With Just A Hint Of Mayhem

Music reviews, gig reviews, fun trivia and extra added random stuff!

“There ain’t no room for the hopeless sinner” October 18, 2011

Filed under: Observation,Rants — justwilliam1959 @ 10:52 pm
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This hopeless sinner (or maybe I’m just a talented sinner) was listening to the radio at the weekend and a song that I really love came on. It was the beautiful “People Get Ready” by the Curtis Mayfield era Impressions. Now this is a very religious song and I am not a religious person. So my question to you is; should I be able to enjoy religious songs even if I am not religious myself? Well I’m talking conventional religion I suppose because in the last two census forms I completed I registered as a Jedi (hence the Star Wars elements of this post!)

I have quite a few songs of a religious nature in my collection including;

“I Want Jesus To Walk With Me” – Johnny Nash – But then I do have a rather extensive Johnny Nash Collection

“Forever Loving Jah” – Bob Marley – I love loads of Rasta but let’s face it I can never be one, I am now forever a “Crazy Baldhead”

“You Got The Love” – The Source featuring Candi Staton – Probably my favourite dance track, probably my favourite song of the 90s too! I am pretty sure this is a religious love song about the love of god rather than just a love song.

“People Get Ready” – The Impressions – A truly beautiful song whatever it’s sentiment in my opinion

“Caravan Of Love” – Isley Jasper Isley – The biggest hit from this Isley Brothers offshoot and also superbly covered by those legends from Hull, the Housemartins

I’d like to know what you think about this potential dilemma. I don’t have a problem with this, but I wonder if there is anyone out there that does. On a similar vein I once worked with a guy who was a racist, I’d like to stress that he wasn’t a friend. He had lots of 60s soul music in his collection; Aretha Franklin, Otis Redding and plenty of Motown. Personally I find that hard to reconcile; he didn’t like black people and yet he had a large amount of black music in his collection. I’d love to hear your views on that too.

Incidentally I would like to state categorically that I do not own any of Cliff Richard‘s religious songs such as “The Lords Prayer ” and “Saviours Day” 🙂

 

“They would not listen, they’re not listening still, perhaps they never will…..” October 17, 2011

Filed under: News — justwilliam1959 @ 6:35 pm
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A new biography suggests that Van Gogh didn’t kill himself and he died from the aftermath of an accidental shooting. Clearly that is something that I would imagine is very difficult to prove. But however he died this bit of news does give me the opportunity to feature Don McLean’s 1972 UK number one hit “Vincent” which was written about Van Gogh.

The song was included on McLean’s classic ‘American Pie’ album. He wrote the song after reading a book about the life of Vincent Van Gogh in 1971. The lyrics describe a number of Van Gogh’s works and also suggest McLean’s admiration for the paintings and Van Gogh himself. I once visited the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam and I found it quite a humbling experience. The impression I got was of a supremely talented artist who really didn’t know his true worth. What are your views on Mr Van Gogh?

 

“A mulatto, an albino, a mosquito, my libido” October 16, 2011

Filed under: News,Rants — justwilliam1959 @ 5:15 pm
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I am pleased to see that someone has kicked off a Facebook campaign to make Nirvana’s “Smells Like Teen Spirit” the UK Christmas number one this year. I posted something of a similar sentiment a short while ago, click here to read it. This new Facebook campaign was kicked off in response to the X Factor naming one of this years crop of average karaoke singers, another insipid, bland girl group, Rhythmix. The name is also the name of a UK charity that uses music as and to help children and young people from difficult backgrounds. It gives many young people the opportunity to make music to help them develop and learn. Check out the charity website here.

Simon Cowell will do anything in his desire to rule the world, including throwing babies to sharks

When the charity contacted the X Factor team they were told to “get a lawyer”. Effectively because they didn’t have the rights to the name for use as a band, basically they held the rights for educational purposes only. That’s within the letter of the law I’m sure, but ethically and morally it suggests that Cowell and his cronies are emotionally bankrupt.

Nirvana's unused sleeve for their cover of the Commodores "Brick House"

So let’s get behind this campaign and spoil this years pop muppets Christmas. Click here to find the page on Facebook. In the meantime enjoy the band doing the song at the Reading Festival in 1992. They even insert a short burst of Boston’s “More Than A Feeling” a song fromwhich Kurt Cobain claimed to have ripped off the riff for Teen Spirit from.

 

“Please could you stop the noise, I’m trying to get some rest” October 15, 2011

Filed under: News — justwilliam1959 @ 8:56 am
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I’d like to wish the brilliant nme.com a happy 15th birthday. To celebrate the site now hosts a list of what they consider to be the best tracks of the last 15 years. Not too many surprises, even for someone like me who has been an NME reader since 1971. I am really grown up now and actually subscribe to the printed version. But nme.com along with the BBC and the Guardian are the sites that I check out each day. There must be people out there who have been reading NME for longer than me and equally kids who have only got into music since the launch of nme.com. I would love to hear your NME related stories.

Click here to access the whole top 150. The top 5 in descending order are;

 

“Ever dance with the devil in the pale moonlight?”

Filed under: News — justwilliam1959 @ 8:30 am
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I have been a big fan of comic books and superheroes for many, many years and obviously people like the Fantastic Four, Spiderman, Iron Man, the X Men and many others are real aren’t they? OK you might be laughing now but click here and you will see that I could be right!

Phoenix Jones is a Seattle superhero crime fighter. He is the leader of the Rain City Superhero Movement. He recently appeared in court charged with attacking some people outside a nightclub using pepper spray. Somehow I can’t imagine that Batman kept pepper spray in his utility belt. The judge made him unmask and reveal his secret identity as Benjamin Fodor. I am not sure whether he was bitten by a radioactive spider, was exposed to gamma radiation, is a mutant or is indeed slightly mad. But he certainly seems to be for real. He is married to another superhero/ vigilante known as Purple Reign, she sounds like some kind of Prince protegé to me! I wonder if they drive around in the Phoenixmobile or the Jonesmobile?

Phoenix appears to be getting a bit of a caning from a woman here 🙂

Obviously we need a few hero related songs to accompany this post don’t we?

Holy hero Batman they've taken our jobs!

 

“I wanna know why you never look me in the face” October 14, 2011

Filed under: Observation,Rants — justwilliam1959 @ 7:12 pm
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I think I have come close to experiencing regret on two occasions and that is with the benefit of hindsight. Those two occasions occurred in the late 70s and both involved me turning down what would have been significant opportunities.

Firstly I was sitting in my local pub one evening in December 1976 (it was the now sadly departed Oak Tree in Hillingdon) when someone came in and offered tickets to see a band at Brunel University. It was a band that was causing quite a stir and I could have made it quite easily. But I decided that the pub would win that night. The band was the Sex Pistols!

Possibly the very ticket that I turned down!

Secondly I was on a lad’s holiday in Spain in 1977 (or it might have been 1978). We were staying maybe less than an hour’s drive from Barcelona. While we were there a now sadly late, great performer was playing a gig in the city. We asked our travel representative about getting tickets. He
said getting them was easy but that for a bunch of English blokes to turn up at a gig in Spain would incite the Spanish youth to violence. I now realise that this was probably complete bollocks and we should have gone to the show. That legendary, late, great performer was none other than Bob Marley.

So I have always felt that I have never regretted anything I have done in my life so far. I still believe that and I also feel that this is a good philosophy, however that doesn’t mean that you can’t be sorry about some things you have done, does it?

There were a couple of people at school that to be perfectly honest I treated in quite a mean and disrespectful way. With one of those people I simply followed the herd and behaved just like most other people in my school peer group. With the other person I made them look like a liar in order to save some teenage face. So there you have it, my teenage confessions of sorts. I would like to apologise to both of these people albeit so many years later, but I guess I am just salving my conscience. I thought long and hard about whether I should mention them by name and I personally feel that I should, I’m sure that the chances of them reading this is pretty remote anyway.

So at the risk of steering into Simon Mayo confession territory I would like to apologise unreservedly for my behaviour towards two people between 1972 and 1977 or thereabouts. Geoffrey Guile and Susan Batty this one’s for you! If I knew then what I know now then I would have behaved very differently.

 

“Molars and fangs, the clicking of bones, spirits moaning among the tombstones” October 13, 2011

Filed under: News,Trivia — justwilliam1959 @ 8:28 pm
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Thanks to my good friend Nick Horslen for directing me to this rather amusing story on the BBC recently. Apparently the latest movie in the Resident Evil franchise is being filmed in Toronto and when a number of actors in Zombie guise were moving from one stage to another there was an accident. There were no major injuries, just cuts and bruises. However the best part of the story is the surprise of the emergency services when they arrived. Can you imagine turning up to an emergency only to find that the victims were covered in blood; mostly fake blood as it turns out!

You can click here to read the story on the BBC. Obviously given the music nature of this blog I simply had to include some Zombie related
songs. Maybe you should consider including some of these on your Halloween party soundtrack later this month! Keeping up that Zombie theme, how many of you are fans of “The Walking Dead”? I think it’s a superb horror series, enjoy the trailer for series two by clicking here.

“Zombie” – Cranberries – Not really a Zombie song as it relates to the troubles in Ireland.

“Pet Sematary” – Ramones – This is also not strictly a Zombie song but the classic Stephen King story centres around how things that are buried in an ancient native American burial ground come back to life. This song is the theme to the movie version. As I believe the strapline on the film poster and trailer said…….. ‘Sometimes dead is better’

“Call of the Zombie” – Rob Zombie – No Zombie song list would be complete without Mr Zombie himself would it. He recently made an appearance on the new Alice Cooper album “Welcome 2 My Nightmare” which is a sequel to, can you guess the title………… “Welcome To My Nightmare”. It’s rather a good album in my opinion.

“Zombie” – Fela Kuti & Africa ’70 – More of a tub thumping funky criticism of the Nigerian army than about zombies themselves. But an excellent song nonetheless.

“Thriller” – Michael Jackson – I guess this must be the Zombie song that everyone knows, especially the Zombie dance section. Did you
know that Vincent Price and Paul and Linda McCartney all appear as Zombies in the Zombie formation dancing section of the video.

I bet you can't guess who this fine looking Zombie is can you?

 

“And I didn’t mean to hurt you, but I know that in the game of love you reap what you sow” October 12, 2011

Filed under: News,Rants — justwilliam1959 @ 7:46 pm
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Here we are again just about a year after the X Factor finalists last murdered a song the new batch of pop muppets are killing another classic. Last year it was Bowie’s “Heroes” and this year it’s Rose Royce’s 1978 hit “Wishing On A Star”. The only saving grace is that at least the proceeds go
to charity. However why not donate to the charity directly (use Gift Aid if you are a UK taxpayer) and not buy the single. That way the X Factor has a flop single on its hands and the charity gets more money. Let’s face it how many charity singles get played again after the first couple of weeks (or days even!) So if you’re thinking of buying this years X Factor charity single, it’s simple; don’t! Just make a donation directly to the charity. Click here to go to the ACT & Children’s Hospices UK website and do the right thing! I’ve made my donation to the value of 5 copies of the single!

Now enjoy the original of the Rose Royce song and an excellent cover version by Paul Weller too. Obviously as a big Bowie fan I have included the original of “Heroes” as well!

 

“Yellow diamonds in the light and we’re standing side by side” October 11, 2011

Filed under: News — justwilliam1959 @ 9:22 pm
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Rihanna now employs Catwoman as her stylist

Rihanna has just gone to the summit of the UK singles chart once again with her 6th number one in 5 years, a record for a female solo artist. The song is “We Found Love” and it features Calvin Harris. It is even more of an achievement given that it was only released on Wednesday whereas most singles are released on a Monday. I can’t help thinking that there is a bizarre double entendre style headline in that story somewhere as well. Something like ‘RIHANNA DOES SIX NUMBER ONES IN SIX YEARS, BUT NO NUMBER TWOS!’
the accompanying story would ask how she has managed to stay so slim given the lack of number twos! If you are reading this outside the UK the number ones and number twos reference may not translate well, even elsewhere in the English-speaking world. If you’re confused and need an explanation let me know. OK let me leave the potty humour for now.

If only the farmer could have given her a little more time with his sheep then Rihanna could have finished knitting her sweater 😉

The news of her sixth number one must have cheered Rihanna up no end after she was told to put more clothes on by an Irish Farmer at a recent video shoot on a farm in Northern Ireland. The farmer, Alan Graham was quoted as saying that he did not “believe young ladies should have to take their clothes off to entertain”. Well maybe that’s true but personally I would have been entertained if a scantily clad Rihanna was cavorting around my farm! How about you?

 

“I need help ladies and gentlemens I need someone to stand beside me” October 10, 2011

Filed under: Film,Review — justwilliam1959 @ 5:54 pm
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I watched the classic Peter Sellers movie ‘Being There’ for the first time in years yesterday. I went out and bought the DVD at the weekend following a chance (no pun intended to fans of said movie!) conversation at work last week.

My memory of the film was always that it was quite deep, funny, emotional, spiritual and very well written and acted. On this occasion
my memory has certainly not failed me, this is truly a classic film, featuring in my opinion Peter Sellers finest performance. The supporting cast is equally accomplished too.

If you haven’t seen it I will try to describe it simply and with no spoilers. Sellers plays a character known as Chancey Gardener, who in
fact is just a gardener…… or is he? It seems that everything he knows he has learnt in the garden or from watching TV. His simple, yet powerful thoughts on life in relation to gardening can be seen as the ramblings of a slow-witted person or something much more profound. Personally I’d opt for the profound.

If you haven’t seen this film yet then I would strongly recommend that you do. If you come away from watching it not feeling better
than you did before then you really are hard-hearted.

It’s not a musical but I felt able to include it in my music blog simply because of its excellent use of two seminal 70s tracks, the latter
of which is one of my all time favourites. If you have already seen this film or have watched it on my recommendation I would love to hear you opinions on it.