The Soundtrack To My Life. 15/04/2012.

“A Night To Remember” (Audio Book). (2010).
Artist: Written by Walter Lord. Read by Martin Jarvis.
Why You Should Get It: This is a complete and compelling moment by moment account of The RMS Titanic disaster as told by the survivors themselves.

I bust my audio book cherry with “A Night To Remember” last week and it has left me completely stunned.
Highly recommended!

“Cape Fear” (Original Score). (1991).
Artist: Bernard Herrmann & Elmer Bernstein.
Why You Should Get It: Click HERE.

Ah, Bernard Herrmann. I’ve listened to his work every week ever since I got the “Taxi Driver” soundtrack last year! Did Herrmann ever write something that wasn’t completely brilliant? I can’t find any evidence if he did.

This is of course the soundtrack to the 1991 Martin Scorsese film “Cape Fear” and not the original 1961 film of the same name and so, what we have here is Bernard Herrmann’s original score adapted and arranged by Elmer Bernstein.

And it works!
It’s gloriously ominous.

“Left My Blues In San Francisco”. (1967).
Artist: Buddy Guy.
Why You Should Get It: Click HERE.

“A Wasteland Companion”. (2012).
Artist: M. Ward.
Why You Should Get It: Click HERE.

I had to get M. Ward’s “A Wasteland Companion” because last month he supported the brilliant Leslie Feist in Glasgow all by himself and I thought he carried it all off well. When he opened for Feist, Ward only used an acoustic guitar and (I think) a loop pedal and it was really great y’know? He’s a magical guitar player with really interesting and unusual chord patterns.

“A Wasteland Companion” is a very nice album but it’s mostly full-on band material instead of the stripped down bare bones I saw at the Feist gig. It’s probably one of those albums which I’ll listen to a few times before forgetting BUT!
– As I was typing this, I asked my pal Sean if he’d ever heard M. Ward’s material and he said that he has his first two albums which are bare and stripped down so maybe I should go and dig those up before I go any further with M. Ward.

“Grinderman”. (2007).
Artist: “Grinderman”.
Why You Should Get It: Click HERE.

I like Grinderman much more than I like Nick Cave And The Bad Seeds and despite what everybody I know told me, I thought that “Murder Ballads” was a fucking terrible album.
SO THERE YOU GO!

“Romeo And Juliet”. (2001).
Artist: Sergei Prokofiev.
Why You Should Get It: Just click HERE.

“Deja Vu”. (1970).
Artist: Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young.
Why You Should Get It: Click HERE.

“Deja Vu” (or as I’ve come to call it, “Davie Who?”) is a complete classic of an album and I guess now is as good a time as any to explain how I have an almost mint condition vinyl copy in my house.
Basically, I stole it.

Way back in the mid 1990’s my girlfriend’s Dad had “Deja Vu”  on vinyl and he never played it. It was such a hard to find album back then and I could not wait to hear it. I couldn’t even believe that he had a copy nevermind a mint conditioned vinyl copy.

I constantly asked him for a loan of the album or if he could even see his way to playing the album for me. Just once. It wasn’t a lot to ask but he wouldn’t do it so one day I just removed it from his house and moved it into mine. I still have it and I play it all the time but I am sorry that I stole it.
No really, I am!

“The SInking Of The Titanic / Jesus’ Blood Never Failed Me Yet”. (1975).
Artist: Gavin Bryars.
Why You Should Get It: Click HERE.

I don’t really have any words to describe how great and profound this music is. If I think of any, I’ll come back and write them down.

“The Godfather PART II” (Original Score & Soundtrack). (1974).
Artist: Nino Rota.
Why You Should Get It: Click HERE.

“L.A. Woman” (40th Anniversary Edition). (2012).
Artist: The Doors.
Why You Should Get It: Click HERE.

I’ve always loved the “L.A. Woman” album and I’ve always loved The Doors. I think every single song on the album is a belter and the remastered 40th Anniversary version sounds AMAZINGLY clear.

Jim Morrison recorded his vocals for this album in a bathroom and you can really hear it in this version. Matter of fact, unless you have “L.A. Woman” on vinyl, you should pick up a copy of the 40th Anniversary Edition.

– But make sure you get the correct edition because strangely, this is the second 40th Anniversary Mix of this album. It was first remixed, remastered and released in 2007. Weird eh? I really don’t know why that was.

The version I’m recommending to you contains 2 discs and was released in 2012.

You May Also Be Interested In:

The Soundtrack To My Life. 13/03/2012.
The Soundtrack To My Life. 04/02/2012.
Balls & Noise.

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.

Homesick For A Place That Ain’t Even Home.

So that’s me back from New York City.
I took several big bites outta The Big Apple and it tastes sweet!

I was over there for only one week and it went past in lightning time.
This was my 3rd time over there and now it’s all over.

I’ve got the ‘came back from New York 2 days ago’ blues.
I’m bluer than Joni Mitchell’s blue face on the cover of her album “Blue“, playing the blues on a blue guitar from Picasso’s blue period with my face painted blue in front row seats watching Blue Man Group whilst punching Anthony Costa‘s face in 😦

One day you’re standing on the corner of 34th and 8th then…WHOOSH!
Next thing you know you’re standing in the middle of Duke Street with a what the hell just happened look on your face.

I’m tired as hell.
I’ve pretty much been up for a whole week and 3 hours after my plane landed back in Glasgow,
I went out on the town to see the terrifying stand up comedy of Jerry Sadowitz.

Needless to say I had the time of my life over in New York.
It feels like home more than home feels like home.
Out all day doing all kinds of interesting things and tearing the town up at night,
I know my way around NYC better than I know my way around here.

I kept a diary in New York which ended up being pretty long.
I wrote it in bars and cafes at night as I wandered around looking for the kind of New York you see in Scorsese films and the good news is that I found it!
I also took around 1500 photographs and met some great people…BUT!
I’m gonna have to tell you all about it later.
I’ll get it typed up and post it all up on here over the next week or so.

So here I am feeling homesick for a place that’s ain’t even my home.
Maybe one day it will be.