The Soundtrack To My Life. 16/08/2012.

“The Deer Hunter” (OST). (1978).
Artist: Various Artists.

An utterly heartbreaking soundtrack from one of the greatest films ever made!
It’s nothing short of a pleasure to listen to this record.

“Different Class” (1995).
Artist: PULP.

This takes me right back to the 1990’s. Back to the days when I was jumping over fences at festivals, watching bands from the top of police car roofs and generally smoking and trying to fuck anything and everything I could get my hands on. Them were the days!

Unlike myself, “Different Class” holds up very well today.
Here, have some E’s And Wizz…

“I Just Started Hating Some People Today” (EP). (2012).
Artist: Beck.

This is Beck’s debut for Third Man Records who also have Jack White and Pokey LaFarge & The South City Three on their books and eh, I dunno about it. It’s Beck doing Hank Williams for a couple of minutes and then doing something FAR MORE INTERESTING and sinister for the outro.

Hear for yourselves:

“Blood On The Tapes” (Bootleg). (1974).
Artist: Bob Dylan.

“Blood On The Tapes” is far and away the best Bob Dylan Bootleg record that I’ve ever heard and I get a lot more from it that the officially released “Blood On The Tracks” album.

What you’re getting here is basically up, close and personal, crystal clear alternate recordings of the songs that would eventually make up “Blood On The Tracks”. The quality of the sound is incredible and a lot of the songs just seem to feature Dylan on his own with a guitar.

Some of the cuts from “Blood On The Tapes” would appear in many other bootleg titles over the years and that is what I’m going to have to let you hear as an example because I can’t find a decent link to “Blood On The Tapes”.

Check out this alternate take of “Tangled Up In Blue” for starters…

“The Rainbow Children”. (2001).
Artist: Prince.

From the late 1990’s till right now, buying a new Prince album can be a gamble but the thing is, it’s almost always worth it. “The Rainbow Children” is a seriously funky and under appreciated record and here’s why: Because the songs deal with his then recent conversion to the the Jehovah’s Witnesses religion. That said, it could be under appreciated because of the sssssssslowed down, deep vocals from Prince and…ah…who the hell caes why it’s under appreciated. All you need to know is that it contains some downright fonky shit okay?

Like this:

“Crossing The Red Sea With The Adverts”. ( 1978).
Artist: The Adverts:

Well, I’d never heard about The Adverts at all until I read about them. To be honest, it’s nothing I haven’t heard The Buzzcocks do 100 times better but I enjoyed listening to “Crossing The Red Sea With The Adverts” all the same.

“Remain In Light”. (1978).
Artist: Talking Heads.

…Aye, 1978 was a good year for music!
Here’s a video of Talking Heads performing ‘Once In A Lifetime’ on German T.V. in 1980:

“DARE!” (1981).
Artist: The Human League.

It suddenly struck me that I’d never really heard any music by The Human League apart from “Don’t You Want Me” (Which I liked) so I went out and bought their album “DARE!” …and became COMPLETELY ADDICTED!

I especially latched on to the track “The Things That Dreams Are Made Of” and played it to death.
I recommend listening to it whilst you’re on a train and as always, crank the volume up to 11:

“Grace”. (1994).
Artist: Jeff Buckley.

Jeff Buckley’s voice is working it’s magic on me all over again these days. “Grace” still sounds as fresh as it did when it came out and as you’re about to see, Jeff Buckley could sing like a fucking ANGEL…

“As Time Goes By …The Complete Schmilsson In The Night”. (1973).
Artist: Harry Nilsson.

…Speaking of angels, I bought some Harry Nilsson on vinyl a couple of weeks ago.
This is probably THEE Harry Nilsson record to get if you’re gonna get one.

It’s a lovely, lazy, live recording of Harry effortlessly singing his way through a few 20th Century classic standards such as “Lazy Moon”, “Over The Rainbow” and of course, “As Time Goes By” backed by an orchestra and it’s perfect midnight listening.

The original vinyl recording was titled “A Little Touch Of Schmilsson In The Night” and was later expanded and cleaned up for a finally complete 1996 CD release.

You can watch the entire recording on Youtube starting right here:

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* The Soundtrack To My Life. 07/06/2012
* The Soundtrack To My Life. 08/05/2012
* The Soundtrack To My Life. 15/04/2012

The Soundtrack To My Life. 07/06/2012.

Here’s what I’ve been filling my ears with over the past few weeks…

“The Flaming Lips And Heady Fwends”. (2012).
Artist: The Flaming Lips & Their Pals.
Why You Should Get It: Over to you Wayne…

“Locked Down”. (2012).
Artist: Dr. John.
Why You Should Get It: Because although he’s usually off of his head on heroin, Dr. John has released the best album I’ve heard this year so far!
Here’s the teaser…

“Two Sides Of Dave Van Ronk” (2002).
Artist: Dave Van Ronk.
Why You Should Get It…

“The Day The Earth Stood Still” (OST). (1951).
Artist: Bernard Herrmann.
Why You Should Get It: Bernard Herrmann does it yet again! This score is well worth tracking down. It’s very unusual in that it’s scored for electric bass, electric violin and…TWO THERMAINS! Why do you need two theramins? One for treble and one for bass of course! Makes perfect sense and it also sounds GORGEOUS…

“Tadpoles” (1969).
Artist: The Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band.
Why You Should Get It: Because it’s insane. All of it. It’s just insane music made by an insane band for insane ears…

“Kill Bill: Volume 1” (OST). (2003).
Artist: Various Artists.
Why You Should Get It: Quentin Tarantino has outstandingly good taste in music. Every song in every single one of his movies is a stunner. From the “Kill Bill” soundtrack I’d say that this is my favourite:

“Kill Bill: Volume 2” (OST). (2004).
Artist: Various Artists.
Why You Should Get It…

“Preliminaires” (2009).
Artist: Iggy Pop.
Why You Should Get It: The strangest Iggy Pop album to date, “Preliminaires” even includes Iggy singing in French! Definitely worth a listen or two…

“Moondance” (1970).
Artist: Van Morrison.
Why You Should Get It…

“Early Takes: Volume 1” (2012).
Artist: George Harrison.
Why You Should Get It: An outtake and demo collection, it’s mainly just Harrison and an acoustic guitar or two and it mostly sounds like he’s sitting right beside you…

Here are some of the albums I listened to recently which, for one reason or many, just didn’t do anything for me:

* “Stars And Satellites” (2012) – Trampled By Turtles.
* “God Told Me To” (2012) – John5.
* “Celebration Rock” (2012) – The Japandroids.
* “Live In Berkely” (2009) – Bob Dylan.

“Love Lust Tales”: Available For Pre-Order Now!

Featuring artwork by myself and 9 hauntingly beautiful tracks, “Love Lust Tales”, the debut album from Glasgow band Louise McVey & The Cracks In The Concrete is now available for pre-order on Vinyl, CD and as a Download!

You can Pre-Order “Love Lust Tales” by clicking on the following links:
* Click HERE to Pre-Order “Love Lust Tales” from iTunes.
* Click HERE to Pre-Order “Love Lust Tales” from Just Add Music.

The album will be officially released on June 15th and you can visit Louise McVey & The Cracks In The Concrete and listen to their wonderfully dark music HERE.

I’m really pleased that the record is being released on vinyl and if you decide to buy it, I recommend the vinyl format. The artwork was specifically designed for a vinyl release and besides, physical records are always gonna be better and cooler than CD’s and Downloads.

For Illustration Queries, Contact: brokenglasseye@hotmail.com

You May Also Be Interested In:
* Album Cover Artwork: “Love Lust Tales”.
* My Comic-Strip: Al Cook’s “Necropolis”.

The Heroic Musicians Of The Titanic.

11.40 pm tonight marks 100 years since The RMS Titanic struck an iceberg in the North Atlantic Ocean and as much as we all know the story surrounding the tragedy, there has always been confusion and controversy concerning the Titanic’s musicians who all died on that night.

Ever since the sinking, people have debated and argued as to which piece of music was last played by the band on the doomed ship. It is generally understood that the final piece of music played by the musicians was either ‘Song d’Automne‘ or the hymn ‘Nearer, My God, To Thee‘.
But it doesn’t matter.
It’s not important.

What is important is that their names are remembered and that they continued playing as the ship sank in order to keep everyone else calm. Who knows what went through their minds that night as they stood up to death like gentlemen and played beautiful music.

Click on the image to enlarge:

The Heroic Musicians Of The Titanic were:

Wallace Hartley (Bandmaster & Violin).
Georges Alexandre Krins (Violin).
Roger Marie Bricoux (Cello).
Theodore Ronald Brailey (Piano).
John Wesley Woodward (Cello).
John Frederick Preston Clarke (String Bass & Viola).
John Law Hume (Violin).
Percy Cornelius Taylor (Piano).

Here is the ‘Nearer, My God, To Thee’ scene from the 1958 film “A Night To Remember“:

You May Also Be Interested In:

The Story Of Charles Joughin.
“The Titanic Disaster” By J.H. McKenzie.

The Soundtrack To My Life. 13/03/2012.

“Bone Machine”. (1992).
Artist: Tom Waits.
Why You Should Get It: Track 3: ‘Such A Scream’.

I’m a bit of a newcomer to the work of Tom Waits (Thanks Sean!) but so far, I have four albums and…
(a) I already know that he’s a genius.
(b) I already know that I HAVE to investigate his entire discography.
With some people, you just have to don’t you?
So that’s-a-what-I’m-a-gonna-do.

Trivia: “Bone Machine” was recorded in an old cement celler and the album cover photograph was taken by Jesse Dylan, Bob Dylan’s son.

“Orange” (Single). (2006).
Artist: Fireband Boy.
Why You Should Get It:  8-Bit Nintendo Gameboy Chiptunes that will make you so deliriously happy that you’ll want to dance yourself silly all night and then jump all the way home whilst making Super Mario Bros. coin noises to yourself! …Also, you can get it for FREE right HERE!

I once caught a Firebrand Boy gig by sheer chance at the 13th Note in Glasgow because I was already at the bar when he started playing and I had a BALL!

This isn’t the gig but it’s pretty much what went down at the one I was at:

“Electric Mud”. (1968).
Artist: Muddy Waters.
Why You Should Get It: A concept album by Muddy Waters? – You betcha!

…And it’s a strange and funky beautiful thing!
Muddy gets a psychedelic makeover! Classics like ‘Mannish Boy’ and ‘I’m Your Hoochie Coochie Man’ are here but they’re wildly different to the original versions. Expect backwards vocals and upside down guitars etc…and a whole lotta FONK!
Not funk.
– FONK!

“Electric Mud” was an experimental album in sound (Old meets New) and it’s cool y’know! It works! I dunno why but it really works. ‘Mannish Boy’ sounds like it could’ve been produced by a Sgt. Pepper suited Lennon & McCartney and Muddy’s take on The Stones’  “Let’s Spend The Night Together” made me walk down the street with a 1970’s Harlem swagger that could get me a severe doing around these parts.

“Wrecking Ball”. (2012).
Artist: Bruce Springsteen.
Why You Should Get It: Well. I loved Springsteen’s “Working On A Dream” album and if you did too, you should take a listen to “Wrecking Ball”.

Just like with Tom Waits, I’m a bit of a Springsteen newcomer.
I didn’t get “Born To Run” until I was 27 but I started collecting his records straight away from there on.

I like his newer stuff better than his older records and like I say, I really loved “Working On A Dream”. It was so…American? Is that the right thing to say? Almost all of the tracks on that album had me punching the air and what the hell, I even liked “Queen Of The Supermarket”. I appreciate the odd bit of corn.

Most of my pals love Springsteen and so far they all seem to agree with each other that “Wrecking Ball” is a better album but I dunno about that. It’s definitely as good as “Working On A Dream” but I never measure albums against one another.
I just like them if they sound good and this does.

To me, this record kind of feels like “Working On A Dream: Part II” meets “The Departed” Soundtrack. Turn it up and let me know what you think of it.

“LIE: The Love And Terror Cult”. (1970).
Artist:  Charles Manson.
Why You Should Get It: You probably don’t need this. I’ve been reading a book about Charlie and I just got it out of curiosity.

It is a curious album right enough.
Neil Young briefly knew Manson and he’s said that Manson had a nice voice and some decent songs. He even tried (With no luck) to land Charlie a recording contract and I get what he means. Charlie’s songs are all delivered with passion but…well, y’know, it’s hard not to think of his insane plot to wipe out everyone on the planet when you listen to the songs these days.

Guns ‘N’ Roses once covered Manson’s “Look At Your Game Girl” and that really is a pretty song  A few of the other songs on this album are repetitive twangy out of tune hippie busker rants and well, I’m alright with that. Interestingly enough, ‘Cease To Exist’ was renamed ‘Never Learn Not To Love’, altered and covered by The Beach Boys. You can find it on their album “20/20”.

Ol’ Charlie should’ve really stuck with songwriting.

“Robert Johnson: The Complete Recordings”. (1990).
Artist: Robert Johnson.
Why You Should Get It: Even if your entire record collection only consisted of the small amount of music Robert Johnson recorded in his short and mysterious life, you’d have one amazing record collection!

“Blue Monday” (12″ Single). (1983).
Artist: New Order.
Why You Should Get It: Because it sounds like THIS.