“Ray RIP” texted my longtime muso pal Graham at 7am. Since neither of us, to my almost certain knowledge, has ever befriended a Raymond, my reply was instant, if incredulous: “Manzarek?” Still, only when this was confirmed did I allow … Continue reading
A COUPLE OF PENSIONERS have been popping in for sleepovers lately, fitter than fiddles and bouncing with frankly disgraceful enthusiasm. Judging by their latest recorded deeds, The Next Day and State, Ms Creative Muse is still choosing their clothes, stirring … Continue reading
“It’s a tricky one to play.” Were my ears deceiving me? Here was the voice behind one of the most frequently heard-and-covered songs of all time, a voice that sometimes sounds like Bryan Ferry with a working soul, at others … Continue reading
I did an extremely un-me thing the other day. Come to think of it, I can’t think of too many music scribes who would have done it either. I dug out an old album and reversed my opinion. In a … Continue reading
Don’t get me wrong. As Jewish as I am, I’m all for Noddy roaring “Eeeet’s ChrisssssssssMAS!” or Johnny L hoping war was over or Roy wishing it could be like Yuletide every day. They all have their place. As do … Continue reading
MUSIC IS EXPRESSLY DESIGNED to make us feel. Good or bad, revived or suicidal, inspired or aroused, contemplative or melancholy. Combine it with a story and visuals – the right sort of visuals, that is, as opposed to some clever-dick … Continue reading
Call them the Not-So-Odd Couple. They finish each other’s sentences, know each other inside out and outside in, belong together every inch as much as Stan and Ollie, Eric and Ernie, even Joel and Ethan. But where does Don end … Continue reading
WE ALL have our favourite overtures and beginnings, but what about popular music’s answer to “Nobody’s perfect” and “Louis, I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship”? Herewith a few highly personal nominees, in reverse order of preference: … Continue reading
SO THERE I WAS, choogling to the iPod on the 9.44 from Lewes to Eastbourne, when the ebullient strains of XTC’s We’re All Light chirped up, reminding me of the most poignant email I have ever received (a list that … Continue reading
“OK, this is an American number one…” This rash, and, as it turned out, woefully inaccurate prediction comes courtesy of Karl Wallinger. One delivered, with due sceptical optimism, in a voice that sounds as if its owner has just O’Ded … Continue reading
LA Woman and Les Doors (or How I Learned To Stop Worrying And Love Wasps) BY NOW, THEY SAID, I would have outgrown it. When imagining myself plunged deep into the darkest inner recesses of middle age, I, too, once … Continue reading
RICKIE LEE JONES at the Royal Festival Hall 26/11/2011 A Wholly Undisinterested Review Health warning: if you are prone to cringe, foam or rage at reviews that put emotion first and last, and make no attempt whatsoever at objective appraisal, … Continue reading
Whether it’s Wendy/Walter Carlos dishing up electronic Beethoven, Keith Emerson microwaving Mussorgsky, Mark E Smith ransacking Lost In Music for its inner punk, Roxy Music depriving In The Midnight Hour of any vestige of soul or The Band and The Who vying for the roughest, rockiest version of Marvin Gaye’s Baby Don’t You Do It, the history of popular music has been littered with cover versions good, bad and plug ugly. Here are some of the most inspired… Continue reading
Manzarek was at his most distinctive and creative when allowed to stretch out – Light My Fire, The End, When The Music’s Over, Riders On The Storm – but this underrated nugget finds that organ tripping light and fantastic. Short, sweet and shamefully irresistible Continue reading
“I’m thinking of a change of direction.” Those are the words record companies dread most. Yet sometimes, just sometimes, those who dare win and the forces of lightness and maverickness prevail Continue reading
The racy bass, the dancing guitar, the darting flute, the shimmering strings, that misty Irish glade of a voice, at once knowing and yearning. Oh yes, and the Most Poetic First Verse Ev-ah: If I ventured in the slipstream/Between the viaducts of your dream… Continue reading
“So, you’ve finally got into ’em, eh? Took yer bleedin’ time, you Johnny Come Extremely Latelys. Think this one’s good? Hah! You haven’t lived, mate. You should hear the earlier, funnier ones. Infinitely better.” Pretzel logic? As in twisted, right? Continue reading
Martin Scorsese tips his titfer to acts that forged their legends in the Sixties – Van Morrison, The Stones, Smokey – and cranks up the volume; Cameron Crowe flies the Seventies flag, rummaging through his tattered review copies and turning the dial down to five. Continue reading
THOSE OPENING BARS: the shop window with a difference, the musical equivalent of the intro to a newspaper story. As a rule, they hint, at the very least, at what is to come. Occasionally – the gentle piano overture to … Continue reading
My favourite album by one of my most cherished musicians, rendered live from Hollywood, 40 years after its extraordinary birth? I’d rather spend the money on secondhand socks. Continue reading
