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This first week post features tunes sixty years apart covering a range of genres although guitars seem to get a mention throughout. Enjoy!

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Somewhere Along the Way (Live) – Dawes (2022)

Rummaging through the digital recesses of Spotify looking for something to listen to for the Friday night wind-down, I came across a live album by Dawes which had slipped out last year. Dawes are one of those bands that make me sit up and take notice every track I hear. Drenched in the sound of Laurel Canyon, their outstanding musicianship and beautiful harmonies raise the spirit. The LP was recorded live on a warm LA rooftop during a lockdown broadcast in 2020. The version of this track from their brilliant 2015 album All Your Favourite Bands really jumps out, partly due to the extended guitar wig-out at the end. Listen out for duelling Lizzy solos like the ending to Wilco’s Impossible Germany. Don’t mention The Eagles and watch it as the California sun sets here: https://youtu.be/e6XsOCyOyYw  

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You Really Got A Hold On Me – Smokey Robinson & The Miracles (1962)

Smokey Robinson was 83 years old on Sunday.  In the summer of 1962, he was inspired by Sam Cooke’s Bring It All Home To Me to write this US top 10 hit single for The Miracles. Recorded in Motown Studio A, Smokey sung lead and produced the track, getting Miracle Marv Tapin and Funk Brother Eddie Willis to share the guitar parts. The single was only available in the UK on import and a copy was bought in a Liverpool record store by John Lennon. Despite its complex 6/8 time signature, The Beatles started to cover it live and eventually recorded it for their second LP in November 1963, With The Beatles.  Usually they bashed out their early recordings in one or two takes – Smokey’s emotional ballad took them seven.  Both versions are glorious but Smokey’s is on the playlist.

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Reel Around The Fountain – The Smiths (1984)

Washing the dishes on Sunday morning, I was listening to RadMac on 6Music and they played the opening track from the self-titled debut LP by Manchester’s finest jangly miserabilists, The Smiths. A song I know very well, I was trying to listen again putting the erratic fall from grace of the lyricist to one side and focussing on the music.  For some reason, what really caught my ear this time was how the organ part brilliantly built on Johnny Marr’s chiming guitar arpeggios and I thought, I wonder who played that?  Seems Mark Radcliffe’s ear was caught by the same thing. In his chat with Stuart Maconie when the song finished, he helpfully informed the listeners that the organ was played by Paul Carrack who played with Ace, Squeeze and others.  Only radio can do this!

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Heart On Fire – Little Simz (2022)

Having seen nearly all of the heavily nominated movies – with the notable exception of big winner Western Front – we tuned in to watch the revamped (and some say dumbed down) BAFTAs on Sunday evening.  Award ceremonies are award ceremonies no matter how you pitch them but it was enjoyable enough to keep us watching.  The real surprise moment was when much lauded rapper Little Simz took to the stage to perform this track from her latest album NO THANK YOU.  Standing by her side, kicking out licks with a cranked up, electric blue Variax Line 6 guitar was none other than Joan Armatrading!  While the polar opposite ends of social media got all testy about it, I thought that one of the many young, gifted and black stars of today playing with one of the few black UK female musicians active in the 70s gave it a certain symmetry. And boy, could she play guitar – sadly, not on the Spotify version but you can watch the BAFTA live version here: https://youtu.be/maM7SIaIWLQ.

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Paralysed – Gang Of Four (1981)

Despite all its historical inaccuracies, we’ve been unable to resist binge watching The Gold on iPlayer.  It just has a great feel about it, capturing that early eighties period with some excellent performances by the cast. Watching the last few episodes this week highlighted the choice of period music in setting the tale in an early eighties audio context. The Cure, Joy Division, Echo & The Bunnymen and others all get an airing but it was this track which played out at the end of episode 4 that really caught my attention. Taken from Gang Of Four’s less lauded follow up to their seminal debut album, the sparse lyric and the funk rhythm slamming into that trademark visceral guitar seemed to fit the mood and drama of the closing scenes on the screen. But maybe it was just chosen as the title of the LP was Solid Gold?   

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Moonage Daydream – David Bowie (1972)

Having recently read Paul Morley’s exhaustive (and occasionally exhausting) book The Art of Bowie, it was good to see this week that the V&A had been gifted a huge archive of the great man’s personal memorabilia. Apparently it comprises over 80,000 items so he must have had some size of loft. Of the many Bowies that exist, I always gravitate to the Ziggy period where he worked closely with Mick Ronson. Ronson had a significant influence on Bowie’s sound which this brilliant track exemplifies. From the scoring of the slightly odd sax and penny whistle instrumental break to arranging the uplifting strings in the last choruses and playing the idiosyncratic guitar solo in the coda, Ronson is all over this. No surprise the track was used as the title of Brett Morgen’s kaleidoscopic movie of Bowie’s life released to critical acclaim last year.