Settimana senza scossoni nelle classifiche di vendita dei dischi in Europa, anche se si segnalano alcuni ritorni, quelli di Rihanna e dei Black Eyed Peas con i nuovi singoli e quello di David Guetta, che esattamente come i Black Eyed Peas è in testa con due pezzi contemporaneamente. Vale ala pena allora approfittarne per segnalare due fenomeni: il primo è Robbie Williams, perchè l’ex Take That sta scalando rapidamente le classifiche ed è in testa in parecchi paesi.

Secondo fenomeno, le K3. Le tre ragazze fiamminghe sono da anni idoli dei ragazzini preadolescenti della loro terra, con pezzi leggerissimi, allegri, che riecheggiano la “bubble gum pop” degli anni ‘70 (I Middle of The Road, per esempio, ma con meno qualità, molta meno).  Il loro pezzo “Mamasè”, che vi proponiamo in alto annesso di video, è in testa ormai da più di un mese. La nostra opinione è positiva: a volte una canzonetta allegra e spensierata, scaccia via la tristezza e allora perchè no! Sotto, i numeri uno.

It may have happened again as recently as 2004:  the release of a perfect track, “Miracle Drug” by A. C. Newman.[1]  (I am trying to make this sound like “The last perfect game was pitched by Mark Buehrle in July 2009.”)

Do you know what I mean by perfect?  Don’t you agree that, even though “Gimme Shelter” is greater than “Honky Tonk Women,” “Honky Tonk Women” is perfect?  Am I right that even though “Strawberry Fields Forever” is greater than “I Want To Hold Your Hand,” it’s “I Want To Hold Your Hand” that’s perfect?  What would be on your perfect list?  (It should be a fairly short list.)  “Feel a Whole Lot Better”?  “Pinball Wizard”?  “Middle of the Road”?

Whatever the songs may be, what I want to know is what makes the bell ring, the aura shine, the definitive judgment of “perfect” clunk into place.  Criteria might include:

1) Strong hooks working together, reinforcing each other.  (Best of all, slightly surprisingly:  the Rolling Stones that country?  The Pretenders that retro?)

2) Clarity, tact, efficiency:  nary a false move.

3) Strong physiognomy:  whether in verse or chorus or instrumental break, it always sounds a lot like itself.

4) Exemplifies one of the strongest underlying forms of the rock single. Is paradigmatic without being predictable.  We recognize the paradigm, are intimate with the song in a more perceptive way than merely by following the beat, the words, or the guitar licks.  It becomes a Platonic experience.

I think the four criteria are each necessary, and jointly sufficient:  no track satisfying them all would not seem perfect.  (But have I left something out?) “Miracle Drug” has all these attributes in spades, especially #3.  There is a kind of spasmodic vigor in the delivery of the verse that is not forgotten in the relatively more constant chorus.  Then you hear the kinetic signature of the song more intensely than ever in the guitar solo.

As for #4, the experience of a paradigm, “Miracle Drug” clearly marks off the major parts of a pop song—it’s like looking at a giant model of an ant, with head, thorax, and abdomen superdistinct.  I particularly enjoy the elegant drum part that takes me over the boundary between the end of the verse and the beginning of the chorus.

The trouble with deciding that a song is perfect is that then you start listening for flaws.  Right now I’m a little concerned about “Miracle Drug’s” ending:   is it wonderfully to the point, or is it almost perfunctory?  But I shouldn’t have said that!

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[1] Newman was involved in an earlier perfect track as well, “Mass Romantic” by The New Pornographers.  This is a distinguished track record.

Dulle Teve… never heard of it, but Mr. Dave thought it would be good and so he picked it up the other day… comes from De Dolle Brouwers in Belgium.

I am as fond of a solid Tripel as the next guy and wow… this one hits you hard.  First whiff is super strong Belgian… you get the yeast, the malts… in your face big time.  The great thing about this beer is that whiff carries right on through to the taste, the finish, and on ’till morning.  It has a bit of a smooth, nutty flavor/texture to it that was pleasing.  The finish had citrus undertones.  10% ABV…

Overall, Mr. Dave gives it a Will Buy Again, but I run this blog and I give it a little bit more of a standard rating as nothing really stands out.

JBB6 Rating: Middle of the Road

If it gives you any idication of when I bought this beer, Trade Route Brewing Co. was still under the name of Laughing Buddha… so, yeah… been a little while.   In fact, I don’t even know if they make this under the Trade Route name since it isn’t on the site… interesting…

Tasted just the other day… was in a porter kind of mood and this one had been eyeing me for a while.  So here it is… sits at 7.0% ABV… pours dark but not black with a nice head.  Very light on the aroma… as we head into the body, you sense high carbonation, a light roasted chocolate flavor and no vanilla… at all.    Finish is slightly bitter.  Overall couldn’t tastye the vanilla, had some normal porter roastedness and chocolate undertones, but really nothing I would write home about… or… blog home about… but I am doing it anyhow…

JBB6 Rating: Middle of the Road

Usually a huge fan of Anderson Valley, Deep Enders Dark Porter ends up in the ‘meh’ category.  Dark dark amber color, big ol’ head and foamy, the aroma really doesn’t come through and that leads to similarly mild taste.  I usually expect some dark roastedness, chocolate, coffee, etc. but there really wasn’t any discernable flavor at all.  Not much more to add… pretty middle of the road, as the rating system says.

JBB6 Rating: Middle of the Road

Getting back to some old standbyes… Alaskan IPA comes to us from what I would regard as a solid brewery… these guys up on the high country know how to make their beer… guessing there isn’t much else to do, though, so they have that advantage.

Overall this isn’t a bad offering from the brewery.  Not one of their standouts, but not bad.  For the genre, it is a bit flat… low carbonation and very mellow.  Hops are in there for sure, but again on the mellow side… their site says it is dry hopped, but I can’t notice it really.  The finish is short and dry.  As the tasting continues, it does tend to grow on you. 

This may actually be a pretty decent session IPA because of how mellow it is.  Overall, not bad but not one that will be on my IPA list in the future given choice.

JBB6 Rating: Middle of the Road

Favourite years are made of wildly different ingredients. The giddiness of falling in love or the trauma of a loved one’s death can create emotional memories so intense that a year or even an era can occupy a special place in the mind’s inventory of nostalgia. One of my very favourite years was 1972, the year I turned six, and it included a big event — I started school — but I recall it more fondly for how I felt: safe.

I have happy memories of watching TV shows with my mother and younger brother: Star Trek (known in Germany as Raumschiff Enterprise), the reruns of Daktari and the Australian harbour police series Riptide (known in Germany as S.O.S. Charterboat), a German show called Percy Stuart, and of course the Hitparade and Illja Richter’s Disco (“Licht aus — womm — Spot an”). Later that year, Channel 3 showed a few episodes of the US version of Sesame Street in the original English to test the waters — the whole concept of edu-TV seemed to be a bit controversial at the time. I think watching Sesame Street in a language I’d not start to learn until I was ten, did spike my interest in English.

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Springwater – I Will Return.mp3
The dirge-like guitar instrumental had been a UK hit in 1971; in early 1972 it made its impact on the German charts. I loved the song even if it made me melancholy even then with its sad guitar, funereal organ and martial drum beat. I suspect that I Will Return went on to inspired a whole lot of instrumentals for all manner of crime series on German TV (such as Tatort and Derrick), and set the scene for the career of guitarist Ricky King, who shall, I’m afraid, feature at a later stage in this series.

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Sweet – Poppa Joe.mp3
While I was buying horrible Schlager singles under the direction of my grandmother, my mother bought cool stuff like Poppa Joe. It’s fair to say that Poppa Joe was my favourite record of the year. It was fun and the lyrics were sufficiently nonsensical to sing along to phonetic style. I think it might even have inspired some less than coordinated dancing (thank goodness video cameras weren’t invented yet). The song marked the end of Sweet’s career as the purveyors of bubblegum pop (Little Willy, Coco etc); within a year they’d rock much harder with songs such as Blockbuster and Ballroom Blitz. At the time I had no interest in the performers’ identity (and the characters on the cover were not so impressive as to remember their collective name). So when the far superior Blockbuster and Ballroom Blitz came out, the songs registered, but not the group’s name or the association of those songs with the guys who sang Poppa Joe.

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Middle of the Road – Soley Soley.mp3
Middle of the Road – Bottoms Up.mp3
I have said so before but will say it again: Middle of the Road were a fine pop act, regardless of how naff their song titles were. More than Chirpy Chirpy Cheep Cheep, these two songs show why. Soley Soley was a hit in early 1972, the superior follow-up to Tweedle Dee Tweedle Dum, a song I didn’t like much. Soley Soley was the Scottish group’s third and final UK top 10 hit. Their career continued to prosper in West Germany for a few more years. My mother bought the follow-up, Sacramento, but (rare among my mother’s records) I didn’t like that. It was the next single, later in 1972, that I really liked: Bottoms Up, with its bagpipe and tribal drums intro and the cheerful chorus.

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Mouth & MacNeal – How Do You Do (English).mp3
The Windows – How Do You Do (German).mp3
Why would a Dutchman called Willem Duyn willingly choose to be called Mouth. Not “Big Mouth”, just Mouth. No such mystery in the case of his female partner: if your name was Sjoukje van’t Spijker, you too would consider the moniker Maggie MacNeal a very attractive alternative. How Do You Do was a hit in its English version by Mouth & MacNeal, but even bigger in the German version by the English/German duo The Windows, who appeared on the Hitparade and did look a bit like the Dutch originators of the song. Mouth & MacNeal would later record many of their songs in German, with some success. The song also became a Top 10 hit in the US, in a version by radio DJ Jim Connor. Parts of the melody later formed part of, or was plagiarised for, a German timber commercial which still sticks in my head: “Holz, das halt ein Leben lang.”

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Danyel Gérard – Harlekin.mp3
Readers may recall how in 1971 Danyel Gérard’s Butterfly was the mammoth hit of that year. Gérard had enjoyed a long career in France before that, but made his breakthrough in Germany only thanks to Butterfly and his very cool folk-troubadour image, with the beard and floppy hat (and smoking in a TV studio) which were the result of a quite radical image make-over. I suppose Danyel Gérard was the first artist whom I expected to deliver a suitable follow-up record. Before him, songs just appeared; now I was actively anticipating an artist’s new release. Harlekin couldn’t compare to the phenomenon that was Butterfly. It tried to capture a similar vibe, with quiet verses and a long upbeat, clap-along chorus. It did reasonably well; Gérard certainly got exposure on the Hitparade (I seem to remember him singing Harlekin while sitting in the audience, but I might be wrong about that). But…it was no Butterfly.

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Daniel Boone – Beautiful Sunday.mp3
In the 1971 instalment I celebrated my joyful rediscovery of Michael Holm’s Wie Der Sonnenschein, the chorus of which had been lodged in my ear without my knowing neither the song’s name or performer. A few years ago, Beautiful Sunday provided me with a similar time-shifting experience. I hadn’t heard the song for more than 30 years. Then I came across a Daniel Boone song which I quite liked in a glam rock sort of way. To investigate Boone’s stylings further, I downloaded Beautiful Sunday blind. In an instant, it beamed me back to 1972: the Bravo posters that covered my sister’s wall, the yellow tiles of our bathroom, the formica kitchen table, my brother and I building “houses” out of the sofa cushions… Beautiful Sunday is the background soundtrack of my every-day life in 1972.

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Vicky Leandros – Ich hab’ die Liebe gesehen.mp3
Oh, but I did buy that, and I can’t blame it on grandmother’s projecting her record-buying pleasures through me. I actually liked the song. Today, not so much. But for the scholar of the Schlager, it’s a good case study: the singer is young (good), virginal and relatively pretty (classic beauty was not a prerequisite for Schlager stardom), and it sounded foreign (excellent). The song has a Greek arrangement, to go with the singer’s ethnicity (perfect), the better to evoke the audience yearning for exotic locales (Deutschmark signs in the eyes!), even though the lyrics have nothing to do with Greece. The lyrics themselves are suitably banal (“I saw love in your eyes at first sight… the world started to turn on its own as we looked at each other and found happiness [a revolution of scientific knowledge right there]… I let you take my hands because it was so nice… the dream of happiness became reality… it was a day just like any other et bloody cetera), because anything more complicated would disturb the collective Schlager swoon. This is how a successful Schlager ballad had to be written.

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Hot Butter – Popcorn.mp3
As the Olympic summer ’72 slowly neared its end, I started school, and Hot Butter’s Popcorn, an instrumental featuring that new-fangled synthesizer thing, provided the soundtrack to that. As per tradition, I was given a Schultüte, a huge, brightly decorated cardboard cylinder filled with sweets. My younger brother was jealous, so he got a smaller one, too, the thunder-stealing fucker (I got nothing when he started school two years later). For some reason my mother thought it necessary to dress me in a collarless Beatles-style suit with velvet-covered buttons for the occasion. She was cool 98% of the time, but those 2% when she was not could kill me.

Beatles suit and Schultüte

School was cool that first year. Our teacher was a hippie whom I remember as always wearing a denim kaftan. She taught us First Graders about sex, using the proper terminology, such as vagina and penis. At first we giggled, but after a while I think we got used to the idea that these things were not there only to have a wee-wee. And yet, I recall in Grade 2 or 3 discussing with my friends whether babies could be produced by kissing. I suppose some parents didn’t like the curricular approach of my first teacher; the next year she was gone (she lived in our area, and I saw her a few times after; she didn’t seem terribly excited at meeting a former pupil). My mother, a modern woman who approved of such teaching methods, confirmed that our teacher had not been universally appreciated. Happily, my next teacher was very kind; but she would not speak about sex in any way for my remaining three years at primary school.

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Rex Gildo – Fiesta Mexicana.mp3
If Schlager music ever hit a particular peak, it was in late 1972/early 1973 with Fiesta Mexicana, a rousing number that incorporated the genre’s standard devices of far-away places and romance, perched right at the top of the zenith. It’s the party Schlager song. Rex Gildo (which, you might have guessed, was not the singer’s real name) whips up the excitement with a succession of exclamations of the possibly nonsense word “hossa” and doesn’t let up on the fiesta. See, it’s his last night in Mexico — a country which at the same time provided a hit for the Les Humphries Singers (see The Originals Vol. 26) — and Rex is hosting a fiesta in the plaza with much tequila and guitars. Juanita and Pepe (because Mexicans are called Juanita and Pepe) are there as Rex says Addio to Mexico. He greets, as you do, with his sombrero and tells his girl, possibly the Carmensita he is kissing, that he loves her and promises that he will return to her in Mexico. Olé! As cliché infested as the lyrics and arrangement are, it is all great fun.

Rex Gildo, a Bavarian known to his mother as Ludwig Franz Hirtreiter, had been a star of stage and screen for a decade before Fiesta Mexicana (one of his early hits was the German version of Speedy Gonzales, the fastest mouse in all of Mexico), which was the peak of his success. His career ambled on for several years, but by the 1980s it had fizzled out. He struggled with alcoholism and, it later turned out, was discreetly gay. After a final concert, outside a furniture store near Frankfurt on 26 October 1999, Gildo committed suicide by jumping out of his apartment window.

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Wums Gesang – Ich wünsch mir ’ne kleine Miezekatze.mp3
TV presenter Wim Thoelke presented the Saturday night Aktuellen Sportstudio before hosting a succession of quiz shows, which doubled as fundraising efforts for the children’s charity Aktion Sorgenkind. A sidekick at one of them, Drei mal Neun, was a cartoon dog — drawn by the popular German cartoonist Loriot — called Wum. The interplay between Wim and Wum, the latter perched on a red ottoman and prone to call the quizmaster with a long-drawn out Thooooelke, was amusing enough to warrant the release of a single “sung” by the cartoon dog, about his desire for a pussycat (I don’t know if the double meaning was intentional), apparently voiced by Loriot himself. Although the single stayed at #1 in West Germany for nine weeks in late ’72 and early ’73 (with proceeds going to Aktion Sorgenkind), Wum never got his wish for a feline companion. But when Thoelke presented a new show called Der große Preis (a mixture of general knowledge and Mastermind which had contestants sitting in futuristic capsules) Wum tagged along to the new show and later got a female elephant sidekick, named Wendelin. The elephant was rubbish, and Wum’s comedy suffered as a result.

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More Stepping back

San Miguel Red Horse Beer seems to have a slightly different target market here in the Philippines based on their website, but that is all good… still don’t know the real ABV of this one as I get reports from the locals that it is 6.5 or 7.2 or 9.3… it says strong, doesn’t it?   More likely high 6 if i were to guess, but could be wrong there. 

The word stallion on the neck was speaking to me that night… telling me sweet nothings… “you… stallion…” I looked around… no one there… you talking to me?  “yeah… you… stud…”  I checked over each shoulder… realized I was the target of the beer’s affection and began to blush… you shouldn’t say such things you devil… and it went places I can’t type from there…

Overall, not a bad brew.  It is kind of a dirty beer… meaning it is a little dodgy in its intentions… pretty sure that if I did have several of these, I would feel like a real stallion and act accordingly.  Need to be careful.

Weak aroma, strong body with some ABV.  Hops are more present than the other San Miguels I have tasted.  Finish isn’t in your face but pleasant.  Overall one that isn’t a bad brew but San Miguel makes some more well crafted brews to enjoy… the drunk on this one would be interesting, though…

JBB6 Rating: Middle of the Road

My Rogue Mocha Porter has been in the fridge for a bit, so not sure if that had an impact on the overall tasting… just to let you know.  I will pick up another bottle to validate as soon as possible.  My guess at the impact, though, is <5% so I am going with the review anyhow!

Tasted this one at The Belly’s house the other night during a night of dark beer tasting prior to going to see Inglourious Basterds.  Great movie, BTW… especially awesome seeing it in high definition at the Galaxy 12 in Monroe, WA.  Tarantino is a master at the art.

Anyhow, we shared this small bottle and noted the following… nose is yeasty.. surprising on one hand and not on the other with Rogue’s signature Pacman yeast.   Body was mellow and well balanced but really lacked and distinct flavors.  No mocha and even very little chocolate flavor.  Finish was non-existent. 

Overall a bit of a meh experience… definitely had better from Rogue.

JBB6 Rating: Middle of the Road

One of the many gifts of living here in the Northern Rivers is the abundance of bird life. I am lucky enough to live on a property with a rainforest remnant plus tropical and native gardens, so there is no shortage of beautiful birdlife for me to enjoy. And while they are lucky enough to be wild and free, I do feel that they are my little buddies. When it comes to music, bird references are to be found in every genre, so I had plenty to choose from in this week’s show about BIRDS. Some of the songs I chose were just plain silly and some very serious. But what they all revealed was a little bit about how we relate avian qualities to our lives and ourselves.

We started the show with the incredibly appropriate I LIKE BIRDS from the Eels’ album Daisies of the Galaxy. And why wouldn’t you like a creature that has come to represent peace, freedom and happiness to name just a few of the more positive traits that appear in this week’s play-list?

History, however, hasn’t been too kind to blackbirds. They are often portrayed negatively, even though they are just as good looking and intelligent as other species. Paul McCartney spins this symbolism into a message of hope in the Beatles 1968 hit BLACKBIRD. We followed with The Be Good Tanyas and their version of Clarence Ashley’s THE COO COO BIRD. I’ve discovered that the Coo-Coo bird, unlike most other birds, rarely occur in pairs or as part of a group. Shy and retiring, they’d rather be heard than seen. Hmmm. Sounds a bit like a couple of radio presenters I know…

A nice triple play followed: Bob Marley with the very optimistic THREE LITTLE BIRDS, LITTLE WING from Jimi Hendrix and then the Purple one, Prince, pumped it out with WHEN DOVES CRY. 

Alfred Hitchcock was one of the quirkiest directors ever. His 1963 film THE BIRDS, starring Rod Taylor and Tippi Hedron was notable for its lack of music. Except for a couple of songs sung by characters in the film, the soundscape was made up of screeching birds. The trailer for the film was just as idiosyncratic. Hitchcock presents it himself, under the guise of A LECTURE ON BIRDS. I think its hilarious. Take a look:

The Bluebird is a common symbol of happiness and optimism. Two songs we played, that epitomise this notion, are Johnnie Taylor’s LITTLE BLUEBIRD and Ella Fitzgerald, the queen of scat, singing BLUE SKIES.

John Lennon sings of the Sweet Bird of Paradox in SURPRISE, SURPRISE from his 1974 album Walls and Bridges. We followed that with KT Tunstall’s WHITE BIRD. An excellent artist who, despite the awards and peer support cruises under the radar somewhat. Take a look at this clip and become a fan:

Ready for some classical? No, its not Swan Lake. It’s my favourite Duck, DAFFY, with his version of THE HUNGARIAN RHAPSODY:

One of my favourite Australian singers is Jack Ladder. From the Love is Gone album, MOTHER, is a strange little song that likens his Mum to a chicken (I think…). The song also references BIRDS THE WORD and we took a listen to the RIVINGTONS original version of that tune too.

Taj Mahal and Etta James sang a great version of MOCKINGBIRD, originally recorded by Inez and Charlie Foxx and one of the last hits for Australian icon Johnny O’Keefe (with Margaret McLaren).

How could we have a show about BIRDS and not include Charlie ‘Bird’ Parker. His nickname was originally ‘Yardbird’ and that was shortenend over time to simply ‘Bird’. There are two stories as to how he got the name: One was that he lived “free as a bird”. The other is that when touring with Jay McShann, they accidentally hit a chicken (a yardbird) with their car and Parker made them stop to pick it up so he could have his landlady cook it. I think I’m going to go with the first possibility. It fits beautifully with the track we played – BLUEBIRD. 

I had to include the theme from the Woody Woodpecker Show. Mel Blanc was the original voice of this animated character. He also voiced Daffy Duck and many, many more of our favourite cartoon characters. Woody made his first appearance in a short film in 1940 and you’ll still find him on children’s cartoon shows today.

And how good is AIN’T NOBODY HERE BUT US CHICKENS by Louis Jordan? James Brown has been quoted as saying that Jordan was one of his greatest influences: “He could sing, he could dance, he could play, he could act. He could do it all.” Jordan’s vocal style was arguably an important precursor to rap. On our show for DAYS OF THE WEEK we played  ”Saturday Night Fish Fry” (1950) which featured a rapid-fire, highly syncopated semi-spoken vocal delivery that is strongly reminiscent of the modern rap style.

No reason to leave the farmyard when you can play the Rolling Stones and LITTLE RED ROOSTER. Check out this clip featuring a very young, fresh faced Mick Jagger in 1965.

There are lots if songs about birds that talk of love and longing. Three that I particulary like are  BLUEBIRDS OVER THE MOUNTAIN from Richie Valens, (also recorded by The Beach Boys), YELLOW BIRD from Chris Isaak and SONGBIRD by Bernard Fanning.

Time flew on this week’s show but before I flew the coop (groan…), I had time to play a rediscovery:  A great songwriter and singer, still performing and probably better now than ever – Russell Morris with his 1972 hit THE WINGS OF AN EAGLE. Take a look at this recent clip and see if you agree. This song has a timeless quality.

Couldn’t resist closing the show with a piece of whimsy suggested by one of my loyal listeners:  CHIRPY CHIRPY CHEEP CHEEP from the perfectly named band MIDDLE OF THE ROAD. This clip from Top of the Pops 1971 is worth including just for the outfits. I want those boots! And did I hear “bring back hot pants!”

Here’s the complete playlist:

I Like Birds - The Eels

Blackbird - The Beatles

The Coo Coo Bird - The Be Good Tanyas

Three Little Birds - Bob Marley

Little Wing - Jimi Hendrix

When Doves Cry  - Prince & the Revolution

Bye Bye Blackbird - Etta James

Alfred Hitchcock ‘The Birds’ Lecture  (Trailer)

Rocking Robin - Bobby Day

Chicken Payback - The Bees

The Chicken And The Hawk - Big Joe Turner

Little Bluebird - Johnnie Taylor

Blue Skies - Ella Fitzgerald

Surprise, Surprise (Sweet Bird Of Paradox) - John Lennon

White Bird - KT Tunstall

Daffy’s Rhapsody - Mel Blanc

Bird Dog - The Everly Brothers

Shake A Tail Feather - Ray Charles

Mother (Bird’s The Word) - Jack Ladder

Mockingbird - Taj Mahal & Etta James

Bluebird - Charlie ‘Bird’ Parker + The All-Stars

Night Owl - Carly Simon

Mockingbird - Rob Thomas

Woody Woodpecker Show - TV Themes

The Bird’s The Word  - Rivingtons

Ain’t Nobody Here But Us Chickens - Louis Jordan

Little Red Rooster - Rolling Stones

Blackbird - The Beautiful Girls

Bluebirds over the Mountain - Ritchie Valens

Yellow Bird - Chris Isaak

Songbird - Bernard Fanning

The Wings Of An Eagle - Russell Morris

Chirpy Chirpy Cheep Cheep Middle of the Road

Next week: SPORT! I promise there will be no footie anthems. Help! Whaddyagot?

Listen to Lyn McCarthy at the Theme Park on BayFM, Tuesdays 2-4pm, Sydney time.

Also streaming on http://www.bayfm.org

Tragically also on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/maccalyn

and Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/themeparkradio

Volume 31 and 160 songs covered now. Here we have the originals of the Piranhas’ Tom Hark, the Rolling Stones’ It’s All Over Now, Middle of the Road’s unjustly reviled Chirpy Chirpy Cheep Cheep, Georgie Fame’s Yeh Yeh, and Donovan’s Universal Soldier (whose writer, Buffy Sainte-Marie, apparently was not the first to record it either). As always, many thanks to my friends who have helped me out with some of the songs featured here.

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Elias and His Zig Zag Jive Flutes – Tom Hark (1956).mp3
The Piranhas – Tom Hark (1980).mp3
Mango Groove – Tom Hark (1996).mp3
A staple these days on English football grounds, the impossibly catchy Tom Hark had its origins in South Africa. There was no Tom Hark: the song’s title was either a pun or more likely a sloppy mis-heard rendering of the word tomahawk, the axes gangs in Johannesburg’s Alexandra township used to carry.

Composer “Big Voice” Jack Lerole and his mates used to record in the pennywhistle-based kwela genre, though it was not yet known by that name — the contemporary term was marabi or pennywhistle jive. The word kwela is Zulu for “get up”, and as kwela-kwela also a township term for a police van (after the cops’ command “Kwela! Kwela!, meaning “climb in, climb in”), the unwelcome approach of which often was signalled by a lookout blowing his tin flute. Lerole, commonly known as Jake, learnt to play the pennywhistle as a little boy, observing the flautists from Scottish regiments that often played near Alexandra and which influenced a generation of pennywhistlers who adapted the complex techniques of flute-playing to the simple pennywhistle, thereby enhancing its versatility.

Lerole and his bandmembers recorded under several names, mostly as Alexandra Black Mambazo (mambazo is zulu for axe — or tomahawk), but were signed by EMI in 1956 as Elias and His Zig Zag Jive Flutes; the Elias of the moniker being Lerole’s brother. Having recorded Tomahawk, or Tom Hark, EMI sold the rights to the song to British TV to serve as the theme for a series called The Killing Stone. On the back of that, the song became a British hit, reaching #2 in 1958. Lerole and his band received £6 for recording the song and not a red cent in royalties, even when the song became an international hit again in 1980 with an affectionate cover by the British ska band The Piranhas, whose frontman Bob Grover put lyrics to the song (“The whole things daft, I don’t know why, you have to laugh or else you cry”). On the single cover The Piranhas paid tribute to the original by emblazoning it with the word “kwela”.

After the Alexandra Black Mambazo split in 1963, Lerole enjoyed a fair career, though more as a gravelly baritone singer and saxophonist than as a pennywhistler, having followed the lead of pennywhistle king Spokes Mashiyane into the new mbaqanga style of music. He made a comeback in the ’80s as a member of the multi-racial group Mango Groove (which recorded Tom Hark with their own lyrics), on whose first hit, Dance Some More, Lerole provided his distinctive growling vocals. Before Mango Groove became famous in South Africa, he left the group. In 1998 he and the reformed Alex Black Mambazo were invited by South African-born Dave Matthews to perform with his group in the US. The band performed to international acclaim and total indifference in their home country. Leralo died in 2003 at the age of 63.

Also recorded by: Ted Heath (1958), Millie (1964), The Talksport Allstars (as We’re England, 2006)

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The Valentinos – It’s All Over Now (1964).mp3
The Rolling Stones – It’s All Over Now (1964).mp3
Molly Hatchet – It’s All Over Now (1979).mp3
When the Rolling Stones arrived in the US for their first tour, they met the legendary New York radio DJ Murray the K (or Murray the Kunt, as Keith Richards would dub him), who had a heavy hand in promoting the Beatles before and during their triumphant debut tour of the US a few months earlier. Murray suggested that the group might do well to record the latest single by Cleveland’s R&B group the Valentinos, which comprised the Womack brothers Bobby, Cecil, Harry, Friendly and Curtis.

It’s All Over Now was written by Bobby with his sister-in-law Shirley, but the publishing rights resided with Sam Cooke’s SAR Records. The Stones’ young manager Andrew Oldham obtained the rights to record it from SAR’s manager/accountant, Allen Klein (soon to become the Stones’ despised manager). Bobby Womack was furious, correctly anticipating that the rock version by these kids from England would sabotage any chance of the Valentino’s soul single becoming a hit. He later recalled his mentor Cooke comforting him, presciently assuring him that he’d now be a part of music history by dint of having written the Rolling Stones’ first US hit. A little later Womack found another upside: when he received the first royalties cheque, “it was huge”.

Within three weeks of Murray the K turning them on to It’s all Over Now, the Stones recorded the song during their sessions at Chicago’s Chess studio (where they allegedly encountered their hero Muddy Waters painting the ceiling), which also yielded Time Is On My Side, which will feature in this series later. It was released almost immediately. The Valentino’s version tanked at #94 in the US, while the Stones reached the top 20 and went to #1 in Britain.

Also recorded by: The Chambers Brothers (1965), Ian and the Zodiacs (1965), Johnny Rivers (1965), The Pupils (1966), Waylon Jennings (1968), The Bintangs (1969), Rod Stewart (1970), Ry Cooder (1974), Faces (1974), Catfish Hodge (1975), Johnny Winter (1976), Molly Hatchet (1979), Jimmy & The Mustangs (1984), John Anderson (1985), The Dirty Dozen Brass Band (1987), Charles et les Lulus (1991), Bobby Womack (1997), Southside Johnny (1997), Paper Parrot (1999), The Alarm Clocks (2000), The Patron Saints (2008) a.o.

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Lally Stott – Chirpy Chirpy Cheep Cheep (1970).mp3
Middle of the Road – Chirpy Chirpy Cheep Cheep (1971).mp3
My old friend Bono likes to tell the story of how seeing Middle of the Road performing Chirpy Chirpy Cheep Cheep on Top of the Pops persuaded him that anyone, even little Paul Hewson, could become a pop star. It’s easy, even for Bono, to take a dig at a song called Chirpy Chirpy Cheep Cheep, of course. But I submit that, lyrics apart, it is a fine pop song.

Middle of the Road, who thought of themselves more as a folk group than as the bubble gum pop combo they are usually remembered as, didn’t want to record the song. It had been a hit in Italy (with the subtitle Cirpi cirpi, cip cip) and Australia for its composer, Liverpudlian Lally (Harold) Stott, and even dented the US charts at #92, though the song had greater success there, reaching #20, in a version by Trinidad-born duo Mac and Katie Kissoon (the female sibling of whom later became a session singer for the likes of Van Morrison, Elton John, Eric Clapton and the Pet Shop Boys). Despite Stott’s success in Italy and Australia, his label, Philips, evidently had little confidence in the recording, so Stott farmed it out to the Middle of the Road, who had just abandoned their previous moniker, Los Caracas, to take up an engagement in Italy.

The band recorded the song reluctantly at singer Sally Carr’s insistence. Bandleader Ken Andrews was initially dismissive: “We were as disgusted with the thought of recording it as most people were at the thought of buying it. But at the end of the day, we liked it.” Their version, produced by Giacomo Tosti, became a massive hit throughout Europe in early 1971 and was imported to Britain by holidaymakers. At first it seemed that the Kissoon’s version would be a hit there, but influential radio DJ Tony Blackburn championed the Middle of the Road version on his BBC breakfast show, and it eventually reached #1 in June ’71.

Stott went on to work with Middle of the Road, writing their hit Tweedle Dee, Tweedle Dum. He died in 1977 in an accident while riding his Harley-Davidson — said to have been bought with the royalties of Chirpy Chirpy Cheep Cheep.

Also recorded by: Los 3 de Castilla (1971), Paul Mauriat (1971), Joe Harris (1971), The California Gold Rush (1971), Hajo (1971), The Jay Boys (1972), The Panda Peeple (1973), Little Angels (1973), Briard (1979), Lush (1990), Cartoons (2000), Mickie Krause (as Reiß die Hütte ab, 2003), The Poco Loco Gang (2005)

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Mongo Santamaría – Yeh-Yeh (1963).mp3
Lambert, Hendricks & Bavan – Yeh-Yeh (1963).mp3
Georgie Fame & the Blue Flames – Yeh Yeh (1964).mp3
Matt Bianco – Yeh Yeh (1985).mp3
Written by jazz musicians Rodgers Grant (piano) and Laurdine “Pat” Patrick (saxophone), Yeh-Yeh was first recorded in 1963 by Afro-Cuban jazz percussionist Mongo Santamaría, whose band Grant and Patrick were members of at the time. Still an instrumental — though Santamaría’s single version includes what might be described as vocal ticks — it appeared on his Watermelon Man album. It soon came to the attention of jazz singer Jon Hendricks, one of the great purveyors of scat singing and a third of the ’50s trio Lambert, Hendricks & Ross. Hendricks had a long line of instrumental songs to which he added lyrics, doing so most famously for an album of Count Basie standards. Hendricks recorded Yeh-Yeh with the trio, in which Yalande Bavan had by now replaced Annie Ross, for the At Newport ‘63 live album.

English singer Georgie Fame (his moniker was an innovation of promoter Larry Parnes who at one point even briefly renamed the yet unknown Beatles) heard the Newport recording of Lambert, Hendricks & Bavan’s version, and incorporated into his Blue Flames’ live shows. At one point in 1964 Fame and his team were stuck for a new single. Somebody suggested Yeh Yeh.

Fames’ manager at the time was nightclub owner Ronan O’Rahilly. His attempts to have Yeh Yeh played on the BBC and Radio Luxembourg were frustrated (reportedly on grounds that it sounded “too black”; the story that it was rejected for airplay because the stations played records only from EMI, Decca, Pye and Philips can be discounted since Yeh Yeh appeared on EMI’s Columbia label). Unable to get airplay, he became part of the group that set up the ship-based pirate station Radio Caroline in March 1964. Among its roster of DJs was the champion of Chirpy Chirpy Cheep Cheep, Tony Blackburn. Radio Caroline naturally gave Yeh Yeh (which O’Rahilly has claimed directly inspired the founding of the pirate station) heavy airplay. Without help from the conventional radio stations, it topped the UK charts in January 1965 (US #25), relieving the Beatles’ five-week occupancy of the top spot with the similarly upbeat I Feel Fine.

In 1985, British jazz-popsters Matt Bianco drew together their British lounge and Latin jazz influences to record a fine version of Yeh Yeh, which strays not too far from Fame’s take. It reached #15 in the UK.

Also recorded by: Dave “Baby” Cortez (1965), Danny Fisher (1965), Claude François (as Alors salut!, 1965), Matt Bianco (1985), The Aislers Set (2000), They Might Be Giants (2001)

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The Highwaymen – Universal Soldier (1963).mp3
Buffy Sainte-Marie – Universal Soldier (1964).mp3
Donovan – Universal Soldier (1965).mp3
Early in the Vietnam War, Canadian folk singer Buffy Sainte-Marie saw an injured soldier return from active duty and decided to write an anti-war song. It would become one of the most potent songs in the peace movement, even if her good advice to you and me evidently has not been taken. By her own account written in a Toronto café to impress a college professor, Buffy, then in her early 20s, sold the rights to Universal Soldier to a man she had just met in Greenwich Village’s Gaslight Café, for a dollar (the contract was written on a paper napkin). Two decades later she bought the rights back for $25,000. In the interim, she made it on the White House’s blacklist for her anti-Vietnam and Native American rights activities, spent five years on Sesame Street (on which she breastfed her child), in 1966 became the first singer to release a quadraphonic album (4.0 stereo) and apparently the first to release an album on the Internet (in 1991).

Sainte-Marie released Universal Soldier on her 1964 debut album, It’s My Way. The previous year, it was recorded by folk-group The Highwaymen (not to be confused with the country supergroup), who enjoyed their commercial peak in 1960 with the hit version of Michael (Row The Boat Ashore). It’s not clear how the Highwaymen got to record Universal Soldier first; one may guess that they were given the song by Buffy’s new friend from the Gaslight Café. Released as a single and on the group’s penultimate album, March On Brothers, it was not a huge success. Of course, if one channelled Seeger and Guthrie, one did not expect to compete with the Beatles.

Acclaimed though Sainte-Marie’s debut album was, the song’s big breakthrough came with the version by Scottish folkie Donovan, who released it in 1965 at the age of 19, having already two UK Top 10 hits with Catch The Wind and Colours. Young Mr Leitch’s softer version, which adopted Buffy’s arrangement (and using strange pronunciation of the name Dachau). Released as an EP in Britain, it topped the EP charts there and reached #14 in the singles charts.

As for Buffy, she went on to write Up Where We Belong, the hit for Joe Cocker & Jennifer Warnes from 1981’s An Officer And A Gentleman, with then-husband Jack Nitzsche. She released her first album in 13 years, Running For The Drum, internationally a few weeks ago.

Also recorded by: Glen Campbell (1965), Boudewijn de Groot (as De eeuwige soldaat, 1965), Hector (as Palkkasoturi, 1965), Jan & Dean (1965), Claus (as Soldato universale,1966), The Roemans (1965), The Caravans (1965), Sheila (as Je t’aime, 1966), Judy Collins and Ethel Raim Dunson (1967), Lester Flatt & Earl Scruggs (1968), Picture (1970), Juliane Werding (as Der ewige Soldat, 1973), Lobo (1974), Eugene Chadbourne (1985), Christopher Franke (1992), Eric Andersen (2004) a.o.

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More Originals

Another in the Lips of Faith line from New Belgium, Lips of Fatih Biere de Mars comes to us in a bright and pretty orange polka dotted bottle as is the want of the Lips of Faith series.  This tasting is courtesy of The Belly and I offer him my thanks!

The brew is touted as being brewed with spices and you can tell… light orange in color, nose is the most notable in the spice department but the body is where the spices play games with my taste buds.  At  6.2% ABV, there isn’t much kick in the alcohol department, but the spices mess with your throat and leave you a nice sweet finish.  Overall, it is a nice brew but in the end nothing really special like I was hoping for.

JBB6 Rating: Middle of the Road

Picked up a 4-pack of Samuel Adams Imperial Stout at Fred Meyer the other day.  I like me some 9%+ ABV dark beers, usually, and Sam Adams can have some tasty brews.  So there was the decision making process…

As far as the tasting goes, this brew pours dar, is thick, and overall meh… at 9.2% this is a thick and syrupy brew.  No doubt about it.  My main problem, though, was in the metallic taste/finish.  It was pretty prominent and hard to get past.  Once past it, though, there was a bit of a sweet front and heavy finish… overall, Mrs Heather called the finish with a hint of coffee.  Not my favorite…

JBB6 Rating: Middle of the Road

Opet su naravno domaćini bili KORNIJEVCI što i nije jima za pohvalu ali je sigurno da je koncert bio OK. Nemamo ostale podatke o ovom koncertu a plakat smo snimili kod već ovde predstavljenog člana KORNIJEVACA g-dina Bojana Hreljca.

Haven’t had a blonde in a while… bad dum dum… especially of the brew type… so Scuttlebutt Homeport Blonde didn’t have a lot of comparison… but I know what I like and so we will go from there… and they are NW natives out of Everett, so they can’t be too far off…

Pours a very light yellow, almost pilsner or american lager in color. Small head. Nose is sweet and smells a bit of honey. Taste is sweet and malty… with very light hop additions, I am guessing. Finish is meh… just kind of dies on you. Overall not bad… not great and so there you go.  This blonde can keep out of my fridge…

JBB6 Rating: Middle of the Road

In adulthood and in childhood you pick a side and hope you win; you choose your favorite sports team and cheer for them.  The U.S. governement under Obama, is rooting for the whole world in negotiations and the U.S.  taxpayers is fighting a loosing battle.  

As an NRA badge carrying, conservative Republican, it would be a cold day in hell before I sent the Democrats one red cent of my money.  America can’t always get what it wants, but by supporting two sides of a battle, it puts us in the middle where we  are most likely get run over.

Billions of dollars has been poured into the Mideast and you know what?  Most of the citizens and governments love our money, but hate America.  The jihadists will stop at nothing and what does America do, send more money!

From Fox News http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2009/07/24/transfers-million-aid-palestinian-authority-clinton-says/ 

“U.S. Transfers $200 Million in Aid to Palestinian Authority, Clinton Says.

The United States has transferred $200 million in aid for the Palestinian people, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said Friday. The money was part of the assistance package announced at an international donors conference in March. Clinton, who spoke after returning from a visit to India and Thailand, said the money had been transferred directly to the Palestinian Authority. She said that she had been assured that President Mahmoud Abbas and Prime Minister Salam Fayyad “have put in place the foundations of a responsible, transparent, accountable government.” This had been verified, she said, by the World Bank, International Monetary Fund and internal reviews. 

Financing both sides of this battle, especially when our own economy lies in tatters is near traitorous. To think that either side, or even that America has a “responsible, transparent, accountable government” borders on being laughable, but it is not funny.  Clinton also said, ” the United States would continue to engage Israel and the Palestinians in peace talks and press for a two-state solution, and called on the rest of the world to help boost the Palestinian economy.”  Humph. How about someone sending a check to America?  Maybe paying back the U.S. Taxpayer for WWI and WWII. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/magazine/4757181.stm

Last I heard, The Palestinian Authority (Hamas) is classified by the United States as a terrorist organization.

I’m all for peace in an idealistic world.  But, the world is filled with leaders who to torturous things to its own citizens and hold the threat of nuclear war out like the golden carrot to get more U.S. Dollars.  Still we try to place nice in the world even though North Korea’s government-controlled KCNA news agency suggested that ’she [sic Clinton] is by no means intelligent’. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/worldnews/article-1201630/Playground-scrap-Hilary-Clinton-says-North-Korea-friends-primary-schoolgirl.html Yet, we will continue to negotiate not only with NK but other states defined once, as members of the Axis of Evil. 

Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said Saturday the country would strike Israel’s nuclear facilities if Tel Aviv attacked the Islamic state, Reuters reported state television as saying “If the Zionist Regime (Israel) attacks Iran, we will surely strike its nuclear facilities with our missile capabilities,” Mohammad Ali Jafari, Guards commander-in-chief, said. Jafari said Israel was entirely within the reach of Iran. “Our missile capability puts all of the Zionist regime (Israel) within Iran’s reach to attack,” Jafari said. http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,534800,00.html 

Clinton said this week a nuclear Iran could be contained by a U.S. “defense umbrella,” setting off tremors in the Middle East. Since making the remark on a television chat show in Thailand, Clinton has backpedaled, saying she was only restating existing policy and not referring to any sort of formal guarantees of protection under an American “nuclear umbrella.”

Will we ballyhoo the doctrine of “preemption” in negotiations? Mr. President Obama- yet another test for you.  Perhaps both Clinton and Biden could shush for just a day.

How intelligent is our foreign policy when the chickens continue to try to cross the road from Israel, the fence stops them from laying eggs on the other side in Palestine- while Iran threatens to make a scrambled mess of the entire region? 

Tipping of the hat to http://prairiepundit.blogspot.com/2009/07/iran-threatens-to-hit-israel-nuke.html

Full Sail Black Gold Imperial Stout… this is one of the brews i actually ordered from http://www.liquidgratitude.com/, along with my Mirror Mirror… felt like cracking a new bottle tonight, so here you go…

Tasted with Mr. Dave, this one comes at you with a pretty nice nose… possibly the most distiguished feature of the brew… vanilla and oak just as the bottle notes. you can smell the bourbon bottle aging, which is very nice. At first taste, I think this is going to be one for the record books… but it loses its ‘wow’ fast and by the time i was half way through the glass, it had lost a lot of its pizzaz. Still a really nice beer but for the price, I expected it to last a bit longer.

JBB6 Rating: Middle of the Road

P.S. I am so ashamed… I accidentally deleted my pics of this one… so sad.  You get the standard pic instead…

A bit of a new brewery to our area (as of May 1, 2009), Firestone Walker Brewing Company (based out of CA) came to Malt & Vine the other day and between Mr. Dave and I, we picked up a few bottles.  I can’t remember whos this was but Firestone Walker DBA (Double Barrel Ale) was the first on the list to try.  Reading through their website and watching a few of the videos gave me a pretty good idea that these guys and gals are pretty damn cool… laid back, fun, and have the love of the beer.  A pretty good formula. 

So… how about the beer… in a night of IPAs and Pale Ales, we shouldn’t have tasted this when we did.  Because of the “patented Firestone Union oak barrel brewing system” this brew is super easy and mild… among some strong NW pales, though, that means less in-your-face and almost watered down.  So… this is a mild ale… no doubt about it… i recommend drinking apart from anything hoppy or it will ruin it for you.

I am planning on picking up another bottle to validate/retaste but for now, this hits Middle of the Road.

JBB6 Rating: Middle of the Road (Pending Retaste)