The Soundtrack To My Life. 09/11/2012.

Record: Lonerisim. (2012).
Artist: Tame Impala.
My Advice To You… I got ‘Lonerism’ after hearing the excellent taster single ‘Elephant’ a couple of months ago and honestly, the album is not nearly as good as that single.

I found myself just counting down the songs and minutes until ‘Elephant’ which is track 9.

Record: Addams Family Values. (2012).
Artist: Battery Face.
My Advice To You…This album is free so why the hell not?

Free music is always a good thing my friends!
It seems to be the way to do it these days. “Have my music for free just now and later, if you want to, buy it!”
– I really like that approach.

I read about Battery Face in some magazine. I liked their name and I liked the idea of an album called Addams Family Values but this has almost nothing to do with The Addams Family. A good way to get people to hear your music if a little sneaky.

Don’t expect creepy, kooky, spooky music. Expect noise. Loud noise! I like noise and I like my noise loud and I took the time to listen to this record but in the end it just didn’t do it for me.

Being a member of Battery Face is probably hugely satisfying but I’m not and so, “Addams Family Values” just sounds like a long, direction-less band jam in a garage which is locked off to the likes of me.

Record: Sally Can’t Dance. (1974).
Artist: Lou Reed.
My Advice To You… I like to take a chance and buy a record simply because I like the album cover. Okay, I know and love a lot of Lou Reed’s music but sometimes he can churn out downright rubbish so buying “Sally Can’t Dance” was a gamble for me. But it definitely paid off. I especially liked this number:

Record: Roseland NYC Live. (1998).
Artist: Portishead.
Why You Should Get It…I really wish I’d seen Portishead live. They were fucking mesmerisingly special!

Record: Louis Armstrong: Volume I & II. (Compilation).
Artist: Louis Armstrong.
Why You Should Get It…It’s Louis Armstrong. Just get it. You need it. Everybody does!

Record: Seed Of A Memory. (1976).
Artist: Terry Reid.
Why You Should Get It… Rob Zombie introduced me to this guy. Not personally of course but through his soundtrack for “The Devil’s Rejects” which doesn’t contain a bad song. It’s early days but so far, so far this is my favourite track from ‘Seed of Memory’:

Record: Raging Bull (OST). (1980).
Artist: Various.
Why You Should Get It… Martin Scorsese has exquisite taste in music and the “Raging Bull” main title theme is the icing on the cake of the films’ beautiful opening credits…

Record: 40/40. (2009).
Artist: The Carpenters.
Why You Should Get It… 

Record: The Sophtware Slump (Deluxe Edition). (2011)
Artist: Grandaddy.
Why You Should Get It… The acoustic Demo for ‘Hewlett’s Daughter’ is worth the price of this Deluxe Edition alone.

Record: Re-Ac-Tor. (1981).
Artist: Neil Young & Crazy Horse.
Why You Should Get It… Like a lot of Neil’s records, Re-Ac-Tor is underappreciated…

Record: The Original Rumble. (1958).
Artist: Link Wray.
Why You Should Get It… One of the very first rock records. Not Rock & Roll, ROCK!

Even ol’ Jimmy Page loves ‘Rumble’!

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:

You May Also Be Interested In…
* 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. 08/05/2012.

“Twisted Nerve” (OST). (1968).
Artist: Bernard Herrmann.
Why You Should Get It: You probably already know it from “Kill Bill“.
Recognise THIS?

“Kill Bill”. That’s where I first heard it but the full “Twisted Nerve” soundtrack is so much more than whistling. I’ve been going through Bernard Herrmann’s scores and soundtracks at a rate of one per week and I’ve yet to hear any of his music and not find myself in a complete atmospheric trance.

I’ve also yet to see “Twisted Nerve” but I’ll get around to it.
Here’s the trailer:

“Odelay” (2 Disc Deluxe Edition). (2008).
Artist: Beck.
Why You Should Get It: You probably have it right? Everybody has “Odelay”. Don’t they?

I don’t play this record often enough. I hadn’t listened to it for years but as soon as I put it on, that was me! I was off dancing on down the street like the honky I am.

You don’t need the 2 Disc Deluxe Edition. The second disc is full of long remixes and bland B-Sides. It’s filler with lovely cover artwork but the original album sounds better than you remember!

“Electric Dirt”. (2009).
Artist: Levon Helm.
Why You Should Get It: Helm’s reworking of The Grateful Dead’s tired sounding ‘Tennessee Jed’ into a swinging and swaying slide guitar Americana classic!

The late great Levon Helm kind of worked backwards. His music got better as he got older and “Electric Dirt” was his last studio album. You can hear the effort he put into every single song.

“The Lost Notebooks Of Hank Williams”. (2011).
Artist: Various Artists.
Why You Should Get It: Speaking of Levon Helm…he’s on this album which contains arrangements of Hank Williams’ incomplete, unreleased and unrecorded final songs.

This is a real treat for lovers of Hank Williams and his music. The lyrics to these songs were found in the car that Williams died in and were passed around over the years until they found their way into the hands of the SONY / ATV company who had the good sense to hand them over to Bob Dylan.

Setting Hank Williams’ lyrics to their own melodies, Bob Dylan completed one song and various other artists including Levon Helm, Jack White, Merle Haggard, Norah Jones and Sheryl Crow finished up other tracks and it’s really interesting to hear. There’s no honky tonking or yodelling but the words are Hank through and through.

…Which leads me to…

“Together Through Life”. (2009).
Artist: Bob Dylan.
Why You Should Get It…

“Gypsy Punks: Underdog World Strike”. (2005).
Artist: Gogol Bordello.
Why You Should Get It: Because it’s Ukrainian Gypsy Punk Music and frankly, it’s insane…

“New Boots And Panties!!” (1977).
Artist: Ian Dury.
Why You Should Get It: Because Ian Dury was a Clever Bastard…

“Sticky Fingers”. (1971).
Artist: The Rolling Stones.
Why You Should Get It: I’m not big on The Stones but even I can’t deny that this is a fucking peach of a record!

Due to many years of hearing pub bands cover it, I couldn’t listen to ‘Brown Sugar’ for a long time but I’ve since realised that loud, drunken heckling sorts this right out.

“The Band”. (1969).
Artist: The Band.
Why You Should Get It: Every single song on this album is perfect.
Every single one.
This entire album is completely perfect.
Listen to THIS, THIS and THIS and as an extra treat, here’s a documentary about the making of the album:

You May Also Be Interested In:
* Bob Dylan Changed My Life.
* Neil Young’s Sound.
* The Soundtrack To My Life. 15/04/2012.