This weekend down in Blackpool the 20th Rebellion is taking place. I have quite a number of friends down there as fans who will be dashing from venue to venue hoping to catch their favourite bands! There's also a few old friends playing down there as well. Today I thought I'd dispense with posting an album and instead stick up a Playlist featuring some of the bands who have already hit the stage and those still to play over the next couple of days.
Personnel The Stooges Iggy Pop (credited as "Iggy Stooge") – vocals Dave Alexander – bass guitar Ron Asheton – guitar, vocals Scott Asheton – drums
Additional Personnel John Cale – piano, sleigh bell on "I Wanna Be Your Dog", viola on "We Will Fall"
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Back in March this year Iggy Pop released what is reportedly his final album, Post Pop Depression, and thus bringing down the curtain on an outstanding career that has seen him rise from the unknown to now being considered as one of the Elder Statesman of Rock and Roll. Today we are rewinding the clock back to 1969 and the Debut Album from The Stooges, it's classic, even if it wasn't regarded as such on release.
It's not pretty music by any stretch of the imagination. Then again if you wanted pretty music to listen to the last place on earth you would be looking in 1969 would have been Detroit, Michigan!
The Stooges had been on the go for a couple of years, and had gained a reputation for their wild, primitive live performances. Iggy Pop, especially, won fame for his outrageous onstage behaviour—smearing his bare chest with hamburger meat and peanut butter, cutting himself with shards of glass, and flashing his genitalia to the audience! Like I said, not pretty!
Elektra Records (who also had The Doors) took a chance on the band and in April 1969 they entered The Hit Factory studio in New York to lay down tracks for their Debut Album. John Cale of Velvet Underground fame was Producer (though by the time of the recording Cale had already been shown the door by the band and had played his last show with them in September 1968).
At first they had presented to the label an album containing only 5 songs ("I Wanna Be Your Dog", "No Fun", "1969", "Ann" and "We Will Fall"), which was deemed not enough for an album, and Iggy has said he told them that the band actually had loads more songs, which they didn't and thus they basically wrote and recorded a further three songs in the studio!
The album didn't sell well at all on release and reviews were mixed, many uncomplimentary!
It's a testament though to the impact the album has had on bands since that a number of songs from the album have been either played live or recorded and released by a variety of artists. Click on the links below to listen to a few of the various Cover Versions. I cannot claim that all of them are good!
Following on from Aaron Neville here's another Old Soul Man who has just released one of his finest records in years, William Bell. He celebrated his 77th birthday in July! This Is Where I Live is his first album release for 10 years.
He's returned to Stax Records as well (for the first time since 1974!) a place that had been his home since his Debut Single, Don't Miss Your Water, was released in 1961.
Bell's credentials as a songwriter are without question. Born Under A Bad Sign, which he co-wrote with Booker T. Jones (Booker T. & The M.G.'s) was originally a hit for Bluesman Albert King and it's been covered many times by the likes of Cream, Jimi Hendrix, Buddy Guy, Etta James and even Homer Simpson! Bell gets to perform it himself on the new album and a mighty fine job he has done as well (he did record a version in the sixties).
Like I mentioned regarding Aaron Neville in the previous blog, considering his age, you really do not expect the voice to sound so powerful & soulful and the same can be said regarding William Bell.
I think this is going to be one of my favourite albums of the year.
The next couple of posts here on the blog might surprise a few folks but I have to confess to having a fond affection for real Soul Men and so it shouldn't be too much of a shock to see me spotlighting these two chaps.
I don't just post Old Music from Old Stars here on S4L but I do from time to time post New Music from Old Stars who are still impressing as they get older and wiser. None more so than Aaron Neville who had his 75th birthday back in January this year!
Apache is his 17th Solo album and comes at a time when we are remembering his first hit single, Tell It Like It Is that was released in November 1966 (and hit the #2 spot on the Billboard 100) His first record though was back when he was a 19 year old kid in 1960 (Over You).
Despite his age Aaron Neville still has one of the sweetest tones to his voice and he really shouldn't have this much swagger, but he does and shows those Soul Boy pretenders like Usher and crowd exactly how it should be done!
Read The Wall Street Journal Interview with Aaron NevilleHERE
I've been a big fan of Ian Broudie for many years, dating back to Big In Japan, even though they only released a couple of things in their time. There were members of the band who would go on to have some further success with other projects.
Broudie's best success of course came with The Lightning Seeds and it would have been tempting to post a stack of music from them but I've chosen to go with the band that followed Big In Japan - Original Mirrors. Again it was a band that didn't last too long, releasing two albums and a handful of singles but the Debut Self-Titled album I think is pretty quality stuff. It does of course sound rather dated now but it's still worth a listen I think.
Stumbled across this show from 2013 at Strummercamp by Spear of Destiny and thought I'd stick it up today...oh, and by the way...Happy Birthday Kirk Brandon.
On this day in musical history back in 2006 Arthur Lee, lead vocalist and songwriter for the 1960's band Love passed away at the age of 61. He had been undergoing aggresive treatment for Acute Myeloid Leukemia at Methodist University Hospital in Memphis. His sickness did not become public knowledge until April 2006.
As a wee shout out to honour his memory today I thought I'd post the Debut Album and probably what is considered the finest record from Love that were released in 1966 (I was only three years old when this came out!) and 1967 respectively.
I have to confess that my knowledge of Love only came about when I heard various cover versions of their songs by bands like The Bangles (I think this was the first cover of the song I heard),The Damned andRamones etc (though saying these were the first covers I had heard is probably wrong because Hey Joe by Hendrix I had heard as a kid but wouldn't have known it was an Arthur Lee song then, and plus how vastly different are the original by Love and the Jimi Hendrix version. Also the Patti Smith version was known to me).
The single was reissued in June 1979 on United Artists with a different picture cover.
A-Side: I'm Alive
B-Side: Quite Disappointing
999 are one of those bands who are seriously underrated among the early crop of 1977 Punk Bands. I think mainly this had to do with the fact that Nick Cash had previously been a member of Kilburn and the High Roads and the old Music Police, that were even among the up and coming new movement, often called them out as being bandwagon jumpers. That I think is terribly unfair and probably more an expression of jealousy as the band were probably more musically experienced than many of the bands who were grabbing the headlines and they also had some fantastic songs in their arsenal. After making their live debut in January 1977 and toying around with various name changes they settled on 999 in May 1977 and by July they were in the studios recording their debut single to be released on their own label Labritain. Within a couple of months of release the band would be signed by United Artists and their major label Debut Single (Nasty Nasty / No Pity) would be released. 999's debut single, "I'm Alive", was "a headlong rush of anti 9 to 5 rebellion complete with a bruising power-pop punk guitar attack and rent-a-yob pitched-in vocals." (I don't recall who said this!)
The Single still sounds amazing 39 years on I reckon.
999 are still out playing live in 2016 with a band that features three of the original members: Nick Cash, Guy Days and Pablo LaBritain, Arturo Bassick (The Lurkers and Pinpoint). In their time they have released 12 Studio Albums, various live releases and stacks of brilliant singles. My personal view of the band is that whilst there are some of their albums I quite like I always thought of them more as a Singles band, but that's probably just me!
De La Soul have a brand new album out on the 26th August 2016 on AOI/Rough Trade. There's a few songs you can hear so far from the album that they band have issued, click on the Links. Very excited about this one and what a cast they have gathered as guests!
TRACKLIST Genesis (Intro) f. Jill Scott Royalty Capes Pain (f. Snoop Dogg) Property Of Spitkicker (f. Roc Marciano) Memory Of… (Us) (f. Estelle & Pete Rock) CBGBS Lord Intended (f. Justin Hawkins) Snoopies (f. David Byrne) Greyhounds (f. Usher) Sexy Bitch Trainwreck Drawn (f. Little Dragon) Whoodeeni (f. 2Chainz) Nosed Up You Go Dave (A Goldblatt Presentation) Here In After (f. Damon Albarn) Exodus (Outro)
I loved the little Mixtape they put out a couple of years ago Smell the D.a.I.S.Y. and they've had some cracking albums as well, none more so than their Epic Debut Album 3 Feet High and Rising.
Released at a time when Hip Hop was wallowing in the mire of Gangsta Rap with it's violent lyrics and confrontational tone, De La Soul were a step out of time with an album loaded with postive vibes and one of the most original Hip Hop albums ever. The NME declared it to be "One of the greatest albums ever made" and Village Voice pronounced it as "The Sgt. Pepper of Hip Hop".
Here's the 2001 Reissue that included a Bonus Disc of B-Sides and Alternative Mixes.
3 Feet High and Rising - De La Soul
Tommy Boy
Produced by Prince Paul and De La Soul
US Chart #24
UK Chart #13
For Full Tracklisting of the above Deluxe Version of the album CLICK HERE.
Produced by Tim Armstrong, Brett Reed, and Doug Sangalang
Released 1st August 1995*
*The date is questionable as whilst many places say it was the first others say 4th July 1995
Something a little bit different today, many might be surprised that I like AFI, but it's always good to be open to things that are good even if it's not the normal thing you listen to. They are a band who have impressed me across many albums and today it's a look back to where it all started for them when they were playing crazy Punk Rock quite badly (they had only been together a short while and were still mastering their instruments!).
Answer That and Stay Fashionable is the Debut Album from California band AFI. Their debut release was a Split EP with Loose Change called Dork (you can listen to AFI's Tracks Here). Loose Change featured a certain Jade Puget, who would later become the guitarist for AFI in 1998.
One of the things that I always look for in a band is musical development. There's nothing quite so boring as hearing a band release a new album and they have just repeated what they did previously and maybe not as good!
AFI have certainly been a band who have developed musically, if you listen to the debut and then listen to their last record Burials (2013) there is a vast difference in sound!
Crash Love from 2009 is one of my favourite AFI albums.
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