Modern Vespa

There was a whole "scene" back then that was definitely outsider.

I was about to say this exactly. I think New York is his best work and holds true maybe more so today than when it came out. Or maybe I just wasn't old and jaded enough to really "get" it back then.

One of my favorite albums ever! Not a single filler track. This one resonated with me after we had kids:

I knew I just needed to be patient!

Incredible bongo band
"Apache"

Angus young --AC/DC
"On Broadway"
Watch the video.

Here's a good morning ramble for you. Kick back with a cup of coffee and follow along.

My Dad and I don't agree much on music. He doesn't think anything good was written after The Beach Boys, except for maybe some Willie Nelson, but ok.

Anyway, back in high school, one of our local stores was doing away with all of their 8-Tracks. Two for a buck, so Dad thought he'd pick a couple up for me.

One of them was Chick Corea's Return to Forever. Great band, and since my older brother was a jazz trumpet player it seemed like an obvious choice. The other was Roy Harper's 'Bullinamingvase' which became one of my very favorite albums of all time, and led me down another musical journey I'll talk about later. I loved it so much that when it went wonky in the middle (as 8-Tracks sometimes did) Dad and I pulled the whole thing apart, strung it back and forth across the living room and wound it all back up, taping the case back together only to find out we'd done it all up backward.

So, I began looking for other copies, but it was the 1980s. Resources were limited. It wasn't until my cousin Chris in Minneapolis found a copy of it in their public library and put the whole thing on a mixtape for me that I had it again. It's what we did back in the day. That tape was subsequently stolen from my car in Florida, which really has no bearing on this conversation.

So, on the mixtape, along with Roy Harper, he included 'Dark Side of the Moon', some Rush, the Plimsoul's 'A Million Miles Away', a band called Chameleon who did a rather good cover of 'I Have Friday On My Mind', some excerpts from The Replacements' 'Tim' and - this is the reason for this post - Robyn Hitchcock's 'I Often Dream of Trains'.

So, Robyn Hitchcock ... there's just so much. Trains has become one of those albums that has a special place in my heart, and always will. Funny thing is I was in love with Hitchcock's music BEFORE I discovered Syd Barrett's work, which is really ass-backward. Still, over the years it gave me a deeper appreciation for Bowie, Marc Bolan and the whole genre that was spawned by Syd Barrett.

Anyway, without Barret we might not have had Bowie or Bolan or who knows who else. And certainly maybe not Robyn Hitchcock.

So, this one - the live version from the album 'Gotta Let This Hen Out' - is always in my car and pops up every once in a while and always makes me smile. This is a beautiful version. It's what it would have sounded like had it been included on 'Trains' because the rest of the album has the same feel.

Here's the audio from the album version for comparison.

He's not everyone's cup of tea, but worth digging into.

So, inadvertently my father, who thinks Larry's Country Diner is the epitome of fine music, helped shape some of the very roots of my personal music catalog. It also helped me to realize early on that you should give all music a chance. You never know what you might find.

oh how I do love Mr Hitchcock.

True story: Pre-internet Late 1980's. I was convinced that Robyn Hitchcock was just a pseudonym used by Syd Barrett. I honestly thought it was a possibility for a few years in my teens.

seamus26 will doubtless already be familiar with Robyn Hitchcock's earlier band, The Soft Boys, but for the rest of the room, their "Underwater Moonlight" album is well worth checking out.

Here's a sample:

One could have only hoped.

Nobody could have known in 1983 how cool Brian Setzer would still be today.

So ... Bob Geldof. Bob, Bob, Bob. Kind of a controversial figure, to say the least. I remember buying Band Aid's "Do They Know It's Christmas" on 45. Christmas aside it was a great message. Then came Live Aid, and what a trip that was. And I'd still never heard of Bob Geldof. I mean, I knew he played Pink in 'The Wall', but that was about the extent of it.

And then I got into the Boomtown Rats. And I connected the dots. And I bought his autobiography 'Is That It?' and learned a lot about his perspective on things. His album 'The Happy Club' is another one of my very favorite albums. This is the opening track. I just heard it in my car this morning. Room 19.

So, if you don't know the story about his marriage to Paula Yates, it ended when she left him for Michael Hutchence of INXS. She and Hutchence had a baby together, Heavenly Hiraani Tiger Lily Hutchence. After Hutchence hung himself (either intentionally or accidentally) and Yates was found dead in bed from a heroin overdose by Tiger Lily (at age four), Geldof adopted and raised her as his own. I can't even imagine.

Anyway, Bob has done a lot of campaigning for father's rights, a subject that hits me close to home as well. Despite being a complete arse a lot of the time, I can't help but shake the thought I'd love to sit with him in a pub for a week.

'Joey's On The Street Again' is - in my opinion - one of the great rock and roll songs of all time. We could all use more saxophone.

Amazing stuff. And an amazing life. Thanks, Bob.

ARE YOU READY TO RAMBLE?

And here we go. How many people have ever answered that question, "If you were trapped on a desert island and could only take five albums with you, what would you pick?"

My answer has changed over the years, but this one is always on the list of five. This track is probably my favorite on the album.

So, all three members are fantastic musicians. Nick Laird Clowes is an incredible songwriter with a great voice. Kate St John is a very talented multi-instrumentalist and Gilbert Gabriel has gone on to do some wonderful soundtrack and composition work.

The sound of the Dream Academy was just different than a lot of other music at the time. It was more complex and seemed to have a depth to it a lot of other music didn't. Everyone knows "Life In A Northern Town". I won't write about all the Nick Drake / Dave Gilmour connections, (except to mention it was written on Nick Drake's guitar from the cover of Bryter Later)



but interesting stuff if you get a chance to look it up. I've made it no secret that Dave Gilmour is one of my heroes anyway. Just another dot in the matrix of connected dots.

Before Dream Academy, Nick was in a band called Alfalpha. This is a video from 1977 on the Marc Bolan show. See the dots? Syd Barrett ... Marc Bolan ... Dave Gilmour ... Dream Academy.

He then went on to produce an album under the name Trashmonk. I tried to post the video for his song "Polygamy" but it's blocked for posting. You can look it up.

But Dream Academy's first album is good start to finish. Always a top fiver.

No rambling today. Just a flashback to 1993 when guitars still ruled. Great time for music and what a great hook this song had.

Urge Overkill - "Sister Havanna"

after watching this:
I really needed to listen to this:

Ha! Love me some CVB.

Currently on heavy rotation chez metadaddy...

Test replying to see what might be happening re: a problem report by metadaddy. No obvious problems so far.

Test reply from Safari on iPhone. No problems so far.

Anyone else encountering any issues posting to this thread?

I often get this when posting to this thread from my iphone:

That's exactly what I'm seeing.

I did too many...

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The characters in the book I'm reading right now just went to a Dead Kennedys show, so it's back on my mind.

Dating my Gen X self...

I saw the Dead Kennedy's live in 1985. Scratch Acid opened. Fantastic show. A bit scary down the front for a 14 year old kid that weighed, maybe a buck twenty wet.

Still not the scariest thing I ever saw... That prize belongs to the Butthole Surfers. Seen about the same year in a basement club called Power Tools. Low ceilings, over sold, broken water pipe on the ceiling dripping (draining?) over the pit. Fire. Strobes. Naked dancers. Just another level of insanity entirely.

I could swear when they played the track dum dum the drummers used femur bones instead of drum sticks. (But... I cant promise that some of the things that were seen were actually there... because... um... substances.)

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No long explanation. Missing the '80s today.

EVERYBODY DANCE!

Brian Setzer, folks.

Needs no introduction

Or buy some Gap khakis. Good either way.

Every time corporations use great songs for advertising, a little piece of me dies inside.

Still seething about this one :

I remember an interview with Steven Page where they asked him about the Barenaked Ladies licensing One Week to (I think) Nissan and he replied with one word: "Money."

Money can't buy you happiness, but it can make you less sad.

Missed this in real time... but glad to have stumbled on it a few years ago.

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Going through the 6 LP "Live from the Greek". Jimmy Page and The Black Crowes.

surely is already posted here?

What say you, Shirley?

If you were at the dance, this might give you a moment, too..

open them together (repeat CCR as often as you like)

welcome home, troop, from an old medic...
O.S.

Just saw this last night. Fantastic!

Also ... music related.
Why is it I never knew Henry Rollins was so freaking funny?

Forgot about those guys! Thanks for the reminder

Currently having a Indie festival myself