Lee Hazlewood - "Trouble Is A Lonesome Town" (1963)

Lee Hazlewood is a cool guy who in periods has been one of my favorite artists. I'm not a big fan of Country & Western, but Lee's version of this music is really enjoyable. It has often been described as Cowboy Psychedelia or psychedelic Country & Western, a description that often fits pretty good with what he created. His music is often quite beautiful with a dark sense of humor that makes the listening a remarkable experience.

Best known to the world is probably Lee's classic song These Boots Are Made For Walking, which he wrote and produced for Nancy Sinatra. The two made a lot of beautiful music together and the lover of psychedelic music problably knows the great song Some Velvet Morning, one of the best songs coming out from the 60s.

Trouble Is A Lonesome Town was Lee's first solo album. During the 50s he had started to write and produce music for other artists, including a lot of work with Duane Eddy. The music on Trouble... is relatively simple. Besides his deep baryton voices the listener rarely gets to hear more that a couple of acoustic guitars and a bass. Here and there a harmonica pops up. The songs begin with Lee telling a story about some character in the town of Trouble, an imaginary town loosely based on Lee's own birthplace. His narrative is quitely accompanied by a guitar playing some blues chords. Thereafter, the song starts in which we get an in-depth description of the events surrounding the described character.

Already the opening song Long Black Train the listener gets an example on (in my opnion) Lee's funny humor, in his description of the drama concerning his wild friend Jim:

And so I cut my friend

Twelve men covicted him

Ninety nine years is what he got

I'll bet it seems like a hundred to Jim

And so continues the record with Lee's narrative and the following, somewhat twisted, country & western songs. It's a good album and an impressive solo debut. But later in the 60s and the 70s I think Lee made even more interesting music where the twisted psychedelic touch were even more visible. Especially a lot what he did with Nancy Sinatra is really enjoyable. Overall Trouble... is relatively "normal" album where Lee still shows what to expect in the future. Other highlights from the album is We All Make The Flowers Grow and Look At That Woman, the latter again with a text which makes me smile.
 

Look at that woman standin' there

Look at that woman ain't he fair

Look at that woman seems so nice

Lord I wish that woman was anybody else that mine

Anybody else but mine

She can't cook and she can't love

and she ain't worth a dime

And Lord I wish that woman was anybody else but mine

Now, isnt' that humor?

In the 70s Lee lived quite a long time in Sweden where he did some work together with Torbjörn Axelman. The copy of Trouble... in my possession is a swedish cover, a reissue from 1971.

In summary, I recommend this album, it's a good way of gettinig to know Lee. But I also recommend the reader to explore his other work, if this has not already been done. There's a lot to discover, often music with a dark, but humorous, twist.

Tracklist

Side A
1. Long Black Train 2:23
2. Ugly Brown 3:24
3. Son Of A Gun 2:53
4. We All Make The Flowers Grow 1:50
5. Run Boy Run 2:19

Side B
1. Six Feet Of Chain 1:40
2. The Railroad 1:38
3. Look At That Woman 2:33
4. Peculiar Guy 2:17
5. Trouble Is A Lonesome Town 3:46

Julian Lennon - "The Secret Value of Daydreaming" (1986)

It can't be easy having the name Julian Lennon. On one hand you've got an easy step into the music industry thanks to your last name, on the other hand people will always connect your name with your father. And who wants to be compared to a legend all the time? Can you ever win?

Not Julian in this case, not with this album. I must be clear from the start, I think this is a really lousy album. It's got all the bad things I connect with the dark 80s - that polished, boring, lightweight sound where nothing, absolutely nothing, catches your interest. Where everything is wrapped in... in... I don't know... the 80s?

The production and sound is easy to hate, unfortunately the songs are as bad as the production. According to me, not one song gets an A on this album. Or a B. Or even a D. With a different production the closing song Want Your Body maybe could get a C. And too often the songs are too long, it seems like the producer wanted to drag them out as long as possible just to fill the album with time. The music can be described as typical commercial 80s pop.

My criticism doesn't come from comparing Julian with his father. That's not necessary. But if I do compare with my last post which I defined as public therapy, this record is an exercise in total shallowness.

Julian may be forgiven. He was only 23 years old when he made this album, and from what I've read it was made in a hurry due to his earlier success with his debut album. Gossip also say that he didn't really live a healthy life after his initial success which might have affected his song writing.

I don't really like hammering down on a record like this, but in this case I can't do anything else. I bought this album in my teenage years just because I was curious how an album with John Lennon's son would sound like. I played the record once, then it found it's place far back in the collection. There it stood for 25 years until I played it again before writing this post. I'm absolutely sure I will not play it again.

Tracklist

Side A
1. Stick Around 4:04
2. You get What You Want 4:04
3. Let Me Tell You 4:17
4. I've Seen Your Face 3:28
5. Coward Till the End? 6:12

Side B
1. This Is My Day 3:55
2. You Don't Have To Tell Me 4:56
3. Everyday 3:51
4. Always Think Twice 3:58
5. Want Your Body 3:26

John Lennon - "John Lennon / Plastic Ono Band" (1970)

Brutal honesty. Personal lyrics. A dose of bitterness. A dose of primal therapy. A relatively tight sound. There you’ve got some of the elements of John Lennon / Plastic Ono Band. When I as a teenager bought this album, I listened a lot to the Beatles, especially I liked their more psychedelic creations. Most of all I liked Lennon's songs. They were often both druggier and more experimental than McCartney's contributions. Therefore I was quite disappointed with this album. It was not at all druggy and psychedelic. There were no backwards guitars or LSD-induced lyrics. Instead it was quite dark and anguished music. Brutal reality.

This was Lennon's first full length album as a solo artist and was recorded at Abbey Road Studios. Much of the music was inspired by the primal therapy he underwent at this time, which explains some heavy themes in the lyrics. Ringo Starr played drums on the album, and Phil Spector plays piano on one song (Love), he’s also mentioned as co-producer. In practice, however, John and Yoko produced most of the album themselves, since Spector was often away on other assignments.

It’s not an easy album to digest and not something you play as nice background music to create a gentle atmosphere. The album requires focus and attention to be fully appreciated. McCartney’s and (sometimes) Lennon's playfulness from the Beatles' days is far away. This is serious, sad, angry, bitter and Lennon makes things clear. Very clear. The opening line from the opening song Mother tells you what it’s all about - "Mother, you had me, but I never had you.".

Probably the most famous song from the album is Working Class Hero. Another famous song is God where John lists everything and everyone he no longer believes in, and where he finally says the now classic line, "I don’t believe in Beatles, I just believe in me."

The album is considered to be one of the major albums in musical history and often gets high positions in the "Best of" lists. Personally, though, I have not had an easy ride with it. Maybe it requires too much of the listener. The lyrics are often too personal and brutally honest. The sound is a bit too cut-down and ”simple”. There are no unusual time signatures, no big arrangements or complex song structures. On the contrary, the songs are quite "simple" - verses and choruses. I miss the experimental Lennon from a few years earlier (not to say that complex song structures and adventurous musical experimentation are always good things).

At the same time I respect the album a lot just because of the above mentioned. And in many ways it’s a groundbreaking album unlike anything else in its mental nudity where nothing is hidden. In other words, more innovative and experimental than most other things made ​​at the same time or later (complex song structures, strange time signatures and backwards drums included).

Although I don’t listen to this album often I must, at the end of the day, say that this is a good album. The opposite, that it’s a lousy record, feels like a quite strange conclusion. John Lennon / Plastic Ono Band is an extremely ambitious album where you’ve got a musician / artist who is very serious about his work. It’s far from commercial radio pop, it’s more like public psychotherapy. It feels as if Lennon was really serious about this album.

Parallel with this recording Yoko Ono recorded Yoko Ono / Plastic Ono Band, which was released the same date. The same musicians and production team were used for both albums. That record hasn’t got the same attention, though.

Tracklist

Side A

1. Mother 5:34

2. Hold On 1:52

3. I Found Out 3:37

4. Working Class Hero 3:48

5. Isolation 2:51

Side B

1. Remember 4:33

2. Love 3:21

3. Well Well Well 5:59

4. Look at Me 2:53

5. God 4:09

6: My Mummy’s Dead 0:49

Sunday Funnies - "Benediction" (1972)

This is an album I just found the other week, in one of Uppsalas stores for used records. A find that made me very happy! The price of 7$ made me even happier. I bought it without a doubt. Some faithful readers might remember one of this blog's first posts that was on Sunday Funnies debut album from 1971. Benediction was their second, and last, LP. I knew about this record through the internet but I had never seen it IRL, so it was a big event to find it.

Sunday Funnies originated from Detroit and was Richard Fidge (song), Ronald Aiken (guitar), Richard Kosinski (keyboard) and Richard Mitchell (drums). Wow, three Richards and a Ron! My first impression is that their first album is better then the second one, but I haven't owned Benediction for a long time and records sometimes have a tendency to grow on you. The label is Rare Earth which was a sub label of Motown, and focused on all-white bands.

Side A is a pretty funky creation where the band and the singer hits it hard in every song. The singer has a really raspy voice which makes me want to clear my throat. I guess it's Richard Fidge who sings on these songs, on the backside of the album cover it says that Aiken and Kosinski also do some singing, so I won't make any promises on who sings on what song. On some songs you clearly hear that someone else than the raspy-voice man is singing, the singing is done much more softly on these and often in harmonies. I like these better.
Compared with their first album side A of Benediction is more up-tempo and funky. I was somewhat disappointed in this since I like the first album's more calm and beautiful songs.

Side B gives the listener a new experience since the songs are totally different from side A. The soul/funk is almost gone and it sounds more like their first album. That's good. The songs a more beautiful, a little more complex and more interesting to listen to compared to the "simpler" funk on side A. The opening track Reach Out I'll Be There is the only song on the album that's not written by Kosinski-Aiken, instead Holland-Dozier-Holland are named as writers. It's less feeling of gospel on Benediction compared with their first album, even though a Christianity might be hinted here and there. The record's last words, and therefore Sunday Funnies last words to the world, are: 'Oh, dear God'. What do you say about that?

A difference compared to their first album is that strings are used on some songs on Benediction. Tom Baird is given the credit for arranging these and also some horns. This gives a certain feeling to these songs since string arrangements affects the sound quite a lot. Suddenly it sounds more produced, more professionell and the smell of th 70s becomes stronger. This can be good or bad depending on taste. Personally, my dominating feeling was surprise since it sounds different from the Sunday Funnies I've gotten used to earlier.
But overall you still recognize the Sunday Funnies sound. The electric organ is a important part in this since it's there in almost all the songs and plays an important role. The raspy voice and the bass playing are also parts that makes you recognize Sunday Funnies. No doubt it's them on Benediction.

It can be mentioned that Andrew Loog Oldham is the producer of the album, yes, the same man who was the manager of Rolling Stones in the 60s. Another, less amusing, curiosity is that the drummer Richard Mitchell ended up as a homeless and died in a halfway house in Detroit in the 90s. Richard Kosinski on the other hand contributed to albums with Aretha Frankling, Bonnie Riatt and The Temptations. He also created music for Pound Puppies and the Legend of Big Paw and the Hanna-Barbera series Gravedale High.

In summary, Benediction is no doubt worth buying, at least for the make-me-happy price of 7$. In my world the B-side is the highlight of the album. Finally I want to mention the cover of the album. An angel with black wings, sitting on a motorcycle wearing two bandoleers in front of a mountain is alone worth 7$. On top of that she wears boots that goes all the way up to her thighs. Unbeatable.

Tracklist
Side A
1. Get Funky 3:52
2. Double Grace 3:36
3. Two Halves of a Whole 4:40
4. Keep on Truckin' 4:48
5. Rock Me Lord, Friends Indeed 6:04

Side B
1. Reach Out I'll Be There 3:28
2. We're All On The Same Side Of the Fence 4:44
3. Power & the Glory 2:44
4. Brother John 4:38
5. The Pillow 5:38

I only found this short clip, someone else might be luckier...

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!
A beautiful christmas song with Kate Bush is my gift to you (yes, I've got it on vinyl, a 45).

Kate Bush - "50 Words for Snow" (2011)

A new album release by Kate Bush is something of a world event, that she releases two albums in the same year is almost unique (it happened in 1978, too). Earlier this year she released Director's Cut, which contained a number of re-recordings of earlier songs. 50 Words For Snow is the first album since Aerial (2005) with new material from Kate, a release rate that we have become accustomed to in the past 20 years from our lady. A new album is therefore a special moment for a Kate fan.

I had pre-ordered the album and received it a few weeks ago. You've got to admit that Amazon packages their vinyl albums well, the size of the box was a number of sizes larger than the album itself, to say the least. It's a special feeling to hold a new vinyl record in your hands, something that perhaps is most comparable to holding a newborn baby in your arms for the first time. You are compassionate careful, afraid to drop the precious cargo to the floor. Your eyes may fill with tears and pride fills the body. One can hardly believe how beautiful the item is laying in your hands. The moment has a magic about it and you understand that this is a moment you will remember as an old man.
The cover of 50 Words ... glimmered so beautiful, untouched as it was. That special scent of "new" reached the nose and the brain, I opened the gate-fold cover, and thought that this must be among the most beautiful albums in my collection. Just as we usually think about our newborn children, how ugly as they may be.

The album is released on Kate's own label Fish People. It is her second album on this label and her tenth studio album overall. When it got a fifth place in England's charts, she became the first female artist ever to have had an album at a top five position in each of the last five decades (1970s to 2010s). This could make you believe that Kate is a very old woman, but she is actually only 53.

On vinyl, the record is a double album. It's around 65 minutes long and consists of seven songs. As the title suggests the theme for most of the music is snow, in some way. When I first heard the opening song Snowflake I spontaneously thought Kate's voice sounded strange. Had she become ill? But when I quickly looked in the album information, I realized that it was not Kate singing. That surprised me as I have no memory of any other Kate song where someone else than herself does the singing. It also made ​​me surprised that the woman who was singing was called Albert, but I thought perhaps this could happen in England. Then the truth came to me, this was Kate's son Albert who still has a relatively high voice. It's easier to accept that Kate lets her son sing a song than if she would have invited a singer from outside. Kate sings the chorus in this song which is about a snowflake's descend through the air to finally land on a human.

The three songs on the first record (side A and B) is all very calm with a quiet atmosphere, here and there small notions of jazz can be heard. Kate's piano is the instrument responsible for most of the background. Steve Gadd on drums also makes a fine job and complements the soundscape in a perfectly balanced way. The songs are long but don't become boring, it all takes place at a comfortable pace. It's as if Kate takes her time and is not in any hurry, she lets the songs take the time they need. In long songs like these, it's often a vocal part and then some longer instrumental part and then maybe a song part again. On this album the songs have no such distinction, but the singing is there all the way, it's just that often there are a few extra beats non-singing between the lines of text. Often I found myself to believe that the next verse would start but instead there were four more beats of quiet piano. Then the singing started.

This provides a calmness to the first record that might be much needed in our more fast-paced world. You can't call the first record a party album, far from it, but it's definitely not depressing. It is difficult to compare Kate with other artists. Kate is Kate, and usually others are compared with her.

The other record (side C and D) opens up with the more fast-paced track Wild Man. Thereafter we actually hear Kate sing a duet with Elton John on the track Snowed in at Wheeler Street, also a little more fast-paced song. Kate singing a duet in this way is unusual, the only such earlier song I can think of is Don't Give Up, which she did with Peter Gabriel on his album So (1986). To invite another star to sing on a record sometimes feels like a cheap trick to boost sales, especially if one's own stardom may be waning. Knowing that Kate doesn't need to resort to such methods makes it work well here. I've never really liked Elton John, but in this song, I think he complements Kate in a very good way. The song is about a loving couple who have followed each other throughout history, but never gotten hand on each other.
The title track on the last side is the album's oddest song, in which a man lists 50 different words for snow eagerly cheered on by Kate ("C'mon man, you've got 44 to go"). A gentle ballad with Kate and her piano finishes the album. Although it's a bit higher tempo on sides C and D, it's still a relatively calm experience.

Overall, I think it's a very good album, actually one of Kate's best records. She has the strange ability to create albums where you no doubt recognize Kate from album to album, but as she always takes a step forward in her creations each album has its own unique character and are not similar with any other record she's made. In 50 Words for Snow she calmly paints a beautiful musical landscape helped by fine musicians, her voice which has matured with age and a perfect production. Listening to this album gives you a peaceful and harmonious moment. She undoubtedly takes new steps in her creativity and provides the listener with some new approaches, such as the earlier mentioned duets (with her son and Elton John), and overall the album is quite different from what she has done before. And yet, it sounds just as we expect Kate Bush to sound like. Album of the year 2011?

Tracklist
Side A
1. Snowflake
2. Lake Tahoe

Side B
1. Misty

Side C
1. Wild man
2. Snowed In At Wheeler Street

Side D
1. 50 Words For Snow
2. Among Angels

Cirrus Winery (2008)

This summer I visited Uppsala Progressive Festival which took place at the scene Parksnäckan (Uppsala). It was a pleasant afternoon and evening with a bunch of interesting bands. Another thing that was pleasant was that a lot of vinyl records was being sold there, of course most of them on the theme progressive music. Even more pleasant was that some of these records were the kind that you can’t find in stores (physical ones nor internet based), instead it was the kind of records that the band itself distributed and sold at different occasions, such as concerts or their own homepage.

For a number of reasons it’s fun to buy these kinds of records; you get an album in your collection that not many other people have, this makes you feel special. It’s fun to own an album that doesn’t exist in a lot of copies, it becomes somewhat a rarity. And I always have the hope that some day the band, or one member in the band, will become world famous, then a record like this will increase its economical value like a maniac and become hot stuff. A thoroughly cynical and economical investment, in other words.

This album has a of the above mentioned ingredients.

Cirrus Winery has a link to my hometown Uppsala since the band was created at Wiks Folkhögskola (Folkhögskola = a place where you usually live and participate in different courses / educations, often with a creative focus, a year or two) which is situated just outside Uppsala. A lot of young men and women have stayed there throughout the years and have taken part in more or less structured courses and lived more or less structured lives. Something tells me that alcohol and alternative drugs is sometimes an ingredient in the life at the Folkhögskola. Something tells me that the members of Cirrus Winery liked the life at the Folkhögskola. After the time at Wiks Folkhögskola the band members somewhat spread over the country but the band still remained, and if I understood it all correct the band members also became members in other bands without threatening the existence of CW.

The members of CW are Andreas Lindmark (keyboard), Mikael Lennholm (guitar, song, flute), David Svedmyr (bass, song, flute) and Thomas Johansson (drums, percussion, song).

I like this album. It’s progressive music that’s not very difficult, just more interesting and funnier then more mainstream music. The too complicated and technical musical creations are not there which is positive. In other words, CW has managed to find a good balance between the difficult and the easy-going. The songs are overall of good quality and I think they have had a lot of fun creating the album. And sure, it smells a lot of the 70s which I mean as a complement.

The weak side of the album are the passages with song. Usually I don’t have a problem with Swedish bands singing in English, but listening to this album I found myself wondering why they don’t sing in Swedish. I don’t think that the band members at the time at the recording were seeing themselves on the international scene, and the possibilities for the album to find its way outside the Swedish borders were probably quite small. Why not then sing in Swedish? One problem with them singing in Swedish is that the Swedish accent is heard quite clearly which bothers me, it makes it harder to take the music serious.

Another problem with the song is that I find the lyrics quite immature and kind of naively pretentious. There’s a potential to make them better and maybe if they would write them in Swedish they would find the words easier?

A third problem is that I don’t really like the singer’s voice and the position of the voice in the soundscape. The singer doesn’t really sing badly, it has more to do with me (as one usually says). Some of this can be blamed at the production and if one would remaster the album this could be done better. Today the recording, and especially the singing, sounds a little bit home made. The passages without singing are on the other hand really good and funny to listen to, and here I really enjoy the album. The passages without song are also a major part of the album.

In the text above the negative part of the records gets more room than the positive part. Therefore I’d like to make clear that this is an album I really like and recommend, especially for all the progressive fans out there. I think it’s possible to order it from there homepage:
http://cirruswinery.argh.se/

I’m happy that I bought this album, both concerning the music and the feeling the album gives me; to own something quite hard-to-find and what a special person I must be to do just that.

Tracklist

SideA

1. Swing it!
2. Junior High
3. I'm in Love
4. Octopus
5. The Rose and the Grave

Side B

1. Jag Äter en Apelsin Utan att Skala Den
2. Al Capone
3. Jimmys Jordgubbe
4. Hymn for the living