Thursday 30 October 2008

Burning Of The Witch






Watch your ass, the Puritants are coming.


England has a history of moral panic & incomprehensible knee-jerk scape goating. Someone must be to blame for all this sexless grind.

Happy Halloween!!!Its a national holiday now right? No, it isn't! The only one that people seem to have any real interest in without getting free stuff, and we have to get up and earn a living through it....

I grew up in the valley below Pendle Hill, which thrives on its Witchy history:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pendle_witch_trials

Really, the Blair Witch Project seemed as old hat when it came out as it does now to anyone who lived through teenage Pendle Hill rituals.

Have we really come on any as a race since the Witch Trials in the 17th century? Not much. Still mostly all stuffy bluster, holier than thou finger pointing, just pointing at the part of ourselves we can't deal with.

Burning Of The Witch-Troyka









And Andrew Sachs, or to use your more commonly known name until this week, Manuel, i know you'll be reading this, the one on the left in the picture above fucked your grandaughter, you know, the porn actress grandaughter who is in the pole-dancing troupe Satanic Sluts, & takes cheques off tabloids to tell sex tales, take off her undercrackers and preach about morals?

Deal with it, get a sense of humour, and stop Piers Morgan suckling on the nourishing Daily Mail green horned devil nipple.

Is it just me? Whole countries and continents are on the brink of blowing themselves up daily, there's a U.S. election next week, and all this country can talk about is somebody swearing on a pre-record on night time radio. Strange spooky times.

Sunday 26 October 2008

Watchin Soul Train On A Friday Night.....

"...all the young ladies lookin' outtasight.Close my eyes and I started to dream, About another world that I haven't seen..."

I'm Through With White Girls-The Dirtbombs



Look at Al Green here. Albert Greene. Just about cresting the arc of superstar here on Soul Train in 1974. 30 years old, his whole life is on fire. Look at his face, listen to that voice, he hasn't slept the night before, handing out roses to sweet things at the front.
Look at the drummer smacking those half boiled-egg drums behind there: Al Jackson, he'd be dead within a year. His tombstone read "For i have promises to keep, and miles to go before i sleep."

A couple of months after this show one of Al's girlfriends brought him the wrath of the Lord, throwing boiling hot grits over him, then shooting herself with his pistol.

Rev. Al Green has been preaching at the Full Gospel Tabernacle Church on Hale Road in Memphis every Sunday since.
“God had called me to a higher place, turned me away from earthly to heavenly love, and while it hurt to say it, I had to leave the sensual for the spiritual.”

Well fair enough, but he looks as high as can be here....and check out Soul Train host Don Cornelius at the end, dude...




Wednesday 15 October 2008

Thou Shalt Not Steal


Oh but we shall. Done it before & we'll do it again.

Moral conundrums are as bereft in the magical kingdom of rock n roll riffage as they are in the looting free-for-all of MP3 blogging.

The Blues got royally pillaged for its strutting golden goose eggs. From the delta porch, to Beale Street, to the Cavern, to McLemore Ave., to Sunset Strip, to CBGB's, to the Roxy, to Defjam, all the way through to the 6th Floor office of some hellhound of a TV advertising agency, there's been some snotty cockeroo stood around hearing the same few notes thats made their underpants & wallets twitch & thought-"I'll have that".
And so what? Its just a glory bound hand-me-down.

But D.R. Hooker? D. R Hooker's taking the piss.







'The Bible'-D.R.Hooker (1972)

Buy 'The Truth'HERE

His one private press released LP-'The Truth', is a swirling psychedelic gem, and so obsolete as to fetch $1000 from the pockets of certain rich fools. How do such well conceived, greatly produced works of art disappear like that? Not always easy to say, but in this case, I'd say its pretty obvious-LOOK! That's him on the cover! Off his top bollocks! He's got a massive Jesus complex & was spouting 'Set yourself free my children...' quasi-cult jive to a culture quaking with post-Manson Family horrors. Where did it all go wrong D.R? Might have been the robes eh?
Hmm maybe...but NO!!!! I'll tell you when! When you swiped a riff off Neil Young to propel a song about how amazing Jesus' fashion sense & the Bible's message is, and thusly helping the black dawning of 'Chr*stian R*ck'.

Youuuu contradictory pillock D.R.

Nice sounds though.


'I've Been Waiting For You'- Neil Young (1968)

Neil Young is EVERYWHERE

Monday 13 October 2008

TV Zappa



Trouble Every Day-Mothers Of Invention(1966)




"Well I'm about to get sick from watchin' my TV
Been checkin' out the news until my eyeballs fail to see
I mean to say that every day is just another rotten mess
And when it's gonna change, my friend is anybody's guess

So I'm watchin' and I'm waitin' hopin' for the best
Even think I'll go to prayin' every time I hear 'em sayin'
That there's no way to delay that trouble comin' every day

Wednesday I watched the riot . . .seen the cops out on the street
Watched 'em throwin' rocks and stuff And chokin' in the heat
Listened to reports about the whisky passin' 'round
Seen the smoke and fire and the market burnin' down
Watched while everybody on his street would take a turn
To stomp and smash and bash and crash and slash and bust and burn

So I'm watchin' and I'm waitin' hopin' for the best
Even think I'll go to prayin' every time I hear 'em sayin'
That there's no way to delay that trouble comin' every day

Well, you can cool it,you can heat it . . .
'cause, baby, I don't need it . . .
Take your TV tube and eat it
'n all that phony stuff on sports 'n all the unconfirmed reports
You know I watched that rotten box until my head begin to hurt
From checkin' out the way the newsman say they get the dirt
Before the guys on channel so-and-so

And further they assert that any show they'll interrupt
To bring you news if it comes up
They say that if the place blows up-they will be the first to tell,
Because the boys they got downtown are workin' hard and doin' swell,
And if anybody gets the news before it hits the street,
They say that no one blabs it faster-their coverage can't be beat

And if another woman driver gets machine-gunned from her seat
They'll send some joker with a brownie and
you'll see it all complete

So I'm watchin' and I'm waitin' hopin' for the best
Even think I'll go to prayin' every time I hear 'em sayin'
That there's no way to delay that trouble comin' every day

Hey, you know something people?
I'm not black
But there's a whole lots a times
I wish I could say I'm not white

Well, I seen the fires burnin' and the local people turnin'
On the merchants and the shops who
used to sell their brooms and mops
And every other household item,
watched the mob just turn and bite 'em
And they say it served 'em right because a few of them are white,
And it's the same across the nation-black and white discrimination
Yellin' "You can't understand me!"
'n all that other jazz they hand me
In the papers and TV and all that mass stupidity
That seems to grow more every day
each time you hear some nitwit say
He wants to go and do you in
because the color of your skin
just don't appeal to him
(No matter if it's black or white)
Because he's out for blood tonight!!

You know we got to sit around at home and watch this thing begin
But I bet there won't be many live to see it really end
'Cause the fire in the street ain't like the fire in the heart
And in the eyes of all these people
Don't you know that this could start on any street in any town
In any state if any clown decides that now's the time to fight
For some ideal he thinks is right and if a million more agree
There ain't no Great Society as it applies to you and me
Our country isn't free and the law refuses to see
If all that you can ever be is just a lousy janitor
Unless your uncle owns a store you know that five in every four
Just won't amount to nothin' more...

Gonna watch the rats go across the floor
And make up songs about being poor

Blow your harmonica, son!"




Sunday 12 October 2008

Blue Monday People



Oh me oh my ohh. So...away we go. You've got to pay for those crimes of the night. And here comes a monday. Back to zero. Clock-in time. Monday i'll have friday on my mind. Welcome to the workin' week. Oh I know it don't thrill ya, I hope it don't kill ya.
You gotta do it 'til you're through it-so you better get to it. An all that gobbledegook. Don't matter. 'Coz everyones the same, and if you're listening to who i'd claim should be made latter day saints-Curtis Mayfield & Lee Hazlewood, wallowing away like Monday's sun will never go down, well, it almost feels good to be this miserable.

Blue Monday People-St. Curtis Mayfield



If Its Monday Morning-St. Lee Hazlewood

Time Machine-"Turn Back Time"/"Bird On The Wind" (1971)



In the 3-dimensional space we comprehend, we have three directions of free movement:

1.) Left/Right
2.) Back/Forth
3.) Up/Down

What i'm dealing with as i place this beautiful, beautiful 7" piece of vinyl on the turntable is another option-

4.)Inside/Outside

Special music dealing with the fourth dimension here. Strange sentiments & AMAZING music from Time Machine, a one-shot french group led by Frederic Leibovitz (who also led Aphrodite's Child and Jupiter Sunset), which recorded this single in 70/71.
If he could turn back time, well no-one can turn back time, but if he could...he'd visit H.G.Wells and ask him how to turn back time. Odd thought.



"There is, though I do not know how there is or why there is, a sense of infinite peace and protection in the glittering hosts of heaven. There it must be, I think, in the vast and eternal laws of matter, and not in the daily cares and sins and troubles of men, that whatever is more than animal within us must find its solace and its hope." -H.G.Wells


The inspiration for this dusty 7 would appear to be a little late 1970 night chong session accompanied by a TV showing of a film adaptation of Wells 1895 novella 'Time Machine'.
The A-Side is marvelous, have pan-pipes ever been of so much use anywhere else? But the reversed-tape psych-out B-Side 'Bird On The Wind' steals the show. Mesmerising drama.


Time Machine-Turn Back Time







Time Machine-Bird On The Wind







You won't find a copy of this in Zavvi, but the A-side appeared on Vol.2 of the sensational Rubble series HERE

Broken Shackle Tabernacle



Our monthly shindig Broken Shackle Tabernacle approacheth like a lumbering funky frankenstein:

Featuring live recitals from the majestic Gossamer Albatross & NY troubadour of some repute Major Matt Mason USA

Yours truly's DJ skill reputations will be once more put to the test in the gaps. Funky feet- We shall not fail you.

Saturday 25th October
Northampton Labour Club
On the corner of Earl & Charles
8.30 til Late & FREE