Carnaby Street

A lesser known tune by Booker T & The MGs here today.

Carnaby Street was a tribute to and inspired by the British groups as they moved from beat pop to psychedelia. It appeared on their Hip Hug-Her album in 1967. It's quite unusual for Booker and the boys; it's less of dance track and more jangly 6ts pop, that autumnal sound that I associate with 1966-67: it's very very Small Faces in it's style, with some lovely riffs and changes and an absolutely soaring Hammond chorus. Enjoy!

(Some research made today found an interview here with Ian McLagan of the Small Faces that suggests they were 'inspired' by this instrumental in their creation of their own classic Tin Soldier.)

Booker T & The MGs - Carnaby Street

Sounds For Sunday

There's a scary version of Try A Little Tenderness on the TV as I'm sitting here, which is so shouty and forced and completely un-soulful that it's making me feel a little ill.

So here's some classic tunes that pretty much define soulful without even breaking a sweat. These are in their full length form too, so watch out: there's about half an hour's music in these three tracks!

Marvin Gaye - Got To Give It Up
William DeVaughn - Be Thankful For What You've Got
The Temptations - Papa Was A Rolling Stone

Sounds For Sunday

1983 was a turning point for me in a lot of ways. Where music was concerned it was the moment where I stopped simply discovering music from it being played to me via the radio or TV and went out and found it. It was the year I became a soul fan.

Several things came together to make that happen. I started to become interested in what influenced the bands I liked. Before then the records they made seemed to be in a vacuum. They came fully formed and I didn't really care who the bands had listened to to come up with their music. It was all new.

But in 1982-83 I started to realise that these bands didn't exist in a bubble of their own, they were part of a bigger thing. Weller would talk about Motown and The Clash and The Who. Joboxers took over presenting a radio show and talked about Northern Soul, Madness did something similar and talked about Costello. Costello would talk about Burt Bacharach. And then when you would work your way backwards through those people you would then find that, hey wait a minute that sounds familiar and work forwards again through other bands. So, while Weller loved Motown, so obviously did the Human League. Joboxers loved Northern Soul and so did Soft Cell.

And so it began.

A couple of years ago my mum was retiring, moving out of London and going back to her hometown in Wales. When she packed up I gave her a hand and found a couple of suitcases in cupboards filled with my own stuff, leftovers from my teens that I'd never taken with me when I left home. There were old comics and pin-ups, copies of Smash Hits and old school jotters. Some of those were filled with lists of songs that I would hear on the radio and make note of so I could get them later. One in particular was kept by the radio specially for a show that I used to listen to on Capital Radio, Pete Young's Soul Cellar. In the winter of 1983 that became a huge favourite of mine as I claimed that particular style and sound for my own.

Flicking through that one I realised that I actually owned most of the tunes listed these days. But back then though you couldn't get some of the sounds for love or money. Well you could, but you had to be prepared to spend loads. Today's sounds are a selection of that list. Listening to them now I can remember that feeling in the pit of my stomach, that excitement at hearing them, but also that desire to own them myself.

Booker T & The MGs - Slim Jenkins' Place
The Soul Sisters - I Can't Stand It
Smokey Robinson & The Miracles - If You Can Want

Sounds For Sunday

This is something a little bit special today. "I Cried" by Tammi Montgomery was a single in 1963. Tammi was 18 years old and signed to James Brown's Try Me label. This song was her only release for the label. You can hear James Brown all over it, the backing track is pretty much note for note one of his more famous ballads. I'll leave you to work out which one.

It's a beautiful track though, with an amazing vocal, and the gorgeous flute parts just send shivers down my spine.

It's even more special for it's place in soul history. Because, two years later Tammi was signed to Motown and became the more well known Tammi Terrell. Tammi died at the tragically young age of 24 after leaving behind some great music, especially the ballads with Marvin Gaye. And this:

Tammi Montgomery - I Cried

Enjoy.

1990s

An album from the past couple of years that I keep finding myself listening to, usually very loudly is the debut album 'Cookies' by 1990s. I'm a sucker for glam punk pop with loud shiny sharp guitars. And this is loud, shiny and sharp and wasted around the edges, albeit with a tongue firmly in cheek. If you like your Clash and Pistols, Ziggy Stardust and New York Dolls then you'll probably like this.

Enjoying Myself
You're Supposed To Be My Friend
Pollokshields

Simply thrilling. Honey.

Big Audio Dynamite

I was listening to the last Clash album the other day, Cut The Crap. My God, never again. Luckily there was another Clash album. Of sorts. The second album by Mick Jones' Big Audio Dynamite, produced by and partly written with Joe Strummer. One of my favourite albums. Beyond The Pale is quite possibly the best song by Strummer/Jones and one I identified with, being about immigration bringing people to London and the troubles they face.

My dad and his family came to the UK from Mauritius in the early 60s, and a lot of my mates growing up were Jamaican or Turkish, the two main immigrant communities in our area. Beyond The Pale was something of an anthem for me and my best mate.

Big Audio Dynamite - V.Thirteen
Big Audio Dynamite - Limbo The Law
Big Audio Dynamite - Beyond The Pale

"If you don`t know where I come from
You better stear clear of my trail
From the dark side of London
And that`s way beyond the pale
My grandpa came from Russia
Stowed away hidden in some bales
And he took my grandma dancing
To the air raid sirens hail

Saint George used his sword
On the immigrant poor
`Cos he can`t kill no dragon
If I was in those shoes
I`d say Soweto`s gonna happen here too
I gotta get a message through
Tell everybody the news

And with the winter coming...

Crossing all the borders
Through the smoke of war and rain
Papers out of order
On a military train
A coat a bag a baby
Status: refugee
These are the people of my family

Don`t anybody know that
This city was made
Of immigrant blood and money
If I was in those shoes
A blackshirt with the playboy blues
I gotta get a message through
Tell everybody the news

And with the winter coming...

Now there`s a rocker in Vladivostok
Got every side by Jerry Lee
But for accidents of disorder
That guy could well be me
I want everybody to know this
I want everyone to hear
Immigration built the nation
You got a bloodclaat standing here

Saint George used his sword
On the immigrant poor
`Cos he can`t kill no dragon
If I was in those shoes
I`d say Soweto`s gonna happen here too
I gotta get a message through
Tell everybody the news

And with the winter coming...

Don`t anybody know that
The city was made
Of immigrant blood and money
If I was in those shoes
A blackshirt with the playboy blues
I gotta get a message through
Tell everybody the news

And with the winter coming.."

Bongo Jams A Speciality

(otherwise known as Sounds For Sunday..)

I've been on something of a Clash tip this week. Makes for poor blogging though, because as I said the other day, they mean so much to me that I find it difficult to put anything into words.

Here's a little something Clash connected today: the original version of Revolution Rock, which The Clash covered on their best album London Calling.

Revolution Rock - Danny Ray