Dolly Parton’s Dollywood Theme Park was once picketed by those racist pointy hooded wankers the Ku Klux Klan. This was simply because Dollywood hosts an annual Gay Day event. Anyway I may be straight but I am a supporter of anyone that isn’t a bigoted scumbag. So if anyone reading this has any liking for the KKK and their ilk please do us all a favour and simply FUCK OFF!
We all know that Led Zeppelin, and in particular Jimmy Page, had an interest in black magic. Jimmy bought Aleister Crowley’s old house in the 1970s. Their third album ‘Led Zeppelin III’ featured two Crowley quotes in the run out groove of the original vinyl release; ‘Do what thou wilt’ and ‘so make it be’. I knew all that but what I didn’t know was that the old man on the cover of ‘Led Zeppelin IV’ is actually Aleister Crowley. He also appeared on the cover of the Beatles ‘Sergeant Pepper’ album designed by Peter Blake. So the Fab Four may have had Crowley on an album cover before Led Zeppelin but for me the Led Zep connection is more interesting. What do you think?
In their early days Marc Almond and Dave Ball a.k.a. Soft Cell used a Roland TR-808 drum machine. when they stopped using it their run of UK top five hits dried up. The last of their UK top 5 hits to use the poor old TR-808 was “What!” from 1982 which reached number 3 in August 1982.
The song “Tomorrow And Tonight” by Kiss from their 1977 album ‘Love Gun’ featured backing vocals by none other than Victor Edward Willis. You may know him better as the Cop and lead singer of the Village People.
David O’Brien was once a part of the Les Humphries Singers and in 1976 he performed “Sing Sang Song” at the Eurovision Song Contest with them. They represented Germany and sang the song in German; or should that be they sing sang song in German!
Mr O’Brien is also the father of soulful UK chanteuse and Brit School alumni Katy B. Given the family connection maybe we should ask her to represent the UK at next years contest. “Sing Sang Song” finished in 15th place in a year where the UK actually won. The crown was taken by Brotherhood Of Man with “Save All Your Kisses For Me“; not one of my favourite songs!
Did you know that a bully was partly responsible for providing Arcade Fire with their name? A bully at Win Butler’s old school spoke constantly about an old arcade that burned down resulting in the death of a number of children.
Whilst we are on names Win Butler’s name is not as simple as you might think. His full name is Edwin Farnham Butler the Third. That sounds almost royal doesn’t it?
American rock band Kiss are tailor-made for appearing in comics and they have on many occasions. But did you know that their first ever appearance in a comic was in a 1977 issue of ‘Howard The Duck‘? Has anyone got a copy of that comic? As well as appearing in their own comic book series the band have also appeared on the Simpsons as themselves.
Imagine how different music history might have been if Brian May had left Queen in 1974 just a short while before things really began to take off for them. It might have happened, during 1974 Queen were supporting Sparks in London and Ron Mael took the opportunity to ask Brian to become guitarist for Sparks. I wonder what direction each band would have taken had Mr May said yes? What do you think?
Elton’s got balls!
Don’t you just love Elton John’s “Bennie And The Jets” from his 1973 double album ‘Goodbye Yellow Brick Road‘? I certainly do. I knew that it wasn’t a live recording but the applause included on the track makes it sound as though it is. Did you know that the applause wasn’t even recorded at an Elton gig? In fact it is drawn from recordings of the audience clapping and shouting at Jimi Hendrix’s Isle Of Wight festival set in 1970.
I know of another occasion where that kind of thing has happened too. The sound of the crowd used on the title track of David Bowie’s ‘Diamond Dogs‘ album is actually the applause taken from a live album by the Faces! Can any of you offer any similar gems?
The synthesiser intro to Elton John’s magnificent (in my opinion) “Funeral For A Friend”, the opening track on the ‘Goodbye Yellow Brick Road‘ album, was recorded by David Hentschel an engineer and, obviously, a synthesiser player. Apparently Elton only heard it for the first time after it was finished.
With Just A Hint Of Mayhem 