I love sixties music: my soul and my reggae and ska and jazz; The Who, The Kinks, The Small Faces, The Beach Boys, The Action, The Stones, Velvet Underground, The Doors, The Stooges, Dylan, The Byrds and The Beatles. I love Dusty and Scott Walker and Phil Spector.
But the following three, who I love as much as any if not more, for various reasons don't get celebrated as much as others:
David Bowie - Can't Help Thinking About Me. Yes, Bowie is Bowie now, but his sixties output gets forgotten by a lot of people. I think some of his best songs were hidden amongst it. This one, covered by The Purple Hearts on their album Beat That! is a storming little Mod Pop tune from '65, with some of my favourite vocals by Mr Jones.
Donovan - Sunshine Superman. Donovan always gets the Dylan Copy tag. But he was a great songwriter that for me had his own distinctive style, especially on his more 'swinging' pop tunes. I love this one, for it's pop-art feel. My dad loved Donovan at the time, more than Dylan or The Beatles. I guess it rubbed off on me.
The Yardbirds - Mr, You're A Better Man Than I. This is my favourite Yardbirds tune, I love the chords, the way the bass drives the chorus and the molten guitar solo. It has a great moody feel, more in common with the post punk sound than the blues. They were a ferocious band, far more so than The Stones. Although The Stones had Keith......
Monday, 10 March 2008
Groovy!
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10 comments:
Simon - totally with you on that. A couple of personal faves are
Bowie - 'In The Heat Of The Morning' BBC Version (incredible keyboard blast from Alan Hawkshaw at the end)
Donovan - 'Barabajagal' (Love Is Hot)
Which features the Jeff Beck Group
And a recent find
The Kinks 'Brainwashed' which you can find here
I'm doing a guest blog spot on Fu Fu Stew soon - and have done a 45 minute 'Cool Britannia - Funky Mod Mix' I'll let you know when it's up
I'll look forward to that one. And as for the Kinks tune....I already downloaded that!! It's good stuff, and one of my favourite things about blogs. Not the new bands necessarily but the tunes by familiar ones that somehow pass you by.
I think I've got the Bowie tune somewhere; I'll see.
Three great tunes. I had one of those 'Wow!' moments in the mid 70s when I discovered the Yardbirds 'Shapes of Things' on a compilation album. Couldn't stop playing it for weeks (probably months).
Also been caning Johns Children lately 'Come And Play With Me In The Garden' being a personal fave, Alan Hawkshaw albums - (search via Google blog search for free downloads) and the Small Faces are always on the menu.
Hot for the Hammond eh? I've got a couple of Alan Hawkshaw things knocking around - Beat Boutique I think is one; sounds like a little mini driving through sixties london with a dolly bird in the passenger seat...
PM, probably preaching to the converted here, but if you've never heard them go search out anything by Graham Day: The Prisoners (featuring a young James Taylor of the JTQ), The Prime Movers, The SolarFlares and Graham Day & The Gaolers. There's plenty of album blogs around featuring their stuff. The Prisoners in particular feature lots of 'groovy' instrumentals with some great Hammond work. Last Of The Fourfathers is the best one for that.
Although Graham Day & The Gaolers album - which came out at the end of last year has a fantastic instrumental on called South Avenue, which I may feature soon.
Top work Simon
The 'Bowie' song is both tremendous and new to me.
Many thanks.
Now that is satisfying. That's exactly the sort of thing that keeps me on the blogs, not necessarily the brand new stuff, but the unfamiliar tunes by artists I know.
Thanks. :)
Simon
I don't know any of those names, but will be checking them out - Thanks for the tip.
I'd also recommend checking out these blogs if you haven't yet
Funky 16 Corners
Devil Dick
The Right Side Of Funky
Heavy Soul Brother Dave
All good for funky grooves
Graham Day, is in all those bands I mentioned; they're all prety much influenced by the same people Hendrix, Small Faces, Deep Place 6ts garage/freakbeat with lots of organ and 'go go' beats. Graham's been around since the early 80s in one band or another. He came out of the Medway scene of that time alongside Billy Childish.
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