On the back of the single success of ‘Love me Do’ and ‘Please Please Me’, the boys were rushed into Abbey Road studio 2 for a 12 hour session producing their first album.  And what a record it was, 14 songs lasting just 32 minutes, which made you want to flip it over on the Dansette turntable and play it again.  I was too young to have a record player, but a friend George Maycock let me tape it on reel to reel I got for Christmas in ’64.  The disc went straight to number one, and ‘Beatlemania’ was created.  No way of choosing best songs – but the closer by a hoarse John ‘Twist and Shout’ still brings me out in goose pimples.

In all the group recorded 11 albums in just 6 years, plus numerous Eps, and music for the films ‘Yellow Submarine’ and ‘Magical Mystery Tour.  It all ended in 1969, though the announcement was held back until 1970.  At the time we were all sad, but in a way this was by far for the best.  We have those recordings forever, and they came in with a bang and saved maybe their best recording ‘Abbey Road’ for their swansong. 

There has been far too much written about them, and still being written even now – but the best is just to put the records on and return (with us now) to those days of yesteryear.

The Art Of Noise – Who’se Afraid Of

It was 1984, and already the charts were filling up with New Romantics and quite bland melodies.  Then suddenly came a sound we had never heard before (and might never again).  The Art Of Noise was a British avante-garde synth heavy group, made up of an engineer, a computer programmer and only Anne Dudley with any real musical history, having been trained in classical piano.  From the first few seconds of opening track ‘A Time For Fear’ with that incredible bass-heavy doom marching drum, you knew this was special.  An almost completely instrumental album, with snatches of spoken words (Can I Say Something?) and rapid changes in tempo and melody it still blows my socks off.  Three superb singles – ‘Beat Box’, ‘Close To The Edit’ and the sublime ‘Moments In Love’ led the charge on the charts.  But the whole album just zips along; it sounds like they were having the greatest fun.

The group was pretty flexible with a few personnel changes along the way.  The only other album I have of theirs is ‘The Seduction Of Claude Debussy (1999), which I think is, apart from remixes was their last.  But that first album still makes me smile…and who wouldn’t be afraid of this impeccable sound of the future.

I first saw the band at Weeley Pop Festival in 1972; accompanied by a 54 piece orchestra, they played a perfect combination of Rock and Classical Music, which was their early unique style.  They had formed in 1966 in Oldham, combining 4 members of 2 local bands they were John Lees (guitar), Les Holroyd (bass), Wooly Wolstenholme (keyboards) and Mel Pritchard (drums).  They spent a couple of years looking for a record contract and quietly perfecting their sound.  Heavily influenced by The Beatles they had exquisite harmonies and with three songwriters, no shortage of ideas.  Their first eponymous album came out in 1970 and was mature and self-assured and filled with the best of their early years’ songs.  A couple of heavy numbers ‘Taking Some Time On’ and ‘Good Love Child’ interspersed with delicate slower numbers; the haunting ‘Mother Dear’ and ‘The Iron Maiden’ and culminating with the song which closed their early shows ‘Dark Now My Sky’ – a wonderful invocation of both doom and hopefulness.  They went on to a mixed career, never quite scaling the heights, but with a loyal following especially in Europe where their albums regularly topped the charts.  I have always loved them, my favourite album being ‘Once Again’ their follow-up.  But this has always remained a regular on my playlists; it instantly established their ‘sound’ and was a marker in a crowded field of their individuality.

Having exhausted my Cd collection I am revisiting a few artists who made brilliant debut albums; many of course went on to  even greater things.  This is, of course, a personal selection.  Hope you like it.

Joan Armatrading – Whatever’s For Us

Well, a complete unknown in 1972.  Joan had apparently written about a hundred songs with Pam Nestor, another singer songwriter.  Looking for fame – mostly as a writer than a performer, she was ‘discovered’ by Gus Dudgeon, a producer for Elton.  She was signed to Cube records, a small independent, who wanted to promote Joan as a singer.  Many of the songs initially recorded by Pam and Joan, with Pam singing were rejected in favour of those featuring Joan singing.  The pair had originally wanted to be a duo, with Joan writing the music and Pam the lyrics.  These other songs have never surfaced, and Pam seems to have disappeared from the picture.

The resulting album, featuring Davey Johnstone and Ray Cooper and Gerry Conway accompanying Joan, mostly on piano and acoustic guitar, is simply stunning.  The songs are subtle and complex and seem to have emerged fully formed as almost classics.  Joan’s voice is deep and sumptuous and soars above the melodies.  For whatever reason I bought the album – maybe the hand-painted cover design, as I had never heard of Joan before.  Possibly I read a review in Time Out or City Limits.

Hard to pick favourite tracks, from such a stunning album – but I love ‘My Family’, ‘It Could Have Been Better’ and best of all ‘Visionary Mountains’ – which was recorded years later by Manfred Mann’s Earth Band.

Joan apparently was quite dissatisfied with the album, and the dropping of Pam Nestor.  The record sold quite poorly and Cube records folded a year or so later.  However A. & M. picked up Joan and re-released this debut on their label in ’74.

Joan went on to a long, and still continuing solo career.  She is a unique talent, not only as a singer but as a writer and arranger, but also as and artist who has never been manipulated by Record companies.  As a black female singer this is a rarity; she has never relied on, and in fact has steadfastly refused to appear ‘sexy’.  Just recentl she has even written a classical symphony which was broadcast on Radio 3.  Needless to say, if she were a young artist today she would never get a recording contract, being far too independently minded. 

Zero 7 – Don’t know much about this group; another from my daughter.  This is gentle dancey music, quite instrumental – nice aural wall paper but not very memorable.  The album is Simple Things.

The Zombies – were a 60’s pop group, who had a huge hit with their debut single ‘She’s Not There’ – beautiful song sung with the sumptuous vocals of Colin Blunstone (see B), but the band also included Rod Argent – who went on to form the band Argent.  After mixed success the band were recording their last album before deciding to break up the band, as any real success seemed to elude them.  They recorded Odessey and Oracle (misspelt by the cover designer) in ’67 and released it in April ’68 – by which time the band had broken up.  But as it turned out the record was a slow burner and eventully reached 2 in America.  This is the only original album of theirs I have – but it is pretty damned good.  Best tracks are ‘Care Of Cell 44’, ‘Beechwoord Park’ and ‘Time of The Season’ – but mot of the songs are pretty good.   Anyway, I saw Colin live at The Roundhouse in ’72 and fell in love with his voice and songs and became a lifelong fan.  The band did reform in 1989 and again in 2000; they play occasional concerts and one or two album were credited to them, but were really Colin and Rod.  Next I have a compilation of their singles As and Bs.  Nothing remarkable but a nice drift back into late 60s music.  I also have Into The Afterlife – a strange little album of singles released by Neil McArthur (Colin) and Rod Argent and Chris White.  Nothing incredible but again a nice listen.  And to wrap things up for this series ZZ Top Greatest Hits.  Never an essential band for me, but pretty good Texan rockers who mde it big in the Eighties.   Best tracks – ‘Gimme ll nYou lovin’, ‘Sharp Dressed Man’ and ‘Legs’.  And that is it.   I could bore you even more with mu collection of CD singles, and cassettes – but maybe another time.      

Frank Zappa – Possibly the most prolific artist of the 20^th Century, with 0ver 60 albums before his death in 1993.  And his afterlife keeps on turning up tons more stuff.  He performed constantly live and recorded almost every concert, as well as often releasing 3 or more studio albums a year.  He wrote prolifically and was a multi-instrumentalist, as well as a perfectionist, especially with live performances.  I have no idea how he found the time to create so much, and so varied a repertoire.  I first heard of him in the late 60s but didn’t get round to buying him until the 70s.  I had quite a few 60s albums on vinyl and then copied onto cassette but my CD collection starts with 2 live albums featuring most of the original Mothers of Invention plus Flo and Edddie (see F) who used to be vocalists in The Turtles.  Confused? You will be.  So we start with Live Filmore East, June 1971,    Now, as well as a brilliant guitarist, Frank liked to combine often outrageous humour with some of his music.  Flo and Eddie for a couple of years were in the band and provided both vocals and spoken stuff – this album has both.  Either absolute filth, or hilarious comedy – you choose.  A great live album though, best songs include ‘What Kind Of Girl Do You Think We Are’, ‘Tears Begin To Fall’ and ‘Peaches en Regalia’.  A riot – as is my second, the following year’s Just Another Band FromOne L.A, which features a side-long crazy musical tale of ‘Billy The Mountain’ (don’t ask) – but it is brilliant, absurd and if you know the song, irresistible – a complete mini-opera.  But my favourites are ‘Eddie Are You Kidding’ (A Flo and Eddie regular song) and ‘Magdalena’ – a tale of sexual debauchery and a great tune.  One Size Fits All came out in 1973, credited to FZ and The Mothers, it was a pretty good album; some great tunes and the playing was, as usual, exemplary.  Fave tracks are ‘Dynamo Hum’ and ‘Montana’  (a crazy story about dental floss and zircon encrusted tweezers – makes no sense but a great song nevertheless).  Roxy and Elsewhere , a live album of non-recorded songs released in ’74 was a mixed bag; some good stuff but not my favourite record at all.  Much better was One Size fits All (1975), a fairly complex album with a couple of instrumentals and some great songs.  Best are ‘Florentine Pogen’, ‘Andy’ and ‘San Berdino’ – a real quality recording.  ’76 saw the release of Zoot Allures, one of his best records.  Not a poor song on this, and the songs seemed to be evolving into more complete pieces – best are ‘Disco Boy’, Miss Pinky’ and ‘The Torture Never Stops’, which became a live favourite too.  Sheik Yerbouti came out in ’79 – and was an instant favourite.  By now Frank had lost The Mothers and was recording under his solo name, often with a changing but fairly regular group of Session players.  This was recorded mostly live, but with a lot of overdubs and studio effects.  In some ways this was the most complex album of Franks, and was a big seller, and remains a fan favourite.  The lyrics are pretty explicit and very funny too, the playing as usual is brilliant as well,  Best songs on a long album are ‘Bobby Brown Goes Down’, ‘City Of Tiny Lights’, ‘ Jewish Princess’, ‘Dancing Fool’ and ‘Yo Mama’.  It still sounds as fresh as when it was released.  But for my money his best was his next – 1979’s Joes Garage.  Frank was no stranger to controversy, and the cover of this is no exception, with Frank (badly) blacking up – apparently ‘Joe is black’.  This series of songs are connected as a ‘Rock Opera’, probably as an insult to serious prog rock albums, by a narrator (Frank himself) as ‘The Central Scrutiniser’ spoken through a vocoder.  The story is nonsensical, about a garage band, who fall foul of laws that haven’t been written yet – namely enjoying Music.  Joe gets Sex and Religion and eventually Prison as he destroys a robotic sex toy provided by the First Church of Appliantology.  (if you aren’t confused by now, just listen to the album).  The title song is a great melody and would have been a great single – other favourites are ‘Lucille’, ‘Catholic Girls’, ‘Green Rosetta’ and the absolutely sublime guitar solo ‘Watermelon In Easter Hay’.  This was released as a triple album and later as a very long double CD.  A lot to take in at one listen, and as usual with Frank far too long really – but he was uncompromising; he didn’t give a fuck for Sales or Fans or The Record Company either.  He would never get away with it now…. Tinseltown Rebellion followed in 1981 (along with 3 double albums of guitar music).  Another pretty good album, taking potshots at the music business, and combining some live recordings with studio work. Less brilliant then Joes Garage but I like the songs – ‘TinselTown Rebellion Band’, a live version of ‘Love Of My Life’ and ‘Fine Girl’.  Later that same year, as well as the three double live guitar albums Frank put out another classic You Are What You Is.  Continuing his themes of sexuality, stupidity and Religious Quacks the album is varied in style, from the countryesque ‘Harder Than Your Husband’ to the lovely soul ballad ‘Doreen’, the very naughty ‘Goblin Girl’ and the excellent closer ‘Drafted Again’  again a double with too many songs to really appreciate at one go, would have been better as a single album – but that’s Frank, over-indulgent but brilliant.   Next up is the brilliantly titled album Ship Arriving Too Late To Save A Drowning Witch {1982} (you have to see the cover to understand).  Well another favourite from Frank; great songs and arrangements – fave tracks ‘Valley Girls’ (sung by his daughter Moon Unit), ‘No, Not Now’ and his truly operatic Teenage Prostitute’.  He followed this with The Man From Utopia (1983), a mostly live album again and some excellent songs too; several tracks are Franks singing what appears to be a somewhat ad-libbed monologue to his band playing along – ‘The Dangerous Kitchen’, ‘The Radio Is Broken’ and ‘The Jazz Party Discharge Hats’ but best is an instrumental ‘We Are Not Alone’.  Another winner.  Zappa then sold us a CD called Baby Snakes, which I was quite disappointed with.  It turns out that this was actually a soundtrack to another live film; only really decent song was a version of ‘Disco Boy’.  Next in my limited collection is Them Or Us (1984). A quite disappointing record really, a lot of long instrumental stuff, and even the ‘songs’ drift into instrumentals.  Still, I like ‘In France’, ‘Sharleena’ and ‘Baby Take Your Teeth Out’ – but then again, relistening – it’s not so bad really.  But then, disaster struck – or not. Frank released another triple album, a ‘rock opera’ based on a Broadway show.  It was absolutely over the top; even for me.  Thingfish – (1984) was outrageous and I rarely play it, even though the music is quite good.  It manages to offend blacks, gays, women and all sorts of liberals. Best move on quickly.   1991 and Make A Jazz Note Here appeared. A mostly live album, featuring a few classical pieces (done in Frank’s style).  Not a favourte, but I quite like ‘Star Wars Wont Work’ and ‘Strictly Genteel’.  My last Zappa album was Yellow Shark (1993).  By now Frank was seriously ill with terminal cancer of which he died shortly after this album’s release.  It is a 1992 recording by the ‘Ensemble Moderne’ where they played many of Frank’s compositions.  Frank was especially proud to be recognised as a serious composer of ‘Musique Concrete or Modern Classical.  Of course, as you know I am a sucker for Greatest Hits – even when I have almost all that is on them.  So, I have Greatest Hits, and Strictly Commercial (Greatest Hits) which are almost identical save for the latter having a handful of extra tracks.  These are both, more or less, the acceptable face of Frank; radio friendly and not too obscene.  Both are excellent – fave tracks are ‘Peaches En Regalia’.’Cozmik Debris’ and ‘Muffin Man’.  I also have a couple of live collections posthumously released (actually Frank’s releases post his death must almost exceed his lifetimes output, as new stuff keeps getting released {mostly live renditions of recorded tracks{ ). Cheap Thrills, Son Of Cheap Thrills, Freaks and Motherfuckers, Have I Offended Someone…..all are okay – but for enthusiasts only.  So, Frank – either a genius, years ahead of his time; a vulgar madman; a brilliant but misguided guitarist; a composer of great variety but ultimately a wasted talent….take your pick.  I just feel that his best stuff is up there with the greatest – just discerning that from the huge volume of music he released is a bit harder.  

Your Cheating Heart (1990) – was a BBC Scotland mini-series, about a Glasgow Country and Western band; it featured among others Tilda Swinton and Eddi Reader of Fairground Attraction fame, also Ken Stott.  The story was a bit complex, but it was studded with great interpretations of old 50’s songs by Elvis and Hank Williams and the like.  I loved it and bought the CD which has remained a favourite ever since; there is a joyfulness about the whole thing.  Best tracks are hard to choose, but ‘Deep Water’, ‘Quicksilver’ and ‘From A Distance’ stand out.

Frank Zappa – Possibly the most prolific artist of the 20^th Century, with 0ver 60 albums before his death in 1993.  And his afterlife keeps on turning up tons more stuff.  He performed constantly live and recorded almost every concert, as well as often releasing 3 or more studio albums a year.  He wrote prolifically and was a multi-instrumentalist, as well as a perfectionist, especially with live performances.  I have no idea how he found the time to create so much, and so varied a repertoire.  I first heard of him in the late 60s but didn’t get round to buying him until the 70s.  I had quite a few 60s albums on vinyl and then copied onto cassette but my CD collection starts with 2 live albums featuring most of the original Mothers of Invention plus Flo and Edddie (see F) who used to be vocalists in The Turtles.  Confused? You will be.  So we start with Live Filmore East, June 1971,    Now, as well as a brilliant guitarist, Frank liked to combine often outrageous humour with some of his music.  Flo and Eddie for a couple of years were in the band and provided both vocals and spoken stuff – this album has both.  Either absolute filth, or hilarious comedy – you choose.  A great live album though, best songs include ‘What Kind Of Girl Do You Think We Are’, ‘Tears Begin To Fall’ and ‘Peaches en Regalia’.  A riot – as is my second, the following year’s Just Another Band FromOne L.A, which features a side-long crazy musical tale of ‘Billy The Mountain’ (don’t ask) – but it is brilliant, absurd and if you know the song, irresistible – a complete mini-opera.  But my favourites are ‘Eddie Are You Kidding’ (A Flo and Eddie regular song) and ‘Magdalena’ – a tale of sexual debauchery and a great tune.  OneSize Fits All came out in 1973, credited to FZ and The Mothers, it was a pretty good album; some great tunes and the playing was, as usual, exemplary.  Fave tracks are ‘Dynamo Hum’ and ‘Montana’  (a crazy story about dental floss and zircon encrusted tweezers – makes no sense but a great song nevertheless).  Roxy and Elsewhere , a live album of non-recorded songs released in ’74 was a mixed bag; some good stuff but not my favourite record at all.  Much better was One Size fits All (1975), a fairly complex album with a couple of instrumentals and some great songs.  Best are ‘Florentine Pogen’, ‘Andy’ and ‘San Berdino’ – a real quality recording.  ’76 saw the release of Zoot Allures, one of his best records.  Not a poor song on this, and the songs seemed to be evolving into more complete pieces – best are ‘Disco Boy’, Miss Pinky’ and ‘The Torture Never Stops’, which became a live favourite too.  Sheik Yerbouti came out in ’79 – and was an instant favourite.  By now Frank had lost The Mothers and was recording under his solo name, often with a changing but fairly regular group of Session players.  This was recorded mostly live, but with a lot of overdubs and studio effects.  In some ways this was the most complex album of Franks, and was a big seller, and remains a fan favourite.  The lyrics are pretty explicit and very funny too, the playing as usual is brilliant as well,  Best songs on a long album are ‘Bobby Brown Goes Down’, ‘City Of Tiny Lights’, ‘ Jewish Princess’, ‘Dancing Fool’ and ‘Yo Mama’.  It still sounds as fresh as when it was released.  But for my money his best was his next – 1979’s Joes Garage.  Frank was no stranger to controversy, and the cover of this is no exception, with Frank (badly) blacking up – apparently ‘Joe is black’.  This series of songs are connected as a ‘Rock Opera’, probably as an insult to serious prog rock albums, by a narrator (Frank himself) as ‘The Central Scrutiniser’ spoken through a vocoder.  The story is nonsensical, about a garage band, who fall foul of laws that haven’t been written yet – namely enjoying Music.  Joe gets Sex and Religion and eventually Prison as he destroys a robotic sex toy provided by the First Church of Appliantology.  (if you aren’t confused by now, just listen to the album).  The title song is a great melody and would have been a great single – other favourites are ‘Lucille’, ‘Catholic Girls’, ‘Green Rosetta’ and the absolutely sublime guitar solo ‘Watermelon In Easter Hay’.  This was released as a triple album and later as a very long double CD.  A lot to take in at one listen, and as usual with Frank far too long really – but he was uncompromising; he didn’t give a fuck for Sales or Fans or The Record Company either.  He would never get away with it now…. Tinseltown Rebellion followed in 1981 (along with 3 double albums of guitar music).  Another pretty good album, taking potshots at the music business, and combining some live recordings with studio work. Less brilliant then Joes Garage but I like the songs – ‘TinselTown Rebellion Band’, a live version of ‘Love Of My Life’ and ‘Fine Girl’.  Later that same year, as well as the three double live guitar albums Frank put out another classic You Are What You Is.  Continuing his themes of sexuality, stupidity and Religious Quacks the album is varied in style, from the countryesque ‘Harder Than Your Husband’ to the lovely soul ballad ‘Doreen’, the very naughty ‘Goblin Girl’ and the excellent closer ‘Drafted Again’  again a double with too many songs to really appreciate at one go, would have been better as a single album – but that’s Frank, over-indulgent but brilliant.   Next up is the brilliantly titled album Ship Arriving Too Late To Save A Drowning Witch {1982} (you have to see the cover to understand).  Well another favourite from Frank; great songs and arrangements – fave tracks ‘Valley Girls’ (sung by his daughter Moon Unit), ‘No, Not Now’ and his truly operatic Teenage Prostitute’.  He followed this with The Man From Utopia (1983), a mostly live album again and some excellent songs too; several tracks are Franks singing what appears to be a somewhat ad-libbed monologue to his band playing along – ‘The Dangerous Kitchen’, ‘The Radio Is Broken’ and ‘The Jazz Party Discharge Hats’ but best is an instrumental ‘We Are Not Alone’.  Another winner.  Zappa then sold us a CD called Baby Snakes, which I was quite disappointed with.  It turns out that this was actually a soundtrack to another live film; only really decent song was a version of ‘Disco Boy’.  Next in my limited collection is Them Or Us (1984). A quite disappointing record really, a lot of long instrumental stuff, and even the ‘songs’ drift into instrumentals.  Still, I like ‘In France’, ‘Sharleena’ and ‘Baby Take Your Teeth Out’ – but then again, relistening – it’s not so bad really.  But then, disaster struck – or not. Frank released another triple album, a ‘rock opera’ based on a Broadway show.  It was absolutely over the top; even for me.  Thingfish – (1984) was outrageous and I rarely play it, even though the music is quite good.  It manages to offend blacks, gays, women and all sorts of liberals. Best move on quickly.   1991 and Make AJazz Note Here appeared. A mostly live album, featuring a few classical pieces (done in Frank’s style).  Not a favourte, but I quite like ‘Star Wars Wont Work’ and ‘Strictly Genteel’.  My last Zappa album was Yellow Shark (1993).  By now Frank was seriously ill with terminal cancer of which he died shortly after this album’s release.  It is a 1992 recording by the ‘Ensemble Moderne’ where they played many of Frank’s compositions.  Frank was especially proud to be recognised as a serious composer of ‘Musique Concrete or Modern Classical.  Of course, as you know I am a sucker for Greatest Hits – even when I have almost all that is on them.  So, I have Greatest Hits, and Strictly Commercial (Greatest Hits) which are almost identical save for the latter having a handful of extra tracks.  These are both, more or less, the acceptable face of Frank; radio friendly and not too obscene.  Both are excellent – fave tracks are ‘Peaches En Regalia’.’Cozmik Debris’ and ‘Muffin Man’.  I also have a couple of live collections posthumously released (actually Frank’s releases post his death must almost exceed his lifetimes output, as new stuff keeps getting released {mostly live renditions of recorded tracks{ ). Cheap Thrills, Son Of Cheap Thrills, Freaks and Motherfuckers, Have I Offended Someone…..all are okay – but for enthusiasts only.  So, Frank – either a genius, years ahead of his time; a vulgar madman; a brilliant but misguided guitarist; a composer of great variety but ultimately a wasted talent….take your pick.  I just feel that his best stuff is up there with the greatest – just discerning that from the huge volume of music he released is a bit harder. 

Wings – Due to a major filing error, when moving house, I missed out Wings in the W.  How could I ever forget McCartney’s second band (almost as famous – but not really as great as his first).  After the breakup of the Fabs, Paul continued writing and recording, trying hard not to sound like the Beatles.  He decided to form a new band, with his wife Linda and Denny Laine and a couple of others who never seemed to last long on Guitar and Drums.  First up is Wild Life, (1971) a rushed affair, which sound more like a demo than a real album.  Apart from ‘Some People Never Know’ and ‘Dear Friend’ it is a poor album and a poor start to the band.  Slated by the music press Paul carried on regardless and toured the band and recorded a second – the much improved Red Rose Speedway, recorded in ’72 but released in 1973.  Firstly, the production is much better and so are the songs – but the band are now sounding together; maybe Paul should have waited till the band gelled before recording.  Anyway, a fairly good album (I remember sitting up with Joy {my new girlfriend at the time} listening to this and her album of River by Terry Reid until the early hours of the morning).  Best tracks – ‘Lazy Dynamite’ the medley ‘Hold Me Tight to Power Cut’.  The experimental track ‘Loup’ is strangely pointless – but the single ‘My Love’ is a classic in the typical McCartney sentimental style.  Later that same year he released Band On The Run – reckoned by almost everyone as the best thing Wings ever achieved.    Which is incredible given that some original recordings of some of the songs were lost, and Paul and the band decamped to EMI in Lagos, Nigeria to record them again (don’t ask).  Well, they turned out to be fantastic from ‘Jet’ to ‘Band On The Run’; there is an exuberance about the album, as if the band and Paul were finally gelled – though the truth is that the drummer and lead guitarist split just before recording, so Paul assumed those duties.  Fave track is probably ‘1985’ but I also love ‘Let Me Roll It’.  The album was number 1 in America and UK.  Wings toured again and recruiting new members recorded the slightly underwhelming Venus and Mars in 1975.   The songs often seem slight and almost showy with no feeling – ‘You Gave Me The Answer’ revisiting the mood of ‘Honey Pie’ on the White Album.  Better, I suppose are the singles – ‘Letting Go’ and ‘Listen To What The Man Said’ – but best is probably ‘Medicine Jar’.  At The Speed of Sound came out a year later, and was noticeably better.  Recorded during the bands World Tour the group were playing well together.  The songs seem better too, as if Paul was inspired by the success he was achieving for the second time.  Best are ‘Silly Love Songs’ and ‘Let Em In’ but I also like ‘Beware My Love’.  However, things came unstuck after the tour as the two latest recruits left leaving Paul, Linda and Denny Laine again as Wings.  They went on to record my favourite Wings album London Town, released in 1978.  The album didn’t do as well as earlier ones’ however.  But I liked it’s musicality and the songs were great, especially the title track, and ‘With A Little Luck’ – however I like all the songs, especially the crazy rocker ‘Morse Moose’.  I don’t know what happened next, but Paul seemed to lose his Mojo; he recruited 2 new members – the third or fourth to join Wings, and recorded a very sub-standard album – in fact, worse than Wild Life even.  Back To The Egg (1979) was the final album under the Wings name – and despite considerable promotion and touring the album did poorly.  No wonder, it has no theme, no connection to anything at all.  I really don’t like it.  Subsequently, while touring Paul was arrested in Japan, spending 9 days in jail before being released.  While incarcerated he apparently wrote an autobiography (never seen) and decided on a change of course.  The band folded and Paul went solo again.  The rest is History.  Wings made a couple of brilliant albums and a couple of half-decent ones and one superb live album – but really despite huge sales and fan worship, you always felt as if they were in the shadow of the Beatles.  Wings Over America was the live album and was very good – it included a handful of Beatles numbers and ‘Richard Cory’ a Paul Simon song never released by Paul in the studio, also a cracking version of a ‘b’ side ‘Soily’.  In some ways, this was the best Wings album of all.  I also have a Greatest Hits album Wingspan, Hits and History – which actually covers Paul’s first few solo years with or without Wings. Released in  2001.  ‘Hits’ contains nothing new, but great to hear these songs again, though I like the Ram stuff best, and ‘Another Day’ and ‘No More Lonely Nights’. And History is similar though seems to cover his first couple of apres Wings solo stuff too. 

Your Cheating Heart (1990) – was a BBC Scotland mini-series, about a Glasgow Country and Western band; it featured among others Tilda Swinton and Eddi Reader of Fairground Attraction fame, also Ken Stott.  The story was a bit complex, but it was studded with great interpretations of old 50’s songs by Elvis and Hank Williams and the like.  I loved it and bought the CD which has remained a favourite ever since; there is a joyfulness about the whole thing.  Best tracks are hard to choose, but ‘Deep Water’, ‘Quicksilver’ and ‘From A Distance’ stand out.

Neil Young – The Long Walk Home  and still walking, though I have sadly failed to keep up with him of late; I mean just how many Neil Young CDs do I need – ask Julia, hahaha.  First up is 1994’s Sleeps With Angels, apparently for Kurt Cobain, who in his suicide note quoted ‘Better to burn out than to fade away’ from a Neil song.   Anyway, the album – credited to Neil and Crazy Horse again – is a bit of a curates egg – good in places – but it leaves you thinking it could have been better.  Should have left out the awful shouty ‘Piece Of Crap’ – and ‘best song is probably ‘Safeway Cart’ which I con’t quite understand.  I also like ‘TransAm’ and ‘Drive By’ but not much else.  1995 – and Neil teamed up with some members of Pearl Jam for Mirror Ball; though I’m not sure what they brought to the proceedings.  The record sound pretty much like most of his 90’s stuff to my ears.  The album was recorded ‘Live in the Studio’ and has a raw unfinished sound, which Neil was apparently aiming for.  Still, it’s not his greatest album by a long chalk – just a bit boring really.  The only song I could remember when the CD ended was ‘Act Of Love’.  Better was the following year’s Broken Arrow – with Crazy Horse again.   Although even here the first three songs sound like one long unrehearsed jam, which maybe they were.  I like ‘Slipaway’, ‘This Town’ and ‘Music Arcade’ – but the album is just average really.  Then for the first time since the late 60’s – a break of four years during which he did one album with CSN but no solo stuff.  However normal service was resumed in 2000 with the release of Silver and Gold.   A return to an acoustic solo set this time with no heavy rock numbers at all.  A very nice album, getting back to his best but the songs seem a bit hesitant.  Best are ‘Good To See You’, ‘Buffalo Springfield Again’ and ‘Silver and Gold’.   In 2002 he teamed up, not only with Crazy Horse but a handful of numbers with Booker T. and the M.G,s, legendary soul band, Are You Passionate.  I’m not sure the results proved that different; Neil’s rather heavy sound permeates – still, some good songs – ‘Mr. Disappointment’. Differently’ and ‘When I Hold You In My Arms’ are excellent – as are most of the songs actually.    The following year saw a strange Neil album – Greendale.  This was a ‘rock opera’, or rather a story put to music of a fictional California town involving a family, a shooting and a siege.  The story never interested me really, and it s quite hard to follow anyway – but I really like the Crazy Horse music, which is mostly a chugging beat with only a few guitar breaks.  The whole album is essentially one long track so hard to pick a fave song – ‘Carmichael’ and ‘Double E’ seem the best to me.   Back to a more conventional song cycle with Neil’s next 2005’s Prairie Wind, which was dedicated to his father who died just after the album’s release.  It was also written just before Neil had surgery for a minor aneurism, and deals to a degree with thoughts of his mortality.  Apparently the songs were written in the order they appear, and just before or during recording; played by Nashville session men the record is pretty good and feels immediate.  It seems amazing to me that Neil can just write songs of this quality at the drop of a seeming hat.  Best are – the title  track, ‘The Painter’ and ‘He Was The King’ (about Elvis) and the mawkish ‘When God Made Me’.  A return to a more angry and political album with Living With War (2006).  In fact, a complete critique of George  W. Bush and the war in Iraq.  I don’t like this album very much, while agreeing with the sentiment – in general, Politics and Music are uneasy bedfellows.  Saying that opener ‘After The Garden’ is okay.  Chrome Dreams 2 followed in 2007 (apparently, there was an aborted original Chrome Dreams album, which may appear at some point in the future).  It is a brilliant album, almost every song a ‘classic Neil song, and a wide variety of sounds from the pure country of ‘Beautiful Bluebird’ to the hard rolling rock shrieking guitar of the 18 minute long ‘Ordinary People’, with a couple of horn-based songs in there too; and a rather mawkish final song with a children’s choir – but, as we have come to accept, there is no pinning down Neil Young.  My favourite track in an exceptional album is ‘No Hidden Path’.  Ever the contrarian Neil followed this classic album with Fork In The Road – which got such bad reviews that I didn’t buy it at all – a first for me.  But I was intrigued by his next 2010’s Le Noise (a sort of pun on Neil’s choice of producer Daniel Lanois {see L}).  Neil was the only performer and his guitar sound, occasional acoustic but mostly electric was manipulated and dubbed by Lanois, live, as Neil was playing with only a very few overdubs.  What to make of this?  In some ways it is just a lot of noise, but then again it is quite brilliant too.   Very bass heavy, though Neil was not playing a bass that is how the guitar sound to me.  Best songs are ‘Love And War’, ‘Hitchhiker’ and ‘Peaceful Valley Boulevard’.  Neil has not used Lanois as producer since this album.  Americana in  2011 saw Neil reunited with Crazy Horse for an album of ‘American Standards and Folk Songs’ – a bit of a strange one really, and poor by Neil’s high standards. No favourites and rarely played.  Much better was 2012’s Psychadelic Pill, again with Crazy Horse – and is really a series of extended jams – but very enjoyable just the same.  At times it feels as if Neil really isn’t trying that hard, letting his genius shine through despite this, and anyway us fans still keep buying – oh well.  Best tracks on a very long album are ‘Driftin Back’, ‘For The Love Of Man’ and ‘Ramada Inn’ – an enjoyable if overlong ride into vintage Neil.  Another diversion in 2014 with A Letter Home.  Jack White had a vintage 1947 Voice- O-Gram early recording straight to vinyl booth, and Neil recorded 12 ‘folk songs’ by various artists including Dylan, Gordon Lightfoot and Willie Nelson.  Well, what do you say?  An interesting experiment but ultimately pointless.  Although the recording is raw and the songs are not by Neil, there is an authenticity and almost charm to the record.  Best are ‘Girl From The North Country’, ‘Early Morning Rain’ and ‘Reason To Believe’ – but that is maybe because I know and love the originals so much.  Storytone followed in 2014, and this is the last new album of Neil’s I have bought.  It has 2 versions of each of the 10 songs; one with a slight orchestral backing and a solo acoustic CD.  The songs deal with sadness at the break-up of his 34 year marriage to Pegi, and his burgeoning romance with Daryl Hannah.  Lovely sad and happy songs of love and Neil’s renewed interest in the environment.  Almost his best since ‘Harvest Moon’; best songs are ‘Plastic Flowers’, ‘Say Hello To Chicago’ and ‘Tumbleweed’.  A lovely album.  I don’t know why I stopped – maybe poor reviews or just that after 34 studio albums and countless live ones I thought it was time.  However Neil had released a few more live albums in this time. Unplugged emerged in 1993, and despite Neil’s aversion to MTV he recorded a brilliant set (not quite unplugged, but near enough) showcasing his career.   Big seller with best track –  a new organ version of ‘Like A Hurricane’.  Year Of The Horse was a soundtrack of live performances featured in a 1997 docu-film of a tour with Crazy Horse. Great performances, as you would expect.  Nothing new this time but still a great live album.   Road Rocks Volume 1 came out in 2000 (so far no volume 2) – subtitled ‘Family & Friends’ – it features his then wife Pegi and Chrissie Hinds.  An okay live album, only remarkable for one new songs ‘Fool For Your Love’ (mediocre) and a blistering version of Dylan’s ‘All Along The Watchtower’ (the Jimi Hendrix version.  Then, of course there is the one single Greatest Hits, released in 2004 with tracks voted on by his fan club.  Of course, it is great.  Neil is ever the contrarian, and unlike almost all of his Sixties compatriots he has only this one hits collection – and continues to record and release albums almost yearly, as well as many, many live concerts.  He is almost unstoppable, and a force of nature.  I stopped collecting him a few years ago, but may still buy the occasional one now and then.  I am trying to stop buying CDs as I still have about 50 un-played and waiting.  Such is life.

Neil Young – trying on different styles – Neil has always been contrary, or as he would insist – he follows the muse, wherever that might take him.  Like Dylan and Bowie he has never been afraid of new directions or of losing his fans.  Like me though, most of them (us) stick with him.  1978 saw a very quiet album Comes A Time – almost acoustic, and bar one song ‘Motorcycle Mama’ not rock at all – simply gentle almost unaffected songs.  Best are ‘Look Out For My Love’, ‘lotta Love’ and ‘Four Strong Winds’.  I’ve never loved, but quite like, this album.  Next year saw another collaboration with Crazy Horse – the quite brilliant Rust Never Sleeps.   Strangely this is billed as with Crazy Horse – but over half the album is Neil playing guitar and singing solo.  It is only on the last four songs that the band kicks in.  Best songs are ‘Pocahontas’, ‘Sedan Delivery’ and ‘Hey Hey, My My’.   A live album followed Live Rust – which was almost a resume of Neil’s career to date.  Excellent stuff – acoustic for first few songs then electric; best was ‘Cortez The Killer’.   Hawks and Doves was next in 1980.  And a pretty good if quiet album,  Neil seeming to occasionally release an almost solo album after a big band one.  Fave songs are ‘Little wing’, ‘Captain Kennedy’ and ‘Coming Apart At Every Nail’.    The underwhelming Re Act Or came out in ’81.  This seemed a rushed album, no care given to the singing or recording. The songs seem meaningless too, one even about his car and another about a T-bone.  Boring really; the only decent track is the last one ‘Shots’.    Neil then left Reprise and signed for five albums with Geffen.  His first on this new label was another huge change in direction.  His son Ben was suffering from Cerebral Palsy and Neil tried various music styles to help him.  Apparently he liked Neil’s voice sung through a vocoder and with back up synths.  Inspired by Kratfwerk and other early electronica Neil released a whole album of electronic music Trans in 1982.  Although this mystified many fans I loved the record, especially the tracks ‘Computer Age’, ‘Sample and Hold’ and ‘Transformer Man’.  It seems that Neil was as brilliant at this stuff as he was with mire conventional music.  Strangely he has never returned to this style.  In fact, in a complete reversal, his next offering was an early rock and roll style…called Everybody’s Rocking…this was, in my opinion, his worst record to date.  Even the songs disappoint, and you can’t help but feel that Neil was taking the piss.  Apparently he had already recorded a very ‘country’ album, which Geffen rejected, demanding ‘Rock and Roll’ – which was what he got, but not in the ‘real’ Neil Young style.  This was part of Neil’s mission to set up and then destroy people’s perception of him.  After this ‘disaster’ he was allowed to release the country album Old Ways in 1985, recorded in ’83.  In fact, Geffen had started to sue Neil for recording poor quality records.  But guess what?  It was brilliant, maybe because Neil re-recorded some of the songs in an even more country style.   Yes, it is sentimental with lots of fiddle and slide guitar but somehow it really works.  Best tracks are  ‘The Wayward Wind’, ‘Once An Angel’ and best of all ‘Bound For Glory’.  Great stuff, I love the whole record.  He toured the album, and it was released in 2011 (see later).  But at the same time Neil was trying to record a more ‘Neil’ sounding album, and Landing On Water came out in 1986 – but unfortunately the production was very ‘eighties’, lots of gated drum sounds and a dense heavy mix.  The songs were better but not great; best were ‘Violent Side’, ‘Hippie Dream’ and ‘Bad News Beat’.  Neil toured this album with Crazy Horse, and recorded most  – venues, adding overdubs back in the studio.  An album Life came out in 1987, and was all new songs.     Best was opener ‘MidEast Vacation’, ‘Inca Queen’ and ‘When Your Lonely Heart Breaks’.  These were some of the strongest songs and performances from neil in a while; sounds like he Neil was having a ball.    Neil returned to Reprise Records after his tumultuous five years with Geffen.  The first result of this was however, a return to a more erratic style – This Notes For You 1988 was a strange album, and a new identity – Neil and The Blue Notes.  A strange bluesy, almost jazzy sound with lots of horns and in my opinion some underwhelming songs. Oh well, so not my favourite – but the title track is okay.  But in 1989 Neil returned to his best form with Freedom; apparently he had made a ‘contractual’ album with CSN and was pissed off by the experience.  Whatever the reason this was his best selection of songs in a long time.  And a great sound – very heavy and grungy on loud tracks, which became his signature sound after this, and beautifully gentle slow songs.  Hard to pick best songs really, opener ‘Rockin In The Free World’ became a live favourite. I particularly like ‘Someday’, ‘On Broadway’ and ‘Wrecking Ball’ which Emmylou Harris made a great version of (see H).   1990 saw Neil coming successfully out of the somewhat confused and confusing eighties, where incidentally a lot of artists floundered, and finding both his audience and his identity again.  Another great album soon emerged – Ragged Glory (with Crazy Horse).  Neil tried a new technique; the band played the same set of songs, just once, each day for a couple of weeks – then went and listened to them, choosing the best from each session and simply leaving them untouched for the album.  In this way they had a spontaneous and almost live feel to the studio sessions.  It seems to have worked as this is a superb album.  A couple of long tracks ‘Love To Burn’ and ‘Love And Only Love’ and a couple of pretty heavy  songs ‘Farmer John’ and ‘Fuckin Up’ which were pure Rock and Roll, and my favourites ‘Mansion on The Hill’ and ‘Earth Anthem’.  A great grungy garage album that knocked the socks off most new bands coming along.  We end this review of Neil’s albums with the sublime Harvest Moon (1992) which tried and was successful at recreating the sound and feel of ‘After The Goldrush’ and ‘Harvest’ – his early Seventies Classics.   Using many of the musicians who played over 20 years earlier and possibly his gentlest bunch of songs Neil reverted to mostly acoustic guitar, mouth organ and piano and recording on analogue equipment he succeeded and this was his biggest selling record in years.  Almost every song is a winner but the first four songs ‘Unknown Legend’, ‘From Hank To Hendrix’, ‘You and Me’ and ‘Harvest Moon’ itself are my favourites.  Reviewing this I couldn’t help but play these four a few more times.  A wonderful achievement.  One greatest hits album emerged from this second period (14 years in fact) – the Geffen years, although commercially a disaster resulted in that record company releasing Lucky Thirteen in ’93.  A nice compilation, especially the Trans and Old Ways tracks but I like all of it better than the somewhat muddled records they are culled from.  I have several live albums from this time too.  First is A Treasure (released in 2011 – but from the ’84-85 tour) is credited to The International Harvesters (mostly Nashville Session Men)and is a pure country trip which followed his Old Ways album.  I love it, especially ‘Amber jean’, ‘It Might Have Been’ and ‘Let your Fingers Do The Talking’ and of course a great version of ‘Bound for Glory’.  A superb live album.   Next is a bootleg of a live radio broadcast from 1986 called Cow Palace (nice names Americans have for some of their venues).  A brilliant concert, with songs from Neil’s entire career to date.  Hard to pick a favourite as they are all well-known and just roll along.   Almost as good is an official 1989 release of Neil, again with Crazy Horse – Weld.  Pretty much a classic Neil live set, with the exception of a slow rendition of Dylan’s ‘Bowin In The Wind’.  Last live album from this period is 1992’s Dreamin’ Man. Which is just Neil solo and acoustic playing songs from Harvest Moon.  Delightful, but nothing new.