From the Vaults

Allen Ginsberg and Bob Dylan: Jimmy Berman (1971)

17 May 2012 | <1 min read | 1

Given they had so much in common -- a love of words, counterculture cachet, Jewish upbringing and so on -- it is a surprise poet Allen Ginsberg and Bob Dylan didn't write and record together more often. There was a session with poet Anne Waldman in 1968 (which had Arthur Russell on cello), others in '71 with a similar group (and a sitar player) and another in '81. Oddly enough it seems... > Read more

Norman "Hurricane" Smith: Oh Babe, What Would You Say (1972)

15 May 2012 | 1 min read

Norman Smith was an unlikely chart-topper when he knocked Elton John off the top of the US charts with this, his second single: he was 49 at the time and prior to that his career had been firmly on the other side of the microphone as an engineer and a producer. But what a career he had enjoyed. In his late 30s he'd been taken on as a sound engineer at EMI's studios in Abbey Road and was... > Read more

The Saints: (I'm) Stranded (1976)

12 May 2012 | 1 min read

Bob Geldof once observed, "Rock music of the Seventies was changed by three bands -- the Sex Pistols, the Ramones and the Saints". That the Saints out of suburban Brisbane -- hardly the home of rock music, let alone an angry and intelligent version -- should be in that illustrious company comes as no surprise to anyone who followed their career from this exceptional debut single,... > Read more

The Music Convention: Bellyboard Beat (1968)

7 May 2012 | 1 min read

Some years ago while researching and writing the liner notes to a series of New Zealand psychedelic collections put together by Grant Gillanders, I came upon this track . . . and just kept playing it. In '68, the Music Convention seemed trapped between two eras, the surf-rock guitar of the early Sixties and the psychedelic movement with its sitars and mind-bending possibilities. Rather... > Read more

The Tigers: Red Dress (1980)

5 May 2012 | 2 min read

As the Warratahs embark on a 25th anniversary tour, it is timely to look back at this New Zealand band which brought country music into fashionable rock circles, and connected with that mysterious place known to city folk only as "the heartland". But why not look back further? Back to a band which had future Warratahs' singer-songwriter Barry Saunders and bassist-songwriter... > Read more

The J Geils Band: No Anchovies, Please (1980)

4 May 2012 | <1 min read | 2

The J Geils Band out of Massachusetts is best known for their terrific single Angel in a Centrefold (aw, c'mon, it's great, in a rock'n'roll Benny Hill way . . . see clip below) and Freeze Frame -- and in this country probably not a lot else. No one I know has ever had a J Geils Band album -- or has admitted to as much. I do. Just the one. It is Love Stinks (from the year before the... > Read more

The Flying Burrito Brothers: Wild Horses (1970)

3 May 2012 | 1 min read

Few Rolling Stones songs have had such an interesting history -- right up to Susan Boyle's recent interpretation -- as this one. Keith Richards has always claimed the title was his; Mick Jagger insists the song came from the first words Marianne Faithfull said when she came arround from a failed suicide attempt in '69: "Wild horses wouldn't drag me away from you". The Stones... > Read more

Peter Cook and Dudley Moore: The LS Bumble Bee (1967)

27 Apr 2012 | <1 min read

From Stan Freberg and Peter Sellers through National Lampoon, the Rutles, Weird Al Yankovich and Spinal Tap, there has been a long tradition of skewering the foibles and excesses of pop culture. This piece appeared during the Summer of Love and took a poke at hippie culture, drugs and the infatuation with all things Indian. A rather obvious target and while this isn't up there with... > Read more

Roy Milton: The Hucklebuck (1949)

23 Apr 2012 | 1 min read

The career of band leader, jump jive and rhythm and blues singer Roy Milton (1907-83) is long and convoluted, and full of crossover chart hits in the Forties and Fifties. His story is best told here, so let's just focus on this song -- which New Zealanders will recognise because it was given an upbeat overhaul in 1965 and became a chart hit for the hugely popular sister duo The Chicks out... > Read more

Broadcast: Chord Simple (2006)

20 Apr 2012 | <1 min read

The British electronica band Broadcast were very big, in a quiet and inconspicuous way. And regrettably dogged by misfortune, if not tragedy. They formed in the mid 2000s, had a track on the first Austin Powers soundtrack (the somewhat forgettable Book Lovers), changed line-up a bit, and Simpsons' creator Matt Groenig had them on the bill for the All Tomorrow's Parties festival in... > Read more

Romeo Void: Never Say Never (1982)

18 Apr 2012 | 1 min read | 1

The British label Stiff Records (which gave the world Jona Lewie, Lena Lovich and Wreckless Eric alongside Elvis Costello and Ian Dury, among others) said everybody had one good single in them. Romeo Void out of San Francisco had Never Say Never, a smart sliver of New Wave pop which rode a relentless beat and was elevated not just by the ennui and indifference of singer Debora Iyall but by... > Read more

Le Roi Jones: Our Nation is Like Ourselves (1970)

17 Apr 2012 | <1 min read

Recorded at Buffalo State University, Le Roi Jones -- aka Amiri Baraka -- wasn't taking any prisoners in this powerful reading where he was among the first to reclaim and redefine the "N" word and throw "motherfugga" into the public domain. It was also -- like the earlier work by The Last Poets and Gil Scott Heron -- a call to arms, or at the very least a cry against... > Read more

Bill Elliot and the Elastic Oz Band: God Save Us (1971)

12 Apr 2012 | 1 min read

The problem with political songs is that so often they are merely sloganeering and headlines. Fine print and nuance can't make it into a three minute song. Still, there's nothing quite like a chant such as "power to the people" -- even if we are never quite sure which people should have the power. For a few years from the late Sixties, John Lennon's "political"... > Read more

Tintern Abbey: Vacuum Cleaner (1967)

3 Apr 2012 | <1 min read | 1

Without a doubt one of the least promising song titles ever (were they announcing this sucked?) and the band's name similarly tapped into the obvious Anglo-fashionability of the period when the Beatles' Sgt Peppers album and shops like Granny Takes a Trip were London's cultural reference points. But, with lines like "fix me up with your sweet dose", the bent and careering... > Read more

Will Geer: Reading Woody Guthrie (1947)

2 Apr 2012 | 1 min read

Will Geer (born William Ghere) enjoyed quite a remarkable acting career but was perhaps best, and possibly only, known by many for his role as Grandpa in the popular television series The Waltons. When he died in '78 his passing was written into the series -- and only when the tributes flowed and the obituaries were written did many fans of that show realise the kindly old actor was gay,... > Read more

Unknown: A Teen Talks/Count Your Blessings (1965)

30 Mar 2012 | 1 min read

Even in these days of cheap downloads you'd still say $1.50 for 13 pieces of music and a spoken word track is kinda cheap. Possibly even good value . . . until you play the Teen to Teen Around the World album put out on the Word label from Illinois. According to the liner notes, the Youth for Christ organisation would send out groups of American teenagers ("each including half a dozen... > Read more

Noel Coward: Mad Dogs and Englishmen (1932)

28 Mar 2012 | <1 min read

Ahhh . . . because we can? Noel Coward (1899-1973) stamped his personality on an almost forgotten era and he was a polymath who whose work spanned theatre (as an actor and playwright) as well as being a witty songwriter whose lyrics were was often identifiable by their rapier wit. His songs however were usually so singular that few could convincingly cover them. And so it is to Coward... > Read more

Fatal Jelly Space: Moonlit Track (1990)

27 Mar 2012 | <1 min read | 4

Although they had a band name which wouldn't have disgraced a prog-rock outfit of the Seventies, Auckland's Fatal Jelly Space were rather far removed from lengthy noodling. They were an all-woman five-piece co-fronted by the wonderful Frankie who -- although tattooed and with a shaven head -- was far from a ferocious personality off-stage. But they delivered an abrasive confrontation... > Read more

Louise Attaque: L'imposture (1997)

26 Mar 2012 | 1 min read

Louise Attaque were, for about five years from 1996, one of the most popular bands in France. Their self-titled debut album of '97 was widely hailed and went on to sell almost three million copies, which was an extraordinary figure in the French rock scene at the time. With violin, a folk-rock drive and wry lyrics, they appealed to people who had perhaps grown up on the Clash and post-punk,... > Read more

The Last Poets: When the Revolution Comes (1970)

21 Mar 2012 | 1 min read

In the wake of the killing of Martin Luther King and the rise of Black Power politics, the ghettos were in flames. It was inevitable that music -- and in this case street poetry coupled with Afro-roots music -- should reflect, and even drive, the times. The Last Poets were mad as hell and not going to take it: and they were mad as hell about complacent blacks as much as the oppressive white... > Read more