How are Roxy Music connected to Krautrock? Well the two scantily clad ladies on the cover of Roxy’s 1974 album ‘Country Life’ are the cousin and then girlfriend of Michael Karoli off of Krautrock pioneers Can. Their names are Constanze Karoli and Eveline Grunwald respectively
The album cover was far too steamy for retailers in the US, Spain and the Netherlands. They either covered up the expanse of flesh or changed the cover.
A couple of my recent posts have mentioned session players, notably Carol Kaye and Glen Campbell. But did you know that Billy Joel also played on a few sessions in his early years. The stand outs were two Shangri-Las hits; “Leader Of The Pack” and “Remember (Walking In The Sand)”. Although it was most probably demo versions.
How many Trekkies are there among my readers? How many of you are music lovers?. If you are a Trekkie and you love music you probably know this already, but a number of pop and rock stars have made appearances on Star Trek at some time. If you know of any that I have missed from this post please let me know. Iggy Pop played the Vorta overseer working for the Dominion in the Star Trek: Deep Space Nine episode The Magnificent Ferengi.
Iggy Pop contemplates the Captain’s Log
Tom Morello off of Rage Against The Machine played Son’a Officer / Crewman Mitchell in the 1998 movie Insurrection, and later in the Voyager episode Good Shepherd respectively.
Tom Morello – Trekking In The Name Of
Jane Wiedlin off of 80s girl band the Go-Go’s, played Trillya in Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home.
One time Miss America and later very successful singer and actress Vanessa Williams played Arandis in the 1996 Star Trek: Deep Space Nine episode Let He Who Is Without Sin…
Vanessa Williams – looks a bit alien for a Miss America
David Soul played Makora in the Original Series episode The Apple in 1967, which was only his third television role and before his big break in Starsky and Hutch.
David Soul – looking for his Silver Lady (btw that is him on the left)
Fleetwood Mac’s drummer and huge Star Trek fan, appeared as the Antedian Dignitary in the The New Generation episode Manhunt. You could be forgiven for not recognising him in it though!
The Rumours are true, Mick Fleetwood is an alien
I know I am a little late with this as I am sure that you are all aware of the sad passing of music legend Glen Campbell earlier this week. But I couldn’t miss a chance to say something of the great man. For me growing up meant that it wasn’t cool to like anything that was in my Mum and Dad’s record collection. But they had two Glen Campbell albums, one of which was a best of compilation. I snuck that into my room a few times while my parents were away. Those songs and that voice were simply magical. On top of that Glen Campbell was a talented guitar player and session man. The world will be a lesser place without him but we will always have his music. So enjoy some of that now as the Rhinestone Cowboy rides out on his horse one last time. RIP Glen Campbell.
Led Zeppelin were never a singles band in the UK during their hey day. But they did drop their standards elsewhere in the world, particularly in the USA. In fact the B Side to the 7″ single release of “Immigrant Song” featured the bands only non-album release when it hit the shops in 1970. It was called “Hey Hey What Can I Do”, and it has seen the light of day on a number of reissues, notably the expanded ‘Coda’.
The band did eventually reach the UK singles chart in 1997 with a reissue of “Whole Lotta Love”. In total, worldwide Zep released 15 singles, the majority of which charted somewhere in the world. The original single release of “Whole Lotta Love” in 1969 made it to number one in both the Australian and German charts. “Immigrant Song” was a top ten hit in Canada, Germany, Netherlands, Switzerland and on the US Cash Box charts.
Apparently the harmonica is the world’s best-selling music instrument. Who would have thought that such a small humble tool would be that successful? How many of you own a harmonica? Of those who do own one then how many of you can actually play it? While you’re thinking about that take a listen to ten of my favourite harmonica featuring tunes.
Melvin Benn
Thanks to those nice people at the Hype Media I was lucky enough to attend the Leeds Festival Press Day earlier. Click here to read my write up for the Hype Media.
I would love to know what you think of it.
Who is the bass session player that has played on more sessions than any other bass player? Well according to the Berklee College of Music in Boston it is Carol Kaye who has played on more than 10,000 sessions over four decades.
She contributed to the Beach Boys classic album ‘Pet Sounds’, songs by Simon & Garfunkel, the Monkees, Ray Charles, Love, Glen Campbell, Neil Young, Frank Zappa, Ike & Tina Turner, Nancy Sinatra and Johnny Mathis to name but a few. She also played on many Phil Spector productions as well as a number of film soundtracks from the likes of Quincy Jones and Lalo Schifrin. In addition to bass guitar she also plays guitar and banjo. The now 82 year old Carol Kaye is without doubt one hell of a talented lady. Now enjoy just a small selection of the hits that she played on.
I am sure that many of you reading this know that Noel Gallagher was once a guitar tech/ roadie for the Inspiral Carpets. But did you know that when the band headlined the Reading Festival in 1990 and they brought a pantomime cow on stage that one half of that creature was Noel? I am not sure which half though and I was there!
Do you remember that haunting ‘big boys don’t cry’ refrain on 10cc’s massive 1975 hit “I’m Not In Love”? Well whatever happened to that session singer? Maybe the question is what session singer as that vocal was recorded by the then Strawberry Studios Receptionist Kathy Redfern (although some internet sites have her surname as Warren).
The song went to number one in the UK, Canada and Ireland and was taken from their 1975 top 5 album ‘The Original Soundtrack’. It was the second of the band’s three UK number ones. The others were “Rubber Bullets” in 1973 and “Dreadlock Holiday” in 1978.
OK Kathy if by some wild stretch of the imagination you, or someone who knows you, is reading this post I would love to interview you for this blog.
With Just A Hint Of Mayhem 