Drop The Biscuit

This week Rosko chooses some of his favourite tunes from the early days of the Trojan record label…..

In 1968, with a backdrop of rebellions, an unpopular war, demonstrations and  general unrest all around the world, thousands of immigrants were arriving in Britain, many from the Caribbean. 

  That same year Trojan Records was launched in a poky warehouse in Willesden, North London. Formed by Lee Gopthal, who operated the Musicland record retail chain, and Chris Blackwell of Island records, the aim was to showcase the output of one of the most popular and successful producers of the Ska and Rocksteady eras – Duke Reid. The name came from his Trojan truck used as a sound system in Jamaica. 

  The music had a massive political and social impact on the UK. Becoming especially popular with early Skinheads, the working class British Rudeboy, and later through the 70’s with the Punks, Mod & Reggae revivalists alike. Here then is a selection of those first 2 years……….1968/69.

1 Roland Alphonso & Tommy McCook-Never To Be Mine

2 Dobby Dobson-I’m A Loving Pauper

3 Val Bennett-Spanish Harlem

4 Mellotones-Uncle Charlie

5 The Untouchables-Tighten Up

6 The Bleachers-You’re Gonna Feel It

7 Denzil Dennis-Down By The Riverside

8 The Kingstonians-Mix It Up

9 Winston Wright & Harry J All Stars-Liquidator

10 Melodions-Sweet Sensation

11 The Maytals-Monkey Man

12 Karl ‘King Cannon’ Bryan-Soul Scorcher

13 The Beltones-No More Heartaches

14 The Supersonics/Tommy McCook-Third Figure

15 Desmond Dekker-(Where Did It Go) The Song We Used To Sing

16 The Kinstonians-Sufferer

17 Clancy Eccles-Freedom 

18 Jimmy Cliff-Vietnam

19 Don Drummond & Tommy McCook-Don De Lion

20 The Ethiopians/J J All Stars- Everything Crash

21 John Holt-Ali Baba

One of the big events throughout the eighties was going to a Michael Clark show. They were always visually and musically brilliant.

It was spring, no it was summer. I played On-U Sound and Andrea True Connection.

I met Michael Clark in the early/mid eighties. I used to organise small parties in a little wine bar off Bayswater, where I’d also DJ’. One night I invited Rachel and Leigh along and they brought a couple of friends with them, one being MC. So my first introduction to his dancing was not in a theatre, but on the dance floor.  In the following years I tried to see every show.

Anyway this week, following on the pirate shirt tails of the Vivienne Westwood 80’s playlist, we jump from fashion to (more fashion) and dance, with a playlist of music or artists loosely associated with the punk peter pan, Michael Clark…………the memory is not what it was when it was, but the imagination still works a bit.……………close your eyes and watch the boy wonder waltz across the universe…..

1 Glenn Branca-Dissonance

2 Segment 1,2,3 – The Buzzcocks, On-U Sound, Bruce Gilbert, Erik Satie The Fall.

3 Glenn Branca-Lesson No.2

4 Erik Satie-Ogives-Les Fleurs-Bojan Gorisek

5 Bruce Gilbert-Angel Food

6 The Fall-Mr Pharmacist

7 Wire-Drill

8 Snippets-T-Rex

9 Bruce Gilbert-The Shivering Man

10 Elvis Presley-Are You Lonesome Tonight? (Dub)

11 The Velvet Underground-Oh Sweet Nuthin’

I’ve found If you dance in bed to this it can relieve all sorts of aches and pains

– have a pleasant evening.

For Sale was released at the height of Beatlemania, the studio sessions squeezed into whatever spare time was available in the high speed, non-stop carousel of tours, media commitments and hysterical fandom that constituted their lives. Hardly surprisingly, the strain was beginning to show. It can be seen on the weary-eyed cover shot, in the down-beat subject matter (how about No Reply, I’m A Loser and Baby’s In Black for the titles of an opening salvo?) and the inclusion of no fewer than seven covers -the most on any of their albums.

Didn’t mean that the remaining eight originals were any less attractive to outside acts, mind.

So arch proglodytes Yes stretch out Every Little Thing to nigh-on six minutes, Ruben Blades sprinkles salsa flavourings over Baby’s In Black and to Lennon’s delight, his favourite mother-substitute figure, Alma Cogan, chose to update her repertoire by taking a shot at Eight Days A Week.

Of the alternatives to the non-original material, The Hollies deliver a straight reading of Mr Moonlight (unlike the Fabs themselves who’s own version see-saws between the deliberately kitsch and the demented), Little Richard’s Hey, Hey, Hey, Hey is fuzzed up beyond all recognition by The Jim Jones Review, and if you feel the series so far has been a little light on free-improvised-country-and-western-be-bop, Eugene Chadbourne’s Honey Don’t plugs that gap.

Finally, the strange case of George’s showcase Everybody’s Trying To Be My Baby. The sleeve gives the composer’s credit to Carl Perkins, but it rightly belongs to Rex Griffin. His original is presented here in its full 1936 glory.

1 Paul Nero’s Blue Sounds-No Reply

2 Marianne Faithful-I’m A Loser

3 Ruben Blades-Baby’s In Black

4 Chuck Berry-Rock & Roll Music

5 Chet Atkins-I’ll Follow The Sun

6  The Hollies-Mr Moonlight

7 Jack Parnell-Kansas City

8 The Jim Jones Revue-Hey Hey Hey Hey

9 Alma Cogen-Eight Days A Week

10 Patti Smith-Words Of Love

11 Eugene Chadbourne-Honey Don’t

12 Yes-Every Little Thing

13 Rosanne Cash-I Don’t Want To Spoil The Party

14 The Fantastic Dee-Jays-What You’re Doing

15 Rex Griffin-Everbody’s Trying To Be My Baby

This week on ‘Drop The Biscuit’ we have more from the sweet soul crates, with ’Brother Lou’s Soul Special’. A lovely addition to the ‘Souled’ series & a hit right from the ‘Bond-like opening bars of the Candi Staton, the best thing………

….This is ‘SOULED’ #8.

1 Candi Staton-The Best Thing You Ever Had

2 Soloman Burke-Home In Your Heart

3 Bill Withers-You

4 Barbara & The Browns-Can’t Find No Happiness

5 Shirley Brown-I Ain’t Gonna Tell Nobody

6 Tyrone Ashleys  -Gotta Clean Up The World

7 Tommie Young-Do You Feel The Same Way?

8 The Voices Of East Harlem-Jimmy Joe Lee

9 Caesar Frazier-Hicky Burr

10 parliament—Come In Out Of The Rain

11 Benny Johnson-Absolutely, Positively Baby

12 Exit 9-Miss Funky Fox

13 Sam Baker-Do Right Man

14 Rance Allen Group-Talk That Talk

15 Donny Hathaway-The Slums

16 Reuben Howell-Help The People

17 Irma Thomas- Somewhere Crying

18 The Temptations-Plastic Man

19 Erma Franklin-Can’t See My Way

20 The Spinners-I’ll Be Around

21 Leroy Hutson-Cool Out

Beret? Check.

Beard? Check.

Bongos? Check and check.

OK cats, time to explore the life beatific. Get ready to move your bodhi, shake your (dharma) bum, untether your inner Maynard G Krebs and hit the road to Hipsville, capital of the state of Nirvana, calling at North Beach, Venice Beach, Newquay beach, Greenwich Village, Soho and the Latin Quarter of gay Paree.

And to guide you on your trip, we’ve pulled together a collection of some of the coolest kooks ever to slick down a lick and deliver a stanza bonanza.

Now, over to your Uncle Jack who’s just itchin’ to set the scene….

1 Jack Kerouac-Fantasy:The Early History Of Bop

2 Dizzy Gillespie-Salt Peanuts

3 Lord Buckley-The Train

4 Eden Ahbez-The Wanderer

5 Ken Nordine-Spectrum

6 Eddy Arnold-Hep Cat Boogie

7 The Champs-Beatnik

8 Harry Partch-The Letter

9 Ken Colyer’s Skiffle Group-downbound Train

10 The Vipers Skiffle Group-don’t You Rock Me Dadddy-o

11 Humphrey Lyttelton & His Band-Bad Penny Blues

12 Adam Faith-The Beat Girl Song

13 Brian Fahey-Street Of A Thousand Bongo’s

14 Rikky Baron-Angry Young Man

15 Christopher Logue / Tony Kinsey-Lithe Girl, Brown Girl

16 Cleo Laine-Let’s Slip Away

17 Eric The Beatnik-Beatnik philosophy

18 Davy Graham & Alexis Korner-3/4 A.D

19 Wizz Jones-Hard Times In Newquay

20 The Pines-Espresso

21 The Enchanters-Cafe Bohemian

22 Virginia Vee-Le Temps De La Boheme

23 Serge Gainsbourg-Requim Pour Un Twisteur

24 King Timothy-Gerrard Street

25 Lyn Cornell-African Waltz

26 Kenny Graham-Soho At Dawn

27 Local Counsellor-Beatniks In Newquay

28 Louis Armstrong-Beat Generation

When we first started ‘Drop The Biscuit’ around 2013 we didn’t really have any long term plan, I don’t think we even thought past the first few weeks?  It was just a bit a fun, a way of sharing playlists amongst friends. Unbelievably, this week we celebrate our 100th episode of ‘DTB’.……..Right, here we go now……

Intro with Mort….

1 The Sex Pistols – No Fun

2 The Small Faces – Itchycoo Park

3 The Flat Duo Jets – The Man With The Golden Arm

4 Don Armando’s 2nd Ave. Rhumba Band – I’m An Indian Too

5 London Music Works – Magic Roundabout

6 The Police – I Can’t Stand Losing You

7 Sounds Sensational – Night Cry

8 Betty Davis – Politician

9 Tommy James & The Shondells – Cleo’s Mood

10 The Jam – Sweet Soul Music

11 Fred Waring & His Pennsyvanians – Ole Moses Put Pharaoh In His Place

12 Prince Far I – What You Gonna Do On Judgement Day

13 Faust – Untitled 1/J’ai Mal Aux Dents

14 Ron Gallo – Who Are You? Point To It!

15 Moon Unit – Whip It

16 The Blue Beats – Baby What You Done Me Wrong

This week, our man Rosko Continues with a Jazz theme  & a few of his favourite choices from the Blue Note label…sit back an groove.

1 Candido-I’m On My Way

2 Chico Hamilton-Abdullah And Abraham

3 Elvis Costello & The Roots

4 Horace Silver-Strange Vibes

5 Cassandra Wilson-Ressurrection Blues (Tutu)

6 Kenny Burrell-Chittlins Con Carne

7 Joe Torres-Get Out My Way

8 Richard ‘Groove’ Holmes-This Here

9 Machito-Congo Mulence

10 Eddie Gale-Black Rhythm Happening

11 Lonnie Smith-For Heaven’s Sake

12 Charlie Hunter feat-Norah Jones-Day Is Done

13 Grant Green-The Final Comedown

14 Amos Lee-Give It Up

15 Eric Dolphy-Something Sweet Something Tender

It seemed like in the early 80’s everybody was wearing Vivienne Westwood?

So this week we feature a splendid Poptastic trip down 80’s memory lane focusing on some of the cool/not so cool (it all seems to get lost in time) musicians who at some point found themselves as pirates/hobo’s and raggamuffins.

I was recently chatting  to an old friend AKA, who reminded me of the opening night of the Mud Club down Leicester Square. The clothes, the music,  Mark Moore and Jay Strongman. I vaguely remember some kind of McClaren/Buffalo related break dancing/skipping entertainment, but I could be just imagining it? Most of us were probably dressed up to the nines in Vivienne Westwood (& the ones that weren’t knowing Phillip Salon were probably left outside).

But we also reminisced  about Vivienne Westwood, the bits we’d given away, sold on, still had in the loft etc… Hangin’ around Kensington Market, Bodymap, the Wag, the Dirtbox, Films at the Scala, The Ritzy and the Electric. The Bell, John Crancher’s Anarchy club, White Trash, Soho & a few late night/after hours haunts & other seedy bits n bobs from back in the day, which after time all seem to merge into one?  Anyway plenty of ideas for future playlists no doubt.

And so, back to this weeks effort- Saddle up pardners, get ready for lots of Nile Rogers style funky guitars & a few people who thought they could Rap!…..Enjoy the weekend!

1 Malcolm McClaren-Buffalo Gals (Remix)

2 Bow Wow Wow-C30 C60 C90

3 Haysi Fantayzee-Sabres Of Paradise

4 Madonna-Everybody

5 Culture Club-White Boy

6 Wide Boy Awake- Chicken Outlaw

6 Thompson Twins- In The Name Of Love

7 Adam And The Ants-Dog Eat Dog

8 Culture Club-church Of The Poison Mind

9 Bananarama-Summer Dub

10 Wide Boy Awake-Slang Teacher

11 Bow Wow Wow-Uomo Sex Al Apache

12 Bananarama-Aie-A-Mwana

13 Malcolm McClaren-Duck To The Oyster

For many fabficionados, Hard Day’s Night is The One; their only truly flawless album. No submarines, 64 year-olds, honey pies or silver hammers. And for the first time, no outside material, just 13 prime products from a by now firmly established Lennon & McCartney song-mill operating at peak efficiency.

Among those queuing to sample their wares this time, we find modern jazzers, avant opera divas, the first ladies of Motown, an early iteration of Brinsley Schwartz (Limelight) and the Skatalites who, for reasons known only to themselves, decided the best way to celebrate the third anniversary of Jamaican independence was to cut a tune called I Should Have Known Better…

1 Stavely Makepeace – A Hard Day’s Night

2 The Skatalites – Independant Anniversary Ska (I Should Have Known Better)

3 Peter & Gordon – If I Fell

4 The Circle – I’m Happy Just To Dance With You

5 King Curtis – And I Love Her

6 Limelight – Tell Me Why

7 Cathy Berberian – Can’t Buy Me Love

8 Blue Ash – Anytime At All

9 Joe Cocker – I’ll Cry Instead

10 London Jazz Four – Things We Said Today

11The Back Alley – When I Get Home

12 The Supremes – You Can’t Do That

13 Roger Nichols & The Small Circle Of Friends – I’ll Be Back

This week we have another lovely random selection of interesting/uninteresting eclecticness for the music enthusiast to enjoy/not enjoy. DTB99, It starts an then it starts an then……

1 Al Wilson – By The Time I Get To Phoenix

2 William S Burroughs – Curse Go Back (segment)

3 Rose City Band – Rivers Of Mind

4 Deradoorian – The Illuminator

5 Jimmy Nelson – “T” 99 Blues

6 Sonic Youth – I Dreamed I Dream

7 Gaslamp Killer – Fuck You!!

8 Aristocats – Scales And Arpeggios

9 Meg Baird – Do What You Gotta Do

10 Al Campbell, Trinity & Dillinger – Three The Hard Way

11 Tommy McCook – Rock By Sir Dee’s Scorcher

12 Lyra Pramuk – Witness