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The 13 best albums of all time - #3

Y - The Pop Group

When Y by The Pop Group was released in 1979, the (music) world split in two. On one side stood the punk traditionalists/neo-reactionaries, prog lovers, HM Greboes and Children of the Top of the Pops Generation on the other stood a small group of fresh faced punk-funkateers armed with nothing but a couple Ornette Coleman LP’s, a healthy dose of dub sensibility, the poetry of Arthur Rimbaud and a burning rage at the creeping darkness of consumer fascism. Despite originally not featuring the truly mind numbingly good 1st single ‘She is Beyond Good & Evil’, the album never fails to stir the heart, mind, body & soul.

From the opening attack of Thief of Fire the original album blew all the cobwebs, dust and inertia that had gathered in the dimly lit corridors of the new pop orthodoxy, clean away). A truly astonishing production job by Dennis Bovell give a completely new depth to the overall sound. The aspects of dub separation and gallons of reverb that had been liberally poured over the tracks gave the listener the sense of listening to Chic backing a ranter at Speakers Corner from the bottom of a mine shaft. Piano tinkle, tumble and echo around fluid funky basslines and Gareth Sager’s distinctive funky Rickenbacker riffs vie with Mark Stewarts howls of anguish and whispers of despair. If you haven’t heard Y before, you lucky thing because the pleasure that awaits you cannot be understated. If you’ve already heard Y before, you lucky thing because you know what an astonishing debut album it is...

Track listing
1. "She Is Beyond Good and Evil" – 3:23 (CD only: not on original '79 vinyl LP)
2. "Thief of Fire" – 4:35
3. "Snow Girl" – 3:21
4. "Blood Money" – 2:57
5. "We Are Time" – 6:29
6. "Savage Sea" – 3:02
7. "Words Disobey Me" – 3:26
8. "Don't Call Me Pain" – 5:35
9. "The Boys from Brazil" – 4:16
10. "Don't Sell Your Dreams" – 6:40
11. "3:38" - 3:42 (CD only: not on original '79 vinyl LP)

(© Spirit of a 1979 Fanzine Writer)

Poll Results - George Orwell Novels

1 - 1984
2 - Homage to Catalonia
3 - Coming up for air
4 - Down and out in Paris & London

A brief snapshot of why George Orwell is brilliant.

" If liberty means anything at all, it means the right to tell people what they do not want to hear. "

" Serious sport has nothing to do with fair play. It is bound up with hatred, jealousy, boastfulness, disregard of all rules and sadistic pleasure in witnessing violence. In other words: it is war minus the shooting. "

" Speaking the Truth in times of universal deceit is a revolutionary act. "

" The great enemy of clear language is insincerity "

" For a creative writer possession of the truth is less important than emotional sincerity. "

" Every generation imagines itself to be more intelligent than the one that went before it, and wiser than the one that comes after it. "

" The quickest way of ending a war is to lose it. "

" An autobiography is only to be trusted when it reveals something disgraceful. A man who gives a good account of himself is probably lying, since any life when viewed from the inside is simply a series of defeats. "

" Political language. . . is designed to make lies sound truthful and murder respectable, and to give an appearance of solidity to pure wind. "

" Saints should always be judged guilty until they are proved innocent. "

" At age 50, every man has the face he deserves. "

" On the whole human beings want to be good, but not too good and not quite all the time. "

" Advertising is the rattling of a stick inside a swill bucket. "

" Liberal: a power worshipper without power. "

" Who controls the past controls the future. Who controls the present controls the past. "

" War is a way of shattering to pieces, or pouring into the stratosphere, or sinking in the depths of the sea, materials which might otherwise be used to make the masses too comfortable, and hence, in the long run, too intelligent. "

Oh and one final cheery thought...

If you want a vision of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face -- forever.

Poll Results - 2012 v 2011

1. Better
2. Worse

2011 - 2012

Goodbye & Hello!

Poll Results - Top Crooner

1. Frank
2. Tony Christie
3. Tony Bennett
4. Paul Quinn
5. Tom Jones

Odd Songs that mean the world and yet... #1

Avenues and Alleyways

"Avenues and Alleyways" is a 1972 single recorded by Tony Christie as the theme song for the television series The Protectors. It was written and produced by Mitch Murray and Peter Callander, who were also responsible for Christie's "Las Vegas" and "I Did What I Did For Maria".

Following the chart-topping success of the re-release of "Is This the Way to Amarillo?" in 2005, this song was also re-released and peaked at #26 on the UK Singles Chart. On its original release, it had only reached #37.

It is included in the soundtrack of the 2000 film Love, Honour and Obey, starring Ray Winstone and Jude Law and that is where it first really seeped into my soul. A disarming melody combined with almost oddly poetic lyrics = my no.1 Karaoke tune, all thanks to Ray of course - Geezer!


Sleep like a baby,
my little lady,
Dream till the sunrise
creeps into your eyes
Dream till the sunrise
Turns on the day.

In the Avenues and Alleyways
while you sleep there's a whole world coming alive
Able and his brother, fighting one another
in and out of every dive
The Avenues and Alleyways
where the strong and the quick alone can survive
Look around the jungle
see the rough and tumble
Listen to a squealer cry
Then a little later
in the morning paper
Read about the way he died.

Wake up my pretty
Go to the city
Stay through the daytime
safe in the sunshine
stay till the daytime
turns into night.

In the Avenues and Alleyways
Where a mans gotta work out which side he's on
any way he chooses
chances are he loses
no one gets to live too long
the avenues and alleyways
Where the soul of a man is easy to buy
everybody's wheeling
everybody's steeling
all the low are living high
Every city's got em
can we ever stop em
some of us are gonna try.

Lyrics taken from http://www.lyricsmode.com/lyrics/t/tony_christie/#share

Poll Results - Favourite Protest

1 = Occupy St Pauls
1 = Poll Tax Riots
1 = Paris 68
1 = Greenham Common

And all the others...

Poll Results - Best British DJ

1 - John Peel

Well, what did you expect? Chris Moyles? Are you mad?

John Peel

(30 August 1939 - 25th October 2004)

Poll Results - Best British Guitarist

1 = Bert Jansch
1 = Davy Graham
1 = Johnny Marr
1 = Graham Coxon
1 = Pete Townsend
1 = John Martyn
1 = Nick Drake

Strings of Desire - #6

The six strings that drew blood - Rowland S. Howard's Jaguar.

Guitar thug blew into town
His eyes like wheels spinnin' round
Jerkin-off at every sound
Layin' all his crosses down
O yeah
He got Six Strings
The Six Strings that drew blood
The bar is full of Holy-Joes
A Holy-hole-a-whole-aria
Around the neck of our consumptive rose
Is the root of all his sorrows
O yeah
He got Six Strings
Six Strings that drew blood
A Holy-hole-a-whole-aria
Six Strings that drew blood
In the bathroom under cover
He turns on one tap to discover
He's smashed his teeth out on the other
Well he look in the mirror and say
Don't fuck me brother
Cause I got Six Strings
Six Strings that drew blood
Numbin' the runt of reputation they call rat fame
Top-E as a tourniquet
A low tune whistles across his grave
Forever the master and the slave of his Six Strings
A Holy-hole-a-whole-aria
Six Strings that drew blood.

(c) Nick Cave/The Birthday Party

Home of the Hits (cont...)

4999 and rising!!

Strings of Desire - #5

George Harrison 12 String Rickenbacker 360/v12

Quite simply one of the most stylish of guitars ever. Brought to notice by 'The Quiet One' (GH not I.D.S.) the 360 was at the forefront of the west coast sound epitomised by The Byrds. It's chiming jingly-jangly sound made it one of the most loved and sort after guitars of that (and indeed every) decade, since.
Cue song...

It's been a hard day's night,
and I've been working like a dog
It's been a hard day's night,
I should be sleeping like a log
But when I get home to you
I find the things that you do
Will make me feel alright...

Strings of Desire - #4

Guild M-20 Acoustic

Good enough for Nick Drake, good enough for us all!

Don’t you have a word
to show what may be done
Have you never heard
a way to find the sun
Tell me all that you may know
Show me what you have to show
Won’t you come and say
If you know the way to blue

Have you seen the land living by the breeze
Can you understand a light among the trees
Tell me all that you may know
Show me what you have to show
Tell us all today
If you know the way to blue?

Look through time and find your rhyme
Tell us what you find
We will wait
At your gate
Hoping like the blind

Can you now recall all that you have known
Will you never fall
When the light has flown
Tell me all that you may know
Show me what you have to show
Won’t you come and say
If you know the way to blue?

Bert Jansch (1943-2011) RIP

It is with great sadness that I heard today of the passing of Bert Jansch, a leading figure in the British folk revival of the 60s and one of the most respected musicians of his generation, he died of cancer aged 67.

Bert was a founding member of Pentangle, he also renowned as a guitar virtuoso and was sometimes hailed as a British Bob Dylan.

Neil Young said: "With deep regret Pegi and I acknowledge the passing of Bert Jansch. Pegi and I were lucky to play with him on all of our shows for the last couple of years. He is a hero of mine, one of my greatest influences. Bert was one of the all-time great acoustic guitarists and singer songwriters. Our sincerest sympathies to his soul mate Loren. We love you Bert."

Born in Glasgow on 3 November 1943, Jansch released 23 solo albums, the last of which, The Black Swan (2006), featured collaborations with Beth Orton and Devendra Banhart.

He was the recipient of two lifetime achievement prizes at the BBC Folk awards – one for his solo achievements in 2001 and the other, in 2007, as a member of Pentangle. The band reformed in 2008.

In June 2009, he discovered he had a golf ball-size tumour on one of his lungs following what was at first a routine visit to the dentist. Following treatment, he went on to co-headline a US tour with Young. Jansch had recently been forced to cancel a live show in Edinburgh due to ill health and was living in a hospice in north London at the time of his death.

Those he influenced included Jimmy Page, Nick Drake, Graham Coxon, Donovan, Bernard Butler and Paul Simon. According to fellow guitarist Johnny Marr: "He completely reinvented guitar playing and set a standard that is still unequalled today … without Bert Jansch, rock music as it developed in the 60s and 70s would have been very different."

Jansch told The Guardian last year: "I'm not one for showing off. But I guess my guitar-playing sticks out."

He was a true virtuoso, a major influence on my more recent musical tastes and will be greatly missed.

Strings of Desire - #3

Johnny Marr's White on white Fender Jaguar

I could have chosen almost any one of Johnny Marr's guitars from his first album Rickenbacker, his 'The Queen is Dead' green Telecaster or his 'How Soon is Now' Epiphone Casino. However, in the end I couldn't resist his current axe du jour, the fantastic white on white Jaguar that he used as his main guitar with The Cribs.

Having been fortunate enough to see him in action up close with the Jarman boys on their last tour of 'Straya. I was blown away by the tone, feel and of course style of the Jaguar. Fender are due to produce a Johnny Marr signature Jag in January 2012, which if their attention to detail matches Johnny's will be an absolute must for any self respecting guitar stylist!

Strings of Desire - #2

Rickenbacker 330

Despite not being able to play it when I bought it, this is the first proper guitar I ever owned. The classic Rickenbacker 330, made famous by Messrs Weller, Marr, Townsend et al.

If you want a trebly jangly feedback enducing experience, then look no further. especially when twinned with the VOX AC30.

Ladies & Gentlemen, I give you the perfect Zap! Wham! Kerpow! Mod guitar!!!

1,2,3,4...

Strings of Desire - #1

The Graham Coxon Fender Telecaster

Exhilerating, innovative and very talented. Graham Coxon is one of the best guitarists to come out of Britain.

His solo work and Blur back catalogue are testimony to his ear for a vibrant mix of melody and discord. The majority of his finest work has been written on a Fender Telecaster. And for that reason alone...


...I want one!