I came across something I have not seen in a long time ... decades, actually. I think I saw this via the TV channel that ETV ran as a bit of an experiment (Channel 13, if memory serves) when cable was new.
This is a 1973 BBC recording of Mike Oldfield and Tubular Bells, except that it's live and Oldfield obviously is not multitracking himself as he did on the album of the same name.
There's a bit of a dream team playing the guitars. Seated next to Oldfield are (among others) Steve Hillage, Mick Taylor (still in the Rolling Stones at that point) and Fred Frith. This is Taylor and Frith, the latter nailing that avant garde look with a very Seventies sweater.
I love watching a very chill Oldfield, all of 20 at the time (it's unnerving, yes, to realize that the music, made famous in The Exorcist, was composed, played and recorded by a teenager), practically reclining in a chair, swapping a bass for an acoustic guitar and back again, smiling happily as the suite moves into its finale, he and Frith chugging out the rhythm for the bed. Viv Stanshall's voice is used from the tapes, but everything else seems to be live.
"As you go along, you realize that this whole concept of growing up is ... you're not grown up until the day they put you you six feet under. You're never grown up."
— Keith Richards
[As quoted in the documentary Keith Richards: Under the Influence.]
Seymour Stein has to be one of the most interesting people in the music business. He got his start in the industry at 14 (!), was still a teenager when he worked for Billboard, and went on later to found Sire Records. The iconic yellow label with the big S was a familiar sight on my turntable growing up; he signed the Ramones before anyone knew what punk rock was (Stein disliked the description), and later Talking Heads. And others you may know: the Smiths, the Cure, the Pretenders and some aspiring dancer named Madonna. He's now in his 70s, but still in the business.
You can hear an interview Stein did five years ago here.
"The voice of God, if you must know, is Aretha Franklin's."
- Marianne Faithfull
Ben Watt, half of Everything But the Girl (and still a collaborator with his wife, Tracey Thorn, EBTG's singer), recently released a solo album ... no less than 31 years after his first. You can buy it from his own label, Buzzin' Fly.
If you look closely at the cover of Rick Wakeman's Six Wives of Henry VIII, which was photographed at the Madame Tussaud's in London, you can see a wax figure of Richard Nixon in the far background, his head just above a couple of the wives.
Every now and again, I pick up one of those compilation albums that Starbucks puts on the market. Yesterday morning, we bought Twist & Shout, which pulls together a bunch of tunes from the early and mid-Sixties. We listened to it through twice in the car as we moved through the day. There are some staples of the era of the Watusi and the Frug, including the Isley Brothers' pre-Beatles crack at the title track, Shakin' All Over by Johnny Kidd and the Pirates and naturally Wilson Pickett's Land of 1,000 Dances.
The first tune is Let Her Dance by the Bobby Fuller Four; it took me a little while to recall that the song was used so well for the ending of the Fantastic Mr. Fox.
... is coming.
The annual chance to celebrate your friendly neighbourhood record store, and perhaps pick up a collectible, is this April 20. Here's the site. The local participating store is (surprise!!) the venerable Fred's on Duckworth Street in downtown St. John's.
"Tradition is what you resort to when you don't have the time or the money to do it right."
- Kurt Herbert Adler
A few months ago, we got to see one of my favourite performers, David Byrne, live in concert, in Toronto. Just before he took the stage with his band (and co-headliner Annie Clark, a.k.a. St. Vincent), he spoke over the P.A. with some witty advice. Fans were welcome to take pictures and all that, he said, although he kindly reminded people to be civil and not keep a screen in someone else's face.
He got a good laugh, and for good reason: there's been an annoying tendency of some fans to not just snap a pic, but to in effect make a movie, regardless of a) the quality of the product and b) what the production means to the folks in the surrounding seats.
I spotted the above cartoon on Tumblr, via here.
"Rock won't eliminate your problems, but it will sort of let you dance all over them."
- Pete Townshend
"What came first, the music or the misery? Did I listen to music because I was miserable? Or was I miserable because I listened to music?"
- Nick Hornby
This entry from someecards resonated, if only because I've been subscribing for several years (and occasionally listen live) to KCRW and their podcasts. The California station is dedicated to new music, and it has great ears; and, yes, it's true that you'll hear a tune long before it becomes a hit.
But I also know that it can be really irritating to whine about having like a song before, well, everyone else did.
Which is why this entry in the Willy Wonka meme also rings true!
I am a journalist with CBC News in St. John's, Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada. I'm taller than I look. This blog has been running quietly since 2004.
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