Essential Elsewhere
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World Party: Goodbye Jumbo (1990)
31 Jan 2011 | 3 min read
By any measure, 1990 was a pretty good year in rock and pop: Sinead O'Connor announced herself with the single Nothing Compares 2 U and the album I Do Not Want What I Haven't Got; George Michael's Listen Without Prejudice Vol 1 delivered timeless music; and things toughened up in Seattle with Sub Pop signing Mudhoney, Mother Love Bone, Soundgarden and Nirvana. Janet Jackson unleashed her... > Read more
World Party: Way Down Now
Richard Thompson: Rumor and Sigh (1991)
17 Jan 2011 | 2 min read | 2
Like Elvis Costello, Christy Moore, the late John Martyn and a few others in a very select company, English singer/songwriter and guitarist Richard Thompson made timeless albums. Pick up any of his from the early Eighties or even the late Seventies and they make as much sense today as they did then. Yet after more than 45 years in the game, he's still not a household name . . . and... > Read more
Richard Thompson: I Misunderstood
The Master Musicians of Jajouka: Brian Jones presents The Pipes of Pan at Jajouka (1971)
1 Nov 2010 | 3 min read
Some albums have auspicious beginings and a messy legacy. So it is with this album recorded in Morocco in 1968 by Brian Jones, then of the Rolling Stones. By the time the album was released Jones had been dead a year -- he drowned a year after his trip to Morocco and was no longer a Stone -- and a shadow was cast over its mesmerising music. When it was reissued in '95 by Point Music it... > Read more
The Master Musicians of Jajouka: Take Me With You My Darling, Take Me With You
The Rolling Stones, The Unstoppable Stones (1965)
23 Oct 2010 | 3 min read | 1
The early albums by the Beatles and the Rolling Stones appeared in different versions in Britain and the States. New Zealand being a colony thankfully got the UK versions for the most part, just as the gods intended. But in some instances we got something different from both -- and in this case, better. The album The Unstoppable Stones only ever appeared in Australia and New Zealand... > Read more
The Rolling Stones: You Can't Catch Me
King Sunny Ade: Synchro System (1983)
18 Oct 2010 | 2 min read
Given the long (and often shameful) history Britain has had with various parts of Africa from colonial times, it comes as a surprise that this album -- from 1983 no less -- was the first pop album to be recorded by an African musician in London. In the early Eighties there was surge of interest by the UK music press in certain African artists, notably Fela Anikulapo Kuti from Nigeria whose... > Read more
King Sunny Ade: Mo Ti Mo
Joe Ely: Live at Antones (2000)
27 Sep 2010 | 3 min read
After Joe Strummer's terrific showing at the Big Day Out in 2000, albums by his old band the Clash got a fair thrashing round my way, especially their sprawling three-album set from 1980, Sandinista! Over six sides of vinyl, they dragged together garage-trash rock and dub reggae, power pop and rockabilly, and most points in between. Strummer said he hoped people would just bang... > Read more
Joe Ely: Gallo del Cielo
Neil Young: On the Beach (1974)
11 Sep 2010 | 3 min read | 2
By consensus the idealism of the 60s was dealt two fatal blows in late '69: the first in August when the victims of Charles Manson's murderous family started turning up in flash Hollywood homes; then at the Rolling Stones' free concert at Altamont in December when Hells Angels took control of the crowd by means of billiard cues and blades. In a world of peace, flowers and waterbeds the bad... > Read more
Neil Young: Revolution Blues
Frank Sinatra: In the Wee Small Hours (1955)
9 Sep 2010 | 5 min read | 1
Some may remember it, that strange time when we were told that Tony Bennett was hip with the grunge crowd. It seemed unlikely (I doubted it) but it at least gave me the opportunity to interview him and he was, of course, positively charming as you might have expected. Quite why anyone would prefer Tony Bennett over Frank Sinatra was always the question, especially the so-called dissenting... > Read more
Frank Sinatra: Ill Wind
U2: Achtung Baby (1991); Zooropa (1993)
22 Aug 2010 | 6 min read | 2
Bono from U2 tells a good story. In fact Bono has a lot of good stories but this one is revealing . . . It seems that backstage at some gig in the mid Eighties Bob Dylan was playing an acoustic guitar and handed it to him. Dylan asked him to play one their songs. Bono said he realised in that moment that they didn’t have any real “songs”. They had plenty of stadium-shaking... > Read more
U2: The Fly (from Achtung Baby)
Elvis Presley, The Memphis Record (1969)
17 Aug 2010 | 3 min read
The consensus on Elvis Presley's genius among rock critics settles on two periods: his Sun Studio days in the mid 50s when he fused black blues and white country, and his famous '68 television special when he appeared wrapped in leathers for a menacing and sweaty performance which proved, despite all evidence to the contrary, that he still had the magic. Go beyond critics however and... > Read more
Elvis Presley: Long Black Limousine
The Ramones: Hey! Ho! Let's Go: Ramones Anthology (1999)
1 Jun 2010 | 4 min read | 1
Like many of my generation, I can remember exactly where I was when JFK, RFK and John Lennon were shot. And when Kurt Cobain proved, contrary to what he sang, he did have a gun. But with as much clarity I can also remember when I first heard the Ramones’ Sheena is a Punk Rocker. It came on a tape from a friend in London and I was driving when this blast of wonderful noise... > Read more
Sheena is a Punk Rocker
Various Artists: The History of Rhythm and Blues 1952-1957 (2010 collection)
24 May 2010 | 3 min read | 1
The first two volumes in this 4-CD series which traces the history of old style r'n'b have already been acclaimed at Elsewhere here and here respectively. These multi-genre, colour-blind, cross-label and highly inclusive collections not only cherry pick the most significant artists and songs in the growth of r'n'b but also intelligently include extensive selections from other genres (the... > Read more
Ruth Brown: Mama He Treats Your Daughter Mean (live in '56)
The Incredible String Band: Wee Tam and The Big Huge (1968)
6 Apr 2010 | 2 min read
Sometimes for my own private amusement I will sing aloud The Incredible String Band's The Son of Noah's Brother in its entirety. All 16 seconds of it. The lyrics run, "Many were the lifetimes of the son of Noah's brother, see his coat the ragged riches of his soul". And that's it: a lovely descending melody and not a wasted note or word. Quite what it means is anyone's... > Read more
The Incredible String Band: Douglas Traherne Harding
Love: Forever Changes (1967)
21 Mar 2010 | 4 min read | 2
When the British rock magazine Mojo published a special supplement on psychedelic rock back in February 2005, among the albums noted were all the usual suspects: Electric Ladyland by Jimi Hendrix took out the top spot and further down were Pink Floyd’s Piper at the Gates of Dawn, the Beatles’ Sgt Pepper’s and albums by the Mothers of Invention, Jefferson Airplane, Country... > Read more
Love: Andmoreagain
John Mayall: Blues From Laurel Canyon (1968)
28 Feb 2010 | 3 min read | 3
In the wake of '67s Sgt Pepper's the new thing in rock was "the concept album" and at the tail-end of that decade and well into the 70s a long list of bands weighed in: the Pretty Things with Parachute,The Who with Tommy, The Moody Blues, Genesis, Yes . . . Mostly these were musicians with an art school background and so testing themselves over a 40 minute album was... > Read more
John Mayall: Fly Tomorrow
Donovan: Troubadour; The Definitive Collection 1964-76 (1998 compilation)
22 Feb 2010 | 3 min read | 1
When I interviewed Donovan in 1998 -- mindful I might have to introduce him to a readership which had probably never heard of him -- I noted that even back in his heyday of the Sixties he'd been a hard one to figure out. The "folkie" tag he'd been pinned with after the success of his first songs Colours and Catch the Wind (and his "protest" song, the cover of Buffy... > Read more
Donovan: Sunshine Superman (1966)
Scott Walker, In Five Easy Pieces (2003)
10 Feb 2010 | 4 min read
The only time I saw Scott Walker I burst out laughing. It was the mid-60s and he was one of the (non-sibling) Walker Brothers on a package tour with the Yardbirds (guitarist Jimmy Page) and Roy Orbison. When the Walker Brothers ran on to the Auckland Town Hall stage, skinny-legged guys in tight pants and teased-out bouffants, they looked like hairy lollipops. My mates and I hooted with... > Read more
Scott Walker: In My Room
Little Feat: Dixie Chicken (1973)
24 Jan 2010 | 3 min read | 2
The critics liked Little Feat -- and Dixie Chicken -- a whole lot better than the public. Today any number of greybeards will tell you how they were deeply into the band but (as with those who were always into the Velvet Underground) the facts speak for themselves. Only 30,000 bothered to go to a shop and buy Dixie Chicken when it was released. It was the band's third commercial failure... > Read more
Little Feat: Roll Um Easy
Ravi Shankar, Improvisations (1962)
3 Jan 2010 | 3 min read
George Harrison quite correctly referred to the sitar master Pandit Ravi Shankar as "the godfather of world music" -- and Shankar was creating and giving his blessing to cross-cultural fusions and experiments long before the phrase "world music" was even thought of. There are of course many dozens of Shankar albums in the world -- from straight-ahead classical ragas to... > Read more
Ravi Shankar: Fire Night (with Bud Shank)
Dave Dobbyn: Twist (1994)
30 Dec 2009 | 3 min read | 2
With the Australian success of the Footrot Flats film in the early Nineties, it made sense for Dave Dobbyn to relocate across the Tasman and ride the wave of popularity of the songs he wrote for it. And in that great tradition of indifference Australians have shown New Zealand musicians -- more so then than today -- Dobbyn’s career languished. But his music didn’t. In... > Read more