” led me to this excellent list from the ever-reliable NPR.
https://www.npr.org/sections/ablogsupreme/2011/07/29/138755494/so-you-want-to-be-a-rock-star-jazz-artists-on-five-classic-pop-rock-sides
Some wonderful new discoveries.
It pointed out that Costello called in the great Chet Baker to play the trumpet solo on Shipbuilding.
“Costello’s first choice, Wynton Marsalis, was unavailable, but after happening across a mention of an upcoming Chet Baker performance in England, the songwriter went to the club where the trumpeter was appearing and introduced himself. Baker had never heard of Costello, but he agreed to do the session, as long as he was paid scale. (Costello replied, “How about we give you double scale?”) With the trumpet’s keenly inventive and brooding meditation on ominous reward, “Shipbuilding” offers additional evidence that Chet Baker in the 1980s was more than just a wasted talent and Let’s Get Lost icon in the making.”
And that led me to Ronnie Scott’s club where they played together in 1986. Gob-smackingly beautiful!
I liked this YT comment:
“@oliviermialet8783
Don’t forget, on piano the late Michel Graillier. Maybe one of the best sidemen of Chet – he plays ten years with Chet. RIP”
And where Chet and Van Morrison performed this.
The clip makes it look like they spellbound the audience. Not quite the real story.
These two YT comments tell more.
“There’s an Elvis Costello interview where he’s talking about Chet Baker and explains he happened to run into Van Morrison on the street in London and Van asked if he could follow along. It resulted in this rehearsal performance for that nights show. Van never showed up again.”
“This was the rehearsal. VM didn’t show up for the actual show, so they spliced in shots of listeners listening to something else to make it look like a performance in front of the audience.”
That Van is an unpredictable chap!
In the spirit of Tim Hart (Steeleye Span) producing the debut by The Monochrome set, as commented upon in @niallb ‘s latest studios missive, quite how Lol Coxhill came to be on No Roses by Shirley Collins & the Albion Country Band has always bemused me. Coxhill was an acclaimed and notorious free jazzer, whose improvised soprano sax was often part of the Canterbury Scene set, notably with Kevin Ayers, when something a little more edgy might be required.
Looking at his cv, he was extremely eclectic in his sessions, which stemmed from Bothe the above, through John Kongos, John Otway, Jah WobbleThe Damned and loads of jazz. 30 plus solo releases.
Here he is, on his trusty soprano sax, for Ms Collins:
(I’m not sure I can hear it, but suspect it is the higher crumhorny sound in the middle eight)
Lol Coxhill’s wonderful, smooth, sax noodlings made an enormous contribution to the sound of Kevin’s band, The Whole Earth.
But as you say, Retro, he could wig out with the best of them. I vaguely remember seeing him busking a few times and then he would definitely let rip.
Taylor Swift has made a thing of having big name, celebrity guests in her shows.
What do you all make of this sprightly old chap popping up in her show?
The grandmas of Nashville wigged out!
Here is Taylor as a guest at a Stones gig channelling her inner Marianne Faithful.
Note that as well as Lol Coxhill on sax, in his band The Whole World, Kevin had modern classical/soundtrack composer David Bedford on keyboards (and on that track accordion) and a young Mike Oldfield on bass and occasional lead guitar.
More interesting collaborations.