From the Vaults

Howard Morrison Quartet: Rioting in Wellington/Mori the Hori (1962)

30 Apr 2023 | 1 min read

Recorded live in concert in 1962, these two tracks by the enormously popular Howard Morrison Quartet show just how little things have changed in New Zealand, and how much they have. The reference to Aunt Daisy in Rioting in Wellington won't mean much to anyone who wasn't there, but it is a reference to a radio star making the move to television. Ironically in New Zealand any television... > Read more

Bill Haley and the Comets: Thirteen Women (1954)

3 Apr 2023 | <1 min read

Talking to Memphis writer Robert Gordon about his excellent book on the famous Stax recording studio in his hometown, I was reminded of just how often hit songs were on the flipside of singles. Green Onions for Booker T and the MGs on Stax among them. Back in the days when disc jockeys had control over their own playlists they would frequently flip a record over to hear what was on the... > Read more

Bessie Banks: Go Now (1964)

26 Mar 2023 | 1 min read | 1

Before they found fame in 1967 with their orchestrated pop on the album Days of Future Passed (and the hit single Nights in White Satin), the Moody Blues out of Birmingham, England were just another pleasant and servicable pop band of the Beatles era. On their debut album The Magnificent Moodies of '65 they had a stab at James Brown's I'll Go Crazy, the Berry-Greenwich tune I've Got A... > Read more

Billy Preston: All Things Must Pass (1970)

18 Mar 2023 | <1 min read

It says much about George Harrison's generous spirit that he gave Billy Preston the chance to release versions of his songs My Sweet Lord and All Things Must Pass before he did so himself. Those two songs -- along with a Preston-Harrison co-write Sing One for the Lord and Preston's take on Lennon-McCartney's I Got A Feeling -- appeared on Preston's second album for the Beatles' Apple label,... > Read more

Asha Bhosle: Dum Maro Dum (1971)

13 Mar 2023 | <1 min read

The great Indian singer Asha Bhosle (89 at the time of this writing) has recorded more than 12,000 songs in her long career as a playback singer for films across many genres. Her sister Lata Mangeshkar (d 2022) was also an enormously prolific playback singer who recorded even more songs, and Bhosle's second husband was the famous songwriter/composer RD Burman (d 1994) who wrote the scores... > Read more

Toni Basil: Nobody (1982)

6 Mar 2023 | <1 min read

Is there a more annoying song than Toni Basil's inanely catchy Mickey ("Oh Mickey you're so fine . . . hey Mickey" etc)? It's the kind of song you wake up with banging around inside your head and you spend the rest of the day wondering what you did in a previous lifetime to deserve such hellish punishment. It is in there with Racey's Some Girls ("some girls will, some... > Read more

Lewis: Like to See You Again (1983)

19 Feb 2023 | 1 min read

The story behind the obscure album L'Amour by a man known only as Lewis is as odd and out-of-sych as the cover photos. In '83 the handsome, well-groomed Lewis turned up at a rundown punk studio in LA, arriving in a white Mercedes convertible with his pretty surfer-girl girlfriend. He said he wanted to record an atmospheric album -- which he did -- and then he disappeared leaving barely... > Read more

Lightnin' Hopkins: Automobile (1949)

12 Feb 2023 | <1 min read

Bob Dylan aficionados should get a copy of this on 33 1/3rpm record and play it at 45, or at about 40rpm. And lo! It sounds perilously close in many ways -- an inspiration if nothing else -- for Bob's Leopard-Skin Pill Box Hat. Dylan had seen the great Lightin' Hopkins on television a few years before he [Dylan] arrived in New York to haunt the downtown folk clubs and soak up... > Read more

The Legendary Stardust Cowboy: I Took a Trip on a Gemini Spaceship (1968)

5 Feb 2023 | 1 min read

Norman Odam – still alive at 75 – isn't a household name, unless your household is attuned to outsider artists like Jandek, the Shaggs, Daniel Johnston, Roky Erickson, Hasil Adkins and the like. But as The Legendary Stardust Cowboy – the name he appeared under – he might just be familiar to David Bowie fans, because it from him that Bowie borrowed the... > Read more

Teddy Bennett: The Life I Live (1962)

29 Jan 2023 | 2 min read

Unlike his lesser peer Ronnie Sundin who is reasonably well known in New Zealand rock'n'roll circles but a very limited talent, Teddy Bennett is harder to find information about. In fact, Elsewhere is prepared to admit that until lunch with a friend who had found a copy of Bennett's 1961 album -- the unpromisingly titled Where Were You On Our Wedding Day -- we'd never heard of him.... > Read more

Cracker: Movie Star (1993)

22 Jan 2023 | 1 min read

In some liner notes to the 1994 triple-CD box set compilation of tracks from the Virgin label, Martin Aston said of the American band Cracker “with their confidently ramshackle boho-pop they could be the Next Likely To from across the water”. However despite the critical and commercial success of their Kerosene Hat album – on which this was a track – there were... > Read more

Neil Young and the Bluenotes: This Note's For You (1988)

15 Jan 2023 | 1 min read

An artist, sportsperson or public figure who doesn't accept, let alone solicit, corporate money these days is a rarity, possibly even considered somewhat odd -- and maybe even suspect. But back when people like Michael Jackson and Madonna were lining up for Pepsi/Coke dollars and rap stars were schilling for shoes, Neil Young stepped out and said, "Ain't singin' for Pepsi, ain't... > Read more

The Beatles: 12 Bar Original (1965)

2 Jan 2023 | <1 min read | 1

On November 4 1965 when the Beatles were rushing to finish the Rubber Soul album they polished up a piece Lennon-McCartney had written more than two years previous and handed it to Ringo. It was What Goes On and Ringo was even given a co-credit for whatever contribution he made. That same day however they recorded this lengthy piece, their first instrumental during their EMI years and... > Read more

The Fab Four: Jingle Bells

24 Dec 2022 | <1 min read

There are a lot of Christmas albums out there. But every now and again one comes along and you think . . . Yeah, why not? It's a bit of a wheeze but these guys make a fine fist of taking Tomorrow Never Knows into the Yuletide season. Enjoy. And enjoy Christmas. (Thanks for this Fred, another album in my massive pile of Beatle-related albums!) . For more... > Read more

Superman is Dead: Kuta Rock City (2003)

19 Dec 2022 | <1 min read

Those who head to Bali for some r'n'r and an escape from stress (as I did, see here) will probably come back with the memory of quiet ambient gamelan music which drifted from speakers in the restaurant or by the pool. Lovely. There is however a whole lot of other music in Bali, not the least of it coming from this long-running post-punk trio whose rock credentials probably aren't... > Read more

Dread Zeppelin: All I Want for Christmas is My Two Front Teeth (1990)

18 Dec 2022 | <1 min read

Christmas is upon us. And in the spirit of the day here is one of the funniest bands ever. Whoever thought pulling together reggae rhythms and Led Zeppelin riffery was an odd fish . . . but then they went one step beyond and fronted the band with an Elvis impersonator. This was classic rock-comedy . . . and their shows were hilarious. For this B-side however they went even... > Read more

Girlschool: Tush (1981)

12 Dec 2022 | <1 min read

In the catalogue of hard rocking women, Girlschool out of Britain deserve to be counted in there alongside Joan Jett, the Runaways and a few select others. They arrived as part of the New Wave of British Heavy Metal in the late Seventies alongside Saxon, Tank, Iron Maiden and others, but were most often associated with Motorhead as their mainman Lemmy was a great supporter of Girlschool.... > Read more

Cheryl Lynn: Got To Be Real (1978)

5 Dec 2022 | <1 min read

If it weren't for Madonna's hit Vogue most people outside of New York wouldn't have known of this posturing late Eighties style which seemed to come with more attitude-dance than seemed healthy. Narcissism isn't pleasant at any time. But the music was something else and no musical style should be held to account because if its followers (or even its practitoners). The... > Read more

Otis Blackwell: Daddy Rollin' Stone (1953)

28 Nov 2022 | <1 min read

Otis Blackwell is best known as a songwriter, and he was one the most prominent and best in the rock'n'roll era. Among his classics were Fever, All Shook Up, Don't Be Cruel, Great Balls of Fire, Return to Sender . . . But he was, at the start of his career, a performer himself and the slinky Daddy Rollin' Stone was his single which influenced the likes of Leiber and Stoller.... > Read more

Professor Longhair: Her Mind is Gone (1980)

14 Nov 2022 | 1 min read

There are dozens of places you can start on a discovery of the genius of New Orleans' legendary pianist/arranger and songwriter Professor Longhair, the man Allen Toussaint called "the Bach of Rock". Dr John said Longhair "put the funk into music, he's the father of the stuff" and producer Jerry Wexler acclaimed him as "a seminal force, a guru, the original creator... > Read more