So after a couple of weeks of specials, this week’s blog plays catch up with tracks inspired by a few events I’ve missed over this period. Enjoy!
The Night – Franki Vallie & The Four Seasons (1972)
Having never been to an event in the Royal Albert Hall, I have no idea how many holes it takes to fill it. By chance, I caught sight of some wide shots of the stage on the telly at the start of the opening night of the Proms and it just looked magnificent. So I told myself I must find a reason to attend something there, but was thinking it would be very unlikely to be a Prom. Mind you, I did watch last year’s Prom celebrating 100 years of the BBC which featured Public Service Broadcasting, of which more shortly. Anyway, the next morning, I heard Stuart Maconie on 6Music talking about the Prom last Saturday night which he was curating with others. It was to be based on northern soul songs performed by selected lesser known singers and scored for the BBC Concert Orchestra. Although this will not be broadcast on TV until September, he was on the RadMac show on Sunday after the event playing a few excerpts from the night before. I have to say it sounded great to these ears. One of the tracks he played was a guy called Darrell Smith performing this brilliant tune by Franki Valli & the Four Seasons. I’m really no northern soul aficionado but I do know this song and think it is a really great tune, well worth it’s inclusion on this week’s playlist. It was included on an album called Chameleon released in 1972 after the band moved to Motown subsidiary in search of a lick-start to their flagging career. But the LP failed to chart and Valli believes this was primarily due to lack of support from the record label. However, the dancers at Manchester’s Twisted Wheel or the Wigan Casino like a cult record and when this tune was imported on 7″ singles from Germany and Holland it was hugely popular with them. Inevitably this caused Mowest to re-release it in 1975 where it became a UK top ten hit. By this point, Franki had moved on from his soul roots and was having No 1 hits with rubbish like My Eyes Adored You. Whereas this track pumps along with a fantastic driving rhythm track with the bass and drums right up front in the mix. Supported by first class backing vocals from the Four Seasons, Valli is warning his girl not to fall for the charms of another he considers is not worthy of her: “Beware of his promise/Believe what I say/Before I go forever/Be sure of what you say”. The record seems to speed up at the short instrumental break at 2:35 which then builds with the horns and the strings sliding up atonally to break into the repeat of the chorus in the outro. There is a definitely a dark feel to this particular night.
You’re Not Alone – Mavis Staples (1979)
I wrote about Mavis Staples in the Dylan covers special in WIS 12 May and promised that I would return to The Staple Singers’ track I’ll Take You There in a future edition of the blog. However, although Mavis was 84 years old on 10 July, I have chosen not to playlist that song but to use a much more recent tune of hers to mark the event. As noted previously, her history with her father’s family band means Staples’ standing is immense with her fellow musicians, both from her era and in the generations that followed. Her Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award was well earned, as was her being a Kennedy Center Honoree in 2016. She has collaborated with many of her admirers including Prince and Ry Cooder, but over a seven year period from 2010, she recorded three albums with Jeff Tweedy of Wilco. While his so-called alt-country background might at first seem at odds with her blues and gospel roots, she is a Chicago legend and arguably Tweedy is becoming one too. Tweedy approached her to work together and the pair soon bonded over a mutual love of roots music, Staples being amazed by his encyclopedic knowledge of tunes dating back to before she was born. The first of her three records with Tweedy grew out of this initial approach, with Staples being persuaded out of her comfort zone to record in Wilco’s own studio, The Loft in central Chicago. Using members of Wilco to lay down the tracks, they cut some covers of tunes by Creedence Clearwater Revival (Wrote A Song For Everyone) and Randy Newman (Losing You) carefully curated by Tweedy to suit Staples voice. But they also began working up a series of tunes that Tweedy had written particularly for Staples. She admitted it was unusual but “refreshing” to work with the different styles and tempos that Tweedy came up with. This track became the title track of the LP and has a great vibe with Staples’ amazing voice right at the heart of it. The instrumentation is wound back, striking just the right tone even in the solo, which smoothly passes by, leaving a presence but without showing off. A simple, universal song for those in hard times, her vocal is deeply personal and when you are listening to it, it feels like she is comforting you individually. “A broken home/A broken heart/Isolated and afraid/Open up this is a raid/I wanna get it through to you/You’re not alone”. Lovely stuff.
There, There My Dear – Dexy’s Midnight Runners (1980)
History tells me that Searching For The Young Soul Rebels, the debut album by Dexy’s Midnight Runners, was released 43 years ago on 11 July 1980. I had bought Dance Stance, their incendiary first single on Oddball Records in November 1979 and then their brilliant tribute to soul singer Geno Washington in March 1980, which went on to become a No 1 single. I loved these singles and their willfully unfashionable New York docker look and was desperate to hear this LP. I wasn’t disappointed and bought everything they produced for the next five years. I can’t really explain why I admired Kevin Rowland so much back then – normally, with someone as pretentious as he was, I would side with nearly every music critic at the time, sneering at him and the ridiculousness in his music, his voice, his image and what he had to say. And yet, I found his self-appointed role as the ‘wild hearted outsider’ of the music industry completely captivating. I just love this body of work. From the trombone blast of that first 1979 single de-crying the anti-Irish sentiment brought on by the Troubles to the desperately sad final sax refrain of The Waltz as it fades at the end of the bizarre and thrilling third album, Don’t Stand Me Down in 1985. I can even put up a reasonable argument that Come On Eileen is not just a wedding DJ record to be dreaded – my reasoning is based on the lyrics to the second verse ending in that glorious declaration that “We are far too young and clever! The debut LP packs a punch throughout but I’ve reached for tumultuous closer There There My Dear for the playlist, where the sleeve notes simply and enigmatically state “Old clothes do not make a tortured artist.” It opens with the horns blasting then Rowland adopting his Jackie Wilson rolling ‘r’ before he scathingly dismantles Rrrrrrobin for being a pseudo intellectual musician quoting philosophers he’d never heard of and somehow proposing that his own ‘new soul vision’ is where the truth lies. It’s all crazy stuff for a pop tune but the inexplicable lunatic genius of Rowland is that you can feel that he really believes every word of it. The iconic album cover features a photograph from the London Evening Standard of a 13-year-old catholic boy carrying his belongings after being forced from his home in the Ardoyne area of Belfast during the civil unrest in 1971. In later years, the boy would be identified as Tony O’Shaughnessy and he introduced himself to Rowland at a gig in Belfast during one of the Dexys comeback shows in 2012. They struck up a relationship and the band paid tribute to the accidental cover star when he sadly died in 2021.
Trouble In The Fields – Nanci Griffith (1987)
A musical birthday that slipped by on 6 July was that of the wonderful and much missed Nanci Griffith who died a couple of years back in 2021 aged 68. She had survived two bouts of cancer in the 90s and died from natural causes. Born in Texas, she was singing from an early age and after a trip with her father to see Townes Van Zandt performing, she got her first professional gig at the age of 14. She was very much a model country folk singer-songwriter with an ear for a great tune, a mind for a great lyric and a voice to do both justice. As with many artists who grace the WIS blog, I first came across her on one of those NME cassettes, this time the brilliant The Tape With No Name (NME034 1987). The mid 80s saw a real rise in popularity of new country artists and Griffith’s “folkabilly” track Ford Econoline shared the tape spools with early songs by Steve Earle, Dwight Yoakam, Lyle Lovett and kd lang. Stalwarts of the genre were also included on the tape and Griffiths would have been thrilled to see her track sandwiched between Emmylou Harris and John Prine on the running order. Her contribution was lifted from her Lone Star State Of Mind album which was her commercial breakthrough both in the US and here in the UK. It includes From A Distance which would go on to become a huge hit when Bette Midler covered it in 1990. I’ve chosen my favourite track from this album to go on the playlist which Nanci co-wrote with Rick West. The beautiful Trouble In The Fields tells the story of a farming couple in the mid-west who are facing a drought that could ruin them but commit to staying together to face the adversity. With a lovely violin line and a pedal steel merging with the harmonies, the lyrics poignantly draw comparison with the past: “There’s a book up on the shelf about the dust bowl days/And there’s a little bit of you and a little bit of me in the photos on every page”. In 2002, in an echo of her location on the NME tape, I was lucky enough to be taken by Lynn to Dublin to see Nanci sat between Emmylou and John Prine in a ‘songwriter’s circle’ performance for the Landmine Free World charity. The circle of five artists was completed by Steve Earle and Elvis Costello, so it was a memorable night! Last year, we also attended Scotland Sings Nanci Griffith at Celtic Connections in Glasgow. Griffith was proud of her Scottish and Irish ancestry and had played the festival herself a few times. This time round some of Scotland’s artists honoured her work including James Grant, Karen Matheson, Dean Owens, Lisa Rigby, Jill Jackson and Kirsty Adamson. It was a fitting tribute.
No Woman, No Cry – Bob Marley & The Wailers (1975)
On 17 July 1975, Bob Marley & The Wailers played a historic gig at London’s Lyceum Theater that was recorded and released on Island Records on a record simply titled Live! It was a wise choice of exclamation mark as the critical reception to the concert and the LP were huge and essentially launched Marley to be the reggae superstar he became in the late 70s. Formed in the early 60s and fronted by Marley, Peter Tosh and Bunny Wailer, The Wailers (as they were then) spent the sixties riding the changes in Jamaican music as ska moved into reggae. They were big stars in Jamaica but it wasn’t until 1972 when they moved to Island Records that the wider music world took notice. Label boss Chris Blackwell was looking for a character to sell reggae to a rock and pop audience and saw Marley as the perfect rebel chic, front man musician. In 1973 and 1974, The Wailers recorded two albums Catch A Fire and Burnin’ in the UK where Blackwell encouraged a less bass heavy sound. Famously, Eric Clapton took a cover of I Shot The Sheriff from the second LP to the top of the US charts. Just when things looked like they were taking off, the Wailers split with the three leads pursuing solo careers. Marley took the Wailers name with him and 1974’s Natty Dread LP was the first to have Bob Marley & The Wailers on the sleeve. It was very much the done thing in the mid-70s for rock bands to release live records and so Island arranged for Live! to be recorded over two sold out nights at the Lyceum. Blackwell had been at the first gig and noticed the strong audience reaction to No Woman No Cry, particularly the singalong section “everything’s gonna be alright”. He decided to release it as a single which was a clever move, giving Marley his first Top Thirty hit in the UK and the recognition that built his career. While the overall positive message of the song is clear (ie dry your tears, everything is gonna be alright), the title is often misunderstood – in Jamaican patois, Marley is actually singing ‘woman, don’t cry’. Interestingly, although he almost certainly wrote the song, Marley gave the writing credit to Vincent Ford, a friend of his who ran a charity soup kitchen in the ghetto of Trenchtown where Marley grew up. Ford then benefited from the royalty payments to help him continue his work.
Go! – Public Service Broadcasting (2014)
If there were fanboy klaxons sounding for that Dexys post above, then you’ll be hearing them again as you read this long post because ever since I first heard this band I have been in thrall to their astonishing music, their quirky style and, damnit, their wonderful nerdiness. Started by the unique J Willgoose Esq in 2009, the fact that he describes the band as his ‘corduroy-clad brainchild’ tells you everything. His aim was to “teach the lessons of the past through the music of the future” and his work relies heavily on historic audio samples. When they are playing live, these samples are combined with visuals to create a truly immersive experience. If you have never heard them, two early tracks using archival samples from the British Film Institute sum up their genius for me. Firstly, Everest which uses samples from The Conquest of Everest, a 1953 film charting Sir Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay’s first successful ascent of the mountain. And secondly, from their brilliant War Room EP, the track Spitfire which sampled dialogue and sound from the 1942 wartime film The First of the Few. The excellent video for the track incorporated footage from the same film. In 2014, the band released The Race For Space, a collection of songs which tell the story of the American and Soviet space missions from 1957–1972, again using samples from the BFI. Thursday saw the 54th anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing when the Eagle lunar module touched down on Tranquility Base to the wonderment of the world, including the 9 year old me. As a child of the 60s, I was captivated by it all with no understanding of the political overtones and the vast budgets spent in getting humans to the moon, when many in both nations were on the breadline. Even with this knowledge in 2014, I was equally captivated with the songs on this album which have the evocative beeps and noises of the time, all drawn together and orchestrated with real feeling and love for the subject. The track on the playlist presents both the initial tension and then the pulsating euphoria of the Apollo 11 landing, driven by the dialogue of Chief Flight Director Gene Kranz checking with his various technical leads for confirmation the landing is ‘Go!’ to proceed. The song is beautifully structured with the guitar motif driving the ‘powered descent’ section to the tension filled build in the nervy ‘landing sequence’ at 2:30. And, when the music drops at 2:50 to Kranz’s “we’ve had shutdown” statement, your heart skips a beat. Then, from across the 230,000 miles of dark space to the moon, comes Neil Armstrong’s crackly voice, calmly announcing “The Eagle has landed” as if he has just reverse parked the car in the street! There are a few beats and Gene Kranz tells everyone to “keep the chatter down in this room” before he seeks a “Stay!” response from his team. History brilliantly enshrined in music – watch it here.
Last Word
Five months from the start, it’s been another week of too many words with a rushed deadline to get it out by Friday at 5pm (I’m writing this at 4.30pm!) tells me I need to stop getting so carried away and write less! Next week… Honest!
The Master Playlist has now had its five month update and the 120 tunes remain available below for your summer BBQ and Pizza evenings in the garden, if the rain stays away.
AR
Week In Sound 
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