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Random Track of the Day
Sunday, October 23 2011
Bit of semi-culture from the random-o-meter for a rainy Sunday, from Clive Nolan, keysman with prog rockers Arena, and Oliver Wakeman, son of Yes legend Rick, from the album “The Hound of the Baskervilles”, which is of course a musical interpretation of the Sherlock Holmes classic.

Death on the moor --- Clive Nolan and Oliver Wakeman --- from "The Hound of the Baskervilles" on Verglas


As it happens, I've just been reading this for my sister, and only finished it last night. How's that for serendipity? The album is interesting, though I'm not totally gone on it, however the keyboard work is excellent and the songs and narration give you an overall flavour of the Conan Doyle masterpiece. This is from about two-thirds into the story, and is a very small spoiler, so if by some chance you too are reading the story you might want to wait till you've finished it before listening to this. Ho, Watson! The game's afoot! Etc...

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Is there anything that stirs the soul as much as the sound of the blues? Whether it's strummed guitar, harmonica or low-slung bass, mournful piano, sax or trumpet, the blues always brings a little lump to the throat, and let's be fair: they speak to a way we've all felt, at one time or another. And of course the blues have been around for a long time, so there's a lot of really good music there.

This section will feature what may perhaps not be considered the best of the blues, but my own favourite tunes. Some will be by blues masters from way back, some will be more recent, and I'll try to include as varied a mix as I can each time.

So sit back, dim the lights, crack open a bottle of Jack and deal the cards, cos it's time to pay our dues to the blues!

Getting going with this great one from Eddie Taylor, a man who was born in the heart of the Mississippi Delta, but plied his trade in the mean streets of the Windy City, here he is with “Leave this neighbourhood”.


The great Memphis Slim, with “Slim's blues”.


And the legendary John Lee Hooker, with “Whiskey and wimmen”. Oooh yeah!


The interestingly-named Pee Wee Crayton, with “Telephone is ringin'”.


One of the relatively younger guns now, with one of my favourite early blues tunes from him, here's the late, great Rory Gallagher with “Should've learned my lesson”.


How could we leave out the one, the only, BB King? We can't, and here he is with “The thrill is gone”.


The legendary (be using that word a lot in this section, methinks!) Howlin' Wolf, with an explanation of what the blues is, then a great performance of “How many more years”.


Another of the young guns, who thankfully is still with us, Robert Cray, and “My last regret”.


And back to the old guard, it's Lightnin' Hopkins, with some advice for gamblers...


And to finish up, one of the finest proponents of the blues from this century, sadly no longer with us, it's Gary Moore, and “No reason to cry”.

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The worm guesses you'd call it the curse of the one-hit-wonder: is there anything else John Parr is remembered for other than “St' Elmo's Fire” (also known as “Man in motion”)? Great song though!

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Another one-hit wonder, more famous than anything else for its crazy opening line (repeated halfway through) --- try saying THIS after six pints of wicked strength lager!

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Nick Cave
Time to check out the smoother, more laid-back side of an artiste usually not associated with ballads or slow songs. This time it's the dark prophet of doom himself, Australia's most menacing export, Nick Cave, with a selection from his long catalogue. Think all the man does is spit venom and growl? Think again...


From her to eternity (1984)

Concentrating solely on his work with the Bad Seeds, we begin with what was the debut album for them, 1984's “From her to eternity”, and a nice if sharp ballad called “The moon is in the gutter”.


Kicking against the pricks (1986)

His second album, “The firstborn is dead”, is far too dark and sparse an album to contain any ballads at all, so we're on to his third, a collection of covers which goes under the name of “Kicking against the pricks” and was released in 1986. On this he does a very good version of the old standard, “By the time I get to Phoenix”.

Also a rather nice arrangement of the traditional song “Jesus met the woman at the well”...

His version of “Muddy water” is good too.

Two years before Marc Almond got his hands on it, Nick was covering Gene Pitney's classic “Something's gotten hold of my heart” (and much better too!)

He does a great version of the Seekers' “The carnival is over”

And a dark, moody and brilliant version of Johnny Cash's “The singer”.


Your funeral ... my trial (1986)

That same year came “Your funeral … my trial”, which gave us the great “Sad waters”.


The eerie “Stranger than kindness”

And the haunting title track


After that somewhat mammoth undertaking, it was not surprisingly two more years before we saw any more Cave output, this being 1988's “Tender prey”

Tender prey (1988)

This gave us the beautiful “Slowly goes the night”

The country/gospel “New morning”

And the lovely “Watching Alice”.


The good son (1990)

“The good son”, released in 1990, has some lovely slow tracks on it, in fact they're in the majority. Tracks like the opener, “Foi na cruz” (which apparently translates from Portuguese to “It happened on the Cross”)

The achingly lovely but stark “Sorrow's child”

The beautiful “Ship song”

“Lament”

and the closer, “Lucy”, with its beautiful piano ending.


Another two years on, and Nick released his seventh album, “Henry's dream”.

Henry's dream (1992)

Unlike his previous opus, this only included two slow tracks, the sombre “Straight to you”

and the forlorn love song, “The loom of the land”.


And another two years saw the emergence of “Let love in”.

Let love in (1994)

This album, one of his classic best, contains four slower songs, among them the darkly beautiful “Nobody's baby now”.

The title track (with an “I” in front of it!)

The ominous “Ain't gonna rain anymore”

and the satirically autobiographical “Lay me low”, wherein Cave envisages his own funeral


And then 1996, (yes, another two years later) unleashed upon us the excellent, dark and funny “Murder ballads”.

Murder ballads (1996)

Including the sad tale of “Henry Lee”

Already just featured in our “Marriage made in...?” section, Kylie joins him for “Where the wild roses grow”

Another sad tale of murder and loneliness in “The kindness of strangers”

And finishes up with a rare cover, Bob Dylan's “Death is not the end.”


The boatman's call (1997)

Only a year later Nick released his superlative “The boatman's call”, which is heavily influenced by ballads and slow tracks, like the opener, “Into my arms”.

I could feature virtually the whole album, but I'll just pick the best of the bunch, like “People ain't no good”

“Brompton oratory”

The savagely dark “Where do we go now but nowhere”

And the lonely “Far from me”

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No more shall we part (2001)

Then the longest hiatus in Cave's career, with four years until the release of “No more shall we part”, which features such gems as the title track

The heartbreaking “Love letter”

The wonderful “We came along this road”

And the powerful closer, “Darker with the day”.


Nocturama (2003)

Two more years passed before “Nocturama” hit the shelves. It's not one of my favourite Cave albums, although it may be heading into the “Last Chance Saloon” before long, but it does have “He wants you”

“Right out of your hand”

“Rock of Gibraltar”

and “She passed by my window”

The mournfully beautiful “Still in love”

Not to mention “Wonderful life”. Yeah, I'm definitely going to have to give this album another chance!


Only a year later Cave released not one, but two albums, at the same time.

Abbatoir blues/The lyre of Orpheus (2004)

The first of the two, “Abbatoir blues”, is a mostly heavy, rock record, though the title track is slow and bluesy

Then there's the weird “Cannibal's hymn”

But it's “The lyre of Orpheus” that contains the most laid-back, relaxing, slow ballads, like “Babe you turn me on”

The gospel-like “Carry me”

“Spell”

“Easy money”

And a song that apparently featured in one of the Harry Potter movies, though they're not something I'm personally interested in, a track called “O children”.


That brings us to his last, to date, album, released in 2008, “Dig!!! Lazarus, dig!!!”

Dig!!! Lazarus, dig!!! (2008)

It doesn't really have any slow tracks, the closest being “Hold on to yourself”.


So there you are: if you thought all Nick Cave wrote about was death and betrayal and revenge and lost love and devils and murder and agony and loneliness and anger, well you were right. But he has been known to write such material in ballads and slower songs too, as this feature has, I hope, demonstrated. Either way, he's a great artist with a lot to say, a very distinct and unique way of saying it, and if you haven't checked him out before now, well it's high time you made his acquaintance. “Please permit me to introduce myself, I'm a man of wealth and taste...”

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A nice slice of Scottish rock today, the worm remembers Big Country, and one their big hits, “Fields of fire”.

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The last sound you're going to remember as you finish an album is the closing track, so as we've said before, it had better be good, or no matter how good the album is all you're going to remember is THAT track; you'll be humming it and not the seven/eight/nine others that came before it. Of course, a great closing track can also redeem a largely unremarkable album: if the last track is great, you'll remember it and not the other tracks, as above, but with a different emphasis.

An album I reviewed near the beginning of this journal, Pendragon's “Believe”, has an absolutely breathtaking closer, and this is it: “The edge of the world”.


Supertramp's final album with Roger Hodgson, “Famous last words”, gives even more importance and weight to the final track, “Don't leave me now”. From the opening mournful sax to the desperate, closing guitar solo, it's a classic the like of which we would consider ourselves lucky to hear again.


A great closer to a great album, Dio's second, “The last in line”, this is called “Egypt (The chains are on)”.


Although the CD version is longer and has more tracks, the vinyl copy I bought thirty years ago now of Pallas' “Arrive alive” had only five, and closed with this excellent epic, “The Ripper”.


And finally, the closing track to Roger Waters' magnum opus, this is “Amused to death”.


Play any of those songs and guaranteed you'll be humming them to yourself long after they've faded or crashed into silence. Incidentally, every album featured above is excellent, but even if they weren't, each of these tracks would go a long way towards helping to redeem them.

Next time I'll endeavour to pick great closing tracks from albums which are, shall we say, less than great. Till then...

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Random Track of the Day
Tuesday, October 25 2011
Today's Random Track of the Day slows things down nicely, with another example of that fine electronica duo Air, and a little piece taken from their “Premiers symptomes” album.

Le soleil est pres de moi --- Air --- from "Premiers symptomes" on Source


Nice little atmospheric, ambient piece, laid back with as usual a preponderance of keyboards and synth, and nice use of the vocoder, “Le soleil est pres de moi”, which means the sun is close to me, is one of those dreamy, nod-off-to-sleep tunes that would be at home on any chill collection mixtape. The album is actually a compilation of many of Air's early singles, and you don't need A-Level French I'm sure to work out that the title of the album translates to “first symptoms”.

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Although I've made it my business, insofar as I can, since I began this journal to update it every day, tomorrow there will be NO update, as I have to take my sister to the hospital, and thanks to ridiculously long waiting lists it's likely we'll be there all day.

Please bear with me, and normal service should be resumed on Thursday, when I'll run TWO Random Tracks of the Day and two Daily Earworms.

Thanks for your patience and understanding.

Troll

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