With Just A Hint Of Mayhem

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

“Leaving just your picture behind and I’ve kissed it a thousand times” October 8, 2009

Filed under: Trivia — justwilliam1959 @ 3:14 pm
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Hello people and welcome to another post from me, in fact this is the 98th post which means that my mega 100th post which will list my top 100 songs is not too far away now, how exciting is that eh?

I have some news for the regular readers amongst you; back in May I asked if you could guess where I was going to be starting work that month. The link to that post is here if you wish to try and guess again! So don’t read on at this point if you are a second guesser! Why? Well that’s easy because I have now left that job and will be starting another soon. OK if you’re not a second guesser I’ll put you out of your misery, I have been working at BP! Where am I working next? OK let me give you a few clues; Prince Charles off of the Royal Family, Prince off of Purple Rain, Henry VIII off of Herman’s Hermits 60s hit “I’m Henry the VIII I am” What do they all have in common? What are they? Answer that and you will have guessed where I’ll be working next! As usual there may well be a prize if anyone can be bothered to enter and if I can be bothered to sort through my crap at home for a prize!

OK onto the news. David Bowie along with James Osterberg (that’ll be Iggy Pop to the non anoraks) is to be immortalised in Lego for a new Lego version of the Rock Band game. Click here to see Lego Bowie performing “Let’s Dance”I wonder if they’ll do the same to Robbie Williams. I’ve always thought he was a bit of a brick (errrrrrr did I spell that right?)

Taken from the 1983 Serious Moonlight image, I'm not sure it looks much like him. What do you think?

Taken from the 1983 Serious Moonlight image, I'm not sure it looks much like him. What do you think?

Now this one looks much more like the real thing

Now this one looks much more like the real thing

OK this next piece is not strictly music, but I just wanted to say something about it. I personally have a big issue with the piles of ‘self help’ books that clutter our book stores these days. For me the term ‘self help book’ is a complete oxymoron. You either help yourself or perhaps read a book where effectively someone else is trying to help you. (or they’re trying to make a fortune from gullible people by publishing stream of consciousness psychobabble bollocks. Apparently self help books are the only literary genre to have increased sales (by 25%) during the recession. Or to use the more snappy name of ‘The Credit Crunch’ bestowed by one of the four horsemen of the apocalypse. Which one was it; Pestilence, Plague, Flood or Marketing? I’ll bet that you can’t guess. As a follow on I read on Tuesday that sales of Sarah Ferguson’s self help books have plummeted, they must be worse than awful then! Anyway the article can be found by clicking here. There is one quote which I believe sums up my opinions of this awful genre and it was from the Guardian’s medical correspondent. When asked if he would read another book of this type he said “I would rather slam my cock in the door” So as I have said before this is a music post, so let’s get back to that with a combination of songs about books and help!

Paperback Writer – Beatles. This may have been the most obvious choice for the book part of the list. It was the first of the Beatles UK singles that wasn’t a love song

Story Of The Blues– Wah! I have always loved this song, it has a great, almost Phil Spectorish, production and certainly on record Pete Wylie’s voice is superb. I’m not sure about the sailors hat in the video though, but don’t worry, things become even more camp later in this post! Wylie started his career in Liverpool in 1977 in a short-lived band called the Crucial Three along with none other than Ian McCulloch (off of Echo And The Bunnymen) and Julian Cope (off of the Teardrop Explodes)

Book Of Love – Monotones A classic one hit wonder group. Charles Patrick one of the singers wrote the words after hearing a Pepsodent jingle which carried the refrain “You’ll wonder where the yellow went”

Help– Beatles. This, as the astute readers will have spotted is the second song from the MopTops in this list, an obvious choice I suppose but a great song nonetheless. Lead vocals come from John Lennon on this song which he wrote about his feelings of insecurity following the bands rapid rise to global fame. Incidentally on the album cover the Beatles semaphore stance was originally intended to spell HELP, but apparently it didn’t look aesthetically pleasing, so it actually spells NUVJ. Which on reflection wouldn’t have been a great album title would it?

Help Yourself – Tom Jones This video is taken from the first edition of Tom’s UK TV show ‘This Is Tom Jones’ in February 1969. Is it me or are those dancers the campest in the entire history of the universe?

I Can’t Help Myself  (Sugar Pie, Honey Bunch)– Four Tops. Some excellent Motown formation dancing from the guys in this one, which if you haven’t viewed the previous Tom Jones clip you might have considered somewhat camp, after that it is downright butch! The Tops were originally known as the Four Aims back in the 50s, but there was another vocal group known as the Four Ames (Ames being a family name) so to avoid confusion they became the Four Tops. They were one of my favourite groups when I began to get into music and in my opinion Levi Stubbs voice may never be surpassed. However there does exist another rather good version of this song from the talented but hardly mentioned these days, Mr Donnie Elbert, click here to hear it. Still on the subject of camp who is Music Mike and what is Flashback Favourites? (you’ll have to check out the Donnie video to understand

 

“Feel sunshine sparkle pink and blue. Playgrounds will laugh if you try to ask, is it cool, is it cool?” September 28, 2009

Filed under: Trivia — justwilliam1959 @ 8:37 pm
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Hello peeps, I feel I have become a somewhat lazy blogger of late, some might say I’m just a lazy bugger, but that’s another story. Anyway first up for this post is a shout for two bands, one of whom regular readers will already have heard a great deal about.

But I’ll start with the band that up until now hasn’t been mentioned in this blog. Their name is Smash Robots and while I haven’t seen them live yet I have listened to their stuff on MySpace and in my humble opinion they are bloody good. Fantastic English rock and regular readers will know that whilst I am not anti-American in any way I have never been comfortable with British rock bands singing in American accents. What’s that all about? Anyway you really should check Smash Robots out, click here to visit their MySpace page and tell them I sent you. How did I come across this combo you may wonder, well I work with Rich who is a member of the band! I’m loving their brilliant song “When Planets Collide” which I just downloaded, that will be on my iPod very soon!

Second shout out goes to a band you will have heard a great deal about on this blog already if you’re a regular reader. The band in question is another fabulous English band, the mighty Steal The Smile. I saw them live in July for the release of their single “Rome Was Built To Burn” and they were superb. (Click here to see a review of that gig) They have an EP coming out later this year so keep your eyes and ears on them and when the EP is released BUY IT OK! Don’t fanny about JUST BUY IT!!!!! If you don’t then just ask yourself……. Do you feel lucky? Well do ya feel lucky punk?” Click here to visit their MySpace page. I am going to see them play again on 1st November when they are supporting the rather talented US band Zebrahead. The gig is at the FaceBar in Reading (click here or here to buy your ticket at just £7 each they’re a bargain!) They also have a few more gigs lined up so check out their MySpace page for news of those. If you do see them live I would love to know what you think, that’s what the blog comments section is for people, so use it! 🙂

Check out Steal the Smile on the Zebrahead poster

Check out Steal the Smile on the Zebrahead poster

I also have some very sad news to impart, the death of Lucy Vodden (nee O’Donnell) aged just 46. She was the inspiration for the classic Beatles song “Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds” after Julian Lennon Lucy’s school friend brought home a drawing of her. John Lennon asked his son what the picture was and Julian replied “it’s Lucy in the sky, with diamonds” The rest as they say is history. Lucy died after a long battle against the autoimmune disease known as lupus. Julian and his mother Cynthia are said to be shocked and saddened by Lucy’s death. Maybe she really is in the sky with diamonds now, RIP Lucy. To celebrate the life of the inspiration to such a great song click here to see perhaps one of the oddest cover versions ever made of the song, by none other than William Shatner!

For the rest of todays post I thought I would put my iPod on shuffle and see which are the first five songs that come up. My fingers were crossed to ensure that nothing too embarrassing came up (and in my opinion it didn’t, but you can be the judge of that) I was also somewhat surprised that there are no tracks from David Bowie, Kate Bush, KLF or the Clash as I have more songs by these acts than anyone else. So I guess I’ll have to bore you with them another day 🙂

So here we go with the first five songs that came up when I put my iPod onto shuffle along with a wee bit of trivia about each. Incidentally I currently have around 8,500 songs loaded just to give you an idea of how many these came from

“C Moon” – Wings. Paul McCartney got the idea from a song by Sam The Sham and the Pharaohs, the classic “Wooly Bully” where part of the lyric says ‘let’s not be L7’ In this context L7 is 60s slang for someone who is a square or very unhip. Apparently the opposite of someone who is L7 is a C Moon or a circle! To think for years I just assumed this was something to do with mooning! The song was actually a double A Side with “Hi Hi Hi” The latter song was banned by the BBC because of it’s ‘obvious’ drug reference as in getting high, how L7 is that Daddy-O? As a result it was “C Moon” that got all the airplay including McCartney’s missed cue which remains in the released version as “was that the intro? I shoulda been in”

Wings may not have been L7 but they did have bloody enormous fingers

Wings may not have been L7 but they did have bloody enormous fingers

“19”– Paul Hardcastle. The song was a massive hit in 1985. Basically it was a classy electronic dance track with cut ups of US journalist Peter Thomas speaking about the post traumatic stress suffered by the majority of US soldiers in Vietnam. Hardcastle also lost a court case against Mike Oldfield who successfully claimed that the tunes melody owed a great deal to his own Tubular Bells. personally I can’t see it, what do you think? Simon Fuller who went on to even greater success with the Spice Girls was Paul’s manager in 1985 and it was that very tune that he named his company after, hence the origin of 19 Entertainment!

paul may not have suffered from post traumatic stress disorder but judging from this look he clearly suffered from post traumatic fashion victim syndrome

paul may not have suffered from post traumatic stress disorder but judging from this look he clearly suffered from post traumatic fashion victim syndrome

“I Was Watching You” – Rosanne Cash. This is one of the handful of songs that regularly makes me cry (not much of a tough guy am I?) It is also one of my favourite songs. Rosanne is the eldest daughter of the late, great Johnny Cash. Her mother was his first wife, the rather exotically named Vivian Liberto Cash Distin. The song is from her wonderful album ‘Black Cadillac’ from 2006, if you haven’t heard it I recommend that you check it out. There are religious overtones in the song but there is a line in it which gets to me every time; “I didn’t know it but you were always there, until September when you slipped away” I think this hits me mostly because my Dad died in September 2001 just a couple of weeks after his 70th birthday and I never stop missing him. If you have lost a parent you’ll probably know exactly how I feel. So feel free to open up and tell the other readers if there is “one damned song, that makes you break down and cry” (to slightly  paraphrase Mr Bowie)

Rosanne had an innate ability to control UFOs with just her fingers

Rosanne had an innate ability to control UFOs with just her fingers

“Life’s What You Make It” – Talk Talk. This song was a big hit across the whole of Europe it can be found on the band’s album ‘The Colour Of Spring’. It was released as a single in 1986 and was recently covered by Weezer on their 2008 album the eponymously titled ‘Weezer’ aka the Red Album.

You can also find Talk Talk's "Life's What You Make It" on Grand Theft Auto Vice City

You can also find Talk Talk's "Life's What You Make It" on Grand Theft Auto Vice City

“Strawberry Letter 23” – Brothers Johnson. This song is without any shadow of a doubt one of my favourite songs ever. It was written and first recorded for his album ‘Freedom Flight’ by Shuggie Otis. It was inspired by a girlfriend of his who used to write to him using strawberry scented note paper. Click here for Shuggie’s version. It was recorded and released by George and Louis Johnson in 1977 and was quite succesful in the US but did hardly anything in the UK. I was so disappointed that the record buying public in the UK didn’t buy it. So if you are in the UK and you don’t own this, it’s not too late to make up for it, go and download it now! this song also goes out to my good friend Fraser Matthews who has the great taste to include it in among his all time favourites, Fraser for that I’ll forgive you Joe Satriani

The Brothers Johnson were once again shocked to learn that their guitar roadie hadn't earthed their guitars

The Brothers Johnson were once again shocked to learn that their guitar roadie hadn't earthed their guitars

So come on folks, put your iPod on shuffle and tell me what comes up, be honest now 🙂

I am also working hard on producing a list of my 100 favourite songs in readiness for my 100th post, which isn’t too far away, this one is 96!!!!

 

“Now I don’t mean to bother you but I’m in distress, there’s a danger of me losing all of my happiness” August 19, 2009

Filed under: Trivia — justwilliam1959 @ 10:17 pm
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Johnny Nash, Don Webster, Billie Joe Royal and Terry Knight on the Upbeat TV show

Johnny Nash, Don Webster, Billie Joe Royal and Terry Knight on the Upbeat TV show

I reckon this may turn out to be quite a short post but I couldn’t let this auspicious day pass without wishing a very happy 69th birthday to the supremely talented Mr Johnny Nash. I don’t know which record companies own all his rights now but if you’re reading it’s about time more of his stuff was issued on CD and I’m not talking about yet another greatest hits package! Johnny was born John Lester Nash Jr in Houston Texas on 19th August 1940. Regular readers of this blog will know that I have posted about Johnny a few times before as he is and always will be one of my favourite singers of all time.

I believe that he now lives in Jamaica which is quite fitting as he became the first American to record reggae in Jamaica back in the 60s. I first got into him when I heard his excellent version of Bob Marley’s “Stir It Up“. It was that which also got me into the late great (ls & gs are back again!) Robert Nesta Marley. Johnny was influenced by the late great (ls & g sback with a vengeance now!) Sam Cooke. In fact he recored and had hits with two Cooke songs “(What A) Wonderful World” and “Cupid” If you’ve never really listened much to Johnny do yourself a favour and get yourself a copy of one of the many greatest hits packages available, you won’t regret it!

Johnny appeared to be a big fan of...... grass! ;-)

Johnny appeared to be a big fan of...... grass! 😉

And to make this post just a little longer I’ll add just a few onthisdays for your pleasure. Starting with those well known pensioners the Rolling Stones. On this day in 1964 the Stones played the first of six nights at the New Theatre Ballroom in Guernsey in the Channel Isles. On the very same day the band were told that they had been banned by British United Airways (presumably a forerunner of British Airways) from flying with them, presumably due to bad behaviour. Click here to see some pictures of the Stones soundtracked by what is in my opinion one of their finest songs “Gimme Shelter”

Mick knew he would never be as good a guitar player as Keef, but he would always be the best at making fart noises with his microphone

Mick knew he would never be as good a guitar player as Keef, but he would always be the best at making fart noises with his microphone

On this day in 1967 the Beatles had their 14th US number one single with “All You Need Is Love“. Backing vocals on the song were provided by Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, Eric Clapton, Keith Moon, Graham Nash, Marianne Faithfull and Gary Leeds off of the Walker Brothers. Elvis Costello played a reasonable cover of the song at the Wembley leg of Live Aid in July 1985.

In their early days the moptops were so poor that they could only afford one seat between them

In their early days the moptops were so poor that they could only afford one seat between them

And finally, on this day in 1977 the Sex Pistols began an undercover tour of the UK as the Spots. The name was actually an acronym of ‘Sex Pistols On Tour Secretly’ after they had been banned from countless UK venues due to the ridiculous witch hunt engineered by the shabby right wing UK tabloid press. Yep you guessed it I believe that the tabloids are the scum of the earth! Click here to see the Bill Grundy interview with the Pistols that led to those ‘Filth And Fury’ headlines and as a special bonus click here to see the then Johnny Rotten on Juke Box Jury

The Pistols had been banned from so many venues they resorted to playing in rubbish skips!

The Pistols had been banned from so many venues they resorted to playing in rubbish skips!

 

“My feet is my only carriage, so I’ve got to push on through” July 16, 2009

Filed under: Trivia — justwilliam1959 @ 9:24 pm
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Hello good people and thank you for reading my blog, however you got here 🙂

I’ll kick off this post with yet another shameless plug for my son Luke’s band, Steal The Smile. They are playing at the SweatBox in Wantage tonight (17th July) and then on Friday 18th July they are playing at TheNet in Abingdon. Check out their MySpace page here. You will not be disappointed, these boys are bloody good!

And now on with the usual crap, a few ‘onthisdays’ for July 17th. Starting with those old fellas the Rolling Stones. On this day in 1972 a bomb exploded under their equipment van in Montreal, Canada. It was alleged to be the work of French Separatists. Presumably nothing to do with Mick’s alleged relationship with Pierre Trudeau’s wife then, but hey maybe that allegation came later! In addition to the bomb many angry fans rioted and threw bottles and bricks after it was discovered that there were around 3,000 forged tickets in circulation. Can’t get no satisfaction indeed! In the meantime check out the Stones with the classic “Angie”

Well no wonder they were bombed, insulting a moose like this was the catalyst!

Well no wonder they were bombed, insulting a moose like this was the catalyst!

This day in 1975 was in my opinion highly historic as it was one of the nights that one of the greatest albums ever was recorded, well certainly the greatest live album anyway! Bob Marley and the Wailers played the firs of two nights at the Lyceum in good old London Town. Both shows were recorded and later released as the classic Marley album ‘Live’ later that year. For me it contains the definitive version of the undeniably brilliant “No Woman No Cry“, which is easily my favourite Marley song. I have worn out three copies of that album over the years, one on cassette and two on vinyl. I have t on CD now though!

“No Woman No Cry” was originally included on the excellent ‘Natty Dread’ album and many people assumed it was not written by Mr Marley, largely because the song is credited to a ‘V. Ford’. This is in fact one Vincent Ford who ran a soup kitchen in Trenchtown, Jamaica. He was a good friend of Bob’s and the royalties he  received enabled him to continue running that same soup kitchen for man years. I think that is a great gift to give, what do you think? Ford died a few months ago, click here for the BBC report of his death.

Bob was supposedly a talented footballer, but I bet he wouldn't have taken the Manchester City silver dollar!

Bob was supposedly a talented footballer, but I bet he wouldn’t have taken the Manchester City silver dollar!

The cover of my favourite Bob Marley album, go out and buy it now! That's an order!

The cover of my favourite Bob Marley album, go out and buy it now! That’s an order!

And finally for today I will feature someone who my regular readers will know that I don’t rate very highly at all……… Robbie Williams! On this day in 1995 he left Take That, bucket loads of tears were shed and the story even made all the main TV news shows. I mean come on it was hardly the Beatles breaking up or even Geri leaving the Spice Girls was it? Well ok maybe it was on a par with Geri’s departure. Robbie obviously went on to great success for a while and Take That eventually broke up. Now that Take That are back though our darling tabloids would have us believe that Robbie wants to rejoin. You know what? This is a big admission but I believe them for once 🙂 Anyway it does seem like they’re “Back For Good” doesn’t it?

See I always said that Robbie and the boys were just pants!

See I always said that Robbie and the boys were just pants!

 

“I, I wish you could swim, like the dolphins, like dolphins can swim” July 13, 2009

Filed under: Trivia — justwilliam1959 @ 1:17 pm
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Two posts in a row, wow I haven’t done that in ages! Just a few more ‘onthisdays’ today (July 13th) dear readers

Another entry for that bunch of pensionable rockers the Rolling Stones on this day in 1963 they played their first ever gig outside London. They appeared as the support band to the Hollies at the Alcove Club in Middlesborough in the north east of England.

Being in the Stones was becoming a bit of a drag these days

Being in the Stones was becoming a bit of a drag these days

On this day in 1965 Paul McCartney received five Ivor Novello awards at the Savoy in London, he arrived late as he had apparently forgotten about the engagement. John Lennon refused to attend, presumably in protest at something! Sticking with the Beatles on this day in 1969 the band’s single “The Ballad Of John And Yoko” was banned by more than 100 US Radio Stations because it contained what US Radio authorities saw as offensive in the line “Christ you know it ain’t easy”. Bloody hell these guys were easily offended weren’t they?

Despite being given a piggy-back from Paul John still couldn't be bothered to turn up at the Novello Awards

Despite being given a piggy-back from Paul John still couldn’t be bothered to turn up at the Novello Awards

July 13th 1997 saw Anthony Kiedis off of the Red Hot Chilli Peppers undergo five hours of surgery after a serious motorbike accident.I recently read Kiedis’ superb autobiography entitled ‘Scar Tissue’ it is one of the most brutally honest rock biographies I have ever read. He deals very openly with his addictions and relationships. I never knew much about him before I read the book and now I have immense respect for him. If you read no other music books, read this one! Incidentally in the book he describes how it took five doses of morphine to kill the pain from the motorbike accident, largely due to an intolerance built up from prolonged heroin use. Anyway here are the RHCP’s with “Scar Tissue” live from Slane Castle in Dublin, well not actually live this one hot minute but obviously live when it was recorded!

After his motorbike mishap Anthony took to riding bikes without engines, I wonder if he used stabiliser wheels too?

After his motorbike mishap Anthony took to riding bikes without engines, I wonder if he used stabiliser wheels too?

On this day in 1985 Duran Duran became the first artists to have a US number one single with a James Bond theme when they reached the top of the pile with “A View To A Kill“. Personally I thought that their performance of the song at Live Aid was abysmal, which brings us to………..

Andy Taylor and Simon LeBon argue over which one of them was the most crap at Live Aid

Andy Taylor and Simon LeBon argue over which one of them was the most crap at Live Aid

……… on this day in 1985 at 12.01 UK time Status Quo kicked off the Live Aid extravaganza which was largely put together by Bob Geldof and raised millions for famine relief in Africa. It was a joint event where Quo kicked off at Wembley Stadium, the US show was at the JFK Stadium in Philadelphia. The shows were viewed by more than 1.5 billion people in 160 countries (that is quite a bit more than view my blog each day!). For me the best performances on the day were Queen, U2 and David Bowie (well I would say Bowie wouldn’t I?) Here is Mr Bowie with “Heroes” from that very show! Incidentally Bowie gave up one of his song slots to air a hard hitting video of the famine victims in Africa which was soundtracked by the song “Drive” from the Cars. It was truly heartbreaking. What were your own favourite memories of Live Aid? Were you there?

Chas and Di realise that they are a week early for the Polo and Equestrian finals when they see the Quo on stage

Chas and Di realise that they are a week early for the Polo and Equestrian finals when they see the Quo on stage

 

“So tonight gotta leave that nine to five upon the shelf and just enjoy yourself” June 26, 2009

Filed under: Obituary — justwilliam1959 @ 3:18 pm
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OK so I haven’t posted much lately but I couldn’t let a momentous event like the death of Michael Jackson go by without posting could I? As many of you know the first gig I ever saw was the Jackson 5 at the Wembley Empire Pool (now known as the WembleyArena). I went with a school friend, Brian Taylor who later found fame as an incredibly talented drummer for the Tom Robinson Band and the Stiff Little Fingers amongothers. (Brian if by some weird twist of fate you’re actually reading this feel free to get in touch). The importance of the group to Motown was apparent in the choice of support acts; Junior Walker and the All Stars and a pre-fame Commodores.

Sadly I actually had a jacket similar to that, but it was the 70s!

Sadly I actually had a jacket similar to that, but it was the 70s!

If my memory serves me well the Jackson 5 had recently released the fabulous “Looking Through The Windows” single, which I still love to this day. In fact I still play a few Jackson 5 songs in my DJ sets. Most recently I ran “I Want You Back” next to “ABC“. Indeed the former has been the ring tone on my mobile phone for months now. Those early J5 songs were fantastically produced, supremely well written and perhaps most importantly performed so brilliantly. I think that at the time, perhaps because I was pretty much the same age as Michael Jackson (he was born in August 1958 and I was born in January 1959) the J5 were by far my favourite group. I’m not ashamed to admit either that I used to mime to those early singles in front of the mirror using my hairbrush (for in those days not only did I possess one I actually needed to use it) as a microphone. Go on there must be more of you who did that kind of thing, like maybe miming to Hendrix using your tennis racket as a guitar? Post a comment about it, let’s have a series of ‘Confessions Of A Teenage Mime Artist’

Mike on the mic

Mike on the mic

Anyway back to the late great Michael Jackson as the J5 was the first live act I ever saw (I’m not counting the dreadful covers bands that played in hotels when my folks took me to Spain as a youngster – “Guantanamera” in-bloody-deed!) I was always going to interested in them to some degree. I followed their recording career quite closely throughout the 70s. Stuff like “Dancing Machine” is excellent. Then they left Motown to join Epic and produced some great stuff there too, for me the best being “Enjoy Yourself” and “Show You The Way To Go“. I felt that from around 1972 until “Off The Wall” Michael’s solo releases were at best patchy. But when “Off The Wall” hit the record racks that has to be the moment he began to ascend the stairs to super-stardom. He probably reached a level of fame that no one else ever has. In terms of fame he was probably far bigger than the Beatles or Elvis ever were. That level of celebrity must bring such pressure to bear on the way you need to live your life and maybe that’s perhaps where things began to go a little awry. Now is not the time to discuss the allegations of child abuse and whether I believe he was guilty or not is irrelevant. But I will say that it might have been better if he wasn’t surrounded by ‘yes men’ who did nothing to control his excesses. Did those people really care about him or about their own wealth? I’ll let you make your own minds up on that one! What is undeniable though is that he was one of the most talented individuals ever to have graced the world of music. His contemporaries from an age perspective at least were Madonna and Prince. Both of them are also supremely talented, but on the same level as MJ? I don’t think so. I reckon that Michael would probably appear in the top tens of more music fans than any other artist. What do you think dear readers?

A still from the Billie Jean video

A still from the Billie Jean video

The ‘Off The Wall’ album was the first in what proved in my opinion at least to be a trilogy of his greatest recordings. This was followed by the juggernaut that was ‘Thriller’ and then by the underrated (in my opinion) ‘Bad’. After that I never felt he reached those artistic highs again and I’m not sure that he ever would, but now we’ll never know will we?

‘Thriller’ sold in excess of 50 million copies worldwide, I wonder how many more copies will be sold now he has died? Remember that people tend to buy lots of product of immediately deceased stars. Just recall all the hits that Elvis and John Lennon had after they died, in some cases many years after they died

A still from the Zombie dance in the Thriller video

A still from the Zombie dance in the Thriller video

I would like to think that history looks reasonably kindly on Michael Jackson. He was a truly talented individual and yes he had flaws, some allegedly quite serious. But then how many of us can say we are completely flawless?

So let’s celebrate MJ’s life with another view of his superb performance at the Motown 25th Anniversary show in 1983. Click here to see it. Additionally Mojo Magazine has an excellent collection of Jacko videos on their website, click here to see them.

Also did any of you ever see his collaboration with my favourite author, Stephen King? It was a short but superb movie called “Ghosts”

I happened to visit HMV at lunchtime today and oh boy have they moved quickly. Nothing but Jacko on the sound system and stacks of his CDs now occupying prime positions in the store whereas last week they were all in the sale items (2 for £10). I know that sales people are often seen as cynical but to do that so soon after the guy is dead really takes the biscuit!

The tributes from other celebrities are quite interesting too, here are some words from Celine Dion; “He was not only a talented person, but he was unique – a genius. It’s such a loss. It feels like when Kennedy died.” Now it’s kinda strange that she seems to remember how that felt when Kennedy was killed in 1963 and Ms Dion wasn’t born until 1968.

Thanks to Popbitch for the following  joke I know that the usual crop of sick jokes are doing the rounds as well, but I actually found this one quite amusing, here goes, but don’t read it if you think you might feel just a little bit offended ok. You have been warned;

There will be a post-mortem today to determine which was the cause of death:

A) Sunshine B) Moonlight C) Good Times D) Boogie

And a bit of fun to try and cheer up Jacko’s fans, here is an excellent Bollywood version of Thriller (thanks again to Popbitch for pointing this one out too)

Overall the BBC coverage of Michael’s death has been excellent, check it out here.

As a bit of an epilogue to this story I actually received my 15 minutes of fame this morning (well more like 15 seconds actually) when I made a brief appearance on BBC Radio York (thank you to Liam for arranging that!) this morning to comment on MJ and how it was the first gig I’d ever seen.

 

“Eat your words but don’t go hungry, words have always nearly hung me” June 12, 2009

Filed under: Trivia — justwilliam1959 @ 11:29 pm
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Hello once again dear readers. Did you read the news that according to an American company the one millionth English word is about to be born, well actually it is probably already filling nappies (or diapers if you wish) as we speak. Apparently a company called GLM based in Texas whose raison-daitre is to tell companies how many times they are mentioned on the Internet can also search for the appearance of any word. Their self created methodology in determining a new word says that it must have appeared 25,000 times on the Internet, there is no time period applied. This all seems somewhat like bollocks to me (I’m not swearing bollocks is an Anglo Saxon word, just ask the Sex Pistols and Virgin Records!). Many Lexicographers (now that’s a fantastic job title!) are unhappy with these colonial usurpers telling them how it’s done! I tend to agree, but only because most Americans don’t speak English ‘like what it is supposed to be spoken’ I mean come on, no ‘U’ in colour, pronouncing route incorrectly, then there’s schedule and tomato. Don’t even get me started on fanny OK! 😉 Seriously though please don’t take offence at this if you are American, feel free to take offense though 🙂 But if you’d like a slightly more serious view click here for the link to the BBC that carries the story. Then click here for the follow up, for indeed while I have been typing (admittedly it has taken nearly three days to complete this post!) the new word has been dumped kicking and screaming into a world that, frankly, neither wants it or needs it. Only a nerdy geek could have given birth to it. For I know the word and the word is……………… Web 2.0, I kid you not. The nearest rivals were Jai-Ho (from the Slumdog Millionaire movie) and nOOB (something to do with nerdy, geeky gamers I believe) All that hype and all we get is a couple of small turds plopping into the lexicon of life.

Anyway I was thinking that a word related post might be interesting so here goes. Let’s kick off with the rather stupendous Tom Tom Club with the rather jolly “Wordy Rappinghood” Now I think Rappinghood would have made an excellent millionth word contender, how about you? Tom Tom Club I suppose really began as on offshoot of Talking Heads, I think nowadays the correct term might be side project! The band consisted of Tina Weymouth and Chris Frantz off of Talking Heads and a cast of many other noted musicians; Adrian Belew, Wally Badarou and the Compass Point All Stars to name just a few. Their earliest success came with the divine “Genius Of Love”. But they really broke big when the 12 inch versions of Genius and Rappinghood were issued and got a lot of club play in 1982. Their songs have been sampled by many people including Grandmaster Flash and Mariah Carey. The band also appeared on the Talking Heads live concert movie ‘Stop Making Sense’

camouflage was not that well understood by Tom Tom Club

camouflage was not that well understood by Tom Tom Club

Next up it’s the Gibb Brothers (OK the Bee Gees then) with “Words” Which was once given a depressingly dull makeover by the band that put bland into everything the rather shite (in my opinion of course) Boyzone. Sadly it gave Ronan and the boys their first UK number one. But if you’d like to hear some better covers of the song there are plenty out there. Check out some good covers from Rita Coolidge and Georgie Fame. You can find a great Bee Gees reference in the strangest place, there is an excellent parody of them in Blink 182’s video for “First Date” Speaking of the Bee Gees , I was walking to the train station earlier this week lost in my iPod and on came “Stayin’ Alive”, how I longed to be carrying a pot of paint so that I could make like Travolta’s Tony Manero in ‘Saturday Night Fever’. Sadly a laptop bag just doesn’t cut it, does it?

The Gibb boys prepare for the Christmas number one by wrapping themselves in Bacofoil like Turkeys

The Gibb boys prepare for the Christmas number one by wrapping themselves in Bacofoil like Turkeys

Then we have the boys that put Cod Piece back in the dictionary, Cameo with “Word Up” Which bizarrely in my humble opinion was covered by Korn! Click here to here the Korn version. The song was a massive hit for Cameo in 1986, the promo rounds were probably made much more memorable by Larry Blackmon’s polished red cod piece. For me Larry was one of only two people who have ever been able to pull off a cod piece (ooooooooh Matron!) The other one being Edmund Blackadder. The song also gets played in an Episode of the Simpsons entitled, appropriately for this post, ‘Homer and Lisa Exchange Cross Words’ where Lisa performs in a crossword competition.

Mr Cod Piece 1986

Mr Cod Piece 1986

I haven’t mentioned the Beatles and Bowie for a while so how about the Beatles with “The Word” and Mr Bowie with the hardly ever played “Word On A Wing”. The Beatles song appeared on ‘Rubber Soul’ and in addition to the Fab Four also had George Martin playing the Harmonium. Bowie’s song appeared on the excellent ‘Station To Station’ album from 1976 and emanating from the Dame’s ‘Thin White Duke’ period. It was also a B side to the single version of “Stay” from the same album. It is a relatively religious song and written while Bowie was very much coke addled. It also coincided with the time Mr Jones began to wear a crucifix

John you may have more friends than me, but at least mine isn't a midget!

John you may have more friends than me, but at least mine isn’t a midget!

I shall finish this post with the wonderful “ABC” by the Jackson Five. OK I know it’s not strictly a word but if you didn’t know your ABC you wouldn’t be able to make words would you? The song was a US number one and like the earlier “I Want You Back” was written by the mysterious Corporation. Not that mysterious though it was a Motown writing team that consisted of Berry Gordy, Freddie Perren, Alphonso Mizell and Deke Richards. The song was backed with a cover of a lesser known Diana Ross And The Supremes song; “The Young Folks”

Before they could afford a tour bus the boys used alternative transport

Before they could afford a tour bus the boys used alternative transport

OK that’s all for now, but tell me your word songs, I can think of a couple more but I’d like to hear from you my dear readers!

 

“You in your small corner, I stand in mine. Throw all the punch you want to, I can take them all” April 30, 2009

Filed under: Trivia — justwilliam1959 @ 10:49 am
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Hello once again good Blog Peeps, this is the first time I’ve posted two days on the trot for ages, so I’ll try and make it a good one.

Firstly I recently reacquainted myself with the wonderful ‘KissThisGuy‘ website aka the Archive Of Misheard Lyrics. You’re probably all familiar with that classic Hendrix misheard lyric which gives the site it’s name. The lyric comes from “Purple Haze” and if you click on the song title you will see that perhaps this wasn’t necessarily the misheard lyric we all thought it was. Incidentally if you’re not familiar with this and you wondering what the hell I’m talking about the original line was ‘scuse me while I kiss the sky’ and has apparently often been misheard as ‘scuse me while I kiss this guy’. There are some excellent misheard lyrics on the site my favourite has to be the one taken from “Centrefold” by the J Geils Band, are you ready for this? Are you sure? Really, really sure? You won’t be offended? OK then here it is ‘my anus is the centre hole’ Isn’t that excellent?

Jimi prepares to 'kiss this guy'! ;-)

Jimi prepares to 'kiss this guy'! 😉

I’d like to finish this misheard lyrics piece with a comment about my Mum, she’s smarter than me in most things, but she has come up with some excellent misheard lyrics. My two favourites from her are Dr Hook’s “Sylvia’s Mother” where she heard ‘Sylvia’s mother’s dead’ rather than ‘Sylvia’s mother said’ and also Three Dog Night’s “Joy To The World” where my Mum for some strange reason heard ‘Hiawatha was a bullfrog’ instead of the actual lyric of ‘Jeremiah was a bullfrog’ Hopefully you’re reading this post Mum 😉 In defence of my Mum, I’m not perfect when it comes to misheard lyrics either. I was perhaps aged 9 or 10 when I first heard Max Romeo’s classic reggae single “Wet Dream“. being a complete innocent in those days I actually thought the whole song was in some made up foreign language. So I heard phonetically ‘lygo lygo hushy girl hushy girl lygo’ when in fact Max was singing ‘lie down gal let me push it up, push it up lie down” As you can see I wasn’t even close 🙂 The song was banned from radio in the UK for being sexually explicit, although Max did explain once that the song was about a plumber coming to fix a leak, you know somehow I reckon he was telling porkies, what do you think?

Is Max's girl waiting for the plumber?

Is Max's girl waiting for the plumber?

Anyway enough of that vulgar frivolity and onto the usual dull and boring stuff, starting with a birthday. April 30th 2009 is the 76th birthday of Mr Willie Nelson, one of the few country stars that I can actually listen to. Over the years Nelson has proved himself to be an excellent songwriter, perhaps one of his greatest songs was “Crazy” which became the signature tune of the late great (see the l’s & g’s never go away for long!) Patsy Cline. He has also collaborated with many other artists including Waylon Jennings, Johnny Cash, Snoop Dogg and a former Real Madrid goalkeeper Senor Julio Iglesias with “To All The Girls I’ve Loved Before” Nelson’s guitar is named Trigger after Roy Rogers ever present and faithful horse. Willie has said that when Trigger becomes unplayable he will probably retire. Enjoy some Willie here (ooooooooooh MATRON!) with “You Were Always On My Mind”

This is Willie Nelson's guitar, affectionately known as Trigger. It sure has been used!

This is Willie Nelson's guitar, affectionately known as Trigger. It sure has been used!

On this day in 1968 the ‘Cilla Black Show’ was launched by the BBC. Cilla apparently became the first British female artist to have her own show. The theme song “Step Inside Love” was written by none other than Sir Paul McCartney off of the Beatles!

Cilla has to duck to avoid the glass ceiling at the BBC

Cilla has to duck to avoid the glass ceiling at the BBC

And finally on this day in 1976 Keith Moon off of the Who paid nine cab drivers to block both ends of a New York street so that he could throw the contents of his hotel room out of the window. Now that is what I call rock n roll! They don’t make ’em like that any more do they?

keith had thrown almost everything out of his hotel room, except of course for the girls!

keith had thrown almost everything out of his hotel room, except of course for the girls!

 

“He’s gonna give up the booze and the one night stands” April 16, 2009

Filed under: Trivia — justwilliam1959 @ 1:51 pm
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Hello once again dear readers, well unless of course like a few people that I know you just look at the pictures in which case you’re not reading this anyway are you? Are you? Well I’ll take that as a yes than shall I? Shall I?…. oh I give up!

Anyway let’s kick off this post with yet another shameless promotion of my son Luke’s band, they’re called Steal The Smile and they are extremely bloody good. They are headlining a gig in Abingdon, Oxfordshire on 24th April so get yourself down there. Failing that at least check them out on MySpace and tell me what you think, click on the band name to go to their MySpace page.

Steal The Smile rock Abingdon - be there or be square!

Steal The Smile rock Abingdon - be there or be square!

Someone sent me a great link earlier this week which I felt I had to share with you, it’s National Lampoon’s “Songs That Get Stuck In Your Head – Time Life”. I thought it was very funny and so true as well. Click here to check it out and let me know whether it made you laugh!

I guess that most of you have by now seen Susan Boyle’s appearance on ITV’s ‘Britain’s Got Talent’ show in the UK. (Click here if you haven’t seen it yet) I saw it at the weekend when it was initially broadcast and my initial reaction was that here comes another X Factor talentless type who says they want to be the next Whitney or Britney but in fact turn out to be Shitney! I was very pleasantly surprised when Susan began to sing “I Dreamed A Dream” from Les Miserables. It’s not my type of music at all but she has certainly got a great voice. What really peeved me was the reaction of the judges after she had completed her song, particularly Piers Morgan and Amanda Holden, both in my opinion were facile, condescending and very shallow. I was reminded of this by Tanya Gold’s excellent piece in the Guardian today, click here to check it out

Dummy, Dippy and Simon

Dummy, Dippy and Simple three of the lesser known dwarves

On to the usual stuff now and today 16th April is the 62nd birthday of Mr Gerry Rafferty of Stealer’s Wheel and a talented solo performer. Did you know that he was once in a group with Billy Connolly in the 60’s called the Humblebums. His biggest solo hit was “Baker Street” and the saxophone solo on the song has been the subject of an urban myth that it was played by Bob Holness the host of the ‘Blockbuster’s’ TV game show. In fact this came about after then NME journalist Stuart Maconie wrote a spoof piece in the NME’s ‘Believe It Or Not’ column. It was subsequently adopted as fact.It was actually played by Raphael Ravenscroft. Recently Rafferty has had somewhat of a chequered existence with alleged alcohol and drug problems. He also went missing in the last few months and there have been contradictory statements from a few different ‘spokesmen’ It would appear that thankfully he is alive and well and living in either Scotland or Tuscany depending upon which ‘spokesman’ you believe. Gerry if you are unwell I wish you a speedy recovery and look forward to some new material soon.

If they were really "Stuck In The Middle" then clearly someone was missing from this picture!

If they were really "Stuck In The Middle" then clearly someone was missing from this picture!

On this day in 1969 Desmond Dekker along with the Aces was at number one in the UK charts with the fantastic song “The Israelites“. He was the first Jamaican artist to reach number one in the UK. Desmond’s real name is Desmond Adolphus Dacres. he eventually relocated to the UK and sadly died of a heart attack in May 2006 at his home in Thornton Heath. He is allegedly the source of the character name Desmond in the Beatles ska/ reggae influenced “Ob La Di Ob La Da”

Desmond with his dogs, the imaginatively named Spot, Spot, Spot, Spot, Spot and errr .........Rover???

Desmond with his dogs, the imaginatively named Spot, Spot, Spot, Spot, Spot and errr .........Rover???

On this day in 1993 David Lee Roth was arrested by an undercover policeman in New York’s Washington Square for allegedly buying a $10 bag of dope. Just $10? He wasn’t going to share that with his band was he? So just why were the police selling drugs anyway eh? We should be told! Roth found fame with Van Halen before embarking on a pretty successful solo career, although he did murder the Beach Boys “California Girls” on route!

Dave used to have a lot of balls, but not after he wore those trousers!

Dave used to have a lot of balls, but not after he wore those trousers!

And finally on this day in 1997 Mark Morrison was convicted with threatening a police officer with a 23,000 volt electric stun gun, you may not be surprised to know that this is an illegal weapon. He left Marylebone Magistrates court in London in tears after being warned that he may face a custodial sentence. I can’t believe he was surprised can you? You should have spoken to the same cop that Mr Lee Roth did Mark! Morrison is a British R & B singer who was actually born in Hanover, Germany. He does not own the Morrisons supermarket chain! His biggest hit was “Return Of The Mack” which went to the top of the UK charts in 1996.

Morrison in his 'Only God Can Judge Me' shirt, actually Mark I think you'll find that the courts judged you too!

Morrison in his 'Only God Can Judge Me' shirt, actually Mark I think you'll find that the courts judged you too!