Little Gems

[Psmith]

Atlanta Rhythm Section
So into you
https://youtu.be/QyIZ3pYKOQM

[Maximus]

Like the Dear Nora. The guitar in particular and even a touch of The Velvet Underground. Weirdly, bits of the vocal sound like Taylor Swift but not in a bad way.

Atlanta Rhythm Section is as laid back as it gets without a bottle of Jack Daniels and some strong weed. That means it doesn't really take off until the guitar break at the end which then ends too soon. Nice though.

I notice that Paddy McAloon's solo album from 2003 has been given the re-release treatment and re-classified as a Prefab Sprout album.

I've loved it with some reservations for a while (and mentioned it here) and it was quite hard to find so the re-release is good.

It's hard to describe as it's much more orchestral than standard Sprout and has many clips of the radio McAloon was listening during a period of near blindness. On top of that, the centrepiece of the album is the 20 minute long title track which adds the one element I don't much like, a talkover, but it is incredible for all that.

A shorter taster track with radio clips:

Paddy McAloon - I'm 49

The main course:

I Trawl The Megahertz

[Psmith]

thanks.yes,very nice.

[Psmith]

Hugh Masekela
Grazing in the Grass
https://youtu.be/qxXZF60EPdM

Young-Holt unlimited
Soulful Strut
https://youtu.be/yX1XSOzDPik

[Maximus]

Hugh Masekela
Grazing in the Grass
https://youtu.be/qxXZF60EPdM

Young-Holt unlimited
Soulful Strut
https://youtu.be/yX1XSOzDPik

You've unleashed the anorak with those two great tracks, Psmith.

Simple one first. The fine vocal version of grazing, also a big hit:

The Friends Of Distinction - Grazing In The Grass

Soulful Strut is the instrumental to Barbara Acklin's 'Am I The Same Girl' that was part-written by her husband, Eugene Record. Eugene was the lead singer and mainstay of my favourite soul group The Chi-Lites and Young-Holt Unlimited were on the same label.

On top of that, the song and the instrumental became a bit of a favourite with reggae artists as well as being covered by Dusty Springfield and, really well, by Tony Hatch.

In the certain knowledge that no-one will be interested, here they are and every one worthwhile. Two great instrumentals first:

Soulful Strut (Am I the Same Guy) - Tony Hatch & The Satin Brass

From the Motown of reggae, Studio One - great piano in particular:

Studio One Soul - Sound Dimension "Soulful Strut"

I'm going to appall the purists by choosing a reggae version as my favourite over soul/pop versions and it's the most recent one too. Love it:

Winsome - Am I The Same Girl

The fantastic original:

Barbara Acklin - Am I the Same Girl 1968.

Dusty - also great:

Dusty Springfield-Am I the same girl..

Swing Out Sister also had a hit with it in 1992 which is decent but I find it a bit bland.

[Psmith]

Thanks,that's very interesting.My picks would be the Studio One Soul and the Barbara Acklin.

[Psmith]

Leatherface
Springtime
https://youtu.be/oZQ_7s0Fg48

It's from Mush.I think it was the first LP I bought that was only available in CD

[Maximus]

Quite like that although that 'crash, crash, crash' buzz saw sound gets a bit tedious after a while.

The original and still the best noisy bastards:

Iggy & The Stooges: I Got A Right

[Psmith]

The Supremes without La Ross.
Stoned Love
https://youtu.be/KXGabuGle1A

[Maximus]

The Supremes without La Ross.
Stoned Love
https://youtu.be/KXGabuGle1A

A classic despite the very stompy northern soul beat that I don't much care for. Not a huge fan of Diana Ross so no problem that it doesn't feature her.

In a completely different direction, this one caught my ear when it popped up on shuffle the other day. I'm a Kate fan but not an obsessive one.

This is certainly a little gem:

Kate Bush - How to Be Invisible

[Undie]

The Supremes without La Ross.
Stoned Love
https://youtu.be/KXGabuGle1A

My Loaded partner plays this occasionally, right before I Wanna Be Addored by The Stone Roses



Not going for the obvious Prodigy stuff today, I am sure I will later but FireStarter is nothing without this. My brother brought this on 7" single at the same time I got Solid by Ashford and Simpson. Our 1st singles.

Art of Noise - Close (To The Edit)
Probably a band I should spend some time on, I like everything that I have heard by them. It just isn't a lot though

[Maximus]

Art of Noise - Close (To The Edit)
Probably a band I should spend some time on, I like everything that I have heard by them. It just isn't a lot though

My thoughts exactly.

I am more and more coming to the conclusion that Trevor Horn is a vastly underrated.

[Psmith]

The Viscounts
Harlem Nocturne
https://youtu.be/qfWbRWTfKFg

(Cool sax)

[Maximus]

The Viscounts
Harlem Nocturne
https://youtu.be/qfWbRWTfKFg

(Cool sax)

I really like that, kind of 'garage-jazz' and I don't know it at all.

Here's some 'punk-jazz'. Tracks from each side of the pond.

There is a fine disco remix of this but I prefer the wilder version today - Undi will know both I imagine:

James Chance - Contort Yourself

A couple from The Pop Group. The first is maybe easier than the second. Both were produced by Dennis Bovell who I saw live a couple of weeks ago. He also produced The Slits and is also known for writing and producing Lovers Rock including Janet Kay's 'Silly Games', there's a range of music:

The Pop Group - She is beyond good and evil

I used to have a stencilled patch of the title on my home-made 'Anarchy' (see below) shirt back in the 70's.

The Pop Group - We Are All Prostitutes (Official Video)

The Westwood shirt I based mine on, fashion lovers (originals worth £100's):

[Psmith]

Oh.I'm going to have to listen to them a few times before I know whether I like it.

[Maximus]

Intense but rewarding.

[Psmith]

Monks(American 60's sort of punk)
monk time
https://youtu.be/nkQS0cqRoKY

I hate you

https://youtu.be/63Agrr2qC78

[Maximus]

Monks(American 60's sort of punk)
monk time
https://youtu.be/nkQS0cqRoKY

I hate you

https://youtu.be/63Agrr2qC78

I've posted The Monks here before a little while ago and they're a great garage band (the term given to 'American 60's sort of punk'). Particularly interesting in that they were formed by US servicemen stationed in Germany. They reformed and did some gigs maybe a decade ago. I didn't see them but they got good reviews.

If you like that sound then every home should own a copy of 'Nuggets', to quote from Wiki:

Nuggets: Original Artyfacts from the First Psychedelic Era is a groundbreaking compilation album of American psychedelic and garage rock singles released in the mid-to-late 1960s. It was assembled by Lenny Kaye, who at the time was a writer and clerk at the Village Oldies record shop in New York. He would later become the lead guitarist for the Patti Smith Group. Kaye worked on Nuggets under the supervision of Jac Holzman, founder of Elektra Records. Kaye initially conceived the project as series of approximately eight individual LP installments, each focusing on US geographical regions, but Elektra convinced him that one 2-disc LP would be a more commercially viable format.[3] The resulting double album was released on LP by Elektra in 1972 with liner notes by Kaye that contained one of the first uses of the term "punk rock".[4] It was reissued with a new cover design by Sire Records in 1976. In the 1980s Rhino Records issued Nuggets in a series of fifteen installments, and in 1998 as a 4-cd box set.

They added a couple of tracks from The Monks and other garage legends The Sonics to the extended version and I've also posted The Sonics before, but you can't have too much of them. I'm going to start with a track that I've also posted before but that I was surprised to hear used on an advert they're running in the UK for insurance - a great cover of a trad R&B song and slightly less aggressive than most of their output:

Have Love, Will Travel - The Sonics

The Sonics - Strychnine

The Sonics - Psycho

The Sonics - The Witch

[Psmith]

I want Nuggets.

[Maximus]

I want Nuggets.

It genuinely is the most influential compilation ever, with a direct line to punk and indie via The Stooges, the NY Dolls and the like. John Peel played tracks from it on his groundbreaking 'punk' show when there were very few contemporary punk records available.

More than that, it's a great album - all killer, no filler.