Wednesday 30 March 2016

Pillowtalk Edits



A few weeks ago I featured my favourite version by Marvin Gaye of the Bobby Hebb hit Sunny. I have quite a few versions from the sublime version by Gaye to to truly awful version by Morrissey. The version posted today is an edit of the Hebb classic, re-imagined by Pillow Talk which is pretty fine, I love the handclaps and the echo effect  The other gem on this 12" is the refit of Marvin and Tammi's Ain't Nothing Like The Real Thing which I featured a while ago.

Enjoy

Bobby Hebb - Sunny (Pillow Talk edit)

I'm Still Loving You




Here is a belter of a mid 60's Motown dancer, bombastic is the word to describe the intro and the song just gets better and better. Kim Weston has such a distinctive voice, it's a real shame that Berry Gordy just didn't know what to do with Such a talent.  She was promised an album by the label which never  did materialise.  Between 1963 and '66 she released 9 singles of her own, including the track posted in 1965 and an album of duets with Marvin Gaye before moving on to MGM.

I was supposed to be posting You Can Do It today a brilliant tune that lay gathering dust in the Gordy vaults until 2005 but I realised about 20 minutes ago that I haven't ripped it yet.

Kim Weston - I'm Still Loving You 

Tuesday 29 March 2016

Angie Stone



I think I will stay with the Soul for the rest of the week. Today's offering is a great piece of modern soul not to everyone's taste but still. The single was released in 2001 in a myriad of mixes. My preference is for the original less housey mix, however some of the others are pretty good.

Angie Stone - I Wish I Didn't Miss You

Angie Stone - I Wish I Didn't Miss You (John Junior remix)

Monday 28 March 2016

Gwen Davis



I Can't Be Your Part-Time Baby, is the only single that Gwen Davis ever released. This is really hard to believe when you hear the voice of the girl from Montgomery Alabama. The flip side of the Sound Stage 7 single, My Man Don't Think I Know is the one that the northern crowd favour but for me the more Southern sounding a-side is the one for me.

Gwen Davis - I Can't Be Your Part-Time Baby

Sunday 27 March 2016

Mellow Sunday



I can't believe that I have never posted this before. I love this version especially the steel guitar.

The Last Town Chorus - Modern Love

Friday 25 March 2016

It's Friday . . . Let's Dance



I was watching Quadrophenia last week when I couldn't sleep and during the bit in the train going to Brighton, I couldn't get Sugar Daddy by Secret Knowledge out of my head, thanks to the Disco Evangelists which got me thinking of  De Niro and then to a remix Holmes and Co did for Sandals. I'm sure this was posted at SA's bit at some point but not recently. The Disco Evangelists do to We Wanna Live what you would expect David Holmes, Jagz Kooner and Gary Burns to do to a tune in 1993. Great Stuff.

It's the derby day at the Excelsior stadium tomorrow and we really need to pull a win out of the bag against Albion Rovers to give us any realistic chance of securing 4th spot and a play off place.

Have a good weekend people.

Sandals - We Wanna Live (DSS remix)

Wednesday 23 March 2016

Nick Waterhouse



Work is going a bit mental at the moment, so haven't had much of a chance to do any decent posts recently and I'm off  over the water to Belfast for a couple of days, so nothing here until Friday. Until then I will leave you with a bit off Nick Waterhouse. Played both albums at the weekend and they were just the ticket. Say I Wanna Know was the lead track on Waterhouse's first album, Time's All Gone and the fourth single.

Nick Waterhouse  featuring the Naturelles - Say I Wanna Know

Tuesday 22 March 2016

Crimson and Clover



A while back I posted the Joan Jett cover of Crimson and Clover and stated that I thought that that was my favourite version, I have had to revise that statement recently as a few months ago I dug out the original when I was having a late 60s American session and it has not been filed away again instead I have been playing it quite a bit. The single was released in 1968 but not in the way it was intended, the mix was a rough mix that Tommy James sent to one of the main men at Roulette Records, Morris Levy to get his opinion on. Levy and also took this cut to a Chicago radio station to get their reaction. He was unaware that the station recorded the rough mix and aired it later, the response was very favourable and Levy decided that the rough mix should be released no improvement was needed. He turned out to be on the money as the record topped the Billboard charts in the USA and a number of other countries but I'm not sure if it was even released here. My copy if definitely a US disc.

Tommy James and the Shondells - Crimson & Clover

Monday 21 March 2016

I've Arrived



For years I had a n idea that today's track was a "blue eyed soul" tune, that's not to be derogatory about it but it just had that sort of feel but on on good authority, Ady Croasdell no less that Steve Flanagan was a bone fide soul singer and a singer with the group Creative Soul. Irrespective of the song's provenance, it has something. I'm not quite sure what it is but I do like the song. It was originally the flip side of You Don't Need A Crown by  Jewel Akens in 1965, the Steve Flanagan version was released on the same label, Era two yeasrs later.

Steve Flanagan - I've Arrived

Sunday 20 March 2016

Mellow Sunday



On Thursday SA posted an excellent track from Slowdive which got me thinking about Mojave 3 the band that rose from the remains of Slowdive and this track in particular which I love. I think that that may be because to reminds me a lot  of Misguided Angel by Cowboy Junkies which has a lot of memories attached to it.

Mojave 3 - Love Songs On The Radio

Thursday 17 March 2016

Happy St Patrick's Day To Ya



Who else was I going to play today?

This was recorded ten years ago tonight at the Barrowland Ballroom. Later SLF will make it twenty five years on the bounce that they have played that venue on the 17th March. Stiff and I will not be in attendance, as ticket prices for said gig break mine and Stiff's fiscal rules and we at least realise the importance of not breaking our own rules.

Stiff Little Fingers - Nobody's Hero (Glasgow Barrowlands 17-03-2006)

Wednesday 16 March 2016

Standing In The Disco, Like The Count Of Monte Cristo



When Ian McNabb is good he is brilliant. I love this tale of the life of a single man which up until the very last verse strikes a chord of life in the early nineties, well right up until the final verse of course. Sex With Someone You Love is the opening track on McNabb's 1988 acoustic album A Party Political Broadcast on Behalf of The Emotional Party which is well worth seeking out.

Ian McNabb - Sex With Someone You Love

Tuesday 15 March 2016

Why Don't You Do Right?



Bev Lee Harling is an interesting character, she has made an album Barefoot in the Kitchen where she makes music with the aid of all sorts of junk such as pots and pans, an electric drill and an old type writer, a strange thing for a classically trained violin player who went on to study Jazz at university and was at one time a member of the Mediaevil Baebes. For more of her colourful and interesting biography have a look here. Why Don't You Do Right was a single that came out on the Wah Wah 45s label in 2013.

Bev Lee Harling - Why Don't You Do Right (Suohno mix)

Monday 14 March 2016

How Much Pressure



Roscoe Robinson started singing gospel music in the mid 50's and by the time he recorded How Much Pressure for Wand in 1966 he had been singing and releasing secular soul for a year or so. He eventually saw the light again in the early 80s and started singing gospel again and joined the Blind Boys of Mississippi although not blind himself. today's track is probably my favourite by Robinson although That's Enough from the previous year runs it a close second

Roscoe Robinson - How Much Pressure (Do You Think I Can Stand)

Sunday 13 March 2016

Mellow Sunday



A bit of reggae is the order of the day. I really love this song. There is some surface noise on this but as the late John Peel once said "life has surface noise!"

George Faith - To Be A Lover

Friday 11 March 2016

It's Friday . . . Let's Dance



I have been mad busy at work and haven't had a chance to think about today's post so below is a re-post from February 2010.

Airdrionians are still in fourth place in the league due to us scraping a draw on Tuesday night, it wasn't pretty. The fact that last Saturday our manager suffered a stroke may have something to do with it and I hope that he recovers fully in the meantime we have Danny Lennon to cover 'til the end of the season. Tomorrow sees us take on Brechin City,  currently the side down at the bottom of the table, at home but very few of the few will be counting chickens.

Have a good weekend people.

By the end of 1987/ the start of 1988, producers and acts over here in the UK got in on the act and started making House music, a lot of the early tracks were innovative in the use of samples, with the likes of Bomb The Bass, M/A/R/R/S and S'Express making truly memorable tracks.

One of my favourite of these early house tracks was House Arrest by Krush. The group were Mark Gamble, Cassius Campbell and vocalist Ruth Joy with producers Mark Brydon and Robert Gordon. Brydon would go on to form Moloko (Fun For Me) with Roisin Murphy and Gordon would go on to be involved with Warp records. Ruth Joy left to pursue a pretty unsuccessful solo career.

House arrest was released on the FON (Fuck Off Nazis) label which they shared with the Age Of Chance. The sleeve of the single was designed, like those of their label mate by the Designer's Republic who would go on to design the Warp artwork as well.

Krush were basically a one hit wonder, with House Arrest eventually reaching number 3 in the UK at the end of 1987. The record, doesn't sound half as dated as I expected it to and conjures memories of Red Stripe and spliffs in the dark, dank basements of hotels, those were the days.

Krush - House Arrest (The Beat Is Law)

Thursday 10 March 2016

Pearl Charles

When we're talking about tunes with a 70s feel and influence I came across this recently which I really liked. It reminds me of Jenny Lewis a bit and also the Sydney Eloise and the Palms album that came out late last year.  Not got much more to add as the only thing I know about her is that she is twenty four and based in LA.

Wednesday 9 March 2016

I'd Rather Jack Than Fleetwood Mac



Wait! Come back! I can assure you this isn't a post about pish Stock, Aitken and Waterman produced pop dance. However there are an awful lot of things I would rather do than Fleetwood Mac

It's true to say I was never a fan , it may have something to do with all that hair, flowing dresses or the right stench of pomposity that surrounded them, I should qualify by stating that this is FM from the mid 70s to early 80s,  other incarnations of the band I have no knowledge of but I have of course heard Albatross. Or it could have been that for a couple of years growing up my mother played Rumours incessantly, or so it seemed and the follow up Tusk to a lesser extent but still a hell of a lot. Greg Dulli on the other hand I suspect rather likes them as when I caught the Afghan Whigs last year he incorporated some of the lyrics to Tusk in I Am Fire. I think that when I saw him previously in one of his incarnations he also dropped a bit of Fleetwood Mac in but don't quote me on that. What I am sure of is on the Twilight Singers covers album, She Loves You he included a version of another track from Tusk which very nearly made me revisit the original double album to see if my prejudices just might be wrong. I gave myself a shake and reasoned that there was no need my original belief would have been correct and besides did I really want to go down the road, where I might get hooked on late 70s cocaine fuelled middle of the road pap?

The Twilight Singers - What Makes You Think You're The One

Tuesday 8 March 2016

Same Mistakes



I am not sure where I got this from, so if I pilfered it from any of the other bloggers down the side then I apologise (I've got a feeling it might have been Brian) but it is just too good not to be aired again. It came on my ipod at just the right moment yesterday, when my head was about to explode and stopped me in my tracks. I listened, then listened again and then I got back to work, feeling just that little bit less frustrated. I am now in two minds whether to invest in the album.

The Echo-Friendly - Same Mistakes

Monday 7 March 2016

I've Come To Save You



Today's bit of soul is a bit different from usual, in that it was a million selling record and not some obscure hardly known song, well the a-side was but that's not what's going to feature here. Bizarrely I had never heard of 100 Proof Aged In Soul before I picked this single up for a quid in a charity shop. I bought it because it was on Detroit label Hot Wax. This was the label that Holland-Dozier-Holland set up when they left Motown in 1968. They in fact put together 100 Proof Aged In Soul and Somebody's Been Sleeping was the first of a string of hits for the band.When I first played the single I was a tad disappointed, it's a perfectly functional piece of funk but not really my bag. The fact that it cost me a pound meant that I wasn't too perturbed and when I flipped it over I was pleasantly surprised by what I found, it's a cracker of a soul ballad with a very strong lead vocal.

100 Proof Aged In Soul - I've Come To Save You

Friday 4 March 2016

It''s Friday . . . Let's Dance



On Sunday's post I mentioned Jack Kerouac and my preference from his writings. A few years ago I was discussing books with a friend's son who was then studying English and Classics at Uni and asked him if he had read any Kerouac or any of the other beats. He hadn't and so as an introduction I gave him On The Road. A few months later he returned the book and when I asked if he had enjoyed it, he said no, that he had found it pretty boring, couldn't relate to any of the characters and the writing style he found infuriating amongst other criticism that I can't quite remember now. I was surprised as I had loved this book, granted I would have been four or five years younger than him when I read it at the impressionable age of fifteen or sixteen, and thought that he would have too. I thought about re-reading it but decided against it in case as a cynical, jaded forty something I agreed with him. Thinking about it, it probably has dated rather badly and isn't that relevant to teenagers in the twenty first century.

"What the fuck has this got to do with dance music?" I hear you ask. Well not much really but on Sunday evening I did dig out my copy of Beatniks by The Delorme, a progressive house/trance chugger from 1993 which after buying would have prompted me to pull some Kerouac from the bookshelves. After playing this track in it's various forms I usually follow it with Hardcore Uproar for some reason.

Airdrie are away to Cowdenbeath tomorrow,  a game we really must win to stop our slide down the table and keep us in contention for that play-off place.

Have a good weekend people.

The Delorme - Beatniks (Dharma Bums mix)

The Delorme - Beatniks (On The Road mix)

The Delorme - Beatniks (Original mix)

Thursday 3 March 2016

Jump




My initial thoughts on hearing Aztec Camera's version of Jump, after the initial shock was amazement at just how gallus the interpretation of the pomp rock staple was and how Roddy Frame out Van Halened that guy Eddie with one of the most sublime guitar solos, no the most sublime guitar solo you will ever find on an indie record, probably the second would be the solo at the end of Forest Fire by Lloyd Cole and the Commotions but that is a debate for another day. In 1984 I was still kicking about with the hippie and metal types along with my other friends and I have to admit that I was pleased and very amused at their total disgust to what Roddy and Co had done to a pretty crap song which they all loved. I dug out the 12" at the weekend again and was filled with nostalgia and memories of Jim, Lex and Chris's protestations over this version.

Aztec Camera - Jump (Loaded version)

Tuesday 1 March 2016

If I Should Fall Behind



A few weekends ago we were at good friends for dinner and inevitably after the food was finished and we were all sat in "the comfy chairs" the conversation turned to music and as J & I don't feel the need to have thoosands of cds or records cluttering up their home but do have a big fuck off "smert" (smart) telly,  we trawled through Youtube,  One shot each, choose a track and then pass on the remote. This  resulted in all sorts of strange stuff appearing on the screen. I have to admit that the first time I did this my mind went blank, thumbing through somebody's vinyl collection or scanning a shelf of cds, that's easy but confronted with the whole of the internet, well that is incredibly fucking difficult. Of course I ended up going for obvious things, Spanish Horses from the Paisley Abbey gig and By My Baby, very predictable. Anyway, when J took her second shot she said "this is my funeral song" and proceeded to play a rather excellent Springsteen video for a song, If I Should Fall Behind,  that I was aware of but up until that moment was not one of those that had had much resonance for me, unlike Point Blank, I'm Going Down, Jersey Girl or the dozens of others I love. But I have to admit at that moment, in that context, with the Airdrie match I had witnessed that day, the conversation, the company and I think probably the most significant factor, the amount of red wine consumed,  I was actually quite moved, The video finished, Lynn chose her next tune and the moment passed.

I didn't think that much about the song until last week when a track came on the iPod that was familiar but not quite right and after maybe half a minute I identified the song. "But this can't be right!" I thought, Springsteen wrote this song in the early 90s how can there be a doo wop version by Dion? But there is it was recorded in 2000 and included on the Deja Nu album,  it is absolutely glorious and it completely changes the mood of the song. I have decided that I need to revisit disc 3 of the King of The New York Streets to see if there are further gems that I have overlooked!

Dion - If I Should Fall Behind

and here is the Springsteen video for those of you not acquainted with it.