Let The Day Begin...Let The Day Start!: Day 158 - Randy Travis

You might be thinking as you see this, 'What one earth is he doing now? Country Music?" Well, why not? I can remember as a kid listening to the likes of Hank Snow, Johnny Cash, Hank Williams etc at home and I've always had a bit of a soft spot for it. I know it's not everyone's cuppa tea but I look at it this way, if music is good then it doesn't really matter what genre it falls into it is always worth a listen. My street cred just went out the window!!

So today's choice is an interesting one the major label debut release from Randy Travis. He had actually recorded another album under his own name Randy Traywick in 1978, it was originally released on a cassette and 8 Track. The same year he also recorded a couple of singles under his own name - She's My Woman and I'll Take Any Willing Woman. He used the album as a demo to gain the attention of record labels in and around Nashville. He had been pretty much rejected by every label in the city during the early 1980s.

Finally he got a deal with Warner Bros. Nashville and was able to release his debut album as Randy Travis and that album went on to sell over four million copies! And Storms of Life set him on course for a career that has seem him record 21 Studio Albums and 58 singles including 23 #1's on the US Country Chart.

The Storms of Life are what makes Country Music such an interesting thing and Randy has had more than a few storms on his journey. I won't go into them all here but I'm sure if you go a google search you'll find out all about them. But I did want to mention one particular storm because it is probably the toughest for anyone to go through.

On July 7, 2013, Travis was admitted to a Dallas area hospital for viral cardiomyopathy after a viral upper respiratory infection. His condition was classified as critical. Three days later, Travis suffered a massive stroke and had surgery to relieve pressure on his brain. On July 15, 2013, it was reported that Travis was awake and alert after undergoing brain surgery, that his heart was pumping without the assistance of machines, and that he was on the road to recovery. He was released from Baylor Heart Hospital in Plano, Texas on July 31, 2013, and entered a physical therapy facility. Following his stroke, and despite physical therapy, Travis has been unable to sing or speak and has difficulty walking, having to rely on a cane. As of November 2014, he was slowly recovering, and could walk short distances without assistance and was relearning how to write and play the guitar, according to his then-fiancée Mary Davis.

In March this year it was announced that Randy Travis was going to Country Music Hall of Famebe inducted into the . You can read about that here in a piece from USA Today.

Storms of Life - Randy Travis

Warner Bros. Nashville

Produced by Kyle Lehning & Keith Stegall (he Co-Produced only two tracks On The Other Hand and Reasons I Cheat)

Released 6th June 1986

US Country Chart #1

US Album Chart #85

Canadian Chart #61

Singles from Storms of Life

On The Other Hand

June 1985 

US Country Chart #67

April 1986 Reissue 

US Country Chart #1

1982

December 1985 

US Country Chart #6

Diggin' Up Bones

July 1986 

US Country #1

For Personnel who played on the album check here.

Let The Day Begin...Let The Day Start!

Happy 60th Birthday Richard Butler

(photo by Scott Sheff)

Happy 60th Birthday

Richard Butler

Lead Vocalist

The Psychedelic Furs

 The Psychedelic Furs

Live at The Filmore

San Francisco

10th November 2014

The Psychedelic Furs - Greatest Hits

2001

Let The Day Begin...Let The Day Start!: Day 157- Van Morrison

So I'm wide awake at some unearthly hour and my thoughts drift toward the music of Van Morrison, which seems suitable for 4am on a Sunday Morning. There's a gentleness to the paticular album that I chose which has a nice kind of laid back R 'n' B feel to it. So whilst the birds are singing their morning songs outside I'm sitting down scribbling this and listening to one of the greatest songwriters on the planet and drinking a nice cup of hot tea.

In the words of the great man himself: 
"When all the parts of the puzzle start to look like they fit
Then I must remember there'll be days like this"

The 23rd Studio Album from Van Morrison was Days Like This. It was nominated for the Mercury Music Award (It's now called the Mercury Prize).

The album was one of his best selling non-compilation albums! I always love seeing an album doing better than expected, especially as the reviews for the album were quite mixed.

His daughter features on a number of songs throughout the album on backing vocals but also duets with her Dad on a couple of numbers.

Hope you love listening to this today as much as I have. Enjoy your Sunday folks.
 

Days Like This - Van Morrison

Polydor

Produced by Van Morrison

Released 5th June 1995

UK Chart #5

US Chart #33

Personnel
Musicians
    Van Morrison — vocal, acoustic guitar, electric guitar, harmonica, alto saxophone, Hammond organ
    Liam Bradley — drums on "Raincheck" and "You Don't Know Me"
    Phil Coulter — piano on "Raincheck", "You Don't Know Me" and "I'll Never Be Free"
    Geoff Dunn — drums, tambourine
    Noel Eccles — drums on "I'll Never Be Free"
    Pee Wee Ellis — tenor and alto saxophones
    Leo Green — tenor saxophone
    Matthew Holland — trumpet, flugelhorn
    James Hunter — electric guitar, background vocals on "Meloncholia" and "In the Afternoon"
    Ronnie Johnson — electric guitar
    Brian Kennedy — background vocals
    Teena Lyle — recorder, piano, vibraphone, congas, background vocals
    Foggy Lyttle — electric guitar on "Raincheck", "You Don't Know Me" and "I'll Never Be Free"
    Arty McGlynn — acoustic guitar on "Raincheck"
    James McMillan — trumpet, flugelhorn on "Raincheck", "You Don't Know Me" and "Ancient Highway"
    Shana Morrison — vocal, background vocals on "Raincheck", "You Don't Know Me", "I'll Never Be Free" and "Meloncholia"
    Jonn Savannah — Hammond organ on "No Religion"
    Nicky Scott — bass guitar
    Kate St. John — alto saxophone, oboe

Singles from Days Like This

Days Like This

UK Chart #65

Days Like This - Van Morrison
When it's not always raining there'll be days like this
When there's no one complaining there'll be days like this
When everything falls into place like the flick of a switch
Well, my mama told me, "There'll be days like this"

When you don't need to worry there'll be days like this
When no one's in a hurry there'll be days like this
When you don't get betrayed by that old Judas kiss
Oh, my mama told me, "There'll be days like this"

When you don't need an answer there'll be days like this
When you don't meet a chancer there'll be days like this
When all the parts of the puzzle start to look like they fit
Then I must remember there'll be days like this

There'll be days like this

When everyone is up front and they're not playing tricks
When you don't have no freeloaders out to get their kicks
When it's nobody's business the way that you wanna live
I just have to remember there'll be days like this

When no one steps on my dreams there'll be days like this
When people understand what I mean there'll be days like this
When you ring out the changes of how everything is
Well, my mama told me, "There'll be days like this"

Oh, my mama told me, "There'll be days like this"
 
******

No Relgion

UK Chart #54

Let The Day Begin...Let The Day Start!

Let The Day Begin...Let The Day Start!: Day 156 - Born in the U.S.A.

Born in the U.S.A. - Bruce Springsteen

Columbia

Produced by Jon Landau, Chuck Plotkin, Bruce Springsteen, and Steven Van Zandt

Released 4th June 1984

US Album Chart #1

UK Album Chart #1

#1 in 9 other countries

Personnel
Musicians
    Bruce Springsteen – lead vocals, lead guitar, acoustic guitar
    Roy Bittan – piano, synthesizer, background vocals
    Clarence Clemons – saxophone, percussion, background vocals
    Danny Federici – organ, glockenspiel, piano on "Born in the U.S.A."
    Garry Tallent – bass guitar, background vocals
    Steven Van Zandt – acoustic guitar, mandolin, harmony vocals
    Max Weinberg – drums, background vocals
    Richie "La Bamba" Rosenberg – background vocals on "Cover Me" and "No Surrender"
    Ruth Davis – background vocals on "My Hometown"

********

Born in the U.S.A. is Bruce's biggest selling album of all-time and I remember when it came out that I really did love it but, for some reasons shared below, it lost a little of its sheen for me over the years.

I have to confess that whilst I like aspects of the Born in the U.S.A. album I was very skeptical about the manner in which Columbia chose to promote the album.

The word is that on hearing the album it was assumed that their were no singles on the album and so Springsteen went off and wrote Dancing in the Dark which would be the lead single released a month prior to the album. Then all of a sudden with its addition the suits are foaming at the mouth at the prospect that there was not only one single there but Seven Singles! By the way there's 11 tracks on the album!

Personally I thought it was just a bit too much. Yes it was nice to see Bruce Springsteen striving for world domination (or more like his record label striving for that) but seriously, Seven Singles off one album! It did rocket him into the public conciousness way more than he had ever been. Heck, people thought getting on the covers of Newsweek and Time magazine in the same week when Born to Run came out was a big deal! That was absolutely nothing compared to what happened with the release of Born in the U.S.A.!

I am not alone I think with my skepticism about the way this was all handled as a few fans I've spoken to have shared similar disappointment.

As the years have gone by though I have given up thinking about all the nonsense surrounding the amount of singles that sprang from it to focusing on the songs themselves but it has meant that I don't really value the album as I did when it first came out. As I said I like the album, not everything about it though. There are a few songs that I go through moments of not enjoying so much like Working on the Highway (which he seems to still play a lot live), I'm on Fire, Glory Days and even Dancing in the Dark! For me the absolute stand out songs are No Surrender, Bobby Jean, Downbound Train, My Hometown and I'm Goin' Down.

I don't want this all to sound negative though, it's not my intention at all. I just think that sometimes there are fans of particular artists who find absolutely nothing wrong with anything that is released and are maybe scared of being classed as "not a real fan" because they don't like a particular song or album just because everyone else does!

On a more positive note though even though the album doesn't totally thrill me as much as it did when first released the live performances on the Born in the U.S.A. Tour were totally incredible. I saw him twice at Wembley and both of those shows are etched into my memory for the sheer passion and energy of the performances. There's a video of the second half of the show from Toronto (the first half seems to have vanished forever) in 1984 that is worth checking out as is the performance from Paris in June 1985. The addition of Nils Lofgren on guitar was a great dimension to the band (though the departure of Steve Van Zandt, who had gone to work on other projects, was maybe not as damaging as first thought).

Despite my feelings regarding the amount of singles another positive was some of the great B-Sides that came out on them:

Pink Cadillac - Dancing in the Dark.

Jersey Girl (Live) - Cover Me.

Shut Out The Light - Born in the U.S.A..

Johnny Bye Bye - I'm on Fire.

Stand On It - Glory Days.

Janey Don't You Lose Heart & Held Up Without A Gun - I'm Goin' Down.

Santa Claus is Coming to Town - My Hometown.

The other positive thing was there were loads of other songs written but that were not used or given away to other artists. That doesn't sound very positive unless you know someone with the bootleg of those outtakes and discarded songs! Below is one good bootleg collection called 'Unsatisfied Heart' that's worth a listen if you haven't heard it before.

Cover Me is one of the other songs that I really like on the album and I'm sure I read somewhere that initially that was going to be a song given to Donna Summer but Bruce chose to keep it for himself and give her the song Protection (which is one of the outtakes that I really love). As far as I know he has never played Protection live in concert, but there is a version that exists from the Tunnel of Love Rehearsals in 1988 that's worth a listen.

Let The Day Begin...Let The Day Start!

The Soundtrack4Life Concert Series: Buzzcocks

I was a little bit torn about exactly what Buzzcocks gig to post because there are actually quite a few good ones on You Tube. I decided on two from different periods in their musical history.

First up is a performance from London in December 1989. What you have to remember about this performance was that Buzzcocks had split up in 1981 and this was their first tour back and it featured the classic line-up of Steve Diggle, Pete Shelly, John Maher and Steve Garvey.

The second is from Sydney, Australia and is a show from twenty years later than the first one. It's a fantastic romp through Another Music in a Different Kitchen and Love Bites in their entirity. I saw them in Glasgow on the Another Bites Tour and they really were totally outstanding.

 Reunion

London 1989

The Forum, Sydney, Australia

20th November 2009

Let The Day Begin...Let The Day Start!: Day 155 - Trade Test Transmissions

Trade Test Transmissions - Buzzcocks

Castle

Produced by Ralph Ruppert

Released May/June 1993

Buzzcocks
    Pete Shelley – guitar, vocals
    Steve Diggle – guitar, vocals
    Tony Barber – bass
    Philip Barker – drums

The past couple of days we have been talking about artists having to begin somewhere, today's post is a little different because it's about a band restarting again.Today's spotlight falls on the best band ever to come out of Manchester...Buzzcocks!

After breaking up in 1981 after making demos (I have a bootleg of some of them, mainly seem to be Diggle's Demos and they are not too brilliant) for a reported Fourth Studio album Pete Shelly went solo, John Maher and Steve Diggle formed Flag of Convenience and Steve Garvey formed Motivation and joined the Blue Orchids for a short period.

Their last album had been A Different Kind of Tension (1979) and final single had been Part Three (featuring Running Free / What Do You Know) in December 1980.

With news of their reunion in 1989 came the hope that there would be new music on the horizon. Shelly, Diggle, Maher and Garvey all back together again (at least for a short while!). Then in 1991 Alive Tonight EP was released (which proved just how brilliant they were again!) and former sticksman for The Smiths Mick Joyce was on drums.

A-Side

01. Alive Tonight (Shelly)

02. Serious Crime (Diggle)

B-Side 

01. Last To Know (Shelly)

02. Successful Street (Diggle)

And finally, after a long wait the Fourth Studio Album from Buzzcocks appeared entitled Trade Test Transmissions. They sounded back to their perfect best. Shelly had written pretty much most of the album, Diggle wrote five of the fifteen songs (and his songs are great especially Isolation and Alive Tonight). It was as if they had never been away.

Since Trade Test Transmissions Buzzcocks have continued touring and releasing new music. They have put out a further five studio albums: All Set (1996), Modern (1999), Buzzcocks (2003), Flat-Pack Philosophy (2006) and the excellent latest album The Way (2014).This year Steve Diggle and Pete Shelly are celebrating 40 years of Buzzcocks!

Let The Day Begin...Let The Day Start!

Rewind: The Runaways - The Runaways (1976)

The Runaways - The Runaways

Mercury

Produced by Kim Fowley

Released 1st June 1976

US Chart #194

 

Personnel
Band members
    Cherie Currie - lead and backing vocals, keyboard on "American Nights"
    Joan Jett - rhythm guitar, lead vocals
    Lita Ford - lead guitar, backing vocals
    Jackie Fox - bass, backing vocals (only credited, did not perform on the record)
    Sandy West - drums, backing vocals

Additional musician
    Nigel Harrison - bass

The Runaways debut album is 40 years old! I probably should have posted it yesterday as that was the official day of its release back in 1976.

Though a little dated it still sounds pretty fine I reckon.

Singles from The Runaways

 (Japanese Picture Cover)

Cherry Bomb / Blackmail

US Chart #106

Australian Chart #58

Japanese Chart #1

UK Chart N/A 

Cherry Bomb / Is It Day or Night?

French Release

Secrets / Rock 'n' Roll

Japanese Release

American Nights / Secrets

Brazilian Release

Poster for The Runaway's Debut UK Gig at The Roundhouse in London

 

Let The Day Begin...Let The Day Start!: Day 154 - David Bowie

 David Bowie - David Bowie

Deram

Produced by Mike Vernon

Released 1st June 1967

Like I said yesterday with regard to Billy Bragg's band Riff Raff everyone has to start somewhere and even for someone of the stature of David Bowie he also had to begin somewhere.

He had released his first single as Davie Jones with The King Bees back in 1964 (Liza Jane backed with Louie Louie Go Home). He followed that in 1965 as part of The Mannish Boys with I Pity the Fool backed by Take My Tip. Davy Jones and The Lower Third came next with You've Got A Habit of Leaving (though Mr Jones changed his name to David Bowie for their second single, Can't Help Thinking About Me, this would be helpful as a new Davy Jones would be appearing on the scene soon as the frontman of The Monkees).

On 1st April 1966 he released the first single just bearing his own name on Pye Records called Do Anything You Say backed with Good Morning Girl. I Dig Everything followed and that was his final single for Pye Records. None of the singles by the way reached the charts.

Signed with Deram he released a further two singles prior to the debut album being released. Rubber Band backed by The London Boys in 1966 (the B-Side clearly showed that he had the potential to become a great artist) and The Laughing Gnome in 1967 (which wasn't a hit until 1973, peaking at #6). It would actually years before David Bowie had a hit single, hard to imagine I know! Even his early albums never made it into the charts, 1971's Hunky Dory being the first to do so!

The debut album is not brilliant by the way but it stands as a marker for better things that would come his way...not necessarily in the time frame he would have liked maybe but the fact that he kept honing his craft despite the disappointments of failed singles and albums made him into one of the greatest and most loved artists.

Let The Day Begin...Let The Day Start!

Revisiting Darkness on the Edge of Town

Darkness on the Edge of Town - Bruce Springsteen

Columbia

Produced by Bruce Springsteen, Jon Landau and Steve Van Zandt

US Chart #5

UK Chart #16

 

38 years old today and I know I've a habit of spotlighting it every year but it's really such a great album that is worth listening to and exploring afresh. There are loads of links here to check out, mainly some of the songs that were left out from the original album but did finally see daylight years later. I think at some point I may do a post on some of these unused songs that are still sitting around in a vault somewhere (thankfully there are some bootlegs around that contain some of these songs otherwise we'd never hear them at all)!

Three years had passed since Bruce Springsteen had released the groundbreaking Born to Run and in case anyone was wondering, he hadn't disappeared off the face of the earth because him and the E Street Band had been out playing live. The delay in a new album being released was due to a legal dispute with then manager Mike Appel. 

In the meantime between live shows there was writing and preparing many songs that would ultimately be discarded in favour of the ten that were released once all the legal distractions were over and done with. More than Forty Songs were written (Jimmy Iovine reckons there were close to 70 songs written and only 52 recorded though a number were not completed). "Don't Look Back", "Hearts of Stone", "Iceman" and "Give the Girl a Kiss" would eventually see their release on the Tracks box set while 21 other outtakes would be released on The Promise album released to coincide with the Darkness at the Edge of Town Boxset in 2010. Some of the unused material became hits for other artists such as "Because the Night" for Patti Smith; "Fire" for Robert Gordon and The Pointer Sisters; "Rendezvous" for Greg Kihn; "This Little Girl" for Gary U.S. Bonds; and several tracks for Southside Johnny including 3 songs released on the Asbury Jukes album entitled Hearts of Stone (an album that Steve Van Zandt produced and wrote pretty much the majority of the songs for). Other songs such as "Independence Day", "Point Blank", "The Ties That Bind", and "Sherry Darling" would turn up on Springsteen's next album, The River, while still others became bootleg classics until surfacing on Springsteen's already mentioned compilations titled Tracks, 18 Tracks, and The Promise.

My own thoughts about the album at the time (I was 15 years old when it came out!) was that here was a bloke who knew a thing or two about life and was able to communicate something of the desolation of being stuck somewhere you didn't want to be. I always get a bit annoyed by people who assume that because Bruce is American and he's often writing from an American perspective that he has nothing in common with those outside of the USA. But the fact is alienation, struggle, relationship issues, despair and hope etc are actually very universal themes so it's quite easy I think to find yourself in his songs even if you were growing up in London in 1978.

The man couldn't get a hit single here in the UK and it's surprising because three singles that were released - Prove It All Night, Badlands, and The Promised Land - were all pretty commercial sounding. As a 15 year old back then I was listening and buying mainly Punk Records and I thought that a song like Badlands had way more of a Punk attitude than anything that The Clash were writing at the time (I know, I'll let you queue up to adminster a fatal beating later!).   

A Couple of Friends say:

 "Growing up in area which relied on heavy industry, coal and the dockyards I felt like I knew the characters on Darkness. Throw in a tempestuous father and son relationship and it was like my life laid down on vinyl. Despite the hardships and despair it's important to remember that there is always hope and something to fight for."  
- Carl Drake (USA)

 "I never really cared for Born To Run and all the hype at the time, I bought that record on the back of reading the NME and Melody Maker. I never bothered with Darkness on the Edge of Town until I had bought The River and seen the tour. Everybody's highlight will be Badlands but there are some real gems on there like Racing In The Street and Candy's Room.
I never cared for Adam Raised A Cain until I saw it played on the Tunnel of Love Tour with the horns and from that day the power of that song really hit me. It could have been a greatest hits album in a way, after all he left some incredible material off it. I will never to this day understand why he left The Promise off, it would have easily fitted the record. It's probably my favourite album now with a few out takes added." 
- Mark D. Huntington (UK)

   
"I first got into Bruce around the River coming out, probably heard Hungry Heart. After that I went out and got the previous albums on vinyl. I definitely remember liking the songs and writing on Darkness especially Promised Land and Badlands and Racing in the Street and Prove It All night. Loved a lot of the guitar work especially. Just seemed very raw and very honest. I remember not being too keen on Candy's Room. Sounded kind of a bit poppy. Overall Classic Springsteen. More concise and to the point after Born to run."
- Simon Herdson (UK)
(Simon was a bit late with his comment as he was away camping and off the grid for a few days so I'm adding his comment now. Doug 6.22pm 2/6/16)

Many of the songs from the album still make it onto the setlist (just last night night in Glasgow he played Badlands, The Promised Land and Darkness on the Edge of Town). I still have a real love for Prove It All Night with the '78 Intro. Also I have to say that I much prefer the 1976 version of Something In The Night to the one that ended up getting released on Darkness. Racing in the Street is probably my favourite track on the album and I love hearing it done live (there's a gorgeous version from 2012 at the Meadowlands that I love a lot). I quite liked the version that ended up on The Promise album.
 

Personnel
The E Street Band
    Bruce Springsteen – lead vocals, lead guitar, harmonica
    Roy Bittan – piano, backing vocals
    Clarence Clemons – saxophone, backing vocals
    Danny Federici – organ, glockenspiel
    Garry Tallent – bass guitar
    Steve Van Zandt – rhythm guitar, backing vocals
    Max Weinberg – drums

Paramount Theater 2009

Included in The Darkness Boxset

Darkness at the Edge of Town

Played in Full

Allphones Arena, Sydney, Australia

19th February 2014

Let The Day Begin...Let The Day Start!: Day 153 - Riff Raff

I Wanna Be A Cosmonaut EP - Riff Raff

Chiswick Records

Produced by Ruan O'Lochlainn, The Ruff Micks

Released June 1978 (though Billy Bragg thinks it was April 1978)

 Tracklist
A1 Cosmonaut (Written-By – Billy Bragg) 
A2 Romford Girls (Written-By – Billy Bragg, Robert Handley)
B1 What's The Latest (Written-By – Billy Bragg)
B2 Sweet As Pie (Written-By – Billy Bragg)

********************

Everyone has to start somewhere and the man we know as the Bard of Barking, Stephen William "Billy" Bragg began his musical life in 1977 when him and his mate Wiggy formed Riff Raff. Their debut EP was released on Chiswick Records, not that a lot of people outside of London knew about it.

Here's some thoughts by the man himself on Riff Raff's debut EP.

They didn't stick around for too long releasing a single on Albion and the final four singles on the Geezer label. They split in 1980. You can hear all the singles below. The final single New Home Town even has a song that Billy would record for his solo career, Richard. Infact you can already begin to see what Bragg would become in the last few singles.

Afterwards Bragg went off to join the British Army but after three months bought himself out for £175 and returned home. He began playing some shows and busking under the banner of Spy Vs Spy. He also made a demo and shopped it around.

His demo tape initially got no response from the record industry, but by pretending to be a television repair man, he got into the office of Charisma Records' A&R man Peter Jenner. Jenner liked the tape, but the company was near bankruptcy and had no budget to sign new artists. Bragg got an offer to record more demos for music publisher Chappell & Co., so Jenner agreed to release them as a record. Life's a Riot with Spy Vs. Spy (credited to Billy Bragg) was released in July 1983 by Charisma's new imprint, Utility. 

I love this story: Hearing DJ John Peel mention on-air that he was hungry one night, Bragg rushed to the BBC with a mushroom biryani, so Peel played a song from Life's a Riot with Spy Vs. Spy albeit at the wrong speed (since the 12" LP was, unconventionally, cut to play at 45rpm). Peel insisted he would have played the song even without the biryani and later played it at the correct speed. 

Gives me a chuckle everytime, but I guess that's how you take the opportunities that come your way.

Riff Raff - The Singles

Let The Day Begin...Let The Day Start!