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Dutch couple Danique van Kesteren and Bart van Dalen play indie pop as Donna Blue. ‘The Idea’ features on their debut album Dark Roses.
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Elvis Costello and The Attractions – Almost Blue (1982)
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‘Almost Blue’ did a full circle. Elvis Costello has been a big Chet Baker fan forever and in 1982 he wrote this song as an imitation of the Baker’s rendition of the Lew Brown/Ray Henderson-penned standard ‘The Thrill Is Gone’. It features on the Elvis Costello and The Attractions album Imperial Bedroom. Then in 1987, a year before Baker’s death, Baker’s own cover of ‘Almost Blue’ was recorded and captured on the live album Chet Baker in Tokyo.
Bob Marley & The Wailers – No More Trouble (1973)
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Catch A Fire was a game changer for reggae. Bob Marley & The Wailers were already household names in their native Jamaica, but it was their fifth album that jumped borders. Financed by an advance from Chris Blackwell’s Island Records, the label took the opportunity to rework the production at Island Studios in Notting Hill. The result was would bring reggae skank to a much wider audience. Listening to the album this weekend, I replayed ‘No More Trouble’ several times. Have a great week.
R.Tyme – R-Theme (1989)
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In 1988/89, I was intensely distracted by two US music genres at the same. Hip hop from the likes of Def Jam, Cold Chillin’ and Jive labels… and the Detroit house sound being peddled here by UK labels 10 Records, FFRR and Big Life, amongst others. The latter released this beauty in 1989. ‘R-Theme’ was written by Inner City’s DJ Darryl Wynn (D-Wynn) and put out by Derrick May‘s own label Transmat. May had produced and remixed the track, but the subsequent Big Life pressing sounded much better. This is what alien techno sounded like in the summer of 1989, in case you were wondering. Have a great weekend.
Khruangbin – May Ninth (2024)
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‘May Ninth’ features on A LA SALA, Khruangbin’s fourth LP and the first in four years. Released last month, it’s clear the Texan band are set in their musical vision – whispering midtempo funk.
Bob Dylan – All The Tired Horses (1970)
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By far Bob Dylan’s most controversial work, his 1970 double album Self Portrait seemed to be designed to upset his fanbase – including the opening track, in which Dylan doesn’t sing. That said, the string instrumentation and vocals from Hilda Harris, Albertine Robinson and Maeretha Stewart are sublime.
9 of the best – sounds of 1977
Something that I concocted over the weekend… a retrospective of 1977 in the form of my favourite sounds, in no particular order.
Sex Pistols – Holidays In The Sun
Television – Marquee Moon
David Bowie – A New Career In A New Town
David Bowie – Heroes
Fleetwood Mac – Dreams
Donna Summer - I Feel Love
Grace Jones – La Vie En Rose
Bob Marley – Jamming
Idris Muhammad – Could Heaven Ever Be Like This
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Honourable mentions also go to: Bill Conti for ‘Gonna Fly Now‘; Fela Kuti & The Africa ’70 for ‘Zombie‘; Loleatta Holloway (feat. The Salsoul Orchestra) for ‘Run Away‘; Marvin Gaye for ‘Got To Give It Up‘; Iggy Pop for ‘Lust For Life‘; Suicide for ‘Cheree‘; Barry White for ‘Playing Your Game, Baby‘; Neil Young for ‘Like A Hurricane‘; Peter Gabriel for ‘Solsbury Hill‘; Parliament for ‘Flash Light‘; Fleetwood Mac for ‘You Make Loving Fun‘; Electric Light Orchestra for ‘Mr Blue Sky‘ and so many more (see 1977 – it was a great year).
Talking Heads – Heaven (1979)
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I’ve been lovingly stuck listening to the late 1970s this long weekend in Blighty and I’ll share a compilation to match tomorrow. So an extra sound today and it’s David Byrne and group and their classic ‘Heaven’, a “place where nothing ever happens”. Perhaps it’s me, but the song benefits for the unusually calm treatment that the Talking Heads give the song. It features on their 1979 album Fear Of Music.
David Bowie – Teenage Wildlife (1980)
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I bit the bullet this weekend and invested in Parlophone’s A New Career in a New Town – the posthumous vinyl boxset of arguably David Bowie’s greatest artistic period: 1977-1982. It has been a long time since I’ve listened his masterful LP Scary Monsters (Super Creeps) so intently. To the less familar, the album is a vehicle for four dominant singles: ‘Ashes to Ashes‘, ‘Fashion’, ‘Scary Monsters (and Super Creeps)’ and ‘Up the Hill Backwards’. At its heart though is his midlife theme ‘Teenage Wildlife’. As the longest track on the album, the song packs it in: a Tony Visconti production with echoes of ‘Heroes’, Robert Fripp guitar breaks, E Street Band’s Roy Bittan on keyboards and Bowie’s lyrics that point to an annoyance at copycats. “Same old thing in brand new drag / Comes sweeping into view, oh-oh-oh, oh-oh-oh / As ugly as a teenage millionaire.” Have a great week.
Miles Davis – In A Silent Way (1969)
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A Sunday sound… a decade after he opened his classic LP Kind Of Blue with ‘So What’, Miles Davis was breaking more boundaries. The 1969 LP In a Silent Way was his first fusion jazz recording. Along with his collaborators (Chick Corea, Herbie Hancock, Tony Williams, John McLaughlin Wayne Shorter and Joe Zawinul) and producer Teo Macero, he recorded two side-long improvised suites, one of which is the title track. Parts of the suite sound like a proto ambient revelation 55 years later.
Etta James – Sugar On The Floor (1978)
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I like Kiki Dee as much as the next of my contemporaries, but her country-tinged song ‘Sugar On The Floor’ pales in comparison to the soul that Etta James poured into this version. The cover features on James’s 1978 album Deep In The Night. Have a great weekend.
Nightmares On Wax – Les Nuits (1999)
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Nightmares On Wax originally comprised George “DJ E.A.S.E.” Evelyn and Kevin “Boywonder” Harper, but by the mid-nineties the Leeds-based project was a one-man show. Evelyn released a third studio album Carboot Soul in 1999. It features the instrumental hop hop calling card ‘Les Nuits’. The track is loosely based on Quincy Jones’s classic cut ‘Summer in the City’ featuring Valerie Simpson – and naturally samples it too.
Paul McCartney and Wings – Jet (1974)
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The story goes that Wings were under huge pressure, recording at EMI’s studio in Lagos, having just lost drummer Denny Seiwell and guitarist Henry McCullough. With Paul McCartney playing bass, drums and most of the lead guitar, the remaining trio were able to produce much of the band’s best work. The unmistakable intro to ‘Jet’ has always sounded like a call to arms to bands like The Clash and The Police.
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