The Soundtrack To My Life. 04/02/2012.

“The Chocolate Invasion”. (2004).
Artist: Prince.
Why You Should Get It: IF you can get it! This was released at the time through Prince’s website but you could probably download it somewhere in an illegal fashion. – And you should because it contains some of the sexiest music you’ll hear since you last turned the lights down low and spun your copy of Barry White’s Greatest Hits!

“The Chess Story: 1947-1975”. (1999).
Artist: Various.
Why You Should Get It: You’ll probably HAVE to illegally download this because if you can find it, it will set you back HUNDREDS of dollars and that’s only IF you can find it. 

What we’re talking about here my friends, is 13 discs packed full of the best known and most obscure blues music and artists from 1947 all the way through to 1975! It’s a helluva lot to make your way through but if you love the blues as much as I do then you will love every minute and when you get done, there are 2 more discs chock full of interviews from some of the key players associated with the Chess Recording Label.

“Love And Theft”. (2001)
Artist: Bob Dylan.
Why You Should Get It: It’s Bob Dylan. You should already have this!
Interestingly enough this record was released on September 11th, 2001. I don’t play this a lot at home and I really don’t know why. It’s a GREAT record and Dylan has an amazing band behind him. It’s especially interesting to listen to the song “Mississippi” what with the 3 different versions which were released on the “Tell Tale Signs” records.

For my ears, the best version of “Mississippi” is on the first disc from “Tell Tale Signs” but “Love And Theft” has loads going for it. I have pals who tell me that Bob going through the Rock & Roll bluesy motions just doesn’t do it for them but (And as I often tell my pals) MY GOD MAN! Just take a listen to ‘Po’ Boy’! You can actually see those cherries falling off the plate!

“Rarities”. (2003).
Artist: Ron Sexsmith.
Why You Should Get It: Ron Sexsmith’s voice and songwriting skills are worth whatever he wants to charge. We should think ourselves lucky really.

There are a few gems on here but most notably; his take on The Boomtown Rats’ ‘I Don’t Like Mondays’ and his original recording of his own ‘Gold In Them Hills’ before Chris Martin from Coldplay had the AUDACITY to overdub his own vocals over it without even asking Ron’s permission.

“Kisses On The Bottom”. (2012).
Artist: Paul McCartney.
Why You Should Get It: You probably don’t really need this. I love Paul McCartney and I always listen to whatever he comes out with even if it’s only once. I think this is an album for McCartney and an ‘only once’ album for me.

It’s McCartney doing old dance hall hits and poppy jazz standards which we’ve all heard a million times and a million times better by other folk. “Kisses On the Bottom” is nice enough (Funny title too) but it’s the kind of thing you’ll end up hearing for free if you sit in a bookshop or a coffee shop for long enough.

“City To City” .(2001).
Artist: Gerry Rafferty.
Why You Should Get It: I don’t know whether you should get this or not. This is one of those albums that I bought at the time because I liked the front cover only to find that the music didn’t do much for me. I suppose you either love Gerry Rafferty’s music or just think it’s…okay.

His biggest hit ‘Baker Street’ is on this album and it’s still great but a lot of the other songs mostly just sound like any other 70’s guitar records to me. Of course, that’s not a bad thing and the difference is that Rafferty’s recordings are so much more polished than most of the music from other arrtists from the same time.
I liked his “Can I Have My Money Back” album better because it sounded more honest and if I’m honest here, I don’t like ‘Hits’.

“Alice’s Restaurant”. (1967).
Artist: Arlo Guthrie.
Why You Should Get It: The title track.

As ever, I’m always interested in hearing anything that I haven’t already so if there’s something which you think I should listen to, drop me a line.

“Mooses Come Walking” By Arlo Guthrie.

“Mooses Come Walking”
By Arlo Guthrie.

Mooses come walking over the hill
Mooses come walking, they rarely stand still
When mooses come walking they go where they will
When mooses come walking over the hill

Mooses look into your window at night
They look to the left and they look to the right
The mooses are smiling, they think it’s a zoo
And that’s why the mooses like looking at you

So, if you see mooses while lying in bed
It’s best to just stay there pretending you’re dead
The mooses will leave and you’ll get the thrill
Of seeing the mooses go over the hill

Arlo Guthrie apparently wrote that to scare his children.

The Arlo Guthrie Concert 18/08/2010.

Me and Anna decided at the last minute to go see Arlo Guthrie in The Old Fruitmarket the other night.
Turned out to be a great idea too!

I’ve been listening to Woody & Arlo Guthrie for a long time now and my band used to cover Arlo’s “Coming Into Los Angeles” so I was pretty excited.

It’s a real shame that the ticket sales for this gig were low because Arlo put on a great solo show.
Just him, an acoustic guitar and a moothy.
He played old and new songs and even a few of his Dad’s too which was cool but it was his stories which cracked everyone up.

Matter of fact stories about how he only really remembers arriving to play at Woodstock in 1969 and not much else for weeks.
Stories about Ramblin’ Jack Elliott and playing 12 string guitar on top of Leadbelly’s grave.
The stories about Leadbelly and his Dad were amazing actually.

My favourite one was about the time Woody Guthrie started to get ill and checked himself into a psychiatric ward in an attempt to find out what was up with him.

After a while the doctor said to Mrs. Guthrie:
“I’m afraid your Husband is not very well at all Mrs. Guthrie.
He has delusions of grandeur.
He believes that he’s a famous folk singer who has also penned a best selling book”.

Arlo went on to say that after a while,
His Mother went to the hospital to get Woody out but by that time he’d made friends with some of the patients and didn’t want to leave.

Apparently nobody in the hospital believed Woody was who he said he was!
One day a fellow patient approached Woody and said:
“I know who you are.
You’re Woody Guthrie.
You wrote the book “Bound For Glory” too”.

Woody goes: “You read my book?”

And the patient apparently went: “Nope. I ate it”.

🙂

Arlo Guthrie’s a great guitar player.
I never knew that.
Try and catch him if he plays in your town.

PS:
Did I mention that he likes to write poems to scare his children?
Look HERE.