Drop The Biscuit

This week we have the second in the brilliant ‘VIBRATING WHILST WAITING’ series from artist and friend GEORGIE HOPTON………where she continues with another heady mix of avant-garde, classical, jazz, electronica, pop & poetry. Smashin!

1 FRIEDRICH GAUWERKY & MARK KNOOP-HARMONY-XXXII FOR VIOLONCELLO AND PIANO (JOHN CAGE)

2 GERTRUDE STEIN-IF I TOLD HIM: A COMPLETED PORTRAIT OF PICASSO

3 BRUCE GILBERT-NET IN THE FEATHER

4 HE SHUFENG-THE JACKDAWS PLAYING WITH WATER

5 GIRMA BEYENE & AKALE WUBE-MUZIQAWI SILT

6 PAUL HILLIER & THEATRE OF VOICES-STIMMUNG:MODEL 51 (KARHEINZ STOCKHAUSEN)

7 THIRD COAST PERCUSSION-BEND (PETER MARTIN)

8 IVOR CUTLER TRIO-I’M GOING IN A FIELD

9 JANINA FIALKOWSKA-JEUX D’EAU M.30 (MAURICE RAVEL)

10 THE WILLIAM FAIREY BRASS BAND-LET’S GET BRUTAL

11 PETER ZUMMO/RIK ALBANI/BILL RUYLE-INSTRUMENTS: VI. UNISONS

12 JULIUS EASTMAN-EVIL NIGGER

13 MICHAEL TILSON THOMAS & LONDON SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA-GISELLE: VALSE (ADOLPHE CHARLES ADAM)

14 MARTIN CREED-AAH

“The Beatles are turning awfully funny, aren’t they?” (HM Queen Elizabeth to Sir Joseph Lockwood, chairman of EMI, October 1967).

A shrewd observation, m’am.

Each Beatle dealt with the shock of Brian Epstein’s passing in his own way.

Ringo took to the bottle and began having serious thoughts of a new career in the movies.

George, having earlier swapped acid for Transcendental Meditation and the Maharishi, lengthened his stride along the path to Enlightenment and badgered the others to keep pace.

On the other hand, John, devastated by yet another loss of someone close, looked to numb his pain with heroin and started spending longer in bed with Yoko.

Only Paul with his usual breezy optimism reckoned things could carry on as before. All they needed was the right project; something everybody could get behind. And by happy chance, sitting in his “to do” pile was the very thing: a half-thought-through idea for a lysergic home movie made in the spirit of Ken Keysey’s Merry Pranksters and their bus trip across America only with a typically English twist. The Magical Mystery Tour.

The finished product was broadcast on BBC1 Boxing Day 1967 and for the first time, a Beatles offering was met with near-unanimous negative reviews, dismissed as a self-indulgent, incoherent sozzled mess.

The accompanying record, a 6 track double ep (later padded out to album-length by the inclusion of non-LP singles and B sides from ’67) was more positively received and the customary queue of artists intent on putting their own spin on the contents soon formed, with a gaggle of progsters (Spooky Tooth, Pip Pyle, Cranium Pie) and pranksters (The Residents, The Wilson Malone Voiceband) at the head.

Behind these were more family-friendly acts generously prepared to overlook those “funny turns”: Kenny Ball with a taken at face value reading of Your Mother Should Know, the samba stylings of Sergio Mendes and the none more wholesome Anita Kerr Singers.

As a bonus and for completeness, we’ve included covers of the four new songs from the Yellow Submarine cartoon soundtrack, all of which were recorded around the same time.

MMT marked the end of The Beatles psychedelic phase. As soon as the recording sessions were over, the four of them decamped to the Maharishi’s retreat at the foot of the Himalayas where, with only acoustic guitars (and Donovan) for company, they laid the foundations for their next release.

1 Cheap Trick-The Magical Mystery Tour

2 Kenny Ball’s Jazzmen-Your Mother Should Know

3 Spooky Tooth-I Am The Walrus

4 The Residents-Flying

5 Sergio Mendes & Brazil ’66

6 Colin Newman-Blue Jay Way

7 Don Carlos-Hello, Goodbye

8 Pip Pyle-Strawberry Fields Forever

9 The Wilson Malone Voiceband-Penny Lane

10 Cranium Pie-Baby You’re A Rich Man

11 The Anita Kerr Singers-All You Need Is Love

12 Sun Dial-Only A Northern Song

13 Joy Unlimited-All Together Now

14 Boxer-Hey Bulldog

15 Steve Tillage-It’s All Too Much

Today we celebrate the genius of Jon Hassell- A kind of remix, or re-imagining of a re-imagined piece of work? Described as world fusion, sci-fi funk and avant-garde electronics.

I first heard Jon Hassell’s ‘City -works of fiction/Psychogeography’ LP playing in a small record shop down Portobello Road, in West London. It sounded a little like ‘Bush Of Ghosts’ (No coincidence there then) one of my all time favourite albums.  Anyway I bought it without knowing what it was, or who it was by.  & then -what did turn out to be quite a coincidence -Apart from doing a lot of street walking around that time, I‘d just started reading a book called Psychogeography…………

& so, we come to the second in our ‘Country-esque’ series – a tidy/untidy little mix of country & not really country songs, for folks to do the ironing, change the spark plugs or just tap their tap shoes to?

1 Lee Hazlewood & Ann Margaret-Am I That Easy To Forget

2 Tommy James & The Shondells-I’m So Lonesome I Could Cry

3 Linda Ronstadt-He Dark The Sun

4 New Riders Of The Purple Sage-Garden Of Eden

5 Lambchop-I’m Glad I Never

6 Relatively Clean Waters-The Persian Caravan

7 The Sadies-Why Be So Curious? Pt.3

8 Creedance Clearwater Revival-Walk On The Water

9 Gene Clark & Carla Olson-Fair & Tender Ladies

10 Rod Stewart-Corrina Corrina

11 Johnny Cash-Personal Jesus

12 David McWilliams-Echo Of My Heart

13 Emmylou Harris-I Don’t Want To Talk About It Now

14 The Mississippi Sheiks- The Sheik Waltz

15 Lord Huron-La Belle Fleur Sauvage

16 Lambchop- The Grass Won’t Grow

Thanx pardners.

This week folks, we have another lovely mixed bag of Jazz tunes- 

Featuring both old & new, soulful, funky & the blues enthused.

1  Abbey Lincoln-When Malindy Sings

2  Slapp Happy & Henry Cow-Desperate Straits

3  Rip Rig & Panic-Change Your Life

4  Weldon Irvine-Blues Wel-Don

5  Alice Coltrane-Altruvista

6  Ornette Coleman-Friends & Neighbors

7  Jackie Mclean-Message From Trane

8  The London Jazz Four-Things We Said today

9  Joe Thomas-Every Brother Ain’t A Brother

10  Sisters Love-Now Is The Time (The Mack Revisited Mix)

11  The Awakening-Slinky

12  Wildflower-Flute Song/Outro

There’s a paradox here: although Pepper is easily the most famous of the Beatle’s albums (arguably the most famous album by anyone, ever), this has been one of the trickier of our Fabs comps to pull together since some of the tunes (eg Fixing A Hole, Mr Kite, Good Morning) have attracted surprisingly low numbers of covers.

By now the lads were operating at such a level of lysergic-fuelled creativity, their contemporaries and rivals needed full-magnification binoculars to keep them in sight. And with its borrowings from the music-halls, fairgrounds, India and God-knows where else, some were even beginning to question whether whatever it was they were up could still be classified as pop.

Luckily, there were still enough intrepid souls out there to rise to the challenge, enabling us to bring you volume 8 of the Beatles Project.

So welcome, please, to Jean-Luc Ponty’s Gallic jazz-fiddling; Quebecois av-gardery from L’Infonie; Yugoslavian new wave from Elektricni Orgazm (It means electronic orgasm);  Davy Graham opting to showcase his voice rather than the usual digital dexterity and lots of other good folk (plus Bill Cosby) all looking to season our listening lives with a sprinkling of fresh pepper.

Parlophone PCM/S 7027 hit the shops in Britain on the 26th of May 1967, just in time to be played constantly, in full, throughout June’s Monterrey Pop festival and was instantly acclaimed as a, if not the defining moment in post-war culture.

Three months later, Brian Epstein, the cement that bound John, Paul, George and Ringo together, was found dead and the first faint fissures started to appear…

1 Bill Cosby-Sgt Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band

2 Jean-Luc Ponty-With A Little Help From My Friends

3 Noel Harrison-Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds

4 Davy Graham-Getting Better

5 Jackie & Roy-Fixing A Hole

6 L’Infonie-She’s Leaving Home

7 Elektricni Orgazam-Being On Behalf Of Mr Kite

8 Sonic Youth-Within You Without You

9 The Thurston Lava tube-When I’m 64

10 Fats Domino-Lovely Rita

11 Peter Knight & His Orchestra-Good Morning, Good Morning

12 Jimi Hendrix-Sgt Peppers Lonely Heart Club Band (Live)

13 Affinity/the Fall/The Portsmaouth Symphonia/Charles Hawtrey & The Deaf Aids-A Day In The Life

Lodged somewhere inbetween the first ‘(ALT) GROOVES’, the ‘DUBBED BEATS’ with a slight nod to the ‘TRIP HOP’  & ‘INCHXINCH’ mixes. This nice little selection of old & new, slow/med & alternative type gear should be just right for when it’s not wrong………bless him ah.

1 Mum-Asleep On The Train

2 Killer Moses-Bogeyman

3 Bloto-Umiar

4 Suns Of Arqa-Acid Tabla Dub

5 Fat Freddy’s Drop-Bohannon

6 Bush Tetras-Das Ah Dub

7 Panico-Lupita

8 Zongamin-Tunnel Music

9 Auntie Flo-Cape Town Jam

10 Eabs-Kawalek O Zyciu

11 Bloto-Ignorancja

12 Khruangbin-Como Te Quiero (Scientist Dub)

13 Adrian Sherwood-Majestic 12

14 Bombay Dub Orchestra-City Of Amber

Yeeeeeeees  sir-ee, it’s a warm welcome back for DTB. More weirdness, beardness, he says-with the usual eclectic mish mash of nonsense to educate and entertain. For the brave and the open minded. Repent sinners, repent…

1 Ricardo & Bobby Cruz-Georgie Porgie (intro)

2 The Stranglers-Get A Grip On Yourself

3 Mary Lattimore-On The Day You Saw The Dead Whale

4 Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds-All Tomorrow’s Parties

5 XTC-Do What You Do

6 Faust-Untitled : l (section)

7 Jose Mauro-Obnoxius

8 Akkezdet Phiai-Ramnemetnemiel

9 Francis Bebey-Savanah Georgia 

10 The Vampires Of Dartmoore-A Handful Of Nitro

11 Florence + The Machine-Not Fade Away

12 The Human League-Being Boiled

13 The Sandpipers-Louie Louie

14 Quicksilver Messenger Service-Where You Love

15 Kenny Rogers- I Found A Reason

Another year gone by without the Carnival, fortunately Mr Reggae Man is back to ease some of our troubles, with a nice selection of Reggae tunes – A mixin’ of old time 60’s, 70’s, Ska , Rocksteady, Toast & Dub an’ all.

1 Inner Circle-Road Block (Dub)

2 Jackie Mittoo & The Soul Brothers-Train To Skaville

3 Clint Eastwood-Fist To Fist Fight

4 Tetrack-Lets Get Started

5 Lloyd charmers-R.O.C.K

6 The Hippy Boys-Mad Movie

7 Clue J & His Blues Blasters- Beston Street Riff

8 The Heptones- Baby

9 Abyssinians-Declaration Of Rights

10 Joe Gibbs & The Professional-Heavy Duty Dub

11 Derrick Harriott-The Overtaker

12 Wong Chu & The Wailers-Keep On Moving

13 Jackie Mittoo-Freak Out

14 Harry J Allstars-Jay Moon Walk

15 King Stitt-Oh Yeah

16 Marcia Griffiths-Let Me Hold

17 Sir Coxon Sound-Sounds of Safari

18 Althea & Donna-Gone To Negril

19 Lee Perry & Talent Crew-Crazy Negril

20 The Congo’s-Fisherman Dub

21 Bob Marley & The Wailers-Mr Brown.

And don’t forget to check out all the other Reggae related treats inc-

the Carnival & Hi-Fi playlists.

From Klaus Voorman’s fabulous artwork (demonstrating that with sufficient talent behind it, black & white can be just as psychedelic as super-saturated paisley) on in, Revolver upped the ante for pop sophistication and experimentation so high that only the more adventurous, dedicated, or able could keep up.

So this time round, there are fewer brass and continental pop covers, while of their immediate contemporaries, only Lulu and old mucker from the Cavern cloakroom, Cilla put in an appearance.

Elsewhere, The Lettermen, Dean Christopher, Ella Fitzgerald and Mike Melvoin keep the Easy flag flying, and Birmingham’s Loose Ends filter Taxman through freakbeat fuzz-boxes. From the fringes, we have contributions from returning avant-opera diva Cathy Berberian, the guru of DIY cassette culture R Stevie Moore, Jurassic-proggers Velvet Opera, former Virgin Records’ in-house engineer, Tom Newman and 80’s post-rock noiseniks, Bongwater.

And, of course, it all comes to a climax with Tomorrow Never Knows. It took ages for this tracks sonic implications to be properly assimilated and few dared touch it for about 10 years after it was recorded. But then the floodgates opened. Among the possible candidates for inclusion were Phil Manzanera’s 801, Danielle Dax, Monsoon and even Junior Parker. In the end, however, we plumped for saxman Steve Marcus who delves into its depths for over 11 minutes with barely a second wasted and sets things up nicely for what comes next…

1 Loose Ends-Taxman

2 Velvet Opera-Eleanor Rigby

3 The Lettermen-I’m Only Sleeping

4 Bongwater-Love You Too

5 Dean Christopher & His Orchestra-Here,There & Everywhere

6 Cathy Berberian-Yellow Submarine 

7 Tom Newman-She Said She Said

8 Lulu-Good Day Sunshine

9 R Stevie Moore-And Your Bird Can Sing

10 Cilla Black-For No One

11 Giacomo Bondi-Doctor Robert

12 Mike Melvoin- I Want To Tell You

13 Ella Fitzgerald- Got To Get You Into My Life

14 Steve Marcus- Tomorrow Never Knows